entrance, only one mile across, between Shimo-no-seki on the main
island and Mo-ji, the busy colliery port in Kiū-Shū to its eastern
extremity, where it joins the open sea through the Aka-shi and Naru-to
Straits--it widens to forty miles where the Bungo Channel divides
Shi-koku from Kiū-shū--is perhaps the most lovely sheet of salt water
in the world. Studded with many hundreds of islands, every part of
its expanse offers an enchanting prospect, the islets being often in
clusters, making many stretches appear like lakes.
Water enters into the beauty of every Japanese landscape; districts
remote from the sea have their lakes and rivers--generally short,
swiftly-flowing streams, almost, sometimes quite, dry in summer,
exposing beds of pebbles, but rushing torrents in the wet season.
[Illustration:
Keystone View Co.
MODERN YOKOHAMA: THE HARBOUR, SEEN FROM THE HEIGHTS OF THE TOWN]
Biwa is the largest lake in Japan, and far-famed for its scenery;
its area is about the same as that of the Lake of Geneva, and it is
nearly as beautiful. Lake Chū-zen-ji, or Chū-gū-shi, is surrounded by
luxuriant verdure at an altitude of 4,375 ft. above sea-level, and
is surpassed in beauty by the smaller Lake Yumoto, higher up, in the
sulphur-springs region, 5,000 ft. above the sea. There are many other
lovely lakes in Japan, Lake Hakoné amongst them. Those just mentioned
are singled out because they lie in the mountainous district round
Nikkō, a region on the main islands, to the north of Tōkio, presenting,
in their greatest beauty, characteristic features of Japanese inland
scenery--imposing mountains, stately, venerable trees, and grand
waterfalls comparable to those of Norway. The aspect of the Japanese
islands is, as may be inferred, diversified, stern and rugged amidst
the dark forests of the north, smiling in the sunlit regions further
south, beautiful almost everywhere.
[Illustration: OVERLOOKING MODERN TŌKIO, THE CAPITAL OF JAPAN]
[Illustration: Looking over the Bay of 808 Islands]
[Illustration: Sunset among the pine-clad rocks]
[Illustration:
A natural arch The White Co.
SCENES IN MATSUSHIMA BAY, JAPAN]
The land is chiefly mountainous, the ranges running from south-west
to north-east, interspersed with smiling valleys, fertile plains,
chequered into regular squares by the narrow, raised embankments
dividing the rice-fields, with, here and there, wild, desolate moors
in places where even the untiring industry and agricultural skill of
the people could not induce the stubborn ground to yield sustenance.
Where anything useful can possibly be made to grow, the Japanese grow
it. Beside plants of utility, they grow, to a greater extent than in
any other land, plants intended only for pleasure, for the delight they
give the Japanese eye by their beauty.
In no other country are flowers so reverently admired as in Japan;
nowhere are they more skilfully grown and tended. Every month has a
special blossom, and what may be termed its flower festival, when the
people, high and low, rich and poor, go in their tens of thousands
to seek happiness in the contemplation of Nature’s most delicate
productions. The plum-blossom appears about a month after the New Year,
and is followed by the far-famed cherry-flower early in April, when,
in many ancient groves and on many hillsides, the lightest of delicate
clouds, faintly pink, seem to have settled on the trees.
No words can do justice to the exquisite beauty of Japan in
cherry-blossom time; it is then easily to be understood how dear the
flower of the cherry is to the Japanese heart. To the people of Great
Japan it is the emblem of patriotism and of chivalry, sharing their
affections with the chrysanthemum, the badge of the empire. Other
flowers grown to wonderful perfection are the peony, symbolical of
valour; the graceful wistaria, the glowing azalea, the slim-stalked
iris, the convolvulus, or “morning-glory,” in many strange forms, and
the lotus, the sacred flower of Buddhism. Besides these and other
cultivated flowers, Japan possesses wild blossoms galore that fleck
its plains and valleys with colour. The leaves of the maple turn, in
November, to hues of crimson and gold, clothing the woods with a glory
to be equalled only in Canada.
