Unbeaten Tracks in Japan ... New edition, abridged

Front matter

UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN By the same Author. A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Fourth Edition. With Illustrations. Post 8vo. ios. 6d. THE HAWAIIAN ARCHIPELAGO ; SIX MONTHS AMONG THE PALM GROVES, CORAL REEFS, AND VOLCANOES OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. Fourth Edition. With Illustrations. Post 8vo. 7s. 6d. THE GOLDEN CHERSONESE AND THE WAY THITHER. With Maps and Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 14s. THE YO.MEI GATE, SHRINES OF NIKKO. Frontispiece. P. 56. UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN AN ACCOUNT OF TRAVELS IN THE INTERIOR INCLUDING VISITS TO THE ABORIGINES OF YEZO AND THE SHRINE OF NIKKO By ISABELLA L. BIRD AUTHOR OF 'SIX MONTHS IN THE SANDWICH ISLANDS* (A LADY'S LIFE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS* I WITH forty illustrations NEW EDITION, ABRIDGED LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1885 {The right of translation is reserved.]

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh. Œ.0 tfje _{HeiTi0rg OF LADY PARKES, WHOSE KINDNESS AND FRIENDSHIP ARE AMONG MY MOST TREASURED REMEMBRANCES OF JAPAN, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY AND REVERENTLY DEDICATED.

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 rapture, its interest exceeded my largest expectations. This is not a " Book on Japan," but a narrative of travels in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the sum of knowledge of the present condition of the country, and it was not till I had travelled for some months in the interior of the main island and in Yezo that I decided that my materials were novel enough to render the contribution worth making.

From Nikko northwards my route was altogether off the beaten track, and had never been traversed in its entirety by any European. I lived among the Japanese, and saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European contact. As a lady travelling alone, and the first European lady who had been seen in several districts through which my route lay, my experiences differed more or less widely from those of preceding travellers ; and I am able to offer a fuller account of the aborigines of Yezo, obtained by actual acquaintance

PREFACE.

. X with them, than has hitherto been given. These are my chief reasons for offering this volume to the public. It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should consist mainly of letters written on the spot to my sister and a circle of personal friends, for this form of publication involves the sacrifice of artistic arrangement and literary treatment, and necessitates a certain amount of egotism ; but, on the other hand, it places the reader in the position of the traveller, and makes him share the vicissitudes of travel, discomfort, difficulty, and tedium, as well as novelty and enjoyment. The " beaten tracks," with the exception of Nikko, have been dismissed in a few sentences, but where their features have undergone marked changes within a few years, as in the case of Tokiyo (Yedo), they have been sketched more or less slightly.

Many important subjects are necessarily passed over. In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of information, I had to learn everything from the people themselves, through an interpreter, and every fact had to be disinterred by careful labour from amidst a mass of rubbish. The Ainos supplied the information which is given concerning their customs, habits, and religion - but I had an opportunity of comparing my notes with some taken about the same time by Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the Austrian Legation, and of finding a most satisfactory agreement on all points. Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the condition of the peasantry than the one popularly presented, and it is possible that some readers may wish that it had been less realistically painted ; but as the scenes are strictly representative, and I neither made them nor went in search of them, I offer them in the interests of truth, for they illustrate the nature of a large portion of the material with which the Japanese Government has to work in building up the New Civilisation. Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error

PREFACE.

. XI are many, and it is from those who have studied Japan the most carefully, and are the best acquainted with its difficulties, that I shall receive the most kindly allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into mistakes. The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic Societies of Japan, and papers on special Japanese subjects, including " A Budget of Japanese Notes," in the Japan Mail and Tokiyo Times, gave me valuable help ; and I gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded me in many ways by Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of H.B.M.'s Lega tion, Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the Imperial Naval College, Mr. F. V. Dickins, and others, whose kindly interest in my work often encouraged me when I was disheartened by my lack of skill ; but, in justice to these and other kind friends, I am anxious to claim and accept the fullest measure of personal responsibility for the opinions expressed, which, whether right or wrong, are wholly my own.

The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are by a Japanese artist, have been engraved from sketches of my own or Japanese photographs. I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but I venture to present it to the public in the hope that, in spite of its demerits, it may be accepted as an honest attempt to describe things as I saw them in Japan, on land journeys of more than 1400 miles. Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and only sister to whom, in the first instance, they were written, to whose able and careful criticism they owe much, and whose loving interest was the inspiration alike of my travels and of my narratives of them, has passed away. ISABELLA L. BIRD. CONTENTS.

