The Mikado's Empire, etc. (Second edition.)

Book II. Personal Experiences, Observations, And Studies In Japan

1870-1874. By WILLIAM ELLIOT GRIFFIS, A.M., LATE OF THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF TOKIO, JAPAN. NEW EDITION, WITH A SUPPLEMENTARY CHAPTER ON JAPAN IN 1883. NEW YORK: HARPER k BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS. 18 8 3. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. Copyright, 1883, by Harper & Brothers. All rights reserved. TO JAPANESE LOVERS OF KNOWLEDGE IN EYERY AGE : THE DEAD, WHO FIRST KINDLED THE SACRED FIRE, WHO PASSED ON THE TORCH THE MARTYRS, WHO SUFFERED DEATH FOR THEIR LOYALTY, PATRIOTISM, DEVOTION TO NATIONAL UNITY, RESTORATION, AND REGENERATION; THE STUDENTS, WHO, IN NOBLE THIRST FOR TRUTH, FOUND HONORED GRAYES IN ALIEN SOIL ; THE LIVING, WITH WHOM RESTS THE FUTURE OF THEIR BEAUTIFUL LAND, THIS SKETCH OF THEIR COUNTRY AND PEOPLE, MADE IN THE INTEREST OF TRUTH, AND SET DOWN WITHOUT EXTENUATION OR MALICE, IS, WITH FRATERNAL REGARD, DEDICATED BY THEIU. COMRADE AND FRIEND, THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. Japan, once in the far-ofi Orient, is now our nearest Western neighbor. Her people walk our streets ; her youth sit, peers and rivals of our students, in the class-room ; her art adorns our homes, and has opened to us a new Gate Beautiful. The wise men from the West are, at .this w*riting, opening their treasures of tea, silk, gold-lacquer, bronzes, and porcelain at the first centennial of our nation's birth. We hail the brightness of the rising of this first among Asiatic nations to enter modern life, to win and hold a place among the fore most peoples of the earth. It is time that a writer treated Japan as something else than an Oriental puzzle, a nation of recluses, a land of fabulous wealth, of universal licentiousness or of Edenic purity, the fastness of a treacherous and fickle crew, a Paradise of guileless children, a Utopia of artists and poets.

It is time to drop the license of exaggeration, and, with the light of common day, yet with sympathy and without prejudice, seekto know what Dai Nippon is and has been. It has been well said by a literary critic and reader of all the books on the subject that to write a good history of Japan is difficult, not so much from lack of materials, but from the differences in psychology. This I realize. My endeavor, during eight years' living contact with these people, has been, from their language, books, life, and customs, to determine their mental parallax, and find out how they think and feel. I have not made this book in libraries at home, but largely on the soil of the mikado's empire. I have slight obligation to acknowledge to foreign writers, except to those working scholars in Japan who have written during the last decade with knowledge of the language.

To them I owe much ; first and most of all to Mr. Ernest Satow, who, in the special department of historical research, stands leader. To Messrs. W. Dixon, Aston, Mitford, Hepburn, Brown, Blakiston, Von Brandt, and Parkes, I am also indebted. I am under many obligations

PREFACE.

. to the editor of The Japan Mail. This scholarly paper, published in Yokohama, is a most valuable mirror of contemporaneous Japanese history, and a rich store-house of facts, especially the papers of the Asiatic Society of Japan. The Japan Herald and The Japan Gazette have also been of great service to me, for which I here thank the proprietors. The constant embarrassment in treating many subjects has been from wealth of material. I have been obliged to leave out several chapters on important subjects, and to treat others with mere passing allusions. In the early summer of 1868, two Higo students, Ise and Numaga wa, arrived in the United States. They were followed by retainers of the daimios of Satsuma and Echizen, and other feudal princes. I was surprised and delighted to find these earnest youth equals of Ameri can students in good-breeding, courtesy, and mental acumen.