The natural, beauty of Japan has undoubtedly fostered the æsthetic
taste inborn with the Japanese of all classes. High and low, they
admire and enjoy intensely the lovely scenes amidst which they
dwell. This admiration and enjoyment are strong incentives to their
patriotism. It seems to them that their beautiful country must indeed
be _Kami-no-Kuni_, “the Land of the Gods.” To travelled Occidentals,
the scenery of Japan suggests, in places, the Norwegian fjords; in
others, the smiling shores of the Italian lakes; at some points the
coves of Devonshire, the rocky coasts of the Channel Islands, or the
pleasant hills of Surrey. That these impressions are correct is proved
by the fact that Japanese travellers who visit any of these places
never fail to recognise their similarity to some favourite spot in
Japan.
The “backbone” of the southern half of the main island and of the whole
island of Shikoku consists of rock, principally primitive gneiss and
schists; Kiū-shū, Yezo and the northern half of the main island are
partly, the Kurile islands--Chishima--entirely, volcanic. Subterranean
fires still smoulder in many parts of Japan, many of the mountains
being volcanoes, not all of them extinct. Fuji, the glorious cone so
dear to the Japanese heart, uplifting its peak 12,365 ft. from the
surrounding plain, is a volcano that erupted last in January, 1708.
Fifty-one volcanoes, such as Asama and Bandai-san in Eastern Japan,
Aso-san in Kiū-shū, Koma-ga-také in Yezo, have been active in recent
years, some of them, especially Bandai-san, with disastrous results.
Nor do only volcanoes threaten danger to the inhabitants of Japan:
earthquakes are frequent--about 500 shocks yearly--and sometimes
appallingly destructive of life and property.
The great earthquake in the Gifu region, in the central provinces
of the main island, on October 28th, 1891, wrecked two populous
towns--Gifu and Ōgaki--completely destroyed two smaller ones--Kasamatsu
and Takegahana--killed about ten thousand people, and caused more or
less severe wounds to nearly twenty thousand. In Japanese earthquakes,
a great part of the destruction arises from the innumerable fires
that break out when the flimsy houses--mostly of wood, with paper
partitions, in sliding frames, between the rooms--collapse through the
shock, scattering the glowing charcoal from the kitchens amidst heaps
of highly inflammable materials. Earth-tremors bring not only fiery
ruin in their train; they cause at times upheavals of the sea that work
stupendous havoc. On the evening of June 15th, 1896, the north-eastern
coasts of the main island were overwhelmed by a so-called “tidal wave.”
The sea, impelled probably by a seismic convulsion on the bed of the
Northern Pacific, rose in a wave of towering height and, rushing inland
with terrific speed, engulfed whole districts. More than 28,000 lives
were lost, and more than 17,000 people were injured.
[Illustration: Sea-girt gateway of Miya-ima, a famous Shintō shrine
The Sacred Bridge at Nikko
The White Co.
View of Fuji-yama across Motosu
THREE FAMOUS SCENES IN JAPAN]
[Illustration: THE CEMETERY HILL AT NAGASAKI BEFORE THE MODERN
EXPANSION OF THE TOWN]
[Illustration: THE CRATER OF FUJI, THE MOST GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF JAPAN,
MORE THAN TWO MILES HIGH
Japan has fifty volcanoes that have been active in recent years;
this picture shows the crater of the most famous mountain in the
island empire. Fuji, the cone so dear to the Japanese heart,
uplifts its peak 12,365 feet from the plain. It has not erupted
since the beginning of 1708. No other natural feature in Japan
comes so often into its pictures as Fuji.
]
[Illustration: MAP OF THE ISLAND EMPIRE OF JAPAN]
[Illustration: JAPAN AND ITS PEOPLE--II
ARTHUR DIÓSY]
QUALITIES OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE
[Sidenote: The Wonderful Islanders]
It is in presence of great calamities that the best qualities of the
Japanese masses shine brilliantly. Their resignation, their patient
endurance, the altruism that prompts them to mutual help and to
countless acts of kindness; their self-sacrificing bravery in the work
of rescue, the proud honesty with which they will content themselves
with the barest pittance, when relief is distributed, so that enough
may be left for others in greater need--these are only some of the fine
characteristics of the wonderful islanders whose achievements in recent
times have earned the respectful admiration of the world, even of their
late foes. There is, of course, another aspect of their character; they
are not without some of the vices and failings human nature is heir to.
