Japan; the Country and the People
Japan; the Country and the People
JAPAN
THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE
BY ARTHUR DIOSY
Length and Breadth of Great Japan
A
ASIA’S furthest outpost towards the vast waters of the Pacific Ocean, a long, narrow chain of rocky, volcanic islands, extends north-east to south-west along the eastern coast of the mainland, separated from it by the Sea of Japan and the China Seas. A glance at the map shows this long string of more than three thousand islands and islets, stretching from 51°5′, the latitude of Shumo-shu, the most northern of the Kurile group of islands, down to 21°48′, the latitude of the South Cape of Formosa, a total length of nearly thirty degrees. Its component parts extend from 157°10′ east longitude, at Shumo-shu, as far westwards as 119°20′, the position of the extreme western islets of the Pescadores, or Hokoto, archipelago, a distance of nearly thirty-eight degrees, the total breadth of the Empire of Dai Nippon—Great Japan.
The enormous length of the island empire, the configuration of which is likened by the Japanese to the slender body of a dragon-fly, provides a great variety of climate, from the Arctic rigour of the Kurile Islands and the Siberian climate, with its long and terrible winter and its short but fierce summer, obtaining in the larger northern islands, to the sweltering, steamy heat of Formosa, the tropic of Cancer passing through that island and through the Pescadores. These extreme temperatures apart—and they prevail only at the ends of the empire—Japan possesses a temperate climate, similar to that of the northern shores of the Mediterranean, but colder in winter and much damper, the excessive humidity causing both heat and cold to be very trying, though never dangerous. The rainfall is especially heavy in June and in September, but no month is entirely without rain. The hottest period of the year is called dō-yō, corresponding to our “dog-days,” and follows the rainy season of June and early July.
What Japan Owes to its Position
Japan owes its great humidity, the consequent fertility of such parts of its surface as are cultivable—about 84·3 per cent. of the whole area of Japan proper is too rocky to yield food for man—and the luxuriant verdure that clothes the lower slopes of its wooded hills, to its insular position, and, chiefly, to two great factors, a current and a wind. The great warm current known as the Kuro-shio, the Black Brine, or Black Tide, flowing from the tropical region between the Philippines and Formosa, raises the temperature of the east coast, and, where it is in part deflected by contact with the southern coast of Kiū-shū, also of the west coast, acting in the same beneficent manner as the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic. The wind thataffects the Japanese climate most strongly is the north-east monsoon, tempered by the action of the dark, warm, ocean current.
Keystone View Co.A GLIMPSE OF THE INLAND SEA, THE LOVELIEST SHEET OF WATER IN JAPANStudded with hundreds of islands, every part of the Inland Sea of Japan, stretching 240 miles in length, and widening once to 40 miles, offers an enchanting prospect. The islands occur often in clusters, giving the appearance of lakes.
Keystone View Co.
A GLIMPSE OF THE INLAND SEA, THE LOVELIEST SHEET OF WATER IN JAPAN
Studded with hundreds of islands, every part of the Inland Sea of Japan, stretching 240 miles in length, and widening once to 40 miles, offers an enchanting prospect. The islands occur often in clusters, giving the appearance of lakes.
The geographical position of Japan has had great influence on the history of its people, and clearly indicates the supremely important part the empire is destined to play in the future development of the Far East. Its insular character has preserved it from invasion—it is the proud and legitimate boast of the Japanese that no foe has, within historical times, trodden Japanese soil for more than a few hours—and whilst it rendered possible the seclusion in which the nation lived for more than two centuries, developing, undisturbed, a high civilisation of its own, the basis of many of the qualities displayed by the Japanese in our day, it has been, in recent times, the cause of Japan’s real might in the world—her sea-power, naval and commercial.
The map shows the four principal islands of Japan Proper: HON-SHŪ, or Hon-dō—“Principal Circuit,” the largest island of Japan, commonly called Nippon, really the name of the whole empire, meaning “Sun-origin,” equivalent to Sunrise Land; KIŪ-SHŪ, or Nine Provinces; SHI-KOKU, or Four States; and the great northern island of YEZO, the second in size, officially termed Hok-kai-dō—“North Sea Circuit.”
