CHAPTER XXXIX
Thunberg’s Visit to Japan—Searches and Examinations—Smuggling—Interpreters—Deshima—Imports and Exports—Unicorn’s Horn and Ginseng—Soy—The Dutch at Deshima—Japanese Mistresses—Japanese Women—Studying the Language—Botanizing—Clocks—New Year’s Day—Trampling on Images—Departure for Yedo—Journey through the Island of Shimo—Japanese Houses and Furniture—Manufacture of Paper—Practice of Bathing—Shimonoseki—Voyage to Ōsaka—Children—From Ōsaka to Miyako—Agriculture—Animals—A.D. 1775-1776.
From the time of Kämpfer’s departure from Deshima, of all the Dutch residents and visitors there, none, for a period of upwards of eighty years, favored the world with their observations. They went to Japan in pursuit of money, not to obtain knowledge, either for themselves or others.
At length, in 1775, Charles Peter Thunberg, a Swedish physician, naturalist, and traveller, to gain an opportunity of seeing Japan, obtained the same official situation which Kämpfer had held before him. Being an enthusiastic botanist, he was sent to the East by some wealthy merchants of Amsterdam to obtain new trees and plants, as well for the medical garden of that city as for their own private collections. Circumstances caused him to spend three years at the Cape of Good Hope, whence he proceeded to Batavia. He left that port June 20, 1775, and arrived off Nagasaki the 14th of the following August. From an experience of more than a hundred years, the Company reckoned on the loss of one out of every five ships sent to Japan, though care was taken to select the best and strongest vessels.[38]
The searches and examinations previous to landing were the same described by Kämpfer. Hitherto it had been usual to allow the captains of the vessels to pass at pleasure to and from their ships without being searched; they, with the directors of the Dutch factory, being the only persons exempt from that ceremony. The captains had taken advantage of this exemption to dress themselves out, for the convenience of smuggling, in a showy, blue silk, silver-laced coat, made very wide and large, in which dress they generally made three trips a day to and from Deshima, being often so loaded down with goods that they had to be supported by a sailor under each arm. Thunberg’s captain rigged himself out in the same style; but, much to his disappointment and that of the other Dutchmen, whose private goods the captains had been accustomed to smuggle for a commission, the Japanese officers who boarded the ship brought orders that the captain should dress like the rest; that he and the director also should be searched when they landed, and that the captain should either stop on board, or, if he landed, should remain on shore, being allowed to visit the ship only twice during her stay. “It was droll enough,” says Thunberg, “to see the astonishment which the sudden reduction in the size of our bulky captain excited in the major part of the ignorant Japanese, who before had always imagined that all our captains were actually as fat and lusty as they appeared to be.”
In the year 1772, one of the Dutch ships from Batavia, disabled in a violent storm, had been abandoned by her crew, who, in their haste, or believing that she would speedily sink, had neglected the standing order of the Company, in such cases, to set her on fire. Some days after she drifted to the Japanese shore, and was towed into the harbor of Nagasaki, when the Japanese found on board a number of chests marked with the names of the principal Dutch officers, and full of prohibited goods,—and it was to this discovery that the new order was ascribed.
The examination of the clothes and persons of all who passed to and from the ship was very strict. The large chests were emptied, and the sides, top, and bottom sounded to see if they were not hollow. Beds were ripped open and the feathers turned over. Iron spikes were thrust into the butter-tubs and jars of sweetmeats. A square hole was cut in the cheeses, and a thick, pointed wire thrust through them in every direction. Even some of the eggs brought from Batavia were broken, lest they might be shams in which valuables were concealed.
Formerly, according to Thunberg, the Dutch took the liberty to correct with blows the Japanese kuri employed as laborers on board the ships; but in his time this was absolutely prohibited. He adds, that the respect of the Japanese for the Dutch was a good deal diminished by observing “in how unfriendly and unmannerly a style they usually behave to each other, and the brutal treatment which the sailors under their command frequently experience from them, together with the oaths, curses, and blows with which the poor fellows are assailed by them.”
The interpreters would seem to have adopted, since the time of Kämpfer (as he makes no mention of it), the practice of medicine among their countrymen after the European manner. This made them very inquisitive as to matters of physic and natural history, and very anxious to obtain European books, which they studied diligently. Kämpfer speaks of the interpreters with great indignation as the most watchful and hateful of spies. Thunberg appears to have established very good terms with them. New restrictions, however, had been placed on their intercourse with the resident Dutchmen, whom, to prevent smuggling, they were not allowed to visit, except in company with one or two other officers.
