Unbeaten Tracks In Japan - free ebook by Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

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Unbeaten Tracks In Japan

Isabella L. (Isabella Lucy) Bird

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UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN

UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN

AN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO AND THE SHRINE OF NIKKÔ BY ISABELLA L. BIRD AUTHOR OF ‘SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS’ ‘A LADY’S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS’ ETC. ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1911 First Edition , January 1905 Reprinted , June 1907 Second Edition (1/-) October 1911 To the Memory OF LADY PARKES, WHOSE KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP ARE AMONG MY MOST TREASURED REMEMBRANCES OF JAPAN, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFU

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PREFACE

PREFACE

Having been recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to recruit my health by means which had proved serviceable before, I decided to visit Japan, attracted less by the reputed excellence of its climate than by the certainty that it possessed, in an especial degree, those sources of novel and sustained interest which conduce so essentially to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary health-seeker. The climate disappointed me, but, though I found the country a study rather than a rap

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LETTER I.

LETTER I.

First View of Japan—A Vision of Fujisan—Japanese Sampans—“Pullman Cars”—Undignified Locomotion—Paper Money—The Drawbacks of Japanese Travelling. Oriental Hotel , Yokohama , May 21. Eighteen days of unintermitted rolling over “desolate rainy seas” brought the “City of Tokio” early yesterday morning to Cape King, and by noon we were steaming up the Gulf of Yedo, quite near the shore. The day was soft and grey with a little faint blue sky, and, though the coast of Japan is much more prepossessing

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LETTER II.

LETTER II.

Sir Harry Parkes—An “Ambassador’s Carriage”—Cart Coolies. Yokohama , May 22. To-day has been spent in making new acquaintances, instituting a search for a servant and a pony, receiving many offers of help, asking questions and receiving from different people answers which directly contradict each other. Hours are early. Thirteen people called on me before noon. Ladies drive themselves about the town in small pony carriages attended by running grooms called bettos . The foreign merchants keep

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LETTER III.

LETTER III.

Yedo and Tôkiyô—The Yokohama Railroad—The Effect of Misfits—The Plain of Yedo—Personal Peculiarities—First Impressions of Tôkiyô—H. B. M.’s Legation—An English Home. H.B.M.’s Legation , Yedo , May 24. I have dated my letter Yedo, according to the usage of the British Legation, but popularly the new name of Tôkiyô, or Eastern Capital, is used, Kiyôto, the Mikado’s former residence, having received the name of Saikiô, or Western Capital, though it has now no claim to be regarded as a capital at al

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LETTER IV.

LETTER IV.

“John Chinaman”—Engaging a Servant—First Impressions of Ito—A Solemn Contract—The Food Question. H.B.M.’s Legation , Yedo , June 7. I went to Yokohama for a week to visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the Bluff. Bishop and Mrs. Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and it was very pleasant. One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a different class of orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and usually poor-looking Japanese. Of the 2500 Chinamen who reside in Japan, over 1100 are in Yo

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LETTER V.

LETTER V.

Kwan-non Temple—Uniformity of Temple Architecture—A Kuruma Expedition—A Perpetual Festival—The Ni-ô—The Limbo of Vanity—Heathen Prayers—Binzuru—A Group of Devils—Archery Galleries—New Japan—An Élégante. H.B.M.’s Legation , Yedo , June 9. Once for all I will describe a Buddhist temple, and it shall be the popular temple of Asakusa, which keeps fair and festival the whole year round, and is dedicated to the “thousand-armed” Kwan-non, the goddess of mercy. Writing generally, it may be said that in

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LETTER VI.

LETTER VI.

Fears—Travelling Equipments—Passports—Coolie Costume—A Yedo Diorama—Rice-Fields—Tea-Houses—A Traveller’s Reception—The Inn at Kasukabé—Lack of Privacy—A Concourse of Noises—A Nocturnal Alarm—A Vision of Policemen—A Budget from Yedo. Kasukabé , June 10. From the date you will see that I have started on my long journey, though not upon the “unbeaten tracks” which I hope to take after leaving Nikkô, and my first evening alone in the midst of this crowded Asian life is strange, almost fearful. I ha

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LETTER VI.—(Continued.)