Some of them remained under my instruction two years, others for a short er time. Among my friends or pupils in New Brunswick, New Jer sey, are Mr. Yoshida Kiyonari, H. I. J. M. Minister Plenipotentiary at Washington ; Mr. Takagi Samro, H. I. J. M. Vice-consul at San Fran cisco ; Mr. Tomita Tetsunosuke, H. I. J. M. Consul at New York ; Mr. Hatakeyama Yoshinari, President of the Imperial University of Ja pan ; Captain Matsumura Junzo, of the Japanese navy. Among others were the two sons of Iwakura Tomomi, Junior Prime Minister of Japan ; and two young nobles of the Shimadzu family of Satsuma. I also met Prince Adzuma, nephew of the mikado, and many of the prominent men, ex-daimios, Tokugawa retainers, soldiers in the war of 1868, and representatives of every department of service under the old shogunate and new National Government.

Six white marble shafts in the cemetery at New Brunswick, New Jersey, mark the resting-place of Kusukabe Taro, of Fukui, and his fellow-countrymen, whose devo tion to study cost them their lives. I was invited by the Prince of Echizen, while Regent of the University, through the American superintendent, Rev. G. F. Verbeck, to go out to organize a scientific school on the American principle in Fukui, Echizen, and give instruction in the physical sciences. I arrived in Japan, December 29th, 1870, and remained until July 25th, 1874. During all my residence I enjoyed the society of cultivated scholars, artists, priests, antiquaries, and students, both in the provincial and national capitals. From the living I bore letters of introduction to the prominent men in the Japanese Govern ment, and thus were given to me opportunities for research and observation not often afforded to foreigners. My facilities for regular and

PREFACE.

. 9 extended travel were limited only by my duties. Nothing Japanese was foreign to me, from palace to beggar's hut. I lived in Dai Nip pon during four of the most pregnant years of the nation's history. Nearly one year was spent alone in a daimio's capital far in the in terior, away from Western influence, when feudalism was in its full bloom, and the old life in vogue. In the national capital, in the time well called " the flowering of the nation," as one of the instructors in the Imperial University, having picked students from all parts of the empire, I was a witness of the marvelous development, reforms, dan gers, pageants, and changes of the epochal years 1872, 1873, and 1874. With pride I may say truly that I have felt the pulse and heart of New Japan. I have studied economy in the matter of Japanese names and titles, risking the charge of monotony for the sake of clearness.

The scholar will, I trust, pardon me for apparent anachronisms and omissions. For lack of space or literary skill, I have had, in some cases, to con dense with a brevity painful to a lover of fairness and candor. The title justifies the emphasis of one idea that pervades the book. In the department of illustrations, I claim no originality, except in their selection. Many are from photographs taken for me by natives in Japan. Those of my artist -friend, Ozawa, were nearly all made from life at my suggestion. I have borrowed man}* fine sketches from native books, through Aime Humbert, whose marvelously beautiful and painstaking work, "Japon Illustre," is a mine of illustration. Few artists have excelled in spirit and truth Mr. A. Wirgman, the artist of The London Illustrated News, a painter of real genius, whose works in oil now adorn many home parlors of ex-residents in Japan, and whose gems, fine gold, and dross fill the sprightly pages of The Japan Punch.

Many of his sketches adorn Sir Rutherford Al cock's book on the vicissitudes of diplomatists, commonly called " The Capital of the Tycoon," or " Three Years in Japan." I am indebted both to this gentleman and to Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who wrote the charming volume, " Lord Elgin's Mission to China and Japan," for many illustrations, chiefly from native sketches. Through the liberal ity of my publishers, I am permitted to use these from their stores of plates. I believe I have in no case reproduced old cuts without new or correct information that will assist the general reader or those who wish to study the various styles of the native artists, five of which are herein presented. Hokusai, the Dickens, and Kano, the Audubon of Japanese art, are well represented. The photographs of the living

PREFACE.

. and of the renowned dead, from temples, statues, or old pictures, from the collections of daimios and nobles, are chiefly by Uchida, a native photographer of rare ability, skill, and enthusiasm, who unfortunately died in 1875. Four vignettes are copied from the steel-plate engrav ings on the greenbacks printed in New York for the Ono National Banking Company of Tokio, by the Continental Bank-note Company of New York. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance derived from native schol ars in Fukui and Tokio, especially Messrs. Iwabuchi, Takakashi, and Ideura, my readers and helpers. To the members of the Mei Roku Sha, who have honored me with membership in their honorable body, I return my best thanks. This club of authors and reformers includes siich men as Fukuzawa, Arinori Mori, Nakamura Masanawo, Kato Hi royuki, Nishi Shiu, the Mitsukuri brothers, Shiuhei and Rinsho, Uchi da Masawo, Hatakeyama Yoshinari, and others, all names of fame and honor, and earnest workers in the regeneration of their country.

