NOTES ON JAPAN.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 8557, 27 July 1889, Page 5 (Supplement)

NOTES ON JAPAN.

[By J. o.] If it is possible to choose any other time no one should visit Nikko during the winter or in the early spring, as the cold and discomfort incidental to the trip at these seasons almost outbalances all that one sees of the glories of art and nature—however, as neither time, tide, or steamers wait for anyone I set out from Tokio, accompanied by a friend, on the 24th of March, en route for the North. The country between Tokio and Utsonomyiawas, if rather flat, still pretty enough. The picturesque looking homesteads nestling amid the dark fir trees, and, surrounded by trim vegetable gardens and blossoming fruit trees, gave quite a home-lika appearance to the landscape—their whitewashed walls and thatched roofs bearing a strong resemblance to many a little cottage home in England. About two hours after we had started we came in sight of the range of Nikko mountains—tho name "Nikko," a Chinese word signifying '" sun's brightness," was given to this mountainous region by the Saint Koto Diishi on his first visit to the place some 10 centuries ago, and certainly he could not have chosen a more appropriate designation. It was an exceedingly beautiful sight to see, across the fields yellow with waving grass and the hills pearl-grey with deciduous trees, these darkblue mountains, towering into the heavens, their snowy peaks just caught by the morning rays of Iho sun, and glittering and sparkling like jewels against the paler azure of the sky. At CJtsonomyia, where we arrived at halfpast 9 o'clock, the railway portion of our journey ended, and we set out in jinrikishas to finish the last 20 miles of the distance. We picked our two pair of coolies from among a crowd of others with a keen eye to their muscular development, and we were justified in our selection by their never flagging once during the whole day. They ran nimbly along in tandem fashion, laughing and joking; nor did their inexhaustible fund of spirits seem to suffer any diminution during the live and a-half hours which we took to perform the journey. Except for a break occasioned here and there by some villages or small town the whole way from Utsonomyia to Nikko is through a broad avenue of lofty trees. One passes mile after mile of the giant crypto- I gamia, its towering branches meeting overhead, and its gnarled roots stretching far out fan-shaped into the road. We found it terribly cold as we passed under these trees, through whose dense foliage no ray of the sun could pierce, and we felt more grateful

