Japan Sentence Examples

North China and Japan also have many forms of life in common.

This grandiose project was unexpectedly destroyed by the energetic resistance of Japan, who had ear-marked the Hermit Kingdom for herself, and who declared plainly that she would never tolerate the exclusive influence of Russia in Manchuria.

Turning to the tailless or so-called Manx cats, in which the tail should be represented merely by a tuft of hair without any remnant of bone, it seems that the strain is to be met with in many parts of Russia, and there is a very general opinion that it originally came from Japan or some other far eastern country.

These were abundant in Tertiary Europe, as they are now in Japan, and represent perhaps a cooler element in the flora than that indicated above.

Though Japan is far removed from western Europe, and though a few generic forms and still fewer families inhabit the one without also frequenting the other, yet there is a most astonishing similarity in a large portion of their respective birds.

The very idea conveyed was wholly novel in Japan.

The sieu, on the other hand, were early naturalized in Japan.

Japan must indeed be a paradise for children to judge from the great number of playthings which are manufactured there.

He inaugurated new missionary enterprises from Hormuz to Japan and the Malay Archipelago, leaving an organized Christian community wherever he preached; he directed by correspondence the ecclesiastical policy of John III.

Pinto (q.v.), which minutely describes certain incidents of his life in the Far East (especially in Japan and Malacca).

But it made no progress in Indo-China or Japan; and though there is a large Moslem population in China the Chinese influence has been stronger, for alone of all Asiatics the Chinese have succeeded in forcing Islam to accept the ordinary limitations of a religion and to take its place as a creed parallel to Buddhism or any other.

The emperor is head of the state and the high priest, who sacrifices to Heaven on behalf of his people, but he can be deposed, and no divine right is inherent in certain families as in Japan and Turkey.

He used his influence with the emperor of Russia, as also with the emperors of China and Japan and with the shah of Persia, to secure the free practice of their religion for Roman Catholics within their respective dominions.

From this time forward Japan's commercial and military advancement continued to make uninterrupted progress.

Prof. Morse knows a great deal about Japan, and is very kind and wise.

On national the 30th of July 1907 she signed a convention with position Japan of mutual respect for treaty and territorial of Russia.

In essence, they would become like Japan, which exports essentially no food, imports US$44 billion in food annually, but still enjoys a high standard of living.

Prehistoric tumuli are found abundantly in almost all parts of Europe and Asia from Britain to Japan.

Two of these first-class cruisers were sold to Japan.

But in 1861 the British government renounced all claim to the islands in recognition of Japan's right of possession.

With them may be associated the anomalous Sciadopitys of Japan.

Its eastern limit in Europe is a line from Konigsberg to the Caucasus; thence through China it is continued by varietal forms to Japan.

Maximowiczfinds that 40% of the plants of Manchuria are common to Europe and Asia, but the proportion falls sharply to i6% in the case of Japan.

The affinity to Atlantic North America is strongly marked as it has long been known to be in Japan.

The presence of tellurium in native sulphur is rare, but is known in certain specimens from Japan.

The Aleutian archipelago was sold to the United States in 1867, together with Alaska, and in 1875 the Kurile Islands were ceded to Japan.

The Trans-Siberian railway was a military necessity if Russia was to exercise dominion throughout Siberia and maintain a port on the Yellow Sea or the Sea of Japan.

He had blue or grey eyes, and fair hair and beard, which turned white through the hardships he endured in Japan.

This quality is nowhere better exemplified than in his letters to Gaspar Baertz (Barzaeus), the Flemish Jesuit whom he sent to Hormuz, or in his suggestions for the establishment of a Portuguese staple in Japan.

Phajinae, includes 15 genera chiefly tropical Asiatic, some- Phajus and Calanthe - spreading northwards into China and Japan.

Insectivorous bats are numerous, but the frugivorous division of this order is only represented by a single species in Japan.

Japan appears to have been formerly inhabited by the Ainus, who have traditions of an older but unknown population, but was invaded in prehistoric times by a race akin to the Koreans, which was possibly mingled with Malay elements after occupying the southern part of the islands.

Japan has never been invaded in historical times, but an attempt made by Kublai Khan to conquer it was successfully repulsed.

His plans were interrupted by his death, and his successor, Ieyasu, who shaped the social and political life of Japan for nearly 300 years (1603-1868), definitely decided on a policy of seclusion and isolation.

Their exceptional status among Asiatic nations has been recognized by treaties which, contrary to the general practice in nonChristian countries, place all foreigners in Japan under Japanese law.

Even the great dynasties have left few traces, and it is with difficulty that the patient historian disinters the minor kingdoms from obscurity, but Indian religion, literature and art have influenced all Asia from Persia to Japan.

The extensive Sanskrit literature, which has reached in translations China, Japan and Java, is chiefly theological and poetical, history being conspicuously absent.

Both China and Japan have felt through Buddhism the influence of Indian art, which contains at least two elements - one indigenous and the other Greco-Persian.

But the mental constitution of Asiatics is less easily modified than their institutions, and even Japan has assimilated European methods rather than European ideas.

Five living species from the Antilles, Japan and the Moluccas.

Oriental types range far northwards into China and Japan.

In 1905 the treaty ending the war between Japan and Russia was negotiated in what is known as the Peace Building in this yard.

The bulk of the cotton is of very short staple, about three-quarters of an inch, and is not well suited to the requirements of the English spinner, but very large mills specially fitted to deal with short-stapled cottons have been erected in India and consume about one-half the total crop, the remainder being exported to Germany and other European countries, Japan and China.

In the future Korea may become an important source of supply for Japan, especially if, as appears likely, Korea proves suited to the cultivation of American cotton.

Japan received cotton from India before China, and the plant is extensively grown, especially in West and Middle Japan.

The production is not sufficient to meet the home demand; during the five years of normal trade before the war with Russia Japan imported annually about 800,000 bales of cotton, chiefly from British India, China and the United States, and during the same period exported each year some 2000 bales, mainly to Korea.

The mollusc itself is often eaten, and dried for consumption in China and Japan.