To my former students now in New York, who have kindly assisted me in proof - reading, and last and first of all to Mr. Tosui Imadate, my friend and constant companion during the last six years, I return my thanks and obligations. I omit in this place the names of high officers in the Japanese Government, because the responsibility for any opinion advanced in this work rests on no native of Japan. That is all my own. To my sister, the companion, during two years, of sev eral of my journeys and visits in the homes of the island empire, I owe many an idea and inspiration to research. To the publishers of the North American Review, Appletons1 Journal, and The Independent my thanks are due for permission to print part of certain chapters first published in these periodicals. I trust the tone of the work will not seem dogmatic.

I submit with modesty what I have written on the Ainos. I am inclined to believe that India is their original home ; that the basic stock of the Japanese people is Aino ; and that in this fact lies the root of the marvelous difference in the psychology of the Japanese and their neighbors, the Chinese. " Can a nation be born at once ?" " With God all things are pos sible." W. E. G. New York, 3Iay 10th, 1876.

PREFACE.

TO THE SECOND EDITION. A new issue of this work having been called for in a little over four months from the date of its publication, the author has endeav ored to render the second edition more worthy than the first. This has been done by the addition of valuable matter in the appendix and foot-notes, and the recasting of a few pages, on which original has been substituted for compiled matter. Critics have complained that in Book I. the line between the mythical, or legendary, and the historic period has not been clearly drawn. A writer in The Japan Mail of November 25th, 1876, says: "After an introductory chapter on the physical features ofthe country, the author plunges into the dense mists of the historic and the prehistoric ages, where he completely loses his way for about a millennium and a half, until he at length strikes into the true path, under the guidance of the Nihon Guai Shi."

Did the critic read Chapter III. ? The author, before essaying the task, knew only too well the difficulties of the work before him. He made no attempt to do the work of a Niebuhr for Japan. His object was not to give an infallible record of absolute facts, nor has he pre tended to do so. He merely sketched in outline a picture of what thirty-three millions of Japanese believe to be their ancient history. He relied on the intelligence of his readers, and even on that of the critics (who should not skip Chapter III.), to appreciate the value of the narratives of the Kojiki and the Nihongi — the oldest extant books in the Japanese language, and on which all other accounts of the an cient period are based. He was not even afraid that any school-boy who had been graduated beyond his fairy tales would think the drag on-born Jimmu a character of equal historic reality with that of Cæsar or Charlemagne.

On the other hand, the author believes that history begins before writing, and that he who would brand the whole of Japanese tradi- 10* Preface to the second edition. tion before the sixth century a.d. as " all but valueless " must dem onstrate, and not merely affirm. The author preferred to introduce Jingu and Yamato Dake to Occidental readers, and let them take their chances before the light of research. Will this century see the scholar and historian capable of reeling off the thread of pure history, clear and without fracture, from the cocoon of Japanese myth, legend, and language ? The author, even with his profound reverence for Anglo- Japanese scholarship, hopes for, yet doubts it. In one point the author has been misapprehended. He nowhere attempts to explain whence came the dominant (Yamato) tribe or tribes to Japan.

He believes the Japanese people are a mixed race, as stated on page 86 ; but where the original seats of that conquering people may have been on whom the light of written, undoubted his tory dawns in the seventh century, he has not stated. That these were in Mantchuria is probable, since their mythology is in some points but a transfiguration of Mantchu life. The writer left the ques tion an open one. He is glad to add, without comment, the words of the Mail critic, who is, if he mistakes not, one of the most accomplished linguists in Japan, and the author of standard grammars of the written and spoken language of Japan : "As regards the position of the Japanese language, it gives no dubious response. Japanese has all the structural and syntactical peculiarities common to the Alatyan or Ural-Altaic group ; and the evidence of the physiognomical tests points unmistakably to the same origin for the people.

