Kwannon, Goddess of Mercy
Fields of wheat, barley (used to feed the horses), buckwheat, East India kale (Brassica orientalis), and mustard (the two latter for oil) were also seen. These crops, planted in November or December, and ripe in May or June, were in beds about a foot broad, and separated from each other by a deep furrow or trench of about the same breadth. Sometimes they were planted across these narrow beds, and sometimes in two rows, lengthwise. Thunberg noticed that when the ear was about to put forth, the plants being grown to the height of a foot, the earth was taken out from the intervening trenches, and drawn up to the roots of the plants. About the same time, or a little earlier, the liquid manure collected in the jars already described, and mingled with all sorts of refuse, was carried out by the farmers, in large pails, and poured with a ladle on the roots of the plants; a method which avoids the waste incident to spreading the manure on unplanted fields, to be dried up by the sun, or to lose by evaporation its volatile salts and oily particles.
The fields were kept so free of weeds as to afford, much to Thunberg’s disappointment, very little chance to botanize. Animals were little used in agriculture. Only such of the rice-fields as lay low, and quite under water, were ploughed by oxen,—cows being kept for draft and breeding only, and never milked. The only wheel carriages seen were a few carts, and these only in and about Miyako, some with three wheels,[50] one before the other two, and some two-wheeled. These carts were long and narrow, the wheels, some with spokes and fellies, but without any tire, except a rope tied about them, and others of a solid piece, sawed from a log. They were drawn by an ox, by cows, or a buffalo. Horses were chiefly for the use of their princes, though occasionally employed by others for travelling and carrying burdens. They were not numerous, but Thunberg seems to make rather a close estimate in saying that all Japan has scarcely as many horses as a single province of Sweden. There was no occasion for meadows or pastures, the cattle and horses being fed at home all the year, so that all the land, not too steep or rocky for cultivation, was devoted to the raising of crops; nor did the fields require fences. All the manure of the animals kept was carefully preserved, old men and children following the horses of travellers, with a shell fastened to the end of a stick, and a basket in which to put what they collected. Of course the small number of domestic animals made it the more necessary to resort to the other means of providing manure already noticed.
A few swine were to be seen, but only in the neighborhood of Nagasaki. There were no sheep nor goats. A supply of these animals, and also of cattle and hogs, for the Dutch at Deshima, was brought annually from Batavia. Dogs, “the only idlers in the country,” were kept from superstitious motives, and cats were the general favorites of the women. Hens and ducks were kept about the houses, chiefly for their eggs, of which the Japanese make great use, boiled hard and chopped into small pieces.
CHAPTER XL
Japanese Merchants—Journey from Miyako to Yedo—Botany of the Mountains—Rainy Weather—Coverings for the Head and Feet—Yedo—Astronomers and Physicians—Acupuncture—Moxa [Mogusa]—Other Japanese Remedies—Method of wearing the Hair—Visits to the Emperor and his Chief Officers—Japanese Dress—Books and Maps—Succession of Emperors—Departure from Yedo—Gnats—Fire-flies—Threshing—Vegetables and Fruits—Condition of the Japanese Farmer—Casting Copper—Actors and Dancers—Thunberg’s Opinion of the Japanese—A. D. 1775-1776.
The travellers remained four days at Miyako, during which the accustomed visits were paid to the chief justice and to the two governors. A new advance of money was also made to them here, Thunberg’s share being three hundred taels, in gold koban, to be charged against the kamban money standing to his credit from the sale of his private goods, and to be laid out in the purchase of such rarities and merchandise as he chose. Here, again, the Dutch were waited on by the merchants, from whom they bespoke several articles in sowas (?) and lackered ware, to be ready against their return. Of these Japanese merchants, Thunberg observes that they are the only persons in the country, except the emperor, who can become rich, and that they sometimes accumulate very considerable sums; but they cannot, as in Europe, purchase titles, or raise themselves by their money to a higher rank. The position of the trading and manufacturing class seems, indeed, almost precisely the same with that which they held in Europe during the prevalence of feudal ideas.
Commerce, however, was free from any embarrassments by tolls or duties, and a considerable internal trade, of which Miyako was the centre (several annual fairs being held there), was carried on in tea, silk goods, porcelain, rice, lackered ware, etc.
Setting out from Miyako on the fourteenth of April, the travellers, in passing lake Ōtsu, were treated to a delicious fish, of the salmon kind, the largest of which seen by Thunberg weighed about ten pounds. Finding, in the course of their journey, that this species of fish was often served up, they ordered some to be smoked, against their return; but they did not prove equal to European salmon, either in size, fatness, or style of curing. The country still continued as populous as before. In the villages were many almond, peach, and apricot trees, which now presented a very beautiful appearance, blossoming on the bare branches before the leaves unfolded. These, as well as the plum, cherry, apple, and pear[51] trees, sometimes bore double flowers, upon which the Japanese put a high value.