THE EXHIBITION OF JAPAN.

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 130, 6 March 1873, Page 2

THE EXHIBITION OF JAPAN.

TnE following account of the Japan Exhibition id from a private lette' 1 dated Kioto, 18th of May :—": — " I said in my last that I hoped to be able to visit Kioto during the time that the Exhibition would be held there. Mr number in tJio order of foreign arrivals at the ' City of Temples' was 70 something It is not often given to a man to be one of the first publicly to enter and inspect w hat I may, perhaps, bo i llowed to call the ' Mecca ' of what has for many hundred of years been one of the most exclusive empires the world has seen. It must be difficult for you at a distance to comprehend the greatness of the revolution that has swept over this land during the past four or five years. I can hardly fancy the possibility of anyone realising it without absolutely living here among the peoplo and the institutions of the country. Mv journey to Fushirai was dovoid.of any particular incidents. In the company of two friends I left Osaka about half-past seven in a long, narrow, flat-bottomed boat, and six nativo boatmen, by dint of punting and hnulmg, got us to Fusliimi by Boven the next morning We had there a light breakfast, and then proceeded in jennkshas (a sort of miniature Hansom, drawn by men) to Kioto, through one continuous street about seven miles long. The entrance to the citj by this route is not imposing, as you reach it at? its lowest point, and it was only when I arrived at the Chioin ITotel and turned round to see where I was that I understood the locality. On the flat ground, in the centre of a valley, running nearly north and «ontli, and about (as near as I could" giie-»s) five or six miles wide at this point, lies tho town • hurdh in the centre, for the houses reach to the base of the lulls on the eastern s de, but not as I noticed anywhere on the western side. It is at the foot of the eastern slope that there nro to he found the hotels prepareiMir tho accommodation of foreigners on this occasion, myself at that one ailjo ning the Temple of Choinin, where an immense nmount of monpy must have been laid out m making preparations ; for instance, this hotel can accommodate five hundred guests a night ; and all the toilet-tables, wash-stands, &c, have been made foreign fashion (though, of course, very cheaply) for the occasion ; and , except for the dresses mid language of the servants, it would not bo easy to toll that your dinner was not being served in America or Europe. Really this hotel consists of a number of priests' houses, standing each in its o\\ n garden, and converted to their present uso merely temporarily. Tlio temple is one of three, scattered at some distance apart, in which the Exhibition is held. I can dismiss the Exhibition itself very shortly. I noticed no kind of Japanese product which is not more or Jess known to foreigners ; but many of the specimens of Japanese work are very beautiful. What I take to be tho most interesting part of the whole affair— the antiquarian part— is well nigh a sealed book to foreigners, from the almost entiro absence of any but Japanese or Chinese inscriptions, which should have an immense interest in native eyes, yet, comparatively speaking, the Exhibition is hardly patronised by natnes at all. Of interpreters there is scarcely one worth tho name, and a venerable »wocd or piece of faded tapestry, t'.iercloie, is to us but as old iron or garret rubbish. The town itself is simply a good specimen of a large Japanese town — the streets wider and Btrnighter than usual, and containing street lamp poets, and oil lamps m mam parts. These, however, I underbtand, will not continue to be lighted sifter foreigners ha\o gone away. Telegraph posts ha\o alsojubt been put up, and the line that far is now ready fur work, but I believe public mossages have not, u>t been received for transmiMon. Tho town also is intersected by various watercourses running from north to south, which mostly met in Fushimi, whence dbwnward's there is navigation for il.it- bottomed boats to Osaka I?ut the speciality of Kioto- is its temple. Japanese temple", »s a rule, are wot striking objects in a landscape, unless they assume, as they occasionally do, the pagoda form. Except in town* the trees which surround them nre genernlh higher thun the temple*, and hide them. They arc. all built of wood and roofed with tile or thatch," but some of them are beautiful specimens of workmanship m their wa^. Yon must notice, that these temples are nut intended to be of the same nature as our churches. They aro more properly speaking houses for bhrinos, where people go for thoir devotions, or to which they make pilgrimages. There is no preparation for a concourse of people to join in worship ; that seems not to have- been contemplated. Let ub go up in the balcony of the Great Gate of Cluoin, on the eastern »lov>e, tid lock at t\~t> to«-" J. r.iall ica :s chtrge i in. return lov vliich 50' i avo laruiihua v Itl» naj* reaionaL! ,