LETTER VI.—(Continued.)

A Coolie falls ill—Peasant Costume—Varieties in Threshing—The Tochigi yadoya —Farming Villages—A Beautiful Region—An In Memoriam Avenue—A Doll’s Street—Nikkô—The Journey’s End—Coolie Kindliness. By seven the next morning the rice was eaten, the room as bare as if it had never been occupied, the bill of 80 sen paid, the house-master and servants with many sayo naras , or farewells, had prostrated themselves, and we were away in the kurumas at a rapid trot. At the first halt my runner, a kindly,

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LETTER VII.

LETTER VII.

A Japanese Idyll—Musical Stillness—My Rooms—Floral Decorations—Kanaya and his Household—Table Equipments. Kanaya’s , Nikkô , June 15. I don’t know what to write about my house. It is a Japanese idyll; there is nothing within or without which does not please the eye, and, after the din of yadoyas , its silence, musical with the dash of waters and the twitter of birds, is truly refreshing. It is a simple but irregular two-storied pavilion, standing on a stone-faced terrace approached by a flight

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LETTER VIII.

LETTER VIII.

The Beauties of Nikkô—The Burial of Iyéyasu—The Approach to the Great Shrines—The Yomei Gate—Gorgeous Decorations—Simplicity of the Mausoleum—The Shrine of Iyémitsu—Religious Art of Japan and India—An Earthquake—Beauties of Wood-carving. Kanaya’s , Nikkô , June 21. I have been at Nikkô for nine days, and am therefore entitled to use the word “ Kek’ko !” Nikkô means “sunny splendour,” and its beauties are celebrated in poetry and art all over Japan. Mountains for a great part of the year clothed

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LETTER IX.

LETTER IX.

A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle— Yadoya and Attendant—A Native Watering-Place—The Sulphur Baths—A “Squeeze.” Yashimaya , Yumoto , Nikkôzan Mountains , June 22. To-day I have made an experimental journey on horseback, have done fifteen miles in eight hours of continuous travelling, and have encountered for the first time the Japanese pack-horse—an animal of which many unpleasing stories are told, and which has hitherto been as mythical to me as the kirin , or dragon. I have neither been ki

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LETTER X.

LETTER X.

Peaceful Monotony—A Japanese School—A Dismal Ditty—Punishment—A Children’s Party—A Juvenile Belle—Female Names—A Juvenile Drama—Needlework—Calligraphy—Arranging Flowers—Kanaya—Daily Routine—An Evening’s Entertainment—Planning Routes—The God-shelf. Irimichi , Nikkô, June 23. My peacefully monotonous life here is nearly at an end. The people are so quiet and kindly, though almost too still, and I have learned to know something of the externals of village life, and have become quite fond of the pl

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LETTER X.—(Continued.)

LETTER X.—(Continued.)

Darkness visible—Nikkô Shops—Girls and Matrons—Night and Sleep—Parental Love—Childish Docility—Hair-dressing—Skin Diseases. I don’t wonder that the Japanese rise early, for their evenings are cheerless, owing to the dismal illumination. In this and other houses the lamp consists of a square or circular lacquer stand, with four uprights, 2½ feet high, and panes of white paper. A flatted iron dish is suspended in this full of oil, with the pith of a rush with a weight in the centre laid across i

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LETTER X.—(Completed.)

LETTER X.—(Completed.)

Shops and Shopping—The Barber’s Shop—A Paper Waterproof—Ito’s Vanity—Preparations for the Journey—Transport and Prices—Money and Measurements. I have had to do a little shopping in Hachiishi for my journey. The shop-fronts, you must understand, are all open, and at the height of the floor, about two feet from the ground, there is a broad ledge of polished wood on which you sit down. A woman everlastingly boiling water on a bronze hibachi , or brazier, shifting the embers about deftly with bras

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LETTER XI.

LETTER XI.

