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Show WORKllf CATHOLIC j MISSHWAM5 IN ASIA j City of Osaka, Japan ILs Streets, Mode of Conveyance, Business, Railroads, I factories and fempies. ! (By the Rev. Fa titer Waber of tin-. Litti,- :r..:I, .,-s of Mary, in "Ri-opagati.-u of tlie f;.itii."i At the eastern ext r. uiity of the inLnd -, , ,,f i Japan between two eliam- o hum u mountains i, ;l I rich and fertile phiin whi, !. exren.U in a i,.nh-! i,.nh-! easterly direction f.. tin p:c! ires.ue bank- of Lake j IJiwa. ; This is classic hind. Hie Awi.-a ', J..;.n. I..:r have occurred from the eaili. -i i;m-- :!;.- ;.ri;;:M-pal ;.ri;;:M-pal events in the hi-i..ry ., il,,. -ouu-i-v. To.-.- of the largest cities of .j;!i,u -ituaii 'l m i a :: extremity ex-tremity of the plain: to ii;,- 1 1. : 0 .1 -t . Kb.;... ihe iuiellectual .'enter, th.- f, ,i;.:t a in head of I ! ; era t u : . , the stronghold of religion and. for many a:-. the political capital: to the southwist. O-aka. the eiry of industry and commerce. O-aka i- l,-;i!t. in the midst of tlie plain ;) !..tit ei-hi mil - from th--mountains, upon b.ali bank- of the river Vodouav.'.i and nor far from its mou;!.. Th.- city n,.w occupies occu-pies an extent of territory measuring twenty-rw. miles square and is growing .steadily every year: it, contains within its borders J:! ready a. million inhabitants in-habitants and has an annual inerea-e of TuX'om. I It i- the second ton of .l;ip,,n. In this country I there are three large fou. t!r-r i, : -;:.-, thp t,. I having an admini-t ration independent from the I province-; n which-ihey are situated. They are I okio. O-aka and yKb.i... At the head of the ().-akafou i- a prefect, elected by the people and confirmed by the mner-.r. mner-.r. For convenience in administration the city is divided info four K..u or quarters, north, south, east and west. Kaeh of ihrsr l1;ls its nuyo-- i;ud municipal council. The plain upon which O-aka is built is an immense im-mense rice plantation which extends from the sea to the foot of the mountains. In winter its appearance ap-pearance is that of a vast and gloomy marsh; in summer it looks like a s. ;i of verdure. The Yo.b.-gawa Yo.b.-gawa which takes its rise iu Lake Iiiwa crosses the northern part of the city, llowing from -east to west. After having formed the Island- of X;ik;i- I uo.-hiiimt ti-sij Dojiim, if empties 'n-,.If into the -ul' of Osaka. . That quarter of the city called Ka-.vagachi a word which means mouth is :it the present lime a. full three miles from the mouth of the river and though 2K0 years ago it was builtuont!iese;.. The sand which the river carries down ha- formed a. great bar: nearby are dangerous(whirlpoos. An American admiral about thirty years ago attempted to pass them and enter the rivt r. lie paid dearly for his temerity: ihe boat with its crew of twentv nieii disappeared in the boiling mass of water ami all on board were lost. The Yodogaw;i feeds ;ibout twenty large canals and a multitude of small oneS which How through all parts of the eiiy. These canals extend iu straight lines to ;il points of the compa-s. intersecting inter-secting at right angles. They are cs chilly numerous nu-merous in the western section of the city, the portion por-tion devoted to business. They greatly facilitate the transportation of merchandise in a country which is so poorly supplied with boasts of burden. If is impossible lo count the craft of all kinds which ply upon the canals and the Yodogawa : in seeming great confusion vessels, large and small, are moored t both bank-, a sinalf channel only being be-ing left for passage. On account of these canal Osaka bears some resemblance to the cities of Holland. Hol-land. It has even been comparer to Venice; how-ov(r. how-ov(r. the contrast between the small houses of the Japanese city and the marble palaces of the city by the Adriatic is too great to permit the comparison. The banks of the river and canals are fortified bv a succession of stone piers; at intervals pairs of stairs facilitate communication between the wafer and the land above, and an almost incredible number num-ber of bridges of all sizes span 1 1 10 waterways of Osaka. Persons whose word may be implicitly relied re-lied upon have affirmed that they have counted 4,001) of them. Many of these bridges are not at all inferior to the best ones of our American cities. The Temmabashi and the Tenjinbashi are CUO feet long. Ihe two new railway bridges which are being be-ing built for the Kobe and Kioto lines have twenty-four twenty-four arches and are 2,4m feer in length. The I pieces of iron used in their construction were brought all the way from the United States. The lack of blast furnaces has prevented tlie Japanese from utilizing up to the present time the iron ore which is to be found in their country. The fir-t furnace was built Ia-f year near Moji in the Kyushu. ... I The .sri-.c.s of