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This
is considerably under the actual distance, as on several of
the
mountain routes the ri is 56 cho, but in the lack of accurate
information
the ri has been taken at its ordinary standard of 36
cho
throughout.
LETTER
XXXIII
Form
and Colour--A Windy Capital--Eccentricities in House Roofs.
HAKODATE,
YEZO, August 13, 1878
After
a tremendous bluster for two days the weather has become
beautifully
fine, and I find the climate here more invigorating
than
that of the main island. It is Japan, but yet there is a
difference
somehow. When the mists lift they reveal not mountains
smothered
in greenery, but naked peaks, volcanoes only recently
burnt
out, with the red ash flaming under the noonday sun, and
passing
through shades of pink into violet at sundown. Strips of
sand
border the bay, ranges of hills, with here and there a patch
of
pine or scrub, fade into the far-off blue, and the great cloud
shadows
lie upon their scored sides in indigo and purple. Blue as
the
Adriatic are the waters of the land-locked bay, and the snowy
sails
of pale junks look whiter than snow against its intense
azure.
The abruptness of the double peaks behind the town is
softened
by a belt of cryptomeria, the sandy strip which connects
the
headland with the mainland heightens the general resemblance of
the
contour of the ground to Gibraltar; but while one dreams of the
western
world a kuruma passes one at a trot, temple drums are
beaten
in a manner which does not recall "the roll of the British
drum,"
a Buddhist funeral passes down the street, or a man-cart
pulled
and pushed by four yellow-skinned, little-clothed mannikins,
creaks
by, with the monotonous grunt of Ha huida.
A
single look at Hakodate itself makes one feel that it is Japan
all
over. The streets are very wide and clean, but the houses are
mean
and low. The city looks as if it had just recovered from a
conflagration.
The houses are nothing but tinder. The grand tile
roofs
of some other cities are not to be seen. There is not an
element
of permanence in the wide, and windy streets. It is an
increasing
and busy place; it lies for two miles along the shore,
and
has climbed the hill till it can go no higher; but still houses
and
people look poor. It has a skeleton aspect too, which is
partially
due to the number of permanent "clothes-horses" on the
roofs.
Stones, however, are its prominent feature. Looking down
upon
it from above you see miles of grey boulders, and realise that
every
roof in the windy capital is "hodden doun" by a weight of
paving
stones. Nor is this all. Some of the flatter roofs are
pebbled
all over like a courtyard, and others, such as the roof of
this
house, for instance, are covered with sod and crops of grass,
the
two latter arrangements being precautions against risks from
sparks
during fires. These paving stones are certainly the
cheapest
possible mode of keeping the roofs on the houses in such a
windy
region, but they look odd.
None
of the streets, except one high up the hill, with a row of
fine
temples and temple grounds, call for any notice. Nearly every
house
is a shop; most of the shops supply only the ordinary
articles
consumed by a large and poor population; either real or
imitated
foreign goods abound in Main Street, and the only
novelties
are the furs, skins, and horns, which abound in shops
devoted
to their sale. I covet the great bear furs and the deep
cream-coloured
furs of Aino dogs, which are cheap as well as
handsome.
There are many second-hand, or, as they are called,
"curio"
shops, and the cheap lacquer from Aomori is also tempting
to
a stranger.
I.
L. B.
LETTER
XXXIV
Ito's
Delinquency--"Missionary Manners"--A Predicted Failure.
HAKODATE,
YEZO.
I
am enjoying Hakodate so much that, though my tour is all planned
and
my arrangements are made, I linger on from day to day. There
has
been an unpleasant eclaircissement about Ito. You will
remember
that I engaged him without a character, and that he told
both
Lady Parkes and me that after I had done so his former master,
Mr.
Maries, asked him to go back to him, to which he had replied
that
he had "a contract with a lady." Mr. Maries is here, and I
now
find that he had a contract with Ito, by which Ito bound
himself
to serve him as long as he required him, for $7 a month,
but
that, hearing that I offered $12, he ran away from him and
entered
my service with a lie! Mr. Maries has been put to the
greatest
inconvenience by his defection, and has been hindered
greatly
in completing his botanical collection, for Ito is very
clever,
and he had not only trained him to dry plants successfully,
but
he could trust him to go away for two or three days and collect
seeds.
I am very sorry about it. He says that Ito was a bad boy
when
he came to him, but he thinks that he cured him of some of his
faults,
and that he has served me faithfully. I have seen Mr.
Maries
at the Consul's, and have arranged that, after my Yezo tour
is
over, Ito shall be returned to his rightful master, who will
take
him to China and Formosa for a year and a half, and who, I
think,
will look after his well-being in every way. Dr. and Mrs.
Hepburn,
who are here, heard a bad account of the boy after I began
my
travels and were uneasy about me, but, except for this original
lie,
I have no fault to find with him, and his Shinto creed has not
taught
him any better. When I paid him his wages this morning he
asked
me if I had any fault to find, and I told him of my objection
to
his manners, which he took in very good part and promised to
amend
them; "but," he added, "mine are just missionary manners!"
