THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE B Y RICHARD HILDRETH, AUTHOR OP "HISTORY OF THB UNITED STATES," ETC. REVISED, CORRECTED, AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE PRESENT TIME, BY THE AUTHOR. BOSTON: BRADLEY, DAYTON & CO 1860. Entered cronlmg to Ac! of Confnw, In thf T-r 1. bjr BRADLKV, DAYTON ft < <>. lo the Clerk'* Office of Uie DUtrtct Court of tlx- Dutrkl of Mj*ichu-(l AUTHOR'S NOTICE. IN collecting materials for a biography of the first ex- plorers and planters of NCAV England and Virginia, I was carried to Japan, where I happened to arrive (in the spirit) almost simultaneously with Commodore Perry '^ expedition. My interest thus roused in this secluded country has pro- duced this book, into which I have put the cream skimmed, or, as I might say, in some cases, the juices laboriously expressed, from a good many volumes, the greater part not very accessible nor very inviting to the general reader, but still containing much that is curious and entertaining, and, to most readers, new; which curiosities, novelties, and palatable extracts, those who choose will thus be enabled to enjoy without the labor that I have undergone in their collection and arrangement the former, indeed, a labor of love for my own satisfaction ; the latter, one of duty not to say of necessity for the pleasure of the reading and book-buying public. Instead of attempting, as others have done, to cast into a systematic shape observations of very different dates, I have preferred to follow the historic method, and to let the reader see Japan with the successive eyes of all those who have visited it, and who have committed their observations and reflections to paper and print. The number of these observ- 548144 II ADVERTISEMENT. ers, it will be found, is very considerable; while their char- acters, objects and points of view, have been widely different ; and perhaps the rea ler may reach the same conclusion that I have : that, with all that is said of the seclusion of Japan, there are few countries of the East which we have the means of knowing better, or so well. The complete history of the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch relations with the Japanese in not to be found else- where in English ; nor inany language, in a single work ; while in no oilier book have the English and Auieiican rela- tions been so fully treated. Many extraordinary characters and adventures make their npj>earancc on the scene, and the reader will have no ground to complain at least of want of vaiiety. How little the history of Japan and of its former relations with Poitugal and Holland are known even in quarters where information on the subject might be siid to constitute an official duty is apparent in the following passiige in a letter addressed fiom the State Department at Washington to the Swetary of the Navy, in explanation of the grounds, reasons and objects, of our late mission to Japan, and intended as instructions to the envoy : Since the i.-dands of Japan were first visaed by Eurojd-an nations, efforts have constantly been made by the various maritime jKwers to establish com- mercial intercourse with a country whose large population and reputed wealth hold out great temptations to mercantile enterprise. Portugal was the first to make the attempt, and her example was followed by Holland, England, Spain and Russia, and finally by the United Slates. All lluse at- tempts, hoircver. have thus far been unsuccessful ; the permission enjoyed for a short period by the Portuguese, and that granted to Holland to send annually a single vessel to the port of Nagasaki, hardly deserving to be con- tidered exceptions to this remark." ADVERTISEMENT. In giving Japanese names and words, I have aimed at a certain uniformity ; but, like all other writers on Japan, have failed to attain it. The Portuguese missionaries, or at least their translators into Latin, in representing Japanese names, employed c with the force of k before the vowels a, o, and 11, and with the force of 5 before e and i; which same sound of s, in common with that of ts, they some- times represented by a:. In the earlier part of the book I have, in relation to several names known only, or chiefly, through these writers, followed their usage ; though gener- ally, in the representation of Japanese names and words, I have avoided the use of these ambiguous letters, and have endeavored to conform to the method of representing the Japanese syllables proposed by Siebold, and of which an account is given in the Appendix. The daguerreotype views and portraits taken by the artists attached to Commodore Perry's expedition, the publication of which may soon be hoped for, will afford much more authentic pictures of the externals of Japan than yet have appeared ; and, from the limited stay and opportunities of observation enjoyed by those attached to that expedition, must constitute their chief contribution to our knowledge of the Japanese empire. July 2, 1860. K. H. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Earliest European Knowledge of Japan. Japanese Histories. Marco Polo's Account of the Mongol or Tartar Invasion. Accounts of the same Kvent given by the Chinese and Japanese Annalists. A. D. 1281 or 1283, 13 CHAPTER II. Portuguese Empire in the East. Discovery of Japan. Galvano's Account of it. Fernam Mendez Pinto's Account of his First Visit to Japan, and Adventures there. Japanese Account of the First Arrival of Portuguese. A. D. 1542-5, 20 CHAPTER III. Piuto's Second Visit to Japan. Angiro,or Paul of the Holy Faith. A. D. 1547 1518, . 37 CHAPTER IV. Religious Faith Three Centuries ago. Zeal of the Portuguese Conquerors. Antonio Gal vano. Missionary Seminaries at Ternate and Goa. Or>ler of the Jesuits Francis Xarier. His Mission to India. His Mission to Japan. His Companion, Cosine De Torres. The Philippine Islands. A. D. 1542 155J, 41 CHAPTER V. Political and Religious Condition of Japan, as found by the Portuguese. The Jacatas, or Kings, and their Vassals. Revenues. Money. Distinction of Ranks. The Kubo- Sama. The Dairi. Sinto. Buddhism. Siuto. A. D. 1550, 63 CHAPTER VI. Civilization of the Japanese. Animals. Agriculture. Arts. Houses. Ships. Lit- erature. Jurisprudence. Character of the Japanese. Their Custom of cutting them- selves open. A. D. 1550, 67 CHAPTER VII. Preaching of Xavier. Pinto's Third Visit to Japan. A. D. 1550 1551, . ... 71 CHAPTER VIII. Progress of the Missions under Fathers De Torres and Nugnez Barreto. Mendez Pinto a fourth Time in Japan. A. D. 15511557 " 1* VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. Louis Almeida. The Missionaries establish themselves at Miako. Louis Froez. Princes converted in Ximo. Rise of Nobuiianga. Prosperity of the Missions. Noble and Princely Converts. Nagasaki built. Nobuiianga makes himself Emperjr. A. l>. 1557 1577, 79 CHAPTER X. Father Yalignani. State of the Missions. Conversion and Baptism of the King of Bungo. Growth of Nagasaki. Embassy to the Pope. Documents relating to this Embassy. A. D. 15771586, 84 CHAPTER XI. Events meanwhile in Japan. Downfall of Nobunanga. Accession of Faxiba, afterwards known HS Kambakundono, and, finally, as Taiko-Sama. Edict against the Jesuits. Kuuni of the Ambassadors. A. D. 15i2 1538, 95 CHAPTER XII. Recapitulation. Extent of the Japanese Empire. Valifmani arrives at Nagasaki. Progress hitherto of the Catholic Faith. The Emperor's Projects against China. Valignani'B Visit to the Emperor at Miako. I'coiulono. The returned Japanese Am- bassadors. Audience given to Valignani. The Viceroy's Letter. The Interpreter Rodriguez. A. D. 1538 15J3, 100 CHAPTER XIII. New Troubles of the Missionaries from their own Countrymen. The Empernr claims Homage of the Governor of the Philippines. Mutual Jealousies of the Portuguese and Spaniards. Spanish Adventurers in Japan. The Emperor's Suspicious excitei' His Reply to the Viceroy of Goa. A. D. 15dl 15J2, 1U8 CHAPTER XIV. The Expedition against Corea. The Emperor associates his Nephew. City of Fusiml. Correspondence of the Emperor with the Governor of .Manilla. The Jesuits denounced by the Spanish Envoys. Consequences thereof. Departure of Valigiiaui. A. D. 1592 112 CHAPTER XV. Progress of the Corean War. Success of the Japanese. Tsukamadono Viceroy of Corea. Edict of the Emperor for disarming the Converts in Ximo. Disgrace and Downfall of the Royal Family of Bungo. Terazaba, Governor of Nagasaki. His Conversion mid, Friendly Acts. A. D. 15921593, 115 CHAPTER XVI. Jealousy on the part of the Dominicans and Franciscans towards the Jesuits. This .Teal ousy cooperates with the Mercantile Jealousy of the Spaniards at Manilla. Franciscan Friars establish themselves at Minko, Osaka and Nagasaki. Edicts against them. Deposition and Death of the Emperor's Nephew. A. D. 15^3 1595, 117 CHAPTER XVII. Great Earthquake. Mission from China. Arrival of a Spanish Galleon. Friars on board her. New Accusations on her Account against the Jesuits. Connect!) n of the Jesuits with the Trade to Japan. Arrest of Missionaries aud Converts. Firs* Martyrs. A. D. 1595 1697, 12u CONTENTS. VIC CHAPTER XVIII. New Edict for the Deportation of the Jesuits. Its Partial Evasion. New Correspondence between the Philippines and Japan. Taiku-Sauia'j Justification of his recent Pr ceed- ings. New Destruction of Churches in Xiino. Taiko-Sama's Death. His preceding Efforts to secure his own Deification ami the Succession of his infant Son Fide Juri. Regency. (ie-Jas its Head, with the Title of Daysu-Saina. A. D. 15 J7 15jJ, .125 CHAPTER XIX. Evacuation of Corea. Return of the converted Princes. Favorable Disposition of Daysu- Sama. Third Visit of Father Valignani. Civil War between Daysu-Sama and his Co-Regents. His Triumph. Disgrace and Execution of Tsukamidoiio. Daysu-Sama takes the Title uf Ogosho-Sama, and still favors the Converts. Influx of Dominican and Franciscan Friars Flourishing Condition of the Church. Local Persecutions. A. D. 15J9 160J, 128 CHAPTER XX. Attempt of the English and Dutch to discover a New Route to the far East. Voyages ruund the World. Attempted English Voyage to Japan. English and Dutch Voyages to India. First Dutch Voyage to Japan. Adams, the English Pilot. His Adventures and Detention iu Japan. A. D. 1514 1607, 132 CHAPTER XXI. Spanish Friars in Japan. Extension of Japanese Trade. Progress of the Dutch in the .Eastern Seas. They open a Trade with Japan. Emperor's Letter. Shipwreck of Don Kodrigo De Vivero on the Japanese Coast. His Reception, Observations and Departure. Destruction of a Portuguese Carac by the Japanese. Another Dutch Ship arrives. Spex's Charter. Embassies from Macao and New Spain. Father Louis Sulelo and his Projects. A. D. 16071613, U8 CHAPTER XXII. Origin and Commencement of English Intercourse with Japan. Captain Saris' Voyage thither, and Travels anil Observations there. New Spanish Embassy from the Philip- pines. Commercial Rivalry of the Dutch and English. Richard Cocks, Head of the English Factory. A. D. 16111613, 160 CHAPTER XXIII. Ecclesiastical Retrospect. New Persecution. Edict of Banishment against the Mission aries. dvi\ War between Fi.le Jori and Ogosho-Sanm. Triumph of Ogo s |io-Sama. His Death. Persecution more violent than ever. Mutual Rancor of the Jesuits and the Friars. Progress of Martyrdom. The English and Dutch. A. D. 161o 16.20, . . 179 CHAPTER XXIV. Collisions of the Dutch and English in the Eastern Seas The English retire from Japan. The Spaniards repelkd. Progress of the Persecution. Japanese Ports, except Firando and Nagasaki, closed to Foreigners. Charges in Europe against the Jesuits. Fathers Sotelo and Collado. Torment of the Fosse. Apostasies. The Portuguese confined to Desima. Rebellion of Xiinabara. The Portuguese Excluded. Ambassadors put to Death. A. D. 1621 1640, 182 CHAPTER XXV. Micy of the Dutch. Affair of Nuyts. Hapranaar's Visits to Japan. Caron's Account of Japan. Income of the Emperor and the Nobles. Military Force. Social and Politi- cal Position of the Nobles. Justice. Relation of the Dutch to the Persecution of the Catholics. The Dutch removed from Firando and confined in Desima. Attempts of the English, Portuguese and French, at Intercourse with Japan. Final Extinction of the Catholic Faith. A. D. 1620 1707, . ... 193 VIII CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVI. Portuguese Trade to Japan. Dutch Trade. Silver, Gold and Copper, the chief Articles of Export. Export of Silver prohibited. Chinese Trade. Its Increase after the Acces- sion of the Mant-chew Dynasty. Chinese Temples at Nagasaki. A Buddhist Doctor from China. Edict on the Subject of Household Worship. Restrictions on the Dutch Trade. Increase in the Number of Chinese Visitors to Nagasaki. . Their Objects. Restrictions on the Chinese Trade. The Chinese shut up in a Factory. Trade with Lew Chew. A. D. 1542 1690, 206 CHAPTER XXVII. Engelbert Kampfer. His Visit to Japan. Desima and its Inhabitants as described by him. A. D. 1690, 2]6 CHAPTER XXVIII. Particular Statement as to the Dutch Trade as it existed in Kilmpfer's Time. Arrival of the Ships Unlading. Passes. Imports. Company and Private Goods. Kambangs, or Public Sales. Duties Profits. Exports. Departure of the Ships. Smuggling. Execution, of Smugglers, 241 CHAPTER XXIX. Nagasaki and its Vicinity as seen by Kampfer. Imperial Governors. Their Officers and Palaces. Municipal System Street Government. Mutual Responsibility. Adminis- tration of Justice. Taxes. Government of other Towns. Adjacent Country. The God Suwa aud his Matsuri. A. D. 1690 1692 253 CHAPTER XXX. Kampfer's Two Journeys to Court. Preparations. Presents. Japanese Attendants. Packing the Baggage and Ruling on Horseback. Japanese Love of Botany. Accou- trements. Road-Books. Norimons aud Kangos. A. D. 1690 1092, 277 CHAPTER XXXI. Highways. Rivers. Fords. Ferries. Bridges. Water Part of the Journey. Coast and Islands. Frail Structure of Japanese Vessels. Description of them. Buildings on, the Route. Dwelling- Houses. Castles. Towns. Villages. Cottages. Proclama- tion Places. Places of Execution. Tiras or Buddhist Temples. Mias or Sinto Temples. Idols and Amulets, 288 CHAPTER XXXII. Post-Houses. Imperial Messengers. Inns. Houses. Their Furniture and Interior Arrangements. Bathing and Sweating House. Gardens. Refreshment Houses. What they Provide. Tea, 304 CHAPTER XXXIII. Jfumber of People on the Road. Princely Retinues. Pilgrims to Isje. Siunse Pilgrims. Naked Devotions. Religious Beggars. Begging Order of Nuns. Jamabo, or Moun tain Priests. Buddhist Beggars. Singular Bell-Chiming Hucksters and Pedlers Courtesans, 3H CHAPTER XXXIV. Departure from Nagasaki. Train of the Dutch. The Day's Journey. Treatment of the Dutch. Respect shown them in the I-land of Ximo. Care with which they are Watched. Inns at which they Lodge. Their Reception and Treatment there. Pulite- nesa of the Japanese. Lucky and Unlucky Days. Seimei, the Astrologer, 320 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER XXXV. From Nagasaki to Kokura. Simonoseki. Water Journey to Osaka Description of that City. Its Castle. Interview with the Governors. From Osaka to Miako. Jodo and its Castle. Fusimi Entrance into Miako. Visit to the Chief Justice and the Gov- ernors. Description of Miako. Palace of the Dairi. Castle. Manufactures and Trade. Authority of the Chief Justice. Police. Crimes, 336 CHAPTER XXXVI. Lake Oitz. Mount Jesan. Japanese Legends. A Japanese Patent Medicine. Quano. Mia. Array. Policy of the Emperors. Kakegawa. A Town on Fire. Seruga, Kuno. Passage of a rapid Kiver. Fusi-no-jaina, or Mount Fusi. Crossing th Peninsula of Idsu. Second Searching Place. Purgatory Lake. Odawara. Coast of the Bay of Jedo. A Live Saint. Kanagawa. Sinagawa. Jedo. Imperial Castles and Palace, 352 CHAPTER XXXVII. Personages to be "Visited. Visit to the Emperor. First Audience. Second Audience. Visits to the Houses of the Councillors. Visits to the Governors of Jedu and the Temple Lords. Visits to "the Houses of the Governors of Nagasaki. Audience of Leave. Return. Visits to Temples in the Vicinity of Miako. A. D. 16J1 16^2, 365 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Further Decline of the Dutch Trade. Degradation of the Japanese Coins. The Dutch threaten to withdraw from Japan. Restrictions on the Chinese Trade. Probable Cause of the Policy adopted by the Japanese. Drain of the precious Metals. New Basis upon which future Trade must be arranged, 1696 1750, 383 CHAPTER XXXIX. Thunberg's Visit to Japan. Searches and Examinations. Smuggling. Interpreters. Desima. Imports and Exports. Unicorn's Horn and Ginseng. Sjy. The Dutch at Desima. Japanese Mistresses. Japanese Women. Studying the Language. Botanizing. Cl"Cks. New- Year's Day. Trampling on linages. Departure for Jedo. Journey through the Island of Ximo. Japanese Houses and Furniture. Manufacture of Paper. Practice of Bathing. Sim moseki. Voyage to Osaka. Children. From Osaka to Miako. Agriculture. Animals. A. D. 1775 1776, 387 CHAPTER XL. Japanese Merchants. Journey from Miako to Jedo. Botany of the Mountains Rainy Weather. Coverings for the Head and Feet. Jedo. Astronomers and Physi- cians. Acupuncture. Moxa. Other Japanese Remedies. Method of Wearing the ILiir. Visits to the Emperor and his Chief Officers. Japanese Dress. Books and Maps. Succession of Emperors. Departure from Jedo. Gnats. Fire-Flies. Threshing. Vegetables and Fruit. Condition of the Japanese Fanner. Casting Cop- per. Actors and Dancers. Thuuberg's Opinion of the Japanese. A. i>. 1775 1776, 406 CHAPTER XLI. Isaac Titsingh. His Residence in Japan. Translations from the Japanese. Annals of the Dairi. Memoirs of the Siogun. Liberal Ideas in Japan. Marriagf Ceremonii-s. Funeral Ceremonies. Mourning. Feast of Lanterns. A. D. 1779 1791, . . . 4;24 CHAPTER XLII. Exploration of the Northern Japanese Seas. First Russian Mission to Japan. Professor- ship of Japanese at Irkutsk. New Restrictions on the Dutch. Embarrassment! growing out of the War of the French Revolution. American Flag at Nagasaki. CONTEXTS. Captain Stewart. Ingenuity of a Japanese Fisherman. Ileer Doeff, Director at De- giiua. Suspici"us Proceedings of Captain Stewart. Russian Embassy. Klaproth's Knowledge of Japanese. DoefT? First Journey to Jedo. Dutch Trade in 1804 and 1S06. An American Ship at Nagasaki. Tile British Frigate Phaeton. No ships from Batavia. The Dutch on Short Allowance. English Ships from Batavia. Communica- tiou again Sus|x;nded. Dutch and Japanese Dictionary. Children at the Factory. A. D. 17921617, 444 CHAPTER X L 1 1 1 . Golownin's Capture and Imprisonment. Conveyance to Ilakodade. Reception and Im j.ns ini.e .t. InterpreU-rs. Interviews with the Governor. Removal to Matsmai. - A Pupil in Russian. A Japanese Astronomer. Escape and Recapture. Treatment afterwards. Savans from Judo. Japanese Science. European News. A Japanese Free Thinker. Soldiers. Their Amusements. Thoughts on a Wedding. Domestic Arrangements. New Year. Return of the Diana. Reprisals. A Japanese Mer chant and his Female Friend. Second Return of the Diana. Third Return of the Diana. Interview on Shore. Surrender of the Prisoners. Japanese Notification. The Merchant at Home. The Mercantile Class in Japan. A. D. 1811 1615, . . . -.60 CHAPTER XLIV. Renewal of the Dutch Trade. Captain Gordon in the Bay of Jedo. Fisscher. Meylan. Siebold. British Mutineers. Voyage of the Morrison. Japanese Edict. The Sara- man;; at Nagasaki. The Mercator in the Bay of Jedo. Connnod .re Diddle in the B y of Jrdo. Shipwrecked Americans. French Ships of War at Nagasaki. The I'rebie at Nagasaki. Surveying Ship Mariner in the Bays of Jedo and Simoda. New Notifica- tion through the Dutch. A. D. 1847 i860, 484 CHAPTER XLV. Foreign Relations. New Siogun. Dutch Trade. Chinese Trade. American Embassy. Its Oliject. letter to the Emperor. Perry's First Visit to the Bay oi Jlo. Death of the Siogun. I'erry's Second Visit t'. the Bay of Jedo. Negotiation of a Treaty. The Treaty as agreed to. Simoda. llakodade. Additional Regulations. Japanese .Currency. Burrow's Visit to the Bay of Jedo. Third Visit of the American Steamers, Russian and English Negotiations Exchange of Ratifications. Earthquake, . . 5U6 CHAPTER XL VI. New Dutch Treaty. Mr. Harris, American Consul at Simoda. His convention with the Japanese. Hi- journey to Jedo. Second visit to Jeil<>. Conditional Treaty. British Treaty . French and Russian 'Jreaties Japanese Embassy to the Unit-d States, &i3 APPENDIX. NOTE A. The Japanese Language and Literature, 55:5 " B. Japanese Names, 560 " C. Use of Fire-Anns in the East, 6^.2 " D. Fernam Mendez Pinto, 5 5o " E. Earliest English and Dutch Adventures in the East. Q:>a, o'ia " F. Japanese Daring and Adventure Exterior to the Limits of Japan, 6t>6 " G. Products of Japan. Probable Effect of Opening Japan to Foreign Trade, by S. Wells Williams, 5fi8 " II. Account of Japan, Chiefly Extracted from Japanese M'orks, 57'2 " 1. Omitted Documents, 579 GLOSSAEY. Ainidn. Under this name is worshipped, in Japan, the primitive Buddha, repreientinf, in faot, the primal deity. Adofski. A Japanese travelling trunk, or valise. Box. Japanese for a bridge, as Jodo bos, bridge over the river Jodo ; Nipon bus, bridge of Japan. Bilcvni. An order of begging nuns. Bonzes. A Chinese term, applied to Buddhist priests. Bujio, Burtyo, Banyo. An officer or deputy, representing the Kubo, and deriving hi* commission from him. Daimto. Prince of the highest rank. Dai bods. Great Buddha (dai signifies great), the name of a colossal image of Buddha, near Miako. Dairi, otherwise Mikado. The hereditary emperor of Japan, but superseded, as to actual power, by the Kubo. Djoi/vn. See ftiojun . Vosiu, or Doo.ten. Soldiers in the immediate service of the Kubo, or Siogun. Dono. A particle appended to names of persons, with much the force of our Mr. Feiji, or Feke. The name of a family celebrated ui the legendary annals of Japan. Fira-kana, or Hira-kana. Easy, or woman's writing, syllabary for writing Japanese in common use. See p. 546. Gawa, river, as Jodo sawa, Jodo river. As most Japanese towns are seated on rivers, this word, yawa, forms the endjng of many names of towns. Gantinij or Goka, otherwise, according to Siebold, Syo. A dry measure, the sixteenth part of a cubic Japanese foot, holding about three English ale pints. Half a syo or ganting of rice is reckoned by the Japanese a sufficient daily allowance for a man. See pp. 54, 185. Gobaiijosi. Government overseeing officers. The Japanese officers employed at Desima to inspect the Dutch and their trade. Gokti. Long strips of white paper, emblems of the divine presence of the Kami. These symbols are found in all Japanese houses, kept in little portable mias. tiara kari. Suicide by cutting one's self open. Itsibo, or Itxibu. A quarter (itsi, one ; si, four ; bo, or bu, part), a coin, the fourth part of a kobang. I fay. Tablets commemorative of the dead. tko .tin (siu means sect, or observance). The sect or observance of the worshippers of Amida, the most numerous and powerful ecclesiastical body in Japan. Joriki. An inferior order of military nobles. Jama, or Yama. A mountain, as Fusi-no-Fama, mountain of Fusi, no being the sign of the possessive or genitive case. Jamabo, or Yamabo. Mountain priests, an order of devotees, half Buddhist and half of the ancient Japanese creed. Kambang. Public sale of Dutch goods, held at Desima. Kami. A pod, or spirit. The national gods of Japan. The corresponding Chinese-Jap- an'-gi? term is Sin. Kami is also employed as a title of honor. See p. 551. Kamiximo. A garment of ceremony, worn on festivals and other solemn occasion!. It consists of two parts, a short cloak, without sleeves, called kataytno, and breeches like a petticoat sewed up between the legs, called vakama. Ka/i/>a. A cloak of oiled paper a Japanese term borrowed from the Portuguese. Kaitd'irin, or Candarin. Tlif tenth part of a mas, equal to 5.33 grains troy. Kanyo. A close litter, or chair, borne on men's shoulders. h as, or Cox. The tenth part of a kandarin, or hundredth of a mas, near six tenths of a grain troy. The same term, frequently written cash, and sometimes, in the plural, casses, it applied to coins of copper and iron, current in China, Japan, and Eastern Asia gen* erally, intended to represent the value of a kax of silvwr. The corresponding JapaneM XII GLOSSARY. term is seni. The Dutch call them pitje.i. As the dollar contains about seventy-one kan darins of silver, it should represent upwards of seven hundred of these kas. Kata-kana, mail's writing. A syllabary employed fur explanations of Chinese characters. See p. 546 Kali, or Catty. A weight of sixteen tael, or a hundred and sixty mas, equal to about a pound and a third avoirdupois, the common weight in retail transactions throughout the far East. Ken, or Kin. A measure of length, containing six Japanese feet (xiak, or saxi\ or, accord- ing to Siebold, six siak, three bun (the bun being the tenth of the sink). Klaproth makes it equal to seven feet, four and one half inches, Khineland measure ; but Siebold states the Japanese syak as equal to eleven inches eleven lines, English measure, and Kampfer always speaks of the ken as a fathom, or six feet. Kitti, or Kitno. Homage, or reverence, performed by one person to another. Kobang, or (properly) Jioban. A gold coin. For its weight and value see p. 55, 209, 383. Kobu, kosi, or nosi. A sort of edible sea-weed (fucus saccharinus), strips of which are attached to presents and complimentary notes. Kokf,orKoku. A quantity of rice, equal to one hundred gantlinjrs, or somewhat more than four and a half bushels. The integer for estimating landed revenues. See p. 54, 197. Kokonots. The sixth Japanese hour, closing at noon and midnight. For the Japanese division of the day, see p. 266, note. It appears, from Siebold, that the names given to the six Japanese hours, kokonots, yatx, nanats, muts, Hants, and yots, are the vernac- ular Japanese numerals for nine, eight, seven, six, five, and four, the number of strikes on a bell by which these hours are respectively indicated. For ordinary use, and espe- cially in speaking of weights and measures, and always for numbers above ten, the Jap- anese employ the Chinese numerals. Kubo, or Kvbo-Sama. General, or lord general, originally the fifth officer in rank in the household of the Dairi, but for several centuries past the real, reigning emperor of Japan. Kuge. The family and courtiers of the Dairi. Jinti. Ordinary day laborers. Li, or Ri. A mile, or league (six times that of the Chinese), of which there are twenty-five to a degree of latitude, equal to upwards of two and a halt of our miles. Mas. The tenth part of a tael, equal to about fifty-eight grains troy. Mia. Temples for the worship of the Kami. Matz. A street ; also a measure of length, otherwise tsiju, equal to 60 ken, or 360 feet. Matxuri. Religious shows and exhibitions. Namada. A short prayer in Sanscrit, the pater nosier of the worshippers of Amida. Nenyo. A period of time used in dating. See p. 35. Piorimon. A superior'kind of kango. Ottona. The superior officer of a street. Offari. Indulgence box, a sort of charm, purchased of the priests. Picul. One hundred katti, or one hundred and thirty-three and a third pounds avoiidu- pois. The common weight in the far East for heavy articles and wholesale transactions. Quan 11-011. A Buddhist saint, represented by a many-handed image, and much worshipped in Japan. Qunn. A hearse. Saki. An intoxicating drink, a sort of beer, made from rice. Sana. Lord, appended to uames and titles, with much the force of the French Monsieur, or our Mr. Seni. See Kas. Seomio. Princes of the second class. Siaka. The Japanese equivalent of Buddha, or Fo. See p. 65, note. Sima. Island, a common termination of Japanese names of places. Siotjun. The Chinese-Japanese term corresponding to kubo. Sinto. Doctrine of the Sin, or Kami, the ancient and aboriginal religion of Japan. Siudo. The doctrine of Confucius, as received in Japan. Sokano. Eatables offered to visitors by way of refreshment. S/iuet. Name given by the Dutch to circulating lumps of silver, stamped at the mint to certify their fineness, but passing by weight, which averages about five ounces. Tael. A weight used in the far East equal to five hundred and eighty-three troy grains, or about an ounce and a fifth troy, or an ounce and a third avoirdupois. Sixteen tael make a katti. The tael and its subdivisions the mas, kandarin, and kas are especially used in weighing the precious metals. Silver passing by weight in the far East, and forming there the standard of value, accounts are kept in these denominations. The tael was commonly reckoned by the Dutch as corresponding to the European crown ($1.25), which made the mas equal to the Spanish eighth of a dollar. Tira. A Buddhist temple. Tono. A general term, including all the Japanese nobility. Tsitats. The first day of the month, observed as a holiday or Sunday. See p. 636 Tundt A Buddhist abbot. Tenwo, or Teno. August of heaven, a title bastowed on the Dairi Uta. A brief poem, or distich. JAPAN AND THE JAPANESE. CHAPTER I. EARLIEST EUROPEAN KNOWLEDGE OF JAPAN. JAPANESE HISTOEIES. MARCO POLO'S ACCOUNT OF THE MONGOL OH TARTAR INVASION. ACCOUNTS Of THE SAME EVENT GIVEN BY THE CHINESE AND JAPANESE ANNALISTS, A. D. 1231 OR 1283. THE name JAPAN, pronounced in the country itself Ne'pon or Nifon, is of Chinese origin in the Mandarin dialect Jih-pun, that is, sun-source, or Eastern Country. The first account of Japan, or allusion to its existence, to be found in any European writer, is contained in the Oriented Travels of the Venetian, Marco Polo, first reduced to writing in the Latin tonfme, about A. D. 1298, while the author was detained a prisoner O ' i of war at Genoa. ZIPAXGU, ZIPANGRI, CYAMPAGU, CIMPAGC, as dif- erent editions of his work have it, is his method of representing the Chinese Jih-pun-quo, sun-source kingdom, or kingdom of the source of the sun. The Japanese chronicles go back for many centuries previous ; but these chronicles seem to be little more than a bare list of names and dates, with some legendary statements interwoven, of which the authority does not appear very weighty, nor the historical value very considerable. Marco Polo resided for seventeen years (A. D. 1275 1292) at the court of Kublai Khan (grandson of the celebrated Ghingis Khan), and ruler, from A. D. 1200 to A. D. 1294, over the most extensive empire which the world has ever seen. This empire stretched across the breadth of the old continent, from the Japanese. 2 14 JAPAN. A. D. 1281 1283. the Yellow, the Blue and the China Seas (embosoming the Caspian and the Black Seas), to the Levant, the Archipelago, the River Dniester, and beyond its Not content with having added Anatolia and Russia to the western extremity of this vast kingdom, the (Jreek empire being reduced, at this moment, to the vicinage of Constantinople and the western coasts of the Archipelago, Kublai Khan, after completing the conquest of Southern China, sent an expedition against Japan ; in which, however, the Mongols were no more successful than they had been in their attempts, a few years before, to penetrate through Hungary and Poland (which they overran and ravaged, to the terror of all Europe) into Germany, whence Teutonic valor repelled them. The accounts given by Marco Polo, and by the Chinese and Japanese annalists, of this expedition, though somewhat contradic- tory as to the details, agree well enough as to the general result. As Marco Polo's account is sho-t, as well as curious, we insert it at length, from the English translation of his travels by Marsden, subjoining to it the statements which we have of the same event derived from Chinese and Japanese sources. We may add that Columbus was greyly stimulated to undertake his western voyages of discovery by tfte constant study of Marco Polo's travels, confi- dently expect'o^ to reach by that route the Cathay and Zipangu of that 8>;tHor countries for which he sedulously inquired through- out the Archipelago of the AVest Indies, and along the southern and western shores of the Caribbean Sea. " Zipangu," says Marco Polo " is an island in the eastern ocean, situated at the distance of about fifteen hundred miles from the main land, or coast of Manji.* It is of considerable size ; its inhab- itants have fair eornplex'ons, are well made, and are civilized in their manners. Their religion is the worship of idols. They are independent of every foreign power, and governed only by their own kings. They have gold in the greatest abundance, its sources eing inexhaustible ; but as the king does not allow of its being xpm-tcd, few merchants visit the country, nor is it frequented by much shipping from other parts. To this circumstance we are to * The true distance is about five hundred miles ; but, possibly, by mileg M.-irco Polo may have intended Chinese li , of which there are nearly three in cmr mile. MARCO POLO'S ACCOUNT OF IT. 15 attribute the extraordinary richness of the sovereign's palace, accord- ing to what we are told by those who have access to the place. The entire roof is covered with a plating of gold, in the same manner as we cover houses, or, more properly, churches, with lead. The ceilings of the halls are of the same precious metal ; many of the apartments have small tables of pure gold, considerably thick ; and the windows, also, have golden ornaments. So vast, indeed, are the riches of the palace, that it is impossible to convey an idea of them. In this island there are pearls, also, in large quantities, of a pink color, round in shape, and of great size, equal in value to white pearls, or even exceeding them. It is customary with one part of the inhabitants to bury their dead, and with another part to burn them. The former have a practice of putting one of these pearls into the mouth of the corpse. There are also found there a number of precious stones. " Of so great celebrity was the wealth of this island, that a desire was excited in the breast of the grand Khan Kublai, now reigning, to make the conquest of it, and to annex it to his dominions. In order to effect this, he fitted out a numerous fleet, and embarked a large body of troops under the command of two of his principal officers, one of whom was named Abbacatan, and the other Yonsan- ciu. The expedition sailed from the ports of Zaitun and Kinsai,* and crossing the intermediate sea, reached the island in safety ; but, in consequence of a jealousy that arose between the two command- ers, one of whom treated the plans of the other with contempt, and resisted the execution of his orders, they were unable to gain pos- session of any city or fortified place, with the exception of one only, which was carried by assault, the garrison having refused to sur- render. . Directions were given for putting the whole to the sword, and, in obedience thereto, the heads of all were cut off except of eight persons, who, by the efficacy of a diabolical charm, consisting * Marsden, the English translator and annotator of Marco Polo, supposes that Zuitun was the modern Jlmoy, nnd Kinsai either J\"iy-po or C/ntsan. The Chinese annalists, on the other hand, seem to make the expedition start from Covea, which is much more probable, as that province is separated from Japan by a strait of only about a hundred miles in breadth. It was by this Corean strait, that, three hundred years later, the Japanese retorted thii invasion. 16 JAPAN. A. D. 1281 1283. of a jewel or amulet introduced into the right arm, hot ween the skin and the flesh, were rendered secure from the cfftvt.s of iron either to kill or to wound. Upon this discovery being made, they wen beaten with a heavy wooden club, and presently died. " It happened, after some time, that a north wind began to blow with great force, and the ships of the Tartars, which lay near the shore of the island, were driven foul of each other. It was deter- mined thereupon, in a council of the officers on board, that they ought to disengage themselves from the land ; and accordingly, as soon as the troops were disembarked, they stood out to sea. The gale, however, increased to so violent a degree, that a number of the vessels foundered. The people belonging to them, by floating upon pieces of the wreck, saved themselves upon an island, about four miles from the coast of Zipangu. The other ships, which, not being so near to the land, did not suffer from the storm, and on which the two chiefs were embarked, together with the principal officers, or those whose rank entitled them to command an hundred thousand or ten thousand men, directed their course homeward, and returned to the grand Khan. Those of the Tartars who remained upon the island where they were wrecked, and who amounted to about thirty thousand men, finding themselves without shipping, abandoned by their leaders, and having neither arms nor provision, expected nothing less than to become captives or to perish ; especially as the island afforded no habitations where they could take shelter and refresh themselves. As soon as the gale ceased, and the sea became smooth and calm, the people from the main island of Zi- pangu came over with a large force, in numerous boats, in order to make prisoners of these shipwrecked Tartars ; and, having landed, proceeded in search of them, but in a straggling, disorderly man- ner. The Tartars, on their part, acted with prudent circumspec- tion ; and, being concealed from view by some high land in the centre of the island, whilst the enemy were hurrying in pursuit of them by one road, made a circuit of the coast by another, whicb brought them to the place where the fleet of boats was at anchor. Fin ling these all abandoned, but with their colors flying, they instantly seized thorn ; and, pushing off from the island, stood for the principal city of Zipangn, into which, from the appearance of the colors, they were suffered to enter unmolested. Here they MONGOL INVASION. 11 found few of the inhabitants besides women, whom they retained for their own use, and drove out all others. When the king was apprised of what had taken place, he was much afflicted, and imme- diately gave directions for a strict blockade of the city, which was so effectual- that not any person was suffered to enter or to escape from it during six months that the siege continued. At the expi- ration of this time, the Tartars, despairing of succor, surrendered upon the condition of their lives being spared. This event took place in the course of the year 1264." * The above account Marco Polo no doubt derived from the Mon- gols, who endeavored, as far as possible, to gloss over with roman- tic and improbable incidents a repulse that could not be denied. The Chinese annalists, who have no partiality for their Mongol conquerors, tell a much less flattering story. According to their account, as given by Pere Amiot, in his Memoires concernant les Chinois, the fleet consisted of six hundred ships, fitted out in the provinces of Kiang-nan, Fou-kien, Ho-nan and Chan-tong. The army, sailing from Corca, landed first on the island of Kiu-tchi, whence they proceeded to that of Tousima, where they learned that the Japanese had long been expecting them with a great army. On approaching the coist of Japan, they encountered a furious tempest, which sunk their vessels ; so that of the whole army scarcely one or two in every ten persons escaped. In the Histoire General de la China, compiled by Father Malela, from Chinese sources, the story is thus told : " The sixth month (1281) Alahan set out on the expedition against Japan ; but scarcely had he reached the port of embarkation when he died. Atahai, appointed to succeed him, did not arrive till the fleet had already set sail. In the latitude of the isle of Pinghou [Firando] it * Marsden remarks upon this date as evidently wrong. Indeed, it is given quite differently in different early editions of the travels. Marsden thinks it should be 1281. That is the date assigned to the invasion by the Chinese books. The older Japanese annals place it in 1284. In the chapter of Marco Polo which follows the one above quoted, and which is mainly devoted to the islands of south-eastern Asia, he seems to ascribe to the Japanese the custom of eating their prisoners of war a mistake which, as his English translator and commentator observes, might easily arise fro in transferring tc them what he had heard of the savage inhabitauts of some of the more southern islands. 2* 18 JAPAN. A. D. 12811283. encountered a violent tempest, by which most of the vessels were driven on shore. The officers, selecting those least damaged, them- selves returned, leaving behind them in that island more than a hundred thousand men. The soldiers, finding themselves thus aban- doned, chose a leader, and set themselves to work to cut down trees to build new vessels, in which to escape. Hut the Japanese, ap- prised of their shipwreck, made a descent upon the island with a powerful anny, and put them to the sword. They spared only ten or twelve thousand Chinese soldiers, of whom they made slaves ; and, of the whole formidable invading army, hardly three persona returned to China." Father Gaubil, in his Histoire de la Dynastic dcs Nonyoux, compiled also from Chinese sources, states the number of Chinese and Corean prisoners at eighty thousand, and of the Mongols who were slain at thirty thousand. Kiimpfer, in his elaborate work on Japan, gives the following as from the Japanese chronicles, jSipon Odtriki, and Xijxin Okailzu : "Gonda succeeded his father in the year ot Syn-mu ]!K>.">, of Christ 127")." " In the ninth year of his reign, the Tartar gen- eral, Mooko, appeared on the coasts of Japan, with a fleet of four thousand sail, and two hundred and forty thousand men. The then reigning Tartarian emperor, Lifsu [Kublai Khan], after he had conquered the empire of China, sent this general to subdue also the empire of Japan. But this expedition proved unsuccessful. The Kami, that is, the gods of the country, and protectors of the Jap- anese empire, were so incensed at the insult offered them by the Tartars, that, on the first day of the seventh month, they excited a violent and dreadful storm, which destroyed all this reputed invin- cible armada. Mooko himself perished in the waves, and but few of his men escaped." Siebold, in his recently published Archives r,f Japan, gives the following as the account of this invasion contained in the esteemed Japanese chronicle, Niponki:* "So soon as Kublai Khan had ascended the Mogul throne, he turned his eyes upon distant Japan. This nation, like Kaoii-le (one of the kingdoms of Corca), must * As this chronicle, which \* the oldest Japanese history, is state. 720, it must lx> from a continuation of it that BieboUl, or rather his assistant, Hoffman, translates. MONGOL INVASION. become tributary. Accordingly, in the year 1268,* he summoned the ruler of Nipon to acknowledge his sovereignty. No notice waa taken of this summons, nor of others in 1271 and 1273, the Mogul envoys being not admitted to an audience, but always dismissed by the governor of Doisaifu. Hereupon a Mongol fleet, with a Corean contingent, appeared off Tsusima [a small island half way from Corea to Japan]. The mikaddo [ecclesiastical sovereign] appointed prayer days, but the siogun [the temporal sovereign] had previ- ously made along the coast every necessary preparation for defence. The hostile army did not venture upon a decisive attack. Its movements were governed neither by energy nor by consistency ; and after hovering about a while, without any apparent definite pur- pose, the squadron disappeared from the Japanese seas, merely committing some hostilities upon Kiasiu, at its departure." A Japanese encyclopedia, of quite recent date, quoted in Siebold's work, besides giving Kublai Khan's letter of summons, asserts that the Mongol fleet was met and defeated, after which, other Mongol envoys being sent to Japan, they were summoned into the presence of the siogun, by whom a decree was promulgated that no Mongol should land in Japan under pain of death. And it is even pre- tended that under this decree the persons composing two subsequent missions sent by Kublai Khan, in 1276 and 1279, were all put to death. This was followed, according to the same authority, by the appearance of a new Mongol-Corean fleet, in 1281, off the island of Firando. This fleet was destroyed by a hurricane. Those who escaped to the shore were taken prisoners and executed, only three being saved to carry to Kublai Khan the news of this disaster. All these additions, however, to the story, the letter of Kublai Khan, the murder of the ambassadors, and the double invasion, may safely enough be set down as Japanese inventions. * This is the equivalent, it is to be supposed, of the Japanese date men tioned in the chronicle. CHAPTER II. PORTUGUESE EMPIRE IN THE EAST. DISCOVERT OF JAPAN. GALVANO'5 ACCOUNT OF IT. FERNAM MENDEZ PIXTO'S ACCOUNT OF HIS FIRST VISIT TO JAPAN, AND ADVENTURES THERE. JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THK FIRST ARRIVAL OF PORTUGUESE, A. D. 15125. VASCO DE GAMA, by the route of the Cape of G ood Hope, entered the Indian Ocean in November, 1497, and, after coasting the African continent as far north as Melinda, arrived in May, 1498, at Calicut, on the Malabar or south-western coast of the peninsula of Hiudostan, a discovery speedily followed, on the part of the Portuguese, by extensive eastern explorations, mercantile enterprises and conquests. The trade of Europe with the East in silks, spices and other luxu- ries, chiefly carried on for two or three centuries preceding, so far as related to their distribution through Europe, by the Venetians, aided in the north by the Hanse towns, and, so far as the collec- tion of the articles of it throughout the East was concerned, by the Arabs (Cairo, in Egypt, being the point of exchange), was soon transferred to the Portuguese ; and Lisbon, enriched by this transfer, which the Mahometan traders and the Venetians struggled in vain to prevent, rose rapidly, amid the decline of numerous rivals, to great commercial wealth and prosperity, and the headship of European commerce. The Portuguese, from the necessity of the case, traded sword in hand ; and their intercourse with the nations of the East was much more marked by the insolence of conquest, than by the complaisance of traders. Goa, some three hundred miles to the north of Calicut, which fell into their power in 1510, became a splendid city, the vice-royal and archiepiscopal seat, whence were governed a multi- tude of wide-spread dependencies. The rule of the Portuguese viceroy extended on the west by Diu, Ormus and Socotra (com DISCOVERY BY THE PORTUGUESE. 21 manding the entrances into the Gulf of Cambay, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea), along the east coast of Africa by Melinda to Sofala, opposite the south part of Madagascar. Malacca, near the extremity of the peninsula of Further India, occupied in 1511, be- came the capital of their possessions and conquests in the far East, and soon rose into a magnificent seat of empire and commerce, second only to Goa. Among the most valuable dependencies of Ma- lacca, were the Moluccas or Spice Islands. The islands of Suma- tra, Java and Borneo, in the occupation of which the Mahometans had preceded them, Celebes, Mindanao, and even New Guin- ea, were coasted, and commercial and political relations established, to a greater or less degree, with the native chiefs. The coasts of Pegu, Siam, Cambodia, and the southern parts of China, were visited as early as 1516 ; but the usual insolence of the Portuguese, in attempting to establish a fortified post not far from Canton, resulted in the imprisonment and miserable death of an ambassador of theirs. then on his way to Pekin, while it gave a new impulse to the suspi- cious policy of the Chinese, which allowed no intercourse with for- eigners, and even forbade the Chinese junks to trade to foreign ports. In spite, however, of this prohibition, numerous Chinese merchants, self-exiled from home, were established in the princi- pal trading marts of the south-eastern seas ; and with their aid, and sometimes that of the corsairs, by whom the coasts of China were then, as now, greatly infested, and by bribing the mandarins, a sort of commerce, a cross between smuggling'and privateering, was carried on along the Chinese coast. The principal marts of this commerce were Ningpo (known to the Portuguese as Liampo, on the continent, opposite the isle of Chusan, in the suburbs of which city the Portuguese managed to establish a trading settlement) and Sancian, an island near the entrance of the bay of Canton, where the Chinese merchants from Canton met the Portuguese traders, who, during a few months in each year, sojourned there in temporary huts while the trade was going on. Down, however, to the year 1542, noth- ing had yet been heard of Japan, beyond Marco Polo's mention and brief account of it. The first visit of the Portuguese to Japan is ascribed to that year, 1542, by Antonio Galvano, in his little book, first published, after his death, in 1557, containing a brief chronological recital 22 JAPAN. A. D. 1542-1545. of discoveries by sea and laud, from the flood to the year of grace, 1555, particularly the recent ones of the Spanish and Por- tuguese, in which Galvano had been an active participator, having greatly distinguished himself as the Portuguese governor of tho Moluccas. With a disinterestedness as uncommon then as now, more intent upon the public service than his own enrichment, after repeatedly refusing the regency of the Moluccas tendered to him by the natives, and putting into the public treasury the rich presents of spices which were made to him, he had returned to Portugal, in 1440, a poor man ; and so vain was his reliance on the gratitude of the court, that he was obliged to pass the last seventeen years of his life as the inmate of a charitable foundation, solacing his leis- ure by composing the history of exploits in which he no longer par- ticipated. His account of the discovery of Japan, which he must have obtained at second hand, as it happened after he had left the Indies, is thus given in Hackluyt's translation :* " In the year of our Lord 1542, one Diego de Freitas being in the realm of Siam, and in the city of Dodra, as captain of a ship, there fled from him three Portuguese in a junco (which is a kind of ship) towards China. Their names were Antony de Moto, Francis Zimoro and Antonio Perota. Directing their course to the city of Liampo, standing in 30 odd of latitude, there fell upon their stern such a storm, that it set them off the land ; and in a few days they saw an island towards the east, standing in 32, which they do name Japan, which seemethto be the isle of Zipangry whereof Paulus Venetus [Marco Polo] maketh mention, and of the riches thereof. And this island of Japan hath gold, silver, and other riches." Upon the strength of this statement of Galvano's, Maffei, in his elegant Latin Indian History, first printed in 1589, and whom sub- sequent writers have generally followed, ascribes to the three Por- tuguese above mentioned the honor of the discovery of Japan, though it was claimed, he says, by several others. Of these others *Galvnno's book in the translation, published by Ilackluyt, in 1601, may be found in tha supplement to Hackluyt's collection of voyages, London, 1811. The original work was printed by the pious care of Francis de Sous* Tauares, to whom Galvano left it, on his death-bed. FERNAM MENDEZ PINTO. 23 the only one known to us is Fernam Mendez Pinto, who, in his Peregrinations in the East, first published in 1614, about thirty- six years after his death, seems to represent himself and two com- panions as the original Portuguese discoverers. Pinto's veracity has been very sharply called in question ; * but the main facts of his residence in the East and early visits to Japan are amply established by contemporary letters, written from Malacca as early as 1564, and published at Home as early as 1566, includ- ing one from Pinto himself. In the introduction to his Peregrina- tions he describes himself as the child of poor parents, born in the city of old Montemayor, in Portugal, but placed in the year 1521, when he was about ten or twelve years old, he fixes the year by the breaking of the escutcheons on the death of king Man uel, a ceremony which he witnessed, and the oldest historical fact he could remember, through the interest of an uncle, in the ser- vice of a noble lady of Lisbon. Having been with her for a year and a half, some catastrophe occurred, he does not tell what, which led him to fly in terror for his life ; and, finding himself upon a pier, he embarked on a vessel just about to leave it. That vessel was taken by French pirates, who threatened at first to sell him and the other captives to the Moors of Barbary ; but having taken another richer prize, after much ill treatment, they put him and several others ashore on the Portuguese coast. After this he passed into the service successively of two noblemen; but finding their pay very small, he was prompted to embark to seek his fortune in the East ; and, in pursuit of that object, landed at Diu in 1537. It was by the daring and enterprise of just such adventurers as Pinto, that the Portuguese, who, up to this time, had few regular troops in the East, had already acquired so extensive an empire there ; just as a similar set of Spanish adventurers had acquired, and still were extending, a vast Spanish empire in America ; the two nations, in their circuit round the globe, meeting at the Moluccas, the possession of which, though about this very time, as we shall Bee, contested by the Spaniards, the Portuguese succeeded in main- taining, as indeed they had been the first to visit and occupy them. The Turks at this time were the tenor and dread of all the * See Appendix, Note D. JAPAX. A. D. 15421545. Christian nations. In the West, they had lately occupied Hungary, laid siege to Vienna, and possessed themselves of all the fortresses hitherto held by the Venetians in the Archipelago and the Morea. Having acquired the superiority over Egypt by dethroning the Mameluke sultans, and, by the renunciation of the caliphs .of Hag- dad (long exiles in Egypt), the headship of the Mahometan church, they were now carrying on, with renewed energy, by way of the lied Sea, the perpetual war waged in the East, as well as in the West, by the Mussulmen against the infidels ; and had, indeed, just before Pinto's arrival at Diu, besieged that city in great force. Going to cruise against these Mussulmen enemies, after various ad- ventures and a visit to Abyssinia, with which secluded Christian or semi-Christian kingdom the Portuguese had opened a commu- nication, Pinto was captured at the entrance of the lied Sea, carried to Mocha, and there sold to a Greek renegado, and by him to a Jew, from whom he was redeemed by the Portuguese governor of Ormus, who furnished him with the means of reaching Goa. At this centre of Portuguese enterprise and adventure, Pinto entered into the service of Dom Pedro do Faria, captain-general of Malacca. Perceiving his superior intelligence and adroitness, Faria sent him on numerous missions to the native princes of those parts, by inter- meddling in whose domestic affairs, the Portuguese generally con- trived to find a foothold for themselves. Despatched on one of these missions, he was shipwrecked, made a slave of, and sold to a Mussulman, who catried him to Malacca, whence he was again sent on a new mission, provided with money to redeem certain Portu- guese captives, and taking with him also a small sum, which he had borrowed at Malacca, to trade upon for himself. While occu- pied with this mission, Pinto met, at Patana (on the east shore of the Malay peninsula, and some four hundred miles to the north of Malacca), with Antonio Faria, a kinsman of his patron's, sent thither on a political mission, but who had also improved the opportunity for trade, by borrowing at Malacca twelve thousand crusados,* which he had invested in cloths. Finding no market * A Portuguese coin, as corresponding to which in value the Spanish translator of Piuto gives ducats, which, of silver, were about equal to a dollar of our money. : *-ERNAM MENDEZ PINTO. 25 there for these goods, Faria was" induced to despatch them to Lugor, on the same coast, further north ; and Pinto, with his small adventure, was led by the hope of a profitable trade to embark in the same vessel. He arrived safely near Lugor; but the ves- sel, while lying in the river below that city, was boarded by a Saracen corsair. Pinto with two others plunged into the water and escaped, wounded, to the shore; and having succeeded in reaching Patana, he communicated to Antonia de Faria informa- tion of their mutual loss. Overwhelmed by this news, and afraid to face his creditors at Malacca, Faria, with the remnant of his fortune and the assistance of his friends, fitted out a small cruiser, in which he embarked in May, 1640, with several Portuguese, and Pinto among the rest, nominally to seek out the pirate who had robbed him, but in fact to recruit his fortune as he might. After many adventures, the acquisition of great wealth by numerous captures of richly- laden corsairs and others, its loss by shipwreck, the getting of a new vessel, the meeting with the corsair who had robbed them at Lugor, the taking of his vessel, another shipwreck, and the sack of a Chinese town, where some of their shipwrecked companions were detained as prisoners, they put into Liampo, finding on some islands at no great distance from that city, and known as the Gates of Liampo, a Portuguese settlement of a thousand houses, with six or seven churches, and with regular Portuguese officers and laws as much so, says Pinto, as if the place had been situated between Lis- bon and Santarein.* Here tKey metwith a Chinese corsair, who told them a marvellous story of the island of Calempui, not far from Pekin, in which lay buried seventeen Chinese kings, and whose tombs, guarded and watched over by priests, contained vast treasures. Under the pilotage of this corsair, Faria set out in May, 1642, to rob these tombs. Pinto's account of the voyage thither, and of the tombs themselves, from which, terrified by the alarm that was raised, they fled away, with their object very par- tially accomplished, forms one of the most questionable, and, a-t all evants, the most distorted portions of his narrative. * This Portuguese colony was of no long continuance. It was soon broken tip by the Chinese, as Pinto intimates, through the folly of the Portuguese residents. 26 JAPAN. A. D. 15421515. Shortly after, they were shipwrecked again on the Chinese coast. Faria, with most of his countrymen, was drowned ; hut Pinto with thirteen others escaped to the shore, where they lived a while by begging, but were presently taken up as vagabonds, harshly treated, sent to Nankin, and there, on suspicion of being thieves, condemned to lose their thumbs. They appealed from this sentence by the aid of certain officers appointed to look after the poor, and were taken to Pekin, where, after a residence of twc months and a half, the charge of theft was dismissed for want of proof, the prosecutors being obliged to pay them damages; but still they were sent into confinement to the frontier town of Quansi for eight months, there to work in the maintenance of the great wall. From this imprisonment they were delivered by an inroad of Tartars, who laid siege to Pekin, and to whom one of the Portuguese, reduced by this time to nine in all, rendered essential military service. Ac- companying these invaders back to Tartary, they were sent, except one, who remained behind, as attendants upon the train of an am- bassador to Cochin China, by whose procurement they were con- veyed to the island of 8anchian, in hopes of finding a passage thence to Malacca. But the Portuguese ships had departed fivo days before ; and so they proceeded on some leagues further to the island of Lampacau (the same upon which the Portuguese town of Macao was not long afterwards built, and already a resort for mer- chants and rovers). Here they found no other resource except to enlist into the service of a Chinese corsair, who arrived shortly after they did, with two ships, of which the crews were mostly wounded, having just escaped, with the loss of many other ships, from a recent engagement with a Chinese fleet, off Chincheo, a great city, about half way from Canton to Ningpo. The Portu- guese had got into a quarrel among themselves, which they carried out, as Pinto says, with true Portuguese obstinacy. Five of them embarked in one of the corsair's ships, and Pinto, with two com- panions, named Diego Zeimoto and Christopher Borello, in the other. The five, with the vessel in which they sailed, were soon after lost in a desperate naval engagement, which lasted a whole day, with seven large corsair junks, in which that vessel was burnt. The other, in which Pinto was, escaped with th^ greatest difficulty, by favor of the breeze, which freshened at night. This breeza PIXTO'S FIRST VISIT. 27 changed soon into a gale, before which the corsair ran for the Lew Chew islands, with which he was familiar; but being without a pilot, and the wind shifting to the north-east, they had to beat against it for twenty-three days before they made land. After run- ning along the coast for some distance they anchored off an island in seventy fathoms.* " Immediately," says Pinto, " two little skiffs put off the shore to meet us, in which were six men, who, on com- ing on board, after having saluted us courteously, asked us whence our junk came ; and being answered that it came from China, with merchandise to trade there, if permission should be obtained, one of the six said to us that the Nantaquim, the lord of that island, which was called Tonixuma, would willingly permit us to trade, if we would pay the duties customarily paid in Japan ; which, said he, is that great island which you see there over against us." Whereupon the ship was piloted into a good harbor, on which was seated a considerable town, and was soon surrounded with boats bringing provisions to sell. In a short time they were visited by the Nantaquim himself, accompanied by many gentlemen and merchants, with chests of silver. As he approached the ship, the first persons who attracted his attention were Pinto and his companions. Perceiving how dif- ferent they were in complexion, features and beard, from the others, he eagerly inquired who they were. " The corsair captain made answer to him," says Pinto, " that we were from a land called Malacca, to which many years before we had gone from another very distant country, called Portugal ; at which the prince, greatly astonished, turning to those about him, said, ' May I die, if these be not the Chenchicogis, of whom it is written in our ancient books, that, flying on the tops of the waves, they will subdue all the lands about them, until they become masters of all the countries in which God has placed the riches of the world ! Wherefore we should esteem it a great piece of good fortune if they come to us with * It is difficult to understand by what mistake Charlevoix, in his His- loire du Japan, ascribes this discovery to the same year, 1542, as that of the three Japanese mentioned by Galvano. Pinto's chronology is rather confused, but it is impossible to fix this voyage to Japan earlier than 1545. 28 JAPAN. A. D. 1542-1545. offers of friendship and good will.' * And then calling in the aid of a woman of Lew Chew, whom he employed as interpreter, he pro- ceeded to make very particular inquiries of the captain as to where he had found these men, and why he had brought them thither. To whom," says Pinto, " our captain replied, that without doubt we were merchants and trusty people, whom, having found ship- wrecked on the island of Lampucan, he had received on board his junk, as it was his custom to do by all whom he found in such case, having himself been saved in the same way from the like dis- aster, to which all were liable who ventured their lives and prop- erty against the impetuous fury of the waves." Satisfied with this answer, the prince came on board; not with his whole retinue, though they were all eager for it, but with only a select few. After examining the ship very curiously he seated himself under an awning, and asked the Portuguese many questions about their country, and what they had seen in their travels. Highly delighted with their answers and the new information they were able to give him, he invited them to visit him on shore the next day, assuring them that this curious information was the merchandise he most wished for, and of which he never could have enough. The next morning he sent to the junk a large boat loaded with grapes,t pears, melons, and a great variety of vegetables, for which the cap- tain returned a present of cloths and Chinese jewels. The next day, having first moored the ship securely, the captain went on shore with samples of his goods, taking with him the three Portuguese, and ten or twelve of the best-looking of the Chinese. Their recep- tion was very gracious, and the prince having called together the * The terms Chenyecu and Chcnyhequu. are represented in two letters, one dated in l&ol (Sclectarum Epistolarum ex India, Lib. i.), addressed to Xavier by a companion of his ; the other, dated in 1500, and written by Lawrence, a converted Japanese and a Jesuit (Ib., Lib. ii.), as commonly em- ployed in Japan to designate Europe. Golownin mentions that at the time of his imprisonment (181 2), he found a prophecy in circulation among the Japanese, that they should be conquered by a people from the north. Possibly both these prophecies that men- tioned by Pinto and that by Oolownin might be a little colored by th patriotic hopes of the European relaters. t Golownin says there arc no grapes in Japan, except a small, wild kind,, ??ry sour, which arc salted and eaten as salad. PINTO S FIKST VISIT. principal merchants, the samples were exhibited, and a tariff of prices agreed upon. This matter arranged, the prince began to re-question the Portu- guese ; to which inquiries Pinto, who acted as spokesman, made answers dictated, as he confesses, less by strict regard to the truth, than by his desire to satisfy the prince's appetite for wonders, and to magnify the king and country of Portugal in his eyes. The prince wished to know whether it were true, as the Chinese and Lew Chewans had told him, that Portugal was larger and richer than China ? Whether (a matter as to which he seemed very cer- tain) the king of Portugal had really conquered the greater part of the world ? And whether he actually had more than two thousand houses full of gold and silver? All which questions Pinto answered in the affirmative ; though, as to the two thousand houses, he con- fessed that he had never actually counted them a thing by no means easy in a kingdom so vast. Well pleased with his guests, the king caused the Portuguese to be entertained, by a wealthy merchant, in a house near his own ; and he assigned also warehouses to the Chinese captain to facilitate his trade, which proved so successful that a cargo, which had cost him in China twenty -five hundred taels * of silver, brought him in twelve times as much .in Japan ; thus reimbursing all the loss he had lately suffered by the capture of his vessels. " Meanwhile we three Portuguese," says Pinto, " as we had no merchandise to occupy ourselves about, enjoyed our time in fishing, hunting and visiting the temples, where the priests or bonzes, as they are called, gave us a very good recaption, the Japanese being naturally well disposed and very conversable. Deigo Zeimoto went often forth to shoot with an espingarda [a large hand-gun or musket], which he had brought from Tartary, and in the use of which he was very dexterous. One day, at a lake where were many kinds of birds, he killed at various shots six-and-twenty ducks. * A tael is about an ounce and a third English. The tael is divided into ten mas ; the mas into ten kandarins ; the kandarins into ten bis ; and these denominations (the silver passing by weight) are in general use throughout the far East. Sixteen taels make a katty (about a pound and n third, avoirdupois), and one hundred katties a picul. these being the mer- cantile weights in common use. 80 JAPAN. A. D. 15421545. Some Japanese, observing this new method of shooting, which they hud never seen before, reported it to the prince, who was busy at the moment in observing the running of some horses, which hud been brought to him from a distance. Zeimoto, being culled, came into his presence, with the gun on his shoulder, and two China- men loaded with the gume ; and as the thing was entirely novel in this country, and as the Japanese knew nothing of the secret of tho powder, they all ascribed it to enchantment, an astonishment which Zeimoto increased by shooting on the spot a kite and two doves. The prince caused Zeimoto to be mounted on a horse, him- self sitting behind him, and to be conducted through the town, fol- lowed by a great crowd, preceded by a herald, who proclaimed him an adopted kinsman of the prince, to be treated by all as such ; and having tuken him to his own palace, he assigned him an apartment there next his own, doing many favors also to the other Portuguese for his sake. Zeimoto responded by making the prince a present of the gun, who sent him, in return, a thousand taels of silver, beseeching him much to teach him how to make the powder ; with which request Zeimoto complied. The prince, greatly delighted with his acquisition, caused other guns to be made like it ; so that," says Pinto, " when we left, which was in five months and a half, there were more than six hundred; and when I visited Japan, in 1550, as ambassador from the Portuguese viceroy, Don Alonzo de Noronha.to the king of Bungo, the Japanese told me that in the city of Fuchco, the capital of that kingdom, there were more than thirty thousand guns. And when -I expressed my astonishment at this as incredible, some very respectable merchants positively assured me that in the whole land of Japan there were more than three hundred thousand, and that they themselves, in six voyages to Lew Chew, had curried thither five-and-twcnty thousand. From which it may be known what this nation is, and how naturally inclined to military exer- cises, in which it delights itself more than any other of these dis- tant nations yet discovered." * At the end of three-and-twenty days, a ship arrived from the kingdom of Bungo, in which came many merchants, who, as soon as they had landed, waited on the prince with presents, as was cus- tomary. Among them was an old man, very well attended, and * See Appendix, Note C. JUNTO'S FIRST VISIT. 31 to whom all the rest paid great respect. He made prostrations before the prince, presenting him a letter, and a rich sword, gar- nished with gold, and a box of fans, which the prince received with great ceremony. The reading of this letter seemed to disturb the prince, and, having sent the messengers away to refresh them- selves, he informed the Portuguese, through the interpreter, that it came from the king of Bungo and Facata, his uncle, father-in- law, and liege-lord, as he was also the superior of several other principalities. This letter, which, as is usual with him in such cases, Pinto, by a marvellous stretch of memory, undertakes to give in precise words, declared that the writer had heard by persons from Saxuma that the prince had in his city " three Chenchiogins, from the end of the world, very like the Japanese, clothed in silk and girded with swords ; not like merchants, whose business it is to trade, but like lovers of honor, seeking to gild their names therewith, and who had given great information, affirming, on their veracity, that there is another world, much larger than this of ours, and peopled with men of various complexions;" and tha letter ended with begging that, by Fingeandono, his ambassador, the prince would send back one of these men, the king promising to return him safe and soon. It appeared from this letter, and from the explanations which the prince added to it, that the king of Bungo was a severe sufferer from a gouty affection and from fits of melancholy, from which he hoped, by the aid of these foreigners, to obtain some diversion, if not relief. The prince, anxio is and bound as he was to oblige his relative and superior, was yet unwil- ling to send Zeimoto, his adopted kinsman ; but one of the others he begged to consent to go ; and when both volunteered, ho chose Pinto, as he seemed the more gay and cheerful of the two, and so best fitted to divert the sick man's melancholy ; whereas the .solemn gravity of the other, though of great account in more weighty mat- ters, might, in the case of a sick man, rather tend to incre ise his ennui. And so, with many compliments, to which, says Pi ito, the Japanese are much inclined, he was given in charge to the ambas- sador, with many injunctions for his good treatment, havin * first, however, received two hundred taels, with which to equip hi n self. They departed in a sort of galley ; and, stopping in various places, arrived in four or five days at Osqui, a fortress of the king of 52 JAPAN. A. D. 1542 1:45 Bungo,* seven leagues distant from his capital of Fuchco, to which they proceeded by land. Arriving there in the middle of the daj (not a proper time to wait upon the king), the ambassador took him to his own house, where they were joyfully met, and Pinto was well entertained by the ambassador's wife and two sons. Proceed- ing to the palace on horseback, they were very graciously received by a son of the king, some nine or ten years old, who came forth richly dressed and with many attendants. After many ceremonies between the young prince and the ambassador, they were taken to the king, who, though sick abed, received the ambassador with many formalities. Presently Pinto was introduced, and by some well-turned compliments made a favorable impression, leading tho courtiers to conclude and so they told the king that he could not be a merchant, who had passed his life in the low business of buy- ing and selling, but rather some learned bonze, or at least some brave corsair of the seas. In this opinion the king coincided; and, being already somewhat relieved from his pains, proceeded to question the stranger as to the cure of the gout, which he suffered from, or at least some remedy for the total want of appetite by which he was afflicted. Pinto professed himself no doctor, but nevertheless undertook to cure the king by means of a sovereign herb which he had brought with * The kingdom or province of Bungo is situated on the east coast of the second in size and southernmost in situation of the three hrger Japanese islands, off the south-east extremity of which lies the small island of Tunis uma (or Tanegasima), where Pinto represents himself as having first landed. The name Bungo was frequently extended by the Portuguese to the whole large island o. which it formed a part, though, among them, the more com- mon designation of that island, after they knew it to be such (for they seem at first to have considered it a part of Nipon), was XIMO. This name, Ximo, appears to have been only a modification of the term sima (or, as the Portu- guese wrote it, anna), the Japanese word for island, and as such terminating many names of places. On our maps this inland is called KIUSIU, meaning, as Kampfer tells us in one place, " Western Country," and in another " Country of Nine," from the circumstance of its being divided into nine provinces, which latter appears to be the correct interpretation. There are in use in Japan Chinese as well as Japanese names of provinces and officers, (the Chinese probably a translation of the Japanese) ; and not only the names Nipon and Kiusiu, but that of Bungo (to judge from the terminal n of the first syllable), is of Chinese origin. For further information on the language of Japan, see Appendix A. PINTO'S FIRST VISIT. him from China (ginseng, probably) ; and this drug he tried on the patient with such good effect, that in thirty days he was up and walking, which he had not done for two years before. The next twenty days Pinto passed in answering an infinite number of ques- tions, many of them very frivolous, put to him by the king and hia courtiers, and in entertaining himself in observing their feasts, wor- ship, martial exercises, ships of war, fisheries and hunting, to which* they were much given, and especially their fowling with hawks and falcons, quite after the European fashion. A gun, which Pinto had taken with him, excited as much curi- osity as it had done at Tanixuma, especially on the part of a second son of the king, named Arichandono,* about seventeen or eighteen years old, who was very pressing to be allowed to shoot it. This Pinto declined to permit, as being dangerous for a person without experience ; but, at the intercession of the king, he appointed a time at which the experiment should be made. The young prince, how- ever, contrived beforehand to get possession of the gun while Pinto was asleep, and, having greatly overloaded it, it burst, severely wounding his hand and greatly disabling one of his thumbs. Hearing the explosion, and running out to see what might be the matter, Pinto found the young prince abandoned by his frightened companions, and lying on the ground bleeding and insensible ; and by the crowd, who rushed in, he was immediately accused of having murdered the king's son, hired to do so, as was suspected, by the relations of two noblemen executed the day before as traitors. His life seemed to be in the most imminent danger ; he was so fright- ened as not to be able to speak, and so beside himself that if they had killed him he hardly thinks he would have known it ; when, for- tunately, the young prince coming to, relieved him from all blame by telling how the accident had happened. The prince's wounds, however, seemed so severe, that none of the bonzes called in dared to undertake the cure ; and it was recommended, as a last resource, to send to Facata, seventy leagues off, for another bonze, of great reputation, and ninety-two years old. But the young prince, who declared that he should die while waiting, preferred to entrust him- self to the hands of Pinto, who, following the methods which he * For some remarks on Japanese names of persons, see Appendix B. 34 JAPAN. A. D. 15421545. had seen adopted by Portuguese surgeons in India, in twenty days had the young prince able to walk about again ; lor which he received so many presents that the cure was worth to him more than fifteen hundred cruzados. Information coming from Tanixuma that the Chinese corsair was ready to sail, Pinto was sent back by the king in a galley, manned by twenty rowers, commanded by a gen- tleman of the royal household, and provided with abundant sup plies. The corsair having taken him on board, they sailed for Liampo, where they arrived in safety. The three survivors of Antonio do Faria's ship were received at that Portuguese settlement with the greatest astonishment, and many congratulations for their return; and the discovery they had made of the rich lands of Japan waa celebrated by a religious procession, high mass, and a sermon. These pious services over, all hastened with the greatest zeal and contention to get the start of the rest in fitting out ships for this new traffic, the Chinese taking advantage of this rivalry, to put up the prices of their goods to the highest rates. In fifteen days nine junks, not half provided for the voyage, put to sea. Pinto himself being on board one of them. Overtaken on their passage by a ter- rible storm, seven of them foundered, with the loss of seven hun- dred men, of whom a hundred and forty were Portuguese, and cargoes to the value of three hundred thousand cruzados. Two others, on board one of which was Pinto, escaped, and arrived near the Lew Chew islands ; where, in another storm, that in which Pinto was lost sight of the other, nor was it ever afterwards heard of. " Towards evening," says Pinto, " the wind coming east-north-east, the waves ran so boisterous, wild and high, that it was most fright- ful to see. Our captain, Caspar de Melo, an hidalgo and very brave, seeing that the junk had sprung a-leak in her poop, and that the water stood already nine palms deep on the lower deck, ordered, with the advice of his officers, to cut away both masts, as, with their weight and the rolling, the junk was opening very fast. Yet, in spite of all care, he could not prevent the mainmast from carrying away with it fourteen men, among whom were five Portuguese, crushed in the ruins, a most mournful spectacle, which took away from us survivors all the little spirits we had left. So we suffered ourselves to be drifted along before the increasing tempest, which JAPANESE ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST EUROPEANS. 35 Ve had no means to resist, until about sunset, when the junk began fc> open at every seam. Then the captain and all of us, seeing the miserable condition in which we were, betook ourselves for succor to an image of our Lady, whom we besought with tears and groans to intercede for us with her blessed Son to forgive our sins." The night having passed in this manner, about dawn the junk struck a shoal and went to pieces, most of the crew being drowned. A few, however, escaped to the shore of what proved to be the Lew Chew islands, now first made known to the Portuguese. Here happened many new dangers and adventures ; but at last, by female aid, always a great resource with Pinto, he found his way back in a Chinese junk to Liampo, whence, after various other adventures, he again reached Malacca. To these Portuguese accounts of the European discovery of Japan, may be added the following, which Siebold gives as an extract from a Japanese book of annals : " Under the Mikado Konaru, and the Ziogouu Yosi-hao, in the twelfth year of the Nengo Tinbun,*on the twenty-second day of the eighth month [Oct. 1543], a strange ship made the island Tanegozima, near Koura, in the * The Japanese date by the years of the reign of the Dairi, or Mikado (of *hom more hereafter), and they also, for ordinary purposes, employ the Chinese device of nengos.^ These are periods, or eras, of arbitrary length, from one year to many, appointed at the pleasure of the reigning Dairi, named by him, and lasting till the establishment of a new nengo. For con- venience, every new nengo, and also every new reign, begins chronologically with the new year, the old nengo and old reign being protracted to the end of the year in which it closes. The Japanese month is alternately twenty-nine and thirty days, of which every year has twelve, with a repetition of one of the months, in seven years out of every nineteen, so as to bring this reckoning by lunar months into cor- respondency with the course of the earth round the sun ; this method being based on a knowledge of the correspondency of two hundred and thirty-five lunations with nineteen solar years. According to Titsingh, everv thirty- third month is repeated, so as to make up the necessary number of inter- calary months, the number of days in these intercalary months being fixed by the almanacs issued at Miako. The commencement of the Japanese year is generally in February. The months are divided into two distinct portions, of fifteen days, each having a distinct name, and the first day of each of which serves as a Sunday, or holiday. This regulation of the Japanese calendar is borrowed from tne Chinese, as also the use of the period of sixty years corre? spending to our century. 86 JAPAN. A. D. 15121445. remote province Xisinmra.* The crew, about two hundred In num- ber, had a singular appearance ; their language was unintelligible, their native land unknown. On board was a Chinese, named Go- how, who understood writing. From him it was gathered, that this was a nan-ban (Japanese form of the Chinese nan-man], that is, ' southern barbarian ' ship. On the twenty-sixth, this vessel was taken to Aku-opi harbor, on the north-west side of the island, and Tokitaku, governor of Tanegozima, instituted a strict investiga- tion concerning her, the Japanese bonze, Tsyn-sigu-zu, acting aa interpreter by means of Chinese characters. On board the nan- ban ship were two commanders, Mura-synkya and Krista-m ita. They had fire-arms, and first made the Japanese acquainted with shooting arms, and the preparation of shooting powder." It is added that the Japanese have preserved portraits of these two dis- tinguished strangers ; but, if so, it is much to be feared that the likenesses cannot be relied upon, as Fischer, one of the most recent writers on Japan, and who has himself published the finest speci- mens which have yet appeared of Japanese graphic art, says he never knew nor heard of a tolerable Japanese portrait-painter; while Golownin declares that the portraits taken of himself and his companions, prisoners on the island of Malsmai, in 1812, to be forwarded to Jcdo, bore not the least resemblance to the originals.! * No such province is mentioned in the lists of Japanese provinces by father Rodriguez, Kampfcr and Klaproth. t " They wished to have our portraits taken at full length ; and Tcsce, who knew how to draw, was appointed to execute them. He drew them in India iifk, but in such a style that each portrait would have passed for that of any other individual as well as of him It was intended for. Except the long beard, we could trace no resemblance in them. The Japanese, however, s(-nt thein to the capital, where they were probably hung up in some of their giil- leries of pictures." Golownin'* Captivity in Japan, vol. i., ch. 4. CHAPTER III. PINTO'S SECOND VISIT TO JAPAN. ANGIRO, OR PAUL OF THE HOLT FAITH A. D. 15471513. AFTER a great variety of haps and mishaps in Pegu, Siam, Java and elsewhere, Fernam Mendez Pinto represents himself as having embarked a second time for Japan, ia a ship commanded by George Alvarez, which sailed from Malacca in the year 1547. In twenty- six days they made the island of Tanixuma, nine leagues south of the main land of Japan ; and on the fifth day aftcnvards, reached Fucheo, in the kingdom of Bungo, a hundred leagues to the north. The king and the inhabitants gave them a very friendly reception ; but, very shortly after their arrival, a civil commotion broke out, in which the king was murdered with most of his family and a number of Portuguese who were in his service, the city being set on fire during the outbreak, and great numbers killed on both sides. One of the king's sons, who, when this event occurred, happened to be at the fortress of Osqui, seven leagues distance, would have proceeded at once to Fucheo, but for the advice of his tutor, Finge- indono, the same name, with the change of a single vowel, borne by the ambassador of the king of Bungo, under whose guidance Pinto, according to his former narrative, had first visited Fucheo. This person advised the young prince first to collect a sufficient army ; and of the Japanese method of calling to arms Pinto gives the following account. Every housekeeper, high and low, was required to keep by him a conch-shell, which, under severe penal- ties, could be sounded on four occasions only -tumults, fire, thieves and treason. To distinguish what the alarm was for, the shell was sounded once for tumult, twice for fire, three times for thieves, and four times for treason. So soon as the alarm of treason wat 4 38 JAPAN. A. D. 15471548. sounded, every householder who heard it was obliged to repeat it. And upon the signal thus given, and which spread from house to house, and village to village, all were obliged to march armed to the spot whence it came, the whole population of the district being thus very soon collected. By this means, in the course of seven days, during three of which the young prince lamented his murdered relatives at a convent of bonzes in a grove near the city, after which he proceeded to confis- cate the estates of the rebels, Pinto collects for him an army, - he is generally pretty liberal in such matters, estimated at one hundred and thirty thousand men, of whom seventeen thousand were cavalry. The multitude thus collected breeding a famine, the prince marched upon Fucheo, where he was received with great demonstrations of loyalty. But, before repairing to the palace, he stopped at the temple where the body of his father was lying, whose obsequies he celebrated with much pomp, the observance lasting through two nights, with a great display of torches and illumina- tions. The closing ceremony was the presentation to the son of the bloody garments of the father, on which he swore that he would show no mercy to the traitors, even though to save their lives they might turn bonzes ; but that, rather than allow them to escape, he would destroy every convent or temple in which they might take refuge. On the fourth day, having been inaugurated as king, but with little pomp, he marched with a still increasing army against the rebels, who, to the number of ten thousand, had entrenched them- selves on a neighboring hill, where, being -surrounded by the royal forces, rather than surrender, they were cut off to a man. The city of Fucheo was left almost in ruins by this civil war ; and the Portuguese, despairing of being able to find purchasers for their goods, proceeded to the city of Hyamonyoo, ninety leagues to the southward, on the bay of Cangoxima, where they remained for two months and a half, unable to sell their cargo, as the market was completely overstocked by Chinese merchandise, which had been poured in such quantities into the Japanese ports as to be worth much less than it was in China. Pinto and his company were entirely at a loss what to do ; but from this dilemma they were delivered, as Pinto will have it, by the special providence of THE JAPANESE. 39 the Most High ; for, at the new moon of December, a terrible storm occurred, in which almost the whole of these foreign traders were destroyed, to the incredible number, as Pinto relates, of near two thousand vessels, including twenty-six belonging to the Portuguese. Of the whole number, only ten or a dozen escaped, among them that in which Pinto was, which afterwards disposed of her lading to very good profit. So they got ready to depart, well pleased to see themselves so rich, but sad at having made their gains at the cost of so many lives, both of countrymen and strangers. Three times, however, they were detained by accidents, the last time barely escaping by the help of the Virgin Mary, as Pinto insists being carried by the strong current upon a dangerous reef; just at which moment they saw approaching the shore, in great haste, two men on horseback, making signs to them with a cloth. The preceding night four slaves, one of whom belonged to Pinto, had escaped from the vessel ; and, thinking to receive some news of them, Pinto went in the boat with two companions. " Coming to the shore," he says, " where the two men on horseback awaited us, one of them, who seemed the principal person, said to me, ' Sir, as the haste I am in admits of no delay, being in great fear of some people who are in pursuit of me, I beg of you, for the love of God, that, without suggesting doubts or weighing inconveniences, you will receive me at once on board your ship.' At which words of his, I was so much embarrassed," says Pinto, " as hardly to know what to do, and the more so, as I recollected having twice seen him in Hyamonyoo, in the company of some merchants of that city. Scarce- ly had I received him and his companion into the boat, when four- teen men on horseback made their appearance, approaching at full speed, and crying out to me, ' Give up that traitor, or we will kill you ! ' Others soon .after came up, both horsemen and on foot : whereupon I put off to the distance of a good bow-shot, and in- quired what they wanted. To which they made answer, ' If thou dost carry off that Japanese, know that a thousand heads, of fellows like thee, shall pay the forfeit of it.' To all which," says Pinto, " I replied not a word, but, pulling to the ship, got on board with the two Japanese, who were well received, and provided by the captain and the other Portuguese with everything necessary for so long a voyage." The name of this fugitive was Angiro, " an instru- 40 JAPAN. A. D. 1547-1548. mcnt selected by the Lord," so Pinto piously observes, "for his praise, and the exaltation of the holy faith." In fourteen days, the ship reached Chinchco, but found the mouth of the river leading to it blockaded by a famous Chinese corsair, with a great fleet; to avoid whom they turned aside and sailed for Malacca. In this eity Pinto met, apparently for the first time, with Master Francis Xavier, general superior or provincial of the order of the Jesuits in India, in all parts of which occupied by the Portuguese t he had already attained a high reputation for self- devotion, sajbclity, and miraculous power ; and who was then at Malacca, ou his return to Goa, from a mission on which he had lately been to the Moluccas. "The father," says Pinto, "had received intelligence of our arrival, and that we had brought with us the Japanese Angiro. lie came to visit George Alvarez and myself, in the house of one Cosmo llodriguez, where we lodged, and passed almost a whole day with us in curious inquiries (all founded on his lively zeal^for the honor of God) about the countries we had visited ; in the course of which I told him, not knowing that ho knew it already, that we had brought with us two Japanese, one of whom appeared to be a man of consideration, well skilled in the laws and religion of Japan. Whereupon he expressed great desire to see him ; in consequence of which, we brought him to the hos- pital, where the father lodged, who received him gladly and took him to India, whither he was then on his way. Having arrived at Goa, Angiro there became a Christian, taking the name of Paulo de Santa Fe [Paul of the Holy Faith], and in a short time learnt to read and write Portuguese, and mastered the whole Christian doctrine; so that the father only waited for the monsoon, to go to announce to the heathen of the isle of Japan, flirist r .the Son of the living God, nailed to the cross for our sins (as ho was accustomed to do), and to take this man with him as an interpreter, as he after- wards did, and his companion also, who, as well as himself, pro- fessed the Christian faith, and received from the father the nam of John." CHAPTER IV. BELIGIOUS FAITH THREE CENTURIES AGO. ZEAL OF THE PORTUGUESE CON- QUERORS. AXTOXIO GALVANO. MISSIONARY SEMINARIES AT TERNATB AND GOA. ORDER OF THE JESUITS. FRANCIS XAVIER. HIS MISSION TO INDIA. HIS MISSION TO JAPAN. HIS COMPANION, COSME DE TOR- KES. THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. A. D. 15421550. THREE centuries ago the religious faith of Europe was much more energetic and active than at present. With all imaginative minds, even those of the highest order, the popular belief had, at that time, all the force of undoubted reality. Michael Angelo and Raphael embodied it in marble and colors ; and it is difficult to say which impulse was the stronger with the Portuguese and Spanish adventurers of that age, the fierce thirst for gold and glory, which they felt as we feel it now, or a passionate desire for the prop- agation of their religious faith, such indeed as is still talked about, and feebly exhibited in action, but in which the great bulk of the community, especially the more cultivated part of it, takes at present either no interest, or a very slight one. The Portuguese adventurers in the East, wherever they went, were accompanied by friars, mostly Franciscans, and the building' of magnificent churches was one of the first things attended to. Of all these adventurers, few, if indeed a single one, have left so respectable a character as Antonio Galvano, already mentioned, governor of the Moluccas from 1536 to 1540, which islands, from a state of violent hostility to the Portuguese, and rebellion against them, he brought back to quiet and willing submission. Not less distinguished for piety than for valor and disinterestedness, Galvano made every effort to diffuse among the natives of the oriental archipelago a knowledge of the Catholic faith ; and with that view he established at Ternate, seat of the Portuguese government of the 4* 42 JAPAN. A. .>. 15421550. Moluccas, a seminary for the education of boys of superior abilities, to be collected from various nations, who, upon arriving at matu rity, might preach the gospel, each in his own country an institu tion which the Council of Trent not long after warmly approved. By the efforts of (jalvano and others, a similar seminary, some- times called Paul's, and sometimes Of the Holy Faith, had been erected at (aoa, lately made the seat of an Indian bishopric, and it was at this seminary, endowed and enriched by the spoils of many heathen temples, that the Japanese Angiro was placed bj Xavier tor his education. The names which he adopted at his baptism, Paul of the Holy Faith, were, as it thus appears, those of the seujinary at which he had been educated. But the efforts hitherto made in India on behalf of the Catholic faith, if earnest, had been desultory. The establishment of the order of Jesuits, in 1540, laid the foundation for a systematic attack upon the religious systems of the East, and an attempt at a spirit- ual revolution there, neither less vigorous nor less pertinacious than that which, for the forty years preceding, had been carried on by the new comers from the West against the political, commercial and social institutions of those countries. The leader in this enterprise was Francis Aspilcota, surnamed Xavier, one of the seven associates of whom the infant Society of Jesus, destined soon to become so powerful and so famous, origi-- nally consisted. He was born in 1 50G, in Navarre, at the foot of the Pyrenees, the youngest son of a noble and numerous family, of whom the younger members, and he among the rest, bore the surname of Xavier. Not inclining to the profession of amis, em- braced by the rest of the family, after preliminary studies at home, he went to Paris, and was first a student at the College of St. Burbe, and afterwards, at the age of twenty-two, professor of philosophy iu that of Beauvais. It was in this latter station that he first became acquainted with Ignatius Loyola, who, fifteen years older than Xavier, had come to Paris to pursue, as preparatory to a course of theology, those rudimentary studies which had not been thought necessary for the military destination of his earlier days. This remarkable Spaniard, whose military career had been cut short by a wound, which made him a cripple, had already been for years a religious devotee; and having been from his youth thoroughly SOCIETY OF JESUS. 