SWASHBUCKLERS. 鞘 straggle through the valleys, or stretch over the surrounding plain. One feature which we are wont to associate with a great capital is every where wanting. Yeddo lay their account that their dwellings will come tumbling about their heads once in every seven years. The official quarter, where are the residences of the great nobles, presents to the street a range of barrack-looking structures with narrow grated windows stretching for hundreds of yards from a central gateway. Within and behind this range of barracks are the low buildings which constitute the abode of the family, the precincts of which are ground sacred from all foreigners. One of the first things which strikes us in our studies of street life in Yeddo is that there are two great classes wholly distinct in manners, habits, and character. The official class, consisting of the nobles, with their throngs of idle retainers, and the common people. The retainers of the nobles, known as Samourai or Yaconin, are entitled to wear two swords. They are perfect types of the Swashbucklers once so common in European cities; swaggering, blustering bullies, usually drunk, and always insolent, loitering about the drinking-houses, ready to give a thrust or a blow to any one who comes in their way, and specially prone to insult for WE WON'T GO HOME TILL MORNING. There are no imposing buildings. Nature has placed an effectual bar upon all attempts at architectural display. Japan is the land of earthquakes. One a week, great and small, appears to be the average at Yeddo. So houses are built with the intent of withstanding any ordinary shock. Lofty, solid structures are out of the question. Wealthy people build their dwellings only one story high. One floor and a garret above is the rule in cities where land is valuable; a warehouse of two stories now and then is to be seen; beyond that altitude there is nothing. The bells of the temples are hung in low belfries. The frame-work of the houses is of solid wooden work, filled in with mud and laths to keep out the cold and heat, covered with projecting roofs, slightly though rather pretentiously constructed. If there is a stone foundation it is laid without mortar, so as to have a kind of elasticity. Such houses are not easily shaken down; yet the inhabitants of eigners. They consti tute the only dangerous class in Yeddo; to them is to be charged the long series of outrages and murders which have marked the history of the foreign missions to Japan. The common people, on the other hand, are a remarkably good-tempered, quiet race; ingenious, industrious, and courteous always; a lit SLIGHTLY ELEVATED. tle given to indulgence in saki, the national strong drink; rather prone to lying, and, especially in the case of shopkeepers, no mean proficients in the art of cheating. The Russian Mujick is the nearest European representative of the Japanese. Their invariable courtesy to each other and to strangers is something remarkable. It is worth while to see a couple of Japanese, in holiday costume, salute each otherbending forward, sliding their hands down to their knees, and uttering their greetings with a deep drawn inspiration, as though the satisfaction of such a meeting could only be expressed by sounds coming from the very bottom of their hearts. The Japanese language seems framed for courtesy. It is as liquid and musical as the Italian. Saionari, the national salutation, loses nothing in softness by comparison with the French adieu JAPANESE GREETING. or the Italian addio. It is full, too, of delicate euphemisms, which a foreigner can hardly hope to master in a lifetime, all designed to express how much the speaker holds the hearer to be his superior. Thus, instead of the pronoun SAIONARI. "I," the Japanese will say Témaié, "The person before your hand;" instead of "thou," Anatta, "Your side." If he speaks of the females of his own family, a Japanese will call them onago domo, "my poor women;" but he must designate his friend's family as Jochou gata, "Your noble ladies." The attitude of a servant or workman, when addressing his master or employer, is respectful but not slavish; but when one approaches his official superior, he prostrates himself in a posture of the deepest humiliation. The aspects of street life vary, of course, with the localities. In the official quarter every thing is quiet and still, unless we happen to encounter a Daimio, setting off on some business in his norimon, preceded and followed by a crowd of retainers carrying his baggage; for it is a matter of etiquette with these nobles not to make the shortest journey without a great display of attendants and impedimenta. The norimon is urgent duty. Even the middle classes have an imitation of the norimon called a cango, which is simply a wicker-work frame, shaped like our letter U, in which the rider coils himself up, UANGO. disposing of his legs in a way which we could | not maintain for half an hour; but a Japanese will