The Mikado's Empire/Buku 1/Bab 2

II.

PENDUDUK ASLI

Dalam menyusuri cikal bakal bangsa Jepang, kami harus menempatkannya pada posisi geografi jaringan pulau mereka, dengan rujukan pada kedekatannya dengan daratan utama, dan keadaannya dalam arus samudra. Tradisi dan sejarah Jepang banyk diberitahukan kami terkait rakyat Jepang saat ini — entah mereka secara khusus merupakan bangsa pribumi, atau sekumpulan berbagai kelompok etnis. Namun malangnya, dari kajian bahasa, fisiognomi, dan karakteristik ragawi, peninggalan budaya kuno, geologi sejarah, dan relik perjuangan manusia dengan alam pada zaman awal, dan ragam umat manusia yang sebenarnya kini meliputi dalam wilayah kekuasaan Mikado! Kami dapat memahami banyak leluhur Jepang saat ini.

Tanduk jaringan berbentuk bulan sabit Dai Nippon dekat dengan benua Asia di ujung selatan Korea dan Siberia. Nyaris keseluruhan Saghalin dengan mudah mencapai benua dengan perahu. Di titik yang disebut Norato, bagian utara dari paralel kelima puluh, namun berjarak lima mil, dapat mudah dilihat. Air disana terlalu dangkal sehingga kapal-kapal jung tak dapat melintasinya kala surut. Setelah arus angin jangka panjang, tanah ditinggalkan kering dan para penduduk asli dapat berjalan di wilayah kering menuju Asia. Selama tiga atau empat bulan dalam setahun, wilayah tersebut sangat beku, sehingga, dengan segerlombolan anjing atau berjalan kaki, komunikasi seringkali menjadi persoalan jam tunggal. Dalam atlas Jepang, pada peta Karafto, sebuah tepian pasir diselimuti oleh perairan yang sangat dangkal dikatakan menduduki tempat antara pulau dan benua. Orang bahkan tanpa perahu dapat menjadikannya tempat gerbang masuk menuju Saghalin. Orang yang memasuki Jepang dari utara akan mendapati sejumlah persefiaan pangan yang melimpah dan iklim musiman di wilayah selatan. Pada kenyataannya, komunikasi berlanjut timbul antara daratan utama Asia dan Saghalin.

• Aku memakai istilah "penduduk asli" untuk penyetaraan, karena tak ada arti yang sebenarnya bahwa orang-orang yang disoroti olehku merupakan orang-orang pertama. Sebutan tersebut dibuat dan dipakai oleh beberapa cendekiawan penduduk asli yang ada di Jepang pada peradaban pra-Aino; walaupun ini menjadi bayangan pembuktian, karena ada pembuktian peradaban Melayu kuno lebih tinggi ketimbang kondisi Melayu saat ini. Dengan istilah "penduduk asli", aku mengartikan orang-orang yang ditemukan di wilayah tersebut berada pada fajar sejarah.

Dalam mengkompilasikan bab ini, selain bahanku sendiri dan sumber yang diambil dari buku-buku, murid-murid dan penduduk Jepang di Yezo, aku memakai catatan penjelajah Inggris, Kapten Bridgeford dan Blakiston, dan Mr. Ernest Satow, dan laporan dan catatan para insinyur dan geologis Amerika yang bertugas di Kai Taku Shi (Badan Pembangunan Yezo), yang dihimpun pada 1869 oleh Pemerintahan Kekaisaran Jepang. Dari situ, aku sangat berhutang pada Profesor B. 8. Lyman, Henry S. Munroe, dan Thomas Antisell, M.D.