The four islands extend, opposite the mainland, from the coast of the Russian Maritime Province, on the north-west, down to the southern extremity of the Korean peninsula, on the south-west. North of Yezo, facing the mouth of the great River Amur, the long, narrow island of Saghalin—Karafuto, in Japanese—belongs partly to Russia, partly to Japan, its southern districts, up to the fiftieth degree of latitude, being ceded to the victors by Article IX. of the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905). Separating these islands, important channels afford communication between the Sea of Japan andthe Pacific. The Gulf of Tartary divides Saghalin from the mainland, whilst the Strait of La Pérouse, or Strait of Tsugaru, separates the island from Yezo. The Straits of Korea, between that empire, now under the protectorate of Japan, and the main island, Hon-shū, or Nippon, are the way of communication joining the Sea of Japan and the eastern part of the China Sea, the straits being divided into three channels by the island of Iki and by those of Tsu-shima, a name rendered for ever glorious by Togo’s great victory on May 27th, 1905. The various straits are sufficiently narrow to be easily closed to an enemy by Japan’s splendid fleet.
Keystone View Co.A CRATER WITH EIGHTY VILLAGES, IN WHICH TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LIVETwenty thousand people live in eighty villages in the outer crater of Aso-san, probably the largest crater on earth, competing, says Professor Milne, with some of the great craters of the moon. The crater of Aso-san is from 10 to 14 miles across, and its wall is everywhere 2,000 feet high, the highest peak being Taka-dake, 5,630 feet.
Keystone View Co.
A CRATER WITH EIGHTY VILLAGES, IN WHICH TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE LIVE
Twenty thousand people live in eighty villages in the outer crater of Aso-san, probably the largest crater on earth, competing, says Professor Milne, with some of the great craters of the moon. The crater of Aso-san is from 10 to 14 miles across, and its wall is everywhere 2,000 feet high, the highest peak being Taka-dake, 5,630 feet.
Although Japan has remained immune from invasion throughout historical time, its proximity to the mainland, and especially to the Korean peninsula, led, in prehistoric ages, to its receiving from the continent an influx of immigrants who gradually conquered the insular natives, and whose descendants probably form the main stock of the present Japanese race. It was this proximity that brought the civilisation of China into Japan, in the first instance through Korea; the same route was followed by another mighty invasion of foreign thought, the introduction of Buddhism.
Keystone View Co.HAKONÉ LAKE AND THE GATEWAY TO THE INARI TEMPLE IN KIŌTOHakoné Lake, the top picture, is a delightful summer resort. The bottom picture, the avenue of Torii (portals), forming the entrance to a Shintō Temple at Kiōto, is a wonderful sight. There are over 400 Torii, arranged in two colonnades.LARGER IMAGE
Keystone View Co.
HAKONÉ LAKE AND THE GATEWAY TO THE INARI TEMPLE IN KIŌTO
Hakoné Lake, the top picture, is a delightful summer resort. The bottom picture, the avenue of Torii (portals), forming the entrance to a Shintō Temple at Kiōto, is a wonderful sight. There are over 400 Torii, arranged in two colonnades.
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Keystone View Co.A GLIMPSE OF THE BUSY NAGOYA CANAL AND OF THE PARK AT KUMAMOTONagoya is one of the great manufacturing cities of Japan, and a busy canal links the city with the port of Yokkaichi. The park of Suizenji, in Kumamoto, is a beautiful example of Japanese landscape gardening.LARGER IMAGE
Keystone View Co.
A GLIMPSE OF THE BUSY NAGOYA CANAL AND OF THE PARK AT KUMAMOTO
Nagoya is one of the great manufacturing cities of Japan, and a busy canal links the city with the port of Yokkaichi. The park of Suizenji, in Kumamoto, is a beautiful example of Japanese landscape gardening.
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No country has been better fashioned by Nature for the acquirement of sea-power than the Island Empire of the Rising Sun. Its enormous extent of coast-line, with countless indentations, especially numerous on the south-eastern coasts of Hon-shū, Shi-koku, and Kiū-shū, its many excellent harbours, naturally fortified by reason of the narrow entrances to the gulfs in which they are situated—for example: Nagasaki, in Kiū-shū, the naval stations at Sasebo, in the same island, Kure, in the Inland Sea, and Yoko-suka, near Tōkio Bay—and, above all, theexcellence of its seafaring population, supply the elements that give Japan the mastery in Far Eastern waters.
Seafaring Qualities of Japanese
In the thousands of hamlets nestling in the bays, large and small, and creeks of the Japanese islands, dwells a hardy race of fishermen, inured to peril and fatigue, men of brawny strength and indomitable pluck, frugal and enduring, as fine material for the manning of warships and trading craft as the world has ever known. The persistence of those seafaring qualities which the Japanese owe chiefly to the natural advantages of their island home—partly, no doubt, to a strain of the blood of Malay sea-rovers, perhaps also of Polynesian canoe-men—is a remarkable phenomenon. In olden times they were bold seafarers, roaming as far as the Philippines and the coast of Indo-China. The waters of Formosa and of Siam were the scene of their piratical exploits, for, like all nations destined to be great at sea, they passed through a period when the spirit of adventure, as much as the lust for spoil, made them into daring sea-robbers.
