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1864.]
Japan and the Japanese.
253

ease of war with foreign nations, upon a better footing. Cannon have been cast, batteries erected, steam-ships purchased, and 'enough powder expended in ball practice and drill to have supplied ammunition for a campaign.' It would not be surprising, if a people so apt and ingenious, so isolated from all communication, might have better success than we are inclined to believe, in case the government should concur with the Daimios in their present policy of expelling foreigners from their land.

The main street of Yeddo, the capital of Japan, must present an animated appearance, The shops are of all kinds, open in front, with a small back-room. There are book-sellers', pawnbrokers', and old-iron shops, bath-houses, coopers, armorers, sword-makers, basket-makers, ready-made clothes dealers, and print-shops, on either hand. A constant stream of pedestrians and horsemen, with occasionally a prince's cortége of mixed horse and foot, add variety to the seene, In another street, are long lines of booths for the sale of swords, story-books, prints, tobacco, and pipes, in the midst of which a fortune-teller may habitually be seen surrounded by credulous listeners. Gambling-tables, with sweet-meats for stakes, are common, more serious gambling being reserved for the privacy of their homes, A most singular sight is that of a class of penitents, or disgraced officers, who go about with a sort of basket mask covering and concealing their faces; a custom which is taken advantage of by criminals and others wishing to travel incog.

Suburban gardens and temples are common around Yeddo, to which it is one of the great delights of the people to make excursions. We are informed that troops of men, women, and children are to be seen wending their way along the shady walks to enjoy the beauties of nature; to which enjoyment the evil of intemperance seems to be one great drawback. The men drink deep of saki—an intoxicating beverage—a practice not altogether confined to their sex; and being exceedingly quarrelsome in their cups, are somewhat dangerous; the danger being heightened by a habit of carrying two swords in their belt, and 'feeling It a point of honor to flesh them at the first convenient opportunity.'

The streets are clean and well cared for, and the country remarkable for the best macadamized roads in the world.

The houses are all built of wood and lath, with a slight coating of mud. Owing to their inflammable structure, fires are common, the prevalence of incendiarism being added to the more obvious risks. The Japanese 'take the burning down of a whole quarter periodically, much as they do the advent of an earthquake or a typhoon, calamities beyond the power or wisdom of man to avert.' It is estimated that the whole of the vast city of Yeddo is burnt down and rebuilt once in every seven years. This is the more surprising, when we reflect what strides toward civilization they have made in some other respects.

In closing this account of their customs, we cannot forbear quoting the following pleasant description of the strange contrast between certain of their habits and those of Western nations:

'Japan is essentially a country of paradoxes and anomalies, where all, even familiar things, put on new faces, and are curiously reversed, Except that they do not walk on their heads instead of their feet, there are few things in which they do not seem, by some occult law, to have been impelled in a perfectly opposite direction and a reversed order, They write from bottom to top, from right to left, in perpendicular instead of horizontal lines, and their books begin where ours end, thus furnishing good examples of the curious perfection this rule of contraries has attained, Their locks, though imitated from Europe, are all made to lock by turning the key from left to right. The course of all sublunary things appears reversed. Their day is for the most part our night, and this principle of antagonism crops out in the most unexpected and bizarre way in all their moral being, customs, and habits. I leave to philosophers the explanation—I only speak to the facts. There, old men fly
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