THE CRITIC
IN THE ORIENT
[Illustration:
The Taj Mahal at
Agra. This Tomb,
Built by Shah Jahan
to Immortalize His
Favorite Wife, Is
Conceded to be the
Most Beautiful Building
in the World
"Matchless, perfect in
form, a miracle
Of grace and tenderness
and symmetry,
Pearl-pure against the
sapphire of the
sky"]
THE CRITIC
IN THE ORIENT
GEORGE HAMLIN FITCH
AUTHOR OF
"COMFORT FOUND IN GOOD OLD BOOKS"
"MODERN ENGLISH BOOKS OF POWER"
"THE CRITIC IN THE OCCIDENT"
East is East and West is West and
never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently
at God's great Judgment Seat.
--Kipling
ILLUSTRATED
FROM
PHOTOGRAPHS
PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS · SAN FRANCISCO
_Copyright, 1913_
by PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY
The chapters of this
book appeared originally in the
Sunday supplement of the San Francisco _Chronicle_.
The privilege of reproducing them
here is due to the courtesy of
M. H. de Young, Esq.
The author is greatly
indebted to Isaac O. Upham, Esq.,
for the fine photographs which illustrate the
section on Japan and for several
photographs of Indian
scenes
TO MY FELLOW TOURISTS
ON THE MINNESOTA, WHOSE
COMPANIONSHIP MADE MANY
TEDIOUS JOURNEYS BY LAND
AND SEA ENJOYABLE
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction IX
The Best Results of Travel in the Orient XIII
Japan, The Picture Country of the Orient 1
First Impressions of Japan and the Life of the Japanese--
The Japanese Capital and its Parks and Temples--The
Most Famous City of Temples in all Japan--In Kyoto,
The Ancient Capital of Japan--Kobe, Osaka, The Inland
Sea and Nagasaki--Development of the Japanese Sense of
Beauty--Conclusions on Japanese Life and Character--
Will the Japanese Retain Their Good Traits?
Manila, Transformed by the Americans 49
First Impressions of Manila and Its Picturesque People--
American Work in the Philippine Islands--Scenes in the
City of Manila and Suburbs.
Hongkong, Canton, Singapore and Rangoon 63
Hongkong, the Greatest British Port in the Orient--A
Visit to Canton in Days of Wild Panic--Singapore, the
Meeting Place of Many Races--strange Night Scenes in
the City of Singapore--Characteristic Sights in Burma's
Largest City.
India, The Land of Temples, Palaces and Monuments 93
Calcutta, the Most Beautiful of Oriental Cities--Bathing,
and Burning the Dead at Benares--Lucknow and Cawnpore,
Cities of the Mutiny--The Taj Mahal, the World's
Loveliest Building--Delhi and Its Ancient Mohammedan
Ruins--Scenes in Bombay When the King Arrived--Religion
and Customs of the Bombay Parsees.
Egypt, The Home of Hieroglyphs, Tombs and Mummies 135
Picturesque Oriental Life as Seen in Cairo--Among the
Ruins of Luxor and Karnak--Tombs of The Kings at
Ancient Thebes--Sailing Down the Nile on a Small
Steamer--Before the Pyramids and the Sphinx.
Hints for Travelers 167
Some Suggestions That May Save the Tourist Time and
Money.
Bibliography 171
Books Which Help One to Understand the Orient and
Its People.
