HIOGO, or Fiogo, a seaport town of Japan, in the island of Nipon and province of Setsu, on the western shore of the Idzurni Sea, or Bay of Osaka, about 40 miles S.W. of Kioto, with which it has had railway communication since 1874. It was opened to foreign commerce in 1860, and since that date it has risen with the maritime suburb of Kobe (the Gate of God) to be a place of 50,000, or according to other authorities, 80,000 or 90,000 inhabitants. Its harbour, formerly dangerous, has by the construction of a costly breakwater been rendered one of the most serviceable in the kingdom. The best anchorage is found in front of Kobe, which has been chosen as the locale of the foreign settlement. Since the opening of the port great improvements have been effected in the native town, and the value of land and house property has greatly increased. The settlement, which consists of 162 lots, has been regularly laid out; its streets are macadamized and lighted with gas; and it possesses a bank, municipal buildings, and the largest warehouses yet erected by foreigners on Japanese soil. There is a recreation ground open to both natives and foreigners, with a cricket field and a croquet lawn. The population of the settlement was 169 in 1876; that of Kobe in 1874 was upwards of 8500. The trade of Hiogo consists mainly in the exportation of tea (1,599,199 dollars in 1877), silk, copper, camphor, wax, tobacco, ginseng, isinglass, and dried fish, and the importation of European manufactured goods—woollens, cotton, glass, &c. Most of the tea goes to New York, very little to London. The total value of the imports in 1874, 1875, 1876, and 1877 was respectively 6,030,239, 5,354,917, 3,748,967, and 4,313,641 dollars (the dollar being worth about 4s. ), and the corresponding figures for the ...