Comfort disappears—Fine Scenery—An Alarm—A Farm-house—An unusual Costume—Bridling a Horse—Female Dress and Ugliness—Babies—My Mago —Beauties of the Kinugawa—Fujihara—My Servant—Horse-shoes—An absurd Mistake. Fujihara , June 24. Ito’s informants were right. Comfort was left behind at Nikkô! A little woman brought two depressed-looking mares at six this morning; my saddle and bridle were put on one, and Ito and the baggage on the other; my hosts and I exchanged cordial good wishes and obeisances,

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LETTER XII.

LETTER XII.

A Fantastic Jumble—The “Quiver” of Poverty—The Water-shed—From Bad to Worse—The Rice Planter’s Holiday—A Diseased Crowd—Amateur Doctoring—Want of Cleanliness—Rapid Eating—Premature Old Age. Kurumatoge , June 30. After the hard travelling of six days the rest of Sunday in a quiet place at a high elevation is truly delightful! Mountains and passes, valleys and rice swamps, forests and rice swamps, villages and rice swamps; poverty, industry, dirt, ruinous temples, prostrate Buddhas, strings of st

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LETTER XII.—(Concluded.)

LETTER XII.—(Concluded.)

A Japanese Ferry—A Corrugated Road—The Pass of Sanno—Various Vegetation—An Unattractive Undergrowth—Preponderance of Men. We changed horses at Tajima, formerly a daimiyô’s residence, and, for a Japanese town, rather picturesque. It makes and exports clogs, coarse pottery, coarse lacquer, and coarse baskets. After travelling through rice-fields varying from thirty yards square to a quarter of an acre, with the tops of the dykes utilised by planting dwarf beans along them, we came to a large rive

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LETTER XIII.

LETTER XIII.

The Plain of Wakamatsu—Light Costume—The Takata Crowd—A Congress of Schoolmasters—Timidity of a Crowd—Bad Roads—Vicious Horses—Mountain Scenery—A Picturesque Inn—Swallowing a Fish-bone—Poverty and Suicide—An Inn-kitchen—England Unknown!—My Breakfast Disappears. Kurumatoge , June 30. A short ride took us from Ichikawa to a plain about eleven miles broad by eighteen long. The large town of Wakamatsu stands near its southern end, and it is sprinkled with towns and villages. The great lake of Iniw

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LETTER XIV.

LETTER XIV.

An Infamous Road—Monotonous Greenery—Abysmal Dirt—Low Lives—The Tsugawa Yadoya —Politeness—A Shipping Port—A Barbarian Devil. Tsugawa , July 2. Yesterday’s journey was one of the most severe I have yet had, for in ten hours of hard travelling I only accomplished fifteen miles. The road from Kurumatogé westwards is so infamous that the stages are sometimes little more than a mile. Yet it is by it, so far at least as the Tsugawa river, that the produce and manufactures of the rich plain of Aidzu

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Itinerary of Route from Nikkô to Niigata (Kinugawa Route.)

Itinerary of Route from Nikkô to Niigata (Kinugawa Route.)

From Tôkiyô to No. of houses. Ri . Chô . Nikkô 36 Kohiaku 6 2 18 Kisagoi 19 1 Fujihara 46 Takahara 15 10 Ikari 25 Nakamiyo 1 24 Yokokawa 20 21 Itosawa 38 34 Kayashima 57 1 4 Tajima 250 21 Toyonari 120 2 12 Atomi 34 Ouchi 27 Ichikawa 7 22 Takata 420 11 Bangé 910 3 4 Katakado 50 1 20 Nosawa 306 24 Nojiri 110 27 Kurumatogé 9 Hozawa 20 14 Torige 21 Sakaiyama 28 24 Tsugawa 615 2 18 Niigata 50,000 souls Ri . 101 6 About 247 miles....

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LETTER XVI.

LETTER XVI.

Abominable Weather—Insect Pests—Absence of Foreign Trade—A Refractory River—Progress—The Japanese City—Water Highways—Niigata Gardens—Ruth Fyson—The Winter Climate—A Population in Wadding. Niigata , July 9. I have spent over a week in Niigata, and leave it regretfully to-morrow, rather for the sake of the friends I have made than for its own interests. I never experienced a week of more abominable weather. The sun has been seen just once, the mountains, which are thirty miles off, not at all.

