It Is Keeping Festival; There Are Lanterns
And Flags On Every House, And Crowds Are Thronging The Temple
Grounds, Of Which There Are Several On The Hills Above.
It is a
clean, dry place, with beautiful yadoyas on the heights, and
pleasant houses with gardens, and plenty of walks over the hills.
The people say that it is one of the driest places in Japan.
If it
were within reach of foreigners, they would find it a wholesome
health resort, with picturesque excursions in many directions.
This is one of the great routes of Japanese travel, and it is
interesting to see watering-places with their habits, amusements,
and civilisation quite complete, but borrowing nothing from Europe.
The hot springs here contain iron, and are strongly impregnated
with sulphuretted hydrogen. I tried the temperature of three, and
found them 100 degrees, 105 degrees, and 107 degrees. They are
supposed to be very valuable in rheumatism, and they attract
visitors from great distances. The police, who are my frequent
informants, tell me that there are nearly 600 people now staying
here for the benefit of the baths, of which six daily are usually
taken. I think that in rheumatism, as in some other maladies, the
old-fashioned Japanese doctors pay little attention to diet and
habits, and much to drugs and external applications. The benefit
of these and other medicinal waters would be much increased if
vigorous friction replaced the dabbing with soft towels.
This is a large yadoya, very full of strangers, and the house-
mistress, a buxom and most prepossessing widow, has a truly
exquisite hotel for bathers higher up the hill. She has eleven
children, two or three of whom are tall, handsome, and graceful
girls. One blushed deeply at my evident admiration, but was not
displeased, and took me up the hill to see the temples, baths, and
yadoyas of this very attractive place. I am much delighted with
her grace and savoir faire. I asked the widow how long she had
kept the inn, and she proudly answered, "Three hundred years," not
an uncommon instance of the heredity of occupations.
My accommodation is unique - a kura, or godown, in a large
conventional garden, in which is a bath-house, which receives a hot
spring at a temperature of 105 degrees, in which I luxuriate. Last
night the mosquitoes were awful. If the widow and her handsome
girls had not fanned me perseveringly for an hour, I should not
have been able to write a line. My new mosquito net succeeds
admirably, and, when I am once within it, I rather enjoy the
disappointment of the hundreds of drumming blood-thirsty wretches
outside.
The widow tells me that house-masters pay 2 yen once for all for
the sign, and an annual tax of 2 yen on a first-class yadoya, 1 yen
for a second, and 50 cents for a third, with 5 yen for the license
to sell sake.
These "godowns" (from the Malay word gadong), or fire-proof store-
houses, are one of the most marked features of Japanese towns, both
because they are white where all else is grey, and because they are
solid where all else is perishable.
I am lodged in the lower part, but the iron doors are open, and in
their place at night is a paper screen. A few things are kept in
my room. Two handsome shrines from which the unemotional faces of
two Buddhas looked out all night, a fine figure of the goddess
Kwan-non, and a venerable one of the god of longevity, suggested
curious dreams.
I. L. B.
LETTER XIX
Prosperity - Convict Labour - A New Bridge - Yamagata - Intoxicating
Forgeries - The Government Buildings - Bad Manners - Snow Mountains - A
Wretched Town.
KANAYAMA, July 16.
Three days of travelling on the same excellent road have brought me
nearly 60 miles. Yamagata ken impresses me as being singularly
prosperous, progressive, and go-ahead; the plain of Yamagata, which
I entered soon after leaving Kaminoyama, is populous and highly
cultivated, and the broad road, with its enormous traffic, looks
wealthy and civilised. It is being improved by convicts in dull
red kimonos printed with Chinese characters, who correspond with
our ticket-of-leave men, as they are working for wages in the
employment of contractors and farmers, and are under no other
restriction than that of always wearing the prison dress.
At the Sakamoki river I was delighted to come upon the only
thoroughly solid piece of modern Japanese work that I have met
with - a remarkably handsome stone bridge nearly finished - the first
I have seen. I introduced myself to the engineer, Okuno Chiuzo, a
very gentlemanly, agreeable Japanese, who showed me the plans, took
a great deal of trouble to explain them, and courteously gave me
tea and sweetmeats.
Yamagata, a thriving town of 21,000 people and the capital of the
ken, is well situated on a slight eminence, and this and the
dominant position of the kencho at the top of the main street give
it an emphasis unusual in Japanese towns. The outskirts of all the
cities are very mean, and the appearance of the lofty white
buildings of the new Government Offices above the low grey houses
was much of a surprise. The streets of Yamagata are broad and
clean, and it has good shops, among which are long rows selling
nothing but ornamental iron kettles and ornamental brasswork. So
far in the interior I was annoyed to find several shops almost
exclusively for the sale of villainous forgeries of European
eatables and drinkables, specially the latter. The Japanese, from
the Mikado downwards, have acquired a love of foreign intoxicants,
which would be hurtful enough to them if the intoxicants were
genuine, but is far worse when they are compounds of vitriol, fusel
oil, bad vinegar, and I know not what. I saw two shops in Yamagata
which sold champagne of the best brands, Martel's cognac, Bass'
ale, Medoc, St. Julian, and Scotch whisky, at about one-fifth of
their cost price - all poisonous compounds, the sale of which ought
to be interdicted.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 47 of 112
Words from 47120 to 48140
of 115002