Jepang menduduki posisi rentan dalam gelombang samudra yang mengalir dari Samudra Hindia dan semenanjung Malaya. Cabang gelombang khatulistiwa besar Pasifik, disebut Kuro Shiwo, atau Arus Hitam, pada catatan berwarnanya, mengalir ke arah barat melewati Luzon, Formosa, dan Kepulauan Liu Kiu, membentang di titik selatan Kiushiu, dan terkadang, pada musim panas, menghimpun aliran menuju Laut Jepang. Dengan kecepatan tinggi, kami dapat mencapai pesisir timur Kiushiu, selatan Shikoku ; sehingga, dengan kecepatan yang mumpuni, melewati kelompok pulau di selatan Teluk Yedo dan Oshima ; dan, di titik utara kecil dari lintang Tokio, tempat tersebut meliputi pesisir Jepang, dan mengalir ke timur laut menuju pesisir Amerika. Dengan beragam angin, siklon, dan badai dadakan dan kencang makin bertumbuh, karena lazim terjadi di pantai Asia Timur, hal tersebut dapat mudha dilihat bahwa pergerakan utara perahu dan manusia dari kepulauan Melayu, dan melewati pesisir Kiushiu, Shikoku, dan pesisir barat Hondo dengan orang-orang dari selatan dan barat, telah menjadi proses biasa dan berkelanjutan. Ini ditunjukkan pada fakta dalam sejarah Jepang, pada zaman kuno dan modern, dan terjadi nyaris setiap tahun pada masa sekarang.

Hal ini nampak sangat memungkinkan bahwa segerombolan orang liar yang timbul dari utara, menuju ke selatan lewat perairan kaya dan iklim hangat, atau berhadapan dengan imigrasi berturut-turut dari samudra. Terdapat bukti mencolok dari sejarah Jepang soal pemukiman pulau utama yang dibuat oleh Aino, segerombolan orang liar yang keturunannya yang kini menghuni Yezo. Shikoku dan Kiushiu dihuni oleh ras belasteran, membentang dari berbagai pesisir Asia Selatan. Kala penakluk mendarat di Kiushiu, atau, dalam istilah krama Jepang, "kala para leluhur ilahi kami turun dari surga ke bumi when," mereka mendapati wilayah tersebut dihuni oleh segerombolan orang liar, di bawah organisasi persukuan, tinggal di desa-desa, yang masing-masing diatur oleh seorang kepala suku. Mula-mula menaklukan penduduk asli Kiushiu dan Shikoku, mereka bergerak ke pulau utama, bertikai dan menekan Aino, yang kemudian disebut Ebiso, atau barbar, dan menghimpun ibukota mereka tak jauh dari Kioto. Namun, Aino tak melawannya pada saat itu dan operasi militer berkelanjutan dibutuhkan untuk membiarkan mereka bungkam. Baru setelah berabad-abad pertikaian, mereka ditekan dan ditundukkan. Penjelajah saat ini di bagian utara pulau utama melihat sekumpulan tulang-tulang Aino yang dijagal oleh pasukan Jepang lebih dari satu milenium lampau. Salah satu tumpukannya berada di dekat Morioka, Rikuchiu, yang berukuran sangat besar dan disebut " Yezo mori " (Tumpukan Aino ), yang sangat terkenal, terdiri dari tulang-tulang penduduk asli yang dijagal, satu per satu, oleh shogun (panglima) Jepang, Tamura, yang dikenal karena memiliki tinggi enam kaki, dan sebagian besar kemenangan berdarahnya atas Ebisu.

Selama berabad-abad, perbedaan antara penakluk dan pihak yang ditaklukkan, bagai Saxon dan Norman di Inggris, dipertahankan; namun sepanjang perpaduan ras tersebut berlangsung, dan membuat rakyat Jepang menjadi homogen. Sisa-sisa Aino di Yezo, yang tertutup oleh selat Tsugaru dari Hondo, mempertahankan kemurnian darah penduduk asli.

Cikal bakal tradisional AIno, dikatakan diberikan oleh diri mereka sendiri, walau aku menduga cerita tersebut merupakan reka cipta para penakluk atau orang Jepang, yakni sebagai berikut: Seorang pangeran tersohor bernama Kamui, di salah satu kerajaan di Asia, memiliki tiga putri. Salah satu dari mereka menjadi tujuan paling menonjol dari ayahnya, yang tubuhnya ditutupi dengan rambut, keluar dari istananya di tengah malam, dan kabur ke pesisir laut. Disana, ia mendapati perahu yang ditinggalkan, yang hanya berisi seekor anjung besar. GAadis tersebut memutuskan untuk menjadikannya satu-satunya penuntunnya menuju perjalanan ke beberapa tempat di Timur. Selama berbulan-bulan berjelajah, putri raja muda tersebut mencapai tempat tak berpenghuni di pegunungan, dan melahirkan dua anak, putra dan putri. Mereka adalah leluhur ras Ainu. Mereka kemudian menikah, entah antar satu sama lain, dan juga dengan beruang pegunungan. Buah dari pemasangan tersebut adalah pria yang sangat berani, yang setelah hidup lama di sekitaran tempat kelahirannya, berangkat ke utara jauh. Disana, mereka menetap di tanah datar yang tinggi dan susah dimasukki; dan, secara abadi, mereka diarahkan, lewat pengaruh magis mereka, untuk bertindak dan mentakdirkan orang-orang yang kemudian disebut Ainos.

