The Symbolism of Seaweed—Afternoon Visitors—An Infant Prodigy—A Feat in
Caligraphy—Child Worship—A Borrowed Dress—A _Trousseau_—House
Furniture—The Marriage Ceremony.
KUBOTA, _July_ 25.
THE weather at last gives a hope of improvement, and I think I shall
leave to-morrow. I had written this sentence when Ito came in to say
that the man in the next house would like to see my stretcher and
mosquito net, and had sent me a bag of cakes with the usual bit of
seaweed attached, to show that it was a present. The Japanese believe
themselves to be descended from a race of fishermen; they are proud of
it, and Yebis, the god of fishermen, is one of the most popular of the
household divinities. The piece of seaweed sent with a present to any
ordinary person, and the piece of dried fish-skin which accompanies a
present to the Mikado, record the origin of the race, and at the same
time typify the dignity of simple industry.
Of course I consented to receive the visitor, and with the mercury at
84°, five men, two boys, and five women entered my small, low room, and
after bowing to the earth three times, sat down on the floor. They had
evidently come to spend the afternoon. Trays of tea and sweetmeats were
handed round, and a _labako-bon_ was brought in, and they all smoked, as
I had told Ito that all usual courtesies were to be punctiliously
performed. They expressed their gratification at seeing so “honourable”
a traveller. I expressed mine at seeing so much of their “honourable”
country. Then we all bowed profoundly. Then I laid Brunton’s map on the
floor and showed them my route, showed them the Asiatic Society’s
Transactions, and how we read from left to right, instead of from top to
bottom, showed them my knitting, which amazed them, and my Berlin work,
and then had nothing left. Then they began to entertain me, and I found
that the real object of their visit was to exhibit an “infant prodigy,” a
boy of four, with a head shaven all but a tuft on the top, a face of
preternatural thoughtfulness and gravity, and the self-possessed and
dignified demeanour of an elderly man. He was dressed in scarlet silk
_hakama_, and a dark, striped, blue silk _kimono_, and fanned himself
gracefully, looking at everything as intelligently and courteously as the
others. To talk child’s talk to him, or show him toys, or try to amuse
him, would have been an insult. The monster has taught himself to read
and write, and has composed poetry. His father says that he never plays,
and understands everything just like a grown person. The intention was
that I should ask him to write, and I did so.
It was a solemn performance. A red blanket was laid in the middle of the
floor, with a lacquer writing-box upon it. The creature rubbed the ink
with water on the inkstone, unrolled four rolls of paper, five feet long,
and inscribed them with Chinese characters, nine inches long, of the most
complicated kind, with firm and graceful curves of his brush, and with
the ease and certainty of Giotto in turning his O. He sealed them with
his seal in vermilion, bowed three times, and the performance was ended.
People get him to write _kakemonos_ and signboards for them, and he had
earned 10 _yen_, or about £2, that day. His father is going to travel to
Kiyôto with him, to see if any one under fourteen can write as well. I
never saw such an exaggerated instance of child worship. Father, mother,
friends, and servants, treated him as if he were a prince.
The house-master, who is a most polite man, procured me an invitation to
the marriage of his niece, and I have just returned from it. He has
three “wives” himself. One keeps a _yadoya_ in Kiyôto, another in
Morioka, and the third and youngest is with him here. From her limitless
stores of apparel she chose what she considered a suitable dress for
me—an under-dress of sage green silk _crêpe_, a _kimono_ of soft, green,
striped silk of a darker shade, with a fold of white _crêpe_, spangled
with gold at the neck, and a girdle of sage green corded silk, with the
family badge here and there upon it in gold. I went with the
house-master, Ito, to his disgust, not being invited, and his absence was
like the loss of one of my senses, as I could not get any explanations
till afterwards.
The ceremony did not correspond with the rules laid down for marriages in
the books of etiquette that I have seen, but this is accounted for by the
fact that they were for persons of the _samurai_ class, while this bride
and bridegroom, though the children of well-to-do merchants, belong to
the _heimin_.