But, with the closing of Japan to foreign intercourse—save on a strictly limited scale—early in the seventeenth century, came the enactment of laws devised to prevent the Japanese from visiting foreign parts; the tonnage and build of ships were fixed by these decrees in such a manner that only fishing and coasting trips were thenceforward possible. This prohibition lasted for two centuries and a half; yet, on its removal, the germ of the seafaring qualities, supposed to have died out, was found to have been only in a state of suspended animation; it revived with surprising rapidity. In less than a quarter of a century it produced a navalpersonnelcapable of manning a highly efficient fleet of thirty-three sea-going fighting-ships; in ten years more the amazed world recognised Japan’s Navy as the triumphant victor in the greatest battle since Trafalgar, and coupled Admiral Togo’s name with that of Nelson.
The Sea as Japan’s Friend
The sea has, indeed, ever been Japan’s friend; to this day it supports a large number of the population, and, in a sense, it may be said to keep the whole nation alive, as the fish that teem in Japanese waters supply a considerable part of the people’s food. Every marine product available as nutriment is utilised, even seaweed of various kinds being largely used as food. Fishing seems to have been practised from the earliest times; it is probably in recognition of its antiquity and national importance that the Japanese of our day still affix to any gift a strip of dried seaweed, passed through a piece of paper peculiarly folded, the idea they thus symbolise being, it is said: “This is but a trumpery present, but it comes from a cheerful giver; be pleased to take it as it is meant. Remember our forefathers were poor fisherfolk; this strip of seaweed is to remind you that poverty is no crime.”
Japan’s Beautiful Scenery
There are many other customs connected with the harvest of the sea, and innumerable legends and folk-tales wherein the chief part is played by some marine spirit or by a visitor—deity or mortal—to the mysterious realms of the deep. And deep it is, for, off the eastern coast of Northern Japan, the sea-bed falls abruptly to a depression—the famous Tuscarora Deep, called after the United States warship of that name—of 4,655 fathoms, nearly 28,000 ft., or more than five miles, probably the deepest sea-bed in the world. The encircling sea forms an important part of most of the beautiful pictures the scenery of Japan offers to the delighted eye. Whether the waves dash tumultuously against the precipitous rocks of the south-eastern side of the main islands, especially of Shi-koku and Kiū-shū; whether the waters dance in the sunshine in the countless bays and creeks of those coasts where the frequency of the shelter afforded to fishing-craft led to an earlier and more dense settlement than on the north-west coast of Hon-shū; whether the far-famed Inland Sea shines like a mirror under the moonbeams, or the Sea of Japan tosses its grey billows or spreads a sullen expanse under the pall of fog caused by the meeting of warm and cold currents—in all its moods the ocean forms part of nearly all the grandest scenery of Japan.
SCENES IN JAPAN AFTER AN EARTHQUAKEThere is at least one shock of earthquake every day in Japan; there are 500 shocks in a year. As late as 1891 an earthquake wrecked two populous towns and destroyed two smaller ones. These photographs show the havoc of such earthquakes.
SCENES IN JAPAN AFTER AN EARTHQUAKE
There is at least one shock of earthquake every day in Japan; there are 500 shocks in a year. As late as 1891 an earthquake wrecked two populous towns and destroyed two smaller ones. These photographs show the havoc of such earthquakes.
YOKOHAMA: THE TOWN AND HARBOUR IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GREAT CHANGELARGER IMAGE
YOKOHAMA: THE TOWN AND HARBOUR IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE GREAT CHANGE
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OLD TŌKIO: THE CITY OF YEDO, SEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SHŌGUNS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARSThe “Japan Bridge,” one of the striking features of the capital of Old Japan, was regarded as the centre of the empire, and from it all distances were measured.LARGER IMAGE
OLD TŌKIO: THE CITY OF YEDO, SEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE SHŌGUNS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS
The “Japan Bridge,” one of the striking features of the capital of Old Japan, was regarded as the centre of the empire, and from it all distances were measured.
