1716, Yoshimune.
1745, Iyeshige.
1760, Iyeharu,[67] who continued to reign at the time of Thunberg’s departure, being the forty-first in succession from Yoritomo, and ninth from Iyeyasu, otherwise Daifu-Sama, and Ōgosho-Sama, or, as he was called after his death, Gongen-Sama, by whom the reigning dynasty had been established.
Thunberg left Yedo on his return the 25th of May. The weather being rainy, they were a good deal molested by gnats, against which they had to protect themselves by gauze curtains. The Japanese fire-flies, so much more brilliant and active than the European glow-worm, were noticed with admiration.
At this season the first gathering was made of the tea-leaves, yet quite young and yielding the finer kinds of tea. He observed in some places the leaves carelessly spread before the houses on mats to dry. He also observed the farmers, in several places, threshing barley, wheat, and mustard seed on similar mats, with flails having three swingels, or sometimes by beating the ears against a tub. To separate the exterior husk from the rice, it was pounded by hand in a kind of mortar, or by means of a machine consisting of a number of pestles set in motion by a water-wheel, or by a man’s foot. After the wheat and barley were gathered, French beans (Phaseoli) were sown for a second crop. He observed many kinds of peas and beans cultivated, especially the Dolichos soia, not only used for making soy, but the chief ingredients of a soup, a daily dish with most classes. The Dolichos polystachos, which ran winding like scarlet beans, was employed for arbors. Its flowers, hanging down from long stalks, were very ornamental, and appeared in succession for a long period. He mentions, also, lettuce, melons both with red and white pulp, pumpkins, cucumbers, eaten both raw and pickled, gourds, employed for flasks, mushrooms, very much used, especially for soups and sauces, Seville and China oranges, lemons, shaddocks, medlars (Mespillus japonica), a large sort of persimmon (Dyosperos kaki), grapes, pomegranates, Spanish figs (Cactus ficus), chestnuts, and walnuts.[68] The condition of the Japanese farmer Thunberg contrasts very favorably with that of the Swedish agriculturalist, overloaded as the latter was with feudal burdens, though doubtless he knew better these burdens, which he indignantly enumerates, than he did the grievances of the Japanese cultivator.
At Ōsaka he saw the smelting of copper from the ores obtained in that neighborhood, and the method of casting it into bars. A mould was made for this purpose, by digging a hole in the ground a foot deep, across which were laid ten square iron bars, barely a finger’s breadth apart. A strip of sail-cloth was spread over these bars and forced down. The hole was then filled with water, and the melted metal, smelted from the ore, was dipped up in iron ladles and poured into this mould, thus forming each time ten or eleven thin plates. To this method of casting he ascribes its high color.
Thunberg had an opportunity of seeing Japanese plays, both at Ōsaka, on his return from Miyako, and at Nagasaki, during the annual Matsuri in honor of Suwa, which he attended. “The spectators,” he says, “sit in houses of different dimensions, on benches. Facing them, upon an elevated but small and narrow place, stands the theatre itself, upon which seldom more than one or two actors perform at a time. These are always dressed in a very singular manner, according as their own taste and fancy suggest, insomuch that a stranger would be apt to believe that they exhibited themselves not to entertain, but to frighten, the audience. Their gestures as well as their dress are strangely uncouth and extravagant, and consist in artificial contortions of the body, which it must have cost them much trouble to learn and perform. In general they represent some heroic exploit, or love story, of their idols and heroes, which are frequently composed in verse, and are sometimes accompanied with music. A curtain may, it is true, be let fall between the actors and the spectators, and some necessary pieces be brought forward upon the theatre; but in other respects these small theatres have no machinery nor decorations which can entitle them to be put in comparison with those of Europe.
Interior View of a Typical Japanese House
“When the Japanese wish at any time to entertain the Dutch, either in the town of Nagasaki, or more particularly during their journey to the imperial court, they generally provide a band of female dancers, for the amusement of their guests. These are generally young damsels, very superbly dressed, whom they fetch from the inns; sometimes young boys likewise are mixed among them. Such a dance requires always a number of persons, who turn and twine, and put themselves into a variety of artificial postures, in order to represent an amorous or heroic deed, without either speaking or singing. Their steps are, however, regulated by the music which plays to them. These girls are provided with a number of very fine and light gowns, made of silk, which they slip off one after another, during the dance, from the upper part of their body, so as frequently to leave them, to the number of a dozen together, suspended from the girdle which encircles their loins.”