The President made it clear that he regarded the conference merely as a step in securing international understanding and good will; he advocated the convening of succeeding conferences as a possible means of securing an international association for the promotion of peace, and he approved the principle of substituting an understanding between the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan regarding Far-Eastern problems, for the existing Anglo-Japanese Treaty.

Under the RussoJapanese treaty of August 1905, after the war, supplemented by a convention between Japan and China concluded in December of the same year, Japan took over the line from Port Arthur as far as Kwang-cheng-tsze, now known as the Southern Manchurian railway (508 m.).

The Anglo-German agreement of October 1900, to which Japan also became a party, and by which it was agreed to " maintain undiminished the territorial condition of the Chinese empire," was considered by Great Britain and Japan not to exclude Manchuria; but Germany, on the other hand, declared that Manchuria was of no interest to her.

One result of the Russo-Japanese War was the evacuation of Manchuria by the Russians, which, after the conclusion of peace in 1905, was handed over by Japan to China.

The ancient records of China and Japan are said to contain many allusions to the use of natural gas for lighting and heating.

Petroleum (" burning water ") was known in Japan in the 7th century, whilst in Europe the gas springs of the north of Italy led to the adoption in 1226 by the municipality of Salsomaggiore of a salamander surrounded by flames as its emblem.

Bitumen is, in its various forms, one of the most widel y -distributed of substances, occurring in strata of every geological age, from the lowest Archean rocks to those now in process of deposition, and in greater or less quantity throughout both hemispheres, from Spitzbergen to New Zealand, and from California to Japan.

It is said that at Echigo in Japan, old wells, supposed to have been dug several hundred years ago, are existent, and that a Japanese history - called Kokushiriyaku, states that " burning water " was obtained in Echigo about A.D.

On the addition of Formosa to her dominions, Fuji ceased to be Japan's highest mountain, and took the third place on the list.

To interdict the importation of the drug altogether, as is done in Japan, was the step advocated by Japanese public opinion.

In 1895 the island was ceded to Japan by the treaty of Shimonoseki at the close of the Japanese war.

A formal transfer to Japan was made in June of the same year in pursuance of the treaty, the ceremony taking place on board ship outside Kelung, as the Chinese commissioners did not venture to land.

In the case of Japan, the earliest reference to a map is of 646, in which year the emperor ordered surveys of certain provinces to be made.

Japan has a regular survey department originated by Europeans and successfully carried on by natives.

Nearly allied is Neophocaena phocaenoides, a small species from the Indian Ocean and Japan, with teeth of the same form as those of the porpoise, but fewer in number (eighteen to twenty on each side), of larger size, and more distinctly notched or lobed on the free edge.

The trade of the United States with the island was as great in 1900-1907 as with Mexico and all the other West Indies combined; as great as its trade with Spain, Portugal and Italy combined; and almost as great as its trade with China and Japan.

It is not known as a wild plant in China or Japan.

One of the most singular facts concerning the geographical distribution of Enteropneusta has recently been brought to light by Benham, who found a species of Balanoglossus, sensu stricto, on the coast of New Zealand hardly distinguishable from one occurring off Japan.

The Sea of Okhotsk, separated from the Pacific by the Kurile Archipelago and from the Sea of Japan by the islands of Sakhalin and Yezo, is notorious as one of the worst seas of the world, owing to its dense fogs and its masses of floating ice.

The northern part of the Sea of Japan, which washes the Usuri region, has, besides the smaller bays of Olga and Vladimir, the beautiful Gulf of Peter the Great, on which stands Vladivostok, the Russian naval station on the Pacific. Okhotsk and Ayan on the Sea of Okhotsk, Petropavlovsk on the east shore of Kamchatka, Nikolayevsk, and Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan, and Dui on Sakhalin are the only ports of Siberia.

There is further an import trade amounting to between two and three-quarters and three millions sterling annually with Manchuria, to over one million sterling with the United States, and to a quarter to half a million sterling with Japan.

Thus in 1857 he went to Peru in order to determine the magnetic equator; in1861-1862and 1864, he studied telluric absorption in the solar spectrum in Italy and Switzerland; in 1867 he carried out optical and magnetic experiments at the Azores; he successfully observed both transits of Venus, that of 1874 in Japan, that of 1882 at Oran in Algeria; and he took part in a long series of solar eclipse-expeditions, e.g.

The lease of Port Arthur having been ceded to Japan in September 1905, the British lease of Wei-haiwei was made to run for as long as Japan held Port Arthur.

Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Russia and the United States began to rank as producers during the second and third decades; Belgium entered in about 1840; Italy in the 'sixties; Mexico, Canada, Japan and Greece in the 'eighties; while Australia assumed importance in 1888 with a production of about 18,000 tons, although it had contributed small and varying amounts for many preceding decades.

Hildreth's Japan as It Was and Is (1855) was at the time a valuable digest of the information contained in other works on that country (new ed., 1906).

From the Scandinavian peninsula and the British Islands the range of the fox extends eastwards across Europe and central and northern Asia to Japan, while to the south it embraces northern Africa and Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan, and the northwestern districts of India and the Himalaya.

The dolmen-builders of the New Stone Age are now known to have long occupied both Korea and Japan, from which advanced Asiatic lands they may have found little difficulty in spreading over the Polynesian world, just as in the extreme west they were able to range over Scandinavia, Great Britain and Ireland.

The question turned upon the true construction of certain treaties between theEuropeanpowers and Japan which had been made a few years previously.

As representative of Japan at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, he took the opportunity afforded by his mission to study the financial systems of the great European powers.

The condition of the currency of Japan was at that time deplorable, and national bankruptcy threatened.

Its use was obviously continued by the Buddhists during the prevalence of their religion in India, for it is still used by them in Nepal, Tibet, Ceylon, Burma, China and Japan.

These countries all received Buddhism from India, and a large proportion of the porcelain and earthenware articles imported from China and Japan into Europe consists of innumerable forms of censers.

The regular course of trade is apt to be deflected by famines in India or Japan.

A glass vase about a foot high is preserved at Nara in Japan, and is alleged to have been placed there in the 8th century.

He lectured in Japan in 1892, 1899 (when he also visited the universities of India) and 1906-1907.

