WANDERINGS IN ASIA.

Bush Advocate, Volume V, Issue 354, 16 August 1890, Page 10

WANDERINGS IN ASIA.

By James Campbell. Kobe and kioto. The sights of Kobe are strictly limited. The chief one is the falls, about three miles out of the town. It may be shortly described as very pretty. At these falls I first encountered one of the peculiar customs ef ' Japan. There is a tea-house immediately at the foot, a thing which if erected at any waterfall in Australia would. raise a perfect howl of indignation from all the {Esthetic people of our land, but a Japanese teahouse being picturesque in appearance., and filled with equally pioturosque natives, it becomes quite another matter, and puts the very persons into raptures who in this part of the world would go into a passion. At this tea-house a young German and myself ordered tea, and sat down on the usual platform to drink it at leisure. The custom of the country is that the waitress sits closo at hand and soemß to make one of the party. The damsel who hai to serve us sat down as if to take tea with us, somowhat to our surprise and embarrassment, and proceeded to mako some remarks, which were doubtloss amiability itself, but which, we unfortunately did not understand. As she chattered on, smiling at us more and more largely, we were absolutely put to flight, and sat there either of us fit to be taken as a model for a statue of gawkiness. At last I called out to our guide, who was outside, " Hey, come here. What's this girl talking about r" ' "Oh, it's all right, six," he replied, '♦ she is only saying some, complimentary things, and hoping you are pleased." We were quite relieved, for really our modesty was beginning to take alarm. We bade our interpreter cay we were greatly pleased, and henceforward we had peaoe. I never afterwards found any of those young persona so voluble, but whenever I was addressed I at once got out of any embarrassment by smiling charmingly, and assuring them in English, thaf^l 'was delighted with the tea, the place and everything^ There are several temples in Kobe, but they are not worthy of mention alongside of the glories of Kioto, Tokio, and Nikko. I saw at one of the Kobe temples what I did not see elsewhere- — that ia a fair, or something very like a fair, being held in the temple grounds, Immediately I passed inside the gates I found myself between two long rows of booths, where various things were for sale, chiefly those pertaining to eating and drinking. There was a largo crowd, and at the end of the booths, within a few feet of the temple itself, was a Japanese Cheap Jack. It was really most amusing and interesting to listen to the inflections of the fellow's voice, and to note the drollory of his style. Even though ' I could not understand what he was saying, there was enough in his manner to make me laugh. He was a born comedian, and the bursts of laughter testified to his powers. As I looked at the temple, and then at the booths and the crowd, it seemed to me to throw a side-light on that famous scene of eighteen centuries ago when Christ drove" out the trafficking 1 multitude from the temple in Jerusalem. Drawing noarer, I noticed a large rope attached to a bell, which from tiino to time was rung. This was done to call the attention of the god of the temple to the worshipper, and his or her gifts. How strikingly anthropomorphic ideas show themselves At the one extreme we have the enlightened European sceptic, who believes there is a God, but who holds the universe is too vast for that God to take any notice of paltry human affairs — the mind of God, in short, is not large enough to take in all the potty details ef human life — and at the other extreme we have the Japanese, who must needs tinkle a boll so as to call the attention of his god to the faot of his worship. Which, at root, ia the smaller or more human view of God ? In a certain sense one of the most interesting nights of Kobe was the Government dockyurds. In this there was nothing Japanese but the men. The usual run of lathes, punchlng-raachines, furnaces, cranes, and so forth, suoh as may be seen at a large foundry anywhero. The whole thing was intensely European, but I looked at the scores of busy Japanese with the keenest interest. I did not see a European at any part of the works. Manager, foremen, clerks, and artisans were all Japanese. There were three fair-sized vessels on the stocks, and as I looked at them there came into my mind a feeling that these insignificant little men would never bo able to move those masses of iron and wood into the water. But the weighty faot was that they would do so, and all required about those ships, from the laying of the keel until the first churn of the screw, would bo done by men who only twenty years ago could not have built anything bettor than a larce sized junk. I oxamined the castings | and brass fittings, and found them to be well finished and sound. The whirl of the machinery, the roar ot the furnaces, were sonorous voices telling of an epoch past and gone and a new era inaugurated. There, before my eyes, I saw in concrete form that which I have spoken of before as the awakening of the East, and the rivalry of the yellow races with the white. We have compelled Japan to open her gates to us, we have taught her lessons in mechanical skill, and now she is profiting by our instructions. She took our professors into her colleges, our skilled artisans into her workshops and