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The “Three Views,” known to every Japanese man, woman and child, for they are portrayed in countless pictorial representations, are sea-scapes. The 808 islets of Matsu-shima, with the thousand trees from which the group derives its name of Pine Islands, are the glory of the province of Sen-dai, in Northern Hon-shū; the hoary tori-i, or gateway, of the great Shin-tō temple at the sacred islandof Miya-jima, or Itsuku-shima—so holy that no birth nor death may take place on the island, and no dog is allowed there—stands firmly amidst the very waves of the Inland Sea; Ama-no Hashidaté, the “Sacred Bridge,” stretches its slender two-mile length of sandy spit, only 190 ft. broad—crowned, all along, with an avenue of pine-trees—into the blue waters of the gulf of Miya-zu, in the Sea of Japan.
The so-called Inland Sea, 240 miles long from its narrow western entrance, only one mile across, between Shimo-no-seki on the main island and Mo-ji, the busy colliery port in Kiū-Shū to its eastern extremity, where it joins the open sea through the Aka-shi and Naru-to Straits—it widens to forty miles where the Bungo Channel divides Shi-koku from Kiū-shū—is perhaps the most lovely sheet of salt water in the world. Studded with many hundreds of islands, every part of its expanse offers an enchanting prospect, the islets being often in clusters, making many stretches appear like lakes.
Water enters into the beauty of every Japanese landscape; districts remote from the sea have their lakes and rivers—generally short, swiftly-flowing streams, almost, sometimes quite, dry in summer, exposing beds of pebbles, but rushing torrents in the wet season.
Keystone View Co.MODERN YOKOHAMA: THE HARBOUR, SEEN FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE TOWN
Keystone View Co.
MODERN YOKOHAMA: THE HARBOUR, SEEN FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE TOWN
Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, and far-famed for its scenery; its area is about the same as that of the Lake of Geneva, and it is nearly as beautiful. Lake Chū-zen-ji, or Chū-gū-shi, is surrounded by luxuriant verdure at an altitude of 4,375 ft. above sea-level, and is surpassed in beauty by the smaller Lake Yumoto, higher up, in the sulphur-springs region, 5,000 ft. above the sea.There are many other lovely lakes in Japan, Lake Hakoné amongst them. Those just mentioned are singled out because they lie in the mountainous district round Nikkō, a region on the main islands, to the north of Tōkio, presenting, in their greatest beauty, characteristic features of Japanese inland scenery—imposing mountains, stately, venerable trees, and grand waterfalls comparable to those of Norway. The aspect of the Japanese islands is, as may be inferred, diversified, stern and rugged amidst the dark forests of the north, smiling in the sunlit regions further south, beautiful almost everywhere.
OVERLOOKING MODERN TŌKIO, THE CAPITAL OF JAPAN
OVERLOOKING MODERN TŌKIO, THE CAPITAL OF JAPAN
Looking over the Bay of 808 IslandsSunset among the pine-clad rocksThe White Co.A natural archSCENES IN MATSUSHIMA BAY, JAPAN
Looking over the Bay of 808 Islands
Looking over the Bay of 808 Islands
Sunset among the pine-clad rocks
Sunset among the pine-clad rocks
The White Co.A natural archSCENES IN MATSUSHIMA BAY, JAPAN
The White Co.
A natural arch
SCENES IN MATSUSHIMA BAY, JAPAN
The land is chiefly mountainous, the ranges running from south-west to north-east, interspersed with smiling valleys, fertile plains, chequered into regular squares by the narrow, raised embankments dividing the rice-fields, with, here and there, wild, desolate moors in places where even the untiring industry and agricultural skill of the people could not induce the stubborn ground to yield sustenance. Where anything useful can possibly be made to grow, the Japanese grow it. Beside plants of utility, they grow, to a greater extent than in any other land, plants intended only for pleasure, for the delight they give the Japanese eye by their beauty.
In no other country are flowers so reverently admired as in Japan; nowhere are they more skilfully grown and tended. Every month has a special blossom, and what may be termed its flower festival, when the people, high and low, rich and poor, go in their tens of thousands to seek happiness in the contemplation of Nature’s most delicate productions. The plum-blossom appears about a month after the New Year, and is followed by the far-famed cherry-flower early in April, when, in many ancient groves and on many hillsides, the lightest of delicate clouds, faintly pink, seem to have settled on the trees.
No words can do justice to the exquisite beauty of Japan in cherry-blossom time; it is then easily to be understood how dear the flower of the cherry is to the Japanese heart. To the people of Great Japan it is the emblem of patriotism and of chivalry, sharing their affections with the chrysanthemum, the badge of the empire. Other flowers grown to wonderful perfection are the peony, symbolical of valour; the graceful wistaria, the glowing azalea, the slim-stalked iris, the convolvulus, or “morning-glory,” in many strange forms, and the lotus, the sacred flower of Buddhism. Besides these and other cultivated flowers, Japan possesses wild blossoms galore that fleck its plains and valleys with colour. The leaves of the maple turn, in November, to hues of crimson and gold, clothing the woods with a glory to be equalled only in Canada.
