Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan/Series 1/Volume 3/Part 2/Constructive Art in Japan
CONSTRUCTIVE ART IN JAPAN.
BY
R. H. BRUNTON, Esq.
Read before the Asiatic Society of Japan on the
13th January, 1875.
———o———
In the paper which I read before the Society on this subject last year I said, that if agreeable to the Society I would continue the subject on another occasion.
I, in that paper, gave a description of the evidences of constructive ability displayed by the Japanese before they had availed themselves of the assistance of Foreign experts. The continuation of the subject I then thought might suitably consist of a description of the improvements which these have succeeded in effecting. In setting myself to this task, however, I find it is one which is involved in considerable difficulty. In the first place the results which have been attained are so few and of so limited a nature that there is but little to he said concerning them, and in the second place the efficiency or practical advantages of such results are subjects of so debateable a character that, to treat of them from that point of view would form a paper hardly suited to a society of this kind. If therefore, in attempting to fulfil a promise which I formerly made, I have not succeeded in forming a very valuable contribution to the proceedings of the Society the difficulties surrounding the subject which I have alluded to above are my only excuse.
In the minds of the modern Japanese there seems to be the same desire for the adoption of a dwelling constructed after a European mode, as for the adoption of European clothes. They argue, with a shew of reason, that the one is necessary to the other. Thus when sandals or clogs gave way to boots, and the loose flowing robes to the tightly-fitting European dress, it became necessary to discard the old system of squatting on mats and to adopt wooden floors with carpets, and to sit on chairs and at tables. Europeanized dwellings are therefore now common. The style of building most generally adopted throughout the country in these new houses is a bad copy of the houses to be found in the European settlements. It is almost unnecessary to describe these. They, however, display novel points in the practise of house building which are worth mentioning on that account only. The foundations consist of a stone wall generally about 8 inches thick and 2 feet high. On this wall is laid a wooden sole plate which is about 6 inches square, and into which the wooden uprights forming the walls of the house are morticed. The uprights are also about 6 inches square are placed from 2 to 3 feet apart so that when they are still uncovered they appear like a forest of posts. There are very thin laths placed longitudinally along the uprights at distances of 6 feet or so apart, which are secured to them by wooden pins. Diagonal struts or tics are very seldom used and the stability of the building is therefore dependent on the stiffness of the different joints in the framework, assisted by the walls used in the different parts of the erection. The roof is formed of timbers very much larger than is required for strength, and is laid with mud and tiles much in the same way as I have described in my former paper as is adopted in Japanese temples. Inside, the houses are generally lined with planks about 38 in. thick on which wall paper is placed, the ceilings of the rooms being executed in the same way. In some of the better class of houses, however, the walls and ceilings are lathed and plastered but this is by no means general. Outside the walls there are sometimes fixed laths to which square tiles are nailed—the joints of the tiles being pointed with plaster—sometimes the walls are plastered without any tiles and in those houses which are intended to be of the best description thin stone flags, of a thickness of about four to eight inches, are built on one another and kept in their places by small iron dogs attached to the woodwork. In some of the houses iron stove pipes are let through the walls surrounded by a stone, but the more pretentions have fireplaces and chimnies erected with stone in their interiors. These are generally about five or six feet square at the base, are generally badly built, and as they project through the roofs they must be in some cases thirty or forty feet high. They can only be kept upright by the floor or roof beams which project against them, and are a constant source of dread and danger.
This is the new species of building common in Japan and foreigners are doubtless responsible for it: even at the present day very few houses in the foreign settlements are built after a more secure or substantial style, and in Japanese hands it has, if anything, become worse. When foreigners first arrived in this country they may have had reasons for adopting this method of construction. 1st.—It is, somewhat similar to the Japanese method and those who commenced building might have been glad to adopt it on that account as the work would there be more or less familiar to the only workmen who were available at the time. 2nd.—It has the advantage of only requiring the very cheapest and most easily procured materials, and so is well suited for temporary purposes or for hasty erection. 3rd.—It is supposed by some persons to be the best construction to resist earthquakes on account of its elasticity and on account of the wooden frame work preventing the outside lining of stones or other covering from being precipitated inwards on the occasion of a shock. The first reason in its favour does not now exist in such strength as formerly, because, although really efficient workmen are still very difficult to procure, there are now in this country many Europeans of experience who, by their superintendence and direction can efficiently cause to be executed almost any species of building. For merely temporary buildings it may still be, on account of its cheapness, the best, but if the construction is to have any pretensions to be a lasting erection, or one which has to afford effectual protection from outside disturbances, I have no hesitation in saying that the system is the most uneconomical. From the fragile nature of the materials which compose the outside casing, whether these are stone flags, tiles or merely plaster, the walls are in want of constant repair, and are never water or air tight. The wooden framework from its insufficient covering decays with great rapidity and it is in all points excessively and dangerously weak. The third reason in its favour, viz, its efficacy to resist earthquakes, is one which opens out a large field for discussion on which I may have something to say further on.