amount of tea, to sip a-< jou sit Before \ou stretches from right to left n long ralle\ in high cultivation, and well vrooded, allowing nil the varied shades of brilliant green for which Japanese scenerj h justly celebrated, find above the roofs ot the houses in the town, and through the tree tops of the surrounding country, peer the palace of the UjLados tho-o of main Dannios, the castle, and numberless temple roofs The scene is exquisitely beautiful iuiiiatu'al scenery and no lei 3 stirring to the imagination As }uu bit and .3^>noke and sip jour tea you forget to-day, and the mind conjures up the pageants ot tempoial and ecclesiastical power, and of long lines, far re.iclnng into history, of Emperors, warriors, and statesmen who luuo parsed and repassed upon the scene on which we dre.imilv gaze tins tranquil Spring afternoon. Far to the right is the temple of I£iukakuji on a a lake — that temple whose walls were erst covered with gold loaf ; nearer to us the pilace of the iLikados itself, still boasting its solendid gardens, though now it is teuantless. lligh o i ih > left, but hidden from our sight, is tlieir burying place, the sepulchre of their line. Dotted about the town, the Ynshikis of those who were at once his nobility and his g«oler3 — the creatures of Tveoons of Yedo. On the low ground to tho left tho great temple of Honganji, which, though partinllj destroyed by fire, according to some accounts, is still one of the largest, if not the largest, in Japan. Scattered nbout, many mow, whose name*. convoy no impression to us, but which ha\e thoir hj^torjes in. the annnls of the empire. At we sit gazing and dreaming, the twilight of nature, falls o\or the seen 4, peopled with the shadowy forms conjured, up out of the past by our imagination. Tho last golden tinges of sunset dies out behind the w astern hills, the glorious landscape at our feet fades gently into one great dusky sea under the twinkling of the stars."

G. eat fears are entertained for the safety of a Swedish expedition, sent out under the direction of Piofe*sor Nortkmskiold, the wi»ll-knowii Arctic explorer, with the now of parsing the winter at Spilzhergen, ami discovering from that starting point the open Polar Sea In the last da\ sof August the expedition, consisting of three v.essels — the Polliem, GJadau, and Oakel Adam — was at the Norwegian islands on the northern side of Spitzbergen, and, as the north-eastern island of the archipelago, was unapproachable on account of |l ice, the leaders resolved, to enter the Huxlopen Soujidj between that island and Spizbcrgen, with, the view of reaching Lommobay The Polhein, with the GHadan in tow, was seen to pass, on the Ist of September, Verlegenhuk, the northernmost point of Spitzbergen (80 deg. lat.), and two da,y,B later the Qnkel Adam passed the same point. It must have been the intention of the leaders to make Lommebay their winter quarters, and to fulfil tins the Gladan and the Onkel Adam "Would lane to unload thpir cargo and return as soon as possible, onh the Polliem being provided for w intcrmg. But u telegram, sent on the 30th of October, from the Governor of Troinso to the Norwegian Department of the Interior, states that nothing whatever has been heard since the beginning of September of the two vessels, and it is feared that they aie, together with six Norwegian sealers, caught by the ice If that be tho case, it 19 supposed that the men have left the vessels and taken to- the boats, a*id that they have sought refuge on the western coast of'Spitzbergen, where fehey have some chance of finding as jet open waters. As rather more than 100 lives are upon stake, tho Norwegian Government has resolved to send out from Tonsberg one of the ■teamera built for whaling and sealing; and as the shipwrecked are sure to ha^ c shaped their course to certain wellImo wn places on the coast, some hope may be entertained of their being sa\ed Fue.ncu Theory of Fatal Remedies — According to M AlphoiibC de Cindolle, when a fatal malady has seriously affected the younger portion of a population, the succeeding generation, descended from persons who escaped the disease or wero but little affected b} it, will be found less liable to attack, as. an ordinary etfgct of the law of descent, this continuing to be tho ca«e from generation to generation This, therefore, constitutes one cause of the weakening of epidemics, and may serve to explain tho reason why a disease is jn>st injurious when it first attack" any people, and why it subsequently bicjmes rarer or li as dangerous, which Las requently been obscned. After the lapse of several generations, however, a population model ately affected by disease approaches the condition of ono which has never had it, and mci eased intensity may ensue. A Pkbilous Jourxi'y. — Recently a- boy, about 11 years of aj;e, was found riding upon tile steps of & carriage of one of the London and North-western trains at the Blisworth station lie had ridden, it is said, m that perilous position, if not from the metropolis, at all events some distance. A ticket fi r Camden station was found m his possession, which proved that ho had come from London The boy sta'cs that his. parents are in Glasgow, and that he was trying to reae'i them Blisworth is about GO miles from Ljndon. He was, of course, detained, as he had no tickot, but the company did not pnws the charge against him