JAPAN, a general name for a great number of islands lying between the eastern coast of Asia and the western one of America, and which all together form a large and potent empire. They extend from the 30th to the 41st degree of latitude, and from the 130th to the 147th of east longitude.
Were South and North Britain divided by an arm of the sea, Japan might be most aptly compared to England, Scotland, and Ireland, with their respective smaller islands, peninsulas, bays, channels, &c. all under the same monarch.
The Europeans call the empire Japan; but the inhabitants Nippon, from the greatest island belonging to it; and the Chinese Cippon, probably on account of its eastern situation; these names signifying, in both languages, the Basis or Foundation of the Sun. It was first discovered by the Portuguese, some time betwixt the years 1535 and 1548.
Most of the islands which compose it are surrounded with such high craggy mountains, and such shallow and boisterous seas, that sailing about them is extremely dangerous; and the creeks and bays are choked up with such rocks, shelves, and sands, that it looks as if Providence had designed it to be a kind of little world by itself. These seas have likewise many dangerous whirlpools, which are very difficult to pass at low water, and will suck in and swallow up the largest vessels, and all that comes within the reach of their vortex, dashing them against the rocks at the bottom; insomuch that some of them are never seen again, and others thrown upon the surface at some miles distance. Some of these whirlpools also make a noise terrible to hear.
The Chinese pretend that the Japan islands were first peopled by themselves: but it is more probable that the original inhabitants were a mixture of different nations, driven thither by those tempestuous seas, and at different times; and this conjecture is confirmed by the great difference observable between the present inhabitants, in regard to feature, complexion, shapes, habits, customs, and language, notwithstanding their having been so long united under one monarch.
As these islands lie in the fifth and sixth climates, they would be much hotter in summer than England, were not the heats refreshed by the winds which continually blow from the sea around them, and to which they are much exposed by the height of their situation: this circumstance, however, not only renders their winters excessive cold, but the seasons more inconstant. They have great falls of snow in winter, which are commonly followed by hard frosts. The rains in summer are very violent, especially in the months of June and July, which on that account are called sat-suki, or water-months. The country is also much subject to dreadful thunders and lightnings,
as well as storms and hurricanes, which frequently do a great deal of damage.
The soil, though naturally barren and mountainous, by the industry of the inhabitants, not only supplies them with every necessary of life, but also furnishes other countries with them; producing, besides corn, the finest and whitest rice, and other grains, with a great variety of fruits, and vast numbers of cattle of all sorts. Besides rice, and a sort of wheat and barley, with two sorts of beans, they have Indian wheat, millet, and several other kinds, in great abundance. Their seas, lakes, and rivers, abound with fish; and their mountains, woods, and forests, are well stocked with horses, elephants, deer, oxen, buffaloes, sheep, hogs, and other useful animals. Some of their mountains also are enriched with mines of gold, silver, and copper, exquisitely fine, besides tin, lead, iron, and various other minerals and fossils; whilst others abound with several sorts of marble and precious stones. Of these mountains, some may be justly ranked among the natural rarities of this country; one, in particular, in the great island of Nippon, is of such prodigious height as to be easily seen forty leagues off at sea, though its distance from the shore is about eighteen. Some authors think it exceeds the famous Peak of Teneriffe; but it may rather be called a cluster or group of mountains, among which are no less than eight dreadful volcanoes, burning with incredible fury, and often laying waste the country round about them: but, to make some amends, they afford great variety of medicinal waters, of different degrees of heat; one of these, mentioned by Varenus, is said to be as hot as burning oil, and to scorch and consume every thing thrown into it.
The many brooks and rivers that have their sources among the mountains, form a great number of delightful cascades, as well as some dreadful cataracts. Among the great variety of trees in the forests here, the cedars exceed all of that kind through India, for straightness, height, and beauty. They abound in most of the islands, especially the largest.
Their seas, besides fish, furnish them with great quantities of red and white coral, and some pearls of great value, besides a variety of sea-plants and shells; which last are not inferior to those that are brought from Amboyna, the Molucca and other eastern islands.