Index 175
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
The Taj Mahal at Agra _Frontispiece_
The Yomei-mori Gate, Ieyasu Temple, Nikko _Facing_ 14
The Daibutsu or Great Bronze Buddha at Hyogo 30
Imperial Gate, Fort Santiago, Manila 56
The City of Boats at Canton 74
Hindoos Bathing in the Ganges at Benares 100
Front View of the Taj Mahal, Agra 114
One of the Main Avenues of Bombay 126
The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak 146
PLATES
PLATE
Japan _Following page_ 48
Street Scene, Asakusa Park, Tokyo I
Entrance Hall of Modern Home of a Tokyo Millionaire II
Bronze Lanterns and Sacred Fountain, Shiba Temple, Tokyo III
Sacred Red Bridge at Nikko IV
Avenue of Cryptomeria to Futaaru Temple, Nikko V
Avenue of Cryptomeria Trees, near Nikko VI
Great Bronze Torii, Nikko VII
Stone Lanterns, Kasuga Temple Park, Nara VIII
Religious Procession, Kyoto IX
Scene on Canal, Kyoto X
Street Scene in Kobe XI
A Group of Japanese Schoolboys XII
Japanese Peasant Group by the Roadside XIII
Scene in Large Private Garden, Kyoto XIV
Iris Bed at Horikiri, near Tokyo XV
Private Garden, Kamakura XVI
Manila _Following page_ 62
A Glimpse of the Escolta, Manila XVII
Old Church and Bridge at Pasig XVIII
The Binondo Canal at Manila XIX
On the Malecon Drive, Manila XX
View on a Manila Canal XXI
A Filipino Peasant Girl on the Way to Market XXII
The Carabao Cart in the Philippines XXIII
The Nipa Hut of the Filipino XXIV
Hongkong, Canton, Singapore, Rangoon _Following page_ 91
Queen's Road in Hongkong. XXV
Flower Market in a Hongkong Street XXVI
Coolies Carrying Burdens at Hongkong XXVII
The Spacious Foreign Bund at Hongkong XXVIII
Chinese Junks in Hongkong Harbor XXIX
View of the Water-front at Canton XXX
The New Chinese Bund at Canton XXXI
A Confucian Festival at Singapore XXXII
A Main Street in the Native Quarter of Singapore XXXIII
The Y. M. C. A. Building at Singapore XXXIV
The Great Shwe Dagon Pagoda at Rangoon XXXV
Entrance to the Shwe Dagon Pagoda XXXVI
Burmese Worshipping in the Pagoda at Rangoon XXXVII
Riverside Scene at Rangoon XXXVIII
Trained Elephant Piling Teak at Rangoon XXXIX
Palm Avenue, Royal Lakes, Rangoon XL
India _Following page_ 134
One of the Main Gates to Government House, Calcutta XLI
A Street Scene in Calcutta XLII
The Great Burning Ghat at Benares XLIII
View of the Bathing Ghats at Benares XLIV
A Holy Man of Benares Under His Umbrella XLV
The Residency at Lucknow XLVI
Tomb of Itmad-ul-Daulet at Agra XLVII
The Mutiny Memorial at Cawnpore XLVIII
Detail of Carving in the Jasmine Tower, Agra XLIX
The Jasmine Tower in Agra Fort L
Snap-shot of a Jain Family at Agra LI
The Fort at Agra Which Encloses Many Palaces LII
Kutab Minar, the Arch and the Iron Pillar, near Delhi LIII
Shah Jehan's Heaven on Earth, Delhi LIV
Street View in Delhi LV
A Parsee Tower of Silence at Bombay LVI
Egypt _Following page_ 164
A Typical Street in Old Cairo LVII
An Arab Cafe in One of Cairo's Streets LVIII
Women Water Carriers in Turkish Costume LIX
The Rameseon at Karnak LX
The Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak LXI
An Arab Village on the Nile LXII
The Colossi of Memnon, near Thebes LXIII
The Great Sphinx, Showing the Temple Underneath LXIV
Introduction
This book of impressions of the Far East is called "The Critic in the
Orient," because the writer for over thirty years has been a
professional critic of new books--one trained to get at the best in all
literary works and reveal it to the reader. This critical work--a
combination of rapid reading and equally rapid written estimate of new
publications--would have been deadly, save for a love of books, so deep
and enduring that it has turned drudgery into pastime and an enthusiasm
for discovering good things in every new book which no amount of
literary trash was ever able to smother.
