CHAPTER XVII.
Excursion to Asamayama--The Nakasendo road--Takasaki-- Difficulty of obtaining quarters for the night--The Baths at Ikaho--Ma.s.sage in j.a.pan--Swedish matches--Travelling in _Kago_--Savavatari--Criminals--Kusatsu--The Hot Springs and their healing power--Rest at Rokuriga-hara--The summit of Asamayama--The descent--Journey over Usui-toge-- j.a.panese actors--Pictures of j.a.panese folk-life-- Return to Yokohama.
On the 28th September, early in the morning, accompanied by Lieut.
Hovgaard, Herr Bavier, an interpreter, and a j.a.panese cook skilled in European cookery, I started on a journey to Asamayama. At first we travelled in two very rattling and inconvenient carriages, drawn each by a pair of horses, to the town Takasaki, situated on the great road "Nakasendo," which pa.s.ses through the interior of the country and connects Tokio and Kioto. This road is considered something grand by the j.a.panese. In Sweden it would be called an indifferently kept district road. On this road _jinrikishas_ are met in thousands, and a great many horses, oxen, and men, _bearing_ heavy burdens, but with the exception of the posting carriages, by which, for some years back, a regular communication between Tokio and Takasaki has been kept up, not a single wheeled vehicle drawn by horses or oxen, and though the road pa.s.ses through an unbroken series of populous villages, surrounded by well cultivated rice fields and small gardens, there is not a single workhorse or work-ox to be seen. For all the ground in j.a.pan is cultivated by the hand, and there are few cattle.
Most of the roads in the country consist of foot-paths, so narrow that two laden horses can pa.s.s each other only with difficulty.
Goods are therefore carried, where there is no ca.n.a.l or river, for the most part by men. The plains are extraordinarily well cultivated, and we must specially admire the industry with which water-courses have been cut and the uneven slopes changed into level terraces.
The post-horses on Nakasendo were so poor and wretched that in Sweden one would have been liable to punishment for cruelty to animals for using them. They went, however, at a pretty good speed.
There were places for changing horses at regular distances of fifteen to twenty kilometres. The driver besides halted often on the way at some dwelling-house to take a couple of scoopfuls of water out of the water-vessel standing before it and throw them into the horses" mouths and between their hind-legs. The opportunity was always taken advantage of by the girls of the house to come out and offer the travellers a small cup of j.a.panese tea, an act of courtesy that was repaid with some friendly words and a copper coin.
When we visited any of the peasants" gardens by the wayside we were always received with extreme friendliness, either on a special dais in the common room looking to the road, or in an inner room whose floor was covered with a mat of dazzling whiteness, and on whose walls hung pictures, with songs and mottoes. The brazier was brought forward, tea and sweetmeats were handed round, all with lively conversation and frequent bows. The difference between the palace of the rich (if we may distinguish with the name any building in j.a.pan) and the dwelling of the less well-to-do is much smaller here than in Europe. We did not see any beggars in our journey into the interior of the country.[379] Nor did the distraction of cla.s.s appear to be so sharp as might be expected in a land where the evils of rank had been so great as in Old j.a.pan. We several times saw in the inns by the roadside, people of condition who were travelling in _jinrikishas_ eat their rice and drink their _saki_ together with the coolies who were drawing their vehicles.
To judge by the crowds of children who swarmed everywhere along the roads the people must be very prolific. A girl of eight or ten years of age was seldom to be seen without another young one bound on her back. This burden did not appear to trouble the sister or attendant very much. Without giving herself any concern about the child or thinking of its existence, she took part actively in games, ran errands, &c.
Even in the interior of the country foreigners are received with great friendliness. The lower cla.s.ses in j.a.pan have also reason for this, for whatever influence the latest political changes may have had on the old _kuge_, _daimio_, and _samurai_ families of j.a.pan, the position of the cultivator of the soil is now much more secure than before, when he was harmed by hundreds of small tyrants. His dress is the same as before, with the exception, however, that a great proportion of the male population, even far into the interior, have laid aside the old troublesome way of collecting the hair in a knot over a close shaven spot on the crown of the head. Instead, they wear their thick raven-black hair cut short in the European style.
