Japanese Sentence Examples

The Japanese books are very odd.

The Japanese have produced few books of importance, and their compositions are chiefly remarkable as being lighter and more secular than is usual in Asia, but the older Chinese works take high rank both for their merits and the effect they have had.

I never realized what a wonderful people the Japanese are until I saw their most interesting exhibit.

I went to the Japanese department with Prof. Morse who is a well-known lecturer.

The eighth voyage, led by Captain Saris, extended the operations of the company to Japan; and in 1613 the Japanese government granted privileges to the company; but the British retired in 1623, giving up their factory.

The contrast between the yellow and white types has been softened by the remarkable development of the Japanese following the assimilation of western methods.

In the voyage of Sir Edward Michelborne in 1605, John Davis lost his life in a fight with a Japanese junk.

There is also a corresponding diffusion o f Japanese and Chinese forms along this zone, these being most numer - ous in the eastern Himalaya, and less frequent in the west.

They number twenty, according to Japanese investigations, and have a coast-line of 174.65 m.

Figures are difficult to obtain, but an official report from the Japanese Residency General in 1907 estimated the crop at about 214,000 bales, all being used locally.

In 1874 the island was invaded by the Japanese for the purpose of obtaining satisfaction for the murder of a shipwrecked crew who had been put to death by one of the semi-savage tribes on the southern coast, the Chinese government being either unable or unwilling to punish the culprits.

The diversity of nomenclature indicated above 1 Referring to the Japanese custom of employing a go-between to arrange a marriage.

In adopting foreign innovations, he showed, like the Japanese of the present day, no sentimental preference for any particular nation, and was ready to borrow from the Germans, Dutch, English, Swedes or French whatever seemed best suited for his purpose.

Nearly three-fourths of the well-known species of Europe extend through Siberia into the islands of the Japanese empire.

The government was originally autocratic, but as early as the 7th century the most characteristic feature of Japanese politics - the power of great families who overshadowed the throne - makes its appearance.

This sudden development of the Japanese is perhaps the most important event of the second half of the 19th century, since it marks the rise of an Asiatic power capable of competing with Europe on equal terms. Their history is so different from that of the rest of Asia that it is not surprising if the result is different.

On the other hand it is noticeable that the Japanese have little which is original in the way of religion, literature or philosophy.

It is the main inspiration of Japanese art, which, however, shows great originality in its treatment of borrowed themes.

It has one of the finest collections of casts in existence, a number of original pieces of Greek statuary, the second-best collection in the world of Aretine ware, the finest collection of Japanese pottery, and probably the largest and finest of Japanese paintings in existence.

Conditions are well adapted to the cultivation of the plant, and since the cessation of the RussoJapanese War the Japanese have undertaken the development of the industry.

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.

In 1900, 95.5% were native born, 43' 7% were coloured (including 479 Chinese, Japanese and Indians), and in 1905 the percentages were little altered.

In 1868 the Japanese government converted the shipyard into a naval dockyard, and subsequently carried out many improvements.

The dockyard was first constructed by French engineers; but after 1875 the work passed entirely into the hands of Japanese engineers.

Mount Morrison (14,270 ft.), which the Japanese re-named Niitaka-yama (New High Mountain), stands first, and Mount Sylvia (12,480 ft.), to which they give the name of Setzu-zan (Snowy Mountain), comes second.

These, it will be observed, are all Japanese names, and the heights have been determined by Japanese observers.

The chief town is Taipe (called by the Japanese Taihoku), which is on the Tamsui-yei river, and has a population of about 118,00o, including 5850 Japanese.

The foreign settlement at Taipe lies outside the walls of the city, and is called Twatutia (Taitotei by the Japanese).

Tamsui (called Tansui by the Japanese) is usually termed Hobe by foreigners.

It has a population of 4000 Chinese and 200 Japanese.

Six miles inland from Takau is a prosperous Chinese town called Fengshan (Japanese, Hozan).

The island is treated as an outlying territory; it has not been brought within the full purview of the Japanese constitution.

Its affairs are administered by a governor-general, who is also commander-in-chief of the forces, by a bureau of civil government, and by three prefectural governors, below whom are the heads of twenty territorial divisions called cho; its finances are not included in the general budget of the Japanese empire; it is garrisoned by a mixed brigade taken from the home divisions; and its currency is on a silver basis.

One of the first abuses with which the Japanese had to deal was the excessive use of opium by the Chinese settlers.

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

But, influenced by medical views and by the almost insuperable difficulty of enforcing any drastic import veto in the face of Formosa's large communications by junk with China, the Japanese finally adopted the middle course of licensing the preparation and sale of the drug, and limiting its use to persons in receipt of medical sanction.

Under the administration of the Japanese the island has been largely developed.

Wade, and the Japanese retired on payment of an indemnity of 500,000 taels.

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

The Japanese were thus left to take possession as best they could, and some four months elapsed before they effected a landing on the south of the island.

The general state of the island when the Japanese assumed possession was that the plain of Giran on the eastern coast and the hill-districts were inhabited by semibarbarous folk, the western plains by Chinese of a degraded type, and that between the two there existed a traditional and continuous feud, leading to mutual displays of merciless and murderous violence.

Other breeds include the Japanese, with an orange coat, broadly banded on the hind-quarters with black; the pink-eyed and short and thick-furred albino Polish; the Siberian, probably produced by crossing the Himalayan with the Angora; and the black-and-tan and blue-and-tan.