43 impregnated with the current ideas of romantic chivalry, he was already turning in his mind the formation of a new monastic order, which should carry into religion the spirit of the romances. Xa vier, with whom he lived at Paris on intimate terras, they slept, indeed, in the same bed, was one of Loyola's first disciples ; and on the day of the Assumption, August 16, 1534, they two, with five others, of whom three or four were still students, in a subterranean chapel of the church of the abbey of Montmartre, united at a cele- bration of mass by Le Fevre, who was already a priest, and in the consecration of themselves by a solemn vow to religious duties. This rudimentary order included, along with Loyola and Xavier, three other Spaniards, Lainez, Salmaron, and Boabdilla, Rodriguez, a Portuguese, and Le Fevre, a -Savoyard, all afterwards distin- guished. A mission to Jerusalem, which Loyola had already visited, was at that time their leading idea. Loyola then returned home, the others remaining at Paris; but with an agreement to meet at Venice before the close of the year 1536, at which meeting three more were added to their number. A scheme of the order was subsequently drawn up, which, besides the vows of chastity and poverty, and of absolute bedience, as to God, to a general of the order, to be elected for life, included, instead of the mission to Jerusalem, which the war with the Turks made impracticable, a vow to go wherever the Pope might send them for the salvation of souls. To procure the sanc- tion of the Pope, Loyola, with Lainez and Le Fevre, spent several years at Rome. His scheme, having been referred to a commission, was approved by Paul III., by a bull, bearing date September 27th, 1640, in which the name of " Clerks of the Society of Jesus " was bestowed upon the order, which was limited, however, to sixty members. Loyola was elected, early in 1541, the first general ; and by a subsequent bull of Julian III., dated March 15, 1543, the so- ciety was allowed to increase its members indefinitely. Its object was the maintenance of the absolute authority of the church as personified in the Pope, not only by resisting the rebellion against it, then lately set on foot by Luther in Germany, but by extending the domination of the Pope into all parts of the world. To guard against the corruptions of preceding orders, the members were not to accept of any church preferment, except by the positive 44 JAPAN. A. D. 15121550. command of the Pope, nor of any foes for religious services ; nor could the houses of the professed and the coadjutors (the two hi"h- est ranks of the order) have any endowments, though the colleges and novitiates might. That which gave the Jesuits their first success was their introduc- tion of good works, acts of charity and humanity, a care for the salvation of others, as well as their own, into the first class of duties. Instead of being bound, like the other Catholic orders, to a peculiar garb and the stated repetition of formal prayers and ceremonies, they wore the ordinary clerical dress, and their time was to be divided between mental prayers and good works, of which the education of youth, the direction of consciences, and the com fort and care of the poor and sick, -were the principal. In this lat- ter service, novices, or probationers, who must be at least fourteen years of age, of sound body, of good abilities and fair character, were to be tried for two years. From the novitiate, after taking the vows, the neophytes passed into the colleges, to which also were attached schools for lay pupils. From the colleges they might be admitted coadjutors and professed, which latter class must have studied theology for four years. These two latter ranks were to live in professed houses, which, unlike the colleges and novitiates, could have no property, but must be supported by alms. The coiid- jutors were of two classes : those admitted to holy orders, from which class the rectors of the colleges were appointed ; and the lay coiidjutors, furnishing cooks, stewards, agents, and the businessmen generally of the society. The professed and the coiidjutors must renounce all claim to hereditary succession, not for themselves only, but for the society also. There were, however, a class of lay co- adjutors who simply took the vows, yet continued to enjoy their property and lived in the world. What added to the efficiency of the order was its strict military organization. It had nothing about it of the republican cast of the other Catholic orders, in which rotation in office occurred, chapters were frequent, and many points were decided by a majority of votes. The general of the Jesuits, chosen for life by a select con- gregation, had absolute authority, as had also, under him. each in nis sphere, the provincials, the vice-provincials, the superiors of professed houses, and the rectors of colleges, all of whom the MISSltN OF XAVIER TO THE EAST. 45 general might appoint and remove at pleasure. The general received monthly reports from the provincials and vice-provincials, quarterly ones from the superiors of professed houses, and rectors of colleges, and half-yearly ones from every professed member. Every member was bound to report to his immediate superior his own misconduct or that of any of his companions. John III., of Portugal, though very desirous of sending out a competent supply of spiritual laborers to his dominions in the East, could hardly find the means for it at home. There was but a single university that of Coimbra in all Portugal, and that not much frequented. John, it is true, had exerted himself in behalf of that institution, by inviting professors not only from Spain, but from Germany and Italy; but as yet the few Portuguese who devoted themselves to study sought their education, for the most part, at Complutum, or Salamanca, and some of them at Paris. In this dearth of Portuguese laborers, having heard some rumor of the new order of the Jesuits, John charged his ambassador at Home to request the founder, Ignatius, to send him for service in India not less than six members of it. Loyola, who had other schemes on foot, could spare only two, one of whom, Rodriguez, the original Portuguese of the order, remained behind in Portugal to organize the society there, where he established at Coimbra the first Jesuit college. The other was Xavier, to whom, as a test of his obedience though, the order being as yet not formally authorized, Loyola had no legal authority over him the command for his departure was communicated only the day beforehand, leaving him scarcely time, before setting out upon so distant a journey, to say farewell to his friends, and to get the rents mended in his tattered and thread-bare cloak. He was indeed able to get ready the easier not having, like our modern missionaries, the incumbrance or the comfort of a wife and children, and no baggage to impede hia movements, beyond his prayer-book and the clothes on his back. Arriving at Lisbon, he waited on the king, but immediately upon leaving the palace proceeded, as was his wont, to the pub- lic hospital, devoting all his time, till the ships were ready, to the care and consolation of the sick and dying. While here he received from the Pope the appoir tment of apostolic nuncio for India, with full powers. Of all the offers made to him of an outfit for the 46 JAPAN. A. D. 15421550. voyage he would for a long time accept of nothing ; but at last, lost he should seem too obstinate, he consented to receive some coarse cloaks, to be used in passing the Cape of Good Hope, one for himself, and one for each of the two companions who were to accompany him ; like- wise a few books, of which he understood there was a great scarcity in India. To the offer pressed upon him of the service of a boy to attend to his daily wants during the voyage, he replied, " While i have hands and feet of my own I shall need no servant." The matter being still urged, with the remark that it was unfitting for a man in his position to be openly seen among the crowd of sailors and passengers washing his clothes or cooking his daily food, " You see," he answered, " to what a pass this art of preserving one's dignity has brought the commonwealth of Christendom ! For my part, there is no office, however humble, which, provided there be no sin in it, I cannot upon occasion perform." This was a specimen of his whole conduct throughout the voyage, which com- menced April 7, 1541, giving rise to a remark of the captain of the fleet, that it was even harder to make Xavier accept anything than it was to get rid of other men's importunities. All this self-sacrifice, accompanied as it was by a most careful attention to the wants of others, was not without its reward. It gave Xavier not to mention his subsequent canonization an immense reputation with his fellow-voyagers, an 1 n irreat influence over them, which he did not fail to exercise. Already, amid all this early austerity, the principles of Jesuitism were fully devel- oped. Xavier addressed everybody, even the most notorious profli- gates, with mild familiarity, no severity in his face, no harshness in his words. lie even volunteered himself as a sociable co?npanion, and thus acquired an influence the greater because it was hardly per- ceived by those who submitted to it, so that he was generally said, by those who knew him best, to have accomplished much more by his familiar conversation than even by his public preaching, of the effects of which, however, very extraordinary stories were told. He arrived at Goa in May, 1542, and, taking lodgings at a hos- pital, entered at once with great zeal on the duties of his office as Pope's nuncio, provincial in India of the order of Jesuits, and apos- tolical missionary, professing, however, entire submission to the bishop of Goa. Passing through the streets, bell in hand, he called XAVIER'S MISSION THITHER 47 the children, women and servants, to be catechized, and, to help the memory and catch the ear, he put the catechism into rhyme. But it was not merely to the Christian population that he confined his labors. He had to encounter the scornful fanaticism of the Mahom- etans, who, setting out from Arabia, had preceded the Portuguese by centuries in commercial and military visits to the coasts of India and the eastern islands, and who had in many places largely diffused their religion. He had to meet the insolent bigotry of the twice-born Brahmins, who, through the system of castes, held society fast bound, helpless and stationary, in the fetters of an all-pervading superstition. Jewish scoffers were also to be met. In fact, all sects seemed to be brought together in southern India, including even an ancient form of Christianity, a remnant of the followers of Zoroaster, from Persia, and in Ceylon, Buddhists. After a year's stay at Goa, Xavier proceeded to the southern point of Hindostan, about Cape Comorin, the pearl-fishers of which region had, for the sake of Portuguese protection, professed the Christian religion, of which, however, they knew nothing but the name. Having preached for a year or more in this district, he passed to the neighboring terri- tories of the Coromandel coast, where there already existed the remains before referred to of an ancient Christianity, originally propagated, it seems probable, by Nestorian missionaries, of the fifth or sixth century, but which the Portuguese insisted upon ascribing to St. Thomas, the apostle, about whose life and labors in the East a whole volume of fables was, between them and the native Christians, speedily manufactured. Incapable of staying long in one place, from India Xavier soon pro- ceeded to Malacca, where he arrived towards the close of 1545, and whence the next spring he set out on a missionary journey through the Moluccas. It was on his return from this last expedition that he first met with the Japanese Angiro, at Malacca, as related, after Pinto, in the preceding chapter, with whom he arrived at Goa in March, 1548. The Japanese were placed, as has been men- tioned, in the seminary of St. Paul ; and so delighted was Xavier tvith their progress and fervor, as to resolve to undertake, after visiting his churches at Cape Comorin, a new mission to Japan. We have seen the account given by Pinto of the origin of the acquaintance between Xavier and Angiro. The biographers of the 48 JAPAX. A. D. 1542-1550. saint, and the Jesuit historians of the Japanese mission, embellish this story by the addition of several romantic particulars. Arigiro, they tell us, had long been troubled with remorse of conscience, for which he could find no remedy, and which he only aggravated in the attempt to cure it by retiring for a time to a Japanese monas- tery of bonzes. Having made the acquaintance of some of the earliest Portuguese adventurers to Japan, he consulted them as to this malady, one of whom, by name Alvares Yaz, having heard the fame of Xavier, strongly advised the inquiring Japanese to seek his assistance. Angiro was much inclined to do so ; but the danger and distance of the voyage deterred him, till, having killed a man in a rencontre, the fear of arrest drove him to embark on the first vessel he could find, which happened to be a Portuguese ship bound for Malacca, and commanded by George Alvarez, a. great admirer of Xavicr's. The good example and edifying dis- course of this pious sea-captain brought Angiro to the determina- tion to become a Catholic; but being disappointed in finding Xavier as he had expected, or, according to other accounts, being refused baptism by the vicar of the bishop of Goa resident at Malacca, he thought no more but of returning home again, and with that object, not meeting with any ship bound direct for Japan, he cm- barked for Chinchco, in China. Thence he sailed for home; but a terrible storm drove him back to the port he had left, reviving also his almost forgotten resolution to become a Catholic, in which he was the more confirmed by happening to find in the harbor his old Portuguese friend, Alvares Vaz, in command of a ship on her way back to India. Yielding to the persuasions of this old friend, Angiro sailed in his ship for Malacca ; and, on landing there, tho very first person whom he met was George Alvarez, who immediately took him to Xavier. These accounts also give him two Ja panes" servants, both of whom arc stated to have accompanied him to (ioa, and to have been baptized, one by the name of John, the other ly that of Anthony. And this last part of the story is confirmed by a letter of Xavicr's, dated July, 1540, and written from Malacca on his way to Japan, in which letter he gives an interesting, and at the same time characteristic, account of his converts, very much in substance, and even in expression, like what we may read in tha very latest missionary reports. P/UL OF THE HOLY FAITH. 49 " No sooner," he writes, " had they been cleansed by the waters of baptism, than the divine goodness shed upon them such delight, and brought them to such a sense of God's beneficence towards them, that through pious and spiritual joy they melted into tears. In all the virtues they made such a progress as to afford us a pleasant and useful subject of conversation. They also learnt to read and write, and diligently attended at the appointed seasons of prayer. When inquired of by me what subject of contemplation affected them most, they answered, the sufferings of our Lord ; and, therefore, to this contemplation they chiefly applied themselves. They studied also the articles of faith, the means of redemption, and the other Christian mysteries. To my frequent inquiries what religious rites they found profited them the most, they always an- swered, confession and communion ; adding, also, that they did not see how any reasonable- man could hesitate to assent to and obey the requirements of Christian discipline. Paul of the Holy Faith, one of the number, I once heard bursting out, with sighs, into these exclamations : ' 0, miserable Japanese ! who adore as deities the very things which God has made for your service ! ' And when I asked him to what he referred, he answered, ' Because they worship the sun and the moon, things made to serve those who know the Lord Jesus ; for to what other end are they made, except to illu- minate both day and night, in order that men may employ that light in the worship and to the glory of God and his Son ? ' ' He mentions, in the same letter, that the voyage to Japan was so dangerous, that not more than two vessels out of three were expected to arrive there in safety. He even seems to have had seme temp- tations to abandon the enterprise ; but in spite of numerous obstacles put in his way, as he will have it, by the great adversary of man- kind, he determined to persevere, especially as letters from Japan gave encouraging information of the desire there for Christian in- struction, on the part of a prince of the country who had been much impressed by the efficacy of the sign of the cross, as employed by certain Portuguese merchants, in driving the evil spirits from a haunted house. Another letter of Xavier's, written from Cangoxima, in Japan, and dated in November, 1549, about three months after his arrival, gives an account of his voyage thither. 5 50 JAPAN. A. D. 15421550. Taking with him the three Japanese, Cosme de Torres, a priest, and Jean Fernandes, a brother of the society, of which, besides several who had joined it in India, some ten or twelve members had followed Xavier from Portugal, and had been distributed in vari- ous services, he sailed in the ship of a Chinese merchant, who had agreed with the Portuguese commander at Malacca to carry him to Japan. As Pinto tells the story, this merchant was a corsair, and so notorious a one as to go by the name of the Robber. Xavier says nothing of that, but complains of the levity and vacil- lation natural to barbarians, which made the captain linger at the islands where he touched, at the risk of losing the monsoon and being obliged to winter in China. Xavier was also greatly shocked at the assiduous worship paid by the mariners to an idol which they had on board, and before which they burnt candles and odoriferous wood, seeking oracles from it as to the result of the voyage. " What were our feelings, and what we suffered, you can well imagine," he exclaims, " at the thought that this demon should be consulted as to the whole course of our journey ! " After touching at Canton, the Chinese captain, instead of sailing thence to Japan, as he had promised, followed the coast north toward Chincheo ; but hearing, when he approached that port, that it was blockaded by a corsair, he put off in self-defence for Japan, and arrived safe in the port of Cangoxima. Angiro, or Paul as he was now called, was well received by his relations, and forty days were spent by Xavier in laborious appli- cation to the rudiments of the language, and by Paul in translating into Japanese the ten commandments, and other parts of the Chris- tian faith, which Xavier determined, so he writes, to have printed as soon as possible, especially as most of the Japanese could read. Angiro also devoted himself to exhortations and arguments among his relations and friends, and soon made converts of his wife and daughter, and many besides, of both sexes. An interview was had with the king of Satsuma, in which province Cangoxima was situated, and he presently issued an edict allowing his subjects to embrace the new faith. This, beginning seemed promising ; but Xavier already anticipated a violent opposition so soon as his object came to be fully understood. He drew consolation, how ever, from the spiritual benefits enjoyed by himself, " since in these COSMK 1E TORRES. 5i remote regions," so he wrote, " amid the impious worshippers of demons, so very far removed from almost every mortal aid and con solation, we almost of necessity, as it were, forget and lose ourselves in God, which hardly can happen in a Christian land, where the love of parents and country, intimacies, friendships and affinities, and helps at hand both for body and mind, intervene, as it were, be- tween man and God, to the forgetfulness of the latter." And what tended to confirm this spiritual state of mind was the entire free- dom in -Japan " from those delights which elsewhere stimulate the flesh and break down the strength of mind and body. The Japan- ese," he wrote, " rear no animals for food. Sometimes they ea* fish ; they have a moderate supply of rice and wheat ; but they live, for the most part, on vegetables and fruits ; and yet they attain to such a good old age, as clearly to show how little nature, else- where so insatiable, really demands." Angiro himself wrote at the same time a short letter to the brethren at Goa, but it adds nothing to the information contained in Xavier's. The following account, which Cosme de Torres,* a Spaniard by birth, Xavier's principal assistant, and his successor at the head of the mission, gives of himself in a letter written from Goa to the Society in Europe, just before setting out, shows, like other cases to be mentioned hereafter, that it was by no means merely from the class of students that the' order of the Jesuits was at its commence- ment recruited. Though always inclined, so Cosme writes, to religion, yet many things and various desires for a long time distracted him. In the year 1538, in search he knew not of what, he sailed from Spain to the Canaries, whence he visited the West Indies and the continent of New Spain, where he passed four years in the greatest abun- dance, and satiety even, of this world's goods. But desiring some- thing greater and more solid, in 1542 he embarked on board a fleet of six ships, fitted out by Mendosa, the viceroy of New Spain, to explore and occupy the islands of the Pacific, discovered by Magel- lan in 1521. Standing westward, on the fifty-fifth day they fell in, so Cosme writes, with a numerous cluster of very small, lo\v islands, of which the inhabitants lived on fish and the leaves of * In the Latin version of the Jesuit letters he is called Cosmus Turrianus. &2 JAPAN. A. D. 15421550. trees. Ten days after, they saw a beautiful island, covered with palms, but the wind prevented their landing. In another ten o t twelve days, the ships reached the great island of Mindanao, two hundred leagues in circumference, but with few inhabitants. Sail- ing thence to the south they discovered a .small island abounding in meat and rice ; but having, during half a year's residence, lost fou> hundred men in contests with the natives, who used poisoned arrows, they sailed to the Moluccas, where they remained about two years, till it was finally resolved, not having the means to get back to New Spain, to apply to the Portuguese governor to forward them to Goa. At Amboina, Cosmo met with Xavier, whose conversa- tion revived his religious inclinations; and, proceeding to Goa, he was ordained a priest by the bishop there, who placed him in charge of a cure. But he found no peace of mind till he betook himself to the college of St. Paul (which seems by this time to have passed into the hands of the Jesuits), being the more confirmed in his res- olution to join the order, by the return of Xavier to Goa, whose invitation to accompany him to Japan he joyfully accepted, and where he continued for twenty years to labor as a missionary. Cosmo, in his letter above quoted, says nothing of any hostile collision of the Spanish ships, in which he reached the East, with the Portuguese; but it appears, from Galvano's account of this expedition, that such collision did take place. He also gives, as the reason why the Spaniards did not land on Mindanao, the oppo- sition they experienced from some of the princes of it, who, by his own recent efforts, had been converted to Catholicism ; and who, having given their obedience to him, would by no means incur his dis- pleasure by entertaining these interloping Spaniards. One of the Spanish ships was sent back to New Spain with news of their success thus far. This ship passed among the northern islands of the group, which seem now first to have received the name of the Philippines. Another fleet sailed from Seville, in the year 1544, to cooperate with Ilui Lopes ; but none of the ships succeeded in paasing the Straits of Magellan, except one small bark, which ran up the coast to Peru. The Spaniards made no further attempts in the East till the expiration often years or more, when the Philip- pines were finally colonized an event not without its influence upon the affairs of Japan. CHAPTER V. POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF JAPAN, A3 FOUND BY THE PORTU GUESE. THE JACATAS, OR KINGS, AND THEIR VASSALS. REVENUES. MONEY. DISTINCTION OF HANKS. THE KUBO-SAMA. THE DAIRI. SINTO. BUDDHISM. 81UTO. A. D. 1550. JAPAN, as found by the Poiluguese, embraced three large islands, besides icany smaller ones. XIMO (or KIUSIU), the most southern and western of the group, and the one with which the Portuguese first became acquainted, is separated at the north, by a narrow strait, from the much larger island of NIPON, forming with its western portion a right angle, within which the third and much smaller island of SIKOKF is included. These islands were found to be divided into sixty-six separate governments, or king- doms, of which Nipon contained fifty-three, Ximo (or Kiusiu) nine, and Sikokf four the numerous smaller islands being reckoned as appurtenant to one or another of the three larger ones. These kingdoms, grouped into eight, or rather nine, larger divisions, and subdivided into principalities, of which, in all, there were not less than six hundred, had originally (at least such was the Japanese tradition) been provinces of a consol- idated empire ; but by degrees and by dint of civil wars, by which the islands had been, and still were, very much distracted, they had reached, at the period of the Portuguese discovery, a state of almost complete independence. Indeed, several of the kingdoms, like that of Fiyen, in the west part of Ximo, had still further disintegrated into independent principalities. It still frequently happened, however, that several provinces were united under one ruler ; and such was especially the case with live central provinces of Nipon, including the great cities of Miako, Ozaka, and Sakai, which five provinces formed the patrimony of a 5* 54 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. prince who bore the title of Kubo-Sama Sama meaning lord, and Kubo general or commander. This title the Portuguese ren- dered into Emperor, and it was almost precisely equivalent to the original sense of the Imperator of the Romans, though still more exactly corresponding to Cromwell's title of Lord-yeneral. This Kubo-Sama, or Siogun, as he was otherwise called, waa acknowledged by all the other princes as in some respect their supe- rior and head. The other rulers of provinces bore the title of Souyo or Jacata, which the Portuguese rendered by the term Kiny. Reserving to themselves, as their personal domain, a good half of the whole extent of their territories, these chiefs divided the rest among certain great vassals, called Tono, Co?iisu, or Kounidaimio. who were bound to military service in proportion to the extent of the lands which they held ; which lands, after reserving a portion for their private domain, these nobles distributed in their turn to other inferior lords, called Joriki, who held of them upon similai conditions of military service, and who had still beneath them, upon the same footing, a class of military vassals and tenants, called Dosiu. and corresponding to the men-at-arms of the feudal times of Europe. The actual cultivators of the lands as had also been. and still to a considerable extent was, the case in feudal Europe were in the condition of serfs. Thus it happened, that, as in feudal Europe, so in Japan, great armies might be very suddenly raised ; and war being the chief employment of the superior classes, and the only occupation, that of the priesthood excepted, esteemed honorable, the whole country was in a constant state of turbulence and commotion. All the classes above enumerated, except the last, enjoyed tlv3 highly-prized honor of wearing two swords. One sword was worn by certain inferior officials ; but merchants, traders and artisans were confounded, as to this matter, with the peasants, not being per- mitted to wear any. The revenue of the princes and other proprie- tors was, and still is, reckoned in koku or kokf of rice, each of three sacks, or bales, each bale containing (according to Titsingh) thirty-three and one third gantings the universal Japanese mcas ure for all articles, liquid or dry and weighing from eighty-two to eighty-three katties, or somewhat more than a hundred of our REVENUES AND MONET. 53 pounds * Ten thousand kokf make a man-kokf, in which the rev- enues c f the great princes are reckoned. The distinction of rank was very strictly observed, being even ingrained into the language.! Inferiors being seated on their heels, according to the Japanese fashion, testified their respect for their superiors by laying tho palms of their hands on the floor, and bending their bodies so .low that their foreheads almost touched the ground, in which position they remained for some seconds. This is called the kitu. The superior responded by laying the palms of his hands upon his knees, and nodding or bowing, more or less low, according to the rank of the other party. As to everything that required powers of analysis, or the capacity of taking general views, the Portuguese missionaries were but poor observers ; yet they could not but perceive in the Dairi the surviv-- jng shadow, and indeed, in the earlier days of the missions, some- * It appears from Golownin that there are also smaller packages, of which three m.-ike the large one. The price of rice varied, of course ; but Kampfer gives five or sir taels of silver as the average value of the kokf. Titsingh represents the kokf as corresponding to the gold kobany, the national coin of the Japanese. The original kobatig weighed forty-seven konderiiis, or rather more than our eagle ; but, till the year 1672, it passed in Japan as equivalent to about six taels of silver. The present kobang contains only half as much gold ; and yet, as compared with silver, is rated still higher. The kobang is figured by llampfer as an oblong coin rounded at the ends, the surface, on one hide, marked with four rows of indented lines, and bearing at each end the arms or symbol of the Dairi, and between them a mark allowing the value, and the signature of the master of the mint. The other side was smooth, and had only the stamp of the inspector -general of gold and silver money. Kiimpfer also figures the obani, which even in his time had be- come very rare, similar to the kobang, but of ten times the weight and value. A third gold coin was the itsibo, figured by Kampfer as an oblong square. According to Thunburg, it was of the value of a quarter of the kobang. S.lver passed by weight. The Japanese do not appear to have had any silver coins, unless lumps of irregular shape and weight, but bearing certain marks and stamps, were to be so considered. In ordinary retail transactions copper seni, or 7ms, as the Chinese name was, were employed. They were round, with a square hole in the middle, by which they were strung. Somt were of doubla size and value, and some of iron. For further information on the Japanesa monetary system, and on the present state and value of the Japanese cin-.u- ,ting medium, see chapters xxv., xxxix., and xi/"i. t See Appendix, note A 56 JAPAN. A. D. 1281 1350. thing more than a mere shadow, of a still more ancient form of gov- ernment, in which the civil and ecclesiastical authority had both been united under OTIC head. The Dairi,* Vo, or Mikado, as he was otherwise designated, had for his residence the north-east quarter of Miako (a great city, not far from the centre of Nipon, but nearest the southern shore). This quarter was of vast extent, surrounded by a wall, with a ditch and rampart, by which it was separated from the rest of the city. In the midst of this fortified place, in a vast palace, easily distinguished from a distance by the height of its tower, the Dairi dwelt, with his empress or chief wife ; his other eleven wives had adjoining palaces in a cir- cle around, outside of which were the dwellings of his chamberlains and other officers. These Dairi claimed to be descended from Sy?i- Mu, who, it was said, had, A. c. GOO, introduced civilization into Japan, and first established a regular government, and commencing with whom, the Japanese annals show a regular series of Dairi, who are represented as having been for many ages the sole lords and imperial rulers of Japan, till, at length, they had been insensi- bly set aside, as to the actual exercise of authority, by the Cubo- Sama, or commanders of the armies. Yet these gradually eclipsed and finally superseded emperors equivalents of the " idle kings " of the Carlovingian race of France, or to the present nominal sovereign of the British empire were, and still are, treated (as Queen Victoria is) with all the ceremonial of sub- stantial power, and even with the respect and reverence due to the spiritual head of the national church, descended from a race of divinities, and destined at death to pass by a regular apotheosis into the list of the national gods. All the revenue drawn from the city of Miako and its dependen- cies was appropriated to their support, to which the Kubo-Sama added a further sum from his treasury. He himself treated the Dairi with as much ceremonious respect and semi-worship as the British prime minister bestows upon the British queen. He paid an annual visit to the court of the Dairi in great state, and with all the carriage of an inferior ; but took care to maintain a garri- * Dairi, in its original sense, is said, by Rodriguez, in his Japanese gram- mar, to signify rather the court than the person of the theocratic chief to whom it is applied ; and so of most of the titles mentioned in the text THE DAIRI AND HIS COURT. 57 BOD at Miako, or its neighborhood, sufficient to repress any attempt on the part of the Dairi or his partisans to reestablish the old order of things, an idea which, when the islands first became known to the Portuguese, seems not yet to have been entirely abandoned. We may trace a still further resemblance between the position of the Dairi of Japan and the Queen of England, in the circumstance that all public acts are dated by the years of his reign, and that all titles of honor nominally emanate from him, though of course obliged, as to this matter, to follow the suggestions of the Kubo- Sama. Even the Kubo-Sama himself condescends, like a British prime minister, to accept such decorations at the hands of the Dairi, affecting to feel extremely honored and flattered ^at titles which had been, in fact, dictated by himself. The whole court of the Dairi, and all the inhabitants of the quar- ter of Miako in which he dwelt, consisted of persons who plumed themselves upon the idea of being, like the Dairi himself, descended from Tensio Dai-Dsin, the first of the demigods, and who in consequence looked down, like the Indian Brahmins, upon all the rest of the nation as an inferior race, distinguishing themselves as Kuge, and all the rest of the nation as Geye. These Kuge, who may be conjectured to have once formed a class resembling the old Roman patricians, all wore a particular dress, by which was indi- cated, qflt only their character as members of that order, but, by the length of their sashes, the particular rank which they held in it ; a distinction the more necessary, since, as generally happens with these aristocracies of birth, many of the members were in a state of poverty, and obliged to support themselves by various handicrafts.* Of the magnificence of the court of the Dairi, and of the ceremo- nials of it, the missionaries reported many stories, chiefly, of course, on the credit of hearsay. It was said that the Dairi was never allowed to breathe the common air, nor his foot to touch the ground ; that he never wore the same garment twice, nor eat a * According to Rodriguez, there had been also an ancient military nobil- ity, called buke ; but in the course of the civil wars many families of it had become extinct, "while other humble families, who had risen by way of arms, mostly formed the existing nobility. t>8 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. second time from the same dishes, which, after each meal, were carefully broken, for, should any other person attempt to dine from them, he would infallibly perish by an inflammation of the throat. Nor could any one who attempted to wear the Dairi's ca^t- off garments, without his permission, escape a similar punishment. The Dairi, as we are told, was, in ancient times, obliged to seat himself every morning on his throne, with the crown on his head, and there to hold himself immovable for several hours like a statue. This immobility, it was imagined, was an augury of the tranquillity of the empire ; and if he happened to move ever so little, or even to turn his eyes, war, famine, fire, or pestilence, was expected soon to afflict the unhappy province toward which he had squinted. But as the country was thus kept in a state of perpetual agitation, the happy substitute was finally hit upon of placing the crown upon the throne without the Dairi a more fixed immobility being thus assured ; and, as Kiimpfer dryly observes, one doubtless producing much the same good effects. At the time of the arrival of Xavier in Japan the throne of the Dairi was filled by Gonara, the hundred and sixth, according to the Japanese chronicles, in the order of succession ; while the throne of the Kubo-Sama was occupied by Josi Far, who was succeeded, the next year, by his son, Josi Tir, the twenty-fourth of these officers, according to the Japanese, since their assumption of sovereign power in the person of Joritomo, A. D. 1185. The Japanese Annals, which are 'scarcely more than a .chronologi- cal table of successions, cast little light upon the causes and progress of this revolution ; * but, from the analogy of similar cases, we may conjecture that it was occasioned, at least in part, by the introduction into Japan, and-the spread there, of a new religion, gradually super- * According to the Japanese historical legends, the office of Cubo-Sama, originally limited to the infliction of punishments and the suppression of crimes, was shared, for many ages, between the two families of Ghenji and Feiji, till about 1180, when a civil war broke out between these families, and, the hitter, having triumphed, assumed such power that the Dairi commis- sioned Joritomo, a member of the defeated family of Ghenji, to inflict punish- ment upon him. Joritomo renewed the war, killed Feiji, and was himself appointed Kubo-Sama, but ended with usurping a greater power than any of his predecessors. RELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF SINTO. geding, to a great extent, the old system, of which the Dairi was the. head. One might kave expected from the Portuguese missionaries a pretty exact account of the various creeds and sects of Japan, or, at least, of the two leading religions, between which the great bulk of the people were divided; instead of which they confound perpetually the ministers of the two religions under the common name of bonzes, taking very little pains to distinguish between two systems both of- which they regarded as equally false and pernicious. Their attention, indeed, seems to have been principally fixed on the new religion, that of Buddha, or Fo, of which the adherents were by far the most numerous, and the hierarchy the most compact and for midable, presenting, in its organization and practices (with, however, on some points a very different set of doctrines), a most singular counterpart to the Catholic church, a similarity which the mis- sionaries could only explain by the theory of a diabolical imitation ; and which some subsequent Catholic writers have been inclined to ascribe, upon very unsatisfactory grounds, to the ancient labors of Armenian and Nestorian missionaries, being extremely unwilling to admit what seems, however, very probable, if not, indeed, certain, little attention has as yet been given to this interesting inquiry, that some leading ideas of the Catholic church have been derived from Buddhist sources, whose missionaries, while penetrating, as we know they did, to the East, and converting entire nations, may well be supposed not to have been without their influence aigo on the West. Notwithstanding, however, the general prftvaleaee, at the time when Japan first became known to Europeans, oft the doctrine of Buddha, of which there would seem to have been quite a number of distinct observances, not unlike the different orders of monks and friars in the Catholic church, it appears, as well from the memoirs of the Jesuit missionaries, as from more exact and subsequent ob- servations made by residents in the Dutch service, that there also existed another and more ancient religious system, with which the person and authority of the Dairi had been and still were closely identified. This system was known as the religion of Sinto, or of the Kami a name given not only to the seven mythological per- sonages, or celestial gods, who compose the first Japanese dynasty, and to the five demigods, or terrestrial gods, who compose the second 60 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. (two dynasties which, as in the similar mythology of the Egyptians and Hindoos, were imagined to have extended through immense and incomprehensible ages preceding the era of Syn-Hu), but in- cluding also the whole series of the Dairi, who traced their descent from the first of the demigods, and who, though regarded during their lives as mere men, yet at their deaths underwent, as in the case of the Roman Caesars, a regular apotheosis, by which they were added to the number of the Kami, or Sin, words both of which had the same signification, namely, inhabitants of heaven.* A like apotheosis was also extended to all who had seemed to deserve it by their sanctity, their miracles, or their great bene- factions. The Kami of the first dynasty, the seven superior gods, being regarded as too elevated above the earth to concern themselves in what is passing on it, the chief object of the worship of the adhe- rents of this ancient system was the goddess Tensio Dai-Dsin, already mentioned as the first of the demigods, and the supposed progenitor of the Dairi, and of the whole order of the Kuge. Of this Tensio Dai-Dsin, and of h,er heroic and miraculous deeds, a vast many fables were in circulation. Even those who had quitted the ancient religion to embrace the new sects paid a sort of wor- ship to the pretended mother of the Japanese nation ; and there was not a considerable city in the empire in which there was not a temple to her honor. On the other hand, the religion of the Kami, by its doctrine of the apotheosis of all great saints and great heroes, gave, like the old pagan religions, a hospitable recep- tion to all new gods, so that even the rival demigod, Buddha, came to be regarded by many as identical with Tensio Dai-D.sin, a circumstance which will serve to explain the great intermixture of religious ideas found in Japan, and the alleged fact, very remark- able, if true, that, till after the arrival of the Portuguese missiona- ries, religious persecution had never been known there. Each of these numerous demigods was supposed by the adherents of the religion of Sinto to preside over a special paradise of his * The word Kami is also doubly used as a title of honor conferred with the sanction of the Dairi, somewhat equivalent, says Kampfer, in one case, to the European title of chevalier, and in the other, to that of count. Golow- nin insists that it implies something spiritual. BELIGIOUS SYSTEM OF SINTO. 61 own ; this one in the air, that one at the bottom of the sea, one in the moon and another in the sun, and so on ; and each devotee, choosing his god according to the paradise that pleased him best, spared no pains to gain admission into it. For what St. Paul had said of the Athenians, might, according to the missionaries, be applied with equal truth to the Japanese they were excessively superstitious, and this superstition had so multiplied temples, that there was scarcely a city in which, counting all the smaller chapels, the number did not seem at least equal to that of the most pious Catholic countries. The temples of the Sinto religion, called Mias, were and still are for in this respect no change has taken place ordinarily built upon eminences, in retired spots, at a distance from bustle and busi ness, surrounded by groves and approached by a grand avenue hav- ing a gate of stone or wood, and bearing a tablet or door-plate, of a foot and a half square, which announces, in gilded letters, the name of the Kami to whom the temple is consecrated. These exte- rior appendages would seem to foretell a considerable structure ; but within there is usually found only a wretched little building of wood, half hid among trees and shrubbery, about eighteen feet in length, breadth and height, all its dimensions being equal, and with only a single grated window, through which the interior may be seen empty, or containing merely a mirror of polished metal, set in a frame of braided straw, or hung about with fringes of white paper. Just within the entrance of the enclosure stands a basin of water, by washing in which the worshippers may purify themselves. Beside the temple is a great chest for the reception of alms, part- ly by which, and partly by an allowance from the Dairi, the guard- ians of the temples are supported, while at the gate hangs a gong, on which the visitant announces his arrival. Most of these temples have also an antechamber, in which sit those who have the charge, clothed in rich garments. There are commonly also in the enclos ure a number of little chapels, or miniature temples, portable so as to be carried in religious processions. All of these temples art built after one model, the famous one of Isje, near the centre oi the island of Nipon, and which within the enclosure is equally humble with all the rest. The worship consists in prayers and prostrations. Works oi fi 62 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. religious merit arc, casting a contribution into the alms-chest, and avoiding or expiating the impurities supposed to be the consequence of being touched by blood, of eating of the flesh of any quadruped except the deer, and to a less extent even that of any bird, of kill- ing any animal, of coining in contact with a dead person, or even, among the more scrupulous, of seeing, hearing of, or speaking of any such impurities. To these may be added, as works of religious merit, the celebration of festivals, of which there are two principal ones in each month, being the first and fifteenth day of it, besides five greater ones distributed through the year, and lasting some of them for several days, in which concerts, s'peotacles and theatrical exhibitions, form a leading part. We must add the going on pilgrimages, to which, indeed, all the religious of Japan are greatly addicted. The pilgrimage esteemed by the adherents of Sinto as the most meritorious, and which all are bound to make once a year, or, at least, once in their life, is that of Lye, or Leo, the name of a central province on the south coast of Nipon, in which Tcnsio Dai-Dsin was reported to have been born and to have died, and which contains a Mia exceedingly venerated, and already mentioned as the model after which all the others are built. Though it is not at all easy -to distinguish what, either of cere- mony or doctrine, was peculiar or original in the system of Sinto,*- * The following system of Japanese cosmogony is given by Klaproth ; as contained in an imperfect volume of Chinese and Japanese chronology, printed in Japan, in Chinese characters, without date, but which for more than a hundred years past has been in the Royal Library of Paris : "At first the heaven and the earth were not separated, the perfect principle and the imperfect principle were not disjoined ; chaos, under the form of an egg, contained the breatli [of life], self-produced, including the germs of all things. Then what was pure and perfect ascended upwards, and formed the heavens (or sky), while what was dense and impure coagulated, was precipitated, and produced the earth. The pure and excellent principles formed whatever is light, whilst whatever was dense and impure descended by its own gravity ; consequently the sky was formed prior to the earth. After their completion, a divine being (Kami) was born in the midst of them. Hence, it has been said, that at the reduction of chaos, nn island of soft earth emerged, as a fish swims upon the water. At this period a thing re-'embling a shoot of the plant assi \_Eryanlhvs Japonicus'] was produced between the heavens and the earth. This shoot was metamorphosed BUDDHISM. 63 yet in general that system seems to have been much less austere than the rival doctrine of Buddha, which teaches that sorrow is in- separable from existence, the only escape from it being in annihi- lation. The adherents of Sinto were, on the other hand, much more disposed to look upon the bright side of things, turning their relig- ious festivals into holidays, and regarding people in sorrow and distress as unfit for the worship of the gods, whose felicity ought not to be disturbed by the sight of pain and misery. And this, perhaps, was one of the causes that enabled the religion of Buddha, which addresses itself more to the sorrowing hearts of which the world is so full, to obtain that predominancy of which the Portu- guese missionaries found it in possession. Of this religion of Buddha, by no means peculiar to Japan, but prevailing through the whole of central and south-eastern Asia, and having probably more adherents than any other religious creed, it is not necessary here to speak at any length. A much more cor- rect idea of it is to be obtained from the recorded observations of our modern missionaries, and from the elaborate investigations of Abel Remusat, and several other learned orientalists, who have shed a flood of light upon this interesting subject, than can be gathered from the letters of the Portuguese missionaries, whose comprehen- sion of the Buddhist doctrine was, on many important points, espe- cially as to the cardinal one of annihilation, exceedingly confused, contradictory and erroneous ; and, indeed, the same confusion and error exists in almost all European travellers in the East, down to a very recent period. Suffice it to say, that in the austerities and contempt for the world and its pleasures, practised and professed by the bonzes of the Buddhists, even Xavier and his brother Jesuits found their match ; while, in the hierarchy into which those bonzes were arranged; the foreign language, imperfectly known even to themselves, of their sacred books and their liturgy, and which recent investigations have detected to be, with the bonzes of China and Japan, not Pali, alone but also pure Sanscrit ; their doctrine of celibacy ; the establishment of monasteries and nunneries ; their and became the god [first of the seven superior gods] who bears the hono- rific title of Kami toko kontsi-no mikoto, that is to say, the venerable one who constantly supports the empire." 64 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. orders of bogging devotees ; their extfrior of purity and self-denial, but supposed secret licentiousness;* their fists; their garbs; the tinkling of tails ; the sign of the cross ; the rosaries on which they counted their prayers ; the large number of persons of noble birth who entered upon the elerieal life; their manner of preaching; their religious processions; their pilgrimages; the size, .splendor and magnificence, of their temples known as Tiras, the roofs supported by tall pillars of cedar ; the altar within, and the lamps and in- cense burning there ; the right of asylum possessed by the Tiras ; and even the practice of confession, prayers for the dead, and the sale of merit; in all these respects, this system presented a com- plete counterpart at least to the show and forms and prie.-tly devices of that very scheme of Roman Catholic worship which Xavier and his brother missionaries sought to introduce into Japan. The only striking difference was in the images, often of gigantic size, to be found in the Tiras, but which, after all, were no more than a set-off against the pictures of the Catholic churches. At the head of the Buddhist hierarchy was a high priest called Xako, resident at Miako, and having much the same spiritual pre- rogative with the Pope of Rome, including the canonization of saints. With him rested the consecration of the Tundies, corresponding to the bishop?, or rather to the abbots of the Catholic church all the Buddhist clergy being, in the language of Rome, regulars (similar, that is, to the monks and friars), and living together in monasteries of which the Tundies were the heads. These Tundies, however, could not enter upon their offices, to which great revenues were attached, except by the consent of the temporal authorities, which took care to limit the interference of the Xako and the Tundies strictly to spiritual matters.! * In reading the accounts of tlic bonzes, anl of the delusions which they practised on the people, contained in the letters of the Catholic missionaries, and the denunciations levelled against them in consequence, in those letters, one might almost suppose himself to be reading a Protestant sermon against Popery, or an indignant leader ngainst the pujiists in nn evangelical news- paper. The missionaries found, however, at least they say so, among other theological absurdities maintained by the bonzes, a iiuiiiber of the " damnable Lutheran tenets." t Buddha, or the sage (which tho Chinese, by the metamorphosis made by their pronunciation of moat foreign proper names, have changed first into BUDDHISM. 65 There was this further resemblance also to the regular orders of the Romish church, that the Buddhist clergy were divided into a number of observances, hardly less hostile to each other than the Dominicans to the Franciscans, or both to the Jesuits. But as the church and state were kept in Japan perfectly distinct as now in the United States and as the bonzes possessed no direct tempo- ral power, there was no appeal to the secular arm, no civil punish- ments for heresy, and no religious vows perpetually binding, all Fuh-hi, and then into Fuh, or Fo), is not the personal name of the great saint, the first pi'eacher of the religion of the Buddhists, but a title of honor given to him after he had obtained to eminent sanctity. According to the concurrent traditions of the Buddhists in various parts of Asia, he was the son of a king of central India, Suddhu-dana, meaning in Sanscrit pure- eating king, or eater of pure food, which the Chinese have translated into their language by Zung-fung-wang. His original name was Leh-ta ; after he became a priest, he was called Sakia-mouni , that is, devotee of the race of Sakia, whence the appellation SIAKA, by which he is commonly known in Japan, and also the name Xako applied to the patriarch, or head of the Buddhist church. Another Sanscrit patronymic of Buddha is Gautuma, which in different Buddhist nations has, in conjunction with other epithets applied to him, been variously changed and corrupted. Thus among the Siamese he is called Summana-kodom. The Buddhist mythology, includes several Buddhas who preceded Sakia- mouni, and the first of v;\iom,Jldi-Budilha, or the first Buddha, was when nothing else was, being in fact the primal deity, and origin of all things. It seems to be this first Buddha who is worshipped in Japan under the name of AMIDA, and whose priests form the most numerous and influential of th$ Buddhist orders. Siebold seems inclined to regard them as pure monotheists. The birth of Siaka is fixed by the Japanese annalists, or at least by the book of chronology quoted in a previous note, in the twenty-sixth year of the emperor Chaou-wang, of the Chinese Chew Dynasty, B. c. 1027. B. c. 1006, he fled ft-orn his father's house to become a priest; B. c. 998 he reached the highest step of philosophical knowledge ; B. c. 949, being seventy-nine years of age, he entered into Nirvana, that is, died. He was succeeded by a regular succession of Buddhist patriarchs, of whom twenty-eight were na- tives of Hindustan. The twenty-eighth emigrated to China, A. D. 490, where he had five Chinese successors. Under the second of these, A. D. 552, Buddh- ism was introduced into Japan. A. D. 713, the sixth and the last Chi- nese patriarch died, since which the Chinese Buddhists, and those who have received the religion from them, seem not to have acknowledged any general head, but only a local head in each country. 6* 66 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. being at lil>erty, so far as the civil law was concerned, to enter 01 leave the monasteries at pleasure. It was also another result of this separation of state and church as here in the United States that there was only needed a Jo Smith, a man hardy or self-deceived enough to pretend to inspiration, to set up a new observance ; an occurrence by which the theology of Japan had become from time to time more and more diversified. There were also, besides the more regular clergy, enthusiasts, or impostors, religious vagabonds who lived by beggary, and by pre- tending to drive away evil spirits, to find things lost, to discover rob- bers, to determine guilt or innocence of accused parties, to interpret dreams, to predict the future, to cure desperate maladies, and other similar feats, which they performed chiefly through the medium, not of a table, but of a child, into whom they pretended to make a spirit enter, able to answer all their questions. Such, in particular, were the Jannnabos, or mountain priests, an order of the religion of Sinto. Yet, exceedingly superstitious as the Japanese were, there was not wanting among them a sect of Rationalists, the natural result of freedom of opinion, who regarded all these practices and doctrines, and all the various creeds of the country, with secret incredulity, and even contempt. These Rationalists, known as Siudosiu, and their doctrine as Sinto, and found chiefly among the upper classes, looked up to the Chinese Confucius as their master and teacher. They treated the system of Buddha with open hostility, as mere im- posture and falsehood ; but, in order to avoid the odium of being destitute of all religion, conformed, at lea'st so far as extcruaJLob- Bervanccs were concerned, to the old national system of Siuto. CHAPTER VI. CIVILIZATION OF THE JAPANESE. ANIMALS. AGRICULTURE. ARTS. HOUSES. SHIPS. LITERATURE. JURISPRUDENCE. CHARACTER OF TUB JAPANESE. THEIR CUSTOM OF CUTTING THEMSELVES OPEN. A. D. 1550. THE doctrine of the transmigration of souls, one of the most dis- tinguishing tenets of the Buddhist faith, had not failed to confirm the Japanese in a distaste for animal food, which had originated, per- haps, from the small number of animals natives of that insular country, an abstinence, indeed, which even the ancient religion of Sinto had countenanced by denouncing as impure the act of killing any animal, or being sprinkled with the slightest drop of blood. Of domestic tame animals, the Japanese possessed from time immemorial the horse, the ox, the buffalo, the dog, and the cat : but none of these were ever used as food. The Portuguese intro- duced the sheep and the goat ; but the Japanese, not eating their flesh nor understanding the art of working up their wool or hair, took no pains to multiply them. The Chinese introduced the hog ; but the eating of that animal was confined to them and to other foreigners. The deer, the hare and the wild boar, were eaten by some sects, and some wild birds by the poorer classes. The fox was hunted for its skin, the hair of which was employed for the pencils used in painting and writing. The animal itself, owing to its roguery, was believed to be the residence of particularly wicked souls an idea confirmed by many strange stories in common circu- lation. The tortoise and the crane were regarded in some sort as sacred animals, never to be killed nor injured. Whales of a small species were taken, then as now, near the coast, and were used as food, as were many other kinds of fish, the produce of the sea and rivers. Shell-fish and certain sea-weeds were also eaten in largo quantities. The soil of Japan, being of volcanic origin, was in some places 68 JAPAX. A. D. 1530. very fertile ; but in many parts there were rugged and inaccessible mountains, the sides of which, not admitting the use of the plough were built up in terraces cultivated by hand. Agriculture formed the chief occupation of the inhabitants, and they had carried it to considerable perfection, well understanding the use of composite manures. The chief crops were rice, which was the great article of food ; barley, for the horses and cattle ; wheat, used principally for vermacellis ; and several kinds of peas and beans. They culti- vated, also, a number of seeds, from which oils were expressed ; likewise cotton, hemp, the white mulberry for the feeding of silk- 'worms (silk being the stuff most in use), and the paper mulberry for the manufacture of paper. To these may be added the camphor- tree, which grew, however, only in the south-western parts of Ximo, the Rhus vernix, which produces the celebrated Japanese varnish, and the tea-plant, spoken of by one of the early Portuguese mission- Caries as " a certain herb called Chia, of which they put as much as a walnut shell may contain into a dish of porcelain, and drink it with hot water." From rice they produced by fermentation an intoxicating drink, called saki, which served them in the place of wine, and which was consumed in large quantities. A yeast, or rather vinegar, produced from this liquor, was largely employed in the pickling of vegetables. Their most useful woods were the bam- boo, the fir of several species, and the cedar. They understood in perfection the arts of weaving silks and of moulding porcelain, and excelled in gilding, engraving, and especially in the use of lacquer or varnish. They also were able to manufacture sword-blades of excellent temper. As in other eastern countries, the greater nobles exhibited an extreme magnificence ; but trade and the arts were held in low esteem, and the mass of the people were excessively poor. Their buildings, though they had some few solid structures of stone, were principally light erections of wood, to avoid the effects of frequent earthquakes ; but this and the varnish employed exposed them to conflagrations, which, in the towns, were very frequent and destruc- tive. These towns consisted, for the most part, of very cheap struc- tures, (like most of those throughout the East), so that cities were built and destroyed with equal ease and celerity. Their commerce was limited almost entirely to the interchange of CUSTOM OF LEGAL SUICIDE. 69 domestic products, a vast number of vessels, of rather feeble struc- ture, being employed in navigating the coasts of the islands, which abounded with deep bays and excellent harbors. Of the sciences, whether mathematical, mixed, or purely physical, they knew but little. They had, however, a considerable number of books treating of religion, medicine, and their history and tra- ditions. The young were instructed in eloquence, poetry, and a rude sort of painting and music, and they had a great fondness for theat- rical representations, in which they decidedly excelled. Their writing, in which they greatly studied brevity, was in columns, as with the Chinese, from the top to the bottom of the page, for which they gave this reason : that writing ought to be a true representa- tion of men's thoughts, and that men naturally stood erect. These columns read from right to left. They employed, besides the Chinese idiographic signs, a syllabic alphabet of their own, though in many works the Chinese characters were freely introduced.* Jurisprudence, as in most eastern countries, was a very simple affair. The laws were very few. Heads of families exercised great power over their households. Most private disputes were settled by arbitration ; but where this failed, and in all criminal cases, a decision was made on the spot by a magistrate, from whom there was seldom any appeal.. The sentences were generally executed at once, and often with very great severity. Whether from their tem- perament, or their belief in the doctrines of transmigration and annihilation, it was observed that the Japanese met death with more courage than was common in Europe. It was, indeed, a point of honor, in many cases, to inflict it on themselves, which they did in a horrid manner, by cutting open their bowels by two gashes in the shape of a cross. The criminal who thus anticipated execution secured thereby the public sympathy and applause, saving his property from confiscation, and his family from death ; and, upon the death of superiors or masters, the same fate was often, as a mark of personal devotion and attachment, self-inflicted ; and sometimes, also, in consequence of a disgrace or affront, to escape or revenge which no other means appeared.! The missionaries especially noted * For an account of the Japanese language, method of writing, literature, &c., see Note A, Appendix. t " All military men, the servants of the Djogoun, and persons holding 70 JAPAN. A. D. 1550. in the Japanese a pride, a self-respect, a haughty magnanimity, a sense of personal honor, very uncommon in the East, but natural characteristics enough of a people who had never been conquered by invaders from abroad ; while the great vicissitudes to which they were exposed all vassals generally sharing the fate of their su- periors made them look upon the goods and evils of fortune in a very philosophical spirit. Such was the condition in which Japan was found when it first became known to Europe through the letters and relations of Xavier and the other Portuguese missionaries his successors. civil offices under the government, are bound, when they have committed any crime, to rip themselves up ; but not till they have received an order from the court to that effect ; for, if they were to anticipate this order, their heirs would run the risk of being deprived of their places and property. For this reason all the officers of government are provided, in addition to their usual dress, and that which they put on in the case of fire, with a suit necessary on such occasions, which they carry with them whenever they travel from home. It consists of a white robe and a habit of ceremony, made of hempen cloth, and without armorial bearings. " As soon as the order of the court has been communicated to the culprit, he invites his intimate friends for the appointed day, and regnlcs them with saki. After they have drank together some time he takes leave of them, and the order of the court is then read to him once more. The person who per- forms the principal part in this tragic scene then addresses a speech or com- pliment to the company, after which he inclines his head towards the floor, draws his sabre, and cuts himself witli it across the belly, penetrating to the bowels. One of his confidential servants, who takes his place behind him, then strikes oil' his head. Such as wish to display superior courage, after the cross-cut inflict a second longitudinally, and then a third in the throat. No disgrace attaches to such a death, and the son succeeds to his father's place. " When a person is conscious of having committed some crime, and appre- hensive of being thereby disgraced, lie puts an end to his own life, to spare his family the ruinous consequences of judicial proceeding*! This practice is so common that scarcely any notice is taken of such an event, ^fflic sons of all persons of quality exercise themselves in their youth, for five or six years, with a view that they may perform the operation, in case* of need, with gracefulness and dexterity ; and they take as much pains to acquire this accomplishment, as youth among us to become elegant dancers or skilful horsemen : hence the profound contempt of death, which they imbibe in their earliest ye irs. This disregard of death, which they prefer to the slight- est disgrace, extends to the very lowest classes among the Japanese." Titsingh, Illustrations of Japan, p. 147. CHAPTER VII. PREACHING OP XAVIER. PINTO'S THIRD VISIT TO JAPAN. A. D. 1550-81. IT is not our purpose to trace minutely the progress and fluctu- ating fortunes of the Jesuit missionaries ; nor, indeed, would it always be easy to extract the exact truth from relations into which the marvellous so largely enters. Xavier's .letters throw very little light on the subsequent history of his mission, which mainly depends upon accounts derived from an inquisition into the particulars of the apostle's ministry and miracles in the East, ordered to be made shortly after his death by John III., of Portugal, and which resulted in a large collection of duly attested depositions, containing many marvellous statements, most of them purporting to come from eye- witnesses, from which source the Jesuit historians of the eastern missions and the biographers of the saint have drawn most of their materials. If we are to believe them, Xavier was not only always victorious in his disputes with the bonzes ; he went even so far, shortly after his arrival in Japan, as to raise the dead a miracle which furnished Poussin with a subject for a celebrated picture. Xavier, we are told, had been charged in India with a similar interference with the laws of nature ; it is true he attempted to explain it away, as, perhaps, he would have done this Japanese miracle ; but that denial the historian Maffei thinks, instead of disproving the miracle, only proves the modest humility of Xavier. Though at first well received, as we have seen, by the king of Satsuma, and though, in the course of near a year that he remained there, the immediate family and many of the relations of Angiro were persuaded to be baptized, yet the remonstrances of the bonzes, followed by the transfer of the Portuguese trade, for the sake of a 72 JAPAN. A. D. 15501551. better harbor, from Caugoxima to Firando* caused the king of Satsuma to issue an edict forbidding his subjects, under pain of death, to renounce the worship of their national gods. In conse- quence of this edict, Xavier departed for FIKANUO, which island, off the west coast of Ximo, having separated from the kingdom of Figen, had become independent under a prince of its own. Angiro was left behind, but soon afterwards was obliged to fly to China, where, as Pinto informs us, he was killed by robbers. At Firando, in consequence of the representations of the Portu- guese merchants, Xavier was well received ; but, desirous to see the chief city of Japan, leaving Torres behind, he set out with Fernandez and two Japanese converts on a visit to Miako. Proceeding by water, he touched first at Facata, a considerable town on the north-west coast of Ximo, and capital of the kingdom of CIIICIIUGEN, and then at Amanyuchi, at that time a large city, capital of NAUOATO, the most western kingdom or province of the great island of Nipon, separated at this point from Ximo by a nar- row strait. The populace of Amanguchi, ridiculing Xavier's mean appearance as contrasted with his pretensions, drove him out of the city with curses and stones. Winter had now set in, and the cold was severe. The coast was infested by pirates, and the interior by robbers, which obliged the saint to travel as servant to some merchants, who, them- selves on horseback, required him, though on foot, and loaded with a heavy box. of theirs, to keep up with them at full gallop. This, however, seems a little exaggerated, as Japanese travellers on horseback never exceed a walk ; while the box which Xavier carried is represented by the earlier writers as containing the sacred vessels for the sacrifice of the mass. Arriving thus at Miako, in rather sad plight, Xavier found that capital almost ruined by civil wars, and on the eve of becoming the field of a new battle. He could obtain no audience, as he had hoped, either of the Kubo-Sama or of the Xaco, nor any hearing except from the populace, so that he judged it best to return again to Firando. There are two means of working upon the imagination, both of * Otherwise written Firato, which would seem to be more correct ; PINTO' s THIRD VISIT. 73 which are employed by turns alike by the Romish and by the Buddh- ist clergy. One is by showing a contempt not merely for elegances, but even for common comforts and ordinary decencies ; the other, by pomp, show and display. Xavier, on his way to Miako, entered the city of Amanguchi barefoot and meanly clad, and had, as we have stated, beec hooted and stoned by the populace. He now re- turned thither again from Firando handsomely clothed, and taking with him certain presents and recommendatory letters from the Por- tuguese viceroy of the Indies and the governor of Malacca, addressed to the Japanese princes, but of which as yet he had made no use. Demanding an audience of the king, he was received with respect, and soon obtained leave to preach, and an unoccupied house of the bonzes to live in. Here, being soon surrounded by crowds, he renewed, say his biographers, the miracle of tongues, not only in preaching fluently in Japanese and in Chinese to the numerous mer- chants of that nation who traded there, but in being able by a sin- gle answer to satisfy a multitude of confused questions which the eager crowd simultaneously put to him. Such was his success that, in less than two months, five hundred persons, most of them of con- sideration, received baptism ; and, though the king soon began to grow less favorable, the converts increased, during less than a year that he remained there, to three thousand. The eed thus planted, Xavier resolved to return to the Indies for a fresh supply of laborers ; and, having heard of the arrival of a Portuguese vessel at Fucheo, in the kingdom of Bungo, leaving de Torres and Fernandez at Amanguchi, he proceeded to Fucheo for the purpose of embarking. Among the merchants in this ship was Fernam Mendez Pinto, now in Japan for the third time, and who gives at some length the occurrences that took place after Xavier's arrival at Fucheo, where he was received with great respect by the Portuguese, of whom more than thirty went out on horseback to meet him. The young king, whose name was Civan, had already obtained, through intercourse with Portuguese merchants, some knowledge of their religion. He invited Xavier to an audience, to which the Portuguese merchants accompanied him with so grand a display as somewhat to shock the modesty of the saint, but which strongly impressed in his favor the people of Bungo, to whom he had been 7 74 JAPAN. A. D. 15501551. represented by the bonzes as so miserable a vagabond as to disgust the very vermin with which he was covered. The young king received him very graciously ; and he preached and disputed with. such success as greatly to alarm the bonzes, who vainly attempted to excite a popular commotion against him as an enchanter, through whose mouth a demon spoke, and a cannibal, who fed on dead bodies which he dug up in the night. Finally, after conquering, in a long dispute before the king of Bungo, the ablest and most celebrated champion of the bonzes,* and converting several of the order to the faith, Xavicr embarked for Goa on the 20th of September, 1651, attended by two of his Jap- anese converts. Of these one died at Goa. The other, named Bernard, proceeded to Europe, and, after a visit to Home, returned to Portugal, and, having entered the Society of Jesus, closed his life at the Jesuit college of Coimbra, a foundation endowed by John III. for the support of a hundred pupils, to be prepared as mis- sionaries to the East. At Amanguchi, after Xavier's departure, the bonzes, enemies of Catholicity, were more successful. An insurrection which they raised so alarmed the king, that he shut himself up in his palace, set it on fire, and, having slain his only son with his own hand, ended by cutting himself open. The missionaries, however, were saved by an unconverted princess, who even induced certain bonzes to shelter them ; and a brother of the king of Bungo having been elected king of Naugato, the Catholics, not one of whom, we^ are told, had been killed in the insurrection, were soon on a better foot- ing than ever. * Pinto gives a long account of this dispute, which has been substantially adopted by Lucina, the Portuguese biographer of Xavier, whose life of the saint was published in 1600, and who, in composing it, had the use of Pinto's yet unpublished manuscript. Tursellini's Latin biography of Xavier was published at Rome and Antwerp, 1596. From these was compiled the French life by Bouhours, which our Dryden translated. Tursellini published also four books of Xavier's epistles, translated into Latin. Eight books of new epistles afterwards appeared. Charlevoix remarks of them " that they are memoirs, of which it is not allowable to question the sincerity, but which 'furnish very little for history, which was not the writer's object." They are chiefly homilies. CHAPTER VIII. PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS UNDER FATHERS DE IORRES AMI NtJGNES BAE RETO. MENDEZ PINTO A FOURTH TIME IN JAPAN. A. D. 15511557. THE apostle of the Indies returned no more to Japan. He died in December, 1552, at the age of forty-six, on his way to China, at the island of Sancian, a little way from Macao, partly, it would seem, through vexation at having been disappointed, by the jealousy and obstinacy of the governor of Malacca, in a more direct mission to that empire, on which he had set his heart, and for which he had made every arrangement. But already, before leaving for China, he had despatched from Malacca three new missionaries to Japan, Balthazar Gago, a priest, and two brothers, Peter d'Alcaceva and Edward de Sylva, who landed at Cangoxima in August, 1552, whence they proceeded to Bungo, where, as well as at Amanguchi, a site had been granted for a residence and a church. Father de Torres, now at the head of the mission, in a sort of general assembly of the faithful, to which the principal converts were admitted, regulated the policy of the infant church. To meet the objection of the bonzes, that the new converts had left their old religions to escape the usual contribu- tions of alms, it was resolved to establish hospitals for the sick and poor, as well pagan as converted, and the more so as poverty in Japan was regarded as peculiarly despicable, and the poor as con- temned by the gods. To suit the taste of the Japanese for specta- cles, an impressive burial service was agreed upon. Great atten- tion, according to the policy of the Catholic church, and especially of the Jesuits, was bestowed on the education of the young. Not to be outdone by the bonzes, the missionaries practised great austef* ities ; regular whipping of themselves in church by all the converts made a stated part of their religious exercises ; but what most con 76 JAPAN. A. D. 15511557. tributcd to the spread of the new faith was, so we are to.d, the ex. ceediug zeal, self-denial, and disinterestedness of the new converts, including among the number several bonzes of the old religions, some of whom were made Jesuits, and even ordained priests, and who soon gave examples of sublime piety, which even the mission- aries themselves found it difficult to imitate. Meanwhile, Peter d'Alcaceva, one of the newly-arrived Jesuits, having been sent back to Goa for further aid, on his way to that capital, found at Malacca the body of Xavier, preserved in quick- lime, and also on its way to Goa, whither he attended it. At (Joa he encountered Feniam Mendez Pinto, who, having amassed great wealth in the Indies, was about to return to Portugal. Preliminary to this voyage Pinto made a general confession to Father Nugnes Barreto, the vice-provincial of the Jesuits ; after which, falling upon the subject of Xavier, whose dead body lying at Goa was reported to work numerous miracles, he related to his confessor many won- derful stories of the prodigies which he himself had witnessed while with Xavier at Bungo. Passing thence to the zeal and merits of the Japanese converts, he strongly urged Nugnes to proceed thither to take Xavier's place, even offering himself to go as his companion, and to devote the whole of his fortune (except two thousand crowns to be sent to some poor relations in Portugal), partly to the found- ing of a seminary at Amanguchi, whence the faith might be diffused through the whole of Japan, and partly in purchasing magnificent presents for the princes of the country, which he thought would be a good means of securing their favor for the new religion. Pinto was accordingly appointed ambassador from the Portuguese viceroy to the king of Bungo, and Nugnes sailed for Malacca in his company, taking with him Father Gaspard Vilela, four brothers, not yet priests, and five young orphans from the Seminary of the Holy Faith, to act as catechists. Before setting out, Nugnes and his brother Jesuits renewed their vows, according to a rule of the order, which required such a renewal once every six months. Pinto was present at this ceremony, and his excitable temperament was so wrought upon by it, that, seized with a sudden impulse, he Insisted upon himself repeating the vows, with an additional one to consecrate his person and his goods to the Japanese mission. As he was the viceroy's ambassador, it was resolved that he should not NUGNES BARRETO. 77 adopt the Jesuit habit till after he had fulfilled his mission a delay which proved a lucky thing for Pinto, whose zeal speedily began to evaporate. He served, indeed, for some time in the hos- pitals of Malacca, where they arrived in June, 155 i, and where, t>y the sickness of Nugnes and other accidents, they were detained upwards of a year ; and, according to the letters of Nugnes, he gave great edification, the people admiring to see so rich a man, and one lately so fond of display and good living, clothed in rags and begging alms from door to door, having given up all his wealth that he might the better obey the Lord. Sailing from Malacca, Nugnes and his company, after perils from pirates, were driven by storms first to Sanchian, and then to Macao, whence, in the spring of 1556, Nugnes proceeded to Canton, where he made many unavailing efforts for the introduction of Catholicism into China. Meanwhile, he received letters from Goa, urging his return, enclosing one from Loyola himself, disapproving of such long voyages by the vice-provincials of the order ; but he was still induced to proceed to Japan by a pressing letter from the prince of Firando, who hoped by his means to attract the Portuguese trade from Bungo to that port. He sailed accordingly for Firando, but was compelled by stress of weather to find a harbor in Bungo. Meanwhile, the parts of Japan occupied by the missionaries had been the seats of serious commotions. The king of Bungo had indeed confirmed his power by suppressing an insurrection ; but his brother, the king of Naugato, had been driven from his throne and defeated and slain by Marindono, a relative of the late king ; and during this civil war, the city of Amanguchi had been sacked and burnt, and the missionaries obliged to fly for their lives to Bungo. There, too, a new insurrection had been attempted, but again without success ; though the king still kept himself shut up in a fortress at a distance from his capital. He returned, however, to receive Nugnes, which he did very graciously, but resisted, on grounds of expediency, all his exhortations to make an open profes- sion of Catholicism. Thus disappointed, Nugnes, after sending Gago to establish himself at Firaudo, thought it best to return to Goa. On arriving in Japan, the zeal of Pinto had speedily declined, and he had begun to sigh for his liberty. Perhaps he was alarmed 7* 78 JAPAN. A. D. 1551-1557. at the appearance of Cosme do Torres, who, from being plump and portly, had, under the thin diet of the country, and the labors of the mission, grown to be exceedingly lean and haggard. At all events, it was found impossible to revive his fervor, and, as the Jesuits wanted no unwilling members, it was decided to release him from his vows. lie returned with Nugnes to Goa. whence, not long after, he sailed for Lisbon. In his book he relates his last visit to Japan, but with no mention of his having joined the Jesuits, of which our knowledge is drawn from the published letters of the missionaries, including one dated in 1554, and written by Pinto himself, from the college at Malacca, addressed to the scholars of the college of Coimbra, and giving a sketch of his travels in the East. Having arrived at Lisbon, Sept. 22, 1558, he delivered to the queen regent a commendatory letter from the viceroy of Goa, and had the honor to explain to her what his long experience suggested as of most utility for the affairs of Portugal in the East, not forget- ting also some private application for himself. The queen referred him to the minister, who gave him high hopes ; but at the end of four or five years of tedious solicitation, which became more in- supportable than all his past fatigues, he concluded to content him- self with the little fortune which he had brought from India, and for which he was indebted to nobody but himself. Yet he piously and loyally concludes that if he had been no better rewarded for twenty-one years' services, during which he had been thirteen times a slave, and seventeen times sold, it could only be attributed to the divine justice, which disposes of all things for the best, and rather to his own sins than to any want of royal discernment. He died about 1580, leaving his narrative behind him, which was not printed till^^l 1, and which was written, as he says at the beginning of it, in his old age, that he might leave it a memorial and heritage to his children to excite their confidence in the aid of Heaven by the example of his own sufferings and deliverances.* * For some further remarks on Pinto and his x>ok, see Appendix, note D. CHAPTER IX. LOUIS ALMEIDA. THE MISSIONARIES ESTABLISH THEMSELVES AT MTAKO. LOUIS FROEZ. PRINCES CONVERTED IN XIMO. RISE OF NOBUNANGA PROSPERITY OF TIIE MISSIONS. NOBLE AND PRINCELY CONVKRTS. NAGASAKI BUILT. NOHUNANGA MAKES HIMSELF E.MPEROS. A. D. 1557 1577. THE loss of Pinto and Nugnes, and even that of Father Gago ; who, three or four years later, after a very zealous career as a mis- sionary, grew weary of the work, and obtained permission to return to Goa, was more than made up for by the accession of William and liuys Pereyra, two of the catechists brought by Nugnes, and whom, before his departure, he admitted into the order, and espec- ially by that of Louis Almeida, who had arrived in Japan as sur- geon to a trading vessel, and who, after amassing a large fortune, gave it all to pious uses of which a hospital for abandoned infants was one and, joining the Jesuits, soon became distinguished for his zeal and assiduity as a missionary. The extension which, in the fluctuating condition of affairs, shortly afterwards took place of the dominions of the king of Bungo over the greater part of the island of Ximo, was very favorable to the new religion. The prince of Firando was obliged to pay him trib- ute, and, notwithstanding the double-faced policy of that prince^Aj|, new doctrine continued to spread in his territories, where some of the members of the ruling family became converts. A n.ew church was planted at Facata, and the* old original one at Cangoxima was reestablished. Presently the new faith gained a footing also in the kingdoms of ARIMA an-1 GOTTO, which, as well as Firando, had been dissevered from the ancient province of Figen. The lord of Ximabara (afterwards famous as the last stronghold of the Cath- olics) invited the missionaries to his city. The king of Arima was 80 JAPAN. A. D. 15571577. also very friendly; he gave the missionaries an establishment, first at Vocoxiura, and, after that city had been burned by the bonzes, at a port of his called Cochinotzu, on the southern coast of the south- western peninsula of Ximo. The prince of OMUUA, a dependency of Arima, and the prince of the island of Tucuxiiuu, the same at which Pinto had first landed, then a dependency of Firando, were both among the converts, and exceedingly zealous to induce their subjects to follow their example; and, notwithstanding the hostil- ity of the bonzes, the frequent wars between the princes, and repeated internal commotions, by which the missionaries Averc often in danger, the new religion continued to spread in all parts of Ximo, and in fact to be carried by native converts to many parts of Nipon which no missionary had yet reached. Meanwhile, new establish- ments also had been gained on the island of Nipon, in addition to that at Amanguchi, at its western extremity. The fame of the mis- sionaries had induced an old Tundi, or superior of a Buddhist mon- astery near Miako, to send to Amanguchi to ask information about the new religion. Father Vilela was despatched, in 1G5D, for his instruction, and though the Tundi died before the arrival of the missionary, his successor and many of the bonzes listened with respect to the words of Vilela. As none, however, were willing to receive baptism, he departed for Miako, where he found means to approach Josi Tir, the Kubo-Sama, and to obtain from him permission to preach. Having secured the favor of Mioxindono, the emperor's principal minister, and presently that of Daxandono, the chief judge, he converted many bonzes and nobles, and built up a large and flourishing church. An attack upon the emperor by Morindono, king of Naugato, who forced the city of Miako, and set it on fire, detained Vilela fijta while in the neighboring town of Sakai, the most commercial pHrce in Japan, which seems, at that time, to have been a free city, as it were, with an independent government of its own ; and thera also a church was planted. But tiie emperor soon reestablished his affairs ; and although, from the hostility of Morindono, the church at Amanguchi was very much depressed, everything went on well at Miako, where Vilela was joined, in 1565, by Louis Almeida, and by a young missionary, Louis Froez, lately arrived from Malacca. Of their journey from Cochinotzu to Miako, we have a detailed NOBUNANGA. 81 account in a long and very interesting letter of Almeida's. Hia visit to Miako was only temporary. Froez remained there, and from him we have a long series of letters, historical and descrip- tive, as well as religious, which, for a period of thirty years follow ing, throw great light on the history and internal condition of Japan. At this time the entire empire, since and at present so stable, was the scene of constant revolutions. Very shortly after Froez'a arrival Mioxindono and Daxandono conspired against their patron, dethroned him, and drove him to cut himself open, as did great numbers of his relatives and partisans. These nobles, hitherto favorable to the missionaries, now published an edict against them, probably to secure the favor of the bonzes ; and Vilela and Froez were thus again driven to take refuge at Sakai, where they had a few converts. But the believers at Miako stood firm, and a new revolution soon occurred, headed by a noble called Vatondono, and by Nobunanga, king of VOARI, which province adjoined the emperor's special territory on the east, a prince whose military prowess had already made him from a petty noble the master of eighteen provinces in the eastern part of Nipon. In 1566 Vatondono and Nobunanga proclaimed as emperor a brother of the late one a bonze who had escaped from the rebels. Miako was regained, and the new emperor established there A. D. 1667. All real authority remained, however, with Nobunanga, who showed himself very hostile to the Buddhist bonzes, they hav- ing generally taken the side of the late rebels. He even destroyed many of their temples, using the idols which they contained as materials for a new palace. He easily granted to Vatondono, who was himself a sort of half convert, the reestablishment of the mis- sionaries at Miako, which was soon confirmed by an imperial edict, issued in 1568 ; and, in spite of an attempt at interference on the part of the Dairi'the new religion, under the protection of Vaton- dono, who was appointed governor of Miako, soon reached a very nourishing condition. To this prosperity at Miako a strong contrast was, however, pre- sented by the state of things at Amanguchi, whence the missiona- ries were expelled by the king of Naugato, though the church thera was still kept alive by the zeal and constancy of some of the con. 62 JAPAN. A. D. 15571377. verts. In the island of Ximo the new religion continued to spread. Indeed, the baptized prince of Onmra, not content with hacking idols to pieces, and refusing to join in the old national fes- tivals, wished also to prohibit all the old ceremonies, and to compel his subjects to adopt the new ones, an excess of zeal which, by displaying the intolerant spirit of the new sect, fostered an union of all the old ones against it, such as at last occasioned its destruction. This prince had allowed certain Portuguese merchants to estab- lish themselves at Nagasaki,* then a mere fishing village, but hav- ing a capacious harbor, the port of Japan nearest to China and the Indies, at the head of a deep bay, opening to the west. Presently he built a church there, and, A. D. 1568, invited the missionaries to make it their head-quarters, with a promise that no religion but theirs should be allowed. This invitation was accepted; many converts flocked thither, and Nagasaki soon became a con- siderable city. Fathers de Torres and Vilela both died in 1570,t worn out with years and labors, the latter being succeeded as head of the mission by Father Cabral, sent out from Goa as vice-pro- vincial of the order, and accompanied by Father Gnecchi, who soon became an efficient laborer. Meanwhile, an insurrection in the imperial provinces, on the part of the old rebels, which it cost the life of Vatondono to suppress, so provoked Nobunanga that he wreaked his vengeance anew upon the bonzes (who had again aided the insurgents), by destroying a great number of their monasteries on the famous mountain of Jesan, and putting the inmates to death. This occurrence took place A. D. 1571, as the missionaries remarked, on the day of St. Michael, whom Xavier had named the patron saint of Japan. Cabral, the vice-provincial, having made a visit to Miako, was very graciously received by Nobunanga. Shortly after the titular Kubo- * This name is frequently written Nangaski, and "such, according to Kampfer, is the pronunciation. t Of Father de Torres we have four letters rendered into Latin, and of Vilela, in the same collections, seven, giving, among other things, a pretty full account of his visit to and residence at Miako. For the description, however, of that capital, and the road to it, I prefer to rely on lay travellers, of whose observations, during a series of visits extending through more than two centuries, a full abstract will be fouud in subsequent chapters. SPREAD OF CATHOLICISM. 83 Sama made a vain attempt to regain the exercise of authority. The defeated prince was still left in possession of his title, but No- bunanga was thenceforth regarded as, in fact, himself the emperor. This was in 1573. In 1576 the church received new and im- portant accessions in Ximo. The king of Bungo, though from the beginning favorable to the missionaries, had, from reasons of policy, and through the influence of his wife, who was very hostile to the new religion, declined baptism ; none of the courtiers had sub- mitted to it, and the converts in that kingdom had consisted as yet of an inferior class. But the second son of the king having taken the resolution to be baptized, in spite of the violent opposition of the queen, his mother, who had great influence over Jocimon, the king's eldest son, associated, according to a usual Japanese custom, in the government, his example was followed by many persons of rank in the kingdom of Bungo, and even by the neighboring king of Arima, who died, however, shortly after, leaving his king- dom to an unbelieving successor.* * The following passage, from Titsingh's Memoirs of the Djogouns, may serve to shed some light upon the civil war raging in Japan when first \isited by the Portuguese, and which continued down to the time of Nobu- nanga. " Faka-ousi was of the family of Yos-ye, who was descended from Liewa-tenwo, the 5Gth Dairi. He divided the supreme power between his two sons, Yosi-nori and Moto-ousi, giving to each the government of thirty- three provinces. [According to Kampfer, Yosi-nori ascended the throne of the Kubo-Sama A. D. 1431, but he represents him as the son and successor of Josimitz. There is no Faka-ousi in Kampfer's list, unless it be the same whom he calls Taka-udsi, and whom he makes the grandfather of Josimitz.] The latter, who ruled over the eastern part, was styled Kama-koura-no- Djogoun, and kept his court at Kama-koura, in the province of Sagami. Yosi-nori, to whom were allotted the western provinces, resided at Miako, with the title of Tchoko-no Djogoun. " Faka-ousi, in dividing the empire between his two sons, was influenced by the expectation that, in case either of them should be attacked, his brother would afford him assistance. This partition, on the contrary, only served to arm them one against the other ; the country was involved in continual war, and the princes, though brothers, were engaged in frequent hostilities, which terminated only with the destruction of the branch of Miako." CHAPTER X. FATHE VALIGNANI. STATE OF THE MISSION'S. CONVERSION AND BAPTISM OP THE KING OF BUNCO. GROWTH OF NAGASAKI. EMBASSY TO TUB POPE. DOCUMENTS RELATING TO Til IS EMBASSY. A. D. 15771586. Seen was the state of things on the arrival, at the beginning of 1577, of Father Alexander Valignani, visitor-general of the Jesuit establishments in the East, and who in that capacity came to inspect the missions of Japan. He found there, in addition to a large number of native catechists, fifty-nine professed Jesuits (including twelve who had arrived but a short time before), of whom twenty-six were native Japanese; but, as only twenty- three of the whole number were ordained priests, it was found very difficult to meet the demand for ministers qualified to baptize and to administer the other sacraments. Hence the visitor was the more convinced of the necessity of establishing a noviciate of the order (a project already started by Father Cabral, the vice-provin- cial), and seminaries for the education of the children of the con- verts designed for the priesthood, especially those of superior rank ; and in his letters to the general of the order and to the Pope, he recommended the appointment of a bishop, so that ordination might be had without the necessity of going to Malacca. He also settled, at a general assembly of the missionaries, who met him at- Cochinotzu, many points of discipline, and especially a difficult and much disputed question as to the wearing of silk garments, which, _as being the stuff in use by all persons of consideration in Japan, some of the Jesuits wished to wear. The ground taken was that it would only be a new application of the policy, which had been agreed upon, of conforming as far as innocently might be to the customs of the country. This argument, however, had not satis- fied Father Cabral ; he had prohibited the wearing of silk, which CONVERSION OF THE KING OF BUNGO. 