Dee. 16, 1869] 
of the rice-fields. All the country-folk are his friends. 
He sleeps under the trees ; and the children awake him. 
Then he takes them in his arms, tells them stories 
of the sky, the moon, the stars, all the magnificence of 
nature, treasures which no one knows better than himself 
how to enjoy. 
The government of Japan is a species of feudal con- 
federation, with a theocratic head. The Mikado, the son 
of the gods, and hereditary emperor, is the representative 
of the sacred power; but the civil and military adminis- 
tration rested until very recently in the hands of his lieu- 
tenant-general, the Tycoon, whose headquarters were in 
Yeddo. The great princes, or Daimios, are in many in- 
stances almost independent, and they are only held in sub- 
jection by being obliged to have a double residence ; one 
on their own estates, and the other in Yeddo, where their 
families are kept as hostages for their good behaviour. 
The Yaconins, or military following of the Daimios, con- 
stitute a turbulent class of the population, bound solely to 
their feudal lords, and ready for any fray that may happen. 
It is among the Japanese of the upper classes that the act 
of hara-kiri is practised. ‘This is a suicide, nominally 
accomplished by plunging a knife into the bowels, but 
really, in cases of punishment, by the assistance of the 
person who stands prepared to strike off the head of the 
victim at the moment when the knife is placed for the fatal 
blow. 
The Japanese are a cultivated people, with letters and 
literature partly of Chinese origin, but modified in order 
to adapt them to Japanese use. They have also a distinct 
national history; and their literature, though not rich in 
philosophical disquisitions, abounds in legends, in fables, 
in satirical descriptions. The Japanese have also highly 
developed artistic tastes; and painting, drawing, and 
sculpture are followed as distinct professions. The 
Japanese drawing does not always satisfy European 
exigencies with regard to perspective ; but the colouring 
is brilliant, and in Japanese sketches, whether of plants or 
animals, people or landscape, there is a breadth, life, and 
truth, which many European artists of much higher 
pretensions might envy. In fact, the best notions that we 
can obtain of Japanese life and its surroundings are to be 
derived from the numerous sketches by Japanese artists 
which exist, and which represent the people pursuing their 
daily occupations. M. Humbert has profusely illustrated 
his work with pictures—partly facsimiles of native work, 
partly drawn after sketches made by Japanese artists. 
The Japanese have what the Chinese seem to be deficient 
in, a strong sense of humour; and this they exhibit in a 
very striking manner in their sketches, in which human 
beings are represented by typical animals. Thus, sketches 
may be seen in which an old bonze is represented as a 
wolf,a group of Buddhist nuns as weasels, and a company 
of rats acting as rice-merchants. 
The artistic tastes of the people and their love of 
Nature are both illustrated by their passion for flowers, 
and by the skill with which they are cultivated. No feast 
is considered perfect without flowers, and flower-shows 
meet with as much approbation in Japan as in England. 
The Japanese gardeners exhibit great skill in the arts of 
raising new varieties of flowers, of grafting plants, so that 
different flowers and leaves grow in what appear to be 
branches of the same plant; and they are, above all, 
learned in the manufacture of dwarfed plants, which are 
in great request as house ornaments. The Japanese 
delight in gardens, and they lay out small pieces of ground 
with wonderful skill, contriving to “give ample space to 
narrow bounds” with much ingenuity. The vast exceinte of 
Yeddo encloses much garden ground, and the people make 
at least three definite excursions to the suburbs at different 
times of the year, to see with their own eyes how the 
seasons progress. These excursions are often made as 
picnics, in which merry family groups take part. The 
Japanese have also a great fondness for aquaria ; every 
NATURE 
Igt 
house possesses one, and an aquarium, with small fish in 
it, is a very common object to be seen in houses, 
The Japanese common people, both the dourgeorsée and 
the lower orders, take life with as much enjoyment as pos- 
sible. The /é¢es of various gods, who are patrons of one 
or other of the numerous industries exercised, afford occa- 
sion for long processions, with great displays of banners 
and symbols, for much merriment, and a not always digni- 
fied or moderate consumption of saki. Nor are the pil- 
grimages made to the sacred snow-covered Fusi-yama 
and to the various habitations of holy hermits altogether 
without alleviations. The events of domestic life—births, 
marriages, deaths, presentations of children in the temple, 
the coming-of-age of boys, when they have completed 
their fifteenth year, visits to the burial-places of ancestors 
—all afford occasion for friendly meetings, and for much - 
ceremonial, 
SILKEN ORNAMENTS 
Theatrical entertainments, and the performances of 
wrestlers, acrobats, jugglers, and ballet dancers are among 
the public amusements to which the Japanese are pas- 
sionately attached. The theatres at Yeddo to which 
foreigners have had access are chiefly those patronised by 
the dourgeoisie ; but among the audience are to be found 
nobles who assume a dress intended to show that they 
pay their visit incognito. Wrestlers are under special 
imperial patronage, and are much favoured by the people. 
The contests consist chiefly of struggles as to which of 
two competitors shall by mere weight push the other out 
of a circle marked off by bags filled with straw. Japanese 
wrestling is utterly unlike what is understood in England 
by the same term; and the men engaged in it are gene- 
rally in a fleshy condition which, among ourselves, would 
be considered utterly incompatible with a state of ‘ train- 
ing.” The feats of performers who execute wonderful 
