JUL 1892 NEWest R Comprendre est ORK dans les choses puis en être sorti; il y faut donc captivité, puis délivrance, illusion et désillusion, engouement et désabusement. Celui qui est encore sous le charme et celui qui n'a pas subi le charme sont incompétents. On ne connaît bien que cr qu'on a cru puis jugé. Pour comprendre il faut être libre et ne l'avoir pas toujours été......Comprendre est plus difficile que juger, car c'est entrer objectivement dans les conditions de ce qui est, tandis que jugee c'est simplement émettre une opinion individuelle. (H. F. AMIEL, Journal Intime.) PREFACE. THIS edition has been enlarged by the insertion of over twenty new articles, while the old have been corrected up to date and re-written in many parts. In bringing the book afresh before the public, the author would reiterate his thanks to many kind friends— especially to Mr. W. B. Mason, by whose unwearying assistance and advice every page has profited more or less. The article on Archeology is from the pen of Mr. W. G. Aston, C.M.G., being founded on the joint investigations of that eminent scholar and Mr. W. Gowland. The Abbé Félix Evrard, of the French Legation at Tokyo, has contributed the article on Roman Catholic Missions; Mr. H. V. Henson, those on Trade and Shipping; Professor Milne, F.R.S., that on Geology; Mr. Samuel Tuke, that on Polo; Mr. Mason, those on Telegraphs, Chess, and the game of Go. Mr. Y. Sannomiya, Vice-Grand-Master of Ceremonies and Master of the Court of Her Majesty the Empress, has furnished the materials for Decorations; Mr. R. Masujima, of the Japanese Bar and of the Middle Temple, London, the materials for Law; Mr. K. Fujikura, late Chief Commissioner of Lighthouses, the materials for Lighthouses; Captain J. Ingles, R.N., for Navy; Mr. C. A. W. Pownall, for Railways; and Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, for Pipes. The advice of Dr. Erwin Baelz, of the Imperial University of Japan, has been sought on various points connected with medicine, and valuable criticisms on the first edition have been received from Dr. Divers, F.R.S., Mr. R. A. Mowat, Judge of H.B.M.'s Court for Japan, and Mr. E. H. Parker, of H.B.M.'s Consular Service in China. The Map, now much improved, is adapted from one of those in the "Atlas of the Agricultural Productions of the Japanese Empire," by permission of Professor T. Wada, Director of the Imperial Geological Office in the Department of Agriculture and Commerce. Various other friends have contributed-one a fact, another a reference, yet another a counsel. To all, best thanks. Tōkyō, 6th November, 1891. INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. To have lived through the transition stage of modern Japan makes a man feel preternaturally old; for here he is in modern times, with the air full of talk about Darwinism, and phonographs, and parliamentary institutions, and yet he can himself distinctly remember the Middle Ages. The dear old samurai who first initiated the present writer into the mysteries of the Japanese language wore a cue and two swords. This relic of feudalism now sleeps in Nirvana. His modern successor, fairly fluent in English, and dressed in a serviceable suit of dittos, might almost be a European, save for a certain obliqueness of the eyes and scantiness of beard. Old things pass away between a night and a morning. The Japanese boast that they have done in twenty years what it took Europe half as many centuries to accomplish. Some even go further, and twit us Westerns with falling behind in the race. Not long ago, a Japanese pamphleteer refused to argue out a point of philosophy with a learned German resident of Tokyo, on the score that Europeans, owing to their antiquated Christian prejudices, were not capable of discussing such matters impartially. Thus does it come about that, having arrived in Japan in 1873, we ourselves feel well-nigh four hundred years old, and assume without more ado the two well-known privileges of old age-garrulity and an authoritative air. We are perpetually being asked questions about Japan. Here then are the answers, put into the shape of a dictionary, not of words but of things,-or shall we rather say a guide-book, less to places than to subjects? The old and the new will be found cheek by jowl. The only thing that will not be found is padding; for padding is unpardonable in any book on Japan, where the subject-matter is so plentiful that the chief difficulty is to know what to omit. In order to enable the reader to supply deficiencies and to form his own opinions, if haply he should be of so unusual a turn of mind as to desire so to do, we have, at the end of almost every article, indicated the names of trustworthy works bearing on the subject treated in that article. For the rest, this little book |