Perang Dunia Timur. Jepang, Tiongkok, dan Korea/Bab 8

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE.

Difference of Opinion as to the True Significance of Their Rapid Adoption of Western Civilization—Physique of Man and Woman—Two Great Classes of the Population—The Samurai—The Agricultural Laborer—Wedding Ceremonies—Elopements—Japanese Babies—Sports of Childhood and of Age—Dress of Man and Woman—Food—Homes of the People—Family Life—Art, Science, Medicine, Music—Language and Literature—Religion.

In such a state of transition are the Japanese people themselves, as truly as the government, that it is difficult to describe their personal characteristics. Different observers reach different conclusions as to their personality. One affirms that great quickness of imitation and judgment in discovering what is worth imitating, seem to be the prominent characteristics of the Japanese. They want originality and independence of thought, and character which accompanies it. The Japanese are not slow in adopting the inventions of modern civilization, and even in modifying them to suit their own convenience, but, says another observer, that they will ever add anything of importance to them may be doubted. The same is true in a political point of view. The more enlightened of the Japanese are already beginning to recognize the superiority of the European forms of government. The upper classes are all sedulously imitating Paris and London fashions of dress. In our own country we have seen the prevalence of an offensive Anglomania among certain classes of society in the larger cities, but in Japan a corresponding mania for the forms of western civilization has become almost universal, and is reaching the real bulk of the nation. Such extraordinary capacity for change may mark a versatile but unreliable race; for it seems hard to believe that a people who are parting with their ancestral notions with such a total absence of any pangs of sorrow, will be likely to adhere with much steadfastness to a new order of things. On the other hand, other students of this movement take it to be only a most gratifying indication that Japan was a nation which had outgrown its narrow limits of thought and learning, ready to adopt whatever was good, and yearning for it when the opportunity 286came, with a strength that made rapid assimilation of ideas entirely proper, and no sign of instability. It is to be hoped that the latter interpretation is the right one.

In moral character the average Japanese is frank, honest, faithful, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, and loyal. Love of truth for its own sake, chastity, and temperance are not characteristic virtues. A high sense of honor is cultivated by the Samurai. In spirit the average artisan and farmer is lamblike. In intellectual capacity the actual merchant is mean, and his moral character low. He is beneath the Chinaman in this respect. The male Japanese is far less overbearing and more chivalrous to woman than any other Asiatic. In political knowledge, or gregarious ability, the countryman is a baby and the city artisan a boy. The peasant is a pronounced pagan, with superstition ingrained into his inmost nature. In reverence to elders and to antiquity, obedience to parents, gentle manners, universal courtesy, and generous impulses the Japanese are the peers of any and superior to many peoples of Christendom. The idea of filial obedience has been developed into fanaticism and is the main blot of paganism and superstition.

The Japanese in physique are much of the same type as the Spaniards, and inhabitants of the south of France. They are of middle or low stature. The men are about five feet six inches in height or a trifle less on an average, while the women rarely exceed five feet. When dressed the Japanese look strong, well proportioned men, but when in the exceedingly slight costumes which they very often are pleased to adopt, it is then apparent that though their bodies are robust their legs are short and slight. Their heads are somewhat out of proportion to their bodies, being generally large and sunk a little between the shoulders, but they have small feet and delicate hands. The resemblance the Japanese bear to the Chinese is not nearly as marked as popular opinion would have it. The faces of the former are longer and more regular, their noses more prominent, and their eyes less sloped. The men are naturally very hirsute, but they never wear beards. Their hair is glossy, thick, and always black. Their eyes are black, their teeth white and slightly prominent. The shade of their skin is totally unlike the yellow complexions of the 287Chinese; in some cases it is very swarthy or copper colored, but the most usual tint is an olive brown. Children and young people have usually quite pink complexions.

The women follow the Chinese type a little closer. The eyes are narrower and sloped upward, and the head is small. Like the men their hair is glossy and very black, but it never reaches the length of American women’s hair. They have clear, sometimes even perfectly white skin, especially among the aristocracy, oval faces, and slender, graceful forms. Their manners are peculiarly artless and simple. But the harmony of the whole is spoiled in many instances by an ugly depression of the chest, which is sometimes observed in those who are otherwise handsomest and best formed.

About the end of the eighth century a reform was instituted in the military system of the empire, which had become unsatisfactory and defective. The court decided that all those among the rich peasants who had capacity and were skilled in archery and horsemanship, should compose the military class, and that the remainder, the weak and feeble, should continue to till the soil and apply themselves to agriculture. This was one of the most significant of all the changes in the history of Japan. Its fruits are seen to-day in the social constitution of the Japanese people. Though there are many classes, there are but two great divisions of the Japanese, the military and the agricultural.

This change wrought a complete severance of the soldier and the farmer. It lifted up one part of the people to a plane of life on which travel, adventure, the profession and pursuit of arms, letters, and the cultivation of honor and chivalry were possible, 288and by which that brightest type of Japanese men, the Samurai was produced. This is the class which for centuries has monopolized arms, polite learning, patriotism, and intellect of Japan. They are the men whose minds have been open to learn, from whom sprung the ideas that once made and later overthrew the feudal system, which wrought the mighty reforms that swept away the shogunate in 1868, and restored the mikado to ancient power, who introduced those ideas that now rule Japan, and sent their sons abroad to study the civilization of the west. To the Samurai Japan looks to-day for safety in war and progress in peace. The Samurai is the soul of the nation. In other lands the priestly and the military castes were formed, in Japan one and the same class held the sword and the pen; the other class, the agricultural, remained unchanged.