The Dibothriocephalus latus is not generally found except in districts bordering the Baltic Sea, the districts round the Franco-Swiss lakes and Japan.

They were forms which may rightly be called feudal, but only in the wider meaning in which we speak of the feudalism of Japan, or of Central Africa, not in the sense of 12th-century European feudalism; Saxon commendation may rightly be called vassalage, but only as looking back to the early Frankish use of the term for many varying forms of practice, not as looking forward to the later and more definite usage of completed feudalism; and such use of the terms feudal and vassalage is sure to be misleading.

Returning to favour in 1899, he was promoted to the Legation at Tokio, where, however, under the influence of German reports concerning the Japanese army - and es p ecially its artillery - he misjudged Japan's advent as a Great Power.

Commercial relations have also been opened with Japan, and a small Japanese colony has been added to the population.

He was received with distinguished honours in England and on the continent of Europe, g whence he made his way to India, China and Japan.

Tazetta, extends through Asia to Japan.

Formosa and the Pescadores were ceded to Japan by China after the war of 1894-1895, and the southern half of Sakhalinthe part south of 500 N.was added to Japan by cession from Russia in 1905.

The Pacific Ocean, which washes the eastern shores, moulds their outline into much greater diversity than does the Sea of Japan which washes the western shores.

The configuration seems to point to a colossal crater under the ocean, and many of the earthquakes which visit Japan appear to have their origin in this submarire region.

On the other hand, the average depth of the Japan Sea is only 1200 fathoms, and its maximum depth is 3200.

There arc four narrow avenues connecting this remarkable body of water with the Pacific and the Japan Sea; that on the west, called Shirnonoseki Strait, has a width of 3000 yds., that on the south, known ai Hayarnoto Strait, is 8 m.

From this harbour to Osaka Japans waist measures onl 77 m., and as the great lake of Biwa and some minor sheets of wate break the interval, a canal may be dug to join the Pacific and th Sea of Japan.

The Pescadore lalands afford the best anchorage in this part of Japan.

There is entire absence of the Alpine plants found abundantly on the summits of other high mountains in Japan, a fact due, doubtless, to the comparatively recent activity of the volcano.

The provinces of Hida and Etchiu are bounded on the east by a chain of mountains including, or having in their immediate vicinity, the highest peaks in Japan after Fuji.

Farther south, in the same range, stands Ontake (10,450 ft.), the second highest mountain in Japan proper (as distinguished from Formosa); and other remarkable though not so lofty peaks mark the same regions.

On the summit of Ontake are eight large and several small craters, and there also may be seen displays of trance and divine possession, such as are described by Mr Percival Lowell in Occult Japan (1895).

Even more picturesque, though less lofty, than the Alps of Japan, are the Nikko mountains, enclosing the mausolea of the two greatest of the Tokugawa shoguns.

It will be observed that all the highest mountains of Japan form a species of belt across the widest part of the main island, beginning on the west with the Alps of Etchiu, Hida and Shinano, and ending on the east with Fuji-yama.

Among the mountains, of Japan there are three volcanic ranges, namely, that of the Kuriles, that of Fuji, and that of Kirishima.

But experience in other parts of Japan shows that a long quiescent crater may at any moment burst into disastrous activity.

Japan, known as the Satsuma-Fuji.

One steadily exercised influence is constantly at work, for the shores bordering the Pacific Ocean are slowly though appreciably rising, while on the side of the Japan Sea a corresponding subsidence is taking place.

Japan also experiences a vast number of petty vibrations not perceptible without the aid of delicate instruments.

If the calculation be carried farther backas has been done by the seismic disaster investigation committee of Japan, a body of scientists constantly engaged in studying these phenomena under government auspices,it is found that, since the countrys history began to be written in the 8th century AD,, there have been 2006 major disturbances; but inasmuch as 1489 of these occurred before the beginning of the Tokugawa administration (early in the 17th century, and therefore in an era when methods of recording were comparatively defective), exact details are naturally lacking.

It would seem that of late years Tajima, Hida, KOzuke and some other regions in central Japan have enjoyed the greatest immunity, while Musashi (in which province Tokyo is situated) and Sagami have been most subject to disturbance.

Geology.It is a popular belief that the islands of Japan consist for the most part of volcanic rocks.

Overlying these amongst the Palaeozoic rocks, we meet in many parts of Japan with slates and other rocks possibly of Cambrian or Silurian age.

They have pointed out that in the mountain system of Japan there are three main lines.

During the whole of the Mesozoic era Japan appears to have lain on or near the margin of the Asiatic continent, and the marine deposits are confined for the most part to the eastern side of the islands.

Structurally Japan is divided into two regions by a depression (the Fossa Magna of Naumann) which stretches across the island of Hondo from Shimoda to Nagano.

Nearly along the boundary between the two zones lie the inland seas of south Japan.

It has been abundantly demonstrated by careful observations that the east coasts of Japan are slowly rising.

Since many of these thermal springs possess great medicinal value, Japan may become one of the worlds favorite health-resorts, There are more than a hundred spas, some hot, some cold, which, being easily accessible and highly efficacious, are largely visited by the Japanese.

These differences are due to the action of the north-westerly wind that blows over Japan from Siberia.

The intervening sea being comparatively warm, this wind arrives at Japan having its temperature increased and carrying moisture which it deposits as snow on the western faces of the Japanese mountains.

Japan is emphatically a wet country so far as quantity of rainfall is concerned, the average for the whole country being 1570 mm.

During the cold season, which begins in October and ends in April, northerly and westerly winds prevail throughout Japan.

Flora.The flora of Japan has been carefully studied by many scientific men from Siebold downwards.

Foreigners visiting Japan are immediately struck by the affection of the people for flowers, trees and natural beauties of every kind.

It will not suffer any training, nor does it, like the plum, improve by pruning, but the sunshine that attends its brief period of bloom in April, the magnificence of its flower-laden boughs and the picturesque flutter of its falling petals, inspired an ancient poet to liken it to the soul, of Yamato (Japan), and it has ever since been thus regarded.

All these treesthe plum, the cherry and the peachbear no fruit worthy of the name, nor do they excel their Occidental representatives in wealth of blossom, but the admiring affection they inspire in Japan is unique.

