522 REPORT OF NATIONAL MlJSEUil, 1891. 



The tombs also coutaiii vessels of pottery of \ aiious shapes, some 

 of wliicli are iei)ieseiited in PI. lix. IJotli the forms and style of deeo- 

 ration of these vessels, which are rudely made, are the same as those 

 found ill the tombs of Korea. Two very peculiar forms are shown 

 in n. LX. It is a remarkable fact that the decoration on pottery from 

 the Japanese mounds is much less elaborate than that found on the 

 much older pottery of the shell-heaps and Yezo pits, which is usually 

 designated as Aino pottery. The Aino pottery is so characteristically 

 marked that the merest fragment can be recognized at a glauce, 

 without a possibility of confounding it with Japanese. It is difficult 

 to ex])lain the curious anomaly that the early pottery of a people who 

 are famed at the iiresent day for their productions in this kind of handi- 

 work should be inferior to the earlier productions of their prede- 

 cessors who have since absolutely lost the art of making pottery of any 

 kind. A plate showing some of the peculiarities of the Aino pottery is 

 published with an article entitled The Ainos of Yezo, by the i)resent 

 writer, published in the Museum Report for l.SOO. 



It was a very ancient custom in Japan to bury the retainers of a 

 prince standing upright around his grave. Like many other customs, 

 this came from China. In a book entitled A ( 'ollection of Several Eela- 

 tions and Treatises Singular and Curious, of John Baptista Tavernier, 

 Baron of Aubonne, London, IGSO, there is a direct notice of this custom 

 in Toncjuin. There are two illustrations of the ])rocession of a King's 

 funeral, and the description says: " Many Lords and Ladies of the 

 court will needs be buried alive with him, for to serve him in the places 

 where he is to go. I have ol)served, in passing through the Estates of 

 the Raja or Prince of Velouche, which border on the Easterly parts of the 

 Kingdom of Visaponr, that the Wives suffer themselves to be buried 

 Alive near their deceased Husbands, instead of being burned, as they 

 practice in. other Provinces in the Indies." 



In the time of the Jai)anese Emj)eror Suinin (97 to .'50 k. c), his 

 younger brother died and they buried all who had been in his immediate 

 service around his tond) alive. " For many days they died not, but wept 

 and cried aloud. At last they died. Dogs and crows assembled and 

 ate them." The P^raperor's compassion was aroused and he desired to 

 change the custom. When the Empress Hibatsuhime no Mikoto died 

 the Mikado inquired of his officers saying, " We know that the prac- 

 tice of following the dead is not good. What shall be done?" N"omi 

 no Sukune then said, "It is not good to bury li\ing men standing at 

 the sepulcher of a prince, and this can not be handed down to posterity." 

 He then proposed to make clay figures of men and horses and to bury 

 them as substitutes. The Mikado was well pleased with the j)lan and 

 ordered that henceforth the old custom should not be foHo wed, but that 

 clay images should be set up around the sepulcher instead. 



E\'en as late as the yeai- (i4(» an edict was published forbidding the 

 burial of living persons and also the burial of "gold, silver, brocade. 



