[146] Ambergris is a substance thrown up from the stomachs of whales suffering from dyspepsia or some other disease. It is much employed in the East in the preparation of perfumes and sweetmeats, and once had considerable reputation in Europe. Its true nature was for a long time in dispute. The Japanese understood it, as appears from their name of the articles, Kujira-no-fun, that is, whale’s excrements.
[147] This corresponds with Siebold’s description, who goes quite into raptures at the first sight he had, in 1825, of the hills about Nagasaki.
[148] It would seem that Europe had derived the idea of paper-hangings, as a substitute for tapestry, from Japan.
[149] According to Haganaar this sake is flavored with honey or sugar. It is very heating and heavy. Saris describes it as almost as strong as aqua vitæ. It appears to be very various in quality and strength, quite as much so as European ale or beer. The yeast from this sake is largely used for preserving fruit and vegetables. The acid of it penetrates the fruit or vegetable, giving it a peculiar flavor, of which the Japanese are very fond.
The Japanese are very fond of social drinking parties; but, according to Caron, no drunken brawls occur, each person taking himself quietly off as soon as he finds that he has enough or too much.
[150] This prayer, or invocation, unintelligible to the Japanese, is, as our modern Orientalists have discovered, good Sanscrit.
[151] Another change, simultaneous with the restrictions upon Dutch and Chinese trade, was the selection of the governors from the military and noble class, instead of from the mercantile class, as had previously been the case.
[152] These Yoriki and Dōshin seem to be the same officers spoken of in the subsequent Dutch narratives as Gobanjoshu (said to mean government overseeing officers), or by corruption, banjoses, upper and under. The Dōshin seem to be the same with the imperial soldiers.
[153] The Japanese division of time is peculiar. The day, from the beginning of morning twilight to the end of evening twilight (so says Siebold, correcting former statements, which give instead sunrise and sunset), is divided into six hours, and the night, from the beginning to the end of darkness, into six other hours. Of course the length of these hours is constantly varying. Their names (according to Titsingh) are as follows: Kokonotsu [nine], noon, and midnight; Yatsu [eight], about our two o’clock; Nanatsu [seven], from four to five; Mutsu [six], end of the evening and commencement of morning twilight; Itsutsu [five], eight to nine; Yotsu [four], about ten; and then Kokonotsu again. Each of these hours is also subdivided into four parts, thus: Kokonotsu, noon or midnight; Kokonotsu-han [nine and a half], quarter past; Kokonotsu-han-sugi [past nine and a half], half past; Kokonotsu-han-sugi-maye [before past nine and a half], three quarters past; commencement of second hour: Yatsu-han, etc., and so through all the hours.
The hours are struck on bells, Kokonotsu being indicated by nine strokes, preceded (as is the case also with all the hours) by three warning strokes, to call attention, and to indicate that the hour is to be struck, and followed, after a pause of about a minute and a half, by the strokes for the hour, between which there is an interval of about fifteen seconds,—the last, however, following its predecessor still more rapidly, to indicate that the hour is struck. Yatsu is indicated by eight strokes, Nanatsu by seven, Mutsu by six, Itsutsu by five, and Yotsu by four. Much speculation has been resorted to by the Japanese to explain why they do not employ, to indicate hours, one, two, and three strokes. The obvious answer seems to be, that while three strokes have been appropriated as a forewarning, their method of indicating that the striking is finished would not be available, if one and two strokes designated the first and second hours. [See paper on “Japanese Calendars,” in vol. xxx of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—Edr.]
[154] Caron implies that it was only as to state offences that this mutual responsibility exists. According to Guysbert, in his account of the persecution at Nagasaki, if a converted priest was discovered, not only the householder concealing him was held responsible, but the two nearest householders on either side, though not only ignorant of the fact, but pagans. This strict system was very effectual for the purposes of the persecution.
[155] Better fumiye or fumie.—Edr.