An attempt is made, later in these pages, to describe their moral and
mental characteristics, and in so doing to hold the scales impartially.
[Illustration:
Underwood & Underwood
THE RISING GENERATION IN JAPAN]
According to the census of 1913 there were 52,985,423 subjects of the
Emperor of Japan (excluding Korea), and their number is increasing
steadily and rapidly. The number of males exceeds that of females by
well-nigh a million. The population is very dense in the fertile
regions, and increases so rapidly that emigration is absolutely
necessary. The masses are healthy and strong, capable of great
endurance--a fact brought into striking prominence by the achievements
of the Japanese forces in the Arctic winter of Manchuria, and in its
torrid summer. The Japanese can, as a rule, bear cold much better
than heat. Living thinly clad in unwarmed houses that offer but little
protection and are by day draughty as bird-cages, they early become
inured to cold. The average physique of the upper classes is by no
means so good as that of the manual workers, and is considerably below
the Occidental standards.
[Sidenote: A Race of Little People]
The Japanese are a black-haired race, with smooth skins, varying in
colour through various yellowish shades, from a hue of brown, in the
case of those working in the sun, to a light tint no darker than that
of the Southern European, with comparatively large skulls, prominent
cheek-bones, and a tendency to projecting jaws. They are of small
stature, the average height of the male being only slightly over five
feet (5·02 ft.), that of the female slightly over four feet six inches
(4·66 ft.). In other words, the men are of about the same average
stature as European females, the women proportionately shorter.
[Sidenote: The Two Types of Japanese]
There are, of course, exceptions, some Japanese being of a height
that would cause them to be considered tall amongst Occidentals; but
they appear as giants amongst their diminutive compatriots. Both men
and women have small hands and feet, those of the upper classes being
beautifully shaped. Even amongst manual workers it is not rare to find,
especially amongst females, hands of an aristocratic type. The shapely
appearance of the feet is often spoiled by thick ankles, probably the
result of wearing sandals. The black hair is abundant on the head,
straight and coarse; there is hardly any on the arms, legs and chest.
The eyelashes are scanty, and grow immediately out of the eyelids,
without the “hem” that borders the eyelids of Occidental races. The
eyes are dark, full in the broad-faced, plebeian type, narrow in the
aristocratic cast of countenance. In the latter they are generally set
more or less obliquely, their slanting appearance being enhanced by the
fact that the aperture for the eye seems to have been cut, as it were,
directly in the smooth skin, tightly stretched over the upper part of
the face, not, as in the white races, in a very marked depression under
the brow.
[Illustration: THE CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL: FEAST OF DOLLS IN A JAPANESE
HOME
Japan is the land of love for children, and many quaint customs
are observed for their sake. On the third day of the third month
in each year the Feast of Dolls is held in thousands of Japanese
homes, and the day is one of great delight.
]
[Illustration: THE VARIOUS GRADES OF SOCIETY IN OLD JAPAN
Society in Old Japan was based on the principle that the producer
was worthy of high honour. There were four great classes. At
the top were the _Shi_, the nobility and gentry, warriors,
administrators, and scholars. Next were the _No_, the agricultural
class; thirdly came the _Ko_, craftsmen and artists; and at the
bottom were the _Sho_, traders and bankers. Some of the wealthier
classes were thus at the bottom, because they were not producers
but only circulators.
]
[Sidenote: Physique of the Nation]
[Sidenote: Cleanest Nation in the World]
There are two plainly distinct types in the nation. The majority are
“stocky,” rather squat people, with broad, round faces, rather thick
lips and flat noses; the minority, of the aristocratic type, are more
slenderly built, with long oval face and aquiline nose. In both types
the trunk is long as compared with the legs, their shortness being
probably due, in some measure, to the national habit of sitting on the
floor, in a kneeling posture, the weight of the body being thrown back
on to the heels. Sitting on benches, as in school and in barracks,
necessitated by the introduction of Western educational and military
methods, has somewhat improved the proportions of the Japanese body in
this respect. The admirable gymnastic training given in the schools
to children of both sexes, and, still more, the naval or military
service to which every able-bodied Japanese adult male is liable,
have done wonders in improving the physique of the nation. Statistics
collected by the Army Medical Department clearly show that the race is
gradually growing taller since the introduction of universal service.