In copying this system of construction therefore I need not say that, in my opinion, the Japanese have been led into an egregious terror. And it is really a pity to see such buildings as the new Custom House and the New Town Hall in Yokohama, the new Government offices in Yedo, all of which should be buildings of real stability and durability, built on this principle. These erections have all some pretensions to architecture, they have each cost very large sums of money, and being efforts at improvement in the way of construction, it is most unfortunate that the system adopted was not one formed on a more sound and substantial basis.
Since the great fire which happened in Yedo in 1872, the minds of the local authorities there have been greatly exercised in reference to the construction of buildings which will afford greater resistance to the spread of fire. A very creditable effort has been made in the new Boulevard at Yedo—where small brick houses have taken the lace of the slight wooden erections which are general in all Japanese towns. These new buildings are built with brick which has been coated with Portland cement plaster. The walls of the houses are of course perfectly uninflammable; and fireplaces with properly constructed chimneys are placed in each wall. These houses present no perfect immunity from fire, but there can be no doubt that from the use of uninflammable material in the walls, and by a well-devised system of construction they offer great checks to the spread of fire, and the danger of taking fire is immensely lessened. The buildings have evidently been designed so as to retain as far as possible the Japanese system of house with open fronts and moveable partitions; they are two storied and contain four small rooms, and have a small verandah in front supported on brick columns. They seem to be a very suitable species of building for the class of Japanese occupying them and they most certainly present an infinitely better example of building to the people than the European houses which I have just described.
The principal and most important move made by the Japanese Government towards introducing into this country a better appreciation of the art of building and, at the same time, furnishing the country with those results of the ingenuity and labours of our great engineers which have revolutionized the civilized world, is the establishment of the department of public works and the prosecution of the undertakings under its care. The construction of two lines of railway after the English model cannot fail to to instil into the minds of the many Japanese employed in connection with them, the advantages of the principles of building adopted in Europe. Although one of these lines does not unfortunately present many features worthy of imitation, the other one in the excellence of the details of the workmanship upon it, whether in brick, stone, or iron, snpplies a model of the greatest value. The lesson that these works afford the Japanese should be of the greatest use to them. The various natural products of their country have in them been moulded formed and brought into combination with each other so as to form structures of precisely the necessary strength and of the most certain durability.
The graving docks and various other works at Yokoska also present to the Japanese another phase of constructive art from which they may learn the properties and use of another species of material. While the Lighthouses, though humble specimens of construction, and labouring under the disadvantage of being placed in such situations that few people see them, afford, I hope, their quota of information.
That the Japanese have not benefited so fully as they might by the lessons given them in the carrying out of such works, I think, can be safely affirmed. This has been occasioned more by a restlessness of mind and want of application than by want of ability. Their natural presumption of knowledge is proverbial, but in addition to this there has not been established to my knowledge any definite system of education among workmen. The methods of manufacture in all countries by means of which the cheapest, the best finished and only reliable articles are produced are well known to consist of keeping each workman confined to one very narrow branch of labour. In this way he becomes expert in that particular line and is able to produce work with a rapidity and of an excellence otherwise unattainable. In building, a stone-mason, a bricklayer or a carpenter is obliged to serve a weary apprenticeship of 5 or 6 years, and after that has been completed a long probation of many years on a merely nominal pay before being considered or trusted as an efficient workman. In Japan, on the contrary, bricklayers or masons are procured ready made; a Japanese carpenter is a mason one day and a bricklayer the next. And the introduction of the system of apprenticeship—by which the intelligence and energy of youths are brought to bear on one particular branch of labour—has not, so far as I am aware, been thought of. This defect may be due in a great measure, to the exigencies of the country which has only lately commenced to adopt these improvements, but I fear it is also occasioned by the restlessness of disposition which is a well known feature in the Japanese character.