How distinctive of the new period this change is may be seen from the eagerness with which the j.a.panese authorities questioned GOLOVIN about the religious and political revolutions which they a.s.sumed to have been connected with the change in the European mode of wearing the hair during the commencement of the nineteenth century, for the Russian amba.s.sador LAXMAN, who was highly esteemed by the j.a.panese, had worn a pig-tail and powdered hair, while Golovin and his companions had their hair unpowdered and cut short.[380] When it is warm the workmen wear only a small, generally light-blue, girdle round the waist and between the legs. Otherwise they are naked.
They are thus seen to be in many cases strongly tattooed over the greater part of the body. I have not seen the women working naked.
They perhaps do so at the warmest season of the year. At least they do not refrain from undressing completely while bathing right in the midst of a crowd of men known and unknown, a state of things which at first, in consequence of the power of prejudice, shocks the European, but to which even the former prude gets accustomed sooner than one would suppose. We even frequently see European ladies drawn in a _jinrikisha_ by a youth completely naked with the exception of the blue girdle. Many, especially of the younger men, have besides so well-formed a body, that the sculptor who could accurately reproduce it in marble would at once attain a reputation co-extensive with the globe.
Takasaki is the residence of a governor, with a population of about 20,000; but, like most of the towns of j.a.pan, it differs little from many of the villages we pa.s.sed through. We arrived late in the evening, and there had our first and last experience of an inconvenience of which Europeans often complain in travelling in j.a.pan, and to which they have themselves given occasion by the offensive way in which they not unfrequently behave. We knocked at the door of one inn after another without being received. At one place "the house was full," at another "the rooms were under repair," at a third "the inn people were out," &c. At last we had to apply to the police. When we had shown them our pa.s.sport, we succeeded with their help in getting a night"s lodging with an elderly host, who received us with a countenance which clearly indicated that he would rather have hewn us in pieces with one of the two swords he had formerly as _samurai_ been ent.i.tled to wear, than received us under his roof. After our entrance he still turned to the police official with the cry of lamentation: "Must I then actually receive these barbarians?" But we had our revenge in a n.o.ble way. We took off our boots before we entered the room, were so profuse with talk, civilities, and bows, and on the whole behaved in such a courteous fashion, that our previously distracted host not only bade us welcome back, but also gave us a letter of introduction to the innkeepers at an inn where we were to stay next, declaring that if we showed this letter we need not fear any such disagreeable adventure as that just described.
Most of the houses in the j.a.panese towns are built of pretty thin, carefully joined timbers. But besides these there are to be seen here and there small houses with very thick walls, windows provided with heavy iron gratings, and doors that could be fastened with large locks and bolts. These houses are fire-resisting, and are used as storehouses for valuables and household articles when there is danger of fire. Fires are so common in j.a.pan that it is supposed that a tenth part of every town is burned down yearly. The fireman corps is numerous, well ordered from old times, its members bold and daring. During our stay overnight at Takasaki we were lodged in such a fireproof house, in very large clean apartments with the floor partly covered with carpets after the European pattern. The walls were very thick and of brick, the interior fittings and stairs on the other hand of wood.
I have just mentioned that we were compelled to resort to the police in order to obtain quarters for the night. Policemen are numerous in j.a.pan, both in town and country. For the most part they are taken from the former _samurai_ cla.s.s. They are clothed in the European style, and walk, with a long stick in a certain position under the arm, quietly and calmly on the streets and roads, without, except in cases of necessity, making any show of their authority. Commonly they are, or appear to be, young, and all have a gentlemanlike appearance. In a word, they appear to be equal to the best European police of the present day, and stand immeasurably above the guardian of the peace, or rather the raiser of dispeace, as he appeared some decades ago on the European continent. During the latest revolt the police were employed by the Government as infantry, and elicited general admiration by the fire, the gallantry, and the contempt of death with which they went into action with their old favourite weapon, the j.a.panese sword.