Osaka are long, straight and regular, reg-ular, bur in general are narrow and without sidewalks. side-walks. They run in a direction parallel to the j canals and like the latter intersect at right angles. ; j They are not paved, but this does not. greatly mat- i j ter for the carriages are small and are drawn by men. In this commercial metropolis of the ex-I ex-I treme east the almost total absence of four-footed j beasts of burden is a fact to b remarked. Uon-j Uon-j keys are as rare as the phenix. As to horses only J the artillery of the imperial garrison can afford the? 1 luxury of possessing them and then they are small ami weak compared to the western animals of the 1 same kind. Their head, it is true, has a certain grace of contour, but their gait is everything which is most awkward; this is due to the fact that, in the country their feet are shod with straw. If is with gitat difficulty that the military authorities can tin el blacksmiths able to make iron horseshoes. It is useless to look for cabs, omnibuses or street cars in Osaka. The streets are as a rule too narrow to permit the use of such means of 1 conveyance. However, narrow as they are. they I are obstructed by telegraph poles and wires like ' 1 the streets of our own eities. Bicycles are very numerous. They whirl by - day and night, now traversing quiet back streets, or again, speeding harmlessly through crowded narrow thoroughfares. Soldiers, manufacturers, students, bank clerk-, professional men, everybody, : in a word, rides save the Little Brothers of Alary 1 . J- . I who, tis good religious, still cling lo the carriage I of Si. Francis. Is Arc yon hurried and fatigued sin J do you wish to ride to your destination; With a word or a gesture you may hail a Kurumaya (nian-hor.se or I horse-man). He runs up with his miniature char- iol, makes a how and lowers his shafts, then you I climb" to the one small seat, just large "enough to receive a guest of ordinary size, draw a robe about your knees, name the place you desire to reach and off goes your "horse,"' striking into a little trot. Winter or summer, rain or shine, they are all one to him, or rather, I mistake; rainy weather is the !niost favorable to his particular business, for then everybody takes a kuruma and the day's receipts are increased in consequence. I When forty years old a Kurumaya is worn out, I and yet many of these unhappy eeratures love the kind of life they lead, for 1 hey might often, if they so wished, change their occupation to one perhaps more lucrative and certainly easier and more j healihful ; however, they like too much the freedom i from all restraint which they enjoy to give it up. The first lime a foreigner sees these men yoked to a cart like beasts, puffing and sweating from j t heir exertions, he is apt to experience a 'feeling of j disgust and lo refuse out of respect for the human species to permit himself to be drawn in their car- I viages. This feeling passes away in time, how- j over, as lie becomes familiar with a mode of tran- j sit which is fairly rapid and very economical. In j the end he rides through compassion for thes-e poor wretches in order that he may give them a few pennies. At present on account of the advent of railroads th- Kurumaya has lost much of his importance; formerlv. however, he furnished the ordinary mode I of transportation from one part of the empire- to mother. The same man will drag his carriage wiili ils o-eup;yit a day, keeping up a steady trot. "At noon and again at the fall of evening he will pause and hastily swallow a bowl of rice seasoned witli rotten apples. Upon the following morning at daybreak he takes up his course again and so on ae'long as the journey lasts. This unheroic endurance en-durance to be rewarded at the rate of 40 cents a day. I Some years ago Jlgr. Osouf, archbishop of To- kio. i raveled in 1 his manner throughout the north of .Japan while making a pastoral visitation. The journey lasted fifteen days and during that time he was drawn by no one else but the porter of the archbishop's residence, who refused to share with another the honor of being his grace's Kurumaya. Merchandise is transported upon small two-1 two-1 wheeled carts drawn by men, two of -whom go be- 1 fore and two behind. Nothing is so strange as the I plaintive cries uttered in an unvarying monotone - I which comes from these men as they perform their I work. One would fancy that they were about to I die, that each hr'iath as it pa-es from their body I was the hist. On the contrary, however, they arc 1 cries of encouragement. I The streets of Osaka are always crowded with I a busy throng. At certain periods of the day the I hustle is so great that the police are obliged as a measure of prudence to prohibit the Kurumaya I from plying his trade. The house? are built mainly of wood with movable mov-able windows and doors which slide backward and forward in grooves and are