Deshima, from Thunberg’s description of it, appears to have altered very little since Kämpfer’s residence there, though glass windows had lately been brought from Batavia, by some of the Dutch residents, as a substitute for the paper windows of the Japanese.
The permanent residents were now twelve or thirteen (there had been but seven in Kämpfer’s time), besides slaves brought from Batavia, of whom each Dutchman had one.
The goods sent out by the Company at the time of Thunberg’s visit were sugars (almost the only article of consumption which the Japanese do not produce for themselves), elephants’ teeth, sappan-wood for dyeing, tin, lead, bar-iron, fine chintzes of various sorts, Dutch broadcloths, shalloons, silks, cloves, tortoise-shell, China-root, and Costus Arabicus. The goods of private adventurers were saffron, Venice treacle, Spanish liquorice, rattans, spectacles, looking-glasses, watches, Ninjin-root or ginseng, and unicorns’ horns. This latter article, the horn of the Monodon monoceros, a product of the Greenland fishery, had been lately introduced. The Japanese ascribed to it wonderful virtues as a medicine, believing it to have the power to prolong life, strengthen the animal spirits, assist the memory, and cure all sorts of complaints. Thunberg had carried out as his venture thirty-seven katties (about fifty pounds) of this horn, which sold for five thousand and seventy-one taels, or upwards of six thousand dollars; so that, after paying the advances made to him at Batavia, he had a handsome surplus to expend in his favorite pursuit of natural history.
The genuine Chinese ginseng (Panax quinquefolium) sold at a price full as high as that of unicorn’s horn. The American article, being regarded as not genuine, was strictly prohibited, but was smuggled in to mix with the Chinese.[39]
Scientific works in the Dutch language, though not a regular article of sale, might be often exchanged to advantage with the interpreters.
The Company imported a quantity of silver coin, but private persons were not allowed to do so, though a profit might have been made on it. The sale by kamban continued exactly as Kämpfer had described it. No Japanese money came into the hands either of the Company or of individuals from the sale of their goods by kamban. They only acquired a credit, which they were able to exchange for Japanese articles.
The chief articles of export were copper, camphor, and lackered goods; porcelain, rice, sake, soy,[40] were also exported. The profits of this trade had been greatly curtailed. “Formerly,” says Thunberg, “it was so very profitable to individuals that hardly anybody but favorites were sent out as chiefs, and when these had made two voyages, it was supposed that they were rich enough to be able to live on the interest of their fortunes, and that, therefore, they ought to make room for others. At present a chief is obliged to make many voyages. His success is now no more to be envied, and his profits are thought to be very inconsiderable.”
Of the general enjoyment of a residence at Deshima Thunberg does not speak very highly. “An European that remains here is, in a manner, dead and buried in an obscure corner of the globe. He hears no news of any kind; nothing relative to war or other misfortunes and evils that plague and infest mankind; and neither the rumors of inland or foreign concerns delight or molest his ear. The soul possesses here one faculty only, which is the judgment (if, indeed, it be at all times in possession of that). The will is totally debilitated, and even dead, because, to an European there is no other will than that of the Japanese, by which he must exactly square his conduct.
“The European way of living is, in other respects, the same as in other parts of India, luxurious and irregular. Hence, just as at Batavia, we pay a visit every evening to the chief, after having walked several times up and down the two streets. These evening visits generally last from six o’clock till ten, and sometimes eleven or twelve at night, and constitute a very disagreeable way of life, fit only for such as have no other way of spending their time than droning over a pipe of tobacco and a bottle.”
The Europeans remaining at Deshima had each two or three handsome rooms, besides the store-rooms in the lower story. These they occupied without rent, the only expense being that of furnishing them. As the winter set in, the cold, with an easterly or northerly wind, was quite piercing, and they had fires of charcoal in a large copper kettle with a broad rim. Placed in the middle of the room it warmed the whole apartment for hours together. The looseness of the doors and windows prevented any ill consequences from the gases. As the residents all dined and supped at a common table, kept at the Company’s expense, their outlays did not amount to much—“except,” says Thunberg, “they squander away their money on the fair sex, or make expensive entertainments and give suppers to each other.”
