Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.

“JAPAN AS IT WAS AND IS”
A HANDBOOK OF OLD JAPAN
II

Uniform with this Work

A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN.
By Ernest W. Clement. With two
maps and seventy-two illustrations
from photographs. Sixth edition.
Price, $1.40 net.

A. C. McClurg & Co.
Chicago

Procession of Feudal Lords
From Official History of Japan

Hildreth’s
“Japan as it Was and Is”
A HANDBOOK OF OLD JAPAN

EDITED, WITH SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, BY

ERNEST W. CLEMENT
AUTHOR OF “A HANDBOOK OF MODERN JAPAN,” ETC.

INTRODUCTION BY

WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS

With One Hundred Illustrations and Maps

Volume I

CHICAGO
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
1906

Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1906

Published September 29, 1906

THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

CONTENTS

Volume II

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Volume II

JAPAN
As It Was and Is

CHAPTER XXXII

Post-houses—Imperial Messengers—Inns—Houses—Their Furniture and 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, etc., in readiness, 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, generally speaking, not so good nor so well furnished upon Kiūshiū as upon the great island Nippon, where we came to fifty-six in going from Ōsaka to Yedo. These post-houses are not built for inn-keeping, but only for stabling and exchange of horses, for which reason there is a spacious court belonging to each; also clerks and bookkeepers enough, who keep accounts, in their master’s name, of all the daily occurrences. The price of all such things as are to be 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 with another, a horse to ride on, with two portmantles and an atotsuke, may be had for eight sen a mile. A horse, which is only saddled, and hath neither men nor baggage to carry, will cost six sen; porters and kago-men, five sen, and so on.

“Messengers are waiting, day and night, at all these post-houses, to carry the letters, edicts, proclamations, etc., 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 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 necessaries. 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 ken, or two hundred and forty feet, with a Tsubo—that is, a small pleasure-garden—behind, enclosed with a neat white wall. The front hath only lattice windows, which, in the daytime, are kept open. The folding screens and movable partitions which divide the several apartments, 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, diverting 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 conveniency of people of quality, that, coming out of their norimono, 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 let the smoke through. Here foot travellers and ordinary people live, among the servants. People of fashion are accommodated in the back part of the house, which is kept clean and neat to admiration. Not the least spot is to be seen upon the walls, floors, carpets, window 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 deserve. The Tsubo, or garden behind the house, is also very curiously 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 Ōsaka, 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 comes down two or three feet from the ceiling. The beams in which the grooves run are plastered with clay of Ōsaka. 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 variously 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 daytime, but put on at night.

“In the solid wall of the room there is always a Toko, as they call it, or sort of 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 reckoned the most honorable. Just before this toko two extraordinarily 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 a Tokowaki, as they call it, or side cupboard, with some few shelves 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 arrival of the Dutch, this sacred book of the landlord is put out of the way. Above is a drawer, where they put up the inkhorn, 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.[1] 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 their 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 stirring 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 tablecloth 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 coarse pencil, and in a few, perhaps three or four, strokes, wherein, however, the proportions and resemblance have been so far observed, 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 honorable place of the room, and this because the Japanese set a great value upon them.

2. “Pictures of Chinese, as also of birds, trees, landskips, and other things, upon white screens, done by some eminent master, or rather scratched with a few hasty, affected strokes, after such a manner 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.[2] 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 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 uncommon 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 balcony and windows towards the garden, or the tops of the doors, screens, and partitions of the chief apartments.

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 rooms 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.

A Scene in a Tea Garden

“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 varnished. The bathing-place, commonly built on the back side of the garden, contains either 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 journey 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 stove, raised about three feet above the ground, and built close to the wall 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 beneath the hot-house, 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. Sometimes 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 curious ornament to this back part of the house, but they have this disadvantage, 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 diversion of travellers, is put a small tub full of water, wherein they commonly keep alive some gold or silver fish; and for further ornament there is generally a flower-pot or two standing there. Sometimes they plant dwarf trees, which will grow easily upon pumice or other porous stones, without any earth at all, provided the root be put into the water, whence it will suck up sufficient nourishment. 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 some certain rules. Amidst them stands sometimes a Saguer (?), 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 imitation 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 precipice. Often a small rivulet rushes down the stones with an agreeable 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, sake, 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 mountains, where a weary foot-traveller, and the meaner sort of people, find at all times, for a few sen, something warm to eat, or hot tea, or sake, or somewhat else of the kind, wherewith to refresh themselves. ’Tis true these cook-shops are but poor, sorry houses, if compared to larger inns, being inhabited only by poor people, who have enough to do to get 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 flowers, 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 come in and repose themselves. At other times a large flower-pot stands in the window, filled with flowering 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 come in, and to buy something. The eatables, such as cakes, or whatever it be, are kept before the fire, 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 landladies, 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 soup, others fill cups with sake or other liquors, to present them to passengers, all the while talking and chattering, and commending their merchandise with a voice loud enough to be heard by their next neighbors of the same profession.

“The eatables sold at these cook-shops, besides tea, and sometimes sake, are manjū, a sort of round cakes, which they learned to make from the Portuguese, as big as common hens’ eggs, and filled within with black-bean flour 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 laxa, 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 sake, or the beer of the country. Sanshō leaves are laid upon the dish for ornament, and sometimes thin slices of fine ginger and lemon peel. Sometimes they put powdered ginger, sanshō, or the powder of some root growing in the country, into the soup. They are also provided with sweetmeats, of several different colors and sorts, which, generally speaking, are far more agreeable to the eye than pleasing to the taste, being but indifferently 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 stop 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 where the smoke comes out. They are not a bit nicer in preparing 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.”[3]

CHAPTER XXXIII

Number of People on the Road—Princely Retinues—Pilgrims to Ise—Junrei Pilgrims—Naked Devotees—Religious Beggars—Begging Order of Nuns—Yama-Bushi, or Mountain Priests—Buddhist Beggars—Singular Bell-chiming—Hucksters and Peddlers—Courtesans.

“It is scarce credible,” says Kämpfer, “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 Tōkaidō, 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 Europe. 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 some 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 numerous court, all marching in admirable order. The retinue of one of the chief Daimiōs, as they are called, is computed to amount to about twenty thousand men, more or less; that of a Shōmiō to about ten thousand; that of a governor of the imperial cities and crown lands to from one to several hundreds, according to his quality or revenues.[4]

“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 quality 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 sleep there.

A Native Postman;

Toko-no-ma

“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 large 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, scymetars, 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 norimono, others in kago, and others go on horseback.

