The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-21 00:00:00

JAPAN AND ITS PEOPLE,

The following elctracts from a private letter,
dated Yokohama, June 14, from a medical naval
officer now on service in the Japanese waters, to
his friends at Manchester, will be read with in-
terest :

Nagasaki is beautifully situated at the head of a deep bay
and at the foot of green hills, backed up by lofty mountains.
The scenery is most beautiful, the land is most fertile, and
almost every available spot is cultivated with rice, barley,
&c., somewhat in the termed manner of the Chinese. The
approach and the passage to Yokohama is among innume-
rable islands, all clothed with cultivation or forests of every
shade of green, with the white sandstone peeping out here
and there. Each island is a gem in itself—the brilliant
green of the young rice was beautifully contrasted with the
many-coloured forests, and the whole was set in a broad
frame of the purest blue water, dotted in every direction, as
far as the eye could see, with islands or capes. The whole
scene recalled to me the travels of Sinbad the Sailor, and
more like a dream from a fairy tale than an actual reality.
The shores were very populous; we passed numerous large
towns with their toy-like temples and sombre-coloured low
houses, as clean and neat as those in China are dirty and
untidy; innumerable junks of all sizes, whose captains
threw up their arms as we passed in token of friendship;
innumerable fishing boats, with two men, or a man, or per-
haps a single urchin, who grinned a good-humoured smile;
innumerable pretty villages and houses to the water's edge
—one I well remember where we passed within a cable of
a sort of balcony, which was crowded with Japanese girls,
who greeted as with waving their fans and chattering in a
way that women only can.
The people at Yokohama do not appear so hostile as at
Nagasaki, probably because there are here no Damios.
The trading classes are, indeed, everywhere for us, and
some of the Damios, but the majority of the Damios are
decidedly against us, and they hold all the power in their
hands. One thing is quite certain, if we wish to extend
or even preserve, our trade with Japan, the power of the
Damios must be broken, and a war of a very bloody and ex-
pensive kind ensue sooner or later. No ono of the fleet
wishes war; the coolies and common classes are so civil and
good that we should be sorry to fire a single shot at them,
for they, and not the Damios, would suffer. All we can
possibly do is to bombard their towns, of which, indeed,
they are now so afraid that Jeddo is nearly deserted. We
cannot march into the interior, or force Miako, without a
very large army. The Japanese fight desperately, and are
in such respects totally unlike the Chinese, for whom they
entertain a profound contempt.
These Damios, or Princes, some of whom, as Satsuma,
are enormously rich and powerful, with their proud swag-
gering retainers, resemble much the old feudal barons of the
middle ages. They resemble them, further, in having con-
tinual feuds amongst themselves, which are handed down
from generation to generation. They are very cruel and
exacting in their conduct to the lower classes. A day or
two ago, before we entered Nagasaki, a Damio was passing
with his suite along the great road, when two little girls ran
across in front of the procession. Now, this to a Japanese is '
the greatest insult you could offer; but these children were
too young to know it. They were immediately seized and de-
capitated, and their bodies left on the road wan the Damio's
mark.

Yokohama is a considerable town of 80,000 inhabitants.
The Japanese houses are rarely more than one storey, and
most consist of two rooms, a front and a back. Built of
bamboo and mud, and rarely of stone, they are always
painted nicely outside, or varnished, and generally kept very
clean. All ornamentation is eschewed except on tha roof:
which is generally edged with chequered tiles. Wherever
it can be afforded a small garden, with dwarfed trees, is sure
to be in good condition ; and almost is every room you see
vases with flowers or dwarfed trees growing in them.

The floors are carpeted with a very even kind of matting,
laid in strips a yard wide—the edges bound in black, so
as to make an agreeable " parqueterie," and it is always
kept very clean, even by the poorest classes. They take off
their shoes before entering a house, leaving them outside
the entrance, and look as jealous at your boots when you
enter as any English lady could, proud of a new drawing-
room carpet. They never sit on chairs or stools, but squat
down on the floor with their feet underneath, so that they
appear to sit on their heels. And as you pass through the
street thus you see them round a sort of square trough in
the front room, in which there is always charcoal burning.
They are either working or eating, or smoking a very fra-
grant tobacco out of a small bowled pipe, enjoying it im-
mensely, and puffing it out slowly through the nostrils.
Women, even girls, smoke as much ar the men, and with
equal pleasure—or they are chattering with great earnest-
ness and volubility in a language much softer and more
liquid, less twanging and mere harmonious, than the Chinese ;
or they are singing, accompanying themselves on an instru-
ment like the banjo, which they play with great dexterity.
They enjoy their own music immensely, and turn up their
eyes, and beat time and look wisely critical, all in the most
approved style. I cannot see much, or rather hear much
beauty in their music, though some of the airs are plaintive ;
but, on the other hand, they can see none in ours, and say
it is too loud, and fit only for deaf people. Or they are
washing themselves without any reservation, and apparently
qu to unconscious of any harm therein. Indeed in the baths,
which they frequent very often, the women are always
washed all over by men, smiling in the most innocent man-
ner. This almost total disregard of mooesty, as we should
say, is oue of the most curious features in Japan, and does
not appear to lead to any licentiousness. Or they are busy
at their toilette, which is soon accomplished, all but the
hair.

