The Dickinson press., 1888-12-15
A JAPANESE PRISON.
THE INTERESTING THINGS SEEN BY
AN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT.

The Prison Buildings of Tokio-An Empty
Punishment Ccll"-Thc W~orlshops-A
Curious Tact-The Womcn's Quarter Mt
Ichigawa-A Case.
With the exception of the Yoshiwara, of
which plenty hereafter, the two prisons of
Toxic are the most interesting things have
seen in Japan. These are, first, the great
prison upon the Island of ishikawa, at the
south of the city, and, second, the convict
and female prison of lchigawa, in the center
of the city itself. The former is completely
isolated, all communication with the main
land being by police ferry, and contains
2,O52 men md boys, all of whom are serving
terms of ten years or less. The latter CON
tains 1,400 men and ITO women, among
whom are many serving life sentences.
There is a convict farm attached, and it is
here that capital punishment is inflicted.
Otherwise the two prisons resemble each
other so closely that it is not necessary to
distinguish between them in description.
The entrance is through a massive wooden
gateway into Il guard room, adjoining
which are the offices of the director and otli-
cials. The prison itself consists of II score or
more of detached one story buildings, all OF
wood and some of them merely substantial
sheds, under which the rouglicr labor, like
stone breaking, is performed. Tho dorlni-
tories are enormous wooden cages, the front
and part of the back formed Of bars as thick
as ones arm, before which again is Il narrow
covered passage where the warder on guard
walks at night.
THE PUNISHMENT CELL.
On leaving tho dormitories We passed II
small iSD1ntnl SouDlp c]rnctiDD pnoEpJ and
gabled like n little temple. The door was
s%olemnly unlocked and flung back and l was
motioned to enter. 1t was the punishment
cell, another spotless wooden box, we'll ven,
tilated but perfectly dark, and with walls so
thick rs to render it practically silent. GLOW
many prisoners nave been in it during tho
last month"; l asked. The director sum
moned the chief warder and repeated my
question to him. %"lI'tori mo eozaimascn-
mono whatever was the reply. "What other
punishments have you!' mono whatever"
NO tloggings" When this question was
translated the director and the little groupof
officials all laughed together at the baro idea.
Icould not help wondering whether there
was another prison i'll the world with no
method of punishment for 1000 criminals cx-
cept one dark cell, and that not not used for
amonth. And the recollection Of the filthy
and sutfocating sty used as n punishment cell
in the city prison of San Francisco came upon
Inc like Il nausea.
a japanese prison may be divided into we
parts-dormitories and workshops. OF cells
or prison buildings, properly speaking, there
is nothing whatever. Walking across tho
yard We entered the first workshop, where n
couple of hundred prisoners wcro making
machinery and steam boilers. One warder,
o,p,nl only ,rith ~ Syvor1 is ,.cl,naJ r,,.
every fifteen men, and hero tho prisoners were
working on contract orders for outside firms,
under the supervision of one skilled teacher
and one representative of tho firm giving tho
contract. So it was in the fine art depart
ment and every other of the score of work
shops.
A CURIOUS FACT.
Prisoners employed at the higher classes Of
labor are credited with olc-tenth the sun re-
ccivcd for their handiwork. But us the work
wasso good and the running expenses seemed
so light l WAS much surprised to learn that
the prison was not yet self supporting, only
seven-tenths of the total cos. being realized
from tho sale of prisoners work. Another
curious fact is that every adult prisoner is
detained for six months after his sentence OK
pires if lie is not claimed in the mean time
by his friends, and until he is of adult age if
lie has not reached it and is unclaimed.
These prisoners wear blue instead of red,
after their sentences have expired.
Tho women's quarter at lchigawa is scpa-
rated from the mems by n high wooden fenco
and gateway guarded by Il sentinel, and con-
sists of two or three dormitories and one
large, comfortable workshop, where all the
ITO are employed together Mt labor let out by
contract. When l was there they werc all
Lcmming silk handkcrchiefs, each seated
upon the matted floor before Il little table,
and very neat they all looked and very pretty
some of them, with their loose red gowns and
simply twisted hair. "Those arc forgers,''
said the officer, pointing to three of them; II
do not like them to be SO pretty" One of the
women had n young baby playing beside her,
and another of them, us she glanced up ut
us, showed a face entirely different from the
rest, pale, sad and refined, and l saw that
her hands wero small and very white. II
was Hanai Ume, tho onco famous geisha OF
Toxic, famous for her beauty, her samisel
playing, her dancing, her pride, and mos,
famous Of all for her affairc d'amour.