The religion of the Japanese enjoins cleanliness of person upon its votaries, but can scarcely divert the repulsive and indecent manner in which it is obtained. At the bath-houses in Simoda the sexes of all ages bathe indiscriminately together.
The Japanese in their intercourse with us, were always pertinacious in assuring us, that they were not Chinese; indeed they would have been very indignant to be thought of a kindred race. They did not take long to find out, that we were not Dutch. They would mention derisively the fact of the length of intercourse the Chinese had had with other countries, and yet, that they had never built square-rigged vessels like ours; they intimated more enterprise than this for themselves. After the signing of the treaty with us the imperial edict preventing the building of their vessels, without open sterns, was repealed. The larger junks usually laid in the bay of Sirahama, further northward: those who came to Simoda, ran in to make a harbor, when the weather became threatening, or were engaged in bringing copper ore, from some neighboring province, and carrying back charcoal and wood.
The Macedonian, after a little over two weeks absence, returned from the Bonin islands, bringing the intelligence, that the man, that we had previously left at Port Lloyd, had decamped from there on some whaler, after regaling himself on Uncle Sam’s bullocks. We hailed her approach with much gratification, as she brought sixty large sea-turtles—a perfect God-send—an oasis in the desert of salt junk. “Soup! soup!” resounded in the messes, louder than the “Beef! beef!” in the American camp, that invoked the thunders of Henry.
The Lexington was sent to Loo-Choo to look after things till the return of the other ships; carrying out the recommendation contained in the introduction to the work of Golownin: “Provided judicious means shall be used and a foundation laid by a progressive acquaintance through Loo-Choo.” The Macedonian, Vandalia, and Southampton, were despatched to Hakodade, or as it was then spelt on Russian authority, Chackodade, in the island of Yeso. A poor fellow, killed by falling from the topsail yard of the Powhatan, was buried without difficulty or objection in the ground of a temple, back of Kakizaki.
On a fine sunshiny morning, in the latter part of April, I had landed, according to previous appointment, to take a botanical tramp into the country with the author of the “Middle Kingdom,” and with a gentleman from South Carolina, our botanist. I reached the shore before them, and, a number of the villagers around, stood on the glistening white beach between Simoda and the fishing village of Kakizaki, watching the lazy swell as it came in a roll against Centre Sima, or broke with a low splash through its Gothic cavern, when I was approached by two young Japanese, whose dress and address told, that they were gentlemen in their land. They wore the rich brocade breeches; the handles of their short and long swords were decorated with amulets, and the light blue oval on the summit of their fresh shaven polls, shone far smoother than “a stubble land at harvest home.” After the characteristic bended and knee-pressing salutation, accompanied with the aspirated “Eh!” which only a Japanese can do exactly, which I jocularly replied to with “Abeyo!” they came quite close to me. Pointing to our different ships in the harbor, they attempted to pronounce their names, but as they scarcely succeeded, either in their sequence or their articulation, particularly of Mississippi and Powhatan, I did it for them, and at their request wrote all of their names down, with one of their camel’s hair pencils. This done, they affected to examine with some interest the chain attached to my “tokay,” or watch, and at the same time slipped into the bosom of my vest an enveloped letter, which noticing, I immediately attempted to withdraw, when they gently restrained my hand, cast an anxious glance around, and gave a most imploring look for secrecy. A moment’s thought, and I was willing to indulge them in this, believing the document to have some reference to a matter which had been mooted by the younger officers of the squadron, of which I was one. Just after this, a couple of the resident officers came up from the direction of Simoda, whose approach was the signal for the scattering of the villagers, who are not permitted to stand and gaze on a stranger. Between them and my incognito epistolary friends, salutations were formally interchanged, when both parties moved off in opposite directions. The examining look which accompanied these otherwise very ordinary politenesses, on the part of those from Simoda, caused the idea to pass through my mind that the others were from another province.