“The prince’s own numerous train, marching in an admirable and curious order, is divided into several troops, each headed by 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 japanned 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. 3. Ten or more fellows, walking one by one, and carrying rich scymetars, pikes of state, fire-arms, and other weapons, in lackered wooden cases, as, also, quivers with bows and arrows. Sometimes, for 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 peculiar to such or such a prince. They walk one by one, and are attended each by two footmen. 5. 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. 6. A gentleman 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 norimono. 9. The prince himself, sitting in a stately norimono, carried by six or eight men, clad in rich liveries, with several others walking at the norimono’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-bearers. 12. Ten or more people, carrying each two baskets of a monstrous size, fixed to the ends of a pole, which they lay on their shoulders in such a manner that one basket hangs down before and 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 kago, and the whole troop is headed by the prince’s high-steward, carried in a norimono. If one of the prince’s sons accompanies his father in this journey to court, he follows with his own train immediately after his father’s norimono.

“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 norimono-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 norimono-men, with their clothes tucked up above their waists, exposing their nakedness to the spectators’ view, with only a piece of cloth about their loins. What appears still more old and whimsical is to see the pages, pike-bearers, 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 out 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, umbrellas, chests, boxes, baskets, and whatever else they carry are danced and tossed about in a very singular manner, answering to the motion of their bodies. The norimono-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 norimono either upon their shoulders, or else upon the palms of their hands, holding it above their heads. Whilst they hold it up with one arm, they stretch out the other, putting the hand into a horizontal posture, whereby, and by their short, deliberate steps and stiff knees, they affect a ridiculous fear and circumspection. If the prince steps out of his norimono 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 koban with the landlord as a reward for his trouble. At dinner or supper the expense is much greater.

“All the pilgrims who go to Ise, 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 speaking, 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 exceedingly 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, submissive voice, saying, ‘Great Lord, be pleased to give the poor pilgrim a zeni, towards the expense of his journey to Ise,’ or words to that effect. Of all the Japanese, the inhabitants of Yedo and the province Oshū are the most inclined to this pilgrimage. Children, if apprehensive of severe punishment for their misdemeanors, will run away from their parents and go to Ise, thence to fetch an Oharai, or indulgence, which upon their return is deemed a sufficient expiation of their crimes, and a sure means to reconcile them to their friends. Multitudes of these pilgrims are 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 Oharai, 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, drawing 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 substance, or a kettle, or something else, alluding to some old romantic history of their gods and ancestors; whilst a third, with a commander’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 Junrei, another remarkable sight travellers meet with upon the roads, are people who go to visit in pilgrimage the thirty-three chief Kwannon temples, which lie dispersed throughout the empire. They commonly travel two or three together, singing a miserable Kwannon-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 Kwannon 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 pilgrimage.

“Sometimes one meets with very odd sights; as, for instance, people running naked along the roads in the hardest frosts, wearing only a little straw about their waists. These people generally undertake so extraordinary and troublesome a journey to visit certain temples, pursuant to religious vows, which they promised to fulfil in case they should obtain, from the bounty of their gods, deliverance from some fatal distemper, they themselves, their parents or 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 themselves, almost perpetually running.

“Multitudes of beggars crowd the roads in all parts of the empire, but particularly on the so much frequented Tōkaidō, 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 Kamakura and Miyako, 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 Yamabushi, 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 particularly watch people of fashion, who travel in norimono, or in kago, 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 company 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. 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 nothing of laying their bosoms quite bare to the view of charitable travellers, 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 lascivious as any public courtesan.

“Another religious begging order is that of Yamabushi, as they are commonly called; that is, the mountain priests, or rather Yamabu, mountain soldiers, because at all times they go armed with swords and scymetars. They do not shave their heads, but follow 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 Miyako, 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 carry their children along with them upon the same begging errand, clad like their fathers, but with their heads shaved. Those little bastards are exceedingly troublesome and importunate with travellers, and commonly take care to light on them, as they are going up some hill or mountain, where, because of the difficult ascent, they cannot 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, singing, trumpeting, chattering, and crying, make such a frightful noise as would make one almost mad or deaf. These mountain priests are frequently applied to by superstitious people for conjuring, fortune-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 Butsudō [Buddhist] priests. Sometimes there are two of them standing together, each with a small, oblong book before him. This book contains part of their Hōkekyō, or Bible, printed in the significant or learned language.[5] 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 actually 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 Segaki,—a certain ceremony for the relief of departed souls. This Segaki is made after the following manner: They take a green branch of the Hana Shikimi tree, and, murmuring certain words with a low voice, wash and scour it with some shavings 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 are celebrated to the same end in Roman Catholic countries. Any person that hath a mind to purchase the benefit of this washing, for himself or his relations and friends, throws a zeni upon the mat, which is spread out near the beggar, who does 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 proper ceremonies necessary to make the Segaki 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 Namida, which is contracted from Namu Amida Butsu, 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 passengers.

“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 Briaréus, or Kwannon, 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 Emma, or the head-keeper of the prison, whereunto the condemned souls are confined; of Jizō, 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 Kwannon beggars, with a Jizō 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.[6]

“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 instruments, or performing some juggler’s tricks, I will close the account of this vermin with an odd, remarkable sort 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 meanwhile, with great dexterity and quickness, beating them with two hammers, 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 zeni as they pass.[7]

“The crowd and throng upon the roads is not a little increased by 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, toothpickers, and a multitude of other trifles, made of wood, straw, reed, and bamboos.

“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 appearance, 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 Nippon, 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 hundred years ago, in the times of that brave general and first secular monarch, Yoritomo, 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 in this particular.”

CHAPTER XXXIV

Departure from Nagasaki—Train of the Dutch—The Day’s Journey—Treatment of the Dutch—Respect shown them in the Island of Shimo—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 Kämpfer, “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 get everything ready to set out, having first sent by sea, as already mentioned, to the city of Shimonoseki the presents we are to make, sorted and carefully packed, together with the other heavy baggage, and the victuals and kitchen furniture 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 remain 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, whereupon 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 Deshima early in the morning. They are 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 deputies—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 Bugiō, or commander-in-chief, of our train, and the Dutch president, enter their norimono. The chief interpreter, if he be old, is carried in an ordinary kago; others mount on horseback, and the servants go a-foot. All the Japanese officers of our island, and several friends and acquaintances 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 Kiūshiū 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 Nippon, from Ōsaka to Yedo, 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 Nagasaki, as far as Ōsaka by sea, but must now be taken out and carried by land to Yedo, by horses and men.

In a Japanese Garden

“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, advancing forty Japanese water-leagues a day at farthest.