The vast quantity of sulphur, with which most of the Japan islands abound, makes them subject to frequent and dreadful earthquakes. The inhabitants are so accustomed to them, that they are scarcely alarmed at any, unless they chance to be very terrible indeed, and lay whole towns in ruins, which very often proves the case. On these occasions, they have recourse to extraordinary sacrifices, and acts of worship to their deities or demons, according to the different notions of each sect, and sometimes even proceed to offer human victims; but in this case they only take some of the vilest and most abandoned fellows they can meet with, because they are only sacrificed to the malevolent deities.
With respect to religion, that of the Japanese is allowed by all writers to have been downright heathenism and idolatry from time immemorial. They do not seem so much as to have any sort of notion of a Supreme Creator; but believe the world to have existed from
from eternity, and that the gods they worship were men or beings that lived on earth several thousands of years, and were afterwards, for their piety, mortification, and even by their voluntary death, raised to that height of power and dignity they have ever since enjoyed. They are divided, however, into various sects; probably according to the various nations that first settled there. One of them is called the sect of Sinto, which is that of their philosophers and moralists, whose professors, like the Chinese literati, despise all notions of public worship and popular superstition. Every person here is at liberty to choose what sect pleases him best, no compulsion being used by the government or by the parents. Most of the sects believe a future state of bliss or misery, though they are not agreed about the nature and duration of it: the generality, however, think that it will consist in a transmigration of the soul from one body to another, more or less excellent and happy, according to their behaviour in their late state; and that this revolution will continue, as well as the world, to eternal ages. All the different sects, or at least the priests and priestesses of them, however divided in other respects, agree in regarding the five following negative precepts as absolutely binding; 1. Not to kill, nor to eat any thing that is killed; 2. Not to steal; 3. Not to defile another man's bed; 4. Not to lie; 5. Not to drink wine. From the example of their two chief deities, Amida and Xaca, the Japanese have a notion of its being such a meritorious thing to dispatch one's self, that great numbers of them embrace, in the most public manner, a voluntary death, either by drowning, hanging, or flinging themselves down from a precipice, or by poison, dagger, or any other quick riddance. The followers of Xaca commonly drown themselves; but those of Amida shut themselves up in some close confined place, where they have just room to sit, and, being immured on every side, have only a little hole to breathe through by means of a small cane, and never cease calling on that deity till they expire.
There is not a country in all the east that abounds more with temples and monasteries than this: not only cities and towns, but plains and mountains, and even deserts, swarm with them; for the priests here, like those of the church of Rome, are either secular or regular. The former live in private houses of their own, allow themselves one or two wives, and live on the income and offerings made to their respective temples and deities, and are at their own liberty as to the practice of abstinence and other severities: the regulars live in communities, under their respective superiors, and lead more or less reclusive and austere lives, according to their sects. Some of the monasteries contain a thousand, or even more of them, who, besides a perpetual celibacy and other mortifications, are all bound to observe the five rules before mentioned. Both secular and regular are under the government of the daïro or high-priest, who is the head of all the religions and sects in the empire. Besides the multitude of idols in their temples, there is a great number of others set up in their other public buildings, in their piazzas and markets, streets, and even public roads.
The Japanese have a great variety of festivals as of sects and deities, which it would therefore be endless
to describe: they consist in general in the anniversary of their gods and of their dead relations.
Christianity, if Popery deserves that name, had once made a considerable progress in this country; but, about the year 1622, a dreadful persecution was raised against the missionaries, and all that adhered to them, occasioned partly by the indolent zeal of the former, partly by the jealousy of the unconverted nobles, but especially of the Japanese priests, who could not, without the greatest envy and regret, behold their old religion, with all its powerful attractives of profit, popular esteem, and respect, daily losing ground; but more particularly by the policy and treachery of the Dutch, who found effectual means to undermine them. All the Christian converts were put to death; and the Europeans, except the Dutch, forbid to come within the Japanese dominions under the severest penalties.