Left to the soil to till it, to live and die upon it, the Japanese farmer has remained the same to-day that he was then. Like the wheat, that for successive ages is planted as wheat, sprouts, beards and fills as wheat, the peasant with his horizon bounded by his rice fields and water courses or the timbered hills, his intellect laid away for safe keeping in the priest’s hands, is the son of the soil. He cares little who rules him unless he is taxed beyond the power of flesh and blood to bear, or an overmeddlesome official policy touches his land to transfer, sell or divide it. Then he rises to rebel. In time of war he is a disinterested and a passive spectator and he does not fight. He changes masters with apparent unconcern. Amidst all the ferment of ideas induced by the contact of western civilization with Asiatic within the last four decades, the farmer stolidly remains conservative. He knows not nor cares to hear of it and hates it because of the heavier taxes it imposes upon him.

The domestic solemnities of the Japanese, marriage especially, are made the subjects of deep and careful meditation. In the upper classes marriage is arranged between two young people when the bridegroom has reached his twentieth and the bride her sixteenth year. The will of the parents is almost without exception the dominating power in the matrimonial arrangements, which are carried out according to agreement among the relatives, but love affairs of a spontaneous kind form a large element in the 289romantic literature of Japan. The wedding is preceded by a betrothal, which ceremony offers an occasion for the members of both families to meet one another; and it not unfrequently happens that the future couple then learn for the first time the wishes of their parents respecting their union. If perchance the bridegroom elect is not satisfied with the choice, the young woman returns home again. With the introduction of other western ideas, this inconvenient custom is little by little falling into disuse. Nowadays, if a young man wishes to marry into a family of good position or one which it would be advantageous to his prospects to enter, he endeavors first to see the young lady, and then if she pleases him he sends a mediator, chosen usually from amongst his married friends, and the betrothal is arranged without any further obstacle. Even more American-like than this, however, there are many instances, and the number is constantly increasing, in which the match is the result of mutual affection, and sometimes elopements are known to occur among the best families.

When things are carried through conventionally, the betrothal and wedding are usually solemnized on the same day and without the assistance of any minister of worship. The customary ceremonies are all of a homely nature, but at the same time are extremely complicated and numerous. Upon the day fixed, the trousseau of the young bride and all the presents she has received, are brought to the home of the bridegroom, where the ceremony is to be performed, and arranged in the apartments set apart for the affair. The bride arrives soon afterward, dressed in white and escorted by her parents. The groom, arrayed in gala costume, receives her at the entrance of the house, and conducts her into the hall where the betrothal takes place. Here grand preparations have been made. The altar of the domestic gods has been decorated with images of the patron saints of the family and with different plants, each having its symbolical meaning.

When all have taken their places according to the recognized form of precedence, the ceremony is begun by two young girls, who hand around unlimited quantities of saki to the guests. These two damsels are surnamed the male and female butterfly, the emblems of conjugal felicity, because according to popular notion butterflies always fly about in couples. The decisive ceremony 290is tinged with a symbolism which has a considerable touch of poetry in it. The two butterflies, holding between them a two-necked bottle, approach and offer it to the engaged couple to drink together from the two mouths of the bottle till it is emptied, which signifies that husband and wife must drain together the cup of life whether it contain nectar or gall; they must share equally the joys and sorrows of existence.

The Japanese is the husband of one wife only, but he is at liberty to introduce several concubines under the family roof. This is done in all classes of society, especially amongst the daimios. It is asserted that in many of the noble families the legitimate wife not only evinces no jealousy, but has even a certain pleasure in seeing the number of her household thus augmented, as it supplies her with so many additional servants. In the middle classes, however, the custom is often the cause of bitter family dissentions.

The heavy expenses of the marriage ceremonies often occasion considerable domestic strife and misery, at least if they are celebrated according to all the established conventionalities. Debts are then incurred which perhaps the young couple are unable to meet, so that when other expenses grow, and trouble or misfortune overtake them, they are speedily plunged into the deepest distress and indigence. The natural consequence of these arbitrary customs is the increase of runaway matches. The elopement, however, is usually wisely winked at by the parents, who feign great lamentation and anger, then finally assemble their neighbors, pardon their recreant children, and circulate the inevitable saki, and the marriage is considered as satisfactory as if performed with all the requisite formalities.

The birth of a child is another occasion for the meeting of the whole circle of relations, and the consumption of a great many more bumpers of saki. The baptism of the young Japanese citizen takes place thirty days later, when the infant is taken to the temple of the family divinity to receive its first name. The father has previously written three different names upon three separate slips of paper, which are handed over to the officiating bonze or priest. The latter throws them into the air, and the piece of paper which in falling first touches the ground contains 291the name which is to be given to the child. There are no godparents, but several friends of the family declare themselves the infant’s protectors and make it several presents, among which is a fan if it be a boy, or a pot of rouge if a girl.

The Japanese child is early taught to endure hardships, and is subjected from its infancy to all the small miseries of life, so far as may be thought wise for its training. The mother nurses it till it is two years of age, and carries it continually about with her attached to her back for convenience. The children are daintily pretty, chubby, rosy, sparkling-eyed. The children’s heads are shaved in all curious fashions, some with little topknots, and others with bald spots. The way the babies are carried is an improvement upon the Indian fashion. He is lugged on the back of his mother or his sister, maybe scarcely older than himself, either strapped loosely but safely, with his head just peering above the shoulder of the bearer, or else enclosed in a fold of the garment she wears. It is a popular belief among travelers that Japanese babies are the best in the world and never cry, but the Japanese themselves claim no such distinction for the little ones, very proud of them though they are, and affirm that they have their fits of temper as well as American babies.