The short, round skull, the oblique eyes, the prominent cheek-bones, the dark-brown hair, and the scant beard, all proclaim the Mantchus and Coreans as their nearest congeners. In fact, it is no longer rash to assert as certain that the Japanese are a Tungusic race, and their own traditions and the whole course of their history are incom patible with any other conclusion than that Corea is the route by which the im migrant tribes made their passage into Kiushiu from their ancestral Mantchu rian seats." The brevity of the chapter on the Ashikaga period, which has been complained of, arose, not from any lack of materials, but because the writer believed that this epoch deserved a special historian. Another reason that explains many omissions, notably, that of any detailed reference to Japanese art, is, that this volume is not an encyclopedia.

The author returns his hearty thanks to his Japanese friends, and to the critics whose scrutiny has enabled him in any way to improve the work. W. E. G. New York, January \0th, 1877. CONTENTS.

BOOK I. HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM

660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D. OHAPTEE PAGE I. The Background 17 II. The Aborigines 26 III. Materials of History 36 IV. Japanese Mythology 43 V. The Twilight of Fable 54 VI. SCin, the Civilizer 60 VII. Yamato-Dake, the Conqueror of the Kuanto 68 VIII. The Introduction of Continental Civilization 75 IX. Life in Ancient Japan 86 X. The Ancient Religion 96 XI. The Throne and the Noble Families 101 XII. The Beginning of Military Domination 115 XIII. Yoritomo and the Minamoto Family 124 XIV. Creation of the Dual System of Government 140 XV. The Glory and the Fall of the Hojo Family 146 XVI. Buddhism in Japan 158 XVII. The Invasion of the Mongol Tartars 176 XVIII. The Temporary* Mikadoate 182 XIX. The War of the Chrysanthemums 187 XX. The Ashikaga Period 193 XXI. Life in the Middle Ages 19? XXII. The Growth and Customs of Feudalism 214 XXIII.

NOBUNAGA, THE PERSECUTOR OF THE BUDDHISTS 229 XXIV. Hideyoshi's Enterprises.— The Invasion of Corea 236 XXV. Christianity and Foreigners <W XXVI. Iyeyasu, the Founder of Yedo 264 XXVII. The Perfection of Duarchy and Feudalism 270 XXVIII. The Recent Revolutions in Japan 291

BOOK II. PERSONAL EXPERIENCES, OBSERVATIONS, AND STUDIES IN JAPAN,

1870-1875. I. First Glimpses of Japan 327 II. A Ride on the Tokaido CONTENTS. CUAPTER PAGE III. In Tokio, TnE Eastern Capital 363 IV. Sights and Sounds in a Pagan Temple 378 V. Studies in the Capital 391 VI. Among the Men of New Japan 399 VII. In the Heart of Japan 405 VIII. Reception by the Daimio.— My Students 426 IX. Life in a Japanese House 435 X. Children's Games and Sports 452 XI. Household Customs and Superstitions 466 XII. The Mythical Zoology of Japan 477 XIII. Folk-lore and Fireside Stories 491 XIV. Japanese Proverbs 504 XV. The Last Year of Feudalism 512 XVI. A Tramp Through Japan 541 XVII. The Position of Woman 551 XVIII. New Japan 562 Supplementary Chapter : Japan in 1883 579 NOTES AND APPENDICES : The Japanese Origin of the North American Indians 597 Associated Ideas in Art and Poetry 599 The Testament of Iyeyas _ 601 The Tokugawa Feudal System 604 Postal Statistics 605 The Bombardment of Kagoshima 607 The Shimonosf.ki Affair . . 608 The Military Establishment 610 Census of Japan for 1872 and 1873 612 Mines and Mineral Resources 614 Land and Agriculture 617 Mint and Public Works 619 Silk Crop of 1875 620 Weights and Measures 621 Money 622 Notation of Time 623 Foreign Trade of Japan 626 Legendary Art at the Centennial Exposition 627 Tea Crop of 1875 631 The Ceramic Art of Japan 631 Dr. J. C Hepburn's Meteorological Tables, from Observations made from 1863 to 1869, inclusive . . .', 634 INDEX .,,....*... .*. .^r.' LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Map of Dai Nippon (the Empire of Japan) faces page 17 1. Nichiren and the Hojo Executioner. (Humbert, from a temple painting) Frontispiece. 2. High and Low Type of Face. (Hokusai school) 30 3. An Aino Chief from Yezo. (Photograph by Uchida) 32 4. His Imperial Majesty, Mutsuhito. (Photograph by Uchida) 3T 5. Passage in the Inland Sea. (Alcock) 57 6. Mikado's Method of Travel in very Ancient Times. (Native drawing) 62 7. Imperial or Government Seal. (Native drawing) 66 8. Imperial Crest, or Mikado's Seal. (Native drawing) 67 9. Japan, as known to the Ancient Mikados. (From the series of historical maps in the " Nihon Riyaku Shi ") 69 10. Junk in the Bay of Yedo. (Native drawing) 71 11. Her Imperial Majesty Haruko. (Photograph by Uchida) 81 12. Shinto Wayside Shrine. (Alcock) 89 13. The Peasant of To-day.