so arranged that when all are open the interior of a dwelling is entirely exposed to the outer air. American and Kussian Ipetroueum. gas and electricity are Used for lighting light-ing purposes. To obtain' heat the Japanese employ em-ploy small braziers which contain half a dozen coals. The houses of Osaka are very low ami gloomy. This is the effect of an old superstition: Tukugami, the god of wealth, it is aid, is best pleased when worshiped in an obscure place. The land upon which the city is built is low, hence it will be readily understood that the public health .. leaves much to be desired. Osaka is peculiarly susceptible to epidemics of cholera and other malignant ma-lignant diseases. Fortunately the evil bears with it its own remedy. The police at stater intervals give the streets a thorough cleansing and at the same time superintend the cleansing of the dwellings dwell-ings in all parts of the city. Mats are beaten and the dust which is obtained is gathered up and taken away while debris of every kind is burned. The houses wlrtch have been recently built are higher and better in every way than those of older date; one may now see veritable palaces of stone i which would add beauty to the finest cities of the j Tinted States. j Fires are of infrequent occurrence at Osaka; j win 'ii tlii-v tin bvi'.ik out the raniditv with which I they st re nth-; .- extraordinary. Tins is due to i the fact tha; 'ie c . possesses an efficient pumping j station which :s mated at the highest point of j the old ensile. F draws water from the river and j I by reason of i s .ititude secures a high pressure at ! i thc hvdrants. ! The stoics arc very numerous and line both j fides of many streets in an uninterrupted succes- j , sion. The front art of these shops opens directly j I upon the street, being without a wall, doors or win- ! I dows. Throughout the whole year the commercial : 1 district presents an aspect of feverish activity; j J crses of merchandise come and go by the hundreds, j I Osaka is the market place for the entire central ! I t western portions of Japan. j I Merchants group themselves according to the j business in which they arc engaged. One street, j I for example, is given up entirely to shops dealing j I in drugs, where all kinds of pharmaceutical sup- j I plies may be obtained; another is devoted to poreo- j 1 hii us. another to dry goods, to workers in bronze, ; f etc. Upon the bank of the river near Kawagachi ! j is the iis.li market. Every morning from 0 to 8 j o'clock is here displayed for sale every 'variety of j fish. Our seas are wonderfully rich. j The ity is also divided into sections accord- j iiig to i he occupations of the inhabitants. To the. northeast near the castle are the military schools i and a garrison of 20.0(H) mm. Upon the heights to 1 he east and southeast, are situated a number of Ihiddhist Icmples; this section is culled Ternmaehi iiy of temples). Upon all sides, to ihe right ami left, before and behind, one sees as one looks noihiiig but temples, many of them of great size, and all surrounded by flowers and trees. 1 he largest, larg-est, of ihese is called Teiinoji (temple of the king ,.r 1. ..,,.,.., l, J !-,!.- tl, .-.' 7,.;,w.r. Shotoku. the Constant ine of Japanese Buddhism (about 0(it A. J).) For a saint the prince had a singular character. The Emperor Sujun was a firm adherent of the religion already established in his kingdom for he feared the resentment of the Kamis; Shotoku wished him to favor the new cult which had been introduced from China by way of Korea. But the Emperor would not, so the young prince, nu ardent disciple of Buddha, discovered that his sovereign had been guilty during his past life of murders and other crimes. As a punishment he assassinated him and then placed upon the throne a princess who was willing to second Shotoku in anything he might wish to do; in this manner the triumph of Buddhism was brought about in Japan. In the court of the temple a pagoda is built which is 200 feet high. The top of this building is The most elevated point in Osaka. One. looking i'-.-rtK from this position pees the city as an immense im-mense field of low-lying roofs out of which rises a forest of tall chimneys belonging to modern factories. factor-ies. These and cotton mills have multiplied in. an extraordinary manner during the past ten years. Cotton spinning is the principal industry of Osaka. mmmA The city is also celebrated for the manufacture of muslins, paper, musical instruments and articles in brass: it has besides an arsenal in which cannon and all instruments of war are made. A belt line of railroad connects the extremities of the city and facilitates communication between them. Besides this road there4 are many large ones which make Osaka their terminus. There are no less ''than fourteen stations in different parts of the city; that to the north called Umcda is the largest and finest