File:Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan (1857) (14598122877).jpg

Identifier: narrativeofexped05perr (find matches)
Title: Narrative of the expedition of an American squadron to the China seas and Japan
Year: 1857 (1850s)
Authors: Perry, Matthew Calbraith, 1794-1858 Hawks, Francis L. (Francis Lister), 1798-1866
Subjects: United States Naval Expedition to Japan (1852-1854)
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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h vari-ous merchandise; and the walls on either side are provided with shelves,upon which goods are also heaped. In the best establishments articles forsale are seldom displayed beyond turning the opened ends of the boxeswhich contain them towards the street. In the interior of the houses there is a large framework, raised two feetabove the ground. It is spread with stuffed mats, and is divided into seve-ral compartments by means of sliding panels. This house within a housemay be applied to all the various purposes of trading, eating, sleeping, andreceiving company, according to the pleasure or necessities of the proprie-tors. This cage or platform is used as the workshop by some of the varioushandicraftsmen, as, for example, the carpenters and lacquer varnishers; theblacksmiths and stonecutters, however, perform their heavier work upon theground. The houses intended for lodgers are generally clean, and neatly spreadwith the usual soft and thick mat , which serve the double purpose of
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S I M 0 D A . 469 seats by day and beds by nigbt. The names of the guests are recorded aswith us, but somewhat more publicly, as they are affixed to the door postson the street. The aristocratic gentry have their coats of arms emblaz-oned in full and displayed upon wide banners, stretched in front of theirstopping places. The interiors of these hotels are by no means very mag-nificent in appearance or complete in appointment. The entire absence oftables, chairs, sofas, lamps, and other essentials to comfort, interfere veryseriously with a guest taking his ease at his Japanese inn. Moreover, thewant of pictures, looking-glasses, and olher pleasing appeals to the, eye,gives to the establishment a very naked, cold look to a traveller who has avivid recolletion of the warm snugness of an English inn, or the luxuriouscompleteness of an American hotel. The whole number of houses in Simoda is estimated at about a thou-sand, and the inhabitants are supposed to amount to nearly seven thousand,

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