The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

A Residence at Nagasaki and Hakodate in 1859.60,
with an account of Japan generally. By C.
Pemberton Hodgson, late Consul at those ports ;
with a series of Letters on Japan by his wife.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.
This is a most interesting work on Japan that
affords a considerable amount of information, and
is written in a very pleasing style. The author
was for a long period a resident in Japan in an
official capacity, and the records we here meet with
are authentic, and given with the confidence of
one who speaks what he- does know. In the
preface he observes that " he has endeavoured in
the following pages to present to the reader a
faithful picture of what he saw and learnt dur-
ing his residence at Hakodate, as Consul of her
Britannic Majesty." He furthermore states that
all he advances may be relied on, as his opportu-
nities were great for receiving intelligence. The
book commences with details of official visits,
which are certainly curious. The feeling towards
foreigners is thus explained, to account for the
difficulties that arose in the carrying out of the
treaties :
Not that I impute their unwillingness to meet our new
views to a wilful desire to annoy us, or a stubborn intention
of tampering with us. I fully believe that, at Nagasaki, in
June, July, and August, 1859, there was an under current
of good feeling towards foreigners, and a desire to carry out
the treaty in good faith; but the Government and its offi-
cials were totally unprepared for such a sudden display of
wealth, and such a demand for merchandise as came in so
suddenly upon them. They had only been accustomed to
the insignificant monopoly of Holland, who, naturally,
would not help us too zealmisly. But when they saw the
united resources of Great Britain, Russia, and America,
then, without being awed by the outward demonstration of
physical and scientific power, which at once appeared to
enforce perhaps, if necessary, a ratification of their respec-
tive treaties; without imagining or for a moment dreading
that a severe retaliation might be the consequence
of any infringement of its articles, the local Government
of Nagasaki was paralysed at the enormous demand
and unexpected drain on its home consumption and re-
sources, and was unprepared, even with advices and instruc-
tions from the capital, to meet such a huge commercial
catastrophe.
The writer speaks highly of the products of Japan.
" Its rice is perhaps the most nutritious in the
world ; the coal-beds are yet in their infancy,
and unexplored, but they are supposed to be rich
and extensive." There is an interesting account
of an excursion into the interior. Some of the
descriptions are very pleasing, and the intrepid
travellers were rewarded for their exertions. " I
had scarce reached the summit of the hill, when
I looked me down where a hundred realms appear
—lakes, forests, plains extending wide ! The
panorama was really grand. In the distance,
about 25 miles off, was the volcano, the end of
our journey, below us an enormous lake, which
had once been, perhaps, the crater of a volcano
also; around us, not the Alps or Pyrenees, but
delicious green-clad mountains, and there cer-
tainly was enough to ravish the eye and warm
the heart." At the conclusion of the second excur-
sion the writer says :
My impression is still that the interior of Yezo is unin-
habited except by bears and animals ; and that the natives
are really icthyologists, vegetarians, and dwellers on the
sea shore.
I would add, before closing this letter, one remark, which
is this, that, although it may not be in your day or mine,
the forests of Yezo contain all the woods necessary for the
fleets of any country; and, please God, their undeveloped
riches will, unknown even to the natives themselves, be-
come most valuable exports by and by, to the advancement
of our religion and commerce, and to our mutual happiness
and benefit—things most ardently to be desired. For then
our treaty will be a treaty of friendship—ay, of real friend-
ship and amity.
The quantity of seaweed is most surprising, as
here mentioned.
The amount of sea weed is really incalculable ; from Ha-
kodate to Yenanai, following the shore, it is 22 miles in a
straight line, but quite 60 miles if we follow the curves of
the bays and ups and downs of the land; and every avail-