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LETTER XVII

LETTER XVII

The Canal-side at Niigata—Awful Loneliness—Courtesy—Dr. Palm’s Tandem—A Noisy Matsuri —A Jolting Journey—The Mountain Villages—Winter Dismalness—An Out-of-the-world Hamlet—Crowded Dwellings—Riding a Cow—“Drunk and Disorderly”—An Enforced Rest—Local Discouragements—Heavy Loads—Absence of Beggary—Slow Travelling. Ichinono , July 12. Two foreign ladies, two fair-haired foreign infants, a long-haired foreign dog, and a foreign gentleman, who, without these accompaniments, might have escaped notice,

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LETTER XVIII.

LETTER XVIII.

Comely Kine—Japanese Criticism on a Foreign Usage—A Pleasant Halt—Renewed Courtesies—The Plain of Yonezawa—A Curious Mistake—The Mother’s Memorial—Arrival at Komatsu—Stately Accommodation—A Vicious Horse—An Asiatic Arcadia—A Fashionable Watering-place—A Belle—“Godowns.” Kaminoyama . A severe day of mountain travelling brought us into another region. We left Ichinono early on a fine morning, with three pack-cows, one of which I rode [and their calves], very comely kine, with small noses, short h

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LETTER XIX.

LETTER XIX.

Prosperity—Convict Labour—A New Bridge—Yamagata—Intoxicating Forgeries—The Government Buildings—Bad Manners—Snow Mountains—A Wretched Town. Kanayama , July 16. Three days of travelling on the same excellent road have brought me nearly 60 miles. Yamagata ken impresses me as being singularly prosperous, progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which I entered soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly cultivated, and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks wealthy and

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LETTER XX.

LETTER XX.

The Effect of a Chicken—Poor Fare—Slow Travelling—Objects of Interest— Kak’ké —The Fatal Close—A Great Fire—Security of the Kuras . Shingoji , July 21. Very early in the morning, after my long talk with the Kôchô of Kanayama, Ito wakened me by saying, “You’ll be able for a long day’s journey to-day, as you had a chicken yesterday,” and under this chicken’s marvellous influence we got away at 6.45, only to verify the proverb, “The more haste the worse speed.” Unsolicited by me the Kôchô sent rou

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LETTER XX.—(Continued.)

LETTER XX.—(Continued.)

Lunch in Public—A Grotesque Accident—Police Inquiries—Man or Woman?—A Melancholy Stare—A Vicious Horse—An Ill-favoured Town—A Disappointment—A Torii . Yusowa is a specially objectionable-looking place. I took my lunch—a wretched meal of a tasteless white curd made from beans, with some condensed milk added to it—in a yard, and the people crowded in hundreds to the gate, and those behind, being unable to see me, got ladders and climbed on the adjacent roofs, where they remained till one of the r

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LETTER XX.—(Concluded.)

LETTER XX.—(Concluded.)

A Casual Invitation—A Ludicrous Incident—Politeness of a Policeman—A Comfortless Sunday—An Outrageous Irruption—A Privileged Stare. At a wayside tea-house, soon after leaving Rokugo in kurumas , I met the same courteous and agreeable young doctor who was stationed at Innai during the prevalence of kak’ke , and he invited me to visit the hospital at Kubota, of which he is junior physician, and told Ito of a restaurant at which “foreign food” can be obtained—a pleasant prospect, of which he is alw

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LETTER XXI.

LETTER XXI.

The Necessity of Firmness—Perplexing Misrepresentations—Gliding with the Stream—Suburban Residences—The Kubota Hospital—A Formal Reception—The Normal School. Kubota , July 23. I arrived here on Monday afternoon by the river Omono, what would have been two long days’ journey by land having been easily accomplished in nine hours by water. This was an instance of forming a plan wisely, and adhering to it resolutely! Firmness in travelling is nowhere more necessary than in Japan. I decided some t

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LETTER XXII.

LETTER XXII.

A Silk Factory—Employment for Women—A Police Escort—The Japanese Police Force. Kubota , July 23. My next visit was to a factory of handloom silk-weavers, where 180 hands, half of them women, are employed. These new industrial openings for respectable employment for women and girls are very important, and tend in the direction of a much-needed social reform. The striped silk fabrics produced are entirely for home consumption. Afterwards I went into the principal street, and, after a long search

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LETTER XXIII.