(Hokusai) 91 14. A Court Noble in Ancient Japan. (Native drawing) 93 15. The Mikado on his Throne. (Native drawing) , . 102 16. A Samurai in Winter Traveling-dress. (Alcock) 106 17. A Japanese Farmer. (Hokusai) 107 18. View in the Inland Sea. (Alcock) 118 19. View near Hiogo. (Alcock) 120 20. Tametomo defying the Taira Men. (Bank-note vignette) 121 21. The Mountains and Lake of Hakono. (Alcock) 129 22. War-junk of the Twelfth Century. (Bank-note vignette) 136 23. Kojima writing on the Cherry-tree. (Bank-note vignette) 153 24. Nitta Yoshisada casting the Sword into the Sea. (Bank-note vignette) 155 25. K6bo Daishi. (Photograph from a temple statue) 162 26. The Mother's Memorial. (Nankoku Ozawa) 167 27. Belfry of a Buddhist Temple. (Alcock, from a photograph) 1T1 28. Repulse of the Mongol Tartars.

(Native painter) 179 29. Ashikaga Takauji. (Photograph from a temple statue) 185 30. Temple-bell from Kioto. (Humbert) 200 31. Chasing Floral Designs on Copper. (Humbert) . 203 32. Picnic Booth. (Humbert) 205 33. Court Lady in Kioto. (Humbert) 209 34. Kusunoki Masatsura. (Native drawing) 220 35. The Challenge. (Hokusai) 223 36. Archer on Castle Rampart. (Humbert) 226 37. Symbols of the Carpenter's Guild. (Humbert) 227 38. View of the Castle of Ozaka. (Alcock) 234 39. Nobunaga's Victims : Priest and Monk. (Alcock) 235 40. A Familiar Country Scene. (Hokusai school) 23G 41. Camp of Hideyoshi, before Fukui. (Humbert) 239 42. Image of Deified Hero. (Native dra'wing) 241 43. Ear Monument in Kioto. (Photograph) 245 44. " The Tarpeian Rock of Japan." (Oliphant) 258 45. Hollander on Deshima. (Alcock) 260 46.

Crest of the Tokugawa Family. (Native drawing) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 47. The Four Classes of Society. (Nankoku Ozawa) Page 281 48. Fire-lookouts in Yedo. (Native drawing. ' ' Brocade " style) 286 49. Matsudaira Yoshinaga, ex-Daimio of Echizen. (Photograph) 308 50. Keiki, the last Shogun of Japan. (Photograph) 314 51. Push-cart in Yokohama. (Hokusai) 333 52. The Jin-riki-sha, or " Pull-man Car " of Japan. (Photograph) 335 53. Young Girl carrying her Baby Brother. (Alcock) 354 54. Coolie waiting for a Job. (Alcock) 355 55. Coopers Hooping a Vat. (Pupil of Hokusai) 357 56. Crossing the Rokugo River. (Hokusai) 360 57. Nitsuki, or Ivory Button. (Oliphant) 365 58. Pattern Designer. (Hokusai) 365 59. " Nihon Bashi " in Tokio. The Kosatsii. (Nankoku Ozawa) 367 60. View of Fuji, from Suruga Dai. (Reduced " brocade " picture) 374 61.

