Nikko

Remember Shogun, the miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain as the English sea dog who gets dropped into 17th century Japan? The historical event unfolding there was the rise of Tokugawa Ieyasu as the first modern ruler of the country. This leader was buried in Nikko, a town northwest of Tokyo, and since he founded a dynasty his descendants turned the isolated spot into one of the most beautiful in Japan. Ironically, when the Meiji revolution kicked out the Tokugawa shogunate, Nikko took off as a tourist destination. When LaFarge and Adams visited Nikko, they had to go by mountain roads. A railroad reached the town in 1890 so Fanny Holt Ames and her group could leave Tokyo at 8:55 and arrive at Nikko station by 11:15 after a cross country run that showed her "more white herons than Maine has ever shown us." Fanny mentioned the famous lacquer bridge and the shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Here's what those things looked like 60 years earlier when LaFarge was there:

The picture immediately above is one of the gates in the temple complex. LaFarge did a watercolor of the shogun's actual tomb:

Fanny mentions the "magnificent Cryptomerias" that lead to the shrine and can be seen in the background here. Nikko was and is famous for its gardens:

The stable for sacred horses (seen below) in the temple complex is famous for its carving of the famous three wise monkeys.

Summing up her visit Fanny says "Quite impossible to describe, but will never forget it-the three monkeys in original guile different from their reproductions-and the throngs of children. The whole fairy story come to life."

Fanny's tour continued on to Kyoto where one of the events was a "Sukiyaki dinner with 3 Geishas girls to entertain (2 half Geishas and 1 full Geisha. I felt sorry for them-one really exquisite and quite young." The tour focused  on shopping in Kyoto, and Fanny complained that she missed so much of the historic city. Trips to Nara and Kobe completed her stay in Japan. Very interesting that her journal makes no mention of the war. Elegant Southern gentlemen of the 1870s referred to the Civil War when speaking to northern friends with the euphemistic term "the late unpleasantness," but its interesting that a sharp observer like Fanny never mentions rebuilding or the attitude of the people.

By May 19th the ship was docked in Hong Kong which will get a brief mention tomorrow.