TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 195 



ciently patriotic to suffer himself to be buried in it. A Japanese Curtius was not 

 long in forthcoming, to whom a debt of gratitude will be due in all time to come, from 

 every British ship that rides securely at her anchor behind the breakwater. Hiogo 

 has now become the port of Ohosaka and Miaco, and will, in all probability, be the 

 principal port of European trade in the empire. The city is described as equal in 

 size to Nagasaki. When Kaempfer visited it, he found 300 junks at anchor in its bay. 

 The Dutch describe Ohosaka as a more attractive resort even than Yedo. While 

 this latter city may be regarded as the London of Japan, Ohosaka seems to be its 

 Paris. Here are the most celebrated theatres, the most sumptuous tea-houses, the 

 most extensive pleasure-gardens. It is the abode of luxury and wealth, the favourite 

 resort of fashionable Japanese, who come here to spend their time in gaiety and 

 pleasure. Ohosaka is one of the five Imperial cities, and contains a vast population. 

 It is situated on the left bank of the Jedogawa, a stream which rises in the Lake of 

 Oity, situated a day and a half's journey in the interior. It is navigable for boats of 

 large tonnage as far as Miaco, and is spanned by numerous handsome bridges. The 

 port of Hiogo and city of Osaca will not be opened to Europeans until the 1st of 

 January, 1862. The foreign residents will then be allowed to explore the country in 

 any direction, for a distance of twenty-five miles, except towards Miaco, or, as it is 

 more properly called, Kioto. They will not be allowed to approach nearer than 

 twenty-five miles to this far-famed city. Situated at the head of a bay, or rather gulf, 

 so extensive that the opposite shores are not visible to each other, Yedo spreads itself 

 on a continuous line of houses along its partially undulating, partially level margin, 

 for a distance of about ten miles. Including suburbs, at its greatest width it is pro- 

 bably about seven miles across, but for a portion of the distance it narrows to a mere 

 strip of houses. Any rough calculation of the population of so vast a city must 

 necessarily be very vague and uncertain ; but, after some experience of Chinese cities, 

 two millions does not seem too high an estimate at which to place Yedo. In conse- 

 quence of the great extent of the area occupied by the residences of the Princes, there 

 are quarters of the town in which the inhabitants are very sparse. The citadel, or 

 residence of the temporal Emperor, cannot be less than five or six miles in circum- 

 ference, and yet it only contains about 40,000 souls. On the other hand, there are 

 parts of the city in which the inhabitants seem almost as closely packed as they are 

 in Chinese towns. The streets are broad and admirably drained, some of them are 

 lined witli peach and plum trees, and when these are in blossom must present a gay 

 and lively appearance. Those which traverse the Prince's quarter are for the most 

 part as quiet and deserted as aristocratic thoroughfares generally are. Those which 

 pass through the commercial and manufacturing quarters are densely crowded with 

 passengers on foot, in chairs, and on horseback, while occasionally, but not often, an 

 ox-waggon rumbles and creaks along. The houses are only of two stories, sometimes 

 built of freestone, sometimes of sunburnt brick, and sometimes of wood ; the roofs are 

 either tiles or shingles. The shops are completely open to the street ; some of these 

 are very extensive, the show-rooms for the more expensive fabrics being upstairs, as 

 with us. The eastern part of the city is built upon a level plain, watered by the Toda 

 Gawa, which Hows through this section of the town, and supplies with water the large 

 moats which surround the citadel. It is spanned by the Nipon ; has a wooden bridge 

 of enormous length, celebrated as the Hyde Park Corner of Japan, as from it all 

 distances throughout the empire are measured. Towards the western quarter of the 

 city the country becomes more broken ; swelling hills rise above the housetops richly 

 clothed with foliage, from out the waving masses of which appear the upturned gables 

 of a temple, or the many roofs of a pagoda. It will be some satisfaction to foreigners 

 to know that they are not to be excluded for ever from this most interesting city. By 

 the Treaty concluded in it by Lord Elgin, on the 1st of January, 18G3, British sub- 

 jects shall be allowed to reside there, and it is not improbable that a great portion of 

 the trade may ultimately be transferred to it from Ranagawa. There is plentv of 

 water and a good anchorage at a distance of about a mile from the western suburb of 

 Linagawa. The only other port which has been opened by the late Treaty in the 

 Island of Nipon is the Port of Nee-e-gata, situated upon its western coast. As this 

 port has never yet been visited by Europeans, it is stipulated that if it be found incon- 

 venient as a harbour, another shall be substituted for it, to be opened on the 1st of 

 January, 1860. 



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