Bulldog, bulldog (miniature), mastiff, Great Dane, Newfoundland (black, white and black, or other than black), St Bernard (rough and smooth), Old English sheepdog, collie (rough and smooth), Dalmatian, poodle, bull terrier, white English terrier, black and tan terrier, toy spaniel (King Charles or black and tan, Blenheim, ruby or red and tricolour), Japanese, Pekingese, Yorkshire terrier, Maltese, Italian greyhound, chowchow, black and tan terrier (miniature), Pomeranian, pug (fawn and black), Schipperke, Griffon Bruxellois, foreign dogs (bouledogues frangais, elk-hounds, Eskimos, Lhasa terriers, Samoyedes and any other varieties not mentioned under this heading).

Since that time select Japanese species, chosen for superior milling qualities, have been widely introduced, as the market prejudice in favour of head rice made the large percentage of broken rice a heavy handicap to the farmers.

It is separated on the south from the island of Shikoku by the Naruto channel, through which, in certain conditions of the tide, a remarkable torrential current is set up. The island is celebrated for its exquisite scenery, and also for the fact that it is traditionally reputed to have been the first of the Japanese islands created by the deities Izanagi and Izanami.

Honolulu is served by the Oahu railway, by electric lines to the principal suburbs, and by steamship lines to San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Manila, Salina Cruz (Mexico), Victoria, Sydney, and Chinese and Japanese ports.

Schrenck in the north of the Japanese Sea led to the discovery of no fewer than 256 species (Gasteropods, Brachiopods and Conchifers).

It was formerly a Chinese naval station strongly fortified, but was captured by the Japanese in February 1895, and occupied by their troops until May 1898, pending the payment of the indemnity.

Japaconitine, obtained from the Japanese aconites, known locally as "kuza-uzu," hydrolyses to japbenzaconine, which further breaks down to benzoic acid and japaconine.

In 1893, some years after the identification of the somites of Limulus with those of Scorpio, thus indicated, had been published, zoologists were startled by the discovery by a Japanese zoologist, Kishinouye (8), of a seventh prosomatic somite in the embryo of Limulus longispina.

Another point of interest lies in the difference of outlook with which nudity is regarded by the English and Japanese.

Yet in England the representation of the nude in art meets with no reproach, though considered improper by the Japanese.

His name in Japanese history is indissolubly connected with the financial progress of his country at the end of the 19th century.

Here are collections of pictures and drawings, including the Raphael cartoons, objects of art of every description, mechanical and scientific collections, and Japanese, Chinese and Persian collections, and an Indian section.

Hang-chow-fu was declared open to foreign trade in 1896, in pursuance of the Japanese treaty of Shimonoseki.

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.

The Japanese cedar (Cryptomeria japonica) is a kind of cypress, the wood of which is very durable.

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

German and Japanese ships follow next.

The continent of Asia stretches two arms into the Pacific Ocean, Kamchatka in the north and Malacca in the south, between which lies a long cluster of islands constituting the Japanese empire, which covers 370 14 of longitude and 29 II of latitude.

There are six large islands, namely Sakhalin (called by the Japanese Karafuto); Yezo or Ezo (which with the Kuriles is designated Hokkaido, or the north-sea district); Nippon (the origin of the sun), which is the main island; Shikoku (the four provinces), which lies on the east of Nippon; KiUshi or Kyushu (the nine provinces), which lies on the south of Nippon, and Formosa, which forms the most southerly link of the chain.

Mountasns.The Japanese islands are traversed from north t south by a range of mountains which sends out various laterl branches.

The king of Japanese mountains is Fuji-yama or Fuji-san (peerless mount), of which the highest point (Ken-ga-mine) iS 12,395 ft.

The remarkable grace of this moun- Fe L tams curvean inverted catenarymakes it one of the most beautiful in the world, and has obtained for it a prominent place in Japanese decorative art.

Farther south, in the province of Kai (KOshiu), and separating two great rivers, the Fuji-kawa and the Tenriu-gawa, there lies a range of hills with peaks second only to those of the Japanese Alps spoken of above.

The Japanese regard it as a sacred mountain, and numbers of pilgrims make the ascent in midsummer.

Eruptions have been recorded since the earliest days of Japanese history.

The Pacific coast of the Japanese islands is more liable than the western shore to shocks disturbing a wide area.

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.

ClimaIe.The large extension of the Japanese islands in a northerly and southerly direction causes great varieties of climate.

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.

A calamitous atmospheric feature is the periodical arrival of storms called typhoons (Japanese tai-fu or great wind).

In actual wealth of blossom or dimensions of forest trees the Japanese islands cannot claim any special distinction.

The grass used for Japanese lawns loses its verdure in autumn and remains from November to March a greyish brown blot upon the scene.

With the exception of the dog-days and the dead of winter, there is no season when flowers cease to be an object of attention to the Japanese, nor does any class fail to participate in the sentiment.

There is another remarkable feature of the Japanese gardeners art.

The same is true of Japanese forests.

It has been well said that to enumerate the constituents and inhabitants of the Japanese mountain-forests would be to name at least half the entire flora.

The investigations of Japanese botanists are adding constantly to the above number, and it is not likely that finality will be reached for some time.

Conspicuous above all others, not only for grace of form but also for the immemorial attention paid to them by Japanese artists, are the crane (tsuru) and the heron (sagi).

The Japanese include in this category the stork (kOzaru), but it may be said to have disappeared from the island.

The heron (sagi) constitutes a charming feature in a Japanese landscape, especially the silver heron (shira-sagi), which displays its brilliant white plumage in the rice-fields from spring to early autumn.

Among swimming birds the most numerous are the gull (kamome), of which many varieties are found; the cormorant (u)which is trained by the Japanese for fishing purposesand multitudinous flocks of wild-geese (gan) and wild-ducks (kanjo), from the beautiful mandarinduck (oshi-dori), emblem of cunjugal fidelity, to teal (koga,no) and widgeon (hidori-ganto) of several species.