The account which Thunberg gives of the Japanese mistresses of the Dutch is very much the same with that given by Kämpfer. These women, when spoken for to an officer appointed for that purpose, come attended by a little serving-maid,—one of the young apprentices of the houses to which they belonged,—who brought daily from the town her mistress’ food, made her tea, kept her things in order, and ran on errands. One of these female companions could not be had for less than three days, but might be kept a year, or even several years. The price was eight mas, or one dollar a day, besides her maintenance and presents of silk dresses, girdles, head-ornaments, etc. According to Thunberg, children were very seldom born of these connections. He was assured, but did not credit it, that if such a thing happened, the child, if a boy, would be murdered; and that, if a girl, it would be sent at fifteen to Batavia; but of this he knew of no instance. There was, in his time, one girl about six years old, born of a Japanese mother, living on the island with her father. Later accounts go to show that Dutch-Japanese children are by no means such rarities as Thunberg represents.[41]
The women painted their lips with colors, made of the Catharinus tinctorius, or bastard saffron, rubbed on little porcelain bowls. If laid on very thin, the lips appeared red; if thick, it gave them a violet hue, esteemed by the Japanese as the more beautiful. The married women were distinguished by blacking their teeth with a fœtid mixture, so corrosive that the lips had to be protected from it while it was laid on. It ate so deeply into the teeth that it took several days and much trouble to scrape it away. “To me at least,” says Thunberg, “a wide mouth with black shining teeth had an ugly and disagreeable appearance.” The married women distinguished themselves also by pulling out their eyebrows; and another distinction was that they knotted their girdles before, and the single women behind.
Thunberg noticed that venereal diseases, which he ascribed to European intercourse, were very common,[42] and he congratulated himself on the questionable service of having introduced the mercurial treatment.
As he had plenty of leisure and little taste for the Dutch fashion of killing time, he endeavored to find more rational and profitable employment. The residents were still allowed native servants, who, though not interpreters, had learned to speak the Dutch language. But the Dutch were strictly prohibited from learning the Japanese; and though the interpreters were sufficiently well inclined, Thunberg encountered many difficulties in his study of that language. It was only after many inquiries that he found at last an old dictionary, in the Latin, Portuguese, and Japanese, in quarto, containing nine hundred and six pages. The title-page was gone, but the book purported to have been compiled by the joint labors of the Jesuits at Japan, as well European as natives. It belonged to one of the interpreters, who possessed it as legacy from his ancestors, and he refused to sell it for any price.[43]
Afterwards, at Yedo, he saw a book in long quarto, about an inch thick, printed on Japanese paper, entirely in Japanese characters, except the title-page, which bore the imprint of the Jesuits, with the date, Nagasaki, A. D. 1598.
“Through incapacity in some and indolence in others,” the Dutch possessed no vocabulary of the Japanese, and all the knowledge the Dutch residents had of it did not go beyond calling by name a few familiar articles. Thunberg has annexed to his Travels a short Japanese vocabulary, but he does not appear to have made any great progress in the language.
With much difficulty he obtained, about the beginning of February, leave to botanize.[44] Every excursion cost him sixteen or eighteen taels, as he was obliged to feast from twenty to thirty Japanese officials, by whom he was always attended. On the neighboring hills he noticed many burying-grounds, containing tombstones of various forms, sometimes rough, but more frequently hewn, with letters, sometimes gilt, engraved upon them. Before these stones were placed vessels, made of large bamboos, containing water, with branches of flowers.