LETTER XXIII.

“A Plague of Immoderate Rain”—A Confidential Servant—Ito’s Diary—Ito’s Excellences—Ito’s Faults—Prophecy of the Future of Japan—Curious Queries—Superfine English—Economical Travelling—The Japanese Pack-horse again. Kubota , July 24. I am here still, not altogether because the town is fascinating, but because the rain is so ceaseless as to be truly “a plague of immoderate rain and waters.” Travellers keep coming in with stories of the impassability of the roads and the carrying away of bridges.

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LETTER XXIV.

LETTER XXIV.

The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon Visitors—An Infant Prodigy—A Feat in Caligraphy—Child Worship—A Borrowed Dress—A Trousseau —House Furniture—The Marriage Ceremony. Kubota , July 25. The weather at last gives a hope of improvement, and I think I shall leave to-morrow. I had written this sentence when Ito came in to say that the man in the next house would like to see my stretcher and mosquito net, and had sent me a bag of cakes with the usual bit of seaweed attached, to show that it was a pres

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LETTER XXV.

LETTER XXV.

A Holiday Scene—A Matsuri —Attractions of the Revel— Matsuri Cars—Gods and Demons—A Possible Harbour—A Village Forge—Prosperity of Saké Brewers—A “Great Sight.” Tsugurata , July 27. Three miles of good road thronged with half the people of Kubota on foot and in kurumas , red vans drawn by horses, pairs of policemen in kurumas , hundreds of children being carried, hundreds more on foot, little girls, formal and precocious looking, with hair dressed with scarlet crépe and flowers, hobbling toilsom

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LETTER XXVI.

LETTER XXVI.

The Fatigues of Travelling—Torrents and Mud—Ito’s Surliness—The Blind Shampooers—A Supposed Monkey Theatre—A Suspended Ferry—A Difficult Transit—Perils on the Yonetsurugawa—A Boatman Drowned—Nocturnal Disturbances—A Noisy Yadoya—Storm-bound Travellers— Hai ! Hai !—More Nocturnal Disturbances. Odaté , July 29. I have been suffering so much from my spine that I have been unable to travel more than seven or eight miles daily for several days, and even that with great difficulty. I try my own sadd

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LETTER XXVII.

LETTER XXVII.

Good-tempered Intoxication—The Effect of Sunshine—A tedious Altercation—Evening Occupations—Noisy Talk—Social Gathering—Unfair Comparisons. Shirasawa , July 29. Early this morning the rain-clouds rolled themselves up and disappeared, and the bright blue sky looked as if it had been well washed. I had to wait till noon before the rivers became fordable, and my day’s journey is only seven miles, as it is not possible to go farther till more of the water runs off. We had very limp, melancholy hor

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LETTER XXVIII.

LETTER XXVIII.

Torrents of Rain—An unpleasant Detention—Devastations produced by Floods—The Yadate Pass—The Force of Water—Difficulties thicken—A Primitive Yadoya—The Water rises. Ikarigaseki , Aomori Ken , August 2. The prophecies concerning difficulties are fulfilled. For six days and five nights the rain has never ceased, except for a few hours at a time, and for the last thirteen hours, as during the eclipse at Shirasawa, it has been falling in such sheets as I have only seen for a few minutes at a time o

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LETTER XXVIII.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXVIII.—(Continued.)

Scanty Resources—Japanese Children—Children’s Games—A Sagacious Example—A Kite Competition—Personal Privations. Ikarigaseki . I have well-nigh exhausted the resources of this place. They are to go out three times a day to see how much the river has fallen; to talk with the house-master and Kôchô ; to watch the children’s games and the making of shingles; to buy toys and sweetmeats and give them away; to apply zinc lotion to a number of sore eyes three times daily, under which treatment, during

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LETTER XXIX.

LETTER XXIX.