“We are better treated, and more honorably received, in our journey over Kiūshiū than upon the great island Nippon, though everywhere we have much more civility shown us by the inhabitants of the cities and districts through which we 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 Kiūshiū we receive nearly the same honors and civility from the lords of the several provinces we pass through as they show to travelling 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 Nippon, 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 noblemen 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 compliment in his master’s name to the Bugiō, or commander-in-chief of our train, and to the chief interpreter, offering, at the same time, what houses and men we want for us and our baggage. He likewise 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 the 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 are treated with sake and sakana, and so they take their leave. For our passage over the bays of Ōmura and Shimabara the lords of these two places lend us their own pleasure-barges and 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 and 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 honor and respect are shown us in our journey over the great island Nippon.”

“As to what concerns our accommodation on the road, the same is—with regard to the carriage of us and of our baggage, the number of horses and men provided for that purpose, the inns, lodgings, 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, excepting that of looking about the country from our horses, or out of our kago, 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 our train, and the whole train after him, must stop suddenly, and the Dōshin 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 Bugiō, 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. ’Tis looked upon as the most convincing proof of his faithfulness and good conduct still to exceed them. Nay, some of these blockheads 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 Yedo, 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 pleasantest; also otherwise, as has been mentioned, reckoned the chief. The landlord observes the same customs 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 kamishimo, or garment of ceremony, and wearing a short scymetar stuck in his girdle, making his compliments with a low bow, which before the norimono of the Bugiō 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 compliments.

“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 exhaustion of a fatiguing journey, make us desirous to take our rest, the 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 carefully 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 lessened upon our return, when we have found means to insinuate ourselves into their favor, and by presents and otherwise to procure their connivance.

“The Bugiō takes possession of the best apartment after ours. The several rooms next to our own are taken up by the Dōshin, 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 presence; 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-servants in vigilance are, by way of encouragement, 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 Sakana,[8] that is, something to eat, as, for instance, several sorts of fruits, figs, nuts, several sorts of cakes, chiefly manjū, 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 Bugiō’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 house-maids. 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 presented 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.

“There 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 candles 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 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 vessel stands in another filled with water, or in a square lantern, that, in case the oil should by chance take fire, no damage may thereupon 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 is 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 European 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 daytime, 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 private 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, pays him the reckoning in gold, laid upon a small salver. He draws near, in a creeping posture, kneeling, holding his hands down to the floor, and when he takes the salver which the money is laid upon, 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 deference and respect to their superiors. He then prepares to make the same compliment to the other Dutchmen; but our interpreters generally excuse him this trouble, and make him return in the same crawling posture. Every landlord hath two koban 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 porters only excepted. The same sum is paid to the landlords in the cities, where we stay some days, as at Ōsaka, Miyako, and Yedo, namely, five koban 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.[9] It is a custom in this country, 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.

A Daimyō’s Procession

“From this reasonable behavior of the landlords, the reader may judge of the civility of the whole nation in general, always excepting 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 commonly made to Jews in Germany, is Tōjin baibai? which, in broken Chinese, signifies, Chinese, have ye nothing 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 for 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 is 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 Abeno Tashima was his father, and a fox his mother, to whom Abeno Tashima was married upon the following occasion. He once happened with a servant of his to be in the temple of Inari, who is the god and protector of the foxes. Meanwhile some courtiers were hunting the fox without doors, in order to make use of the lungs for the preparation of a certain medicine. It happened upon this that a young fox, pursued by the hunters, fled into the temple, which stood open, and took shelter in the very bosom of Tashima. The king, unwilling to deliver up the poor creature to the unmerciful hunters, was forced to defend himself and his fox, and to repel force by force, wherein he behaved himself with so much bravery and success that, having defeated the hunters, he set the fox at liberty. The hunters, ashamed and highly offended at the courageous behavior of the king, seized, in the height of their resentment, an opportunity which offered to kill his royal father. Tashima mustered up all his courage and prudence to revenge his father’s death, and with so much success that he killed the traitors with his own hands. The fox, to return his gratitude, appeared to him, after the victory which he obtained over the murderers of his father, in the shape of a lady of incomparable beauty, and so fired his breast with love that he took her to his wife. It was by her he had this son, who was endowed with divine wisdom, and the precious gift of prognosticating and foretelling things to come. Nor did he know that his wife had been that very fox whose life he saved with so much courage in the temple of Inari, till, soon after, her tail and other parts beginning to grow, she resumed by degrees her former shape.[10]

“Seimei not only calculated the above table by the knowledge he had acquired of the motion and influence of the stars, but, as he was at the same time a perfect master of the cabalistic sciences, he found out certain words which he brought together into an Uta, or verse, the repetition of which is believed to have the infallible virtue of keeping off all those misfortunes which, upon the days determined in the table to be unfortunate, would otherwise befall travellers,—this verse being for the use and satisfaction of poor ordinary servants, who have not leisure to accommodate themselves to the table, but must go when and wherever they are sent by their masters.”

CHAPTER XXXV

From Nagasaki to Kokura—Shimonoseki—Water Journey to Ōsaka—Description of that City—Its Castle—Interview with the Governors—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Jodo and its Castle—Fushimi—Entrance into Miyako—Visit to the Chief Justice and the Governors—Description of Miyako—Palace of the Dairi—Castle—Manufactures and Trade—Authority of the Chief Justice—Police—Crimes.

At coming out of Nagasaki, on his first journey to court (Tuesday, February 13, 1691), Kämpfer noticed the idol Jizō, 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 Ōmura, which they found too shallow for vessels of size; but by crossing it in boats, furnished by the prince of Ōmura, each rowed by fourteen watermen, they saved a distance of ten miles or more. The distance across was thirty miles. The town of Ōmura was seen 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.[11]

The second day (Wednesday, February 14) they passed an old camphor-tree, estimated to be thirty-six feet in circumference, and hollow within.[12] At Shiwota, where they dined, a seaport on the gulf of Shimabara, was a manufactory of large earthen pots, used by vessels as water-cakes, and also of china ware, made of a whitish, fat clay, abundant in that neighborhood. The same day they visited a hot spring, much frequented for its medicinal effects, and provided with accommodations for bathing. There are several others in the neighborhood.[13]

Saga, the capital of the province of Hizen, 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 Shimabara. “The city,” says Kämpfer, “is very large, but extends more in length than in breadth. It is exceedingly populous. Both going in and coming out we found strong guards at the gates. It is enclosed with walls, but more for state than defence. The prince or 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 fitted up for manufacturers 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 figures rather than living creatures. Many were noticed who seemed little more than girls, yet evidently the mothers of several children. These women of Hizen have the reputation of being the handsomest in Japan, next to those of Miyako. This province, though less wealthy than that of Satsuma, is reputed to be about the most fertile 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 Chikugo, 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 distance the castle of Kurume, the residence of the prince of the province.[14] Friday, February 16, mountains were encountered, which they passed in kago, as the road was too steep for horseback-riding. This country, forming a part of the province of Chikuzen, struck Kämpfer as not unlike some mountainous and woody parts of Germany, but no cattle were seen grazing, except a few cows and horses for carriage and ploughing. The people were less handsome than those of Hizen, but extremely civil.

