Among these tea-shrubs are women and children picking tea. Only the top two or three tender leaves are picked, and these must be nipped off cleanly, without bruising or breaking the stem or stalk.
The Magistrates of the Town hearing of my Letter, received me as a Publick Minister, they provided me with Carriages and Servants, and bore my Charges to Yedo [Tokyo], where I was admitted to an Audience, and delivered my Letter, which was opened…
"One of the most favourite mysteries presented by the strolling companies in the southern provinces, is "The Spectacle of the Sun and Moon" (Allom, 1842, v II, p. 28).
Kircher was ordained a Jesuit in 1628 in Mainz, Germany, but fled his homeland and settled in Rome in 1634 to escape the Thirty Years War. He remained in Rome most of his life researching a wide variety of disciplines, from geography and astronomy to…
Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), rightly called the 'Father of Modern Cartography', developed the idea of assembling a compendium of maps to form an atlas. The first edition of his "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" was published in 1570 and it was a great…
"Towering over all in the western distance, but too often concealed by clouds, the majestic Fusi-yama reared its conical summit" (Oliphant, 1859, v. II, p. 97).
Lawless proceedings in the Canton river, the city of Peking, joss-houses, the Roman Catholic mission, military promenades at Shanghai, the Yangtze, Chinese prostitutes, first views of Deshima and Nagasaki (Japan), the persecution of Christians,…
"The Chinese fishermen take out with them in the morning ten or twelve of these birds, still fasting, either in light boats, or on bamboo rafts. They make them dive one or two at a time: the cormorant seldom comes up without having taken a fish, and…
This first edition contains a selection of Japanese legends and stories, including nine tales from old Japanese books to illustrate some strange beliefs. Hearn adds: 'They are only curios.'
Patrick Lafcadio Hearn reinvented himself. He was known as Patrick in his native Ireland, Lafcadio in America, and Yakumo Koizumi in Japan. He wrote 11 substantial books about his adopted country. On arrival he was given useful advice: 'Do not fail…
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) is almost as Japanese as haiku. Both are an art form, an institution in Japan. Haiku is indigenous to the nation; Hearn became a Japanese citizen and married a Japanese [Setsu Koizumi], taking the name Yakumo Koizumi. His…
In 1867, the last shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, resigned and the Emperor, Mutsuhito, regained the position of actual head of government. Mutsuhito took the name Meiji ('enlightened government') to designate his reign and this became his imperial…