A GLIMPSE OF THE INLAND SEA, THE LOVELIEST SHEET OF WATER IN JAPAN
Studded with hundreds of islands, every part of the Inland Sea of Japan, stretching 240 miles in length, and widening once to 40 miles, offers an enchanting prospect. The islands occur often in clusters, giving the appearance of lakes.
The geographical position of Japan has had great influence on the history of its people, and clearly indicates the supremely important part the empire is destined to play in the future development of the Far East. Its insular character has preserved it from invasion—it is the proud and legitimate boast of the Japanese that no foe has, within historical times, trodden Japanese soil for more than a few hours—and whilst it rendered possible the seclusion in which the nation lived for more than two centuries, developing, undisturbed, a high civilisation of its own, the basis of many of the qualities displayed by the Japanese in our day, it has been, in recent times, the cause of Japan’s real might in the world—her sea-power, naval and commercial.
The map shows the four principal islands of Japan Proper: HON-SHŪ, or Hon-dō—“Principal Circuit,” the largest island of Japan, commonly called Nippon, really the name of the whole empire, meaning “Sun-origin,” equivalent to Sunrise Land; KIŪ-SHŪ, or Nine Provinces; SHI-KOKU, or Four States; and the great northern island of YEZO, the second in size, officially termed Hok-kai-dō—“North Sea Circuit.”
The four islands extend, opposite the mainland, from the coast of the Russian Maritime Province, on the north-west, down to the southern extremity of the Korean peninsula, on the south-west. North of Yezo, facing the mouth of the great River Amur, the long, narrow island of Saghalin—Karafuto, in Japanese—belongs partly to Russia, partly to Japan, its southern districts, up to the fiftieth degree of latitude, being ceded to the victors by Article IX. of the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905). Separating these islands, important channels afford communication between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific. The Gulf of Tartary divides Saghalin from the mainland, whilst the Strait of La Pérouse, or Strait of Tsugaru, separates the island from Yezo. The Straits of Korea, between that empire, now under the protectorate of Japan, and the main island, Hon-shū, or Nippon, are the way of communication joining the Sea of Japan and the eastern part of the China Sea, the straits being divided into three channels by the island of Iki and by those of Tsu-shima, a name rendered for ever glorious by Togo’s great victory on May 27th, 1905. The various straits are sufficiently narrow to be easily closed to an enemy by Japan’s splendid fleet.
Keystone View Co.
A CRATER WITH EIGHTY VILLAGES, IN WHICH TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LIVE
Twenty thousand people live in eighty villages in the outer crater of Aso-san, probably the largest crater on earth, competing, says Professor Milne, with some of the great craters of the moon. The crater of Aso-san is from 10 to 14 miles across, and its wall is everywhere 2,000 feet high, the highest peak being Taka-dake, 5,630 feet.
Although Japan has remained immune from invasion throughout historical time, its proximity to the mainland, and especially to the Korean peninsula, led, in prehistoric ages, to its receiving from the continent an influx of immigrants who gradually conquered the insular natives, and whose descendants probably form the main stock of the present Japanese race. It was this proximity that brought the civilisation of China into Japan, in the first instance through Korea; the same route was followed by another mighty invasion of foreign thought, the introduction of Buddhism.