Scarcely has the cherry season passed when that of the wistaria (fuji) comes, followed by the azalea(tsutsuji) and the iris (shibu), the last being almost contemporaneous with the peony (botan), which is regarded by many Japan se as the king of flowers and is cultivated assiduously.

There exists among many foreign observers an impression that Japan is comparatively poor in wild-flowers; an impression probably due to the fact that there are no flowery meadows or lanes.

Japan has four insular chains which link her to the neighboring continent.

The bear does not attract much popular interest in Japan.

The falcon (taka), always an honored bird in Japan, where from time immemorial hawking has been an aristocratic pastime, is common enough, and so is the sparrow-hawk (/lai-taka), but the eagle (washi) affects solitude.

Starlings (muku-dori) are numerous, and so are the wagtail (sekirei), the swallow (tsubame) the martin (ten), the woodchat (mozu) and the jay (kakesu or kashi-dori), but the magpie (tOgarasu), though common in China, is rare in Japan.

Of reptiles Japan has only 30 species, and among them is included the marine turtle (urni-ganie) which can scarcely be said to frequent her waters, since it is seen only at rare intervals on the southern coast.

Sea-snakes occasionally make their way to Japan, being cairied thither by the Black Current (Kuro Shiwo) and the monsoon, but they must be regarded as merely fortuitous visitors.

In winter, for example, when the northern monsoon begins to blow, numbers of denizens of the Sea of Okhotsk swim southward to the more genial waters of north Japan; and in summer the Indian Ocean and the Malayan archipelago send to her southern coasts a crowd of emigrants which turn homeward again at the approach of winter.

They may be found carefully catalogued with all their included species in Reins Japan, and highly interesting researches by Japanese physiographists are recorded in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of TOkyo.

The insect life of Japan broadly corresponds withthat of temperate regions in Europe.

The latterfor which the generic term in Japan is mushi or kaichinclude some beautiful species, from the jewel beetle (tama-mushi), the gold beetle (kogane-mushi) and the Chrysochroa fulgidissima, which glow and sparkle with the brilliancy of gold and precious stones, to the jet black Melanauster chinensis, which- seems to have been fashioned out of lacquer spotted with white.

In Japan, as elsewhere, the principal crustacea are found in the sea.

Flocks of lupa and other species swim in the wake of the tropical fishes which move towards Japan at certain seasons.

Very remarkable is the giant Taka-ashi long legs (Macrocheirus Kaempfeni), which has legs 14 metres long and is found in the seas of Japan and the Malay archipelago.

Thele is no lobster on the coasts of Japan, but there are various species of cray-fish (Palinurus and Scyliarus) the principal of which, under the names of ise-ebi (Palinurus japonicus) and kuruma-ebi (Penaeus canaliculatus) are greatly prized as an article of diet.

In others also Aslerias rubens is not knownand then it suddenly reappears in Japan.

Archaster typicus has a pretty wide distribution over the Indian Ocean; other Asteridae of Japan, on the other hand, appear to be confined to its shores.

Japan is not rich in corals and sponges.

Japan proper..

Towns.There are in Japan 23 towns having a population of over 50,000, and there are 76 having a population of over 20,000.

The number of houses in Japan at the end of 1903, when the census was last taken, was 8,725,544, the average number of inmates in each house being thus 5.5,

Thus since it has become the fashion for Chinese students to flock to the schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do their Japanese fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of hairdressing, the distinction of nationality ceases to be perceptible.

This is seen specially among the upper classes in Japan.

The most plausible hypothesis is that men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric times, settled in the province of Izumo, on the west coast of Japan, having made their way thither from the Korean peninsula by the island of Oki, being carried by the cold current which flows along the eastern coast of Korea.

It is not very frequently found in Japan, perhaps because, under favorable social conditions, it tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type.

There is no sat?sfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan, but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither at one time.

None of the above three, however, can be regarded as the earliest settlers in Japan.

These peoplethe Ainuare usually spoken of as the aborigines of Japan.

In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make ug the population of Japan.

Youths and maidens maintain towards each other a demeanour of reserve and even indifference, from which it has been confidently affirmed that love does not exist in Japan.

As to the question of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds for a conclusive verdict are hard to find.

Yet it may be doubted whether the value attached in Japan to the abstract quality, truth, is as high as the value attached to it in England, or whether the consciousness of having told a falsehood weighs as heavily on the heart.

If then the languages of Korea and Japan had a common stock, they must have branched off from it at a date exceedingly remote.

Iwleanwhile an inquirer is confronted by the strange fact that of three neighboring countries between which frequent communication existed, one (China) never deviated from an ideographic script; another (Korea) invented an alphabet, and the third (Japan) devised a syllabary.

Antiquaries have sought to show that Japan possessed some form of script before her first contact with either Korea or China.

By the term archaic is to be understood the pure Japanese language of earliest times, and by the term classical the quasi-Chinese language which came into use for literary purposes when Japan appropriated the civilization of her great neighbors.

Already by the time of its compilation the influence of Chinese civilization and Chinese literature had prevailed so greatly in Japan that the next authentic work, composed only eight years later, was completely Chinese in style and embodied Chinese traditions and Chinese philosophical doctrines, not distinguishing them from their Japanese context.

This volume was called the Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan).

Yet this was the style which thenceforth prevailed among the litterati of Japan.

In his country retreat at Shizuoka he formed one of the richest libraries ever brought together in Japan, and by will he bequeathed the Japanese section of it to his eighth son, the feudal chief of Owari, and the Chinese section to his ninth son, the prince of Kishu, with the result that under the former feudatorys auspices two works of considerable merit were produced treating of ancient ceremonials and supplementing the Nikongi.

It is not to be inferred that the writers of Japan, enamoured as they were of Chinese ideographs and Chinese style, deliberately excluded everything Chinese from the realm of poetry.

But rhyme was not attempted, and the syllabic metre of Japan was preserved, the alternation of 5 and 7 being, however, dispensed with.

Murasaki no Shikibuprobably a pseudonymwas the first novel composed in Japan.