Istilah "Aino" adalah sebutan modern, yang diterapkan oleh Jepang. Penyebutannya, seperti dikatakan oleh beberapa cendekiawan asli yang memberitahukanku, berasal dari kata inu, yang artinya anjing. Yang lainnya menganggap bahwa ini merupakan singkatan dari ai no ko, "Muara tengah ;" yang merupakan pembuahan antara manusia dan hewan. Atau, jika Jepang adalah pemercaya teori yang disebut belakangan sebagai "Darwinian," sebuah gagasan yang tak memiliki arti tak diketahui dalam spekulasi mereka, Aino dapat menjadi "mata rantai yang hilang," atau "perantara" antara manusia dan hewan. Dalam sastra Jepang kuno, dan kemungkinan sampai abad kedua belas, Aino disebut Ebisu, atau sekelompok orang liar.

Pembuktian dari bahasa leluhur Aino di Jepang sangatlah kuat. Sepanjang dikaji, bahasa Aino dan dialek Altai dikatakan sangat mirip. Bahasa Aino dan Jepang tak berbeda lebih dari dialek Tionghoa dari satu sama lain. Aino dan Jepang memiliki sedikit kesulitan dalam belajar mengucapkan bahasa satu sama lain. Spesimen paling kuno dari bahasa Jepang ditemukan untuk menunjukkan tingkat kemiripan Aino dengan Jepang modern.

Pembuktian lebih lanjut kebiasaan umum Hondo oleh Aino muncul dalam nama-nama geografi yang diterapkan pada gunung-gunung dan sungai-sungai. Nama, suara musik, dan signifikansi mereka, menunjukkan kehidupan ras masa lampau, seperti nama-nama manis "Juniata" dan "Delaware," atau "Niagara," "Katahdin," dan "Tuscarora " menunjukkan kejayaan kuno dari penduduk asli Amerika yang nyaris punah, yang mungkin bersaudara dengan Aino. Nama-nama tersebut muncul di utara, khususnya di provinsi-provinsi utara paralel ketiga puluh delapan, jarang terjadi di selatan, dan dalam kebanyakan kasus kehilangan pengucapan kuno mereka karena selama berabad-abad bertutur dengan bahasa Jepang.

Bukti penduduk asli masih ditemukan dalam relik-relik Zaman Batu di Jepang. Ukiran batu, busur dan panah, alat ukir, alat penajam, alat dapur dan berbagai benda lainnya, seringkali didapati, atau ditemukan di musim dan rumah-rumah pribadi. Meskipun diselimuti dengan tanah selama berabad-abad, benda-benda tersebut nampaknya berasal dari gubuk Aino di Yezo. Dalam jumlah contoh, gagasan adat dan penaungan yang sangat aneh, baik Jepang maupun Aino, bersifat sama, namun lebih termodifikasi.

Di antara banyak ragam, dua jenis penampilan menonjol yang berbeda ditemukan pada rakyat Jepang. Di kalangan atas, wajah oval, panjang, menarik dengan penampilan yang sangat memikat, bola mata yang sangat cekung, mata yang menusuk, pandangan mata yang tertuju, alis ke atas dan runcing, kepala yang tinggi dan sempit, hidung besar, mulut seperti ujung kapas, rahang yang lancip, ktangan dan kaki kecil, sangat bersebrangan dengan wajah datar nan bundar, mata yang kurang tajam nyaris setingkat dengan wajahnya, dan hidup mancung, meluas dan menurun pada keturunan-keturunannya. Jenis pertama umumnya ditemukan di kalangan kelas-kelas tinggi — bangsawan dan priyayi; jenis berikutnya umum di kalangan petani dan tenaga kerja. Salah satunya adalah Aino, atau orang dari utara; yang lainnya, orang dari utara, atau keturunan Yamato . Disertai dengan perbedaan yang secara jelas ditunjukkan dalam jenis yang sangat berlawanan dari wanita Jepang dan pelayannya, atau pengurus anak. Aino modern ditemukan tinggal di pulau-pulau Yezo, Saghalin, Kuril, dan sejumlah pulau sekitar. Mereka berjumlah kurang dari dua puluh ribu secara keseluruhan.