The Japanese grow to maturity more rapidly than Occidentals; they also
age earlier. As in other countries, very old women are more numerous
than very aged men. Both the slender, often weakly, upper classes and
the stout plebeians are nimble in their movements, have supple limbs
and remarkably skilful fingers. The workers use their toes to hold
and steady the material on which they are at work, often sitting at
their labour where Occidentals would stand. The great toe is well
separated from the others, owing to the effect of the loop of cord
passing between them to secure the sandal to the foot, the tabi, or
sock, of cotton-cloth being made with a separate compartment for
the great toe. The skin of the whole body is generally of satin-like
smoothness, owing, no doubt, to the very hot baths--at a temperature
of about 110° F.--in which all Japanese indulge at least once a day,
thus maintaining their well-deserved reputation as the cleanest nation
in the world. To the Occidental eye, the majority of Japanese men
are not comely, although there are notable exceptions, presenting
fine faces, of noble and intellectual type. The women are often very
pretty, judged by the Occidental standard; they are nearly always
graceful and charming, owing to their exquisite manners and gentle
voice. The chief element in their charm is undoubtedly their perfect
femininity. There is absolutely nothing masculine about their ways or
their speech, yet, when the need arises, they are capable of courage
and self-sacrifice that places them on the same high level as their
heroic fellow-countrymen. It may safely be asserted that there are no
more dutiful wives, no better mothers. There are certainly no daughters
with a greater sense of filial piety, a virtue that forms the basis of
family life in Japan.
[Illustration:
A lantern-mender
A clock-maker
Coopers at work
Artists
Plasterers at work
A marionette show in the street
The Royal Mail in Old Japan
LIFE AND WORK IN OLD JAPAN: SOME TYPES IN THE ANCIENT CAPITAL]
[Illustration:
Peasant woman reeling silk
Buddhist priest
Mediæval friar
Preparing cotton for spinning
Servant
Samurai bowing
Japanese ladies at their toilet, using burnished metal mirrors
Lady in walking costume
A Japanese lady and her servant, showing the aristocratic and
plebeian types of face
Lady in walking costume
SOME TYPES IN OLD JAPAN: CHIEFLY DEPICTED BY NATIVE ARTISTS]
[Sidenote: The Chief Qualities of the Race]
Throughout the Far East the whole social fabric is based on the family;
the whole state is, indeed, considered as one great family, with the
Emperor at its head. It is the mothers who train Japanese children from
infancy in the spirit of reverence and obedience to parents and elders
in the family circle, and to the Emperor as the supreme chief of the
great national family. And well do the children assimilate the lessons
of obedience and devotion so carefully inculcated by the mother, for
there are none more docile than the boys and girls of Japan, whose
respectful, courteous manners, not only towards their parents, but
towards elder brothers and sisters, earn the admiration of Occidentals.
The chief qualities of the Japanese race are patriotism--which is, with
them, synonymous with loyalty--courage, filial piety, and cleanliness.
In love of country, in self-sacrifice for the common weal, in loyalty
to the sovereign--with them a cult--in reckless gallantry, and in
bodily cleanliness, the Japanese surpass all other nations of our time.
It may be truly said that patriotism is their real religion; it
inspires their magnificent courage in war, on land and sea; it supplies
the incentive of their lives in times of peace, all merely personal
considerations being subordinate to this passionate national feeling.
[Illustration: WINTER IN JAPAN; BY A JAPANESE ARTIST]
The people of Japan are distinguished, besides, by quick intelligence,
a remarkable power of observation--derived, no doubt, from their close
study of Nature, of which they are devoted lovers--by a mastery of
detail, and a very retentive memory, fostered by the system of learning
by rote imported from China, together with the writing by means of
ideographic signs, necessitating the memorising of thousands of
characters standing for words. In politeness they stand first amongst
the nations, every incident of life being attended by strictly-defined
rules of social etiquette, observed by all, not only, as in Occidental
countries, by the more highly educated classes. Their courtesy, though
often degenerating into mere hollow formality, is based on a kindly
regard for the feelings of others, a generous altruism and a consequent
depreciation of self. They are hospitable and open-handed, the giving
of presents attending numerous festivals and many occasions in social
life.