Before her time there had been many monogatari (narratives), but all consisted merely of short stories, mythical or quasi-historical, whereas Murasaki no Shikibu did for Japan what Fielding and Richardson did for England.

In the former, JinkOshOtOhi (History of the True Succession of the Divine Monarchs), Kitabatake Chikafusa (1340) undertook to prove that of the two sovereigns then disputing for supremacy in Japan, Go-Daigo was the rightful monarch; in the latter, Taihei-ki (history of Great Peace), Kojima (1370) devoted his pages to describing the events of contemporaneous history.

For a moment, when the tide of Western civilization swept over Japan, the NO seemed likely to b permanently submerged.

Japan owes a profound debt of gratitudc to the kangakusha of that time.

If Japan was eminently fortunate in the men who directed her political career at that time, she was equally favored in those that presided over her literary culture.

He also brought out the first literary periodical published in Japan, namely, the Waseda Bungaku, so called because Tsubouchi was professor of literature in the Waseda University, an institution founded by Count Okuma, whose name cannot be omitted from any history of Meiji literature, not as an author but as a patron.

Virtually every literary magnate of the Occident has found one or more interpreters in modern Japan.

Newspapers, as the term is understood in the West, did not exist in old Japan, though block-printed leaflets were occasionally issued to describe some specially stirring event.

Japan had not yet any political parties, but the ferment that preceded their birth was abroad.

The situation was saved by a newspaper whicl from the outset of its career obeyed the best canons of journalism - Born in 1882, the fiji Shimpo (Times) enjoyed the immense advan tage of having its policy controlled by one of the greatest thinker of modern Japan, Fukuzawa Yukichi.

It is in the realm of decorative art that the world has chiefly benefited by contact with Japan.

Tradition refers to the advent of a Chinese artist named Nanriu, invited to Japan in the 5th century as a painter of the Imperial banners, but of the labors and influence of Period, this man and of his descendants we have no record.

The oldest existiog work of this period is a mural decoration in the hail of the temple of Horyu-ji, Nara, attributed to a Korean priest named Donchfl, who lived in Japan in the 6th century; and this painting, in spite of the destructive effects of time and exposure, shows traces of the same power of line, color and composition that stamps the best of the later examples of Buddhist art.

The chief motives were landscapes of a peculiarly wild and romantic type, animal life, trees and flowers, and figtire compositions drawn from Chinese and Buddhist history and Taoist legend; and these, together with the grand aims and strange shortcomings of its principles and the limited range of its methods, were adopted almost without change by Japan.

It is to him that Japan owes the possession of some of the most stately and most original works in her art, sublime in conception, line and color, and deeply instinct with the religious spirit.

The native style, Yamato or Wa-gwa-ryi, was an adaptation of Chinese art canons to motives drawn from the court life, poetry Native and stories of old Japan.

It was not until the triumph of the northern dynasty was achieved through the prowess of an interested champion of the Ashikaga clan that the culture of ancient Japan revived.

It is to Moronobu that Japan owes the popularization of artistic wood-engravings, for nothing before his series of xylographic albums approached his best work in strength and beauty, and nothing since has surpassed it.

It was in the middle of the 18th century that the decorative, but relatively feeble, Chinese art of the later Ming period found favor in Japan and a clever exponent in a painter named Ryurikyo It must be regarded as a sad decadence from the old Chinese ideals, which was further hastened, from about 1765, by the popularity of the southern Chinese style.

The principal Japanese supporter of this school was TaigadO (1722-1775), but the volume of copies of his sketches, TafgadO sansui juseki, published about 1870, is one of the least attractive albums ever printed in Japan.

Somewhat more successful has been an attemptinaugurated by Hashimoto GahO and Kawabata Gyokushoto combine the art of the West with that of Japan by adding to the latter the chiaroscuro and the linear perspective of the former.

Although a little engraving on copper has been practised in Japan of late years, it is of no artistic value, and the only branch of the art which calls for recognition is the Engraving.

It appears to be one of the few indigenous arts of Japan.

But before accepting this conclusion as final, one must not lose sight of the fact that the so-called chiaroscuro engraving was at the height of its use in Italy at the same time that embassies from thc Christians in Japan visited Rome, and that it is thus possiblc that the suggestion at least may have been derived from Europe.

The fact that no traces of it have been discovered in Japan would be easily accounted for, when it is remembered that the examples taken home would almost certainly have been religious pictures, would have been preserved in well-known and accessible places, and would thus have been entirely destroyed in the terrible and minute extermination of Christianity by Hideyoshi at the beginning of the 17th century.

The history of the illustrated book in Japan may be said to begin with the Ise mono gatari, a romance first published in the 10th century, of which an edition adorned with woodcuts appeared in 1608.

The subjects also now include a new series of landscapes and views drawn as seen by the designers, and not reproductions of the work of other men; and also sketches of scenes and characters of every-day life and of the folk-lore in which Japan is so rich.

Among the artists of this period, as of all others in Japan, Hokusai (1760-1849) is absolutely pre-eminent.

The books produced in the period1880-1908in Japan are still of high technical excellence.

Sculpture and Carving.Sculpture in wood and metal is ol ancient date in Japan.

Setting aside rude prehistoric essays in stone and metal, which have special interest for the antiquary, we have examples of sculpture in wood and metal, magnificent in conception and technique, dating from the earliest periods of what we may term historical Japan; that is, from near the beginning of the great Buddhist propaganda under the emperor Kimmei (540571) and the princely hierarch, ShOtoku Taishi (573621).

Stone has never been in favor in Japan as a material for the higher expression of the sculptors art.

The first historical period of glyptic art in Japan reaches from the end of the 6th to the end of the 12th century, culminating in, the work of the great Nara sculptors, Unkei and Period, his pupil Kwaikei.

Happily, there are still preserved in the great temples of Japan, chiefly in the ancient capital of Nara, many noble relics of this period.

The goddess of art of Akishino-dera, Nara, attributed to the 8th century, is the most graceful and least conventional of female sculptures in Japan, but infinitely remote from the feminine conception of the Greeks.

The colossal Nara Daibutsu (Vairocana) at Tdai-ji, cast in 749 by a workman of Korean descent, is the largest of the great bronzes in Japan, but ranks far below the Yakushi-ji image in artistic qualities.

