The second day after our arrival, the commodore—varying from his usual rule of only seeing the highest officer of a place, who would have been, in this instance, Prince Matsmai Idzee-no-kami, residing at the city of Matsmai, not far distant—granted an interview on the Mississippi, to Matsmai Kageyu, deputy of the prince of Matsmai, or freely translated, “Prince’s family’s great officer,” and to Yendo Matazaymon, an officer of Hakodadi. The boats in which they came off were like others, but were the first and only ones that I saw rowed in Japan instead of sculled; and this was done by continually revolving the oar as they pulled. The rowers, who were numerous, were dressed in long, green gowns, and characters on the shoulders told whom they served, like the inscription about the neck of the thrall of Cedric the Saxon.
These officers said, not being able to divine the cause of our visit, they had concluded it to be a predatory one; and that the people possessed of this idea had been leaving the place with their movables, and that the stampede still continued.
On delivering to them a letter from the commissioners, however, and showing them the treaty, their anxiety was at once allayed. When told that we would not be followed by their police when we came ashore for a walk, they said very well, but that they thought that our officers and theirs being seen in friendly intercourse, would have a good effect with the people, and cause those who had left, to return. They said they had nothing at Hakodadi to dispose of but fish-oil, dried fish, and deerskins. The relative value of our currency and theirs, was settled by weighing our dollar, which was a feather lighter than three of their little square coins—the kana-its-evoo. The effect of this rating was to make our dollar equal to 4,800 cash—their its-evoo being estimated at 1,600 cash. This was scarcely just when it was recollected that in China our dollar was only taken for 1,200, or at most, 1,600 cash.
The wind blowing very fresh, these officers remained on board some time, when they were entertained in the cabin, and shown over the ship. When they came off they brought with them a present consisting of dried fish, placed on a lacquered tray, and a quantity of sweet potatoes contained in a straw-bag.
The next day the officers of the squadron visited the shore, landing at a neat flight of stone steps, which had been set apart by the authorities for the purpose; no doubt—as things in Japan undergo slight changes in forty years—the same flight that Golownin descended from his captivity. Many desirous of getting some of the curios that the place possessed, indicated a most pressing propensity for purchase, taking the shopkeepers, of a place generally dull, very much by surprise. On this day there was exposed at the shop-fronts some of their swords, an article forbidden to be sold out of the country by Japanese laws; of the purchase of one or two, by some of our officers, the authorities subsequently made complaint to the commodore, as well as of other things not very creditable to our reputation. In doing so, they said: “In general, when upright, cordial propriety marks intercourse, then peace, good feeling, and harmony, are real between the parties; but if harshness, violence, and grasping, characterize it, then hate and distrust, with collision arise, and love will not be found to bring the hearts of the people together. This is a rule of heaven, concerning which, no one can have any doubt.”
“In general,” the terms of this communication are rather extreme, but that “cordial propriety” marked the conduct of some of our officers—conduct which was not at all calculated to make “our name great among the heathen”—it would be untrue to say.
On landing I visited the large temple behind and above the town, having a background of a dense grove of cypress, and very conspicuous from the water. Its front, as we stepped it off, was eightyseven paces. The interior exceeded in gilding, and elaborateness of unpainted carving, anything I had yet seen in Japan. I would have taken it to be a Sintoo temple, from a female image with an aureola, resembling the images in catholic churches with the golden halo encircling the head, but in another corner there was an image of a shaved-head Buddha in wood, and brilliantly lacquered. Resembling very much some images I saw on the British war-steamer Rattler, taken at the capture of Rangoon, I concluded the image must have been brought to this remote point from India, although religion is a matter upon which all persons visiting Japan for a limited period as we did, are liable to fall into the greatest errors.
There are two accounts of the introduction of Buddhism into Japan; according to Siebold, in 552, Sching-ming-whang, king of Petsi—a Corean state, then a dependant and ally of Japan—sent to the court of the mikado, a bronze image of the Sakya Buddha, with flags, books, &c.; and a letter which said, “This doctrine is the best of any. It reveals what was a riddle and a mystery even to Kung-foo-tse. It promises us happiness and retribution, immeasurable and boundless; and finally makes of us an unsurpassable Buddhi. It is, to use a simile, a treasure containing all that human heart desires; affording all that is for our good. And this treasure possesses a twofold value, because it so completely adapts itself to the nature of our soul. Pray or make vows according to the disposition of your mind, you will want for nothing. The doctrine came to us from farther India. The king of Petsi imparts it to the realm of the mikado, in order that it may be there diffused, and that which is written in the book of Buddha be fulfilled. My doctrine shall spread toward the East.”
This temple may have been one dedicated to Rioboo-Synsu worship—Sintooism blended with Buddhism—and the female image was that of Tensio-dai-zin. Buddhism is regarded as a kind of safeguard against expelled and detested Christianity, and the lower order are all Buddhists.
The Sintoo and Buddhist priests or bonzes, who constitute the clergy of Japan, are held in very little repute by the people, and this remote regard seems to be reciprocated by the clericals. Both classes, so far as I observed, lounge and gossip in their places of worship, attaching little or no sanctity to it, except it may be, when immediately engaged in their devotions. On one occasion I noticed a parcel of devotees in a temple, with a kind of sack surplice about their shoulders, engaged in their religious exercises, and while thus employed, some shaven-poll junior priests were very deliberately sweeping the floor-mats in their faces, as if giving them a practical illustration of throwing dust in their eyes. In passing from the front of one altar to another they invariably dropped the priests’ perquisite of copper cash in the well-locked boxes.