With respect to the government of these islands, it is and has been for a long time monarchical; though formerly it seems to have been split into a great number of petty kingdoms, which were at length all swallowed by one. The imperial dignity had been enjoyed, for a considerable time before the year 1500, by a regular succession of princes, under the title of daïros, a name supposed to have been derived from Daïro the head of that family. Soon after that epoch, such a dreadful civil war broke out, and lasted so many years, that the empire was quite ruined. During these distractions and confusions, a common soldier, by name Tayekoy, a person of obscure birth, but of an enterprising genius, found means to raise himself to the imperial dignity; having, in little more than three years time, by an uncommon share of good fortune subdued all his competitors and opponents, and reduced all their cities and castles. The daïro, not being in a condition to obstruct or put a stop to his progress, was forced to submit to his terms; and might perhaps have been condemned to much harder, had not Tayekoy been apprehensive lest his soldiers, who still revered their ancient natural monarch, should have revolted in his favour. To prevent this, he granted him the supreme power in all religious matters, with great privileges, honours, and revenues annexed to it; whilst himself remained invested with the whole civil and military power, and was acknowledged and proclaimed king of Japan. This great revolution happened in 1517, and Tayekoy reigned several years with great wisdom and tranquillity; during which he made many wholesome laws and regulations, which still subsist, and are much admired to this day. At his death, he left the crown to his son Tayekosama, then a minor; but the treacherous prince under whose guardianship he was left, deprived him of his life before he came of age. By this murder, the crown passed to the family of Jossama, in which it still continues. Tayekoy and his successors have contented themselves with the title of cubo, which, under the daïros, was that of prime minister, whose office is now suppressed; so that the cubo, in all secular concerns, is quite as absolute and despotic, and has as extensive a power over the lives and fortunes of all his subjects, from the petty kings down to the lowest persons, as ever the daïros had. The daïro resides constantly at Meaco, and the cubo at Jedo.
The Japanese traffic with the Chinese, Koreans, and people of Jetzo: but, of the European nations, the Dutch alone are suffered to trade with them; having declared, as some say, after the expulsion of the Portuguese, that they were no Christians; but more probably on the merit of supplanting and assisting in expelling the Portuguese: for it is impossible that the Japanese can be ignorant that the Dutch profess Christianity, as they trade to China; and we find the Japanese use as much caution in their commerce with the Dutch as if they were really Christians.
At the season that the Dutch fleet is expected, the governor of Nangasake places sentinels on the hills to give notice of the approach of any ships. When they appear, a boat is sent off to every ship, with a waiter or officer; and as soon as the ships come to an anchor, an express is immediately dispatched to court, before whose return the Dutch may not dispose of any thing. In the mean time, the particulars of every ship's cargo are taken, with the name, age, stature, and office, of every man on board, which is translated and printed in the Japanese language. When the express is returned, the ship's crew are permitted to come on shore, and are all mustered before a Japanese commissary; and every person is called over aloud, and made to give an account of his age, quality, and office, to see if it agrees with the particulars given in by the Dutch: after this examination they are sent on board again, and the sails of the ship, with the guns, arms, ammunition, and helm, are brought on shore, and the hatches sealed down by a Japanese officer; nor can they be opened, whatever the ship's crew may want, without a permission from the governor, who always sends a person to see what is taken out, and seal them down again; nor dare the Dutch sailors light a candle or make any fire on board their ships, any more than on shore. The ships are allowed no communication with one another; nor is any officer or sailor suffered to go on shore, except the persons who are appointed to carry the company's present to the king at Jedo or Yedo. His majesty having accepted the present, and prepared another for the company, the Dutch officer is conveyed to Nangasake under a strong guard as he came. This journey, and the transacting their mercantile affairs, usually take up about three months and a half.
The Dutch, who attend the king on this occasion, approach him on their knees, with their hands joined together, and carried to their foreheads, as the Japanese governors and ministers also do.
While the Dutch ships lie in the road, none of the Japanese are allowed to go on board them to trade with the sailors; and those that carry provisions on board are not suffered to take any money for them till the permission to trade comes from court, and then they deliver in their accounts and are paid. After this, the Japanese permit six persons from every vessel to come on shore, and buy and sell for themselves, and stay four days, either in Dismia or in the city, as they see fit; when these six men return on board, six others are allowed to go on shore and traffic in the like manner, and so on.
The goods are generally paid in bullion or pieces of silver, of ten or five crowns value, or smaller pieces by weight; for they have no coin, except some little
pieces of copper.
After six weeks free trade, there is no further communication allowed of between the city of Nangasake and the Dutch in the island of Dismia, or with the shipping; whereupon the fleet prepares to return, and the factory in Dismia are confined to their little island again, until the season of the year for traffic returns.
