I saw one or two instances of men speaking the English language, entering the clean, mat-spread rooms of the Japanese, in their dirty boots, in spite of the protestations by words and signs, and the looks of despair of the owners. To shout at and abuse the people, tiresome and procrastinating though they be, is ill calculated on the part of foreigners to gain their willing services; yet I witnessed many instances of such violations of civility during my stay in Nangasaki. I wish my countrymen and Americans would remember, that to treat the people of Japan, with whom they may have to do, as they would a Hindoo servant or a Chinese cooley, will be the very worst manner of having their wants or wishes attended to. On the other hand, kindness and attention not to violate their prejudices, and, if possible, to enter into their social life, will be the best method of having everything that may be required. This was the way in which the Russians, during their stay of nine months in Nangasaki, contrived to gain the affections, not only of the people, but of the higher authorities.
Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific (1861)
Let me introduce to the reader the American trade-agent or consul. If anything ought to prevent governments intrusting political business to trading men, especially in such a country as Japan, the disgraceful scenes which passed in this town of Hakodadi, ought to be a lesson. An American clipper-schooner, the Maury, under, I believe, the English flag, had followed us up from Hong Kong, and her commander intended to remain as a merchant in Hakodadi. Whatever may have been the disputes between these two men, who accused each other (and the whole was an affair of dollars, or the means of gaining them), the fact of a representative of a great people like that of the United States, so far forgetting himself as to come to blows with his opponent, and even to fight a maudlin kind of duel with him, and then their both running to complain to the consul of another nation of each other’s proceedings, is to make a consulship a laughing-stock to all lookers-on; and a pretty picture it was to set before a people like the Japanese and their officers, whose satirical nature, though their words may not be understood, can be unmistakeably read in the nervous twitching of their mouths, and the droll twinkling of their eyes.
Japan, the Amoor, and the Pacific (1861)
I found [the naturalist Dr. Von Siebold] at home, and he received me most kindly. His house is a good one for Japan, and his workshop or library, to which he introduced me, contains works of all countries on his favourite pursuits connected with natural history. But it was to the garden that my attention was more particularly drawn.
On a level with the house and around it are small nurseries for the reception and propagation of new plants, and for preparing them for transportation to Europe. Here I noted examples of most of the plants figured and described in Dr. Siebold’s great work, the ‘Flora Japonica,’ so well known to all lovers of oriental plants; and several new things hitherto undescribed. A new Aucuba with white blotches on the leaves was striking; there was also the male variety of the old A. japonica, numerous fine Conifers, such as Thujopsis dolabrata, Sciadopitys verticillata, Retinospora pisifera and R. obtusa, and many other objects of interest. Plants with variegated foliage were numerous, and many of them were very beautiful. Amongst the latter I may mention Thujas, Eleagnus, Junipers, bamboos, Podocarpus, Camellias, Euryas, &c.
On the hill-side above the house Dr. Siebold is clearing away the brushwood in order to extend his collections and to obtain suitable situations for the different species to thrive in. For example, he will have elevation for such plants as require it, shade and dampness for others, and so on. Long may he live to delight himself and others with his enlightened pursuits!
Dr. Siebold speaks the Japanese language like a native, and appears to be a great favourite with the people around him, amongst whom he has great influence. “Doctor,” said I to him on taking my leave, “you appear to be quite a prince amongst the people in this part of Japan.” He smiled and said he liked the Japanese, and he believed the regard was mutual; and with a slight cast of sarcasm in his countenance, continued: “It is not necessary for me to carry a revolver in my belt, like the good people in Desima and Nagasaki.”
Yedo and Peking (1863)
Epunga, to which I was bound while making these observations, was reached in due course. I found the proprietor had a nice little private garden, and also a nursery in which he propagated and cultivated plants for sale. On the premises there was a building, apparently for the use of foreigners, which was only opened when any foreigner came out from Nagasaki for a day’s pleasure. Like many other places of the kind, its walls were defaced with the writing of the great men who had visited it, and who took this means of immortalising themselves. Doggrel lines, some of them scarcely fit to meet the eye, were observed in many places written in Dutch, German, or Russian. Our own countrymen had not been there long enough to visit the place and leave their marks; doubtless these will be found also in good time.
Yedo and Peking (1863)
At the time of my visit there were an unusually large number of foreigners living in Yedo. In addition to the members of the English, French, and American Legations, whose countries had already made treaties with Japan, there was a deputation from Prussia engaged in making a treaty for that country, and a number of American officers who had come out in the ‘Niagara’ with the Japanese ambassadors. Everything was going on quietly; and although a short time before Mr. Alcock’s servant—a Japanese—had been murdered, and an attempt had been made upon the life of a Frenchman in the service of the French Consul-General, the impression was, that these men were probably not altogether blameless, and had brought such punishments upon themselves. Be that as it may, no one seemed to have any hesitation in moving about, and I thus had an opportunity of seeing all the most remarkable parts of the city, as well as many suburban places of great interest. It is true that we were always followed by the guard of yakoneens, but one had only to fancy himself a person of great importance—a prince or a noble in the far East—and this body-guard was easily endured. I found them always perfectly civil, and often of great use in showing me the right road.
Yedo and Peking (1863)
Our fellow-passengers [on a sea voyage from Kobe to Yokohama] are altogether a mixture. Two near neighbours at the dinner-table turn out to be travelling quacks, one bent on making known to his fellow-foreigners in Eastern settlements the inestimable advantages to be derived from a course of sugar-coated pills; the other desirous of raising subscriptions for an elaborate history of the American civil war, to come out in numbers, and looking, from his somewhat motley appearance, as if he had already come out in numbers himself.
