Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-09-20
LETTER FROM JAPAN.

rs y 10 hOp6 - 1uo SVyaSo - LILO AHiah"
Sea and Its Islands - The Inland Sea as
Compared with Lake Superior, and Ja-
pauese Sceneay as Compared with Amer
icsn-Christian MISUNDERSTANDING 80 of the
Cemeter:es-The Tempies-An Amusing
Incident - Extensive Cove rnment Hon.
ors 10 the God Of Rain.
NAaAsAKI, Japan, May i2.--We left Yoko5a-
ma at 6 P. NJ. on the evening OF Wednesday,
May 9th, and on the morning of Friday follow
ing arrived safely at Kobe-a pretty place shut
spent day delightfully."- among the shops, and
rested from the roughness of the sea, for the
sea was was rough, though our beautiful steam
er, the hiroshima Maru formerly the Golden
Age, pioneer ship Of the Pacific mail line,
built by @. Webb in 1868, but now of the Nit
su Bishi Mail s. 8. company, ia jewel for
quiet, compared to the Peklng. By the way.
why does the GLOBE persistently drop the final
letter in Peking?
Leaving Kobe at A. M. Saturday brought ns
through the Inland Sea by day, and to Nagasaki
at 2 P. NJ. Sunday. We are only forty-eight
hours sail from Shanghai. but will not go on
at present, the weather being too hot there to
admit your doing 30.
SO much has been written, and we'll written,
of the wondrous beauty of the Inland Sea, that
most of the GLOBE readers are no doubt as
familiar with it as with anything seen through
other peoples glasses. For distance of per-
haps one hundred and fifty miles, our steamer
was creeping in and out among the many
isles, around high hills, terraced and
cultivated, soften, to their SUBMITS, with pop
ulous villages in the hollows of their feet, and
little temples and shrines showing dimly
among clumps of trees half way up their sides.
led up to by well-worn ways and toilsome;
the sea as smooth as glass, and the sky and
wind propitious.
alive by those who have written SO enthusiastic
cally of the Inland Sea, must say that it dis
appointed my expectations. I can understand
how one coming inside the quiet comprised by
its many Shores after days of weary life, with
only sea and sky in sight, might think it the
very harb0r Of Paradise, but as for real beauty
it cannot, in my opinion, compare to some
portions of Lake Superior. The islands there
are closer together, and remember well how,
here and there, our steamer wound SO closely
to their edges, that leaning over the deck S rail
I gathered ferns and flowers fresh from their
native soil. The water there is clearer too
and though the trip through the islands is OF
shorter duration, it is far more fascinating
while it LASTS and leaves happier memory
than that through the Inland Sea. l am not
one of many Americans who find in other lands
or who profess to have found, everything fan
mere beautiful and magnificent than in theil
own. We have no temples it is true; no ter
raced hills in palaces of Daimro, Tycoon OF
Mikado; but for natural beauty commend me
to my own, my native land.
Japan has her inland sea; we the Thousand
isles of st. Lawrence, Lake Superior, Upper
Columbia and Puget Sound. Japan has hel
one great mountain, Fusiyami; we have st
Helens, Shasta, Hood, Adams, Rainier, Pike'i
Peak, and host of lesser ones. Our rivers
are broader and longer, as much broader an6
longer as our country is larger and more
important; but one should not expect to fine
in the little island of Japan such length anc
breadth of natural beauty as 10 our own fail
land that stretches from sea to sea.
Just before reaching Nagasiki we pass tn
small rocky island from which, two hundred
years ago, SO many Christians were flung into
the sea, and, about twenty miles inland, il
the place where 1000 were put to death in on
day, and where was erected monument witt
this inscription:
s,We have killed here four Thousand
Christians. If the Christians God come
this way, He will be served in the sam
manner"
Even up to 1878, the persecution o
Christians continued, and in that year man,
were put to death. But now, in this beautiful
little town there are several Romish churches
two Episcopal, one Presbyterian and on
Methodist. To-day we have passed among tn
temples, and in the old grave yards that form
mountain background for this city by the sea
cannot describe these cemeteries so that yo
may have any Just idea of their vastness, o
their strange, wonderful beauty. 1t seem
| to me that there are thousands of terraces, AM
millions of graves, each grave having its head
-. oh oh So roi lSy,
vine and wild flower. The terraces are froI
| five to twenty feet high, their walls hung thick
| ly with vine, and fern and moss, and their top
| from six to ten feet wide, filled full of graves
| whose headstones much resemble those in on
own land in size, shape and manner of inscriE
ton. Here and there you come of sudde
face to face with some old temple, where wide
| eyed pilgrims stare at you, and kind old priest
| invite you to enter, seeming pleased if you d
so, and cheerily showing you ell there is to Sc,
both in the temple and in their own privat
| dwelling which adioins. In one of the ten
| pies some workmen followed us everywher,
and one of them who could say mo. l."
English, was constantly pointing to this or
that, and everything was mo. l." We ha
left our Amah at our hotel with the child, an
so my lord, essaying to button my boots whe
we were ready to leave, and not being used
| the business, made good deal of amusemer
for the poor fellows, who had evidently nevt
seen a Iady's boot. and never dreamed that OF
| of their own sex could be so understanding s
to button one. They crowded around. laugl
ing, gesticulating and chattering like SO man
magpies, while the priests smiled cOmplacentl
at dignifed distance; and when at last til
herculean task was ended my lord was pate
on the shoulder softly amid subdued whisper
of mo. 1! No. 1r' I was delighted to fin
so sagacious and appreciative people in tha
sequestered mountain niche, do assure yor
and since then, if feel exceedingly amiable,c
very much want some costly, rare old curio, {
work of art, always call my lord mo. l."
| Yesterday was great day for the natives i
Nagasaki, day of thanksgiving and prais
| to the god of rain, 1t was celebrated wit
! much pomp and splendor and solemnity, an
was as novel as it was interesting to US VIII
| however, until on our way from the expositio
| to our hotel at tffin-time we came suddenly i
| full view of one of the finest parades we hav
| ever seen anywhere. 1t seems they had take
| the mighty god from his temple niche, and i
great state he was leading procession o
priests and people who seemed almost over
powered by the solemnity of the occasion
First, as said. came the god in sort of pala
quin with cloth-of-gold canopy, borne on tn
shoulders of men in long robes and gay adorn
ments, folio we'd by other men similarly attired
and bearing boat of wood, ten feet long hum
with garlands and filled with plants and ban
; ners of quaint device. Then came the priest
'sall shaven and shorn,' the elders and, evi
IDENTIFY, mere important ones walking singh
file, and about six feet apart; the others, tw
by two, followed by girls of from six to eigh
years old. gaily and handsomely attiret
with crowns of tinsel and gold, and faces paint
ed snow-white, with blood-red cheeks and lips
These girls walked, like the elder priests
singly. and with stately tread, several fee
apart, keeping step like soldiers, and looking
neither to the right nor to the left. Thes
were, in turn, followed by. musicians, thel
more girls and other musicians, until tho pro
cession seemed interminable, and we tired
almost. watching it, tho we followed on ant
on, and down to the beach where the entir
procession embarked in small boats and wer
rowed down the bay distance of mile and
half. where their deity was given view of an
other temple, and then returned in solem,
silence to a his own. ALI this parade and feast