Letter V

Kwan-non Temple — Uniformity of Temple Architecture — A Kuruma Expedition — A Perpetual Festival — The Ni-6 — The Limbo of Vanity — Heathen Prayers — Binzuru — A Group of Devils — Archery Galleries — New Japan — An EUgante ...... 21-31 CONTENTS.

Letter VI

Fears — Travelling Equipments — Passports — Coolie Costume — A Yedo Diorama — Rice- Fields — Tea-Houses — A Traveller's Reception — The Inn at Kasukab-- — Lack of Privacy — A Concourse of Noises — A Nocturnal Alarm — A Vision of Policemen — A Budget from Yedo . Pages 32-42

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 — Nikkc. — The Journey's End — Coolie Kindliness 43-5°

Letter VII

A Japanese Idyll — Musical Stillness — My Rooms — Floral Decorations — Kanaya and his Household — Table Equipments . . . 5"*-53

Letter VIII

The Beauties of Nikko — The Burial of Iyeyasu — The Approach to the Great Shrines — The Yomei Gate — Gorgeous Decorations — Simplicity of the Mausoleum — The Shrine of Iy_mitsu — Religious Art of Japan and India — An Earthquake — Beauties of Wood-carving . . 54-6-

Letter IX

A Japanese Pack-Horse and Pack-Saddle — Yadoya and Attendant — A Native Watering- Place — The Sulphur Baths — A "Squeeze" . 62-65

Letter X

Peaceful Monotony — A Japanese School — A Dismal Ditty — Punishment A Children's Party — A Juvenile Belle — Female Names — A Juvenile Drama Needlework — Caligraphy — Arranging Flowers — Kanaya — Daily Routine — An Evening's Entertainment — Planning Routes — The God-shelf 66-72 LETTER Ya.— {Continued.) Darkness visible — Nikko Shops — Girls and Matrons — Night and Sleep Parental Love — Childish Docility — Hair-dressing — Skin Diseases 73-76 CONTENTS. XV

LETTER X.

— {Completed.) Shops and Shopping — The Barber's Shop — A Paper Waterprc of — Ito's Vanity — Preparations for the Journey — Transport and Prices — Money and Measurements ...... Pages 77-79

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 ..... 80-91

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 92-95

LETTER XII.

— (Concluded.) A Japanese Ferry — A Corrugated Road — The Pass of Sanno — Various Vegetation — An Unattractive Undergrowth — Preponderance of Men 96-98

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 ....... 99-105

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 120-127

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" ..... 128-136

Letter XIX

Prosperity. — Convict Labour — A New Bridge — Yamagata — Intoxicating Forgeries — The Government Buildings — Bad Manners — Snow Mountains — A Wretched Town ..... 137-142

Letter XX

The Effect of a Chicken — Poor Fare — Slow Travelling — Objects of Interest — Kak'ke' — The Fatal Close — A Great Fire — Security of the Kuras 143-145 CONTENTS. XVII

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 .... Pages 146-151

LETTER XX.

— (Concluded.) A Casual Invitation — A Ludicrous Incident — Politeness of a Policeman — A Comfortless Sunday — An Outrageous Irruption — A Privileged Stare 152-154

Letter XXI

The Necessity of Firmness — Perplexing Misrepresentations — Gliding with the Stream — Suburban Residences — The Kubota Hospital — A Formal Reception — The Normal School ..... 155-158

Letter XXII

A Silk Factory — Employment for Women — A Police Escort — The Japanese Police Force ...... 159-160

Letter XXIII

"A Plague of Immoderate Rain " — A Confidential Servant — Ito's Diary — Ito's Excellences — Ito's Faults — A Prophecy of the Future of Japan — Curious Queries — Superfine English — Economical Travelling — The Japanese Pack-horse again ...... 161-164

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 . . . 165-169

Letter XXV

A Holiday Scene — A Matsuri — Attractions of the Revel — Matsuri Cars — Gods and Demons — A Possible Harbour — A Village Forge — Prosperity of Saki Brewers — A " Great Sight " .... 170-174 CONTENTS.

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 1 Hail— More Nocturnal Disturbances . Pages 175-182

Letter XXVII

Good-tempered Intoxication — The Effect of Sunshine — A tedious Altercation — Evening Occupations — Noisy Talk — Social Gatherings — Unfair Comparisons ....... 183-186

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 . . . 187-192

LETTER XXVIII.