able inch is covered with it. Each day, as the weed is a
barometer, it is placed out to dry if the weed is not humid,
otherwise it is covered up against the rainy day. I say so
much on this weed, as it is a valuable export and edible,
and, with rice, constitutes the cuisine of my neighbours..
It is exported to China, and then scut up to those countries
where salt is dear, being lighter as merchandise, and well
adapted for cooking.
There are few shells to be seen, but the beach is covered
with agates and corallines of very pretty colours, and
very elegant sea weeds and egg shells, as in the Red Sea,
but the horns not so metallic. The sea weed (edible)
was often ten feet long and two feet broad, and some of
it had the appearance of beautiful lace, at least an eighth
of an inch in thickness when first culled from the bottom
of the sea.
The account of Sirouey, to which they made another
excursion, shows it to be a beautiful place. " We
mounted another hill about 1,600 feet in
height, and from the beauty of the scenery,
and terraced umbrageous side on the top and back
of the hill, with valleys below, higher mountains
to the north and north-west, rivulets, sources, and
the grand Pacific to the east and south-east, we
held a council of peace, and the spot was unani-
mously baptised La Suisse Japanoise, in opposi-
tion to 'La Suisse Saxe,' in Fatherland. Here was a
shady grove for poets and philosophers—sycamores,
oaks, chestnuts, silver birch, alder, hazel, prune,
guelder rose, rose, rhododendron, vicias. Number-
less legumirosae, the mimosa sensitiva were there,
with all Flora's unknown attendants to wait upon
and welcome us." The author states that there is
no necessity to carry arms in Japan, for revolvers
are provocatives instead of being preservers ; the
best security he considers to be for all foreigners to
reside in a common settlement. The letters of Mrs.
Hodgson to her mother are very entertaining, and
furnish a good account of the various places and
the mode of life and curious manners. One very
strange thing is the festival to the memory of the
dead. The relations have to offer food and water
to the manes of the deceased, and to illuminate
their resting-places, as otherwise the souls would
return to demand their rights and to punish the
delinquents also. Boats are sent out on the water
supplied with saki, rice, &c., to appease the demon
of the ocean, so that the souls of the departed
may rest in peace, and that future mariners might
escape a watery grave. It is said, however, that
the eatables on board do not go far, but " live gods
in the shape of very substantial living beings, and
possessing very earthly appetites, were never far
off the shore to pounce upon each little boat before
it sunk for ever." The Japanese ideas of Purgatory
are most peculiar, and not likely to make many
converts to their religion :
It appears that, on the demise of a Japanese, his body is
burnt, and that his soul mounts to &anoy, or the
everlasting abode of perpetual bliss, after having per-
formed certain ceremonies, and having gone through the
ordeal described as indispensable to its reaching the acme
of delight.
One passport is demanded at the base of the mountain,
where it is officially visa by the benevolent priests, and,
if found en regle, he naturally takes his fee and pass it on,
till the soul of the departed meets with a volcanic Charon,
who avariciously demands his obolus. At the next ferry
or ladder a second pass, with the original passport, duly
fortified with all legal and necessary :ignatures and seals,
is demanded, and so the poor soul has to pay, even to the
last, for his exit from this world of woe. This second pur-
gatory passed, the happy defunct breathes celestial air; and
no doubt, having paid for his ambrosia, may look down
with bowels of compassion on Sisyphus, .olides, and all
our mythological acquaintances.
In plain English, it requires two passports to reach the
summit of antediluvian Fusy-yam:; but once there, the
soul of the departed can look down upon the scenes of
earthly trial it has left in the vast abyss of human misery
below, and enjoy, floating high above the storm's career,
the prospect of indescribable bliss.
May the poor soul eventually reach our Christian Heaven,
and be received (for " in my Father's house are many man-
eione) in pity and corapageionl Jews, Turk's, infidels,