The next day (February 17), after passing, in the afternoon, some coal-mines, whence the neighborhood was supplied with fuel, they reached Kokura, capital of the province of Buzen, once a large town, but now much decayed. It had a large castle of freestone, 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 bridge near two hundred yards long, but it was too shallow to admit vessels of any size. At least one hundred small boats 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, 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.

Image of Jizō

Embarking in boats, the Dutch travellers crossed the strait which separates Shimo from Nippon, narrower here than anywhere else, less than three miles wide, though the town of Shimonoseki, 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 province of Nagato, consisted of four or five hundred houses, built chiefly on both sides of one long street, with a few smaller ones terminating 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 temple to Amida, built to appease the ghost of a young prince of the family of Heishi, so celebrated in the legendary annals of the Japanese, 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 Shimonoseki to Ōsaka was reckoned at one hundred 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 Shimo and Nippon, and then through the strait or sea between Nippon and Shikoku, 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 Hyōgo, a city of the province Settsu, nearly as large as Nagasaki. Here the company embarked in small boats for Ōsaka. As they passed along they saw at a distance the imperial city of Sakai, three or four Japanese miles south from Ōsaka. The description of Ōsaka, and of the journey thence to Miyako, is thus given by Kämpfer:

“Ōsaka, one of the five imperial cities, is agreeably seated in the province of Settsu, in a fruitful plain, and on the banks of a navigable river. At the east end is a strong castle; and at the western end, two strong, stately guard-houses, which separate it from its suburbs. Its length from these suburbs to the above-mentioned castle is between three and four thousand yards. Its breadth is somewhat less. The river Yodogawa 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 northeast, out of a midland lake in the province of Ōmi, 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 Uji and Yodo, from which latter it borrows its name, and so continues down to Ōsaka. 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 them. 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 inhabitants live. For this purpose several smaller channels cut from the large one, pass through some of the chief streets, deep enough to be navigable for small boats, which bring goods to the merchant’s doors—though some are 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 Ōsaka, 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 Yedo. The banks are 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 rails being adorned at top with brass buttons. I counted in all ten such bridges, three whereof were particularly remarkable, because of 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 the streets there run along the several branches of the river. The streets are very neat, though not paved. However, for the conveniency 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 Otona, 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 ornament, 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 staircases, rails, and all the wainscoting, are varnished. The floors are covered with neat mats. The rooms are separated from each other by screens, upon removal of which several small rooms may be enlarged into one, or the contrary done if needful. The walls are hung with shining paper, curiously 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, six Japanese feet long and three 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. Behind 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.

“Ōsaka is extremely populous, and if we believe what the boasting 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 manufacturers. 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 Japanese call Ōsaka 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.[15] 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 Ōsaka 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 upon their departure they are obliged to follow a road entirely out of sight of the castle.

“The water which is drank at Ōsaka tastes a little brackish; but in lieu of thereof they have the best sake in the empire, which is brewed in great quantities in the neighboring village, Tennōji, 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 Taikō-Sama [Toyotomi Hideyoshi]. Going up to Miyako 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 Higo, it hath not its superior in extent, magnificence, and strength, throughout the whole empire. On the north side it is defended by the river Yodogawa, which washes its walls. On the east side its walls are washed by a tributary river, on the opposite bank of which lies a great garden belonging to the castle. The south and west sides border upon the city. The moles, 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 freestone, which at its upper end is planted with a row of firs or cedars.

“The day after our arrival (Sunday, February 25) we were admitted to an audience of the governor of the city, to which we were carried in kago, 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 kago, and put on each a silk cloak, which is reckoned equal to the garment 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 gentlemen, 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 eight 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 proper order, fifteen halberds on one side, twenty lances in the middle, and nineteen pikes on the other; the latter were 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 scymitars, as also with some fire-arms, kept in rich black varnished cases.

“In the hall of audience, where there were seven of the governor’s gentlemen sitting, the two secretaries sat down at three paces’ distance from us, and treated us with tea, carrying on a very civil conversation with us till the governor appeared, as he soon did, with two of his sons, one seventeen, the other eighteen years of age, 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 modesty. He was but meanly clad in black, and wore a gray garment of ceremony over his dress. He wore, also, but one ordinary scymitar. 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 Miyako, whose business it is to give us the necessary passports for our journey to court, was not yet returned from Yedo, 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 willing to assist us with horses and whatever else we might stand in need of for continuing our journey.

An Ancient Warrior

“On our side, we returned him thanks for his kind offers, and desired that he would be pleased to accept of a small present, consisting of some pieces of silk stuffs, as an acknowledgment of our gratitude. We also 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 leave also of them, and returned through the above-mentioned passage back to our kago. 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 kago and were carried back through another long street to our inn.

“Wednesday, February 28, we set out by break of day on our journey to Miyako, because we intended to reach that place the same day, it being but thirteen Japanese miles, or a good day’s journey, distant from Ōsaka, out of which we came by the Kyōbashi, or bridge to Miyako, 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 Yodogawa, which we had on our left. Multitudes of Tsadanil (?) 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 extraordinarily 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 Ōsaka to Miyako.

“The small but famous city, Yodo, 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 consist of one long street, across which we rode to a stately wooden bridge, called Yodobashi, four hundred paces long, and 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 handicraftsmen live at Yodo. 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 Yodo, we again passed over a bridge two hundred paces long, supported 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 Fushimi. This is a small, open town, or rather village, of a few streets, of which the middle and chief reaches as far as Miyako, and is contiguous to the streets of that capital, insomuch that Fushimi might be called the suburbs of Miyako, the rather since this last city is not at all enclosed with walls. It was to-day Tsuitachi 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 Miyako, 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 beating 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 Miyako 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 likewise saw the peasants ploughing with black oxen, which seemed to be lean, poor beasts, but are said to work well.

“February 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 kago. 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, etc. 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, besides twenty pieces of silk, woollen, and linen stuffs. The steward having very civilly returned us thanks for our presents, boxes with tobacco and pipes and proper utensils 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 stayed 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 Yedo. 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, etc.; receiving, also, repeated assurances that we should be soon admitted into the governor’s presence.

