THE "JAPANESE " DOGS 



It is said that about the year A.D. 794 " pai " dogs became 

 somewhat dear in price in Japan, because all ladies liked to 

 possess specimens of the breed.* 



" In the fourth month of the first year T'ien Ch'ang of 

 Chun Ho Ti (Japanese Emperor A.D. 824), the state of Yueh 

 Ch'ien (a Japanese State), sent four dogs as tribute, two of 

 which were ' Tso Tan Ta Wo ' and two of the ' Wo Tzu ' 

 breed.f Now the ' Wo Tzu ' is a Chinese ' pai ' dog." 



A brief reference to the history of European intercourse 

 with Japan will be sufficient to indicate that in all probability 

 specimens of the " Japanese " race of dogs reached Europe 

 in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese captured Goa in 

 1510, and thence spread their trade throughout the East. 

 Trade relations with Japan were started in 1549. The 

 traders were much favoured, especially by the princes of the 

 island of Kyushu, and, fortunate in the possession of Macao, 

 rich in stocks of European and Indian goods, quickly de- 

 veloped a very considerable trade. Kaempfer, the historian, 

 who was physician to a Dutch embassy sent to the court of 

 the Emperor of Japan in 1691, says 'The [Portuguese] 

 Merchants, in exchange for their European and Indian com- 

 modities, as raw silk, fine stufFs, druggs, wines, artificial 

 curiosities, became possess'd of immense treasures, and the 

 golden marrow of the country." In 1559 St. Francis 

 Xavier, one of the original incorporators of the Society of 

 Jesus, landed in Japan as a missionary. He was well received. 

 A very large number of Japanese were converted, among 

 them were the princes of Bungo, Arima, and Omura. In 

 1582 these princes sent some of their nearest relations with 

 letters and presents to pay homage to Pope Gregory XIII. 

 Persecution began in 1586, but the Japanese, being anxious 

 for commerce, spared the merchants. Kaempfer says : 



" The Dog," Tokyo, April 1915. f Jih-pen Ji Shih. 



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