Schooled from babyhood by the rules of their rigid etiquette, Japanese,
young and old, of all classes, are remarkably quiet in their demeanour,
the higher ranks being extremely dignified in manner, and completely
concealing their feelings under an imperturbable mask. They bear pain,
both physical and mental, with Spartan stoicism, their nerves being
much less easily excited than those of Occidentals, so that they have
often been described as “a nation without nerves.” Their apparent
contempt for death arises chiefly from the fact that, to most of them,
the passing out of this world does not imply a total severance from
mundane interests, their general belief being that the spirits of the
departed have cognisance of the doings of those they leave behind. This
idea, inseparable from the ancestor-worship that has prevailed amongst
them from time immemorial, and still prevails, was well exemplified in
their great struggle with Russia, their forces being buoyed up by the
conviction that the spirits of all the warriors who had died for Japan
were fighting side by side with their gallant successors.
[Sidenote: Artistic Taste of the Japanese]
The love of the beautiful in Nature, common to all members of the
Japanese race, is probably one of the chief factors in the artistic
feeling so highly developed among all classes. Their appreciation of
beauty of form and colour, their exquisite sense of appropriateness in
decoration, the delicate restraint so evident in the productions of
their wonderfully skilful, patient artist-craftsmen, are too well known
to require more than passing mention. Even their commonest household
utensils are beautiful in shape, elegant, and well adapted to their
purpose. Their innate good taste has added a delicate refinement to the
vigorous art they received, in early times, from China, chiefly by way
of Korea. Their æsthetic perception enables even the poorest Japanese
to derive intense pleasure from the contemplation of the beautiful,
thus providing them with many delights unknown to the vast majority of
modern Occidentals. Combined with the simplicity and frugality of their
lives, and with their naturally contented spirit, it would seem to
have enabled the Japanese to solve the great problem “how to be happy,
though poor.”
A nation possessing, to a high degree, the virtues and qualities
just enumerated would appear to be living in a perfect Utopia. There
is, however, shade in the picture as well as bright light. This
happy, contented, smiling people, pre-eminent in domestic virtues,
industrious, fond of learning, easily governed, gentle in manners
and speech, capable of rising, in moments of national emergency,
to admirable heights of patriotic heroism and self-sacrifice, is,
after all, human, and consequently tainted with some of the vices
and many of the defects inherent in human nature. The defects of the
Japanese character are, to a great extent, inseparable from their very
virtues and good qualities in their extreme manifestations. Their
intense patriotism is the cause of the anti-foreign spirit still,
unfortunately, rife amongst them. Their country is to them “the Land
of the Gods,” their nation the Elect People, living under the special
protection of Heaven, whose blessings are transmitted to them by the
benevolence of a superhuman sovereign, directly descended, in unbroken
line, from the Sun Goddess.
[Sidenote: National Pride of the Japanese]
With this belief firmly rooted in the minds of the great majority
of the people, it is no wonder that all those who have not the good
fortune to be born Japanese appear to them not only as foreigners, but
as Gentiles. The statesmen of New Japan are profuse in their assurances
that it is the desire of their people to form a unit, on terms of
equality, in the great family of nations.
This assurance is echoed by many Japanese writers; it is in accordance
with the spirit of the tolerant, all-embracing, gentle Buddhist faith,
brimming over with sympathy for all living creatures; it is also in
agreement with the calm, placid tenets of the Chinese philosophy that,
with Buddhism, has to such a great extent moulded the thought of Japan.
Yet those statesmen and writers know full well that in this respect
neither Buddhism, nor Chinese philosophy, nor the cosmopolitan spirit
of the middle period of the nineteenth century, nor the brotherhood of
man inculcated by true Christianity, has succeeded, to any appreciable
degree, in causing the Japanese to look upon foreigners as brothers, or
even on the same plane with their own heaven-descended race.
[Illustration: LADY AT HER TOILET: BY A JAPANESE ARTIST]