where we were to stand. After we had been presented the Emperor read a speech in Japanese, which was translated into French by the interpreter, and of which, before we left the place, a beautiful copy was given me, I then read my salutation, on which our minister, van Stoetwegen, said a few words, and got some words in reply. After leaving the imperial chamber, we were entertained in the anteroom with Japanese tea and cigars. The two princes who had taken part in the entertainment of the 15th came and talked a little with us, as did the minister of foreign affairs. The Emperor MUTSUHITO, in whose name reforms have been carried out in Japan to an extent to which history can scarcely show anything equal, was born the 3rd November, 1850. He is considered the 121st Mikado of the race of Jimmu Tenno, the members of which have reigned uninterruptedly in Japan for nearly two thousand years, with varying fates and with varying power—now as wise lawgivers and mighty warriors, now for long periods as weak and effeminate rulers, emperors only in seeming, to whom almost divine homage was paid, but who were carefully freed from the burden of government and from all actual power. In comparison with this race, whose first ancestor lived during the first century after the foundation of Rome, all the royal houses now reigning in Europe are children of yesterday. Its present representative does not look to be very strong. During the whole audience he stood so motionless that he might have been taken for a wax figure, if he had not himself read his speech. Prince Kita-Shira-Kava has the appearance of a young lieutenant of hussars. Most of the ministers have sharply marked features,[373] which remind one of the many furious storms they have survived, and the many personal dangers to which they have been exposed, partly in honourable conflict, partly through murderers' plots. For, unfortunately, a political murder is not yet considered in Japan an infamous crime, but the murderer openly acknowledges his deed and takes the consequences. Repeated murderous attempts have been made against the men of the new time. In order to protect themselves from these, ministers, when they go out, generally have their carriages surrounded by an armed guard on horseback.
On the 18th September several of the members of the Vega expedition were invited to a déjeûner à la fourchette by Admiral Kawamura, minister of marine. This entertainment had an interest for us because we were here for the first time received into a Japanese home. I sat at table by the side of Lady Kawamura. Even the children were present at the entertainment. Lady Kawamura was dressed in the Japanese fashion, tastefully but very plainly, if we except a heavy gold chain encircling the waist. In other respects the entertainment was arranged according to the European mode, with a succession of dishes and wines, both in abundance, according to the laws of gastronomy. When it was over our host offered us an airing in a carriage, during which I rode with the lady and one of the children, a little girl about ten years of age, who would have been very beautiful if she had not been disfigured, in the eyes of Europeans, by the thick white paint that was evenly spread over her whole face, and gave it a sickly appearance. Lady Kawamura herself was not painted, nor was she disfigured with blackened teeth. Most of the married women of Japan are accustomed after marriage to blacken their formerly dazzlingly white teeth, but it is to be hoped that this unpleasant custom will soon disappear, as the women of distinction have begun to abandon it. During this excursion we visited, among other places, the graves of the Tycoons, the imperial garden, and a very remarkable exhibition in the capital.
A number of the Tycoons, or, as they are more correctly called, Shoguns, are buried in Tokio. Their place of sepulture is one of the most remarkable memorials of Old Japan. The graves are in a temple which is divided into several courts, surrounded by walls and connected with each other by beautiful gates. The first of these courts is ornamented with more than two hundred stone lanterns, presented to the temple by the feudal princes of the country, the name of the giver and the date at which it was given being inscribed on each. Some of these peculiar memorials are only half-finished, perhaps an evidence of the sudden close of the power of the Shoguns and the feudal princes in Japan. In another of the temple courts are to be seen lanterns of bronze, partly gilt, presented by other feudal princes. A third court is occupied by a temple, a splendid memorial of the old Japanese architecture, and of the antique method of adorning their sanctuaries with wooden carvings, gilding, and varnishing. The temple abounds in old book-rolls, bells, drums, beautiful old lacquered articles, &c. The graves themselves lie within a separate enclosure.