in the extreme east. In the first fever of trade the people of Osaka,' who are so practical in many things, forgot to make provision for the ornamentation of their city; there are no public places and no parks, except the gardens of Tcroinochi, and the only 'monuments are the telegraph poles. When it is too late the citizens will want to repair the effects of their thoughtlessness, but then no space will be left within the limits of the city large enough to be j used for purposes of civic adornment. One must j go into the country if one wishes to find parks; to the south of the city are the gardens of the great j temple Sumiyoski. while to the north lies the j picturesque valley oivMino. The Church at Osaka Progress of the Faith A Summary of the Civil and Religious History of Japan. i Osaka has always been known as a city of pleas- j ure. The rich and populous section nnmod Dotom- j bori is almost excusively given to theaters. Here plays and representations succeed each other without with-out pause day after day, going on continually from morning to evening and from evening to morning. It is not to be wondered at that the gospel has made so little progress among a people given up to a great extent to sensuality. The diocese of Osaka is made up of 4.;!00 Catholics, while the total to-tal population witliin its limits ii i:,000.000 of souls; there are in the city of Osukn three parishes, with only u ihousaud of the faithful. '1 here-are other obstacles to the progress of the true faith. - Japan is just now passing through a i oeriod of t ra nsit ion : 1 lie old order lias disamteared I and the new is fashioned entirely according to i western ideas. Public attention is centered upon j political and social reorganization; no one has time j to bother about his soul. It should be mentioned I also that for the past fifteen years a reactionary spirit against everything foreign has been visible i in different parts of the country. It has not been powerful enough to check political and civil evolution, evo-lution, but it has very effectually arrested any general gen-eral movement towards the church. In addition, the part which France took in the expulsion of the Japanese from Manchuria after the Japanese war has resulted iii bringing Catholic missionaries into disfavor. Nevertheless the progress of the faith is constant ajul real; the grain of mustard seed will become in time the great tree of which the Ciospel speaks; for the Japanese are still the intelligent people that St. Francis Xavier found in the VL century in these islands, and the good dispositions dis-positions which were shown then will be shown anew at the time designed by divine Providence. Ihe castle of Osaka is the marvel of Japan. To do juslice to this structure, it will be necessary to have recourse to history, for what is seen today is only the shadow of the former grandeur of this building. And since we are going to consult history his-tory let us begin at the beginning. Long, long ago, before the golden age, the bronze age, the iron age, even before the age of stone, in a word, in the time of the gods. Amaterasu Amikami, the great goddness who illumines the world, gave birth iu ihe high vault of heaven to Amatsukiko hoho min-igi min-igi no smikoto, that is to say, his majesty, son of the sun. high prince, golden abundance of ears of rice. She sent him to govern the vast expanse of "I make you ruler," said she, "over the plains clothed with luxuriant reed, over the country rich in fresh ears of rice. You and the emperors, your descendants, shall rule in the land, and the prosperity pros-perity of your throne shall be eternal as the duration dura-tion of heaven and earth is eternal." She spoke and the celestial emperor, accompanied accompa-nied by a glittering court, descended from heaven and touched earth upon the summit of Kirishimay-ama. Kirishimay-ama. a mountain to the south of Kuishu, where the people to this day show to pious pilgrims the imprint im-print which was made in the rock when his majesty's maj-esty's foot first smote the land of Japan. His son espoused Toyotama him, princess of the sea, who was none other than a crocodile according to the Kojiki, the oldest Japanese book, which was written writ-ten in the year 712 B. C. On the other hand Xi-honghi, Xi-honghi, written in 720, claims that she was a dragon. Between two such respectable but contradictory con-tradictory authorities the critic dares not attempt to decide. Jiminon Tenno (celestial sovereign of divine valor), grandson of the princess mentioned above, and founder of the Japanese empire, became dis- j satisfied with Kuishunt, it was too small for his swelling ambitions so he gathered his follow-; follow-; crs about him, crossed the seas, disembarked at the mouth of the Yodogawa and raised a temple upon the summit of the neighboring hill, where was to be built later the castle of Hideyoski. Thus was Osaka