It was in 1590 that Tokugawa Iyeyasu, Lord of the Eastern Provinces, entered the little castle of Yedo which had been built in 1457, and enlarged and fortified it into a great stronghold. When he assumed, thirteen years later, the Shogunate, or military suzerainty of the country, his castle-town became the military and administrative capital of Japan. Here he elaborated the system of feudalism which had already been in existence for four centuries and brought it to such perfection that, in spite of the corruption and decadence of the central power, it remained in force for two hundred and sixty-five years longer. By the compulsory residence of the two hundred and seventy territorial lords of the country for half the year in Yedo, the city soon rose to opulence and prosperity. Towards the end of last century, its civilian population alone was close upon half a million, while the military class, with their families and dependents, probably far exceeded that number, so that the total population of Yedo must have been upwards of a million. Upon the abolition of the Shogunate and the Restoration of the Imperial authority in 1868, the seat of the Imperial Government was transferred from Kyoto, the old capital, to Yedo, which was thereupon renamed Tokyo, or the Eastern capital.
As the leader of Occidental civilisation in Japan, Tokyo has since continued to increase in prosperity; and in this city we find in the most marked degree the contrast between the old and new regimes, the conflict of progress and conservatism, which is more or less observable throughout the country. Though even the most conservative nation cannot be said to be absolutely stationary, no other country is in a greater state of transition than Japan, where that advance from feudalism to modern life which in Europe took four centuries is being attempted in as many decades. But as what changes she has undergone have taken place in less than a man’s life-time, they could hardly be thorough. Indeed, she has been charged with adopting European civilisation in appearance only while retaining an Oriental heart and Oriental instincts, But such an accusation is based upon a false conception of the nature of her civilisation, which has always been eclectic. The same discrimination that she showed twelve centuries ago when she imbibed Chinese literature and civilisation has stood her in good stead when she is brought face to face with European thought and European arts and sciences. She takes pride now, as she took then, in the preservation of her national individuality through all her transitions; and she does not regard as a reproach the charge that she only yields to necessity and a sense of self-preservation in adapting herself to the new conditions imposed by contact with Europe, because no nation with the least stamina would with alacrity take up another civilisation unless, like Japan, it recognises that its own is worn out and exhausted and it can only regain vitality by an infusion of a better and more efficient substitute. Paradoxical as it may seem, the Japanese, in spite of his eagerness for the new civilisation with which his country is undergoing rejuvenescence, is at heart a stubborn conservative; and though the nation has, it is true, committed blunders and sometimes been carried from one extreme to another, the general trend of its progress has on the whole been in the right direction, owing to the counterbalancing agencies of liberalism and conservatism. It is necessary to bear always in mind this peculiar trait of Japanese progress in passing judgment upon the phases of Japanese life and the state of Japanese society. Everywhere is this conservative spirit to be seen; and no profession or calling, however humble, is free from the predominant influence of its past. In the following sketches, which treat of vocations characteristically Japanese, this fact will be found to be especially conspicuous.
The city of Tokyo has been so frequently described that there is no need to dilate upon it here; but it may be well to correct a general misapprehension regarding its extent. It is usually stated that Tokyo is in area about half that of London, but as a matter of fact the Japanese capital is only about a quarter in extent and a third in population of the English. Its actual area is 18,273.7 acres, or 28½ square miles, of which building land occupies 9,822.5 acres; roads, embankments, rivers, and ditches take up 2,690 acres; rice-paddies and fields, 2,062 acres; Government lands, 1,604.8 acres; Imperial estates, 955.3 acres, the Imperial castle standing upon 520.6 acres of land; cemeteries, 521.1 acres; shrines and temples, 250.4 acres; waste land, 252.8 acres; and river-banks, ponds, and marshes, 243.4 acres. There are eighteen public parks and gardens in Tokyo and its suburbs with a total area of 441.5 acres, of which the two largest are Uyeno in the north, 138 acres, and in the south Shiba, 120 acres. At the end of 1893, there were 1,386 streets with an aggregate length of 547 miles and area of 1,596 acres. In the same year the population was 1,275,615, consisting of 690,475 males and 585,140 females, living in 234,248 buildings, which covered 2,702 acres, thus giving 10.2 square yards per inhabitant. The average rate of mortality from 1890 to 1893 was 27 per thousand; and the density of population varied from 195 per acre in the mercantile district of Nihonbashi to 34 per acre in Kojimachi District, in which the Imperial castle and most Government offices are situated, the ratio for the whole city being 75 per acre, or 64½ square yards per inhabitant.
Tokyo, November, 1895.
N.B.—No distinction is made in the number of the Japanese words used in this book as the same form serves in Japan for both the singular and the plural.
The Japanese style of giving the surname before the individual name (which corresponds to the Christian name) is also followed in the text.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1895, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1929, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 94 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