The latter is one ofthe Japanese emblems of longevity.

It thus falls out that in spite of the enormous quantity of fish consumed as food or used as fertilizers year after year by the Japanese, the seas remain as richly stocked as ever.

Nine orders 01 fishes have been distinguished as the piscifauna of Japanese waiters.

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 gad-fly (abu), the housefly (hai), the mosquito (ka), the flea (nonzi) and occasionally the bedbug (called by the Japanese kara-mushi because it is believed to be imported from China), are all fully represented, and the dragon-fly (tombO) presents itself in immense numbers at certain seasons.

Japanese rivers and lakes are the habitation of severalseven or eightspecies of freshwater crab (kani), which live in holes on the shore and emerge in the day-time, often moving to considerable distances from their homes.

Naturally these migratory crabs are not limited to Japanese waters.

The mussel (i-no.kai) is well represented by the species numa-gai (marsh-mussel), karasu-gai (raven-mussel), kamisori-gai (razor-mussel), shijimi-no-kai (Corbicula), of which there are nine species, &c. Unlike the land-molluscs, the great majority of Japanese sea-molluscs are akin to those of the Indian Ocean and the Malay archipelago.

Greeff enumerates, as denizens of Japanese seas, 26 kinds of seaurchins (gaze or uni) and 12 of starfish (hitode or tako-no-makura).

For edible purposes the most valuable of the Japanese echinoderms is the sea-slug or bche de mer (namako), which is greatly appreciated and forms an important staple of export to China.

Her most interesting contributions are crust-corals (Gorgonidae, Corallium, Isis, &c.), and especially flint-sponges, called by the Japanese hoshi-gai and known as glass-coral (Hyalonema sieboldi).

Physical Characteristics.The best authorities are agreed that the Japanese people do not differ physically from their Korean and Chinese neighbors as much as the inhabitants of northern Europe differ from those of southern Europe.

It is true that the Japanese are shorter in stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans.

Thus the average height of the Japanese male is only 5 ft.

Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under similar conditions as to costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference is apparent.

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.

Baelz (emeritus professor of medicine in the Imperial University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the race inhabiting the Japanese islands.

More important than either of these types as an element of the Japanese nation is the Malay.

Carried northward by the warm current known as the Kuro Shiwo, the Malays seem to have landed in KiUshithe most southeFly of the main Japanese islandswhence they ultimately pushed northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors, the Izumo colonists.

It is not to be supposed, however, that these traces of different elements indicate any lack of homogeneity in the Japanese race.

The typical Japanese of the present day has certain marked physical peculiarities.

The Englishmans head is often one-eighth of the lengtl of his body or even less, and in continental Europeans, as a rule the ratio does not amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese it exceeds the latter figure.

In all nations men of short stature have relatively large heads, but in the case of the Japanese there appears to be some racial reason for the phenomenon.

In northern Europeans the leg is usually much more than onehalf of the bodys length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half or even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks almost as tall as a European, there may be a great difference between their statures when both are standing.

This special feature has been attributed to the Japanese habit of kneeling instead of sitting, but investigation shows that it is equally marked in the working classes who pass most of their time standing.

Then, again, the shape of the eye, as modelled by the lids, shows a striking peculiarity, For whereas the open eye is almost invariably horizontal in the European, it is often oblique in the Japanese on account of the higher level of the upper corner.

As for the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse, but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from each other than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together.

It is not to be supposed, however, that because the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he lacks either strength or endurance.

In order to support himself and pay his academic fees many a Japanese has to fall into the ranks of the physical laborer during a part of each day or night.

The Japanese is exceptionally serene.

It has been said that these traits go to make the Japanese soldier what he is.

In support of that theory it is pointed out that the average Japanese, man or woman, will recount a death or some other calamity in his own family with a perfectly calm, if not a smiling, face.

There is no more polite nation in the world than the Japanese.

It is true, nevertheless, that love as a prelude to marriage finds only a small place in Japanese ethics.

From many points of view, indeed, there is no more beautiful type of character than that of the Japanese woman.

Whatever may be said of the upper class, it is probably true that the average Japanese will not sacrifice expediency on the altar of truth.

The white lie of the Anglo-Saxon and the hoben no uso of The Japanese are twins.

There is undoubtedly in the lower ranks of Japanese tradesmen a comparatively large fringe of persons whose standard of commercial morality is defective.

There are five qualities possessed by the Japanese in a marked degree.

The average Japanese may be said to live without artificial heat; his paper doors admit the light but do not exclude the cold.

Whatever he is authoritatively bidden to do, that the Japanese will do.

Certainly the Japanese have proved themselves capable of great things, and their achievements seem to have been helped rather than retarded by their attention to detail.

Lan guage.Since the year 1820, when Klaproth concluded that the Japanese language had sprung from the Ural-Altaic stock, philologists have busied themselves in tracing its affinities.

If the theories hitherto held with regard to the origin of the Japanese people be correct, close relationship should exist between the Japanese and the Korean tongues, and possibly between the Japanese and the Chinese.

As far back as the beginning of the Christian era the Japanese and the Koreans could not hold intercourse without the aid of interpreters.

Hirai has done much to establish his theory that Japanese and Aryan had a common parent.

It is commonly believed that the two Japanese syllabarieswhich, though distinct in form, have identical soundswere invented by Kukai (790) and Kibi Daijin (760) respectively.

Traces of these efforts survived, and inspired the idea that the art of writing was practised by the Japanese before the opening of intercourse with their continental neighbors.