A pa.s.sport is still required for travelling in the interior of the country, but this is easily obtained at the request of the consul if health or the wish to prosecute researches be given as the reason, it being possible perhaps to include common love of travelling under the latter head. Commercial travelling is not yet permitted in the interior, nor is the right of settling for the purpose of carrying on business granted to Europeans. The foreign amba.s.sadors have often entered into negotiations in order to bring about a change on this point, but hitherto without success, because the Government, as a condition for the complete opening of the country, require the abrogation of the unreasonable "extraterritorial" arrangement which is in force, and by which the foreigner is not subject to the common laws and courts of j.a.pan, but to the laws of his own country, administered by consular courts. An alteration in this point may however be brought about in a short time, as j.a.pan will soon be sufficiently powerful to be able to abrogate all the injurious paragraphs in her treaties with the civilised countries of Europe.
Now, besides, the amba.s.sadors of the foreign powers, who in former times all acted together, have divided into two parties, of which one--Russia and America--wishes, or at least feigns to wish, gradually to free j.a.pan from all tutelage and to place it on an equality with other civilised countries, the other again--England, Germany, Holland, and France--wishes still to retain the guardianship, which was established by violence, and confirmed by treaty several years ago.
Shortly before our arrival a quarrel took place between j.a.pan and the European powers about, as the j.a.panese themselves said, a breach of international law, which caused much irritation in the country. A German vessel coming from Nagasaki, where the cholera was raging, on the advice of the German minister broke the quarantine prescribed by the Government, and without further precautions discharged her cargo in the harbour of Yokohama. That the cholera in this town was thereby _made worse_ is indeed not only unproved but also undoubtedly incorrect, though many j.a.panese in their irritation positively affirmed that this was the case, but the words that were uttered by j.a.pan"s _feted_ guest, ex-President General GRANT,[381]
that the j.a.panese Government had the right without more ado to sink the vessel, have left a memory in the minds both of the Government and of the people, which may in the future lead them to a perhaps unwise but fully justified exertion of their strength were such a deed to be repeated.
The first impression of the j.a.panese, both men and women, is exceedingly pleasant, but many Europeans who have lived a considerable time in the country say that this impression is not maintained, a circ.u.mstance which in my belief depends more on the Europeans themselves than on the j.a.panese. For the European merchants are said not to find it so easy to cut gold here with a case-knife as before, and the amba.s.sadors of the Great Powers find it day by day more difficult to maintain their old commanding standpoint towards a government which knows that a great future is before the country, if inconsiderate ambition or unlooked-for misfortune do not unexpectedly hinder its development. Another reproach, that the j.a.panese can imitate what another has done, but is unable himself to invent anything new, appears on the other hand to be justified in the meantime. But it is unreasonable to demand that a nation should not only in a few decades pa.s.s through a development for which centuries have been required in Europe, but also immediately reach the summit of the knowledge of our time so as to be at the same time creative. But it would be wonderful, if the natural science, literature, and art of the nineteenth century, transplanted among a gifted people, with a culture so peculiar and so pervasive, and with an art-sense so developed as those of j.a.pan, did not in time produce new, splendid, and unexpected fruit. The same irresistible necessity which now drives the j.a.panese to learn all that the European and the American know, will, when he has reached that goal, spur him on to go further up the Nile river of research.
A short distance beyond Takasaki the road to the volcano to which we were on our way, was no longer along Nakasendo, and we could therefore no longer continue our journey in carriages drawn by horses, but were compelled to content ourselves with _jinrikishas_.
