Captain F. Brinkley

“ The Japanese grows only eight percent of his stature from the time of puberty, whereas the European grows thirteen per cent. The bulk of the people are strong. The upper classes are comparatively weakly, but the lower are robust and muscular. In the matter of weight, as well as in that of height, development ceases sooner in the Japanese than in the European. The head is large, the face and torso are long, the legs short. Indeed, the length of the torso and the shortness of the legs are so marked as to constitute a race characteristic. ”

“ Note 32.—Hirata Atsutane in "The Revival of Pure Shintō," Satow.
Note 33.—"The Spirits of the dead," writes Hirata Atsutane in the Tama no Mihashira, "continue to exist in the unseen world, which is everywhere about us. They all become gods of varying character and degrees of influence. Some reside in temples built in their honour; others never leave their tombs. They continue to render services to their princes, wives, and children, as when in the body." ”

“ In a European the length of the leg from the trochanter to the ground is more than one-half of the length of the body; in the Japanese it is distinctly less. The face, in consequence of the low bridge of the nose, is less prominent than that of the European, and appears to be broader, but is not really so. ”

“ Thus the old 5-yen gold piece, weighing 2.22221 momme of 900 fineness, became a 10-yen piece in the new currency, and a new piece of half the weight was coined. No change whatever was required in the reckonings of the people. The yen continued to be their coin of account, with a fixed sterling value of a little over two shillings, and the denominations of the gold coins were doubled. Gold, however, is little seen in Japan: the whole duty of currency is done by notes. ”

“ A marked distinction is made between vehicles or animals kept for hire and those maintained by private individ- uals, and the same principle of graduation observed in the case of the income tax is applied to the house tax, so that the burden decreases rapidly as the poorer classes are reached. ”

“ You cannot hope to live more than a hundred years under the most favourable circumstances, but as you will go to the Unseen Realm of O-kuni-nushi after death and be subject to his rule, learn betimes to bow down before him. ”

“ In other cases, it is levied at the rate of 2/1000 capital engaged, or at the rate of from two per cent to six per cent on the rental value of the buildings employed. When a business is carried on partly in a foreign country and partly in Japan, only the capital used in Japan is liable to tax. ”

“ He refuses to accept any arithmetic of years when the calculators were men without cyclical signs or assisting script, and he concludes by declaring that if the ancestors of living men were not human beings, they arc more likely to have been animals or birds than gods,—by which last proposition he seems to indicate a belief in progressive evolution. ”

“ The eye is always dark, generally of a fine brown. It seems to be oblique, but the obliquity is due to the position of the lids. Further, the upper lid is almost a direct continuation of the skin of the forehead, instead of being recessed under the eyebrow, as is the case in Europeans. The cheeks are broad and flat; the chin, narrow; the legs are often crooked and graceless, especially in women; the calves are strongly developed ”

“ Within the limit of that sum redemption is effected either by purchasing the stock of the loans in the open market or by drawing lots to determine the bonds to be paid off. Perhaps a more suggestive idea may be furnished of Japan's finance during the Meiji era by noting that, owing to processes of conversion, consolidation, etc., and to various requirements of the State's progress, twenty-two different kinds of national bonds were issued from 1870 to 1896; that they aggregated 673,215,500 yen ”

“ They had to be exchanged every half year for new fragments, and the old were employed to light the fire under a bath for the virgin priestesses that danced at the festival of purification.
Note 35.—A hare, desiring to cross from a mid-ocean island to the mainland, taunted the sea-sharks by alleging that its tribe numbered more than theirs. By way of practical test, it invited them to range themselves in line between shore and shore. That done, the hare, jumping from back to back and professing to count as it leaped, reached its desired destination. ”

“ Note 26.—Thousands of these miniature shrines are to be seen in the rice-fields or in the vicinity of hamlets. They are erected in honour of the Spirit of Food. As to the name "Inari," it is said by some sinologues to be that of a place, but the general belief in Japan makes it a contraction of ine-ninai or the rice-carrier. The fox is supposed to be an agent of the god ”

“ It involved a total expenditure of 26,000,000 yen of which 6,000,000 had been expended when the war with China broke out.
Note 6.—All Japan's domestic loans are now placed on a uniform basis. They carry five per cent interest, run for a period of five years without redemption, and are then redeemed within fifty years at latest. The Treasury has competence to expedite the operation of redemption according to financial convenience, but the sum expended on amortisation each year must receive the previous consent of the Diet. ”

“ Note 54.—The State grants a sum of 216,000 yen annually for the support of Shintō shrines, and extends no aid whatever to Buddhism.
Note 55.—The use of sakaki (Cleyera Japonica) is referred to the sylvan method of worship practised in the earliest times. A space surrounded by thick trees constituted the hall of rites. The trees were called a "sacred fence" (himorori) , and it seems probable that strips of the cloth offered to the deities were hung from the branches. ”