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and heretics, each have their distinct idea and peculiar
expectation and hope of entering those regions of eternal
repose. So also have the Japanese ; but perhaps it may
now be the design of the Almighty to show them our way,
and to allow us to prove to them that only one passport is
necessary ; that there is but one real and sure way, and
that Noah was only a type of the one great Saviour and
Shepherd of mankind.

In an interesting dissertation on the primeval style
and manners of the Japanese we find the following
remarks on the evidence of their remote antiquity
as a nation :

Providence may have had some inscrutable reason for
allowing this nation to remain so long isolated and alone;
for although there may bo no ruins of Palmyra or Luxor to
denote any very ancient architectural grandeur, there can
be little doubt of the antiquity of these isles, and of their
being to-day as they were soon after the floe&
As all learning came from the East, as Egypt and
Assyria are supposed to have received much of thir learn-
ing from India and China, as the wise men who saw the
star of Bethlehem came from the East, and as I fully be-
lieve that Japan owes nothing to China, might not all the
good things we know of, and have improved ;upon, have
originally emanated from this uttermost part of the earth?
Might not all the world once have been as Japan to-day is,
with its Kamis and sun-goddesses? Might not the Apis
and Osiris of the Egyptians, the Jupiters end Junos of the
still more Western nations, have taken their origin in the
veiled mysteries of one original Sintooism ? Nearly all we
find in the West that man actually wants, or by nature re-
quires, either for food or raiment, is to be met with in the
far East; and as it is almost universally admitted that the
inhabitants of the nearest continent to Japan has never
been even a temporary sojourner on its shores, wo may
infer that Japan furnished of hor abundance to her neigh-
bours,wh
far and ide.o in their good time went and did likewise as
they spread
The nations of the West, from the first visit of Marco
Polo to our own day, have left few traces of their presence,
except in history and memory, and these not of the most
grateful or pleasant nature. Few things, if any, were
copied by the Japanese, so that all we find amongst them
to-day cannot be confined to such late dates.
When Noah came out of the Ark, he selected Japan and
colonised it with his sons ; he then, as his family increased,
advised them to emigrate, and finally they became so nume-
rous, that to avoid dissension, and to obtain food for them-
selves and their flocks and herds, they separated, and as
they could not very easily go east of the Japanese Isles,
the inference is that they must have come to the West, and
thus gradually the earth was repeopled,
Thus Japan renovated the whole world; and in the
manner of their living there is so much of the patriarchal
simplicity, and in their government, laws, and institutions
so much of the primitive kindness and severity, similar to
that which we read of in the "Book of Books," that
before such a wild speculation is entirely discarded, let us
know a little more of Japan from her legends, literature,
and history.

Some may take great pleasure in thus investigat-
ing this question, and may doubtless concur in the
opinion expressed by the writer, that perhaps when
" Petra was a capital, with green fields and noble
forests around it, when Athens was the seat of
learning, and Rome the mistress of the world,
that the hermits of Niphon were as well informed
as they are to-day, and that they may have retained
the same primeval habits which, at the confusion
of tongues and general dispersion consequent on
the building of the Tower of Babel, were peculiar
to those early times." The Japanese are early
risers, and the devotees to domestic drudgery at
home who have to get up hours before any visible
effect is seen, will envy those distant folks whose
duties are light in the housekeeping line, as they
have no beds to make, no sofas, tables, or chairs to
dust, and the room is instantly converted from a
sleeping apartment into a shop or drawing-room,
as required. The visits that are chronicled of the
Japanese ladies are very singular. They seem a
kindly race on the whole, and capable of great at-
tachment. The day before leaving the writer states
that the parting interview was sad—all the Japanese
were dressed in black—which, though not mourn-
ing, is a sign of grief. They also drank out of cups
of tortoiseshell, with the figure of a crane lacquered
upon them, which meant to say, May your lives be
as long as those of the Tortoise and the Crane. " We
shall never forget the happy moments passed with
these kind friends at Hakod ate. If we found pecu-
liarities and customs to smile at and amuse us, no
doubt we afforded them food for laughter and criti-
cism also." There are some plates that represent
the various classes. Crinoline is certainly not in
vogue in Japan, but its greatest enemy will agree
that here is the other extreme, and a more comical
figure than the Tea-Girl in the first page is seldom
seen in the costumes of any country. This volume
is most successful in its attempt to depict the laws
and delineate the customs of a people now engaging
great attention among us, and the author may be
congratulated on the happy results of his labours,
for many will pass a pleasing and profitable hour
in the perusal of its instructive and entertaining
pages. Books of foreign lands that serve to con-
vey at all an accurate impression of affairs are
invaluable to the general reader, and this " Resi-
dence in Japan" will be sure to becoMe a favourite
from its attractive style, as well' as from the
great variety of its contents. This work may
be recommended to all desirous of becoming ac-
quainted with the marvels and mysteries of a
comparatively unknown country lately brought
into notice, and of which all would be informed.

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.

COVENT GARDEN.