After years of such strenuous critical work, the mind becomes molded in
a certain cast. It is as impossible for me to put aside the habit of the
literary critic as it would be for a hunter who had spent his whole life
in the woods to be content in a great city. So when I started out on
this trip around the world the critical apparatus which I had used in
getting at the heart of books was applied to the people and the places
along this great girdle about the globe.
Much of the benefit of foreign travel depends upon the reading that one
has done. For years my eager curiosity about places had led me to read
everything printed about the Orient and the South Seas. Add to this the
stories which were brought into a newspaper office by globe trotters and
adventurers, and you have an equipment which made me at times seem to be
merely revising impressions made on an earlier journey. When you talk
with a man who has spent ten or twenty years in Japan or China or the
Straits Settlements, you cannot fail to get something of the color of
life in those strange lands, especially if you have the newspaper
training which impels you to ask questions and to drag out of your
informant everything of human interest that the reader will care to
know.
This newspaper instinct, which is developed by training but which one
must possess in large measure before he can be successful in journalism,
seizes upon everything and transmutes it into "copy" for the printer. To
have taken this journey without setting down every day my impressions of
places and people would have been a tiresome experience. What seemed
labor to others who had not had my special training was as the breath in
my nostrils. Even in the debilitating heat of the tropics it was always
a pastime, never a task, to put into words my ideas of the historic
places which I knew so well from years of reading and which I had just
seen. And the richer the background of history, the greater was my
enjoyment in painting with words full of color a picture of my
impressions, for the benefit of those who were not able to share my
pleasure in the actual sight of these famous places of the Far East.
From the mass of newspaper letters written while every impression was
sharp and clear, I have selected what seemed to me most significant and
illustrative. It is only when the traveler looks back over a journey
that he gets the true perspective. Then only is he able to see what is
of general and permanent interest. Most of the vexations of travel I
have eliminated, as these lose their force once they have gone over into
yesterday. What remains is the beauty of scenery, the grandeur of
architecture, the spiritual quality of famous paintings and statues, the
appealing traits of various peoples.
The Best
Results of Travel in
the Orient
The Best Results of Travel in the Orient
This volume includes impressions of the first half of a trip around the
world. The remainder of the journey will fill a companion volume, which
will comprise two chapters devoted to New York and the effect it
produced on me after seeing the great cities of the world. As I have
said in the preface, these are necessarily first impressions, jotted
down when fresh and clear; but it is doubtful whether a month spent in
any of these places would have forced a revision of these first
glimpses, set in the mordant of curiosity and enthusiasm. When the mind
is saturated with the literature of a place, it is quick to seize on
what appeals to the imagination, and this appeal is the one which must
be considered in every case where there is an historical or legendary
background to give salient relief to palace or temple, statue or
painting. Without this background the noblest work seems dull and
lifeless. With it the palace stamps itself upon the imagination, the
temple stirs the emotions, the statue speaks, the painting has a direct
spiritual message.
Certain parts of the Orient are not rich in this imaginative material
which appeals to one fond of history or art; but this defect is
compensated for by an extraordinary picturesqueness of life and a
wonderful luxuriance of nature. The Oriental trip also makes less demand
on one's reading than even a hasty journey through Europe. There are few
pictures, few statues. Only India and Egypt appeal to the sense of the
historical, Japan stands alone, alien to all our ways of life and
thought, but so intensely artistic, so saturated with the intellectual
spirit that it seems to belong to another world than this material,
commercial existence that stamps all European and American life. The new
China furnishes an attractive field of study, but unfortunately when I
visited the country it was in the throes of revolution and travel was
dangerous anywhere outside the great treaty ports.