— (Continued.) Scanty Resources — Japanese Children — Children's Games — A Sagacious Example — A Kite Competition — Personal Privations . . 193-196

Letter XXXV

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 ..... 216-230

LETTER XXXV

'.—(Continued.) The Harmonies of Nature — A Good Horse — A Single Discord — A Forest — Aino Ferrymen — " Les Puces! Les Puces I" — Baffled Explorers — Ito's Contempt for Ainos — An Aino Introduction . . 231-233

Letter XXXVI

Savage Life — A Forest Track — Cleanly Villages — A Hospitable Reception — The Chief's Mother — The Evening Meal — A Savage Siance — Libations to the Gods — Nocturnal Silence — Aino Courtesy — The Chiefs Wife 234-243

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 Yoshitsune' — The Chief's Return . 244-253 XX CONTENTS.

Letter XXXVII

Barrenness of Savage Life — Irreclaimable Savages — The Aino Physique — Female Comeliness — Torture and Ornament — Child Life — Docility and Obedience ...... Pages 254-261

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 262-272

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 . 273-284

Letter Xxxviii

A Parting Gift — A Delicacy — Generosity — A Seaside Village — Pipichari's Advice — A Drunken Revel — Ito's Prophecies — The Kocho's Illness — Patent Medicines ...... 285-288

Letter XXXIX

A Welcome Gift— Recent Changes — Volcanic Phenomena — Interesting Tufa Cones — Semi-strangulation — A Fall into a Bear-trap — The Shiraoi Ainos — Horsebreaking and Cruelty .... 289-295

LETTER XXXIX.

— (Continued.) The Universal Language — The Yezo Corrals — A "Typhoon Rain" — Difficult Tracks — An Unenviable Ride — Drying Clothes — A Woman's Remorse 296-298

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 ...... 299-305 CONTENTS. XXI

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 " Pages 306-311

Letter XLI

A Group of Fathers — The Lebung^ Ainos— The Salisburia adiantifolia — A Family Group — The Missing Link — Oshamambe" — Disorderly Horses — The River Yurapu — The Seaside — Aino Canoes — The Last Morning — Dodging Europeans ..... 312-319

Letter XLII

Pleasant Last Impressions — The Japanese Junk — Ito Disappears — My Letter of Thanks ....... 320-321

Letter XLIII

Pleasant Prospects — A Miserable Disappointment — Caught in a Typhoon— A Dense Fog — Alarmist Rumours — A Welcome at Tokiyo — The Last of the Mutineers ....... 322-324

Letter XLIV

Fine Weather — Cremation in Japan — The Governor of Tokiyo — An Awkward Question — An Insignificant Building — Economy in Funeral Expenses — Simplicity of the Cremation Process — The Last of Japan . 325-328 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. The Yomei Gate, Shrines of Nikko . . Frontispiece Fujisan . . . . . PaSe 2 Travelling Restaurant . . . . . 5 Japanese Man-Cart ..... 9 A Lake Biwa Tea-House . . . .20 Stone Lanterns . . . . . .28 A Kuruma . . • • -35 Road-Side Tea-House . . . . .38 Sir Harry's Messenger . . . . .42 Kanaya's House . . . • • • 52 Japanese Pack-Horse . . . . .63 Attendant at Tea-House . . . . .64 Summer and Winter Costume . . . .82 Buddhist Priests . . . . • .112 Street and Canal . . • • • 1 1 7 The Flowing Invocation . . . • .13° The Belle of Kaminoyama . . ■ 1 3 5 Torii . . . • ■ • .149 Daikoku, the God of Wealth . . . .154 Myself in a Straw Rain-Cloak . . . .176 A Lady's Mirror . . . ■ • .201 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE Akita Farm-House ..... 204 Aino Store-House at Horobets .... 223 Aino Lodges. (From a Japanese Sketch) . . .224 Aino Houses . . . . . .234 Ainos at Home. (From a Japanese Sketch) . 235 Aino Millet-Mill and Pestle .... 238 Aino Store-House ..... 247 Ainos of Yezo . ..... 256 An Aino Patriarch . . . . .258 Tattooed Female Hand . . . . .260 Aino Gods ...... 266 Plan of an Aino House ..... 267 Weaver's Shuttle . . . . .270 A Hiogo Buddha ..... 272 The Rokkukado . . . . . .288 My Kuruma-Runner . . . . 305 Temple Gateway at Isshinden . . . .311 Entrance to Shrine of Seventh Shogun, Shiba, Tokiyo . 323 Fujisan, from a Village on the Tokaido . . . UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN.

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 than most coasts, there were no startling surprises either of colour or form. Broken wooded ridges, deeply cleft, rise from the water's edge, gray, deep-roofed villages cluster about the mouths of the ravines, and terraces of rice cultivation, bright with the greenness of English lawns, run up to a great height among dark masses of upland forest.

