Umenoki, a village through which they next passed, was famous for the sole manufacture of a medicine of great repute, found out by a poor but pious man, to whom the god Yakushi, the protector of physic and physicians, revealed in a dream the ingredients, which are certain bitter herbs growing upon the neighboring mountains. This story helped the sale of the medicine, by which the inventor soon grew very rich, so that he was not only able to build a fine house for himself but also a small temple, opposite his shop, and highly adorned, in honor of the god who had given him the receipt, whose statue, richly gilt, was to be seen there, standing on a Tarate [?] flower, and with half a large cockle-shell over his head.
The next day (Sunday, March 4) the Dutch travellers crossed the Tsuchi Yama, a mountain ridge, so steep that its descent was like that of a winding staircase cut out in the face of the precipice. On this mountain were many temples, and in this neighborhood vast crowds of pilgrims were encountered, bound to Ise, situate some forty miles to the south. The travellers struck the seacoast at Yokkaichi, a town of a thousand houses, whose inhabitants were partly supported by fishing, and the next day (Monday, the 5th), after about nine miles’ travel, they entered the city of Kuwana, in the province of Owari, situated at the head of a deep bay. It consisted of three parts, like so many different towns. The first and third parts were enclosed by high walls and ditches. The other part was entirely surrounded by water, the country being flat and full of rivers. The castle, washed on three sides by the sea, was separated from the town by a deep ditch with draw-bridges.
From Kuwana they proceeded by water to Miya, present Atsuta, some fifteen miles distant. The head of the bay was very shallow, and the boats were pushed through mud-banks. Miya, though not so large as Kuwana, consisted of two thousand houses, with two spacious castles, one of them for size and strength reckoned the third in Japan. There were two temples, in one of which are preserved three, in the other eight, miraculous swords, used by the race of demigods who were the first inhabitants of Japan.
Tuesday, March 6, the travellers dined at Okasaki, a town of fifteen hundred houses, with a strong castle situate on the shores of the same bay. The country travelled through was a fertile plain along the foot of a range of mountains, the shores of which, beyond Okasaki, extended to the sea.
The next day (Wednesday, March 7) they passed through several considerable places, of which Yoshida, present Toyohashi, with a castle and about a thousand small houses, was the most considerable. Arai, twelve or fifteen miles distant, was a town of about four hundred houses, situate not far from the sea, at the inland extremity of a harbor called Sao, narrow at its entrance, but spreading out within. Arai was the seat of certain imperial commissioners appointed to search the goods and baggage of all travellers, but particularly of the princes of the empire, that no women nor arms might pass. “This,” says Kämpfer, “is one of the political maxims which the now reigning emperors have found it necessary to practise in order to secure to themselves the peaceable possession of the throne; for the wives and female children of all the princes of the empire are kept at Yedo, as hostages of the fidelity of their husbands and parents. And as to the exportation of arms, an effectual stop has been put to that, lest, if exported in any considerable quantities, some of those princes might take it into their heads to raise rebellions against the government as now established.”
The harbor of Sao was crossed in boats, on the other side of which the road led through a flat country, rather thinly inhabited. They slept that night at Hamamatsu, a town of several hundred inferior houses, with a large castle. The next day (Thursday, March 8), travelling on through a beautiful plain, in the afternoon they reached the town of Kakegawa; as they were passing through which, a fire broke out, occasioned by the boiling over of an oil kettle. Perceiving only a thick cloud behind them, they thought a storm was coming on, but were soon involved in such a cloud of smoke and heat as to be obliged to ride on at a gallop. Having reached a little eminence, on looking back, the whole town seemed on fire. Nothing appeared through the smoke and flames but the upper part of the castle tower. They found, however, on their return, some weeks after, that the damage was less than they had expected, more than half the town having escaped.
It was necessary, shortly after, for the travellers to take kago to cross a steep mountain, descending from which they were obliged to ford the river Ōigawa, proverbial throughout Japan for its force and rapidity and the rolling stones in its bed, but just then at a very low stage. The road thence to Shimada, a small town where they lodged, was close to the sea, but through a barren country, the mountains approaching close to the shore.
The next day (Friday, March 9) brought them, most of the way through a flat, well-cultivated country, to the city of Suruga, capital of the province of that name. The streets, broad and regular, crossed each other at right angles, and were full of well-furnished shops. Paper stuffs, curiously flowered, for hats, baskets, boxes, etc., also various manufactures of split and twisted reeds, and all sorts of lackered ware, were made here. There was also a mint here, as well as at Miyako and Yedo, where koban and ichibu were coined. It had a castle of freestone, well defended with ditches and high walls.
A few miles from Suruga were kept certain war-junks for the defence of the bay of Tōtōmi; and just beyond, upon a high mountain, stood the fortress of Kunō, esteemed by the Japanese impregnable. It was built to contain the imperial treasures, but they had since been removed to Yedo.
In the course of the next day (Saturday, March 10) the road turned inland, in order to cross the great river Fujigawa, which enters into the head of the bay, taking its rise in the high, snowy mountain Fuji-no-Yama.[22] It was crossed in flat broad-bottomed boats, constructed of thin planks, so as on striking the rocks to yield and slip over. The mountain Fuji, whence this river takes its rise and name, towers in a conical form above all the surrounding hills, and is seen at a great distance. It is ascended for the worship of the Japanese god of the winds, to whom the Yamabushi, or mountain priests, are consecrated, and who frequently repeat the words Fuji Yama,, in discoursing or begging. It takes three days to ascend this mountain; but the descent can be made, so Kämpfer was told, in three hours, by the help of sledges of reeds or straw, tied about the waist, by means of which one may glide down over the snow in winter and the sand in summer, it being surprisingly smooth and even. Japanese poets cannot find words, Kämpfer tells us, nor Japanese painters colors, in which to represent this mountain as they think it deserves.