With respect to the character of the Japanese, they are generally very active, and of a quick apprehension and good understanding, modest, patient, and courteous, and excelling all the Orientals in docility. They are so just in their dealings, that one may absolutely depend on their word; and, contrary to the Chinese, disdain to take the least advantage of those they deal with. They are all very industrious and laborious, and much given to study and reading. They affect a surprising neatness and decency in their eating, drinking, furniture, dress, and conversation; and have an abhorrence to intemperance, luxury, and defamation. Drunkenness and gluttony are as much detested by the rich and poor, as cheating and dishonesty. This is the bright side of their character. On the other hand, they are represented as proud, ambitious, cruel, and uncharitable; and so insensible of the miseries of their fellow-creatures, that they will suffer them to perish, rather than relieve them. They are likewise said to be so passionate and revengeful, that they will make away with themselves if they cannot find an opportunity of revenging an affront. They allow not only of polygamy, but also of fornication: but there is still a more heinous and unnatural vice laid to their charge, viz. that of sodomy, which is not only committed with impunity, both by priests and laity, but without either brand or disgrace. In their wars they are very fierce and cruel, seldom giving or asking for quarter; and when a town is taken, they commonly destroy it by fire and sword. Like the Chinese, they are so given to astrology, that they scarce undertake anything of moment, without consulting some pretender to that art. There is a vast number of universities dispersed all over the empire, in which the bonzas preside, richly endowed, finely situated, and accommodated with all the conveniences of life, as well as with large libraries.
The Japanese laws and punishments are severe beyond all justice; and may be justly said, like those of the Spartan Draco, to be written in blood. They have few, if any, written laws, the emperor's will being the supreme one, and next to it that of the kings and princes in their respective dominions. The very lords of every district, and even the heads of every family, have power of life and death over all that are under them, and try and condemn them according to their will. There is scarcely any crime so small, that is not punished with death, except the offender be a petty king or prince, and even these are not always exempted. Every petty larceny, insult, detraction, cheating of any kind, even at play, a lie or prevarication before a magistrate, are all capital, as well as the more heinous crimes of treason, murder, parricide, incest, rape, adultery. Their most common way of putting criminals to death, is by crucifixion with their heads downwards, boiling in oil, tearing them to pieces by horses, or cutting them in pieces by the hangman. For the highest crimes, not only the criminal, but his parents also, brothers, and even children, are all put
to death. The Japanese have but very little skill in physic and surgery. In the cure of diseases they depend much on their medicinal waters, and on certain roots and plants, particularly the root ginseng, brought from China. The operation of blood-letting is performed by pricking the belly with a fine needle, made either of gold or silver. By this acupuncture they not only assuage, but effectually cure, an endemic colicky disorder common among them, and called shenki. The other diseases to which they are most liable, are the dropsy, diarrhoea, small-pox, bloody-flux; but the gout, stone, and gravel, are hardly known among them.
The Japanese are much addicted to poetry, music, and painting; the first is said to be grand as to the style and imagery, looseness, and cadence; but, like that of the Chinese, is not easily understood or relished by the Europeans. The same may be said of their music, both vocal and instrumental; the best of which, of either kind, would hardly be tolerable to a nice European ear. They are better painters than the Chinese, but much inferior to the Europeans; most of their performances in that kind, are either in water-colours on paper, fine leather, &c. or in their japanning and fine porcelain-ware. What is most to be admired in their paintings, is the singular beauty of the colours, in many of which they greatly excel us.
They pretend, like the Chinese, to have been the inventors of printing from time immemorial, and their method is the same with theirs on wooden blocks; but they excel them in the neatness of cutting them, as well as in the goodness of their ink and paper. They likewise lay claim to the invention of gunpowder; and are vastly superior to the Chinese in the use of all sorts of fire, especially of artillery, as well as the curiosities of their fire-works.
Their manner of writing is much the same as that of the Chinese, viz. in columns from top to bottom, and the columns beginning at the right and ending at the left hand. Their characters were also originally the same, but now differ considerably.
Their language hath some affinity with the Chinese, though it appears from its various dialects to have been a kind of compound of that and other languages, derived from the various nations that first peopled those islands. It is not only very regular, polite, elegant, and copious, but abounds with a great variety of synonima, adapted to the nature of the subject they are upon, whether sublime, familiar, or low; and to the quality, age, and sex, both of the speaker and person spoken to.
