s were amalgamated in 1885 under the title of Nippon Yusen
Kaisha. Since then a number of other shipping companies have been
formed in Japan, and the Nippon Yusen Kaisha has largely extended its
operations, opening up communication with Bombay, England, and the
Continent, Melbourne, &c. In fact, the Japanese flag is now seen in
many parts of the world, while the Japanese Mercantile Marine has
advanced by leaps and bounds, and is still annually increasing. At the
end of 1904 there were about 240 steamers flying the Japanese flag,
with a gross tonnage of over 790,000. Japan now ranks high among the
maritime nations of the world, and her position therein, unless I am
very much mistaken, will still further advance in the years to come.

There are, I know, a great number of worthy people, both in this
country and Japan, who regard the expenditure on an Army and Navy as
entirely unproductive, and look forward to the halcyon days when all
such expenditure shall cease and the taxation now devoted to these
purposes shall be diverted to more worthy objects. I am afraid, as the
world is at present constituted, there is no prospect of such a, in
some respects, desirable consummation being effected. Nowadays the
most effective means a nation can possess in the direction of the
maintenance and enjoyment of peace is to be well prepared for war.
That is a fact of which I am sure the men responsible for the
government of Japan are firmly convinced; and I believe they are
right. I am certain, as I have said before, that the world has nothing
to fear from the armed strength of Japan by land or sea.

CHAPTER XI

JAPANESE ART--INTRODUCTORY--LACQUER WARE, POTTERY AND PORCELAIN

Japanese art is a subject which invites exhaustive treatment. To deal
with it adequately in two or three chapters of a general work on Japan
is obviously impossible. Still it is, I think, possible, within the
limits at my disposal, to give my readers some conception of that art
to which Japan is so greatly indebted for the extraordinary way in
which she has impressed the world. The art of Japan is in a sense
unique, and it may be that to some extent the Japanese atmosphere, so
to speak, is essential in order to fully appreciate it. Mr.
Chamberlain, in his "Things Japanese," has observed that "To show a
really fine piece of lacquer to one of the uncultivated natives of
Europe or America is, as the Japanese proverb says, like giving
guineas to a cat." Much t