85 the rule of the order did not allow ; and that decision was now confirmed by the visitor. There wete, however, other points upon which the vice-provin- cial and the visitor did not so well agree. Of Cabral, Charlevoix draws the following character one for which many originals might be found : " He was a holy professor, a great missionary, a vigilant and amiable superior ; but he was one of those excellent persons who imagine themselves more clear-headed than other men, and who, in consequence, ask counsel of nobody but themselves ; or rather, who believe themselves inspired, when they have once prayed to be so, regarding as decrees of Heaven, expressed by their mouth, all the resolutions which they have taken at the foot of the cross, where the last thing to be laid down is one's own judgment." Ca- bral had taken up the idea that persons of such vigorous under- standing as the Japanese must be duly held in check ; and the whole twenty-six of them received, up to this time, into the company, and almost all of whom aspired to the priesthood, he strictly limited to such studies as would suffice to qualify them for the subordinate parts of divine service. This policy Valignani did not approve ; but when he sought to alter it, he encountered such opposition from Father Cabral, as to be obliged to send him off to Goa, appointing Father Gaspard Cuello.in his place. Shortly after the arrival of Valignani, the church gained a new and distinguished accession in Civan, king of Bungo, who, hav- ing repudiated his old pagan wife, to whom the Catholics gave the name of Jezebel, married a new one, and was baptized with all his household, taking the name of Francis, according to the custom of the missionaries in giving European names to their converts. Thcro were even strong hopes of gaining over his eldest son and colleague, Joscimon, when a war broke out with the king of Satsuma, for the possession of the intervening kingdom of FIUXGA, which resulted in the loss of all Civan's conquests, and his reduction to his original province of Bungo, which also he was in clanger of losing, a change by no means favorable to the missionaries. Cochinotzu was ruined in this war ; and the spectacle of the vicissitudes to which everything in Japan was exposed induced Valignani to urge upon the Portuguese merchants and residents to fortify Nagasaki. This was done in 1579, and that port became thenceforward almost the 8 86 JAPAN. A. D. 15771580. >ob one resorted to by the Portuguese. The converted king of Giotto having died, the guardian of his infant son showed himself hostile to the missionaries ; but this circumstance was an ad- vantage to Nagasaki, which received many fugitives from these islands. The new king of Arima being brought, by the latars of the vis- itor, to a better disposition, was baj>tixed, and became one of the most zealous of the converts. Both the emperor Nobinanga and his three sons still continual very well disposed to the missionaries, allowing Father Gnecchi, who was a favorite with him, to establish a house, a church and a seminary, at A/izi(giama, his local cajiital, which he had greatly beautified, and between which and Miako he had caused a highway to be built, at great cxpen.se and with im- mense labor. His evident design to make his authority absolute, had indeed led to a league against him, which, however, proved of no avail, this attempt at resistance resulting in the subjection of all the kings of the western half of Nipon, except Morindono, of Nau- gato. The good service which the missionaries rendered, in per- suading the Christian princes, and the Christian vassals of the unconverted ones, to submit to the emperor, as their superior lord, caused Valignani to be very graciously received, both at Miako and also at Anzuqiania. On the visitor's return to Xiino, the converted kings of Bungo and Arima, and the prince of Omura, determined to send ambassa- dors to be the bearers of their submission to the Pope. For this purpose two young nobles were selected, scarcely sixteen years of age : one, prince of Fiunga, the son of a niece of the king of Bungo, the other, prince of Arima, cousin of the king of Arima, and neph- ew of the prince of Omura. They were attended by two counsellors somewhat older than themselves, by Father Diego de Mcsquita, as their preceptor and interpreter, and by a Japanese Jesuit, named George Loyola, and, in company with Father Valignani, they sailed from Nagasaki February 20th, 1582, in a Portuguese ship bound for Macao, now the head-quarters of the Portuguese trade to Japan. They arrived at Macao after a very stormy and dangerous passage of seventeen days ; but the season of sailing for Malacca being oast, they had to wait there six months. When at length they did ail, they encountered very violent storms ; but at last, after twenty- JAPANESE EMBASSY TO THE POPE. 87 nine days' passage (January 27th, 1583) they reached Malacca, passing, as they entered the harbor, the wreck of another richly- laden Portuguese vessel, which had sailed from Macao in their company. After resting at Malacca eight days, they embarked for Goa, which third voyage proved not less trying than the two others. Delayed by calms, they ran short of provisions and water, and by the ignorance of the pilot were near being run ashore on the island of Ceylon. They disembarked at length at Travancore, at the south-eastern extremity of the peninsula of India, whence they pro- ceeded by land to the neighboring port of Cochin. Here, owing to the unfavorable monsoon, they had to wait six months before they could sail for Goa, at which capital of Portuguese India they ar- rived in September. The viceroy of the Indies received them with great hospitality, and furnished them with a good ship, in which they had a favorable passage round the Cape of Good Hope, arriv- ing at Lisbon August 10th, 1584. Four years before, Portugal had passed under the rule of Philip II., of Spain, who had thus united on his single head the crowns of both the East and the West Indies ; and to him these ambassadors were charged with a friendly message. The viceroy of Portugal received them at Lisbon with every attention. At Madrid they were received by Philip II. himself with the greatest marks of distinction. Having traversed Spain, they embarked 'at Alicante, but were driven by a storm into the island of Majorca, thereby escaping an Algerine fleet and a Turkish squadron, both of which were cruising in that neighborhood. Sailing thence they landed at Leghorn, where Pierro de Medici, brother of the grand duke of Tuscany, was waiting to attend them. They spent the carnival at Pisa, and thence by Florence proceeded towards Home. Aquiviva, general of the Jesuits (the fourth successor of Loyola), was very pressing with the Pope for a reception without display ; but Gregory XIII. (the same to whom we owe the reform of the calendar) had determined in consistory that the honor of the church and of the holy see required a different course. The ambassadors were met at Viterbo by the Pope's light horse, and were escorted into the city by a long cavalcade -of Roman nobles. The whole of the corso up to Jesus, the church and house of the Jesuits, where the ambassadors were to lodge, was crowded with oeople, who 88 JAPAN. A. D. 1.-.77 1586. greeted their arrival with deafening shouts. As they alighted from their carriage, they were received by Father Aquivivu, attended by all the Jesuits then at Home, who conducted them to the church, where Te Deum was chanted. The next day a magnificent procession was formed to escort them to the Vatican. It was headed by the light horse, followed by the Pope's Swiss guard, the officers of the cardinals, the carriages of the ambassadors of Spain, France, Venice, and the Roman princes, the whole Roman nobility on horseback, the pages and officers of the ambassadors, with trumpets and cymbals, the chamberlains of the Pope, and the officers of the palace, all in red robes. Then followed the Japanese on horseback, in their national dress,* three silken gowns of a light fabric, one over the other, of a white ground, splen- didly embroidered with fruits, leaves and birds. In their girdles they wore the two swords, symbols of Japanese gentility. Their heads, shaven, except the hair round the ears and neck, which was gathered into a cue bent upwards, had no covering. Their features were hardly less divergent from the European standard than their dress, yet their whole expression, air and manner, modest and ami- able, but with a conscious sentiment of nobility, was such as im- pressed the bystanders very favorably. The prince of Fiunga came first, between two archbishops. The prince of Arima followed, between two bishops. Of their counsellors, one was kept away by sickness, the other followed between two nobles, and after him Father de Mesquita, the interpreter, also on horseback. A great number of richly-dressed courtiers closed the procession. The crowds, which filled the streets and the windows, looked on in almost breathless silence. As the ambassadors crossed the bridge of St. Angelo, all the cannon of the castle were fired, to which those of the Vatican responded, at which signal all the bands struck up, and continued to play till the hall of audience was reached. The ambassadors approached the foot of the papal throne, each with the letter of his prince in his hand. Prostrating themselves at the Pope's feet, they declared in Japanese, in a voice loud and distinct, that they had come from the extremities of the earth tc For a particular description of the dress of the Japanese, see chap. Xll LETTER OF THE KING OF BUXGO. 8> acknowledge in the person of the Pope the vioar of Jesus Christ, and to render obedience to him in the name of the princes of whom they were the envoys, and also 1'or themselves. The Father de Mesquita expressed in Latin what they had said ; but the appear- ance of the young men themselves, who had essayed so many dangers and fatigues to corns to pay their homage to the holy see, was more expressive than any words; and it drew tears and sobs from the greater part of the audience. The Pope himself, greatly agitated, hastened to raise them up, kissed their foreheads, and embraced them many times, dropping tears upon them. They were then con- ducted to an alcove, while the secretary of the consistory read the letters from the Japanese princes, which Father de Mescjuita had translated into Italian, and of which the following may serve as a specimen : " LETTER OF THE KING OF BCNGO, " To him who ought to be adored, and who holds the place of the king of heaven, the great and most holy Pope. " Full of confidence in the grace of the supreme and almighty God, I write, with all possible submission, to your Holiness. The Lord, who governs heaven and earth, who holds under his empire the sun and all the celestial host, has made his light to shine upon one who was plunged in ignorance and buried in deep darkness. It is more than thirty years since this sovereign Master of nature, displaying all the treasures of his pity in favor of the inhabitants of these countries, sent thither the fathers of the Company of Jesus, who have sowed the seed of the divine Word in these kingdoms of Japan ; and he has pleased, in his infinite bounty, to cause a part of it to fall into my heart : singular mercy, for which I think myself indebted, most holy Father of all the faithful, as well to the prayers and merits of your Holiness as to those of many others. If the wars which I have had to sus- tain, my old age and my infirmities, had not prevented me, I should myself have visited the holy places where you dwell, to render in person the obe- dience which I owe you. I would have devotedly kissed the feet of your Holiness, I would have placed them on my head, and would have besought you to make with your sacred hand the august sign of the cross on my heart. Constrained, by the reasons I have mentioned, to deprive myself of a consola- tion so sweet, I did design to send in my place Jerome, son of the king of Fiunga, and my grand-son ; but as he was too far distant from my court, and as the father-visitor could not delay his departure, I have substituted for him Mancio, his cousin and my great nephew. " I shall be infinitely obliged if your Holiness, holding upon earth the place of God himself, shall continue to shed your favor upon me, upon all Christians, 8* 90 JAPAN. A. D. 15771586. and especially upon this little portion of the Bock committed to your care I have received from the hand of the father-visitor the reliquary with u hi. i your Holiness honored me, and I have placed it on my head with much respect. I have no words in which to express the gratitude with which I ara penetrated for a gift so precious. I will add no more, as the father-visitoi and my ambassador will more fully inform your Holiness as to all thai regards my person and my realm. I truly adore you, most holy Father, and I write this to you trembling with respectful fear. The llth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1682. FRANCIS, King of Bungo, prostrate at the foot of your Holiness." The reading of this and of the other letters, translated into Italian was followed by a Discourse on Obedience, pronounced, in the namo of the princes and the ambassadors, by Father Gaspard Gonzales, a model of rhetorical elegance and comprehensive brevity what- ever may be thought of its ethical or theological doctrines which some of the long-winded speakers of the present day, both lay and clerical, would do well to imitate. We give, as a specimen, a pas- sage from the beginning : " Nature has separated Japan from the countries in which we now are, by such an extent of land and sea, that, before the present age, there were very few persons who had any knowledge of it ; and even now there are those who find it difficult to believe the accounts of it which we give. It is certain, nevertheless, most holy Father, that there are several Japanese islands, of a vast extent, and in these islands numerous fine cities, the inhabitants of which have a keen understanding, noble and courageous hearts, and obliging dispositions, politeness of manners, and inclinations disposed towards that which is good. Those who have known them have decidedly preferred them to all the other people of Asia, and it is cnly their lack of the true religion which prevents them from competing with the nations of Europe. " For some years past this religion has been preached to them, under the authority of the holy see, by apostolical missionaries. Its commencements were small, as in the case of the primitive church ; but God having given his blessing to this evangelical seed, it took root in the hearts of the nobles, ind of late, under the pontificate of your Holiness, it has been received by he greatest lords, the princes and kings of Japan. This, most holy Father, mglit to console you, for many reasons ; but principally because, laboring as you do with nn indefatigable zeal and vigor to reestablish a religion, shaken and almost destroyed by the new heresies here in Europe, you see it take root and make great progress in the most distant country of the world. " Hitherto your Holiness has heard, and with great pleasure, of the abun dant fruits borne by this vine newly planted, with so much labor, at the extremities of the earth. Now you may see, touch, taste them, in this augusl DISCOURSE ON OBEDIENCE. 9l assembly, and impart of them to all the faithful. What joy ought not all Christians to feel, and especially the Roman people, at seeing the ambassa- dors of such great princes come from the ends of the earth to prostrate themselves at the feet of your Holiness, through a pure motive of religion, a thing which has never happened in any age ! What satisfiction fur them to see the most generous and valiant kings of the East, conquered by the arms of the faith and by the preaching of the gospel, submitting themselves to the empire of Jesus Christ, and, as they cannot, from their avocations, come in person to take the oath of obedience and fidelity to the holy see, acquitting themselves of this duty by ambassadors so nearly related to them, and whom they so tenderly love ! " In the following passage the orator alludes more at length to the revolt in Europe against the authority of the Pope, which Philip II., no less than the Pope, was at this moment vigorously laboring to put down, by the recent introduction of the Jesuits into the Netherlands, where the Protestant rebels had been suppressed, by war against Holland, by aiding the French leaguers, by coun- tenancing the retrograde movement then in rapid progress in Ger- many, and by preparing to carry out against Elizabeth of England the sentence of deposition which the Pope had fulminated against her. " 0, immortal God ! What a stroke of thine arm ! W T hat an effect of thy grace ! In places so distant from the holy see, where the name of Jesus had never been heard, nor his gospel ever preached, as soon as the true faith shed there the first rays of the truth, men of temperaments quite dif- ferent from ours, kings illustrious by their nobility, redoubtable for their power, happy in the abund mce of their possessions, conquerors and warriors signalized by their victories, acknowledge the greatness and dignity of the Roman church, and hold it a great honor to kiss the feet of the church's head by the lips of persons infinitely dear to them ; all this happens while we see men at our very gates blind and impious enough to wish to cut otf with a parricidal hand the head of the mystic body of Jesus Christ, and to call in doubt, to their own ruin, the authority of the holy see, established by Jesus Christ himself, confirmed by the course of so many ages, defended by the writings of so many holy doctors, recognized and approved by so many councils ! -" But it is not proper that I should give way to grief, or trouble the joys of this day by the recollection of our miseries ! ' To this address, on behalf of the Japanese princes and theii ambassadors, Monseigncur Antony Uocapaduli replied in Latin, in the Pope's name, as follows : 92 JAPAN. A. D. 15771536. " His holiness commands me, most noble lords, to say to you that Don. Francis, king of Bungo, Dom Protais, king of Arima, ami Dom Burthelvmi, prince of Omura, have acted like wise and religious princes in sending you from the extremities of Asia to acknowledge the power with which God'a bounty hath clothed him on the earth, since there is but one faith, one church universal, and but a single chief and supreme pastor, whose authority ex- tends to all parts of the earth where there are Christians, which pastor and only head is the bishop of Rome, the successor of St. Peter. He is charmed to see that they believe firmly and profess aloud this truth, with all the other articles that compose the Catholic faith. He gives ceaseless thanks to the divine goodness which hits wrought these marvels ; and this joy appears to him so much the more legitimate, as it has its foundation in the zeal by which he is animated for the glory of the Almighty, and the salvation of souls which the incarnate Word has purchased with his blood. This is why this venerable pontiff and all the sacred college of the cardinals of the Uouian church receive, with a truly paternal affection, the protestation which you make to the vicar of Jesus Christ of faith, filial devotion and obedience, on the part of the princes whom you represent. His holiness earnestly desires and prays to God that all the kings and princes of Japan, and all those who rule in other parts of the world, may imitate so good an example, may re- nounce their idols and all their errors, may adore in spirit and in truth the sovereign Lord who has created this universe, and his only son, Jesus Christ, whom he has sent into the world ; since it is in this knowledge and this faith that eternal life consists." This reply finished, the ambassadors were conducted around to the foot of the throne, and again kissed the feet of the Pope ; after which the cardinals, drawing near, embraced them, and put to them many questions as to their travels and the rarities of their country : questions to which they replied with so much sense and acutenesa as to cause no little admiration. At length the Pope rose, exclaiming, Nunc dimittis servum tuum Domine (which might by a pious Catholic be taken as a proph- ecy of his approaching death). The two chief ambassadors, who were of the blood royal, were directed to lift up the train of his robes, an honor monopolized, as far as the princes of Europe were concerned, by the ambassador of the emperor. The holy father having been thus conducted to his apartment, the cardinal St. Six- tus, his nephew, the cardinal Guastavillani and the duke of Sora, entertained the Japanese at a magnificent dinner. A private audi- ence followed, in which the ambassadors delivered the presents they had brought, and the Pope announced that he had endowed tha LETTERS FROM THE POPE. 93 proposed new seminary at Fucheo with an annual dotation of four thousand Roman crowns. Gregory XIII. died a few days after ; * but his successor, Sixtus V., who, as cardinal of Monte Alto, had taken greatly to the Japanese, was not less favorable to them as Pope. They assisted, among the other ambassadors of kings, at his coronation, bearing the canopy and holding the basin for his Holiness to wash in when he said mass. They had the same honors when the pontiff was enthroned at Saint John Lateran. The holy father afterwards invited them to visit his country-house, where they were splendidly entertained and regaled on his behalf by his steward and four-and- twenty prelates. Finally, on the eve of the Ascension, in the presence of all the Koman nobility, they were dubbed knights of the gilded spurs. The Pope himself girded on their swords, while the spurs of the two princes were buckled on by the ambassadors of France and Venice, and those of the two others by the Marquis Altemps ; after which the Pope placed about their necks chains of gold, to which his medal was attached, and kissed and embraced them. The next day his Holiness said mass in person, and they communicated from his hand. He dismissed them with briefs, addressed to their princes, of which the following may serve as a sample : " BRIEF OF POPE SIXTUS V. TO THE KING OF ARIMA. " JVoble prince and our well-beloved son, salvation and apostolical bene- diction. " Our well-beloved son Dom Michael, your ambassador to this court, deliv- ered to Pope Gregory XIII., our predecessor, of holy and happy memory, now, as we must presume, in glory, the letters with which your majesty had charged him ; and after these letters had been publicly read, he rendered to that pontiff the obedience due to the vicar of Jesus Christ, and which all Catholic kings are accustomed to render to him. This was done in presence of all the cardinals of the holy church, then assembled at Rome, of which number we were. A greater concourse of persons of all conditions, and a greater public joy, had never been seen. Shortly after, it having pleased God to charge us, without our having in the least merited it, with the government of his church, we have also received with entirely paternal tenderness the * His reception of the Japanese and his reformation of the calendar are both recorded together in his epitaph. 94 JAPAN. A. D. 1577 15SC. eame duties of obedience which Dom Michael has renewed to us, in the namft of your majesty ; whereupon we have tiiouglit proper to add you to the number of our very dear children, the Catholic kings of the holy church. We have seen, with much joy and satisfaction, the testimonies of your piety and re- ligion ; and, to give you the means of increasing these in your heart, we have sent you, by your before-named ambassador, inclosed in a cross of gold, a piece of the cross to which was nailed Jesus Christ, King of kings and eter- nal Priest, who, by the effusion of his blood, has made us also kings and priests of the living God. We send you, also, a sword and hat, which we have blessed, such as it is the custom of the Roman pontiff to send to all the Catholic kings, and we pray the Lord to be the support of your majesty in all your enterprises. According to the usage in the courts of the kings of Europe, the sword and hat should be received at the end of a mass, to which we shall attach a plenary indulgence for all sins for the benefit of all who may assist thereat, and who, after having confessed themsehes, shall pray for the tranquillity of the Catholic church, the salvation of the Christian, princes, and the extirpation of heresies provided they have a true confidence in the divine mercy, in the power which has been given to the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and in that with which we are clothed. Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the seal of the fisherman," &c. From Rome, escorted out of the city with all honors, the ambassa- dors went by way of Loretto, where they paid their devotions, to Venice, and thence to Milan and Genoa, at which latter place they embarked for Barcelona. They declined, as they had been so long from home, a pressing invitation from Henry III. to visit France, and, after a new audience with Philip II., they hastened to sail from Lisbon on their return voyage, embarking April 13th, 1586.* * The Letters, Briefs, and the Discourse on Obedience, above quoted, mny be found at length in Latin, in the very valuable and rich collection, De Rebus Ja- ponicis Intlicis and Peruvianis Epixtolce Recentiores, edited by John Hay, of Dalgetty, a Scotch Jesuit, and a sharp controversialist, published in 1605 ; in Sp.uiish, in Father Luys de Gusman's Historic tie los Jlfissiones, que h.iin hcc'io los Rellijioses de la Campania de Jesus, fyc., published in 1601, of which the larger part is devoted to the Japanese mission ; in Italian, in Father Daniel Bat oil's Hisloria dela Compagnia de Gesu ; and in French, in Charlevoix's Hisloire du Japan. An Italian history of the mission was printed at Rome, 1585, the same, I suppose, of which a Latin translation is given In Hay's collection ; and a still rarer and more valuable one at Macao, in 1500, of which a further account will be by remaining in the world than by quitting it, and on that ground he advised Ucondono not to withdraw from that station in life in which Providence had placed him. At last the emperor consented to admit Valignani to an audience, but only on condition that he should say nothing about religion or the revocation of the edict against the Jesuits. Through the care of Condera, to whom that business had been entrusted, the embassy was received at Miako with all honor, and was able to make a display which strongly impressed the inhabi- tants, and even the emperor in its favor. On the day of audience, Dainangandono, the emperor's nephew and presumptive heir, at- tended by a great number of lords, met the ambassador, and con- ducted him to the hall of audience. This hall, which opened upon a magnificent balcony, before which spread a parterre of great beauty, consisted of five several divisions, rising, like steps, one above the other. The first served as an ante-chamber, or hall of waiting, for the gentlemen in attendance. In the two next were assembled the lords of the court and the great officers of the em- pire, arranged in order, according to their rank. In the fourth, there were only two persons, a priest who held the first dignity in the household of the Dairi, and the chief counsellor of that same dignitary ; by the side of whom Dainangandono also took his place, after introducing the ambassador to the fifth and highest apart- ment, in which the emperor was seated alone, on his heels, in the Japanese fashion, upon an elevated throne, approached by steps on all sides. Father Valignani was preceded by one of the Portu- guese gentlemen of his suite, bearing the letter of the viceroy of the Indies, written in gilded letters upon fine vellum, with a golden seal attached to it, the whole enclosed in a little box beautifully wrought. That letter was as follows : LETTER OF THE VICEROY OP GOA TO THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN. " MOST SERENE EMPEROR : Though the great space that separates us haa not hitherto allowed me much communication with your majesty, yet fame and the religious men who labor in your empire to make known the law of the true God to your subjects, have informed me of the great deeds done by you, and of the victories which have made you the greatest monarch who lias reigned in Japan for ages ; and I have therefore thought it my duty to congratulate your majesty on the happy successes with which the God of 106 JAPAN. A. D. 15881593. heaven has favored you. The same religious men, who are, for the most part, uatural-born subjects of the great prince whom the Indies obey, and who gc through the earth with a truly heroical courage to teach men to know and to adore the Author of nature, have also informed me of the distinguished favora with which your majesty has uniformly honored them, and have begged me to convey to you their thanks, which I willingly do, conjointly with my own ; and that, indeed, is the particular object of this embassy, with which I have charged the Father Alexander Valignani, who lias the honor to be already known to you. After rendering to your majesty his humblest thanks for your past favors, he will supplicate you, in my name, to vouchsafe to con- tinue them ; and I dare to assure your majesty that subjects for your favors cannot be found who will merit them better. Favors to them I shall esteem as favors to me, and shall bike every opportunity to acknowledge them as such. I have charged my ambassador to present 3'ou with two Arabian genets, with their housings and harness, two swords, and two guns of a new fashion, two webs of tapestry embroidered with gold, and two complete suits of wrought steel armor, a dagger, which serves also as a pistol, and a tent for country excursions. " At Goa, this year of Redemption, 1587. " DOM EDWARD DE MENESKZ."* The presents seemed greatly to please the emperor, by whom they were carefully examined. A signal being given, Valignani was led up the steps of the throne to the emperor's feet, whom, on bended knee, he saluted, after the European fashion, by kissing his hand, a privilege to which all the members of his suite were admitted in succession, the ambassador being meanwhile seated in the third compartment among the grandees of the court. Tea was then served to the emperor in a gilded cup, which, after sipping from it a little, he sent to the ambassador, who, at the same time, received, by way of present, a hundred silver platters and four silk dresses. Presents were also distributed among the members of his suite. The emperor then retired, first directing his nephew to en- tertain the ambassador at dinner, which he did, but with more of ceremony than good cheer. The guests consisted of three mem- bers of the imperial family and eight other great lords, all eating, each from his own little table or salver, in profound silence, many persons of inferior rank standing about them. The ambassador's suite were entertained at the same time in a separate apartment. * This letter, with the reply in the next chapter, is given by Froer, from whom Gasman has copied them. VALIGNANl'S AUDIENCE. 107 After dinner the emperor again made his appearance in undress, and, seating himself beside Father Valignani, conversed with him for some time. He also conversed freely with the four returned Japan- ese, arid seemed much pleased at hearing them sing and play in the European fashion. He made great offers to one of them ; but they had all made up their minds to enter the company of the Jesuits, which, in spite of a good deal of opposition on the part of their friends and relations, they presently did.* Passing into the hall where the ambassador's suite had dined, the emperor addressed them with great familiarity, and they improved the opportunity to complain of some oppressions, on the part of the collector of the port of Nagasaki, which he promised should be redressed.! In the evening, Rodriguez, a young Portuguese Jesuit, who acted as one of Valignani's interpreters, was sent for to show the emperor how to wind up a clock which the ambassador had presented to him. The emperor seemed much pleased wjth Rodriguez's conversation, detaining him till late at night. On dismissing him, he bade him say to Father Valignani that he was at liberty to remain at Miako or wherever he pleased, till an answer to the viceroy's let- ter was prepared, but that he must take care that the ecclesiastics who accompanied him comported themselves with discretion, so as not to drive him into striking disagreeable blows. Not long after Rodriguez was selected as the emperor's interpreter, in which capacity he became attached to the court, and, by his access to the emperor and influence with him, had opportunities of rendering essential service to his order.! * Letters from the ambassadors to Sixtus V., written at Nagasaki after their arrival there, and giving an account of their voyage home, may be found in Hay's collection. t Valignani was not the first European to obtain an imperial audience. The same favor had been granted, as already mentioned, by Josi Tir to Father Vilela, in 1659. Louis Froez had also been admitted, in 1665, to an audience of the same emperor, of which he has given a short but interesting account. t This is the same Rodriguez whose Japanese grammars are mentioned in note A, Appendix, and who subsequently was the writer of many annual letters from Japan. CHAPTER XIII. NEW TROUBLES OF TUB MISSIONARIES FROM THEIR OWN COUNTRYMEN. Till EMPEROR CLAIMS HOMAGE OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINES. MU- TUAL JEALOUSIES OF THE PORTUGUESE AND SPANIARDS. SPANISH ADVEN- TURERS IN JAPAN. THE EMPEROR'S SUSPICIONS EXCITED. UI9 REPLY TO THE VICEROY OF GOA. A. D. loC-1 1592. VALIGNANI'S gracious reception greatly raised the hopes of the Japanese converts. ]Jut much annoyance was soon experienced from two pagan lords, who had been appointed joint governors of Nagasaki. Nor was it pagan hostility alone which the Jesuits had to dread. Enemies even more dangerous were found among their own countrymen in Japan, many of whom had ceased to ex- hibit that zeal for the faith, at first so universal. The irregular conduct of certain Portuguese merchants, in frequenting ports where there were no missionaries, and where they could freely follow their ?wn devices, had greatly troubled the Jesuit fathers. A Japanese idventurer, by name Firanda, having gone to the Philippines o trade, had -taken it into his head to suggest to the emperor of lapan to require the Spanish governor of those islands to acknowl- tuge him as sovereign. This idea, conveyed to the emperor through * Japanese courtier with whom Firanda was intimate, was eagerly caught at by a prince rendered vain by the elevation to which he dad attained, and whose head was filled with schemes for still further extending his empire. lie wrote an imperious letter to the governor of the Philippines, demanding his homage, and despatched : t by the hand of Firanda, who applied to Father Yalignuni, to write to the Jesuits at Manilla, and to the Spanish governor, in furtherance of this project. Valignani refused to write any such letters, alleging as an ostensible reason, that he had no acquaint- ance with the governor of the Philippines, nor authority over the SPANIARDS IX JAPAN. 109 Jesuits of Manilla ; and, in consequence of this refusal, Firanda did not venture to carry the letter himself, but sent it by another band. Valignani wrote, however, by a simultaneous opportunity, to the Jesuits of Manilla, informing them of this affair, suggesting itg delicate character, and the expediency, while due care was had of the honor of the Spanish crown, of not giving to the emperor of Japan any pretence for renewing his persecution of the mission- aries. Notwithstanding the union of the crowns of Spain and Portugal, upon the head of Philip II., a very fierce jealousy and hatred con- tinued to exist between the two nations ; and this feeling was par- ticularly violent at Manilla, which city, founded in 1572, was almost contemporaneous in its origin with Nagasaki, and whose merchants looked very enviously at the monopoly of the trade to Japan secured to the Portuguese, and to the city of Macao, by the terms of the union between the two crowns. This express exclusion of all Spanish merchants from Japan had been indeed already broken through, in at least two instances, by the arrival of one Jean de Solis from Peru, by way of Macao, and of another Spanish merchant from the Philippines, both of whom, after various adventures, and receiving aid and services from the Jesuit missionaries, had reached Nagasaki. Solis soon after proceeded to Satsuma on the southern coast of Ximo, where he commenced building a vessel in which to trade to China and thence to Peru, a project in which he was presently joined by the other Spaniard. But to carry out this scheme it became necessary for Solis to get back a sum of money which he had been compelled to deposit in the hands of the Portu- guese, at Nagasaki, as security for certain debts which he had con- tracted at Macao ; and because Father Valignani would not help them in this matter, the two Spaniards threatened to give informa- tion to the emperor of the large number of Jesuits still in Japan, in violation of his edict, and to denounce the princes who gave them shelter. The emperor, meanwhile, had been a good deal soured and his suspicions excited by some suggestions, thrown out by the enemies of the Jesuits, that Valignani was no real ambassador, that being a mere pretence to secure his entry into Japan. Means, indeed, had been found to quiet him upon this head, to which the repre- 10 110 JAPAN. A. D. 15911592. sentations of Rodriguez greatly contributed ; but the answer which he caused to be prepared to the viceroy's letter, took so high a tone, and was so filled with invectives against the missionaries, that Yalignani was unwilling to be the bearer of it. Finally, by the persuasions of the governor of Miako, an idola- ter, but favorable to the new religion, the emperor was induced to modify his letter ; and he even adopted a crafty suggestion of Rod- riguez that the Jesuits whom Valignani had brought with him should remain at Nagasaki as hostages, till the authenticity of his mission was placed beyond question. The letter, as finally modified, a frank exposition of Taiko's policy, was in the following terms : TAIKO-SAMA TO THE VICEROY OF GOA. " MOST ItLUBTRiors LORD : I received with pleasure the letter which you wrote me, and in reading it seemed to realize that great distance between us of which you speak. Japan contains more than sixty realms or principali- ties, which have been for a long time agitated by troubles and civil wars, growing out of the refusal of the princes to render to their sovereign lord the obedience which they owe him. The sight of so many evils sensibly afflicted me from my earliest age, and I revolved in my mind a remedy for them ; and with that view I laboriously applied myself to the acquisition of three virtues the most necessary for so great an undertaking. In the first place, I studied affability, so as to gain all hearts. Next I strove to accustom myself to judge soundly of all things, and to comport myself at all times with prudence and discretion. In the third place, I have omitted no occasion of inspiring a high idea of my valor. Thus have I succeeded in subjecting all Japan to my authority, which I govern with a mildness equal to the courage displayed in subduing it. I have especially caused the effects of my tender- ness to be felt by the laborers who cultivate the earth. All my severity is reserved for those who deviate from the paths of virtue. Nothing is more tranquil than J ipan at this moment, and it is this tranquillity which makes it strong This vast monarchy is like a firmly-fixed rock ; all the efforts of its enemies cannot shake it. So, not only am I at peace at home, but even very distant countries send to render me the obedience which is my due. I expect soon to conquer China, and as I have no doubt of succeeding in it, I hope we shall soon be much nearer to each other, and that the communication between us will not be so difficult. " As to what regards religion, Japan is the realm of the KAMI, that is, of BIX, the beginning of all things ; and tlie good order of the government de pends upon the exact observance of the ancient laws of which the Kami are the authors. They cannot be departed from without overturning the subor- dination which ought to exist, of subjects to their sovereign, wives to their hus- POLICY OF TAIKO-SAMA. Hi bands, children to their parents, vassals to their lords, and servants to their masters. These laws are necessary to maintain good order within and tranquil- lity without. The fathers, called the Company, have come to these islands tc teach another religion ; but as that of the Kami is too deeply rooted to be erad- icated, this new law can only serve to introduce into Japan a diversity of worship very prejudicial to the state. It is on that account that, by an im- perial edict, I have forbidden these strange doctors to continue to preach their doctrine. I have even ordered them to leave Japan, and I am deter- mined not to allow anybody to come thither to retail new opinions. But I still desire that commerce, as between you and me, may continue on its old footing. I shall keep the way open to you both by sea and land, by freeing the one from pirates and the other from robbers. The Portuguese may trade with my subjects in all security, and I shall take care that nobody harms them. All the presents mentioned in your letter have been faithfully delivered ; and I send you in return some rarities of this country, of which a list is annexed. For other matters I refer you to your ambassador, and will therefore say no more. Dated the 25th year of the era Tengo, and the 25th of the 7th month." It would seem from this letter and from -what we know of the actual policy adopted by Tuiko-Sama and his predecessor Nobu- nanga, that, in seeking to reestablish the imperial authority on its old traditional basis, th^y had aimed, also, at reedifying the old national religion. Nobunanga- had treated the Buddhist bonzes with very great severity ; and, though the policy of Taiko was less bloody, they do not appear to have enjoyed any share of his favor ; and it is to be observed that in his letter he speaks exclusively of the religion of the Kami as the creed proper to Japan. The assur- ances on the subject of commerce seemed the more necessary on account of a dispute which had arisen between the governors of Nangasaki and the commander of the annual Portuguese ship, which, however, on appeal to the emperor, had been settled against the governors. The presents that accompanied this letter were two suits of Japanese armor, not so strong as the armor of Europe, but very handsome, a kind of espontoon or halbert, enclosed in a scab- bard of gold, and a sabre and poniard of the highest temper, and richly ornamented. CHAPTER XIV. THE EXPEDITION AGAINST COREA. THE EMPEROR ASSOCIATES HIS NEPHEW CITY OF FUSIMI. CORRESPONDENCE OF THE EMPEROR WITH THE GOV ERNOR OF MANILLA. THE JESUITS DENOUNCED BY THE SPANISH ENVOYS CONSEQUENCES THEREOF. DEPARTURE OF VALIGNANI. A. D. 1592. MEANWHILE, an army of eighty thousand men, divided into four corps, had been raised for the war against Corea ; and not to leave the country without a head, should the emperor choose himself to lead the invading forces, he took his nephew as an associate in the empire, resigning to him the title of Kambacun- dono, while he assumed for himself that of Taiko-Sama, the title by which this most illustrious of the Japanese emperors is com- monly known. Though much engaged in this foreign enterprise, he still found time to lay the foundations of the new city of Fusimi, which he designed to make his capital, but the nearness of which to Miako ultimately placed it in the position of a sort of suburb to that ancient city. The first division of the invading army, which at length set sail, was led by the grand admiral, king of Fingo, whose troops, as well as those of the second division, led by the son of Condera, the king of Buygcn, were drawn from the island of Ximo, and were composed almost entirely, officers as well as men, of Catholic con- verts. And, indeed, the suspicion soon began to be entertained that Corea had been invaded, not so much to add new provinces to the Taiko-Sama's empire, as to keep the converted princes employed away from home. While the emperor, to look after and to second the invasion, hast- ened to Ximo, where his presence caused no little alarm to the mis- sionaries, the grand admiral was already making rapid progress SPANISH INTRIGUES. Ho Having taken two places by assault, all the others, as far as the capital, opened their gates. To save their capital, the Corcana fought and lost a pitched battle. A second victory, on the part of the grand admiral, drove the Corean king to seek refuge in China, while the capital opened its gates to the triumphant Japanese.* But the joy of the missionaries at the success of an army led by one of their adherents, and so largely composed of converts, was not a little damped by a side blow from another and an unex pccted quarter. So anxious was the Spanish governor of Manilla to improve every chance for opening a trade with Japan, that, in spite of the imperious character of the emperor's letter, he sent an answer to it by a Spanish gentleman named Liano, in which, indeed, he evaded its demands by suggesting that the mean quality of the person who had brought it, and his not having heard any- thing on the subject from the Jesuits at Nagasaki, had led him to suspect its authenticity. Liano, accompanied by a Dominican friar, landed in Satsuma, where he met with Solis, the Spaniard from Peru, still busy with his ship-building enterprise, and in no very good humor with the Portuguese and the Jesuits. To confer with Firanda, the envoys proceeded to Nagasaki, which city they * According to the letters of Louis Froez, the prince of Omura joined the army against Corea with one thousand men, the king of Arirna with two thousand, and the king of Bungo with ten thousand, besides mariners and mean people to carry the baggage. The entire number of men-at-arm in the empire, at this time, is stated to have been, by a written catalogue, three hundred thousand. The victories mentioned in the text were gained by an advanced body of fifteen thousand men. The Coreans (of whom to this day we know little or nothing) are described by Froez as different from the Chi- nese in race and language, and superior to them in personal prowess, yet as in a manner tributary to China, whose laws, customs and arts, they had bor- rowed. They are represented as good bowmen, but scantily provided with other weapons, and therefore not able to encounter the cannon, lances and swords, of the Japanese, who had been, beside, practised by continual wars among themselves. But in nautical affairs Froez reckons the Chinese and Coreans as decidedly superior to the Japanese. Translations from several Jesuit letters relating to the Corean war, will be found in Hackluyt, vol. iv., near the end. Siebold, relying upon Japanese authorities, insists that it was through Corea that the arts, knowledge, language and written characters, of China were introduced into Japan. 10* 114 JAPAN. A. D. 15U2. left again without any communication with the Portuguese mer- chants, or the missionaries; and, accompanied by Firanda aud his> Japanese friend, Faxagava, they hastened to the northern coast of Ximo, where the emperor then was. Faxagava and Firanda translated so ill the letter of the governor of Manilla, as to make it express something of a disposition to comply with the emperor'a pretensions, who, thereupon, wrote a second letter, declaring the other to be genuine, and renewing the demand which it had con- tained of submission and homage. The envoys, without fully un- derstanding its contents, consented to receive this letter ; and in the hope that, if the Portuguese were driven away, the commerce of Japan might fall into the hands of the Spaniards of Manilla, they proceeded to suggest heavy complaints against the Portuguese at Nagasaki, whom they not only charg^-d as guilty of great harshness in support of their commercial monopoly, hut also with protecting the Jesuits, great numbers of whom, in spite of the emperor's edicts, still continued to be sheltered in that city and its neighborhood. The emperor either was, or had affected to be ignorant of the extent to which his edicts had been disregarded. This information put him into a great rage ; and he issued instant orders for the destruc- tion of the splendid church at Nagasaki, hitherto untouched, and also of the house of the Jesuits, who had now no place of residence left there except the hospital of Misrecordia. JJut these wicked Spaniards did not long go unpunished. Solis, on his way back to Satsuma, perished by shipwreck, as did the Spanish envoys on their return voyage to Manilla. It was stated, too, that the emperor's mother died at Miako, at the very moment of his signing the order for the destruction of the church, judgments so striking as to become, so we are told by the missionaries, the occasion of many conversions. Such was the state of affairs when Father Valignani, leaving Japan for the second time, sailed for Macao in October, 1;VJ2. CHAPTER XV. PROGRESS OF THE COREAN WAR. SUCCESS OF THE. JAPANESE. TSUKAMDONO VICEROY OF COREA. EDICT OF THE EMPEROR FOR DISARMING THE CON- VERTS IN XIMO. DISGRACE AND DOWNFALL OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF BONGO. TERAZABA GOVERNOR OF NAGASAKI. HIS CONVERSION AND FRIENDLY ACTS. A. D. 1592 1593. THOUGH the emperor did not himself pass into Corea, he sent thither such reinforcements as to raise his army there to the num- ber of two hundred thousand men. But the Coreans having aban- doned their cities and fled to inaccessible places, burning everything, even to provisions, which they could not carry away (thus setting an example long afterwards followed by the Russians on a similar occasion), this great force was soon reduced to extremities, by which its numbers were rapidly diminished. The Chinese also came to the assistance of the'Coreans ; and the grand admiral, with forces so reduced as to be greatly inferior in numbers, was obliged to encounter these new enemies in several desperate engagements. Compelled at last to retreat, he fell back upon a garrison which he had left to keep up his communications with the coast, the com- mand of which he had entrusted to Joscimon, king of Bungo. But that feeble prince, in a moment of terror, had abandoned his post ; and, the grand admiral's communications thus cut off, nothing but his distinguished firmness and courage saved his army from total destruction. After a drawn battle under the walls of the Corean capital, terms of peace were agreed upon, according to which five of the eight provinces of Corea were assigned to the Japanese; and the commerce between China and Japan, which by the act of the former had for some time been broken off, was again renewed. The admiral was named viceroy of Corea, and the converted princes were still detained there at the head of their troops. The 116 JAPAN. A. D. 15021593. missionaries, thus separated from their protectors, were filled with new alarms by an order of the emperor for disarming all their converts in Xiino. The king of Bongo, as a punishment for his cowardice, was stripped of his estates ; and in the end he and hia family, reduced to absolute poverty, were obliged to retire to Naga- saki, and to live there on the charity of the Jesuits. His territo- ries were assigned to pagan lords, and the converted inhabitants soon felt the consequences of the change. Indeed, throughout Ximo the converts suffered greatly by the absence of their princes, of whom several died about this time. But, in general, the Catholics stood firm ; and several of the Jesuit fathers having made their way to Corea, new converts were made in the ranks of the army. The missionaries also found a new friend in Terazaba, a young man appointed governor of Nagasaki, and who, not long after, was secretly baptized. He represented to the emperor that, if the Portuguese merchants were still to be admitted to trade at Nagasaki, they ought to be allowed some priests, since it was the influence and authority of the priests that kept the merchants in order, settled their quarrels, and obliged them to strict justice in their commercial transactions ; and, upon the strength of these plau- sible representations, Terazaba obtained leave for the Jesuits to rebuild their house and church at Nagasaki. Father Gnecchi, also, in consideration of his age and infirmities, was allowed to remain at Miako, though without any church, or permission to celebrate divine service openly. CHAPTER XVI. tALOUSY ON THE PART OF THE DOMINICANS AND FRANCISCANS TOWARDS TUB JESUITS. THIS JEALOUSY COOPERATES WITH TUB MERCANTILE JEALOUSY OF THE SPANIARDS AT MANILLA. FRANCISCAN FRIARS ESTABLISH THEM- SELVES AT MIAKO, OSAKA AND NAGASAKI. EDICTS AGAINST THEM. DE- POSITION AND DEATH OF THE EMPEROR'S NEPHEW. A. D. 15931595. IT was not alone against the emperor's hostility and the mercan- ti -e envy of the Spanish that the Jesuits had to contend. The n sid rise and great successes of the Company of Jesus had excited ao^mst them not only the dread and deadly hatred of the Protest- ant (which might naturally enough have been expected), but feel- ings also of envy and jealousy, scarcely less hostile, and by no means very scrupulous, on the part of their monastic brethren of the Oatholic church the Dominicans, and especially the numerous bodvu* of Franciscans, who had attempted, by various reforms and mod>weations, to revive and purify that ancient order, so as to make it eqvial to compete with the Jesuits. A biief of Pope Gregory XIII., dated in 1585, had forbidden, under paiu of the greater excommunication, any but Jesuits to pro- ceed t(/ Japan with the view of exercising any ecclesiastical func- tion tKvre , and this bull was not less disagreeable to the Domini- cans f.rid Franciscans, than the Portuguese monopoly of the Japaneins traue was to the Spanish merchants. At Manilla these feelings f dissatisfaction, both mercantile and ecclesiastical, com- bined in a common focus, giving rise to the most injurious and unfounded reports, which were even embodied in print, of extensive apostasies *iong the Japanese converts, and of the great jeopardy into which v&tholicism had been brought by the misconduct of the Jesuits, wt. , at this moment, were out of favor in Spain. The sanu Faxanda already mentioned, having gone in person to 118 JAPAN. A. D. 15931595. Manilla, inflamed the zeal of some Franciscans whom he found there, by representing that it was to the Jesuit missionaries person- ally, and not to their religion, that the emperor was opposed. The Spanish governor, not having received the emperor's answer to his former letter, was induced, in the hope of opening the door to com- mercial intercourse, to write a new one; and four Franciscans attached themselves to the bearer of it, eagerly seizing upon this opportunity to gain admission into Japan. When the emperor found that these new deputies had not brought the submission which he had demanded, at first he was very angry, but was finally persuaded to allow them to travel through the em- pire, in order to see and to report its greatness. The Franciscans were even suffered to build or buy a house at Miako, to which they presently added a church ; and, being joined by others of their order, a convent was established at Osaka. Two of them having gone to Nagasaki, took possession of a church in the environs of that city, which had remained closed since the commencement of the persecu- tion ; and here, as well as in the other two cities, they performed their religious functions with an ostentation and publicity which greatly alarmed the Jesuits, whom the Franciscans accused of an unworthy timidity. The Jesuits, under these circumstances, thought proper to call the attention of these new comers to the bull of Gregory XIII., above referred to, prohibiting the entry into Japan of any ecclesias- tics except those of the Company of Jesus ; to which the Francis- cans replied, that they had entered Japan not as ecclesiastics, but as envoys from the governor of Manilla ; and that being there without any violation of the bull, nobody had any right to prevent them from exercising their ecclesiastical functions a piece of casuistry which not even a Jesuit could have outdone. Very soon, however, the governor of Nagasaki closed the church of the Fran- ciscans, and, before long, an edict appeared threatening the punish- ment of death to all who frequented their convent and church at Miako, procedures which the Franciscans were uncharitable enough to ascribe to the intrigues of the Jesuits. It seems prob- able, however, that decisive steps would still earlier have been taken against these over-zealous Franciscans, had not the emperor's attention been engrossed by other more pressing matters. He had THE DAIRI AND HIS COURT. 119 conceived a jealousy against his nephew and colleague, whom, by Blow and cautious steps, he stripped of all his authority, sending him at length to a monastery of bonzes, where he soon received an order to cut himself open. The thirty-one wives of the deposed prince, with all their children, were publicly beheaded, and all his closest adherents shared his disgrace, and many of them his trag- ical fate.* An infant son, by name Fide Jori, borne to the emperor from his new wife, the daughter of the Dairi, and to whom he desired to secure the succession, was the innocent cause of these cruelties. No sooner was the nephew out of the way than that infant received from the Dairi the title of Kambucundono. * Yet Taiko-Sama was not in general cruel. ' A curious letter of Father Org-mtino Brixiano, written in 15'J4, enumerates, among the reasons of Taiko's great success, his clemency to the conquered princes whom he never put to death after having once promised them their lives, and to whom he granted a revenue, small, but sufficient to maintain them, and which served to keep them quiet. Another reason was his having established for his sol- diers during war a commissariat, of which he paid the expense, by which they were rendered much more efficient. He also kept them employed, fur, besides the army maintained in Corea, he set them to work in building or repairing palaces and fortresses, or in other public work's. At this time he had thirty thousand men at work upon one castle near Miako, and one hun- dred thousand at Fusimi. -He also broke the power of the princes by trans- ferring them to distant parts, while he inspired general respect by his strict justice, from which he was swerved by no considerations of relationship, fam- ily or influence, secular or religious. Another reason mentioned by the mis- sionary does not correspond so well with Taiko's letter to the viceroy of Goa. He is said not only to have disarmed the country people, by whose strength and wealth the petty kingdoms had been sustained, but also to have reduced them to extreme poverty ; but this, perhaps, applies rather to the petty lords than to the actual cultivators. This letter is in Hay's collec- tion, and a part of it, in English, may be found in Hackluiyt's 4th volume. CHAPTER XVII. GREAT EARTHQUAKE. MISSION FROM CHINA. ARRIVAL OF A SPANISH GALLEON. FRIARS ON BOARD HER. NEW ACCUSATIONS ON HER ACCOUNT AGAINST THE JESUITS. CONNECTION OF THE JESUITS WITH THE TRADE TO JAPAN. ARUEST OF MISSIONARIES AND CONVERTS. FIRST MARTYRS. A. D. 1595-1597. THE emperor, now at the height of his power and glory, was mak- ing great preparations to receive an embassy from China, when Japan was visited by a frightful earthquake, which almost ruined his new city of Fusimi. The sea rose to an extraordinary height, especially in the strait between Nipon and Sikokf, attended with a terrible destruction of life and property. Nor did the mission from China at all answer the expectation of the emperor, since the am- bassadors demanded nothing less than the entire evacuation of Corea, a demand which speedily led to a renewal of the war. In 1596, a richly-laden Spanish galleon, from the Philip- pines, disabled and driven by adverse winds to the coast of Japan, was induced, partly by persuasions, and partly by a show of force, to enter a harbor on the south coast of Sikokf, where she was imme- diately seized by the local authorities as forfeited. The commander of the vessel sent two of his officers to Miako to solicit a remission of this forfeiture, which mission was charged to have nothing to do with the Jesuits, but to consult only with the Franciscans estab- lished in that city. It had, however, no success. The prize seemed to the emperor too valuable to be given up. Driven at length by extremity to seek the aid of the Jesuits, the ship's company, after being for some time supported by their charity, were shipped off by their assistance to Manilla, all except four Augustine friars, a Do- minican and two Franciscans, who remained in Japan as missionaries. But, instead of getting any thanks from the inhabitants of Manilla, JESUIT PARTICIPATION IN COMMERCE. 121 the Jesuits were accused of having by their intrigues caused the for- feiture of the ship and her cargo.* A narrative of the affair, written by a monk, and full of charges against the Jesuits, was printed there, and sent to Spanish Ameri- ca, whence it was carried to Europe, and widely diffused by the enemies of the order, being soon followed by violent memorials to the same effect, addressed to the Pope and the king of Spain. These charges, however, did not remain unanswered, a reply to them being published at Acapulco, signed by a number of Japanese who traded thither, and by several Spaniards and Portuguese who had been in Japan. It was the Manilla pamphlet above referred to which first brought against the Jesuits the charges, ultimately so damaging to the order, of an uncanonical connection with commerce. The account of this trade, so far as Japan was concerned, as given by the Jesuits them- selves, is as follows. The revenues of the mission had consisted at first only of the charities of some individuals, aided by a sum of five hundred ducats, paid yearly at Macao by the king of Portu- gal a donation doubled in 157-4, to facilitate the foundation of a college. Some considerable amounts hud been received at different times from the wealthier native converts ; but almost the whole of these sums had been expended in the founding and support of hos- pitals and other charities. For several years the chief resource of * Some curious information respecting the Philippines is contained in a letter dated Mexico, 1590, intercepted on its way to Spain by some English cruiser, and translated and published by Hackluyt in his fourth volume. This letter represents the country as very unhealthy " for us Spaniards," of whom not more than one thousand were left alive out of fourteen thousand who had gone there in the twenty years preceding. It seems, too, that the Spaniards at Manilla, not less than the Portuguese at Macao, had succeeded in opening a trade with China. " There is a place in China, which is an harbor called Macaran, which the king has given to the Spaniards freely ; which shall be the place where the ships shall come to traffic. For in this harbor there is a great river, which goeth up into the main land, unto divers towns and cities, which are near to this river." Where was this Spanish Chinese port ? The annual galleons to New Spain were to Manilla what the annual carac to Japan was to Macao a main support of the place. The privilege of putting a certain amount of goods on board was distributed among all tbo resident merchants, offices and public institutions. 11 122 JAPAN. A. D. 15951507. the fathers for their own support had been the proceeds of a fund of four thousand ducats, which Louis Almeida, on entering the order in 1556, and -devoting himself to the Japanese mission, as mentioned in a former chapter, had set aside tor that purpose out of his own private fortune, all the rest of which he had bestowed in the founding of hospitals. This fund had been en- trusted by Almeida to certain Portuguese merchants to trade upon for the benefit of the Jesuits. But, though this trust had been faithfully executed, the proceeds of it had been quite too small to support the increasing number of the missionaries. Some small pensions, allowed them by the Popes Gregory XIII. and Sixtus V., failed to make up the deficiency; and, at length, it was agreed by the commercial company at Macao, by whom the annual Portuguese carac was fitted out for Japan, and by means of which the chief trade between Japan and the Portuguese was now carried on, that out of the sixteen hundred packages of silks, which formed a part of her cargo, fifty (afterwards increased to eighty) packages should be shipped on account of the Jesuits an arrangement to which the viceroy of the Indies assented. For this business two commercial agencies were maintained by the Jesuits one at Macao, the other at Nagasaki. The enemies of the Jesuits insisted that they sent to Japan yearly goods to the value of a hundred and sixty thousand ducats, on which their profits were sixty thousand. This was probably exaggerated ; yet, when Charlevoix pretends that the whole annual Portuguese trade and profits did not amount to those sums, his statement is refuted as well by other known facts as by the vastly larger value of the cargoes of such of the annual caracs as some years later fell into the hands of the Dutch. While the unlucky affair of the forfeited Spanish galleon caused Europe to resound with accusations against the Jesuits, in Japan itself it had results more speedy and more fatal. The Spanish pilot, finding that entreaties did not succeed, had attempted to make an impression upon those who had seized the ship by expatiating on the power of the king of Spain, the extent of whose dominions in Europe, Asia, Africa and America, he exhibited on a map of the world. To the inquiry how such an extent of dominion had been obtained, the pilot replied that nothing was easier ; that the king began by sending missionaries into the countries he wished to con- FIRST MARTYRS. 125 quer, who, as soon as they had converted a part of the inhabitants, were followed by troops, which troops, being joined by the converts, easily succeeded in subduing the country. This statement, it is said, was immediately reported to the emperor, who no sooner heard it than he ordered guards to be placed at the doors of the Fran- ciscan convents at Miako and Osaka, at which latter city, since the earthquake, the emperor had made his residence. Guards were also placed at the houses of the Jesuits ; but in that at Osaka there was only one young priest with two proselytes, and in that at Miako only the aged Father Gnecchi, who soon, through the dexterity of some of his friends, was conveyed out of it unobserved by the guards. There were taken in the convents of the Franciscans three priests, a clerk and two lay brothers, one of them a Spanish Creole of Mex- ico, the other a Portuguese creole of the East Indies. A list was also ordered to be taken of the persons who frequented the Fran- ciscan churches at Miako and Osaka. A great many names were originally placed on it, but the governor of Miako, desirous to limit as much as possible the number of victims, finally struck off all but fifteen, who also were put under arrest. On the 3d of January, 1597, these twenty-four prisoners were taken to a public square in Miako, where each of them had the tip of his left ear cut off, after which they were placed in carriages and paraded through the streets. A similar ceremony soon after took place in Sakai and Osaka, whence the prisoners were sent to Naga- saki to be executed. At all the towns and cities on the way they were made a spectacle of, as if to terrify those of the same faith. But they exhibited, we are told, great fervor and firmness, making many new converts and inspiring many old ones with the desire of martyrdom. On the way their number was increased to twenty- six by the addition of two others who had greatly busied themselves in ministering to the wants of the prisoners, and who, upon being asked if they were Catholics, replied that they detested the gods of Japan. Fortunately for himself, Terezaba, the secretly-converted governor of Nagasaki, had been ordered to Corea, his place being supplied by a pagan brother of his, by whom an edict was issued threatening with death all who should embrace the foreign religion. At the same time he intimated to the Jesuits that he should allow no Japanese 124 JAPAN. A. D. 15951597. to enter their church in that city, nor themselves to traverse the country, as they had done, preaching and baptizing. He exhibited, however, every disposition to be as indulgent as possible in the execution of his orders; for though the prisoners were denied the privilege of hearing mass, they were permitted, on their way to the place of execution, to stop at the hermitage of St. Lazarus, where the Jesuits confessed to Father Rodriguez and another of their order, who met them there, and the Franciscans to each other. The place of execution was not that made use of for ordinary malefactors, but a hill bordering on the sea, one of those by which the city of Nagasaki is surrounded, and thenceforth known among the converts as the Holy Mountain, or Mount of Martyrs, to which name it gained still further claim by becoming the scene of many subsequent executions, continuing also, as long as the new religion lasted in Japan, a place of pilgrimage for its adherents. The prisoners were followed to this hill by an excited crowd, who, with tears and benedictions, besought their prayers. They were put to death by crucifixion, which, however, according to the Japanese method, is not a lingering punishment. The sufferer is bound, not nailed, to the cross and his body is immediately pierced by a lance, or sometimes by two lances, thrust in at the sides, and coming out at the shoulders. The earth, wet with the martyrs' precious blood, was sedulously gathered up by the bystanders, and, in spite of the care with which the bodies were guarded, those of the three Jesuits were conveyed away to Macao ; or, at least, bodies alleged to be the same were preserved in the churches there with great veneration as relics. Many miracles were alleged to have attended and followed the death of these martyrs, as to which duly authenticated affidavits may be found recorded in the great collection of Bolandus, afford- ing grounds for the canonization of these twenty-six Japanese pro- le-martyrs, decreed, thirty years after, by Pope Urban VIII. CHAPTER XVIII. NEW EDICT FOR THE DEPORTATION OF THE JESUITS. ITS PARTIAL EVASION. --NEW CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE PHILIPPINES AND JAPAN. TAI- KO-SASIA'S JUSTIFICATION OF HIS RECENT PROCEEDINGS. NEW DESTRUC- TION OF CHURCHES IN X1MO. TAIKO-SAMA'S DEATH. HIS PRECEDING EFFORTS TO SECURE HIS OWN DEIFICATION AND THE SUCCESSION OF HIS INFANT SON FIDO JORI. REGENCY. GE-JAS ITS HEAD, W1TII THE TITLE OF DAYSU-SAMA. A. D. 15971599. EVEN a more serious blow than the execution of the first martyrs, which seems rather to have warmed than to have cooled the zeai of the converted Japanese, was an order from the emperor to the governor of Nagasaki to collect all the missionaries, and to ship them off to China, except only his interpreter, Rodriguez, and two or three other Jesuits, who might be permitted to remain at Naga- saki for the benefit of the Portuguese traders. There were still in Japan as many as a hundred and twenty-five members of the Company, of whom forty-six were priests. To blind the emperor by an apparent submission to his will, it was agreed that the newly arrived bishop of Japan (the fourth appointed to this diocese, but the first who had arrived there) should depart in the same vessel in which he had come, especially as he might improve his absence to represent to the viceroy of the Indies the pressing necessities of his diocese. The novitiate, the college in the island of Amacusa,* and the seminary for young nobles hitherto kept on foot in Arima, were all given up, and most of the fathers connected with them set out for Nagasaki. Of the whole number, however, there remained behind eight in the island * The fathers resident at this college had been by no means idle. They had printed there, in 1508, a Japanese grammar, prepared by Father Alvarez, and in 1595, in a thick quarto of upwards of nine hundred pages, a Portuguese, Latin and Japanese Lexicon. A vocabulary entirely Japanese was printed at Nagasaki, 1598. See Appendix A. 11* 126 JAPAN. A. D. 1507 1509. of Aniakusa, twelve in Arima and Omura, four in Bungo, arid as many more in Firando and Gotto, while two others passed into Corea ; but it was understood that these priests thus left behind, while ministering to the faithful, should avoid doing anything that might draw attention upon them. The aged Father Gnecchi, with two priests and five or six other Jesuits, remained at Miuko, Father Matthew de Couros being ap- pointed to fill the place of Father Louis Frocz, lately deceased, in the office of sending to Home memoirs for the history of Japan. With these exceptions all the rest of the Jesuits assembled at Nagasaki, making a show of getting ready to depart. Indeed, the poop of a Portuguese vessel, which sailed shortly after, appeared to be full of them ; but most of these seeming Jesuits were only Por- tuguese merchants, dressed for the occasion in the habit of the order ; while, to account for the staying behind of any who migh'o happen to be detected in the provinces, it was given out that some had been left because the vessel was not large enough to take all. Soon after the departure of this vessel, a Spanish gentleman arrived from Manilla with presents and a letter to the emperor from a new governor of the Philippines, remonstrating, though in meas- ured terms, against the confiscation of the San Philip and the execution of the Spanish ecclesiastics, several of whom had entered Japan in the character of envoys from his predecessor. The letter requested the bodies of those martyrs, and, for the future, safety and kind treatment to all Spanish vessels driven accidentally to Japan. Taiko-Sama, in reply, justified his proceedings against the missionaries, not only because they had disregarded his re- peated orders to leave Japan, but because, insinuating their creed into the minds of his subjects, they designed finally to get possession of the country as the Spaniards had done of Manilla. His excuse for the confiscation of the San Philip was that she had attempted to enter a port of Japan in violation of law. lie refused to give up any part of her cargo, but offered to restore a number of slaves which had belonged to her, at the same time expressing a willingness to consent to a regulated trade with the Spaniards, pro- vided thuy would promise to bring no priest",. A report that the emperor was about to visit Nagasaki led to the destruction in the adjoining provinces of not less than a hundred THE KEGENT GE-JAS. 127 and thirty-seven churches and of many houses which had belonged to the Jesuits ; and, to appease the authorities, a new embarcation of missionaries became necessary, limited, however, by reason of the smallness of the vessel, to eleven persons. In the midst of these alarms news arrived that the emperor had been seized with a sudden and violent sickness, apparently a dysen- tery, which, after two months' struggles against it, brought him to his end. He died in September, 1598, at the age of sixty-four, retaining his absolute authority to the last. During his latter years two thoughts seem principally to have engrossed him, the secur- ing divine honors to himself, and the transmission of his authority to his infant son, Fide Jori, not yet above three or four years old. With the first object in view, though really (at least, so the mission- aries concluded) without any religion at all, he had rebuilt, in a magnificent manner, many temples and Buddhist monasteries de- stroyed by Nobunanga, by himself, or by the accidents of war. He also had erected, in a new quarter which he had added to Miako, a splendid temple, which he caused to be consecrated to himself in the character of the new Fuchiman, that being the title of a Kami celebrated for his conquests, and regarded as the god of war. To secure the succession of his infant son, the expiring emperor established, on his death-bed, a council of regency, composed of nine persons, at the head of which he placed Ge-jas or Giazu, king of the Bandova, which, besides the five provinces of the Quanto, in which w r ere the great cities of Seruga and Jedo, embraced, also, three other kingdoms. Ge-jas had been king of Micava, a more westerly province, which he had lost by adhering to the fortunes of the third sou of Nobunanga, he being allied to that family by mar riage. But afterwards, by some means, he had recovered the favo* of Taiko-Sama, who had even bestowed upon him the newly-con- quered Bandova, and who, the better to secure his fidelity, had caused his infant son and destined successor to be married to a young grand-daughter of Ge-jas. The strong castle of Osaka had been chosen by Taiko-Suma as the residence of his son during his minority, and there he dwelt with his baby wife, in charge of his mother, while the administration of affairs passed into the hands of Ge-jas, who, as head of the regency, governed with the title of Daysu-Sama. CHAPTER XIX. EVACUATION OF COREA. RETURN OF THE CONVERTED PRINCES. FAVOR- ABLE DISPOSITION OF DAYSU-SAMA. THIRD VISIT OF FATHER VALIGXANI. CIVIL WAR BETWEEN DAYSU-SAMA AND HIS CO-REGENTS. HIS TRI- UMPH. DISGRACE AND EXECUTION OF TSUKAMIDONO. DAYSU-SAMA TAKES THE TITLE OF OGOSIIO-SAMA, AND STILL FAVORS THE CONVERTS. INFLUX OF DOMINICAN AND FRANCISCAN FRIARS. FLOURISHING CONDITION OF THE CHURCH. LOCAL PERSECUTIONS. A. D. 1593 Kill9. THE first act of the regency was to put an end to the war in Corea. That country was abandoned,* and the return of so many converted princes greatly strengthened the lately suffering church. Father llodriguez had always been on good terms with Daysu-Sama, with whom he had become acquainted at the court of the late em- peror. This head of the regency was even thought to be well dis- posed to the new religion, and the converted princes, in conjunction with Father Valignani, who, just before the death of Taiko-Sama, had reached Japan for the third time, in company with a new bishop, proceeded gradually and unostentatiously to reestablish the missionaries, to rebuild the churches, and to set up again the college and seminaries, till soon the Catholic faith seemed to be replaced on almost as firm a basis as ever. For a time, indeed, things were thrown into confusion by a civil war which soon broke out between Daysu-Sama and his co-regents. Some of the Catholic princes lost their provinces as adherents of the defeated party, and among the rest, that distinguished pillar of the church, Tsukamidono, the grand admiral, king of Fingo and conqueror of Corea, who, for his share in this business, perished by the hand of the executioner, his * Yet the Japanese are said to maintain to this day a garrison on the coast (Golowuin, vol. iu., ch. 9), and to receive tribute from Corea; but this eeems doubtful. FRIARS FROM THE PHILIPPINES. 129 religious opinions not allowing him to adopt the Japanese alterna- tive of cutting himself open. But the victorious regent, who pres- ently took the title of Ogosho-Sama, and with it the entire imperial authority (though the boy, Fide Jori, still enjoyed the title of Kubo-Sama), showed himself so far favorable to the Jesuits (to the headship of whom Father Francis Pazio had lately succeeded as vice-provincial), as to permit their reestablishment at Nagasaki, Miako and Osaka. Yet an edict of his, restraining the missionaries to their ancient seats, and forbidding the accession of new converts, though little regarded, showed the necessity of caution. Pope Clement VII. having promulgated a bull in December, 1600, by which all the mendicant orders were allowed to go as mis- sionaries to Japan, provided they proceeded by way of Portugal, and not by the Philippines, Dominican and Franciscan friars took advantage of this favorable disposition of the emperor to enter that empire, the Franciscans reoccupying their old station at Miako, and setting up a new one at Jedo, where the Jesuits had never been. This was the seat of the emperor's son, whom, according to the Japanese custom, he had associated with him in the empire He himself had his residence at Seruga, no great distance to the west. The young Fide Jori, the titular Kubo-Sama, still dwelt in the castle of Osaka, -Miako being given up exclusively to the Dairi, or ecclesiastical emperor. The prohibition to pass from the Philip- pines to Japan was little regarded. As there was no civil arm to enforce it, the friars laughed at the excommunication denounced by the Pope's bull. The Jesuits, on the other hand, did not submit to this invasion without loud complaints. In the Tensa, or five provinces nearest to Miako, and including, also, the cities of Sakai and Osaka, the ancient imperial domain, the adherents of the new religion were seldom molested, and the governor of Miako even built a magnificent church for the Jesuits in the upper city, in addition to one which they already possessed in the lower city. An observatory at Osaka had gained additional credit for their religion by displaying their scientific knowledge. A seminary for nobles was reopened at Nagasaki, and, by the special zeal of Father Gnecchi, hospitals for lepers, which had been from the first a favorite charity, were set up at Osaka and in several Dther cities. By the favor of particular princes, Jesuit missiou- 130 JAPAN. A. D. 1599- 1C09. aries even penetrated into the more remote and hitherto unvisitcd provinces. Persecution, however, still went on within the jurisdic- tion of several of the local rulers, especially in the island of Ximo ; and some of the converted princes, having apostatized, became them- selves persecutors. But the bishop, having made a journey to Miako in 1GOG, was very favorably received by the Kubo-Sama a circum- stance not without its influence in all the local courts. Such was the state of things in Japan when the hold of the Portuguese and the Jesuits upon that country, already shaken by the consolidation of the empire under one head, and by the intrusion of Dominican and Franciscan friars and Spanish mer- chants and negotiators, encountered a still more alarming disturb- ance from the appearance of the Dutch flag in the eastern seas.* * Father Valignani died in 1COG, at Macno, whither he had gone to look after the Chinese missions, a few Jesuits having at length got admission into that empire. Father Rodriguez, in his annual letter of lG()i>, from Miako, in noticing Valignani's death, speaks of him as justly entitled to be called the apostle of the missions of Japan and China, a title, indeed, which he had already received from the king of Portugal. Purchas, who published a few years later, mentions him us the " great Jesuit." He enjoyed in his own day, and deservedly, a reputat : on quite equal to that of our most famous modern missionaries ; but these missionary reputations are apt not to lie very long-lived. Five of his letters are in the collection of Hay, DC Rebu* Japo'iicis, &c. t The death of Father Louis Frocz lias been mentioned in the previous chapter. We have of his letters, in Maffei's Select Epistles, nine, written between the years 1503 and 1578 ; and in Hay's collection eight, written between 1577 and 1506. Many of these are of great length. That of February, 15(>5, con- tains a curious account of what he saw at Miako, on his going thither with Almeida to aid Vilela, who had labored there alone for six years with only Japanese assistants. The translation of it in Hackluyt has an important pas- sage in the beginning, giving a general account of the Japanese, not in the Latin editions that I have seen. Those in Hay's collection are rather reports than letters. That of 158G contains an account of Valign.-mi's first interview with Taiko-S:ima, that of 1502 a full account of Valignani's embassy, the second of 1505 the history of Taiko-Sama's quarrel with his nephew, and the two of 1506 a full account of the first martyrdoms, and of the state of the church at the time. Almeida had died in 1583, after a missionary life of twenty-eight years. We have five of his letters, which show him a good man, but exceedingly credulous, even for a Portuguese Jesuit. CHAPTER XX. ATTEMPT OF THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH TO DISCOVER A NEW EOUTE TO TUB FAR EAST. VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD. ATTEMPTED ENGLISH VOYAGE TO JAPAN. ENGLISH AND DUTCH VOYAGES TO INDIA. FIRST DUTCH VOYAGE TO JAPAN. ADAMS, THE ENGLISH PILOT. HIS ADVENTURES AND DETENTION IN JAPAN.* A. D. 1513 16U7. FOR a full century subsequent to the discovery of the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, the commerce of the Indian seas, so far as Europe was concerned, remained almost a complete mo- nopoly in the hands of the Portuguese. The ancient Venetian com- merce with India, by the Red Sea, had been speedily brought to an end, while the trade carried on over land, by way of Aleppo and the Persian Gulf, was mainly controlled by the Portuguese, who held possession of Ormus, through which it mostly passed. Xor did the Spanish discovery of another .passage to India, by the Straits of Magellan, and the lodgment which the Spaniards made about the year 1570, in the Philippine Islands, very materially interfere with the Portuguese monopoly. The passage by the Straits of Magellan was seldom or never attempted, the Spanish trade being confined to two annual ships between Acapulco and Manilla. It was the desire to share in this East India commerce (which made Lisbon the wealthiest and most populous city of Europe), that led to so many attempts to discover a north-eastern, a north-western and even a northern passage to India (directly over the pole), not only as shorter, but as avoiding any collision with the Portuguese and Spanish, who did not hesitate to maintain by force their respec- tive exclusive claims to the passages by the Cape of Good Hope * This chapter, also the twenty-second, is taken, \vith alterations and addition?, from an article (written by the compiler of this work) in Har ver's Magazine for Jan., 1854. 132 JAPAN. A. D. 1508-1C07. and the Straits of Magellan. Those atfempts wore at first confined to the English, beginning with that made by Sebastian Cabot, on his third and last voyage from England. The Dutch and Jielgi- ans were long content to buy Indian merchandise at Lisbon, which they resold in the north of Europe ; but after the union of the Spanish and Portuguese dominions, in 1580, and the seizure, which soon followed, of the Dutch ships at Lisbon, and their exclu- sion from any trade with Portugal, the Dutch began to entertain, even more ardently than the English, the desire of a direct com- merce with the far East. Drake, in his voyage round the world (157780), outward by the Straits of Magellan, and homeward by the Cape of Good Hope, a track in which he was speedily followed by Cavendish (1586-8), led the way to the Indian seas ; but the failure of Cavendish in a second attempt to pass the Straits of Ma- gellan, and the capture, A. D. 1594, by Spanish- American cruisers in the Pacific, of Sir Richard Hawkins, a son of the famous Sir John Hawkins, who had attempted a voyage to Japan by the same route, served to keep up the terrors of that passage. Meanwhile, Captain Lancaster, as early as 1592, accomplished the first English voyage to India by the Cape of Good Hope. After a rather disastrous voyage, he returned in 1594, having been greatly delayed by his ignorance of the monsoons. A second expedition, des- tined for China, sailed in 159G, but perished miserably at sea. It in to the Dutch that the credit mainly belongs of first breaking in upon the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly of Indian commerce.* Among other Dutch ship captains and merchants who had been thrown into prison at Lisbon, was Cornelius Iloutimm, who im proved that opportunity to acquire, by conversation with Portu gucse seamen, a knowledge of the Indian seas ; and it was by his persuasions that the merchants of Amsterdam, associating as 'an East India Company, fitted out, in 1095, eight vessels, four to renew the experiment of a north-eastern passage, and four to pro- ceed to India by the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage of the first four, under the direction of Hugh Linschooten,* who had lately returned from Goa, where he had resided six years in the service of the archbishop, resulted in the discovery of Nova Zcuibla. beyond * See Appendix, note E. DUTCH AND ENGLISH VOYAGES TO THE EAST. 133 which, neither this expedition nor two subsequent ones were able to proceed. The four other ships, under the charge of Houtman, reached the west coast of Java, and, in spite of the arts and opposition of the Portuguese, whom they found established at Ban- tam, in that island, they opened a trade with the natives, not with- out an occasional intermixture of hostilities, in which they lost more than half their numbers, besides being obliged to abandon and burn one of their vessels. The other three ships returned to Hol- land in 1598. This voyage had not been profitable; yet the actual commencement of the long desired Indian traffic greatly stimulated the hopes of the merchants, and that same year not less than four distinct India squadrons were fitted out one of two vessels, under Houtman ; another, under Jacques Mahay, of five vessels, known as Verhagen's fleet, from the chief promoter of the enterprise ; a third, of three vessels, under Oliver Noort ; and a fourth, of not less than eight vessels, set forth by a new East India association, including not only the merchants of Amsterdam, but those of the other cities of the province of Holland, rudiment of the afterwards so celebrated DUTCH EAST INDIA COMPANY. The first and last of these expeditions proceeded by the Cape of Good Hope. The other two were to attempt the passage by the Straits of Magellan. The Dutch merchants were at this time much richer than those of England, and for these enterprises of theirs to India they ob- tained the assistance of quite a number of adventurous Englishmen. Houtman had an English pilot, named Davis ; Noort carried, in the same capacity, Thomas Melis, who had made the voyage round the world with Cavendish. The fleet of Mahay had two English pilots, William Adams and Timothy Shotten, with the former of whom, as being the first Englishman who ever reached Japan, and long a res- Went there, our narrative has chiefly to do. Born, according to his own account, on the banks of the Med- way, between Rochester and Chatham, Adams, at the age of twelve, had commenced a seafaring life, apprentice to Master Nicholas Dig- gins, of Limehouse, near London, whom he served for twelve years He acted afterward as master and pilot in her majesty's (Queen Elizabeth's) ships. Then, for eleven or twelve years, he was em ployed by the worshipful company of the Barbary merchants. The Dutch traflic with India beginning, desirous, as he tells us, " to 12 134 JAPAN.---A. D. 15131607. make a little experience of the small knowledge which God had given him," he was induced to cuter that service. Mahay's squadron, in which Adams sailed as chief pilot, con- sisted of the Hope, of two hundred and fifty tons and one hundred and thirty men, the Faith, of one hundred and fifty tons and one hundred and nine men, the Charity, of one hundred and sixty tons and one hundred and ten men, the Fidelity, of one hundred tons and eighty-six men, and the Good JXews, of seventy-five tons and fifty-six men ; but these names of good omen did not save these small and over-crowded vessels from a succession of disasters, too common in the maritime enterprises of those days. They left \he Texel the 24th of June, and on the 21 st of August reached the Cape Verde Islands, where they remained twenty-one days to re- fresh the men, of whom many were sick with scurvy, including Mahay, their chief commander, who died soon after they had re- commenced their voyage. Encountering contrary winds and heavy rains, they were forced to the coast of (Juineu, and landed on Cape Gonsalves, just south of the line. The sick were set on shore, and soon after, a French sailor came aboard, who promised to do them all favor with the negro king. The country could furnish very lew supplies ; and as the sick recovered from the scurvy, those hitherto well began to suffer from fever. In this state of distress they set sail for the coast of Brazil ; but falling in soon after with the island of Annabon, in the Gulf of Guinea, they landed, took the town, which contained eighty houses, and obtained a supply of oxen, and of oranges and other fruits ; but still the men continued to die, of whom they buried more than thirty on this island. Two months were thus spent on the African coast. The ships, Betting sail again about the middle of November, were greatly delayed by one of the vessels losing her mainmast, and it was five months before they reached the Straits of Magellan, the crews during most of that time on short allowance, and driven to such extremity as to eat the calf-skins with which the ropes were covered. Having entered the straits the beginning of April, 1509, they obtained a good supply of penguins for food ; but the commander stopping to wood and water, they were overtaken by the winter FIRST DUTCH. VOYAG-E TO THE PACIFIC. 135 then just setting in, during which they lost more than a hundred men by cold and hunger, antl were thus detained though, accord-- ing to Adams, there were many times when they might have gone through till the 24th of September, when at last they entered the South Sea. A few days after, they encountered a violent storm, by which the ships were separated. Capt. Wert, with the Faith and Fidelity, was driven back into the straits, where he fell in with Oliver Noort, who had left Holland a few days after the Verhagen fleet, had followed in the same track, had encountered many of the same difficulties, but who, more fortunate, not only passed the strait, but succeeded in com- pleting the fourth circumnavigation of the globe, a feat accom- plished before his voyage only by the ships of Magellan, Drake and Cavendish. As Noort was unable to afford him any aid, Wert aban- doned the enterprise, and returned with his two ships to Holland. The other three ships steered separately for the coast of Chili, where a rendezvous, in the latitude of forty-six degrees, had been appointed. The Charity, in which Adams was, on reaching the place of rendezvous, found some Indian inhabitants, who at first furnished sheep in exchange for bells and knives, with which they seemed well satisfied, but who shortly after disappeared, probably through Spanish influence. Having waited twenty-eight days, and hearing nothing of her consorts, the Charity ran by Valdivia to the island of Mocha, and thence toward the neighboring island of Santa Maria. Seeing on the main land near by a number of peo- ple, boats were sent for a parley ; but the people would suffer none to land from the boats, at which they shot a multitude of arrows. " Nevertheless," says Adams, " having no victuals in our ship, and hoping to find refreshing, we forcibly landed some seven- and-twenty or thirty of our men, and drove the wild people from the water-side, having the most of our men hurt with their arrows. Having landed, we made signs of friendship, and in the end came to parley, with signs that our desire was to have victuals for iron, silver and cloth, which we showed them. Whereupon they gave our folks wine, with batatas (sweet potatoes), and other fruits, and bade them, by signs and tokens, to go aboard, and the next day to oome again, and they would bring us victuals." The next day, after a council, in which it was resolved not tr 136 JAPAN. A. D. 15131607. land more than two or three men at once, the captain approached the shore with all the force he had. Great numbers of peojde were Been, who made signs for the boats to land ; and in the end, as the people would not come near the boats, twenty-three men landed with muskets, and marched up toward four or five houses ; but before they had gone the distance of a musket-shot, they found themselves in an ambush, and the whole, including Thomas Adams, a brother of William, the chief pilot, were slain or taken. " So our boats waited long," says Adams, "to see if any of them would conu again ; but seeing no hope to recover them, our boats returned, with this sorrowful news, that all our men that landed were Jain, which was a lamentable thing to hear, for we had scarce so many men left as could wind up our anchor." After waiting a day longer, they went over to the neighboring island of Santa Maria, where they found the Hope, which had just arrived, but in as great distress as themselves, having, at the island of Mocha, the day before the Charity had passed there, lost their commander and twenty-seven men in an attempt to land to obtain provisions. Some provisions were finally got, by detaining two Spaniards, who came to visit the ships, and requiring them to pay a ransom in sheep and oxen. It was proposed to burn one of the ships, as there were not men enough ibr both ; but the new captains, of whom the one in command of the Charity was named Quacker- nack, could not agree which of the ships to burn. At length, the men being somewhat refreshed, a council was called to consider what should be done to make the voyage as profitable as possible to the merchants. It was stated by one of the sailors, who had been to Japan in a Portugue.se ship, that wool- len cloth, of which they had much on board, was good merchandise there; and considering that the Moluccas, and most parts of the East Indies, were not countries in which woollen cloths would be likely to be very acceptable ; hearing also from the people on shore that Spanish cruisers were after them, by whom, in fact, their third vessel was captured, news of their intentions and force having been sent from Spain to Peru about the time of their departure from Holland, it was finally resolved to stand away for Japan. Leav- ing the coast of Chili on the 27th of November, and standing north- westerly across the equator for three or four months, they had the RESOLUTION TO SAIL FOR JAPAN. 