Unbeaten Tracks in Japan | Page 9

were miles of dark, silent, barrack-like
buildings, with highly ornamental gateways, and long rows of
projecting windows with screens made of reeds--the feudal mansions of
Yedo--and miles of moats with lofty grass embankments or walls of
massive masonry 50 feet high, with kiosk- like towers at the corners,
and curious, roofed gateways, and many bridges, and acres of lotus
leaves. Turning along the inner moat, up a steep slope, there are, on the
right, its deep green waters, the great grass embankment surmounted by
a dismal wall overhung by the branches of coniferous trees which
surrounded the palace of the Shogun, and on the left sundry yashikis, as
the mansions of the daimiyo were called, now in this quarter mostly
turned into hospitals, barracks, and Government offices. On a height,
the most conspicuous of them all, is the great red gateway of the
yashiki, now occupied by the French Military Mission, formerly the
residence of Ii Kamon no Kami, one of the great actors in recent
historic events, who was assassinated not far off, outside the Sakaruda
gate of the castle. Besides these, barracks, parade-grounds, policemen,
kurumas, carts pulled and pushed by coolies, pack-horses in straw
sandals, and dwarfish, slatternly-looking soldiers in European dress,
made up the Tokiyo that I saw between Shinbashi and the Legation.
H.B.M.'s Legation has a good situation near the Foreign Office, several
of the Government departments, and the residences of the ministers,
which are chiefly of brick in the English suburban villa style. Within
the compound, with a brick archway with the Royal Arms upon it for
an entrance, are the Minister's residence, the Chancery, two houses for
the two English Secretaries of Legation, and quarters for the escort.

It is an English house and an English home, though, with the exception
of a venerable nurse, there are no English servants. The butler and
footman are tall Chinamen, with long pig-tails, black satin caps, and
long blue robes; the cook is a Chinaman, and the other servants are all
Japanese, including one female servant, a sweet, gentle, kindly girl
about 4 feet 5 in height, the wife of the head "housemaid." None of the
servants speak anything but the most aggravating "pidgun" English, but
their deficient speech is more than made up for by the intelligence and
service of the orderly in waiting, who is rarely absent from the
neighbourhood of the hall door, and attends to the visitors' book and to
all messages and notes. There are two real English children of six and
seven, with great capacities for such innocent enjoyments as can be
found within the limits of the nursery and garden. The other inmate of
the house is a beautiful and attractive terrier called "Rags," a Skye dog,
who unbends "in the bosom of his family," but ordinarily is as
imposing in his demeanour as if he, and not his master, represented the
dignity of the British Empire.
The Japanese Secretary of Legation is Mr. Ernest Satow, whose
reputation for scholarship, especially in the department of history, is
said by the Japanese themselves to be the highest in Japan {3}--an
honourable distinction for an Englishman, and won by the persevering
industry of fifteen years. The scholarship connected with the British
Civil Service is not, however, monopolised by Mr. Satow, for several
gentlemen in the consular service, who are passing through the various
grades of student interpreters, are distinguishing themselves not alone
by their facility in colloquial Japanese, but by their researches in
various departments of Japanese history, mythology, archaeology, and
literature. Indeed it is to their labours, and to those of a few other
Englishmen and Germans, that the Japanese of the rising generation
will be indebted for keeping alive not only the knowledge of their
archaic literature, but even of the manners and customs of the first half
of this century.
I. L. B.

LETTER IV

"John Chinaman"--Engaging a Servant--First Impressions of Ito--A
Solemn Contract--The Food Question.
H.B.M.'s LEGATION, YEDO, June 7.
I went to Yokohama for a week to visit Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn on the
Bluff. Bishop and Mrs. Burdon of Hong Kong were also guests, and it
was very pleasant.
One cannot be a day in Yokohama without seeing quite a different class
of orientals from the small, thinly-dressed, and usually poor-looking
Japanese. Of the 2500 Chinamen who reside in Japan, over 1100 are in
Yokohama, and if they were suddenly removed, business would come
to an abrupt halt. Here, as everywhere, the Chinese immigrant is
making himself indispensable. He walks through the streets with his
swinging gait and air of complete self-complacency, as though he
belonged to the ruling race. He is tall and big, and his many garments,
with a handsome brocaded robe over all, his satin pantaloons, of which
not much is seen, tight at