A Japanese lady appears to spend all her talent on her
head. Her hair is black, glossy, thick and long, and is
done up in a most imposing superstructure with the aid of
cushions, false hair, combs, and daggers or cross bars of
tortoise shell. I cannot describe it exactly, but there ap-
pears to be this plan :—Brushed back in two lateral and one
central mass from the forehead, it meets with the back hair
brushed straight up, and the consequence is a series of rolls
intertwined with gold thread and silk stuff, and curiously
fastened up with coral-headed pins. gilt combs, and tortoise
shell bars. It really has a very pretty effect. The married
ladies further adorn themselves by pulling out their eye-
brows and blackening their teeth, though I believe the ori-
gin of this was with the husbands, who, always free them-
selves, wished to make their wives unattractive to others.
Any infidelity is punished by death; but before marriage
women are perfectly free. Their faces, when they don't
powder themselves—which they are very fond of doing, and
painting their lips with red—are very pretty when you are
become a little accustomed to the genuine Mongolian type.
Their figures are absolute perfection, and their hands and
feet smaller and better shaped than any I ever saw in Eu-
rope. This is owing to their dress, which is never tight ;
and to their never wearing boots, but only straw sandals,
or a kind of patten in wet weather.
The dress of men and women is almost the same. A long
" knee-mo-no," descending to the ancles in men, and to the
ground with women, though tucked up any height in walk-
ing out, is like a nightgown open in front right down,
folded over the breast, and secured at the waist by a girdle.
The sleeves are very large, and hang down nearly to the
knee. In addition, the women have a long piece of figured
silk, which they wind twice or thrice round the waist, and
then hang up behind so as to droop in a kind of rectangular
festoon down to the back of the knees. Colours are generally
sombre, and as well as the patterns, which are commonly
checks, are regulated by the laws for the different classes.
No cap is worn, but the coolie class generally bind round the
head a piece of coarse stuff. The Yakonins wear a closer
kind of kee-mo-no, and over this a kind of mantle,
generally of gauze or crape, and marked with the
devices of the Damio, to whom they belong. They
wear various shaped hats, and always carry two
swords at the left side, one longer than the other, and
both generally in admirable working order. You must keep
an eye on these two •sworded men. If they draw, you
must shoot the sur le chump, for there is a law (originally
diet, appearh o to
wev live
er, chiefly
they
doubtless with a humane object) that if they draw their
sword they must use it, otherwise they are either decapi-
tated, or commit hari-kari, that is, slit up their bowels.
The Japanese eat like the Chinese with chop-sticks, and
honavreicveearyndrafibsnha.t
frames,With tahnids
not tall or fine men, appear able to endure much fatigue,
if you enter a house, they rise up and make a dee
salaam,
when you leave,
saying, " 0-hoe-io," and do the same p
say-
ing,
" Siy-Morr-o" (may you be though
e happy), They generally
bring you something •
to sit on in deference to your European
customs, and present you with a cup of tea. The lady
will then take a sweetmeat between her fingers, and you
will be expected to open your
mu,, o th
, swallow it, look as if
you liked it, and say "a-ring-a.t (thank you), to which
she will bow and say " Do-it-ashi (equivalent to don't
mention it). Afterwards, she pipe, and trans-
ferring it from her lips to yours, will wt at
13L you smoke it,
end then give you some more tea. Thea
are exceedingly
polite, and are much gratified if you are They
equallyb so. They
are very curious, and examine everything
tons, cloth, watch, knife, pipe, &c.---wit variousa out you—but-
tons,
exclama-
tions of astonishment, almost invariably
asking how much
you gave for this or that.
I think them a most intelligent and interesting people.
All classes appear to be able to read and write, and
to calcu-
late, which is more than can be said of us at home.

Four hundred and seventy emigrants left Queens,
town on Tuesday for Queensland, on board the Fiery Star,
one of the Black Ball line, specially chartered by the Emi-
gration Association. Just before the vessel sailed three
respectable looking men, said to be from Manchester, were
arested on warrants granted by the magistrates of that city
for having forged certain documents by which they ob-
tained cheap passages. Each of them had a wife and a
large quantity of luggage with him.