The Japanese then recognized a lofty civilization and placed themselves as pupils at its feet, learning its script and deciphering its hooks.

For example, the ideographs signifying rice or metal or water in Chinese were used tc convey the same ideas in Japanese.

Each ideograph thus came tc have two sounds, one Japanese, the other Chinesee.g.

Evidently this triplication of sounds had many disadvantages, but, on the other hand, the whole Chinese language may be said to have been grafted on the Japanese.

Potent, however, as such a vehicle is for expressing thought, its ideographic script constitutes a great obstacle to general acquisition, and the Japanese soon applied themselves to minimizing the difficulty by substituting a phonetic system.

Such, in brief, is the story of the Japanese language.

Thus instead of saying the house of Mr Smith is in that street, a Japanese says Smith Mr of house that street in is.

A Japanese does not say the poison killed him but he died on account of the poison; nor does he say the war has caused commodities to appreciate, but commodities have appreciated in consequence of the war.

The difficulties that confront an Occidental who attempts to learn Japanese are enormous.

Chamberlain, the necessity of committing to memory two syllabaries, one of which has many variant forms, and at least two or three thousand Chinese ideographs, in forms standard and cursive ideographs, too, most of which are susceptible of three or four different readings according to circuinstance,add, further, that all these kinds of written symbols are apt to be encountered pell mell on the same page, and the task of mastering Japanese becomes almost Herculean.

Lilerature.From the neighboring continent the Japanese derived the art of transmitting ideas to paper.

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.

It is a species of saga, setting forth not only the heavenly beginnings of the Japanese race, but also the story of creation, the succession of the various sovereigns and the salient events of their reigns, the whole interspersed with songs, many of which may be attributed to the 6th century, while some doubtless date from the fourth or even the third.

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.

Standard Chinese soon became easier to understand than archaic Japanese, as the former alone was taught in the schools, and the native language changed rapidly during the century or two that followed the diffusion of the foreign tongue and civilization (CnAMBERLAIN).

Astons Nikongi, are essential to every student of Japanese literature.

Against this hybrid faith several, Japanese scholars arrayed themselves in the j7th and 18th centuries, the greatest of them being Mabuchi and Motoori.

The latters magnum opus, Kojikiden (Exposition of the Record of Ancient Matters), declared by Chamberlain to be perhaps the most admirable work of which Japanese erudition can boast, consists of 44 large volumes, devoted to elucidating the Kojiki and resuscitating the ShintO cult as it existed in the earliest days.

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.

Rai Sanyo devoted twenty years to the preparation of his 22 volumes and took his materials from 259 Japanese and Chinese works.

In their poetry above everything the Japanese have remained impervious to alien influences.

At some remote date a Japanese maker of songs seems to have discovered that a peculiar and very fascinating rhythm is produced by lines containing 5 syllables and 7 syllables alternately.

That is Japanese poetry (eta or tanka).

Thus it results that Japanese poems are, for the most part, impressionist; they suggest a great deal more than they actually express.

Such couplets were called shi to distinguish them from the pure Japanese eta or lanka.

The two greatest masters of Japanese poetry were Hitomaro and Akahito, both of the early 8th century, and next to them stands Tsurayuki, who flourished at the beginning of the 10th century, and is not supposed to have transmitted his mantle to any successor.

If to these we add the Hyaku-ninshu (Hundred Odes by a Hundred Poets) brought together by Teika KyO in the 13th century, we have all the classics of Japanese poetry.

A small coterie of authors, headed by Professor Toyama, then attempted to revolutionize Japanese poetry by recasting it on European lines.

But the project failed signally, and indeed it may well be doubted whether the Japanese language can be adapted to such uses.

To women, indeed, from the 8th century onwards may be said to have been entrusted the guardianship of the pure Japanese language, the classical, or Chinese, form being adopted by men.

To this day the spoken language of Japanese women is appreciably simpler and softer than that of the men, and to this day while the educated woman uses the hiragana syllabary in writing, eschews Chinese sords and rarel pens an ideograph, the educated man employs the ideograp entirely, and translates his thoughts as far as possible into thi mispronounced Chinese words without recourse -to which it would be impossible for him to discuss any scientific subject, or even tc refer to the details of his daily business.

The period from the early part of the 14th century to the opening of the 17th is generally regarded as the dark age of Japanese literature.

Belonging to about the same period as the JinkOshOtO-ki, another classic occupies a leading place in Japanese esteem.

It is the Tsure-zure-gusa (Materials/or Dispelling Ennui), by KenkO-bOshi, described by Mr Aston as one of the most delightful oases in Japanese literature; a collection of short sketches, anecdotes and essays on all imaginable subjects, something in the manner of Seldens Table Talk.

The Japanese are essentially a laughter-loving people.

It came into existence in KiOto and was thence transferred to Yedo (Tokyo), where the greatest of Japanese playwrights, Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1724), and a musician of exceptional talent, Takemoto Gidayu, collaborated to render this puppet drama a highly popular entertainment.

Even Shakespeare has been played by these amateurs, and the abundant wit of the Japanese is on the way to enrich the stage with modern farces of unquestionable merit.

These Chinese scholars made no secret of their contempt for Buddhism, and in their turn they were held in aversion by the Buddhists and the Japanese scholars (wagakusha), so that the second half of the i8th century was a time of perpetual wrangling and controversy.

A more important addition to Japanese literature was made in the I 7th century in the form of childrens tales (Otogibanashi).

The life of the virtuous Japanese woman being essentially uneventful, these romancists not unnaturally sought their female types among dancing-girls and courtesans.

The year I882 saw Julius Caesar in a Japanese dress.