They constitute a phase of art in which Japan has few rivals.

In Japan, as in Europe, three varieties of relief carving are distinguishedalto (taka-bori), mezzo (chniku-bori) and basso (usunikubori).

Inlaying with gold or silver was among the early forms of decoration in Japan.

A third kind of inlaying, peculiar to Japan, is sumi-zogan (ink-inlaying), so called because the inlaid design gives the impression of having been painted with Indian ink beneath the transparent surface of the metal.

It has been frequently asserted by Western critics that the year (1876) which witnessed the abolition of sword-wearing in Japan, witnessed also the end of her artistic metal- Moderna,,d work.

Between 1875 and 1879 some of the finest bronzes ever produced in Japan were turned out by a group of experts working under the business name of Sanseisha.

Marble statues are out of place in the wooden buildings as well as in the parks of Japan, and even plaster busts or groups, though less incongruous perhaps.

To this combination of modellers in European style and metal-workers of such force as Suzuki and Okazaki, Japan owes various memorial bronzes and effigies which are gradually finding a place in her parks, her museums, her shrines or her private houses.

When Japanese sculpture in wood or ivory is spoken of, the first idea that presents itself is connected with the netsuke, which, of all the art objects found in Japan, is perhaps the most Netsuke essentially Japanese.

If Japan had given us nothing Carvers.

One of the most remarkable developments of figure sculpture in modern Japan was due to Matsumoto Kisaburo (1830-1869).

A considerable school of carvers soon began to work in the Matsumoto style, and hundreds of their pi-oductions have gone to Europe and America, finding no market in Japan.

In the forefront of the new movement are to be found men like Yoneharu Unkai and Shinkai Taketaro; the former chiselled a figure of Jenner for the Medical Association of Japan when they celebrated the centenary of the great physician, and the latter has carved life-size effigies of two Imperial princes who lost their lives in the war with China (1894 95).

Textile Fabrics and Embroider yIn no branch of applied art does the decorative genius of Japan show more attractive results than in that of textile fabrics, and in none has there been more conspicuous progress during recent years.

He inaugurated the new departure a few years ago by copying a Gobelin, but it may safely be asserted that no Gobelin will bear comparison with the pieces now produced in Japan.

CeramicsAll research proves that up to the 12th century of the Christian era the ceramic ware produced in Japan was of a very rude character.

It had long been customary in Japan to send students to China for the purpose of studying philosophy and religion, and she now (1223) sent a potter, Kato Shirozaemon, who, on his return, opened a kiln at Seto in the province of Owari, and began to produce little jars for preserving tea and cups for drinking it.

The third clearly differentiated epoch was inaugurated by the discovery of true kaolin at Izumi-yama in Hizen, the discoverer being one of the Korean potters who came to Japan in the train of Hideyoshis generals returning from the invasion of Korea, and the date of the discovery being about 1605.

Thus much premised, it becomes possible to speak in detail of the various wares for which Japan became famous.

There are three chief varieties of Hizen ware, namely, (1) the enamelled porcelain of Aritathe old Japan of European collectors; (2) the enamelled porcelain of Nabeshima; and Hizen (3) the blue and white, or plain white, porcelain of Hirado.

This is undoubtedly the finest jewelled porcelain in Japan; the best examples leave nothing to be desired The factorys period of excellence began about the year I 680, ant culminated at the close of the 18th century.

It was first produced by a Korean who emigrated to Japan in the early part of the 16th century.

Setting aside, however, the strong improbability that a style of decoration so widely practised and so highly esteemed could have remained unknown during a century and a half to experts working for one of the most puissant chieftains in Japan, we have the evidence of trustworthy traditions and written records that enamelled faience was made by the potters at Tatsumonjithe principal factory of Satsuma-ware in early daysas far back as the year 1676.

They also employed silver freely for decorative purposes, whereas we rarely find it thus used on old Japan porcelain.

Seto has now ceased to be a pottery-producing centre, and has become the chief porcelain manufactory of Japan.

In Japan they were most closely approached by the faience TakatorL of Takatori in the province of Chikuzen.

From this period date most of the specimens best known outside Japan cleverly modelled figures of mythological beings and animals covered with lustrous variegated glazes, the general colors being grey or buff, with tints of green, chocolate, brown and sometimes blue.

Japan, on the contrary, owes her ceramic distinction in the main to her faience.

It is a curious and interesting fact that this last product of Chinese skill remained unknown in Japan down to very recent days.

If we except the ware of Satsuma, it may be said that nearly all the fine faience Self Ii of of Japan was manufactured formerly in KiOto.

But although the capital of Japan formerly played only an insignificant part in Japanese ceramics, modern Tokyo has an important school of artist-artisans.

The porcelains of Owari and Arita naturally received most attention at the hands of the Hyochi-en decorators, but there was scarcely one of the principal wares of Japan upon which they did not try their skill, and if a piece of monochromatic Minton or Svres came in their way, they undertook to improve it by the addition of designs copied from old masters or suggested by modern taste.

There is only one reservation to be made in speaking of the modern decorative industry of Japan under its better aspects.

Faience thus decorated has always been exceptional in Japan.

The difficulty of obtaining clear, rich tints was nearly prohibitive, and though success, when achieved, seemed to justify the effort, this class of ware never received much attention in Japan.

Ware manufactured by his direction at the Tokyo school of technique (shokk gakk), under the name of asahi-yaki, ranks among the interesting productions of modern Japan.

In the days of the great dilettante Yoshimasa (1449-1490), lacquer experts devised a new style, laka-makie, or decoration in relief, which immensely augmented the beauty of the ware, and constituted a feature altogether special to Japan.

Cloisonn Enamel.Cloisonn enamel is essentially of modern development in Japan.

Thus, about the year 1865, there commenced an export of enamels which had no prototypes in Japan, being destined frankly for European and American collectors.

It is not too much to say, indeed, that when Japan opened her doors to foreigners in the middle of the 19th century, she possessed a system of roads some of which bore striking testimony to her medieval greatness.