Hope deferred—Effects of the Flood—Activity of the Police—A Ramble in Disguise—The Tanabata Festival—Mr. Satow’s Reputation. Kuroishi , August 5. After all the waters did not fall as was expected, and I had to spend a fourth day at Ikarigaseki. We left early on Saturday, as we had to travel fifteen miles without halting. The sun shone on all the beautiful country, and on all the wreck and devastation, as it often shines on the dimpling ocean the day after a storm. We took four men, crossed tw

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LETTER XXX.

LETTER XXX.

A Lady’s Toilet—Hair-dressing—Paint and Cosmetics—Afternoon Visitors—Christian Converts. Kuroishi , August 5. This is a pleasant place, and my room has many advantages besides light and cleanliness, as, for instance, that I overlook my neighbours and that I have seen a lady at her toilet preparing for a wedding! A married girl knelt in front of a black lacquer toilet-box with a spray of cherry blossoms in gold sprawling over it, and lacquer uprights at the top, which supported a polished metal

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LETTER XXXI.

LETTER XXXI.

A Travelling Curiosity—Rude Dwellings—Primitive Simplicity—The Public Bath-house. Kuroishi . Yesterday was beautiful, and, dispensing for the first time with Ito’s attendance, I took a kuruma for the day, and had a very pleasant excursion into a cul de sac in the mountains. The one drawback was the infamous road, which compelled me either to walk or be mercilessly jolted. The runner was a nice, kind, merry creature, quite delighted, Ito said, to have a chance of carrying so great a sight as a

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Itinerary of Route from Niigata to Aomori.

Itinerary of Route from Niigata to Aomori.

No. of Houses. Ri . Chô . Kisaki 56 4 Tsuiji 209 6 Kurokawa 215 2 12 Hanadati 20 Kawaguchi 27 3 Numa 24 1 18 Tamagawa 40 Okuni 210 2 11 Kurosawa 17 1 18 Ichinono 20 Shirokasawa 42 21 Tenoko 120 3 11 Komatsu 513 2 13 Akayu 350 4 Kaminoyama 650 5 Yamagata 21,000 souls 3 19 Tendo 1,040 8 Tateoka 307 21 Tochiida 217 1 33 Obanasawa 506 Ashizawa 70 Shinjô 1,060 4 6 Kanayama 165 3 27 Nosoki 37 9 Innai 257 12 Yusawa 1,506 35 Yokote 2,070 4 27 Rokugo 1,062 6 Shingoji 209 1 28 Kubota 36,587 souls 16

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LETTER XXXIII.

LETTER XXXIII.

Form and Colour—A Windy Capital—Eccentricities in House Roofs. Hakodaté , Yezo , August 13, 1878 After a tremendous bluster for two days the weather has become beautifully fine, and I find the climate here more invigorating than that of the main island. It is Japan, but yet there is a difference somehow. When the mists lift they reveal not mountains smothered in greenery, but naked peaks, volcanoes only recently burnt out, with the red ash flaming under the noonday sun, and passing through sha

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LETTER XXXIV.

LETTER XXXIV.

Ito’s Delinquency—“Missionary Manners”—A Predicted Failure. Hakodaté , Yezo . I am enjoying Hakodaté so much that, though my tour is all planned and my arrangements are made, I linger on from day to day. There has been an unpleasant éclaircissement about Ito. You will remember that I engaged him without a character, and that he told both Lady Parkes and me that after I had done so his former master, Mr. Maries, asked him to go back to him, to which he had replied that he had “a contract with a

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LETTER XXXV. [216]

LETTER XXXV. [216]

A Lovely Sunset—An Official Letter—A “Front Horse”—Japanese Courtesy—The Steam Ferry—Coolies Abscond—A Team of Savages—A Drove of Horses—Floral Beauties—An Unbeaten Track—A Ghostly Dwelling—Solitude and Eeriness. Ginsainoma , Yezo , August 17. I am once again in the wilds! I am sitting outside an upper room built out almost over a lonely lake, with wooded points purpling and still shadows deepening in the sinking sun. A number of men are dragging down the nearest hillside the carcass of a bear

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LETTER XXXV.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXXV.—(Continued.)