As illustrating the rapid development of familiarity with foreign authors, a Japanese retrospect of the Meiji era notes that whereas Macaulays Esfays were ii the curriculum of the Imperial University in 1881-1882, they were studied, five or six years later, in secondary schools, and pupils of the latter were able to read with understanding the works of Goldsmith, Tennyson and Thackeray.

Great numbers of European and American authors were rendered into JapaneseCalderon, Lytton, Disraeli, Byron, Shakespeare, Milton, Turgueniev, Carlyle, Daudet, Emerson, Hugo, Heine, De Quincey, Dickens, Krner, Goethetheir name is legion and their influence upon Japanese literature is conspicuous.

Accurate reviewers of the era have divided it into periods of two or three years each, according to the various groups of foreign authors that were in vogue, and every year sees a large addition to the number of Japanese who study the masterpieces of Western literature in the original.

Yet the Newspapers Japanese were not entirely unacquainted with and journalism.

Thus the first real newspaper did not see the light until 1861, when aYedc publisher brought out the Batavia News, a compilation of items from foreign newspapers, printed on Japanese paper from wooder blocks.

To many Japanese observers i seemed that the restoration of 1867 had merely transferred the ad ministrative authority from the Tokugawa Shogun to the clans c Satsuma and ChOshC. The KOko Shimbun severely attacked th two clans as specious usurpers.

It has often been said of the Japanese that they are slow in forming a decision but very quick to act upon it.

Japanese journalistic writing in these early years of Meiji was marred by extreme and pedantic classicism.

Its proprietor, Maruyama Ryuhei, spared no expense to obtain news from all qerarters of tli world, and for the first time the Japanese public learned what stores of information may be found in the columns of a really enterprising journal.

Moreover, the best Japanese editors have caught with remarkable aptitude the spirit of modern journalism.

Painting and Engraving.Tn Japanese art the impressionist element is predominant.

It has been rashly assumed by some writers that the Japanese do not study from nature.

During the long apprenticeship that educated Japanese serve to acquire the power of writing with the brush the complicated characters borrowed from Chinese, they unconsciously cultivate the habit of minute observation and the power of accurate imitation, and with these the delicacy of touch and freedom of hand which only long practice can give.

Whether a Japanese art-worker sets himself to copy what he sees before him or to give play to his fancy in combining what he has seen with some ideal in his mind, the result shows perfect facility of execution and easy grace in all the lines.

The beauties of the human form never appealed to the Japanese artist.

Nor has there ever been a Japanese Landseer.

Sosens monkeys and badgers constitute the one possible exception, but the horses, oxen, deer, tigers, dogs, bears, foxes and even cats of the best Japanese artists were ill drawn and badly modelled.

In the field of landscape the Japanese painter fully reached the eminence on which his great Chinese masters stood.

Perhaps the admiration which the Japanese artist has won in this field is due not more to his wealth of fancy and skilful adaptation of natural forms, than to his individuality of character in treating his subjects.

Thus nature works, and so, following in her footsteps, works the Japanese artist.

The orchids may be taken as offering fair types of the Japanese artists ideal in all art work.

And thus, close student of natures processes, methods, and effects as the Japanese art workman is, he ever seeks to produce humble replicas from his only art master.

Thus if a lacquer box in the form of a parallelogram is the object, Japanese artists will not divide it in two equal parts by a perpendicular line, but by a diagonal, as offering a more pleasing line and division.

The development of Japanese painting may be divided into the following six periods, each signalized by a wave of progress.

The reputed founder of Japanese caricature may also be added to the list.

The last and greatest master of the school was a priest named Meicho, better known as Ch Densu, the Japanese Fra Angelico.

The motives remained almost identical with those of the Chinese masters, and so imbued with the foreign spirit were many of the Japanese disciples that it is said they found it difficult to avoid introducing Chinese accessories even into pictures of native scenery.

He was the boldest and most original of Japanese landscape artists, leaving powerful and poetic records of the scenery of his own land as well as that of China, and trusting more to the sure and sweeping stroke of the brush than to color.

The strength of Meicli, Sessh, Motonobu and Tanyu gave place to a more or less slavish imitation of the old Japanese painters and their Chinese exemplars, till the heirs to the splendid traditions of the great masters preserved little more than their conventions and shortcomings.

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.

Amongst these the most famous were Goshun (1742-1811), who is sometimes regarded as one of the founders of the school; Sosen (1757-1821), an animal painter of remarkable power, but especially celebrated for pictures of monkey life; ShhO, the younger brother of the last, also an animal painter; ROsetsu (1755-1799), the best landscape painter of his school; Keibun, a younger brother of Goshun, and some later followers of scarcely less fame, notably Hoyen, a pupil of Keibun; Tessan, an adopted son of Sosen; Ippo and YOsai (1788-1878), well known for a remarkable set of volumes, the Zenken kojitsu, containing a long series of portraits of ancient Japanese celebrities.

These students, confronted by i strong reaction in favor of pure Japanese art, have fought manfully to win public sympathy, and though their success is not yet crowned, it is not impossible that an Occidental school may ultimately be established.

Thus far the great obstacle has been that pictures painted in accordance with Western canons are not suited to Japanese interiors and do not appeal to the taste of the most renowned Japanese connoisseurs.

The Kokka, a monthly magazine richly and beautifully illustrated and edited by Japanese students, has reached its 223rd number; the Shimbi Daikan, a colossal album containing chromoxylographic facsimiles of celebrated examples in every branch of art, has been completed in 20 volumes; the masterpieces of KOrin and Motonobu have been reproduced in similar albums; the masterpieces of the Ukiyo-e are in process of publication, and it seems certain that the Japanese nation will ultimately be educated to such a knowledge of its own art as will make for permanent appreciation.