Education is not forced too early upon the children, but nature is allowed its own way during the first years of childhood. Toys, pleasures, fetes of all kinds, are liberally indulged in. One writer has said that Japan is the paradise of babies; not only is this true but it is also a very delightful abode for all who love play. The contrast between the Japanese and Chinese character in this respect is radical. The whole character, manners, and even the dress of the sedate and dignified Chinaman, seems to be in keeping 292with that aversion to rational amusement and athletic exercises which characterize that adult population. In Japan, on the contrary, one sees that children of the larger growth enjoy with equal zest, games which are the same or nearly the same as those of the little ones. Certain it is that the adults do all in their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and harmless sports.

A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the recent influx of foreigners, in respect of their love of amusements. Their sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized them. The children’s festivals and sports are rapidly losing their importance, and some are rarely seen. There is no country in the world in which there are so many toy shops for the sale of the things which delight children. Street theatrical shows are common. Sweet meats of a dozen strange sorts are carried by men who do tricks in gymnastics to please the little ones. In every Japanese city there are scores if not hundreds of men and women who obtain a livelihood by amusing the children. There are indoor games and outdoor games, games for the day time and games for the evening. Japanese kite flying and top spinning are famous the world over, and experts in these sports come to exhibit their adeptness in our own country. In the northern provinces, where the winters are severe, Japanese boys have the same sports with snow and ice, coasting, sliding, fighting mimic battles with snowballs, that are known to our own American boys. Dinners, tea parties, and weddings, keeping store, and playing doctor, are imitated in Japanese children’s games.

On the third day of the third month is held the wonderful “Feast of Dolls” which is the day especially devoted to the girls, and to them it is the greatest day in the year. The greatest day in the year for the boys is on the fifth day of the fifth month, when they celebrate what is known as the “Feast of Flags.”

A Japanese attains his majority at fifteen years of age. As soon as this time has arrived he takes a new name, and quietly discards the pleasures of infancy for the duties of a practical life. His first care, if he belong to the middle classes, is the choice of 295a trade or profession. The opportunities for this choice are much greater than in China, just as the scope of Japanese learning and life has increased in the last quarter century. Practically all of the businesses and trades that we know in our own country are to-day known in Japan, those which were not there before, having crept in with the advent of the foreigners. The Japanese young man, if he is to be a merchant or to learn a trade, serves an apprenticeship for a period sufficient to fit him for the mastery of his work, and then it is he provides himself with a wife.

The dress of the Japanese is changing in harmony with the introduction of other foreign habits. Custom has always obliged married women to shave their eyebrows and blacken their teeth, but of late years the practice has been decreasing and now it does not prevail among the better classes and in the larger cities. They have also made a most immoderate use of paint, covering their brow, cheeks, and neck with thick coats of rouge and white. Some have even gone so far as to gild their lips, but the more modest have been content to color them with carmine, and the excessive use of paints is diminishing.

The kirimon, a kind of long, open dressing gown, is worn by every one, men and women alike. It is a little longer and of better quality for the women, who cross it in front and confine it by a long wide piece of silk, or other material tied in a quaint fashion at the back. The men keep theirs in its place by tying a long straight scarf around them. The Japanese use no linen, the women alone wearing a chemise of silk crepe, but it must be remembered that they bathe daily or even oftener, and that simplicity of dress is affected by all.

The middle classes wear in addition to the kirimon, a doublet and pantaloons. These are also worn in winter by men of the lower orders, the pantaloons fitting tightly, and made of checked cotton. The peasants and porters usually wear a loose overall in summer, made of some light paper material, and in winter not unfrequently consisting of coarse straw. The women also envelop themselves in one or several thickly wadded mantles. Linen gloves with one division for the thumb are very generally worn. Sandals are made of plaited straw, and in bad weather are discarded for wooden clogs, raised from the ground by means of two 296bits of wood under the toe and heel. As might naturally be expected, locomotion under such circumstances is performed with difficulty, and the hobbling gate which these props necessitate has often been commented on. This peculiarity is most noticeable among the women, whose naturally easy gait is almost as much diverted from its normal movement by these small stilts as that of their sisters in the west by their high heeled shoes. The costume of the country is exactly alike for both the lower and higher classes, with the difference that the latter always wear silk material. The costumes worn by officials, and those of the nobility, are distinguished by the amplitude of the folds and the richness of the texture. Wide flowing pantaloons are often substituted for the kirimon, which trail on the ground, completely concealing the feet, and give the wearer the appearance of walking on his knees, which indeed is the delusion it is intended to produce. A kind of overcoat with wide sleeves reaching to the hips completes the costume.

The dwelling houses of the Japanese are well adapted to their manners of life, except that they are not always sufficient protection against severe cold. Rich and poor live side by side, although in Tokio there are still traces of the castes of the feudal age, and there are also growing tendencies in the rising mercantile and moneyed classes to separate themselves from the common mass. There are now great portions of the capital densely populated 297by the working classes only, and quite destitute of any open spaces of practical value for health and recreation.

The proverb “Every man’s house is his castle,” might very readily be appropriated by the Japanese, whose home, however humble it may be in all other respects, is always guarded by a moat. In a feudal mansion the moat was usually deep enough to prove a genuine obstacle. While it is still almost universally retained, the muddy water is hidden in summer time by the leaves of the lotus, and the bridges are not drawn. The smaller gentry imitate the grandeur of those above them, and when at last we come down to the lowest level we still find a miniature moat which is often dry, of a foot or so in breadth, and at most about two inches deep.

