GLIMPSES OF JAPAN.'

Mn. TRONSON'S narrative of the voyage of the Barracouta is more likely to find favour with geographers than with that fastidious personage, the general reader. There is an unquestionable air of honesty about the book that will make its statements peculiarly valuable to the cultivators of the severer muses ; but others, we are afraid, will find it slightly tedious. Public curiosity will be most attracted to that part of the work which relates to Japan, but here Mr. Tronson has been anticipated in matter and date of publication, and altogether eclipsed in manner, by Captain Osborn's brilliant papers in Blackwood, which have now appeared in a collected form. The history of our recent relations with Japan being so generally known, we need only remind our readers that in September 1854, Sir J. Stirling's squadron, of which the Barracouta made part, sailed from the pestilent waters of the Yang Tae Keang for Japan, and there negotiated a treaty of no great value. Such as it was, the treaty remained a dead letter, its full execution being passively resisted by the Japanese, until Sir Michael Seymour gave them a sufficient hint that we were not to be trifled with, by breaking through the line of junks which they had moored across the mouth of the inner harbour of Nagasaki to prevent our entrance. In 1858, after the close of the Chinese war, Lord Elgin negotiated a satisfactory treaty with Japan, having been conveyed thither in the Furious, of which Captain Osborn was commander. Both ho and Mr. Tronson are cordial in their praise of the Japanese, their intelligence, courtesy, and invariable good temper, their astonishing progress in the useful arts, the order and cleanliness of their town, the beauty and rich cultivation of their fields and gardens, and the balmy purity of their air. Of their personal appearance and habits Mr. Tronson gives the following description from numerous ob- servations, especially in the public baths, where persons of all ages, sexes, and conditions, bathe together, quite naked, and are not ashamed. What a mission is here for Lord Haddo !

" In stature, the women are smaller than the generality of European females, but taller than the Chinese. Unlike the latter, their feet and hips are unrestrained, and allowed to assume their just proportions. Their hair is jet black, long, and artistically dressed, being brushed backward from the temples and forehead, and gathered in a raised knot. The skin of the better classes is fair ; especially that of the face, which is very clear, and in most of the young women tinged with a healthful blush. Up to this time I had not seen many pretty girls ; the nose of the natives of Yen) not being so aquiline or well defined as that of the fair ladies of Nagasaki. Their teeth are even, perfect, and snow white ; excepting those of the married women, who immediately after their marriage stain their teeth black with a preparation of iron : this process completely alter') and disfigures their agreeable features. The bust of the young female is plump and well formed ; the hips are full and delicately rounded ; the carnage erect and graceful. Industrious and cleanly, their kitchens and fireplaces are models of housewifery : I have watched them preparing their meals, and setting them before their families with scrupulous care and neatness worthy of the good wives of Old England. They are not so shy and reserved before strangers as the Chinese : should you enter a house and sit down on the elevated floor, the good wife, or one of the daughters, would approach and offer a cup of tea (Tole), poured forth from a bright braes or porcelain teapot (To-shin). . . . The men are of fair average height, robust and muscular, of a healthy bronzed com- plexion, but rather florid ; being in a latitude in which the effects of the short summer's sun is counterbalanced by a temperate spring and autumn, and by a severe though healthful winter. The features are rather coarse : the eyes resembling tne Chinese, small and oblique, prominent high cheek bones, the nose broad, nostrils distended ; the mouth is well shaped, with • Personal Narrative of e Voyage to Japan, Ifaultschalka, Siberia, Tartary, and

various Parts of Me Chart of China, in Barracouta. By J. M. Tronson, R.N. Published by Smith, Elder, and Co.

A Cruise in Japanese Waters. By Captain Shcrard Osborn, C.B. Published by Blackwood and Sons.

white and regular teeth, which they take much pains to keep in order, using the frayed end of a piece of bamboo as a tooth-brush. They have no beards, but slight moustacluos, which I have seen a military officer pluck out by the roots ; whether from national custom or a personal whim I know not. Some possess fine dark arched eyebrows, and bright black eyes, with white conjunctive ."

