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LETTER XLVIII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2010

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Summary

This is my last day in Yezo, and the sun, shining brightly over the grey and windy capital, is touching the pink peaks of Komono-taki with a deeper red, and is brightening my last impressions, which, like my first, are very pleasant. The bay is deep blue, flecked with violet shadows, and about sixty junks are floating upon it at anchor. There are vessels of foreign rig too, but the wan, pale junks lying motionless, or rolling into the harbour under their great white sails, fascinate me as when I first saw them in the Gulf of Yedo. They are antique looking and picturesque, but are fitter to give interest to a picture than to battle with stormy seas.

Most of the junks in the bay are about 120 tons burthen, 100 feet long, with an extreme beam, far aft, of twenty-five feet. The bow is long, and curves into a lofty stem, like that of a Roman galley, finished with a beak head, to secure the forestay of the mast. This beak is furnished with two large, goggle eyes. The mast is a ponderous spar, fifty feet high, composed of pieces of pine, pegged, glued, and hooped together. A heavy yard is hung amidships. The sail is an oblong of widths of strong, white cotton artistically “puckered,” not sewn together, but laced vertically, leaving a decorative lacing six inches wide between each two widths.

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Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
An Account of Travels in the Interior, Including Visits to the Aborigines of Yezo and the Shrines of Nikkô and Isé
, pp. 161 - 165
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010
First published in: 1880

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  • LETTER XLVIII
  • Isabella Lucy Bird
  • Book: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511709845.020
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  • LETTER XLVIII
  • Isabella Lucy Bird
  • Book: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511709845.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • LETTER XLVIII
  • Isabella Lucy Bird
  • Book: Unbeaten Tracks in Japan
  • Online publication: 05 October 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511709845.020
Available formats
×