Pada kehidupan Aino saat ini, seni rupa dan tradisi Jepang menggambarkannya dalam fajar sejarah: penampilan rendah, tebal - berjenggot besar, rambut acak-acakan berwarna hitam, mata nyaris menyudut ke kanan dengan hidung, yang pendek dan tebal, dan berotot di lengan dan lutut, dengan tangan dan kaki yang besar. Bahasa, agama, busana, dan kebiasaan umum mereka sama dengan masa lalu. Mereka tak memiliki abjad, tak memiliki penulisan, tak memiliki penjumlahan di atas seribu. Beras, tembakai, pipa, rajutan kapas dan pemujaan kepada Yoshitsun, merupakan inovasi yang sebenarnya — langkah-langkah dalam skala peradaban. Sejak Restorasi 1868, sejumlah Aino dari kedua jenis kelamin tinggal di Tokio, di bawah perintah Kai Takfl Shi (Badan Kolonisasi Yezo). Aku seringkali memiliki kesempatan mengkaji penampilan fisik, bahasa, dan perilaku mereka.

Their dwellings in Yezo are made of poles covered over with thick straw mats, with thatched roofs, the windows and doors being holes covered with the same material. The earth beaten down hard forms the floor, on which a few coarse mattings or rough boards are laid. Many of the huts are divided into two apartments, separated by a mud and wattle partition. The fire-place, with its pot-hooks, occupies the centre. There being no chimney, the interior walls become thick- ly varnished with creosote, densely packed with flakes of carbon, or festooned with masses of soot. They are adorned with the imple- ments of the chase, and the skulls of animals taken in hunting. Scarcely any furniture except cooking-pots is visible. The empyreu- matical odor and the stench of fish do not conspire to make the visit to an Aino hut very pleasant.

Raised benches along two walls of the hut afford a sleeping or lounging place, doubtless the original of the tokonoma of the modern Japanese houses. They sit, like the Japanese, on their heels. Their food is mainly fish and sea-weed, with rice, beans, sweet-potatoes, mil- let, and barley, which, in Southern Yezo, they cultivate in small plots. They obtain rice, tobacco, sake, or rice-beer, an exhilarating beverage which they crave as the Indians do " fire-water," and cotton clothing from their masters, the Japanese. The women weave a coarse, strong, and durable cloth, ornamented in various colors, and ropes from the barks of trees. They make excellent dug-out canoes from elm-trees. Their dress consists of an under, and an upper garment having tight sleeves and reaching to the knees, very much like that of the Japanese. The woman's dress is longer, and the sleeves wider. They wear, also, straw leggings and straw shoes. Their hair, which is astonishingly thick, is clipped short in front, and falls in masses down the back and sides to the shoulders. It is of a true black, whereas the hair of the Japanese, when freed from unguents, is of a dark or reddish brown, and I have seen distinctly red hair among the latter. The beard and mustaches of the Ainos are allowed to attain their fullest develop- ment, the former often reaching the length of twelve or fourteen inch- es. Hence, Ainos take kindly to the " hairy foreigners," Englishmen and Americans, whose bearded faces the normal Japanese despise, while to a Japanese child, as I found out in Fukui, a man with mustaches ap- pears to be only a dragon without wings or tail. Some, not all, of the

3

32

THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

older men, but very few of the younger, have their bodies and limbs covered with thick black hair, about an inch long. The term " hairy Kuriles," applied to them as a characteristic hairy race, is a mythical expression of book-makers, as the excessively hirsute covering supposed to be universal among the Ainos is not to be found by the investi- gator on the ground. Their skin is brown, their eyes are horizontal, and their noses low, with the lobes well rounded out. The women are of proportionate stature to the men, but, unlike them, are very ugly. I never met with a handsome Aino fe- male, though I have seen many of the Yezo women. Their mouths seem like those of ogres, and to stretch from ear to ear. This arises from the fact that they tattoo a

An Aiuo Chief from Yezo. (From a photograph wide band of dirty blue, like taken in TOkio, 18T2.) , , , , . , ^. . .

the woad of the ancient Brit- ons, around their lips, to the extent of three-quarters of an inch, and still longer at the tapering extremities. The tattooing is so com- pletely done, that many persons mistake it for a daub of blue paint, like the artificial exaggeration of a circus clown's mouth. They in- crease their hideousness by joining their eyebrows over the nose by a fresh band of tattooing. This practice is resorted to in the case of married women and females who are of age, just as that of blacken- ing the teeth and shaving the eyebrows is among the Japanese.