Yesterday
I dined at the Consulate, to meet Count Diesbach, of the
French
Legation, Mr. Von Siebold, of the Austrian Legation, and
Lieutenant
Kreitner, of the Austrian army, who start to-morrow on
an
exploring expedition in the interior, intending to cross the
sources
of the rivers which fall into the sea on the southern coast
and
measure the heights of some of the mountains. They are "well
found"
in food and claret, but take such a number of pack-ponies
with
them that I predict that they will fail, and that I, who have
reduced
my luggage to 45 lbs., will succeed!
I
hope to start on my long-projected tour to-morrow; I have planned
it
for myself with the confidence of an experienced traveller, and
look
forward to it with great pleasure, as a visit to the
aborigines
is sure to be full of novel and interesting experiences.
Good-bye
for a long time. I. L. B.
LETTER
XXXV {17}
A
Lovely Sunset--An Official Letter--A "Front Horse"--Japanese
Courtesy--The
Steam Ferry--Coolies Abscond--A Team of Savages--A
Drove
of Horses--Floral Beauties--An Unbeaten Track--A Ghostly
Dwelling--Solitude
and Eeriness.
GINSAINOMA,
YEZO, August 17.
I
am once again in the wilds! I am sitting outside an upper room
built
out almost over a lonely lake, with wooded points purpling
and
still shadows deepening in the sinking sun. A number of men
are
dragging down the nearest hillside the carcass of a bear which
they
have just despatched with spears. There is no village, and
the
busy clatter of the cicada and the rustle of the forest are the
only
sounds which float on the still evening air. The sunset
colours
are pink and green; on the tinted water lie the waxen cups
of
great water-lilies, and above the wooded heights the pointed,
craggy,
and altogether naked summit of the volcano of Komono-taki
flushes
red in the sunset. Not the least of the charms of the
evening
is that I am absolutely alone, having ridden the eighteen
miles
from Hakodate without Ito or an attendant of any kind; have
unsaddled
my own horse, and by means of much politeness and a
dexterous
use of Japanese substantives have secured a good room and
supper
of rice, eggs, and black beans for myself and a mash of
beans
for my horse, which, as it belongs to the Kaitakushi, and has
the
dignity of iron shoes, is entitled to special consideration!
I
am not yet off the "beaten track," but my spirits are rising with
the
fine weather, the drier atmosphere, and the freedom of Yezo.
Yezo
is to the main island of Japan what Tipperary is to an
Englishman,
Barra to a Scotchman, "away down in Texas" to a New
Yorker--in
the rough, little known, and thinly-peopled; and people
can
locate all sorts of improbable stories here without much fear
of
being found out, of which the Ainos and the misdeeds of the
ponies
furnish the staple, and the queer doings of men and dogs,
and
adventures with bears, wolves, and salmon, the embroidery.
Nobody
comes here without meeting with something queer, and one or
two
tumbles either with or from his horse. Very little is known of
the
interior except that it is covered with forest matted together
by
lianas, and with an undergrowth of scrub bamboo impenetrable
except
to the axe, varied by swamps equally impassable, which give
rise
to hundreds of rivers well stocked with fish. The glare of
volcanoes
is seen in different parts of the island. The forests
are
the hunting-grounds of the Ainos, who are complete savages in
everything
but their disposition, which is said to be so gentle and
harmless
that I may go among them with perfect safety.
Kindly
interest has been excited by the first foray made by a lady
into
the country of the aborigines; and Mr. Eusden, the Consul, has
worked
upon the powers that be with such good effect that the
Governor
has granted me a shomon, a sort of official letter or
certificate,
giving me a right to obtain horses and coolies
everywhere
at the Government rate of 6 sen a ri, with a prior claim
to
accommodation at the houses kept up for officials on their
circuits,
and to help and assistance from officials generally; and
the
Governor has further telegraphed to the other side of Volcano
Bay
desiring the authorities to give me the use of the Government
kuruma
as long as I need it, and to detain the steamer to suit my
convenience!
With this document, which enables me to dispense with
my
passport, I shall find travelling very easy, and I am very
grateful
to the Consul for procuring it for me.
Here,
where rice and tea have to be imported, there is a uniform
charge
at the yadoyas of 30 sen a day, which includes three meals,
whether
you eat them or not. Horses are abundant, but are small,
and
are not up to heavy weights. They are entirely unshod, and,
though
their hoofs are very shallow and grow into turned-up points
and
other singular shapes, they go over rough ground with facility
at
a scrambling run of over four miles an hour following a leader
called
a "front horse." If you don't get a "front horse" and try
to
ride in front, you find that your horse will not stir till he
has
another before him; and then you are perfectly helpless, as he
follows
the movements of his leader without any reference to your
wishes.
There are no mago; a man rides the "front horse" and goes
at
whatever pace you please, or, if you get a "front horse," you
may
go without any one. Horses are cheap and abundant. They drive
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