IN A DAY IN TOKIO. N an English railway-carriage, over an English railroad, built by English engineers, we entered a most European and commonplace station, and half expected to find a long line of English hansoms drawn up before it; but the moment we left the station behind us we were in Japan,-not in Yokohama or Kobe, where Europe has robbed Asia of the larger part of her personality, but in Tokio,-in Yedo, whose very name is redolent of Oriental mysteries. Fifty or more jinrikishas-overgrown baby-carriages with the babies spilled out-were waiting for us. The light, well-built boy or man who has charge of this vehicle performs more functions than even the driver of an American "bob-tail" car. He is coachman, footman, and team. His clothing, not more extensive than the lightest of harnesses, does not interfere with his movements or conceal his person in any appreciable degree. He tucks you in as if you were a veritable infant, places himself between the shafts, and, with a little grunt, shoots off at a speed that for a moment takes your breath away. You feel like a big baby; you are sure you look like one; you laugh at yourself, and look out of the corners of your eyes to see if every one else is not laughing at you; you expect that some one will hand you up a bottle with rubber-tube attachment; but every one, except yourself, is apparently oblivious of the grotesque figure you cut. You conclude such sights must have been seen there before, and you begin to look around you with less consciousness of the subjective and more of the objective. You are bowling along over a smooth metalled road between rows of small wooden houses, all open to the street, into which you look through parlor and sleeping-rooms and kitchen at a glance, with a foreigner's curiosity, and see all the activities of a Japanese household in various stages of progress. Our intelligent equine, with more than quadrupedal instinct, took us directly to Tsukiji, the name given to the particular quarter of Tokio which we might call the European Ghetto, for the foreigners are confined here almost as rigidly as the Jews of the Middle Ages were to their reservations in Continental cities. A hundred or more pretty cottages stretching for half a mile along the seashore, gravelled side-walks shaded by trees, a large mansion—the American Legation-at one end of the settlement, with the stars and stripes flying over it, such is the first impression of Tsukiji, the home of some of the noblest missionaries and teachers in all Asia. One of the former very kindly took us under his special protection, and, having doubled our teams, thus making a tandem, one man running ahead with a rope fastened to the shaft drawn over his shoulder, we started off at a good square trot toward the temple of Asakusa, at the other side of the city. The children shouted at us as we swept by, as they had done in Peking; but instead of the Chinese word Funqui "foreign devils"-we heard the much more musical Opio,-" good-morning: how do you do?" We were constantly reminded of the Chinese capital by other striking contrasts. There were no black clouds of dust rising over us and settling upon us with a very appreciable palpableness. There were no scowling mandarins looking at us with glances made up of six parts of hatred and six parts of contempt. There were no funeral carts jolting by, within whose cavernous recesses some long-suffering mortal was slowly being tortured to death. There were no odors comparable in unmitigated horribleness to some of the more effective sorts that abound in all the larger Chinese towns. There were no men with long-handled scoops throwing on the streets the water black with filth from the gutters and sewers. With any one of the five senses in fair working order, one would have no difficulty in deciding immediately that this was a Japanese and not a Chinese city. The temple of Asakusa is the NotreDame of Tokio. Of all the religious buildings in the city, it is by far the most popular and the dirtiest. There are crowds of worshippers here at all hours of the day. There is a continuous clapping of hands and jingling of money in the great box before the altar. These two sounds combined are supposed always to awaken the goddess Kwan-non in all her three-and-thirty terrestrial embodiments." Besides the exquisite lacquer-work inlaid with gold, of which one never tires in Japan, the most interesting thing in the temple to us was a hideous little black wooden image, with a pink-and-yellow cloth bib around its neck, of one of Buddha's favorites, Bindzuru, the helper of the sick. This is the nineteenth century, and Japan is our nearest neighbor, and has gun-boats and torpedoes and telegraphs and railroads; but here were Japanese womennow and then a man came too-rubbing this image on the particular part that in their own bodies was giving them pain, and then themselves, and expecting that for this attention Bindzuru