The same -writer gives us this pleasant description of a tea- party

"We bowed to them on passing, and as we did not wish to intrude upon their privacy, were about'to withdraw, when a young gentleman arose, came tewarde us, and begged us to enter and partake of some tea. We gladly weeded to his request, and were soon at case with our new acquaintances. Small square tables of lacquered ware, about a foot and a-half in height and six inches square, were placed on the right side of the Japanese ; these sup- ported cups of tea, sweetmeats, cakes, and small lacquered bowls of rice and fruit. Four married ladies sat together on one side, and -near them an old gentleman ; opposite sat a young Japanese officer and two young ladies, one about seventeen years of age, the other about twenty : the latter were very pretty. We little dreamed of acing such beauties in this retired spot ; their skins clear and white as that of a Circassian, with a healthy blush on their dheeke, which required not the assistance of the rouge-box ; finely arched brows, over bright black eyes, which grew brighter when the ownersbecame animated, and were shadowed by long curling eyelashes; noses small but straight, one bordering on aquiline; - small well cut lips, surrounded by even rows of teeth, of pearly lustre. Their jet black hair was brushed from the sides and back of the head, and fastened in a knot on the top of the head by a fillet of pale pink silk. The elder was the handsomer of the two, and the chief object of attraction to the young officer ; as he frequently gave us an opportunity of observing, by placing an arm around her waist and

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looking lovingly into her eyes. There was gracefulness in all her attitudes, especially when she took up a guitar at the request of her lover, and played a few airs for us ; but the music was rather monotonous and without har- mony : at least our dull ears could not detect any. She accompanied her- self in a song, in a falsetto tone : a species of whine, not altogether so dis- cordant as that of the Chinese, yet merely bearable from its strangeness. The sister now joined in a duet, one endeavouring to outshriek the other. Our elder hosts were in raptures] with the performance, and they wondered at our stolidity; but our ears had been accustomed to the music of Grisi and Mario, and could not endure even the finest of Japanese singers. Finding the ladies so obliging, we prevailed upon one to play whilst the other danced. The performance was peculiar ; she went round the apartment, as in a slow waltz, making graceful passes with her hands, and humming an air to her- self, smiling most agreeably, and bowing towards us as she went round. They were attired in richly embroidered silk : a loose tunic with wide sleeves was fastened round the waist by a broad sash of pale pink ; a fan was passed through this, and, supporting the back of each lady, was a tri-cornered flat board, covered with parti-coloured silk. The married ladies were attired in robes of a fabric resembling cashmere, and of a sombre lavender colour. After tea they introduced pipes and some light wine. The Japanese to- bacco is very mild and without flavour, so we requested that they. would permit us to light cheroots instead, according to our own custom. They ex- amined our uniform minutely, asking the English name of each part of it, and pronouncing each word separately after us."

Very charming is Captain Osborn's picture of the Gulf of Yedo.

" It was a glorious panorama past which we were rapidly sailing, and the exhilarating effect of its influence upon all of us, combined with a delicious climate and invigorating breeze, was visible in the glistening eyes and cheerful looks of the officers and men, who crowded to gaze upon the picture that unrolled itself before us. The scenery was neither Indian nor Chinese, and presented more of the features of a land within the temperate, than of one touching the torrid zone. The lower and nearer portions of the shores of the Gulf resembled strongly some of the most picturesque spots in our own dear islands ; yet we have no gulf in Britain upon such a scale as that of Yedo. Take the fairest portion of the coast of Devonshire, and all the shores of the Isle of Wight, form with their combined beauty a gulf forty- five miles long, and varying in width from ten to thirty. In every nook and valley, as well as along every sandy bay, plane pretty towns and vil- lages, out out all brick and plaster villas with Corinthian porticoes, and in- troduce the neatest chalets Switzerland ever produced—strew the bright sea with quaint vessels and picturesque boats, and you will have the foreground of the picture. For baokground, scatter to the eastward the finest scenery our Highlands of Scotland can afford—leave the blue and purple tints un- touched, as well as the pine-tree and mountain-ash. Far back, fifty miles off, on the western aide of the Gulf, amidst masses of snowy clouds and streams of golden mist, let a lofty mountain-range be seen, and at its centre rear a magnificent cone, the beautiful Fusi-hama, the Matchless Moun- tain' of Japan—and then, perhaps, the reader can in some way picture to his mind's eye the beauties of the Gulf of Yedo, in the loveliness of that bright day when it first gladdened our sight."