The Harmonies of Nature—A Good Horse—A Single Discord—A Forest—Aino Ferrymen—“ Les Puces ! Les Puces !”—Baffled Explorers—Ito’s Contempt for Ainos—An Aino Introduction. Sarufuto . No ! Nature has no discords. This morning, to the far horizon, diamond-flashing blue water shimmered in perfect peace, outlined by a line of surf which broke lazily on a beach scarcely less snowy than itself. The deep, perfect blue of the sky was only broken by a few radiant white clouds, whose shadows trailed slow

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LETTER XXXVI.

LETTER XXXVI.

Savage Life—A Forest Track—Cleanly Villages—A Hospitable Reception—The Chief’s Mother—The Evening Meal—A Savage Séance —Libations to the Gods—Nocturnal Silence—Aino Courtesy—The Chief’s Wife. Aino Hut , Biratori , August 23. I am in the lonely Aino land, and I think that the most interesting of my travelling experiences has been the living for three days and two nights in an Aino hut, and seeing and sharing the daily life of complete savages, who go on with their ordinary occupations just as if

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LETTER XXXVI.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXXVI.—(Continued.)

A Supposed Act of Worship—Parental Tenderness—Morning Visits—Wretched Cultivation—Honesty and Generosity—A “Dug-out”—Female Occupations—The Ancient Fate—A New Arrival—A Perilous Prescription—The Shrine of Yoshitsuné—The Chief’s Return. When I crept from under my net much benumbed with cold, there were about eleven people in the room, who all made their graceful salutation. It did not seem as if they had ever heard of washing, for, when water was asked for, Shinondi brought a little in a lacquer

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LETTER XXXVII.

LETTER XXXVII.

Barrenness of Savage Life—Irreclaimable Savages—The Aino Physique—Female Comeliness—Torture and Ornament—Child Life—Docility and Obedience. Biratori , Yezo , August 24. I expected to have written out my notes on the Ainos in the comparative quiet and comfort of Sarufuto, but the delay in Benri’s return, and the non-arrival of the horses, have compelled me to accept Aino hospitality for another night, which involves living on tea and potatoes, for my stock of food is exhausted. In some respects

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LETTER XXXVII.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXXVII.—(Continued.)

Aino Clothing—Holiday Dress—Domestic Architecture—Household Gods—Japanese Curios—The Necessaries of Life—Clay Soup—Arrow Poison—Arrow-Traps—Female Occupations—Bark Cloth—The Art of Weaving. Aino clothing, for savages, is exceptionally good. In the winter it consists of one, two, or more coats of skins, with hoods of the same, to which the men add rude moccasins when they go out hunting. In summer they wear kimonos, or loose coats, made of cloth woven from the split bark of a forest tree. This

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LETTER XXXVII.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXXVII.—(Continued.)

A Simple Nature-Worship—Aino Gods—A Festival Song—Religious Intoxication—Bear-Worship—The Annual Saturnalia—The Future State—Marriage and Divorce—Musical Instruments—Etiquette—The Chieftainship—Death and Burial—Old Age—Moral Qualities. There cannot be anything more vague and destitute of cohesion than Aino religious notions. With the exception of the hill shrines of Japanese construction dedicated to Yoshitsuné, they have no temples, and they have neither priests, sacrifices, nor worship. Appa

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LETTER XXXVIII.

LETTER XXXVIII.

A Parting Gift—A Delicacy—Generosity—A Seaside Village—Pipichari’s Advice—A Drunken Revel—Ito’s Prophecies—The Kôchô’s Illness—Patent Medicines. Sarufuto , Yezo , August 27. I left the Ainos yesterday with real regret, though I must confess that sleeping in one’s clothes and the lack of ablutions are very fatiguing. Benri’s two wives spent the early morning in the laborious operation of grinding millet into coarse flour, and before I departed, as their custom is, they made a paste of it, rolled

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LETTER XXXIX.

LETTER XXXIX.

A Welcome Gift—Recent Changes—Volcanic Phenomena—Interesting Tufa Cones—Semi-strangulation—A Fall into a Bear-trap—The Shiraôi Ainos—Horsebreaking and Cruelty. Old Mororan , Volcano Bay , Yezo , September 2. After the storm of Sunday, Monday was a grey, still, tender day, and the ranges of wooded hills were bathed in the richest indigo colouring. A canter of seventeen miles among the damask roses on a very rough horse only took me to Yubets, whose indescribable loneliness fascinated me into spe

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LETTER XXXIX.—(Continued.)

