Of reptiles Japan has only 30 species, and among them is included the marine turtle (_umi-game_) which can scarcely be said to frequent her waters, since it is seen only at rare intervals on the southern coast. This is even truer of the larger species (the _shogakubo_, i.e. _Chelonia cephalo_). Both are highly valued for the sake of the shell, which has always been a favourite material for ladies' combs and hairpins. By carefully selecting certain portions and welding them together in a perfectly flawless mass, a pure amber-coloured object is obtained at heavy cost. Of the fresh-water tortoise there are two kinds, the _suppon_ (_Trionyx japonica_) and the _kame-no-ko_ (_Emys vulgaris japonica_). The latter is one of the Japanese emblems of longevity. It is often depicted with a flowing tail, which appendix attests close observation of nature; for the _mino-game_, as it is called, represents a tortoise to which, in the course of many scores of years, confervae have attached themselves so as to form an appendage of long green locks as the creature swims about. Sea-snakes occasionally make their way to Japan, being carried thither by the Black Current (Kuro Shiwo) and the monsoon, but they must be regarded as merely fortuitous visitors. There are 10 species of land-snakes (_hebi_), among which one only (the _mamushi_, or _Trigonocephalus Blomhoffi_) is venomous. The others for the most part frequent the rice-fields and live upon frogs. The largest is the _aodaisho_ (_Elaphis virgatus_), which sometimes attains a length of 5 ft., but is quite harmless. Lizards (_tokage_), frogs (_kawazu_ or _kaeru_), toads (_ebogayeru_) and newts (_imori_) are plentiful, and much curiosity attaches to a giant salamander (_sansho-uwo_, called also _hazekai_ and other names according to localities), which reaches to a length of 5 ft., and (according to Rein) is closely related to the _Andrias Scheuchzeri_ of the Oeningen strata. Entry: F
The seas surrounding the Japanese islands may be called a resort of fishes, for, in addition to numerous species which abide there permanently, there are migatory kinds, coming and going with the monsoons and with the great ocean streams that set to and from the shores. In winter, for example, when the northern monsoon begins to blow, numbers of denizens of the Sea of Okhotsk swim southward to the more genial waters of north Japan; and in summer the Indian Ocean and the Malayan archipelago send to her southern coasts a crowd of emigrants which turn homeward again at the approach of winter. It thus falls out that in spite of the enormous quantity of fish consumed as food or used as fertilizers year after year by the Japanese, the seas remain as richly stocked as ever. Nine orders of fishes have been distinguished as the piscifauna of Japanese waters. They may be found carefully catalogued with all their included species in Rein's _Japan_, and highly interesting researches by Japanese physiographists are recorded in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of Tokyo. Briefly, the chief fish of Japan are the bream (_tai_), the perch (_suzuki_), the mullet (_bora_), the rock-fish (_hatatate_), the grunter (_oni-o-koze_), the mackerel (_saba_), the sword-fish (_tachi-uwo_), the wrasse (_kusabi_), the haddock (_tara_), the flounder (_karei_), and its congeners the sole (_hirame_) and the turbot (_ishi-garei_), the shad (_namazu_), the salmon (_shake_), the _masu_, the carp (_koi_), the _funa_, the gold fish (_kingyo_), the gold carp (_higoi_), the loach (_dojo_), the herring (_nishin_), the _iwashi_(_Clupea melanosticta_), the eel (_unagi_), the conger eel (_anago_), the coffer-fish (_hako-uwo_), the _fugu_ (_Tetrodon_), the _ai_ (_Plecoglossus altivelis_), the sayori (_Hemiramphus sayori_), the shark (same), the dogfish (_manuka-zame_), the ray (_e_), the sturgeon (_cho-zame_) and the _maguro_ (_Thynnus sibi_). Entry: F