A Japanese Town [pp. 768-780]

768 A JAPANESE To WAr. [Sept.,
A JAPANESE TOWN.
IN the fifteen years of its existence Kob~ has not had time to
develop into a town of much size; consequently its principal
interest to the stranger lies in a broad Japanese street that runs
for perhaps two miles through the n~tive town of Hiogo, of
which Kob~ is but a small fraction. It is called the Kiyo Machi,
is lighted by foreign lamps, and lined with Japanese shops of all
kinds, many of which are of so interesting a nature that they will
bear visiting again and again. Were you to pass along this
street you would find china-shops in which European styles of
porcelain are almost as abundant as the native ware; you would
pass shops where Fairbanks' scales are sold, and in other places
would see foreign toilet-soaps, and quite probably both the scales
and the soaps would be forgeries. Before other doorways you
would find European straw hats-for the Japanese manufacture
these in myriad numbers. It is a business that has sprung up
among them within the last decade, and appears to be remunerative; for the Japanese, almost to a man, are wonderfully taken
with the straw hat. An African chieftain is satisfied with an
umbrella, but the Japanese must have a hat and an umbrella also,
both of European make. But there are also on this street many
shops distinctively Japanese; among these several curio-shops,
where, among much that is good and desirable to purchase, did
not the dealer ask such unconscionable prices for them, you find
a lot of old swords and cross-bows, and murderous arrows with
double-edged daggers for heads, and suits of old armor, and saddles and stirrups that he has put together from old remnants for
your personal edification.
By far the larger part of the curio-dealer's business lies among
the Europeans; and, possibly to propitiate them and have their
good-will, he hangs a card out at his door stating that his rooms
are closed on Sunday. This at the front entrance in good and
well-lettered English; there is a back door with no such sign,
through which one can always enter of a Sunday, should he so
desire, and the proprietor will be found working as hard as he
ever worked in his life before.
Many of the signs at the shop-doors are in English. Over the
way there is a photographer's. His rooms are in the European
s~le, and the photographs taken are quite good, although the