Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-04-23
MINISTER BINGHAM IN JAPAN.

MINISTER BINGHANLN JAPAN.
An Illinois friend of Hon. John A. Bingham,
United States Minister to Japan. has received a
letter from that gentleman, in which he writes
UNITED STATES LEGATION,
YEDDo, JAPAN, March s, 1876.
We occupy good American-bult
house, looking out upon the great ocean whose
waters wash alike the shores of Japan and the
shores Of the United States Of America, foremost
of all lands this planet. In the distant west,
eighty miles away, the sacred mountain of Japan,
Frepyama, looks down upon us and our home,
now clothed in white raiment, like sentinel of
doom. 1t is a grand lonely, conical pile, hflng
its summit, old in story, two and half miles YER
teal, from the plain. Pilgrimage is made to tins
mountain annually by many of these dusky CHI
dren Of the sun. Indeed the 600 OF tins
country are annual pilgrims, if not to the noun
tain TO the temples or shrines and are objects OF
deeper interest to me than the strange land itse,
with its perpetual vegetation, ever changing, ever
new its mountains and lakes, and rivers, and
| skies, and deep, dark seas
| A letter is too brief to say what think OF tins
people, or to describe what have seen of their
productions in art. / cannot but think that an
ethnologist who had studied the Indians Of our
country, upon seeing these people, and noting the
marked resemblance in manners, customs, COM
plexion, &C., to the American Indian, would con-
clude that the latter descended from the Jap
anese.
Like the Indian Of America, the japanese have
dark complexion, hair straight and stringy, black
eyes, run with agility and grace; are fond OF fish
ing and bunting and are skilled in both; live III
the open air; wear loose flowing garments, or
none at all, save girdle; wear as general thing
no shoes save the sock or straw sandal or wooden
board both carry the babe on their backs; see
God in clouds, and hear him in the wind, adore
the beautiful in nature, are full of courage and
cruel in revenge, fearless and careless of death
and believe in the life beyond, as indeed all men
must who have not lost their reason have no
doubt some of these mound-buiding, sea-going
people, in the long ago, drifted before the storms
in their rude boats to our shores, thereby peopling
first our great country, and carrying with them
from this all that they (the American lndians)
ever knew Of art or language anterior to the
crossing of our European ancestors, There IS
similarity in the japanese and Indian tongues.
The proper names of the japanese, like our In
dams, are musical, and terminate IN the vowels.
Thus the japanese have the proper name Shiba
pronounced Sheba Osaka, Shinequaws, 1okaha-
MIA Ycddo or Tokia, kamakura kieto Nikko,
Ilogohe and our Indians have Shenango, Tas-
carora, Niagara, Chickamauga, Minnehaha, ONO,
Iowa, &C. The names of the Japanese Ministers
of State, so far as known to me, all terminate IN
vowels, as Sanjo, lvakuva, Terashuia, Okubo,
Okenua, Ito, Kedo, &C. Our Indians say ONO Tor
"beautiful;" the japanese say Ohio for good
morning" Each employs the word to express the
beautiful in idea the beauty OF external nature or
the beauty of good will in life. But enough that
we know, whatever the history of these people
may be, God has made of one blood all nations OF
men who dwell upon this earth, with its garniture
of greenness and beauty and blossom.
This people now and in the centuries past, IN
many respects, are and were greatly IN advance Oh
our Indians in arts and manners. In landscape
culture the Japanese, you know, excel 1t Is TO
| be regretted that with the introduction OF our
| western civilization the Japanese are destroying
much that was beautiful, and might say grand,
in the art productions Of the past. Shiber was one
of thei sacred groves, now sadly fallen into de-
cay, but still marvelously imposing place. Its
| name, Shiber, means grass plat The original IN,
closure contained not less than 600 acres adorned
with grand forests much of which remains walled
in with massive granite walls inclosing temple OF
Buddha, erected some two centuries or more ago,
and when was still standing in 1873 when came,
and which seemed to me most stately structure,
but this is gone by the act it is said, OF the ncen-
diary, and its bell Of many tons weight is silent
and no longer shakes the graves with its deep SOL
emn sound. The tombs OF the Tycoons or Tor
mer rulers of Japan, are many of them there,
which in their interior, being really memorial tenn
PIES are so rich in gold, lacquer, &C., that they
dazzle by their splendor.
The castle grounds 1.-THE castle having been de.
stroyed by fire two years ago. contain about 500
acres, inclosed by broad, deep moat, and also by
granite wall from thirty to fifty feet IN height,
erected about $50 years ago. These grounds are
filed with stately trees and beautiful shrubs now
ering almost every month Of the year, and also
adorned WIN INCUBUS anu iahes anu e"o~,~SS 49,"
racks from every province of the Empire, and
beautiful walks and grassy parks and avenues ana
drives.
Kamakura, an ancient capital of Japan, some
forty miles distant where in centuries past armies
commended for dominion, is now desolation, where
few fishermen dwell, and amid the ruins are some
two or three temples and in its quiet wood SITS en-
tbroned upon granite the bronze statute OF "Dal
Boota," or ''the great Budha," with folded hands
and thoughtful countenanee, looking calmly out
upou the ocean, as he has looked for centuries past
and NAV look for centuries to come. Inns Is
said to be rich in gold and silver, and Is COLOSSAL
being forty five feet in height. The great image
rests upon lotus leaves, or flowers, esteemed sacred
and held to be the symbol OF creative power Us inc
flower springs from the bloom upon and PROOFS
over the waters as the earth sprung from the waters
! of the great deep at word of HIM who is from
everlasting to everlasting God. The lotus Is
grand flower, as fragrant as it is beautiful, larger
| than the rose of Sharon, sometimes pure wnite'
sometimes coored with red, like the CLOUDS OF inc
morning, and always presenting stamens OF goid
and silver lustre.
These people are lotns-eaters, that is, they eat
the root and also the Seed which are larger IMAM our
pea. and eaten without being cooked, not uDike
our chestnut but pleasanter and more delicate "
the taste. Tennyson's fine poem entitled 1ne
Lotus-eaters will describe the strange land ano
its dusky, dreaming children, You remember the
beautiful words which Lander puts into the
mouth of the dying Greek when taking fare
well of his child; 1--WE will meet again, but you,
nv child must 90 to the land of the lotus, where
famine never comes, and where the WORKS VI nan
are immortal" 1t seems the lotus flower, or shrub,
or tree, as the Greek, the Egyptian, and the In
dian. was made to symbohze life But must
stop, lest my letter grow to be treatise.
Of' J. A. BINGHAM.