Japan and the Japanese

ADVERTISEMENT.
In giving Japanese names and words, I have aimed at a
certain uniformity ; but, like all other writers on Japan,
have failed to attain it. The Portuguese missionaries, or at
least their translators into Latin, in representing Japanese
names, employed c with the force of k before the vowels a,
o, and 11, and with the force of 5 before e and i; which
same sound of s, in common with that of ts, they some-
times represented by a:. In the earlier part of the book I
have, in relation to several names known only, or chiefly,
through these writers, followed their usage ;
though generally,
in the representation of Japanese names and words, I
have avoided the use of these ambiguous letters, and have
endeavored to conform to the method of representing the
Japanese syllables proposed by Siebold, and of which an
account is given
in the Appendix.
The daguerreotype views and portraits taken by the artists
attached to Commodore Perry's expedition, the publication
of which may soon be hoped for, will afford much more
authentic pictures of the externals of Japan than yet have
appeared ; and, from the limited stay and opportunities of
observation enjoyed by those attached to that expedition,
must constitute their chief contribution to our knowledge
of the Japanese empire.
July 2, 1860. K. H.