Japanese tradition ascribes the invention of color-printing to Idzumiya GonshirO, who, about the end of the i7th century, first made use of a second block to apply a tint of red (beni) to his prints.

These xylographs prove that the Japanese art-artisan of the present day was not surpassed by the greatest of his predecessors in this line.

The date of the first use of color-printing in Japanese book illus- fi ok Ill tration is uncertain.

The names of the engravers who cut his designs are not known, and in fact the reputation of these craftsmen is curiously subordinated to that of the designers in all Japanese work of the kind.

The development of the art of Japanese color-printing naturally had its effect on book-illustration, and the later years of the I8th and the earlier of the 19th century saw a vast increase of books illustrated by this process.

His greatest production in book-illustration was the Mangwa, a collection of sketches which cover the whole ground of Japanese life and legend, art and handicraft.

In their adaptation of modern processes of illustration the Japanese are entirely abreast of Western nations, the chrornolithographs and other reproductions in the Kokka, a periodical record of Japanese works of art (begun in 1889), in the superb albums of the Shimbi S/join, and in the publications of Ogawa being of quite a high order of merit.

Gold and silver had been applied to the adornment of helmets and breastplates from the 7th century, but it was in the 12th century that the decoration reached the high degree of elaboration shown us in the armour of the Japanese Bayard, Yoshitsune, which is still preserved at Kasuga, Nara.

The second period in Japanese glyptic art extends from the beginning of the 13th to the early part of the 17th century.

Above all this, however, the Japanese sculptor is a force in art.

There is a radical difference between the points of view of the Japanese and the Western connoisseur in estimating tbe Japanese merits of sculpture in metal.

The quality of the Point of chiselling is the first feature to which the Japanese View.

With very rare exceptions, the decorative motives of Japanese sword furniture were always supplied by painters.

Scarcely less important in Japanese eyes than the chiselling of the decorative design itself is the preparation of the field to which it is applied.

This is called go-no-me-namako, because of its resemblance to the disposition of chequers in the Japanese game of go.

There is scarcely any limit to the ingenuity and skill of the Japanese expert in diapering a metal surface.

Great importance has always been attached by Japanese experts to the patina of metal used for artistic chiselling.

In the opinion of the Japanese expert, these styles Methods of hold the same respective rank as that occupied by the Chiseilin three kinds of ideographic script in caligraphy.

In this kind of chiselling the Japanese artist can claim to be unique as well as unrivalled.

As to the former, the Japanese method does not differ from that seen in the beautiful iron censers and vases inlaid with gold which the Chinese produced from the Snen-tl era (1426-1436).

Such a process presents no remarkable features, except that it has been carried by the Japanese to an extraordinary degree of elaborateness.

Such pictures partake largely of the impressionist character, but they attain much beauty in the hands of the Japanese artist with his extensive repertoire of suggestive symbols.

All these processes, as well as that of repouss, in which the Japanese have excelled from a remote period, are now practised with the greatest skill in Tokyo, KiOto, Osaka and Kanazawa.

In a general sense the European or American connoisseur is much less exacting than the Japanese.

But if the Japanese sculptor adopted such standards in working for foreign patrons, his market would be reduced to very narrow dimensions.

Bronze is called by the Japanese kara-kane, a term signifying Chinese metal and showing clearly the source from which knowledge of the alloy was obtained.

Japanese bronze is well suited for castings, not only because of its low melting-point, great fluidity and capacity for taking sharp impressions, but also because it has a particularly smooth surface and readily develops a fine patina.

It is a golden yellow bronze, called seniokuthis being the Japanese pronunciation of Suen-t, the era of the Ming dynasty of China when this compound was invented.

Copper, tin, lead and zinc, mixed in various proportions by different experts, are the ingredients, and the beautiful golden hues and glossy texture of the surface are obtained by patina-producing processes, in which branch of metal-work the Japanese show altogether unique skill.

From the time when they began to cast bronze statues, Japanese experts understood how to employ a hollow, removable core round which the metal was run in a skin just thick enough for strength without waste of material; and they also understood the use of wax for modelling purposes.

At a school of art officially established in Tokyo in 1873 under the direction of Italian teachersa school which owed its signal failure partly to the incompetence and intemperate behaviour of some of its foreign professors, and partly to a strong renaissance of pure Japanese classicismone of the few accomplishments successfully taught was that of modelling in plaster and chiselling in marble after Occidental methods.

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.

He and the craftsmen of the school he established completely refute the theory that the anatomical solecisms commonly seen in the works of Japanese sculptors are due to faulty observation.

Nevertheless, Matsumotos figures marked an epoch in Japanese wood sculpture.

This departure from established canons must be traced to the influence of the short-lived academy of Italian art established by the Japanese government early in the Meiji era.

To subordinate process to result is the European canon; to show the former without marring the latter is the Japanese ideal.

Many of KOuns sculptures appear unfinished to eyes trained in Occidental galleries, whereas the Japanese connoisseur detects evidence of a technical feat in their seeming roughness.

Architeclure.From the evidence of ancient records it appears that before the 5th century the Japanese resided in houses of a very rude character.

Thus the main features of the Japanese dwelling-house were evolved, and little change took place subsequently, except that the brush of the painter was freely used for decorating partitions, and in aristocratic mansions unlimited care was exercised in the choice of rare woods.

Ths construction of the framework of the Japanese roof is such that thc weights all act vertically; there is no thrust on the outer walls and every available point of the interior is used as a means of support.