keep this position for a whole day's journey with apparent comfort. Indeed the legs of an Oriental seem to be constructed on a different principle from ours. When a Japanese wishes to rest, instead of throwing himself into a chair, he squats down, and sits on his heels in a position which would be torture to us. The business streets present an aspect of stirring life, some of the features of which are represented in the illustrations. There are shop-keepers carrying their wares to the residences of their customers-for here goods go in quest of buyers quite as often as buyers come in quest of goods; stout porters, four of them, pushing and hauling a clumsy cart piled up with merchandise, for horses are unknown as draught animals; a music-girl, most likely belonging to the class which we designate eu NORIMON. phemistically as the "social evil," on her way to a temple or a tea-house, a servant bearing her instrument; a group of itinerant musicians, making what to our ears is a hideous discord, but which the Japanese find melodious, and so reward with a few "cash;" a gang of jolly beggars, who enjoy themselves hugely; a party of jugglers, some of whom perform feats of skill which put to shame those of our most accomplished performers; and over and above and around these the hum and bustle of a thousand,industries. One sight, common here, is unknown out of Japan. Long rows of Coolies, each with a couple of conical buckets slung over his shoulders, or a file of pack-horses similarly equipped. These are, however, so closely covered that the foreigner is under no absolute nasal necessity of knowing that they contain the contents of the privies of the great metropolis. Nothing of this sort is wasted in Japan; and so the great cities, instead of impoverishing, actu YACONIN ON SERVICE. AT REST. MUSIC-GIRL AND SERVANT. ally fertilize the surrounding country. The Japanese have learned that every thing taken from the soil in the way of food must be returned to it, or sterility will ensue sooner or later. Another odd feature which one meets continually is a man with his head and face completely covered by a huge basket-shaped hat. Not unfrequently the masked person is so busily engaged in reading as to be apparently quite unconscious of all that is passing around. These men are presumed to be penitents, expiating some offense against conscience, or disgraced officers sen- The domestic life of the Japanese is almost tenced to this half-public penance. But it is as open to inspection as that of the streets. A more than whispered that it is often a disguise house in the capital, "with all the modern imunder which outcasts and criminals shelter them-provements," consists of a single room, open in MUSICIANS. selves when wishing to escape observation or planning new villainies. front, and looking out in CARRYING HOME GOODS. er's and furnisher's bill offers no impediment to a young couple's going at once to housekeeping. The little house provided, each brings a cottonstuffed quilt and a box for wearing apparel for personal use. A pan to cook rice, half a dozen cups and trays to eat from, a large tub for washing and bathing, and a lacker cabinet for miscellaneous purposes are added on common account, and the house is amply furnished. Here, open to public view, all household and domestic affairs are carried on. The print shops are full of illustrations depicting the phases of everyday life. Some of these we reproduce: Paterfamilias, in his little garden, is blowing soap-bubbles to the infinite delight of his progeny. A mother is giving her son lessons in the art of playing the shuttlecock. The mistress of the house is scolding her servant. Ladies and gentlemen are making their toilets, preparatory for a visit of ceremony. An old gentleman is enjoying the luxury, after being shampooed and shaved, of having his hair twisted into a stiff queue, preparatory to being turned over the top of his bare crown. A clothes merchant is chaffering with a customer, evidently puzzled by the vehemency with which the intending purchaser is crying down the merits of the coveted article. The dress of the women affords full scope for the pencil of the satirist in Japan as elsewhere; they delight in exaggerating the scrimpiness of the skirt, as much as our caricaturists do in enlarging the voluminousness of the crinoline of our belles. Conjugal quarrels, of course, occur even in Japan, and afford abundant material for the artist. One sketch, which we reproduce, represents an irate dame who has discovered her husband in possession of a love-letter of portentous size. She is taking the law into her own hands with a vigor which shows that the doctrine of woman's rights has practical believers in Yeddo. In another the husband, aggravated beyond endurance, has seized ink-block and tablet in readiness for writing a bill of divorce. The broken dishes scattered in the fore-ground evince that the conjugal discussion has not stopped at A PENITENT. |