454 



JAPAN. 



cents a day ; plasterers and masons, 70 to 50 

 cents ; bricklayers, matmakers, lacquerers, 55 

 to 40 cents ; joiners, tailors, screen and door 

 makers, 75 to 50 cents ; laborers, 35 to 25 

 cents. As a rule, skilled workmen engaged in 

 making articles of foreign wear, equipment, or 

 furniture modeled on Western patterns receive 

 higher wages than these, the native houses 

 being increasingly furnished after European 

 fashions. 



Meteorology. The Meteorological Office, es- 

 tablished in 1888, is on the elevated ground 

 within the walls of the old castle in the heart 

 of the city. It is one of the best equipped in 

 the world, the apparatus being both imported 

 from Europe and the United States, and of na- 

 tive invention and manufacture. Reports are 

 received by telegraph thrice daily from 30 sta- 

 tions in the Japanese archipelago and from 

 Corea. Three forecasts of the weather are is- 

 sued daily in telegraphic bulletins, at 6 A. M., 

 and 2 and 9 P. M. The phenomena studied 

 and recorded are earthquakes, typhoons, wind, 

 temperature, and moisture. The theories of 

 weather as formulated in other parts of the 

 world and largely based on local phenomena, 

 which have been assumed to be of general ap- 

 plication, are only of moderate value here, and 

 much of the utility of the forecasts made in 

 Tokio depend upon the individual skill of the 

 superintendent. Thus far it has been proved 

 that 70 per cent, of the predictions accord 

 with the facts as subsequently recorded. It is 

 noteworthy that the success is far greater con- 

 cerning rain than wind. There are 47 stations 

 from which vessels may be warned of coining 

 typhoons. The apparatus for the recording of 

 earth-tremors has been largely invented in 

 Japan, and is much more delicate than the 

 Italian seismographs. A flourishing seismo- 

 logical society is established in Tokio, issuing 

 regular accounts of proceedings and results. 

 On the 1st of January, 1888, a standard merid- 

 ian was officially declared, and a national sys- 

 tem of standard time went into operation 

 throughout the empire. The year 1888 has 

 been noted for the number and violence of 

 cyclonic storms, those of August and Septem- 

 ber causing the loss of nearly 300 human lives 

 besides much cattle and shipping. On the 15th 

 of July, at 7.30 A. M., the fire-peaked mount- 

 ain Bandai san, in Fukushima ken, whose his- 

 tory as a volcano and the eruption of three 

 hundred years ago had been popularly forgot- 

 ten, blew up amid thunderous noises, sending 

 out vast masses of ashes which fell like rain 

 during four hours. Of two hot springs, around 

 which were houses filled with patients, and of 

 three villages, not a vestige was left. Besides 

 the many square miles covered with lumps of 

 mud and ashes, 108,000 square feet of valuable 

 land was spoiled and 476 persons were killed. 

 Steam escaped daily for weeks. The people 

 driven from their homes were ted by the Gov- 

 ernment and a thorough scientific investigation 

 was ordered. 



Literature and Art. Since the revolution of 

 1868 the thought of the nation has been turned 

 almost entirely away from Chinese ideas, tra- 

 ditions, and literature, to the knowledge, lan- 

 guages, and general literature of the nations of 

 Christendom. In all the large cities there are 

 shops for the sale of foreign books, several 

 native firms in Tokio carrying notably large 

 s.tocks. The majority of works imported treat 

 of scientific subjects and the modern arts and 

 handicrafts. Most of the copyrights issued by 

 the Department of Education are for transla- 

 tions of Western books, or for treatises based 

 on knowledge gained directly from Europe 

 or America. The increased literary activity 

 shown in all departments of inquiry may be 

 seen from the statistical report published in 

 Tokio, which shows that the books used dur- 

 ing the years from 1881 to 1887 numbered in 

 each year respectively as follows: 5,973, 9,648, 

 9,462, 9,893, 8,507, 8,105, 9,547. During the 

 same years the newspapers and magazines pub- 

 lished in the empire numbered respectively 252, 

 244, 199, 269, 321, 403, 497; and in the first 

 half of the year 1888, 550; of which there 

 were in Tokio 203, and in Ozaka 43. Many of 

 these periodicals are devoted to specialties in 

 art and science. Among the books treating of 

 Japanese themes, there are, besides solid refer- 

 ence-books of sterling value, notable essays in 

 an almost entirely new branch of philosophi- 

 cal and critical literature. In these books the 

 statements handed down from the past are 

 sifted and appraised. Public libraries are in- 

 creasing, and graduates of the university are 

 being. trained to the Western library methods. 

 A special commission has been sent by the 

 Government to study the American system of 

 handling books and preserving archives. In 

 the Tokio Library there were, at the end of 

 188fi, 86,118,234 volumes, during which year 

 90,013 Japanese and Chinese volumes had 

 been consulted by 4,852 readers, and 19.800 

 books read by 3,569 readers. In 322 days 

 there were 42,826 visitors. A Japanese or 

 Chinese book is usually divided into many 

 volumes, the standard reference-works often 

 including hundreds of lightly but durably 

 bound fasciculi. European methods of print, 

 binding, and general procedure in book pub- 

 lishing and manufacture are becoming yearly 

 more general.- A literary event of prime im- 

 portance during 1888 was the issue of the com- 

 plete translation of the Bible, made directly 

 from the Hebrew and Greek original Scriptures 

 by the American missionaries. 



Religion. Shinto (god-doctrine), the ancient 

 state religion, re-promulgated in 1868, has now 

 sunk to a merely nominal existence ; the only 

 public recognition, apart from the services in 

 the imperial palace, being an annual grant of 

 money, which keeps in repair the tombs of the 

 Mikado's ancestors and the memorial shrines of 

 patriots, together with the payment of "sal- 

 aries to sinecure officials," amounting in all 

 this year to $305,451. Of Buddhist sects there 



