KOBE (HYOGO).
Kobe is the foreign port of the adjoining town of Hyogo and was opened to foreign trade in 1868. It is finely situated on an inland sea, at the gate of the far famed Suwonada (the Inland Sea). The harbour is good and affords safe anchorage for vessels of almost any size. The two towns face the landlocked water covered with white sails, while behind, at a distance of about a mile, rises a range of picturesque and lofty hills, some of which attain an altitude of about 2,500 feet, and the steep sides of which are partly covered with pines. Kobe and Hyogo stretch for some three miles along this strip of land between the hills and the water. The Foreign Concession at Kobe is well laid out, the streets are broad and clean, and lighted with gas. There is a Municipal Council consisting of the prefect, the Foreign Consuls, and three elected members of the community. The Bund has a fine stone embankment and extends the whole length of Kobe. The foreign houses are neatly built, and the San. nomiya railway station, within three minutes' walk of the Concession, has a very English look. The terminus is at the other end of Kobe, where it meets Hyogo, and there are extensive carriage works adjoining the station. Kobe is the "model settlement of Japan. There is a good Club and a spacious recreation ground at the East end of the settlement. The Union Protestant Church and a French Roman Catholic Church are in the Concession, and there is also a native Protestant Church in Kobe town. The Hyogo Hotel is situated on the Bund, at the west end of the settlement. A well conducted foreign daily paper, entitled the Hiogo News, is published in Kobe, and there are one or two native papers. The population of Kobe is estimated at 16,000. The foreign residents in Kobe in 1884 numbered 913, of whom 528 were Chinese, 233 British, 50 German, and 48 American.
The town of Hyogo is divided from Kobe by the river Minato-gawa, which is spanned by a substantial stone bridge. Hyogo contains few features of interest, and the streets and shops are inferior to those of Kobe. The Temple of Shin-ko-ji, which possesses a large bronze Buddha, is worth a visit; and there is a monument to the Japanese hero Kiyomori, erected in 1286, in a grove of trees in the vicinity of the temple, which claims some attention from its historic associations. A new Slip, which will accommodate vessels up to 2,000 tons, has been constructed in the Imperial Shipbuilding Yard at Hyogo, and was opened on the 20th September, 1885. Its total length is 900 feet; length above water, 300 feet; breadth, 38 feet; declivity, 1 in 20. The slip is worked by hydraulic power. The population of Hyogo is about 45,000.
Kobe is connected with Osaka by rail, the distance between being twenty miles. This line, which has been extended to Kioto (the ancient capital of Japan), a distance of 27 miles from Osaka, was formally opened to traffic along its whole length by the Mikado on the 5th February, 1877, and has since been worked with freedom and regularity. A further extension from Kioto to Otsu, on Lake Biwa, was made, and this has since been carried on, on the opposite shore of Biwa, to Tsuruga, on the north-west coast. The connection of Osaka with Kobe by rail has naturally tended to centralise trade at the port of shipment. Among the exports, tea, camphor, copper, and vegetable wax, take the lead. The value of the foreign import trade for 1884 was $7,780,836; that of the exports $6,479,866. In 1883, the value of the imports was $7,000,825, and that of the exports $5,844,341. The. quantity of tea shipped from Kobe-Hyogo last season (1884-85) was 14,622,642lbs., compared with 13,950,052lbs. in the preceding season. The whole of this went to the United States of America and Canada. Shipbuilding is an important industry of the port, and a goodly number of iron and wooden screw steamers are annually laid down here.