“Having stayed full half an hour in this room, we were conducted into another, where, after a little while, the lattices of two screens being suddenly opened 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 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 table, or salver, in the manner above described. He thereupon bowed a little, to return us thanks, and putting himself 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 desired 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 stayed about an hour in the house of this governor, we were conducted 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 received 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 filled 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 Ōsaka. On one side the hall we took notice of two screens, pierced with holes, behind which sat some women, whom the curiosity 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 sixty 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 opportunity to make the governor, as his old acquaintance, some private presents in his own name, consisting of some European glasses, and, in the mean time, to beg a favor for his deputy’s interpreter’s son. Having taken our leave, we returned to our kago, and were carried home to our inn, where we arrived at one in the afternoon.

“Kiō, or Miyako, signifies in Japanese, a city. (Klaproth says, great temple or palace.) It lies in the province Yamato[16] 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 streams. 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 comes out of the Lake Ōtsu;[17] the other two from the neighboring mountains. 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 thirteen streets, separated from the rest by walls and ditches. In the western part of the town is a strong castle of freestone, built by one of the hereditary emperors, for the security of his person during the civil wars. At present it serves to lodge the Kubō, 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 presented this evening to our interpreter. A small garrison guards the castle, under the command of a captain.

“The streets of Miyako are narrow, but all regular, running some south, some east. Being at one end of a great street, it is impossible to reach the other with the eye, because of their extraordinary length, the dust, and the multitude of people. The houses are, generally speaking, narrow, only two stories high, built of wood, lime, and clay, according to the country fashion.

“Miyako is the great magazine of all Japanese manufactures and commodities, and the chief mercantile town in the empire. There is scarce a house in this large capital where there is not something made or sold. Here they refine copper, coin money, print books, 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 Miyako, and nothing, though never so neatly wrought, can be imported from abroad, but what some artist or other in this capital will undertake to imitate it. Considering this, it is no wonder that the manufactures of Miyako are become so famous throughout the empire 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. ’Tis 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.

An Archer

“The lord chief justice resides at Miyako, a man of great power and authority, as having the supreme command, under the emperor, of all the bugiō, 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, depend 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 Arai and Hakone, two of the most important passes, and, in a manner, the keys of the imperial capital and court, without a passport, signed by his hand.

“The political government and regulation of the streets is the same at Miyako as it is at Ōsaka and Nagasaki. The number of inhabitants of Miyako, in the year of our visit, will appear by the following Aratame[18] (exclusive, however, of those who live in the castle and at the Dairi’s court).”

CHAPTER XXXVI

Lake Ōtsu—Mount Hiei[zan]—Japanese Legends—A Japanese Patent Medicine—Kwannon—Miya—Arai—Policy of the Emperors—Kakegawa—A Town on Fire—Suruga—Kunō—Passage of a Rapid River—Fuji-no-jama, or Mount Fuji—Crossing the Peninsula of Izu—Second Searching Place—Purgatory Lake—Odawara—Coast of the Bay of Yedo—A Live Saint—Kanagawa—Shinagawa—Yedo—Imperial Castles and Palace.

Kämpfer and his company left Miyako Friday, March 2, and, after a journey of eight or nine miles, during which they saw a high mountain towards the south, covered with snow, they reached Ōtsu, a town of a thousand houses, where they lodged. This town lies at the southwestern extremity of the large fresh-water lake of the same name, already mentioned.[20]

On the southeastern shore of this lake, which abounds with fish and fowl, lies the famous mountain Hieizan (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 Ōtsu, the Yodogawa, one of the outlets of the lake, was crossed upon a bridge, supported at the extremities 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, Kōshi,[21] 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 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, Kōshi 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 do it, and it is only by faith that I perform miracles.” “A remarkable saying,” exclaims Kämpfer, “in the mouth of a heathen teacher!”

Umenoki, 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 Yakushi, 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 inventor 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 Tsuchi Yama, 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 Ise, situate some forty miles to the south. The travellers struck the seacoast at Yokkaichi, 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 Kuwana, in the province of Owari, situated at the head of a deep bay. It consisted 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 Kuwana they proceeded by water to Miya, present Atsuta, some fifteen miles distant. The head of the bay was very shallow, and the boats were pushed through mud-banks. Miya, though not so large as Kuwana, 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 one 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 6, 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 travelled 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 Yoshida, present Toyohashi, with a castle and about a thousand small houses, was the most considerable. Arai, 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 Sao, narrow at its entrance, but spreading out within. Arai 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 Kämpfer, “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 Yedo, 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 rebellions against the government as now established.”

The harbor of Sao 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 Hamamatsu, 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 Kakegawa; 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 storm 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 kago to cross a steep mountain, descending from which they were obliged to ford the river Ōigawa, 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 Shimada, 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 way through a flat, well-cultivated country, to the city of Suruga, capital 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, etc., 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 Miyako and Yedo, where koban and ichibu were coined. It had a castle of freestone, well defended with ditches and high walls.

A few miles from Suruga were kept certain war-junks for the defence of the bay of Tōtōmi; and just beyond, upon a high mountain, stood the fortress of Kunō, esteemed by the Japanese impregnable. It was built to contain the imperial treasures, but they had since been removed to Yedo.

In the course of the next day (Saturday, March 10) the road turned inland, in order to cross the great river Fujigawa, which enters into the head of the bay, taking its rise in the high, snowy mountain Fuji-no-Yama.[22] It was crossed in flat broad-bottomed boats, constructed of thin planks, so as on striking the rocks to yield and slip over. The mountain Fuji, whence this river takes its rise and name, towers in a conical form above all the surrounding hills, and is seen at a great distance. It is ascended for the worship of the Japanese god of the winds, to whom the Yamabushi, or mountain priests, are consecrated, and who frequently repeat the words Fuji Yama,, in discoursing or begging. It takes three days to ascend this mountain; but the descent can be made, so Kämpfer 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, Kämpfer tells us, nor Japanese painters colors, in which to represent this mountain as they think it deserves.

