Baron Hübner says in effect that at every step one takes there one asks if it be not all a dream, a fairy tale, a story of the thousand-and-one nights. Arriving there from San Francisco, the step from American to Oriental civilisation is particularly noticed. The Baron refers particularly to the courtesy and extreme cleanliness of the people. Even the coolies, bearing great cases or baskets slung on bamboos resting on their athletic shoulders, stop to chatter and laugh so pleasantly that labour seems to have lost half its curse. “Misery,” says he, “is unknown amongst them; so also is luxury.” If the Japanese have arrived at this happy mean it would be a great pity to disturb their peaceful condition by the introduction of a so-called civilisation, and its attendant expenses and new wants.
“What adds to the charm of the scene,” says the same authority, “is the smiling look of the country, and the intense beauty, at this season (summer), of the setting sun. The sky is positively crimson, with great clouds of Sèvres blue; the long promontory of Thanagawa is inundated with mother-of-pearl; and on the purpled violet sea the pale shadows of the ships and junks stand out against the sky, the one rocked by the swell, the others gliding across the water like phantoms.” The winter in Japan is cold enough, as Mrs. Brassey discovered;[18] for icicles were hanging from the shrouds and riggings of the Sunbeam.
Mrs. Brassey gives some life-like pictures from Yokohama.
“Having landed,” says she, “we went with the Consul to the native town to see the curio shops, which are a speciality of the place. The inhabitants are wonderfully clever at making all sorts of curiosities, and the manufactories of so called ‘antique bronzes’ and ‘old china’ are two of the most wonderful sights in Yokohama. The way in which they scrape, crack, chip, mend, and colour the various articles, cover them with dust, partially clean them, and imitate the marks and signatures of celebrated makers, is more creditable to their ingenuity than to their honesty. Still, there are a good many genuine old relics from the temples and from the large houses of the reduced Daimios to be picked up, if you go the right way to work, though the supply is limited.
“Dealers are plentiful, and travellers, especially from America, are increasing in numbers. When we first made acquaintance with the shops we thought they seemed full of beautiful things, but even one day’s shopping, in the company of experienced people, has educated our taste and taught us a great deal; though we have still much to learn. There are very respectable-looking lacquer cabinets, ranging in price from 5s. to £20. But they are only made for the foreign market. No such things exist in a Japanese home.”
A really fine piece of old lacquer is often worth a couple of hundred pounds.
“It is said that the modern Japanese have lost the art of lacquer-making; and as an illustration I was told that many beautiful articles of lacquer, old and new, had been sent from this country to the Vienna Exhibition in 1873, but the price put on them was so exorbitant that few were sold, and nearly all had to be sent back to Japan. Just as the ship with these things on board reached the Gulf of Jeddo, she struck on a rock and sank in shallow water. A month or two ago a successful attempt was made to raise her and to recover the cargo, when it was found that the new lacquer had been reduced to a state of pulp, while the old was not in the least damaged. I tell you the tale as it was told to me.
A STREET IN JAPAN.
“After a long day’s shopping, we went to dine, in real Japanese fashion, at a Japanese tea-house. The establishment was kept by a very pleasant woman, who received us at the door, and who herself removed our exceedingly dirty boots before allowing us to step on to her clean mats. This was all very well, as far as it went; but she might as well have supplied us with some substitute for the objectionable articles, for it was a bitterly cold night, and the highly-polished wood passages and steep staircase felt very cold to our shoeless feet. The apartment we were shown into was so exact a type of a room in any Japanese house that I may as well describe it once for all. The wood-work of the roof and the framework of the screens were all made of a handsome dark polished wood, not unlike walnut.