USEFUL MINERALS AND METALLURGY
OF THE JAPANESE.
BY
Dr. GEERTS, OF NAGASAKI.
Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan 14th
October 1874.
———o———
The knowledge which the Japanese possess of Mineralogy and Metallurgy, is chiefly given them by the Chinese. It is a fact, that the old civilisation of the Chinese is at least two thousand years older than the Japanese culture. China (and Corea) have influenced largely the scientific, philosophical, technical and religious development of the Japanese. Some few Japanese believe that already before Zin-mu Tenno, (660 B. C.) literature was known in Japan, but this is very improbable, because there are many proofs that the Chinese of the 2nd century before Christ considered the Japanese to be “savages.” It does not matter much what we may think about the descent of the Japanese. We may believe with Von Siebold[1] that several tribes from “Dats” (Tartary) have retreated to Japan; we may take the Japanese with Malte-Brun and others for Autochthones, or Aborigines;[2] we may even adhere to the strange, nearly ridiculous hypothesis of the pious Kaempfer,[3] who carries