factories, and meekly submitted to be taught. Having learned with much dooility all we could teach her, she is now politely bowing tho professors out of the colleges, and smilingly dispensing with the services of tho foreign artisans and foremen. I hoard that complaint a great many times in China and Japan. Is there anything really to complain of? Absolutely nothing-. They were engaged for a term, and, that tetm being fulfilled, they are politely shown out of the door. If nations are to proceed on tho lines of exolusivoness, what can be said? Tho real question of tho future is whether humanity or nationalism is to triumph. If the former, the men will obtain work in any country on their owu merits — honesty, morality, and skill— apart from raco or geographical considerations, but if the luttor, then each nation will conserve its own advantages, and will regard race and place of birth as the primary matters. The Japanese evidently hold the latter viow at present, and they have imitators elsewhere. It is a run of a little under three houi'd from Kobe to Kioto. Pnrt of tho way the country is densely populated, but in other parts there are open spaces, and comparatively few people. I confess myself somewhat puzzled by the land statistics of Japan, Tho total area of tho empire is 91,416,040 acres, of which l],ss'J,:i(J2 acres only are under crops, the rest being made up of over sixteen millions of acres of forest, nearly 1,000,000 acres of house grounds, and tho balance described as ' ' uncultivated lands.' 1 This gives the surprising total of sixty-five millions of acres of land not yet taken up in this old and over-crowded empire. Doubtless grazing" utilises a small proportion of this area, but it seems astonishing- to think of so vast a territory lying- unused, even though wo know tho most of it consists of mountains find stoop valleys. But the remarkable fact is brought out that if these statistics be correct the population crowds upon the lowlands to such an extent that tho area which has to feed each person all the year round is a little over a, quarter of an acre. Does it scorn credible to us that a quarter of an aero of tho finest land wo know of can feed one human being from year's ond to year's end? It certainly does not. Wo know, however, that in Bengal about half an iicro per head is tho area for over sixty-six millions of men, women, and children" and thus the smaller area of ' Japan becomes credible. 'When realised 1 what an amazing- fact it is, and how it ! expands our ideas of tho carrying capacity of ; this old world of ours. And if, at last, tho [ world has crowded \ipon it a human being to every quarter of an aoro, will it be a better and a happier world ? i Kioto is famous for its history, ita templos, and its manufactures. It was the old capital of Jopan, and the soat of the Mikado in

the days when that potentate was kept in sti-laf; seclMo»., and invested with a semidlymity. The Asiatio mind dwells fondly on this ibought, and it is perhaps owing to tire god element imported into their conaeptions of a ruler that their dynasties have lasted 1 so ' long. The world has never seen* so 1 violent a contrast in all its ■ history as that of the mysterious Mikado, wrapped round with silence and seclusion, suddenly stepping out of his strange. inner chambers and taking part in a court ball as* Emperor of Japan, dressed in swallow-tailed coat, while . shirt front, and patent leather boots. Is it a portion of the sing idea that there should bo an evolution of the king or emperor in hia purely secular funotionß from the mysterious personage who is regarded in the commencement as a god or a descendant of the' gods P In our day we have still the Grand Llama ofTibet, who is looked upon as more god than man ; the Emperor of Chiiia, who ib invested with semi-divinity ; the Emperor of Russia, who is the head of the Russian Church; the Queen of England, who is simply Defender of the Faith; and, finally, the President of the United States, who is a secular ruler pure and simple, and around whom not even the devoutest imagination could weave any web of faith as to his being a god or the descendant of ft god. Even now, when the Mikado is divested of. all his semi-divine oharaoter, there is something to inspire reverence in the fact that he is the ' latest member of an unbroken dynasty which has lasted for over 2,600 years. There is no royal family in the world to compare in duration with that of Japan. There are two great temples in Kioto, the Nishi Hongwanji and the Higashi HongwanjL As we observe the' details and the general plan of these temples, -we note the uninventiveness in architecture of the Japanese mind. All the temples are exactly' of the same design, or nearly so. The styles of architecture m Europe differ immensely, but the style in China and Japan is almost alike throughout these empires. The main body of the building is a parallelogram or a square, a curled roof, a few pillars, and you have the whole. The Higashi Honwahji is now in the course of re;building ? 