The Hawaiian gazette., 1874-12-09

crowded with fishing boats, junks and steamers.
One of these, several miles long and nearly an
eighth of mile wide, is thought to have con-
tanned 800 iunks Of from 80 to 400 tons, and
loaded from all parts of the empire with rice,
cotton, lumber, coal, granite, Ssh, &c. There
are many little canals cut through from river
to river, reminding one of Venice. Many Of
the streets are narrow and crookeds but very
many are tolerably straight, and well paved,
and all are kept clean.
The government has made good use of some
Buddhist temples In this city one is turned
into a school house, and another into hospi-
tai and two in other cities into hospitals, un-
der the care of Dr. Berry of the American
Board and in which, although entirely sup
ported by the Japanese, DR.. Berry is allowed
to teach Christianity. There are in all FIVE
hospitals under his supervision in five different
places, and served by native physicians, by
whose efforts and his they were opened.
To return from this depression. The Buddhist
temples that have seen, are noble and well
kept buildings, and finely located. 1t is said
there were in Japan in 1859, 10000 Buddhist
priests, and $50, 600 temples. The shinto, the
State religion, has no large temples, but mere
! " shrines, from the size Of hen coop up to a
small house; before these prayers are mutter-
ed and into them offerings Of money are cast.
As DR.. Brown Of Yokohama says, their whole
system, the Shinto, seems to be merely politi-
cal machinery to strengthen the Mikado and his
dynasty Late in August, they devoted a
week to public ceremonies II believe this is
done annually which witnessed; and there
was no solemnity in them that could see, ex-
cept here and there an old woman that clapped
hands and bowed when a gaily decorated
shrine passed by, or the horse was led by with
an empty saddle, said to belong to the god,
who was then moving from one shrine to an
other. Priests, drawn in iinrikashas, were in
the train, and in the shrine above mentioned,
/ carried by some twenty men, were six drum
mers, who, with little system, keep up great
noise, and they were preceded and followed by
hundreds of men, some wearing cheap uni
form and others with scarcely anything
except marc, In the train were many carry
/
panese lanterns elevated on long bamboo poles.
Many of these lanterns were one foot in diam
eter and three or four feet long. With slight
exceptions they were about jolly, and per-
haps as rational, as Americans used to be on
4th of July celebrations. d. ss.Es
In an enclosure of one shrine, white bull
(sacred y is kept. In another, a white horse
Buddhism, although without true foundation,
is serious, and teaches good morals but does
not Undue its followers with them, and does
not erah the Mikado, and therefore, is some
what opposed by the government And it is
said, the two systems are Just now at war with
each other, and that this tends to open the way
for the spread of the Christian religion. What
ever be the cause, the way is opening as fast,
1 think, as the true church is prepared to enter
it.
1 said Osaka was not picturesque, but there
is one striking exception: it is called the for
eign concession, and in which most of the for
cigners reside. 1t lies near the southeastern
suburbs, and contains perhaps Is acres 1t is
enclosed on two sides by broad and beautiful
streams, which form and unite in little bay
at the east end of the concession, which is a
regular curve, the whole forming fine semi
circle; and the banks are all protected by
granite stone. walls leaning against them. One
, broad street lies on the outer edge Of the con-
cession. about twelve feet from the bank. The
, others are broad, straight, well-paved, and at
right angles, and adorned with trees some
venerable pines, two and even three feet IN
D diameter big and little weeping willows, and
many others, strangers to me. But little
more than half the area is as yet occupied:
The buildings are large, fine, substantial, and
surrounded by beautiful shrubbery. These,
the noble old trees, the boats gliding nearly all
round, and the bridges thronged with passen-
, gers, present picture which, especially in
contrast with all its surroundings, is ever re-
freshing to the mind, weary with the perpetual
e saIneness of the city.
In what is said to be the centre of the city,
. is a strong fertilization called the castle, and
said to have been built three hundred years
e ago. 1t is enclosed by three concentric gran
h tie walls the second one enclosing perhaps
two or three acres, encompassed by a mOat
i probably twenty-five feet deep and twenty-five
:, wide at the bottom, and thirty or forty at the
Il ton. From the bottom of the moat, on the in
= ner side, rises wall fifty feet high, and within
V this rises another eighteen or twenty feet high
In these walls, there are the largest stones that
l ever heard of in buildings. One is said t.
be forty-two feet long and eighteen wide, an
other twenty feet square, and another thirty
two feet long by eight feet thick and eight
wide The largest were so placed that then
thickness could not be ascertalned. IL is inter-
y esting to look upon such great work, done fifty
If years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth
i Rock. think this fertilization cost nearly as
i much labor and ingenuity as a pyramid