3-065-579 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in Japan: scene in Temple-Street, Nagasaki, 1874. 'Our Special Artist lately in China and Japan has contributed the sketch of a street scene in the town of Nagasaki, one of the chief Japanese imperial cities. The temples here are visited by many devout worshippers; and their priests, as well as their gods, are comfortably lodged, while they are still better fed and paid. These sacred buildings are surrounded with groves and shrubberies, which are very pleasant; tea-gardens are neatly laid out with gravelled paths, adorned with fountains and grottos, and planted with orange-trees, camellias, and other flowering shrubs or herbs, as well as the cypress and yew. The town itself is irregularly built on the slopes of the beautiful hills overlooking a landlocked harbour, with many hamlets, villas, and tea-gardens in its agreeable neighbourhood. Some of the streets are very steep, and the ascent here and there is by the aid of steps. There is an air of general bustle in the shops and bazaars, where silks, bronzes, porcelain, and lacquer-ware, besides fruits, wine, and tobacco, are quickly sold. Nagasaki, in short, is rather a lively place for the other side of Asia'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.