137 trade-wind and pleasant weather. In their way, they encountered a group of islands somewhere about 16 degrees of north latitude (perhaps the Sandwich Islands), to which eight of their men ran off with the pinnace, and were eaten, as was supposed, by the islanders, who, by the report of one who was taken, were cannibals. In the latitude of 27 degrees north, the vessels, encountering vari- able winds and stormy weather, were separated. The Hope was never more heard of; the Charity still kept on her course, though with many of her men sick, and others dead : when, on the llth of April, being then in great misery, with only four or five men, out of a company of four-and-twenty, able to walk, and as many more to creep on their knees, the whole expecting shortly to die, at last they made the hoped-for land which proved to be the eastern coast of Ximo. They were immediately boarded by numerous boats, which they had no force to resist ; but the boatmen offered no injury beyond stealing what they could conveniently lay their hands on. This, however, was put a stop to the next day by the governor of the neighboring district, who sent soldiers on board to protect tbe cargo, and who treated the crew with great kindness, furnishing them with all necessary refreshments, and giving them a house on shore for their sick, of whom nine finally died. For some days the only conversation was by signs ; but, before long, a Portuguese Jesuit, with some other Portuguese, arrived from Nagasaki, on the opposite western coast of the island. The Dutch now had an interpreter ; but, what with religious and what with national antipathies, little was to be hoped from a Jesuit and a Portuguese. In fact, the Portuguese accused them of being pirates, and two of their own company, in hopes to get control of the cargo, turned traitors, and plotted with the Portuguese. After nine days the emperor sent five galleys, in which Adams, attended by one of the sailors, was conveyed to Osaka, distant about eighty leagues. Here he found the emperor, " in a wonderful costly house, gilded with gold in abundance," who, in several interviews, treated him with great kindness, and was very inquisitive as to his country and the cause of his coming. Adams replied that the English Ayere a people who had long sought out the East Indies, desiring friend- ship, in the way of trade, with all kings and potentates, and having in their country divers commodities which might be exchanged to 12* 188 JAPAN. A. D. 15981607. mutual advantage. The emperor then inquired if the people of Adams' country had no wars. He answered that they had with tha Spanish and Portuguese, but were at peace with all other nations. He also inquired as to Adams' religious opinions, and the way in which he got to Japan ; but when Adams, by way of answer, ex- hibited a chart of the world, and pointed out the passage through the Straits of Magellan, he showed plain signs of incredulity. Notwithstanding this friendly reception, Adams was ordered back to prison, where he was kept for nine-and-thirty days, expecting, though well treated, to be crucified, which he learnt was the custom- ary mode of execution in that country. In fact, as he afterwards discovered, the Portuguese were em- ploying this interval in poisoning the minds of the natives against these new-comers, whom they represented as thieves and common sea-robbers, whom it was necessary to put to death to prevent any more of their freebooting countrymen from coming, to the ruin of the Japanese trade. But at length the emperor gave this answer: that, as these strangers had as yet done no damage to him nor to any of his people, it would be against reason and justice to put them to death ; and, sending again for Adams, after another long conversation and numerous inquiries, he set him at liberty, and gave him leave to visit the ship and his companions, of whom, in the interval, he had heard nothing. He found them close by, the ship having in the interval been brought to Sakai, within seven or eight miles of Osaka. The men had suffered nothing, but the ship had been completely stripped, her whole company being thus left with only the clothes on their backs. The emperor, indeed, ordered restitution ; but the plundered articles were so dispersed and con- cealed that nothing could be recovered, except fifty thousand rials in silver (five thousand dollars), which had formed a part of the cargo, and which was given up to the officers as a fund for their support and that of the men. Afterward the ship was taken still eastward to a port near Jedo. All means were used to get her clear, with leave to depart, in which suit a considerable part of the money was spent ; till, at the end of two years, the men refusing any longer to obey Adams and the master, the remaining money was, " for quietness' sake," divided, and each was left to shift for himself. The emperor, however, added an allowance to each man of twc ADAMS AND HIS COMPANIONS. 139 pounds of rice a day, besides an annual pension in money amount- ing to about twenty-four dollars. In Adams' case this pension was afterward raised to one hundred and forty dollars, as a reward for having built two ships for the emperor on the European model. Adams' knowledge of mathematics also proved serviceable to him, and he was soon in such favor as to be able, according to his own O account, to return good for evil to several of his former maligners. The emperor acknowledged his services, and endeavored to content him by giving him " a living like unto a lordship in England, with eighty or ninety husbandmen as his servants and slaves ;" but he still pined for home, and importuned for leave to depart, desiring, as he says, " to see his poor wife and children, according to con- science and nature." This suit he again renewed, upon hearing from some Japanese traders that Dutch merchants had established themselves at Acheen in Sumatra, and Patania on the east coast of Malacca. He promised to bring both the Dutch and English to trade in Japan ; but all he could obtain was leave for the Dutch captain and another Dutchman to depart. This they presently did, for Patania, in a Japanese junk, furnished by the king or prince of Firando, whence they proceeded to Jor, at the southern end of th& peninsula of Malacca, where they found a Dutch fleet of nine sail. In this fleet the Dutch captain obtained an appointment as master, but was soon after killed in a sea-fight with the Portuguese, with whom the Dutch were, by this time, vigorously and successfully contending for the mastership of the eastern seas.* * An account of Adams' voyage in two letters of his from Japan, may be found in Purchas His Pil/jrimes, part I., book in., sect. 5. Purchas also gives, book n., ch,-ip. v., Captain Wert's adventures and return ; and in book in., chap. L, sect. 4, a narrative by Davis, who acted as chief pilot of the first Dutch voyage to the East Indies, under Houtman. Hackluyt gives, in his second volume, a narrative of Lancaster's voyage, taken down from the mouth of Edmund Baker, Lancaster's lieutenant. Henry May's narrative of the same voyage is given in Hackluyt's second volume. What is known of the English expedition fitted out in 1594, will be found in Hackluyt, vol. iv., and Pilgrimes, book in., chap. i.,sect. '2. The English East India Com- pany was formed in 1600, and Lancaster was immediately despatched on a second voyage " with four tall ships and a victualler," and by him the Eng- lish, trade was commenced. Pilyriin.es, book m., chap. iii.. sect. 1. CHAPTER XXI. SPANISH FRIARS IN JAPAN. EXTENSION OF JAPANESE TBADE. PROGRESS OF THE DUTCH IN THE EASTERN SEAS. THEY OPEN A TRADE WITH JAPAN. EMPEROR'S LETTER. SHIPWRECK OF DON RODRIGO DE VIVERO ON THE JAPANESE COAST. HIS RECEPTION, OBSERVATIONS AND DEPARTURE. DESTRUCTION OF A PORTUGUESE CARAC BY THE JAPANESE. ANOTHER DUTCH SHIP ARRIVES. SPEX'S CHARTER. EMBASSIES FROM MACAO AND NEW SPAIN. FATHER LOUIS SOTELO AND HIS PROJECTS. A. D. 1C07 1C13. THE Dutch and English, though they had not yet reached Japan, were already, especially the Dutch, making great progress in the Indian seas ; but it was not by them alone that the Portuguese monopoly of Japanese commerce and Japanese conversion was threatened. Taking advantage of the bull of Clement Y II., already referred to, a multitude of Spanish friars from Manilla poured into Japan, whose first and chief business it was, according to the Jesuit letter-writers and historians, to declaim with vehemence against the conduct of the fathers of the Company, whom they represented as altogether too circumspect, reserved and timid, in the publication of the Gospel. The fanaticism of these Spanish friars was excessive, in illustration of which the Jesuit historians relate, with malicious satisfaction, the fol- lowing story : One of them, in a dispute with one of the shipwrecked Hollanders of Adams' company (perhaps with Adams himself), to sustain the authority of the Catholic church, appealed to its miracu- lous power, and when this obstinate Dutch heretic questioned the reality of any such power, and challenged an exhibition of it, the fanatical missionary undertook to convince him by walking himself on the sea. A day was appointed for the miracle. The Spaniard prepared himself by confession, prayer and fasting. A crowd of Japanese "assembled to see it, and the friar, after a confident ex- hortation to the multitude, stepped, crucifix in hand, into the water, THE SPANIARDS OF MANILLA. 141 certain of being buoyed up by faith and providence. But he was soon floundering over his head, and was only saved from drowning by some boats sent to his assistance ; nor did this experiment add much either to the faith of the Dutchman, or to the docility of the Japanese. About the same time, also, the institution of parish priests was introduced ; but this, like the admission of friars, led only to new disputes and collisions. The merchants of Mai.' ilia, no less than the monks, still looked with longing eyes in the direction of Japan, anxious to share in its commerce ; and Don Rodrigo de Vivero, upon his accession to that government, by way of conciliation, discharged from confinement and sent home some two hundred Japanese, whom he found impris- oned there, either by way of retaliation for the confiscation of the San Philip and the execution of the Spanish missionaries, or for some other cause. Besides these European rivals, a dangerous competition in the way of trade seems to have been threatened on the part of the Japanese themselves, who appear to have been much more adventurous at thig time, whether in point of navigation or the visiting of foreign countries, than the present jealous policy of their government per- mits. Japanese vessels frequented Manilla for the purchase of rich China silks, which formed the chief article of export from Macao to Japan, the policy of China and the relations of Japan towards her not allowing a direct trade. Japanese vessels appeared even in the Pacific Spanish American ports. It is to this period that the Japanese ascribe the conquest by the king of Saxuma of the Lew Chew Islands ; and Macao, Siam and Annam are enumerated, on Japanese authority, as additional places to which Japanese vessels traded.* The Portuguese seem, on the other hand, to have had little left of that courage and spirit by which their forefathers of the pre- ceding century had been so distinguished. The Dutch cruisers in the East Indies proved a great annoyance to them. In 1603, they blockaded Goa, and the same year Hemkirk took the carac of Macao, a prize of fourteen hundred tons, and valued, with her * See Klaproth's translation (JVov. Journal Jlsiatique, torn, n.) of a curi- ous Japanese tract, on the Wealth of Japan, written in 1708. 142 JAPAX. A. D. 1G07 1618. cargo, at several millions of florins. When the Dutch, under Matelief, attacked Malacca, in 1600, the Portuguese were greatly indebted to a small body of Japanese, who formed a part of the garrison, for their success in repelling the assault. On the other hand, in 1008, a large number of Japanese, obliged to winter at Macao, got into collision with the Portuguese authorities of that city, who suspected them of a design to seize the place, and who, in consequence, put a number of them to death. During this and the two preceding years the annual Portuguese carac had been pre- vented from sailing from Macao by fear of Dutch cruisers ; and, with the effect of this interruption of intercourse and of the bad feeling produced by the collision at Macao, still other circumstances cooperated to endanger the Portuguese ascendency. The first was the arrival at Firando, in July, 1009, of the Dutch vessel, the Red Lion, attended by the yacht Griffon. They belonged to the fleet of Verhceven, who had left Holland De- cember 12th, 1007, with thirteen ships (of which several were of a thousand tons burden), nineteen hundred men, and three hun- dred and seventy-seven pieces of artillery. The Portuguese fleet, ^aich sailed, about the same time, from Lisbon, to take out a new /iceroy to Goa, was composed of eight great caracs and six galleons. This fleet was scattered by a storm off the Canaries, and one of the galleons, mounting ten cannon, and with one hundred and eighty men, fell into Verhoaven's hands. He had previously made an unsuccess- ful attack on Mozambique, but had taken, however, in the harbor a carac, mounting thirty-four guns, and loaded with merchandise. Off Goa another carac was burnt by the Portuguese, to prevent its falling into the hands of the Dutch, who proceeded to Calicut, where a treaty of alliance against the Portuguese was entered into with the king. The Dutch then proceeded by Cochin to Johor, on the penin- sula of Malacca (whence the two ships were despatched to Japan), and finally to Bantam and the Moluccas, where the Dutch expected that a truce with Spain, announced by a ship late from Holland, would enable them to devote all their strength to guard against the English, who were also aiming at an establishment in those islands. The ships detached from Johor, equally equipped for trading and for fighting, as were all the Indiamen of that period, having missed, by keing a few days too late, the carac of Macao, proceeded to carry BUTCH INTERCOURSE COMMENCES. 143 out their instructions for opening a commercial intercourse with Japan. They were very kindly received at Firando, whence they 5ont a deputation to the emperor's court, witii presents, in the name of the Stadtholder, and were successful in obtaining leave to estab- lish a factory at Firando, for the supply of which with goods the Dutch were to send a ship or two yearly. The lied Lion, arriving in the Texel, July, 1610, carried back the following letter : THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN TO THE KING OF HOLLAND. " I, emperor and king of Japan, wish to the king of Holland [prince of Orange] who hath sent from so far countries to visit me, greeting. " I rejoice greatly in your writing and sending unto me, and wish that our countries were nearer the one to the other, whereby we might continue and increase the friendship begun betwixt us, through your presence, whom I imagine in earnest to see ; in respect I am unknown unto your majesty, and that your love towards me is manifested through your liberality in honoring me with four presents, whereof, though I had no need, yet, coming in your name, I received them in great worth, and hold them in good esteem. "And further, whereas the Hollanders, your majesty's subjects, desire to trade with their shipping in my country (which is of little value and small), and to traffic with my subjects, and desire to have their abiding near unto my court, whereby in person I might help and assist them, which cannot be as now, through the inconvenience of the country ; yet, notwithstanding, I will not neglect, as already I have been, to be careful of them, and to give in charge to all my governors and subjects that, in what places and havens, in what port soever they shall arrive, they shall show them all favor and friend- ships to their persons, ships and merchandise ; wherein your majesty or your subjects need not to doubt or fear aught to the contrary. For they may come as freely as if they came into your majesty's own havens and countries, and so may remain in my country to trade. And the friendship begun be- tween rne and my subjects with you shall never be impaired on my behalf, but augmented and increased. " I am partly ashamed that your majesty (whose name and renown through your valorous deeds is spread through the whole world) should cause your subjects to come from so far countries into a country so unfitting as this is, to \isit me, and to oft'er unto me such friendships as I have not deserved. But considering that your affection hath been the cause thereof, I could not but friendly entertain your subjects, and yield to their requests, whereof this eha-H serve for a testimony ; that they in all places, countries and islands, under mine obedience, may trade, and traffic, and build houses serviceable and needful for their trade and merchandises, where they may trade without any hindrance at their pleasure, as well in time to come as for the present, eo that no man shall do them any wrong. And I will maintain and defend them as mine own subjects. 144 JAPAN. A. D. 1C07 1618. " I promise, likewise, that the persons whom I understand shall be left here, shall now and at all times be held as recommended unto me, and in all things to favor them, whereby your majesty shall find us as your friends and neighbors. " For other matters passed between me and your majesty's servants, which would be too long here to repeat, I refer myself unto them." * The Dutch were greatly indebted for their success to Foyne- Sama, king of Firando, who interested himself greatly in the establishment of a Dutch factory in his island. In fact, it had been at his expense that the two Dutchmen, shipmates of Adams. had some years before been sent to Patania upon their promise to induce their countrymen to open a trade to Japan. In addition to this outlay, 'which had amounted to fifteen hundred taels, he had furnished the Dutch belonging to the two recently arrived vessels, with a galley manned with fifty-six rowers, for their visit to court, of which they had the use for two months ; and he had, besides, accommodated them by purchasing all their pepper and silk, the latter article at a considerable loss to himself. Some time previous to the arrival of these Dutch ships, in the autumn of 1G08, Don llodrigo de Vivero, the late governor of Manilla, returning to New Spain in the galleon, the St. Francis, was wrecked on the south-east coast of JS'ipon. At first it was not known what land it was ; but a Japanese Catholic on board soon recognized it. The crew, who had escaped to the shore, proceeded to a neighboring village, the people of which evinced much com- passion for them, the women even shedding tears. They gave them clothing and food (consisting of rice, pulse and a little fish), and sent word to the tono, or lord of the district, who issued orders that they should be well treated, but not suffered to remove. They were soon visited by the tono, who came in great pomp, preceded by three hundred men ; some bearing banners, others armed with lances, matchlocks and halberts. He saluted Don llodrigo with much politeness, by a motion of his head and hand, * This letter is given by Purchas, vol. 5., p. 406. It has neither date nor signature, nor does it appear who is responsible for the correctness of the translation. DON KODRIGO DE VIVERO. 145 and placed him on his left, that being considered the place of honor among the Japanese, because the swords are worn on that side. He made Don Rodrigo several presents, and took upon himself the subsistence of the party, allowing two Spanish officers to proceed to the emperor's court, to communicate to him and to his son and, according to the Japanese custom, colleague, the details of the case. Jedo, where the emperor's son resided, was about forty leagues distant, and Seruga, where the emperor held his court, still forty leagues further. The messengers returned in twenty-four days, with an officer of the prince, charged with a message of condo- lence from the emperor, and leave to visit their courts. All the property that could be saved from the wreck was given up to the Spaniards. The first place on their route was a town of ten or twelve thou- sand inhabitants. The tono took Don Rodrigo to his castle, situ- ated on a height, and surrounded by a ditch fifty feet deep, passed by a drawbridge. The gates were of iron ; the walls of solid masonry, eighteen feet high, and the same in thickness. Near the first gate stood a hundred musketeers, and between that and the second gate, which opened through a second wall, were houses, gar- dens, orchards and rice-fields. The dwelling rooms were of wood, exquisitely finished and adorned with a profusion of gold, silver, varnish, &c. All the way to Jedo the density of the population greatly sur prised the Spaniards, who were everywhere well lodged and enter- tained. They entered that city amid such a crowd, that the officers of police had to force a way for them, and yet the streets were very broad. Such crowds collected about the house which the prince had ordered to be prepared for them, that they had no rest ; till at last a guard was placed about it, and a tablet set up, pro- hibiting the populace from molesting them. Of the city, Rodrigo gives this description : " Jedo contains seven hundred thousand inhabitants, and is traversed by a considerable river which is navi- gable by vessels of moderate size. By this river, which divides in the interior into several branches, the inhabitants are supplied with provisions and necessaries, which are so cheap that a man may live comfortably for a rial (five cents) a day. The Japanese do not 13 146 JAPAN. A. D. 1C07 1618. make much wheaten bread, though what they do make is excellent. The streets and squares of Jedo are very handsome, clean and well kept. The houses are of wood, and mostly of two stories. The exterior is less imposing than with us, but they are far handsomer and more comfortable within. Towards the street the houses have covered galleries, and each street is occupied by persons of the same calling ; carpenters in one, jewellers in another, tailors in another., including many trades unknown in Europe. The merchants and traders dwell together in the same way. Provisions also are sold in places appointed for each sort. I observed a market where game was sold ; there was a great supply of rabbits, hares, wild boars, deer, and other animals which I never saw before. The Japanese rarely eat any flesh but that of game, which they hunt. The fish market, very extensive and extremely neat and clean, affords a great variety offish, sea and river, fresh and salt; and there were large tubs containing live fish. Adjoining the inns are places where they let and sell horses, and these places are so numerous, that the traveller, who, according to custom, changes his horse every league, is only embarrassed where to choose. The nobles and great men inhabit a distant part of the city, and their quarter is distin- guished by the armorial ornaments, sculptured, painted or gilt, placed over the doors of the houses, a privilege to which the Japanese nobles attach great value. The political authority is vested in a governor, who is chief of the magistracy, civil and mil- itary. In each street resides a magistrate who takes cognizance, in the first instance, of all cases, civil and criminal, submitting the more difficult to the governor. The streets are closed at each end by a gate, which is shut at nightfall. At each gate is placed a guard of soldiers, with sentinels at intervals ; so that, if a crime is committed, notice is conveyed instantly to each end of the street, and, the gates being closed, it rarely happens that the offender escapes. This description is applicable to all the other cities in the king- dom." After an interval of two days, the prince sent his secretary, whose name was Konsekondono, to invite Don llodrigo to visit him. The palace he describes as enclosed by a wall of immense blocks of free- stone, put together without cement, with embrasures, at equal dis- ^ances, well furnished with artillery. At the foot of this wall was DON RODRIGO'S OBSERVATIONS. a deep wet ditch, crossed by a drawbridge of a peculiar and very ingenious construction. Don liodrigo passed through two ranks of musketeers, about one thousand in number, to the second wall, dis- tant from the first three hundred paces. At the gate four hundred lancers and pikemen were stationed. A third wall, about twelve feet high, was guarded by three hundred halberdiers. "Within was the palace, with the royal stables on one side, containing three hundred horses, and on the other an arsenal with arms for one hundred thousand men. liodrigo affirms that from the entrance to the palace were more than twenty thousand men, not assembled for the occasion, but constantly employed and paid for the daily service of the court. The first apartment of the palace was entirely covered with rich ornaments, carpets, stuffs, velvet and gold. The walls were hung with pictures representing hunting subjects. Each apartment ex ceeded the preceding in splendor, till the further one was reached, in which the prince was seated on a superb carpet of crimson velvet, embroidered with gold, placed upon a kind of platform, raised two steps, in the centre of the apartment. He wore three dresses, one over the other, the exterior one green and yellow ; in his girdle were his longer and -shorter swords. His hair was tied up with ribbons of different colors, and his head had no other ornament. He was about thirty-five years of age ; of a brown complexion, a pleasing figure and good height. Don liodrigo was conducted to a seat on the left hand of the prince, who conversed with him on a variety of indifferent subjects. Four days after, the travellers set off for Suruga, on a visit to the emperor. The road is thus described : " On whatsoever side the traveller turns his eyes, he perceives a concourse of people pass- ing to and fro, as in the most populous cities of Europe. The roads are lined on both sides with superb pine-trees, which keep off the sun. The distances are marked by little eminences planted with two trees." In the hundred leagues between Suruga and Miako, several towns were passed, estimated to contain one hundred thou- sand inhabitants, and a village occurred at every quarter of a league. Rodrigo declares himself so delighted with Japan, that, " if he could have prevailed upon himself to renounce his God and his king, he should have preferred that country to his own. ' 148 JAPAN. A. D. 16071618. He estimated Suruga to contain from five to six hundred thou- sand inhabitants. The climate was more agreeable than that of Jedo, but the city not so handsome. As at Jedo, a convenient res- idence was provided for him, which the crowd besieged as they had done there. The emperor sent a secretary to compliment him on his arrival, with a present of rich dresses, and in about a week he had his presentation. He was conveyed in an elegant litter to the palace, which was a fortress like that at Jedo. On the whole, there was less display than at the prince's court, but more marks of power and fear. The interview with the emperor is thus described : " I followed the minister, who conducted me into the presence of the sovereign, whom I saluted. He was in a kind of square box, not very large, but astonishingly rich. It was placed two steps above the floor, and surrounded at four paces' distance by a gold lattice- work, six feet high, in which were small doors, by which the empe- ror's attendants went in and out, as they were called from the crowd, prostrate on their hands and knees around the lattice.* The mon- arch was encircled by nearly twenty grandees, ministers or princi- pal courtiers, in long silk mantles, and trousers of the same mate- rial, so long that they entirely concealed the feet. The emperor was seated on a kind of stool, of blue satin, worked with stars and half-moons of silver. In his girdle he wore a sword, and had his hair tied up with ribbons of different colors, but had no other head- dress. His age appeared to be about sixty. He was of the middle stature, and of a very full person. His countenance was venerable and gracious ; his complexion not near so brown as that of the prince." As if to magnify the emperor, Don Rodrigo was detained during the introduction of a tono of high rank, who brought presents in gold, silver and silk, worth twenty thousand ducats. At a hundred paces from the throne he prostrated himself with his face to the floor, and remained in this posture for several minutes in perfect silence, neither the emperor nor either of the ministers vouchsafing a word. He then retired with his suite, consisting of three thousand persons. After other exhibitions of the same sort, Don Rodrigo, having been directed to make what requests he would, was conducted * Most likely this " box " -was formed by movable screens. See chapfel XXXVIII. RECEPTION BY THE EMPEROR. 14& by two ministers to a third apartment, whence other great officers escorted him out of the palace with all ceremony. Afterwards he was entertained by Konsekondono, the prime mi ister, at a magnificent collation, the host pledging his health in exquisite Japanese wine [saki ?] by placing the glass upon his head.* The Spaniard presented at this time a memorandum of his requests translated into Japanese. They were three first, that the royal protection might be granted to the Christian priests of different orders who then resided in the empire, and that they might not be molested in the free use and disposal of their houses and churches ; secondly, that amity might continue between the emperor and the king of Spain ; and, lastly, that, as an evidence of that friendship, the emperor would not permit the Dutch (whose arrival has already been mentioned) to reside in his territories, but would drive them out since, besides being enemies of Spain, they were little better than pirates and sea-rovers. The minister, the next day, after another collation, reported the emperor's answer, who had remarked, with admiration, that Don Rodrigo, though destitute, had asked nothing for himself, but had regarded only the interests of his religion and his king. The two first requests were granted. As to the expulsion of the Hollanders, that, the emperor said, " will be difficult this year, as they have my royal word for permission to sojourn in Japan; but I am obliged to Don Rodrigo for letting me know what characters they are." The emperor offered the shipwrecked Spaniard one of the ships of European model, which the pilot Adams had built for him, in which to proceed to New Spain ; and he begged him to request King Philip to send to Japan fifty miners, as he understood those of New Spain to be very skilful, whereas those of Japan did not obtain from the ore half the silver it was capable of yielding. Don Rodrigo soon after set out for Ximo, where he was to take ship. From Seruga to Miako, estimated at one hundred leagues, the country was mostly level and very fertile. Several considerable rivers were crossed in large ferry-boats by means of a cable stretched from bank to bank. Provisions were very cheap. His * It is customary among the Japanese, on receiving a present from a superior, to touch the top of the head with it. This custom is alluded to iu the king of Bungo's letter to the Pope, page 90. 13* 150 JAPAN. A. D. 1C07 1618. idea of the population of the country grew more and more exagger ated. He insists that he did not pass a town of less population than one hundred and fifty thousand ; and Miako, which he consid- ers the largest city in the world, he sets down at one million fivi hundred thousand.* Situated upon a highly-cultivated plain, its walls were ten leagues in circuit, as Don Ilodrifjo ascertained by riding O O v O round them on horseback. It took him an entire day. He enters into a number of details about the Dairi and his court. He was powerless, and lived in splendid poverty. The court of the governor of Miako, who had six vice-governors under him, was scarcely less splendid than that of the emperor. He told Don liodrigo that this city contained five thousand temples and more than fifty thousand public women. He showed him a temple, the largest building he had seen in Japan, containing statues of all the gods, and another in which was an immense bronze statue, the size of which filled him with astonishment. " I ordered," he says, " one of my people to measure the thumb of the right hand ; but, although he was a person of the ordinary size, he could not quite encircle it with both arms. But the size of the statue is not its only merit; the feet, hands, mouth, eyes, forehead, and other features, are as perfect and as expressive as the most accomplished painter could make a portrait. When I first visited this temple it was unfinished ; more than one hundred thousand men were daily employed upon it. The devil could not suggest to the emperor a surer expedient to get rid of his immense wealth." t The temple and tomb of Taiko-Sama, raised since his death to the rank of the gods, is thus described by liodrigo, who deplores the dedication of such an edifice to one whose " soul is in hell for all eternity." The entrance was by an avenue paved with jasper four hundred feet by three hundred. On each side, at equal dis- tances, were posts of jasper, on which were placed lamps lighted at * Descriptions of it will be found in chapters xxxvi. and XL., and also a census taken in 1690. t This iin:\^i2 was first set up in the year 1576, by the Emperor Taiko The temple in which it was placed was destroyed by the great earthquake of 15%. The rebuilding was commenced in 1602. The colossus, however, was seriously injured by another earthquake in 16G2, after which it was rneltec down, and a substitute prepared of wood covered with gilt paper. For & description of it see chapters xxxvin. and XL. TOMB OF TAIKO-SAMA. 15\ night. At the end of this passage was the peristyle of the temple, ascended by several steps, and having on the right a monastery of priests. The principal gate was encrusted with jasper and overlaid with gold and silver ornaments skilfully wrought. The nave of the temple was supported by lofty columns. There was a choir, as in European cathedrals, with seats and a grating all round. Male and female choristers chanted the prayers, much as in Catholic churches, and the surplices put Rodrigo in mind of the prebends of Toledo. The church was filled with silent devotees. Four of the priests accosted him, and seem to have put him to great uneasiness by con- ducting him to the altar of their " infamous relics," surrounded with an infinite number of lamps. After raising five or six cur- tains, covering as many gratings, first of iron, then of silver, and the last one of gold, a kind of chest was exposed, in which were con- tained the ashes of Taiko-Sama. Within this enclosure none but the chief priests could enter. All the Japanese present prostrated themselves. Hastening to quit " this accursed spot," Rodrigo was accompa- nied by the priests to their gardens, exceeding, he says, those of Aranjuez. Of the religion of Japan he makes the following observations : " The Japanese, like us, use holy, or rather unholy, water, and chaplets consecrated to their false gods, Xaka and Nido [Amida], which are not the only ones that they worship, for there are no less than thirty-five different sects or religions in Japan. Some deny the immortality of the soul, others adore divers gods, and others yet the elements. All are tolerated. The bonzes of all the sects having concurred in a request to the emperor, that he would expel our monks, the prince, troubled with their importunities, inquired how many different religions there were in Japan. ' Thirty-five,' was the reply. ' Well,' said he, ' where thirty-five sects can be tolerated, we can easily bear with thirty-six ; leave the strangers in peace.'" He estimates the Christians at three hundred thousand a much more probable number than the eighteen hundred thou- sand, at which they were reckoned by the missionaries,* whose reckoning was the same now that it had been ten years before. * The total number of baptisms in Japan, in 1606, according to the annual 15 JAPAN. A. D. 1C07 1018. From Miako Don llodrigo proceeded to Faxima (Fucimi; adjoining, where he embarked for Osaka, ten leagues down a river, as large as the Guadalquivir at Seville, and full of vessels. Osaka, built close to the sea, he reckons to contain one million inhabitants. Here he embarked in a junk for Nagasaki. Not finding his vessel in proper repair, he accepted an invitation from the emperor to return to Seruga, where lie renewed his endeav- ors to persuade that prince to expt^l the Dutch, but without effect At last, with presents and despatches for the king of Spain, he set sail August 1st, 1610, after a stay in Japan of nearly two years.* Meanwhile an event occurred, of which Rodrigo makes no men- tion, but for which the Portuguese were inclined to hold him responsible, no less than the Dutch. The annual carac from Macao had arrived, as we have seen, in the autumn of 1609, after an interval of three years, commanded, as it happened, by the very same person who had been chief magistrate there on occasion of the late seizure and execution of certain Japanese. The emperor strengthened, as it was thought, by the expectation of Dutch and Spanish trade, encouraged the prince of Arima to revenge the death of his subjects who had perished at Macao ; and when the carac was ready to sail on her return voyage she was attacked by a fleet of Japanese boats. They were two or three times repulsed, but, tak- ing the carac at a disadvantage, becalmed and drifted into a nar- row passage, they succeeded in setting her on fire, and in destroying her with all her crew. Both the Dutch factors who had been left in Japan, and the king of that island, Foyne-Sama (or Foie-Sama), who had exerted himself greatly for the establishment of Dutch commerce, were not letter of that year, was almost three thousand. According to the letter of 1603, the number of confessions heard that year was eighty thousand. It appears from these letters that many female converts were made, among the higher classes, by the reputed efficacy of relics and the prayers of the church in cases of difficult labor. * Don Rodrigo published in Spanish a narrative of his residence in Japan. Of this very rare and curious work an abstract, with extracts, is given in the Jlsiatic Journal, vol. ii., new series, 1830. The Spaniard is rathef excessive in his estimates of population, but appears to have been sensible and judicious. His accounts are well borne out, as we shall see, by those of Saris, Kampfer, and others. His whole title was Don Rodrigo de Vivero y Velisco. SECOND DUTCH VOYAGE THITHER. a little annoyed at the non-appearance of any Dutch vessels at Firando during the year 1610. The Dutch in the East Indies had, indeed, at this moment other things to attend to. Verhoeven, after his return to the Moluccas, had been entrapped and treacherously slain at Banda, by the natives of that island, along with many of his principal officers. This, however, did not prevent the Dutch from soon after making a treaty with these islanders, by which they obtained the sole right of purchasing their nutmegs and mace, and which they followed up by the establishment of not less than seven forts in the Molucca Islands, and by vigorous, though as yet unsuc- cessful attempts to drive away the Spaniards who had come to the aid of the Portuguese. The Moluccas thus occupied, Admiral "Wittert, who had suc- ceeded to the command of the Dutch fleet, sailed with part of the ships for Manilla ; for though the truce between Spain and Holland was known, it had not been proclaimed in the East Indies, and was not regarded by either party. Here, unfortunately, Wittert suffered himself to be surprised by a much superior Spanish force, and though he fought with the greatest courage till he fell, his own ship and two others were taken, and another blown up, two only making their escape. Immediately upon the arrival of the Red Lion in Holland, a number of ships had been fitted out for Japan ; but the first to arrive was a small yacht, called the Brach, in July, 1611, with only a trifling cargo of cloths, silks, pepper, ivory and lead. Presently a government officer came on board to demand a manifest of the cargo to be sent to the emperor ; but this the Dutch did not like to submit to, as the Portuguese were free from it, and especially as the present cargo was so trifling. These demands being renewed, finally, though somewhat perplexed by the small means they had of making presents, they resolved upon a new mission to the emperor's court. The king of Firando advised them also to extend their visit to the hereditary prince at Jedo, and not to omit paying their respects to Fide Jori, at Osaka, son of the late emperor, and who might yet mount the throne. The king of Firando furnished a gal' ley, in addition to one belonging to the factories, and two commis- sioners, of whom the principal was Jacob Spex, set out for Seruga, 154 JAPAN. A. D. 16071618 July 17, with an interpreter and a Japanese gentleman as a guide or conductor.* The Oth of August they reached Osaka, defended by a fine castle, in which dwelt Fide Jori, now eighteen years of age. He had always been kept secluded, but enjoyed a large revenue, and had many adherents, by whom, as the Dutch learnt, the hope of placing him on the throne was zealously entertained. Arriving at Miako, they learnt that a Portuguese embassy had passed through it four days preceding. They were deputies from Macao, who had landed at Kangoxima in a small vessel, and had gone with rich presents to the emperor to solicit a renewal of trade and indemnification for the vessels destroyed at Nagasaki two years before. Accompanied by a large number of trumpeters and other musicians, they marched, with great pomp, to the sound of tho instruments, the whole of them, even their black slaves, clothed in velvet of a uniform color. The governor of Miako, to whom they had made rich presents, had furnished them with eighty-eight horses, which they had equipped at their own expense. Nor was this governor (the same apparently who had entertained Don Rodrigo) less bountiful to the Dutch. He furnished them with horses, a passport and letters to the chief of. the emperor's council, but refused their presents, not being accustomed, he said, to take anything from strangers. When they pressed him, he still refused to accept anything now, but promised, if they had anything left at their return, to allow them to remember him a piece of disinterestedness by which the economical Dutch were greatly charmed. Just before reaching Seruga. they encountered Adams, the Eng- lish pilot, to whom they had written, and who, upon arriving at Seruga, hastened to Konsequidono, the same secretary of the em- peror seen by Don Rodrigo, but whom the Dutch call president of the council, to solicit for them a speedy audience. "While waiting for it, they learnt that the Portuguese ambassadors had not been * There is a narrative of this journey, rather a perplexed one, apparently written by Spex himself, added to the Relation of Verhoeven's voyage in Recueil des Voyayes qui out servi a I'establisement dela Compugnie >lcs I/ides Oriental dans les Provinces Unies. A full abstract of it is in the great collection, Hist. Gen. des Voyages, vol. viii. SPEX'S NEGOTIATIONS. 155 very successful ; nor had a Spanish embassy, which had just arrived from New Spain, with thanks to the emperor for his courtesies to Don Rodrigo. The presents of this ambassador were very splendid ; but his carriage was so haughty as to displease the Japanese. " He demanded leave for the Spaniards to build ships, for which the for-, ests and workmen of Japan afforded greater facilities than either Manilla or New Spain, and to explore the coasts, the Spaniards' ignorance of which had cost them the loss of some valuable vessels. This was agreed to ; but the emperor declined the request for the expulsion of the Dutch, saying that he had nothing to do with these European quarrels. Adams was present at these interviews ; nor did he fail by his representations to excite the suspicions of the emperor against the Spaniards. Sionsubrondono, the emperor's treasurer, freely told the Dutch that the Spaniards and Portuguese had represented them as coming to Japan rather as privateersmen than as traders, and that, as might be seen by the smallness of their present cargo, their chief resource for trade was in the prizes they took. But Adams entered with great zeal into their defence, insisting upon their honesty and fairness as the qualities which had given them such success in trade, referring to the recent truce with Spain as showing that plunder tvas not their object, and excusing the smallness of the present venture by the lack, as yet, of any regular treaty. These representations were not without their effect. Konsequidono received the Dutch very graciously, approved the requests which they made on the subject of trade, and promised to lay them before the emperor pending their visit to Jedo, for which he furnished them with vessels, horses and guides. With much persuasion he was at last induced to accept a present, which the Dutch regarded as a special favor, as he had positively declined any from the Por- tuguese and Spaniards. Before their departure, they were admitted to an audience from the emperor, who inquired of them how many soldiers they had in the Moluccas ; * whether they traded to Borneo ; whether it were true that the best camphor came from that island ; what odoriferous woods the Dutch had in their country ; and other similar questions, to which they replied through their interpreter. * They had about four hundred, and the Spaniards about twice as many, 1&6 JAPAN. A. D. 1C07 1C81. After they had taken their leave, Konsequidono and Sionsubrondono reconducted them out of the hall, at the same time felicitating them on their favorable audience. It was very unusual, they said, for the emperor to make himself so familiar ; he did not bestow such a favor even on the greatest lords of the empire, who brought "him presents of the value of ten, twenty and thirty thousand taels ; nor had he said a single word to the Portuguese and Spanish ambassadors. To Adams, who was called back to the royal apart- ments, the emperor expressed himself greatly delighted with the presents, as showing that the Dutch were " past masters " in arts as well as in arms. The Dutchmen, having caused their propositions to be written out in Japanese, placed them in the hands of Konsequidono, and, on the 18th, they were furnished with an order for ten horses, and a letter to the hereditary prince at Jedo. Adams, who was in as great favor at this court as at Seruga, lodged them in a house of his own, and undertook to give notice of their arrival to Sadudono, president of the prince's council and father of Konsequidono, who sent an officer in return to make his compliments to the Dutchmen. They made him a visit the next day, with a present, which, as a great favor, he condescended to accept. He inquired of them par- ticularly the cause of the war which had lasted so long between the Spaniards and the Dutch, and the history of the negotiations which had brought about the recent truce. The Dutch did not conceal the small extent of their country, and the Japanese minister ex- pressed great astonishment that so feeble a state should have resisted with such success so powerful a king. Finally, he treated them to a collation of fruit. Though very old and infirm, he conducted them to the passage, and promised to accompany them the next day to the palace. Admitted to the imperial palace, the prince thanked them for the journey they had undertaken to see him ; but when (pretending orders from Holland to that effect) they besought his favor and protection, he dismissed them with a nod. An officer, however, conducted them over the palace, and the prince sent them some presents, though not very magnificent ones. They themselves made many presents, principally cloth and glass bottles, to many lords of the court, among whom they found, in kigh favor, a brother of the young king of Firando. SPEX'S CHARTER. 157 jfrom Jedo they proceeded to a port eighteen leagues distant, (probably Uragawa), where Adams had another house, and where tney found the Spanish ship which had brought the ambassa- dor from New Spain. The ambassador himself was also there. He sent them a very civil message, to which they responded with equal civility. Pressing invitations for a visit passed between them, but neither party would be the first to call on the other. By some Flemings, however, attached to the ambassador's suite, they were assured that the ambassador had no authority to demand the ex elusion of the Dutch, which he had done on his own authority. The embassy, they said, had been fitted out at an expease of fifty thousand dollars. Upon their return to Seruga, October 1st, Adams brought them the patent which the emperor had granted for their commerce, and which, being translated, proved to be in the following words : " All Dutch ships that come into my empire of Japan, -whatever place or port they put into, we do hereby expressly command all and every one of our subjects not to molest the same in any way, nor to be a hindrance to them ; but, on the contrary, to show them all manner of help, favor and assistance. Every one shall beware to maintain the friendship in assurance of which we have been pleased to give our imperial word to these people ; and very one shall take care'that our commands and promises be inviolably kept. " Dated (according to the Japanese calendar equivalent to) August 30, 1611."* The Dutch were very much troubled to find that the clause guaranteeing freedom from the visits of inspectors and guards, and interference with their trade by the government, which had been the great object of their mission, was omitted. They made representations on the subject to Konsequidono, who advised them not to press it. But as they conceived it of the greatest impor- tance, they drew up a Japanese memorial, which Adams presented to the emperor, and the request of which Konsequidono seconded with such effect that the emperor ordered an edict granting the wishes of the Dutch to be drawn up, which he immediately proceeded to sign. Such is the statement in Spex's narrative j but no such * Kampfer gives this translation, and also a fac-simile of the original Japanese. The same translation is also given by Spex. 14 158 JAPAN. A. D. 1G07 1C18. document appears to be preserved in the archives of the Dutch factory, the short one already given being everywhere cited and relied upon as the charter of the Dutch trade to Japan, without any mention anywhere else of any such supplement to it. The return of the Dutchmen, by way of Miako, to Firando, does not offer anything remarkable, except their meeting at Sakai (whither they went to learn the price of goods and the course of trade there), with Melichor von Santvoort, one of the Dutchmen who had reached Japan at the same time with Adams. After selecting factors to stay behind, ordering the erection of warehouses, and making such presents as their small means admitted to their Japanese friends, their vessel set sail on her return the 28th of Sep tember. The Dutch, as we have seen, had been greatly assisted by Adams. The Spanish envoy, in his negotiations, relied chiefly, as Don llod- rigo had done before him, on the advice and assistance of Father Louis Sotelo, a Franciscan friar of noble descent,* established at Miako, who entered with great zeal into the project of a regular trade between Japan and Mexico. But the old jealousy which the Japanese had long entertained of the Spaniards soon broke out afresh. Some soundings made along the coast by the vessel which brought out the Spanish ambassador were looked upon with great suspicion and jealousy, which Adams is said to have aggravated. Sotelo, despairing of success with the emperor, though at first he had seemed to favor his projects, subsequently proposed the same scheme to Mazamoney, who ruled over a part, or the whole, of the kingdom cf Oxu, or Mouts, in the north of Japan, hitherto almost unknown, but to which a few missionaries had lately made their way. The prince of Oxu adopted Sotelo's project with zeal, affecting also quite a leaning towards the new faith, and, at Sotelo's suggestion, he sent an ambassador to the Pope and the king of Spain. After many disappointments, Sotelo with this ambassador set sail at length for New Spain, about the end of the year 1013, in a vessel belonging to Mazamoney; and, by way of the city of Mexico, pro- ceeded to Seville and Madrid, where they arrived in October, 1014. * The Franciscan martyrology says he was born at Seville of the blood royal. FATHER LOUIS SOTELO. 159 Thence they proceeded to Rome, and had an audience of the Pope, November 30, 1615, by whom Sotelo was nominated bishop for the north and east parts of Japan, and his legate for the whole of it.* Having reached New Spain on his return, he found in the port of Acapulco a Japanese vessel belonging to Mazamoney, the same, probably, in which he had arrived, and which, having disposed of a cargo of Japanese goods, took on freight for Manilla a part of the suite of a new Spanish governor of the Philippines, intending to purchase at Manilla a cai'go of Chinese silks. But the Council of the Indies, under the influence of the Jesuits, and on the plea that the nomination of all eastern bishops belonged to the king, opposed Sotelo's consecration ; and the merchants of Manilla, alarmed at the rivalry of New Spain for the Japanese trade, made such repre- sentations that, on his arrival there, his papers were seized, and he himself was sent back to the superiors of his order in New Mexico. But long before the occurrence of this event, in fact, previous to the departure of Sotelo from Japan, the Catholic faith there had received a blow from which it never recovered, and which brought it to speedy ruin. * A.n account in Italian of Sotelo's embassy, Historia del Rer/no de Voxu del Graponi, fyc., e ilel Jlmbasciata, ff-c., was published at Rome the same year, 1615. There is no Japanese letter of later date than 1G01, in the col- lection of Hay, or, as perhaps it ought rather to be called, of Martin Nutius (at least so his name was written in Latin), citizen and bookseller of Ant- werp, at the sign of the two storks, " a man zealous for the Catholic filth," so Hay says, and by whom the collection .was projected. He applied to the rector of the Jesuit college at Antwerp, for an editor, and Hay was appointed. A few of the letters were translated by Hay ; the greater part had already appeared as separate pamphlets, translated by others. Hay's vehement Scotch controversial spirit breaks out hotly in some of the dedicatory letters which he has iiftroduced. Of the Japanese letters subsequent to 1601, there is no collection. They were published separately as they were received, translated into Italian, from which were made French and Spanish trans- lations. CHAPTER XXII. ORIGIN AND COMMENCEMENT OF ENGLISH INTERCOL'KSF ; "fl fJi PAN. - CAPTAIN SABIS' VOYAGE THITHER, ANU TRAVELS .< \U MMUYAT1ON9 THERE. NEW SPANISH EMBASSY FROM THE PHILirPI/lCd - - i"KYUEHClAL RIVALRY OF THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. R1CUAKD COCJ'J, tfiUD OF TUK ENGLISH FACTORY. A. D. 16111613. THE pilot, Adams, having heard from Spex that certain English merchants had established themselves in the island of Java, he wrote to them, under date of October 22, 1611, giving an account of himself, and inclosing a letter to his wife, which he hcfought these unknown countrymen of his to convey to his friends at Lime- house or in Kent, so that his wife, " in a manner a widow," nnd his fatherless children, might hear of him, and he of th/vn, b 9 Core his death. " You shall understand," wrote Adams, "that the Holland- ers have here an Indies of money, so that they need not to bring silver out of Holland to the East Indies, for in Japan ttere is much gold and silver to serve their turn in other places where need requireth." He enumerated as vendible in Japan for r?ady jroney, raw silk, damask, black taffetas, black and red cloth of the best kinds, lead, &e. To a somewhat exaggerated, and otherwise not very correct account of the extent and the geography of the Japan- ese dominions, he added the following description of the inhabit vnts : " The people of this island of Japan are good of nature, cou. 1 *,eous above measure, and valiant in war. Their justice is severely exe- cuted, and without partiality, upon transgressors. They arc gov- erned in great civility. I think no land in the world better gov- erned by civil policy. The people are very superstitious in heir religion, and are of diverse opinions. There are many Jcsuii and Franciscan friars in this land, and they have converted many be Christians, and have many churches in the island." FIRST ENGLISH VOYAGE THITHER. 161 TVs letter, which was given in charge to the master's mate of the Dutch vessel, must have reached the English East India Com- pany's factory at Bantam, in Java, previous to the first of June, 1G12 ; for on that day an answer to it was despatched by the Globe, which had just arrived from England, and which, sailing from Ban- tam to Patania, met there the same master's mate who had brought A.dams' letter, and who, being just about to return to Japan in a Dutch pinnace, promised to deliver the answer. Already, however, independently, of Adams' letter, a project had been started in England for opening a trade with Japan, founded upon a knowledge of Adams' being there, derived from the crew of the Dutch ship, the Red Lion. The Globe, which left England January 5, 1G11, carried letters to Adams to that effect, and she was followed in April by the Clove, the Thomas and the Hector, under the command of Captain John Saris, an old adventurer in the East, and a former resident at Bantam, with letters from the king of England to the emperor of Japan. After touching, trading, negotiating and fighting, at Socotra, Mocha, and other ports of the lied Sea, Saris arrived at Bantam in October, 1612. Soon after his arrival the letter of Adams was re-read in presence of the assembled merchants ; and doubtless it encouraged Saris in his project of visiting Japan. Having taken in seven hundred sacks of pepper, in addition to the broadcloths, gun- powder, and other goods brought from England, Saris sailed on the 14th of January, 1613, in the Clove, his crew consisting of seventy- four English, one Spaniard, one Japanese, to serve as an interpre- ter, he speaking also the Malay language, which Captain Saris understood, and five Swarts, probably Malays. Passing in sight of the south coast of Celebes, Saris touched at several of the ports in the group of the Moluccas, occupied at that time, some of them by Dutch and others by Spanish facto- ries, the Spaniards from Manilla having come to the rescue of the Portuguese, whom the Dutch had driven out. Regarding all new comers (if of any other nation than their own) with scarcely less suspicion and hostility than they did each other, and both of them joining to oppress and plunder the unhappy natives, " who were Wrought upon," so Saris says, " to spoil one another in civil war," the Dutch and Spaniards, secure in strong forts, sat by and looked 14* 162 JAPAN. A. D. 1C11 1C13. on, " prepared to take the bone from him that would wrest it front his fellow." The Dutch fort at Buchian had a garrison of thirtj Dutch soldiers, and eleven Dutch women, " able to withstand tin fury of the Spaniard, or other nation whatsoever, being of a, ver^ lusty, large breed." The Dutch commander would not allow the natives to trade witk the English, even to the extent of a single katty of cloves, threat- ening with death those who did so, and claiming all the Spic* Islands held by them as " their country, conquered by the sword they having, with much loss of blood and money, delivered the inhabitants from the tyranny of the Portuguese, and having made a perpetual contract with them for the purchase of all their spices at a fixed rate," in the case of cloves at about eight cents the pound. This claim of exclusive right of trade Captain Saris declined to acknowledge ; at the same time he professed his readiness to give the Dutch, "as neighbors and brethren in Christ,-" a preference in purchasing any part of his cargo of which they might happen to stand in need. The English and Dutch had been ready enough to join together in breaking up the Portuguese and Spanish monopoly, and in forc- ing a trade in the Indian seas ; but it was already apparent that the Dutch East India Company, which in the amount of capital at its command very far surpassed the English Company, was bent on establishing a monopoly of its own, not less close than that for- merly maintained by the Portuguese. The Spaniards, on the other hand, professed friendship, and made some offers of trade ; but Cap- tain Saris, suspecting treachery, did not choose to trust them. On the 14th of April, he left the Moluccas, and stood on his course for Japan. On the 10th of June, having been in sight of land for a day or two, his ships were boarded by four great fishing- boats, fitted with both sails and oars, from whose crews they learned that they were off the harbor of Nagasaki. In fact, one of these boats belonged to the Portuguese, and was manned by " new Chris- tians," who had mistaken the ships of Captain Saris for the \nnual Portuguese carac. Finding their mistake, no entreaty could prevail upon them to stay ; but two of the other boats, for thirty dollars each in money, and rice for food, agreed to pilot the ship to Firando, by the pilot's reckoning some thirty leagues to THE ENGLISH AT FIRANDO. 163 the north, and the boatmen coming on board began to assist in work- ing the vessel, showing themselves not less handy than the English sailors. No sooner had the ship anchored off Firando, than she was vis- ited by the king or hereditary governor of that island, by name Foyne-Sama, the same who had shown so much favor to the Dutch, upward of seventy years old, attended by his nephew or grandchild, a young man of two-and-twenty, who governed under him. They came with forty boats or galleys, with from ten to fif- teen oars a side; but on approaching the vessel, all fell back, except the two which carried the princes, who came on board unattended, except by a single person each. They were bareheaded and bare- legged, wearing shoes, but no stockings ; the fore-part of their heads shaven to the crown, and their hair behind, which was very long, gathered up into a knot. They were clad in shirts and breeches, over which was a silk gown girt to them, with two swords of the country at their side, one half a yard in length, the other half as long. Their manner of salutation was to put off their shoes, and then stooping, with their right hand in their left, and both against their knees, to approach with small sidling steps, slightly moving their hands at the same time, and crying Augh ! Atiyh ! Captain Saris conducted them to his cabin, where he had a ban- quet spread, and a concert of music, with which they seemed much delighted. The old king received with much joy a letter from the king of England, but put off reading it till " Autje " (or, according to Adams' way of writing it, Anyiu*) should come that word being the Japanese for pilot, and the name by which Adams was known, to whom, then at Jedo, letters were sent the same night, as also to the emperor. As soon as the king had gone on shore, all his principal people, attended by a multitude of soldiers, entered the ship, each man of consequence bringing a present of venison, wild boar, large and fat wild fowl, fruits, fish, &c. ; but as the crowd proved troublesome, king Foyne pent an officer en board to keep order and prevent mis- chief The next day came some three-score great boats or galleys. * " I am called in the Japanese tongue AXGIU SAMA. By that name am I known all the coast along." Letters of Jl dams, Jan. 12, 1014. 164 JAPAN. A. D. 1611 1G13. very well manned, which towed the vessel into the harbor of which the entrance was narrow and dangerous. Here they anchored in five fathoms, so close to the shore that they could talk with the peopk in the houses, saluting the town with nine pieces of ordnance <> compliment which the inhabitants were unable to return, having no cannon, only pieces for small shot. The ship was speedily surrounded with boats lull of people, who seemed much to admire her head and stern, and the decks were so crowded with men, women and chil- dren, that it. was impossible to move about. The captain took sev- eral of the better sort of women into his cabin, where a picture of Venus and Cupid " did hang somewhat wantonly, set out in a large frame, which, mistaking it for the Virgin and her Son, some of those women kneeled to and worshipped with great devotion," at the same time whispering in a low tone, that they might not be overheard by their companions, that they were Christianas ; by which it was understood that they were converts of the Portuguese Jesuits. Soon after, king Foyne came again on board, and brought with him four women of his family. They were barelegged, except that a pair of half-buskins were bound by a silk ribbon about their insteps, and were clad in a number of silk gowns, one skirt over another, bound about their waists by a girdle, their hair very black and long, and tied in a comely knot on the crown of the head, no part of which was shaven, like the men's. They had good faces, hands and feet, clear-skinned and white, but wanting color ; which, however, they sup- plied by art. They were low in stature and very fat, courteous in behavior, of which they well understood the ceremonials according to the Japanese fashion. At first they seemed a little bashful ; but the king " willing them to be frolic," and all other company being excluded except Captain Saris and the interpreter, they sang sev- eral songs, playing on an instrument much like a guitar, but with four strings only, which they fingered very nimbly with the left hand, holding in the other a piece of ivory, with which they touched the strings, playing and singing by book, the tunes being noted on lines and spaces, much the same as European music. Not long after, desirous to be" frolic," the king brought :n board a company of female actors such as were common in Japan, little better it would seem, than slaves and courtesans, being under the wntrol of a master, who carried them from place to place, selling JAPANESE DRAMA. 165 their favors, and " exhibiting comedies of war, love and such like, with several shifts of apparel for the better grace of the matter acted." It appeared, however, on a subsequent occasion, on which several of the English were present, that, besides these professional actors, the king and his principal courtiers were accustomed, on certain great festivals, at which the whole country was present, to present a play, of which the matter was the valiant deeds of their ancestors, from the beginning of their kingdom or commonwealth, intermixed, however, with much mirth, "to give the common people content." . On that occasion they had as musical instruments, to assist their voices, little tabors or stringed instruments, small in the middle and large at both ends, like an hour-glass ; also fifes ; but though they kept exact time, the whole performance was very harsh to English ears. While waiting for Adams, who presently arrived, after being sev- enteen days on his way, a house on shore for a factory was hired, furnished with mats, according to the custom of the country, for a rent of about ninety-five dollars for six months. Not long after, leaving Mr. Richard Cocks in charge of the factory and the trade, Captain Saris set out on a visit to the emperor, attended by Adams and seventeen persons of his own company, including several mer- cantile gentlemen, a tailor, a cook, the surgeon's mate, the Jap- anese interpreter, the coxswain, and one sailor. He was liberally furnished by old king Foyne with a conductor for the journey, a large galley, of twenty -five oars a side, manned with sixty men, and also with a hundred taels in Japanese money (equal to one hundred and twenty-five dollars), to pay his expenses, which, however, Captain Saris directed Cocks to place to king Foyne's credit as so much money lent. The galley being handsomely fitted up with waist-cloths and ensigns, they coasted along the western and northern shores of the great island of Ximo (or Kiusiu), off the north-west coast of which the small island of Firandolay. As they coasted along, they passed a number of handsome towns. Faccata, distant two days' rowing from Firando, had a very strong castle of freestone, with a wide and deep ditch and drawbridge, kept in good repair, but without can- ncr or garrison. Here, finding the current too strong, they 166 JAPAN. A. D. 1C11 1C13. plopped to dine. The town seemed as large ns Ijotidon within tho walls, very well built, with straight streets. As they landed, they had experience, related almost wherever they went, of that antip- tthy to foreigners, so characteristic a trait of the country ; for the boy*, children, nnd worser sort of idle people, would gather ibout them, crying out Corf', Care, Cocorc, Ware, taunting them by these words as Coreans with false hearts, whooping, hollowing, and making such a noise, that tho English could hardly hear each other speak, and even in some places throwing stones at them all which went on without any interference on the part of the public officers. In general, however, the police was very strict, and punish- ments very prompt and bloody. Saris saw several executions in the streets, after which, every passer-by was allowed to try his sword on the dead bodies, which thus are chopped into small pieces, and left for the birds of prey to devour. All along the coast they noticed many families living in boats upon the water, as in Holland, the women being very expert fishers, not only with lines and nets, but by diving, which gave them, however, blood-shot eyes. Coasting through the Strait of Sinomosiqui and the channel which separates Nipoa from the two more southern islands, on the twentieth day after leaving Firundo they reached the entrance of a river, a short distance up which lay the town of Osaka, which, however, they could only reach in a small boat. This town, which Bccmed as large as Faceata, had many handsome timber bridges across a river as wide as the Thames at London. It had, also, a great and very strong castle of freestone, in which, as they were told, the son of the late emperor, left an infant at his father's decease, was kept a close prisoner. Some nine miles from Osaka, on the other side of the river, lay the town of Sakai, not so large, but accessible to ships, and a place of great trade. Leaving their galley at Osaka, Captain Saris and his company passed in boats up a river or canal, one day's journey, to Fusinii, where they found a garrison of three thousand soldiers, maintained by the emperor to keep in subjection Osaka, and the still larger neighboring city of Miako. The garrison being changed at that time, the old troops marching out, and new ones marching in, a good opportunity was afforded to see their array. They were armed with a species of fir-arms, pikes, swords and targets, bows SARIS' JOURNEY TO COURT. 167 and arrows, and icayadalkes, described as like a Welsh hook. They marched five abreast, with an officer to every ten files, withou* colors or musical instruments, in regiments of from a hundred and fifty to five hundred men, of which one followed the other at the distance of a league or two, and were met for two or three days on the road. Captain Saris was very favorably impressed with the discipline and martial bearing of these troops. The captain- general, whom they met in the rear, marched in very great state, hunting and hawking all the way, the hawks being managed exactly after the European fashion. The horses were of middle size, small- headed, and very full of mettle. At Fusimi, Captain Saris and his company quitted their bark, and were furnished each man with a horse to travel over land to Suruga, where the emperor held his court. For Captain Saris a palanquin was also provided, with bearers to carry it, two at a time, six in number where the way was level, but increased to ten when it became hilly. A spare horse was led beside the palanquin for him to ride when he pleased, and, according to the custom of the coun- try with persons of importance, a slave was appointed to run before him, bearing a pike. Thus they travelled, at the rate of some forty-five miles a day, over a highway for the most part very level, but in some places cut through mountains ; the distances being marked, in divisions of about three miles, by two little hillocks on each side of the way, planted at the top with a fair pine-tree, " trimmed round in fashion of an arbor." This road, which was full of travellers, led by a succession of farms, country-houses, villages, and great towns. It passed many fresh rivers by ferries, and near many fotoquis, or temples, situated in groves, "the most pleasantest places for delighi in the whole country." Every town and village was well furnished with taverns, where meals could be had at a moment's warning. Here, too, lodging; were obtained, and horses and men for the palanquin were taken up by the director of the journey, like post-horses in England. The general food was observed to be rice. The people ate also fish, wild fowl of various kinds, fresh and salted, and various picked herbs and roots. They ploughed with horses and oxen, as in Europe, and 168 JAPAN. A. D. 16111613. raised good red wheat. Besides saki, made from rice, they diank with their food warm water.* The entrance of the travellers into Suruga, where the emperor held his court, and which they reached on the seventh day, was not very savory, as they were obliged to pass several crosses, with the dead and decaying bodies of the malefactors still nailed to them This city they judged to be as large as London with all the suburbs.! The handicraftsmen dwelt in the outskirts of the town, so as not to disturb with their pounding and hammering the richer and more leisurely sort. After a day or two spent in preparations, Saris, accompanied by the merchants and others, went in his palanquin to the palace, bear- ing his presents, according to the custom of the country, on little tables, or rather salvers, of a sweet-smelling wood. Having entered the castle, he passed three drawbridges, each with its guard, and, ascending a handsome stone staircase, he was met by two grave, comely men, Kaskadono, the emperor's secretary,:}: and Fungodono, the admiral, who led him into a matted antechamber. Here they all sat down on the mats, but the two officers soon rose again, and took him into the presence-chamber, to bestow due reverence on the emperor's empty chair of state. It was about five feet high, the sides and back richly ornamented with cloth of gold, but with- out any canopy. The presents given in the name of the king, and others by Captain Saris in his own name (as the custom of tho country required), were arranged about this room. After waiting a little while longer in the antechamber, it was announced that the emperor had come, when the officers motioned Saris into the room, but without entering themselves. Approach- ing the emperor, he presented, with English compliments (on his * Saris makes no mention of tea, not yet known to the Europeans, and which, perhaps, he confounded with this hot water. All subsequent travel- lers have noted this practice of the Japanese of drinking everything warm, even to water. Cold drinks might tend too much to check the digestion of their vegetable food ; at any rate, they are thought to be frequently the occasion of a violent colic, one of the endemic diseases of Japan. t London had at that time a population of two hundred and fifty thousand. J This appears, from various circumstances, to be the same person called Konsekondono in the narratives of Don Rodrigo and Jacob Spex. SARIS' VISIT TO JEDO. 169 knee, it may be presumed), the king's letter, which the emperor took and raised toward his forehead, telling the interpreter to bid them welcome after their wearisome journey, and that in a day or two his answer would be ready. He invited them in the mean tune to visit his son, who resided at Jedo. The country between Suruga and Jedo, which were two days' journey apart, was found to be well inhabited. They saw many temples on the way, one of which contained a gigantic image of Buddha, made of copper, hollow within, but of very substantial thickness. It was, as they guessed, twenty-two feet high, in like- ness of a man kneeling on the ground, and seated on his heels, clothed in a gown, his arms of wonderful size, and the whole body fn proportion. The echo of the shouts of some of the company, who went into the body of it, was very loud. Some of the English left their names written upon it, as they saw was customary. Jedo was found to be a city much larger than Suruga, and with much handsomer buildings, making a very glorious appearance as they approached, the ridge tiles and corner tiles, and the posts of the doors, being richly gilded and varnished. There were, however, no glass windows, but window-shutters instead, opening in leaves, and handsomely painted. From Jedo, where our travellers were received much as they had been at Suruga, they proceeded some forty miles, by boats, to Oringa, an excellent harbor on the sea-side, whence, in eight days, they coasted round a projecting point of land back to Suruga, where they received the emperor's answer to the king's letter, also an en- grossed and official copy of certain privileges of trade, a draught of which they had furnished to the -emperor's secretary, and which, having been condensed as much as possible, to suit the Japanese taste for brevity, and thus reduced from fourteen articles to eight, were expressed in the following terms : " 1. Imprimis. We give free license to the subjects of the king of Great Britain, namely, Sir Thomas Smith, governor, and the company of the East India merchants and adventurers, forever, safely to come into any of the ports of our empire of Japan, with their ships and merchandises, without any hindrance to them or their goods, and to abide, buy, sell and barter, accord- ing to their own manner, with all nations : to tarry here as long as they think good, and to depart at their pleasures 15 170 JAPAX. A. D. 16111613. " 2. Item. We grant unto them freedom of custom for all such merchan discs as either now th?y have brought or hereafter they shall bring into oui kingdoms, or shall from heticc transport to any foreign part ; and d author ize those ships that hereafter shall arrive and come from England, to pro- ceed to present sale of their commodities, without further coming or sending up to our court. " 3. Item. If any of their ships shall happen to be in danger of shipwreck, we will our subjects not only to assist them, but that such part of ship and goods as shall be saved be returned to their captain or cape-merchant,* or their assigns : and that they shall or may build one house or more for themselves, in any part of our empire where they shall think fittest, and at their depart- ure to make sale thereof at their pleasure. "4. Item. If any of the English, merchants or other, shall depart this life within our dominions, the goods of the deceased shall remain at the dis- pose of the cape-merchant : and all offences committed by them shall be punished by the said cape-merchant, according to his. discretion ; our laws to take no hold of their persons or goods. " 5. Item. We will that ye our subjects, trading with them for any of their commodities, pay them for the same according to agreement, without delay, or return of their wares again unto them. " 6. Item. For such commodities as they have now brought, or shall here- after bring, fitting for our service and proper use, we will that no arrest be made thereof, but that the price be made with the cape-merchant, according as they may sell to others, and present payment upon the delivery of the goods. " 7. Item. If, in discovery of other countries for trade, and return of their ships, they should need men or victuals, we will that ye our subjects furnish them for their money as their need shall require. " 8. And that, without further passport, they shall and may set out upon the discovery of YcaJzo.t or any other p.vrt in anl about our empire." f * This word, though not to be found in any of our dictionaries, was in cur- rent use, at this time, in the signification of head merchant of a factory ship or trading post, cope being, probably, a contraction of captain. t Jeso, otherwise called M.itstnai, the island north of Nipon. There is in Purchas' Pilyrimcs, vol. i , p. 864, a short account of this island, obtained from a Jap.mese, who had been there twice. It was visited in ltf'20 by Jerome de Angelis, who sent home an account of its gold-washings, which reads very much like a California letter. It was also then as now the seat of extensive fisheries. The gold which it produced made the Dutch and English anxious to explore it. The Dutch made some voyages in that direction, and discov- ered some of the southern Kuriles ; but the geography of those seas re- mained very confused till the voyages of La Perouse. Matsmai was the scene if Golownin's captivity in 1812. [Seech. XLIV.] One of the ports granted to the Americans (Hocodade) is on the southern coast of this island. J These Privileges are given by Purchas, Pilgrimes, vol. i., p. 375, with a fac-siruile of the original Japanese EMBASSY FROM THE PHILIPPINES. 171 The letter from the emperor to the king of England did not differ very materially from that to the prince of Orange, already given. [See Appendix, iS'ote I.] In the original draught of the Privileges, there had been an additional article, to the effect that, as the Chinese had refused to trade with the English, in case the English should capture any Chinese ships, they might be allowed the privilege of selling such prizes in the Japanese ports ; but this article, upon consideration, the emperor refused to grant. While these documents were under consideration, a Spanish ambassador from the Philippines had arrived at Suruga with the request that such Portuguese and Spaniards as were in the em- peror's territories without authority from the king of Spain might be delivered up to be transported to the Philippines a request occasioned by the great want of men to defend the Spanish posts in the Moluccas against the Dutch, who \vere then preparing to make an absolute conquest of the whole of those islands. But to this demand the emperor replied that his country was a free coun- try, and nobody should be forced out of it ; but if the ambassador could persuade any of his countrymen to go, they should not be prevented ; whereupon the ambassador departed, not a little dis- contented. The day after receiving the emperor's letter and the Privileges, being the 9th of October, Captain Saris and his company set out by land for Miako, where the presents were to be delivered to him, over the same road by which they had travelled from Osaka to Suruga ; but, owing to the heavy rains and the rising of the river, their progress was much delayed. Miako they found to be the greatest and most commercial city of Japan. Here, too, was the largest fotogui, or temple, in the whole country, built of freestone, begun by the late emperor, and just finished by the present one, as long, they estimated, as the part of St. Paul's, in London, westerly from the choir, being as high-arched, and borne upon pillars like that.* This temple was attended upon by a great many bonzes, or priests, who thus obtained their living, being * The old Gothic edifice, afterwards destroyed in the great fire of 1666, is the one here referred to. 172 JAPAN. A. D. 16111613. supported by the produce of an altar, on which the worshippers offered rice and small pieces of money, and near which was a colossal copper image, like that already described, but much larger, reaching 1 to the very arch of the temple, which itself stood on the top of a hill, having an avenue of approach on either side of fifty stone pillars, ten paces apart, on each of which was suspended a lantern, lighted every night.* Here, also, the Jesuits had a very stately college, in which many of them resided, both Portuguese and natives, and in which many children were trained up in the Christian religion according to the Romish church. In this city alone there were not less than five or fix thousand professing Christians.t But already that persecution was commenced which ended in the banishment of the Jesuits from Japan, and, indeed, in the exclusion of all Europeans, with a slight exception in favor of the Dutch. Following up an edict of the previous year, against the Franciscans, the emperor had issued a proclamation, about a month before Captain Paris' arrival at Suruga, that no church should stand, nor mass be sung, within ten leagues of his court, upon pain of death. Having at length received the emperor's presents for the king of England, being ten beobs, or " large pictures to hang a chamber with," they proceeded the same day to Fusiini, and the next to Osaka, where they reembarked in the galley which had been waiting for them, and returned to Firando, having spent just three months on the tour. Captain Saris found that, during his absence, seven of his crew had run away to Nagasaki, where they had complained to the Por- tuguese of having been used more like dogs than men. Others, seduced by drink and women, and sailor boarding-house keepers, just the same in Japan as elsewhere, had committed great irregu- larities, quarreling Avith the natives and among themselves, even to wounding, and maiming, and death. What with these troubles, added * This is the same temple and idol seen and described by Don Rodrigo. t Captain Saris states that the New Testament had been translated into Japanese for their use ; but this is doubtless a mistake. A number of books of devotion were translated into Japanese, but we hear nowhere else of any New Testament, nor were such translations a part of the Jesuit missionary machinery. RIVALKT OF THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. 17b to a " tuffon" a violent storm, which did a good deal of damage, (though the ship rode it out with five anchors down), and alarms of conflagration, founded on oracles of the bonzes, and numerous festi- vals and entertainments, at which Cocks had been called upon to assist, one of which was a great feast, lasting three days and three nights, to which the Japanese invited their dead kindred, banqueting and making merry all night at their graves,* but little progress had been made in trade. The cargo consisted largely of broadcloths, which the Dutch had been selling, before the English came, at seventeen dollars the yard. Captain Saris wished to arrange with them to keep up the price, but the head of their fac- tory immediately sent off to the principal places of sale large quan- tities, which he disposed of at very low prices, in order to spoil the market. The natives, also, were the more backward to buy, because they saw that the English, though very forward to recommend their cloth, did not much wear it themselves, the officers being clothed in silks, and the men in fustians. So the goods were left in charge of the factory, which was appointed to consist of eight English, in- cluding Cocks and Adams (who was taken into the service of the East India Company on a salary of one hundred pounds a year), three Japanese interpreters, and two servants, with charge, against the coming of the next ships, to search all the neighboring coasts to see what trade might be had with any of them. This matter arranged, and having supplied the place of those of his crew who had died or deserted, by fifteen Japanese, and paid up a good many boarding-house and liquor-shop claims against his men, * Of another festival, on the 23d of October, Cocks gives the following account : " The kings with' all the rest of the nobility, accompanied with divers strangers, met together at a summer-house set up before the great pagoda, to see a horse-race. Every nobleman went on horseback to the place, accompanied with a rout of slaves, some with pikes, some with small shot, and others with bows and arrows. The pikemen were placed on one side of the street, and the shot and archers on the other, the niiddest of the street being left void to run the race : and right before the summer-house, where the king and nobles sat, was a round buckler of straw hanging against the wall, at which the archers on horseback, running a full career, discharged their arrows, both in the street and summer-house where the nobles sat." This, from the date, would seem to be the festival of Tensio dai Sin. See p. 272, Caron, Relation du Japan, gives a similar description. 15* 174 JAPAN. A. D. 16111613. to be deducted out of their wages, Captain Saris sailed on the 5th of December for Bantam, where he arrived the 3d of January, 1614. Having taken in a cargo of pepper, he sailed for home on the 13th of February, anchored off the Cape of Good Hope on the 16th of May, and, on the 27th of September, arrived at Plymouth, having in the preceding six weeks experienced worse weather anr 1 encountered more danger than in the whole voyage beside.* * Captain Saris' account of his voyage and travels in Japan (which agrees remarkably with the cotemporaneous observations of Don Rodrigo, and with the subsequent ones of Karnpfer and others), may be found in Porchas, "His Pilyrimes," Part i., Book iv.,chap. i.,sect. 4-8. Cocks' not less curi- ous observations may be found in chap. Hi., sect. 1-3, of the same book and part. There is also a readable summary of what was then known of Japan, in Purchas, His Pilgrimage, Book v., ch. xv. Rundall, in his "Memorials of the Empire of Japan," printed by the Hackluyt Society, 1850, has re-published Adams' first letter, from two MSS. in the archives of the East India Company ; but the variations from the text, as given by Purchas, are hardly as important as he represents. He gives also from the same records four other letters from Adams, not before printed. It seems from these letters, and from certain memoranda of Cock?, that there were three reasons why Adams did not return with S.iris, not- withstanding the emperor's free consent to his doing so. Besides his wife and daughter in England, he had also a wife, son and daughter in Japan. Though he had the estate mentioned as given him by the emperor (called Phebe, about eight miles from Uragawa), on which were near a hundred households, his vassals, over whom he had power of life and death, yet he had little money, and did not like to go home with an empty purse. He had quarrelled with Saris, who had attempted to drive a hard bargain with him. The E. I. Company had advanced twenty pounds to his wife in England. Saris wanted him to serve the company for that sum and such additional p;iy as they might see fit to give. But Adams, whom the D.utch, Spanish and Portuguese, were all anxious to engage in their service, insisted upon a stip- ulated hire. He asked twelve pounds a month, but consented to take s Hundred pounds a year, to be paid at the end of two years. CHAPTER XXIII. ECCLESIASTICAL RETROSPECT. NEW PERSECUTION. EDICT OP BANISHMEN1 AGAINST THE MISSIONAP.IE3. CIVIL WAR BETWEEN FIDE JORI AND OGO- SHO-SAMA. TRIUMPH OF OGOSHO- SAMA. HIS DEATH. PERSECUTION MORE VIOLENT THAN EVER. MUTUAL RANCOR OF THE JESUITS AND THE FRIARS. PROGRESS OF MARTYRDOM. THE ENGLISH AND DUTCH. A. D. 1613-1620. BETWEEN the edict of Tuiko-Sama against the Catholics, and those the issue of which by Ogosho-Sama is briefly alluded to in the pre- ceding chapter, sixteen years had elapsed, during the whole of which time the missionaries and the Catholic Japanese had been kept in a state of painful uncertainty. It is true that the new emperor had greatly relaxed from the hostility of his predecessor, and seemed at times decidedly favor- able. In many parts of Japan the Catholic worship was carried on as openly as ever. Many new laborers, both Jesuits and others, had come into the field, and conversions still continued to be made among persons of the highest rank. There was scarcely any part of the empire in which converts were not to be found, and the mis- sionaries occasionally penetrated into the most remote provinces. The general of the Jesuits had been encouraged to raise Japan to the dignity of a province, of which China and the neighboring regions had been made a part, and of which Father Valentine Car- vilho was made provincial. Japan had also a resident bishop, or at least coadjutor, in the person of Father Louis Serqueyra, him- self taken from the order of the Jesuits ; and under the bishop, as we have seen, were a few secular clergy. By a brief of Pope Paul V., just published in Japan, that empire had been opened to the members of all the religious orders of the church, with liberty to proceed thither by way of Manilla as well as of Macao. Yet, during these sixteen years, the Catholics of che different subordinate kingdoms had been more or less exposed to persecution 176 JAPAN. A. 1>. 1C13 1C20. especially in the island of Ximo, where they were most numerous, and which, from being mainly ruled by converted princes, was now chiefly governed by apostates or infidels ; nor could the favor of the emperor be at any time certainly relied upon. The new Dutch and English visitors were prompted no less by religious than by mercantile jealousies and hatreds to do all they could to diminish the credit of the Catholic missionaries ; and it is by no means improbable that, as the Portuguese asserted, their sug- gestions had considerable weight in producing the new perse- cuting edicts of Ogosho-Sama. Indeed, they had only to confirm the truth of what flic Portuguese and Spanish said of each other to excite in the minds of the Japanese rulers the gravest distrust as to the designs of the priests of both nations. The edicts already mentioned were followed by another, about the beginning of the year 1G14, of which the substance was that all priests and missionaries of the Catholic faith should forthwith depart the empire, that all their houses and churches should be destroyed, and that all the Japanese converts should renounce the foreign faith. There were in Japan when this edict was issued about a hundred and thirty Jesuits, in possession of some fifty schools, colleges and convents, or houses of residence, also some thirty friars of the three orders of St. Augustin, St. Dominic and St. Francis, besides a few secular ecclesiastics, or parish priests. Most of them were shipped off at once. Some found means to return in disguise ; but the new persecution speedily assumed a character far more alarming than any of the former ones. Severe measures were now taken against the native converts. Those who refused to renounce their faith were stripped of their property, those of the most illus- trious rank, among whom was Ucondono, being shipped off to Ma- nilla and Macao, and others sent into a frightful sort of Siberian banishment among the mountains of Northern Japan, now first described in the letters of some of the missionaries who found their way thither to console and strengthen these exiles. Many, also, were put to death, most of -whom exhibited in the midst of tor ments all the firmness of the national character. The violence of this persecution was interrupt l d for a moment by an attempt on the part of Fide Jori, now grown to man's XOGUX-SAMA. 17T estate, to recover his father's authority a rebellion in which many of the converts joined in hopes of gaining something by the change. On the 10th of December, 1G14, Cocks, the English resident at Firando, wrote to Saris that, since his departure, the emperor had banished all Jesuits, priests, friars and nuns, out of Japan, and had pulled down and burned all their churches and monasteries, shipping them away, some for Macao and others for M tnilla ; that old king Foyne was dead, on which occasion three of his servants had cut themselves open to bear him company, according to a com- mon Japanese fashion of expressing attachment and gratitude ; that a civil war had broken out between the emperor and his im- prisoned son-in-law ; and that all Osaka, except the castle, where the rebels were entrenched and besieged, had been burned to the ground. Jedo had also suffered exceedingly by a terrible tuffon or hurricane, which the Christians ascribed to the judgment of God, and the pagan Japanese to the conjurations of the Jesuits. Sayer, another of the English Company, wrote, December 5, 1G15, that the emperor had got the victory, with the loss doubt- less exaggerated of four hundred thousand men on both sides. The death of Ogosho-Sama,* in 1616, left his son Xogun-Sama sole emperor. He continued to reside at Jedo, which, thenceforth, became the capital. He diligently followed up the policy of his three predecessors, that of weakening the particular kings and princes so as to reduce them to political insignificance ; nor does it appear that, from that time to this, the empire, formerly so turbu- lent, has ever been disturbed by civil wars, or internal commo- tions; He also began that system of foreign policy since pushed to such extremes. The English, by a new version of their privileges,! were restricted to the single port of Firanclo, while the new emperor * He was deified, and is still worshipped under the name of Gonsen-Sama, given to him after his death. It is from him that the reigning emperors of Japan trace their descent. He is buried at the temple of Niko, built in 1636, three days' journey from Jedo, of the splendor of which marvellous stories are told. Caron, who wrote about the time it was built, speaks as if he had seen it. In 1782, M. Titsingh, then Dutch director, solicited per- mission to visit this temple, but was refused, as there was no precedent for euch a favor. + These modified privileges have been printed for the first time by Randall. 178 JAPAN. A. D. 1C13 1C20. positively refused to receive a present from the viceroy of New Spain, or to see the persons who brought it. At the commencement of the new reign, there were yet con- cealed within the empire thirty-three Jesuits, sixteen friars of the three orders, and seven secular priests, who still continued to min- ister to the faithful with the aid of a great number of unlive catechists. Seven Jesuits and all the friars but one were in Naga- saki and its environs. Of the other Jesuits, several resided in the other imperial cities where they still found protectors, while the rest travelled from place to place as their services were needed. Those at Nagasaki were disguised as Portuguese merchants, who were still allowed full liberty to trade; while those in the provinces adopted the shaven crowns and long robes, the ordinary guise of the native bonzes. After a while some of them even ventured to resume the habits of their order, and to preach in public; but this only drew out from the emperor a new and more formal and pre- cise edict. It was accompanied with terrible menaces, such as frightened into apostasy many converts who had hitherto stood out, and even drove some of them, in order to secure favor for them- selves, to betray the missionaries, who knew no longer whom to trust. The missionaries sent home lamentable accounts of their own sufferings and those of their converts, and all Catholic Europe resounded with lamentations over this sudden destruction of what had long been considered one of the most flourishing and encourag- ing provinces of missionary labor, not unmingled, however, with exultations over the courage and firmness of the martyrs.