The threads extend only to the outlines of each figure, and it follows that every part of the pattern has a rim of minute holes like pierced lines separating postage stamps in a sheet, the effect being that the design seems to hang suspended it1 the groundlinked into it, as the Japanese term implies.i A specimen of this nature recently manufactured by Kawashimas weavers measured 20 ft.

So perfectly does the modern Japanese embroiderer elaborate his scheme of values that all the essential elements of pictorial effects chiaroscuro, aerial perspective and atmosphere are present in his work.

In the I3th century, however, the introduction 01 tea from China, together with vessels for infusing and serving it revealed to the Japanese a new conception of ceramic possibilities for the potters of the Middle Kingdom had then (Sung dynasty) fully entered the road which was destined to carry them ultimately to a high pinnacle of their craft.

Kato is regarded as the father of Japanese ceramics.

He established his kiln at Arita in Hizen, and the event marked the opening of the second epoch of Japanese ceramics.

Specimens of the latter are still preserved in European collections, where they are classed as genuine examples of Japanese ceramic art, though beyond question their style of decoration was greatly influenced by Dutch interference.

Hence the ware came to be known to Japanese and foreigners alike as Imari-yaki (yaki = anything baked; hence ware).

The ceramic art in Satsuma owed much to the aid of a number of Korean experts who settled there after the return of the Japanese forces from Korea.

It was at the little village of Seto, some five miles from Nagoya, the chief town of the province of Owari, or BishU, that the celebrated Kato Shirozaemon made the first Japanese faience OwarL worthy to be considered a technical success.

A genuine example of it is at present worth many times its weight in gold to Japanese dilettanti, though in foreign eyes it is little more than interesting.

Sometimes Chinese cobalt was used, sometimes Japanese, and sometimes a mixture of both.

But, speaking generally, Japanese blues do not rank on the same decorative level with those of China.

The Bizen-yaki familiar to Western collectors is comparatively coarse brown or reddish brown, stoneware, modelled rudely, though sometimes redeemed by touches of the genius never entirely absent from the work of the Japanese artisan-artist.

Among a multitude of other Japanese wares, space allows us t mention only two, those of Izumo and Yatsushiro.

It is the only Japanese ware in which the atsus ro.

The Japanese, although they obtained from their neighbor almost everything of value she had to give them, did not know this wonderful ware, and their ignorance is in itself sufficient to prove their ceramic inferiority.

There remains, too, a wide domain in which the Chinese developed high skill, whereas the Japanese can scarcely be said to have entered it at all; namely, the domain of monochromes and polychromes, striking every note of color from the richest to the most delicate; the domain of truit and fiamb glazes, of yO-pien-yao (transmutation ware), and of egg-shell with incised or translucid decoration.

Yet the earliest results of his awakened perception helped to demonstrate still further the depravedspirit that had come over Japanese art.

Thenceforth his example was largely followed, and it may now be said that the tendency of many of the best Japanese ceramists is to copy Chinese chef s-dteuvre.

As for his ivory-white, it distinctly surpasses the Chinese Ming Chen-yao in every quality except an indescribable intimacy of glaze and p&e which probably can never be obtained by either Japanese or European methods.

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

As in the case of everything Japanese, there is no pretence, no uselesi expenditure about the process.

It can scarcely be doubted that the true instincts of the ceramist will ultimately counsel him to confine his decoration over the glaze to vitrifiable enamels, with which the Chinese and Japanese potters of former times obtained such brilliant results.

But the ware has never found favor in Japanese eyes, an element of unpleasant garishness being imparted to it by the vitreous appearance of the glaze, which is manufactured according to European methods.

In other respects the Hirado factories do not produce wares nearly so beautiful as those manufactured there between 1759 and 1840, when the Hirado-yakz stood at the head of all Japanese porcelain on account of its pure, close-grained pate, its lustrous milk-white glaze, and the soft clear blue of its carefully executed decoration.

In subsequent eras the potters of King-te-chen did not fail to continue this remarkable manufacture, but its only Japanese representative was a porcelain distinctly inferior In more than one respect, namely, the egg-shell utensils of Hizen and Hirado, some of which had finely woven basket-cases to protect their extreme fragility.

In purity of tone and velvetlike gloss of surface there is distinct inferiority on the side of the Japanese ware, but in thinness of pale it supports comparison, and in profusion and beauty of incised decoration it excels its Chinese original.

The sum of the matter is that the modern Japanese ceramist, after many efforts to cater for the taste of the Occident, evidently concludes that his best hope consists in devoting all his technical and artistic resources to reproducing the celebrated wares of China.

Japanese connoisseurs indicate the end of the 17th century as the golden period of the art, and so deeply rooted is this belief that whenever a date has to be assigned to any specimen of exceptionally fine quality, it is unhesitatingly referred to the time of Joken-in (Tsunayoshi).

Cabinets, fire-screens, plaques and boxes resplendent with gold lacquer grounds carrying elaborate and profuse decoration of ivory and mother-of-pearl are not objects that appeal to Japanese taste.

In the manufacture of Japanese lacquer there are three processes.

The process was known at an early period, and was employed for the purpose of subsidiary decoration from the close of the 16th century, but not until the 19th century did Japanese experts begin to manufacture the objects known in Europe as enamels; that is to say, vases, plaques, censers, bowls, and so forth, having their surface covered with vitrified pastes applied either in the chain plev or the cloisonn style.

Communications.From the conditions actually existing in the 8th century after the Christian era the first compilers of Japanese history inferred the conditions which might Roads and have existed in the 7th century before that era.

These evidences of civilization did not make their appearance until the first great era of Japanese reform, the Taika period (645650), when stations were established along the principal highways, provision was made of post-horses, and a system of bells and checks was devised for distinguishing official carriers.