The common Japanese gardens are not beautiful according to European taste. They are often so small that they might without inconvenience, with trees, grottos, and waterfalls, be accommodated in a small State's department in one of the crystal palaces of the international exhibitions. All, passages, rocks, trees, ponds, yea, even the fishes in the dams, are artificial or artificially changed. The trees are, by a special art which has been very highly developed in Japan, forced to assume the nature of dwarfs, and are besides so pruned that the whole plant has the appearance of a dry stem on which some green clumps have been hung up here and there. The form of the gold fish swimming in the ponds has also been changed, so that they have often two or four tail-fins each, and a number of growths not known in their natural state. On the walks thick layers of pebbles are placed to keep the feet from being dirtied, and at the doors of dwelling-houses there is nearly always a block of granite with a cauldron-like depression excavated in it, which is kept filled with clean water. Upon this stone cauldron is placed a simple but clean wooden scoop, with which one can take water out of the vessel to wash himself with.
The imperial garden in Tokio is distinguished from these miniature gardens by its greater extent, and by the trees, at least at most places, bearing fruit. There is here a veritable park, with uncommonly large, splendid, and luxuriantly-growing trees. The public is generally excluded from the garden. At our visit we were entertained in one of the imperial summer-houses with Japanese tea, sweetmeats, and cigars.
Last of all we visited the Exhibition. It had been closed for some time back on account of cholera. We saw here a number of beautiful specimens of Japanese art, from the flint tools and pottery of the Stone Age to the silks, porcelain, and bronzes of the present. In no country is there at this day such a love for exhibitions as in Japan. There are small exhibitions in most of the large towns. Many were exceedingly instructive; in all there were to be seen beautiful lacquered wares, porcelain, swords, silk, cloths, &c. In one I saw a collection of the birds and fishes of Japan, in another I discovered some vegetable impressions, by means of which I became acquainted with the remarkable locality for fossil plants at Mogi, of which I shall give an account farther on.
On the evening of the 18th September I was invited by the Danish consul, Herr BAVIER, to a boat excursion up the river which debouches at Tokio. At its mouth it is very broad and deep, and it branches somewhat farther up into several streams which are navigable by the shallow boats of the Japanese. With the present limited development of roads and railways in Japan, this river and its tributaries form the most important channels of communication between the capital and the interior of the country. During our row we constantly met with boats laden with provisions on their way to, or with goods on their way from, the town. The pleasant impression of these and of the remarkable environs of the river is sometimes disturbed by a bad odour coming from a passing boat, and reminding us of the care with which the Japanese remove human excreta, the most important manure of their well-cultivated land. Along the banks of the river there are numerous restaurants and tea-houses. At long intervals we see a garden on the banks, which has belonged to some of the former Daimio palaces. The restaurants and tea-houses are generally intended only for the Japanese; and Europeans, although they pay many times more than the natives, are not admitted. The reason of this is to be found in our manners, which are coarse and uncultivated in the eyes of the natives. "The European walks with his dirty boots on the carpets, spits on the floor, is uncivil to the girls, &c." Thanks to the letters of introduction from natives acquainted with the restaurant-keepers, I have been admitted to their exclusive places, and it must be admitted that everything there was so clean, neat, and orderly, that even the best European restaurants cannot compare with them. When a visitor enters a Japanese restaurant which is intended exclusively for the Japanese, he must always take off his boots at the stair else he gets immediately into disfavour. He is received with bended knee by the host and all the attendants, male, but principally female, and then he is almost always surrounded by a number of young girls constantly laughing and chattering. These girls have commonly sold themselves to the restaurant-keeper for a certain time, during which they carry on a life which, according to European standards of morality, is not very commendable. When the time fixed in the agreement has passed, they return to their homes and marry, without having sunk in any way in the estimation of their relatives. But those are unfortunate who, in any of the towns that are not yet opened to foreigners, carry on a love intrigue with a European. They are then openly pointed out, even in the newspapers, as immoral, and their respectability is helplessly gone. Formerly they were even in such cases severely punished.