58 INTRODUCTION. 



almanacs are prepared in the Jeddo and Dairi colleges. Lalande's treatises and other astro- 

 nnmical works have been translated from Dutch into Japanese, and are studied with great 

 ardor. They have in their division of time a cjcla of sixty years, calculated out of their zodiac, 

 which, like ours, has twelve signs, differing from ours in their names only. But this is not the 

 place to consider minutely their astronomical system. We cannot leave it, however, without 

 the remark that, on a comparison of it with that of the Muiscas, an ancient, semi-civilized, and 

 now extinct race, that once inhabited the plains of Bogota, in New G-ranada, the resemblances 

 were so striking that they produced on our mind a conviction that the astronomical systems of 

 the two people were substantially the same. 



SECTION VII. 



LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. 

 Paper was made by the Japanese as early as the beginning of the seventh century, and 

 printing from blocks, after the Chinese fashion, was introduced in the year 1206 of our era. 

 The city of the Mikado appears to be the great metropolis of literature in Japan. A great 

 many books are there made, and a great many reside there whose occupation is that of letters. 

 Seminaries of learning of different grades have existed in the country ever since Eurojieans 

 knew anything about it. Xavier says that in his day there were four "academies" in or near 

 Miako, each having between three and four thousand pupils ; and he adds that much larger 

 numbers were taught at an institution near the city of Bandone, and that such seminaries were 

 universal throughout the Empire. Beside the colleges or higher institutions at the city of 

 Miako, we know of similar ones at Jeddo, and of one at Nagasaki. How many there may be in 

 the Kingdom we cannot say ; but education, such as it is, is by no means neglected in Japan. 

 There would seem to be something like a common school system, for Meylan states that children 

 of both sexes and of all ranks are invariably sent to rudimentary schools ; whether supported 

 by the State or not he does not say. Here the pupils are all taught to read and write, and are 

 initiated into some knowledge of the history of their own country. Thus much the meanest 

 peasant child is expected to learn. There are immense numbers of cheap, easy books continually 

 issuing from the Japanese press, which are designed for the instr^^ction of children or poor people ; 

 so it will be seen they have their " cheaji literature." Books innumerable of a higher order 

 are provided for the rich, and all, of both kinds, are profusely illustrated with wood-cuts, 

 engraved on the same block with the tj'pe. Some of these books, which we have examined, 

 show also that an art but recently introduced in Europe and America is very old in Jajiau, viz : 

 that of printing in olors. So that in our modern inventions of stereotyping and printing in 

 colors, and in our manufacture of cheap literature for the people generally, Japan has antici- 

 pated us by centuries. Their books consist of works of science, history, biography, geography, 

 travels, moral philosophy, natural history, poetry, the drama, and encyclopjedias. Beading is 

 a favorite occupation with both sexes ; and it is said to be common in Japan to sec, when the 

 weather permits, a group of ladies and gentlemen seated by a cool running stream, or in a 

 shady grove, each with a book. 



