Unbeaten
Tracks in Japan
Preface
Having been
recommended to leave home, in April 1878, in order to
recruit my health by means which had proved serviceable
before, I decided to visit Japan, attracted less by the
reputed excellence of its climate than by the certainty
that it possessed, in an especial degree, those sources of
novel and sustained interest which conduce so essentially
to the enjoyment and restoration of a solitary
health-seeker. The climate disappointed me, but, though I
found the country a study rather than a rapture, its
interest exceeded my largest expectations.
This is not a "Book on Japan," but a narrative of travels
in Japan, and an attempt to contribute something to the sum
of knowledge of the present condition of the country, and
it was not till I had travelled for some months in the
interior of the main island and in Yezo that I decided that
my materials were novel enough to render the contribution
worth making. From Nikko northwards my route was altogether
off the beaten track, and had never been traversed in its
entirety by any European. I lived among the Japanese, and
saw their mode of living, in regions unaffected by European
contact. As a lady travelling alone, and the first European
lady who had been seen in several districts through which
my route lay, my experiences differed more or less widely
from those of preceding travellers; and I am able to offer
a fuller account of the aborigines of Yezo, obtained by
actual acquaintance with them, than has hitherto been
given. These are my chief reasons for offering this volume
to the public.
It was with some reluctance that I decided that it should
consist mainly of letters written on the spot to my sister
and a circle of personal friends, for this form of
publication involves the sacrifice of artistic arrangement
and literary treatment, and necessitates a certain amount
of egotism; but, on the other hand, it places the reader in
the position of the traveller, and makes him share the
vicissitudes of travel, discomfort, difficulty, and tedium,
as well as novelty and enjoyment. The "beaten tracks," with
the exception of Nikko, have been dismissed in a few
sentences, but where their features have undergone marked
changes within a few years, as in the case of Tokiyo
(Yedo), they have been sketched more or less slightly. Many
important subjects are necessarily passed over.
In Northern Japan, in the absence of all other sources of
information, I had to learn everything from the people
themselves, through an interpreter, and every fact had to
be disinterred by careful labour from amidst a mass of
rubbish. The Ainos supplied the information which is given
concerning their customs, habits, and religion; but I had
an opportunity of comparing my notes with some taken about
the same time by Mr. Heinrich Von Siebold of the Austrian
Legation, and of finding a most satisfactory agreement on
all points.
Some of the Letters give a less pleasing picture of the
condition of the peasantry than the one popularly
presented, and it is possible that some readers may wish
that it had been less realistically painted; but as the
scenes are strictly representative, and I neither made them
nor went in search of them, I offer them in the interests
of truth, for they illustrate the nature of a large portion
of the material with which the Japanese Government has to
work in building up the New Civilisation.
Accuracy has been my first aim, but the sources of error
are many, and it is from those who have studied Japan the
most carefully, and are the best acquainted with its
difficulties, that I shall receive the most kindly
allowance if, in spite of carefulness, I have fallen into
mistakes.
The Transactions of the English and German Asiatic
Societies of Japan, and papers on special Japanese
subjects, including "A Budget of Japanese Notes," in the
Japan Mail and Tokiyo Times, gave me valuable help; and I
gratefully acknowledge the assistance afforded me in many
ways by Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., and Mr. Satow of
H.B.M.'s Legation, Principal Dyer, Mr. Chamberlain of the
Imperial Naval College, Mr. F. V. Dickins, and others,
whose kindly interest in my work often encouraged me when I
was disheartened by my lack of skill; but, in justice to
these and other kind friends, I am anxious to claim and
accept the fullest measure of personal responsibility for
the opinions expressed, which, whether right or wrong, are
wholly my own.
The illustrations, with the exception of three, which are
by a Japanese artist, have been engraved from sketches of
my own or Japanese photographs.
I am painfully conscious of the defects of this volume, but
I venture to present it to the public in the hope that, in
spite of its demerits, it may be accepted as an honest
attempt to describe things as I saw them in Japan, on land
journeys of more than 1400 miles.
Since the letters passed through the press, the beloved and
only sister to whom, in the first instance, they were
written, to whose able and careful criticism they owe much,
and whose loving interest was the inspiration alike of my
travels and of my narratives of them, has passed away.
Isabella L. Bird