In houses of some pretensions there is an enbankment behind the moat, with a hedge growing above it. Behind this there is either a wall or fence of bamboo, tiles, or plaster. As the name of the street is not to be found at the street corner as with us, it is repeated on every doorway. The towns are divided into wards and blocks, and the numbers of the houses are often confused and misleading. A slip of white wood is nailed on one of the posts of the gate, and is inscribed with the name of the street or block, the number, name of house holder, numbers and sexes of household. The gates of the larger houses are heavy, adorned with copper or brass mountings, and often studded with large nails.

When one enters by the gate there is generally found a court, from the sides of which the open verandas of the building may be reached. The verandas are high and there is a special entrance by heavy wooden stairs. The court is sometimes paved with large stones, and sometimes it is left bare or covered with turf. The gardens even of somewhat humble mansions are graced with carved stone lanterns. The well placed near the kitchen often has a rim of stone around it, and the bucket is raised by a beam or a long bamboo.

In front of the doorway there is a small space unfloored called the doma, where one takes off his shoes after announcing himself by calling, or by striking a gong suspended by the door post. There is often only one story in Japanese houses, and very rarely more than two. Almost all of them are built of wood; the ground 298floor is raised about four feet above the ground, the walls are made of planks covered with coarse mats; and the roof is supported by four pillars. In a two-storied house the second story is generally built more solidly than the first; experience having shown that the edifice can thus better resist the shock of an earthquake. Sometimes the walls are plastered with a coating of soft clay or varnish, and are decorated with gildings and paintings. The stair to the second story is very steep. The ceilings are composed of very thin, broad planks, and are lower than we are accustomed to, but it must be remembered that the people do not sit on chairs and have no high beds or tables. Doorways, or rather the grooved lintels in which the screen doors slide, are very low and the Japanese, who are always bowing, seem to enjoy having an unusual number of them to pass through in extensive houses. No room is completely walled in, but each one opens on one or more sides completely into the garden, the street, or the adjoining room. Sliding shutters, with tissue paper windows, the carpentry of which is careful and exact, move in wooden grooves almost on a level with the floor, which is covered with padded woven mats of rushes. As a protection against the severities of the weather rain shutters are also used.

All Japanese dwellings have a cheerful, well-cared-for appearance, which in a great measure is the result of two causes; first, that every one is bound constantly to renew the paper coverings of the outside panels, and next that the frequent fires which each time make immense ravages often render it necessary to reconstruct an entire district. In the interior the houses are generally divided into two suites of apartments, the one side being apportioned to the women as private rooms, and the other side being used for the reception rooms. These apartments are all separated from one another by partitions made of slight wooden frames, upon which small square bits of white paper are pasted, or else a kind of screen is used which can be moved at pleasure and the room enlarged or contracted according as the occasion requires. Towards nightfall these screens are usually folded up so as to allow a free passage of air throughout the house.

The mats of rushes or rice straw which carpet the floors are about three inches thick, and are soft to the touch. They are of 299uniform size, about six feet by three, and this fact dominates all architecture in Japan. Estimates for building houses and the cutting of wood rest upon this traditional custom. The inhabitants never soil them with their boots but always walk barefooted about the house. The mat in Japan answers the purpose of all ordinary furniture, and takes the place of our chairs, tables, and beds. For writing purposes only do they use a low round table about a foot high, which is kept in a cupboard and only brought out when a letter has to be written. This they do kneeling before the table, which they carefully put away again when the letter is finished. The meals are laid upon square tables of very slender dimensions, around which the whole family gather, sitting on their heels.

In the walls are recesses with sliding doors into which the bedding is thrust in the daytime. At bedtime out of these recesses are taken the soft cotton stuffed mattresses and the thick coverlets of silk or cotton which have been rolled up all day, and these are spread upon the mats. The Japanese pillows are of wood, with the upper portions stuffed or padded, and in form something like a large flat iron. Sometimes each one contains a little 300drawer in which the ladies put their hairpins. When a Japanese has taken off his day garments he rests his head on this wooden pillow and composes himself to sleep. Everything is put away in the morning, all the partitions are opened to give air, the mats are carefully swept, and the now completely empty chamber is transformed during the day into an office, sitting room, or dining room, to become again the sleeping apartment the following night.

Clothes are kept in plaited bamboo boxes usually covered with black or dark green waterproof paper. The furniture is very simple, and there are often in the best houses no chairs, no tables, no bedsteads. There may be some low, short-legged side tables of characteristic Japanese pattern and one or two costly vases or other ornaments, a few pictures which are changed in deference to guests and seasons, some flowers or dwarf trees in vases and a lamp or two. There are, however, two pieces of furniture which are to be found in the houses of every class. These are the brazier and the pipe box, for the Japanese is a great tea drinker and a constant smoker. Every hour in the day his hot water must be ready for him, and the brazier kept burning both day and night both in summer and winter.

The principal meal takes place about the middle of the day, and after it the family indulge themselves with several hours’ sleep, so that at this time the streets are almost deserted. In the evening they have another meal, and then devote the rest of the time till bedtime to all kinds of amusements. In the highest Japanese circles the dinner hour is sometimes enlivened by music from an orchestra stationed in an adjoining room.