would intercede to have them cured. On entering this temple we had passed through a long line of booths, where every imaginable cheap Japanese trinket was being sold; and going out we found the ground in the rear similarly occupied, with larger tents for side-shows of fat women and athletes and trained birds mixed in. The Oriental does not ordinarily differentiate closely between the secular and the religious. Our bipeds were well rested, and drew us along like blooded horses to the much more beautiful though less popular temple of Uyeno. We entered through a long avenue of street-lanterns instead of booths. We had not yet dreamed of such gorgeousness. In lavish use of gold and color India has nothing comparable to it. Then we went to the tombs of the Shoguns, for centuries the actual rulers of Japan. After Uyeno we expected something magnificent, and we were not dis appointed. The effect is in no degree due to any overwhelming immensity of size. The second temple,-it is really a chapel, the more beautiful of the two, is not more than sixty feet long; but Japanese art has exhausted itself on ceiling and walls and shrines. From here we trotted the whole length of the city to Shiba, before the unfortunate fire of 1874 the largest and grandest of all the temples of Japan. Two or three small temples connected with it still remain intact. Here, in an octagonal hall, we found what is called "the most magnificent specimen of gold lacquer in Japan." Japan." It is the tomb of the second Shogun, and is of lacquered wood on a stone pedestal. As a work of art it is not unworthy a place in the room of the Dresden Gallery consecrated to the Sistine Madonna. Through the kindness of Mr. Sannomya, sometime Secretary of the Japanese Legation in Berlin, and now connected with the Foreign Office in Tokio, an appointment had been made for us to call at noon on one of the royal princes, an uncle of the present Mikado. He traces back his descent, as the old Greek heroes did, and as all the Mikados and their families must, to the gods. The Hapsburgs and Hohenzollerns are upstarts of yesterday, compared with the imperial house of Japan. The time was, and that within the memory of some now living, when no one but his wives and the highest officials of his court ever looked upon the face of a Mikado. Our prince happened to be born a little too late absolutely and comparatively to take his place among the Japanese divinities, but he has played a prominent part in the active history of Japan since her awakening after the long sleep of centuries. turies. He is commander-in-chief of the imperial army, and fought bravely, it is said, in crushing the late rebellion under the last of the Shoguns. As we were rolling along in our jinrikishas toward his palace, we heard behind us the shouts of two bettos, or grooms, running, as they always do, before royal carriages, to clear the way, and the prince himself, dressed as a European general, he had just been to the review of some regiments, passed us in a European coach. He spent some months in Europe, and became as thoroughly Europeanized as the Japanese nearly always do when they come under foreign influence. We found his palace somewhat smaller than, but in other respects not unlike, the English Embassy. We were met at the door by two servants in European costume, but retaining still something of the Japanese elaborateness of salutatory genuflection, and were shown into a drawing-room much less Japanese in its general appearance than some of the prettiest rooms in the finest houses of London and New York. Part of the furniture was of Japanese lacquer, and an immense suit of armor of iron and silk, worn by the prince in his last campaign, stood before the bay-window; but the carpet and the whole arrangement of the room were unmistakably English. A side-door opened, and the prince entered, accompanied, to our great delight, by the princess. Mr. Sannomya had told us, on the way to the palace, that he had been brave enough to ask that we might see the princess also; but so momentous a request needed much consideration he had received no answer, and did not know till he saw the princess enter that she would come. She is the only wife of the prince, and, while sharing some of his European ideas, has never travelled, has come in contact with comparatively few foreigners, and still clings to the national costume. She has a pleasant, motherly face, and wore a dress of some soft material in color and form not unlike that of a Philadelphia Quakeress. The prince looked younger than the princess, -about thirty-five, I thought. He is a brunette of the most pronounced Sicilian type. He wore an undress European military coat. There was nothing to indicate the high rank of either, except a star on his breast, and a jewelled comb in her hair. Mr. Sannomya introduced us in Japanese,-neither the prince nor the princess speaks any other language,-and they