'and a most impressive building it ia. The material is wood, but the effect is not lessened; indeed, itisratherheiglitenedby the great logs we see used. The carpentry is i the finest example of working in wood on a large scale to be seen in any part of the world. One of the curiosities of the place is an immense rope, about a foot in oiroumference, 1 which waa used for hauling the logs. That rope is probably the only one of its own sort in the world, being made out of women's hair. There seems something ridiculously incongruous in a huge cable made of such material for the rough purposes of dragging timber about, and yet every straad of that cable had interwoven into it a thought of womanly faith and womanly devotion. It waa amusing to note in all the temples the collecting boxes. Unlike our mincing and gingerly plates and bags the Japanese priests boldly put down a receptacle compared with which a horse trough is small and triviaL They put bars across the top so that the money ,can fall in, but cannot be taken out except frflm the side next the altar. There axe no baneroientlooking ohurch stewards following the plate with placidly anxious eyes, or severe-looking elders standing Cerberus-like at the kirk door to sorutinise the modest coin you put in, and still more, to take good care that you take nothing out. It is- the most absolute example of the voluntary system in the world, and the constant clink of the coins seems to iudioate that revenue flows in satisfaotorily. I noticed that all the coins were oopper, and seemed much about the same size, from which I inferred that Japan possessed some equivalent to that invaluable coin, bo widely known among \us,> and so much loved, , the precious tbieep&toy bit. What a costly thing saTvati6n :: would seem to many fafcrly well-to-do people if there were no silver coin less than sixpence. Yet it may be conceded £hat they ought to know best how to estimate fchoir own value. By way of contrast, the Japanese hava temples in which are gods many, and temples in whioh there is but one godi In the San/usangendo there ore 1,200 gods, one with twenty-four arms. The long lines of deities stuck up on shelves like an array of goods for sale is distinctly ridiculous . Another temple ia dedicated to 8,000,000 gods. The Dai^Butser, on the other hand, is a gigantic image, standing solitary and stately, apparently neglected and going to decay. The Hondo of Chionin is notable for Us beautiful situation and great bell— lßft. high, Bft. in diameter, and 9jin. thick. The Japanese, like the Chinese, ore strong in bells. They work in bronz* admirably, and though they have no single bell to equal tho great bell outside Pekin, they have yet somo very fine specimens of bell-casting, this Chionin bell being one of the finest. It is very curious to note, but it seems the fact, wiat high civilisation tends to destroy bells, and especially great bells; or I might put it another way, and say that bells denote a more natural state of taste and society as contrasted with the artificial society where they fall into disuse* There are many other sights and Boenes of Kioto which I might dwell upon, but I haaten on. The streets are broad and wellkept in many parts, the rows of lanterns aro very artistic eyon during tho day, and in some of the principal streets a sign of the times was observable in that the shopkeepers had their names and businesses painted in English on their shop-fronts. The various industries are extremely interesting, notably the places where porcelain is manufactured and oloisonnc work done. The Japanese are undoubtedly the artists of Asia, and in nothing ia it so apparent as these two branches of art and m their woodwork. It is to bo noted that nearly all their native manufactures are allied with art. When, it comes to the manufacture of matches or thing's generally prosaic but useful, they require to be taught by the Europeun. Of late years they havo been going into all sorts of manufacturing speculations, and getting their fingers burned. There is no reason, however, why they should not ultimately be oajiuoutly successful iv every branch of trade. They have all tho elements of success, cheap material, cheap labour, and au industrious people. I went to one of their public; entertainments, ami wont with high hopes. I looked forward, from what I had been told, to something unique, quaint, charming. The building astonished me, to begin with, by its poor, I might almost say mean, interior. There was some instrumental playing, whioh I suppose by, courtesy I must call music, and then about a dozen girls walked down a platform ou tho one side, and a dozen on tho other, and commenced a dance. Tho motions were slow, deliberate, graceful. Absolute |;>ropriety and decornm marked every movement. It was a contrast in strongcolours to the lascivious suggestlveuess atul veiled indecency of the ballfct of tho West. .1 never ceapc wondering afc the patronage of this form of amusement by pure-minded ladies in our midst. Tho facos of the girls as they danced were absolutely expressionless, or if they expressed auythiug it was that thoy were oujoyiug the performance liko toolliacho. At the back scones were ciuHitosl in dumb show, on two occasions tho actors, Beoncry and all, being lifted bodily upwards into tho ceiling, bnt, done with noiso itnd iiccossorios eminently suggestive of a contractor's crano or a steam winch. 'Watching the people was onjoyablo ; about quarter of nu hour of tho performance was cxi-i-llent, but after that it bocamo wearisome in tho extreme, and I hailed the end of it with much relief. When 1 get out into tho open air again — for the performance was in the afternoon— it was with the feeling that I had not the smallest hankering to sco another Ja pane so performance of a similar sort for the tcim of my natural life.