In summer a well-planned Japanese house is the very ideal of coolness, grace and comfort. In winter it is the extreme of misery. There are no fire-places and there is unmitigated ventilation. People keep themselves warm by holding themselves close over some morsels of red hot charcoal in a brazier, and frost bite is very common. At night, when cold winds blow, a heating apparatus is put beneath the heavy cotton coverlets. It often gets overturned; a watchman from his ladder-like tower sees afar off a dull red glow, bells begin to clang, and soon the city is in an uproar of excitement over another conflagration. In a few 301hours a great fan-shaped gap has appeared in the city. One goes at day-break to find the scene of destruction, but it has already almost disappeared. Crowds of carpenters have rushed in, and have already done much to erect on the hot and smoking ruins wooden houses nearly as good as those swept away by the fire of the night before.

The yashikis or palaces in which the people of rank reside, are nothing more than ordinary houses grouped together and surrounded by whitewashed outhouses, with latticed windows of black wood. These outhouses serve a two-fold purpose, as habitations for the domestics, and as a wall of the enclosure. Always low, and usually rectangular, they look very much like warehouses or barracks. The palace of the sovereign has, however, a certain character of its own. It is a perfect labyrinth of courts and streets formed by the many separate houses, pavilions, and corridors or simple wooden partitions. The roofs are supported by horizontal beams varnished white, or gilded at the extremities, and decorated with small pieces of sculpture, many of which are very beautiful works of art. The ancient palace of the Tycoons is remarkable for boldness and richness of outline. Everything breathes a spirit of the times when the power and prosperity of the shogunate was at its height. Upon the ceilings of gold, sculptured beams cross each other in squares, the angles where they meet being marked by a plate of gilt bronze of very elegant design.

The greatest novelties in the eyes of foreigners are the gardens attached to every house. The smallest tradesman has his own little plot of ground where he may enjoy the delights of solitude, take his siesta, or devote himself to copious potations of tea and saki. These gardens are often of exceedingly small size. They consist of a quaint collection of dwarf shrubs, miniature lakes full of gold fish, lilliputian walks in the middle of diminutive flower beds, tiny streams over which are little green arches to imitate bridges, and finally arbors or bowers beneath which a rabbit might scarcely find room to nestle.

The Japanese are as strict in the observance of etiquette at a funeral as at their marriage ceremonies. The rites take place both at the time of the actual interment, and afterwards at the 302festivals celebrated in honor of the gods on these occasions. There are two kinds of funerals, interment and cremation. Most of the Japanese make known during life either to the heir or to some intimate friend their wishes respecting the mode of the disposal of their remains. When the father or mother in a family is seized with a mortal illness and all hope of recovery is past and the end approaching, the soiled garments worn by the dying person are removed and exchanged for perfectly clean ones. The last wishes of the dying one are then recorded on paper. As soon as life has departed all the relations give way to lamentations; the body is carried into another room, covered with a curtain and surrounded by screens. In the higher classes the body is watched for two days, but in the lower it is buried a day after death.

Contrary to the customs at marriage ceremonies, the bonzes or priests preside over all the funeral rites. It is they who watch beside the dead until the time for interment. This is usually carried out by men who make it their profession. The corpse is placed in a coffin, somewhat of the shape of a round tub, in a squatting position, with the head bowed, the legs bent under, and the arms crossed; the lid of the coffin is then fastened down by wooden pegs. The funeral procession proceeds to the temple, the bonzes marching first, some carrying flags, others different symbols, such as little white boxes full of flowers, others wringing small hand-bells. Then follows the corpse, preceded by a long tablet upon which is inscribed the new name given to the deceased. The eldest son follows, and then the family, intimate friends, and domestics. The nearest relations are dressed in white which is the color worn for mourning.

When the procession arrives at the temple the coffin is placed before the image of the god and then various ceremonies commence, the length of which is regulated by the rank of the deceased, as with us. After that all the friends and acquaintances return home, whilst the relations turn to the place where the body is to be laid. If the deceased has expressed the desire that his body should be burned, the coffin is carried from the temple to a small crematory a short distance away. It is there placed upon a kind of stone scaffold, at the base of which a fire is kept burning until the body is consumed. The men employed in this 305work draw out the bones from the ashes by means of sticks, the remaining ashes are placed in an urn, and carried to the tomb by the relations. The burials of the poor outcasts from society are very simple. The body is interred at once without entering in the temple, or else it is burnt in some waste spot.

Japanese cemeteries are most carefully cherished spots, and are always bright with verdure and flowers. Each family has its own little enclosure, where several simple commemorative stones stand. Once a year a festival for the dead is held. It is celebrated at night. The cemetery is illuminated by thousands of colored fires, and the whole population resort there, and eat, drink, and enjoy themselves in honor of their dead ancestors.

Their incapacity for conceiving sorrow is one of the most characteristic features of the Japanese. Perhaps this psychological phenomenon is due to the influences amidst which this happy people have the privilege of living. It is an indisputable fact that where nature is bright and beautiful the inhabitants themselves of that particular spot, like the scenery, seem to expand under its sweet influence and to become bright and happy. Such is the case with the Japanese, who while yielding almost unconsciously to these influences, deepen them by their eager pursuit of all things gay and beautiful.

Japan is progressive enough that it has a compulsory system of education, which is sure to be ultimately fatal to idolatrous religions. There are more than three million children in the elementary schools, not to mention those in the higher institutions. The ability to read and write is almost universal among the people. Steady improvement is observed from year to year, in the attendance and quality of the government schools. The various schools in connection with the protestant and Roman missions, which are numerous and influential are also well attended and constantly growing. A large number also of the wealthier classes have their children taught privately at home. The average attendance of the Japanese children at the schools is nearly one-half the total number of school age. Education is very highly esteemed by every class, and all are willing to make genuine sacrifices to obtain it for their children.