Artist at Work. (Hokusai) 379 62. Pagoda Spire, or Kiu-do. (" Brocade " picture) 381 63. A Flower Fair at Night in Tokio. (Nankoku Ozawa) 385 64. Sakurada Avenue and Kasumiya Street. (" Brocade " picture) 395 65. Travelers in a Snow-storm. Fuji San. (Native drawing) 404 66. Buddhist Pilgrims. (Alcock) 407 67. The Samisen. (Oliphant) 408 68. Bringing Water to wash Travelers' Feet. (Hokusai) 416 69. A Norimono. (Alcock) 417 70. Village in Echizen. (Native drawing) 421 71. Fac-simile of Kinsatsii. Issue of 1869 425 72. On the Tow-path. (Hokusai) 426 73. A Little Daimio . (Photograph by Uchida) 429 74. Servant before his Master. (Alcock) 430 75. Student burning Midnight Oil. (Photograph) 432 70. The Studious Gate-keeper. (Native drawing) 436 77. The Wedding Party. (Alcock, from native painting) 438 78.

Boys playing on Bamboo Bars. (Hokusai) 441 79. The Grip of Victory. (Hokusai) 442 80. Gonji in a Brown Study. (Alcock) 445 81. Night Scene on the River Flats. (Hokusai) 447 82. Father and Children. (Humbert) 450 83. Children's Games and Sports. (Humbert) 453 84. Boys' Games. (Humbert) 458 85. Boys* Games. (Humbert) 459 86. The Feast of Dolls. (Nankoku Ozawa) 461 87. Children's Sports. (Humbert) 4.54 88. The Jealous Avenger. (Nankoku Ozawa) 475 89. The Rain Dragon. (Kano) 479 90. Futen, the Wind-imp. (Native drawing) 483 91. Raiden, the Thunder-drummer. (Native drawing) 484 92. Tengu going on a Picnic. (Hokusai) 487 93. Grandmother telling Stories. (Nankoku Ozawa) 459 94. Pipe, Pipe-case, and Tobacco-pouch. (Oliphant) ' 500 95. What follows a Meal on Horse-flesh. (Alcock) 517 96. Kioto Fan-makers.

(Humbert) gig 97. Seven-stroke Sketch* of Wild Horse. (Hokusai) " 522 98. Whispering behind the Screen. (Hokusai school) 524 99. Samurai, in Kami-shimo Dress. (Alcock) 525 100. The Siesta. (Hokusai) " 528 101. The Game of Dakiu, or " Polo." (Alcock, from native drawing) 530 102. Rope-dikes, or " Snake-baskets." (Alcock) 532 103. My House in Fukui. (From a photograph) 532 104. Wild Goose in Flight. (Native drawing) 537 105. How we rode to Odani. (Alcock) 544 106. Japanese Naval Officer. (Photograph) 5g4 107. Japanese Steam Corvette Tmtkuba Kan. (Photograph) 564 108. Court Scene. Old Style. (Humbert) -.....!......"!!!.!!!

BOOK I. HISTORY OF JAPAN FROM

660 B.C. TO 1872 A.D. THE ORTHOGRAPHY AND PRONUNCIATION OF JAPANESE WORDS. It is impossible to represent Japanese words exactly by any foreign alpha bet ; but a knowledge of the sounds heard in Japan, and by using letters which have each one invariable value, will enable a foreigner to reproduce Japanese names with tolerable accuracy. When the native authors and grammarians do not agree, absolute unanimity among foreign scholars is not to be expected ; but palpable absurdities, impossible combinations of letters, and mistakes arising out of pure ignorance of the language may be avoided. The system given below, and used throughout this work, is, at least, rational, and is based on the structure and laws of combination in the language itself. This system is substantially (the dif ferences aiming to secure greater simplicity) that of Hepburn's Japanese-English and English-Japanese, and of Satow's English-Japanese dictionary; the Roman ized version ofthe Scriptures, published by the American Bible Society; ofthe "American Cyclopædia;" the revised editions of Worcester's, and Webster's, dictionary ; in Brown's, Aston's, Satow's, Brinckley's, and Hepburn's grammar and works on the Japanese language ; Monteith's, Mitchell's, Cornell's, Warren's, and Harper's (American), and the Student's (English) geography and atlas; Mitford's " Tales of Old Japan;" Adams's "History of Japan;" the official documents of the Japanese Government, Department of Education, schools, and col leges ; the British and American Legations and Consulates ; the Anglo-Japanese press, and almost all scholars and writers who make accuracy a matter of con cern.

