An Account of the Japanese Nation (1842)
From the first issue of Philology, or a Periodic Journal of Various Sciences, edited by Konstantin G. Fotinov
Indeed many are the islands off the eastern coast of the Asian continent, but the most notable thereof are by far the islands of Japan ([designated on the map by the English label] Japan Islands), in which dwell 15 thousand thousand (15,000,000) men. Of these therefore we shall now give a short description, in order to introduce the reader to and to acquaint him with their condition and life, that is to say, with their manner of living and with the nature of their employments.
An Account of the Japanese Nation
The Japanese nation is very ancient and for many ages and centuries utterly unknown to us, owing to their immense distance from Europe, which is so vast that, if it were possible and convenient for a man to set off from Europe and walk on dry land in a straight-line eastward in the direction of Japan, he would have to walk continuously for half a year, never stopping even for a minute’s respite. Yet those Europeans who sail ships upon the seas have rendered this distance much more manageable, and it may be observed that, several years [centuries?] after Christ, they began to acquaint themselves with that much distant nation.
The Japanese worship spirits and believe in the immortality of the soul; they have, however, many religious sects and many inhumane customs: for until the third year [sic] after Christ they had a custom, that whenever one of the great and renowned men of that country would die, they would bury alongside him many of his relations, servants, and friends still living. This custom ceased thereafter, but some continued to keep it and carry it out as late as the year of our Lord 1600, following which they began instead to craft wooden or earthen effigies in the likeness of those who would have to be interred with the deceased, and buried them in their place, the which buried effigies are discovered to this day in the course of occasional excavations.
The Japanese received their letters, that is to say their learning, from the Chinese around the year of our Lord 700, and they came to use mulberry papyrus, along with several other means, to write their books. The Japanese began to make use of printing (typography) in the year of our Lord 1206; they used wooden immoveable type such as [our] printers are wont to use, rather than the leaden moveable type that the Europeans later discovered. It is easy to see why the best printed works in all of Asia, with immaculate woodcut prints (iconographs), have been created by this people; 80 such works are kept at the French Royal Library, all full of useful things and subjects, illustrated by means of woodcut prints, rather than the copper plates we use today, and these are a testament to the honour and glory of Asian philology.
The Japanese nobles study foreign languages, and can read Dutch newspapers, and are aware of what transpires in the west amongst the Europeans: that is why they also have a knowledge of geography equal to that of the Europeans, and also make use of the theatre and other European practices, which are rarely found in the other lands of Asia. Nobles of the male and female sex alike diligently receive a thorough education in the etiquette required to live in a society of free men.
The Japanese are a proud race, unwilling to give way on any point to the Chinese, which are the noblest and most refined of all the peoples in Asia. That is why all Japanese objects are ornately crafted: for they work copper in multifarious ways, of iron they craft knives and sabres similar to those of Khorasan [in Persia]; they weave silk and cotton into wonderous and precious cloths, out of earth (clay) they make fine dishes (chinaware), glassware, clocks, and many other exquisite objects. Yet they are dedicated most of all to agriculture, that is to say, to working their land. This is why in all Japan there cannot be found a single plot of land which is not being worked. If a man be slothful, and refuse to work his field, his vineyard, etc., the same are confiscated from him by law and given to another, who is more amenable and industrious.
Their trade is with the Chinese, the Koreans, and the Dutch; they sell copperware and silk, camphor and the like; they purchase broadcloth, medicines, dried fish, whale oil, tea, sugar, and English manufactured goods. Of all other necessities they have in blessed abundance, which is why many fairs and festivals are held in their sovereign realm; and their land holds much gold and silver.
The largest city in Japan, which is the royal capital, is called WEDNO [Edo] and 13 hundred-thousands (1,300,000) live there. It has 280,000 houses, but they are not built according to a set plan, as in the large cities of Europe. The houses are low, yet artfully constructed and plastered with sand-dust, so that they appear as made of stone on the outside, yet fire often reduces them to ash and rubble, as in the year 1775 when the entire city was burned to ashes and dust by a conflagration. The second largest Japanese city is Mïoko [Kyoto], which is a metropolitan centre, and which features the most praiseworthy Japanese edifices, all constructed according to a canonical scheme. These include the royal palace, which has an outer wall covered with copper; there is also a spire (tower) with a quadrilateral (four-sided) base. Another palace there is, too, of stone, surrounded by a moat. There are no fewer than 500 temples for their Idols, one of which has a belfry (bell-tower) from which is hung a massive knell (bell) 17 feet tall (as much as the height of three men), and weighing 2,040,000 Dutch litres. [sic!]
In each of their many schools — so one author informs us — more than 3,500 students are enrolled in their studies. The city has around 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 52,169 are clergymen. This engraving, which you see before you below, depicts and shows a Japanese noblewoman seated on a splendid carriage, which is driven by the man you see behind her.
I hope to make further detailed descriptions of the other countries of Asia, Europe, and beyond, if you subscribe to this journal, of which I am editor in chief, and which I promise, with your generous assistance, to issue every month.
Translator’s Postscript
The journal Philology (Любословие), established and edited by the scholar and publisher Konstantin Fotinov, is well known to any avid student of Bulgarian or South Slavic linguistics. Bulgarian is somewhat unique among the many languages of the region which developed a national vernacular literature in the 19th century, in that it saw the publication of a journal almost a decade before the advent of the first vernacular newspapers. The language of the text is archaic, yet recognisably related to the modern tongue, and very much in a state of transition. The verb morphology and sentence syntax have yet to be standardised, resulting in a speech that sounds distinctly quaint or dialectal to the modern ear, and the orthography retains most conventions of Church Slavonic. The overall state of the language is well summarised in a contemporary grammar (the first such in English) published by the American Protestant missionary Dr Elias Riggs in 1844. A particularity of the present text should be noted: the author introduces many coinages and calques based on either the classical language or following the example of Russian, for which he gives in parenthesis Greek or Ottoman Turkish equivalents, which he assumes would be more familiar to his educated audience. I have attempted to translate some of these, choosing words to convey the nuance of the contrasting terms, but not all examples admit of a natural or felicitous translation, and consequently several have been omitted.
Given that this article was published while Japan was still in the Sakoku era of isolation, it is most certainly not a first-hand account; rather, the author is translating a secondary or tertiary source, from which it is likely that the illustrations are also taken. I have been unable to locate it, though I admit to not having made much of an effort thereat; a good starting point for such an endeavour would be to consider the phonetic corruptions in the two Japanese toponyms.
First published in Smyrna in 1842.
Translated from the original Bulgarian.
© 2021 K. K. Velichkov