He also noticed, both around Nagasaki and afterwards on his journey to Yedo, the pits, or rather large earthen jars, sunk by the road-side for the collection of manure, both liquid and solid. To the fœtid exhalations from these open pits, and to the burning of charcoal without chimneys, he ascribed the red and inflamed eyes very common in Japan. In the gardens he saw growing the common red beet, the carrot, fennel, dill, anise, parsley, and asparagus; leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, lettuce, succory, and endive. Long ranges of sloping ground, at the foot of the mountains, were planted with the sweet potato. Attempts were also made to cultivate the common potato, but with little success. Several kinds of yams (Dioscoreæ) grew wild in the vicinity of Nagasaki, of which one species was used for food, and, when boiled, had a very agreeable taste.[45] Buckwheat, Windsor beans (Vicia faba), several species of French beans (Phascolus), and peas (Pisun sativum), were commonly cultivated; also, two kinds of cayenne pepper (Capsicum), introduced probably by the Portuguese. Tobacco was also raised, for the use and the name of which the Japanese were indebted to the Portuguese. He observed also hemp, the Acorus, strongly aromatic; a kind of ginger (Amomum miōga); the Mentha piperita; the Alcea rosea and Malva Mauritiana, cultivated for their flowers; the Celastrus alatus, a branch of which, stuck at a young lady’s door, is thought by the Japanese to have the power of making her fall in love with you; the common juniper-tree; the bamboo and the box, also the ivy; the China-root (Smilax China); wild figs, with small fruit like plums (Fiscus pumila and erecta); the pepper bush (Figara peperita); a species of madder (Rubia cordata), and several species of the Pologonum, used for dyeing. Also, two species of nettles, the bark of which furnished cordage and thread, and the seeds of one species an oil. The yellow flowers of the colewort (Brassica orientalis), which was largely cultivated for the oil afforded by its seeds, presented through the spring a beautiful appearance. This oil was used for lamps. Oil for food, used, however, but sparingly, was expressed from the Sesamum orientale and the mustard seed. Solid oils, for candles, were obtained from the nuts of the varnish-tree (Rhus vernix), and from those of the Rhus succedanea, the camphor-tree, the Melea azedarach, and the Camellia sasankwa.[46]
In striking fire a tinder is used made of the woolly part of the leaves of the common wormwood. The famous moxa [mogusa], spoken of hereafter, is a finer preparation of the same root. Instead of soap the meal of a species of bean is employed.
The bark of the Shikimi, or anise-tree (a near relation of the mangolia tribe, and whose flowers and leaves are much employed in religious ceremonies), is used as a time-measurer. A box a foot long is filled with ashes, in which are marked furrows, in parallel lines, strewed with fine powder of this bark. The lid being closed, with only a small hole left to supply air, the powder is set on fire at one end, and consumed very slowly, and the hours, marked beforehand on these furrows, are proclaimed in the daytime by striking the bells in the temples, and in the night by the watch striking together two pieces of wood. Another method of measuring time is by burning slow match, divided into knots to mark the hours. The Japanese also have a clock, the mechanism of which is described in a subsequent chapter.
“The first of January, according to custom,” says Thunberg, “most of the Japanese that had anything to do at the Dutch factory came to wish us a happy new year. Dressed in their holiday clothes, they paid their respects to the director, who invited them to dine with him. The victuals were chiefly dressed after the European manner, and, consequently, but few of the dishes were tasted by the Japanese. Of the soup they all partook, but of the other dishes, such as roasted pigs, hams, salad, cakes, tarts, and other pastries, they ate little or nothing, but put on a plate a little of every dish, and, when it was full, sent it home, labelled with the owner’s name; and this was repeated several times. Salt beef, and the like, which the Japanese do not eat, were set by, and used as a medicine. The same may be said of the salt butter, of which I was frequently desired to cut a slice for some of the company. It is made into pills, and taken daily in consumptions and other disorders. After dinner, warm sake was handed round, which was drank out of lackered wooden cups.
“On this festive occasion the director invited from the town several handsome girls, partly for the purpose of serving out the sake, and partly to dance and bear the girls company who were already on the island. After dinner, these girls treated the Japanese to several of their own country messes, placed on small square tables, which were decorated with an artificial fir-tree, the leaves of which were made of green silk, and in several places sprinkled over with white cotton, in imitation of the winter’s snow. The girls never presented the sake, standing, but, after their own fashion, sitting. In the evening they danced, and about five o’clock the company took their leave.”
The 19th of February, 1776, on which fell the beginning of the Japanese year, was celebrated according to the Japanese custom, all of them going visiting, dressed up in their holiday clothes, and wishing their neighbors joy; and, indeed, this interchange of congratulations is kept up, more or less, through the first month.
On the two last days of the year a general settlement of accounts takes place. Fresh credit is then given for six months, when a new settlement takes place. The rate of interest was high, ranging from eighteen to twenty per cent. Thunberg was told that, after new-year’s day, there was no right to demand settlement of the last year’s accounts.
Shortly after the Japanese new year, took place the trampling of images, which ceremony, according to the information obtained by Thunberg, was still performed by all the inhabitants of Nagasaki, exactly as in Kämpfer’s time.