September 1872 saw the first official opening of a railway (the Tokyo-Yokohama line) in Japan, the ceremony being performed by the emperor himself, a measure which effectually silenced all further opposition.

Prince Iwakura, one of the leaders of the Meiji statesmen, persuaded the feudatories to employ a part of the bonds as capital for railway construction, and thus the first private railway company was formed in Japan under the name Nippon tetsudo kaisha (Japan railway company), the treasury guaranteeing 8% on the paid-up capital for a period of 15 years.

When this building of railways began in Japan, much discussion was taking place in England and India as to the relative advantages of the wide and narrow gauges, and so strongly did the arguments in favor of the latter appeal to the English advisers of the Japanese government that the metre gauge was chosen.

The average speed of passenger trains in Japan is 18 m.

Not until 1905 did Japan come into possession of an electric railway.

The Nihon-bashi (Bridge of Japan), in the district of the same name, is by far the most famous.

It is the point from which all distances in Japan are measured.

The family of the Tokugawas furnished the shoguns (or tycoons) of Japan for nearly three hundred years, and these resided during that period at Yedo.

In1890-1891he made a tour in Greece, Egypt, India, Ceylon and Japan, where he narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a Japanese fanatic. On the return journey by Siberia, at Vladivostok, he turned the first sod of the eastern section of the Siberian railway, and two years afterwards (1893) he was appointed president of the imperial committee for that great undertaking.

The common alloy, Shi-ya-ku-Do, contains 70% of copper and 30% of gold; when exposed to air it becomes coated with a fine black patina, and is much used in Japan for sword ornaments.

In September 1689 he reached Batavia; spent the following winter in studying Javanese natural history; and in May 1690 set out for Japan as physician to the embassy sent yearly to that country by the Dutch.

Kaempfer stayed two years in Japan, during which he twice visited Tokyo.

In November 1692 he left Japan for Java and Europe, and in October 1693 he landed at Amsterdam.

Mingling with Siamese and Chinese, who form the major part, may be seen persons of almost every race to be found between Bombay and Japan, while Europeans of different nationalities number over 1000.

The four fringing seas of eastern Asia, those of Bering, Okhotsk, Japan and East China, are arranged parallel to the main lines of dislocation in the neighbouring land-masses, and so are the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of California.

Strong evidence of this is afforded by the association of some of the depressions, notably the Japan Trench and the Atacama Trench, with the origin of frequent submarine earthquakes.

The Sea of Japan has a wide shelf only in the north, the central part forms a broad basin with depths of 1650 fathoms. The Laurentian Sea (Gulf of St Lawrence) has a narrow branching gully running between wide shelves, in which a depth of 312 fathoms is found south of Anticosti.

The " Challenger " expedition found it on the Agulhas Bank, do the eastern coasts of Australia, Japan, South America and on the west coast of Portugal.

The fact that sea-water does evaporate more slowly than fresh water has been proved by the observations of Mazelle at Triest and of Okado in Azino (Japan).

Similarly in Siberia and Japan there are extensive supplies unworked or only partially exploited.

The common squirrel, whose habits are too well known to need special description, ranges over the whole of Europe and Northern Asia, from Ireland to Japan, and from Lapland to North Italy; but specimens from different parts of this wide range differ so much in colour as to constitute distinct races.

Coining originated independently in China at a later date than in the western world, and spread from China to Japan and Korea.

A mint was opened in Hong-Kong in 1866 but was closed in 1868 and the machinery sold to Japan.

In Australia, the United States, Japan and some other countries, the Mints receive unrefined gold from the mines and refine it before it is coined.

There are also congregational churches in Austria, Bulgaria, Holland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and in Japan (93).

In the temperate parts of the Old World this species is perhaps the most abundant of the plovers, Charadriidae, breeding in almost every suitable place from Ireland to Japan - the majority migrating towards winter to southern countries, as the Punjab, Egypt and Barbary - though in the British Islands some are always found at that season.

But the whole course of this expansion had been watched with suspicion by Japan, from the time of the Saghalien incident of 1875, when the island power, then barely emerging from the feudal age, had to cede her half of the island to Russia, to the Shimonoseki treaty of 1895, when the powers compelled her to forego the profits of her victory over China.

No less than ten draft treaties were discussed in vain between August 1903 and February 1904, and finally negotiations were broken off on February 5th.1 Japan had already on the 4th decided to use force, and her military and naval preparations, unlike those of Russia, kept pace with her diplomacy.

This was in fact an eventuality which had been foreseen and on which the naval and military policy of Japan had been based for ten years.

Large commercial interests were in fact involved in the forward policy, "the period of heavy capital expenditure was over, that of profits about to commence," and the power and intentions of Japan were ignored or misunderstood.

To the guards and patrols of the Manchurian railway and the garrisons of Port Arthur and Vladivostok, 80,000 in all, Japan could, in consequence of her recruiting law of 1896, oppose a first-line army of some 270,000 trained men.

But afloat, had Makarov survived, it would have been played to the end, and Togo's fleet would have been steadily used up. One day, indeed (May 15th), two of Japan's largest battleships, the " Hatsume " and the " Yashima," came in contact with free mines and were sunk.

For the moment it was equally Japan's interest to mark time in Manchuria.

But, as the event was to prove, the military policy of Japan had failed to produce the requisite number of men for the desired Sedan, and so, instead of boldly pushing out the 1st Army to such a distance that it could manoeuvre, as Moltke did in 1866 and 1870, he attached it to the general line of battle.

Had the two divisions still kept in Japan been present Kuroki would have had the balance of force on his side, the Russian retreat would have been confused, if not actually a rout, and the war would have been ended on Japan's own terms. As it was, after another day's fighting, Kuropatkin drew off the whole of his forces in safety, sharply repulsing an attempt at pursuit made by part of the 12th division on the 4th of September.

The railway still delivered 30,000 men a month at Mukden, and Japan had for a time outrun her resources.

Heavier howitzers had been sent for from Japan, and on the 1st of October the first batteries of 28 centimetre (11 in.) howitzers came into action.

Marshal Oyama sent his principal staff officers to stimulate Nogi to fresh efforts, and some exhausted units of the besieging army were replaced by fresh troops from Japan.