Penmanship is laid great stress upon, and there are many 306different styles in use. The blackboard is used in all schools now, and the artistic tendencies of the people are often well displayed on it. The Arabic numerals are fast displacing the old Chinese system. A great many of the methods of European and American teaching have been introduced into Japan, and their use is constantly on the increase.

Universities and academies supported by the government have been chiefly under the direction of American and European professors, and the western languages are taught everywhere. In addition to this educational element introduced into the country, there is that brought in by the large number of Japanese young men who have been sent to the universities of the United States, Germany, France, and England to complete their education. In our own colleges these young men have ranked with the highest as linguists, scientists, and orators. The influence that they have exerted in Japan, where they have invariably taken a high position, either officially or educationally, has been most beneficial to the advance of learning in the island empire.

The excessive cleanliness of the Japanese, the simplicity of their apparel, which allows their bodies to be so much exposed to the open air, added to the salubrity of their country, might reasonably lead one to imagine that they enjoy excellent health. Such however is not the case. Diseases of the skin, and chronic and incurable complaints are very prevalent. The hot baths are the great remedies for everything, but in certain cases the aid of the physicians is enlisted. These form a class of society which has existed from a very early date, and enjoy certain privileges. They are divided into three classes, the court physicians, who are not permitted to practice elsewhere, the army physicians, and lastly the common physicians, not employed by the government, who attend all classes of the community. As no formalities used to be required for the practice of medicine, each member entered on the career at his pleasure and practiced according to his own theories on the subject. It is a profession often handed down from father to son, but it is not a lucrative one, and is looked upon as an office of little importance or consideration.

Medical men nevertheless abound in Japan, and in addition to recognized practitioners, there is a class of quacks exactly answering 307to those of our own country. Their science principally partakes of the nature of sorcery. Where hot baths fail to produce the desired effect, they have recourse to acupuncture and cauterisation. Acupuncture consists in pricking with a needle the part affected, a mode of healing which has been practiced from time immemorial in the east. After the skin has been stretched sufficiently tight, the needle is thrust in perpendicularly either by rolling between the fingers or by a direct gentle pressure, or else by striking it lightly with a small hammer made for the purpose.

Cauterisation is performed with little cones called moxas, formed of dried wormwood leaves, and prepared in such a manner as to consume slowly. One or more of these is applied to the diseased part and set alight. The mode of cauterising wounds has frequently the effect of strongly exciting the nervous system, but does not seem to improve the general health of the patient materially. The national university of Tokio has a medical department in connection with it, which teaches medical science according to our own western methods. Hospitals exist in the large cities of Japan which are similarly equipped to those of our own 308country, and are under the direction of physicians and surgeons, most of whom are either Europeans and Americans, or Japanese who have been educated in medical colleges abroad. Many young women of Japan have come to America to take courses in nursing in our great hospitals and training schools, and on their return to Japan are spreading the knowledge they have thus gained.

Music is one of the most cultivated of the fine arts of Japan, and Japanese tradition accords it a divine origin. The Japanese have many stringed, wind, and percussion instruments, but the general favorite is the sam-sin or guitar with three strings. There are also the lutes, several kinds of drums and tambourines, fifes, clarionets, and flageolets. The Japanese have no idea of harmony. A number of them will often perform together, but they are never in tune. They are not more advanced in melody; their airs recall neither the savage strains of the forest nor the scientific music of the west. In spite of this their music has the power of charming them for hours together, and it is only among the utterly uneducated classes that a young girl is to be found unable to accompany herself in a song on the sam-sin.

In the department of jurisprudence great progress has been made. Scarcely any nation on earth can show a more revolting list of horrible methods of punishment and torture in the past, and none can show greater improvement in so short a time. The cruel and 309blood-thirsty code was mostly borrowed from China. Since the restoration, revised statutes and regulations have greatly decreased the list of capital punishments, reformed the condition of prisons, and made legal processes more in harmony with mercy and justice. The use of torture to obtain testimony is now entirely abolished. Law schools have also been established and lawyers are allowed to plead, thus giving the accused the assistance of counsel for his defense.

The Japanese tongue has for a long time been regarded merely as an offshoot of the Chinese language, or at any rate as being very nearly connected with it. Study however, and the comparison of the two languages has rectified this error. Japanese understand Chinese writing because the Chinese characters form part of the numerous kinds in use in Japan. This is easily understood when it is remembered that Chinese characters represent neither letters nor meaningless sounds, which are only the constituent parts of a word, but are words themselves, or rather the ideas that these words express; consequently the same ideas 310can be communicated although expressed by different words to any one who is acquainted with the signification of the characters. The Japanese language is very soft and agreeable to the ear, but travelers declare that no one born out of the country could possibly pronounce some of the words. They have a system of forty-eight syllabic signs, which can be doubled by means of signs added to the consonants, which modify the sound, and render it harder or softer. This system, it is said, dates from the eighth century and can be written in four different series of characters.

Japanese literature comprises books on science, biography, geography, travels, philosophy, and natural history, as well as poetry, dramatic works, romances, and encyclopedias. The latter seem to be little more than picture books, with explanatory notes, arranged like other Japanese dictionaries, sometimes alphabetically, but more often quite fancifully and without any attempt at scientific classification. The poets of Japan strive to express the most comprehensive ideas in the fewest possible words, and to employ words with double meanings for the sake of typical allusions. They also delight in descriptions or similes furnished by the scenery, or the rich variety of natural productions with which they are surrounded.

