http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2184
"Unbeaten Tracks in Japan: An account of travels in the interior
including visits to the aborigines of Yezo and the Shrine of Nikko"
Isabella L Bird, written 1878.
I have found this book and have only had a chance for a quick perusal.
"The house-master is of the samurai, or two-sworded class, now, as
such, extinct. His face is longer, his lips thinner, and his nose
straighter and more prominent than those of the lower class, and there
is a difference in his manner and bearing. I have had a great deal of
interesting conversation with him."
Although the class has gone, the author notes on a couple of occasions
this difference in bearing.
The other note is the stunning beauty of the countryside on the one
hand, and the utter and abject squalor, poverty and misery of the
general rural population on the other. Full of interesting observation.
Thomas