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.