In these, on the 29th of September, we traversed in five and a half hours the very hilly road to Ikaho, noted for its baths, situated at a height of 700 metres above the sea. The landscape here a.s.sumes a quite different stamp. The road which before ran over an unbroken plain, thickly peopled, and cultivated like a garden, now begins to pa.s.s between steep uncultivated hills, overgrown with tall, uncut, withered gra.s.s, separated by valleys in which run purling rivulets, nearly concealed by exceedingly luxuriant bushy thickets. Ikaho is celebrated for the warm, or more correctly hot, springs which well up from the volcanic hills which surround the little town, which is beautifully situated on a slope. As at the baths of Europe, invalids seek here a remedy for their ailments, and the town therefore consists almost exclusively of hotels, baths, and shops for the visitors. The baths are situated, partly in large open wooden sheds, where men and women bathe together without distinction, partly in private houses. In every bath there is a basin one metre in depth, to which a constant stream of water is conducted from some of the hot springs. The spring water has of course cooled very much before it is used, but is still so hot notwithstanding that I could only with difficulty remain in it a couple of seconds.
In the streets of the town we often met blind persons who walked about very safely without any attendant, only feeling their way with a long bamboo. They blew a short pipe now and then to warn pa.s.sers-by of their presence. I thought at first that these unfortunates were trying to regain the sight of the eye at the hot springs, but on inquiring whether the water was beneficial in that respect, I was informed that they were not there as seekers after health, but as "ma.s.sageurs" (shampooers). Ma.s.sage has been in use in j.a.pan for several centuries back, and therefore persons are often to be met with in the streets offering their services as ma.s.sageurs, crying in the streets in about the same way as the fruit-sellers in Russia.
The inn where we lodged for the night, consisted as usual of a number of very clean rooms covered with mats, without furniture, but ornamented with songs and mottoes on the walls. One would live here exceedingly well, if like the j.a.panese he could manage to live wholly on the floor and conform carefully to the indispensable rules, an observance which besides is necessary, because otherwise the inmate is exposed to a very unfriendly reception not only from his host but also from the attendants. An inconvenience in travelling in j.a.pan is the difficulty a European has in accustoming himself to the dietary of the j.a.panese. Bread they do not use, nor meat, but their food consists mainly of rice and fish, with fowls, fruit, mushrooms, sweetmeats, j.a.panese tea, &c., in addition. Fish is generally eaten raw, and in that case is said to differ little in taste from our pickled salmon. The food is not unfrequently cooked with fish oils of anything but an agreeable taste. If a traveller wishes to avoid this dietary, he must have his own cook with him on the journey. In this capacity there attended us a j.a.panese, whose name was Senkiti-San, but who was commonly called by his companions Kok-San (Mr. Cook). He had learned European (French) cooking at Yokohama, and during the journey devoted himself with so great zeal to his calling, that even in the deserts at the foot of Asamayama he gave himself no rest until he could offer us a dinner of five dishes, consisting of chicken soup, fowl omelette, fowl-beefsteak, fowl _frica.s.se_, and omelette _aux confitures_, all thus consisting only of fowls and hens" eggs, cooked in different ways.
For some years back lucifer matches have been an article of necessity in j.a.pan, and it was pleasing to us Swedes to observe that the Swedish matches have here a distinct preference over those of other countries. In nearly every little shop, even in the interior of the country, are to be seen the well-known boxes with the inscription "Sakerhets tandstickor utan svafvel och fosfor." But if we examine the boxes more carefully, we find upon many of them, along with the magic sentence unintelligible to the j.a.panese, an inscription indicating that they have been made by some j.a.panese manufacturer. On other boxes this is completely wanting, but the falsification is shown by an unfortunate error in the inscription.
It thus appears that the Swedish matches are not only introduced into j.a.pan on a large scale, but are also counterfeited, being made with the Swedish inscription on the box and with a cover resembling that used at home. The imitation, however, is not nearly so good as the original, and my j.a.panese servant bade me therefore, when I purchased a box of matches, observe carefully that I got one of the right (Swedish) sort.
Photography also has spread so rapidly in the country that at many places in small towns and villages in the interior j.a.panese photographers are to be met with who put out of their hands by no means bad work. The j.a.panese appear to have a great liking for having their by no means remarkable dwellings photographed. On several occasions, when we left a place we received from our host as a parting gift a photograph of his house or inn. Perhaps this was done with the same view as that which induces his European brother-in-trade to advertise at great expense.