The jinrikisha was devised by a Japanese in 1870, and since then it has come into use throughout the whole of Asia eastward of the Suez Canal.

Railways.It is easy to understand that an enterprise like railway construction, requiring a great outlay of capital with returns long delayed, did not at first commend itself to the Japanese, who were almost entirely ignorant of co-operation as a factor of business organization.

The latter published, in 1870, the first Japanese work on railways, advocating the building of lines from Tokyo to KiOto and Osaka; the former, appointed superintendent of the lines, held that post for 30 years, and is justly spoken of as the father of Japanese railways.

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 facts that the outlays averaged less than 47% of the gross income, and that accidents and irregularities are not numerous, prove that Japanese management in this kind of enterprise is efficient.

The Chinese and Japanese cultivate another species, the Diospyros Kaki, of which there exist numerous ill-defined varieties.

About forty volumes are available in English, and many have been translated into most of the European languages as well as into Arabic, Hindi and Japanese.

The palace is half European and half Japanese in its style of architecture.

Adjoining the above-named buildings is the Hibiya Park, modelled on the European style, while retaining the special features of the Japanese gardeners' art.

No mention is made of Tokyo in Japanese history before the end of the 12th century.

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 ship in which he sailed touched at Siam, whose capital he visited; and in September 1690 he arrived at Nagasaki, the only Japanese port then open to foreigners.

Besides Japanese history, this book contains a description of the political, social and physical state of the country in the 17th century.

When the storm had discharged itself in the Japanese war, reasonable statesmen on both sides, King Edward, Lord Lansdowne, and the Russian Foreign Minister Isvolsky, changed the course both for Great Britain and for Russia, and thus frustrated the plans of the tertius gaudens.

The spontaneous yet successful effort made by President Roosevelt in 1905 to bring together the Russian and Japanese governments, and to secure their appointing delegates to discuss terms of peace, although not strictly mediation, was closely akin to it.

Of the 750 steamships which cleared the port in 1904, three out of every seven were German, two were Norwegian and one was British, but in 1905 two new companies, one British and the other Japanese, arranged for regular services to Bangkok, thereby altering these proportions.

There were in 1900, 2,249,088 native whites, 1 79,357 persons of foreign birth, 836 Chinese, 470 Indians and 13 Japanese.

In 1870 he was made a councillor of state, and a few months later he accepted the office of president of the commission which represented the Japanese government at the Vienna Exhibition.

By one of those waves of popular feeling to which the Japanese people are peculiarly liable, the nation which had supported him up to a certain point suddenly veered round and opposed him with heated violence.

The Japanese pheasant and the California quail have increased in numbers under the protection of the state.

The subsequent occupation of Port Arthur and other Chinese harbours by European powers, and the evident intention of consolidating Russian influence in Manchuria, were again and again the subject of Japanese representations at St Petersburg, and these representations became more vigorous when, in 1903, Russia seemed to be about to extend her Manchurian policy into Korea.

From that moment Japanese policy was directed towards establishing her own hegemony and meeting the advance of Russia with a fait accompli.

But as the army and the navy grew year by year, the tone of Japanese policy became firmer.

In 1902 her position was strengthened by the alliance with England; in 1903 her army, though in the event it proved almost too small, was considered by the military authorities as sufficiently numerous and well prepared, and the arguments of the Japanese diplomatists stiffened with menaces.

In some quarters the force of the new Japanese army was well understood, and the estimates of the balance of military power formed by the minister of war, Kuropatkin, coincided so remarkably with the facts that at the end of the summer of 1903 he saw that the moment had come when the preponderance was on the side of the Japanese.

It turned, therefore, principally upon the efficiency of the Trans-Siberian railway and in calculating this the Japanese made a serious underestimate.

Repulsed in this attempt, the Japanese established a stringent blockade, which tried the endurance of the ships and the men to the utmost.

A field of electro-mechanical mines was laid by the Japanese in the night of April 12th-13th, and on the following day the Japanese cruisers stood inshore to tempt Arthur.

Then the advocates of passivity regained the upper hand and kept the squadron in harbour, and henceforward for many months the Japanese navy lay unchallenged off Port Arthur, engaging in minor operations, covering the transport of troops to the mainland, and watching for the moment when the advance of the army should force the Russian fleet to come out.

Meantime seven Japanese cruisers under Vice-Admiral Kaimamura went in search of the Russian Vladivostok squadron; this, however, evaded them for some months, and inflicted some damage on the Japanese mercantile marine and transports.

Both by sea and by land their policy was to mass their resources, repulsing meantime the attacks of the Japanese with as much damage to the enemy and as little to themselves as possible.

Their strategy was to gain time without immobilizing themselves so far that the Japanese could impose a decisive action at the moment that suited them best.

The Russian sailors said, when Makarov's fate was made known, " It is not the loss of a battleship. The Japanese are welcome to two of them.

The Japanese ist Army was carefully concealed about Wiju until it was ready to strike.

Determined that in this first battle against a white nation they would show their mettle, the Japanese lavished both time and forethought on the minutest preparations.

The majority of the islands thus formed were held and had been bridged by the Japanese.

Zasulich's medieval generalship had been modified so far that he intended to retreat when he had taught the Japanese a lesson, and therefore Kuropatkin's original arrangements were not sensibly modified.

After a rather ineffective artillery bombardment the Japanese advanced in full force, without hesitation or finesse, and plunging into the river, stormed forward under a heavy fire.

Fresh attempts were made by subordinates to form rearguards, but Zasulich made no stand even at Fenghwang-cheng, and the Japanese occupied that town unopposed on the 5th of May.