The populousness of the coast is very impressive, and the gulf everywhere was equally peopled with fishing -boats, of which we passed not only hundreds, but thousands, in five hours. The coast and sea were pale, and the boats were pale too, their hulls being unpainted wood, and their sails pure white duck. Now and then a high-sterned junk drifted by like a phantom galley, then we slackened speed to avoid exterminating a fleet of triangular-looking fishing-boats with white square sails, and so on through the grayness and dumbness hour after hour. For long I looked in vain for Fujisan, and failed to see it, B UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN. [letter i. though I heard ecstasies all over the deck, till, accidentally looking heavenwards instead of earthwards, I saw far above any possibility of height, as one would have thought, a huge, truncated cone of pure snow, 13,080 feet above the sea, from which it sweeps upwards in a glorious curve, very wan, against a very pale blue sky, with its base and the intervening country FUJISAN. veiled in a pale grey mist.1 It was a wonderful vision, and shortly, as a vision, vanished.

Except the cone of Tristan d'Acunha — also a cone of snow — I never saw a mountain rise in such lonely majesty, with nothing near or far to detract from its height and grandeur. No wonder that it is a sacred mountain, and so dear to the Japanese that their art is never 1 This is an altogether exceptional aspect of Fujisan, under exceptional atmospheric conditions. The mountain usually looks broader and lower, and is often compared to an inverted fan. JAPANESE SAMPANS. 3 weary of representing it. It was nearly fifty miles off when we first saw it. The air and water were alike motionless, the mist was still and pale, grey clouds lay restfully on a bluish sky, the re flections of the white sails of the fishing-boats scarcely quivered ; it was all so pale, wan, and ghastly, that the turbulence of crumpled foam which we left behind us, and our noisy, throbbing progress, seemed a boisterous intrusion upon sleeping Asia.

The gulf narrowed, the forest-crested hills, the terraced ravines, the picturesque grey villages, the quiet beach life, and the pale blue masses of the mountains of the interior, became more visible. Fuji retired into the mist in which he enfolds his grandeur for most of the summer ; we passed Reception Bay, Perry Island, Webster Island, Cape Saratoga, and Missis sippi Bay — American nomenclature which perpetuates the successes of American diplomacy — and not far from Treaty Point came upon a red lightship with the words " Treaty Point " in large letters upon her. Outside of this no foreign vessel may anchor. The bustle among my fellow-passengers, many of whom were returning home, and all of whom expected to be met by friends, left me at leisure, as I looked at unattractive, un familiar Yokohama and the pale grey land stretched out before me, to speculate somewhat sadly on my destiny on these strange shores, on which I have not even an acquaintance.

On mooring we were at once surrounded by crowds of native boats called by foreigners sampans, and Dr. Gulick, a near relation of my Hilo friends, came on board to meet his daughter, welcomed me cordially, and relieved me of all the trouble of disembarkation. These sampans are very clumsy-looking, but are managed with great dexterity by the boatmen, who gave and received any number of bumps with much good nature, and without any of the shouting and swearing in which com petitive boatmen usually indulge. The partially triangular shape of these boats approaches that of a salmon-fisher's punt used on certain British rivers. Being floored gives them the appearance of being absolutely flat-bottomed ; but, though they tilt readily, they are very safe, being heavily built and fitted together with singular precision UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN. 4 with wooden bolts and a few copper cleets.

They are sculled, not what we should call rowed, by two or four men with very heavy oars made of two pieces of wood working on pins placed on outrigger bars. The men scull standing and use the thigh as a rest for the oar. They all wear a single, wide-sleeved, scanty, blue cotton garment, not fastened or girdled at the waist, straw sandals, kept on by a thong passing between the great toe and the others, and if they wear any head-gear, it is only a wisp of blue cotton tied round the forehead. The one garment is only an apology for clothing, and displays lean concave chests and lean muscular limbs. The skin is very yellow, and often much tattooed with mythical beasts. The charge for sampans is fixed by tariff, so the traveller lands without having his temper ruffled by extortionate demands. The first thing that impressed me on landing was that there were no loafers, and that all the small, ugly, kindly looking, shrivelled, bandy-legged, round-shouldered, concave chested, poor-looking beings in the streets had some affairs of their own to mind.

At the top of the landing-steps there was a portable restaurant, a neat and most compact thing, with charcoal stove, cooking and eating utensils complete ; but it looked as if it were made by and for dolls, and the mannikin who kept it was not five feet high. At the custom-house we were attended to by minute officials in blue uniforms of European pattern and leather boots ; very civil creatures, who opened and examined our trunks carefully, and strapped them up again, contrasting pleasingly with the insolent and rapacious officials who perform the same duties at New York. Outside were about fifty of the now well-known jin-ri-ki shas, and the air was full of a buzz produced by the rapid reiteration of this uncouth word by fifty tongues. This con veyance, as you know, is a feature of Japan, growing in importance every day.