Both our authors agree in thinking that for some time to come little profit would be made by exporting goods to Japan. Wants must first be created, for those of which the Japanese are now con- scious are almost all supplied by their own country, China fur- nishing the remainder. Woollen clothing, cottons, and hardware are scarce and dear amongst them ; and eventually a trade may grow up in these commodities. There are many articles we might take from them in return ; paper, for instance, if the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not forbid it. Says Captain Osborn— "It was wonderful to see the thousand useful as well as ornamental pur- poses to which paper was applicable in the hands of these industrious and tasteful people ; our papier-mache manfacturers, ste well as the Continental ones, should go to redo to learn what can be done with paper. We saw it made into material so closely resembling russian and morocco leather and pigskin, that it was very difficult to detect the difference. With the aid of packer-varnish and skilful painting, paper made excellent trunks, tobacco- bags, cigar-cases, saddles, telescope-cases, the frames of microscopes ; and we even saw and used excellent waterproof coats made of simple paper, which did keep out the rain, and were as supple as the best Mackintosh. The Japanese use neither silk nor cotton handkerchiefs, towels, or dusters ; paper in their hands serves as an excellent substitute. It is soft, thin, tough, of a pale, yellow colour, very plentiful and very cheap. The inner walls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of paper, being nothing more than painted screens : their windows are covered with a fine trans- lucent description of the same material : it enters largely into the manu- facture of nearly everything in a Japanese household, and we saw what seemed balls of twine, which were nothing but long threads of tough paper rolled up. If a shopkeeper had a parcel to tie up, he would take a strip of paper, roll it quickly between his hands, and use it for the purpose' and it WAS quite as strong as the ordinary string used at home. In short, without paper, all Japan would come to a dead-lock ; and, indeed, lest by the arbi- trary exercise of his authority a tyrannical husband should stop his wife's paper, the sage Japanese mothers-in-law invariably stipulate, in the mar-

riage-settlement, that the bride is to have allowed to her a certain quantity of paper !"

Again, describing a bazaar, he says-

" At one stall we found microscopes, telescopes, sun-dials, rules, scales, clocks, knives, spoons, glees, beads, trinkets, and mirrors—all of native make upon European models—and the prices were so ridiculously small, that even at the loweat estimate of the value of labour it was a puzzle how any profit could be realized upon the articles. The microscopes were very neat, and intended to be carried in the pocket ; an imitation morocco case opened, and contained within it a small and not powerful lens, fixed in a metal frame at a short distance from an upright pin, on which the object for examination was to be stuck, and the entire workmanship was highly creditable. The telescopes were framed in stiff paper cases, sufficiently thick and ingeniously lackered to resemble leather over wood. The glasses, though small, were clear ; the magnifying power was not great, but it was a marvel to see such an instrument sold for a shilling. We saw another superior description of Japanese telescope, six feet long when pulled out; it was quite as powerful and as genuine as those real Dallonds which our naval outfitters are in the habit of procuring for credulous parents when equipping their sailor children at sea-ports. The price at Nagasaki is a dollar or five shillings, but at Portsmouth it is five pounds sterling. The Japanese docks exhibited for sale were beautiful specimens of mechanism, and proved what we had heard, that the people of this country are most cunning in the fashioning of metals. One was like those table-clocks we see at home under square glass covers, all the works being open to scrutiny ; it was six or eight inches high, and about as broad, and it would have been difficult to know it from one of Mr. Dent's best of a like description. The Japanese day being divided into twelve hours of unequal duration—de- pendent, so far as we could understand, upon the amount of daylight or darkness in each day—the dial of their clooke was therefore different from ours ; in some it was changed every month, and in others the motion of the hands was regulated by an ingenious adaptation of weights, and increased or decreased length of pendulum. A good clock of this description, which, from its elegance and the beautiful workmanship and chasing of the ex- terior, would have been an ornament anywhere, was only priced at about 8/."

Would it not be curious to see our opticians and watch-makers beaten out of the home market by -copies of their best workman- ship made by Japanese artisans ?