5IO 



TRADE AND COMMERCE. 



the great Daimio-processions travelled, and which in other ways 

 afforded a regular commercial intercourse such as has been already 

 described by E. Kaempfer.^ The conifers, principally pines, which 

 form the avenues along the roads, have been already (page 2j6) 

 specially mentioned. 



River navigation has many obstacles in Japan, as stated in vol. i. 

 p. 89. Of course large river-systems could not be developed, but 

 also many difficulties are placed in the way of navigation by the 

 rapid fall of the upper courses of the great rivers, and the shallows 

 of the lower parts, produced by shifting deposits of sand and other 

 detritus. These difficulties can be only partly overcome.^ Never- 

 theless, on many of the larger rivers traffic used to be very lively, 

 and is so still to a certain extent, especially on the chief island ; 

 but this is due to the insufficiency of the roads and land con- 

 veyances. In this respect Kiushiu was especially ill-situated. Its 

 industrial and commercial development was far behind that of 

 Hondo during the Tokugavva Shogunate (1600-1 868 A.D.). Be- 

 sides its ceramics, it had no notable industry. Silk culture was not 

 practised at all, and tea raising with but little care. There were 

 no good roads or means of communication in the interior, with the 

 exception of those which several rivers (the Chikugo-gawa chiefly) 

 afforded in the lower part of their courses. This is to be attributed 

 partly to the mountainous character of the island ; more, however, 

 to the isolation of the country and the lack of co-operation between 

 the several Daimios. A central power was lacking, for the Bakufu 

 (the government of the Shogun in Yeddo) either did not concern 

 itself at all in these matters, or had an interest in preventing the 

 co-operation of two powerful neighbours. It came to pass in this 

 way that not only on Kiushiu, but also on the two neighbouring 

 islands, the highways from one province to another remained in 

 the worst possible condition ; and it seemed better to make long 

 roundabout journeys and long junk voyages at sea rather than give 

 up the strained relations and the separation from one's nearest 

 neighbour, and thus bring about the benefit of an easier inter- 

 course. 



The great sea expeditions which the Japanese had carried on in 

 early times were placed under inextricable bonds by lyeyasu at the 

 beginning of the 17th century. For more than 250 years, up to the 

 restoration of Mikado dynasty, Japanese navigation had been con- 

 fined to the coasting service along its own shores, and, like its com- 

 merce in general, placed in a straight jacket, to throw off which re- 

 quired a foreign impulse. Commodore Perry accomplished in 1854, 

 however, what the repeated efforts of English and Russians had not 



^ See also Rein : " Der Nakasendo," Erganzungsheft 59 zu Petermann's 

 Mittheilungen. 



2 The rapidly changing depth of the rivers has even given rise to a proverbial 

 expression : '• Kino-no-fuchi kio-no se : Yesterday a deep place in the river, to- 

 day a shallow.'' 



