Considering that as recently as 1873 Japan had no such institution as a factory, and knew nothing whatever of iron foundries or machine shops, the Japanese-made machinery display at the exhibition at Ōsaka was astonishing. There we found silk-weaving and mat-making machines, electrical motors and generators, gas and oil engines, locomotives, electrical fittings, tools, beltings, match-making machine, lemonade-making machine, distilling machine, fire-brigade appliances, rice-cleaning machines, huge steam navvy, oil tanks, soap-making machines, printing machines, massive hoisting engine, tea-refining machinery, heavy mining machinery, and many other smaller machines, all of Japanese manufacture, admirably made and efficient.

In general manufactures the empire made a good showing. Straw braid; shibori, a beautiful stuff, making pretty dress material; woollen serges and woven silks, particularly a delicate fabric of mixed silk and cotton (the output of this fabric exceeding $1,500,000 per annum); cheap and good cotton blankets, Japanese towels, artistic designs in tiles and roofing materials, drainpipes, fireproof bricks. In drinkables, also of home manufacture, there was beer by the carload; sake, the famous native drink, enough to quench the thirst of an army.

One of the best exhibits was in clocks; some of them very handsome and very cheap, made by one or other of the twelve Japanese clock companies. The porcelain exhibition was good, consisting of beautiful vases, artistic porcelain trays, basins, teacups, etc. The exhibit of Japanese-made shoes was quite creditable. Other native manufactures exhibited were bamboo furniture, whatnots, over-mantels, fire screens, shell buttons, paper lanterns, fine silken rugs, shawls, paper, camphor, oils, soap, all kinds of sauces and relishes, silks of every hue and description, silk lace, gold and silver thread, linen, duck, tent cloths, ivory work, bronzes, lacquer and silver work, surgical instruments, pianos, organs, and other musical instruments, bicycles, gymnastic and athletic goods, microscopes, cameras, barometers, and almost every kind of educational apparatus.

The natural products of the country were exhibited to good advantage. Rice, tobacco (manufactured and un-manufactured), silkworms, various varieties of silk cocoons, tea, huge oranges, sugar, furs, woods, pearls, coral, fish (dried and salted). Mushrooms were a special exhibit of one prefecture, tea of another, and so on. The whole section of the agricultural experiment station was complete and admirable in every way.

In the foreign section we found weaving-machines (only introduced October, 1902, and already largely sold), German shoe-making and cigarette-making machines, and searchlights from Nuremberg, match and matchbox-making machines, rifles, wire samples, chemicals, perfumes, British-made electrical appliances, timber, paints, varnishes, gas and oil engines, steam-engines (British), a turbo-alternator (electric) from Newcastle-on-Tyne, rubber and steel goods from England, Maxim’s famous guns, fountain pens, typewriters, Indian cotton, American bone goods, American motor cars and bicycles, meat extracts, American provisions, American lighting and heating apparatus for railway carriages and street cars, refrigerator cars, Boston pile-sinking outfits, New York pumps, marine gasolene engine, and sewing-machines.

Canada also made a good exhibit of the cereals and food products of the Dominion, with the Canadian system of cold storage, and of pulp woods, furniture, and iron work.