About an average supply of produce has been on sale
.o-day, and the demand has ruled inactive, as follows :

FRUIT.

s. d. s. d.l
Pine apples, perlb 3 0 to 6 01
Colonial do., each 0 0 to 0 0
Grapes, per lb 2 0 to 6 0
Foreign do 2 8 to 3 0
Melons, each
Peaches, perdoz 0 0 to 0 0
Nectarines, per dz 0 0 to 0 01
Apples, per sieve 2 0 to 4 0
Pears, per do
Oranges, per 100 4 6 to 10 0
Lemons, per 100 4 0 to 8 0
Lpricots, per doz 0 0 to 0 0

s. d. sd.
Cherries, per lb. 0 oto 0 0
Filberts, per lb .. 0 oto 0 0
Cobnuts, per lb 3 oto 4 0
Almonds, per bus 0 oto 0 o
Walnuts, per 100 2 oto 2 6
Figs, per doz . 0 oto 0 0
Damson . 0 0 to 0 0
Gooseberries hf ay° oto 0 0
Currants, per do. 0 oto 0 0
Plums, per do. 0 oto 0 0
reengages, pr do 0 oto 0 0
Raspberries,prpt 0 oto 0 0

vEGETADLES.
Greens, dz bunch 2 6to 3 0 Shallots, per lb .. 0 8 to 0 10
Cabbages, pr doz 0 9to 1 3 Horseradish, pbn 1 oto 2 0
Savoy do., pr dz 0 10 to 1 4 Parsley, per ditto 0 3to 0 4
Cauliflowers, pdz 1 oto 3 0 Celery, per ditto 0 Bto 1 6
Brocoli, per bun. 1 oto 1 3 Beet, per doz. .. 1 6to 2 0
Potatoes, per ton 100 to 140 d Parsnips, per do. 0 oto 0 0
New ditto, pr ewt. 0 oto 0 0 Small salad, p. pn, 0 oto 0 0
Peas, per 4 sieve 0 oto 0 0 Mushrooms,p pun. 2 oto 3 0
Turnips, dz bunch 2 oto 3 0 Artichokes, pr dz 0 6to 0 8
Carrots, pr do 3 6to 4 6 , Cabbage lett,score 0 oto 0 0
Cucumbers 0 6to 0 9 Endive, per score 1 6to 0 0
Garlic, per lb
Sorrel, per sieve 0 oto 0 0 ) Tomatoes, doz... 0 oto 0 0
Spinach, hf.-sv 0 oto 0 0 Walnuts, per 100 0 oto 0 0
Brus. sprouts, h.s. 0 10 to 1 4 Chillies, per ditto 0 oto 0 0
Onions, ht. sv 0 oto 0 0 Capsicums, per do 0 oto 0 0
New Do., dz bun 1 oto 2 0 Rhubarb, per bun 0 oto 0 0
French beans, h.s. 0 oto 0 0 Asparagus, pr do. 0 oto 0 0
Leeks, per bunch 0 oto • 01 Seakale, per pun. 0 oto 0 0
NEIVGATE AND LEADENHALL.

Turkeys, 4s Od to 1.53 Od ; poults, Os Od to Os Od each ;
geese, 4s Od to lOs Od ; goslings, Os Od to Os Od ; ducks,
2s Od to 3s Od ; rabbits, is Od to 2s Od each ; wild do., 8d
to is 2d ; pigeons, Os 6d to Os 8d each ; large Surrey fowls,
5s Od to lOs Od ; chickens, 4s Od to 6s Od ; barn-door fowls,
3s Od to Gs Od ; capons, Os Od ; hares, 2s Gd to 3s Od ;
grouse, is 9d to 2s Od each; pheasants, 2s 6d to 3s Od ;
partridges, is 3d to 2s ; woodcocks, 2s Gd to 3s Od; snipes, Os
Od to Is Od; teal, Os 9d to Is ; wild ducks, is 6d to 2s Od ;
widgeons, is Od to is 6d ; plovers, Os 6d to is Od each ;
guinea fowls, Os Od to Os Od ; roasting pigs, 5s Od to 8s Od
each; Ostend fresh butter, is to is 2d; English, is ld
to is 5d per lb ; English eggs, 15s Od to Os Od ; French do.,
12s Od to 13s Od per 120 ; leverets, 2s Od to 2s Gd each.