The materials used for building have been but slightly developed within late years. Wood, which still maintains its supremacy as the principal and the most commonly-used building material has not amproved in quality. It is of a most treacherous character as at present to be purchased in the market, this being due to a want of care in felling the timber, in seasoning it and in drying it. No trials have yet been made so far as I am aware of the strength, durability or weights of Japanese wood, so very little can be added to the information I gave in my former paper concerning it. There can be little doubt, however, that the extra demand for timber caused by the commencement of public works of magnitude, and by a desire for larger and more extensive edifices is causing a denudation of the forests of the country. The rapidity of decay in the material itself and, the wholesale destruction to which it is exposed by conflagrations keep up a steady demand for this the stock building material of the country, but if, to this is added the demand caused by the various improvements which have been instituted, the supply is unable to keep pace with it. With a recklessness which I fear is a characteristic of the people the forests are being taxed beyond their powers—timber itself has increased in cost within the last five years to twice or thrice its former price—and fears not unnaturally arise of certain climatic changes springing from the clearing of large of tracts of country of their former forests.
Bricks were introduced by foreigners some years ago and are rapidly getting into extensive use. They do not, however, as yet attain to that excellence of manufacture which make them at all a desirable building material. The process of brick-making, like all other work requiring skill, can only be carried out to perfection by experts. While the Japanese are well acquainted with the manufacture of various porcelain and terra-cotta articles for use or ornament, and succeed in this most admirably, the making of bricks, so as to turn out both a cheap and reliable article, is a process requiring such entirely different methods of work that their knowledge in the former is not of much avail to them. The selection of the clay, its puddling and the shaping of the bricks are at present all done more or less carelessly and without method, but it is in the burning of the bricks that their principal defect lies. Their kilns are formed in the shape of a cone and are, when charged, generally filled to the top with bricks. A wooden fire is inserted at the bottom and the heated air is allowed to find its way through the large mass of bricks to the top of the kiln.—Those bricks at the bottom, we naturally find, are overburnt and cracked while those on top are quite insufficiently burned. A very small proportion only of really reliable bricks is therefore got from each kiln. I am informed that very excellent bricks are procured in Kobe and Osaka, which are made at Sakai, but I have not had an opportunity of testing these. I have, however, put bricks from various other parts of the country to the ordinary tests and the results are anything but satisfactory.
The ordinary bricks in use in London absorb after immersion in water not more than 1/15th of their own weight and they withstand a pressure of 800 lbs. on the square inch. The ordinary bricks made in Yedo absorb 1/5 of their own weight of water, and will not stand more than 300 lbs. per square inch; that is to say, they are three times as porous as they ought to be and less than half of the strength they should be. Bricks made in various other parts of the country shew almost the same results. The best which I have had opportunity of trying were those made at Hakodate; they stood fully the standard crushing strain but absorbed far too much water. Such bricks are in my opinion quite unfit for building purposes. Their actual strength, when new, may be sufficient for the small erections built in Yokohama, but their porosity renders them liable to rapid disintegration, and to actual rapid destruction from severe frost, while houses built of them must, under any circumstances, suffer from continually damp walls. A very excellent instance of the character of the Japanese bricks may be seen at Hakodate, where a series of large godowns recently erected by the Kaitakushi are in ruins, owing to the splintering and reduction to powder of the brickwork in their walls, caused by one winter’s frost. A partial remedy for the badness of the bricks may be to coat the walls with lime or cement plaster, but even with this I fear that sufficient moisture will find its way to them as to have a very deteriorating effect upon them. Another and a very grave reason against the ordinary use of brickwork at at present carried out in this part of Japan is the almost useless character of the lime mortar. Bricks in a building are held together by the lime mortar between them and if this mortar does not possess the necessary connecting qualities each brick is dependent on itself and the edifice which is constructed of them is deprived of almost its entire stability. Good mortar requires clean sharp sand and newly burned lime. Such sand in the neighbourhood of Yokohama is difficult to procure and is almost never used and the Japanese seem to haves pride in using only the oldest lime which from long keeping has entirely lost its virtues.