It was only invented seven years ago, and already there are nearly 23,000 in one city, and men can make so much more by drawing them than by almost any kind of skilled labour, that thousands of fine young men desert agricultural pursuits and flock into the towns to make draught animals of themselves, though it is said that the average duration of a man's life after he takes to running is only five years, and that the runners fall victims in large numbers to PULLMAN CARS. 5 aggravated forms of heart and lung disease. Over tolerably level ground a good runner can trot forty miles a day, at a rate of about four miles an hour. They are registered and taxed at 8s. a year for one carrying two persons, and 4s. for one which carries one only, and there is a regular tariff for time and distance. The kuruma, or jin-ri-ki-sha,1 consists of a light perambu- TRAVELLING RESTAURANT. lator body, an adjustable hood of oiled paper, a velvet or cloth lining and cushion, a well for parcels under the seat, two high slim wheels, and a pair of shafts connected by a bar at the ends.

The body is usually lacquered and decorated according to its owner's taste. Some show little except polished brass, others are altogether inlaid with shells known as Venus's ear, and 1 I continue hereafter to use the Japanese word kuruma instead of the Chinese word Jin-ri-ki-sha. Kuruma, literally a wheel or vehicle, is the word commonly used by the Jin-ri-ki-sha men and other Japanese for the ' ' man power-carriage," and is certainly more euphonious. From kuruma naturally comes kurumaya for the kuruma runner. UNBEATEN TRACKS IN JAPAN. others are gaudily painted with contorted dragons, or groups of peonies, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums, and mythical per sonages. They cost from £2 upwards. The shafts rest on the ground at a steep incline as you get in — it must require much practice to enable one to mount with ease or dignity — the runner lifts them up, gets into them, gives the body a good tilt backwards, and goes off at a smart trot.

They are drawn by one, two, or three men, according to the speed desired by the occupants. When rain comes on, the man puts up the hood, and ties you and it closely up in a covering of oiled paper, in which you are invisible. At night, whether running or standing still, they carry prettily-painted circular paper lanterns 18 inches long. It is most comical to see stout, florid, solid-looking merchants, missionaries, male and female, fashionably-dressed ladies, armed with card cases, Chinese compradores, and Japanese peasant men and women flying along Main Street, which is like the decent respectable High Street of a dozen forgotten country towns in England, in happy unconsciousness of the ludicrousness of their appearance ; racing, chasing, crossing each other, their lean, polite, pleasant runners in their great hats shaped like inverted bowls, their incomprehensible blue tights, and their short blue over shirts with badges or characters in white upon them, tearing along, their yellow faces streaming with perspiration, laughing, shouting, and avoiding collisions by a mere shave.

After a visit to the Consulate I entered a kuruma and, with two ladies in two more, was bowled along at a furious pace by a laughing little mannikin down Main Street — a narrow, solid, well-paved street with well-made side walks, kerb-stones, and gutters, with iron lamp-posts, gas-lamps, and foreign shops all along its length — to this quiet hotel recommended by Sir Wyville Thomson, which offers a refuge from the nasal twang of my fellow-voyagers, who have all gone to the caravanserais on the Bund. The host is a Frenchman, but he relies on a Chinaman ; the servants are Japanese "boys" in Japanese clothes ; and there is a Japanese "groom of the chambers " in faultless English costume, who perfectly appals me by the elaborate politeness of his manner. Almost as soon as I arrived I was obliged to go in search of Mr. Fraser's office in the settlement ; I say search, for there PAPER MONEY. 7 are no names on the streets ; where there are numbers they have no sequence, and I met no Europeans on foot to help me in my difficulty.

Yokohama does not improve on further acquaintance. It has a dead-alive look. It has irregularity without picturesqueness, and the grey sky, grey sea, grey houses, and grey roofs, look harmoniously dull. No foreign money except the Mexican dollar passes in Japan, and Mr. Fraser's compradore soon metamorphosed my English gold into Japanese satsu or paper money, a bundle of yen nearly at par just now with the dollar, packets of 50, 20, and 10 sen notes, and some rouleaux of very neat copper coins. The initiated recognise the different denominations of paper money at a glance by their differing colours and sizes, but at present they are a distracting mystery to me. The notes are pieces of stiff paper with Chinese characters at the corners, near which, with exceptionally good eyes or a magnifying glass, one can discern an English word denoting the value.