Of their older books on science none are of any value but those which treat of astronomy. The proof of their progress in this science is afforded by the fact that almanacs, which were at first brought from China, have now become very general and are composed in Japan. The Japanese, until western education began to have its influence over them, had only a slight knowledge of mathematics, trigonometry, mechanics, or engineering. History and geography are very fairly cultivated. Reading is the favorite recreation of both sexes in Japan. The women confine themselves to the perusal of romances, and those works on etiquette and kindred subjects prepared for them. Every young girl who can afford it has her subscription to a library, which for the sum of a few copper coins per month furnishes her with as many books, ancient and modern, as she can devour. Except for their titles, these productions seem all formed on one pattern. In the choice of their characters and their subjects the authors seem by 311no means desirous of breaking through the narrow limits within which prejudice and custom have confined them.

The ancient religion of the Japanese is called “Kami no michi,” way, or doctrine of the gods. The Chinese form of the same is Shinto, and from this foreigners have called it Shintoism. In its purity the chief characteristic of this religion is the worship of ancestors and the deification of emperors, heroes, and scholars. The adoration of the personified forces of nature enters largely into it. It employs no idols, images, or effigies in its worship, and teaches no doctrine of the immortality of the soul. Shinto has no moral code, and no accurately defined system of ethics or belief. The leading principle of its adherents is imitation of the illustrious deeds of their ancestors, and they are to prove themselves worthy of their descent by the purity of their lives. The priests of Shinto are designated according to their rank. Sometimes they receive titles from the emperor, and the higher ranks of the priesthood are court nobles. Ordinarily they dress like other people, but are robed in white when officiating, or in court dress when in court. They marry, rear families, and do not shave their heads. The office is usually hereditary.

After all the research of foreign scholars, many hesitate to decide 312whether Shinto is a native Japanese product or whether it is not closely allied with the ancient religion of China which existed before the period of Confucius. The weight of opinion inclines to the latter belief. The Kojiki is the Bible of Shintoism. It is full of narrations, but it lays down no precepts, teaches no morals or doctrines, prescribes no ritual. Shinto has very few of the characteristics of a religion as understood by us. The most learned native commentators and exponents of the faith expressly maintain the view that Shinto has no moral code. Motoori, the great modern revivalist of Shinto, teaches with emphasis that morals were invented by the Chinese because they were an immoral people, but in Japan there was no necessity for any system of morals, as every Japanese acted aright if he only consulted his own heart. The duty of a good Japanese, he says, consists in obeying the commands of the mikado without questioning whether these commands are right or wrong. It was only immoral people like the Chinese who presumed to discuss the character of their sovereign. The opinion of most scholars from America and Europe, studying Shinto on its own soil, has been that the faith was little more than an influence for reducing the people to a condition of mental slavery. Its influence is weakening every year.

The outlines of Buddhism in its Chinese forms have been indicated in a foregoing chapter. It is well, however, to take another glance at it here in connection with its Japanese significance. This religion reached the Japanese empire about the middle of the sixth century after Christ, twelve centuries after its establishment. Buddhism originated as a pure atheistic humanitarianism, with a lofty philosophy and a code of morals higher perhaps than any heathen religion had reached before or has since attained. First preached in India, a land accursed by secular and spiritual oppression, it acknowledged no caste and declared all men equally sinful and miserable, and all equally capable of being freed from sin and misery through knowledge. It taught that the souls of all men had lived in a previous state of existence and that all the sorrows of this life are punishments for sins committed in a previous state. After death the soul must migrate for ages through stages of life inferior or superior, 315until perchance it arrived at last in Nirvana or absorption in Buddha. The true estate of the human soul, according to the Buddhist, was blissful annihilation.

The morals of Buddhism are superior to its metaphysics. Its commandments are the dictates of the most refined morality. Such was Buddhism in its early purity. Beside its moral code and philosophical doctrines it had almost nothing. But in the twelve centuries which passed while it swept through India, Birmah, Siam, China, Thibet, Manchooria, Corea, and Siberia, it acquired the apparel with which Asiatic imagination and priestly necessity had clothed and adorned the original doctrines of Buddha. The ideas of Buddha had been expanded into a complete theological system, with all the appurtenances of a stock religion. Japan was ready for the introduction of any religion as attractive as Buddhism, for prior to that time nothing existed except Shinto, of which there was little but the dogma of the divinity of the mikado, the duty of all Japanese to obey him implicitly, and some Confucian morals.

Buddhism came to touch the heart, to fire the imagination, to feed the intellect, to offer a code of lofty morals, to point out a pure life through self-denial, to awe the ignorant, and to terrify the doubting. With this explanation of the field which Buddhism found and what it offered, it is sufficient to say that the faith spread with marvelous rapidity until the Japanese empire was a Buddhist land. This did not necessarily exclude Shinto from the minds of the same people, and the two faiths have existed side by side in harmony. Of late years, however, the Japanese have not only been losing faith in their own religions but in all others, and to-day they are said by many to form a nation of atheists. This does not apply to the common people so truly as to the educated ones, and of course is not nearly as general a truth as has been often assumed. In no country of Asia has Christianity made such rapid and permanent advance as in Japan. It is the only oriental country having a government of its own in which there is absolute freedom in religious belief and practice, and in which there is no state religion and no state support.