both shook hands very cordially and invited us to be seated. After we had expressed, through Mr. Sannomiya, our appreciation of the high honor which had been conferred upon us in permitting us to present ourselves before their royal highnesses, Mr. Damon, formerly Secretary of Legation for the Hawaiian Islands at Berlin, for whom the reception had been arranged, addressed himself to the princess; but, though she smiled and seemed pleased when his complimentary salutation had been translated to her, she evidently looked upon the masculine sex with something of Oriental awe, for she made no response. She had pushed off her delicately-embroidered slippers on taking her seat, and we could see that her little foot was nervously tapping the carpet. The prince came to her relief, and asked Mr. Damon about King Kalakaua, who had visited Tokio on his way to Europe only a month or so previous. After Mr. Damon had answered inquiries as to the king's health, the prince talked on for some minutes concerning the very favorable impression the king had made upon the Mikado and all who had seen him while in Japan. Then he turned to me,-by this time the princess had entirely recovered from the shock of Mr. Damon's question.-and inquired about General Grant: "Did he get safely home?" and " Where is he now?" was, fortunately, able to answer both these questions satisfactorily, and the prince smiled on us benignantly. Then we asked the prince as to his English and American experiences. He has travelled in both countries, and of course he expressed himself as having been delighted with all that he saw. We drew another smile from the princess, by saying that the prettiest things now in England and America had come from Japan. prince then asked how we had come to Japan, how long we intended to stay, and what particular things we wished to see. Unfortunately, we were to leave the next morning, or, we both felt sure by the tone of his question, he would have invited us to lunch. When we had answered this group of questions, we rose to go. Both the prince and I The the princess shook hands with us again, -we thought, with even a shade more heartiness than at the first,-as if our departure was, if possible, even more agreeable to them than our coming, and the two servants in European clothes bowed us out with Oriental prostrations. to take off his shoes in public, he has even a still greater disinclination to sitting down in a large company when there is nothing to sit on. We looked furtively around the pretty room, and saw at a glance how perfectly all the soft colors blended; but the light fell, to our horror, upon no chair, or couch, or diA semi-diplomatic dinner had been van. The Japanese were already placing arranged at Mr. Damon's house for the themselves in a circle on the matting, evening. When King Kalakaua was in like tailors, and there was nothing for Tokio he dined at the Nobles' Club, an us to do but to follow their example. organization of aristocratic young Jap The moment we were seated, young anese, and decorated with the Hawaiian girls brought in little lacquered trays, order some twenty of its leading memon which there were all sorts of pretty bers, who had been on the committee china dishes, and placed one before each to receive and care for his highness of us. I examined mine with some while in the city. To show their appre- interest, and found on it, of things I ciation of these royal favors, these gen- recognized at once, a pair of choptlemen asked the privilege of entertain- sticks, a bowl containing soup, and a ing Mr. Damon, whom they still looked saucer with some kind of confectionupon as an Hawaiian representative, at ery in the form of maple-leaves. The the same club. Accompanied by the maple-leaf is the coat of arms of this Hawaiian Consul, to whose kindness we club, and was stamped, as we soon diswere more than once indebted while in covered, on the fans and dishes, and even Tokio, we rode in our jinrikishas to on the dresses of the waitresses. Out of the door of the club, where we were met the corners of our eyes we watched our by a number of servants and requested Japanese friends, to see what we were to to take off our shoes. There is some- do, and found that they were watching thing startling at first to an Occidental us, as their etiquette never allows them in such a suggestion. He doesn't mind to eat until their guests have begun. taking off his coat in public, but to ap- Fortunately, Mrs. Sannomya had already pear in a promiscuous company in his passed through similar experiences, and, stockings is rather a shock to his idea imitating her, we raised the bowls to our of the fitness of things. How does he lips, drank the soup, and then, with the know, too, what masculine Occidental chop-sticks, ate the pieces of meat that has the perpetual assurance,—that there had escaped the first process. After this may not be a hole somewhere in the course, other