On the 4th of March the director set out for the emperor’s court, accompanied, as usual, by the secretary of the factory, and by Thunberg as physician. In Kämpfer’s day these two latter persons had been obliged to make the journey on horseback, exposed to cold, rain, and all the inclemencies of the weather. Since then they had obtained the privilege of travelling in norimono, equally with the director. Dr. Thunberg seems to have been well satisfied with his vehicle, which he describes as both handsome and convenient. Each norimono traveller had with him a bottle of red wine, and another of Dutch ale, taken daily from the large stock provided for the journey, and preferred by the Europeans to tea, which they regarded as a “great relaxer of the stomach.” Each traveller had also an oblong lackered box, containing “a double slice of bread and butter.” In order to support the dignity of the Dutch East India Company, the bed equipage which they carried with them, consisting of coverlids, pillows, and mattresses, was covered with the richest open-work velvets and silks. Their retinue, on horseback and on foot, was numerous and picturesque. They were received everywhere with the honor and respect paid to the princes of the land; and, besides, says Thunberg, were so well guarded “that no harm could befall us, and, at the same time, so well attended that we had no more care upon our minds than a sucking child; the whole of our business consisting in eating and drinking, or in reading or writing for our amusement, in sleeping, dressing ourselves, and being carried about in our norimono.”
The Ear-Mound at Kyōtō
At setting out, each of the three Dutchmen received from the purveyor fifty taels, for their individual expenses. This was the first Japanese money which Thunberg had seen, and this, with other sums doled out to them from time to time, was chiefly spent in presents to their attendants. The disbursement on this score, at starting, amounted to ten taels each.
In the early part of their journey, they followed a somewhat different road from Kämpfer’s, all the way by land, not crossing either the bay of Ōmura, nor that of Shimabara. They passed, however, through Shiota, as Kämpfer had done, famous for its large water-jars, and visited the hot springs in that neighborhood, and also Saga, capital of the province of Hizen, remarkable for its handsome women, its rice and its fine porcelain. The roads were found such as Kämpfer had described them. Proceeding onward, still by Kämpfer’s route, they reached Kokura on the ninth of March. The following description of Japanese houses corresponds sufficiently well with that of Kämpfer, while it gives a rather more distinct, and somewhat less flattering, idea of them. “The houses are very roomy and commodious, and never more than two stories—at most twenty feet—high, of which the lower one is inhabited, and the upper serves for lofts and garrets, and is seldom occupied. The mode of building in this country is curious and peculiar. Every house occupies a great extent of ground, and is built in general of wood and plaster, and whitewashed on the outside so as to look exactly like stone. The beams all lie horizontal or stand perpendicular. Between these beams, which are square and far from thick, bamboos are interwoven, and the space filled up with clay, sand, and lime. The roofs are covered with tiles of a singular make, very thick and heavy. The more ordinary houses are covered with chips [shingles], on which are frequently laid heavy stones to secure them. In the villages and meaner towns I sometimes saw the sides of the houses, especially behind, covered with the bark of trees, which was secured by laths nailed on it to prevent the rain from damaging the wall.
“The whole house makes but one room, which can be divided according as it may be found necessary, or thought proper, into many smaller ones. This is done by moving slight partitions, consisting of wooden frames, pasted over with thick painted paper, which slide with great ease in grooves made in the beams of the floor and roof for that purpose. Such rooms were frequently partitioned off for us and our retinue, during our journey; and when a larger apartment was wanted for a dining-room, or any other purpose, the partitions were in an instant taken away. One could not see, indeed, what was done in the next room, but one frequently overheard the conversation that passed there.
“In each room there are two or more windows, which reach from the ceiling to within two feet of the floor. They consist of light frames which may be taken out, put in, and slid behind each other, at pleasure, in two grooves made for this purpose in the beams above and below them. They are divided by slender rods into panes of a parallelogrammatic form, sometimes to the number of forty, and pasted over on the outside with fine white paper, which is seldom if ever oiled, and admits a great deal of light, but prevents any one from seeing through it. The roof always projects a great way beyond the house, and sometimes has an addition which covers a small projecting gallery that stands before each window. From this little roof go slanting inwards and downwards several quadrangular frames, within which hang blinds made of rushes, which may be drawn up and let down, and serve not only to hinder people that pass by from looking into the house, but chiefly when it rains to prevent the paper windows from being damaged. There are no glass windows here; nor have I observed mother-of-pearl or muscovy talc (mica, or isinglass) used for this purpose.