They are said to be faithful wives and laborious helpmates, their moral qualities compensating for their lack of physical charms. The women assist in hunting and fishing, often possessing equal skill with the men. They carry their babies pickapack, as the Japanese moth- ers, except that the strap passing under the child is put round the mother's forehead. Polygamy is permitted.

Their weapons are of the rudest form. The three-pronged spear is used for the salmon. The single -bladed lance is for the bear, their most terrible enemy, which they regard with superstitious reverence. Their bows are simply peeled boughs, three feet long. The arrows

THE ABORIGINES. 33

are one foot shorter, and, like those used by the tribes on the coast of Siberia and in Formosa, have no feather on the shaft. Their pipes are of the same form as those so common in Japan and China ; and one obtained from an Aino came from Santan, a place in Amurland.

The Ainos possess dogs, which they use in hunting, understand the use of charcoal and candles, make excellent baskets and wicker-work of many kinds; and some of their fine bark -cloth and ornamented weapons for their chiefs show a skill and taste that compare very fa- vorably with those exhibited by the North American Indians. Their oars, having handle* fixed crosswise, or sculls made in two pieces, are almost exactly like those of the Japanese. Their river-canoes are dug out of a log, usually elm. Two men will fashion one in five days. For the sea-coast, they use a frame of wood, lacing on the sides with bark fibre. They are skillful canoe-men, using either pole or paddle.

The language of the Aino is rude and poor, but much like the Jap- anese. It resembles it so closely, allowing for the fact that it is utter- ly unpolished and undeveloped, that it seems highly probable it is the original of the present Japanese tongue. They have no written char- acter, no writing of any sort, no literature. A further study may pos- sibly reveal valuable traditions held among them, which at present they are not known by me to have.

In character and morals, the Ainos are stupid, good-natured, brave, honest, faithful, peaceful, and gentle. The American and English trav- elers in Yezo agree in ascribing to them these qualities. Their meth- od of salutation is to raise the hands, with the palms upward, and stroke the beard. They understand the rudiments of politeness, as several of their verbal expressions and gestures indicate.

Their religion consists in the worship of kami, or spirits. They do not appear to have any special minister of religion or sacred struct- ure.* They have festivals commemorative of certain events in the

• Some visitors to the Aino villages in Yezo declare that they have noticed

there the presence of the phallic shrines and symbols. It might be interesting if this assertion, and the worship of these symbols by the Ainos, were clearly proved. It would help to settle definitely the question of the origin in Japan of this oldest form of fetich worship, the evidences of which are found all over the Nippon island-chain, including Tezo. I have noticed the prevalence of these shrines and symbols especially in Eastern and Northern Japan, having counted as many as a dozen, and these by the roadside, in a trip to Nikko. The barren of both sexes worship them, or offer them ex voto. In Sagami, Kadzusa, and even in Tokio itself, they were visible as late as 1874, cut in stone and wood. Former- ly the toy-shops, porcelain-shops, and itinerant venders of many wares were well supplied with them, made of various materials; they were to be seen in the cor-

34 THE MIKADO'S EMPIRE.

past, and they worship the spirit of Yoshitsune, a Japanese hero, who is supposed to have lived among them in the twelfth century, and who taught them some of the arts of Japanese civilization.

The outward symbols of their religion are sticks of wood two or three feet long, which they whittle all around toward the end into shavings, until the smooth wand contains a mass of pendent curls, as seen in the engraving, page 32. They insert several of these in the ground at certain places, which they hold sacred. The Ainos also deify mountains, the sea, which furnishes their daily food, bears, the forests, and other natural objects, which they believe to possess intel- ligence. These wands with the curled shavings are set up in every place of supposed danger or evil omen. The traveler in Yezo sees them on precipices, gorges of mountains, dangerous passes, and river> banks.

