Japan and the Japanese

570 APPENDIX.
usually dress in cotton. The specimens of silk fabrics furnished by the
Japanese show that they can manufacture almost every variety of these
goods. Crapes, pongees, challies, camlets, and gauze, are all made, especially
the first, which is the favorite article of dress among the gentry, as it
is in China. Cheap combinations of cotton and silk are woven, and form
substitutes for pure silk among the poor. The dyes in all kinds of silk, and
the stamps on cottons, further prove that the arts of ornamenting the pro-
some of
ducts of the loom have been carried to a high degree of excellence ;
the tints are superior to those in China, and the variety of patterns stamped
on cotton is great and novel. The figures on crapes are frequently large
and grotesque, those on cotton small and of a single color ; but, doubtless,
any patterns can be produced after time has been given. The trade in manufictured
silks may, by-and-by, form an important branch of the traffic.
So far as can be ascertained, the native manufacture now consumes most of
the raw silk, so that there is little probability of Japan furnishing any of
that at present ; it is highly probable, even, that it is imported from China.
Besides the articles already enumerated, a few minor articles may also be
sought after. Paper, of a coarse quality, is used in enormous quantities for
nose-wipers, and for wrapping up articles ; and, though all the specimens
seen are in sheets less than three feet square, it can probably be made in
longer sheets. It is all manufactured from the bark of the paper-mulberry
(Broussonelin), which grows wild about Simoda ; and the tine sorts would
serve for engravers' uses and printing. Some of the specimens seen are ex-
tremely fine and smooth, not so white as cotton or linen, but silky and soft.
The soy made by the Japanese is of an excellent flavor, and this and their
sweet saki, or rice whiskey, might find a few customers. Kittisols, or paper
umbrellas, and rain-cloaks made of oiled paper, afterwards varnished, are
neatly-made articles, which last longer than one would suppose so frail a
material would endure. There is not the same unpleasant smell about them
that renders the Chinese kittisols so disagreeable. Fine porcelain is made
by this people, of a superior quality, and could, probably, be manufactured
according to any pattern. The small saki and tea-cups constitute the greatest
portion of the pieces which we saw in the shops ; and though china-ware
is common, and of a good quality, it is not used to nearly the extent it is in
China. Some of the specimens of Japanese porcelain exceed anything to be
found elsewhere, for thinness and clearness of ware, and the demand for
them is likely to increase. Coarse pottery and earthen ware are cheap, and
many of the pieces are worked into grotesque and elegant shapes. Whether
it could be furnished of the proper sorts, and in sufficient quantity, for ex-
aortation, is, perhaps, doubtful. Besides these articles, nothing that seems
likely to be in demand was brought to our notice, but further investigations
may show that raw lacker, India ink, tobacco, fish-oil, rape-seed, and other
miscellaneous products, will be worth seeking for exportation.
Amid the vast variety of foreign articles likely to be in demand among th
Japanese, those which are cheap and durable for wear, or in jonstaut use ae