“The houses have neither the elegant appearance nor the convenience and comfort of ours in Europe. The rooms are not so cheerful and pleasant, nor so warm in the winter, neither are they so safe in case of fire, nor so durable. Their semi-transparent paper windows, in particular, spoil the houses, as well in their inside as outside appearance. Neither chimneys nor stoves are known throughout the whole country, although the cold is very intense, and they are obliged to make fires in their apartments from October to March. The fires are made in copper kettles, of various sizes, with broad projecting edges. This mode of firing is liable, however, to this inconvenience, that the charcoal sometimes smokes, in consequence of which the apartment becomes dirty and black, and the eyes of the company suffer exceedingly.
“The floors are always covered with mats made of a fine species of rush (Juncus effusus), cultivated in low spots for that purpose, and interwoven with rice straw. These mats are from three to four inches thick, and of the same size throughout the country, viz., two yards long and one broad. The insides of the houses, both ceiling and walls, are covered with a handsome, thick paper, ornamented with various flowers. These hangings are either green, yellow, or white; and sometimes embellished with silver and gold. As the paper is greatly damaged by the smoke in winter, it is renewed every third or fifth year.[47]
“The furniture in this country is as simple as the style of building. Neither cupboards, bureaus, sofas, beds, tables, chairs, clocks, looking-glasses, nor anything else of the kind, is to be seen. To the greater part of these the Japanese are utter strangers. Their soft floor-mats serve them for chairs. A small table, or rather salver, about twelve inches square and four high, is set before each person in company at every meal, of which there are three a day. The food (rice, soup, and fish being the principal articles) is served in lackered wooden cups. Most other nations of the East sit with their legs laid across before them,—the Chinese and Japanese lay their feet under their bodies, and make a chair of their heels. When the hour of rest approaches, a soft mattress, stuffed with cotton, is spread out on the mats. The Japanese have no pillows, instead of which they use oblong lackered pieces of wood. With the above apparatus for sleeping, the Japanese bed-chamber is put in order, and he himself up and dressed, in the twinkling of an eye; as, in fact, scarcely a longer time is requisite for him to throw the gown over him, which serves for dress by day and bedclothes at night, and to gird it round his waist.
“Though mirrors do not decorate the walls, they are in general use at the toilet, made not of glass, but of a composition of copper and zinc highly polished, and fixed obliquely in a stand of wood made for that purpose. Cleanliness is a constant object with these people, and not a day passes in which they do not wash themselves, whether they are at home or on a journey. In all towns and villages, inns and private houses, there are baths.” He adds, however, what goes rather against this alleged cleanliness, that as the poor, to save expense, are accustomed to use water in which others have repeatedly bathed, they are apt in that way to take infectious disorders. Neither do their open manure vaults, placed by the roadsides and in the very fronts of their houses, agree so well with this eulogy.
At Kokura the Dutch bespoke, against their return, rice and charcoal for the factory at Deshima. Having crossed to Shimonoseki, they embarked, on the 12th of March, in a large Japanese junk, for Ōsaka; but, having made less than half the voyage, they encountered contrary winds, which drove them a long distance back, and detained them for near three weeks. The weather was so cold as to make fires comfortable, and colds and catarrhs, endemical to Japan from the changeability of its climate, were very prevalent. All this time they slept on board, but had several times an opportunity to go on shore to amuse themselves at the inns and temples, the Japanese sailors being always anxious to land in order to bathe.
The country all along this coast was mountainous, which was the reason of going by sea instead of by land, the land road being very difficult. This coast seemed, nevertheless, to be highly cultivated, the mountains in many places resembling beautiful gardens.
At the places where they landed, the children were very numerous. “I observed,” says Thunberg, “that the chastisement of children was very moderate. I very seldom heard them rebuked or scolded, and hardly ever saw them flogged or beaten, either in private families or on board the vessels; while, in more civilized and enlightened nations, these compliments abound.[48] In the schools one might hear the children read all at once, and so loud as almost to deafen one.”
Whenever the Japanese went on shore, they killed geese and ducks for the Dutchmen to eat; but at sea they had scruples about killing them, though in fine weather the Chinese teal (Anas galericulata), and several sorts of ducks, fairly covered the water, so as to look at a distance like great islands. But, though scrupulous themselves, they made no objections to Thunberg’s killing them; though, not being allowed the use of fire-arms, it does not appear how he did it.