It has been for years the prophetic declaration of missionaries in the east that the first nation to extend full liberty of conscience 316in religion would be the dominant power of Asia. That Japan has fulfilled this condition is not more remarkable than are her rapid strides to political power since that country opened its doors to Christianity. That Japan is sincere in its treatment of an alien religion is attested by the fact that native Christian chaplains accompany her armies in their marches against China, and these are representative men of the Methodist, Congregational, and Presbyterian churches in Japan. There is no doubt that the whole Christian element in Japan, foreign and native, has been loyal to the country and in thorough sympathy with the aggressive movement made by Japan. The sympathy between Corea and Japan has been greatly strengthened by the active support rendered Presbyterian missionaries in Corea by the whole Christian body in Japan. The work of Mr. Johnson, a Presbyterian 317missionary in Corea, made him an adviser of the king, and this assisted in leading the latter rather towards Japan than towards China. The corner stone of Japan’s position to-day is religious toleration. All that the Christian missionaries have asked in Asia is equal privilege with other religions, and these they have had in Japan. History is only repeating itself, and the results of religious toleration in Europe centuries ago are being duplicated in Asia in 1895.

The student of Asiatic life, on coming to Japan, is cheered and pleased on contrasting the position of women in Japan with that in other countries. He sees them treated with respect and consideration far above that observed in other quarters of the Orient. They are allowed greater freedom, and hence have more dignity and self-confidence. The daughters are better educated and the national annals will show probably as large a number of illustrious women as those of any other country in Asia. In these last days of enlightenment public and private schools for girls are being opened and attended. Furthermore, some of the leaders of new Japan, braving public scandal, and learning to bestow that measure of honor upon their wives which they see is enthusiastically awarded by foreigners to theirs, and are not ashamed to be seen in public with them. No women excel the Japanese in that innate love of beauty, order, neatness, household adornment and management, and the amenities of dress and etiquette as prescribed by their own standard. In maternal affection, tenderness, anxiety, patience, and long suffering, the Japanese mothers need fear no comparison with those in other climes. As educators of their children, the Japanese women are peers to the mothers of any civilization in the care and minuteness of their training, and their affectionate tenderness and self-sacrificing devotion within the limits of their knowledge. The Japanese maiden is bright, intelligent, interesting, modest, ladylike, and self-reliant. What the American girl is in Europe the Japanese maiden is among Asiatics.

So far our attention has been devoted exclusively to the Japanese proper, that is, to those people inhabiting Hondo and the other islands to the south of it. But a few words remain to be said about a people, who, while forming part of the empire of 318Japan, yet differ essentially from the great majority of the population. They are the Ainos, or the original inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, now only to be found in the island of Yesso. These people are decreasing in numbers year by year, and will soon be named with those extinct races of whom it is only known that they have once existed. The Ainos, however, have had their day of glory. In olden times, several centuries before our era, they were masters of all the north part of the island of Hondo, and their power equalled that of the Japanese; but little by little their influence diminished, and they were driven before the Japanese, and finally confined to the island of Yesso. There the Japanese pursued them and a long war ensued, but finally reduced them to complete submission about the fourteenth century. Since then the state of servitude in which their conquerors have held them has been such as to stifle even the instinct of progress within them, so that in the nineteenth century they offer the image of a people hardly past its first infancy.

The origin of the Ainos is unknown. They themselves are perfectly ignorant of their own history, and they have no written documents existing which could throw light upon their past. It is most probable that they originally came from the far interior of the Asiatic continent, for they bear not the slightest resemblance to any of their neighbors in the tribes scattered along the eastern coasts of the north of Asia. The Ainos are generally small, thick-set, and awkwardly formed; they have wide foreheads and black eyes, not sloping; their skin is fair but sunburnt. Their distinguishing feature is their hairiness, and they never dress their heads or trim their beards. The little children have a bright, intelligent look, which, however, gradually wears away as they grow older. The dwellings are of the simplest construction, and only contain a few implements for hunting and fishing, and some cooking utensils. They are built in small groups or hamlets, never containing more than a hundred individuals. They are a gentle, kindly, hospitable, and even timid people. Fishing is their chief occupation, and hunting is another profitable pursuit. There is no sign of agriculture, nor is any breed of cattle to be found among these people. Dogs are utilized to draw their sledges in winter. Their organization is quite patriarchal. They 321have neither king, princes nor lords, but in every hamlet the affairs of the community are vested in the hands of the oldest and most influential member. Although the intelligence of the Ainos is very little developed, they evince great aptitude for knowledge and eagerly seize every opportunity for acquainting themselves with Japanese laws and customs.

The London Times, in 1859, predicted that “The Chinaman would still be navigating the canals of his country in the crazy old junks of his ancestors when the Japanese was skimming along his rivers in high pressure steamers, or flying across the country behind a locomotive.” The railway is now in fact stretching its iron tracks in every direction over the islands; the telegraph spreads its web all over the country; street car lines are in every city; the printing press rattles merrily in every moderate sized country town; and the Japanese who have always read much, now read ten times more than they ever did before. Technical 322education of the higher kind is telling upon the people, and many works are now undertaken from which the authorities would have shrunk a few years ago as being impossible for them to grapple with. Original investigation in many lines has been pursued, and particularly in the study of earthquake phenomena has Japan given to the world results of extreme value. The influence of the modern scientific spirit is immense and ever growing. Western influence in its better nature is constantly on the increase. It appears to-day as if Japan were to be the civilizing influence in the east of Asia.