The standard language (not the local dialect) of Tokio — now the literary as well as the political capital of the nation — is taken as the basis, and the words are then transliterated from the katagana spelling, as given by the best native scholars. The vowels are sounded as follows : na has the sound of ua in quarantine ; e has the sound of e in prey, they; ei has the sound of ay in saying ; o has the sound of o in bore, so. a has the sonud of a in father, arm; «?* has the sound of ai in aisle, or i in bite; i has the sound of i in pique, machine; w has the sound of u in rule, or oo iu boot; Long vowels are marked thus, 6, u ; short vowels, u, I. The combination uai is sounded as wai; i„ as yu; E or 4, as e in prey ; but e, as in men ; g is always hard, and . surd, as in sit, sap. C before a vowel, g as in gin, gem ; I, q, s sonant ; x, and the digraphs ph and th, are not used.

The map facing page 17 is reduced, and the names transliterated from the large copper-plate map of the empire compiled and published by the Japanese War Department in 1873. The numerals refer to the provinces on page 601. Dai Nippon (the Empire of Japan). i. THE BACKGROUND. It is manifest that to understand a people and their national life, the physical conditions under which they live must be known. To enjoy the picture, we must study the background. Dai Nippon, as the natives call their beautiful land, occupies a significant position on the globe. Lying in the Pacific Ocean, in the temperate zone, it bends like a crescent off the continent of Asia. In the extreme north, at the island of Saghalin, the distance from the main-land of Asia is so slight that the straits may be crossed eas ily in a canoe.

From Kiushiu, with the island of Tsushima lying be tween, the distance from Corea is but one day's sail in a junk. For 4000 miles eastward from the main island stretches the Pacific, shored in by the continent of America. From Yezo to Kamtchatka, the Ku riles stretch like the ruins of a causeway, prolonged by the Aleutian Islands, to Alaska. The configuration of the land is that resulting from the combined effects of volcanic action and the incessant mo tion of the corroding waves. The area of the empire is nearly equal to that of our Middle and New England States. Of the 150,000 square miles of surface, two-thirds consist of mountain land. The island of Saghalin (ceded to Russia in May, 1875) is one mountain chain ; that of Yezo one mountain mass. On the main island,* a solid backbone of mountainous elevations runs continuously from * Dai Nippon, or Nihon, means Great Japan, and is the name of the entire em pire, not of the main island.

The foreign writers on Japan have almost unani mously blundered in calling the largest island " Niphon." Hondo is the name given to the main island in'the Military Geography of Japan (Heiyo Nippon Chiri Toshi, Tokio, 1872) published by the War Department, and which is used in this work throughout. Rikuoku to Shinano, whence it branches off into subordinate chains that are prolonged irregularly to Nagato and into Kiushiu and Shiko ku. Speaking generally, the heights of the mountains gradually in crease from the extremities to the centre. In Saghalin, they are low ; in Yezo, they are higher : increasing gradually on the north of the main island, they culminate in the centre in the lofty ranges of Shi nano, and the peaks of Nantaizan, Yatsugadake, Hakuzan (nine thou sand feet high), and Fuji, whose summit is over twelve thousand feet above the sea.

Thence toward the south they gradually decrease in height. There are few high mountains along the sea-coast. The land slopes up gradually into hills, thence into lesser peaks, and final ly into lofty ranges. As Fuji, with his tall satellites, sweeps up from the land, so Japan itself rises up, peak-like, from the sea. From the shores the land plunges abruptly down into deep water. Japan is but an emerged crest of a submarine mountain — perhaps the edge of hard rock left by the submergence of the earth-crust which now floors the Sea of Japan and the Gulf of Tartary. There seems little reason to doubt that Saghalin, Yezo, Hondo, and Kiushiu were in geologic ages united together, forming one island. Surrounded on all sides by swift and variable currents, the islands everywhere on the sea -borders exhibit the effect of their action.