One of the best results of foreign travel is that it makes one revise
his estimate of alien races. When I started out it was with a strong
prejudice against the Japanese, probably due to my observation of some
rather unlovely specimens whom I had encountered in San Francisco. A
short stay in Japan served to give me a new point of view in regard to
both the people and the country of the Mikado. It was impossible to
escape from the fact that here is a race which places loyalty to country
and personal honor higher than life, and this sentiment was not confined
to the educated and wealthy classes but was general throughout the
nation. Here also is a people so devoted to the culture of beauty that
they travel hundreds of miles to see the annual chrysanthemum and other
flower festivals. And here is a people so devoted to art for art's sake
that even the poor and uneducated have little gardens in their back
yards and houses which reveal a refined taste in architecture and
decoration. The poorest artisans are genuine artists and their work
shows a beauty and a finish only to be found in the work of the highest
designers in our country.
In one chapter of the section on Japan, I have dwelt on the ingenious
theory that it is their devotion to the garden that has kept the
Japanese from being spoiled by the great strides they have made in the
last twenty years in commerce and conquest. To take foremost place
among the powers of the world without any preliminary struggle is an
achievement which well might turn the heads of any people; yet this
exploit has simply confirmed the Japanese in the opinion that their
national training has resulted in this success that other nations have
won only by the expenditure of years of labor and study. When you see
the reverence which every one in Japan shows at the tombs of the
Forty-seven Ronins, you feel that here is a spiritual force which is
lacking in every European country; here is something, whether you call
it loyalty or patriotism or fanaticism, which makes even the women and
children of Japan eager to sacrifice all that they hold most dear on the
altar of their country. No less striking than their loyalty is the
courtesy of the Japanese which makes travel in their country a pleasure.
Even the poor and ignorant country people show in their mutual relations
a politeness that would do credit to the most civilized race, while all
exhibit toward foreigners a courtesy and consideration that is often
repaid by boorishness and insult on the part of tourists and foreign
residents of Japan. Another feature of Japanese life that cannot fail to
impress the stranger is the small weight that is given to wealth. In
their relations with foreigners the governing class and the wealthy
people are sticklers for all the conventional forms; but among
themselves the simplicity of their social life is very attractive.
Elaborate functions are unknown and changes of costume, which make
women's dress so large an item of family expense in any European
country, are unnecessary. Some of the rich Japanese are now lavishing
money on their homes, which are partly modeled on European plans; but in
the main the residences, even of rich people, are very simple and
unpretentious. These homes are filled with priceless porcelains, jades,
paintings and prints, but there is no display merely for the sake of
exhibiting art treasures.
In Manila the American tourist has a good opportunity to contrast what
has been done by his countrymen with what the British have accomplished
in ports like Hongkong and Singapore. Doubtless the English plan will
show the larger financial returns, but it is carried out with a selfish
disregard of the interests of the natives which stirs the gorge of an
American. The Englishman believes in keeping a wide gulf between the
dominant and the humble classes. He does not believe in educating the
native to think that he can rise from the class in which he is born. The
American scheme in the Philippines has been to encourage the development
of character and efficiency, wherever found; and the result is that many
public positions are open to men who were head-hunting savages ten years
ago. Above all other things in the Philippines we have proved, as we
have shown at Panama, that a tropical climate need not be an unhealthful
one. We have banished from Manila cholera, yellow fever and bubonic
plague--three pests that once made it dreaded in the Orient. This, with
an ample water supply, is an achievement worthy of pride, when one
contrasts it with the unsanitary sewerage system of Hongkong and
Singapore.
The small part of the great Chinese Empire which I was able to see gave
me a vivid impression of the activity and enthusiasm of the people in
spreading the new Republican doctrines. The way old things have been put
aside and the new customs adopted seems almost like a miracle. Fancy a
whole people discarding their time-honored methods of examination for
the civil service, along with their queues, their caps and their shoes.
All the authorities have predicted that China would be centuries in
showing the same changes which the Japanese have made in a single
generation; but recent events go far to prove that Japan will be
outstripped in the race for progress by its slow-going neighbor. What
profoundly impresses any visitor to China is the stamina and the
working capacity of the common people. Tireless laborers these Chinese
are, whether they work for themselves or the European. What they will be
able to accomplish with labor-saving machinery no one can predict.
