tities. There is no public market in the town, as neither beef, pork nor
mutton are eaten, and very little poultry. Vegetables, and a preparation
made of beans and rice flour, which has the consistency and appearance of
cheese, are hawked about the streets, and form a considerable portion of the
diet of the people. The signs of the shops, in accordance with the general
practice in Japan, are inscribed on the paper windows and doors, in various
well-known devices and cyphers, either in Chinese or Japanese characters.
The shopmen were at first very shy, and showed but little disposition to sell
their goods to the Americans; but when they became somewhat more familiar
with the strangers, the characteristic eagerness of tradesmen developed
itself to the full, and the Hakodadi merchants showed themselves as clever
at their business as any Chatham street or Bowery salesman with us. They
bustled about the raised platform upon which they were perched, pulled out
the drawers arranged on the walls, and displayed their goods to the greatest
advantage when they thought there was a chance of catching the eye and
pleasing the taste of a passing American. They were always very jealous,
however, of their prerogatives, and were exceedingly annoyed if any of their
purchasers stepped upon the platform, which was their trading sanctum, and
as carefully guarded against intrusion as the “ behind the counter fjj of a New
York shopman. The purchaser ordinarily stood under the roof, on the
ground, in the space which intervened between the sidewalk and the elevated
shop floor. Some of the more impatient and intrusive Yankees, however,
would occasionally spring up, and pulling out the goods, handle them
very unceremoniously, not, however, without a serious protest on the part
of the sellers, who sometimes were so annoyed that official complaints were
made by them to the authorities. The shopkeepers had always a fixed price
for their goods, and all attempts to beat them down were useless, and generally
rebuked by an expression of displeasure.
There are four large Buddhist temples in Hakodadi, one of which,
called the Zhiogen-zhi, or the country’s protector, is a good specimen of
Japanese architecture. I t was built by the townspeople about twenty years
since, and is kept in excellent repair. The tiled roof rises fully sixty feet
from the ground, and is supported by an intricate arrangement of girders,
posts, and tie-beams, resting upon large lacquered pillars. This temple is
one of the most conspicuous objects seen when entering the harbor. The
principal apartment in the interior is elaborately carved and richly gilded.
The carving and sculpture about the altar, the niches, and cornices, are of
wood and brass, and show very skilful workmanship. The designs are dragons,
phoenixes, cranes, tortoises, and other subjects associated with the religious
worship of Buddha. The main floor is elevated six feet above the
gound, and covered, as usual, with thick mats. There are three separate
shrines, each containing an image, the one in the nave being the largest and
most highly adorned. A sort of architrave descends between the pillars, so
contrived that, with the aid of folding screens, the shrines may he readily
partitioned off. There are six priests attached to the establishment, and
their quarters and those which are provided for visitors are models of
neatness and cleanliness. The temples in Japan, as in China, are often
used for places of concourse or entertainment, and on such occasions the
altars and shrines are covered or removed, which so changes the aspect of
the interior that no one would suspect that he was in a house of worship.
On the visit of the American squadron one of the temples was appropriated
for a bazaar a worldly use that the ecclesiastics, so far from objecting to
highly approved of, as it added considerably to their revenue, the rent of
the apartments being their perquisite on the occasion.
In the enclosure before the Zhiogen-zhi there is a grove of large spread-
ing cypresses, in the shade of which there are several outer buildings, and a
shed which covers six small stone images of deities. On either side of the
avenue which leads to the temple there are pairs of stone candelabras, and
near by,the statue of a goddess with a child in her arms. A copper nimbus
or glory surrounds the heads of all these idols, and reminds the Christian
visitor of what he may have seen in some churches of his own country.
Next to the Zhiogen-zhi, in a southerly direction, is the Zhetsa-zhi or
True-acting monastery, an older and somewhat dilapidated building. Then
are several small sheds in the yard in front of this temple, one of which
protects from the weather a subscription-box and a handsomely sculptured
stone candelabra. The priests have shown considerable taste in the cultivation
and arrangement of the garden and pleasure grounds in the rear
of the building.
Near the main street, which extends along the bay, in an enclosure
beautifully shaded with willows and firs of remarkable growth, is the Kono-
zhi, or High Dragon temple, so called from a large dragon carved along the
entablature in front; there is also a carp fish, some six feet long, skilfully
cut out of wood, extending in an upright direction on the right side of the
porch. ^ This temple is a large edifice, and, although now falling to decay,
bears in its elaborate ornaments and its expensive appointments signs of
having been onee in great esteem. Within the grounds which enclose it are
various richly adorned gateways, stone statues, candelabras, and shrines, all
showing more or less skilful design and workmanship. The fourth and last
of the Buddhist temples is called the Shiomio-zhi, or the monastery of
Buddha s name, but presents nothing of especial interest to distinguish it
from the others.
Bach of these temples has its adjoining grave-yard, filled with tombs
and monuments characteristic of the Japanese people and their religious belief.
Near each grave, as at Simoda, there are square posts and boards,
with the names of the dead, quotations from the canonical Buddhist books’
lines of poetry, and moral and religious apothegms, generally referring to