A Kitchen, showing Utensils

A Fishmonger;
The Marketing and Preparation of Food

Our travellers kept on this day and the next (Sunday, March 11) through the mountainous country of Hakone, which runs out southward from the broad peninsula of Izu. 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 travelling to, and especially from, Yedo must submit to a rigorous examination. Upon the shore of this lake were five small wooden chapels, and in each a priest seated, beating a gong and howling a namida [abbreviation of Namamidabutsu]. “All the Japanese foot-travellers of our retinue,” says Kämpfer, “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 comfort, assure them that as soon as the water washes off the names and characters of the gods and saints, written upon the papers above 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 Yedo. Here, on a plain four miles in width, was found the town of Odawara, 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 manufactures. 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 northwest shore of the outer bay of Yedo crossed several very rapid streams, till at length the mountains on their left disappeared, and a broad plain spread out extending to Yedo. Off the shore was seen the island of Kamakura,[23] 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 Yedo; 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, fourscore years of age, and a native of Nagasaki. “He had spent,” says Kämpfer, “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 run thither to see and pay their respects to that holy man.”

The Dutch company lodged at Kanagawa, 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 prepared for food. The road the next day (Tuesday, March 13), still hugging the shore, led on through a fruitful and populous district, in which were several fishing villages, the bay abounding with fish. As they approached Shinagawa, they passed a place of public execution, offering a show of human heads and bodies, some half putrefied and others half devoured—dogs, ravens, crows, and other ravenous beasts and birds, uniting to satisfy their appetites on these miserable remains.[24]

Shinagawa, immediately adjoining Yedo, 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 without 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 Kämpfer, “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 Shinagawa, they stopped at a small inn, pleasantly seated on the seaside, from which they had a full view of the city and harbor of Yedo, 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 Bugiō,” says Kämpfer, “quitted his norimono here and went on horseback, people of his extraction not being suffered to enter the capital in a norimono. We travelled near a mile to the end of the suburb of Shinagawa, and then entered the suburbs of Yedo, which are only a continuation of the former, there being nothing to separate them but a small guard-house. The bay comes 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 empire and great men at court, and ladies richly apparelled, carried in norimono; 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 brown 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-merchants, druggists, idol-sellers, booksellers, glass-blowers, apothecaries, 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 come 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 two 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 of a back house, which had no other access but through a by-lane. We arrived at one in the afternoon, having completed our journey from Nagasaki in twenty-nine days.

“Yedo,[25] the residence of the emperor, the capital, and by much the largest city of the empire, is seated in the province Musashi, in 35° 32´ of northern latitude (according to Kämpfer’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 must be unladen a league or two below it.

“Towards the sea the city hath the figure of a half-moon, 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 Nihonbashi, or the bridge of Japan, mention of which has already been made, as the point from which distances are reckoned all over the empire.

“Yedo is not built with that regularity which is observable in most other cities in Japan (particularly Miyako), 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 frequently happens, the new street may be laid out upon what plan the builders please.” Many places, which have been thus destroyed by fire, were noticed by Kämpfer still lying waste. “The houses are small and low, built of fir wood, with thin clayed walls, divided into rooms by paper screens and lattices, the floors covered with 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 different 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, Shaka, Kwannon, 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 Miyako, which we shall have an opportunity to view and describe more particularly upon our return to that city.

“There are many stately palaces in Yedo, as may be easily conjectured, 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 staircases, 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 Yedo is a nursery of artists, handicraftsmen, merchants, and tradesmen, and yet everything is sold dearer than anywhere else in the empire, by reason of the great concourse of people, 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 Ōsaka. Two governors have the command of the town by turns, each for the space of one year. The chief subaltern officers are the Burgomasters, 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.

A Carpenter Shop

“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 castle, which is properly the residence of the emperor, and two other strong, well fortified, but smaller castles at the sides, also some large gardens behind the imperial palace. I call these several divisions 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.[26] 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 separated 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 powerful princes of the empire, the councillors of state, the prime ministers, 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 higher than the others, on the top of a hill, which hath been purposely flatted for the imperial palace to be built upon it. It is enclosed with a thick, strong wall of freestone, with bastions standing 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 freestone 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 happen 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 magnificent 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 removing of screens, may be enlarged or brought into a narrower compass, as occasion requires, and are contrived so as to receive at all times a convenient and sufficient light. The chief apartments have each its particular name. Such are, 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 household, 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,—Makino Bingo-no-Kami, 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 requires a good deal of time and vast preparations. “This Bingo,” says Kämpfer, “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. He 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 and trust the emperor puts in him.”

CHAPTER XXXVII

Personages to be visited—Visit to the Emperor—First Audience—Second Audience—Visit to the Houses of the Councillors—Visits to the Governors of Yedo and the Temple Lords—Visit to the Houses of the Governors of Nagasaki—Audience of Leave—Return—Visits to Temples in the Vicinity of Miyako—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 Gorōjū, or the five elderly men; four imperial deputy councillors of state; the three Jisha-bugyō, as they are called, that is, lords of the temple; the imperial commissioners, as the Dutch call them, described by Kämpfer as the emperor’s attorney-generals for the city of Yedo; the two governors of Yedo; and, last of all, that one of the governors of Nagasaki resident at Yedo.

“On the 29th of March,”[27] says Kämpfer, “the day appointed for our audience, the presents designed for his imperial majesty[28] 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 Dōshin, or deputy Bugiō, 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 by grooms, who took them by the bridle. Our president, or captain, as the Japanese call him, came after us, carried in a norimono, and was followed by our old chief interpreter, carried in a kago. 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 numerous 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 curiously 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 scymitars 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 norimono and kago here, as also our horses and servants, and were conducted across this second enclosure to the Tono-machi (Lord-street), which we entered over a long stone bridge; and having passed through a double bastion, and as many strong gates, and thence about twenty paces further through an irregular street, built, as the situation of the ground would allow it, with walls of an uncommon height on both sides, we came to the Hiakunimban, that is, guard of hundred men, or great guard of the castle. Here we were commanded to wait till we could be introduced to an 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 captains of the guard, who treated us with tea and tobacco. Soon after, Kawaguchi Settsu-no-Kami (the governor of Nagasaki resident at Yedo) and the two commissioners came to compliment us, along with some gentlemen of the emperor’s court, who were strangers to us. Having waited about an hour, during which time most of the imperial councillors of state, old and young, went into the palace, some walking on foot, others carried in norimono, we were conducted through two stately gates, over a large square place, to the palace, to which there is an 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 staircases into a spacious room next to the entry on the right, being the place where all persons that are to be admitted to an audience wait till they are called in. It is a large and lofty room, but, when all the screens 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 having in the meanwhile seated himself in the hall of audience, Settsu-no-Kami and the two commissioners came in and conducted our president 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. Accordingly 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 backwards 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.

