Japan and the Japanese illustrated . wa quarter. The Government has taken measures to provide foreigners coming to Yeddo, orresiding in that city, Avith a strong escort in passing through Sinagawa, which theyare only allowed to do by daylight. The regular population of this neighbourhood isinoffensive, being composed for the most part of boatmen, fishermen, and labourers;but they inhabit the cabins which throng the beach, while the two sides of theTokaido are lined almost uninterruptedly with tea-houses of the worst kind, whichharbour the same scum of society as in the great cities in Europe a
Japan and the Japanese illustrated . wa quarter. The Government has taken measures to provide foreigners coming to Yeddo, orresiding in that city, Avith a strong escort in passing through Sinagawa, which theyare only allowed to do by daylight. The regular population of this neighbourhood isinoffensive, being composed for the most part of boatmen, fishermen, and labourers;but they inhabit the cabins which throng the beach, while the two sides of theTokaido are lined almost uninterruptedly with tea-houses of the worst kind, whichharbour the same scum of society as in the great cities in Europe and America, andin addition a very dangerous class of men proper to the capital of Japan. Theseare the lonines ; officers without employment, belonging to the caste of the Samourais,and consequently preserving the right of wearing two swords. Some of them are LONINES. 163 meu of good family, who have been turned out of their homes in consequence of thedebaucheiy of their lives. Others have lost, through misconduct, their place in the. SINAOAWA : INN GIltLS ASSAILING TRAVELLKKS service of the Taikoun, or in the military house of some Daimio. Others have beendismissed by a chief, whom evil times has forced to restrict his expenses by thereduction of his personal following. y 2 164 fIFE TN JAPAN. The lonine, deprived of the pay on wliicli lie lived, and knowing no otherprofession than that of arms, has generally no other resource, while waiting for a new-engagement, than to take refuge in these dens of vice, Avhere he repays the hospitalitywhich he receives by the vilest kind of industry. The customers whom he attractsadd new elements of wickedness to those with which the faubourg abounds. A kindof organization of discipline even in disorder is established. There are captains oflonines who hold the bands of wretches in blind svibjection, and to whom themysterious agents, who are the instruments of family vengeance or political hatredamong the Japanese nobility, address themselves t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidjapanjapanes, bookyear1874