cradled. Soon the emperor set out upon the conquest of central Japan and the city was left for a long time in obscurity and neglect. During the fourth century of the Christian era the. emperor em-peror Xintokon established his residence there and henceforth for many generations it was the capital. For centuries the city was engaged in a struggle of supremacy with Sakai, a seaport with a more favorable situation. During the civil wars of the-fifteenth the-fifteenth century the latter city fell into the power of a bonze, who built a citadel upon one of the hills and terrorized the country for miles around. The influence of Sakai steadily waned afterward. During the fifteenth century the power of the bonzes was at its highest. Their monasteries became be-came fortresses fortified by high stone ramparts and surrounded by deep moats. Their arsenals were filled with arms. Safe within their protecting protect-ing walls they chanted hymns before sumptuously ornamented altars, drank sake, gorged themselves with food, plotted treason and incited civil wars, when it was to their own interest, and escaped all the consequences of their actions by the lcverence which ihe people entertained for their sac.vd characters. char-acters. The chief strofighold of these priests was situated at Hiyeizan, upon Lake Biwa. As many as 3.000 temples were built here, with a ereat number num-ber of other monuments. The bonzes were finally conquered by Xobunaga, Ihe powerful chief of Owari (15:54-1582), by whom t.,.., ,,,i ri,. ,o,i v.; ij? master ef the central part of Hondo and extended his protection to Catholic missionaries. His projects pro-jects were opposed by the bonzes who did not wish the restoration of good order. Xobunaga resolved re-solved to wipe them out and marched against Hiyeizan. Hi-yeizan. Then he laid siege to Osaka. The citadel was formed of five enclosures, each fortified by a ' stockade. For two months the struggle had continued, con-tinued, the besiegers advancing little by little until un-til only two ''of the inner fortifications remained uncaptured. Twenty thousand bonzes had perished. per-ished. The 'survivors, in order to escape the fate of their companions, surrendered and their lives ; were spared. But they never afterwards recovered recov-ered from the blow which they had received; their power was broken. The bonzes have ever since regarded re-garded their conqueror as a demon incarnate who was sent to earth to destroy their faith. Xobunaga was assassinated in 1582. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the first of his generals, succeeded him and took the now famous name of Taikosama. He continued the work of pacification which had been, inaugurated by Xobunaga, his great ambition being be-ing to surpass his former master in all tilings. As the latter had built a castle upon the shores of Lake Biwa more magnificent than any ever before seen . in Japan, Hideyoshi resolved to raise a grander one. He determined to make Osaka the site of the structure he contemplated, for this city was the key to the whole country. Previously Osaka had occupied the right bank of the Yodogawa. Hideyoshi chose the left as the place upon which to rear his fortress. The very spot upon which Jimmon Tenna had built his temple tem-ple was made the center of the castle. This was rectangular in shape and covered an area of nearly eight miles. It contained three interior fortifications, fortifica-tions, each of which was surrounded by a ravine 100 teet deep and 300 feet wide and further protected pro-tected by a massive rampart "5 feet high; over all rose a series of towers some of which attained great height. At the very center Hideyoshi built a palace for himself. Close by was placed a lofty tower from which the emperor could command a view of the surrounding city. To hasten these works he brought laborers from all parts of the country; , as many as (10,000 were present at one time. Within two years all his designs were finished. fin-ished. Everything succeeded with Hideyoshi. He-had He-had arrived at the .summit of his greatness. Never had a monarch held such undisputed sway in Japan as he. The empire which he had conquered enjoyed en-joyed peace within and respect without. China was vanquished in battle and its ambassadors came to sue for: peace, something never before heard of. The emperor was not ignorant of the truths of our fait.h Pride and passion, however, choked his better bet-ter impulses. "One thing alone,' 'lie said to missionaries," mis-sionaries," "prevents me from becoming a . Christian. Chris-tian. Permit me to keep as many wives as 1 ehfio.se and I will be baptized tomorrow." His passions and the desire which lie cherished' of being ranked as a god made of hini a persecutor perse-cutor of the religion which he admired. It is he .who crucified the twenty-six martyrs of Nagasaki who have been canonized by the church. (To be continued.) |