When descending the rapids of a river in Yezo, he will notice that his Aino boatmen from time to time will throw one of these wands into the river at every dangerous point or turning. The Ainos pray raising their hands above their heads. The Buddhist bonzes have in vain attempted to convert them to Buddhism. They have rude songs, which they chant to their kami, or gods, and to the deified sea, forest, mountains, and bears, especially at the close of the hunting and fish- ing season, in all affairs of great importance, and at the end of the year. The following is given as a specimen  :

" To the sea which nourishes us, to the forest that protects us, we present our grateful thanks. You are two mothers that nourish the same child ; do not be angry if we leave one to go to the other."

" The Ainos will always be the pride of the forest and the sea."

The inquirer into the origin of the Japanese must regret that as yet we know comparatively little of the Ainos and their language. Any opinion hazarded on the subject may be pronounced rash. Yet, after a study of all the obtainable facts, I believe they unmistakably

nucopia-bannere at New-year's, paraded in the festivals, and at unexpected times and places disturbed the foreign spectator. It was like a glimpse of life in the antediluvian world, or of ancient India, whence doubtless they came, to see evi- dences of this once widely prevalent form of early religion. Buddhist priests whom I have consulted affirm, with some warmth, that they arose in the " wick- ed time of Ashikaga," though the majority of natives, learned and unlearned, say they are the relics of the ancient people, or aborigines. In 1872 the mikado's Government prohibited the sale or exposure of these emblems in any form or shape, together with the more artistic obscenities, pictures, books, carvings, and photographs, sent out from the studios of Paris and London.

THE ABORIGINES. 35

point to the Ainos as the primal ancestors of the Japanese ; that the mass of the Japanese people of to-day are substantially of Aino stock. An infusion of foreign blood, the long effects of the daily hot baths and the warm climate of Southern Japan, of Chinese civilization, of agricultural instead of the hunter's method of life, have wrought the change between the Aino and the Japanese.

It seems equally certain that almost all that the Japanese possess which is not of Chinese, Corean, or Tartar origin has descended from the Aino, or has been developed or improved from an Aino model. The Ainos of Yezo hold politically the same relation to the Japanese as the North American Indians do to the white people of the United States ; but ethnically they are, with probability bordering very closely on certainty, as the Saxons to the English.*

• I need scarcely, except to relieve, by borrowed humor, the dull weighing of

facts, and the construction of an opinion void of all dogmatism, notice the as- sertion elaborated at length by some Americans, Scotchmen, and others too, for aught I know, that the Ainos are the "ten lost tribes of Israel," or that they are the descendants of the sailors and gold-hunters sent out by King Solo- mon to gain spoil for his temple at Jerusalem. Really, this search after the "lost tribes" — or have they consolidated into the Wandering Jew  ? — is becoming absurd. They are the most discovered people known. They have been found in America, Britain, Persia, India, China, Japan, and in Tezo. I know of but one haystack left to find this needle in, and that is Corea. It will undoubtedly be found there. It has been kindly provided that there are more worlds for these Alexanders to conquer. It is now quite necessary for the archaeological respect- ability of a people that they be the " lost tribes." To the inventory of wonders in Japan some would add that of her containing " the dispersed among the Gen- tiles," notwithstanding that the same claim has been made for a dozen other nations. It might be well for the man who is searching anxiously for his spec- tacles to feel on the top of his head. If these would-be discoverers would dem- onstrate that the "ten tribes of Israel " were ever "lost," in the migratory or geographical sense, they might accomplish more satisfactory work than going up and down the world, ringing a bell for a people whose "loss" may be as imaginary as the spectacles on the pate aforesaid. For the benefit of such, I beg to append one of the Japanese " Tales for Little People :"

Little Boy loq. " Old daddy, get me my kite, if you please."

Old Man. " Oh, where is it, my boy  ? Is that it in the tree opposite  ?"

Boy. "No; that is a fish-hawk."

Old Man. " Surely, then, it must be there in the fire. Look out !"

Boy. " No, daddy; that is a crow."

Old Man. "Then, where can it be, I wonder?"

Boy. " Why, daddy, it is there on your head — caught in your hair."

Old Man. " So It is, I declare. I thought it was a hawk that had caught me by the hair."