trays, with other little articles about to be exposed? But we dishes on them, were brought in; and as obeyed, and gave each other a consoling this was repeated many times during the glance, as the result was not unfavorable, evening, and as nothing was removed, and walked on over the most delicate the half-moon of matting in front of us of white mattings and up a stairway of was soon covered with enough pretty polished wood to a reception-room, where trays and dishes to have satisfied the the members of the club were waiting to æsthetic longings of the most enthusiaswelcome us,―all, like ourselves, in their tic devotee of bric-à-brac. This is the stockings. Mrs. Sannomya, the charm- Japanese idea of a feast. When the ing English wife of our Japanese friend, room is absolutely full, the dinner is was the only lady present; and after we an undeniable success. Of the almost had paid our respects to her we were numberless courses that followed each introduced to those members of the other, there were only two concerning club whom we had not before met. which we were able to guess even apThen we were invited to be seated. proximately as to what they were. The Much as the ordinary Occidental dislikes | first of these was raw fish,-not smoked, or salted, or modified in any degree by its passage through the kitchen of the Nobles' Club from the condition in which it had been taken a few hours before from the Bay of Tokio. The second, we thought, was roasted horse-chestnuts with icing on them. When the pangs of hunger had been stayed by these delicacies, three young girls came in, seated themselves on the floor, and began to sing and play upon some sort of stringed instrument. They sang a weird, monotonous chant, as unique in its way as the raw fish and candied chestnuts. Mr. Nagasoki, who sat next to me, a graduate of Michigan University, and now Household Secretary to the Mikado, told me that he could remember the time when such music gave him far more pleasure than the singing of a Patti or a Nilsson, or the playing of a Rubinstein or a Von Bülow, as it does still to the Japanese ear that has not suffered from foreign training. Then followed more courses of mysterious viands, and then the door opened again, and two dancers entered. They each carried fans, and these played quite as important a part in the dance as their feet. The slowest and most dignified of European round dances is a wild, reckless plunge, compared with the stateliness of this Japanese dance. Their dress was as modest as a nun's. Their movements were as graceful as the flitting of shadows. When the applause -more hearty, I thought, than that which had been given to the singershad died away, an ex-Daimio, or nobleman, in whose order, till within a few years, much of the power of Japan centred, came forward, treading carefully among the dishes, and, kneeling before Mr. Damon, bowed till his head touched the matting, and said, "The visit of his Royal Highness the King of the Hawaiian Islands gave great pleasure to his Imperial Highness the Mikado of Japan, and to us the subjects of his Imperial Highness. We hope that your excellency on returning to the islands will be pleased to carry to his Royal Highness King Kalakaua the salutations of his Imperial Highness the Emperor and the respectful greetings of us his Imperial Highness's subjects.” To which Mr. Damon replied that he should esteem it a great privilege and honor, immediately on returning to Honolulu, to present to his Royal Highness the King of the Hawaiian Islands this highly flattering expression of esteem from his Imperial Highness the Mikado of Japan, as well as from the noblemen and gentlemen now present. The Daimio touched his forehead again to the floor, and worked his way cautiously out among the dishes. Then a gentleman who is the proud possessor of a sword presented to him by Queen Victoria in recognition of his services in saving the life of Sir Harry Parkes from the attack of a mob in Kioto, made his devious way toward Mr. Damon, touched his forehead to the floor, and presented his salutations in language not less Oriental than that of the Daimio. During his speech both my legs fell asleep, in disgust at the ignominious treatment to which they had so long been exposed. I had no immediate consciousness of contact with the outward world. This, combined with the strangeness of the whole scene, made me imagine for an instant that I had been transformed by some skilful Japanese juggler into the mysterious creature cut in two in the middle whose picture one sees on the outside of all wandering Oriental shows in Europe. Suddenly, to my inexpressible delight, Mrs. Sannomya, who, I fancy, had become the victim of a not less horrible, if not similar, day-dream, rose to her feet, and the dinner was over. We expressed our thanks, said our farewells, put on our shoes, and hurried back to the hotel and got something to eat. CHARLES WOOD. |