* * Lopo dc Vega, the poet, who he-Id the office of procurator fiscal to the apoa tolic chamber of the archbishopric of Toledo, celebrated the constancy of the Japanese martyrs, in a pamphlet entitled, Triumpho de la Fe en los Rryno* ilcl Japan, pi* los annonie 1014 and IGlo, published in 1C17. " Take away from this work," says Charlevoix, " the Latin and Spanish versos, the quotations foreign to the subject, and the flourish of the style, and there will IM* nothing left of it." The subject was much more satisfactorily treated by Nicholas Tri- gault, himself a very distinguished member of the Chinese mission, which he had joined in 1010. He returned to Europe in 1816, travelling on foot through Persia, Arabia and Egypt, to obtain a fresh supply of laborers. Besides an account of the Jesuit mission to China (from which, next to Murco Polo'* travels, Europe gathered ita first distinct notions of that empire), and a sum- MARTYRDOMS. 179 Such, indeed, was the zeal for martyrdom on the part of the Jap- anese, in which they were encouraged by the friars, and which the Jesuits strove in vain to keep within some reasonable limits, as to lead to many acts of imprudence, by which the individual was glori- fied, but the church damnified. Henceforth the missionary letters, which still found their way to Home, though in diminishing numbers and with decreasing regularity, contain little but horrible accounts of tortures and martyrdoms, mingled, indeed, with abundant exultations over the firmness and even the jubilant spirit with which the victims met their fate, now by crucifixion, now by the axe, and now by fire. Infinite were the prayers, the austerities, the fasts, the penitential exercises, to which the converts resorted in hopes to appease the wrath of Heaven. Even infants at the breast were made to bear their share in them, being allowed to nurse but once a day, in the hope that God would be moved by the cries of these innocents to grant peace to his church. But, though many miraculous things mary of the Japanese mission from 1609 to 1G12, published during this visit to Europe, just before his departure in 1618 (taking with him forty-four mis- sionaries, who had volunteered to follow him to China) , he completed four books concerning the triumphs of the Christians in the late persecution in Japan ; to which, while at Goa, on, his way to China, he added a fifth book, bringing down the narrative to 1616. The whole, derived from the annual Japanese let- ters, was printed in 1623, in a small quarto of five hundred and twenty pages, illustrated by numerous engravingsof martyrdoms, and containing also a short addition, bringing down the story to the years 1617 1620, and a list of Jap- anese martyrs, to the number of two hundred and sixty-eight. There is also added a list of thirty -eight houses and residences (including two colleges, one at Arima, the other at Nagasaki), which the Jesuits had been obliged to abandon ; and of five Franciscan, four Dominican and two Augustinian con- vents, from which the inmates had been driven. These works of Trigault, published originally in Latin, were translated into French and Spanish. Various other accounts of the same persecution appeared in Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. A Brief Relation of the Persecution lately made against the Catholic Christians of Japan was published at London, 1616. MCJID- vrhile Purchas, in the successive editions of his Pilgrimage, gave an account of the Japanese missions, which is the best and almost the only one (though now obsolete and forgotten) in the English language. That contained in the fourth edition (annexed as a fifth part to the Pilgnmes), and published in 1625, is the fullest. Captain Saris, according to Purchas, ascribed the per- secution to the discovery, by the Japanese, that the Jesuits, under the cloalf of veligien, were but merchants. 180 JAPAN. A. D. 1C13 1C21. are told of the martyrs, many of them, it is said, distinctly pro- nouncing the name of Jesus and Mary after their heads were cut off, the persecution continued to rage with unabated fury. While the persecution of the Catholics was thus fiercely pur- sued in Japan, the Dutch, not in those islands only, but throughout the eastern seas, were zealously pushing their mercantile enter- prises; and in Japan, as elsewhere, they got decidedly the advantage of the English, their companions and rivals, in these inroads upon the Portuguese and Spaniards. The English at Firando bought junks and attempted a trade with Siam, where they already had a factory, one of their first establish- ments in the East ; and with Cochin China and Corea ; but without much advantage. In 161G, two small vessels arrived from England, one of which was employed in trading between Japan and Java. The operations of the Dutch were on a much larger scale. Not content with driving the Spaniards from the Moluccas, they threatened the Philippines, and sent to blockade Manilla a fleet, which had several engagements with the Span- iards. Five great Dutch ships arrived at Firando in 1616, of which one of nine hundred tons sailed for Bantam, fully laden with raw silk and other rich China stuffs ; and another, of eight hundred tons, for the Moluccas, with money and provisions Several others remained on the coast to watch the Spanish and Portuguese traders, and to carry on a piratical war against the Chinese junks, of which they captured, in 1616, according to Cocks' letters, not less than twenty or thirty, pretending to be English ves- sels, and thus greatly damaging the English name and the chance of a trade with China.* On a visit to Miako, in 1620, Cocks, as appears by his let- ters, saw fifty-five Japanese martyred, because they would not renounce the Christian faith ; among them little children of five or six years old, burned in their mothers' arms, and crying to Jesus to receive their souls. Sixteen others had been put to death for the same cause at Nagasaki, five of whom were burned, and the rest beheaded, cut in pieces, and cast into the sea in sacks ; but the * Such was the charge of the English. The Dutch narratives, however, abound with similar charges against the English. Both probably were true enough, as both nations captured all the Chinese junks they met. CATHOLIC QUARRELS. 181 priests had secretly fished up their bones and preserved them foi relics. There were many more in prison, expecting hourly to die ; for, as Cocks wrote, very few turned pagans. Nagasaki had been from its foundation a Catholic city. Hith- erto, notwithstanding former edicts for their destruction, one or two churches and monasteries had escaped ; but, in 1621, all that were left, including the hospital of Misericordia, were destroyed. The very graves and sepulchres, so Cocks wrote, had been dug up ; and, as if to root out all memory of Christianity, heathen temples were built on their sites. One of thebJesuits wrote home that there was not now any question as to the number of Jesuit residences in Japan, but only as to the number of prisons. Even those who had not yet fallen into the hands of the persecutors had only caves and holes in the rocks for their dwellings, in which they suffered more than in the darkest dungeons. It is not necessary to give implicit credit to all which the con- temporary letters and memoirs related, and which the Catholic his- torians and martyrologists have repeated, of the ferocity of the persecutors, the heroism of the sufferers, and especially of the mir- acles said to be wrought by their relics. Yet there can be no question, either of the fury of the persecution, or of the lofty spirit of martyrdom in which it was unavailingly met. Catholicism lingered on for a few years longer in Japan, yet it must be consid- ered as having already received its death-blow in that same year in which a few Puritan pilgrims landed at Plymouth, to plant the obscure seeds of a new and still growing Protestant empire. 16 CHAPTER XXIV. COLLISIONS OF THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH IN THE EASTERN SEAS. THE ENG- LISH RETIRE FROM JAPAN. THE SPANIARDS REPELLED. PROGRESS OF THE PERSECUTION. JAPANESE PORTS, EXCEPT FIRANDO AND NAGASAKI, CLOSED TO FOREIGNERS. CHARGES IN EUROPE AGAINST THE JESUITS. FATHERS SOTELO AND COLLADO. TORMENT OF THE FOSSE. APOSTASIES. THE PORTUGUESE CONFINED TO DESIMA. REBELLION OF XIMABARA. THE PORTUGUESE EXCLUDED. AMBASSADORS PUT TO DEATH. A. D. 1621-1640 ALREADY the relations of the Dutch and English in the East had assumed the character of open hostility. A letter from Cocks, of March 10th, 1621,* complains that the Hollanders, hav- ing seven ships, great and small, in the harbor of Firando, had, with sound of trumpet, proclaimed open war against the English, both by sea and land, to take their ships and goods, and kill their persons as mortal enemies ; that they had seized his boat, fired at his barks, and had beset the door of his factory a hundred Dutchmen to one Englishman and would have entered and cut all their throats but for the interference of the Japanese : all because Cocks had refused to give up six Englishmen, who had escaped from two English ships which the Dutch had captured, and whom they claimed to have back, representing them to the Japanese as their " slaves." To sustain the English interest in the eastern seas, the English East India Company, by great efforts, had fitted out, in 1017, the largest expedition yet sent from England to the East Indies. It consisted of the Royal James, of one thousand tons ; the Royal Anne, of nine hundred ; the Gift, of eight hundred ; the Bull, of four hundred; and the Bee, of one hundred and fifty tons; and * The date, as given by Pu;-lias (evidently by a misprint), is 1G10. COLLISIONS OF THE DUTCH AND ENGLISH. sailed from London under the command of Martin Pring, who, twelve years before, following up the discoveries of .Gosnold, had entered and explored the first Englishman to do so Penobscot bay and river, on the coast of what had since begun to be known as New England. Pring sailed first for Surat, where the Company had a factory, and where he assisted the native prince against the Portuguese, with whom he was at war. On the 17th of June, 1G18, he arrived at Bantam, whence he proceeded, in September, to Jaca- tra, a city of the natives, the site of the present Batavia. There he received news that the Dutch in the Moluccas, not content with driv- ing out the Spaniards, had attacked the English also, making pris- oners of the merchants, whom they had treated with great harsh ness. News had also reached England of these Dutch outrages, and to make head against them, the Company, not long after Pring's departure, despatched Sir Thomas Dale also well known, to readers of American history, as high-marshal of the colony of Vir- ginia, one of its first legislators, and for three or four years its deputy governor with a fleet of six large ships, with five of which he joined Pring in November, 1618, in the Bay of Bantam, assum- ing the command of the whole, including others which he found there. Both fleets were in a very leaky condition, and after some skir- mishing with the Dutch, and the capture of a richly-laden Dutch ship from Japan, the English sailed for the coast of Coromandcl, to refit and to obtain provision, which could not be had on the coast of Java. Having arrived at Musilapatam, Dale died there August 9th, 1619. Toward the end of the year, Pring, who succeeded in the command, returned again towards the Straits of Sunda, and on the 25th of January, 1620, met, off the coast of Sumatra, three English ships of a new fleet, from which he learned that four others of the squadron to which they belonged had been surprised while at anchor off the coast of Java, and taken by the Dutch; that another had been wrecked in the Straits of Sunda ; and that the Dutch were in pursuit of two others, with every prospect of taking them. As the Dutch at Jacatra were three times as strong as the three squadrons now united under Pring, and as three of his larg- est ships were very leakv, and the whole fleet short of provisions, it 184 JAPAN. A. D. 1C21 1040. was resolved to send part of the vessels to a place at the north end of Sumatra, -in hopes to meet with the Company's ships on theil way with rice from Surat, while Pring himself, with his leaky vessels, should proceed to Japan reported to be a good place for repairs as well as for obtaining provisions. Just at this time the happy news arrived, brought by two vessels despatched for, that purpose from Europe, of an arrangement of the pending dispute, and of the union of the Dutch and English East India Companies into one body. * Shortly after this welcome information, Pring sailed for Japan with two of his leaky vessels, having made, an arrangement to be followed in a month by a united fleet of five English and five Dutch ships. These ships were intended partly, indeed, for trade, but their principal object appears to have been attacks upon Manilla and Macao. All these vessels, the Unicorn excepted, arrived safely at Firando. She was stranded on the coast of China, and her crew were the first Englishmen known to have landed there. A joint embassy was sent to the emperor with presents, which, notwithstanding the privileges of trade, were expected from every vessel that came. Having com- pleted his repairs, and leaving the other vessels behind him, Pring sailed on the 7th of December, 1620, in the Royal James, for Jacatra, carrying with him the news of the death of Adams, who, having remained in the service of the Company, had never again visited England.* * From Jacatra Pring proceeded to England with a cargo of pepper. It would seem that he had not forgotten his early voyages to the coast of America, for while his ship lay in the road of Saldanha, near the Cape of Good Hope, a contribution of seventy pounds eight shillings and sixpence was raised among the ship's company, to endow a school, to be called the East India School, in the colony of Virginia. Other contributions were made for this school, and the Virginia Company endowed it with a farm of a thousand acres, which they sent tenants to cultivate ; but this, like the Virginia University, and many other public-spirited and promising enter- prises, was ruined and annihilated by the fabil Indian massacre of 1622. The Royal James carried also to England a copy in Japanese, still pre- served in the archives of the East India Company, of Adams' will. With commendable impartiality, he divided his property, which, hy the inventory annexed, amounted to nineteen hundred and seventy-two tael, two' mas, four ENGLISH ABANDON THE TRADE. The arrangement with the Dutch was but of short duration Fresh quarrels broke out. In 1G23 occurred the famous massacre of Amboyna, followed by the expulsion of the English from the Spice Islands; and, about the same time, the Company aban- kandarins (two thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars and twenty- nine cents), equally between his Japanese and his English family ; the Eng lish share to go, one half to the wife and the other half to the daughter, it not being his mind so Cocks wrote " his wife should have all, in regard she might marry another husband, and carry all from his child." By the same ship Cocks made a remittance to the English family, having delivered " one hundred pounds sterling to diverse of the lloyal James' Company, entered into the purser's books, to pay in England, two for one," a very handsome rate of exchange, which throws some light on the profits of East India trade in those days. Adams' Japanese estate probably descended to his Japanese son ; and who knows but the family survives to this day? The situation of this estate was but a very short distance from the spot where tho recent American treaty was made ; nor is the distance great from Simoda, one of the ports granted by that treaty. The command of the fleet left behind, on Pring's departure, devolved on Captain Robert Adams. Accord- ing to Cocks' account, the crews, both Dutch and English, inferior officers as well as men, were a drunken, dissolute, quarrelsome set. Ilundall gives a curious record of the trial by jury and execution of an Englishman of this fleet, for the murder of a Dutchman ; and it seems the Dutch reciprocated by hanging a Dutchman for killing an Englishman. Master Arthur Hatch was chaplain of this fleet. Purchas gives (vol. i., part n., book x., ch. i.) a letter from him, written after his return, containing a brief sketch of his observations in Japan. Purchas also gives a letter from Cocks, which, in reference to the kofk of rice, agrees very well with Titsingh's statement quoted on page fifty-four. Cocks represents the revenues of the Japanese princes as being estimated in mangoca (mankofk) of rice, each containing ten thousand goca (kofk), and each goca containing one hundred gaiitas (gantings), a ganta being a measure equal to three English ale pints. Cocks states the revenue of the king of Firando at six mangoca. He main tained four thousand soldiers, his quota for the emperor's service being two thousand. The income of Koskodono, formerly three, had lately been raised to fifteen mangoca. That of the king of S.vtsuma was one hundred, and that of the prince next in rank to the emperor two hundred mangoca. The value of the mangoca was calculated at the English factory at nine thousand three hundred and seventy-five pounds, which would make the kofk, or goca, worth eighteen shillings and sixpence sterling, or four dollars and fifty cents, and agrees very well with Caron's estimates of the kofk, which be calls cokien, as worth ten Dutch florins, or four dollars. The estimalis of Kampfet and Titsingh, given on page fifty-five, are higher. 16* 186 JAPAN. A. D. 1C21 1640. doned the trade to Japan, after having lost forty thousand pounds in the adventure. This massacre of Amboyna consisted in the exe- cution, by the Dutch, of ten or twelve factors of the English East India Company, on the charge of having conspired with some thirty Japanese residents to seize the Dutch fort. One of these Japanese having put some questions to a Dutch sentinel about the strength of the fort, he and others of his countrymen were arrested on suspi- cion, and by torture were compelled to accuse the English, who were then tortured in their turn into accusing each other. The residence of these Japanese at Amboyna is a proof, in addition to those already mentioned, of the adventurous spirit of the Japanese of that day, who had indeed a reputation for desperate daring, such as might give some color to the suspicions of the Dutch.* Meanwhile the persecution continued as violently as ever. In the year 1622 fourteen Jesuits were burnt at the stake, including Spinola, a missionary of illustrious birth, who had been twenty years in Japan. Two friars were also burnt, who had been found on board a Japanese vessel from the Philippines, captured in 1620, by one of the English ships, the Elizabeth, employed in the blockade of Macao, and by her commander carried to Firando. The master and crew of the Japanese vessel, and many other native converts, were executed at the same time. The Spaniards were sus- pected of smuggling in missionaries, and were wholly forbidden the islands. As a greater security against this danger, by an edict, issued in 1624, shortly previous to which there had been a very severe inquisition in J edo and its neighborhood for concealed priests, all the ports of Japan were closed against foreigners, except Firando and Nagasaki, of which Firando remained open to the Dutch and English, Nagasaki to the Portuguese, and both to the Chinese. At the same time was introduced the custom of requiring an exact muster roll, and making a strict inspection of the crews of all foreign vessels. By the same edict all the subjects of the Cath- olic king, whether Portuguese or Spaniards, were banished the country, however long they might have been settled there, and even though they might have families by Japanese wives. What aggravated the misfortunes of the Japanese church, and * See Appendix F. SEVERITY OF THE PERSECUTION. 187 greatly diminished the dignity of its fall, was the still hot jealousy and mutual hatred of the Jesuits and of the friars, inflamed rather than quenched by all this common danger and suffering. The bishop of Japan having died (it was said of grief, at the peril of his flock) just as the persecution broke out, a most unseemly quarrel arose, which was curried on for several years with great virulence, as to the administration of the bishopric. It was claimed, on the one hand, by Father Corvailho, the provincial of the Jesuits, under an authority from the Pope ; and, on the other, by Father Pierre Baptiste, a Fran- ciscan, as vicar-general of the archbishop of Manilla, to whose juris- diction it was pretended the bishopric of Japan appertained. This quarrel about the administration of the bishopric was finally settled by the Pope in favor of the Jesuits. The Jesuit seminaries in Japan being broken up, they had organ- ized one at Macao for the education of Japanese ecclesiastics ; but the severe penalties denounced against all priests coming into Japan, and against all, whether natives or foreigners, who should shelter them after their arrival, made the existence of the church, and the celebration of divine service, every day more precarious. From year to year it grew more and more difficult for new missionaries to get landed, great as was the zeal for that service. Of those who did land, the greater part were immediately seized and put to death. Large rewards were offered to any person who would betray or take a missionary. Those already in the country lived in hourly danger of arrest, forced to conceal themselves in cellars, holes and caverns and the huts of lepers, exposing to tortures and death all who might bring them food, or in any way assist in concealing them. The greatness of their sufferings does not depend merely upon the testimony of their own letters. Roger Gysbert, a Dutch Protestant and a resident in Japan, between the years 1622 and 1629, wrote an affecting narrative of it, and the general fact is strongly stated in Caron's account of Japan written a few years later. Gysbert, in his narrative,* relates the martyrdom of more than five hundred persons ; but there was a still larger amount of suf- fering which terminated not in martyrdom,- but in recantntion. The * It may be found in Thevenot's Collection of Voyages, also u Voyages det Indes, tom. v. 188 JAPAN. A. D. 1C21 1640. Japanese officers seldom exhibited any personal malice against jhe Catholics. Their sole object was the extinction of that faith. They made it a study to deny the crown of martyrdom so enthusiastically sought, and by a series of protracted and ingenious tortures to force a renunciation. For this purpose the prisoners were sprinkled with water from the boiling sulphur springs, not far from Nagasaki, and exposed to breathe their stifling odors. The modesty of the women was barbarously assailed, and numerous means of protracted torture were -resorted to, such as in general proved sooner or later success* ful. Other means were employed still more efficacious. All natives engaged in foreign trade were required to give in an exact state- ment of their property, which, unless the proprietors would conform to the national faith, was declared forfeited. It was even forbidden that European merchants should lodge in the houses of any who were or had been Catholics. At Firando and Nagasaki all heads of families were obliged to swear, in the presence of an idol, that there were no Catholics in their houses, and, according to the Jap- anese usage, to sign this declaration with their blood. From Melichor Santvoort, an old Dutchman, one of the companions of Adams in the first Dutch voyage to Japan, and long a resident at Nagasaki, the authorities were indeed satisfied to take instead a declaration that he was a Hollander, a circumstance which gave occasion to the scandal at which Kampfer is so indignant, that the Hollanders were accustomed to report themselves to the Japanese authorities as not Christians, but Dutchmen. All who refused to conform to the national worship were deprived of their employ- ments, and driven out to live as they could among the barren moun- tains. The seafaring people had been mostly Catholics, but no Catholic was henceforth to be permitted to sail on board any ship. So successful were these means, that although when Gysbert first visited Nagasaki, in 1626, it was said to contain forty thousand native Christians, when he left it, in 1629, there was not one who admitted himself to be such. In the midst of these martyrdoms, the Jesuits were called upon to suffer still severer torments, in new attacks upon their policy and conduct in Japan, published throughout Europe. Father Collado, a Dominican, for some time resident at Nagasaki, who returned to Europe in 1622, was known to have gone home charged vith accu FATHERS COLLADO AND SOTELO. 189 sations against the Jesuits ; by way of answer to which a memo- rial was transmitted, prepared by the provincial Father Pacheco, who, four years after, himself suffered martyrdom at the stake. Nor was Collado their only assailant. Among those arrested in 1622, was Father Sotelo, that same enterprising Franciscan; of whom already we have had occasion to make mention. Insisting upon his character of legate from the Pope, he had disobeyed the orders of his superiors, had sailed from New Spain to Manilla, and had contrived to get a passage thence to Nagasaki, in a Chinese vessel, under the character of a merchant. But the captain detected and betrayed him ; he was immediately arrested and thrown into prison, and in 1624 was put to death. In 1628 there was published at Madrid what purported to be a letter from Sotelo to Pope Urban VIII., written in Latin, dated just before his martyrdom, and containing, under the form of a narrative of his own proceedings, a violent attack upon the Jesuits, and their conduct in Japan. Not liking to be thus attacked as it were by a martyr from his grave, they denied its authenticity. A memorial of Collado, printed in 1683, reiterated the same charges, to most of which it must be admitted that the replies made on behalf of the Jesuits are entirely satisfactory.* * A candid and conclusive answer to Sotelo, or the false Sotelo, as the Jesuits persisted in calling him, was published at Madrid immediately after the appearance of his letter by Don Jean Cevicos, a commissary of the holy office, who was able to speak from personal observation. Cevicos had been captain of the galleon St. Francis, the ship in which Don Rodrigo de Vivero had been wrecked on the coast of Japan, as related in a former chapter. After a six months' stay in Japan, and an acquaintance there with Sotelo, Cevicos sailed for Manilla, was captured on the passage by the Dutch, but recaptured by a Spanish fleet. Arrived at Manilla, he renounced the seas, commenced the study of theology, was ordained priest, and became provisor of the archbishopric of the Philippines. The business of this office brought him to Spain, and being at Madrid when the letter ascribed to Sotelo ap- peared, he thought it his duty to reply to it. A full abstract of this answer, as well as of Sotelo's charges, may be found at the end of Charlevoix' Kis-> toirc du Jtipon. It appears, from documents quoted in it, that the mission- aries of the other orders agreed with the Jesuits, in ascribing the persecution mainly to the idea, which the Dutch made themselves very busy in insinuat- ing, that the independence of Japan was in danger from the Spaniards and the Pope, who were on the watch to gain, by means of the missionaries. the mastery of Japan, as they had of Portugal and so many other countries 190 JAPAN. A. D. 16211640. Finding that the means as yet employed had little effect upon the missionaries and their native assistants, a new and more effect- ual, because more protracted, torture was resorted to, known in the relations of the missionaries as the Torment of the Fosse. A hole was dug in the ground, over which a gallows was erected. From this gallows the sufferer, swathed in bandages, was suspended by his feet, being lowered for half his length, head downward, into the hole, which was then closed by two boards which fitted together around the victim so as to exclude the light, and air. One hand was bound behind the back, the other was left loose, with which to make the prescribed signal of recantation and renunciation of the foreign creed ; in which case, the sufferer was at once released. This was a most terrible trial indeed. The victim suffered under a continual sense of suffocation, the blood burst from the mouth, nose and ears, with a twitching of the nerves and muscles, attended by the most intolerable pains. Yet the sufferer, it was said, lived sometimes for nine Or ten days. The year 1633, in which this punishment was first introduced, the second year of a new emperor, son of Xogun-Sama,* and himself known as Toxogun-Sama, proved more fatal than any previous one to the new religion. In the month of August of that year forty -two persons were burnt alive in various parts of Japan, eleven decapitated, and sixteen suspended in the fosse. The Dutchman Hagenaar, who was at Firando in 1634, states, in his printed voyages, that during the time of his visit thirty-seven persons lost their lives at that place on the charge of being Catholics. Five of these perished by the torment of the fosse, others were beheaded, others cut to pieces, and others burnt. The charges made in the name of Sotelo against the Jesuits are of more interest from the fact that, at the time of the Jansenist quarrel, they were revived and reiirged with a bitterness of hatred little short of that which had prompted their original concoction. A Spanish history of the Franciscan mission, full of bitter hatred against the Jesuits, was published at Madrid m 16o2, written down to 1620, by Father Fray Jacinto Orfanel, who was arrested that year, and burnt two years after, and continued by Collado, who was also the author of a Japanese grammar and dictionary mentioned in the Appendix, A. * Xogun-Sama seems to be only Scgun-Sama, a title, not a name. REBELLION OF SIMABARA. 191 What it last struck the deepest horror to the souls oi the fef survi ring Jesuits, and was greatly improved in Europe to the damage of the Company by its enemies, was the apostasy of Father Christopher Ferreyra, a Portuguese, an old missionary, the provincial of the order, and the administrator of the bishopric. He was taken in 1633 at Nagasaki, and being suspended in the fosse, after five hours he gave the fatal signal of renunciation. After having been kept some time in prison, and given what information he could for the detection of those of his late brethren still con- cealed in Japan, he was set at liberty ; and, having assumed the Japanese dress and a Japanese name, he lived for several years at Nagasaki. He had been compelled to marry a Japanese woman, who was very rich, being the widow of a Chinese goldsmith, who had been executed for some offence ; but the Jesuits comforted themselves with the idea that the marriage was never consummated ; and they even got up a report that in his old age this renegade brother recovered his courage, and having, on his death-bed, con- fessed himself a Christian, was immediately hurried off to perish a martyr by that very torment of the fosse, the terror of which had first made and had so long kept him an apostate. But for this fine story there 'seems to have been no foundation except the wishes and hopes of those who circulated it. As a further security against the surreptitious introduction of missionaries, the policy was adopted, in 1635, of confining the Por- tuguese sailors and merchants to the little artificial island of Desima, in the harbor of Nagasaki, a spot but just large enough to hold the necessary residences and warehouses. Shortly after the issue of this edict, the people of the kingdom of Arima, all of them still Catholic except the king and the nobility, seeing no other hope, broke out into open revolt. They were headed by a descendant of their ancient kings, and mustering, it is said, to the number of thirty-seven thousand, took possession of the fortress ofXimabara, situated about due east from Nagasaki, on the gulf of the same name. Here they were besieged ; and the place being taken in 1637, those who held it were cut off to a man. The Portuguese were accused of having encouraged this revolt ; in consequence of which an edict was issued, in 1638, not only banishing all the Portuguese, but forbiddipg also any Japanese 192 JAPAN. A. D. 1G21 1C40. to go out of the country. That edict as given by Kiimpfer, was as follows : " No Japanese ship or boat whatever, nor any native of Japan, shall pre- sume to go out of the country : whoso acts contrary to this shall die, and the ship with the crew and goods aboard shall be sequestered till further order. " All Japanese who return from abroad shall be put to death. Whoever discovers a priest shall have a reward of 400 to 500 shuels of silver, and for every Christian in proportion.* . " All persons who propagate the doctrine of the Catholics, or bear this scandalous name, shall be imprisoned in the Onibra, or common jau of the town. " The whole race of the Portuguese, with their mothers, nurses and what- ever belongs to them, shall be banished to Macao. " Whoever presumes to bring a letter from abroad, or to return after he hath been banished, shall die with all his family ; also whoever presumes to intercede for him shall be put to death. No nobleman nor any soldier shall be suffered to purchase anything of a foreigner." The Portuguese ships of 1639 were sent back with a copy of this edict, without being suffered to discharge their cargos. The corpora- tion of the city of Macao, greatly alarmed at the loss of a lucrative traffic, on which their prosperity mainly depended, sent deputies to solicit some modification of this edict. But the only reply made by the emperor was to cause these deputies themselves, with their attendants, to the number of sixty-one persons, to be seized and put to death, as violators of the very edict against which they had been sent to remonstrate. Thirteen only, of the lowest rank, were sent back to Macao, August, 1040, with this account of the fate of their company .t * A shuet of silver weighs about five ounces, so that the reward offered was from 2000 to $2500. t A narrative of this transaction was published at Rome, in 1643. A short but curious document, purporting to be a translation of a Japanese imperial edict, commanding the destruction of all Portuguese vessels attempting to approach the coasts of Japan, is given in Voyayes au JVuia, torn. iv. Ships of other nations were to be sert under a strong guard to Nagasaki. [See Appendix, Note I.] CHAPTER XXV. POLICY OF THE DUTCH. AFFAIR OF NUYTS. HAGAXAAR'S VISITS TO JAPAN. CAROX'S ACCODXT OF JAPAN. IXCOME OF THE EMPEROR AND THE NOBLES. MILITARY FORCE. SOCIAL AXD POLITICAL POSITION OF THE NOBLES. JUSTICE. RELATION OF THE DUTCH TO THE PERSECUTION OF THE CATHOLICS. THE DUTCH REMOVED FROM FIRAXDO AXD COXFIXED IN DES1MA. ATTEMPTS OF THE ENGLISH, PORTUGUESE AND FRENCH, AT IN- TERCOURSE WITH JAPAN. . FIXAL EXTINCTION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITIL A. D. 162J 1707. THROUGHOUT the whole of the long and cruel persecution of the Catholics, the Dutch had striven by extreme subserviency to re- commend themselves to the favor of the Japanese, in hopes of exclusively engrossing a trade which appears at this time to have been more extensive and more lucrative than at any former period. The Japanese, however, seem not to have been insensible to the advantages of competition ; and, so long as the Portuguese com- merce continued, they extended to the vessels of that nation a cer- tain protection against the Dutch, and even preference over them. The danger from Dutch cruisers appears to have caused the substi- tution, for the single great carac of Macao, of a number of smaller vessels ; nor were the Dutch, however urgent their solicitations, allowed to leave Firando till such a number of days after the de- parture of the Portuguese from Nagasaki as would prevent all danger of collision. Yet, however cringing the general policy of the Dutch East India Company, their trade, through the folly of a single individual, was near being exposed to a violent interruption. In the year 1626, Conrad Kramer, the head of the Dutch factory, was extremely well received on his visit to Jedo, and was allowed to be present at Miuko during the visit of the emperor to the Dairi an occasion which drew together an immense concourse, and which, according 17 194 JAPAN. A. D. 1G20 1707. to the account that Kramer has left of it, was attended with vast confusion.* The annual visit to Jedo was made the next year by Peter de Nuyts, who gave himself out as ambassador from the king of Holland, and at first was treated as such ; but the Japanese hav- ing discovered that he had no commission except from the council of Batavia, sent him away in disgrace. Shortly after Nuyts was appointed governor of Formosa. The Dutch, following in the footsteps of some Japanese adver.turcrs had formed an establishment on that island, about the year 1020 with a view to a smuggling trade with China ; and, by erecting a fort at the mouth of the harbor, had speedily obtained the exclusive con- trol of it. Not long after Nuyts' appointment as governor, there arrived two Japanese vessels, on a voyage to China. They merely touched at Formosa for water, but Nuyts, to gratify the spite he had conceived against the Japanese nation, contrived to detain them so long that they missed the monsoon ; and having required them, as the sole condition on which he would allow their entrance, to give up their sails and rudders, upon one pretence and another, he refused to return them, till at length the patience of the Jap- anese was entirely exhausted. They numbered five hundred men ; and at last, all their reiterated and urgent applications for leave to depart being refused, they attacked the governor by surprise, over- powered his household, and made him prisoner ; nor did thd garri- son of the neighboring fort dare to fire upon them for fear of killing their own people. Thus the brave Japanese extorted liberty to depart and indemnity for their losses, to which the Dutch assented, notwithstanding their superior force, for fear of reprisals in Japan. These, however, they did not avoid, for, as soon as the Japanese reached home, the emperor put under sequestration nine vessels with their cargoes, then at Firtfndo, belonging to the Dutch East India Company, and forbade any further trade with their agents. Things remained in this state for three years, the Japanese, how- ever, receiving as usual Dutch vessels which came from Batavia, under the assumed character of belonging not to the East India Company, but to private merchants. At last it was resolved tc * This curious piece may be found in French, in the Voyages des Indtt, torn. v. HAGANAAR'S VISITS. 195 seek an aceovumodation by surrendering up Nuyts to the mercy of the Japanese, which was done in 1634. Having obtained his unconditional surrender, they treated him with great clemency ; for, though detained in custody, he was not kept a close prisoner ; and, in return for this concession, the Com- pany's ships were released, and their trade reestablished. The liberation of Nuyts was granted two years afterwards as a mark of the emperor's satisfaction, with a splendid chandelier among the annual presents of the Company, and which was used as an orna- ment for the temple-mausoleum of the emperors of the race of Gongen-Sama, completed about that time. In the solicitation for the release of Nuyts both Haganaar and Caron were employed, to each of whom we are indebted for some curious memoirs of the state of Japan in their time. Haganaar made three visits thither. The first included the last four months of 1634. The second extended from September, 1635, to Novem- ber, 1636 ; during which, he made a visit to Jedo, and was at the head of the factory. The third was limited to three months in the autumn of 1637. Of each of these visits he has given brief notes in his printed travels,* besides adding some observations of his own to Caron's account of Japan. Firando, which he describes as a town of thirty-six streets, had grown up suddenly, in consequence of the Dutch trade a single street producing more revenue to the lord than the whole town formerly had done ; yet there were hard- ly any merchants in the place, except those who lodged at the fac- tory, and who were drawn thither from all parts by the Dutch trade. During Haganaar's second visit, the Dutch were called sharply to account for having presumed to sell their silk at a higher rate than that asked by the Portuguese, and a price was prescribed, which they were not to exceed. Being deputed to visit Jedo, on the business of Xuyts' release, Haganaar proceeded thither by sea, and took lodgings at the house of a Japanese bonze, who was the usual host of the Dutch. The agency of the lord of Firando and of his secretary was employed with several of the imperial counsel- * Haganaar's travels may be found in Voyages des Indes, torn, v., and narrative -f Nuyt's affair in Voyages au J\"ard, torn iv. a 196 JAPAN. A. D. 16201707. *0rs, but owing, as it would seem, to a deficiency of presents, with out success. Caron arranged this matter more successfully the next year. From Jedo to Osaka Haganaar travelled by land, and from Osaka by water to Firando, where, during his absence, thirteen or fourteen persons had suffered death because they belonged to Cath- olic families. He notes that the Japanese whale fishery, for the season of 1G3G, resulted in the capture of two hundred and seventy- four whales ; which, however, were much smaller and less fat than the Greenland whales, and were taken more for food than oil. Shortly after his return to Firando, news came of an order from court that all the Portuguese half-castes that is, descendants of Portuguese by Japanese women should be shipped off with their wives and'children to Macao. Returning to Japan a third time, in 1037 in the seventh Dutch ship which arrived that year Haganaar heard that Admiral Wod- dell was at Nagasaki with four richly-laden English ships. They had been refused entrance into Macao, and had come thence to Japan, but could not obtain permission to trade, nor even to land. Six Portuguese galliots had also arrived from Macao with full car- goes of rich silks, which were sold, however, at little profit. Yet they were reported to have carried back, in return, two thousand six hundred chests of silver, or more than three millions of dollars. To relieve the necessities of the Dutch governor of Formosa, who was engaged in hostilities with the natives, and had been obliged to borrow of Chinese traders, at the rate of three per cent, a month, Haganaar was despatched thither with four ships and four hundred and fifty chests of silver, of which two hundred had been borrowed at Miako of Japanese capitalists, at twenty-four per cent, per annum. The following year he returned to Holland, where he soon after printed his voyages, and along with them the answers made by Francis Caron to a series of questions which had been submitted to him by the director of the Company, and which throw not a little light upon the condition of Japan at this time. Caron, born in Holland of French parents, had originally gone to Japan quite young, Kiimpfer says, as cook of a Dutch ship. Bad treatment caused him to quit the ship in Japan, where he was pres- ently taken into the service of the Dutch factory, and taught read- ing, writing and accounts. He gave evidence of remarkable abili- PRODUCE AND INCOME. 197 nes, and rose in time to the head of the establishment. He spoke the language fluently, had married a Japanese wife, and from the liberty of intercourse then allowed, and his long residence in the country, enjoyed means of information which no European has since possessed. In describing the political state of Japan, Caron gives the names, residences and revenues, of thirty-two princes, that is, rulers of one or more provinces (spoken of in the earlier relations as kings), of whom the prince of Kanga, who was also ruler of two other prov- inces, had a revenue of one hundred and nineteen mankokf, and the others revenues varying from seventy to eighteen mankokf. He adds the names, residences and incomes, of one hundred and seven other lords, twenty of whom had revenues of from fifteen to seven mankokf, and the others of from six to two mankokf. Another list contains the names of forty-one lords, with revenues of from one to two mankokf; and in a fourth list, he enumerates sixteen lords at- tached to the imperial court, of whom the first four had from fifteen to nine mankokf, and the others from six to one mankokf. The total revenues of these one hundred and ninety-six great nobles amounted to nineteen thousand three hundred and forty-five man- kokf, exclusive of nine thousand mankokf of imperial revenue, of which four thousand were employed in the maintenance of the court, and the remainder in the support of the imperial guard, all of whom were nobles, many of them children of the concubines of the emperors and great princes, and excluded on that account from the prospect of succession.* Thus the total annual revenues of the great landed proprietors of Japan amounted to twenty-eight million three hundred and forty-five thousand kokfs of rice, equal to about ninety million cwt., or one hundred and thirty-three million five hundred thousand bushels ; nor is it probable that in this respect there has been much change from that time to this.t Caron gives * According to Titsingh, tlicy amounted in his time (1780) to eighty thou- sand in number. Apparently they are the Dosiu, or imperial soldiers, of whom \ve shall have occasion hereafter to speak. fThis quantity of rice would suffice for the support of twelve million rer- sons or more. The cultivators of the imperial domains retained, according to Kampfer, six tenths of the produce, and those who cultivated the lards of inferior lords four tenths. Hence it may be conjectured that the estimate -}f twenty-five millions of people for Japan, is not excessive. 17* 198 JAPAN. A. D. 16201707. as the current value of the kokf, or, as he calls it, cokien, ten guilders (or four dollars), which would make the mankokf equal to one hundred thousand florins (forty thousand dollars), or what the Dutch called a ton of gold. The prince of Satsuma, who was lord also of four other provinces, is put down in the above lists at sixty- four mankokf, the prince of Fisen at thirty-six, and the lord of Firando at six.* These revenues arose in part from mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and lead, from timber, hemp, cotton and silk, and from fisheries ; but chiefly from the rice and other crops. There were no taxes or duties in Japan, except ground rents for lands and houses, payable in produce or money, and in personal services. All these nobles had residences at Jedo, in the precinct of the imperial palace, in which their children resided as hostages for their fidelity. For each thousand kokfs of revenue these lords furnished on demand twenty foot soldiers and two horsemen, and maintained them dur- ing the campaign, exclusive of the necessary servants and camp followers. The whole of their quotas, or of the feudal militia of Japan, thus amounted to three hundred and sixty-eight thousand foot, and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred horse, in addition to a standing army of one hundred thousand foot and twenty thousand horse, maintained by the emperor from his own revenues, as garri- sons and guards. The princes, however, prided themselves on keep- ing up many more troops than their regular quotas. To every five men there was an officer. Five of these sections composed a platoon, which had its commander. Two platoons made a company, which had its captain. Five of these companies, of fifty privates and thir- teen officers, composed a battalion of two hundred and fifty rank and file, with its special officer ; and ten battalions a division of two thousand five hundred men. The civil division was much the same. Every five houses had an inspector, who kept a register of all births and deaths, and every street its magistrate and watch. Though the revenues of the nobles were great, their expenses were still more so. They were obliged to pass six months at the imperial court ; those of the northern and eastern provinces during * These lists were doubtless copied from the JeJo Kayami (Mirror of Jedo), a kind of Blue Book, still published twice a year, and containing sim- ilar lists. See Annals des Empereurs du Japan (Titsingh and Klaproth) page 37, note. PRINCES AND NOBLES. 199 one half the year, those of the southern and western provinces dur- ing the other half. They travelled in great state, some of thorn with not less than four or five thousand men in their suite, and, on their arrival and departure, gave great entertainments. The prince of Firando, though one of the lesser class, was always attended in his journeys by at least three hundred men, and entertained -in his two houses at Jedo more than a thousand persons. What with their households, the clothing of their followers, their women, of whom they entertained a great number, their children, the prince of Mito, the emperor's uncle, had fifty-four boys, and daughters still more numerous, presents and festivals, their expenses gener- ally exceeded their incomes ; and, besides, they were often required to furnish workmen, at the demand of the emperor, for building new castles, temples, or anything he might undertake. The honor of a visit from the emperor was very highly esteemed. lie seldom paid more than one to the same house. No expense was spared, and years were spent in preparations, which often ruined those who enjoyed this honor. The visit made, by the emperor to the Dairi at Miako, once in seven years, was a still more magnificent affair. The emperor maintained on the estate of each noble a secretary, in fact a spy, sent nominally to assist and advise him in the man- agement of his affairs. Those selected for this service were gener- ally persons educated at court, and of known fidelity, who, before their departure, signed with their blood a promise to keep the em- peror fully informed of the affairs and actions of the prince to whom they were sent. The marriages of the nobles were arranged by the emperor. The wife thus given was entitled to great respect. Her sons alone suc- ceeded to the lordship, which, in case she had none, was generally transferred to some other family. The children by the numerous concubines of the nobles had no share in the inheritance, and were often reduced to beggary. Besides concubines, free indulgence was allowed with the courtesans maintained by the lords of each dis- trict for public use. The lawful wives lived in splendid seclusion, attended by troops of female servants. Of women's rights the Japanese nobles had no very high idea. Not only the strictest chastity was expected from them, but entire devotion to their hus- bands, .-.nd abstinence from any intermeddling with business or pol- 200 JAPAN. A. D. 1C20 1707. itics; the Japanese opinion being in which Caron seems fuliy to coincide that women are only made for the pleasure of the men and to bring up children. The children, though treated with great indulgence, were exceedingly respectful to their parents. The emperor had in every city and village officers for the admin- istration of justice; but every householder had the right to dispense punishments in his own family. Justice was very strict and severe, especially in cases of theft ; and for crimes against the state the punishment extended to the whole family of the offender. The nobles and military, in case they were convicted of crimes, enjoyed the privilege of cutting themselves open. Merchants and mechanics were held in mean esteem, the former as cheats and tricksters, the latter as public servants. The cultivators were little better than slaves. The account which Caron gives of domestic manners corresponds sufficiently well with the more extended observations to be quoted hereafter from subsequent observers. He did not regard the Jap- anese as very devout. The persecution against the Catholics he describes as equal to anything in ecclesiastical history. He partic- ularly admired the steadiness and constancy of many young children of ten or twelve years. All the inhabitants were required once a year to sign a declaration that they were good Japanese, and that the Catholic religion was false. The Catholics had amounted to four hundred thousand ; and their number was still considerable.* The Dutch had all along stimulated the Japanese against the Portuguese. All missionaries bound for Japan, found on board of Portuguese and Spanish prizes taken in the neighboring seas, had been delivered into the hands of the Japanese authorities. The Dutch had even assisted at the siege of Ximabara, for which they had furnished a train of artillery, conducted thither by Kockebecker, the head, at that time, of the Dutch factory. But they were far * There are two versions of Caron's account of Japan, materially different from each other; one with the original questions, as furnished by Caron him- ffclf to Thevenot, the other in the form of a continuous narrative, with large additions by Haganaar. The first may be found in Thevenot's Voyages Curi- euse, also in Voyages au J\~ord, torn. iv. The other in Voyages des Indes, torn, v., and an English translation of it in Pinkerton's collection, vol. vil. THE DUTCH SHUT UP IN DESIMA. 201 from realizing all the advantages which they had expected from the expulsion of their rivals. They, too, had excited suspicions by replacing their dilapidated wooden factory at Firaado by a strong stone warehouse, which had something of the aspect of a fortress. In spite of their submissiveness in pulling down * this erection, their establishment at that place was suddenly closed, and in 1641 the Dutch factors were transferred to Nagasaki, where they were shut up. in the same little artificial island of Desima, which had been constructed to be the prison-house of the Portuguese. And to this narrow island they have ever since been confined, with the excep- tion of some occasional visits to Nagasaki and its environs, and an annual journey, by the chief officers of the factory, to pay their homage to the emperor at Jedo a ceremony which seems to have been coeval with the first arrivai of the Dutch. Hitherto the Por- tuguese and the Dutch also had freely intermarried with the Jap- anese ; but this intimacy now came wholly to an end, and even the Dutch were thenceforth regarded rather as prisoners than as friends. What contributed to increase this jealousy of the Dutch was the peace between Holland and the Portuguese, which followed the assumption of the crown of Portugal by the house of Braganza, and the separation of Portugal from Spain, in the year 1640. Evidence of this very soon appeared. In the year 1643, the Dutch sent two ships from Batavia, the Castricoom and the Bres- kens, to explore the yet little-known northern coast of Japan, the island of Jeso and the adjacent continent, and especially to search out certain fabled islands of gold and silver, whence the Japanese were said to derive large supplies of those metals. These vessels, when off Jedo, were separated in a storm, and the Breskens, in need of supplies touched at a fishing village in about forty degrees of north latitude. The lord of the village, and a principal person of the neighboring district, visited the ship with great show of friendship, and having enticed the captain, Shaep, and his chief officers on * A curious contemporary narrative of this affair is given, among other tracts relating to Japan, in Voyayes au J\"brd, torn. iv. It is not unlikely that the military operations of the Dutch in the neighboring bland of For- mosa, and their strong fort of Zelandia recently erected there, might have aroused the suspicions of the Japanese. 202 JAPAN. A. D. 1620-1707. shore, made them prisoners, bound them and sent them off to Nai jbu, near by. They were permitted to communicate with the ship, and to obtain their baggage, but at first were treated with much rigor on suspicion of being Spaniards or Portuguese. It being found, however, that they paid no respect to the sign of the cross or to pictures of the Virgin, it was concluded that they were Hollanders, and they were treated with less severity. At Nambu they were splendidly entertained, and in their twenty days' journey thence to Jedo, in which they passed through a hundred well-built villages, they had nothing to complain of except the inconvenience of the crowds that flocked to see them. In every village they saw rewards posted up for the discovery of Christians. Not being willing to reveal the true object of their voyage, they stated themselves to have been driven to the north inan attempt to reach Nagasaki. It was plain, however, that their story about having come from Batavia, and being in the service of the East India Company, was not believed. It was suspected that they had come from Macao or Manilla for the purpose of landing missionaries, and they were sub- jected in consequence to numerous fatiguing cross-examinations, in which a bonze assisted, who spoke Spanish, Portuguese, English and Flemish, and whom they conjectured to be some apostate Euro- pean. What increased the suspicions of the Japanese was, that five Jesuits from Manilla had recently, in an attempt to reach Japan, been arrested at the Lew Chew Islands, and sent thence to Jcdo. The Dutchmen were confronted with these Jesuits, to their great alarm. They also feared, if the true object of the voyage came out, being exposed to punishment not only for undertaking un- authorized explorations, but for falsehood in concealing and mis- representing their object ; but when the Japanese had learned from Nagasaki that two Dutch ships had been sent on a voyage for the exploration of Tartary, of which the factors represented theirs as probably one, they excused their silence on that subject on the ground of not having been properly understood and interpreted. The factors at Nagasaki had been not less careful than themselves to say nothing about the search for mines. New intsrpreters were brought from Nagasaki, among them another apostate, whom there are grounds for supposing was the "X-provincial Ferreyra, between whom and the Jesuit prisoners they VOYAGE OF THE BRESKENS AXD CASTRICOOM. 203 witnessed a bitter scene of mutual reproaches. A great many rig- orous cross-examinations followed. The Dutchmen were required to sign a paper by which all the Company's property was pledged, for their reappearance before the imperial tribunals at any time that it might be discovered that they had landed missionaries. Then having discharged some pieces of artillery from the ship was insisted upon as a crime ; also their ship having sailed off without waiting for them. The recent peace between Holland and Portugal was pointedly alluded to, and even the search for mines seems to have been suspected. The appearance of a ship on the east coast of Japan, which proved to be the Castricoom, some of whose people who landed were seized and sent to Jedo, gave rise to many new interrogations. Elserak, the director, at length arrived, and, after a separate examination, was confronted with them and signed the paper above described, when the Dutch were finally released, after an imprisonment of upwards of four months.* The Castricoom, more successful, discovered the Kurule Islands, Eetoorpoo and Ooroop, to which were given the names of State's Inlands and Company's Islands, and made some explorations of the east coast of Jeso, and of Sagaleen, taken to be a part of it. The information thus obtained, together with the two relations of Father de Angelis, written in 1016 and 1021, was all that was known of these regions till the explorations of Broughton and La Perouse, towards the close of the last century. Golownin's adventures and experience there, as related in a subsequent chapter, bear a very remarkable and curious resemblance to those of Captain Schaep and his companions. Their release was acknowledged in a solemn embassy from the Company, that of Frisius. About the same time, in 1047, a Portuguese embassy arrived in Japan, in hopes, since the separation from Spain, of reviving the ancient commercial intercourse ; but, though the ambassador was treated with respect, his request was peremptorily declined. A new emperor, a minor, having succeeded in 1G50, the Dutch Company sent Waganaar, in 1651, to congratulate him. Among * There is nn account of the voyage of the Castricoom in Thevenot's collec- tion. It is also contained in Voyuyes au J\~ord, torn. in. Charlevoix gives a full and interesting abstract of the adventures of Captain Schaep and big companions, derived from two different French versions of a Dutch original : but I know not where either the versions or the original can be fouuol. 204 JAPAN. A. D. 1020170". other presents he brought a Casuar, a strange bird of the ostrich kind, from Bunda, but the officers at Nagasaki would not suffer it to be forwarded. During this visit there happened a terrible fire at Jedo, by which two thirds of that city were laid in ruins. Some violent disputes having arisen, and the Japanese having gone so lar as to take away the rudders of the Dutch ships, Waganaar went on a second embassy to Jedo, in 1059.* The establishment of the French East India Company by Colbert, led to some projects for a French trade with Japan, especially as Caron in some disgust had quitted the Dutch service, and enlisted into that of France. A letter from Louis XIV. to the emperor of Japan, dated in 16GG, was prepared, and instructions for Caron, who was to be the bearer of it ; but the project does not appear to have been prosecuted.! [See Appendix, Note I.] In 1673, the English East India Company made an attempt at * The journals of these embassies of Waganaar, Frisius and others, gener- ally pretty dry documents, with extracts from Caron, furnished the basis for the Memorable Embassies of t lie Dutch to the Emperors of Japan, a splen- did folio with more than a hundred copper plates, published at Amsterdam in 1669, purporting to be compiled by Arnold Montanus, of which an English translation, made by Ogilvy, witli the same cuts, appeared the next year at London, under the title of Mlas Jtiponensis, and a French translation, with some additions and alterations, ten years later at Amsterdam. The materials are thrown together in the most careless and disorderly man- ner, and are eked out by drawing largely upon the letters of the Jesuit missionaries. The cuts, whence most of the current prints representing Jap- anese objects are derived, are destitute of any authenticity. Those repre- senting Japanese idols and temples evidently were based on the descriptions of Froez, whose accounts do not seem quite to agree in all respects with the observations of more recent travellers. The dedication of Ogilvy's translation outdoes anything Japanese in the way of prostration, nor can the language of it hardly be called English. It is as fellows : " To the supreme, most high and mighty prince, Charles II., by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, &c. These strange and novel relations concerning the ancient and present state of the so populous and wealthy empire of Japan, being a book of wonders, dedicated with all humility, lies prostrate at the sacred feet of your most serene majesty, by the humblest of your servants, and most loyal subject, John Ogilvy." t This letter, with the instructions and a memoir of Caron's on the subject, may bo found in Voyages au JVord, torn. iv. Caron, who spent several yearg in the French, service in the East Indies, perished by shipwreck near Lisbon, EXTINCTION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH. 205 the renewal of the trade with Japan, by despatching a ship thither The Japanese, through the medium of the Dutch, kept themselves informed, as they still do, of the affairs of Europe ; and the first question put to the new comers was, how long since the English king (Charles II.) had married a daughter of the king of Portugal. Though otherwise courteously enough received and entertained, the vessel was not allowed to sell her cargo. This refusal of intercourse the English ascribed to Dutch jealousy ; but it probably was a step, as will be seen in the next chapter, to which the Japanese did not need any urging.* Though the Catholics of Japan were effectually cut off from all intercourse with Europe, the Catholic faith still lingered for a good while in those parts of Ximo in which it had taken the deepest root. So late as 1690, there were, according to Kampfer, fifty per sons, men, women and children (of whom three had been arrested in 1683), imprisoned at Nagasaki for life, or until they should renounce the Catholic faith, and conform to the religious usages of the coun- try. These were peasants, who knew little more of the faith which they professed, except the name of the Saviour and the Virgin Mary, which indeed, according to the Dutch accounts, was all that the greater part of the Japanese converts had ever known. To land in Japan, to strengthen and comfort the faithful there, or at least to secure the crown of martyrdom in the attempt, long continued an attractive enterprise to the more romantic spirits among the religious orders of the Catholic church. Most of those who undertook this adventure were known to have been seized and executed soon after landing. The last effort of this sort appears to have been made in 1707. From that time, and notwithstanding the great revival, within fifty or sixty years past, of the missionary spirit, Japan has remained even less attempted by missionary than by mercantile enterprise. on his return to France in 1G74. He was president of the Dutch factory at the time of its removal to Desima ; and Kampfer undertakes to represent his mismanagement as in some degree the cause of that removal. This story was doubtless current at Desima in Kampfer's time, but probably it grew out of disgust of the Dutch at Caron's having passed into the French service. * A curious narrative of this visit is printed in Pinkerton's great colleo- tion, vol. vu. 18 CHAPTER XXVI. PORTUGUESE TRADE TO JAPAN. DUTCH TRADE. SILVER, GOLD AND COP PER, THE CHIEF ARTICLES OF EXPORT. EXPORT OF SILVER PROHIB1TKD CHINESE TRADE. ITS INCREASE AFTER THE ACCESSION OF THE MANT- CHEW DYNASTY. CHINESE TEMPLES AT NAGASAKI. A BUDDHIST DOCTOR FROM CHINA. EDICT ON THE SUBJECT OF HOUSEHOLD WORSHIP. RESTRIC- TIONS ON THE DUTCH TRADE. INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF CHINESE VISIT- ORS TO NAGASAKI. THEIR OBJECTS. RESTRICTIONS ON THE CHINESB TRADE. THE CHINESE SHUT UP IN A FACTORY. TRADE WITH LEW CHEW. A. D. 15421090. OF the real value and extent of the trade which for some ninety years the Portuguese carried on with Japan, and which was brought to a final close in the year 1638, we have no means of forming any very exact estimate. When we read in writers of two or three centuries ago glowing accounts of immense commercial profits, we must also recollect that, compared with the commerce of the present day, the trade upon which these great profits were made was ex- ceedingly limited in amount. For more than half of the above period of ninety years the inter- course of the Portuguese with Japan seems to have been reduced, or nearly so, to a single annual ship, known as the great carac of Macao, sent annually from that city, and laden chiefly with China silks, every Portuguese citizen of Macao having the right, if he chose to exercise it, of putting on board a certain number of pack ages, as did also the Society of Jesus, which had a college and a commercial agency in that city. Of this traffic the following ac- count is given by Ralph Fitch, an intelligent Englishman, who waa in Malacca in the year 1588:* " When the Portuguese go from Macao in China to Japan, they carry much white silk, gold, musk and porcelains, and they bring from thence nothing but silver, * For a further account of Fitch and his travels, see Appendix, note E. FOREIGN TRADE. 207 They have a great carac, which goeth thither every year, and sho bringeth from thence every year about six hundred thousand crusa- dos [not far from as many dollars] ; and all this silver of Japan, and two hundred thousand crusados more in silver, which they bring yearly out of India, they employ to their great advantage in China ; and they bring from thence gold, musk, silk, porcelains, and many other things very costly and gilded." * If we allow to the Portuguese an annual average export of half a million of dollars, that will make in ninety years forty-five millions of dollars of silver carried away by the Portuguese ; for, according to all accounts, they brought away nothing else. * The China trade was shared at this time between the Portuguese of Macao and the Spaniards of the Philippines. On the Spanish trade, and the profits of it, some light is thrown by extracts from letters found on board Spanish prizes taken by the English, which Hackluyt translated and pub- lished in his fourth volume. Thus Hieronymo de Nabores writes from Pana- ma (Aug. 24th, lo'JO), where he was waiting for the sliip for the Philip- pines, "My meaning is to carry my commodities thither, for it is constantly reported that for every one hundred ducats a man shall get six hundred ducats clearly." This, however, was only the talk at Panama ; but Sebastian Biscanio had made the voyage, and he writes to his father from Acapulco (June 20th, -15UO) : " In this harbor here are four great ships of Mexico, of six hundred or eight hundred tons apiece, which only serve to carry our commodities to China, and so to return back again. The order is thus. From hence to China is about two thousand leagues, further than from hence to Spain ; and from hence the two first ships depart together to China, and are thirteen or fourteen months returning back again. And when these ships are returned, then the other twain, two months after, depart from hence. They go now from hence very strong with soldiers. I can cer- tify you of one thing : that two hundred ducats in Spanish commodities, and some Flemish wools which I carried with me thither, I made worth fourteen hundred ducats there in that country. So I make account that with those silks and other commodities which I brought with me from thence to Mexico, I got twenty-five hundred ducats by the voyage ; and had gotten more, if one pack of fine silks had not been spoiled with salt water. So, as I said, there is great giin to be gotten, if that a man return in safety. But the year 1588, I had great mischance coming in a ship from China to New Spain ; which, being laden with rich commodities, was taken by an Englishman [this was Cavendish, then on his voyage round the world], which robbed us and after- wards burnt our ship, wherein I lost a great deal of treasure and commodi- ties." 208 JAPAN. A. D. 1542 1 COO. Though the Spaniards were never allowed to trade to Japan, at one period, as we have seen, a considerable number of Japanese junks frequented Manilla for the purchase of Chinese goods ; but this trade was brought to an end in 1624, in consequence of the facilities which it afforded for the introduction of Catholic priests into Japan. The Dutch trade began in 1609. We have seen that in a short time it gained a very considerable extent; and it increased, as the trading establishments which the Dutch gradually obtained in India and Persia, and that on the island of Formosa, whence they had access to China, furnishing them with a supply of rich silks, the great article of import into Japan. As the Portuguese trade was carried on from Macao, so the Dutch trade was carried on, not from Holland, but from Batavia. The year preceding the shutting up of the Dutch in Desima is stated to have been the most profitable of any. The previous average sales in Japan had been about sixty tons of gold ; but that year the Dutch had imported and disposed of goods to the value of eighty tons of gold (that is, three million two hundred thousand dollars, a Dutch ton of gold being one hundred thousand florins, or forty thousand dollars). Among the exports were fourteen hundred chests of silver, each chest containing one thousand taels, or near two million dollars in silver alone.* About this time, however, owing to the comparative * The tael, reckoning the picul at one hundred and thirty-three and one third Ibs. Avoirdupois, contains five hundred and eighty-three grains Troy. Our dollar weighs four hundred and twelve and a half grains; and supposing the Japanese silver to be of equal fineness, the tael is worth just about one dol- lar and forty cents. Kampfer reckons it as equivalent to three and a half florins, which is precisely one dollar and forty cents, taking the florin at the usual valuation of forty cents. This, however, was rather above the valua- tion of the Dutch East India Company. There were, it seems, two kinds of Japanese silver, known among the Dutch as heavy and light money, the lat- ter sometimes distinguished as bar-silver. Both kinds were carried to account without distinction down to the year 1635, at the rate of sixty-two and a half stivers, or one dollar and twenty-five cents per tael. After that period the bar-silver was reckoned at fifty-seven stivers, or one dollar and fourteen cents per tael. Reckoning the tael, as the Dutch commonly did, at one dollar and twenty-five cents of our money, and the mas is precisely equivalent to the Spanish eighth of a dollar. This statement is derived from EXPORT OF GOLD AND SILVER. 209 exhaustion of the silver, or the comparative increase of gold, that metal became a leading, as, indeed, it seems to have been before a considerable article of export with the Dutch. The gold kobarig, the national coin of the Japanese, weighed at this time forty-seven kan- derins, that is, two hundred and seventy-four grains Troy, which is sixteen grains more than our present eagle. But, if superior in weight, the kobang was inferior in fineness, containing of pure gold only two hundred and twenty-four grains, whereas the eagle contains t\vo hundred and thirty-two grains. It passed in Japan and wag purchased by the Dutch for six taels or less in silver, which enablec them to dispose of it to good advantage on the coast of Coromande", where the relative value of gold was much higher. In the two year;, 1670, 1671, more than one hundred thousand kobangs were exported, at a profit of a million florins ; and down to that time the Dutch sent annually to Japan five or six ships a year. In 1644, the export of copper began, and went on gradually increasing. In 1671, an edict was issued, prohibiting the further export of silver ; but a Dutch memoir by Imhoff, quoted by Raffles (History of Java, Appendix B), and found by him, it would seem, among the Dutch records at Batavia. Of the chests of silver and gold, particularly the former, so often mentioned in the old accounts of the Dutch and Portuguese trade, 1 have met with no description, except in Montanus's Memorable Embassies. Unreliable and worthless as that huge volume generally is, its compilers certainly had access to valuable Dutch papers, and it is apparently from that source that they have drawn what they say of the moneys, weights and measures, of Japan. Of the chests of silver and gold they speak as fol- lows : " Moreover, their paying of money is very strange ; for the Japanese, having great store of gold and silver, observe a custom to receive their money without telling or seeing it. The mint-master puts the gold in papers, which contain the value of two hundred pounds sterling ; these, sealed up, pass from one to another without being questioned. They also use little wooden boxes, in which they put twenty sealed papers of gold, which is as much as a man can handsomely carry ; every box amounts to four thousand pounds sterling; and the like boxes, but of another fashion, they use for their silver, in every one of which is twelve hundred crowns, and is sealed with the coiner's seal. But doth it not seem strange that never any deceipt is found in that blind way of paying money ? " " The silver, though weighed and coined, is of nc certain value. The coiners put it together into little packs worth sixty crowns " I suppose taels. Caron says, however, that these packages con- tained fifty taels. 18* 210 JAPAN. A. D. 1342 1690. this gave no concern to the Dutch, who had already ceased to export it. Its principal operation was against the Chinese, who at this time carried on a great trade to Japan. Of the early commercial relations of China and Japan our knowledge is very limited. As the Japanese, at an early era, according to their own annals (constructed, it is probable, by Buddh- ist priests), as early as A. D. 600, had received from China Buddh- ist missionaries, and through them the language, graphic char- acters, science, &c., of the Chinese, it would seem probable that Borne commercial intercourse must have early existed between these two nations. If so, however, the threatened Mongol invasion, tow- ards the end of the thirteenth century, would have been likely to have interrupted it. The native Chinese dynasty, which succeeded after the expulsion of the Mongols, was exceedingly jealous of all strangers and hostile to intercourse with them, ^io foreign trade was allowed, and every Chinese who left his country incurred a sentence of perpetual banishment. It is true that the Chinese colonists, that had emigrated, perhaps on the invasion of the Mon- gols, and had settled in the neighboring maritime countries (as others did afterwards on the invasion of the present Mantchew dynasty), still contrived to keep up some intercourse with China, while they carried on a vigorous trade with the adjacent islands and countries ; but, at the time of the Portuguese discovery, no such trade would seem to have existed with Japan. The Mantchew dynasty (the same now reigning) which mounted the throne in 1644, was much less hostile to foreigners; and under their rule the Chinese trade to Japan appears to have rapidly increased. This was partly by vessels direct from China, and partly by the commercial enterprise of the Chinese fugitives who possessed themselves of Formosa, from which, in 1662, they drove out the Dutch, or who had settled elsewhere on the islands and coasts of south-eastern Asia. " They came over," says Kiimpfer, " when and with what num. bcrs of people, junks and goods, they pleased. S^ extensive and advantageous a liberty could not but be very pleasing to them, and put them upon thoughts of a surer establishment, in order to which, and for the free exercise of their religion, they built three templea at Nagasaki, according to the three chief languages spoken by A BUDDHIST MISSIONARY. 21l them (those of the northern, middle and southern provinces), each to be attended by priests of their own nation, to be sent c er from China." * These temples, called, each in the special dialect of its frequent- ers, " Temples of Riches " the god which the Chinese chiefly worship are described by Kampf'er, from his own observation, as remarkable for their handsome structure, and the number of monks or Buddhist clergy attached to them. As soon as any Chinese ships arrived in the harbor, the crews immediately took on shore the idols, which formed a part of the ship's outfit, and placed them in some small chapels, built for that purpose, near by the large tem- ples, or convents as in fact they rather were. This was done with uncommon respect and particular ceremonies, playing upon cym bals and beating of drums, which same ceremonies were repeated, when, upon the departure of the junks, the idols were carried on board again. Encouraged by this favorable reception of his countrymen, Ingen who was at that time at the head of the Buddhist priesthood rf China, claiming to be the twenty-eighth in succeFsion from the four der of the Chinese Buddhist patriarchate, surrendered to a success, v his high dignity at home, and, in the year 1653, came over to Japan, there to establish a sort of caliphate or archiepiscopal see, as Kiimpfer expresses it, of the particular branch or sect of the Buddhist faith to which he belonged. " The princes and lords of several provinces came to compliment him, clad in their kamisimo,^ or garments of ceremony. The emperor offered him for his resi- dence a mountain in the neighborhood of the holy city of Miako, which he called Obaku, the name of his former papal residence in China. An incident which happened soon after his arrival contrib- uted very much to forward his designs, and raised an uncommon * These temples, built in Japan by the Chinese merchants, remind one of the temples built in Egypt by the Greek merchants, who first opened a trade with that country. See G rote's History of Greece, chap. xx. t The kamisimo is a state dress, composed of two garments (Jcrnni signi- fies whit is ahove, and siino what is below), a short cloak, without sleeves, ..ailed katuyeno, and breeches, called vakuma. Both are of a particulai ^>rm (the breeches being like a petticoat sewed up between the legs), and of colored stuifs. They are used only on days of ceremony and at funerals. Tihingh. 212 JAPAN. A. 1). 1512 1C90. respect for his person, and a great opinion of his ho Sness. After a very great drought, the country people, his neighb< a - s, desired him to say a kitoo, or extraordinary solemn prayer, in order to obtain rain. He answered that it was not in his power to make rain, and that he could not assure them that his kitoo would obtain it. However, at their pressing instances, he promised to do his utmost. Accordingly, he w T ent up to the top of the mountain and made his kitoo. The next day there fell suclr profuse showers as even to wash away the smaller bridges in the city of Miako, which made both the city and country believe that his kitoo had been rather too strong. His companions, who came over with him from China, had likewise very great respect paid them, as more immediate partakers of his glory; so that even a cook, who came over with this learned and sanctified company, was raised to the dignity of supe- rior of one of the three convents of Nagasaki, where, by his sub- lime understanding and reputed great knowledge, he obtained," and in Kiimpfer's time still held, " the name and repute of a Godo, that is, a person blessed with divine and most acute understanding, whom they suppose to be able to find out by his Safari, or Enthu- siastic Speculations, such mysterious truths as are far beyond the reach of common knowledge." What tended to favor Ingen's design was an edict lately issued by the emperor, aimed at the few remaining Catholics, and also at the sect of the Siuto or Moralists, requiring everybody to belong to some sect of the recognized religions of Japan, and to have a Drusi in their houses that is, a corner or altar consecrated to some idol. Nevertheless, in spite of his favorable reception and eminent learning and sanctity, Ingen failed to gain the submission of the various Buddhist sects in Japan ; nor was his spiritual headship acknowledged, except by the three Chinese convents. Though the prohibition of the export of silver, mentioned as hav- ing taken place in 1671, did not affect the Dutch, the very next year the Japanese commenced a system of measures which, within a quarter of a century, reduced the Dutch commerce to the very narrow limit at which it has ever since remained. The first step was to raise the value of the kobang to six tael eight maas of sil- ver ; nor was this by any means the worst of it. The Dutch were RESTRICTIONS OX THE DUTCH TRADE. 21S DO loiger allowed to sell their goods to the native merchants. The government appointed appraisers, who set a certain value on the goods, much less than the old prices, at which valuation the Dutch must sell, or else take the goods away. Anything which the goods sold for to the Japanese merchants, over the appraisement, went into the town treasury of Nagasaki.* These appraisements grew lower and lower, every year, till at last the Dutch, threatening, if things went on in this way, to abandon the trade altogether, peti- tioned the emperor to be restored to their ancient privileges, assured to them by the concession of Gongin-Sama. After waiting three years, they got a gracious answer. The appraisements were abolished, but at the same time, in 1685, an order was suddenly issued, limiting the amount which the Dutch might sell in any one year to the value of three hundred thousand taels, or in Dutch money to ten tons and a half of gold, equal to four hundred and * Unfortunately for the English, their attempt at a revival of intercourse, mentioned iu the last chapter, was niaile the very year of the introduction of tliis new check on foreign tnule. The appraisement extended as well to the Chinese ns the Dutch cargoes, as is apparent from the following closing paragraph of the Knglish narrative : " During the time [July and August, 1072] we were in port, there came twelve junks in all, eight from Batavia, two from Siam, one from Canton, one from Cambodia, and six Dutch ships of the Company's. They had not any from Tycoun [Formosa], by reason the year before they put the price upnn their sugar and skins : and so they intend to do for all other people, ft/r whatsoever goods shall be brought to their port ; which if they do, few will seek after their commodities on such unequal terms." There is strong reason to suppose that these new restrictions on foreign trade grew out of the diminished produce of the mines, which furnished the chief article of export. The working of these mines seems to have greatly increased after the pacification of Japan by its subjection to the imperial authority. Such is the statement in the Japanese tract on the wealth of Japan, already referred to. According to this tract, the first gold coins were struck by Taiko-Sama. This increase of metallic product seems to have given, about the time of the commencement of the Dutch trade, a new im- pulse to foreign commerce. Though the Portuguese trade had been stopped, it had been a good deal more than replaced by the increase of the Chinese traffic, and alreaily the metallic drain appears to have been seriously felt. This is a much more likely reason for the policy now adopted than the mere peisonal hostility of certain Japanese grandees, to which the Dutch at Desi- TUV and Kaiupfer as their echo, ascribed it. 214 JAPAN. A. D. 1C42 1690. ' twenty thousand dollars. All the goods of any one year's importa- tion, remaining after that amount had been realized, were to lay over till the next annual sale. At the same time, the annual export of copper was limited to twenty-five thousand piculs ; and so matters stood at the time of Kiimpfer's visit. The Chinese trade had meanwhile gone on increasing " to that degree" we quote again from Kiimpfer "as to make the sus- picious and circumspect Japanese extremely jealous of them. In the years 1683 and 1684, there arrived at Nagasaki, in each year, at least two hundred junks, every junk with not less than fit'tj people on board, making for each year more than ten thousand Chi- nese visitors." Nor was it trade alone that drew the Chinese thither. In China, the women, except those of servile condition, are kept in perfect seclusion. No man sees even the woman he ib to marry, till she has actually become his wife; and courtesanship is strictly forbidden and punished. The case, as we have seen, is widely different in Japan, and numerous young and wealthy Chinese were attracted to Nagasaki, " purely for their pleasure," as Kiimpfer observes, " and to spend some part of their money with Japanese wenches, which proved very beneficial to that town," truly a very mercantile view of the matter ! " Not only did this increasing number of Chinese visitors excite jealousy ; but what still more aroused the suspicion of the Japanese was, that the Jesuits, having gained the favor of the then reigning monarch of China, [the celebrated Kanghi,] with the liberty of preaching and propagating their religion in all parts of the empire, some tracts and books, which the Jesuit fathers had found the means to print in China, in Chinese characters, were brought over to Japan among other Chinese books, and sold privately, which made the Japanese, apprehensive that by this means the Catholic religion, which had been exterminated with so much trouble and the loss of so many thousand persons, might be revived again in the country " And they even suspected that the importers of these books, if not actual converts, were at least favorers of the Catholic doctrine. These reasons combined to produce, in 1684, at the same time with th. restrictions placed upon the Dutch, an edict, by which the Chinese were limited to an annual importation, double the value RESTRICTIONS ON THE CHINESE TRADE. 215 of that allowed the Dutch; namely, six hundred thousand taels, equivalent to eight hundred and forty thousand dollars, the annual number of junks not to exceed seventy, of which a specific number was assigned to each province and colony, and each to bring not more than thirty persons. Chinese books were, at the same time, subjected to a censorship, two censors being appointed, one for theo- logical, the other for historical and scientific works, none to b. 1000. increase the number to fifty, and sometime.-! to a hundred so many as they think necessary that is, at least twice the number there is occasion lor. 44 When the ship has entered the harbor, two guard-boats, with a good number of soldiers, are put one on each side of her, and con- tinued, being mounted with fresh troops every day, till she leaves. As soon as the ship drops anchor, great numbers of officers come on board to demand our guns, cutlasses, swords and other arms, as also the gunpowder packed up in barrels, which are taken into their custody, and kept in a store-house, built for this purpose, till her departure. They attempted, also, in former times, to take out the rudder, but, having found it impracticable, they now leave it in. 44 The next day after her arrival, the commissioners of the gov- ernor come on board, with their usual attendance of soldiers, inter- preters, and subordinate officers, to make an exact review, in pres- ence of our director, of all the people on board, according to the list which hath been given them, and wherein is set down every one's name, age, birth, place of residence, and office, examining them from top to toe. Many questions are asked, as to those who died on the voyage, when and of what distemper they died. Even now and then a dead monkey or parrot may occasion a strict in- quiry to be made after the cause and manner of their death, and they are so scrupulous that they will not give their verdict, without sitting upon the body itself, and carefully examining it. 44 After this, the orders of our director, and likewise of the gov- ernors of Nagasaki, relating to our behavior with regard to tho natives, are read in Low Dutch, and afterwards, for every one's inspection, stuck up in several places on board the ship, and at Desima. The same rules are observed with all our ships, of which there are two, three, or four, sent from Batavia to Japan every year, according to the quantity of copper they have occasion for ; one of which goes first to Siam, to make up part of her cargo with the commodities of that country. Formerly, when the Dutch as yet enjoyed a free trade, they sent seldom less than six or seven ships, and sometimes more. " The review being over, they proceed to unlade the ships, dur- ing which, several of the governors' officers, a chief interpreter, a ieputy interpreter, and an apprentice, besides several clerks and DUTCH TRADE. 24d inferior officers, remain on board, taking possession of every corner, to see that nothing be carried away privately. The water gates of our island, through which the cargo is to be brought in, are opened in presence of the karoo, that is, high commissioners of the gov- ernors, and their retinue. So long as the gates are kept open, the karoo, with their deputies and other assistants, stay in a room built for this purpose, not far off. The whole body of interpreters, as also our landlords, clerks, and other officers of our island, give ' ^ their attendance, and also their assistance, at that time. They fall to work with three hundred or more kuli, or workmen always at least twice the number there is occasion for. The unladino- of D every ship ought to be performed in two days, but, notwithstanding the number of men they employ, they generally make a three days' work of it, in order to make it so much the more beneficial to the town. " The goods are brought from the ship in boats, kept for this purpose only, at the Company's expense. Being brought within the water gates, they are laid before the commissioners, who set them down in writing, count them, compare them with the list that hath been given in (opening a bale or two of each sort, picked out from among the rest), and then order them to be locked up, under their seal, in the Company's warehouse, until the day of sale. The trunks, belonging to private persons, are set down at the entry of the island, and there opened and examined. If the owner doth not forthwith appear with the key, they proceed, without any further ceremony, to open them with axes. All vendible goods are taken out and locked up under their seals. Some other things, also, which they do not approve of, as, for instance, arms, stuff, and cloth wrought with gold and silver, as also all contraband goods, are taken into custody by the Ottona, who returns them to the owner upon his departure. " No European, nor any other foreign money, and, in general, nothing that hath the figure of a cross, saint, or beads, upon it, is suffered to pass. If any such thing should be found upon any of our people, it would occasion such a confusion and fright among the Japanese, as if the whole empire had been betrayed. I have already taken notice that, upon our drawing near the harbor, everj one is obliged to deliver his prayer-books, and other books of 244 ' JAPAN. A. D. 1C90. divinity, as also all European money, to the captain, who packs thorn all up in an old cask, and hides them. " Those who are newly arrived must suffer themselves, in going in or coming out of our island, to be searched, whether or no they have any contraband goods about them. Every one who wishes to go on board, whether it be for his own private business, or in the Company's service, is obliged to take out a pass-board from the commissioners at the water gates, and, in like manner, when he returns on shore, he must take out another from those on the ship. "At night, when the commissioners sent on board the ship return with their retinue to Nagasaki, the cabin is scaled up in their pres- ence, and all the Dutchmen accurately counted over, to see that there be none wanting, which would occasion a very great confu- sion. During my stay in Japan it happened that a common sailor unfortunately was drowned in the night, nobody perceiving his fall- ing into the water. At the review made the next morning (for it is constantly made every morning and night) the fellow was missed. This unlucky accident suddenly stopped all proceedings, and the fear lest it should be a Roman Catholic priest, who had made his escape into the country, occasioned such a consternation among the Japanese, that all the officers ran about, scratching their heads, and behaving as if they had lost their senses, and some of the soldiers in the guard-ships were already preparing to rip themselves open, when at last the unlucky fellow's body being taken up from the bottom of the harbor put an end to their fears. "At all other times, that for lading and unlading our ships exccpted, the water gates are shut, by which means all communica- tion is cut off between those that stay on board and those that remain on shore. The ship's cargo having been placed in the ware- houses, the goods lie there till they are pleased, in two or three days of sale, which they call Kambany, to sell them. What re- mains unsold is carried back to the warehouses, and kept there against the next year's sale. " The following goods are imported by us : raw silk, from China, Tonquin, Bengal, and Persia; all sorts of silks, woollen, and other stuffs (provided they be not wrought with gold and silver) ; Brazil wood ; buffalo, and other hides ; ray skins, wax, and buffalo horns from Siam ; tanned hides from Persia, Bengal, and other places, DUTCH TRADE. 