Ploughing;

A Freight Cart

“The hall of audience is not in the least like that which hath been described and figured by Montanus in his ‘Memorable Embassies of the Dutch to the Emperors of Japan.’ The elevated throne, the steps leading up to it, the carpet 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 prostrate themselves before the emperor, and the like, have all no manner 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 Senjō-shiki, that is, The Hall of an Hundred Mats.[29] 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 occasion 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 completed 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 Yedo, 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 councillors 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 curiously 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 stayed here about half an hour; meanwhile the court met in the imperial apartments, where we were to have our second audience, and whither we were conducted through several dark galleries. Along all these several galleries there was one continued row of lifeguardsmen, 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 consequently 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 European 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-six 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 persons 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 discovered 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. I 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 persons 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 commanded to sit down, having first made our obeisances after the Japanese 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, Bingo 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 for having graciously granted the Dutch liberty of 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 commanded 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 Bingo, 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 Director-general of the Dutch East India Company 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 Chinese 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 European 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 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 Sylvii. This name was minuted down behind the lattices, for 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 ordered us to take off our kappas, or cloaks, being our garments of ceremony; then to stand upright, that he might have a full 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 ourselves to contribute to the emperor’s and the court’s diversion. The ambassador, however, is free from these and the like commands, for, 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 commands 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 ate some little things, and our old chief interpreter, though scarce able to 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.[30] 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 still several visits to make to the councillors of state of the first and second rank. Accordingly we 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, Bengalese, 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 house (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 kago and horses, and having got out of the castle, through the northern gate, went back to our inn another 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 domestics, and conducted to the apartment where we were to have our audience. The rooms round the hall 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 compliments, 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 presents, this day, to the two governors of Yedo, to the three ecclesiastical judges (or temple lords), and to the two commissioners for foreign affairs, who lived near a mile from each other, one in the southwest, the other in the northeast, 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 troublesome. We were received upon our entering the house and introduced 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 ourselves as well as the ladies who were invited to the ceremony. Opposite 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. We had scarce seated ourselves, when seven servants, well clad, came 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 sake, 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 commissioner a drink made of sweet plums was offered us instead of sake. In the second commissioner’s house we were presented first of all with manjū bread,[31] 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 Kämpfer’s account of his second visit to Yedo: “At the first commissioner’s: 1. Tea. 2. Tobacco, with the whole set of instruments for smoking. 3. Philosophical or white syrup. 4. A piece of stienbrassen, a very scarce fish, boiled in a brown sauce. 5. Another dish of fish, 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 sake, 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 manjū, dipped into a brown sop or sauce, with some ginger. 2. Hard eggs. 3. Four common fish fried and brought in on bamboo skewers. 4. The stomachs of carps, salt, in a brown sauce. 5. Two small slices of a goose, roasted and warm, presented in unglazed earthen dishes.

“Good liquor was drank about plentifully, and the commissioner’s surgeon, who was to treat us, did not miss to take his full dose. Each guest was separately served with the above dishes on little 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 morning, and went to the houses of the three governors of Nagasaki, two of whom were then absent on duty at Nagasaki. We presented them on this occasion only with a flask of Tent each, they having already received their other presents at Nagasaki. We were met by Settsu-no-kami, the one then at Yedo, 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 being now in the house of a friend at Yedo, and not in the palace of our governor and magistrate at Nagasaki.[32] We were treated with warm dishes and tea, much after the same manner as we had been by the commissioners, and all the while civilly entertained by his own brother, and several persons of quality of his friends and relations.

Doll and Toy Shops

Entrance to Inari Temple
Views at Fushimi

“Having stayed 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 present 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 company each with a song. The magnificence of this family appeared fully by the richness and exquisiteness of this entertainment, which 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 northwest 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 preparatory to the return to Nagasaki. Of this Kämpfer gives much the fullest account in his narrative of his second visit to Yedo, 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 porcelain cup contained some bits of pickled salmon in a brown sauce, by the side of which lay two wooden chopsticks. Tea also was 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 manjū, 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, etc. 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, and exhibit themselves. Among the persons called in were two physicians, with whom Kämpfer had some professional conversation; also several shaven priests, one of whom had an ulcer on his shin, as to which Kämpfer’s opinion was asked. As it was a fresh 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 sake, 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 professional 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: 1. Two small, hollow loaves, sprinkled with sesamum seeds. 2. A piece of white, refined sugar, striped. 3. Five candied kernels of the kaki [persimmon] 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 somewhat tough. 6. 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. 9. A large manjū, boiled and filled with brown sugar, like treacle. Two smaller manjū, of the common bigness, dressed after the same manner. A few of these things were eaten, and the rest, according 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 Yedo, 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 reception.

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 answer returned, after which he was treated with tobacco, tea, sweetmeats, 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 extraordinary councillors, five by each of the three lords of the temple, and two, “pretty sorry ones,” Kämpfer says, by each of the governors of Yedo,—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.

A View of Fuji

It is the custom, on the return of the Dutch, when they reach Miyako, to take them to see some of the principal temples. The first one visited by Kämpfer was the Buddhist temple and convent, where the emperor lodges when he comes to visit the Dairi. The approach to this temple was a broad, level, gravel walk, half a mile in length, lined on both sides with the stately dwellings of the ecclesiastics 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 front superior to that of the imperial palace at Yedo. In the middle of the outermost hall was a chapel containing a large idol with curled hair, surrounded with smaller idols. On both sides were some smaller and less elaborate chapels; behind were two apartments 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 mountain, was a chapel dedicated to the predecessor of the reigning emperor, who had been deified under the name of Genyūin.

“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 number, 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 Kämpfer 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 agreeable countenance and good complexion, clad in a violet or dark purple-colored gown, with an alms bag in his hand richly embroidered with gold.

“The largest and most remarkable of the temples seen at Miyako was that called Daibutsu, on the road to Fushimi. It was enclosed by a high wall of freestone, 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 out. The opposite one had the mouth shut and the hand close to the body. They were said to be emblems of the two first 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, etc.; 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 pillars, 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 Kämpfer 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 freestone,—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, supported 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 Kwannon temple was a structure very long in proportion to its breadth. In the midst was a gigantic image of Kwannon, 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 ten platforms rising like steps one behind the other, on each of which stood fifty images of Kwannon, as large as life,—a thousand in all, each on its separate pedestal, so arranged as to stand in rows of five, one behind the other, and all visible at the same time, each with its twenty hands. On the hands and heads of all these 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 exaggerated.

Klaproth[33] 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 Daibutsu, or the great Buddha, 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.[34]

At a little distance is a chapel called Mimitsuka, or “tomb of ears,” in which are buried the ears and noses of the Coreans who fell in the war carried on against them by Taikō-Sama, who had them salted and conveyed to Japan. The grand portico of the external wall of the temple is called Ni-ō-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, Aōn 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 million 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 Kämpfer, here is a remarkable discrepancy.