By this time, my friends from the flag-ship having joined me, we struck into the country to the southward, to take what in the “pigeon” dialect of the Chinaman, is called a “look see” at the botany of Japan, which those who have more of this pleasant information than myself, represent as being of much interest.
Our path led through a very broken yet well-wooded and cultivated country. We entered a small building used as a schoolhouse, and also as a place of worship. In a room was a colossal figure of some female deity in a sitting posture, which, not being a Buddhist representation, must have been intended for a likeness of Ten-sio-dai-zin, the especial deity of Japan. Officers who had seen it before us, looked upon it as a fine specimen of their casting in bronze, but we found it on examination to be of wood, painted in imitation. We had an opportunity of seeing the little dwarfed trees which they are so skilful in preserving; and in front of many of the houses, different trees trained in the form of animals, with sea-shells to represent the eyes. The cultivation, which is very close and clean, was mostly in terraces and between hills. Occasionally we reached a level field, which was being ploughed. This is done with a small plough, with a single hand and beam, the share being like an iron scoop, not of much diameter. It is drawn by an ox in traces, and with wooden saddle, while a small boy leads him with a stick attached to a ring in the nose, and a man holds the handle of the diminutive earth-scratcher. Little pathway streams are turned to use by being made to fall into wooden troughs on the end of balanced wooden levers, which filling and precipitating at intervals, with a weight on the opposite end of the beam, are made to pound rice in mortars. We encountered any number of wayside shrines, mostly made by placing small stone images in little coves: occasionally a short flight of steps led up to one. At these the wayfarer prays.
About two o’clock in the day we came upon a large urban Buddhist temple. The grounds around were quite extensive and well cultivated. You entered them under a number of steep-roofed gateways, guarded by a number of little stone-lieutenants to Buddha, who seemed to be armed with besoms to sweep away evil spirits when they should visit the premises at the pale glimpses of the moon. The building was larger than any I had seen in Simoda. The interior being unsealed overhead, you could look up through rough hewn timbers to the thatching of the roof. The floors, brightly polished, were covered with a white dust, as if the building was neighbor to a flour-mill. The grain of the wood of the large unpolished columns around the altar, was very beautiful. Buddhas in any number were around the room. Black barrel-shaped “tom-toms” were in the middle of the floor, the beating on which, by the shiny-headed priests, is intended to attract the attention of their divinities to their worship, as a daguerreotypist in taking your picture first tells you, “Now it commences.” On one side of the main entrance there was a native inscription: “The laws are ever revolving;” on the other, “The period of Buddha is near: remember it.” To the beams inside were pasted a number of strips of white paper, which when blank are called gohir, and intended as emblems of purity; and when written upon, according to some, are inscribed with moral and religious sentences. Those that I noticed were covered with Japanese characters, which I was told were the names of those buried in an adjoining cemetery, for whom mass had been performed. In the cemetery near by were a great number of tombs—little square stone columns very close together, because their dead were buried in a sitting posture. On all of these you saw a compound character, meaning “Returned to vacuity,” and underneath the inscription told that Leu-tah-churo, or somebody else, had gone to nothingness, in such a year of the reign of Tairi.
Eight lascivious-looking priests resided at the temple, having the receipts from the kunqua attached, as a part of their revenue.
The hour of the day having arrived, when that tocsin of man’s soul, the dinner-bell, would have been heard, if at home, we seated ourselves on the front steps of the temple to partake of a little “chow-chow.” While thus engaged the incidents of the morning came to my recollection, and I handed over my epistle “extraordinaire,” which I had gotten from the two Japanese, to my friend our interpreter, to get an inkling of what it was all about, at the same time giving him my surmises as to its contents. It was of much more import; he thought the commodore should see it, promising to return it to me. As there were a number around us, no doubt indulging in the Japanese espionage, I only got at the time, the superscription, which was: “A secret communication, for the American men-of-war ships, to go up higher.”