[Ill.u.s.tration: j.a.pANESE KAGO. ]
Between Ikaho and Savavatari, our next resting-place, the road was so bad that the _jinrikisha_ could no longer be used, we accordingly had to use the _kago_, a j.a.panese sedan-chair made of bamboo, of the appearance of which the accompanying wood-cut gives an idea. It is exceedingly inconvenient for Europeans, because they cannot like the j.a.panese sit with their legs crosswise under them, and in course of time it becomes tiresome to let them dangle without other support by the side of the _kago_. Even for the bearers this sedan chair strikes me as being of inconvenient construction, which is shown among other things by their halting an instant every two hundred, or in going up a hill, every hundred paces, in order to shift the shoulder under the bamboo pole. We went up-hill and down-hill with considerable speed however, so that we traversed the road between Ikaho and Savavatari, 6 _ri_ or 23.6 kilometres in length, in ten hours. The road, which was exceedingly beautiful, ran along flowery banks of rivulets, overgrown with luxuriant bamboo thickets, and many different kinds of broad-leaved trees. Only round the old temples, mostly small and inconsiderable, were to be seen ancient tall Cryptomeria and Ginko trees. The burying places were commonly situated, not as at home, in the neighbourhood of the larger temples, but near the villages. They were not inclosed, but marked out by stone monuments from a third of a metre to half a metre in height, on one side of which an image of Buddha was sometimes sculptured. The recent graves were often adorned with flowers, and at some of them small foot-high Shinto shrines had been made of wooden pins.
Savavatari, like Ikaho, is built on the slope of a hill. The streets between the houses are almost all stairs or steep ascents. Here too there well up from the volcanic rocks acidulous springs, at which invalids seek to regain health. The watering-place, however, is of less repute than Ikaho or Kusatsu.
While we walked about the village in the evening we saw at one place a crowd of people. This was occasioned by a compet.i.tion going on there. Two young men, who wore no other clothes than a narrow girdle going round the waist and between the legs, wrestled within a circle two or three metres across drawn on a sandy area. He was considered the victor who threw the other to the ground or forced him beyond the circle. A special judge decided in doubtful cases. The beginning of the contest was most peculiar, the combatants kneeling in the middle of the circle and sharply eying each other in order to make the attack at a signal given by the judge, when a single push might at once make an end of the contest. In this compet.i.tion there took part about a dozen young men, all well grown, who in their turn stepped with some encouraging cries or gestures into the circle in order to test their powers. The spectators consisted of old men and women, and boys and girls of all ages. Most of them were clean and well-dressed, and had a very attractive appearance.
[Ill.u.s.tration: j.a.pANESE WRESTLERS. ]
Here it was the youth of the village themselves that took part in the contest. But there are also in j.a.pan persons who carry on these games as their occupation, and exhibit themselves for money. They are in general very fat, as appears from the accompanying drawing, which represents the beginning of the contest, when both the combatants are still watching to get a good hold.
[Ill.u.s.tration: j.a.pANESE BRIDGE. After a j.a.panese drawing. ]
Next day, the 1st October, we continued our journey to Kusatsu. The road was uphill for a distance of 550 metres, downhill for nearly as far, then up again, and ran often without any protecting fence past deep abysses, or over high bridges of the most dangerous construction. It was, therefore, impossible for any wheeled vehicle to traverse it, so that we had to use in some cases _kagos_, in others riding-horses. Unfortunately the j.a.panese high saddle does not suit the European, and if the traveller prefers a riding-horse to a _kago_, he must, if he does not carry a saddle with him, determine to ride on an unsaddled horse, which, with the wretched steeds that are only available here, soon becomes so unpleasant that he at last prefers to let his legs hang benumbed from the _kago_. A peculiarity in j.a.pan is that the rider seldom himself guides his horse. It is commonly led by a halter by a groom running alongside the rider. These grooms are very light-footed and enduring, so that even at a rapid pace they are not left behind. Running footmen also attend the carriages of people of distinction in the towns and the mail-coaches on Nakasendo. When there is a crowd before the carriage they jump down and drive away the people by a dreadful shouting.