Round the World in 1870 (1872)
We stay a night at Fuji-sawa, where our experience corroborates the statement that the native tea-houses are worst when nearest a foreign settlement. An influx of ‘Jacks’ with bottles of beer or of worse liquor, with dirty boots, and no respect for mats, must tend to render a Japanese landlord desperate of cleanliness and neatness.
Indeed, it is much to be regretted that many Europeans, when settled in these distant countries, far from any influence of public opinion, not only will not respect and copy the natives in their good points, but even take advantage of their more lax ideas on many other points to throw overboard the higher morality which they might have imported with them from the West. Our intercourse with Japan is not likely to confer real benefit on the Japanese or on ourselves till this is altered.
Round the World in 1870 (1872)
I lunched at the hotel with Mr. Morton, who had crossed in the “Alaska,”—a very superior man, but an intense American. He seemed to think that Japan might become a State of the Union. I told him that a semi-barbarous people required to be governed, and that they seemed to me utterly unfitted for the advanced institutions of the States.
A Visit to Japan, China, and India (1877)
It was indeed an agreeable surprise to find so much European and American society. Japan had so long been practically out of the world, that few who sailed for it thought otherwise than that during their residence there they would be in a sort of banishment,—possibly an agreeable banishment on account of the interest of the country, but still a banishment. Their friends probably on hearing of their intention to spend some years in Japan, held up their hands in astonishment, and asked how they could think of such a thing. Giving up all their home comforts and all civilized society! They would no doubt have to live in a mere hut, and then the food—how would they manage to keep themselves alive? Really it was very foolish! And the travellers themselves might be excused for having some notions like in kind if not in degree, and for preparing themselves for a considerable amount of discomfort and isolation. It was therefore a delightful surprise to all foreign residents in Tôkiyô to find on arrival how different from their expectations was the life in the city of their adoption. Here was a European and American population of at least 300, and these for the most part persons of culture, connected either with one or other of the government departments, or with one or other of the legations or consulates, or with Christian missions. Apart altogether from the attractions of the Japanese themselves, there was for them intercourse with a foreign community of a singularly inviting kind, on account both of the many nationalities represented, and of the generally high type of the individuals who represented these nationalities. In fact, the opportunities of social improvement were in many respects superior to those to be found in an average home city, and certainly far superior to those of any other city in the Far East. It was quite an exceptional privilege to be brought into contact with such a multiform culture.
The Land of the Morning (1882)
How curiously national characteristics come out! A Frenchman rushing out of his room in our hotel during the earthquake met an Englishman doing the same thing, and apologised at once for the incompleteness of his toilette. A German friend told us (he was writing at the time) that he took up his rule and measured the swing of his lamp to test the force and direction of the shock. Scientific observations during an earthquake!
Journal of a Lady’s Travels Round the World (1883)
One of our friends is a distinguished Japanese scholar, and can translate everything we meet. Of course, at first Japanese was a new language at our [British] Foreign Office, and funny stories are told of the strange officials sent out to Japan as consuls. One honourable gentleman (whose spelling puzzled even the Japanese) had at length to be recalled for digging up skulls in a cemetery, on behalf of friends who wished to study the fashion of Japanese heads. A very ‘grave offence,’ our Government styled it, in relieving the too enthusiastic head collector of his office.
Journal of a Lady’s Travels Round the World (1883)
One gentleman, for many years a resident in Yokohama, told me that in every one of the new treaty ports a new race is growing up, corresponding with the Eurasian of British India. Every foreigner engaged in commercial pursuits, is expected, if he has no family at home, to take a Japanese wife. I say “wife,” because, as in the State of New York, no religious ceremony is necessary to make the relation quite legal, according to Japanese law. But supposing the merchant retires from business? Then he “divorces” his wife; provides for her future, and that of her children, if she has any; and sails away to European respectability. Sometimes he departs without making any provision for his offspring, and leaving their mother to poverty. Still, as the relation, in Japanese eyes, is a sort of wedlock, her reputation is in no way injured, nor her chances diminished of making another marriage.
Everywhere in and about the European quarter I came upon children of the mixed race, some of them exceedingly good-looking.
Rambles Through Japan Without a Guide (1892)
Many a time I have asked foreigners who have lived all their lives in Japan to tell me frankly how they liked the people. One or two, before answering, asked whether I meant the generation of Young Japanese or the older men, and then replied, when I said “the people as a whole,” “The more I see of the new generation the better I like the old.” Others did not differentiate. “We distrust the nation entirely,” they replied. “The rank and file have a hearty dislike for foreigners and are without the least spark of gratitude. Not being disinterested themselves towards other nations, they cannot fathom any one who is, and seem to suspect us of a hidden and bad motive if we do anything exceptionally kind.”
Behind the Screens (1910)
The foreign population of Japan is constantly changing, like that of China. Leaving quite apart the globe trotters, tourists, and commercial travellers, who come here only for a short visit, the stay of the real residents also is only a short one. In the consular service at certain periods the usual transfers take place, and as far as the great number of merchants is concerned, all of them, more or less, come out with the avowed intention of going home again after a certain period, that is to say, as soon as they think they have made money enough to do so. This is no longer so easy as it used to be, and many a business man will soon come to the conviction that in a big European harbour or commercial town he might be able to put aside just as much of his earnings as in Japan.
Japan As I Saw It (1912)
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