[156] It would seem from Guysbert, that the participation by young children in the death decreed against the parents, was rather the act of those parents who had the power of life and death over their children, and who did not choose to part with them in this extremity.
[157] The Japanese year begins at the new moon nearest to the fifth of February (the middle point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox).
[158] According to Klaproth’s statement of Japanese legend, in his “Histoire Mythologique,” introductory to Titsingh’s “Annals of the Dairi,” the first three of the celestial gods were solitary males. The next three had female companions, yet produced their successors by the force of mutual contemplation only. The seventh pair found out the ordinary method of generation, of which the first result was the successive production of eight islands, those of Japan (the number eight being selected simply because it is esteemed the most perfect), after which they gave birth also to mountains, rivers, plants, and trees. To provide a ruler and governor for these creations, they next produced Tenshō daijin, or, in Japanese (for Tenshō daijin is Chinese), Ama terasu-no-kami (Celestial Spirit of Sunlight); but, thinking her too beautiful for the earth, they placed her in the heavens, as they did, likewise, their second born, a daughter, also, Tsuki-no-kami, goddess of the moon. Their third child, Ebisu saburō, was made god of the sea; their fourth child, Susanoō, also a son, god of the winds and tempest. He was agreeable enough when in good humor, and at times had his eyes filled with tears, but was liable to such sudden outbreaks and caprices of temper as to render him quite unreliable. It was concluded to send him away to the regions of the north; but before going he got leave to pay a visit to his sisters in heaven. At first he had a good understanding with them, but soon committed so many outrages,—in the spring spoiling the flower borders, and in the autumn riding through the ripe corn on a wild horse,—that in disgust Tenshō daijin hid herself in a cavern, at the mouth of which she placed a great stone. Darkness forthwith settled over the heavens. The eight hundred thousand gods, in great alarm, assembled in council, when, among other expedients, one of their number, who was a famous dancer, was set to dance to music at the mouth of the cavern. Tenshō daijin, out of curiosity, moved the stone a little, to get a look at what was going on, when immediately Te chikara o-no kami (god of the strong hand) caught hold of it, rolled it away, and dragged her out, while two others stretched ropes across the mouth so that she could not get in again. Finally, the matter was compromised by clipping the claws and hair of Susanoō, after which he was sent off to the north, though not till he had killed a dragon, married a wife, and become the hero of other notable adventures. This legend makes it clear what Anjirō, the first Japanese convert, meant by speaking of the Japanese as worshippers of the sun and moon. See ante, p. 49. The annual festival of Tenshō daijin falls on the sixteenth day of the ninth month, immediately after that of Suwa, and is celebrated throughout the empire by matsuri much like that described in the text. The sixteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-sixth days of every month are likewise sacred to her, but not celebrated with any great solemnity. [Also see “Kojiki.”—Edr.]
Kämpfer mentions as the gods particularly worshipped by the mercantile class: 1. Yebisu, the Neptune of the country, and the protector of fishermen and seafaring people, said to be able to live two or three days under water. He is represented sitting on a rock, with an angling-rod in one hand, and the delicious fish, Tai, or Steinbrassin (Sparus Aurata, the Japanese name, signifies red lady), in the other. 2. Dai-koku, commonly represented sitting on a bale of rice, with his fortunate hammer in his right hand, and a bag laid by him to put in what he knocks out; for he is said to have the power of knocking out, from whatever he strikes with his hammer, whatever he wants, as rice, clothes, money, etc. Klaproth states him to be of Indian origin, and that this name signifies Great Black. 3. Toshitoku, represented standing, clad in a large gown with long sleeves, with a long beard, a huge forehead, large ears, and a fan in his right hand. Worshipped at the beginning of the new year, in hopes of obtaining, by his assistance, success and prosperity. 4. Hotei, represented with a huge belly, and supposed to have in his gift, health, riches, and children. [These are four of the “Seven Gods of Happiness.” See also paper on that subject, in vol. viii of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan.—Edr.]