LETTER XXXIX.—(Continued.)

The Universal Language—The Yezo Corrals—A “Typhoon Rain”—Difficult Tracks—An Unenviable Ride—Drying Clothes—A Woman’s Remorse. This morning I left early in the kuruma with two kind and delightful savages. The road being much broken by the rains I had to get out frequently, and every time I got in again they put my air-pillow behind me, and covered me up in a blanket; and when we got to a rough river, one made a step of his back by which I mounted their horse, and gave me nooses of rope to hold

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LETTER XL.

LETTER XL.

“More than Peace”—Geographical Difficulties—Usu-taki—Swimming the Osharu—A Dream of Beauty—A Sunset Effect—A Nocturnal Alarm—The Coast Ainos. Lebungé , Volcano Bay , Yezo , September 6. “Weary wave and dying blast Sob and moan along the shore, All is peace at last.” And more than peace. It was a heavenly morning. The deep blue sky was perfectly unclouded, a blue sea with diamond flash and a “many-twinkling smile” rippled gently on the golden sands of the lovely little bay, and opposit

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LETTER XL.—(Continued.)

LETTER XL.—(Continued.)

The Sea-shore—A “Hairy Aino”—A Horse Fight—The Horses of Yezo—“Bad Mountains”—A Slight Accident—Magnificent Scenery—A Bleached Halting-Place—A Musty Room—Aino “Good-breeding.” A charge of 3 sen per ri more for the horses for the next stage, because there were such “bad mountains to cross,” prepared me for what followed—many miles of the worst road for horses I ever saw. I should not have complained if they had charged double the price. As an almost certain consequence, it was one of the most p

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Itinerary of Tour in Yezo.

Itinerary of Tour in Yezo.

Hakodaté to No. of Houses. Jap. Aino. Ri . Chô . Ginsainoma 4 7 18 Mori 105 Mororan 57 11 Horobets 18 47 5 1 Shiraôi 51 6 32 Tomakomai 38 21 Yubets 7 3 Sarufuto 63 Biratori 53 Mombets 27 1 From Horobets to Jap. Aino. Ri . Chô . Old Mororan 9 30 4 28 Usu 3 99 6 2 Lebungé 1 27 5 22 Oshamambé 56 38 34 Yamakushinai 40 4 18 Otoshibé 2 3 Mori 105 29 Togénoshita 55 6 7 Hakodaté 37,000 souls About 358 English miles....

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LETTER XLII.

LETTER XLII.

Pleasant Last Impressions—The Japanese Junk—Ito Disappears—My Letter of Thanks. Hakodaté , Yezo , September 14, 1878. This is my last day in Yezo, and the sun, shining brightly over the grey and windy capital, is touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki with a deeper red, and is brightening my last impressions, which, like my first, are very pleasant. The bay is deep blue, flecked with violet shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at anchor. There are vessels of foreign rig too, but

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LETTER XLIII.

LETTER XLIII.

Pleasant Prospects—A Miserable Disappointment—Caught in a Typhoon—A Dense Fog—Alarmist Rumours—A Welcome at Tôkiyô—The Last of the Mutineers. H. B. M.’s Legation , Yedo , September 21. A placid sea, which after much disturbance had sighed itself to rest, and a high, steady barometer promised a fifty hours’ passage to Yokohama, and when Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn and I left Hakodaté, by moonlight, on the night of the 14th, as the only passengers in the Hiogo Maru , Captain Moore, her genial, pleasant m

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LETTER XLIV.

LETTER XLIV.

Fine Weather—Cremation in Japan—The Governor of Tôkiyô—An Awkward Question—An Insignificant Building—Economy in Funeral Expenses—Simplicity of the Cremation Process—The Last of Japan. H. B. M.’s Legation , Yedo , December 18. I have spent the last ten days here, in settled fine weather, such as should have begun two months ago if the climate had behaved as it ought. The time has flown by in excursions, shopping, select little dinner-parties, farewell calls, and visits made with Mr. Chamberlain

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