At length, on the seventh of April, after a disagreeable and dangerous passage of twenty-six days, they reached the harbor of Hiōgo, whence the next day, partly by land and partly in small boats, they proceeded to Ōsaka. Here each of the travellers disbursed sixteen taels in presents to the captain and crew of the vessel, for the hire of which the sum of four hundred and eighty taels was paid by the East India Company. They stayed at Ōsaka only a single night, during which they bespoke from some merchants, who visited them[49] with samples, several articles, such as insects of copper, artificial trees varnished, fans of various kinds, writing paper, paper hangings, etc. They left Ōsaka early in the morning, by torchlight, and, following the same road which Kämpfer had taken, reached Miyako at night. “Except in Holland,” says Thunberg, “I never made so pleasant a journey as this, with regard to the beauty and delightful appearance of the country. The whole country, on both sides of us, as far as we could see, was nothing but a fertile field, and the whole of our long day’s journey extended through villages, of which one began where the other ended.”
The farmers were now preparing their lands for rice. The fields, by means of a raised border, lay almost entirely under water. This was the case even with those sides of the hills intended for rice. They were laid out in terraces, the water collected on the higher grounds being regulated by means of walls or dams, so as to be let on or shut off at pleasure. There were, also, reservoirs, constructed to retain the contents of the flooded streams, against occasions of drought. The rice was sown first very close and thick, and when about six inches high was transplanted into the fields, in tufts of several plants, placed about six inches apart. This was done by the women, who waded about in water at least six inches deep, the men having first turned up the ground with a hoe. Beautiful white herons followed the laborers, and cleared the fields of worms. The rice thus planted was reaped in November.
Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy
Fields of wheat, barley (used to feed the horses), buckwheat, East India kale (Brassica orientalis), and mustard (the two latter for oil) were also seen. These crops, planted in November or December, and ripe in May or June, were in beds about a foot broad, and separated from each other by a deep furrow or trench of about the same breadth. Sometimes they were planted across these narrow beds, and sometimes in two rows, lengthwise. Thunberg noticed that when the ear was about to put forth, the plants being grown to the height of a foot, the earth was taken out from the intervening trenches, and drawn up to the roots of the plants. About the same time, or a little earlier, the liquid manure collected in the jars already described, and mingled with all sorts of refuse, was carried out by the farmers, in large pails, and poured with a ladle on the roots of the plants; a method which avoids the waste incident to spreading the manure on unplanted fields, to be dried up by the sun, or to lose by evaporation its volatile salts and oily particles.
The fields were kept so free of weeds as to afford, much to Thunberg’s disappointment, very little chance to botanize. Animals were little used in agriculture. Only such of the rice-fields as lay low, and quite under water, were ploughed by oxen,—cows being kept for draft and breeding only, and never milked. The only wheel carriages seen were a few carts, and these only in and about Miyako, some with three wheels,[50] one before the other two, and some two-wheeled. These carts were long and narrow, the wheels, some with spokes and fellies, but without any tire, except a rope tied about them, and others of a solid piece, sawed from a log. They were drawn by an ox, by cows, or a buffalo. Horses were chiefly for the use of their princes, though occasionally employed by others for travelling and carrying burdens. They were not numerous, but Thunberg seems to make rather a close estimate in saying that all Japan has scarcely as many horses as a single province of Sweden. There was no occasion for meadows or pastures, the cattle and horses being fed at home all the year, so that all the land, not too steep or rocky for cultivation, was devoted to the raising of crops; nor did the fields require fences. All the manure of the animals kept was carefully preserved, old men and children following the horses of travellers, with a shell fastened to the end of a stick, and a basket in which to put what they collected. Of course the small number of domestic animals made it the more necessary to resort to the other means of providing manure already noticed.
A few swine were to be seen, but only in the neighborhood of Nagasaki. There were no sheep nor goats. A supply of these animals, and also of cattle and hogs, for the Dutch at Deshima, was brought annually from Batavia. Dogs, “the only idlers in the country,” were kept from superstitious motives, and cats were the general favorites of the women. Hens and ducks were kept about the houses, chiefly for their eggs, of which the Japanese make great use, boiled hard and chopped into small pieces.