The system of construction best suited to withstand earthquakes is a consideration which should always hold a prominent place in the design of any erection in Japan. I have not been able, though I have made considerable efforts to do so, to procure any information either to verify the particulars I gave in my former paper regarding earthquakes or to make additions to that. While we are perfectly aware, therefore, of the liability of the country to shocks of destructive violence we are not aware of the nature of the shocks or the localities in which they may be expected to be most severe. It is to be hoped, however, that with the assistance which the Japanese Government now possesses both as regards instruments and professional men, that before long we may have a regular system of observations affording us this information. I have formed the opinion that the heavy roof and the light framework in Japanese erections are ill-suited to withstand these shocks, and I believe my opinion to be sustained by the truest principles of mechanics. This, however, is hardly the place to enter into a disquisition upon that subject. I am also of opinion that a solid erection, properly constructed, will afford the greatest safety daring an earthquake and at the same time is the only one which will give reasonable security against fire, wind or the other natural disturbances. An appliance has been devised by a well known English engineer for the purpose of counteracting the disturbing force of an earthquake, the principle of which is very simple. It was said by him that the movement given to the foundations of a building is transmitted with accelerating force to its summit, and that to destroy this the simplest method was to make a break in the continuity of the structure. The designer, therefore, proposed that buildings should be made in two parts, the lower part to be firmly embedded in the earth, the upper to rest on balls which are made to roll in inverted cups. A sudden movement in the lower part would not, then, be transmitted to the upper on account of this break or joint in the structure, and the experiments made shew that in point of fact this theory was perfectly correct. He procured this idea from seeing in Japanese drawings the uprights of their houses resting on round stones, imagining this to be done in order to give them as slight a hold of the earth as possible. But from enquiries I have made this does not seem to have entered the minds of the Japanese, and the only way they can account for the uprights being placed on round stones is to keep the wood away from the moisture of the ground and because round boulders are move easily and cheaply procured than square stones. The impracticability of this scheme, which, however, deserves a fuller trial than it his yet had, arises, in my mind, from the fact that a house resting on balls is liable to be swung and rocked about in gales of wind to such an extent as to render it unfit to live in. I may mention that the tables on which the apparatus of some of the Japanese lighthouses rest are constructed with this joint, but they have been found to be unsuitable for the reason I have just stated, viz. that, when touched or trod upon they shake and roll too much. It is quite possible, however, that some alterations might be effected on the design to obviate this difficulty, and if this were accomplished there can be no doubt that it would afford great immunity from earthquakes shocks. Any scheme which will afford this should be welcomed in Japan, but at the same time it is in my opinion a great mistake to sacrifice the whole comfort and the safety of dwellings from their dread enemies fire and wind to a supposed protection from so remote a contingency as a severe earthquake is in Japan. The building most truly suitable is one which to the fullest extent provides a protection from both these disturbances.
Wooden houses, on the supposition that they are best during earthquakes, are not well fitted to withstand the other disturbances to which they are much more frequently exposed—and solidly constructed houses, while they are less inflammable, and less liable to damage from bad weather, whether they are well calculated to resist an earthquake shock or not, at all events have this advantage that they will always afford their inmates time to escape. The more solidly constructed a building is the longer it will remain standing, even though solidity is no perfect protection against the rage of an earthquake.
The matter of cost is an important one in regard to works of this kind, and there is not an unreasonable fear that to erect a solid building means a large expenditure. This, wader present circumstances in Japan, is probably the case, though not to that extent which might be imagined. The present want of good material and the dearth of efficient workmen enhance the cost of good work, but we must hope that these hindrances will soon be removed, and that in a short space the towns of Japan will consist of something better than rows of tinder-boxes.
ASIATIC SOCIETY OF JAPAN.
A General Meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday evening, 13th instant, at the Grand Hotel, C. W. Goodwin Esq., V. P. in the chair.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved, and it was announced that the following gentlemen had been elected ordinary members of the Society since the last general meeting: Dr. Elmore, Chargé d’Affaires for Peru, Messrs. J. C. Hayllar, Q.C., Hongkong, J. Smedley, E. S. Benson, and S. Cocking.
The Rev. E. W. Syle then read the “Itinerary of two routes between Yedo and Niigata” by Captain Descharmes.