Japan had partially accomplished her task, but had employed all her trained men in this partial accomplishment.

Japan had had to put forth her supreme effort for the battle, while of Russia's whole strength not one-tenth had been used.

The peace negotiations were opened at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 9th of August, and by the end of the month the belligerents had agreed as to the main points at issue, that Russia should cede the half of Saghalien, annexed in 1875, surrender her lease of the Kwangtung peninsula and Port Arthur, evacuate Manchuria and recognize Japan's sphere of influence in Korea.

Since then many settlements of the same or similar nature have sprung up in Great Britain and America, some too on the continent of Europe and some in India and Japan.

It was adopted by Tatars, Turks and Mongols, in Tibet and Tong-king, Japan and Korea.

Her commerce with India, China and probably Japan dates from the beginning of the Christian era or earlier, while that with Europe began in the 16th century.

Japan was soon after this, in 1636, closed to foreigners; but trade was carried on at all events down to 1745 through Dutch and Chinese and occasional English traders.

This important arrangement was followed at intervals by similar treaties with the other powers, the last two being those with Japan in 1898 and Russia in 1899.

Japan also, after an interruption of more than two hundred years, had resumed active commercial relations with Siam.

The Dutch company opened up a profitable trade with Japan and China, and prosecuted the war against Portugal with great vigour, invading Portuguese India and capturing Point de Galle in 1640, Malacca in 1641, Cochin and Cannanore in 1663.

Immigration from China and Japan steadily increased, especially towards the end of the period 1816-1910.

In 1910 the nations most directly interested in the future of the archipelago were the Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, China and Portugal.

The new species include a number discovered in central and western China by Dr Augustine Henry and other collectors; also several from Japan and California.

On these the brown bear (Ursus arctus, - tipKros of Aristotle) is found in one or other of its varieties all over the temperate and north temperate regions of the eastern hemisphere, from Spain to Japan.

The species are found wild along the northern shores of the Mediterranean, in the Levant, Armenia, Caucasus, Northern Africa, Persia, and sporadically across North and Central Asia to Japan.

When, however, in modified form, the patent was re-granted to his patron Champlain induced him to abandon Acadia and establish a settlement on the St Lawrence, of the commercial advantages of which, perhaps eyen as a western route to China and Japan, he soon convinced him.

He accompanied that monarch on a prolonged foreign tour in 1881, visiting Japan, China, Siam, India, Europe and the United States, and in 1904 published an amusing account of the journey, called Round the World with a King.

Bering Sea is bounded by the Alaskan Peninsula and the chain of the Aleutian Islands; the sea of Okhotsk is enclosed by the peninsula of Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands; the Sea of Japan is shut off by Sakhalin Island, the Japanese Islands and the peninsula of Korea; the Yellow Sea is an opening between the coast of China and Korea; the China Sea lies between the Asiatic continent and the island of Formosa, the Philippine group, Palawan and Borneo.

The north of the chain, from the Kuriles to Formosa, belongs to the empire of Japan; southward it is continued by the Philippines (belonging to the United States of America) which link it with the vast archipelago between the Pacific and Indian oceans, to which the name Malay Archipelago is commonly applied.

The partition of the Pacific islands never led to any serious friction between the powers, though the acquisition of Hawaii was attempted by Britain, France and Japan before the United States annexed the group, and the negotiations as to Samoa threatened trouble for a while.

The society's foreign agencies extend to China, Japan, Korea, the Turkish empire, Bulgaria, Egypt, Micronesia, Siam, Mexico, Central America, the South American republics, Cuba and the Philippines.

The tree, which is a native of China and Japan, was introduced into England in 1751 and is a favourite in parks and gardens.

A commercial treaty was negotiated with Japan in 1854 after Perry's expedition in the previous year.

The domestication of the goldfish by the Chinese dates back from the highest antiquity, and they were introduced into Japan at the beginning of the 16th century; but the date of their importation into Europe is still uncertain.

There are trans-oceanic lines to Japan and China, to the Philippines and Hawaii, and to London, Liverpool and Glasgow, by way of the Suez Canal.

This body carries on missions in West Africa (since 1855), Japan, China, the Philippines and Porto Rico.

He paid frequent visits to Europe, Japan and the United States (where his son Rathindranath became a student in the university of California), and carried through several lecturing tours.

Such cruel customs were, of course, and still are associated in many lands with the cult of the dead; but, on the other hand, there are gentler and more beneficial aspects observable to-day in China and Japan.

He greatly extended the commercial relationships of the Dutch, opening up trade with Tong-king, China and Japan.

Numerous steamship lines ply between Canada and Great Britain; direct communication exists with France, and the steamers of the Canadian Pacific railway run regularly to Japan and to Australia.

Lemieux, to Japan in 1907, to settle Canadian difficulties with that country, illustrated the change of diplomatic system in progress.

Wheat grows as far south as Patagonia, and as far north as the edge of the Arctic Circle; it flourishes throughout Europe, and across the whole of northern Asia and in Japan; it is cultivated in Persia, and raised largely in India, as far south as the Nizam's dominions.

Pelto has ancient breakwaters for the protection of small boats, erected, as many believe, by the Mongol conqueror, Kublai Khan, who in 1273 built on Quelpart one hundred ships for the invasion of Japan.

There is little disposition to emigrate thither from Japan proper, the number of settlers being less than loo annually.

The three southern islands, Kunashiri, Etorofu, and Shikotan, are believed to have belonged to Japan from a remote date, but at the beginning of the 18th century the Russians, having conquered Kamchatka, found their way to the northern part of the Kuriles in pursuit of fur-bearing animals, with which the islands then abounded.

Japan's occupation was far from effective in either region, and in 1875 she was not unwilling to conclude a convention by which she agreed to withdraw altogether from Sakhalin provided that Russia withdrew from the Kuriles.

The range of the common or brown hare, inclusive of its local races, extends from England across southern and central Europe to the Caucasus; while that of the blue or mountain species, likewise inclusive of local races, reaches from Ireland, Scotland and Scandinavia through northern Europe and Asia to Japan and Kamchatka, and thence to Alaska.