The Japanese are commonly very ingenious in most handicraft trades; and excel even the Chinese in several manufactures, particularly in the beauty, goodness, and variety of their silks, cottons, and other stuffs, and in their japan and porcelain wares. No eastern nation comes up to them in the tempering and fabricating of scimitars, swords, muskets, and other such weapons.
The Japanese architecture is much in the same taste and style as that of the Chinese, especially as to their temples, palaces, and other public buildings; but in private ones they affect more plainness and neatness than show: these last, being mostly built of wood,
make their cities exceedingly liable to conflagrations, which, wherever they happen, generally reduce the greatest part of them to ashes, they having neither engines nor any other method of stopping the progress of the flames. The gardens about their houses are adorned with a variety of flowers, trees, verdure, baths, terraces, and other embellishments. The furniture and decorations of the houses of persons of distinction, consist in japan-work of various colours, curious paintings, beds, couches, screens, cabinets, tables, a variety of porcelain jars, vases, tea-equipage, and other vessels and figures, together with swords, guns, scimitars, and other arms. Their retinues are more or less numerous and splendid, according to their rank; but there are few of the lords who have less than 50 or 60 men richly clad and armed, some on foot, but most on horseback. As for their petty kings and princes, they are seldom seen without 300 or 200 at least, when they either wait on the emperor, which is one half of the year, or attend him abroad. The Japanese dress is much like that of the Chinese, only somewhat more elegant and neat, and most commonly of silk or cotton. They wear nothing on their heads either winter or summer, though they shave themselves close all over, except one lock, which is left hanging on the top by way of ornament: but to guard themselves from sun or rain, they always carry an umbrella in one hand; and, if rich enough, have them held over their heads by a servant. The poorer sort have, instead of that, either a fan or short screen. The women of fashion, especially the young ones, adorn themselves with flowers, feathers, pearls, &c. but are seldom seen abroad, or even at home, to any but those of the family, without a veil.
The proper colour here for festivals is black, for mourning white. Instead of rising at the approach of a superior, they set themselves down; and instead of bowing or prostrating when they salute, they stand upright. They choose to have their teeth and nails of a shining black, and to let the latter grow to an excessive length. The chief food of the Japanese is rice, pulse, fruits, roots, herbs, eating very little flesh, and that only of such beasts as they take in hunting. Instead of knives, forks, and spoons, they make use of the same sorts of small sticks as the Chinese. Their common drink is either water or tea; but they have other liquors, some distilled from rice or wheat, others made of their grains boiled with sugar or honey, or of fruits, or tapped from the palm, birch, and other trees.
After marriage, the wife is confined to her own apartment, from whence she hardly ever stirs, except once a-year to the funeral-rites of her family; nor is she permitted to see any man, except perhaps some very near relation, and that as seldom as can be. The wives, as well as in China and other parts of the east, bring no portion with them, but are rather bought by the husband of their parents and relations. The bridegroom most commonly sees his bride for the first time upon her being brought to his house from the place of the nuptial ceremony: for in the temple where it is performed she is covered over with a veil, which reaches from the head to the feet. A husband can put his wives to a more or less severe death, if they give him the least cause of jealousy, by being seen barely to converse with
Japanning, another man, or suffering one to come into their apartment.
The Japanese, both poor and rich, make an annual procession to the sepulchres of their dead relations, with songs and music; carrying money, victuals, clothing, &c. as presents to relieve their various wants in the other world.
When a prince or great man dies, there are commonly about 10, 20, or more youths of his household, and such as were his greatest favourites, who put themselves to a voluntary death, at the place where the body is buried or burned: as soon as the funeral pile, consisting of odoriferous woods, gums, spices, oils, and other ingredients, is set on fire, the relations and friends of the deceased throw their presents into it, such as cloaths, arms, victuals, money, sweet herbs, flowers, and other things which they imagine will be of use to him in the other world. Those of the middle or lower rank commonly bury their dead, without any other burning than that of some odoriferous woods, gums, &c. The sepulchres into which the bones and ashes of persons of rank are deposited, are generally very magnificent, and situated at some distance from the towns.