than ever to our useful little " kairos," which kept our hands and feet in a warm glow, notwithstanding the' bitter cold prevailing around. I There were any number of pact horses passing to and fro between the distant villages. These poor animals present a very I dejected appearance, which not all the gaiety of- their trappings can remove; thore is the same expression of soured discon- , tent_ upon all their faces, as i£ they were | meditating upon wrongs too deep for utterance. Their huge padded saddles are covered with coloured cloth and mattine, and from two wooden bars, in front and behind, hang panniers laden with vegetables, straw, wooden shoes, firewood, or other merchandise. The crupper is of scarlet cloth, and padded to the thickness of a man's arm. Over their flanks and shoulders hang pieces of fringed netting or matting, and on their shoeless feet are tied sandals of straw. It is curious that the Japanese should eio most things in exactly the reverse way from us. They write from right to left, we from left to right; their keys turn one way, ours another ; we put the saddle cloth under the saddle, they put it under the horse. These blue cotton aprons which are fastened at the four corners to the saddle give the poor ponies a very ridiculous appearance—it may be that they suffer from a knowledge of this fact, and to that can be attributed their soured expression of countenance. Nikko lies 2000 ft above the level of the sea, but so good is the roadway and so gradual the ascent ws scarcely felt the incline at all. At 1 o'clock we stopped for our tiffin at the inevitable tea house, but our sojourn inside was of very brief duration. On the flooring of the principal apartment was an excavated space about a yard square, and in the middle of this hole on the ground a fire was burning. Of course, owing to there being no escape for the smoke, it was naturally diffused through the room and through the house. Given sufficient time, they say one can get' used to anything; and certainly the 20 or 30 men and women sitting round the fire smoking and drinking tea seemed to suffer no inconvenience from the prevailing atmosphere; but we preferred tp eat our sandwiches outside in the cold. I noticed aEterwards that this style of fireplace is invariably adopted in these parts. , As we entered the town of Nikko our men put on a spurt and rattled us along in firstrate style. They pulled up short at the principal tea house in the main street, in the hopes that we, like many other travellers, would be gullible enough to believe their statement that it was the best hotel in the place ; but on finding us too knowing to be thus taken in, with a shrug of their shoulders and a merry laugh they took, up their burden once more, and so we passed on, over the river, up the hill to the Nikko Hotel. The river Daiya-gawa runs between the town and the temples, which lie opposite on the hill side, enshrined amid a forest of cryptogamia: it is spanned about lOy ds above the ordinary bridge by the famous one of red lacquer. This sacred red Bridge was built in 1638 to commemorate the fact that here Shodo-Shonin on his first arrival on the scene eight centuries before was conveyed across the running water by a friendly dragon assisted by a rainbow rope. Hundreds of pilgrims from all parts of Japan pass over this bridge every autumn on their way to worship at one of the many shrines erected by the saint in the mountains, and for them and the Mikado is ..its use exclusively reserved. It is said to have needed no repairs since its erection, but this is not to be wondered at, considering the small amount of traffic which passes over it. Above the shop doors in Nikko, as in most Japanese towns, are to be seen some very curious signs, perhaps the two quaintest being "The Root Shop," with its branch business " The Diverging Shop." It would form an interesting and also a somewhat difficult study to go through Japan and endeavour to decipher the moaning of the sign-boards in the f arious towns which have been put up by the inhabitants for the bone- , fit of foreign travellers. For instance, what but a brilliant flash of genius, or a glance into the interior of the shop, could convey to one's intelligence the fact that the two untranslatable words " Onaips snop " point the way to the purchase of wicker chairs, or again, that "Bitmaertbe" is the outward and visible sign of a saddler's business. A notice over the door of a pharmacy in Tokio tells us that there we can procure the " Best pdrfuming Antiflea,' 1 while a rival establishment boasts of the possession of " Antimetic of nausia manna." What the " Horse-maker instructed by French horse-luck" may be is still to me an unravelled mystery. I passed the shop one day while hurrying to the railway station, and was never afterwards able to find it. A domestic and foreign agency is thus graphically described: " Before Slatem Wadder and Co. carrying' everything states at home'and every places a list." A Japanese who seems to be the personification of accomodation, advertises that " If you want buy watch I will sell, if you want sell watch I will buy; yes, sir, we will, all will." But it is time to return to Nikko, where we arrived cold and tired at half -past .1 ; o'clock, and where we found the intelligence ! awaiting us that the party who intended to have joined us from Yokohama, and who were to have brought with them a guide, had been unexpectedly detained, and would not ' arrive till after our departure. At first this piece of news seemed very disastrous, but an obliging young Japanese in the office of the hotel, who spoke English fluently, placed his services at our disposal; and so after all we fared better than if we had had to depend upon a professional cicerone, for the knowledge of English possessed by these latter very often leaves much to be desired. - About 10 minutes' walk from the hotel are the famous images. The guide-book says there are 200 of them, but I did not count nearly so many. It is a common belief, though, that no two people can ever make the number the same. These gods line the right bank of the Daiya-gawa for some" distance ; they are all in a sitting posture, and although they vary in size, bear a resemblance to each other. They rest there beside the rushing river, with calm, placid faces, and outstretched palms, waiting for | the offering which no devout Japanese in passing fails to add to the pile of stones already accumulated within their hands. They are gradually acquiring a clothing of moss and lichen, which has been bestowed by kindly nature in the course of long centuries ; many of them are now missing from their pedestal, and a large majority are defaced and shattered. We had left bright spring weather behind us in Tokio, but in Nikko it was still bitterly cold. We found, as we had been warned, that the hotel accommodation was not at all fitted for winter entertainment; in fact, in the whole house there were only two rooms with stoves in them, and both of these were already engaged. I may remark en passant that these apartments becoming vacant the next day, we joyfully hailed the chance of moving into them; but after an hour or two spent in an atmosphere of blinding smoke we returned sadder and wiser to our old quarters and to our old friend the " hibasehi." In the evening the hotel was besieged by curio dealers. Among the objects of " brie a brae" which they offered for sale were all kinds of ornaments and bronze lamps, filched from the temples and sold to them by the priests. It seems a pity that they should be allowed to rifle these beautiful works of art