382 
THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. 
[CHAl'. 
company were very merry, and the host appeared to be greatly 
pleased, when I mentioned that at one of the places which I 
had seen that day I saw a wall adorned by a motto of his 
composition. He immediately promised to write a similar one 
on me with reference to my visit to the town, and when a few 
moments after he had the first line ready, he invited his 
Japanese guests to write the second. They tried for a good 
while with merry jests to hit upon some suitable conclusion, 
but in vain. Early the following morning Mr. Koba-Yaschi 
came to me, bringing with him a broad strip of silk on 
which the following was pencilled in bold, nobly-formed 
characters : 
Umi hara-no-hate-made 
Akiva-Sumi-watare, 
which when translated runs thus: 
As far as the sea extends 
The autumn moon spreads her beneficent light.” 
According to the explanation which I received the piece 
points out that the autumn moon spreads her beneficent rays 
as far as to that place in the high north where we wintered. 
After the above-quoted verse came the following addition in 
Japanese: “ Written by Machimura Masanavo, Governor of 
Kioto-Fu, to Professor Nordenskiold, on the occasion of a dinner 
given to him during the autumn of 1879.” The whole besides 
was signed with the author’s common, as well as his poetical, 
name, and had his seal attached. His iDoetical name was Pio- 
San, which may be literally translated “ Hragon-Mountain.” 
The poetry of the Japanese is so unlike that of the Western 
nations that we find it difficult to comprehend the productions 
of the Japanese poets. Perhaps they ought more correctly to 
be called poetical mottoes. They play a great part in the 
intellectual life of the Japanese. Their authors are highly 
esteemed, and even in the homes of the poorer classes the walls 
