HONDO. From ion, main, chief, and do, continent or island, the name of the chief island of the empire of Japan; often, but incorrectly, called Nippon or Nihon. Nippon not the name of any one island, but of the entire Japanese empire. In ancient times the Japanese had no need to give a special designation to their largest island, since they divided their country- not into islands, but alto do or circuits, in which itsular boun daries were ignored (see JAPAN); just as we say "middle states," "western states," etc. Of late years the Japanese, studying geography in the western fashion, and seeing the necessity of a name for their chief island, have called it Hondo. (See the excellent geography issued by the Japanese war department, 1874, with accompanying copper plate map of Japan.) The application of the erroneous name Nippon (incorrectly spelled Nipon or Nippon) to the chief island originated with Kampfer, the Jesuits who wrote previously to him knowing Japanese geography too well to use the misleading term. Hondo contains an area officially computed in 1874, at 87,425 sq.m., with a
population, by census of 1874, of 25,166,531. It comprises the circuits of Tokaido, Kited, Tozando, Hokurikudo, &mimic), Sanyodo, and one province of Nankaido. Its shape is a crescent, with horns toward Asia. A remarkable difference in climate is noted between the eastern and the western halves of Hondo, the former under the influence of the Kuro Shiwo, or gulf stream of the Pacific, being mild and warm; the latter, receiving the cold winds and under the influence of cold currents, having a severer climate. The promontories of Hondo are now dotted with well-equipped lighthouses.