[159] On the whole, and from the play-bills presently given, the performance would seem to be a good deal like that of Pyramus and Thisbe, in the Midsummer Night’s Dream.
[160] Certainly there is nothing of which the Japanese stood, and still stand, more in need than some contrivance for extinguishing fires. Caron, in his memorial addressed to Colbert, had recommended a present of fire-extinguishers.
[161] See p. 265.
[162] These zeni were of various values, a thousand of them being worth, according to Caron, from eight to twenty-six mas, that is, from a dollar to three dollars and a quarter; the zeni varying, therefore, from a mill to three mills and a quarter. Of the existing copper coinage we shall speak hereafter. See vol. ii, p. 309.
[163] “Though it may sound extraordinary to talk of a soldier with a fan, yet the use of that article is so general in Japan that no respectable man is to be seen without one. These fans are a foot long, and sometimes serve for parasols; at others instead of memorandum books. They are adorned with paintings of landscapes, birds, flowers, or ingenious sentences. The etiquette to be observed in regard to the fan requires profound study and close attention.”—Titsingh. “At feasts and ceremonies the fan is always stuck in the girdle, on the left hand, behind the sabre, with the handle downward.”—Thunberg. [See paper on “Japanese Fans,” in vol. ii of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society, London.—Edr.]
[164] This is exclusive of the central tract or imperial domain (consisting of five provinces), and also of the two island provinces of Iki and Tsushima. [See also Note A in the Appendix.—Edr.]
[165] For a part of the distance across Kiūshiū (or Shimo), different routes were taken in the first and second of Kämpfer’s journeys. In the first he crossed the gulf of Ōmura; in the second, the gulf of Shimabara, these two gulfs enclosing the peninsula of Ōmura, the one on the north, the other on the east.
[166] The distance is reckoned by the Japanese at three hundred and thirty-two to three hundred and thirty-three leagues; but these Japanese leagues are of unequal length, varying from eighteen thousand to about thirteen thousand feet, and the water-leagues generally shorter than those by land in the proportion of five to three. Kämpfer makes the whole distance two hundred German or about eight hundred English miles.
[167] Three or four inches thick (according to Thunberg), and made of rushes and rice straw.
[168] Japanese feet, that is, for, according to Klaproth (“Annales des Emp. du Japon”) page 404, note, the ken is equal to seven feet four inches and a half, Rhineland (which does not differ much from our English) measure.
[169] These windows are of light frames, which may be taken out, and put in, and slid behind each other at pleasure, divided into parallelograms like our panes of glass, and covered with paper. Glass windows are unknown.
[170] Thunberg says, “tiles of a singular make, very thick and heavy.”
[171] In a Japanese map brought home by Kämpfer the number of castles in the whole empire is set down at a hundred and forty-six.
[172] The whole number of towns in the empire, great and small, is set down in the above-mentioned map at more than thirteen thousand.
[173] Kämpfer’s meaning seems to be only that the Shintō priests were not monks living together in convents, like the Buddhist clergy, but having houses and families of their own.
[174] According to a memorandum annexed to the Japanese map already mentioned, there were in Japan twenty-seven thousand seven hundred Kami temples, one hundred and twenty-two thousand five hundred and eighty Buddhist temples, in all forty-nine thousand two hundred and eighty. By the census of 1850, there were in the United States thirty-eight thousand one hundred and eighty-three buildings used for religious worship.
It would appear that though the Shintō temples did not want worshippers who freely contributed alms to the support of the priests, yet that since the abolition of the Catholic worship, and as a sort of security against it, every Japanese was required to enroll himself as belonging to some Buddhist sect or observance.
[175] These oharai, or indulgence-boxes, are little boxes made of thin boards and filled with small sticks wrapped in bits of white paper. Great virtues are ascribed to them, but a new one is necessary every year. They are manufactured and sold by the Shintō priests.