245 but noi e from Spain and Manilla, under pain of incurring their utmost displeasure; pepper; sugar, in powder and candied ; cloves ; nutmegs ; camphor, from Borneo and Sumatra; quicksilver; cin- nabar ; saffron ; lead ; saltpetre ; borax ; alum ; musk ; gum ben- zoin ; gum lac ; rosmal, or sLorax liquida ; catechu, commonly called Terra Japonica ; fustic; corals; amber; right antimony (which they use to color their china ware) ; looking-glasses, which they cut up to make spy -glasses, magnifying glasses, and spectacles, out of them. Other things of less note are snakewood ; mangoes, and other unripe East India fruits, pickled with Turkish pepper, garlic, and vinegar; black lead and red pencils; sublimate of mercury (but no calomel) ; fine files ; needles ; spectacles ; large drinking-glasses of the finest sort ; counterfeit corals ; strange birds, and other foreign curiosities, both natural and artificial. Some of these are often sold in private, by sailors and others, without being produced upon the Kambang, and in this case the Dutch make no scruple to get as much for them beyond their real value as possibly they can. " Of all the imported goods, raw silk is the best liked, though it yields the least profit of any. All sorts of stuffs and cloths yield a considerable and sure profit, and should there be never so much imported, the consumption in so populous a country would be still greater. Brazil wood and hides are also to be disposed of to very good advantage. The most profitable commodities are sugar, catechu, storax liquida, camphor of Borneo (which they covet above all other sorts), looking-glasses, &c., but only when they have occa- sion for them, and when the Chinese have imported in small quan- tities. Corals and amber are two of the most valuable commodities in these eastern parts ; but Japan hath been so thoroughly provided by smugglers, that at present there is scarce fifty per cent, to be got upon them, whereas formerly we could sell them, ten, nay, a hundred times dearer. The price of these things, and of all natural and artificial curiosities, varies very much, according to the number and disposition of the buyers, who may be sure to get cent percent, clear profit by them, at what price soever they buy them." " The yearly sum to the value of which the Dutch are permitted to sell goods imported by them is. by Japanese reckoning, three hundred chests of silver, each of a thousand taels, or in gold fifty thousand kobangs; the highest value of the kobang, as current in 21* 246 JAPAN. A. D. 1690. Japan, being sixty ma?, or six tads. But the Japanese having obliged the Dutch East India Company to accept payment in gold kobangs, each reckoned at sixty-eight mas, the sales of the Com- pany, though made to the amount of three hundred thousand taels in silver, produced only forty-four thousand one hundred and eighteen kobangs." A chance was thus afforded, as Kampfer expresses it, "to make the officers concerned in carrying on the Dutch trade some amends for their trouble and hard usage, by allowing them to dispose of goods on their own private account," to the value of five thousand six hundred and eighty-two kobangs, equivalent, at the reckoning of fifty-eight mas, to forty thousand taels, thus making up the fifty thousand kobangs, to the amount of which the annual sale of Dutch goods was limited ; and as this arrangement for private trade had been made by the Japanese, the East India Company did not ven- ture to interfere with it. At the head of these officers stands the Director, or, as he is called by the Japanese, Captain of the Dutch (Cn, in bis memorial addressed to Colbert, had recommended a present of ire-extin- guishers t See p. 204. JOURNEY TO COURT. 279 company into eminent danger, and the voyage having been often, by reason of the contrary winds, too long and tedious, the emperor has ordered that for the future we should go by land. The pres ents for the imperial court, and other heavy baggage, being sent before us, the rest of the time till our departure is spent in prepar- ations for our journey, as if we designed some great expedition into a remote part of the world. " The first and most essential part consists in nominating, and giving proper instructions to, the several officers, and the whole retinue that is to go with us to court. The governors appoint one of their Joriki to be Buyio, that is, head and commander in chief. He is to represent the authority of his masters, as a badge whereof he hath a pike carried after him. A Dosiu is ordered to assist him in quality of his deputy. Both the Joriki and Dosiu are taken from among the domestics of one of the governors, who stays that year at Nagasaki. To these are added two beadles, who, as well as the Dosiu, carry, by virtue of their office, a halter about them, to arrest and secure, at command or wink from the Joriki, any person guilty or suspected of any misdemeanor. All these persons are looked upon as military men, and as such have the privilege of wearing two swords ; all persons that are not either noblemen by birth, or in some military employment, being by a late imperial edict denied this privilege. " I have already stated that our interpreters are divided into two companies, the upper consisting of the eight chief interpreters, and the inferior including all the rest. The Ni/ilan, or president for the time being, of each of these companies is appointed to attend us in this journey. To these is now added a third, as an appren- tice, whom they take along with them to qualify him for the succes- sion. All the chief officers, and all other persons that are able to do it, take some servants along with them, partly to wait upon them, partly for state. The Buyio and the principal interpreter take as many as they please, the other officers each two or three, as they are able, or as their office requires. The Dutch captain, or ambassador, may take three, and every Dutchman of his retinue is allowed one. The interpreters commonly recommend their favorites to us, and the more ignorant they are of the Dutch language, the better it answers their intention. 280 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1C92. " I omit to mention some other persons, who, by order or by spe- cial leave of the governors and interpreters, make the journey in company with us, and at our expense, too, though otherwise they have no manner of business upon our account. " All these future companions of our voyage have leave to make us some friendly visits at Desima, in order to get beforehand a little acquainted with us. There are many among them who would willingly be more free and open, were it not for the solemn oath they must all take before their departure, but much more for the fear of being betrayed by others, since, by virtue of the same oath, they are obliged all and every one of them to have a strict and watchful eye, not only over the Dutch, but also over the conduct of each other, particularly with regard to the Dutch. " Another branch of preparations for our journey is the hiring of horses and porters. This is the chief interpreter's business, as keeper of our purse, who is also appointed to take care that what- ever is wanted during the whole journey be provided for. 'T is he, likewise, that gives orders to keep everything in readiness to march the minute the Bugio is pleased to set out. " Two days before our departure every one must deliver his cloak, bag and porimantle, to proper people, to b0, there were in the United States thirty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-three buildings used for religious worship. It would appear tint though the Sinto temples did not want worshippers who freely contributed alms to the support of the priests, yet that since the abolition ot the Catholic worship, and as a sort of security against it, every Japanese was required to enroll himself as belonging to some Buddhist sect or observance. CHARMS AND AMULETS. 303 accidents, particularly from the small-pox, which proves fatal to great numbers of their children. Others fancy they thrive ex- tremely well, and live happy, under the protection of a countryman of Jeso, whose monstrous, frightful picture they paste upon their doors, being hairy all over his body, and carrying a large sword with both hands, which they believe he makes use of to keep off, and. as it were, to parry, all sorts of distempers and misfortunes endeavoring to get into the house. " On the fronts of new and pretty houses I have sometimes seen dragons' or devils' heads, painted with a wide open mouth, large teeth and fiery eyes. The Chinese, and other Indian nations nay, even the Mahomedans in Arabia and Persia have the same placed over the doors of their houses, by the frightful aspect of this monstrous figure to keep off, as the latter say, the envious from dis- turbing the peace of families. " Often, also, they put a branch of the Fanna Skimmi or anise- tree over their doors, which is, in like manner, believed to bring good luck into their houses ; or else liverwort, which thej fancy hath the particular virtue to keep off evil spirits; or some other plants or branches of trees. In villages they often place their indulgence boxes,* which they bring back from their pilgrimage to Isje, over their doors, thinking, also, by this means to bring happiness and prosperity upon their houses. Others paste long strips of paper to their doors, which the adherents of the several religious sects and convents are presented with by their clergy, for some small gratuity. There are odd, unknown characters, and divers forms of prayers, writ upon these papers, which the superstitious firmly believe to have the infallible virtue of conjuring and keeping off all manner of misfortunes. Many more amulets of the like nature are pasted to their doors, against the plague, distempers, and particular mis- fortunes. There is, also, one against poverty." * These offari or indulgence-boxes are little boxes made of thin boards and filled with small sticks wrapped in bits of white paper. Great virtues are ascribed to them, but a new one is necessary every year. They are manu factored and sold by the Siiito priests. CHAPTER XXXII. POST-HOUSES. IMPERIAL MESSENGERS. INNS. HOUSES. TIIEIU FURXI TURK AXD INTERIOR ARRANGEMENTS. BATHING AND SWEATING HOUSE GARDENS. REFRESHMENT HOUSES. WHAT THEY PROVIDE. TEA. " To accommodate travellers, there is, in all the chief villages and hamlets, a post-house, belonging to the lord of the place, where, at all times, they may find horses, porters, footmen, &c., in readi- ness, at certain settled prices. Travellers, of all ranks and qualities, with their retinues, resort to these post-houses, which lie at from six to sixteen English miles distance from each other, but are, gen- erally speaking, not so good nor so well furnished upon Kiusiu as upon the great island Xipon, where we came to fifty-six in going from Osaka to Jedo. These post-houses arc not built for inn-keep- ing, but only for stabling and exchange of horses, for which reason there is a spacious court belonging to each ; also clerks and book- keepers enough, who keep accounts, in their master's name, of all the daily occurrences. The price of all such things as are to bo hired at these post-houses is settled, not only according to distances, but with regard to the goodness or badness of the roads, to the price of victuals, forage, and the like. One post-house witli another, a horse to ride on, with two portmantles and an adofski. may be had for eight seni a mile. A horse, which is only saddled, and hath neither men nor baggage to carry, will cost six seni ; porters and kango-mcn, five seni, and so on. " Messengers are waiting, day and night, at all these post-houses, to carry the letters, edicts, proclamations, &c., of the emperor and the princes of the empire, which they take up the moment they are delivered at the post-house, and carry to the next with all speed. They are kept in a small, black varnished box, bearing the coat-of- arms of the emperor or prince who sends them, which the messenger INNS. 305 carries upon his shoulder, tied to a small staff. Two of these messengers always run together, that in case any accident should befall either of them upon the road, the other may take his place, and deliver the box at the next post-house. All travellers, even the princes of the empire and their retinues, must retire out of the way and give a free passage to the messengers who carry letters or orders from the emperor, which they take care to signify at a due distance by ringing a small bell. " There are inns enough, and tolerable good ones, all along the road. The best are in those villages where there are post-houses. At these even princes and princely retinues may be conveniently lodged, treated suitably to their rank, and provided with all neces- saries. Like other well-built houses, they are but one story high, or, if there be two stories, the second is low, and good for little else but stowage. The inns are not broader in front than other houses, but considerably deep, sometimes forty kin, or two hundred and forty feet, with a Tsitlo that is, a small pleasure-garden be- hind, enclosed with a neat white wall. The front hath only lattice windows, which, in the day time, are kept open. The folding screens and movable partitions which divide the several apart- ments, unless there be some man of quality with his retinue at that time lodged there, are also so disposed as to lay open to travellers, as they go along, a very agreeable perspective view across the whole house into the garden behind. The floor is raised about three feet above the level of the street, and by jetting out, both towards the street and garden, forms a sort of gallery, which is covered with a roof, and on which travellers pass their time, divert- ing themselves with sitting or walking. From it, also, they mount their horses, for fear of dirtying their feet by mounting in the street. " In some great inns there is a passage, contrived for the con- veniency of people of quality, that, coming out of their norimons, they may walk directly to their apartments, without being obliged to pass through the fore part of the house, which is commonly not over clean, and makes but an indifferent figure, being covered with poor, sorry mats, and the rooms divided only by ordinary screens. The kitchen is in this fore part of the house, and often fills it with smoke, as they have no chimneys, but only a hole in the roof to 26* 806 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 ICO'2. let the smoke through. Here foot travellers and ordinary peopla live, among the servants. People of fashion are accommodated in the back part of the house, which is kept clean and neat to admi- ration. Not the least spot is to be seen upon the walls, floors, carpets, windows screens, in short, nowhere in the room, which looks as if it were quite new, and but newly furnished. There are no tables, chairs, benches, or other furniture in these rooms. They are only adorned with some Miseratsie, of which more presently, put into or hung up in the rooms, for travellers to amuse their leisure by examining, which, indeed, some of them very well de- serve. The Tsubo, or garden behind the house, is also very curi- ously kept, for travellers to divert themselves with walking in it, and beholding the beautiful flowers it is commonly adorned with. " The rooms in Japanese houses have seldom more than one blank wall, which is plastered with clay of Osaka, a good fine sort, and so left bare, without any other ornament. It is so thin that the least kick would break it to pieces. On all other sides the room has either windows or folding screens, which slide in grooves, as occasion requires. The lower groove is cut in a sill, which runs even with the mats, and the upper one in a beam, which conies down two or three feet from the ceiling. The beams in which the grooves run are plastered with clay of Osaka. The ceiling, to show the curious running of the veins and grain of the wood, is sometimes only covered with a thin, slight layer of a transparent varnish. Sometimes they paste it over with the same sort of vari- ously colored and flowered paper of which their screens are made. The paper windows, which let light into the room, have wooden shutters on both sides, taken off in the day time, but put on at night. " In the solid wall of the room there is always a Toko, as they call it, or sort of a cupboard, raised about a foot or more above the floor, and very near two feet deep. It commonly stands in that part of the wall which is just opposite to the door, that being reck- oned the most honorable. Just before this toko two extraordi- narily fine mats are laid, one upon the other, and both upon the ordinary mats which cover the floor. These are for people of the first quality to sit upon, for, upon the arrival of travellers of less note, they are removed out of the way. At the side of the toko is FIRE-PLACES. 307 a Tokiwari, as they call it, or side cupboard, with some few shelve! which serve the landlord or travellers, if they please, to lay their most esteemed book upon, they holding it, as the Mahometans do their Alcoran, too sacred to be laid on the ground. Upon the arri- val of the Dutch, this sacred book of the landlord is put out of the way. Above is a drawer, where they put up the iukhorn, paper, writings, books and other things of this kind. Here, also, travellers find sometimes the wooden box which the natives use at night, instead of a pillow. It is almost cubical, hollow, and made of six thin boards joined together, curiously varnished, smoothed, and very neat, about a span long, but not quite so broad, that travellers by turning it may lay their head in that posture which they find the most easy.* Besides this wooden pillow, travellers have no other bedding to expect from the landlord, and must carry their own along with them or lie on the mats, covering themselves with theii clothes. In that side of the room next to the Toko is commonly a balcony, serving the person lodged in this, the chief room, to look out upon the neighboring garden, fields, or water, without stir- ring from the carpets placed below the toko. "Beneath the floor, which is covered with fine, well-stuffed mats, is a square walled hole, which, in the winter season, after having first removed the mats, they fill with ashes and lay coals upon them to keep the room warm. The landladies in their room put a low table upon this fire-hole, and spread a large carpet or table-cloth over it, for people to sit underneath, and to defend themselves against the cold. In rooms where there are no fire-holes they use in the winter brass or earthen pots, very artfully made, and filled with ashes, with two iron sticks, which serve instead of fire-tongs, much after the same manner as they use two other small sticks at table, instead of forks. " I come now to the above mentioned Miseratsie, as they call them, being curious and amusing ornaments of their rooms. In our journey to court, I took notice of the following : 1. A paper neatly bordered with a rich piece of embroidery, instead of a frame, either with the picture of a saint done apparently with a coarsa pencil, and in :i few, ^crimps three or four, strokes, wherein, how- * It is also used as a toilet-box, in which to keep combs, brushes, &c 308 JAPAN*. A. D. 10110 1C!>2. ever, the proportions and resemblance have been so far observe^ that scarce anybody can miss finding out whom it was designed to represent, nor help admiring the ingenuity and skill of the master; or else a judicious moral sentence of some noted philosopher or poet, writ with his own hand, or the hand of some noted writing- master who had a mind to show his skill by a few hasty strokes or characters, indifferent enough at first sight, but nevertheless very ingeniously drawn, and such as will afford sufficient matter of amusement and speculation to a curious and attentive spectator ; and, lest anybody should call their being genuine in question, they are commonly signed, not only by the writing-masters themselves, but have the hands and seals of some other witnesses put to them. They are hung up nowhere else but in the toko, as the most hon- orable place of the room, and this because the Japanese set a great value upon them. 2. " Pictures of Chinese, as also of birds, trees, landslips and other things, upon white screens, done by some eminent master, or rather scratched with a few hasty, affected strokes, after such a man- ner that, unless seen at a proper distance, they scarce appear natural. 3. " A flower-vase filled with all sorts of curious flowers, and green branches of trees, such as the season affords, curiously ranged according to the rules of art, it being as much an art in this country to arrange a flower-vase as it is in Europe to carve, or to lay a table. Sometimes there is, instead, a perfuming-pan, of excellent good workmanship, cast in brass or copper, resembling a crane, lion, dragon, or other strange animal. I took notice once that there was o c an earthen pot of Cologne, such as is used to keep Spauwater in, with all the cracks and fissures carefully mended, used in lieu of a flower-vase, it being esteemed a very great rarity, because of the distant place it came from, the clay it was made of, and its uncom- mon shape. 4. " Some strange, uncommon pieces of wood, wherein the colors and grain either naturally run after a curious and unusual manner, or have been brought by art to represent something. 5. " Some neat and beautiful network, adorning either the bal cony and windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors creens and partitions of the chief apartments. BATHING AND SWEATING HOUSE. 309 6. " A bunch of a tree, or a piece of a rotten root, or of an old stump, remarkable for .their monstrous deformed shape. " After this manner the chief and back apartments are furnished in great inns, and houses of substantial people. The other rooma gradually decrease in cleanliness, neatness and delicacy of furniture ; the screens, windows, mats and other ornaments and household goods, after they have for some time adorned the chief apartments, and begin to be spotted and to grow old, being removed into the other rooms successively, there to be quite worn out. The chief of the other rooms is that where they keep their plate, china ware and other household goods, ranged upon the floor in curious order, according to their size, shape and use. Most of these are made of - wood, thin, but strongly varnished, the greatest part upon a dark red ground. They are washed with warm water every time they have been used, and wiped clean with a, cloth ; by which means they will, though constantly used, keep clean and neat, and in their full lustre for several years. " The small gallery or walk which jets out from the house towards the garden, leads to the house of office and to a bathing-stove, or hot-house. The house of office is built on one side of the back part of the house, and hath two doors to go in. Not far off stands a basin filled with water to wash your hands, commonly an oblong, rough stone, the upper part curiously cut out into the form of a basin. A new pail of bamboo hangs near it, and is covered with a neat fir or cypress board, to which they put a new handle every time it hath been used, to wit, a fresh stick of the bamboo cane, it being a very clean sort of a wood, and in a manner naturally var- nished. The bathing-place, commonly built on the back side of the garden, contains cither a hot-house to sweat in, or a warm bath, and sometimes both. It is made warm and got ready every evening, because the Japanese usually bathe or sweat after their day's jour- ney is over, thinking by this means to refresh themselves, and to sweat off their weariness. As they can undress themselves in an instant, so they are ready at a minute's warning to go into it ; for they need but untie their sash, and all their clothes fall down at once, leaving them quite naked, excepting a small band which they wear close to the body about their waist. Their hot-house, which they go into only to sweat, is an almost cubical trunk, or sto\e, 310 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1(592. raised about three feet above the ground, and built close to the wal' of the bathing-place, on the outside, not quite six feet high, but about nine feet long, and of the same breadth. The floor is'laid with small planed laths or planks, some few inches distant from each other, both for the easy passage of the rising vapors and the convenient outlet of the water. You go, or rather creep in, through a small door or shutter. There are two other shutters, one on each side, to let out the superfluous vapor. The empty space beneath, down to the ground, is enclosed with a wall to prevent the vapors from getting out on the sides. Towards the yard, just bo- neath the hot-hcuse, is a furnace, part of which stands out towards the yard, where they put in the necessary water and plants. This part is shut with a clapboard when the fire is burning, to make all the vapors ascend through the inner and open part into the hot- house. There are always two tubs, one of warm the other of cold water, for such as have a mind to wash themselves. " The garden is the only place in which we Dutchmen, being treated in all respects little better than prisoners, have liberty to walk. It is commonly square, with a back door, and walled in very neatly. There are few good houses or inns without one. If there be not room enough for a garden, they have at least an old ingrafted plum, cherry or apricot tree ; and the older, the more crooked and monstrous, the greater value they put upon it. Some- times they let the branches grow into the rooms. In order to make it bear larger flowers and in greater quantity, they trim it to a few, perhaps two or three branches. It cannot be denied but that the great number of beautiful, incarnadine double flowers, are a curi- ous ornament to this back part of the house, but they have this dis- advantage, that they bear no fruit. In some small houses and inns of less note, where there is not room enough neither for a garden nor trees, they have at least an opening or window, to let the light fall into the back rooms, before which, for the amusement and diver- sion of travellers, is put a small tub full of water, wherein they commonly keep alive some gold or silver fish; and for further orna- ment there is generally a flower-pot or two standing there. Some- times they plant dwarf trees, which will grow easily upon pumico or other porous stones, without any earth at all, provided the root be put into the water, whence it will suck up sufficient nourish- GARDENS. 311 ment. Ordinary people often plant the same kind of trees before their street-doors. " But to return to the Tsubo, or garden. A good one must include at least thirty feet square, and consist of the following essential parts : 1. The ground is covered partly with roundish stones of different colors, gathered in rivers or upon the sea-shore, well washed and cleaned, and those of the same kind, laid together in form of beds, partly with gravel which is swept every day, and kept clean and neat to admiration, the large stones being laid in the middle as a path to walk upon without injuring the gravel, the whole in a seeming but ingenious confusion. 2. Some few flower- bearing shrubs planted confusedly, though not without seme cer- tain rules. Amidst them stands sometimes a Sayuer, as they call it, or scarce outlandish tree, sometimes a dwarf tree or two. 3. A small rock or hill in a corner of the garden, made in imita- tion of nature, curiously adorned with birds and insects cast in brass, and placed between the stones. Sometimes the model of a temple stands upon it, built, as for the sake of the prospect they generally are, on a remarkable eminence or the borders of a preci- pice. Often a small rivulet rushes down the stones with an agree- able noise, the whole in due proportions and as near as possible resembling nature. 4. A small thicket or wood on the side of the hill, for which the gardeners choose such trees as will grow close to one another, and plant and cut them according to their largeness, nature, and the color of their flowers and leaves, so as to make the whole very accurately imitate a natural wood or forest. 5. A cistern or pond, as mentioned above, with live fish kept in it, and surrounded with proper plants, that is, such as love a watery soil, and would lose their beauty and greenness if planted in a dry ground. It is a particular profession to lay out these gardens, and to keep them so curiously and nicely as they ought to be. " There are innumerable smaller inns, cook-shops, saki, or ale houses, pastry-cooks' and confectioners' shops, all along the road, even in the midst of woods and forests, and at the tops of moun tains, where a weary foot-traveller, and the meaner sort of people, find at all times, for a few seni, something warm to eat, or hot tea, or saki, or somewhat else of the kind, wherewith to refresh them- selves. 'T is true, these cook-shops are but poor, sorry houses, if 312 JAPAN. A. D. 1CDO 1C92. compared to larger inns, being inhabited only by poor people, who have enough to do to got a livelihood by this trade ; and yet, even in these, there is always something or other to amuse passengers, and to draw them in ; sometimes a garden and orchard behind the house, which is seen from the street, looking through the passage, and which, by its beautiful flower/, or the agreeable sight of a stream of clear water, falling down from a neighboring natural or artificial hill, or by some other curious ornament of this kind, tempts people to eome in and repose themselves. At other times, a large flower-pot stands in the window, filled with flo'vering branches of trees, disposed in a very curious manner. Sometimes a handsome, well-looking housemaid, or a couple of young girls, well dressed, stand under the door, and with great civility invite people to eome in, and to buy something. The eatables, such as cakes, or whatever it be, are kept before the lire, in an open room, sticking to skewers of bamboos, so that passengers, as they go along, may take them and pursue their journey without stopping. The land- ladies, cooks and maids, as soon as they see anybody coming at a distance, blow up the fire, to make it look as if the victuals had been just got ready. Some busy themselves with making the tea, others prepare sou]), others fill cups with saki, or other liijuors, to present them to passengers, all the while talking and chattering, and commending their merchandise with a voice loud enough to he heard by their next neighbors of the same profession. " The eatables sold at these cook-shops, besides tea, and some- times saki, are mrtnsir, a sort of round cakes, uliidi they learned to make from the Portuguese, as big as common hens' eggs, and filled within with black -bean flower and sugar; cakes of the jelly of a root found upon mountains, and cut into round slices, like carrots, and roasted ; snails, oysters, shell-fish, and other small fish, roasted, boiled, or pickled ; Chinese la.ra, a thin sort of pap, or paste, made of fine wheat flour, cut into small, thin, long slices, and baked; all sorts of plants, roots, and sprigs, which the season affords, washed and boiled in water with salt ; innumerable other dishes peculiar to this country, made of seeds, powdered roots, and vegetables, boiled or baked, dressed in many different ways. "The common sauce for these and other dishes is a little soy, as they call it, mixed with saki, or the beer of the country. Saixio TEA. 313 leaves are laid upon the dish for ornament, and sometimes thin slices of fine ginger and lemon-peel. Sometimes they put powdered ginger, sansio, or the powder of some root growing in the country, into the soup. They are also provided with sweet-meats, of several different colors and sorts, which, generally speaking, are far more agreeable to the eye than pleasing to the taste, being but indiffer- ently sweetened with sugar, and so tough that one must have good teeth to chew them. Foot travellers find it set down in their printed road-books, which they always carry about them, where, and at what price, the best victuals of the kind are to be got. " Tea (since most travellers drink scarce anything else upon the road) is sold at all the inns and cook-shops, besides many tea-booths set up for this trade alone, in the midst of fields and woods, and at the tops of mountains. The tea sold at all these places is but a coarse sort, being only the largest leaves, which remain upon the shrub after the youngest and tenderest have been plucked off, at two different times, for the use of people of fashion, who constantly drink it, before or after their meals. These larger leaves are not rolled up and curled, as the better sort of tea is, but simply roasted in a pan, and continually stirred whilst they are roasting, lest they should get a burnt taste. When they are done enough, they put them by in straw baskets, under the roof of the house, near the place w T here the smoke comes out. They are not a bit nicer in pre- paring it for drinking, for they commonly take a good handful of the tea leaves, and boil them in a large iron kettle full of water. The leaves are sometimes put into a small bag ; but, if not, they have a little basket swimming in the kettle, which they make use of to keep the leaves down, when they have a mind to take out some of the clear decoction. Half a cup of this decoction is mixed with cold water, when travellers ask for it. Tea thus prepared smells and tastes like lye the leaves it is made of, besides that they are of a very bad sort, being seldom less than a year old ; and yet the Japanese esteem it much more healthful for daily use than the young, tender leaves, prepared after the Chinese manner, which they say affect the head too strongly, though even these lose a great part of their narcotic quality when boiled."* * The most recent visitors to Japan all agree in representing the common tea o''the country as an inferior article, not suited for exportation. 27 CHAPTER XXXIII. Kl'MBFR OF PF.OPLE ON THE ROAD. PRINCELY RETINUES. PILGRIMS CO 1SJK. SIUN9K PILGRIMS. NAKED DEVOTEKS. RELIGIOUS UEGGAK". BEGGING ORDKR OF NUNS. JAMABO, OR MOUNTAIN PRIESTS. BUl>DHIT Ii.i:<; \R-. SINGULAR BKLL-CI11M1XG. HUCKSTERS AND I'KDLERS. CUUR- TANS. u IT is scarce credible," say.s Kiimpfer, " what numbers of people daily travel in this country ; and I can assure the reader, from my own experience, having passed it four times, that. Tukaido, which is, indeed, the most frequented of the seven great roads in Japan, is upon some days more crowded than the public streets in any of the most populous towns in Kurope. This is owing partly to the country's being extremely populous, partly to the frequent journeys which the natives undertake, oftener than perhaps any other people. " It is the duty of the princes and lords of the empire, as also of the governors of the imperial cities and crown lands, to go to court once a year to pay their homage and respect. They are attended, going up and returning, by their whole court, and travel with a pomp and magnificence, becoming as well their own quality and riches as the majesty of the powerful monarch whom they are going to see. The train of some of the most eminent fills up the road for come days. Though we travelled pretty fast, yet we often met the baggage and fore-runners, consisting of the servants and inferior officers, for two days together, dispersed in several troops, and the prince himself followed but the third day, attended with his numer- ous court, all marching in admirable order. The retinue of one of the chief Daimiot, as they are called, is computed to amount to about twenty thousand men, more or less ; that of a Seiomio to about ten thousand ; that of a governor of the imperial cities and PRINCELY RETINUES. 31 crown lands to from one to several hundreds, according to his quality or revenues.* " If two or more of these princes and lords should chance to travel the same road, at the same time, they would prove a great hindrance to one another, particularly if they should happen to meet at the same post-house, or village; to prevent which, it is usual for great princes and lords to bespeak the several post-houses by which they are to pass, with all the inns, those of the first qual- ity a month, others a week or two, before their arrival. The time of their intended arrival is also notified in all the cities, villages, and hamlets, by putting up small boards on high poles of bamboo, signifying in a few characters what day of the month such or such a lord will be at that village, to dine or to sleep there. " Numerous troops of fore-runners, harbingers, clerks, cooks, and other inferior officers, go before to provide lodgings, victuals, and other things necessary for the entertainment of their prince and master, and his court. They are followed by the prince's heavy baggage, packed up either in small trunks, as already described, and carried upon horses, each with a banner, bearing the coat-of- arms and the name of the possessor, or else in larg chests, covered with red lackered leather, again with the possessor's coat-of-arms, and carried upon men's shoulders, with multitudes of inspectors to look after them. Next come great numbers of smaller retinues, belonging to the chief officers and noblemen attending the prince, with pikes, seymitars, bows and arrows, umbrellas, palanquins, led horses, and other marks of their grandeur, suitable to their birth, quality, and office. Some of these are carried in norimons, others in kangos, others go on horseback. * These great retinues are thus accounted for by Thunberg : " As both the monarch himself and all the princes of the country are clothed and dress their hair in the same manner as the rest of the inhabitants, and being des- titute of thrones, jewels, and other like paraphernalia, cannot be so distin- guished from others, they have adopted the expedient of exhibiting them- selves on journeys and festive occasions according to their condition in life, and the dignity of their respective offices, with a great number of people, officers, and attendants, hovering about them." The statement already quoted from Caron see ante, p. 199 as to the numbers composing these princely retinues, is much less than that given above, and probably uearei the truth. 316 JAPAX. A. D. 10,00 1G02. " The prince's own numerous train, marching in an admirable and curious order, is divided into several troops, each headed \>y a proper commanding officer, as, 1. Five, more or less, fine horses, each led by two grooms, one on each side, two footmen walking behind. '2. Five or six, and sometimes more, porters, richly clad, walking one by one, and carrying lackered chests, and jttpanncd neat trunks and baskets, upon their shoulders, wherein are kept the wearing apparel and other necessaries for the daily use of the prince, each porter attended by two footmen, o. Ten or more fellows, walking one by one, and carrying rich scymitars, pikes of state, fire-arms, and other weapons, in lackered wooden cases, as, also, quivers with bo\vs and arrows. Sometimes, fur magnificence sake, there are more chest-bearers and led horses following this troop. 4. Two, three, or more men, who carry pikes of state, as the badges of the prince's power and authority, adorned at the upper end with bunches of cock feathers, or other ornaments pecu- liar to such or such a prince. They walk one by one, and are attended each by two footmen. f>. A gentleman, attended by two footmen, carrying the prince's hat, worn as a shelter from the heat of the sun, and which is covered with black velvet. 0. A gen- tleman carrying the prince's sombrero, or umbrella, which is covered in like manner with black velvet, this person also attended by two footmen. 7. Some more bearers of trunks, covered with varnished leather, with the prince's coat-of-arms upon them, each with two men to take care of it. 8. Sixteen, more or less, of the prince's pages, and gentlemen of his bed-chamber, taken out from among the first quality of his court, richly clad, and walking two and two before his norimon. 9. The prince himself, sitting in a stalely uorimon, carried by six or eight men, clad in rich liveries, with several others walking at the norimon's sides, to take^it up by turns ; also, two or three gentlemen of the prince's bed-chamber, to give him what he wants and asks for, and to assist and support him in getting in or out. 10. Two or three horses of state, the saddles covered with black. One of these horses carries a large elbow-chair, which is sometimes covered with black velvet. These horses are attended each by several grooms and footmen in liveries, and some are led by the prince's own pages. 11. Two pike-bear- ers. 12. Ten or more people, carrying each two baskets of a PRINCELY RETINUES. 317 monstrous size, fixed to the ends of a pole, which they lay on their shoulders in such a manner that one basket hangs down beford un<2 the other behind them. These baskets are more for state than for any use. Sometimes some chest-bearers walk among them, to increase the troop. In this order marches the prince's own train, which is followed by six to twelve led horses with their leaders, grooms and footmen, all in liveries. The procession is closed by a multitude of the prince's domestics and other officers of his court, with their own numerous trains and attendants, pike-bearers, chest- bearers and footmen, in liveries. Some of these are carried in kan- gos, and the whole troop is headed by the prince's high-steward, carried in a norimon. If one of the prince's sons accompanies his father in this journey to court, he follows with his own train imme- diately after his father's norimon. " It is a sight exceedingly curious and worthy of admiration, to see all the persons who compose the numerous train of a great prince, clad, the pike-bearers, the norimon-men and livery-men only excepted, in black silk, marching in an elegant order, with a decent, becoming gravity, and keeping so profound a silence, that not the least noise is to be heard, save what must necessarily arise from the motion and rushing of their dresses, and the trampling of the horses and men. On the other hand, it appears ridiculous to an European to see all the pike-bearers and norimon-men, with their clothes tucked up above their waists, exposing their nakedness to the spec- tators' view, with only a piece of cloth about their loins. What appears still more odd and whimsical is to see the pages, pike-bear- ers, umbrella and hat bearers, chest-bearers, and all the footmen in liveries, affect, when they pass through some remarkable town, or by the train of another prince or lord, a strange mimic march or dance. Every step they make, they draw up one foot quite to their backs, stretching cut the arm on the opposite side as far as they can, and putting themselves in such a posture, as if they had a mind to swim through the air. Meanwhile the pikes, hats, umbrel- las, chests, boxes, baskets, and whatever else they carry, are danced and tossed about in a very singular manner, answering to the mo- tion of their bodies. The norimon-men, who have their sleeves tied with a string as near the shoulders as possible, so as to leave their arms naked, carry the pole of the norimon either upon their 27* 818 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1692. shoulders, or else upon the palms of their hands, holding it above their heads. Whilst they hold it up with one arm, they stretchout the other, putting the hand into a horizontal posture, whereby, and by their short, deliberate steps and stiff knees, they affect a ridicu- lous fear and circumspection. If the prince steps out of his nori- inon into one of the green huts which are purposely built for him at convenient distances on the road, or if he goes into a private house, either to drink a dish of tea or for any other purpose, he always leaves a kobang with the landlord as a reward for his trouble. At dinner or supper the expense is much greater. " All the pilgrims who go to Isje, whatever province of the empire they come from, must travel over part of this great road. This pilgrimage is made at all times of the year, but particularly in the spring, at which season vast multitudes of these pilgrims are seen upon the roads. The Japanese of both sexes, young and old, rich and poor, undertake this meritorious journey, generally speak- ing, on foot, in order to obtain, at this holy place, indulgences and remission of their sins. Some of these pilgrims are so poor, that they must live wholly upon what they get by begging. On this account, and by reason of their great number, they are exceed- ingly troublesome to the princes and lords, who at that time of the year go to court, or come thence, though otherwise they address themselves in a very civil manner, bareheaded, and with a low, sub- missive voice, saying, ' Great Lord, be pleased to give the poor pilgrim a seni, towards the expense of his journey to Isje,' or words to that effect. Of all the Japanese, the inhabitants of Jedo and the province Osju are the most inclined to this pilgrimage. Chil- dren, if apprehensive of severe punishment for their misdemeanors, will run away from their parents and go to Isje, thence to fetch an Ofarri, or indulgence, which upon their return is deemed a suf- ficient expiation of their crimes, and a sure means to reconcile them to their friends. Multitudes of these pilgrims arc obliged to pass whole nights, lying in the open fields, exposed to all the injuries of wind and weather, some for want of room in inns, others out of poverty ; and of these last many are found dead upon the road, in which case their Ofarri, if they have any about them, is carefully taken up and hid in the next tree or bush. " Others make this pilgrimage in a comical and merry way, draw- PILGRIM BEGGARS. 319 \ng people's eyes upon them, as well as getting their money. They form themselves into companies, generally of four persons, clad in white linen, after the fashion of the Kuge, or persons of the holy ecclesiastical court of the Dairi. Two of them walking a grave, slow, deliberate pace, and standing often still, carry a large barrow, adorned and hung about with fir-branches and cut white paper, on which they place a resemblance of a large bell, made of light sub- stance, or a kettle, or something else, alluding to some old romantic history of their gods and ancestors; whilst a third, with a com- mander's staff" in his hand, adorned, out of respect to his office, with a bunch of white paper, walks, or rather dances, before the barrow, singing with a dull, heavy voice, a song relating to the subject they are about to represent. Meanwhile, the fourth goes begging before the houses, or addresses himself to charitable travellers, and receives and keeps the money which is given them. Their day's journeys are so short, that they can easily spend the whole summer upon such an expedition. " The Siunse, another remarkable sight travellers meet with upon the roads, are people, who go to visit in pilgrimage the thirty-three chief Quanwon temples, which lie dispersed throughout the empire. They commonly travel two or three together, singing a miserable Quanwon-song from house to house, and sometimes playing upon a fiddle, or upon a guitar, as vagabond beggars do in Germany. However, they do not importune travellers for their charity. They have the names of such Quanwon temples as they have not yet visited writ upon a small board hanging about their necks. They are clad in white, after a very singular fashion, peculiar only to this sect. Some people like so well to ramble about the country after this manner that they will apply themselves to no other trade and profession, but choose to end their days in this perpetual pil- grimage. " Sometimes one meets with very odd sights ; as, for instance, people running naked along the roads in the hardest frosts, wear- ing only a little straw about their waists. These people generally undertake so extraordinary and troublesome a journey to visit cer- tain temples, pursuant to religious vows, which they promised to ful- fil in case they should obtain, from the bounty of their gods, deliver- ance from some fatal distemper, they themselves, their parents or 320 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1C02. relations, labor under, or from some other great misfortunes they were threatened with. They live very poorly and miserably upon the road, receive no charity, and proceed on their journey by them- selves, almost perpetually running. " Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads in all parts of tho empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tokaido, among them many lusty young fellows, who shave their heads. To this shaved begging tribe belongs a certain remarkable religious order of young girls, called Bikuni, which is as much as to say, nuns. They live under the protection of the nunneries at Kaiua- kura and Miako, to which they pay a certain sum a year, of what they get by begging, as an acknowledgment of their authority. They are, in my opinion, by much the handsomest girls we saw in Japan. The daughters of poor parents, if they be handsome and agreeable, apply for and easily obtain this privilege of begging in the habit of nuns, knowing that beauty is one of the most persuasive inducements to generosity. The Jamabo, or begging mountain priests (of whom more hereafter), frequently incorporate their own daughters into this religious order, and take their wives from among these Bikuni. Some of them have been bred up as courtesans, and having served their time, buy the privilege of entering into this religious order, therein to spend the remainder of their youth and beauty. They live two or three together, and make an excursion every day some few miles from their dwelling-house. They partic- ularly watch people of fashion, who travel in norimons, or in kangos, or on horseback. As soon as they perceive somebody coming they draw near and address themselves, though not all together, but singly, every one accosting a gentleman by herself singing a rural song ; and if he proves very liberal and charitable, she will keep him com- pany and divert him for some hours. As, on the one hand, very little religious blood seems to circulate in their veins, so, on the other, it doth not appear that they labor under any considerable degree of poverty. It is true, indeed, they conform themselves to the rules of their order, by shaving their heads, but they take care to cover and to wrap them up in caps or hoods made of black silk. They go decently and neatly dressed, after the fashion of ordinary people. They wear also a large hat to cover their faces, which are often painted, and to shelter themselves from the heat of the sun, JAMABO. 321 They commonly have a shepherd's rod or hook in their hands. Their voice, gestures, and apparent behavior, are neither too bold and daring, nor too much dejected and affected, but free, comely and seemingly modest. However, not to extol their modesty beyond what it deserves, it must be observed, that they make noth- ing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable trav- ellers, all the while they keep them company, under pretence of its being customary in the country ; and, for aught I know, they may be, though never so religiously shaved, full as impudent and lasciv- ious as any public courtesan. " Another religious begging order is that of the Jamalo, as they are commonly called ; that is, the mountain priests, or rather Jamabuo, mountain soldiers, because at all times they go armed with swords and scymitars. They do not shave their heads, but fol- low the rules of the first founder of this order, who mortified his body by climbing up steep, high mountains ; at least, they conform themselves thereunto in their dress, apparent behavior, and some outward ceremonies ; for they are fallen short of his rigorous way of life. They have a head, or general, of their order, residing at Miako, to whom they are obliged to bring a certain sum of money every year, and who has the distribution of dignities and of titles, whereby they are known among themselves. They commonly live in the neighborhood of some famous Kami temple, and accost travellers in the name of that Kami which is worshipped there, making a short discourse of his holiness and miracles, with a loud, coarse voice. Meanwhile, to make the noise still louder, they rattle their long staffs, loaded at the upper end with iron rings, to take up the charity money which is given them ; and, last of all, they blow a trumpet made of a large shell. They cany their chil- dren along with them upon the same begging errand, clad like their fathers, but with their heads shaved. These little bastards are exceedingly troublesome and importunate with travellers, and com- monly take care to light on them, as they are going up some hill or mountain, where, because of the difficult ascent, they cannct well escape, nor indeed otherwise get rid of them without giving them something. In some places they and their fathers accost travellers in company with a troop of Bikuni, and, with their rattling, sing- ing, trumpeting, chattering and crying, make such a frightful noiso 822 JAPAN. A. D. 1G90 1C92. as would make one almost mad or deaf. These mountain priests are frequently applied to by superstitious people, for conjuring, for- tune-telling, foretelling future events, recovering lost goods, and the like purposes. They profess themselves to be of the Kami religion, as established of old, and yet they are never suffered to attend, or to take care of, any of the Kami temples. " There are many more beggars travellers meet with along the roads. Some of these are old, and, in all appearance, honest men, who, the better to prevail upon people to part with their charity, are shaved and clad after the fashion of the Budsdo priests. Some- times there are two of them standing together, each with a small, oblong book before him. This book contains part of their Fokekio, or Bible, printed in the significant or learned language.* However, I would not have the reader think, as if they themselves had any understanding in that language, or know how to read the book placed before them. They only learn some part of it by heart, and speak it aloud, looking towards the book, as if they did actu- ally read in it, and expecting something from their hearers, as a reward for their trouble. " Others are found sitting near some river, or running water, making a Sieyaki, a certain ceremony for the relief of departed souls. This Siegaki is made after the following manner : They take a green branch of the Fauna Skimmi tree, and, murmuring certain words with a low voice, wash arid scour it with some shav- ings of wood, whereon they had written the names of some deceased persons. This they believe to contribute greatly to relieve and refresh the departed souls confined in purgatory ; and, for aught I know, it may answer that purpose full as well as any number of masses, as they arc celebrated to the same end in Roman Qatholic countries. Any person that hath a mind to purchase the benefit of this washing, for himself or his relations and friends, throws a seni upon the mat, which is spread out near the beg- gar, who docs not so much as offer to return him any manner of thanks for it, thinking his art and devotion deserve still better; Besides that, it is not customary amongst beggars of note to thank people for their charity. Any one who hath learned the * This is the Sanscrit. PILGRIM BEGGARS. 323 proper ceremonies necessary to make the Siegaki, is at liberty to do it. " Others of this tribe, who make up far the greater part, sit upon the road all day long, upon a small, coarse mat. They have a flat bell, like a broad mortar, lying before them, and do nothing else but repeat, with a lamentable singing tune, the word Namada, which is contracted from Namu Amida Budsu, a short form of prayer wherewith they address Amida, as the patron and advocate of departed souls. Meanwhile they beat almost continually with a small wooden hammer upon the aforesaid bell, and this, they say, in order to be the sooner heard by Amida, and, I am apt to think, not without an intent too to be the better taken notice of by pas- sengers. " Another sort we met with as we went along were differently clad, some in an ecclesiastical, others in a secular habit. These stood in the fields, next to the road, and commonly had a sort of altar standing before them, upon which they placed the idol of their Briareus, or Quanwon, as they call him, carved in wood, and gilt ; or the pictures of some other idols, scurvily done, as, for instance, the picture of Amida, the supreme judge of departed souls; of Semaus, or the head-keeper of the prison, whereunto the con- demned souls are confined ; of Dsisoo, or the supreme commander in the purgatory of children, and some others, wherewith, and by some representations of the flames and torments prepared for the wicked in a future world, they endeavor to stir up in passengers compassion and charity. " Other beggars, and these, to all appearance, honest enough, are met sitting along the road, clad much after the same manner with the Quanwon beggars, with a Dsisoo staff in their hand. These have made vow not to speak during a certain time, and express their want and desire only by a sad, dejected, woeful countenance.* " Not to mention* numberless other common beggars, some sick, some stout and lusty enough, who get people's charity by praying, singing, playing upon fiddles, guitars, and other musical instru- * The letters of the Jesuit missionaries contain accounts of Buddhist devotees ivho went so fir as to drown or otherwise destroy themselves. Kampfer, and the writers since his time, make no mention of such extreme fanaticism, which, however, is a natural outgrowth from the doctrine of the Buddhists 324 JAPAN. A. D. lCt)0 1C92. ments, or performing some juggler's tricks, I will close the account of this vermin with an odd, remarkable port of a beggar's music, or rather chime of bells, we sometimes, but rarely, met with in our journey to court. A young boy, with a sort of a wooden machine pendent from his neck, and a rope, with eight strings about it, from which hang down eight bells, of different sounds, turns round in a circle, with a swiftness scarce credible, in such a manner that both the machine, which rests upon his shoulders, and the bells, turn round with him horizontally, the boy, in the mean while, with great dexterity and quickness, beating them with two ham- mers, makes a strange, odd sort of a melody. To increase the noise, two people sitting near him beat, one upon a large, the other upon a smaller drum. Those who are pleased with their performance throw them some seni as they pass.* " The crowd and throng upon the roads is not a little increased Dy numberless small retail merchants, and children of country people, who run about from morning to night, following travellers, and offering them for sale their poor, for the most part eatable, merchandise such as several cakes and sweetmeats, wherein the quantity of sugar is so inconsiderable that it is scarce perceptible, other cakes, of different sorts, made of flour, roots boiled in water and salt, road-books, straw-shoes for horses and men, ropes, strings, tooth-pickers, and a multitude of other trifles, made of wood, straw, reed, and bamboos. * Great numbers of the Japanese musicians, as Kjimpfer tells us in another place, are blind men, who constitute a sort of order or society, which boasts as its legendary founder a certain general, of the family of the Feiji, who, at the time of the civil war which ended in the destruction of that family, was taken prisoner by Joritomo. Notwithstanding repeated attempts at escape, he was very kindly treated, and was pressed to enter into the eervice of his captor. But, not being able to look upon the destroyer of the Feiji without an irresistible desire to kill him, not to be outdone in gen- erosity, he plucked out his eyes and presented them to Joritomo on a plate ! There is another more ancient, but less numerous order of the blind, composed exclusively of ecclesiastical persons, and claiming as its founder a legendary prince, who cried himself blind at the death of his beautiful mistress. The blind are numerous, and disorders of the eyes are very common in Japan. COURTESANS. 325 " Nor must I forget to take notice of the numberless wenches the great and small inns and the tea-booths and cook-shops in villages and hamlets are furnished withal. About noon, when they have done dressing and painting themselves, they make their ap- pearance, standing under the door of the house, or sitting upon the small gallery around it, whence, with a smiling countenance and good words, they invite the travelling troops that pass by to call in at their inn, preferably to others. In some places, where there are several inns standing near one another, they make, with their chattering and rattling, no inconsiderable noise, and prove not a little troublesome. " I cannot forbear mentioning in this place a small mistake of Mr. Caron, in his account of Japan, where he shows so tender a regard for the honor of the Japanese sex (perhaps out of respect to his lady, who was a Japan woman) as to assert that, except in the privileged houses devoted to it, this trade is not elsewhere carried on. It is unquestionably true that there is hardly a public inn upon the great island Nipon, but what is provided with courtesans, and if too many customers resort to one place, the neighboring inn- keepers will lend their wenches, on condition that what money they get shall be faithfully paid them. Nor is it a new custom come up but lately, or since Mr. Caron's time. On the contrary, it is of very old date, and took its rise, as the Japanese say, many hun- dred years ago, in the times of that brave general and first secular monarch, Joritomo, who, apprehensive lest his soldiers, weary of his long and tedious expeditions, and desirous to return home to their wives and children, should desert his army, thought it much more advisable to indulge them iu this particular." 28 CHAPTER XXXIV. DEPARTURE FROM NAGASAKI. TRAIN OF THE DUTCH. THE DAY'S JOURNEY TREATMENT OF THE DUTCH. RESPECT SHOWN THEM IX THE ISLAND OP XIMO. CARE WITH WHICH THEY ARE WATCHED. INNS AT WHICH THEY LODGE. THEIR RECEPTION AND TREATMENT THERE. POLITENESS OF THE JAPANESE. LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS. SEIMEI, THE ASTROLOGER. "ALL the princes, lords, and vassals of the Japanese empire being obliged," says Kiimpfer, " to make their appearance at court once a year, it hath been determined by the emperor what time and what day they are to set out on their journey. The same is observed with regard to the Dutch, and the fifteenth or sixteenth day of the first Japanese month, which commonly falls in with the middle of our February, hath been fixed for our constant departure. Towards that time we pet everything ready to set out, having first sent by sea, as already mentioned, to the city of Simonoseki the presents we are to make, sorted and carefully packed, together with the other heavy baggage, and the victuals and kitchen furni- ture for our future travels. Three or four weeks after, and a few days before our departure, our president, attended with his usual train, goes to visit the two governors of Nagasaki, at their palaces, to take his leave of them, and to recommend the Dutch who re- main in our factory to their favor and protection. The next day, all the goods and other things which must be carried along with us are marked every bale or trunk with a small board, where- upon is writ the possessor's name, and the contents. The day of our departure, all the officers of our island, and all persons who are any ways concerned with our affairs, particularly the future companions of our voyage, come over to Desima early in the morn- ing. They arc followed soon after by both governors, attended with their whole numerous court, or else by their deputies, who come to wish us a good journey. The governors or their depu- DUTCH JOURNEY TO COURT. 327 ties having been entertained as usual upon this occasion, and taken their leave, are by us accompanied out of our island, which is done commonly about nine in the morning, at which time, also, we set out on our journey. The Buyio, or commander-in-chief, of our train, and the Dutch president, enter their norimons. The chief interpreter, if he be old, is carried in an ordinary kango ; others mount on horseback, and the servants go afoot. All the Japanese officers of our island, and several friends and acquaint- ances of our Japanese companions, keep us company out of the town so far as the next inn. " Our train is not the same in the three several parts of our journey. Over the island Kiusiu, it may amount, with all the servants and footmen, as, also, the gentlemen whom the lords of the several provinces we pass through send to compliment us, and to keep us company during our stay in their dominions, to about an hundred persons. In our voyage by sea it is not much less, all the sailors and watermen taken in. In the last part, over the great island Nipon, from Osaka to Jedo, it is considerably greater, and consists of no less than an hundred and fifty people, and this, by reason of the presents and other goods which came from Naga- saki, as far as Osaka by sea, but must now be taken out and carried by land to Jedo, by horses and men. " All our heavy baggage is commonly sent away some hours before we set out ourselves, lest it should be a hindrance to us, as, also, to give timely notice to our landlords of our arrival. We set out early in the morning, and, save only one hour for dinner, travel till evening, and, sometimes, till late at night, making from ten to thirteen Japanese leagues a day. In our voyage by sea, we put into some harbor, and come to an anchor every night, advanc- ing forty Japanese water-leagues a day at farthest. " We are better treated, and more honorably received, in our journey over Kiusiu than upon the great island Nipon, though everywhere we have much more civility shown us by the inhabi- tants of the cities and districts throagh which \ve pass, than by our Nagasakian companions, and our own servants, who eat our bread and travel at our expense. In our journey across the island Kiu- siu, we receive nearly the same honors and civility from the lords of the several provinces we pass through, as they show to travelling 828 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1092. princes and their retinues. The roads are swept and cleaned before us, and in cities and villages they are watered to lay the dust. The common people, laborers and idle spectators, who are so very troublesome to travellers upon the great island Nipon, are kept out of the way, and the inhabitants of the houses on either side of the roads and streets see us go by, either sitting in the back part of their houses, or kneeling in the fore part, behind a screen, with great respect and in a profound silence. All the princes and lords, whose dominions we are to pass through, send one of their noble- men to compliment us, as soon as we enter upon their territories; but, as he is not suffered to address us in person, he makes his com- pliment in his master's name to the Bugio, or commander-in-chief of our train, and to the chief interpreter, offering, at the same time, what horses and men we want for us and our baggage. He like- wise orders four footmen to walk by every Dutchman's side, and two gentlemen of some note at his court, who are clad in black silk, with staffs in their hands, to precede tl\p whole train. After this manner they lead us through their master's territories, and, when we come to the limits thereof, the Japanese companions of our voyage arc treated with saki and socntio, and so they take their leave. For our passage over the bays of Omj/ra and Sintalara, the lords of these two places lend us their own pleasure-barges, arid their own watermen, besides that they furnish us with abundance of provisions, without expecting even so much as a small present in return for their civil and courteous behavior ; and yet our thievish interpreters never miss to lay hold of this advantage, putting this article upon our accounts as if we had actually been at the expense ; and they commonly put the money into their own pockets. In our whole journey from Nagasaki to Kokura, everybody we meet with shows us and our train that deference and respect which is due only to the princes arid lords of the country. Private travellers, whether they travel on foot or on horseback, must retire out of the way those who hesitate about it being compelled to it by the officers and, bareheaded, humbly bowing, wait in the next field till our whole retinue is gone by. I took notice of some country people ; who do not only retire out of the way, but turn us their back, as not worthy to behold us the greatest mark of civility a Japanese can possibly show. None, or but few, of these public marks of INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY. 329 honor and respect are shown us in our journey over the great island Nipon. " As to what concerns our accommodation on the road, the same is with regard to the carriage of us and of our baggage, ma number of horses and men provided for that purpose, the inns, lodg- ings, eating, and attendance as good for our money as we could possibly desire. But, on the other hand, if we consider the narrow compass allowed us, we have too much reason to complain ; for we are treated in a manner like prisoners, deprived of all liberty, ex- cepting that of looking about the country from our horses, or out of our kangos, which, indeed, it is impossible for them to deny us. As soon as a Dutchman alights from his horse (which is taken very ill, unless urgent necessity obliges him), he that rides before oiir train, and the whole train after him, must stop suddenly, and the Dosiu and two other attendants must come down from their horses to take immediate care of him. Nay, they watch us to that degree that they will not leave us alone, not even for the most necessary occasions. The Bugio, or commander-in-chief of our train, studies day and night, not only the contents of his instructions, but the journals of two or three preceding journeys, in order exactly, and step by step, to follow the actions and behavior of his predecessors. 'T is looked upon as the most convincing proof of his faithfulness and good conduct still to exceed them. Nay, some of these block- heads are so capricious that no accident whatever can oblige them to go to any other inns but those we had been at the year before, even though we should, upon this account, be forced in the worst weather, with the greatest inconveniency, and at the very peril of our lives, to travel till late at night. "We go to the same inns which the princes .and lords of the country resort to, that is, to the very best of every place. The apartments are at that time hung with the colors and arms of the Dutch East India Company, and this in order to notify to the neighborhood who they be that lodge there, as is customary in the country. We always go to the same inns, with this difference only that, upon our return from Jedo, we lie at the place we dined at in going up, by this means equally to divide the trouble, which is much greater at night than at dinner. We always take up our lodging in the back apartment of the house, which is by much the 28* 380 JAPAX. A. D. 1C90 1692. plcasantest ; also otherwise, as has been mentioned, reckoned the chief. The landlord observes the same cu.-toms upon our arrival, as upon the arrival of the princes and lords of the empire. He comes out of the town or village into the fields to meet us, clad in a kamisimo, or garment-of' ceremony, and wearing a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, making his compliments with a low bow, which before the norimons of the Bugio and our Resident is so low, that he touches the ground with his hands and almost with his forehead. This done, he hastens back to his house, and receives us at the entry a second time, in the same manner, and with the same com plimeuts. " As soon as we are come to the inn, our guardians and keepers carry us forthwith across the house to our apartments. Nor, indeed, are we so much displeased at this, since the number of spectators and the petulant scoffing of the children, but, above all, the exhaus- tion of a fatiguing journey, make us desirous to take our rest, ihe sooner the better. We are, as it were, confined to our apartments, having no other liberty but to walk out into the small garden behind the house. All other avenues, all the doors, windows and holes, which open any prospect towards the streets or country, are care- fully shut and nailed up, in order, as they would fain persuade us, to defend us and our goods from thieves, but in fact to watch and guard us as thieves and deserters. It must be owned, however, that this superabundant care and watchfulness is considerably less- ened upon our return, when we have found means to insinuate our- selves into their favor, and by presents and otherwise to procure their connivance. " The Bugio takes possession of the best apartment after ours. The several rooms next to our own are taken up by the Dosiu, interpreters and other chief officers of our retinue, in order to be always near at hand to watch our conduct, and to care that none of our landlord's domestics nor any other person presume to come into our apartment, unless it be by their leave and in their pres- ence ; and in their absence they commit this care to some of their own or our servants ; though all the companions of our voyage in general are strictly charged to have a watchful eye over us. Those who exceed their fellow-servauts in vigilance are, by way of encour- RECEPTION AT THE INNS. 831 agement, permitted to .make the journey again the next year. Otherwise they stand excluded for two years. " As soon as we have taken possession of our apartment, in comes the landlord with some of his chief male domestics, each with a dish of tea in his hand, which they present to every one of us with a low bow, according to his rank and dignity, and repeating, with a submissive, deep-fetched voice, the words, ah! ah! ah! They are all clad in their garments of ceremony, which they wear only upon great occasions, and have each a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, which they never quit, so long as the company stays in the house. This done, the necessary apparatus for smoking is brought in, consisting of a board of wood or brass, though not always of the same structure, upon which are placed a small fire-pan with coals, a pot to spit in, a small box filled with tobacco cut small, and some long pipes with small brass heads; as also another japanned board, or dish, with Socano,* that is, something to eat, as, for instance, several sorts of fruits, figs, nuts, several sorts of cakes, chiefly mansie and rice cakes hot, several sorts of roots boiled in water, sweetmeats, and other trumperies of this kind. All these things are brought first into the Bugio's room, then into ours. As to other necessaries travellers may have occasion for, they are generally, in the case of native travellers, served by the housemaids. These wenches also wait at table, taking that opportunity to engage their guests to further favors. But it is quite otherwise with us; for even the landlords themselves and their male domestics, after they have pre- sented us with a dish of tea, as above said, are not suffered upon any account whatever to enter our apartments ; but whatever we want it is the sole business of our own servants to provide us with. " TLere are no other spitting-pots brought into the room but that which comes along with the tobacco. If there be occasion for more they make use of small pieces of bamboo, a hand broad and high, sawed from between the joints and hollowed. The can- dles brought in at night are hollow in the middle ; the wick, which is of paper, being wound about a wooden stick before the tallow is * Froez, in one of his letters, defines this Japanese word, ns signifying a kind of salted vegetable, like olives. It seems to include all kiuds of refresh- ments occasionally offered, to visitors. 332 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1C92. laid on. For this reason, also, the candlesticks have a punch or bodkin at top, which the candles are fixed upon. They burn very quick, and make a great deal of smoke and smell, the oil or tallow being made of the berries of bay-trees, camphor-trees, and some others of the kind. It is somewhat odd and ridiculous to see the whirling motion of the ascending smoke, followed by the flame, when the candle is taken off the punch at the top of the candlestick. Instead of lamps, they make use of small, flat, earthen vessels, filled with train-oil made of the fat of whales, or of oil made of cotton- seed. The wick is made of rush, and the abovesaid earthen ves- sel stands in another filled with water, or in a square lantern, that, in case the oil should by chance take fire, no damage may there- upon come to the house. "The Japanese, in their journeys, sit down to table thrice a day, besides what they eat between meals. They begin early in the morning and before break of day, at least before they set out, with a good, substantial breakfast; then follows dinner at noon, and the day ia concluded with a plentiful supper at night. It being forbid to play at cards, they sit after meals, drinking and singing some songs, to make one another merry, or else they propose some riddles round, or play at some other game, and he that cannot explain the riddle, or loses the game, is obliged to drink a glass. It is again quite otherwise with us, for we sit at table and eat our victuals very quietly. Our cloth is laid, and the dishes dressed after the Euro- pean manner, but by Japanese cooks. We are presented, besides, by the landlord, each with a Japanese dish. We drink European wines and the rice-beer of the country hot. All our diversion is confined, in the day-time, to the small garden which is behind the house ; at night to the bath, in case we please to make use of it. No other pleasure is allowed us, no manner of conversation with the domestics, male or female, excepting what, through the connivance of our inspectors, some of us find means to procure at night in pri- vate and in their own rooms. " When everything is ready for us to set out again, the landlord is called, and our president, in presence of the two interpreters, paya him the reckoning in gold, laid upon a small salver, lie draws near, in a creeping posture, kneeling, holding his hands down to th floor, and when he takes the salver which the money is laid upon, UNIVEBSAL POLITENESS. 333 he bows down his forehead almost quite to the ground, in token of submission and gratitude, uttering with a deep voice the words ah '. ah ! ah ! whereby in this country inferiors show their defer- ence and respect to their superiors. He then prepares to make the same compliment to the other Dutchmen ; but our interpreters gen- erally excuse him this trouble, and make him return in the game crawling posture. Every landlord hath two kobangs paid him for dinner, and three for supper and lodgings at night. For this money he is to provide victuals enough for our whole train, the horses, the men that look after them, and the porters, only excepted. The same sum is paid to the landlords in the cities, where we stay some days, as at Osaka, Miako and Jedo, namely, five kobangs a day, without any further recompense. The reason of our being kept so cheap, as to victuals and lodging, is because this sum was agreed on with our landlords a long while ago, when our train was not yet so bulky as it now is.* It is a custom in this coun- try, which we likewise observe, that guests, before they quit the inn, order their servants to sweep the room they lodged in, not to leave any dirt, or ungrateful dust, behind them. " From this reasonable behavior of the landlords, the reader may judge of the civility- of the whole nation in general, always except- ing our own officers and servants. I must own that, in the visits we made or received in our journey, we found the same to be greater than could be expected from the most civilized nations. The behavior of the Japanese, from the meanest countryman up to the greatest prince or lord, is such that the whole empire might be called a school of civility and good manners. They have so much sense and innate curiosity, that, if they were not absolutely denied a free and open conversation and correspondence with foreigners, they would receive them with the utmost kindness and pleasure. In some towns and villages only we took notice that the young boys, who are childish all over the world, would run after us, calling us names, and cracking some malicious jests or other, levelled at the Chinese, whom they take us to be. One of the most common, and not much different from a like sort of a compliment which is com- * The total expense of the entire journey, including the presents to the em- peror and others, is estimated by Kampfer at twenty thousand rix dollars, equivalent to about the same number of our dollars. 834 JAPAN. A. D. 1COO 1G92. monly made to Jews in Germany, is Tooxin bay bay? which, in broken Chinese, signifies, Chinese, have yt nntkiny to truck? " It may not be amiss to observe, that it is not an indifferent matter to travellers in this country what day they set out on their journey ; for they must choose lor their departure a fortunate day, for which purpose they make use of a particular table, printed in all their road-books, which they say hath been observed to hold true by a continued experience of many ages, and wherein are set down all the unfortunate days of every month. However, the most sensible of the Japanese have but little regard for this superstitious table, which if more credited by the common people, the mountain priests and monks. " To give the more authority to this table, they say that it was invented by the astrologer Seimei, a man of great quality and very eminent in his art. King Abino Tassima was his father, and a fox his mother, to whom Abino Tassima was married upon the fol- lowing occasion. lie once happened with a servant of his to be in the tem;>le of Inari, who is the god and protector of the f ITS CASTLE. FUrtl- MI. ENTRANCE INTO MIAKO. VISIT TO THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND T1IK GOVERNORS. DESCRIPTION OF MIAKO. PALACE OF THE DA1RI. CASTLE. MANUFACTURES AND TRADE. AUTHORITY OF THE CHIEF JUSTICE. POLICE. CRIMES. AT coming out of Nagasaki, on his first journey to court (Tues- day, February 13, 1091), Kiimpfer noticed the idol Dsisos, the god of the roads and protector of travellers, hewn out of the rock in nine different places. At the next village stood another of the same sort, about three feet in height, on a stone pillar twice as high, and adorned with flowers. Two other smaller stone pillars, hollow at top, stood before the idol, upon which were placed lamps, for travellers to light in its honor ; and at some distance stood a basin of water, in which to wash the hands before lighting the lamps. The first twelve miles' travelling, which was very steep and mountainous, brought the company to the shores of the bay of Oniura, which they found too shallow for vessels of size; but by crossing it in boats, furnished by the prince of Omnra, each rowed by fourteen watermen, they saved a distance of ten miles or more. The distance across was thirty miles. The town of Omnra was Been on the right at the head of the bay, and beyond it a smoking mountain. The shells of this bay were reported to yield pearls.* * Of these pearls Kiimpfor says, in another place, that they are found almost everywhere about Kiusiu in oysters and several other sea sheila. Everybody is at liberty to fish for them. Formerly the natives had little or no value for them till they were sought for by the Chinese. The Japanese pretend, as to one particular kind, that when put into a box full of a SAXGA, CAPITAL OP FIG EN. 337 The second day (Wednesday, February 14) they passed an old camphor-tree, estimated to be thirty-six feet in circumference, and hollow within.* At Swot a, where they dined, a seaport on the gulf of Simabara, was a manufactory of large earthen pots, used by vessels as water-casks, and also of china ware, made of a whitish fat clay, abundant in that neighborhood. The same day they vis- ited a hot spring, much frequented for its medicinal effects, and pro- vided with accommodations for bathing. There are several others in the neighborhood.! Sanyo,, the capital of the province of FIGEN, through which they passed the next day (Thursday, February 15), without stopping, was found to be a considerable place, situated not far from the western border of the province, near the head of the bay of Sima- bara. " The city," says Kiimpfer, " is very large, but extends more in length than in breadth. It is exceedingly populous. Both going in arid coming out we found strong guards at the gates. It is enclosed with walls, but more for state than defence. The prince >r petty king of this province resides here in a large castle, which commands the city. The streets are large, with streams of water flowing through them. The houses are but sorry and low, and in the chief streets fftted up for manufactures and shopkeepers. The inhabitants are very short, but well shaped, particularly the women, who are handsomer, I think, than in any other Asiatic country, but so much painted that one would be apt to take them for wax peculiar sort of complexion-powder made of another shell, one or two young pearls will grow out at the sides, and when they conie to maturity, as they do in two or three years, will drop off; but Kiirupfer, having never seen this phenomenon, is not willing to vouch for its reality. * The same tree Karnpfer found on his return (May 6) in full blossom, and a very beautiful sight. It was noticed as still standing in 1826, by Sie- bold, who found it by measurement to be fifty feet in circumference. t Caron also speaks of these springs, some of which he describes as inter- mittent. Some are boiling hot, and their waters had been used, as we have seen, in the torture of the Catholics. They are all found in a volcanic mountain, having several craters which eject black sand and smoke. In the interior of the province of Figo, on the opposite shore of the gulf of Sima bara, is another volcano. The province of Satsuma is entirely volcanic, and off its southern extremity is an island that burns incessantly. Klaprotht from Japanese authorities, Jlsiatic Journal, vol. xxx. 29 838 JAPAN. A. P. 1COO 1C92. figures rather than living creatures. Many were noticed whosouncd little more than girls, yet evidently the mothers of several children. These women of Figen have the reputation of being the handsomest in Japan, next to those of Miako. This province, though less wealthy than that of Satsuma, is reputed to he ahout the most fer- tile in all Japan, being particularly famous for its rice, of which it produces ten different sorts or qualities, one of which is reserved for the special use of the emperor. The rice-fields were observed to be bordered with tea-shrubs about six feet high ; but as they were stripped of their leaves they made but a naked and .sorry appearance. In the afternoon our travellers passed into the province of Tsi- CCGO, and having traversed a small but very pleasant wood of firs, a rare sight in the flat parts of the country, they saw at a dis- tance the castle of Kantnie, the residence of the prince of the prov- ince.* Friday, February 10, mountains were encountered, which they passed in kangos, as the road was too steep for horseback riding. This country, forming a part of the province of CHICIICUKN, struck Kiimpfer as not unlike some mountainous and woody parts of Ger- many, but no cattle were seen grazing, except a few cows and horses for carriage and ploughing. The people were less handsome than those of Figen, but extremely civil. The next day (February 17), after passing, in the afternoon, some coal-mine-;, whence the neighborhood was supplied with fuel, they reached Kokura, capital of the province of Bfim.x, once a large town, but now much decayed. It had a large castle of free- stone, with a few cannon and a tower of six stories, the usual sign of princely residences. A river passed through the town, crossed by a bri Ige near two hundred yards long, but it was too shallow to admit vessels of any size. At least one hundred small bo;its were drawn up on the banks. On leaving their inn where they had stopped to dine, the Dutch found the square in front of it, as well as the bridge, crowded with upwards of a thousand spectators, * On Kampfer's second journey to Jedo (Ifi9'2), the second night vrns pissed ;it JC-inimr, whijh they reached oy crossing the liny of Simubtira in bouts, thus l"ivin^ the prlncipillty of Omuru nud tin- city <>f Sanija on their left. The iitit day at noon they struck iuto the road followed on the first journey. OSAKA. 3% chiefly ordinary people, who had collected to see them, and who knelt in profound silence, without motion or noise. The distance of this place from Nagasaki was reckoned at fifty -five Japanese miles, and had consumed five days. Embarking in boats, the Dutch travellers crossed the strait which separates Ximo from Nipon, narrower here than anywhere else, less than three miles wide, though the town of Simonoseki, which gives its name to the strait, being situated at the bottom of an inlet, is near twelve miles from Kokura. This town, in the prov- ince of NAUGATO, consisted of four or five hundred houses, built chiefly on both sides of one long street, with a few smaller ones ter- minating in it. It is full of shops for selling provisions and stores to the ships, which daily put in for shelter or supplies, and of which not less than two hundred were seen at anchor. It also had a tem- ple to Amida, built to appease the ghost of a young prince of the family of Feiji, so celebrated in the legendary annals of the Japan- ese, whose nurse, with the boy in her arms, is said to have thrown herself headlong into the strait to avoid capture by his father's enemies, at the time of the ruin of that family. The voyage from Shnonoseki to Osaka was reckoned at one hun- dred and thirty-four Japanese water-miles, and was made in six days, the vessel coming to anchor every night in good harbors, with which the coast abounds. This voyage lay first through the strait between Ximo and Nipon, and then through the strait or sea be- tween Nipon and Sikokf, which was full of islands, some cultivated, .others mere rocks. On the main land on either side snow-covered mountains were visible. The barge could proceed no further than Fioyo, a city of the province SETZ, nearly as large as Nagasaki. Here the company embarked in small boats for Osaka. As they passed 1 along they saw at a distance the imperial city of Sakai, three or four Japanese miles south from Osaka. The description of Osaka, and of the journey thence to Miako, is thus given by Kiimpfer : " OSAKA, one of the five imperial cities, is agreeably seated in the province of Setz, in a fruitful plain, and on the banks of a naviga- ble river. At the east end is a strong castle ; and at the western end, two strong, stately guard-houses, which separate it from ita suburbs. Its length from these suburbs to the above-mentioned 840 JAPAN. A. D. 1090 1C92. castle is between throe and four thousand yards. Its brea 1th is somewhat less. The riven Jodotjawa, runs on the north side, and below the city falls into the sea. This river rises a day and a half's journey to the north-east, out of a midland lake in the province of UMI, which, according to Japanese histories, arose in one night, that spot which it now fills being sunk in a violent earthquake. Coming out of this lake, it runs by the small towns Udsi and Jodo, from which latter it borrows its name, and so continues down to Osaka. About a mile before it comes to this city, it sends off one of its arms straight to the sea. This want, if any, is supplied by two other rivers, both which flow into it just above the city, on the north side of the castle, where there are stately bridges over then). The united stream having washed one third of the city, part of its waters are conveyed through a broad canal to supply the south part, which is also the larger, and that where the richest inhab- itants live. For this purpose several smaller channels cut from the large one, pass through sonic of the chief streets, deep enough to be navigable for small boats, which bring goods to the merchant's doors though sonic arc muddy, and not too clean, for want of a sufficient quantity and run of water. Upwards of an hundred bridges, many extraordinarily beautiful, are built over them. " A little below the coming out of the above-mentioned canal another arm arises on the north side of the great stream, which is shallow and not navigable, but runs down westward, with great rapidity, till it loses itself in the sea. The middle and great stream still continues its course through the city, at the lower end whereof it turns westward, and having supplied the suburbs and villages which lie without the city, by many lateral branches, at last loses itself in the sea through several mouths. This river is narrow, indeed, but deep and navigable. From its mouth up as far as Osaka, and higher, there are seldom less than a thousand boats going up and down, some with merchants, others with the princes and lords who live to the west, on their way to and from Jedo. The banks arc raised on both sides into ten or more steps, coarsely hewn of freestone, so that they look like one continued stairs, and one may land wherever he pleases. Stately bridges are laid over the river at every three or four hundred paces' distance. They are built of cedar wood, and are railed on both sides, some of the rai.fe OSAKA. 34l being adorned at top with brass buttons. I counted in all ten such bridges, three whereof were particularly remarkable, because 01 their length, being laid over the great arm of the river, where it is broadest. "The streets, in the main, are narrow but regular, cutting each other at right angles. From this regularity, however, we must except that part of the city which lies towards the sea, because -.he streets there run along the several branches of the river. The streets are very neat, though not paved. However, for the conven- iency of walking, there is a small pavement of square stones along the houses on each side of the street. At the end of every street are strong gates, which are shut at night, when nobody is suffered to pass from one street to another without special leave and a passport from the Ottona, or street officer. There is also in every street a place railed in, where they keep all the necessary instruments in case of fire. Not far from it is a covered well, for the same purpose. The houses are, according to the custom of the country, not above two stories high, each story of nine or twelve feet. They are built of wood, lime and clay. The front offers to the spectator's eye the door, and a shop where the merchants sell their goods, or else an open room where artificers, openly and in everybody's sight, exercise their trade. From the upper end of the shop or room hangs down a piece of black cloth, partly for orna- ment, partly to defend them in some measure from the wind and weather. At the same place hang some fine patterns of what is sold in the shop. The roof is flat, and in good houses covered with black tiles laid in lime. The roofs of ordinary houses are covered only with shavings of wood. Within doors all the houses are kept clean and neat to admiration. The stair-cases, rails and all the wainscotting, are varnished. The floors are covered with neat mats. The rooms are separated from each other by screens, upon removal )f which several small rooms may be enlarged into one, or the con- trary done if needful. The walls are hung with shining paper, curi- ously painted with gold and silver flowers. The upper part of the wall, for some inches down from the ceiling, is commonly left empty, and only clayed with an orange-colored clay, which is dug up about this city, and is, because of its beautiful color, exported into other provinces. The mats, doors and screens, are all of the same size, 29* 842 JAPAN.- -A. D. 1C90 1G92. six Japanese feet long and throe broad. The houses themselves, and their several rooms, are built proportionably according to a certain number of mats, more or less. There is commonly a curious garden behind the house, such as I have described elsewhere. 13ehiud the garden is the bathing-stove, and sometimes a vault, or rather a small room, with strong walls of clay and lime, to preserve, in case of fire, the richest household goods and furniture. " Osaka is extremely populous, and, if we believe what the boast- ing Japanese tell us, can raise an army of eighty thousand men from among its inhabitants. It is the best trading town in Japan, being extraordinarily well situated for carrying on a commerce both by land and water. This is the reason why it is so well inhabited by rich merchants, artificers and nunufacturers. Provisions are cheap, notwithstanding the city is so well peopled. Whatever tends to promote luxury, and to gratify all sensual pleasures, may be had at as easy a rate here as anywhere, and for this reason the Jap- anese call Osaka the universal theatre of pleasures and diversions. Plays are to be seen daily, both in public and in private houses. Mountebanks, jugglers, who can show some artful tricks, and all the raree-show people who have either some uncommon, or monstrous animal to exhibit, or animals taught to play tricks, resort thither from all parts of the empire, being sure to get a better penny here than anywhere else.* Hence it is no wonder that numbers of strangers and travellers daily resort thither, chiefly rich people, as to a place where they can spend their time and money with much greater satisfaction than perhaps anywhere else in the empire. The western princes and lords on this side Osaka all have houses in this city, and people to attend them in their passage through, and yet they are not permitted to stay longer than a night, besides that * " Some years ago," says Kampfcr, " our East Iii'lia Company sent over from Biitavia a Casuar (a large East India bird, who would swallow stones and hot coals), as a present to the ernperor. This bird having had the ill luck not to please our rigid censors, the governors of Nagasaki, and we hav- ing thereupon been ordered to send him back to B.itavia, a rich Japanese assured us that if he could have obtained leave to buy him, he would have willingly given a thousand tads for him, as being sure within a year's time to get double th;;t money only by showing him at Os/.a." The mermaid* exhibited in Europe and Ameiica, to the great profit of enterprising show men, have been of Japanese manufacture. GOVERNOR OF OSAKA. 343 upon their departure they are ( oliged to follow a road entirely out of sight of the castle. " The water which is drank at Osaka tastes a little brackish; but in lieu thereof they have the best saki in the empire, which is brewed in great quantities in the neighboring village, Tetcusii, and from thence exported into most other provinces, nay, by the Dutch and Chinese out of the country. " On the east side of the city, in a large plain, lies the famous castle built by Taiko-Sama. Going up to Miako we pass by it. It is square, about an hour's walking in circumference, and strongly fortified with round bastions, according to the military architecture of the country. After the castle of Figo, it hath not its superior in extent, magnificence and strength, throughout the whole empire. On the north side it is defended by the river Jodoguwa, which washes its walls. On the east side its walls are washed by a trib- utary river, on the opposite bank of which lies a great garden be- longing to the castle. The south and west sides border upon the city. The mole.