filled a portion, at least, of the plan which lured him westward ; a nation
which, if it did not discover Zipangu, has, we trust, been the instrument of
bringing it into full and free communication with the rest of the world; a
nation which has, as it were, taken the end of the thread which, on the
shores of America, broke in the hands of Columbus, and fastening it again
to the ball of destiny, has rolled it onward until, as it has unwound itself, it
has led the native and civilized inhabitants of the land discovered by the
great Genoese to plant their feet on the far distant region of his search, and
thus fulfil his wish to bring Zipangu within the influence of European civilization.
I t is the story of the American entrance in Japan that we propose to
relate ; and it is hoped it will aid in the better understanding of the narrative,
as well as show what additions, if any, have been made to our previous
knowledge, briefly to present, in a rapid sketch, the outlines of such information
as the world possessed before the American expedition left our shores.
On this work we now enter.
SECTION I.
NAME , E X T E N T , A N D G E O G R A P H Y .
T h e r e can be no doubt that Japan was unknown to the Greeks and
Romans, and that it was first brought to the knowledge of the European
world by the celebrated traveller, Marco Polo. His family was Venetian,
and devoted to commercial pursuits. In the year 1275, at the age of
eighteen, he accompanied his father and uncle into Asia on mercantile business
; and there, mastering the languages of Tartary, on the return of his
relatives to Europe, he remained, and entered into the service of Kublai
Khan, the then reigning monarch. In this situation he continued for seventeen
years. Possessed of a good mind, he was a close observer of what he
saw around him, and rendered the most important services, both military
and diplomatic, to the monarch, with whom he became not merely a favorite,
but in some degree a necessity. At length, in 1295, after an absence
of some twenty years, he returned to Venice, and was the first European
traveller who made known the existence of Japan to the inhabitants of the
west. He had not visited it in person, (as he is careful to state,) but he had
traversed the greater part of China, and had there heard what he related
concerning Japan. We may remark, in passing, that his statements of what
he had seen and heard so far surpassed the experience and knowledge of his
countrymen that he shared the fate of some modern travellers, and was not
believed. Nothing, however, is more sure than that modern research has
impressed with the character of truth all that he related on his personal observation,
and much of that which he gathered from the statements of others.
He, as we have already said, called Japan Zipangu ; it was the name which
he had heard in China. The Japanese themselves call their country Dai
Nippon, which means “ Great Nippon.” As to the origin of the latter word,
it is a compound of two others; nitsu, “ the sun,” and pon or fo n , 11 origin;”
these, according to the Japanese rule of combination, become Nippon or
Nifon, signifying “ origin of the sun; ” in other words, the East. In the
Chinese language, Nippon, by the usual change of pronunciation, becomes
Jih-pun, to which Koue is added, meaning “ country ” or “ Kingdom.” The
whole Chinese word, Jih-pun-koue, therefore, is, in English, “ Kingdom of
the origin of the sun,” or “ Eastern Kingdom.” The reader will readily
perceive how, on the lips of an' European, the name would become Zi-pan-
gu. We thus have the derivation, Nippon, Jih-pun, Japan.
As to the extent of the Kingdom: it consists of a great number of
islands, said to be 3,850, lying off the eastern coast of Asia, and spread over
that part of the ocean which extends from the 129th to the 146th degree of
east longitude from Greenwich, and is between the 31st and 46th degrees of
north latitude. The chain to which they belong may be traced on the map
from the Loo-Choo islands to the southern extremity of Kamtschatka, and
from this latter peninsula, through the Kurile islands, to the promontory of
Alaska, on our own continent. They are in the line of that immense circle
of volcanic development which surrounds the shores of the Pacific from
Tierra del Fuego around to the Moluccas.
The Kingdom is divided into Japan proper and the dependent islands.
The first-named division consists of the three large islands, Kiu-siu, Sitkokf,
and Nippon, and the whole Empire contains about 160,000 square miles.
Of many of the islands we know nothing. Their coasts are so difficult of
access, and shallow seas and channels, with sunken rocks and dangerous
whirlpools, added to winds as variable as they are violent, have interposed
most serious obstacles to nautical exploration, so that we have yet much to
learn of the navigation of the waters around the islands of Japan.
Those of which we have as yet most information are Kiu-siu, Nippon,
and Yesso, or Jesso. On the first of these is the town of Nagasaki, and
this is the port to which the Dutch have been most rigorously confined, in
all their commercial transactions, for two hundred years. Indeed, they have
not been permitted to live within the town itself, but have been literally
imprisoned on a very small island in the harbor, called Dezima, where they
have been most closely watched, and many rigid restrictions have been
imposed on their intercourse with the people. Under certain circumstances,
they have been at times permitted to go into the town, but not to remain for
any long period, nor have they ever been allowed to explore the island.