The natural, beauty of Japan has undoubtedly fostered the æsthetic taste inborn with the Japanese of all classes. High and low, they admire and enjoy intensely the lovely scenes amidst which they dwell. This admiration and enjoyment are strong incentives to their patriotism. It seems to them that their beautiful country must indeed beKami-no-Kuni, “the Land of the Gods.” To travelled Occidentals, the scenery of Japan suggests, in places, the Norwegian fjords; in others, the smiling shores of the Italian lakes; at some points the coves of Devonshire, the rocky coasts of the Channel Islands, orthe pleasant hills of Surrey. That these impressions are correct is proved by the fact that Japanese travellers who visit any of these places never fail to recognise their similarity to some favourite spot in Japan.
The “backbone” of the southern half of the main island and of the whole island of Shikoku consists of rock, principally primitive gneiss and schists; Kiū-shū, Yezo and the northern half of the main island are partly, the Kurile islands—Chishima—entirely, volcanic. Subterranean fires still smoulder in many parts of Japan, many of the mountains being volcanoes, not all of them extinct. Fuji, the glorious cone so dear to the Japanese heart, uplifting its peak 12,365 ft. from the surrounding plain, is a volcano that erupted last in January, 1708. Fifty-one volcanoes, such as Asama and Bandai-san in Eastern Japan, Aso-san in Kiū-shū, Koma-ga-také in Yezo, have been active in recent years, some of them, especially Bandai-san, with disastrous results. Nor do only volcanoes threaten danger to the inhabitants of Japan: earthquakes are frequent—about 500 shocks yearly—and sometimes appallingly destructive of life and property.
The great earthquake in the Gifu region, in the central provinces of the main island, on October 28th, 1891, wrecked two populous towns—Gifu and Ōgaki—completely destroyed two smaller ones—Kasamatsu and Takegahana—killed about ten thousand people, and caused more or less severe wounds to nearly twenty thousand. In Japanese earthquakes, a great part of the destruction arises from the innumerable fires that break out when the flimsy houses—mostly of wood, with paper partitions, in sliding frames, between the rooms—collapse through the shock, scattering the glowing charcoal from the kitchens amidst heaps of highly inflammable materials. Earth-tremors bring not only fiery ruin in their train; they cause at times upheavals of the sea that work stupendous havoc. On the evening of June 15th, 1896, the north-eastern coasts of the main island were overwhelmed by a so-called “tidal wave.” The sea, impelled probably by a seismic convulsion on the bed of the Northern Pacific, rose in a wave of towering height and, rushing inland with terrific speed, engulfed whole districts. More than 28,000 lives were lost, and more than 17,000 people were injured.
Sea-girt gateway of Miya-ima, a famous Shintō shrineThe Sacred Bridge at NikkoThe White Co.View of Fuji-yama across MotosuTHREE FAMOUS SCENES IN JAPAN
Sea-girt gateway of Miya-ima, a famous Shintō shrine
Sea-girt gateway of Miya-ima, a famous Shintō shrine
The Sacred Bridge at Nikko
The Sacred Bridge at Nikko
The White Co.View of Fuji-yama across MotosuTHREE FAMOUS SCENES IN JAPAN
The White Co.
View of Fuji-yama across Motosu
THREE FAMOUS SCENES IN JAPAN
THE CEMETERY HILL AT NAGASAKI BEFORE THE MODERN EXPANSION OF THE TOWNLARGER IMAGE
THE CEMETERY HILL AT NAGASAKI BEFORE THE MODERN EXPANSION OF THE TOWN
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THE CRATER OF FUJI, THE MOST GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF JAPAN, MORE THAN TWO MILES HIGHJapan has fifty volcanoes that have been active in recent years; this picture shows the crater of the most famous mountain in the island empire. Fuji, the cone so dear to the Japanese heart, uplifts its peak 12,365 feet from the plain. It has not erupted since the beginning of 1708. No other natural feature in Japan comes so often into its pictures as Fuji.LARGER IMAGE
THE CRATER OF FUJI, THE MOST GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF JAPAN, MORE THAN TWO MILES HIGH
Japan has fifty volcanoes that have been active in recent years; this picture shows the crater of the most famous mountain in the island empire. Fuji, the cone so dear to the Japanese heart, uplifts its peak 12,365 feet from the plain. It has not erupted since the beginning of 1708. No other natural feature in Japan comes so often into its pictures as Fuji.
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