-*, or buttresses, which support the outward wall, are of an uncommon bigness, I believe at least forty-two feet thick. They are built to support a high, strong brick wall, lined with free-stone, which at its upper end is planted with a row of firs or cedars. " The day after our arrival (Sunday, Feb. 25) we were admitted to an audience of the governor of the city, to which we were carried in kangos, attended by our whole train of interpreters and other officers. It is half an hour's walking from our inn to the governor's palace, which lies at the end of the city in a square opposite the castle. Just before the house we stepped out of our kangos, and put on each a silk cloak, which is reckoned equal to the gar ment of ceremony which the Japanese wear on these occasions. Through a passage thirty paces long we came into the hall, or guard-house, where we were received by two of the governor's gen- tlemen, who very civilly desired us to sit down. Four soldiers stood upon duty on our left as we came in, and next to them we found oight other officers of the governor's court, all sitting upon their knees and ankles. The wall on our right was hung with arms, ranged in a prper order, fifteen halberds on one side, twenty lancea in the middle, ind nineteen pikes on the other ; the latter were 344 JAPAX. A. D. ICflO 1CU2. adorned at the upper end with fringes. Hence we were conducted by two of the governor's secretaries through four rooms (which, however, upon removing the screens, might have been enlarged into one) into the hall of audience. I took notice, as we came by, that the walls were hung and adorned with bows, with sabres and scyuietars, as also with some fire-arms, kept in rich black varnished cases. " In the hall of audience, where there were seven of the govern- or's gentlemen sitting, the two secretaries sat down at three paces' distance from us, and treated us with tea, carrying on a veiy civil conversation with us till the governor appeared, as he soon did, with two of his sons, one seventeen, the other eighteen years of ago, and sat down at ten paces' distance in another room, which was laid open towards the hall of audience by removing three lattices, through which he spoke to us. " He seemed to be about forty years of age, middle-sized, strong, active, of a manly countenance and broad-faced ; very civil in his conversation, and speaking with a great deal of softness and mod- esty. He was but meanly clad in black, and wore a gray garment of ceremony over his dress. lie wore, also, but one ordinary scvm- etar. His conversation turned chiefly upon the following points : That the weather was now very cold ; that we had made a very great journey ; that it was a singular favor to be admitted into the emperor's presence ; that, of all nations in the world, only the Dutch were allowed this honor. " He promised us, that since the chief justice of Miako, whose business it is to give us the necessary passports for our journey to court, was not yet returned from Jedo, he would give us his own passports, which would be full as valid, and that we might send for them the next morning. He also assured us that he was very will- ing to assist us with horses and whatever else we might stand in need of for continuing our journey. *' On our sides, we returned him thanks for his kind offers, and desired that he would be pleased to accept of a small present, con- sisting of some pieces of silk stuffs, as an acknowledgment of our gratitude. We alsa made some presents to the two secretaries or stewards of his household ; and, having taken our leave, were by them conducted back to the guard-house. Here we took our leav JODO AND FUSIMI. 345 tvlso of them, and returned through the above-mentioned passage back to our kangos. Our interpreters permitted us to walk a little way, which gave us an opportunity to view the outside of the above- described famous castle. We then entered our kangos and were carried back through another long street to our inn. " Wednesday, Feb. 28, we set out by break of day on our jour- ney to Miako, because we intended to reach that place the same day, it being but thirteen Japanese miles, or a good day's journey, distant from Osaka, out of which we came by the Kiobas, or bridge to Miako, which crosses the river just below the castle. We then travelled about a mile through muddy rice-fields, riding along a low dike raised on the banks of the river Jodo-gawa, which we had on our left. Multitudes of Tsadamia trees, which grow as tall in this country as oaks do with us, were planted along it. It had then no leaves, because of the winter season, but its branches hung full of a yellow fruit, out of which the natives prepare an oil. The country hereabouts is extraordinary well inhabited, and the many villages along the road are so near each other that there wants little towards making it one continued street from Osaka to Miako. " The small but famous city, Jodo, is entirely enclosed with water, and hath besides several canals cut through the town, all derived from the arms of the river which encompasses it. The suburbs con- sist of one long street, across which we rode to a stately wooden bridge, called Jodobas, four hundred paces long, an.d supported by forty arches, to which answer so many ballisters, adorned at the upper end with brass buttons. At the end of this bridge is a single well-guarded gate, through which we entered the city. The city itself is very pleasant and agreeably situated, and hath very good houses, though but few streets, which cut each other at right angles, running some south, some east. Abundance of artificers and handi- craftsmen live at Jodo. On the west side lies the castle, built of brick, in the middle of the river, with stately towers several stories high at each corner, and in the middle of its walls. Coming out of Jodo, we again passed over a bridge two hundred paces long, sup- ported by twenty arches, which brought us into a suburb, at the end of which was a strong guard-house. " After about two hours' riding we came, at two in the afternoon, to Fusimi. This is a ^mall, open town, or rather village, of a few 346 JAPAN. A. D. 1690 1C02. Streets, of which the middle and chief reaches us far as Miako, and is contiguous to the streets of that capital, insomuch that Fusimi might be called the suburbs of Miako, the rather since this last city is not at all enclosed with walls. It was to-day Tsitats with the Japanese, that is, the first day of the month, which they keep as a Sunday or holiday, visiting the temples, walking into the fields, and following all manner of diversions. Accordingly we found this street, along which we rode for full four hours before we got to our inn, crowded with multitudes of the inhabitants of Miako, walking out of the city to take the air, and to visit the neighboring temples. Particularly the women were all on this occasion richly apparelled in variously- colored gowns, wearing a purple-colored silk about the forehead, and large straw hats to defend themselves from the heat of the sun. We likewise met some particular sorts of beggars, comically clad, and some masked in a very ridiculous manner. Not a few walked upon iron stilts ; others carried large pots with green trees upon their heads ; some were singing, some whistling, some fluting, others beat- ing of bells. All along the street we saw multitudes of open shops, jugglers and players diverting the crowd. ' The temples which we had on our right as we went up, built in the ascent of the neighboring green hills, were illuminated with many lamps, and the priests, beating some bells with iron hammers, made such a noise as could be heard at a considerable distance. I took notice of a large, white dog, perhaps made of plaster, which stood upon an altar on our left, in a neatly-adorned chapel or small temple, which was consecrated to the Patron of the dogs. We reached our inn at Miako at six in the evening, and were forthwith carried up one pair of stairs into our apartments, which in some measure, I thought, might be compared to the Westphalian smoking rooms, wherein they smoke their beef and bacon. " We had travelled to-day through a very fruitful country, mostly through rice-fields, wherein we saw great flocks of wild ducks, if they deserve to be so called, being so very tame that no travelling company approaching will fright them away. We took notice also of several large, white herons, some swans, and some few storks, looking for their food in the morassy fields. We like- wise saw the pea.sants ploughing with black oxen, which seemed to be lean, poor bea,sts, but arc said to work well. RECEPTIONS AT MIAKO. 347 " Feb. 29, early in the morning, we sent the presents for the chief justice and the governors to their palaces, laid, according to the country fashion, upon particular small tables made of fir, and kept for no other use but this. We followed soon after, about ten in the forenoon, in kangos. Their palaces were at the west end of the city, opposite the castle of the Dairi. We were conducted through a court-yard, twenty paces broad, into the hall or fore-room of the house, which is called Ban, or the chief guard, and is the rendezvous of numbers of clerks, inspectors, &c. Hence we were taken, through two other rooms, into a third, where they desired us to sit down. Soon after came in his lordship's steward, an old gentleman who seemed upwards of sixty years of age, clad in a gray or ash-colored honor-gown, who seated himself at about four paces from us, in order to receive, in his master's name, both our compliments and presents, which stood in the same room, laid out in a becoming order. They consisted of a flask of Tent wine, be- sides twenty pieces of silk, woollen and linen stuffs. The steward having very civiily returned us thanks for our presents, boxes with tobacco and pipes and proper tvtensils for smoking were set before us, and a dish of tea was presented to each of us by a servant, at three different times, the steward and the chief gentlemen pressing us to drink. Having staid about a quarter of an hour, we took our leave, and were conducted by the steward himself to the door of their room, and thence by other officers back to the gate. " This first visit being over, we walked thence on foot to the palace of the commanding governor, who was but lately arrived from Jedo. Some sentinels stood upon duty at the gate, and in the ban, or hall, we found very near fifty people, besides some young boys, neatly clad, all sitting in very good order. Through this hall we were conducted into a side apartment, where we were civilly received by the two secretaries, both elderly men, and were treated with tea, sugar, &c. ; receiving, also, repeated assurances that we should be soon admitted into the governor's presence. " Having staid full half an hour in this room, we were conducted into another, where, after a little while, the lattices of two screens being suddenly opene;! just over against us, the governor appeared, sitting at fourteen paces distant. He wore, as usual, a garment of Ceremony over his black dress. He seemed to be about thirty-six 348 JAPAN. A. D. 10!Xi 1 (,:>_'. years of age, of a strong, lusty constitution, and showed in his countenance and whole behavior a good deal of pride and vanity. After a short conversation, we desired that he would be pleased to accept of our small present, consisting of twelve pieces of stuffs, which lay upon a t;ille, or salver, in the manner above described. He thereupon bowed a little, to return us thanks, and, putting him- self in a rising posture, the two lattices were let down forthwith, in a very comical manner. But we were desired to stay a little while longer, that the ladies who were in a neighboring room, behind a paper screen, pierced with holes might have an opportunity of contemplating us and our foreign dress. Our president was de- sired to show them his hat, sword, watch, and several other things he had about him, as also to take off his cloak, that they might have a full view of his dress, both before and behind. Having staid about an hour in the house of this governor, we were con- ducted by the two secretaries back to the hall, or chief guard, and thence by two inferior officers into the yard. " It being fair weather, we resolved to walk on foot to the house of the other governor, some hundred paces distant. We were re- ceived there much after the manner above described. After we had been treated in the ban with tea and tobacco, as usual, we were conducted, through several rooms, into the hall of audience, which was richly furnished, and, amongst other things, adorned with a cabinet tilled with bows and arrows, small fire-arms, guns and pistols, kept in black varnished cases. These, and other arms, we took notice, were hung up in several other rooms through which we passed, much after the same manner as in the governor's house at Osaka. On one side the hall we took notice of two screens, pierced with holes, behind which sat some women, whom the curi- osity of seeing people from so remote a part of the world had drawn thither. We had scarce sat down, when the governor appeared, and sat himself down at ten paces from us. He was clad in black, as usual, with a garment of ceremony. He was a gray man, almost sixt}- years of age, but of a good complexion, and very handsome. He bade us welcome, showed in his whole behavior a great deal of civility, and received our presents kindly, and with seeming great satisfaction. Our chief interpreter took this oppor- tunity to make the governor, as his old acquaintance, some private DESCRIPTION OF MIAKO. 349 presents in his own name, consisting of some European glasses, and, in the mean time, to beg a favor for his deputy interpreter's son. Having taken our leave, we returned to our kangos, and were carried home to our inn, where we arrived at one in the afternoon. " Kio, or MIAKO, signifies in Japanese, a city. [Klaproth says, great temple or palace.] It lies in the province JAMATTO, in a large plain, and is, from north to south, three English miles long, and two broad from east to west, surrounded with pleasant green hills and mountains, from which arise numbers of small rivers and agreeable springs. The city comes nearest the mountains on the east side, where there are numerous temples, monasteries, chapels, and other religious buildings, standing in the ascent. Three shallow rivers enter, or run by, it on that side. The chief and largest conies out of the Lake Oitz ; the other two from the neighboring moun- tains. They come together about the middle of the city, where the united stream is crossed by a large bridge, two hundred paces long. The Dairi, with his family and court, resides on the north side of the city, in a particular part or ward, consisting of twelve or thir teen streets, separated from the rest by walls and ditches. In the western part of the town is a strong castle of free-stone, built by one of the hereditary emperors, for the security of his person during the civil wars. At present it serves to lodge the Kubo, or actual monarch, when he comes to visit the Dairi. It is upwards of a thousand feet long where longest; a deep ditch, filled with water, and walled in, surrounds it, and is enclosed itself by a broad empty space, or dry ditch. In the middle of this castle there is, as usual, a square tower, several stories high. In the ditch are kept a particular sort of delicious carps, some of which were pre- sented this evening to our interpreter. A small garrison guards the castle, under the command of a captain. " The streets of Miako are narrow, but all regular, running some south, some east. Being at one end of a great street, it is impos Bible to reach the other with the eye, because of their extraordinary length, the dust, and the multitude of people. The houses aiu, generally speaking, narrow, only two stories high, built of wood, lime, and clay, according to the country fashion. '' Miako is the great magazine of all Japanese manufactures and 350 JAPAN. A. D. 1C90 1692. commodities, and the chief mercantile town in the empire. There is scarce ;i house in this large capital where there is not something made or sold. Here they refine copper, coin money, print hooks, weave the richest stuffs, with gold and silver flowers. The best and scarcest dyes, the most artful carvings, all sorts of musical instruments, pictures, japanned cabinets, all sorts of things wrought in gold and other metals, particularly in steel, as the best tempered blades, and other arms, are made here in the utmost perfection, as are, also, the richest dresses, and after the best fashion, all sorts of toys, puppets, moving their heads of themselves, and, in short, there is nothing can be thought of but what may be found at Miako, and nothing, though never so neatly wrought, can be imported from abroad, but what some artist or other in this capital will un- dertake to imitate it. Considering this, it is no wonder that the manufactures of Miako are become so famous throughout the em- pire as to be easily preferred to all others (though, perhaps, inferior in some particulars), only because they have the name of being made there. There are but few houses in all the chief streets where there is not something to be sold, and, for my part, I could not help admiring whence they can have customers enough for such an immense quantity of goods. 'T is true, indeed, there is scarce anybody passes through but what buys something or other of the manufactures of this city, either for his own use, or for presents to be made to his friends and relations. The lord chief justice resides at Miako, a man of great power and authority, as having the supreme command, under the emperor, of all the bugios, governors, stewards, and other officers, who are any ways concerned in the government of the imperial cities, crown lands and tenements, in all the western provinces of the empire. Even the western princes themselves must, in some measure, de- pend on him, and have a great regard to his person as a mediator and compounder of quarrels and difficulties that may arise between them. Nobody is suffered to pass through Array and Fakone, two of the most important passes, and, in a manner, the keys of the im- perial capital and court, without a passport, signed by his hand. " The political government and regulation of the streets is the same at Miako as it is at Osaka and Nagasaki. The number of inhabitants of Miako, in the year of our visit, will appear by the CENSUS OF MIAKO. 351 following Aratame* (exclusive, however, of those who live in the castle and at the Duiri's court)." Neyi ^persons attending the Sintos temples), .... 9,003 Jamabo (mountain priests), 6,073 Siuku (ecclesiastics of the Buddhist religion), . . . 37,093 Buddhist laymen, of four principal and eight inferior sects or observances,! 477,557 Tira (Buddhist temples), 3,893 Mias (Sinto temples), 2,127 Sokokf Dai ]\[io Jasild (palaces and houses of the princes and lords of the empire), 137 Matz (streets), 1,858 Ken (houses), 138,979 Bos (bridges), 87 * The Jlrntame is a sort of an inquisition into the life and family of every inhabitant, the number of his children and domestics, the sect lie professes or the temples lie belongs to, made very punctually, once every year, in every city and district, by commissioners appointed for this purpose. t The worshippers of Amida were the most numerous, amounting to 159,113. The other principal sects h:id, respectively, 99,7'28, 99,016, 54,586. Caron had noticed and mentioned this division into twelve sects, or observances. He states, and other subsequent authors have repeated, that, notwithstanding this division, they have no controversies or religious quar- rels ; but this does not agree with the accounts of the Catholic missionaries. Every resident of Miako, except the Sinto priests, and, perhaps, the house- hold af the Dairi, would seem to belong to some Buddhist sect CHAPTER XXXVI. LAK.t OITZ. MOUNT JESAN. JAPANESE LEGENDS. A JAPANESE PATENt MEDICINE. QUANO. MIA. ARRAY. POLICY OF THE EMPERORS. KAKEGAWA. A TOWN ON FIRE. SERUGA. KUNO. PASSAGE OF A RAPID RIVER. FUSI-NO-JAMA, OR MOUNT FUSI. CROSSING THE PENINSULA OF IDSU. SECOND SEARCHING PLACE. PURGATORY LAKE. ODAWAR4. COAST OF THE BAY OF JEUO. A LIVE SAINT. CANAGAWA. SINA- GAWA. JEDO. IMPERIAL CASTLES AND PALACE. KAMPFER and his company left Miako Friday, March 2d, and, after a journey of eight or nine miles, during which they saw a high mountain towards the south, covered with snow, they reached Oitz, a town of a thousand houses, where they lodged. This town lies at the south-western extremity of the large fresh-water lake of the same name, already mentioned.* On the south-eastern shore of this lake, which abounds with fish and fowl, lies the famous mountain Jesan (by interpretation Fair- hill), covered with Buddhist monasteries, and near it were seen other mountains, covered with snow, and extending along the lake shore. Shortly after leaving Oitz, the Jodogawa, one of the out- lets of the lake, was crossed upon a bridge, supported at the extrem- ities by stone columns, of which the following legend is told. These columns were in old times possessed by an evil spirit, which very much molested travellers, as well as the inhabitants of the village. It happened one day that the famous saint and apostle, Ki/si, travelling that way, all the people of the neighborhood earnestly entreated him to deliver them by his miraculous power from this insufferable evil, and to cast this devil out of the columns. The * According to Klaproth, following Japanese authorities, it is seventy-two and one half English miles long, and twenty-two and one quarter at ita greatest breadth. DSUTSI JAMA. 358 Japanese, a people superstitious to excess, expected that he would use a good many prayers and ceremonies, but found, to their utmost surprise, that he only took off the dirty cloth which he wore about his waist, and tied it about the column. Perceiving how much they were amazed, Kusi addressed them in these words : " Friends," said he, " it is in vain you expect that I should make use of many ceremonies. Ceremonies will never cast out devils; faith must dc it, and it is only by faith that I perform miracles." " A remark- able saying," exclaims Kampfer, " in the mouth of a heathen teacher ! " Minold, a village through which they next passed, was famous for the sole manufacture of a medicine of great repute, found out by a poor but pious man, to whom the god Jacusi, the protector of physic and physicians, revealed in a dream the ingredients, which are certain bitter herbs growing upon the neighboring mountains. This story helped the sale of the medicine, by which the inven- tor soon grew very rich, so that he was not only able to build a fine house for himself, but also a small temple, opposite his shop, and highly adorned, in honor of the god who had given him the receipt, whose statue, richly gilt, was to be seen there, standing on a Tarate flower, and with half a large cockle-shell over his head. The next day (Sunday, March 4) the Dutch travellers crossed the Dsutsi Jama, a mountain ridge, so steep that its descent was like that of a winding staircase cut out in the face of the precipice. On this mountain were many temples, and in this neighborhood vast crowds of pilgrims were encountered, bound to Isje, situate some forty miles to the south. The travellers struck the sea-coast at fokilz, a town of a thousand houses, whose inhabitants were partly supported by fishing, and the next day (Monday the 5th), after about nine miles' travel, they entered the city of Quano, in the province of VOARI, situated at the head of a deep bay. It con- sisted of three parts, like so many different towns. The first and third parts were enclosed by high walls and ditches. The other part was entirely surrounded by water, the country being flat and full of rivers. The castle, washed on three sides by the sea, was separated from the town by a deep ditch with draw-bridges. From Quano they proceeded by water to Mia, some fifteen miles 30* 554 JAPAN. A. D. 1691. distant. The head of the bay was very shallow, and the boats were pushed through mud-banks. Mia, though not so large as Quano, consisted of two thousand houses, with two spacious castles, one of them for size and strength reckoned the third in Japan There were two temples, in cue of which are preserved three, in the other eight, miraculous swords, used by the race of demigods who were the first inhabitants of Japan. Tuesday, March 6th, the travellers dined at Okasaki, a town of fifteen hundred houses, with a strong castle situate on the shores of the same bay. The country travel'ed through was a fertile plain, along the foot of a range of mountains, the shores of which, beyond Okasaki, extended to the sea. The next day (Wednesday, March 7) they passed through several considerable places, of which Josida, with a castle and about a thousand small houses, was the most considerable. Array, twelve or fifteen miles distant, was a town of about four hundred houses, situate not far from the sea, at the inland extremity of a harbor called Suota, narrow at its entrance, but spreading out within. Array was the seat of certain imperial commissioners appointed to search the goods and baggage of all travellers, but particularly of the princes of the empire, that no women nor arms might pass. " This," says Kiimpfer, " is one of the political maxims which the now reigning emperors have found it necessary to practise in order to secure to themselves the peaceable possession of the throne ; for the wives and female children of all the princes of the empire are kept at Jedo, as hostages of the fidelity of their husbands and parents. And as to the exportation of arms, an effectual stop has been put to that, lest, if exported in any considerable quantities, some of those princes might take it into their heads to raise rebel- lions against the government as now established." The harbor of Suota was crossed in boats, on the other side of which the road led through a flat country, rather thinly inhabited. They slept that night at Famamatz, a town of several hundred inferior houses, with a large castle. The next day (Thursday, March 8), travelling on through a beautiful plain, in the afternoon they reached the town of Kakejawa ; as they were passing through which, a fire broke out, occasioned by the boiling over of an oil kettle. Perceiving only a thick cloud behind them, they thought a FUSI-NO-JAMA. 3o5 atorm was coming on, but were soon involved in such a cloud of smoke and heat as to be obliged to ride on at a gallop. Having reached a little eminence, on looking back, the whole town seemed on fire. Nothing appeared through the smoke and flames but the upper part of the castle tower. They found, however, on their return, some weeks after, that the damage was less than they had expected, more than half the town having escaped. It was necessary, shortly after, for the travellers to take kangos to cross a steep mountain, descending from which they were obliged to ford the river Ojinyawa, proverbial throughout Japan for its force and rapidity and the rolling stones in its bed, but just then at a very low stage. The road thence to Simada* a small town where they lodged, was close to the sea, but through a barren country, the mountains approaching close to the shore. The next day (Friday, March 9) brought them, most of the wny through a flat, well-cultivated country, to the city of Seruya, capi- tal of the province of that name. The streets, broad and regular, crossed each other at right angles, and were full of well-furnished shops. Paper stuffs, curiously flowered, for hats, baskets, boxes, &c., also various manufactures of split and twisted reeds, and all sorts of lackered ware, were made here. There was also a mint here, as well as at Miako and Jedo, where kobangs and itzebos were coined. It had a castle of free-stone, well defended with ditches and high walls. A few miles from Seruya were kept certain war-junks for the defence of the bay of Tctomina ; and just beyond, upon a high mountain, stood the fortress of Kuno, or Kono, esteemed by .the Japanese impregnable. It was built to contain the imperial treas- ures, but they had since been removed to Jedo. In the course of the next day (Saturday, March 10) the road turned inland, in order to cross the great river Fusiyaiua, which enters into the head of the bay, taking its rise in the high, snowy mountain Fusi-no-Jama. It was crowed in flat broad-bottomed boats, constructed of thin planks, so as on striking ihc rocks to yield and slip over. The mountain Fusi, whence this river takes * Though situated r.ear ihc sea, anil similar in name, this is not the Simoda, one of the ports opened to t-he United States. That is further east and south on the west coast of the peninsula of Idsu. S66 JAPAN. A. D. 1691. its rise and name, towers in a conical form above all the surround- ing hills, and is seen at a great distance. It is quite barren, no plants growing on it.* It is ascended for the worship of the Jap- anese god of the winds, to whom the Jamabo, or mountain priests, are consecrated, and who frequently repeat the words Fusi Jama. in discoursing or begging. It takes three days to ascend this moun- tain; but the descent can be made, so Kampfer was told, in three hours, by the help of sledges of reeds or straw, tied about the waist, by means of which one may glide down over the snow in winter and the sand in summer, it being surprisingly smooth and even. Japanese poets cannot find words, Kampfer tells us, nor Japanese painters colors, in which to represent this mountain as they think it deserves. Our travellers kept on this day and the next (Sunday, March 11) through the mountainous country of Facone, which runs out southward from the broad peninsula of IDSU. At a village, hemmed in between a lake and a mountain, the lake itself surrounded in every other direction by mountains not to be climbed, was a narrow pass another imperial searching-place, where all persons travel- ling to, and especially from, Jedo, must submit to a rigorous exam ination. Upon the shore of this lake were five small wooden chap- els, and in each a priest seated, beating a gong and howling a nimada. " All the Japanese foot-travellers of our retinue," says Kampfer, " threw them some kasses into the chapel, and in return received each a paper, which they carried, bareheaded, with great respect, to the shore, in order to throw it into the lake, having first tied a stone to it. that it might be sure to go to the bottom ; which they believe is the purgatory for children who die before seven years of age. They are told so by their priests, who, for their com- fort, assure them that as soon as the water washes off the names and characters of the gods and saints, written upon the papers above * Fusi-no-jama, in tlie province of Seruga, on the borders of Kiu, is an enormous pyramid, generally covered with snow, detached from and south- erly of the great central chain of Jipon. It is the largest and most noted of the volcanoes of Japan In the year 1707 there was an irruption from it which covered all the neighborhood with masses of rock, red-hot sand and ashes, which latter fell, even in Jedo, some inches deep. Klaproth (from Japanese authorities) in Asiatic Journal, vol. xxxii. A LIVE SAINT. 357 mentioned, the children at the bottom feel great relief, if they do not obtain a full and effectual redemption." This lake has but one outlet, falling over the mountains in a cataract, and running down through a craggy and precipitous valley, along which the road is carried on a very steep descent to the mouth of the river in the bay of Jedo. Here, on a plain four miles in width, was found the town of Odoicara, containing about a thousand small houses, very neatly built, and evidently inhabited by a better class of people ; but the empty shops evinced no great activity of trade or manufac- tures. The castle and residence of the prince, as well as the temples, were on the north side, in the ascent of the mountains. The next day (Monday, March 12), the road following the north- west shore of the outer bay of Jedo crossed several very rapid streams, till at length the mountains on their left disappeared, and a broad plain spread out extending to Jedo. Off the shore was seen the island of Kamokura, with high and rugged shores, but of which the surface was flat and wooded. It was not above four miles in circumference, and was used, like several other islands, as a place of confinement for disgraced noblemen. There being no landing-place, the boats that bring prisoners or provisions must be hauled up and let down by a crane. After a time the road left the shore, crossing a promontory which separates the outer from the inner bay of Jedo ; but by sunset the shore of the inner bay was struck. The country now became exceedingly fruitful and populous, and almost a continued row of towns and villages. In one of these villages there lived in a monastery an old gray monk, four-score years of age, and a native of Nagasaki. " He had spent," says Kiimpfer, " the greatest part of his life in holy pilgrimages, running up and down the country, and visiting almost all the temples of the Japanese empire. The superstitious vulgar had got such a high notion of his holiness, that even in his lifetime they canonized and reverenced him as a great saint, to the extent of worshipping his statue, which he caused to be carved of stone, exceeding in this even Alexander the Great, who had no divine honors paid him during his life. Those of his countrymen who were of our retinue did not fail to ruu *hither to see and pay their respects to that holy man." 358 JAPAN. A. D. 1091. The Dutch company lodged at Kanayawa, a town of six hundred houses, twenty-four miles from the capital. The coast of the bay appeared at low water to be of a soft clay, furnishing abundance of shell-fish and of certain sea-weeds, which were gathered and pre- pared for food. The road the next day (Tuesday, March 13), still hugging the shore, led on through a fruitful and populous dis- trict, in which were several fishing villages, the bay abounding with fish. As they approached Sinajawa, they passed a place of public execution, offering a show of human heads and bodies, some half patrifieJ and others half devoured dogs, ravens, crows and other ravenous beasts and birds, uniting to satisfy their appetites on these miserabb remains.* Sinat/a,wa, immediately adjoining Jedo, of which it forms a sort of outer suburb, consisted of one long, irregular street, with the bay on the right, and a hill on the left, on which stood some temples. Some few narrow streets and lanes turned off from the great one towards these temples, some of which were very spacious buildings, and all pleasantly seated, adorned within with gilt idols, and with- out with large carved images, curious gates, and staircases of stone leading up to them. One of them was remarkable for a magnificent tower, four stories high. " Though the Japanese," says Kiitnpfer, " spare no trouble nor expense 'to adorn and beautify their temples, yet the best fall far short of that loftiness, symmetry and stateliness, which is observable in some of our European churches." Having ridden upwards of two miles through Sinagawa, they stopped at a small inn, pleasantly seated on the sea-side, from which they had a full view of the city and harbor of Jedo, crowded -with many hundred ships and boats of all sizes and shapes. The smallest lay nearest the town, and the largest one or two leagues off, not being able to go higher by reason of -the shallowing of the water. " Our Bugio," says Kiimpfer, " quitted his norimon here and went on horseback, people of his extraction not being suffered to enter the capital in a norimon. We travelled near a mile to the end of the suburb of Sinagawa, and then entered the suburbs of Jedo, whid i are only a continuation of the former, there being * At the date of these travels, and indeed at a much later period, similar exhibitions might have been seen in Europe. ENTRANCE INTO JEDO. 359 nothing to separate them but a small guard-house. The hay conies here so close to the foot of the hill that there is but one row of small houses between it and the road, which, for some time, runs along the shore, but soon widens into several irregular streets of a considerable length, which, after about half an hour's riding, became broader, more uniform, handsome and regular; whence, and from the great throngs of people, we concluded that we were now got into the city. We kept to the great middle street, which runs northward across the whole city, though somewhat irregularly, passing over several stately bridges laid across small rivers and muddy canals, which run on our left towards the castle, and on our right towards the sea, as did also several streets turning off from the great one. " The throng of people along this chief and middle street, which is about one hundred and twenty-five feet broad, is incredible. We met as we rode along many numerous trains of princes of the em- pire and great men at court, and ladies richly apparelled, carried in norimons ; and, among other people, a company of firemen on foot, about one hundred in number, walking in much the same military order as ours do in Europe. They were clad in browu leather coats to defend them against the fire ; and some carried long pikes, others fire-hooks, upon their shoulders. Their captain rode in the middle. On both sides of the street were multitudes of well-furnished shops of merchants and tradesmen, drapers, silk-mer chants, druggists, idol-sellers, booksellers, glass-blowers, apotheca- ries and others. A black cloth hanging down covers one half of the shop, of which the front projects a little way into the street, so as to expose to view curious patterns of the goods offered for sale. We took notice that scarce anybody here had curiosity enough to some out of his house to see us go by, as they had done in other places, probably because such a small retinue as ours had nothing remarkable or uncommon to amuse the inhabitants of so populous a city. "Having rode above iw~> miles along this great street, and passed by fifty other streets, which turned off on both sides, we at last turned in ourselves ; and, coming to our inn, found our lodgings ready in the upper story ol a back house, which had no other access but through a by-lane. We arrived at one in the after- 860 JAPAN. A. D. 1C01. noon, having completed our journey from Nagasaki in twenty-nine days. Jedo, the residence of the emperor, the capital, and by much the largest city of the empire, is seated in the province MCSASI, in 35 Sli' of northern latitude [according to Kiimpfer's observations], on a large plain, at the head of a gulf, plentifully .stored with fish, crabs, and other shell-fish, but so shallow, with a muddy clay at the bottom, that no ships of bulk can come up to the city, but mast be unladen a league or two below it. " Towards the sea the city hath the figure of a half-nio< n, and the Japanese will have it to be seven of their miles (about sixteen English miles) long, five (twelve English) broad, and twenty (fifty English) in circumference. It is not enclosed with a wall, no more than other towns in Japan, but cut through by many broad canals, with ramparts raised on both sides, and planted at the top with rows of trees, not so much for defence as to prevent the fires which happen here too frequently from making too great a havoc. " A large river, rising westward of the city, runs through it, and loses itself in the harbor. It sends off a considerable arm, which encompasses the castle, and thence falls into the harbor, in five different streams, every one of which hath its particular name, and a stately bridge over it. The chief, and most famous, of these bridges, two hundred and fifty-two feet in length, is called j\V- ponbas, or the bridge of Japan, mention of which has already been made, as the point from which distances are reckoned all over the empire. " Jedo is not built with that regularity which is observable in most other cities in Japan (particularly Miako), and this because it swelled by degrees to its present bulk. However, in some parts the streets run regularly enough, cutting each other at right angles a regularity entirely owing to accidents of fire, whereby some hundred houses being laid in ashes at once, as, indeed, very fre- quently happens, the new streets may be laid cut upon what plan the builders please." Many places, which have been thus destroyed by fire, were noticed by Kiimpfer still lying waste. " The houses arc small and low, built of fir wood, with thin clayed walls, divided into rooms by paper screens and lattices, the floors covered with DESCRIPTION OF JEDO. 361 mats, and the roofs with shavings of wood. The whole machine being thus but a composition of combustible matter, we need not wonder at the great havoc fires make in this country. Here, as elsewhere, almost every house hath a place under the roof, or upon it, where they constantly keep a tub full of water, with a couple of mats, which may be easily come at, even from without the house ; by which precaution they often quench a fire in particular houses ; but it is far from being sufficient to stop the fury of a raging flame which has got ground already, against which they know no better remedy but to pull down some of the neighboring houses which have not yet been reached, for which purpose whole companies of firemen patrol about the streets day and night. " The city is well stocked with monks, temples, monasteries, and other religious buildings, which are seated in the best and pleasantest places, as they are, also, in Europe, and, I believe, in all other countries. The dwelling-houses of private monks are no ways dif- ferent from those of the laity, excepting only that they are seated in some eminent conspicuous place, with some steps leading up to them, and a small temple or chapel hard by, or, if there be none, at least a hall, or large room, adorned with some few altars, on which stand several of their idols. There are, besides, many stately temples built to Amida, Siaka, Quanwon, and several other of their gods, not necessary to be particularly described here, as they do not differ much in form or structure from other temples erected to the same gods at Miako, which we shall have an opportunity to view and describe more particularly upon our return to that city. " There are many stately palaces in Jedo, as may be easily con- jectured, by its being the residence of the emperor, and the abode of all the noble and princely families. They are distinguished from other houses by large court-yards and stately gates. Fine varnished stair-cases, of a few steps, lead up to the door of the house, which is divided into several magnificent apartments, all of a floor, they being not above one story high, nor adorned with towers, as the castles and palaces are where the princes and lords of the empire reside in their hereditary dominions. " The city of Jedo is a nursery of artists, handicraftsmen, mer- chants, and tradesmen, and yet everything is sold dearer than any- where else in the empire, by reason of the great concourse of people, 31 362 JAPAN. A. D. 1C91. and the number of idle monks and courtiers, as, also, the difficulty of importing provisions and other commodities. " The political government of this city is much the same as at Nagasaki and Osaka. Two governors have the command of the town by turns, each for the space of one year. The chief subaltern officers are the Uurgo-masters, as the Dutch call them, or mayors, who have the command of particular quarters, and the Ottona, who have the inspection and subordinate command of single streets. " The castle and residence of the emperor is seated about the middle of the city. It is of an irregular figure, inclining to the round, and hath five Japanese miles in circumference. It embraces two fore-castles, as one may call them, the innermost and third cas- tle, which is properly the residence of the emperor, and two other strong, well fortified, but smaller, castles at the sides, also sojno large gardens behind the imperial palace. I call these several divis- ions castles, because they are every one by itself, enclosed with walls and ditches. " The first and outermost castle takes in a large spot of ground, which encompasses the second castle, and half the imperial residence, and is enclosed itself with walls and ditches, and strong, well- guarded, gates. It hath so many streets, ditches, and canals, that I could not easily get a plan of it. Nor could I gather anything to my satisfaction out of the plans of the Japanese themselves.* In this outermost castle reside the princes of the empire, with their families, living in commodious and stately palaces, built in streets, with spacious courts, shut up by strong, heavy gates. The second castle takes in a much smaller spot of ground. It fronts the third, and residence of the emperor, and is enclosed by the first, but sep- arated from both by walls, ditches, draw-bridges, and strong gates. The guard of this second castle is much more numerous than that of the first. In it are the stately palaces of some of the most power- ful princes of the empire, the councillors of state, the prime minis- ters, chief officers of the crown, and such other persons, who must give a more immediate attendance upon the emperor's person. " The castle itself, where the emperor resides, is seated somewhat * One of these Japanese plans is published as ft frontispiece to Titsingh's ' niustnitions of Jap-in." This plan would seem to embrace only what Kimpfer speaks of, further on, as " the palace itself." IMPERIAL PALACE. 365 higher than the others, on the top of a hill, which hath been pur- posely flatted for the imperial palace to be built upon it. It ia enclosed with a thick, strong wall of free-stone, with bastions stand- ing out, much after the manner of the European fortifications. A rampart of earth is raised against the inside of. this wall, and at the top of it stand, for ornament and defence, several long buildings and square guard-houses, built in form of towers, several stories high. Particularly the structures on that side where the imperial residence is are of an uncommon strength, all of free-stone of an extraordinary size, which are barely laid upon each other, without being fastened either with mortar or braces of iron, which was done, they say, that, in case of earthquakes, which frequently hap- pen in this country, the stones yielding to the shock, the wall itself should receive no damage. " Within the palace a square white tower rises aloft above all other buildings. It is many stories high, adorned with roofs, and other curious ornaments, which make the whole castle look, at a distance, magnificent beyond expression, amazing the beholders, as do, also, the many other beautiful bended roofs, with gilt dragons at the top, which cover the rest of the buildings within the castle. " The side castles are .very small, and more like citadels, without any outward ornament. There is but one passage to them, out of the emperor's own residence, over a high, long bridge. Both are enclosed with strong, high walls, encompassed with broad, deep ditches, filled by the great river. In these two castles are bred up the imperial princes and princesses. " Behind the imperial residence there is still a rising ground, beautified, according to the country fashion, with curious and mag- nificent gardens and orchards, which are terminated by a pleasant wood at the top of a hill, planted with two curious kinds of plane- trees, whose starry leaves, variegated with green, yellow, and red, are very pleasing to the eye, of which the Japanese affirm that one kind is in full beauty in spring, the other towards autumn. " The palace itself hath but one story, which, however, is of a fine height. It takes in a large spot of ground, and hath several long galleries and spacious rooms, which, upon putting on or remov- ing of screens, may be enlarged or brought into a narrower com pass, as occasion requires, and are contrived so as to receive at al' 364 JAPAN. A. D. 1C91. times a convenient and sufficient light. The chief apartments have each its particular name. Such arc, for instance, the waiting- room, where all persons that are to be admitted to an audience, either of the emperor or his prime ministers of state, wait till they are introduced ; the council-chamber, where the ministers of state and privy councillors meet upon business; the hall of thousand mats, where the emperor receives the homage and usual presents of the princes of the empire and ambassadors of foreign powers; several halls of audience ; the apartments for the emperor's house- hold, and others. The structure of all these several apartments is exquisitely fine, according to the architecture of the country. The ceilings, beams, and pillars, are of cedar, or camphor, or jeseriwood, the grain of which naturally runs into flowers and other curious figures, and is, therefore, in some apartments, covered only with a thin, transparent, layer of varnish, in others japanned, or curiously carved with birds and branched work, neatly gilt. The floor is covered with the finest white mats, bordered with gold fringes or bands; and this is all the furniture to be seen in the palaces of the emperor and princes of the empire." The 29th of March, the last of the second Japanese month, was appointed for the reception of the Dutch Maki/io Bitiyo, the emperor's principal counsellor and favorite, being in a hurry to get rid of them, because on the fifth of the ensuing month he was to have the honor to treat the emperor at dinner, a favor which re- quires a good deal of time and vast preparations. "This Bingo," says Kiimpfer, " tutor to the reigning monarch before he came to the crown, is now his chief favorite, and the only person whom he absolutely confides in. At our audience it is he that receives the emperor's words and commands from his own mouth, and addresses the same to us. He is near seventy years of age, a tall but lean man, with a long face, a manly and German-like countenance, slow in his actions, and very civil in his whole behavior, lie hath the character of a just and prudent man, no ways given to ambition, nor inclined to revenge, nor bent upon heaping up immoderate riches in short, of being altogether worthy of the great confidence nd trust tV>o r>n< ->">". ,^ ; n Ulnr. " CHAPTER XXXVII. PERSONAGES TO BE VISITED. VISIT TO THE EMPEROR. FIE8T AUDIENCK SECOND AUDIENCE. VISITS TO THE HOUSES OF THE COUNCILLORS. VISITS TO THE GOVERNORS OF JEDO AND THE TEMPLE LORDS. VISITS TC THE HOUSES OF THE GOVERNORS OF NAGASAKI. AUDIENCE OF LEAVE. KETURN. VISITS TO TEMPLES IN THE VICINITY OF MIAKO. A. D. 1691-1692. THE ministers of state and other great men at court, some of whom the Dutch were to visit, and to make presents to others, were the five chief councillors of state, called Goratzi, or the five elderly men ; four imperial deputy councillors of state ; the three Dsisia, as they are called, that is, lords of the temple ; the imperial commissioners, as the Dutch call them, described by Kiimpfer as the emperor's attorney-generals for the city of Jedo ; the two governors of Jedo ; and, last of all, that one of the governors of Nagasaki resident at Jedo. " On the 29th of March," * says Kiimpfer, " the day appointed for our audience, the presents designed for his imperial majestyt were sent to court, to be there laid in due order on wooden tables, in the hall of hundred mats, as they call it, where the emperor was to view them. We followed soon after with a very inconsiderable equipage, clad in black silk cloaks, as garments of ceremony, attended by three stewards of the governors of Nagasaki, our Dosiu or deputy Bugio, two town messengers of Nagasaki, and an interpreter's son, all walking on foot. We three Dutchmen and our second interpreter rode on horseback, behind each other, our horses led } y grooms, who took them by the bridle. Our president, * The 23d a considerable shock of an earthquake was fult. The weather that day was excessively hot. The next day it was very cold, with snow. t The reigning emperor was Tsuma Jusi, who had succeeded to the em- pire in 1G81, the fourth in succession from Gongin-Sama the founder of the dynasty. The Japanese accounts, according to Titsingh, give him but a bad character 31* JAPAN. A. D. 16911692. or captain, as the Japanese call him, came after us, carried in a noriiiimi, and was followed by our old chief interpreter, carried in a kango. The procession was closed by the rest of our servants and retinue, walking a-foot at proper distances, so far as they were permitted to follow us. " In this order we moved on towards the castle, and after about half an hour's riding came to the first enclosure, which we found well fortified with walls and ramparts. This we entered over a large bridge across a broad river, on which we saw great numbers of boats and vessels. The entry is through two strong gates, with a small guard between them. Having passed through the second gate, we came to a large place, where we found another more numer- ous guard, which, however, seemed to be intended more for state than defence. The guard-room was hung about with cloth ; pikes were planted in the ground near the entry, and within it was curi- ously adorned with gilt arms, lackered guns, pikes, shields, bows, arrows and quivers. The soldiers on the ground were in good order, clad in black silk, each with two scymetars stuck in their girdle. " Having passed across this first enclosure, riding between the houses and palaces of the princes and lords of the empire, built within its compass, we came to the second, which we found fortified much after the same manner, only the gates and inner guard and palaces were much more stately and magnificent. We left our norimon arid kangos here, as also our horses and servants, and were conducted across this second enclosure to the Tonomatz [Lord- street], which we entered over a long stone bridge ; and having passed through a double bastion, and as many strong gates, arid thence about twenty paces further through an irregular street, built, as the situation of the ground would allow it, with walls of an un- common height on both sides, we came to the Fiakiiinban, that is, guard of hundred men, or great guard of the castle. Here we were commanded to wait till we could be introduced to :iti audience, which we were told should be as soon as the great council of state was met in the palace. We were civilly received by the two cap- tains of the guard, who treated us with tea and tobacco. Soon >fter, Tsina-Kanii (the governor of Nagasaki resident at Jedo), and the two commissioners, came to compliment us, along with some gen- IMPERIAL AUDIENCE. 367 ilemen of the emperor's court, who were strangers to us. Having waited about an hour, during which time most of the imperial coun- cillors of state, old and young, went into the palace, some walking on foot, others carried in norimons, we were conducted through two stately gates, over a large square place, to the palace, to which tlide is s.n ascent of a few steps leading from the second gate. The place between the second gate and the front of the palace is but a few paces broad, and was then excessively crowded with throngs of courtiers and troops of guards. " Thence we were conducted up two other stair-cases into a spa- cious room next to the entry on the right, being the place where all pereons that are to be admitted to an audience wait till they arc called in. It is a large and lofty room, but, when all the scieens are put on, pretty dark, receiving but a sparing light from the upper windows of an adjoining room. It is otherwise richly furnished, according to the country fashion, and its gilt posts, walls and screens, are very pleasing to behold. " Having waited here upwards of an hour, and the emperor hav- ing in the mean while seated him.-elf in the hall of audience, Tsina- Kami and the two commissioners came in and conducted our presi- dent into the emperor's presence, leaving us behind. As soon as he came thither, they cried out aloud, Hollanda Captain ! which was the signal for him to draw near and make his obeisance. Ac- cordingly he crawled on his hands and knees to a place showed him between the presents, ranged in due order on one side, and the place where the emperor sat on the other, and then kneeling, he bowed his forehead quite down to the ground, and so crawled back- wards like a crab, without uttering one single word. So mean and short a thing is the audience we have of this mighty monarch. Nor are there any more ceremonies observed in the audience he gives even to the greatest and most powerful princes of the empire ; for, having been called into the hall, their names are cried out aloud ; then they move on their hands and feet humbly and silently towards the emperor's seat, and having showed their submission by bowing their forehead down to the ground, they creep back again in the same submissive posture. " The hall of audience is not in the least like that which hath been described and figured by Montanus in his Memorable Embas- 868 JAPAN. A. D. 1CO\ 1C92. ties of the Dutch to the Emperors of Jajxin. The elevated throne, the steps leading up to it, the carpets pendent from it, the stately columns supporting the building which contains the throne, the columns between which the princes of the empire are said to pros- trate themselves before the emperor, and the like, have all no man- ner of foundation but in that author's fancy. The floor is covered with an hundred mats, all of the same size. Hence it is called Sen Sio Siki, that is, The Hall of an Hundred Mats.* It opens on one side towards a small court, which lets in the light ; on the opposite side it joins two other apartments, which are on this occa- sion laid open towards the same court, one of which is considerably larger than the other, and serves for the councillors of state when they give audience by themselves. The other is narrower, deeper, and one step higher than the hall itself. In this the emperor sits when he gives audience, raised only on a few carpets. Nor is it an easy matter to see him, the light reaching not quite so far as the place where he sits, besides that the audience is too short, and the person admitted to it, in so humble and submissive a posture that he cannot well have an opportunity to hold up his head and to view him. This audience is otherwise very awful and majestic, by reason chiefly of the silent presence of all the councillors of state, as also of many princes and lords of the empire, the gentlemen of his majesty's bed-chamber, and other chief officers of his court, who line the hall of audience and all its avenues, sitting in good order, and clad in their garments of ceremony. " Formerly all we had to do, at the emperor's court, was com- pleted by the captain's paying the usual homage, after the manner above related. But, for about these twenty years last past, he and the rest of the Dutchmen that came up with the embassy to Jcdo, were conducted deeper into the palace, to give the empress, and the ladies of her court, and the princesses of the blood, the diversion of seeing us. In this second audience the emperor and the ladies invited to it attend behind screens and lattices, but the councillor? * Sen is not a hundred, but a thousand. According to Klaproth (JlnnaU des Dairi, p. 181), ken or kin does not signify a mat, as Kampfer translates it (though mats were made of that length), but a space between columns. It was a measure of length divided into six Japanese feet, but equal to seven feet four inches and a half, Rhine lQ .nd measure. But see Glossary FAMILIAR RECEPTION. 369 of state and other officers of the court sit in the open rooms in their usual and elegant order. As soon as the captain had paid his homage, the emperor retired into his apartment, and not long after we three Dutchmen were likewise called up and conducted, together with the captain, through several apartments, into a gallery curi- ously carved and gilt, where we waited about a quarter of an hour, and were then, through several other walks and galleries, carried further into a large room, where they desired us to sit down, and where several courtiers with shaved heads, being the emperor's physicians, the officers of his kitchen, and some of the clergy, came to ask after our names, age and the like ; but gilt screens were quickly drawn before us, to deliver us from their throng and troublesome importunity. " We staid here about half an hour ; meanwhile the court met in the imperial apartments, where we were to have our second audi- ence, and whither we were conducted through several dark galleries. Along all these several galleries there was one continued row of life-guardsmen, and nearer to the imperial apartments followed in the same row some great officers, who lined the front of the hall of audience, clad in their garments of ceremony, bowing their heads and sitting on their heels. " The hall of audience consisted of several rooms looking towards a middle place, some of which were laid open towards the same, others covered by screens and lattices. Some were of fifteen mats, others of eighteen, and they were a mat higher or lower, according to the quality of the persons seated in the same. The middle place had no mats at all, they having been taken away, and was conse- quently the lowest, on whose floor, covered with neat varnished boards, we were commanded to sit down. The emperor and his imperial consort sat behind the lattices on our right. As I was dancing, at the emperor's command, I had an opportunity twice of seeing the empress through the slits of the lattices, and took notice that she was of a brown and beautiful complexion, with black Euro- pean eyes, full of fire, and from the proportion of her head, which was pretty large, I judged her to be a tall woman, and about thirty- sis years of age. By lattices, I mean hangings made of reed, split exceedingly thin and fine, and covered on the back with a fine, transparent silk, with openings about a span broad, for the persona 370 JAPAN. A. D. 1G91 1692. behind to look through. For ornament's sake, and the better to hide the persons standing behind, they are painted with divers figures, though it would be impossible to see them at a distance when the light is taken off behind. "The emperor himself was in such an obscure place that we should scarce have known him to be present had not his voice dis- covered him, which yet was so low, as if he purposely intended to be there incognito. Just before us, behind other lattices were the princes of the blood and the ladies of the empress and her court. 1 took notice that pieces of paper were put between the reeds, in some parts of the lattices, to make the openings wider, in order to a better and easier sight. I counted about thirty such papers, which made me conclude, that there was about that number of per- sons sitting behind. " Bingo sat on a raised mat, in an open room by himself, just before us, towards our right, on which side the emperor sat behind the lattices. On our left, in another room, were the councillors of state of the first and second rank, sitting in a double row in good and becoming order. The gallery behind us was filled with the chief officers of the emperor's court and the gentlemen of his bed- chamber. The gallery, which led into the room where the emperor was, was filled with the sons of some princes of the empire, then at court, the emperor's pages and .some priests. After this manner it was that they ordered the stage on which we were now to act. " The commissioners for foreign affairs having conducted us into the gallery before the hall of audience, one of the councillors of state of the second rank came to receive us there and to conduct us to the above-described middle place, on which we were com- manded to sit down, having first made our obeisances after the Jap- anese manner, creeping and bowing our heads to the ground, towards that part of the lattices behind which the emperor was. The chief interpreter sat himself a little forward, to hear more distinctly, and we took our places on his left hand all in a row. After the usual obeisances, B'ngo bid us welcome in the emperor's name. The chief interpreter received the compliment from Bingo's mouth, and repeated it to us. Upon this the ambassador made his compliment in the name of his masters, returning their most humble thanks to the emperor tbi having graciously granted the Dutch liberty of FAMILIAR RECEPTION. 371 commerce. This the chief interpreter repeated in Japanese, having prostrated himself quite to the ground, and speaking loud enough to be heard by the emperor. The emperor's answer was again received by Bingo, who delivered it to the chief interpreter, and he to us. He might have, indeed, received it himself from the emperor's own mouth, and saved Bingo this unnecessary trouble ; but I fancy that the words, as they flow out of the emperor's mouth, are esteemed too precious and sacred for an immediate transit into the mouth of persons of a low rank. " The mutual compliments being over, the succeeding part of this solemnity turned to a perfect farce. We were asked a thousand ridiculous and impertinent questions. They desired to know how old each of us was, and what was his name, which we were com- manded to write upon a bit of paper, in anticipation of which we had provided ourselves with an European inkhorn. This paper, together with the inkhorn itself, we were commanded to give to Bi-ngo, who delivered them both into the emperor's hands, reaching them over below the lattice. The captain, or ambassador, was asked the distance of Holland from Batavia, and of Batavia from Nagasaki; also which of the two was the most powerful, the Direc- tor-general of the Dutch East India Compan} 7 at Batavia, or the Prince of Holland ? "As for my own particular, the following questions were put to me. What external and internal distempers I thought the most dangerous and most difficult to cure ? How I proceeded in the cure of cancerous humors and imposthumations of the inner parts ? Whether our European physicians did not search after some medicine to render people immortal, as the Chi- nese physicians had done for many hundred years ? Whether we had made any considerable progress in this search, and which was the last remedy conducive to long life that had been found out in Europe ? To which I returned in answer, that very many Euro- pean physicians had long labored to find out some medicine, which should have the virtue of prolonging human life and preserving people in health to a great age ; and having thereupon been asked which I thought the best, I answered, that I always took that to be the best which was found out last, till experience taught us a better ; and being further asked, which was the last, I answered, a certain spirituous liquor, which could keep the humors of our body 372 JAPAN. A. 1). 1C91 1G92. fluid and comfort the spirits. This general answer proved not altogether satisfactory; for I was quickly desired to let them know the name of this excellent medicine, upon which, knowing that whatever was esteemed by the Japanese had long and high-sounding names, I returned in answer it was the Sal volatile Oleosum Sylrii. This name was minuted down behind the lattices, lor which purpose I was commanded to repeat it several times. The next question was, who it was that found it out, and where it was found out ? I answered, Professor Sylvius, in Holland. Then they asked whether I could make it up. Upon this our resident whispered me to say no ; but I answered, yes, I could make it up, but not here. Then it was asked whether it could be had at Batavia ; and having returned, in answer, that it was to be had there, the emperor desired that it should be sent over by the next ships. " The emperor, hitherto seated almost opposite to us, at a considerable distance, now drew nearer, and sat himself down on our right, behind the lattices, as near us as possible. He or- dered us to take off our cappas, or cloaks, being our garments of ceremony; then to stand upright, that he might have a lull view of us; again to walk, to stand still, to compliment each other, to dance, to jump, to play the drunkard, to speak broken Japanese, to read Dutch, to paint, to sing, to put our cloaks on and off. Meanwhile we obeyed the emperor's commands in the best manner we could, I joining to my dance a love-song in High German. In this manner, and with innumerable such other apish tricks, we must suffer our selves to contribute to the emperor's and the court's diversion. The ambassador, however, is free from these and the like commands, ibr, as he represents the authority of his masters, some care is taken that nothing should be done to injure or prejudice the same ; and besides he showed so much gravity on his countenance and whole behavior, as was sufficient to convince the Japanese that he was not at all a fit person to have such ridiculous and comical com- mands laid upon him. " Having been thus exercised for a matter of two hours, though with great apparent civility, some shaved servants came in and put before each of us a small table with Japanese victuals, and a couple of ivory sticks instead of knives and forks. We took and eat some little things, and our old chief interpreter, though scarce able to VISITS TO THE HIGH OFFICERS. 373 walk, was commanded to carry away the remainder for himself. We were then ordered to put on our cloaks again and to take our leave ; which we gladly and without delay complied with, putting thereby an end to this second audience.* The imperial audience over, we were conducted back by the two commissioners to the waiting-room, where we took our leave of them also. " It was now already three o'clock in the afternoon, and we had etill several visits to make to the councillors of state of the first and second rank. Accordingly w r e left forthwith, saluted as we went by the officers of the great imperial guard, and made our round a-foot. The presents had been carried beforehand to every one's house by our clerks. They consisted of some Chinese, Ben- galese, and other silk stuffs, some linen, black serge, some yards of black cloth, gingangs, pelangs, and a flask of Tent wine. " We were everywhere received by the stewards and secretaries with extraordinary civility, and treated with tea, tobacco and sweetmeats, as handsomely as the little time we had to spare would allow. The rooms where we were admitted to audience were filled behind the screens and lattices with crowds of spectators, who would fain have obliged us to show them some of our European customs and ceremonies, but could obtain nothing excepting only a short dance at Bingo's liouse (who came home himself a back way), and a song from each of us at the youngest councillor's of state. We then returned again to our kangos and horses, and having got out of the castle, through the northern gate, went back to our inn another * In his account of his second visit to Jedo, a year later, Kampfer gives the following account of this second audience : " Soon after we came in, and had, after the usual observances, seated ourselves in the place assigned us, Binyo-sama welcomed us in the emperor's name, and then desired us to sit upright, to take off our cloaks, to tell him our names and age, to stand up, to walk, to turn about, to sing songs, to compliment one another, to be angry to invite one another to dinner, to converse one with another, to discourse in a familiar way like father and son, to show how two friends or man and wife compliment or take leave of one another, to play with children, to carry them about in our arms, and to do many more things of a like nature. They made us kiss one another like man and wife, which the ladies, by their laughter, showed themselves to be particularly well pleased with. It was already four in the afternoon when we left the hall of audience, after having been exercised after this manner for two hours and a half." 32 374 JAPAN. A. D. 1691 1C92. way, on the left of which we took notice that there were strong walls and ditches. It was just six in the evening when we got home, heartily tired. " Friday, the 30th of March, we rode out again betimes, in the morning, to make some of our remaining visits. The presents, such as above-described, were sent before us by our Japanese clerks, who took care to lay them on trays or tables, and to arrange them in good order, according to the country fashion. We were received at the entry of the house, by one or two of the principal dome.>tics, and conducted to the apartment where we were to have our au- dience. The rooms round the hull of audience were everywhere crowded with spectators. As soon as we had seated ourselves we were treated with tea and tobacco. Then the steward of the household came in, or else the secretary, either alone or with another gentleman, to compliment us, and to receive our com- pliments, in his master's name. The rooms were everywhere so disposed as to make us turn our faces towards the ladies, by whom we were very generously and civilly treated with cakes and several sorts of sweetmeats. We visited and made our pres- ents, this day, to the two governors of Jedo, to the three eccle- siastical judges (or temple lords), and to the two commissioners for foreign affairs, who lived near a mile from each other, one in the south-west, the other in the north-east, part of the castle. They both profess themselves to be particular patrons of the Dutch, and received us accordingly with great pomp and magnificence. The street was lined with twenty men armed, who, with their long staffs, which they held on one side, made a very good figure, besides that they helped to keep off the throng of people from being too trouble- some. We were received upon our entering the house, and intro- duced to audience, much after the same manner as we had been in other places, only we were carried deeper into their palaces and into the innermost apartment, on purpose that we should not be troubled with numbers of spectators, and be at more liberty our- selves as well as the ladies who were invited to the ceremony. Op- posite us, in the hall of audience, there were grated lattices, instead of screens, for the length of two mats (twelve feet) and upwards, behind which sat such numbers of women of the commissioner's own family and their relations and friends, that there was no room left. BILLS OF FARE. 375 We had scarce seated ourselves, when seven servants, well clad, canie in, and brought us pipes and tobacco, with the usual apparatus for smoking. Soon after, they brought in something baked, laid on japanned trays, then some fish fried, all after the same manner, by the same number of servants, and always but one piece in a small dish; then a couple of eggs, one baked, the other boiled and shelled, _ and a glass of old, strong saki standing between them. -After this manner we were entertained for about an hour and a half, when they desired us to sing a song and to dance ; the first we refused, but satisfied them as to the last. In the house of the first commis- sioner's a drink made of sweet plums was offered us instead of saki. In the second commissioner's house we were presented first of all with mange bread,* in a brown liquor, cold, with some mustard- seed and radishes laid about the dish, and at last with some orange- peels with sugar, which is a dish given only upon extraordinary occasions, in token of fortune and good will. We then drank some tea, and having taken our leave, went back to our inn, where we arrived at five in the evening." [The following bills of fare are given in Kiimpfer's account of his second visit to Jedo : "At the first commissioner's: 1. Tea. 2. Tobacco, with the whole set of instruments for smoking. 3. Philo- sophical or white syrup; 4. A piece of stienbrassen, a very scarce fish, boiled in a brown sauce. 5. Another dish offish, dressed with bran-flower and spices. 6. Cakes of eggs rolled together. 7. Fried fish, presented on skewers of bamboo. 8. Lemon-peels with sugar. " After every one of these dishes they made us drink a dish of saki, as good as ever I tasted. We were likewise presented twice, in dram cups, with wine made of plums, a very pleasant and agreeable liquor. Last of all, we were again presented with a cup of tea. " At the second commissioner's we were treated, after tea and tobacco, with the following things : 1. Two long slices of mange, dipped into a brown sop or sauce, with some ginger. 2. Hard eggs. 3. Four common fish fried and brought in on bamboo skew- ers. 4. The stomachs of carps, salt, in a brown sauce. 5. Two * This is what Kampfer calls, in another place, Mansies, and describes as a sort of round cakes, which the Japanese had learned to make of the Portu- guese, as big as a common hen's egg, and sometimes filled within with bean- flour and sugar. 376 JAPAN. A. D. 1091 1C-J2. small slices of a goose, -roasted and warm, presented in unglazed earthen dishes. "Good liquor was drank about plentifully, and the commission er's surgeon, who was to treat us, did not miss to take his full dost Each guest was separately served with the above dishes on littl' tables or salvers, about a foot square and a few inches high.] " On the 31st of March, we rode out again at ten in the morn ing, and went to the houses of the three governors of Nagasaki two of whom were then absent on duty at Nagasaki. We pre- sented them on this occasion only with a flask of Tent each, they having already received their other presents at Nagasaki. We were met by Tsina Kami, the one then at Jedo, just by the door of his house. He was -attended by a numerous retinue, and, having called both our interpreters to him, he commanded them to tell us his desire that we should make ourselves merry in his house. Accordingly we were received extraordinarily well, and desired to .walk about and to divert ourselves in his garden, as b^ing now in the house of a friend at Jedo, and not in the palace of our governor and magistrate at Nagasaki.* We were treated with warm dishes and tea, much after the same manner as we had been by the com- missioners, and all the while civilly entertained by his own brother, and several persons of quality of his friends and relations. " Having staid about two hours, we went to Tonosama's house, where we were conducted into the innermost and chief apartment, and desired twice to come nearer the lattices on both sides of the room. There were more ladies behind the screens here than, I think, we had as yet met with in any other place. They desired us, very civilly, to show them our clothes, the captain's arms, rings, tobacco-pipes, and the like, some of which were reached them between or under the lattices. The person that treated us in the absent governor's name, and the other gentlemen who were then pres- ent in the room, entertained us likewise very civilly, and we could not but take notice that everything was so cordial that we made no manner of scruple of making ourselves merry, and diverting the com- pany each with a song. The magnificence of this family appeared * See the character given of Tsina-Kami as a harsh enemy of the Dutch,, r, at least, a strict disciplinarian over them ; ante, p. ^63-4. AUDIENCE OF LEAVE. 377 fully by the richness and exquisiteness of this entertainment, whicn was equal to that of the first commissioner's, but far beyond it in courteous civility and a free, open carriage. After an hour and a half we took our leave. The house of Tonosama is the furthermost to the north or north-west we were to go to, a mile and a half from our inn, but seated in by much the pleasantest part of the town, where there is an agreeable variety of hills and shrubbery. The family of Tubosama, the third governor, lives in a small, sorry house near the ditch which encompasses the castle. We met here but a few women behind a screen, who took up with peeping at us through a few holes, which they made as they sat down. The strong liquors, which we had been this day obliged to drink in larger quantities than usual, being by this time got pretty much into our heads, we made haste to return home, and took our leave as soon as we had been treated, after the usual manner, with tea and tobacco." Two or three days after followed the audience of leave prepara- tory to the return to Nagasaki. Of this Kampfer gives much the fullest account in his narrative of his second visit to Jedo, which we follow here. Having proceeded to the palace as at the first audience, after half an hour's stay in the waiting-room, the " Captain Hollanda " was called in before the councillors of state, who directed one of the commissioners to read the usual orders to him, five in number, chiefly to the effect that the Dutch should not molest any of the boats or ships of the Chinese or the Lew Chewans trading to Japan, nor bring in any Portuguese or priests. These orders being read, the director was presented with thirty gowns, laid on three of the Japanese wooden stands or salvers, which he crept upon all fours to receive, and in token of respect held one of the gowns over his head. This ceremony over, the Dutch were invited to stay to dinner, which was served up in another room. Before each was placed a small table or salver, on which lay five fresh, hot, white cakes, as tough as glue, and two hollow cakes of two spans in circumference, made of flour and sprinkled with sesamum seeds. A small porce- *ain cup contained some bits of pickled salmon in a brown sauce, by the side of which lay two wooden chop-sticks. Tea also was 32* 378 JAPAN. A. D. 1091 1C92. served up, but in "poor and sorry" brown dishes, and the tea itself proved to be little better than hot water. Fortunately the Dutch, seldom caught napping upon that point, had provided themselves, before leaving home in the morning, with " a good substantial breakfast;" and, besides, they had been treated in the guard-room with fresh manyes and with sweet brown cakes of sugar and bean flour. While they were eating this dinner, " so far from answering to the majesty and magnificence of so powerful a monarch, that a worse one could not have been had at any private man's house," several young noblemen busied themselves in examining their hats, coats, dress, &c. Dinner over, after half an hour in the waiting-room, they were conducted, through passages and galleries which they did not remember to have seen before, to the hall of audience, which, by a change in the position of some of the screens, presented quite a new appearance. They were put in the very same uncarpeted spot as at their first audience, and were again called upon, as then, to answer questions, dance, sing songs :ind exhibit themselves. Among the persons called in were two physicians, with whom Kiimpfcr had some professional conversation ; also several shaven priests, one of whom had an ulcer on his shin, as to which Kiimpfer's opinion was asked. As it was afresh sore, and the inflammation about it slight, he judged it to be of no great consequence. At the same time he advised the patient not to be too familiar with saki, pretending to guess by his wound, what was obvious enough from his red face and nose, that he was given to drinking, a shrewd piece of profes- sional stratagem, which occasioned much laughter at the patient's expense. " This farce over, a salver was brought in for each guest, on which was placed the following Japanese dishes: ]. Two small, hollow loaves, sprinkled with sesamum seeds. 2. A piece of white, refined sugar, striped. 3. Five candied kernels of the kai tree, not unlike almonds. 4. A flat slice of cake. 5. Two cakes, made of flour and honey, shaped like a tunnel, brown, thick and some- what tough. G. Two slices of a dark reddish and brittle cake, made of bean flour and sugar. 7. Two slices of a rice flour cake, yellow and tough. 8. Two slices of another cake or pie, of which the inside seemed to be of quite a different substance from the crust PRESENTS. 379 9. A large mange boiled and filled with brown sugar, like treacle. Two smaller manyes, of the common bigness, dressed after the same manner. A few of these things were eaten, and the rest, accord ing to the Japanese custom, were taken home by the interpreter, for whom they proved quite a load, especially as he was old and rheumatic." Having been dismissed with many ceremonies, they went next to the house of the acting governor of Jedo, who received them with great cordiality, and gave them an entertainment consisting of a cup of tea, boiled fish with a very good sauce, oysters boiled and brought in the shells, with vinegar, a dish which, it was intimated, had been prepared from the known fondness of the Dutch for it ; several small slices of a roasted goose : fried fish and boiled eggs, with very good liquor served up between the dishes. Thence they went to the houses of the governors of Nagasaki, and returned home at night thoroughly tired out, but well satisfied with their recep- tion. Meanwhile, the customary presents began to come in, which, in case the director was at home, were presented and received in quite a formal manner, a speech being made by the bearer and an an- swer returned, after which he was treated with tobacco, tea, sweet- meats and Dutch liquors. Besides thirty gowns from the emperor, ten were sent by each of the five ordinary councillors, six by each of the four extraoi dinary councillors, five by each of the three lords of the temple, and two, " pretty sorry ones," Kiimpfer says, by each of the governors of Jedo, in all, a hundred and twenty-three, of which those given by the emperor went to the Company, and all the rest to the director, constituting no inconsiderable perquisite. It is the custom, on the return of the Dutch, when they reach Miako, to take them to see some of the principal temples. The first one visited by Kiimpfer was the Buddhist temple and convent, where the emperor lodges when he comes to visit the Dairi. The ap- proach to this temple was a broad, level, gravel walk, half a mile in length, lined on both sides with the stately dwellings of the ecclesi- astics attached to it. Having alighted and passed a lofty gateway, the visitors ascended to a large terrace, finely gravelled and planted with trees and shrubs. Passing two handsome structures, they ascended a beautiful stairway to a magnificent building, with a 380 JAPAN. A. D. !C9l-lCy2. front superior to that of the imperial palace at Jedo. In the mid- dle of the outermost hall was a chapel containing a large idol witk curled hair, surrounded with smaller idols. On both sides were some smaller and less elaborate chapels ; behind were two apart- ments for the emperor's use, opening upon a small pleasure-garden at the foot of a mountain, clothed with a beautiful variety of trees and shrubs. Behind this garden, and on the ascent of the moun- tain, was a chapel dedicated to the predecessor of the reigning em- peror, who had been deified under the name of Ginyosin. "The visitors were next conducted across a square to another temple, of the size of an ordinary European church, supported on thirty pillars, or rather fifty-six, including those of the gallery which surrounded it. These pillars were, however, but nine feet high, and of wood, and, with the beams and cornices, were painted some red, some yellow. The most striking feature of this building, which was entirely empty within, was its bended roofs, four in num- ber, one over the other, of which the lowest and largest jutted over the gallery. There were said to be not less than twenty-seven temples within the enclosure of this monastery. " Up the hill, near a quarter of a mile distant, was a large bell, which Kiimpfer describes as rather superior in size to the smaller of the two great Moscow bells (which he had seen), rough, ill-cast and ill-shaped. It was struck on the outside by a large wooden stick. The prior who, with a number of the monks, received and entertained the Dutch visitors, was an old gentleman, of an agreea- ble countenance and good complexion, clad in a violet or dark purple-colored gown, with an alms bag in his hand richly embroi dercd with gold. " The largest and most remarkable of the temples seen at Miako, was that called Daibods, on the road to Fusimi. It was enclosed by a high wall of free-stone, the front blocks being near twelve feet square. A stone staircase of eight steps led up to the gateway, on either side of which stood a gigantic image, near twenty-four feet high, with the face of a lion, but otherwise well-proportioned, black, or of a dark purple, almost naked, and placed on a pedestal six feet high. That on the left had the mouth open and one of the hands stretched o it. The opposite one had the mouth shut and the hand close to tha body. They were said to be emblems of the two first TEMPLES AT MIAKO. 381 and chief principles of nature, the active and passive, the giving and taking, the opening and shutting, generation and corruption. Within the gateway were sixteen stone pillars on each side for lamps, a water basin, &c. ; and on the inside of the enclosing wall was a spacious walk or gallery, open towards the interior space, but covered with a roof which was supported by two rows of pil- lars, about eighteen feet high and twelve feet distant from each other. " Directly opposite the entrance, in the middle of the court, stood the temple, much the loftiest structure which Kampfer had seen in Japan, with a double roof supported by ninety-four immense wooden pillars, of at least nine feet diameter, some of them of a single piece, but others of several trunks put together as in the case of the masts of our large ships, and all painted red." Within, the floor was paved with square flags of free-stone, a thing not seen elsewhere. There were many small, narrow doors running up to the first roof, but the interior, on account of its great height, the whole up to the second roof forming but one room, was very badly lighted. Nothing was to be seen within except an immense idol, sitting (not after the Japanese, but after the Indian manner, with the legs crossed before it) on a terete flower, sup- ported by another flower, of which the leaves were turned upwards, the two being raised about twelve feet from the floor. The idol which was gilt all over, had long ears, curled hair, a crown on the head, which appeared through the window over the first roof, with a large spot not gilt on the forehead. The shoulders, so broad as to reach from one pillar to another, a distance of thirty feet, were naked. The breast and body were covered with a loose piece of drapery. It held the right hand up, the left rested edgewise on the belly. The Quanwon temple was a structure very long in proportion to its breadth. In the midst was a gigantic image of Quanwon, with thirty-six arms. Sixteen black images, bigger than life, stood round it, and on each side two rows of gilt idols with twenty arms each. On either side of the temple, running from end to end, were teia platforms rising like steps one behind the other, on each of which stood fifty images of Quanwon, as large as life, a thousand in all, each on its separate pedestal, so arranged as to stand in rows of 382 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. five, one behind the other, and all visible at the same time, each with its twenty hands. On the hands and heads of all thcf-e are placed smaller idols, to the number of forty or more ; so that the whole number, thirty-three thousand three hundred and thirty-three, according to the estimate of the Japanese, does not appear exag gerated. Klaproth* gives some curious details as to these temples, derived from a Japanese Guide Book, such as is sold to visitants. The dimensions of the temple and of the image of Daibods, or the great 13uddha, are given with great minuteness. The body is seventy- seven feet five and one fourth inches high (Rhineland measure), and the entire statue with the lotus, eighty-nine feet eight and three fourths inches. The head of the colossus protrudes through the roof of the saloon.t At a little distance is a chapel called Mi?nifsuka, or " tomb of ears," in which arc buried the ears and noses of the Coreans who fell in the war carried on against them by Taiko-Sama, who had them salted and conveyed to Japan. The grand portico of the external wall of the temple is called Ni-wo-mon, "gate of the two kings." On entering this vast portico, which is eighty-three and one half feet high, on each side appears a colossal figure twenty- two feet in height, representing the two celestial kings, Awoon and Jugo, the usual porters at the Buddhist temples. Another edifice placed before the apartment of the great Buddha, contains the largest bell known in the world. It is seventeen feet two and one* half inches high, and weighs one million seven hundred thousand Japanese pounds (katties), equal to two millions sixty-six thousand pounds English. Its weight is consequently five times greater than the great bell at Moscow. If this is the same bell described by Kiimpfer, here is a remarkable discrepancy. * Jlnnalx des Empereurs du Japan, p. 405, note, and in the Asiatic Journal for Sept. 1831. t The history of this image, derived from the same source, is given in a note on p. 150. The roof of the temple is supported on ninety-' wo columns, each upwards of six feet in diameter. CHAPTER XXXVIII. FDRTHER JECLINE OF THE DUTCH TRADE. DEGRADATION OF THE JAPANESt COINS. THE DUTCH THREATEN TO WITHDRAW FROM JAPAN. RESTRICTIONS ON THE CHINESE TRADE. PROBABLE CAUSE OF THE POLICY ADOPTED BY THE JAPANESE. DRAIN OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. NEW BASIS UPON WHICH FUTURE TRADE MUST BE ARRANGED. NOTWITHSTANDING the lamentations uttered by Kjimpfer in the name of the Dutch factors, the trade to Japan had by no means in his time reached its lowest level, and it was subjected soon after his departure to new and more stringent limitations. In the year 1696 appeared a new kind of kobang. The old kobang was twenty carats eight and a half, and even ten, grains fine ; that is, supposing it divided into twenty-four parts, twenty parts and a half were fine gold.* The new kobang was thirteen carats six or seven grains fine, containing, consequently, only two thirds as much gold as the old one, and yet the Dutch were required to receive it at the same rate of sixty-eight mas of silver. The old kobang had returned on the coast of Coromandel a profit of twenty -five per cent., the new produced a loss of fifteen or sixteen per cent. ; but some of the old kobangs being still paid over at the same rate as the new, some profits continued to be derived from the gold, till, in 1710, the Japanese made a still more serious change in their coin, by reducing the weight of the kobang nearly one half, from forty-seven kanderins (two hundred and seventy-four grains) to twenty-five kanderins (one hundred and forty-six grains), which, as the Dutch were still obliged to receive these new kobangs at the rate of sixty-eight mas, caused a loss of from thirty-four to * In one thousand parts, eight hundred and fifty-four were pure gold. The pure metal in our American coins is nine hundred parts in one ttousand ; or, in the old phraseology, they are twenty-one carats and tweh e grains fine. 384 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. thirty-six per cent. From this time the old kobangs passed as double kobangs, being reckoned at twice their former .weight. The kobangs of the coinage of 1730 were about five per cent, better than the preceding ones; but the Dutch trade continued rapidly to decline, especially after the exportation of copper was limited, in 1714, to fifteen thousand chests, or piculs, and, in 1721, to ten thousand piculs annually. From this time, two ships sufficed for the Dutch trade. For thirty years previous to 1743, the annual gross profits on the Japanese trade had amounted to five hundred thousand florins (two hundred thousand dollars), and some years to six hundred thousand (two hundred and forty thousand dollars) ; but in 1743 they sunk below two hundred thousand florins (eighty thousand dollars), which was the annual cost of maintaining the establish- ment at Desima. Upon this occasion, a " Memoir on the Trade of Japan, and the Causes of its Decline," was drawn up by Imhoff, at that time gov- ernor-general at Batavia, which affords information on the change in the value of the kobang, and other matters relating to the Dutch trade to Japan, not elsewhere to be found.* It is apparent from this memoir that the trade was not managed with the sagacity which might have been expected from private merchants. The cargoes were ill assorted, and did not correspond to the requisi- tions of the Japanese. They, on the other hand, had repeatedly offered several new articles of export, which the Company had declined, because, in the old routine of their trade, no profita- ble market appeared for these articles at the prices asked for them. The Dutch attempted to frighten the Japanese, by threatening to close their factory altogether, but this did not produce much effect, and, since the date of Imhoff's memoir, the factory appears not to have done much more than to pay its expenses. That the Japanese were not very anxious for foreign trade, appears by their having restricted the Chinese, previous to 1740, to twenty junks annually, and at a subsequent period to ten junks. * Having been discovered by Sir Stamford Raffles among the public docu- ments at Bivtixvta, he published an abstract of it in the appendix B to his History of Java. DRAIN OF THE PRECIOUS METALS. 385 The Dutch imagined that the above-mentioned changes in the coins of Japan were made solely with a view to their trade and to curtail their profits. Raffles suggests, on the other hand, that this degradation of the Japanese coins was the natural re- sult of the immense export of the precious metals, which, in the course of the two hundred years from 1540 to 1740, must, have drained Japan of specie to the value of perhaps not less than two hundred millions of dollars. The exports of foreign nations, as we have seen, were almost entirely metallic, and the mines of Japan were by no means so productive as to be able to withstand this constant drain. The export of silver was first stopped. Then gold was raised to such a value as effectually to stop the exporta- tion of that, and restrictions were, at the same time, put upon the exportation of copper. This sagacious conjecture of Raffles is con- firmed by a tract on the Origin of the Riches of Japan, written, in 1708, by Arrai Tsikuyo-no-Kami Sama, a person of high distinc- tion at the emperor's court, of which the original was brought to Europe by Titsingh, and of which Klaproth has given a translation, in the second volume of the Nouveau Journal Asiatique. The author of this tract states, perhaps from official documents, the amount of gold and silver exported from Nagasaki, from 1611 to 170G, as follows: Gold, 6,192,000 kobangs; silver, 112,268,700 taels. Of this amount, 2,397,600 kobangs, and 37,420,900 taels of silver had been exported since 1646. The exports of copper from 1663 to 1708 are stated at 1,114,446,700 lbs.(katties?). This export is represented as having commenced in the time of Nobunanga,* when the mines of Japan had first begun to be largely productive, and, previous to 1611, to have been much greater than afterwards, which is ascribed by this author in part to the amounts sent out of the country, by the Catholic natives, to purchase masses for their souls. Much alarm is expressed lest, with the decreased product of the mines, and continual exportation, Japan should be * Yet Pinto, "whose knowledge of Japan preceded the time of Nobunanga, ^ represents silver as very abundant there ; and, indeed, it seems to have been, this abundance -which first attracted the Portuguese trade. On the whole, one does not derive a very high idea, from this tract, of the extent or correct- ness of the knowledge possessed by the Japanese of their own history, even the more recent periods of it. 33 386 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. reduced to poverty. Titsingh ascribes the origin of this tract to the extravagance of the reigning emperor, which it was desired to check by good advice ; but the exportation of the precious metals by for- eigners is evidently the point aimed at. " There goes out of the empire annually," says this writer, " about one hundred and fifty thousand kobangs, or a million and a half in ten years. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to the public prosperity to put a stop to these exportations, which will end in draining us entirely. Nothing is thought of but the procuring foreign productions, expensive stuffs, elegant utensils, and other things not known in the good old times. Since Gongin, gold, silver and copper have been abundantly produced ; unfortunately the greater part of this wealth has gone for things we could have done quite as well without. The successors of Gongin ought to reflect upon this, in order that the wealth of the empire may be as lasting as the heavens and the earth." Ideas like those broached in this tract seem to be the basis of the existing policy of Japan on the subject of foreign trade ; and, independently of this, the failure of the Japanese mines renders any return to the old system of the Por- tuguese and Dutch traffic quite out of the question. Japan has no longer gold and silver to export, and if a new trade is to be estab- lished with her, it must be on an entirely new basis, the exports to consist of something else than metallic products. CHAPTER XXXIX. IHPNBERG'S VISIT TO JAPAN. SEARCHES AND EXAMINATIONS SMUG- GLING. INTERPRETERS. DESIMA. IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. UNICORN'S HORN AND GINSENG. SOT. THE DUTCH AT DESIMA. JAPANESE MIS TRESSES. JAPANESE WOMEN. STUDYING THE LANGUAGE. BOTANIZING. CLOCKS. NEW TEAR'S DAT. TRAMPLING ON IMAGES. DEPARTURB FOR JEDO. JOURNEY THROUGH THE ISLAND OF XIMO. JAPANESE HOUSES AND FURNITURE. MANUFACTURE OF PAPER. PRACTICE OF BATH ING. SIMONOSEKI. VOTAGE TO OSAKA. CHILDREN. FROM OSAKA TO MIAKO. AGRICULTURE. ANIMALS. A. D. 17751776. FROM the time of Kampfer's departure from Desima, of all the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of up- wards of eighty years, favored the world with their observations. They went to Japan in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge, either for themselves or others. At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physi- cian, naturalist and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kiimpfer had held before him. Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the East by some wealthy merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees and plants, as well for the medical garden of that city as for their own private collections. Circumstances caused him to spend three years at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he proceeded to Bnta- via. He left that port June 20, 1775, and arrived off Nagasaki the 14th of the following August. From an experience of more than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the loss of one out of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was taken to select the best and strongest vessels.* The searches and examinations previous to landing were the * This was a considerable improvement upon the state of things in the tim of Xavier, when every third vessel was expected to be lost. See p. 49 JAPAN. A. D. 1775 177G. game described by Kampfer. Hitherto it had been usual to allow the captains of the vessels to pass at pleasure to and from their ships without being searched; they, with the directors of the Dutch factory, being the only persons exempt from that ceremony. The captains had taken advantage of this exemption to dress themselves out, for the convenience of smuggling, in a showy, blue silk, silver- laced coat, made very wide and large, in which dress they generally made three trips a day to and from Desima, being often so loaded down with goods that they had to be supported by a sailor under each arm. Thunberg's captain rigged himself out in the same style ; but, much to his disappointment and that of the other Dutchmen, whose private goods the captains hud been accustomed to smuggle for a commission, the Japanese officers who boarded the ship brought orders that the captain should dress like the rest ; that he and the director also should be searched when they landed, and that the captain should either stop on board, or, if he landed, should remain on shore, being allowed to visit the ship only twice during her stay. " It was droll enough," gays Thuuberg, " to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our bulky captain excited in the major part of the ignorant Japanese, who before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat and lusty as they appeared to be." In the year 177-, one of the Dutch ships from Batavia, disabled in a violent storm, had been abandoned by her crew, who, in their haste, or believing that she would speedily sink, had neglected the standing order of the Company, in such cases, to set her on fire. Some days after she drifted to the Japanese shore, and was towed into the harbor of Nagasaki, when the Japanese found on board a number of chests marked with the names of the principal Dutch officers, and full of prohibited goods, and it was to this discovery that the new order was ascribed. The examination of the clothes and persons of all who passed to and from the ship was very strict. The large chests were emptied, and the sides, top and bottom, sounded to sec if they were not hol- low. Beds were ripped open and the feathers turned over. Iron Spikes were thrust into the butter-tubs and jars of sweetmeats. A square hole was cut in the cheeses, and a thick, pointed wire thrust through them i- every direction. Even some of the eggs brought THUNBERG'S VISIT. 38& from Batavia were broken, lest they might be shams in which val uablea were concealed. Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty tc correct with blows the Japanese Jadi employed as laborers on board the ships ; but in his time this was absolutely prohibited. He adds, that the respect of the Japanese for- the Dutch was a good deal diminished by observing " in how unfriendly and unman- nerly a style they usually behave to each other, and the brutal treatment which the sailors under their command frequently expe- rience from them, together with the oaths, curses and blows, with which the poor fellows are assailed by them." The interpreters would seem to have adopted, since the time of Kiimpfer (as he makes no mention of it), the practice of medicine among their countrymen after the European manner. This made them very inquisitive as to matters of physic and natural history, and very anxious to obtain European books, which they studied diligently. Kiimpfer speaks of the interpreters with great indigna- tion as the most watchful and hateful of spies. Thunberg appears to have established very good terms with them. JSew restrictions, however, had been placed on their intercourse with the resident Dutchmen, whom, to. prevent smuggling, they were not allowed to visit, except in company with one or two other officers. Desima, from Thunberg's description of it, appears to have altered very little since Kiimpfer's residence there ; though glass win- dows had lately been brought from Batavia, by some of the Dutch residents, as a substitute for the paper windows of the Japanese. The permanent residents were now twelve or thirteen (there had been but seven in Kampfer's time), besides slaves brought from Batavia, of whom each Dutchman had one. The goods sent out by the Company, at the time of Thunberg's visit, were sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the Japanese do not produce for themselves), elephant's teeth, sappan- wood for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China- root and Costits Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, ratans, spectacles, look- ing-glasses, watches, Ninsi-root or ginseng, and unicorns' horns. This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product 33* 390 JAPAN. A. D. 1775 1716. of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japan- ese ascribed to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing it to have the power to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits, assist the memory, and cure all sorts of complaints. Tlmn- berg had carried out as his venture thirty-seven katties (about fifty pounds) of this horn, which sold for five thousand and seventy-one taels, or upwards of six thousand dollars ; so that, after paying the advances made to him at Batavia, he had a handsome surplus to expend in his favorite pursuit of natural history. The genuine Chinese ginseng (Panax qninqucfoUum] sold at a price full as high as that of unicorn's horn. The American article, being regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited,but was smug- gled in to mix with the Chinese.* Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular article of sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the interpreters. The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private per- sons were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on it. The sale by Kambany continued exactly as Kiimpfer had described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by kambang. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles. The chiBf articles of export were copper, camphor and lackered goods; porcelain, rice, saki, soy,t were also exported. The profits * Kiimpfer had seen the ginseng cultivated in gardens in Japan, hut it was not supposed to possess the virtues of the Chinese article. Father Jon- toux, one of the Jesuit missionaries in China, employed by the emperor in preparing a map of the region north of the great wall, had an opportunity to Bee the ginseng growing wild. He sent home, in 1711, a full account of it, with drawings (which may be found in Voyages au ./Von/, vol. iv.), and suggested, from the similarity of the climate, that the same plant might be found in Canada, as it soon was by the Jesuit missionaries there. t This sauce, used in great quantities in Japan, and exported to Batavia by the Dutch, whence it has become known throughout the Kast Indies and also in Europe, is mude from the soy bean (Dolichos Soia), extensively used by the Japan ef-e in the making of soup. The soy is prepared as follows: the beans are boiled till they become rather soft, when an equal quantity of pounded barley or wheat is added. These ingredients being mixed, the com* IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. 391 of this trade had been greatly curtailed. " Formerly," says Thun- berg, " it was so very profitable to individuals that hardly any- body but favorites were sent out as chiefs, and when these had made two voyages, it was supposed that they were rich enough to be able to live on the interest of their fortunes, and that, therefore, they ought to make room for others. At present a chief is obliged to make many voyages. His success is now no more to be envied, and his profits are thought to be very inconsiderable." Of the general enjoyments of a residence at Desima Thunberg does not speak very highly. " An European that remains here is, in a manner, dead and buried in an obscure corner of the globe. He hears no news of any kind ; nothing relative to war or other misfortunes and evils that plague and infest mankind ; and neither the rumors of inland or foreign concerns delight or molest his ear. The soul possesses here one faculty only, which is the judgment (if, indeed, it be at all times in possession of that). The will is totally debilitated, and even dead, because, to an European, there is no other will than that of the Japanese, by which he must exactly square his conduct. " The European way of living is, in other respects, the same as in other parts of India, luxurious and irregular. Hence, just as at Batavia, ^ve pay a visit every evening to the chief, after having Walked several times up and down the two streets. These evening visits generally last from six o'clock till ten, and sometimes eleven or twelve at night, and constitute a very disagreeable way of life, fit only for such as have no other way of spending their time than droning over a pipe of tobacco and a bottle." The Europeans remaining at Desima had each two or three hand- some rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing pound is set away for twentj'-four hours in a warm place to ferment. An equal quantity of salt is then added, and twice and a half as much water. It is stirred several times a day for several days, and then stands well covered for two or three months, when the liquid portion is decanted, strained and put in wooden casks. It is of a brown color, improves with age, but varies in quality, according to the province where it is made. The Dutch of Desima cork up the better qualities in glass bottles, boiling the liquor first in an iron kettle, to prevent fermentation, by which it is liable to be spoiled. 89fi JAPAN. A. D. 1.75-1776. them. As the winter set in, the cold, with an easterly or northerly wind, was quite piercing, and they had fires of charcoal in a large copper kettle with a broad rim. Placed in the middle of the room it warmed the whole apartment for hours together. The looseness of the doors and windows prevented any ill consequences from the gases. As the residents all dined and supped at a common table, kept at the Company's expense, their outlays did not amount to much " except," says Thunberg, " they squander away their money on the fair sex, or make expensive entertainments and give suppers to each other." The account which Thunberg gives of the Japanese mistresses of the Dutch is very much the same with that given by Kiimpfer. These women, when spoken for to an officer appointed for that purpose, come attended by a little serving-maid, one of the young apprentices of the houses to which they belonged, who brought daily from the town her mi>trcs.s' food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One of these female compan- ions could not be had for less than three days, but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight mas, or one dol- lar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, gir- dles, head-ornaments, &c. According to Thunberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. lie was assured, but did not credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia ; but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch Japanese children are by no means such rarities as Thunberg represents.* The women painted their lips with colors, made of the Catharinus tinctorius, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If laid on very thin, the lips appeared red ; if thick, it gave them a * The murdering of the children may be explained by the following pas- sago from one of the letters of Cocks, the English factor, written at Firando, in December, 1014 : " James Turner, the fiddling youth, left a wench with child here, but the w e, the mother, killed it so soon as it was born, although I gave her two taels in plate [silver] before to nourish it, because she should not kill it, it being an ordinary thing here." THE DUTCH AT DESIMA. 393 vi)let hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. Tha married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a foetid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It eat so deeply into the teeth that it took several days and much trouble to scrape it away. " To me at least," says Thunberg, " a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable appearance." The married women dis- tinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows ; and an- other distinction was that they knotted their girdles before, and the single women behind. Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European intercourse, were very common,* and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercu- rial treatment. As he had plenty of leisure and little taste for the Dutch fashion of killing time, he endeavored to find more rational and profitable employment. The residents were still allowed native servants, who, though not interpreters, had learned to speak the Dutch language. But the Dutch were strictly prohibited from learning the Japanese ; and though the interpreters were sufficiently well inclined, Thun- berg encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dic- tionary, in the Latin, Portuguese and Japanese, in quarto, contain- ing nine hundred and six pages. The title-page was gone, but the book purported to have been compiled by the joint labors of the Jesuits at Japan, as well European as natives. It belonged to one of the interpreters, who possessed it as a legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it for any price.! Afterwards, at Jedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick, printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese charac- ters, except the title-page, which bore the imprint of the Jesuits, with the date, Nagasaki, A. D. 1598. " Through incapacity in some and indolence in others," the Dutch possessed no vocabulary of the Japanese, and all the knowledge the Dutch residents had of it did not go beyond calling by name a * Cocks also had noticed their existence a century and a half earlier, t This was doubtless the lexicon printed at Amakusa in 1505. See not* p. 125, also Appendix A. 894 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. few familiar articles. Tlmnberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese vocabulary, but he docs not appear to have made any great progress in the language. With much difficulty lie obtained, about the beginning of Febru- ary, leave to botanize.* Every excursion cost him sixteen or eigh- teen taels, as he was obliged to feast from twenty to thirty Japanese officials, by whom he was always attended. On the neighboring hills he noticed many burying-grounds, containing tombstones of various forms, sometimes rough, but more frequently hewn; with letters, sometimes gilt, engraved upon them. Before these stones were placed vessels, made of large bamboos, containing water, with branches of flowers. He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to Jedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fetid exhalations from these open pits, and to the bunting of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the com- mon red beet, the carrot, fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground, at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato. Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little success. Several kinds of yams (Dloscorert) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.t Buckwheat, Windsor beans (Vicia fal/a), several species of French beans (Phased us), and peas (Pisum saticum), were com- monly cultivated ; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper (Capsicum**, introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to * A precedent of a similar permission, formerly gran ted to the medical men of the factory, was found, but, upon a critical examination of Thun- berg's commission, he appeared to be a Burgeon, whereas he to whom piT- mission had formerly been granted had been surgeon's mute, and it took three months to get over this difficulty, and to persuude the Japanese that these two officers were in substance the same. t This species, the Dioscorea Japonica (confounded sometimes with the weet f *ato), boa been lately introduced into the United States. VEGETABLE PRODUCTIONS. 895 the Portuguese. He observed, also, hemp, the Acorns, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (Amomum mioya) ; the Mentha pipe- rita ; the Alcea rosea, and Malva Mauritiana, cultivated for their flowers ; the Celastrus alatus, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady's door, is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo, and the box; also, the ivy; the China-root (Smilax China]; wild figs, with small fruit like plums (Fiscus pumila and erect a) ; the pepper bush (Figaro, peperita); a species of madder (Rubia car- data}, and several species of the Pologonum, used for dying. Also, two species of nettles, the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (Brassica orientalis), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by its seeds, presented through the spring a beauti- ful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the Sesamum orientalc and the mustard seed. Solid oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree (Rhus vernix), and from those of the Rhus siiccedanea, the camphor-tree, the Melea azedarach, and the Cammelia sasanqua.* * Kampfer, who describes the Cammelia under the Japanese name of Tsubaki, speaks of it as a large shrub, almost a tree. Thunberg represents it as attaining the size of a large tree, exceedingly common in groves and gardens, and a very great favorite, as well for its polished, evergreen leaves, as from the size, beauty and variety, of its blossoms, which appear from April to October, single and red in the wild ones, but double, and of several colors, red, purple, white, &c., in the cultivated varieties, of which the Japanese assured Kampfer there were several hundreds. Siebold describes the wild kind as a small tree, growing in clumps and thickets, often with many shoots from the same root, from fifteen to twenty feet high ; while a much larger size is attained by the cultivated kinds. The name of Cammelia was given to the genus by Linnaeus, in honor of George Joseph Kamel, a Jesuit missionary, who sent to Ray descriptions of the plants of the Philip- pine Islands, published by him at the end of his " History of Plants." The single-flowering variety was introduced into England, about 1739, by Lord, Petre, probably from China, of which it is a native, in common with quite a number of plants, to which the specific epithet Japanese has been applied. As late as 1788 (us appears from Curtis' Botanical Magazine, vol. i.) it was very rare and costly. Down to that time it had been treated as a Btove-plant, but soon after, on Curtis' suggestion, it was introduced into JAPAN. A. D. 1775 177C. In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa, spoken of hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the meal of a species of bean is employed. The bark of the Skimmi, or anise-tree (a near relation of the mangolia tribe, and whose flowers and leaves are much employed in religious ceremonies), is used as a time-measurer. A box, a foot lon^, is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel O* A lines, strewed with fine powder of this bark. The lid being closed, with only a small hole left to supply air, the powder is set on f.ro at one end, and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked be- forehand on these furrows, are proclaimed in the day-time by strik- ing the bells in the temples, and in the night by the watch striking together two pieces of wood. Another method of measuring time is by burning slow match, divided into knots to mark the hours. The Japanese also have a clock, the mechanism of which is described in a subsequent chapter. " The first of January, according to custom," says Thunberg, " most of the Japanese that had anything to do at the Dutch fac- tory, came to wish us a happy new year. Dressed in their holiday clothes, they paid their respects to the director, who invited them to dine with him. The victuals were chiefly dressed after the Euro- pean manner, and, consequently, but few of the dishes were tasted by the Japanese. Of the soup they all partook, but of the other dishes, such as roasted pigs, hams, salad, cakes, tarts, and other pastries, they ate little or nothing, but put on a plate a little of every dish, and, when it was full, sent it home, labelled Avith the owner's name; and this was repeated several times. Salt beef, and the like, which the Japanese do not eat, were set by, and used as a medicine. The same may be said of the salt butter, of which I conservatories, of which it soon became the pride, and was even found hardy enough to bear the winter in the open air. Previous to 1806, a number of varieties were imported from China ; many others were produced in Europe, and already, by 18li5, these varieties had become very numerous (see Botm- \cal Magazine, vols. XL. and LVI.). The Cammelia sasanqua is smaller, with smaller leaves and flowers, very closely resembling the tea-plant ; and, in packing their teas, the Chinese are in the habit of putting some of the blossoms into the chests. It is extensively cultivated for its oil, in China a* well as in Japan. JOURNEY TO COURT. 397 was frequently desired to cut a slice for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in consumptions and other dis- orders. After dinner, warm saki was handed round, which was drank out of lackered wooden cups. " On this festive occasion, the director invited from the town several handsome girls, partly for the purpose of serving out the saki, and partly to dance and bear the* girls company who were already on the island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japan- ese to several of their own country messes, placed on small square tables, which were decorated with an artificial fir-tree, the leaves of which were made of green silk, and, in several places, sprinkled over with white cotton, in imitation of the winter's snow. The girls never presented the saki standing, but, after their own fashion, sitting. In the evening they danced, and about five o'clock the company took their leave." The 19th of February, 177G, on which fell the beginning of the Japanese year, was celebrated according to the Japanese custom, all of them going visiting, dressed up in their holiday clothes, and wishing their neighbors joy ; and, indeed, this interchange of con- gratulations is kept up, more or less, through the first month. On the two last days of the year a general settlement of accounts takes place. Fresh credit is then given for six months, when a new settlement takes place. The rate of interest was high, ranging from eighteen to twenty per cent. Thunberg was told that, after new-year's day, there was no right to demand settlement of the last year's accounts. Shortly after the Japanese new-year, took place the trampling of images, which ceremony, according to the information obtained by Thunberg, was still performed by all the inhabitants of Nagasaki, exactly as in Kampfer's time. On the 4th of March the director set out for the emperor's court, accompanied, as usual, by the secretary of the factory, and by Thunberg as physician. In Kampfer's day these two latter persons had been obliged to make the journey on horseback, ex- posed to cold, rain, and all the inclemencies of the weather. Since then they had obtained the privilege of travelling in norimons, equally with the director. Dr. Thunberg seems to have been well satisfied with his vehicle, which he describes as both handsome and 34 898 JAPAN. A. D. 1775-1776. convenient. Each norimon traveller had with him a bottle of red wine, and another of Dutch ale, taken daily from the large stock provided for the journey, and preferred by the Europeans to tea, which they regarded as a "great relaxer of the stomach." Each traveller had also an oblong lackered box, containing " a double slice of bread arid butter." In order to support the dignity of the Dutch East India Company, the bed equipage which they carried with them consisting of coverlids, pillows, and mattresses, was cov- ered with the richest open-work velvets and silks. Their retinue, on horseback and on foot, was numerous and picturesque. They were received everywhere with the honor and respect paid to the princes of the land : and, besides, says Thunberg, were so well guarded " that no harm could befall us, and, at the same time, so well attended that we had no more care upon our minds than a sucking child ; the whole of our business consisting in eating and drinking, or in reading or writing for our amusement, in sleeping, dressing ourselves, and being carried about in our norimons." At setting out, each of the three Dutchmen received from the purveyor fifty taels, for their individual expenses. This was the first Japanese money which Thunherg had seen, and this, with other suras doled out to them from time to time, was chiefly spent in presents to their attendants. The disbursement on this score, at starting, amounted to ten taels each. In the early part of their journey, they followed a somewhat different road from Kiirapfer's, all the way by land, not crossing either the bay of Omura, nor that of Sunal/ara. They passed, how- ever, through Swota, as Kampfer had done, famous for its large water-jars, arid visited the hot springs in that neighborhood, and also Stinja, capital of the province of FISKN, remarkable for its handsome women, its rice and its fine porcelain. The roads were found such as Kiimpfer had described them. Proceeding onward, still by Kiimpfer's route, they reached Kokura on the ninth of March. The following description of Japanese houses corresponds sufficiently well with that of Kiimpfer, while it gives a rat'ier more distinct, and somewhat le.-s flattering, idea of them. " The houses are very roomy and commodious, and never more than two stories at most twenty feet high, of which the lower one is inhabited, and the upper serves for lofts and garrets, and is seldom occupied DWELLING-HOUSES. 899 fhe mode of building in this country is curious and peculiar. Every house occupies a great extent of ground, and is built in general of wood and plaster, and white-washed on the outside so as to look ex- actly like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular. Between these beams, which are square and far from flick, bamboos are interwoven, and the space filled up with clay, sand and lime. The roofs are covered with tiles of a singular make, very thick and heavy. The more ordinary houses are covered with chips [shingles], on which are frequently laid heavy stones to secure them. In the villages and meaner towns I sometimes saw the sides of the houses, especially behind, covered with the bark of trees, which was secured by laths nailed on it to prevent the rain from damaging the wall. " The whole house makes but one room, which can be divided according as it may be found necessary, or thought proper, into many smaller ones. This is done by moving slight partitions, con- sisting of wooden frames, pasted over with thick painted paper, which slide with great ease in grooves made in the beams of the floor and roof for that purpose. Such rooms were frequently par- titioned off for us and our retinue, during our journey ; and when a larger apartment was wanted for a dining-room, or any other purpose, the partitions were in an instant taken away. One could not see, indeed, what was done in the next room, but one fre- quently overheard the conversation that passed there. " In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from the ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other, at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams above and below them. They are divided by slender rods into panes of a parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of forty, and pasted over on the outside with fine white paper, which is seldom if ever oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but pre- vents any one from seeing through it. The roof always projects a great way beyond the house, and sometimes has an addition which covers a small projecting gallery that stands before each window. From this little roof go slanting inwards and downwards, several quadrangular frames, within which hang blinds made of rushes, which may be drawn up and let down, and serve not only to hinder people that ~ass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it 400 JAPAN. A. D. 1773 177. rains to prevent the paper windows from being damaged. Tlicrt are no glass windows here ; nor have I observed mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc [mica, or isinglass] used for this purpose. " The houses have neither the elegant appearance nor the con- venience and comfort of ours in Europe. The rooms are not so cheerful and pleasant, nor so warm in the winter, neither are they so safe in case of fire, nor so durable. Their semi-transparent paper windows, in particular, spoil the houses, as well in their inside as outside appearance. Neither chimneys nor stoves are known throughout the whole country, although the cold is very intense, and they are obliged to make fires in their apartments from Octo- ber to March. The fires are made in copper kettles, of various sizes, with broad projecting edges. This mode of firing is liable, however, to this inconvenience, that the charcoal sometimes smokes, in consequence of which the apartment becomes dirty and black, and the eyes of the company suifer exceedingly. "The floors are always covered with mats made of a fine species of rush (Juncus effmws}, cultivated in low spots for that purpose, and interwoven with rice straw. These mats are from three to four inches thick, and of the same size throughout the country, viz., two. yards long and one broad. The insides of the houses, both ceiling and walls, are covered with a handsome, thick paper, ornamented with various flowers. These hangings are either green, yellow or white ; and sometimes embellished with silver and gold. As the paper is greatly damaged by the smoke in winter, it is renewed every third or fifth year.* *Tlie Japanese paper, as well for writing and printin.s: as fur the household uses to which it is so extensively put, is manufactured from the bark of the young twigs of the paper mulberry (Morns papyrifiru). Kitmpfer has given a p-irticular account of it in the appendix to his work. That account, which, now that so many experiments are on foot for the manufacture of paper, m:iy suggest some useful hints, is abridged by Tliunberg as follows : " After the tree has shed its leaves in the month of December, they cut off the young shoots about three feet in length, which they tie up in bundles and boil in a lye of ashes, standing inverted in a copper kettle till the bark is so shrunk that half an inch of the woody part is seen bare at the ends. If the twigs grow ry before they can be boiled, they are first soaked in water for four-and-twenty hours. When sufficiently boiled they are taken out and the bark cut lengthwise and stripped off After being soaked in water for HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE. 401 " The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of build- ing. Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks, looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver, about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person in company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The food (rice, soup and fish being the principal articles) is served in lackered wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with their legs laid across before them the Chinese and Japanese lay their feet under their bodies, and make a chair of their heels. When the hour of rest approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cot- three hours, the exterior black skin and the green part beneath it is scraped off with a knife, and the bark is then sorted into qualities ; that which is a full year's growth makes the best paper, and the less mature an inferior quality. Thus prepared and sorted, it is again boiled in a clear lye, being perpetually stirred, and fresh lye supplied to make up for the evaporation ; and this process is continued till the bark is dissolved, as it were, separating into flocks and fibres. It must then be washed a process requiring care and judgment, as, if not carried far enough, the paper will be coarse, and if too far, thin and slazy. This is done in a running stream, by means of a sieve containing the material, which is perpetually stirred till it is diluted into a delicate, soft pap. For the finer kinds this washing is repeated, a piece of linen being substituted for the sieve, to prevent the finer parts from being carried away. After being washed, it is beaten with sticks of hard wood, on a wooden table, till it is brought to a pulp, which if put into water will dis- solve and disperse like meal. "It is then mixed in a tub with a clammy infusion, obtained by soaking rice in cold water, and with another mucilaginous infusion, obtained in the like manner from the root of Oreni (Hibiscus manihot). This mixture, upon which much depends, and the proporiions of which vary with the sea- son of the year, succeeds best in a narrow tub, and requires perpetual stir- ring. The whole is then put into a larger tub, from which the sheets are taken out and put between mats made of delicate grass straw, and laid one upon another in heaps, being pressed at first lightly, but gradually harder and harder, till the water is squeezed out. They are then laid upon a board to dry in the sun ; after which they are packed in bundles for sale and use. "For the coarser kinds of paper other sorts of bark are sometimes used. " The Japanese paper is very close and strong. It will bear being twisted into ropes, and is occasionally used even for dresses." 34* 402 JAPAN. A. D. 1775 17?C. ton, is spread out on the mats. The Japanese have no pillows instead of which they use oblong lackered pieces of wood. With the above apparatus for sleeping, the Japanese bed-chamber is put in order, and he himself up and dressed, in the twinkling of an eye ; as, in fact, scarcely a longer time is requisite for him to throw the gown over him, which serves for dress by day and bed-clothes at night, and to gird it round his waist. "Though mirrors do not decorate the walls, they are in general use at the toilet, made not of glass, but of a composition of copper and zinc highly polished, and fixed obliquely in a stand of wood made for that purpose. Cleanliness is a constant object with these people, and not a day passes in which they do not wash themselves whether they are at home or on a journey. In all towns and vil lages, inns and private houses, (here are baths." He adds, how- ever, what goes rather against this alleged cleanliness, that as the poor, to save expense, are accustomed to use water in which others have repeatedly bathed, they are apt in that way to take infectious disorders. Neither do their open manure vaults, placed by the road- hides and in the very fronts of their houses, agree so well with this eulogv. Cv At Kokura the Dutch bespoke, against their return, rice and charcoal for the factory at Desima. Having crossed to Simonoseki, they embarked, on the 12th of March, in a large Japanese junk, for Osaka ; but, having made less than half the voyage, they encoun- tered contrary winds, which drove them a long distance back, and detained them for near three weeks. The weather was so cold as to make fires comfortable, and colds and catarrhs, endemical to Japan from the changeability of it? climate, were very prevalent. All this time they slept on board, but had several times an oppor- tunity to go on shore to amuse themselves at the inns and temples, the Japanese sailors being always anxious to land in order to bathe. The country all along this coast was mountainous, which was the reason of going by sea instead of by land, the land road being very difficult. This coast seemed, nevertheless, to be highly cultivated, the mountains in many places resembling beautiful gardens. At the places where they landed, the children were very numer- ous. "I observed," says Thunberg, "that the chastisement of chil- MANAGEMENT OF CIII1 . REN. 403 dren was very moderate. I very seldom heard them rebuked 01 scolded, and hardly ever saw them flogged or beaten, either in pri- vate families or on board the vessels ; while, in more civilized and enlightened nations, these compliments abound.* In the schools one might hear the children read all at once, and so loud as almost to deafen one." Whenever the Japanese went on shore, they killed geese and ducks for the Dutchmen to eat ; but at sea they had scruples about killing them, 'though in fine weather the Chinese teal (Anas yale- riculata), and several sorts of ducks, fairly covered the water, so as to look at a distance like great islands. But, though scrupulous themselves, they made no objections to Thunberg's killing them; though, not being allowed the use of fire-arms, it does not appeal how he did it. At length, on the 7th of April, after a disagreeable and danger- ous passage of twenty-six days, they reached the harbor of Fioyo, whence the next day, partly by land and partly in small boats, they proceeded to O.saka. Here each of the travellers disbursed sixteen taels in presents to the captain and crew of the vessel, for the hire of which the sum of four hundred and eighty taels was paid oy the East India Company. They staid at Osaka only a single night, during which they bespoke from some merchants, who visited themt with samples, several articles, such as insects of copper, arti- ficial trees varnished, fans of various kinds, writing paper, paper hangings, &c. They left Osaka early in the morning, by torch- light, and, following the same road which Kiimpfer had taken, reached * Caron, whose opportunities of knowledge upon this point were much superior to those of Thunberg or nny subsequent observer, is very explicit upon this point. " The parents educate their children with great care. They are not forever bawling in their ears, and they never use them roughly. When they cry they show a wonderful patience in quieting them, knowing well that young children are not of an age to profit by reprimands. This method succeeds so well, that Japanese children, ten or twelve years old, beha v e with all the disiretion and propriety of grown people. They are not sent to school till they are seven or eight years old, and then they a not forced to study things for which they have no inclination." t In Kampfer's time r.o personal intercourse was allowed with those of whom articles were bought at Osaka, Miako and Jedo. In this respect there nould seem to have been a relaxation. JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. Miako at night. " Except in Holland," says Thunbcrg, " I nevef made so pleasant a journey as this, with regard to the beauty and delightful appearance of the country. Its population, too, and cultivation, exceed all expression. The whole country, on both sides of us, as far as we could see, was nothing but a fertile field, and the whole of our long day's journoy extended through villages, of which one began where the other ended." The fanners were now preparing their lands for rice. The fields, by means of a raised border, lay almost entirely under water. Thw was the case even with those sides of the hills intended for ri'-e They were laid out in terraces, the water collected on the higher grounds being regulated by means of walls or dams, so as to be let on or shut off at pleasure. There were, also, reservoirs, constructed to retain the contents of the flooded streams, against occasions of drought. The rice was sown first very close and thick, and when about six inches high was transplanted into the fields, in tufts o( several plants, placed about six inches apart. This was done by the women, who waded about in water at least six inches deep, the men having first turned up the ground with a hoe. Beautiful white herons followed the laborers, and cleared the fields of worms. The rice thus planted was reaped in November. Fields of wheat, barley (used to feed the horses), buckwheat, East India kale (Brassica orientalis), and mustard (the two latter for oil), were also seen. These crops, planted in November or Decem- ber, and ripe in May or June, were in beds about a foot broad, and separated from each other by a deep furrow or trench of about the same breadth. Sometimes they were planted across these narrow beds, and sometimes in two rows, lengthwise. Thunberg noticed that when the ear was about to put forth, the plants being grown to the height of a foot, the earth was taken out from the intervening trenches, and drawn up to the roots of the plants. About the same time, or a little earlier, the liquid manure collected in the jars already described, and mingled with all sorts of refuse, was carried out by the farmers, in large pails, and poured with a ladle on the roots of the plants ; a method which avoids the waste incident to spreading the manure on unplantcd fields, to be dried up by the gun, or to lose by evaporation its volatile salts and oily particles. The fields were kept so free of weeds as to afford, much to Thun DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 405 berg'fe disappointment, very little chance to botanize. Animals were little used in agriculture. Only such of the rice fields as lay low, and quite under water, were ploughed by oxen cows being kept for draft and breeding only, and never milked. Thft only wheel carriages seen were a few carts, and these only in and about Miako, some with three wheels,* one before the other two, and soms two-wheeled. These carts were long and narrow, the wheels, some with spokes and fellies, but without any tire, except a rope tied about them, and others of a solid piece, sawed from a log. They were drawn by an ox, by cows, or a buffalo. Horses were chiefly for the use of their princes, though occasionally employed by others for travelling and carrying burdens. They were not numerous, but Thunberg seems to make rather a close estimate in saying that all Japan has scarcely as many horses as a single province of Sweden. There was no occasion for meadows or pas- tures, the cattle and horses being fed at home all the year, so that all the land, not too steep or rocky for cultivation, was devoted to the raising of crops ; nor did the fields require fences. All the manure of the animals kept was carefully preserved, old men and children following the horses of travellers, with a shell fastened to the end of a stick, and a basket in which to put what they collected. Of course the small number of domestic animals made it the more necessary to resort to the other means of providing manure already noticed. A few swine were to be seen, but only in the neighborhood of Nagasaki. There were no sheep nor goats. A supply of these animals, and also of cattle and hogs, for the Dutch at Desima, was brought annually from Batavia. Dogs, " the only idlers in the country," were kept from superstitious motives, and cats were the general favorites of the women. Hens and ducks were kept about the houses, chiefly for their eggs, of which the Japanese make great use, boiled hard and chopped into small pieces. * Kampfer had noticed similar three-wheeled carts, made yery low, and employed in drawing stone from a quarry. In unloading, the single wheel was taken off, when the cart formed an inclined plain. CHAPTER XL. JAPANESE MERCHANTS. JOURNEY FROM MIAKO TO JEDO. BOTANY OF TH MOUNTAINS RAINY WEATHER. COVERINGS FOR THE HEAD AND FEhT. JEDO. ASTRONOMERS AND PHYSICIANS. ACUPUNCTURE. MO.XA. OTHER JAPANESE REMEDIES. METHOD OF WEARING THE HAIR VISITS TO THE EMPEROR AND HIS CHIEF OFFICERS. JAPANESE DRESS. BOOKS AXD MAPS. SUCCESSION OF EMPERORS. DEPARTURE FROM JEDO. GNATS. FIRE-FLIES. THRESHING. VEGETABLES AND FRUITS. CONDITION OP THE JAPANESE FARMER. CASTING COPPER. ACTORS AND DANCERS. THCNBERG'S OPINION OF THE JAPANESE. A. D. 17751775. THE travellers remained four days at Miako, during which the accustomed visits were paid to the chief justice and to the two governors. A new advance of money was also made to them here Thunberg's share being three hundred taels, in gold kobangs, to be charged against the kambang money standing to his credit from the sale of his private goods, and to be laid out in the pur- chase of such rarities and merchandise as he chose. Here, again, the Dutch were waited on by the merchants, from whom they be- spoke several articles in sowas and lackered ware, to be ready against their return. Of these Japanese merchants, Thunberg ob- serves that they are the only persons in the country, except the emperor, who can become rich, and that they sometimes accumulate very considerable sums ; but they cannot, as in Europe, purchase titles, or raise themselves by their money to a higher rank. The position of the trading and manufacturing class seems, indeed, almost precisely the same with that which they held in Europe dur- ing the prevalence of feudal ideas. Commerce, however, was free from any embarrassments by tolls or duties, and a considerable internal trade, of which Miako wa the centre (several annual fares being held there), was carried on, in tea, silk goods, porcelain, rice, lackered ware, &c. THUNBERG'S BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS. 407 Setting out from Miako on the fourteenth of April, the travellers, in passing lake Oitz, were treated to a delicious fish, of the salmon kind, the largest of which seen by Thunberg weighed about ten pounds. Finding, in the course of their journey, that this species of fish was often served up, they ordered some to be smoked, against their return ; but they did not prove equal to European salmon, either in size, fatness, or style of curing. The country still contin- ued as populous as before. In the villages were many almond, peach and aprisot trees, which now presented a very beautiful appearance, blossoming on the bare branches, before the leaves unfolded. These, as well as the plum, cherry, apple and pear* trees, sometimes bore double flowers, upon which the Japanese put a high value. The road having brought them to the sea-shore, Thunberg ob- served the Fucus saccharinus, called by the Japanese, Komb, or Kohu, or sometimes Kosi. Cleansed and dried, it is eaten, though very tough, either boiled or raw in the latter case, cut into strips, which are folded in little squares, a considerable number of which are usually strewed on the little tables, or salvers, on which the complimentary presents, so common with the Japanese, are offered. These presents, generally of trifling value, are always accompanied with a complimentary paper (so called), folded in a peculiar man- ner, and having slips of this fucus pasted to both ends of it. The mountain, Fusi, was now in sight, and presently the moun- tainous tract of Facone was entered, separating the bays of Toto- mina and Jedo. It took a day to cross these mountains, which were covered with bushes and forest-trees, and were the only hills in Japan, except those close to Nagasaki, which Thunberg was per- mitted freely to wander over and examine. " This day," he says, " I was seldom in my norimon ; but in the same degree as I eased my bearers of their burden, I rendered the journey troublesome to the interpreters, and, more particularly, to the inferior officers, who, * Kampfer says that the European apple-tree is unknown in Japan, and that they have only one kind of pears, such as we call winter pears. The fruit grows to a great size, but must be cooked to be eaten. Cherry-trees are cultivated only for the flowers, as apricots and plums often are, the blos- soms being brought by art to be as big as roses. Golowuia, however, ate apples in northern Japan, though of an inferior quality. 408 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. by rotation, were to follow my steps. I was not allowed, indeed, to go far out of the road, but having been previously used to run up rocks in the African mountains, I frequently got to a consider- able distance before my anxious and panting followers, and thereby gained time to gather a great many of the most curious and scarcest plants, which had just began to flower, and which I put in my handkerchief." Among the trees growing in this tract was the Thuya dolcbrata, planted everywhere by the road-side, tall, straight, and with leaves of silver-white on their under sides in Thunberg's opinion the hand- somest of the fir tribe. There were no less than six peculiar species of maple, all of great beauty. Cedars (Cuprcssus japonica), a common tree throughout the country, grew here in great perfection. The straightest and tallest of the firs, their trunks ran up straight as a candle, and, being both light and very durable, the timber was employed for all sorts of constructions, and also for cabinet work, the veins showing to advantage when covered with varnish. The wood of this tree, next to thePinus silvestris, is that most employed by carpenters, &c. He also observed several species of oaks, 4 the common barberry, in full blossom, several species of the Vaccinia, or whortleberry, a wild pear-tree, a shrub with leaves so rough that they arc used for polishing by the joiners, the Oryris japonica, bearing its flowers at the middle of its leaves; also, several beau- tiful flowering shrubs, Viburna, with double as well as single flowers, two species of Spirex, the Citrus tripoliata, and the Gardenia Florida, of which the seed-vessels afforded a yellow dye. The dragon lily (Arum dracontium), and the edible species of the game plant (Arum esculentum), the eddo, or tania, of the West Indies, and taro of the Sandwich Islands (Caladium in more recent classifications), were cultivated in some spots. By night the sea-shore was again reached, at Odoirara, whence two days' journey took them to Jedo, where they arrived, on ac- count of the delay in the sea voyage, at a period unusually late, but which Thunberg notes as an advantage, since it gave him, both going and returning, a better opportunity to observe the vegetation Kampfer says there are two species peculiar to Japan, the acorns of which are boiled and eaten THUNBERG AT JEDO. 409 of the country. During the journey there had been ruin sometimes, but not too often, and the cold had been such as occasionally to make fires very comfortable. The Japanese, he observed, bore the cold better than the rain, which did not altogether agree with their bare feet and heads. For the feet they used only slippers of rice straw,* left at the door whenever they entered a house, consisting of a sole, without upper leather or hind-piece (kept on by a thong, or strap, held fast between the toes), and soon soaked and spoiled by the rain, on which occasion, indeed, high wooden clogs were sometimes substituted. Ordinarily, even while travelling, no covering for the head was worn, but in hard rains they used an umbrella, a hat of plaited grass, and a cloak of oil-paper, for which the poorer class substituted a piece of straw matting, thrown over their backs. The weather, during a stay of twenty-six days at Jedo, from April 28th to May 25th, was often damp, almost every day cloudy, with sometimes drizzling, and sometimes heavy, rain. Several slight shocks of earthquake were felt. Several fires occurred, which were soon extinguished. A great fire, during the Dutch visit of 1772, had burned from noon till eight at night, spreading over a vast space, and making it necessary to remove the Dutch three times. Down to the day of audience, which did not take place till the 18th of May, the Dutch were not suffered to go out. Numbers of persons obtained, however, permission to visit them. The first who called were five physicians and two astronomers, prompted espe- cially by Thunberg's scientific reputation, which the interpreters had noised abroad, and who were very inquisitive on various points of science. The questions of the astronomers related principally to eclipses, which it appeared they could not calculate to minutes, and frequently not even to hours ; but besides the difficulty of car- rying on this conversation through interpreters, another arose, from the fact that Thunberg's astronomy had grown a little rusty, and that neither he nor the Japanese had any books to which they could refer. In matters of medicine, he felt more at home, especially as two * Later accounts represent cloth or cotton stockings, or socks, as fre- quently worn in cold weather, resembling mittens, in having a separate ac- commodation for the great toe, so as to permit the introduction between that and the others of the shoe-holding strap. 35 410 JAPAN. A. 1). 1773 177C. of the Japanese doctors could speak Dutch one of them tolerably well. They also had some knowledge of natural history, collected partly from Chinese and Dutch hooks, and partly from the Dutch physicians who had visited Jedo, but who frequently had not been very well able to instruct them, as they were often, to use Tliiin- berg's expression, " little better than horse-doctors." One of the two Japanese, quite a young man, was the emperor's body-physi- cian; the other, somewhat older and better informed, was physician to one of the chief princes. Both were good-natured, acute and lively. They attached themselves to Thunberg with great zeal, coming to see him every day, and often staying late at night. Though weari- some with their questions, yet so insinuating were they in their man- ners and anxious to learn, that our traveller found much pleasure in their society. They had a number of Dutch works on botany, medicine and surgery, and Thunberg sold them some others. They were particularly struck with the tine set of surgical instruments which he had brought from Amsterdam and Paris. These medical friends were of great use to him in his studies in natural history. Among the botanical specimens which they brought him were the pine of Kurope (Pim/s abics), of which, as well as of the Pinus SJlcestris, he had seen several on his journey to court, the chestnut, which he saw afterwards at Miuko, on his return, and the walnut (Juyidans niyra}. They also brought him a variety of ores and minerals, and specimens of fishes and insects. The Japanese, he found, knew nothing of anatomy or physiology. They were ignorant of the circulation of the blood, feeling the pulse for a quarter of an hour, first in one arm and then in the other, not knowing that both beat alike. Bleeding they very sel- dom practised ; of the use of mercury they knew nothing ; and, notwithstanding what Thunberg relates of the cures effected under his direction, by the use of corrosive sublimate, it may be doubted now much benefit he conferred by the introduction of that remedy, or by the present which he made to his " beloved pupils" of "his diver-spring lancet," with instructions how to use it. The two great remedies of the Japanese are acupuncture and burning with the moxa, the former chiefly practised in a violent colic endemic to the country. According to the Japanese Mieory, t is caused by wind, and to let out this wind several sina 1 holes THUNBERG AT JEDO. 411 nine being a favorite number are made with needles, prepared for the purpose, generally in the muscles of the stomach or abdo- men, though other fleshy parts of the body are, in some cases, chosen for the operation. These needles are nearly as fine as a hair, made of gold and silver generally, but sometimes of steel, by persons who profess a particular skill in tempering them. The bony parts, nerves and blood-vessels, are carefully avoided, and while they are passed through the skin and muscle, they are twirled about in a peculiar manner. There are many practitioners who confine themselves to this practice alone.* A still more favorite and universal remedy, employed quite as much for prevention as cure, is burning with the moxa the finer woolly part of the young leaves of the \vonnwood (Artemesia), of which the coarser kind is used for ordinary tinder. It is procured by rubbing and beating the leaves till the green part separates and nothing remains but the wool, which is sorted into two kinds. When applied, it is made up in little cones, which, being placed on the part selected for the operation, are set fire to from the top. They burn very slowly leaving a scar or blister on the skin, which, some time after, breaks and discharges. The operation is not very pain- ful, except when repeated in the same place, as it sometimes is, or when applied to certain tender parts. It is thought very efficacious in pleurisies, tooth-ache, gout and rheumatism disorders which, like the colic above-mentioned, are rapid in their operation, and of which the paroxysms tend to a speedy termination under any medi- cal treatment or none at all. The Japanese have very elaborate treatises as to the effects produced by the moxa, according to the part to which it is applied, and its application forms a science and profession by itself. The fleshy parts, especially of the back, are ordinarily selected. It is used still more by way of prevention than for cure, every person, young and old, male and female, even pris oners in the jails, submitting to the operation, at least once in sis * There have not been wanting attempts to introduce acupuncture into European practice. See a sensible article on this subject by Remusat (*Vov. Melanges Jlsiai., \ol. I. ), in which he gives an analysis of a Japanese t. eat- iseon acupuncture, which, with a translation of it, was brought home bj Tit- eingh. 412 JAPAN. A. D. 1775 177G. months.* Another remedy is friction, applied by certain profes sors, and which proves of great use in pains of the limbs, arising from the prevailing vicissitudes of the weather. Internal remedies are generally exhibited in the form of simple decoctions, diuretic or sudorific. Wonderful virtues are ascribed to certain drugs ; and, on the whole, the Japanese appear, as in the use of unicorn's horn and ginseng, to have been not less deluded by quack medicines and medical theories than more enlightened nations.! The doctors, like the priests, are distinguished from other people by the fashion of wearing their hair. Thunberg states in one place that they shaved the whole head ; in another, that they had the option of retaining all their hair, like the boys and women. According to Titsingh, physicians shave the head, and surgeons wear the hair. Of surgery, however, they know next to nothing. All the male Japanese who are neither priests nor physicians, from the time the beard begins to grow, shave the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck. The little hair left about the neck and on the temples is well oiled, turned up in a cue, and tied with several rounds of white string made of paper. The hair above the tie is cut off, leaving about the length of a finger, which, being stiffened with a sort of pomatum, is so bent that the tip of it is made to stand against the crown of the head. This arrangement is strictly atteuded to, the head being shaved every day, that tho stumps of the growing hair may not disfigure it. Women who have parted with their husbands also shave theii heads at least Thunberg met with one such instance; but, in general, the women retain all their hair, which they make smooth with oil and mucilaginous substances, and either put close to the head all round, or else (in the case of single women and scrving- * Kampfer treats at length on the acupuncture and moxa, and gives in his appendix a translation of a Japanese treatise on the parts to be selected to be burnt, according to the object to be accomplished. t Of the Dobiu powder, to which the Japanese ascribe singular effects, M. Titsingh has given a curious account. Illustrations, p. 283. It was the invention of Kot/ou, a great saint and sage, who, by profound meditation on the writings both of his own sect and others, had discovered that the great scourges of mankind are four ; namely, Sigokf, hell ; Goki , woman ; Tiiku* tto, the man with a perverse heart ; and Sioura, war. IMPERIAL AUDIENCE. 413 mai \s) make it stand in puffs on each side of the face. Tht ends are fastened together in a knob at the crown of the head, just before which is stuck a large comb, made, in the case of the poorer people, of lackered boxwood, and among the richer of tortoise-shell. The rich wear also several long ornaments of tortoise-shell, stuck through this knob, which, with a few flowers, constitute the whole of their head decorations. " Vanity," says Thunberg, " has not yet taken root among them to that degree as to induce them to wear rings or other ornaments in their ears. No caps, hats or bonnets are worn, except a conical cap, made of reeds, when travelling. Otherwise the parasol, or fan, is all the shelter they use against the sun or the rain." The official visits are thus described by Thunberg : " We were dressed in the European fashion, but in costly silks, interwoven with silver and laced with gold. On account of the festivity of the day it was requisite for us to wear our swords and a very large black silk cloak. We were carried a considerable distance through the town before we arrived at the emperor's residence. This is surrounded by fosses and stone walls, and separated by draw- bridges. It forms a considerable town of itself, and is said to be five leagues in circumference, comprising the emperor's private palace, as also that of the hereditary prince, each separated from the other by wide fosses, stone walls, gates and other bulwarks. In the outermost citadel, which was the largest of all, were large and handsome covered streets and great houses, which belonged to the princes of the country, the pvivy councillors, and other officers of state. Their numerous families, who were obliged likewise to remain at the court the whole year throughout, were also lodged here. At the first gate there was a strong guard. That at the second gate was said to consist of a thousand men.* As soon as * From Thunberg's account of the arms of the Japanese, they cannot be regarded as very formidable soldiers. He mentions bows and arrows, scym- etars, halberts and guns. Their bowf are very large and their arrows long, like those of the Chinese. The bowman, in order to shoot, places himself on one knee, a position which renders it impossible to discharge his arrows with any great rapidity. Guns were not ordinarily employed. Thunbevg saw them, apparently matchlocks, only as articles of show in the houses of the imperial officers, displayed upon a stand in the audience chamber. The few 35* 414 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. we had passed through this gate, having previously quitted out uorimous, we were conducted to an apartment, where we waited a full hour. At last, having obtained leave to approach the imperial palace, we passed t irough a long lane of soldiers, who were posted on both sides quite up to the door of the palace, all armed and well clothed. " The emperor's private palace was situated on an eminence, and although it consisted of one story only, still it was much higher than any other house, and covered a large tract of ground. We were immediately conducted into an antechamber, where we again waited at least an hour. Our officers sat down in the Japane.se manner on one side, and the Dutchmen, together with the interpre- ters, on the other. It proved extremely fatiguing to us to sit in their manner ; and, as we could not hold it out long thus, we put our legs out on one side and covered them with our long cloaks, which in this respect were of great service to us. " The time we waited here did not appear long, as great num- bers of people passed in and out, both in order to look at us and talk with us. We were visited by several princes of the country, but constantly incognito, though we could always perceive when they were coming, from the murmuring noise which was at first heard from the inner rooms, and the silence that ensued upon it. cannon at Nagasaki, which once belonged to the Portuguese, were discharged only once in seven years, the Japanese knowing little or not at all the proper management of them, and fixing the match to a long pole, so as to touch them off at a safe distance. Their longer swords are broad-backed, a little curved, a yard long, and of excellent temper ; the hilts somewhat roundish and flat, furnished with a round substantial guard without any bow. The scabbard is thick and rather fl.it, made of wood, and sometimes covered with shagreen and lackered. The shorter sword is straight. These swords are costly and rated at a high value. From a Japanese work, Siehold states their method of making sword-blades : " The blades, forged out of good bar-steel, are plastered over with a paste of potash, porcelain clay and powdered charcoal, and dried in the sun. They are next exposed to the fire and heated till the mass assumes a white hue. The glowing bl ides are then plunged into lukc-warm water, three fifths boil- ing to two fifths cold, and cooled gradually. Often the edge only is heated, and then the cooling is with cold water. The reforging of old blades is not uncommon." Of the two swords worn by the Japanese, one is loiig and slightly curved, the other short and straight VISITS TO THE HIGH OFFICERS. 415 Their curiosi y was carried to a great length in everything ; but the chief employment they found for us, was to let them see our mode of writing. We were thus induced to write something either on paper or on their fans. Some of them showed us fans on which the Dutch had formerly written, and which they had carefully treasured up as great rarities. " At last the instant arrived when the ambassador was to have audience, at which the ceremony was totally different from that which was used in Kampfer's time, we remaining in the apartment into which we had been ushered. " After the return of the ambassador we were again obliged to stay a long while in the antechamber, in order to receive the visits and answer the questions of several of the courtiers, several times during whose entrance a deep silence prevailed. Among t'lese, it was said, his imperial majesty had likewise come incognito, in order to have a nearer view of the Dutch and their dress.* Tiie inter- preters and officers had spared no pains to find out, through the medium of their friends, everything that could tend to our informa- tion in this respect. The emperor was of a middle size, hale con- stitution, and about forty and odd years of age. " At length, after all the visits were ended, we obtained leave to see several rooms in the palace, and also that in which the ambassa- dor had had audience, and which has already been described. " The ambassador was conducted by the outside of the anteroom and alone a boarded passage to the audience room, which opened by a sliding-door. The inner room consisted, in a manner, of three rooms, one a step higher than the other, and, according to the measure I took of them by my eye, when afterwards permitted to view them, of about ten paces each in length, so that the distance between the emperor and the ambassador might be about thirty paces. The emperor, as I was informed, stood during the audience, in the most interior part of the room, as did the hereditary prince likewise, at his right hand. To the right of this room was a large saloon, the floor of which was covered by a hundred mats, and hence called the hundred-mat saloon. It is six hundred feet long * This appears to have been the substitute for those private interviews, in which the doctor and secretary were expected to show off for the entertain merit of the Dutch, and of which Kilmpfer lias given so curious an account. 4:16 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. and three hundred broad,* and is occupied by the most dignified men of the empire, privy councillors and princes, who all, on similar occasions, take their seats according to their different ranks and dignity. To the left, in the audience room, lay the presents, sent beforehand, and piled up in heaps. The whole of the audience con- sists merely in this, that, as soon as the ambassador enters the room, he falls on his hands, lays his hand on the mat, and bows his head down to it, in the same manner as the Japanese themselves are used to testify their subjection and respect. After this the ambassador rises, and is conducted back to the anteroom the same way that he came. " The rest of the rooms which we viewed had no furniture in them. The floors were covered with large and very white straw mats ; the cornices and doors were handsomely lackered, and the locks, hinges, &c., well gilt. " After having thus looked about us, we were conducted to the hereditary prince's palace, which stood close by, and was separated only by a bridge. Here we were received and complimented in the name of the hereditary prince, who was not at home ; after which we were conducted back to our norimons. " Although the day was already far advanced, and we had had sufficient time to digest our early breakfast, we were nevertheless obliged to pay visits to all the privy councillors, as well to the six ordinary as to the six extraordinary, at each of their respective houses. And as these gentlemen were not yet returned from court, we were received in the most polite manner by their deputies, and exhibited to the view of their ladies and children. Each visit lasted half an hour ; and we were for the most part so placed in a large room that we could be viewed on all sides through thin curtains, without having the good fortune to get a sight of these court beau- ties, excepting at one place, where they made so free as, not only to take away the curtain, but also desired us to advance nearer. In general we were received by two gentlemen in office, and at every place treated with gr^en tea, the apparatus for smoking, and pastry, which was set bei)re each of us, separately, on small * It would take a thousand of the ordinary Japanese mats to cover such a floor ; but Thunberg says the mats upon it were of an extra size, VISITS TO THE HIGH OFFICERS. 417 tables. We drank sometimes a cup of the boiled tea, but did not touch the tobacco, and the pastry was taken home through the pru- dent care of our interpreters. " I shall never forget the delightful prospect we had during these visits, from an eminence that commanded a view of the whole of this large and extensive town, which the Japanese affirm to be twenty-one leagues, or as many hours' walk, in circumference. The evening drew nigh by the time that we returned, weary and worn out, to our inn. " On the following day (May 19th) we paid our respects to the temple lords, as they are called, the two governors of the town, and the two commissaries of strangers. A few days elapsed after this before we received our audience of leave. This was given, in a very summary manner, on the 23d following, and only before the lords in council appointed for this purpose. The intervening days were employed in receiving presents and preparing for our depart- ure. At the audience of leave, the gowns or Japanese dresses, intended as presents for the Dutch East India Company, were delivered. The presents destined for us were carried to our inns. Every ordinary privy councillor gives, the day after the audience of leave, ten gowns ; every extraordinary privy councillor, six ; every temple lord, five ; and every commissary, and the governor of Na- gasaki, two. Of these our banjos [the officers called by Kiimpfer bugio and deputy-bugio the conductors of the journey] received two ; the secretary and myself two apiece ; and the ambassador four. The rest are packed up for the company's account." * Of these gowns, the universal, and almost only article of Japan- ese dress, Thunberg, in another place, gives the following account. " They are long and wide, and worn, one or more of them, by people of every age and condition in life. The rich have them of the finest silk, and the poor of cotton. The women wear them reaching down to their feet, and the women of quality frequently with a train. Those of the men come down to their heels ; but travellers, together with soldiers arid laboring people, either tuck them up or wear them so short that they only reach to their knees. * This was a different arrangement from that which prevailed in Kamp- fer's time, when the ambassador had the whole, except those presented bj the emperor himself. 418 JAPAN. A. D. 17751776. The men generally have them made of plain silk of one color ; but the silken stuffs won by the women are flowered, sometimes in gold. In the summer they are either without any lining at all, or else with a thin lining only. In winter, by way of defence against the cold weather, they are quilted with cotton or silk wad. The men seldom wear many of them, but the women often from thirty to fifty, or more, and all so thin, that together they hardly weigh more than four or five pounds. The undermost serves for a shirt, and is therefore either white or bluish, and, for the most part, thin and transparent. All these gowns are fastened about the waist by a belt, which for the men is about the breadth of a hand, and for the women of twelve inches, and of such length as to go twice round the body, with a large knot and rose. The knot worn by the fair sex, which is larger than that worn by the men, shows imme- diately whether the woman is married or not ; as the married women wear the knot before, and the single behind. The men fasten to this belt their sabres,* fan, tobacco-pipe and pouch. The gowns are rounded off about the neck, without a cape, open before, and show the bare bosom, which is never covered, either with a hand- kerchief or anything else. The sleeves are ill-shaped, wide and long, the openings partly sewed up, so as to form a bag, into which they put their hands in cold weather, or use it as a pocket to hold their papers and other things.! Young girls, in particular, have the sleeves of their gowns so long as frequently to reach quite down to the ground. On account of the width of their garments, they are soon dressed and undressed, as they have nothing more to do than to untie their girdle and draw in their arms, when the whole of their dress instantly falls off of itself. The gowns serve also for bedclothes. The common people, when at work, are frequently seen naked, with only a girdle about them, or with their gowns taken off the upper part of their bodies, and hanging down loose from their gir- * The two swords, the badge of nobility, are worn stuck into the belt, on the left side, with no belt of their own, a little crosswise and with the edge apwards. When a person is seatel the longer sword is taken from the belt and laid on the ground by him. t The bosom of the gown is also used for the same purpose. For pocket- handkerchiefs, the Japanese carry about them a supply of small, squar* bits of soft paper, which they throw away as they use them. WORKS ON NATURAL HISTORY. 419 dies. Men of a highe rank wear over the long gowns a shorter one, made of some thin stuff, such as gauze. As to the neck and sleeves of it, they are like those of the other, but it reaches only to the waist, and is not fastened with a girdle, but tied before and at the top with a string. This half-gown is sometimes of a yellow, but most frequently of a black color, and is laid aside at home, or in any place where no superior is present." As the Japanese ordinarily wear no covering for the legs, feet or head, the above described gowns constitute their entire dress, except upon occasions of ceremony, when a complimentary dress, or honor- gown, kamisamo, as they call it, is added to it. This compliment- ary dress consists of a frock, generally of a blue stuff, with white flowers about half the length of the gown, and made much in the same way, but carried on each side back over the shoulders, so as to give a very broad-shouldered appearance to the wearer. To this, with persons of a certain rank, is added, as part of the dress- of ceremony, a garment half breeches, half petticoat, as if it were a petticoat sewed up between (he legs, but left open at the sides for two thirds their length, fastened about the waist by a band, and reaching to the ankles. Before leaving Jedo, Thunberg purchased a number of botanical books, containing very indifferent figures of plants, as did another botanical work, in twenty thin octavo volumes, presented to him by one of his medical pupils. But a large printed* quarto, which he purchased, contained figures of Japanese fishes, engraved and col- ored in such superior style, as to be able to compete with similar European works. He also procured, though the selling such things to strangers was strictly prohibited, a map of Japan, with plans of Jedo, Miako and Nagasaki, exactly like those brought away by Kiimpfer, and engraved in his work. Just before his departure, at the request of his two pupils in medicine, he gave them a certificate in Dutch, of their proficiency, with which they were as highly de- lighted as ever a young doctor was with his diploma. A warm friendship had sprang up between him and them, and, even after Thunberg's return to Europe, a correspondence was kept up and * The Japanese print entirely froa stereotype plates. They do not em ploy movable types, and they print on one side of the paper only. 420 JAPAN. A. D. 1773 177G. presents exchanged for some years, down at least to the publication of his travels. According to Thunberg, the personages composing the imperial court were in his time so little known that very few people in the whole empire were acquainted with their names. M. Feith, the director whom he accompanied to Jedo, and who had been on the same embassy four times before, and had lived in Japan fourteen years, was obliged to confess at table, after their return to Batavia, being inquired of as to the name of the reigning emperor, that he did not know it, and never had heard it.* It was only through the friendship of his medical pupils at Jedo, and of the chief interpre- ter, that he obtained a knowledge of it, and also a list of the empe- rors since Kampfer's time, which he gives as follows : CHIN NA YOS (reigning when Kiimpfer left Japan, and for twelve or thirteen years previously.) 1709, YE NOB KOO. 1713, YE Tsu KU KOO. 1717, Yosi MCNE KOO. 1752, YE SIEGE KOO. 1762, YE Fun KOO,| who continued to reign at the time of Thunberg's departure, being the forty-first in succession from Jori- tomo, and ninth from Jesi Jas, otherwise Daisu-Sama and Ogoshu- Sama, or, as he was called after his death, Gongin-Sama, by whom the reigning dynasty had been established. Thunberg left Jedo on his return the 25th of May. The weather being rainy they were a good deal molested by gnats, against which they had to protect themselves by gauze curtains. The Japanese * The emperors are seldom or never spoken of, in the Jesuit letters and other contemporary memorials, by their personal or family names, but only by Borne title, as Kubo-Sama ; Kambucundono, or, as Klaproth would write it, Kwanbaku-dono theKwanbak (or bonnet- keeper) being a high dignitary in the court of the Dairi, regent in case of a minority or a female Dairi ; Taiko-Sama, mighty lord ; Xogun-Sama, which is only, as has been already noted, Siogun-Sama, &c. &c. t The above names are written by Titsingh, as corrected by Klaproth, thus : Tsuna yosi, Ye-Nobu, Yei tsubo, Yosi-Mune, Ye-Sige (whose ac- cession he places in 174")), Ye-Faru (succeeds in 1760). He gives as suc- cessor in 1786, Yeye-Nari. Koo (which Titsingh writes kio) he represents as a title merely. FARMING. 421 fire-flies, so much more brilliant and active than the European glow-worm, were noticed with admiration. At this season the first gathering was made of the tea-leaves, yet quite young and yielding the finer kinds of tea. He observed in some places the leaves carelessly spread before the houses on mate to dry. He also observed the farmers, in several places, threshing barley, wheat and mustard seed, on similar mats, with flails having three ewingels, or sometimes by beating the ears against a tub. To sepa- rate the exterior husk from the rice, it was pounded by hand in a kind of mortar, or by means of a machine consisting of a number of pestles set in motion by a water-wheel, or by a man's foot. After the wheat and barley were gathered, French beans ( Phaseoli) were . sown for a second crop. He observed many kinds of peas and beans cultivated, especially the Dolichos soia, not only used for making soy, but the chief ingredients of a soup, a daily dish with most classes. The Dolichos polyatachos, which ran winding like scarlet beans, was employed for arbors. Its flowers, hanging down from long stalks, were very ornamental, and appeared in succession for a long period. He mentions, also, lettuce, melons both with red and white pulp, pumpkins, cucumbers, eaten both raw and pickled, gourds, employed for flasks, mushrooms, very much used, especially for soups and sauces, Seville and China oranges, lemons, shaddocks, medlars (Mespillus j'aponica), a large sort of persimmon (Dyosperos kaki], grapes, pomegranates, Spanish figs (Cactus ficus), chestnuts and walnuts.* The condition of the Japanese farmer Thun- berg contrasts very favorably with that of the Swedish agricultural- ist, overloaded as the latter was with feudal burdens, though doubt less he knew better these burdens, which he indignantly enumer ates, than he did the grievances of the Japanese cultivator. At Osaka he saw the smelting of copper from the ores obtained in that neighborhood, and the method of casting it into bars. A mould was made for this purpose, by digging a hole in the ground a foot deep, across which were laid ten square iron bars, barely a finger's breadth apart. A strip of sail-cloth was spread over these bars and forced down. The hole was then filled with water, and * Kampfer represents the Japanese strawberry as entirely insipid, and the raspberries and brambleberries as not agreeable ; and Golownin, from hia own experience, agrees with him in this statement. 3G 422 JAPAN. A. D. 1775177;. the melted metal, smelted from the ore, was dipped up in iron ladles and poured into this mould, thus forming each time ten or eleven thin plates. To this method of casting he ascribes its high colo*. Thunberg had an opportunity of seeing Japanese plays, both at Osaka, on his return from Miako, and at Nagasaki, during the an- nual Matsuri in honor of Siwa, which he attended. " The specta- tors," he says, " sit in houses of different dimensions, on benches. Facing them, upon an elevated but small and narrow place, stands the theatre itself, upon which seldom more than one or two actors perform at a time. These are always dressed in a very singular man- ner, according as their own taste and fancy suggest, insomuch that a stranger would be apt to believe that they exhibited themselves not to entertain, but to frighten, the audience. Their gestures as well as their dress are strangely uncouth and extravagant, and consist in artificial contortions of the body, which it must have cost them much trouble to learn and perform. In general they repre- sent some heroic exploit, or love story, of their idols and heroes, which are frequently composed in verse, and are sometimes accom- panied with music. A curtain may, it is true, be let fall between the actors and the spectators, and some necessary pieces be brought forward upon the theatre ; but in other respects these small theatres have no machinery nor decorations which can entitle them to be put in comparison with those of Europe. " When the Japanese wish at any time to entertain the Dutch, either in the town of Nagasaki, or more particularly during their journey to the imperial court, they generally provide a band of female dancers, for the amusement of their guests. These are gen- erally young damsels, very superbly dressed, whom they fetch from the inns ; sometimes young boys likewise are mixed among them. Such a dance requires always a number of persons, who turn and twine, and put themselves into a variety of artificial postures, in order to represent an amorous or heroic deed, without either speak- ing or singing. Their steps are, however, regulated by the music which plays to them. These girls are provided with a number of very fine and light gowns, made of silk, which they slip off one after another, during the dance, from the upper part of their body, so as frequently to leave them, to the number of a dozen together, Suspended from the girdle which encircles their loins." THUNBERG'S CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. 423 Though the view taken by Thunberg of the Japanese presents them perhaps not quite so high in the scale of civilization as Kamp- fer's, yet he is scarcely less their admirer, coinciding, indeed, in this respect, with most of the Europeans who have left any memorials of their observations in Japan. He notes especially their courtesy, friendly disposition, ingenuity, love of knowledge, justice, honesty, frugality, cleanliness and self-respect ; and he emphatically repu- diates the conclusion that, because the laws are severe and strictly executed, the people are therefore to be regarded as slaves. These laws are for the public good, and their severity ensures their observ- ance. "The Japanese," he tells us, "hate and detest the inhuman traffic in slaves, carried on by the Dutch, and the cruelty with which these poor creatures are treated." In common with Kiimpfer he admires and extols the immutability of the Japanese laws and customs ; but this seems hardly so legiti- mate a subject of eulogy as the peace in which the empire is kept, the plenty which is said to prevail,* and its freedom as well from internal feuds, political or religious, as from foreign encroachments. Thuriberg's Flora Japonica describes about a thousand species, of which upwards of three hundred were new. In the preface to it, he speaks of the. Japanese Islands as chiefly hills and valleys, with high mountains. Plains and meadows are rare. The soil is now clayey and now sandy. The summer heat is great, espe- cially in July and August, sometimes one hundred degrees of Fahren- heit, and scarcely tolerable but for the breeze. In winter the ther- mometer, even in the most southern parts, falls many degrees below the freezing-point, especially with the wind from the north and west, with ice and snow, which on the highest mountains remains all the year round. The changes in the weather are great and sudden ; violent storms with thunder and lightning are common. The rain? are abundant throughout the year, and especially so in spring anu summer, whence in part the fertility of Japan, mainly due, however, to careful cultivation. * This plenty is in strong contrast with the famine, scarcity and distress, frequently noted by the Jesuit missionaries, as prevailing during the civij wars of their time ; yet, even at present, occasional seasons of scarcity seers to occur. CHAPTER XLI. ISAAC TITSINGH. HIS RESIDENCE IX JAPAN. TRANSLATIONS FROM TH1 JAPANESE. ANNALS OF TUE DAIRI. MEMOIRS OF TILE SIOGUN. LIBERAL IDEAS IN JAPAN. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES. FUNERAL CEREMONIES. - MOURNING. FEAST OF LANTERNS. A. D. 17791791. Soox after Thunberg's departure, he had a worthy successor, in the person of Mr. Isaac Titsingh, the first director at Desiina since the time of Caron to whom we are indebted for any information about Japan. Born about 1G40, Titsingh had entered early into the service of the Dutch East India Company. After seven years' residence at Batavia, he was sent to Desima, as director, where he arrived August 15th, 1779, and remained till Xovember 29th, 1780, when he returned to Batavia. lie came back again to Japan August 12th, 1781, and remained till November Gth, 1783, the war between Holland and England, growing out of the American revolution, having prevented the arrival of any ships from Ba- tavia during the year 1782 an event of which Titsingh took advantage to stipulate for a considerable advance in the price of Dutch imports, for a term of fifteen years. He reached Nagasaki a third time, August 18th, 1784, but left again November 26th of the same year. During his first and second visits he made the journey to Jedo as Dutch ambassador, where he succeeded in mak- ing several friends, particularly Kutsuka Samo?i, prince of Tamba, who had learned Dutch, which he wrote tolerably well, with whom, and other Japanese friends, Titsingh kept up a correspondence for some time after leaving the country. During his residence in Japan he made a valuable collection of Japanese curiosities, including many Japanese books, and he also brought home with him translations of some of these books, made by aid of Japanese interpreters attached to the factory at Desima,. Whose interpretations, given viva voce, he wrote out in Dutch ; foi ISAAC TITSINGH. 42b though Titsingh knew enough of Japanese for the purposes of con- versation, he does not seem to have acquired the written language, nor to have been able to read Chinese, of which the characters are largely, and, indeed, chiefly, employed in most Japanese works of much pretensions. " I found," he says, " among the interpreters belonging to our factory, four individuals sufficiently well-informed for my purpose ; a fifth had devoted himself chiefly to medicine, in which he had made rapid progress, in consequence of the instruc- tion given to him by Dr. Thunberg. Far from finding them suspi- cious and reluctant, as Europeans are usually pleased to represent these persons, in order to palliate their own indolence, they mani- fested, on the contrary, an eagerness to procure for uie every prac- ticable information, to consult, in various matters beyond their capacity, the best informed individuals among the magistrates and clergy, and to furnish me with books which might serve as a guide to my labors." After leaving Japan, Titsingh was governor at the Dutch factory at Chinsurah, in Bengal, where he became acquainted with Sir William Jones. In 1794 he was sent, with Van Braam, on a Dutch embassy to Pekin, with the design to counterwork the English em- bassy of Lord Macartney ; but this residence in China was limited to a few months. Returning to Europe, after a residence in the East of thirty- three years, Titsingh designed to publish the result of his Japanese researches, in both Dutch and French ; but, before having done it, he died at Paris, in 1812, leaving his large fortune and his collec- tions and manuscripts to an only child of his, by an Eastern woman, by whom the fortune was soon spent, and the manuscripts and curi- osities sold and scattered, though some of them ultimately fell into appreciating hands.* * See a notice of Titsingh's collection, by Remusat, in Nouveau Melanges Asiatique, vol. i. It included, besides tbe works since published, a manu- script history of Japan, in eighty volumes (Japanese volumes are quite thin), also, a Chinese Japanese encyclopaedia, several copies of a large map of Japan, colored drawings of plants, several botanicnl treatises, with wood cuts, very well done, &c., &c. The encyclopaedia was presented to the Biblotheque au Roy, and Remusat has given a full analysis of it in Notices et Extracts des Manuscripts, vol. xi. 36* 426 JAPAN. - A. D. 17791791. his translations, the one to which Titsingh ascribed the greatest importance was that of the Nipon o dai if si Ran, an abridged Japanese chronicle, from A. c. 600 to A. D. 1611, compiled in the year 1652, and printed at Miako. Having been carefully compared by Klaproth with the original a task, as he says, from the mani- fold defects of Titsingh's version, almost equivalent to a new trans- lation and having been enriched with an introduction, a supple- ment and notes, this work was published in 1834, in French, at the expense of the Oriental Translation Fund, under the title of " Antiales des Enpereurs du Japan." Though highly valuable as a specimen of what Japanese histories are, and though Klaproth's introduction and notes contain some curious information, this performance is, on the whole, exceedingly dry, while it adds but little to the abstract given by Kampfer of thirf or some other similar work. A criticism which Titsingh him- self makes upon it, in a letter to the prince of Tamba, to whom he had intended to dedicate his translation, is worthy of notice, as going to show how little, with all its formal precision of years and months, the earlier Japanese chronology is entitled to historical respect. " Must we not suppose," asks Titsingh, " that the Japan- ese, so jealous of their neighbors, the Chinese, have, in writing their own history, endeavored to fill up many gaps in it by prolong- ing the reigns of their earlier Dairi ? There is in your history a period of one thousand and sixty-one years occupied by the reigns of only sixteen Daivi. The duration of the life of Syn-mu, of the reigns of Ko-a?i, of Sei-sum, and the life of O-sin, appear altogether improbable. The first died at the age of one hundred and twenty- seven years. The second reigned one hundred and two years, the third ninety-nine years. The last lived one hundred and ten years. These statements are too extraordinary to be blindly believed Grant, even, that a chaste and frugal way of living may have secured for these princes a very advanced age, but how does it happen that, after Nin-tok-ten-o [the seventeenth Dairi], none ex- ceeded the ordinary limit of human life ? " The Japanese still cling with tenacity to the formal recognition of the absolute rights of the Dairi. With as much warmth as a loyal Englishman would exhibit in maintaining the actual sover- eignty of Queen Victoria, they insisted to Titsingh and the saou RELATIONS OF THE DAIRI AND SIOGUN. 427 thing afterwards occurred to Golownin that Europeans were mis- taken in applying the term " emperor " to the Siogun, the Dairi being the only legal emperor, and the Siogun but an officer to whom the Dairi had entrusted the administration.* The annual visit of the Siogun to the Dairi, made in Caron's time, had been discontinued ; but mutual embassies are still ex- changed, and the envoys sent from the Dairi are received by the Siogun as if they were the Dairi himself. The Siogun goes to meet them, and conducts them to the hall of audience, where he performs the kitu, bending before them till his head touches the mats, as if they were the very Dairi. This homage finished, the Siogun resumes his rank, and the ambassadors then, perform the kotu to him. During their stay they are entertained by two per- sons, who, from the allowance made for it, find this office very lucrative. The ambassadors also receive rich presents, not only at Jedo, but all along the route, and the attendance upon this service, even in an inferior capacity, is so lucrative as to be eagerly coveted by the poor courtiers of the Dairi. Titsingh encountered one of these embassies on his return from Jedo in 1782, and was obliged to stop a whole day, and to lodge in a citizen's house, all the horses, porters and inns, being taken up by the embassy. However poor and powerless, the courtiers of the Dairi still enjoy all the outward observances of superior rank. The first princes of the empire must pay them the homage of the kitu, and must lay aside their two swords in their presence. For this reason, these princes, in going ind returning to Jedo, carefully avoid passing through Miako. A more interesting publication, from the manuscript of Titsingh, and one which appeared earlier, is Memoirs of the Djojouns, which had itself been preceded by a number of other pieces, translations * Theoretically the Siogun is but an inferior officer at the court of the Dairi. The first rank belongs to the Kwanbak, who represents the Dairi when that dignity devolves on a woman or a child. The Siogun, it is said, cannot hold this offije. It was assumed, however, by Taiko-sama, and even conferred by him on his presumptive heir. Ordinarily the Tui zio