From the mail-coach they also blow the post-horn, not just to the advantage of the ear-drums of the travellers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: j.a.pANESE MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE. ]
The scenery by the roadside was exceedingly beautiful. Now it consisted of wild valleys, filled with luxuriant vegetation which completely concealed the crystal-clear streams purling in the bottoms; now of level gra.s.sy plains or hill-slopes, thickly studded with solitary trees, chiefly chestnuts and oaks. The inhabitants were fully occupied with the chestnut harvest. Before every hut mats were spread out, on which chestnuts lay drying in thick layers.
Grain and cotton were being dried in the same small way, as it appeared to us Europeans. On the plains there stood besides in the neighbourhood of the cabins large mortars, by which the grain was reduced to groats. On the hills these tramp-stamps are partly replaced by small mills of an exceedingly simple construction, introduced by the Dutch.
We pa.s.sed the 2nd October at Kusatsu, the Aix-la-Chapelle of j.a.pan, famed like that place for its hot sulphurous springs. Innumerable invalids here seek an alleviation of their pains. The town lives upon them, and accordingly consists mainly of baths, inns, and shops for the visitors.
The inns are of the sort common in j.a.pan, s.p.a.cious, airy clean, without furniture, but with good braziers, miniature tea-services, clean matting, screens ornamented with poetical mottoes, which even when translated were almost unintelligible to us, friendly hosts, and numerous female attendants. If the traveller brings his own cook with him, as we did, he can live very comfortably, as I have before stated, at such an inn.
[Ill.u.s.tration: INN AT KUSATSU. ]
The hot springs which have conferred on Kusatsu its importance rise at the foot of a pretty high hill of volcanic origin. The rocks in the surrounding country consist exclusively of lava and volcanic tuffs, and a short distance from the town there is an extinct volcano in whose crater there are layers of sulphur.[382] In the immediate neighbourhood of the place where the main spring rises there is a thick solidified lava stream, surrounded by tuffs, which near the surface is cleft into a number of large vesicular blocks.
From this point the hot water is conducted in long open wooden channels to the bath-house of the town, and to several evaporating pools, some by the wayside, others in the town, intended for collecting the solid const.i.tuents of the water, which are then sold in the country as medicine. The great evaporation from these pools, from the open channels and the hot baths, wraps the town almost constantly in a cloud of watery vapour, while a very strong odour of sulphuretted hydrogen reminds us that this is one of the const.i.tuents of the healing waters.
The road between the wells and the town appears to form the princ.i.p.al promenade of the place. Along this are to be seen innumerable small monuments, from a half to a whole metre in height, consisting of pieces of lava heaped upon each other. These miniature memorials form by their littleness a peculiar contrast to the _bauta_ stones and _jettekast_ of our Swedish forefathers, and are one of the many instances of the people"s fondness for the little and the neat, which are often to be met in j.a.pan. They are said to be erected by visitors as thank-offerings to some of the deities of Buddha or Shinto.
I received from a j.a.panese physician the following information regarding the wells at Kusatsu and their healing power. In and near the town there are twenty-two wells, with water of about the same quality, but of different uses in the healing of various diseases.