Sir Harry Parkes observed that Captain Descharmes had described a very interesting, and a very extensive tour through the Northern, Western, and central Provinces of Japan. He regretted that, owing to the want of a good map, those who had heard the paper read would not fully profit by the information it contained until it appeared in print. The same want had been felt on previous occasions, and would continue to be felt when papers of travel were read before the society. He would therefore suggest the preparation of a map of Japan on a large scale, to be exhibited at the meetings of the society, which should show in a manner that would at once catch the eye, the Provinces and Kens, principal towns, mountain ranges, rivers, roads, and other important geographical features of the country, as far as these were at present known or might become known. The routes described in the papers read before the Society might also in some instances be marked upon it. Its use would then be felt, not only when papers were being read, but also by travellers planning a tour or an excursion, and wishing to profit by the experience of those who had preceded them. He believed such a map could be constructed at small expense, and he was satisfied that it would prove of great utility to the Society.
Mr. Cargill, in seconding the suggestion, remarked that any Foreign maps of Japan he had seen were very incomplete, while the Japanese maps, some of which were very excellent, had for those who could not read Japanese, all the characteristics of the old maps of Africa—a mere coast outline on a sheet of blank paper. Mr. Cargill also enquired what the expense of preparing a map would be, and whether the funds of the Society could afford the outlay, or whether a special subscription would be necessary.
Mr. Syle said that the matter had been under consideration. He thought that if the Society determined on constructing such a map as that referred to, Mr. Brunton should be requested to superintend the execution of it. He was afraid, however, that the funds of the Society would not admit of the undertaking at present.
In reference to what had fallen from Mr. Syle, Mr. Brunton said that he would be glad to superintend the execution of large maps for the use of the Society. He would propose that they should be made to a scale of 234 miles to an inch and should be in six sheets viz: one sheet for the island of Yezo,—one sheset for the Main Island, to extend aa far as Lake Inabashiro—second sheet for Main Island to extend as fat as Lake Biwa. Third sheet for the remainder of the Main Island. One sheet for the island of Sikok, and adjoining coast. One sheet for the island of Kiusiu, and adjoining coast. The probable cost of executing these completely and in a finished manner would be about $400, the principal items in which sum consist of the Chinese, or Japanese, draughtsmen. Then maps might be enlarged from Japanese maps, many of which are of very considerable accuracy. In fact so accurate are they that some of the present charts used by navigators are compiled from them.
The maps so made would be useful only for hanging on walls, and tracing journeys on with a pointer. They would not be suitable for measuring from, or for photographing or otherwise copying.
Mr. Brunton then read his paper on “Constructive Art in Japan.”
Mr. Cargill acquiesced in the observations made by Mr. Brunton on the indifferent material used in building, such as spongy bricks, lime that had lost its essential quality, and indifferent timber which began to rot as soon as it was put to use, and that as for the grotesque but pretentions specimens of the foreign style of architecture in Yokohama, to which he had drawn attention in the New Town Hall and Custom House, he might have added the new Post office, and the British Consulate, the latter being especially hideous. As for the adaptation of buildings to resist earthquakes, and the general use of timber in Japan for the temples and other costly structures which, from their antiquity, seem to have resisted shocks that had proved so disastrous to many towns, he presumed that timber was deemed well suited for resisting those terrible visitations. In other countries the same idea prevailed. He had heard people in San Francisco taking comfort from having so many of their houses built of timber, and being on that account more safe. The town of Wellington in New Zealand is wholly built of wood, private dwellings, public buildings, and churches, including even lofty steeples, that neighbourhood being subject to constant severe vibrations of the earth, and no other building material being deemed safe.
Sir Harry Parkes was of opinion that the light and elastic style of Japanese architecture had no reference to the necessities, or apprehensions occasioned by earthquakes. It is a primitive style of building taken chiefly from the Chinese, who are said to have followed the tent as their model in the long sweeping roof, supported, not on walls but on timber uprights. The Japanese have no experience of solid structures. To them in building timber is a material of first necessity, and scarcity of supply would be very seriously felt. It is probable that although the country within districts easy of access has been denuded of its timber belts of forest still remain which cannot at present be made available for want of means of transport. Forestry laws and the construction of roads evidently demand the serious attention of the Government.
