Japan and the Japanese

PRODUCTS OF JAPAN. 569
In articles of food and raw produce, the Japanese have hitherto raised only
such as they needed, as wheat, rice, barley, cotton, silk, iron, copper, and
such like, most of which can be more profitably taken there than carried
away. The copper of Japan, long famous for its purity,
extent by the Japanese in preserving their junks, but much more in orna-
is used to a small
menting them ; even those whose bottoms are not coppered are curiously
overlaid and adorned on the bows and gunwales with many plates and pieces
of this metal. On shore, we saw very few copper utensils, either in the
kitchen or work-shop, and the metal does not seem to be extensively used in
any way, compared with what one might have anticipated.
Charcoal and fossil coal are both procurable ; the former to a great
amount, as it forms the fuel of all classes, and is of an excellent quality.
The fossil coal is obtained from the islands of Kiusiu and Sikokf, in the
principalities of Tchikugen and Awa, and the specimens obtained appear to
be surface coal, not of a very good quality of bituminous, but which might
turn out better on digging deeper. The demand for it to supply steamers
running between China and California may stimulate more energy in bring-
ing it to market, but, until we know more, there is not much on which to
ground large hopes in respect to this article.
Camphor is produced in Japan, and both the unrectified gum and timber
can doubtless be obtained. The pine wood of the country is also of the finest
quality, and might be carried away for cabinet work, as well as curly maple
and other woods which further investigation may discover. At Simoda,
good building-stones are quarried, in blocks of three or four cubic feet, and
in small slabs, both of which might be taken to San Francisco, for the foun-
dations of houses, when the trade there in other articles is sufficient to load
a ship.
A few specimens of tea were obtained, all of which were sun-dried, and
only one of them of a pleasant flavor. In order to make the tea grateful to
western palates, a different process of manipulation must be introduced.
If the cultivators were taught the various processes of fining tea-leaves, it is
probable that their tea would soon be in demand, as the leaf is as fine as that
grown in China. The plant is common in hedges and yards, in the villages
on the shores of the Bay of Yedo, and its cultivation could be indefinitely
extended. The Japanese often use sugar with their tea, and drink it moder-
ately strong.
The specimens of lackered ware, both inlaid shell, mosaic, gilded and
plain, which the Japanese produce, are superior to anything produced in
the East, as those who have visited the Handel-Maabschappy's (or Dutch
East India Company's) warehouse, at Batavia, know. Those articles are
chiefly made for a foreign market, and more could be supplied, as demand
arose, and manufacturers directed their attention to them, while their beauty
and finish would always secure a moderate sale.
Raw cotton is often woven into cloth by the family which raised it, and
intends to wear it Silks are worn by the gentry, but the common people
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