In this case the _trousseau_ and furniture were conveyed to the
bridegroom’s house in the early morning, and I was allowed to go to see
them. There were several girdles of silk embroidered with gold, several
pieces of brocaded silk for _kimonos_, several pieces of silk _crêpe_, a
large number of made-up garments, a piece of white silk, six barrels of
wine or _saké_, and seven sorts of condiments. Jewellery is not worn by
women in Japan.
The furniture consisted of two wooden pillows, finely lacquered, one of
them containing a drawer for ornamental hairpins, some cotton _futons_,
two very handsome silk ones, a few silk cushions, a lacquer workbox, a
spinning-wheel, a lacquer rice bucket and ladle, two ornamental iron
kettles, various kitchen utensils, three bronze _hibachi_, two
_tabako-bons_, some lacquer trays, and _zens_, china kettles, teapots,
and cups, some lacquer rice bowls, two copper basins, a few towels, some
bamboo switches, and an inlaid lacquer _étagère_. As the things are all
very handsome the parents must be well off. The _saké_ is sent in
accordance with rigid etiquette.
The bridegroom is twenty-two, the bride seventeen, and very comely, so
far as I could see through the paint with which she was profusely
disfigured. Towards evening she was carried in a _norimon_, accompanied
by her parents and friends, to the bridegroom’s house, each member of the
procession carrying a Chinese lantern. When the house-master and I
arrived the wedding party was assembled in a large room, the parents and
friends of the bridegroom being seated on one side, and those of the
bride on the other. Two young girls, very beautifully dressed, brought
in the bride, a very pleasing-looking creature dressed entirely in white
silk, with a veil of white silk covering her from head to foot. The
bridegroom, who was already seated in the middle of the room near its
upper part, did not rise to receive her, and kept his eyes fixed on the
ground, and she sat opposite to him, but never looked up. A low table
was placed in front, on which there was a two-spouted kettle full of
_saké_, some _saké_ bottles, and some cups, and on another there were
some small figures representing a fir-tree, a plum-tree in blossom, and a
stork standing on a tortoise, the last representing length of days, and
the former the beauty of women and the strength of men. Shortly a _zen_,
loaded with eatables, was placed before each person, and the feast began,
accompanied by the noises which signify gastronomic gratification.
After this, which was only a preliminary, the two girls who brought in
the bride handed round a tray with three cups containing _saké_, which
each person was expected to drain till he came to the god of luck at the
bottom.
The bride and bridegroom then retired, but shortly reappeared in other
dresses of ceremony, but the bride still wore her white silk veil, which
one day will be her shroud. An old gold lacquer tray was produced, with
three _saké_ cups, which were filled by the two bridesmaids, and placed
before the parents-in-law and the bride. The father-in-law drank three
cups, and handed the cup to the bride, who, after drinking two cups,
received from her father-in-law a present in a box, drank the third cup,
and then returned the cup to the father-in-law, who again drank three
cups. Rice and fish were next brought in, after which the bridegroom’s
mother took the second cup, and filled and emptied it three times, after
which she passed it to the bride, who drank two cups, received a present
from her mother-in-law in a lacquer box, drank a third cup, and gave the
cup to the elder lady, who again drank three cups. Soup was then served,
and then the bride drank once from the third cup, and handed it to her
husband’s father, who drank three more cups, the bride took it again, and
drank two, and lastly the mother-in-law drank three more cups. Now, if
you possess the clear-sightedness which I laboured to preserve, you will
perceive that each of the three had inbibed nine cups of some generous
liquor! {168}
After this the two bridesmaids raised the two-spouted kettle and
presented it to the lips of the married pair, who drank from it
alternately, till they had exhausted its contents. This concluding
ceremony is said to be emblematic of the tasting together of the joys and
sorrows of life. And so they became man and wife till death or divorce
parted them.
This drinking of _saké_ or wine, according to prescribed usage, appeared
to constitute the “marriage service,” to which none but relations were
bidden. Immediately afterwards the wedding guests arrived, and the
evening was spent in feasting and _saké_ drinking; but the fare is
simple, and intoxication is happily out of place at a marriage feast.
Every detail is a matter of etiquette, and has been handed down for
centuries. Except for the interest of the ceremony, in that light it was
a very dull and tedious affair, conducted in melancholy silence, and the
young bride, with her whitened face and painted lips, looked and moved
like an automaton.