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.

Notwithstanding the lamentations uttered by Kämpfer 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 koban. The old koban 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.[35] The new koban 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 koban 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 koban 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 koban 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 koban at the rate of sixty-eight mas, caused a loss of from thirty-four to thirty-six per cent. From this time the old koban passed as double koban, being reckoned at twice their former weight. The koban 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 establishment at Deshima.

Upon this occasion, a “Memoir on the Trade of Japan, and the Causes of its Decline,” was drawn up by Imhoff, at that time governor-general at Batavia, which affords information on the change in the value of the koban, and other matters relating to the Dutch trade to Japan, not elsewhere to be found.[36] It is apparent from his 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 requisitions 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 profitable 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.

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 result 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 exportation of that, and restrictions were, at the same time, put upon the exportation of copper. This sagacious conjecture of Raffles is confirmed by a tract on the Origin of the Riches of Japan, written, in 1708, by Arai Chikugo-no-Kami [Arai Hakuseki], a person of high distinction 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 1706, as follows: Gold, 6,192,600 koban; silver, 112,268,700 taels. Of this amount, 2,397,600 koban 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 katties.

This export is represented as having commenced in the time of Nobunaga,[37] 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 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 foreigners is evidently the point aimed at.

View of Hakone

Lake Biwa

“There goes out of the empire annually,” says this writer, “about one hundred and fifty thousand koban, 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 Gongen, 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 Gongen 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 Portuguese 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 established with her, it must be on an entirely new basis, the exports to consist of something else than metallic products.

CHAPTER XXXIX

Thunberg’s Visit to Japan—Searches and Examinations—Smuggling—Interpreters—Deshima—Imports and Exports—Unicorn’s Horn and Ginseng—Soy—The Dutch at Deshima—Japanese Mistresses—Japanese Women—Studying the Language—Botanizing—Clocks—New Year’s Day—Trampling on Images—Departure for Yedo—Journey through the Island of Shimo—Japanese Houses and Furniture—Manufacture of Paper—Practice of Bathing—Shimonoseki—Voyage to Ōsaka—Children—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Agriculture—Animals—A.D. 1775-1776.

From the time of Kämpfer’s departure from Deshima, of all the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of upwards 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 physician, naturalist, and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kämpfer 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 Batavia. 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.[38]

The searches and examinations previous to landing were the same described by Kämpfer. 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 Deshima, 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 had 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,” says Thunberg, “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 1772, 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 see if they were not hollow. 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 in every direction. Even some of the eggs brought from Batavia were broken, lest they might be shams in which valuables were concealed.

Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty to correct with blows the Japanese kuri 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 unmannerly a style they usually behave to each other, and the brutal treatment which the sailors under their command frequently experience 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 Kämpfer (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. Kämpfer speaks of the interpreters with great indignation as the most watchful and hateful of spies. Thunberg appears to have established very good terms with them. New 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.

Deshima, from Thunberg’s description of it, appears to have altered very little since Kämpfer’s residence there, though glass windows 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 Kämpfer’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), elephants’ teeth, sappan-wood for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-root, and Costus Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, rattans, spectacles, looking-glasses, watches, Ninjin-root or ginseng, and unicorns’ horns. This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japanese 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. Thunberg 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 quinquefolium) 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 smuggled in to mix with the Chinese.[39]

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 persons were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on it. The sale by kamban continued exactly as Kämpfer had described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by kamban. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles.

The chief articles of export were copper, camphor, and lackered goods; porcelain, rice, sake, soy,[40] were also exported. The profits of this trade had been greatly curtailed. “Formerly,” says Thunberg, “it was so very profitable to individuals that hardly anybody 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 enjoyment of a residence at Deshima 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, we 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 Deshima had each two or three handsome rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing 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 Kämpfer. 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 mistress’ food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One of these female companions 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 dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thunberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. He 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.[41]

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 violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a fœtid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It ate 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 distinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows; and another 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,[42] and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercurial 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, Thunberg encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dictionary, in the Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese, in quarto, containing 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 legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it for any price.[43]

Afterwards, at Yedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick, printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese characters, 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 few familiar articles. Thunberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese vocabulary, but he does not appear to have made any great progress in the language.

With much difficulty he obtained, about the beginning of February, leave to botanize.[44] Every excursion cost him sixteen or eighteen 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 Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common 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 (Dioscoreæ) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (Vicia faba), several species of French beans (Phascolus), and peas (Pisun sativum), were commonly 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 the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the Acorus, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (Amomum miōga); the Mentha piperita; 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 erecta); the pepper bush (Figara peperita); a species of madder (Rubia cordata), and several species of the Pologonum, used for dyeing. 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 beautiful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the Sesamum orientale 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 succedanea, the camphor-tree, the Melea azedarach, and the Camellia sasankwa.[46]

In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [mogusa], 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 Shikimi, 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 long is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel 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 fire at one end, and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked beforehand on these furrows, are proclaimed in the daytime by striking 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 factory 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 European 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 with 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 was frequently desired to cut a slice for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in consumptions and other disorders. After dinner, warm sake 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 sake, and partly to dance and bear the girls company who were already on the island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japanese 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 sake, 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, 1776, 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 congratulations 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 Kämpfer’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 Kämpfer’s day these two latter persons had been obliged to make the journey on horseback, exposed to cold, rain, and all the inclemencies of the weather. Since then they had obtained the privilege of travelling in norimono, equally with the director. Dr. Thunberg seems to have been well satisfied with his vehicle, which he describes as both handsome and convenient. Each norimono 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 and 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 covered 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 norimono.”

The Ear-Mound at Kyōtō

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 Thunberg had seen, and this, with other sums 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 Kämpfer’s, all the way by land, not crossing either the bay of Ōmura, nor that of Shimabara. They passed, however, through Shiota, as Kämpfer had done, famous for its large water-jars, and visited the hot springs in that neighborhood, and also Saga, capital of the province of Hizen, remarkable for its handsome women, its rice and its fine porcelain. The roads were found such as Kämpfer had described them. Proceeding onward, still by Kämpfer’s route, they reached Kokura on the ninth of March. The following description of Japanese houses corresponds sufficiently well with that of Kämpfer, while it gives a rather more distinct, and somewhat less 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. The 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 whitewashed on the outside so as to look exactly like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular. Between these beams, which are square and far from thick, 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, consisting 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 partitioned 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 frequently 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 prevents 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 pass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it rains to prevent the paper windows from being damaged. There are no glass windows here; nor have I observed mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc (mica, or isinglass) used for this purpose.