It
would seem natural to allow a foreigner to send his personal
luggage from one Treaty Port to another without going through a
number of formalities which render it nearly impossible, but it was
only managed by Ito sending mine in his own name to a Japanese at
Hakodate with whom he is slightly acquainted.
{14} This hospital is large and well ventilated, but has not as
yet succeeded in attracting many in-patients; out-patients,
specially sufferers from ophthalmia, are very numerous. The
Japanese chief physician regards the great prevalence of the malady
in this neighbourhood as the result of damp, the reflection of the
sun's rays from sand and snow, inadequate ventilation and charcoal
fumes.
{15} Kak'ke, by William Anderson, F.R.C.S. Transactions of
English Asiatic Society of Japan, January 1878.
{16} I failed to learn what the liquor was which was drunk so
freely, but as no unseemly effects followed its use, I think it
must either have been light wine, or light sake.
{17} I venture to present this journal letter, with a few
omissions, just as it was written, trusting that the interest which
attaches to aboriginal races and little-visited regions will carry
my readers through the minuteness and multiplicity of its details.
{18} The use of kerosene in matted wooden houses is a new cause of
conflagrations. It is not possible to say how it originated, but
just before Christmas 1879 a fire broke out in Hakodate, which in a
few hours destroyed 20 streets, 2500 houses, the British Consulate,
several public buildings, the new native Christian church, and the
church Mission House, leaving 11,000 people homeless.
{19} I went over them with the Ainos of a remote village on
Volcano Bay, and found the differences in pronunciation very
slight, except that the definiteness of the sound which I have
represented by Tsch was more strongly marked. I afterwards went
over them with Mr. Dening, and with Mr. Von Siebold at Tokiyo, who
have made a larger collection of words than I have, and it is
satisfactory to find that we have represented the words in the main
by the same letters, with the single exception that usually the
sound represented by them by the letters ch I have given as Tsch,
and I venture to think that is the most correct rendering.
{20} I have not been able to obtain from any botanist the name of
the tree from the bark of which the thread is made, but suppose it
to be a species of Tiliaceae.
{21} Yoshitsune is the most popular hero of Japanese history, and
the special favourite of boys. He was the brother of Yoritomo, who
was appointed by the Mikado in 1192 Sei-i Tai Shogun (barbarian-
subjugating great general) for his victories, and was the first of
that series of great Shoguns whom our European notions distorted
into "Temporal Emperors" of Japan. Yoshitsune, to whom the real
honour of these victories belonged, became the object of the
jealousy and hatred of his brother, and was hunted from province to
province, till, according to popular belief, he committed hara-
kiri, after killing his wife and children, and his head, preserved
in sake, was sent to his brother at Kamakura. Scholars, however,
are not agreed as to the manner, period, or scene of his death.
Many believe that he escaped to Yezo and lived among the Ainos for
many years, dying among them at the close of the twelfth century.
None believe this more firmly than the Ainos themselves, who assert
that he taught their fathers the arts of civilisation, with letters
and numbers, and gave them righteous laws, and he is worshipped by
many of them under a name which signifies Master of the Law. I
have been told by old men in Biratori, Usu, and Lebunge, that a
later Japanese conqueror carried away the books in which the arts
were written, and that since his time the arts themselves have been
lost, and the Ainos have fallen into their present condition! On
asking why the Ainos do not make vessels of iron and clay as well
as knives and spears, the invariable answer is, "The Japanese took
away the books."
{22} The duty paid by junks is 4s. for each twenty-five tons, by
foreign ships of foreign shape and rig 2 pounds for each 100 tons,
and by steamers 3 pounds for each 100 tons.
{23} The following very inaccurate but entertaining account of
this expedition was given by the Yomi-uri-Shimbun, a daily
newspaper with the largest, though not the most aristocratic,
circulation in Tokiyo, being taken in by the servants and
tradespeople. It is a literal translation made by Mr. Chamberlain.
"The person mentioned in our yesterday's issue as 'an English
subject of the name of Bird' is a lady from Scotland, a part of
England. This lady spends her time in travelling, leaving this
year the two American continents for a passing visit to the
Sandwich Islands, and landing in Japan early in the month of May.
She has toured all over the country, and even made a five months'
stay in the Hokkaido, investigating the local customs and
productions. Her inspection yesterday of the cremation ground at
Kirigaya is believed to have been prompted by a knowledge of the
advantages of this method of disposing of the dead, and a desire to
introduce the same into England(!) On account of this lady's being
so learned as to have published a quantity of books, His Excellency
the Governor was pleased to see her yesterday, and to show her
great civility, sending her to Kirigaya in his own carriage, a mark
of attention which is said to have pleased the lady much(!)"
End of Unbeaten Tracks in Japan, by Isabella L. Bird
