Handbook for Northern and Central Japan

Abstract

AS a mere handbook this work is indispensable to the European traveller in Japan. But it is much more than a handbook, it not only indicates what is sight-worthy, but explains by illustrative myth or legend, drawn from local tradition or from the little explored treasures of Japanese literature, the special interest with which mountains, temples, mounds, groves, and places are invested in the eyes of such Japanese as have not yet abandoned their nationality. To readers of this journal the most valuable portion of the book will be the description as accurate as minute of the Alpine region formed by the provinces of Etehiu and Hida (now the prefectures of Ishikawa and Gifu)—a region difficult of access even to natives, and almost untrodden by Europeans. The mountain range bounding this wild and remote tract on the East is the most considerable in Japan, extending nearly due north and south for some sixty or seventy miles, and rugged with innumerable peaks, the most conspicuous of which, beginning from the north, are Tatéyama, 9500 feet, Goroku-daké, 9100 feet, Yari-ga-také, 10,000 feet, and Norikura, 9800 feet. The chain is not of homogeneous structure, nor are the peaks of contemporaneous origin. The basis is a closegrained granite, not unfre-quently rich in garnets. Through this backbone or axis vast masses of igneous and volcanic rock have been extruded, the volcanic rock principally trachytic, often coarse-grained, and occasionally (Tate-yama) columnar. Of the peaks, Yari-ga-také (spear-peak) seems the most ancient, and consists of an intensely hard, foliated rock with curiously contorted siliceous bands and of an almost equally hard porphyry breccia. Nori-kura (ride-saddle) and Tatéyama (steep-hill) are both volcanic. Goroku-daké or Renge (Lotus flower Peak) consists of a mass of trachytic porphyry piled upon and against a close-grained granitic rock. The lower slopes of the range are overlaid, say our authors, by sedimentary rocks, but I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of this statement. Under the fierce sun and incessant rain of summer aärial denudation proceeds at a great rate, especially in the granitic districts of Japan, as may be well seen in the neighbourhood of Kobé, and the existence of a quasi-sedimentary rock may thus be easily accounted for. But true sedimentary rocks, excluding lacustrine deposits or fluvial alluvia, require the agency of the sea, and the greater part of the covering strata of the Japanese islands, is of very recent origin, and has never been under the sea. Only for a few days in early autumn does snow disappear from these peaks, the curiously abrupt and jagged outlines of which recall and even justify the mountain-forms common in Chinese pictures. The fauna of the district is little known. Ptarmigans are common, so also are flying squirrels, as well as bears, two species, of wild boar, and the curious goat-faced antelope. The flora has been more studied. Dense forests clothe the slopes, principally of beech and of several species of oak, mostly evergreen. Conifers are less abundant than is common in Japan. But the pretty. 5-leaved Pinus parviflora, S. and Z., as well as, though to a less extent, Cryptomeria japonica, Chamæcyparis obtusa, S. and Z., and C. pisifera, S. and Z., are not infrequent. I am not sure, for reasons too long to state here, that the Cryptomeria, despite its frequency, is indigenous to Japan. Two or three kinds of Betula show themselves at elevations of 4000–5000 feet. Below this level many examples of the genera Epilobium, Scabiosa, Hypericum, Parnassia, Euphrasia, Lilium (L. auratum and L. tigrinum), Hydrangea, Smilax, Akebia, Tylophora, &c., constitute a vegetation by no means without a western European aspect. Above 5000 feet Vaccinium, Diphylleia, Trollius, Paris, Fragaria vesca, and Anemone make their appearance. The common Pinguicula is also found, and probably Loiseleuria procumbens, which I have gathered on the slopes of Asama-yama, finds a home on those of the Hida mountains. Above 8000 feet a small Dicentra (D. pusilla, S. and Z.?), a yellow violet, Shortia uniflora, and Schizocodon soldanelloides are to be seen interspersed among bushes of a dwarf azalea. But it is doubtful whether any true Alpine flora exists in Japan. A Handbook for Travellers in Central and Northern Japan, &c., with Maps and Plans. By Ernest Mason Satow, Second Secretary and Japanese Secretary to H.B.M. Legation, and Lieut. A. G. S. Hawes, Royal Marines (Retired). (Yokohama: Kelly and Co.; Shanghai: Kelly and Walsh, 1881.)