In the hottest well the water where it rises has a temperature of 162 F (= 72.2 C.). The largest number of the sick who seek health at the baths, suffer from syphilis. This disease is now cured according to the European method, with mercury, iodide of pota.s.sium, and baths. The cure requires a hundred days, from seventy to eighty per cent. of the patients are cured completely, though purple spots remain on the skin. The disease does not break out anew. A large number of leprous patients also visit the baths. The leprosy is of various kinds; that with sores is alleviated by the baths, and is cured possibly in two years; that without sores but with the skin insensible is incurable, but is also checked by frequent bathing. All true lepers come from the coast provinces. A similar disease is produced also among the hills by the eating of tainted fish and fowl. This disease consists in the skin becoming insensible, the nerves inactive, and the patient, who otherwise feels well, finding it impossible to walk. It is also cured completely in very severe cases, by baths, ammonia applied inwardly, castor-oil, Peruvian bark, &c. A third type of this ailment is the bone-disease, _kak"ke"_, which is exceedingly common in j.a.pan, and is believed to be caused by unvarying food and want of exercise. It is very obstinate, but is often cured in two or three years with chloride of iron, alb.u.men, change of diet from the common j.a.panese to the European, with red wine, milk, bread, vegetables, &c. This disease begins with a swelling in the legs, then the skin becomes insensible, first on the legs, next on the stomach, the face, and the wrists. Then the swelling falls, fever comes on, and death takes place. There are besides, certain wells for curing rheumatism, for which from two to three years are required; for eye-diseases and for headache, the latter playing an important part among the illnesses that are cured at Kusatsu. It princ.i.p.ally attacks women between twenty and thirty years of age. One of the Kusatsu wells acts very beneficially in this case. Its water is conducted to a special bathing-shed open to the street, intended exclusively for the men and women who suffer from this disease.
Many of the baths at Kusatsu are taken so hot that special precautions must be adopted before one steps down into the water.
These consist in winding cotton cloths round those parts of the body which are most sensitive, and in causing the body to perspire strongly before the bath is taken, which is done by the bathers with cries and shouts and with certain movements stirring the water in the basin with large heavy boards. They then all step down into the bath and up again simultaneously at a sign given by the physician sitting at the back of the bathing shed. Without this arrangement it would perhaps be difficult to get the patients to go into the bath, for agreeable it could not be, to judge from the grave faces of the bathers and the fire-red colour of their bodies when they come out.
The baths are under open sheds. Men and women all bathe in common, and in presence of both male and female spectators. They make their remarks without reserve on the diseases of the patients, even if they are of that sort about which one would not speak willingly even to his physician. Often the bath-basin is not fenced off in any way, except that it is protected from rain and sunshine by a roof resting on four posts. In such cases the bathers dress and undress in the street.
[Ill.u.s.tration: BATH AT KUSATSU. ]
In consequence of the situation of Kusatsu at a height of 1050 metres above the sea, the winter there is very cold and windy. The town is then abandoned not only by the visitors to the baths, but also by most of the other inhabitants. Already, at the time of our visit, the number of bathers remaining was only inconsiderable. Even these were preparing to depart. During the second night that we pa.s.sed at Kusatsu, our night"s rest was disturbed by a loud noise from the next room. It was a visitor who was to leave the place the following morning, and who now celebrated his recovery with _saki_ (rice-brandy) and string music.
The environs of Kusatsu are nearly uncultivated, though the vegetation is exceedingly luxuriant. It consists partly of bamboo thickets, partly of a high rich gra.s.s, above which rise solitary pines, mixed with a few oaks or chestnuts.
On the 3rd October we continued our journey to the foot of Asamayama. The road was very bad, so that even the _kago_ bearers had difficulty in getting along. It first ran across two valleys more than 300 feet deep, occupied with close, luxuriant, bushy thickets. We then came to an elevated plain of great extent covered with unmown gra.s.s, studded with beautiful oaks and chestnuts. The plain was not turned to any account, though thousands of the industrious population could find an abundant living there by tending cattle. Farther up the oaks and chestnuts were mixed with a few birches, resembling those at home, and we came next to complete deserts, where the ground consisted of lava blocks and lava gravel, scarcely covered by any gra.s.s, and yielding nourishment only to solitary pines. This continued to the place--Rokuriga-hara--where we were to pa.s.s the night, and from which the next day we were to ascend the summit of Asamayama.
Rokuriga-hara is situated at a height of 1270 metres above the sea.