Japan and the Japanese illustrated . d with flowers and sheets of paper, and worksinces-santly in this singular attitude. As we approach the central bridge of the commercial city the crowd increases,and on both sides of the street shops give place to popular restaurants, and confec- THE GREAT FISH MARKET. 221 tioneis, where cakes, rice, and millet are sold, and where hot tea and saki may bepurchased. We are close to the great fish-market. The canal is covered with fishing-boats,either discharging their cargo of both sea and river fish—great fish of the oceancurrents which come down from tlie P
Japan and the Japanese illustrated . d with flowers and sheets of paper, and worksinces-santly in this singular attitude. As we approach the central bridge of the commercial city the crowd increases,and on both sides of the street shops give place to popular restaurants, and confec- THE GREAT FISH MARKET. 221 tioneis, where cakes, rice, and millet are sold, and where hot tea and saki may bepurchased. We are close to the great fish-market. The canal is covered with fishing-boats,either discharging their cargo of both sea and river fish—great fish of the oceancurrents which come down from tlie Polo, and those of the equatorial stream, tortoisesand mussels from the gulfs of Niphon, hideous jelly-fish and fantastic crustacese. Inthis place Siebold reckoned seventy dififerent kinds of fish, crabs, and moUusca, andtwenty-six sorts of mussels and other shell-fish. Fiah-sheds, roughly put up near the landing-place, are besieged by buyers. In themiddle of the tumultuous crowd we see strong arms lifting full baskets and emptying. them into the lacquered cases of the coolies. From time to time tlic crowd has tooj)en, to give passage to two coolies laden with a dolphin, a sliark, or a porpoise,suspended by ropes on a bamboo pole, which they carry on their shoulders. TheJapanese boil the flesh of all these animals, and salt the whole blubber. One of the strangest pictures in the environs of Niphon-bassi is a group ofshark and whale sellers, wholesale and retail. The stature, the dress, and the gesturesof these personages, their fentastic equipment, the dimensions of tlio luige knives whiclithey plunge into the sides of the sea monsters, suggest the prodigious exercise ofhuman strength and employment of the resources of nature, which can alone suflScefor the supply of the great city. 222 LIFE IN JAPAN. At the southern extremity of Niphon-bassi, a barrier encloses several pillarsfovered with notices painted on white wood ; and, a little further on, we find a pavilionraised upon
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidjapanjapanes, bookyear1874