In answer to the Chairman, Mr. Brunton said that from the various authorities which he had consulted he could not discover that the system of lightness and pliability in the construction of houses had been adopted in any country subject to earthquakes—except Japan. Certainly in South America and South Italy the buildings which were now erected ware of a most solid description—and those men who were authorities on the subject had, so far as his investigations had carried him, unanimously given a preference to strength as distinct from lightness or elasticity. In a building wanting in strength, its overthrow becomes certain when the velocity of the earthquake wave is such as to produce oscillation sufficient to destroy the equlibrium of its upright parts. But in buildings where the mass or inertia is great, and the connection of the different parts of the walls is proportionately good oscillation is checked, and it may be said that overthrow is impossible—except of course in cases of irregular upheaval or cracking of the earth’s surface, or when the foundations of a building are destroyed. In such buildings fractures may certainly be caused at weak places in the walls, but their great advantage is, that on account of their immunity from overthrow, they give their inmates time to escape. The great destruction of buildings in Lisbon Naples and elsewhere by earthquakes has been shewn to be entirely owing to the faulty character of the masonry—there having been instances in the vicinity of the latter place where the front half of a wall has come down leaving the back half standing, shewing that there was no band or connection whatever between the two. In regard to concrete he believed that no substance could be found more suitable for building in earthquake countries, and be founded this belief on the grounds that there was no joint whatever in a concrete wall, that the whole building was as one stone, and that the connection between its parts was equable and thorough throughout. He could not conceive that a well-built concrete house could possibly be overthrown so long as its foundations were left intact.
Mr. Syle observed concerning the supposed absence of any system of apprenticeship among Japanese workmen, that in China there was no such deficiency; but on the contrary, that every workman—especially every bricklayer—seemed to be provided with two apprentices. As to the supply of timber in China; it had become the custom in some districts, to cultivate hill-sides, and crop them annually strip after strip, for thirty successive years; at the end of which time, the first portion will have grown up again. For building purposes, large quantities of fine lumber, brought across the Pacific from Oregon, were disposed of at Shanghai. Also a good deal of magnificent hard wood brought up from the Straits, in the Singapore junks.
Prof. W. E. Ayrton remarked that he was not sure whether it had yet dawned on the Japanese that porosity was an objectionable character in bricks, since he remembered when, some months back, he visited Tskudashima where bricks were manufactured in considerable quantities by the convicts there, the Governor of the prison pointed out with great glee how a stack of black bricks absorbed pailful after pailful of water as it was thrown over them. He thought all must agree that Mr. Brunton’s severe criticisms of the new buildings in Tokio and Yokohama were most just, especially as regards the pastrycook style of architecture, the one most in vogue, which produced residences like sugared cakes, of layers of white plaster hiding a framework of unseasoned and ill-jointed wood. The builders of these houses appeared to have exercised the greatest ingenuity in combining the flaws of Japanese dwellings with the vices of second-rate European suburban villas; for where, in the modern Japanese house was the graceful roof-curves, the quaintly-moulded corner tiles, the grand entry with its curved scrolls, the picturesque eaves, the ingenious arrangement of rafter, and decorated panels of the Daimio’s home? Whilst warmth and solidity, so rightly esteemed as most important characteristics of European buildings, were conspicuous by their absence. He could scarcely agree with Mr. Brunton that the new brick houses in the Odori of Tokio, the main street of the metropolis of Japan, were satisfactory; since he considered the pretensions to the classic style displayed in the architecture had produced a result not more happy than the absence of all architecture in the more flimsy structures previously referred to. He doubted whether Europe’s ancient Gothic architects would approve of the new mongrel red-brick buildings of Tokio, that bear go strong a resemblance to national school-houses. In addition, to a race like the Japanese who loved brightness and sunshine, who passed the greater portion of their lives in the open air he could imagine nothing more distasteful than the small windows, absence of verandahs, and general gloom of a medieval building. What was really wanted in this country at the present moment was an architect who had thoroughly mastered the varieties and styles of the European schools of architecture, and who, in addition, had also studied the ingenious development of wooden structures in the United States. Such a man after arriving here would with similar industry study Japanese buildings and their extreme siutability, in many respects, to the climate of the country and the tastes of the people. He would then be in a position to evolve buildings that did not as now combine the evils of all styles, but which, instead, bore evidence that the best points of native and imported art had been judiciously selected. We might then have buildings possessing the beauties of the yashiki and the conveniences and comforts of a first-rate English building.
The Meeting then terminated.