Certainly should they accept modern methods of work, with the same
enthusiasm that they have adopted new methods of government, the markets
of the world will be upset by the product of these four hundred million.
China is to-day in transformation--fluctuant, far-reaching, limited only
by the capacity of a singularly excitable people to absorb new ideas.
In India great is the contrast to China and Japan. Here is an old
civilization, founded on caste: here are many peoples but all joined to
the worship of a system that says the son must follow in the footsteps
of the father; that one cannot break bread with a stranger of another
caste lest he and his tribe be defiled. Nothing more hideous was ever
conceived than this Indian caste system, yet it has held its own against
the force of foreign learning and probably will continue to fetter the
development of the natives of India for centuries to come. Some simple
reforms the English have secured, like the abolition of suttee and the
improved condition of the child widows; but their influence on the great
mass of the people has been pitiably small. India bears the same
relation to the Orient that Italy does to Europe. It is the home of
temples, palaces and monuments; it is the land of beautiful art work in
many materials. Most of its cities have a splendid historical past that
is seen in richly ornamented temples and shrines, in the tombs of its
illustrious dead and in palaces that surpass in beauty of decoration
anything which Europe can boast.
In considering India it must always be borne in mind that here was the
original seat of the Aryan civilization and that, though the Hindoo is
as dark as many of the American negroes, he is of Aryan stock like
ourselves. In comparison with the men who carried Aryan civilization
throughout the world, the Hindoo of to-day is as far removed as is the
modern Greek from the Greek of the time of Pericles and Phidias. Yet he
shows all the signs of race in clear-cut features and in small hands and
feet.
The journey throughout India is one which calls for some philosophy, as
the train arrangements are never good and, unless one has the luck to
secure a competent guide, he will be annoyed by the excessive greed of
every one with whom he comes in contact. But aside from such troubles
the trip is one which richly repays the traveler. If one has time it is
admirable to go off the beaten track to some of the minor places which
have fine historical remains; but a good idea of India may be obtained
by taking the regular route from Calcutta to Bombay, by way of Delhi.
In Benares the tourist first meets the swarms of beggars that make life
a burden. Aged men, with loathsome sores, stand whining at corners
beseeching the favor of a two-anna piece; blind men, led by small,
skinny children, set up a mournful wail and then curse you fluently when
you pass them by, and scores of children rise up out of hovels at the
roadside and pursue your carriage with shrill screams. All are filthy,
clamorous, greedy, inexpressibly offensive. If you are soft hearted and
give to one, then your day is made hideous by a swarm of mendicants,
tireless in pursuit and only kept from actual invasion of the carriage
by fear of the driver's whip.
The feature which makes travel on Indian railways a weariness of the
flesh is the roughness of the cars. Each truck on the passenger cars is
provided with two large wheels, exactly like those on freight cars, and
these wheels have wooden felloes and spokes. With poor springs the
result is that though the road-bed is perfect the cars are as rough as
our freight cars. When the speed is over twenty-five miles an hour or
the road is crooked, the motion of the cars is well nigh intolerable.
Ordinarily the motion is so great that reading is difficult and writing
out of the question. At night the jar of the car is so severe that one
must be very tired or very phlegmatic to get any refreshing sleep. When
one travels all day and all night at a stretch--as in the journey from
Jeypore to Bombay--the fatigue is out of all proportion to the distance
covered. In fact Americans have been spoiled by the comforts of Pullman
sleeping-cars, in which foreign critics find so many flaws. Probably the
chief annoyance to our party of Americans, aside from the jar of the
cars, was the dust and soot which poured in day and night. The engines
burn soft coal and the dust on the road-beds is excessive. A system of
double windows and well-fitting screens would remove this nuisance, but
apparently the British in India think dust and grime necessary features
of railway travel, for no effort is made to eliminate them.
No Oriental trip would be complete without a visit to Egypt, and
especially a ride on the Nile. It is more difficult to make anyone
realize the charm of Egypt than of any other country of the Orient. The
people are dirty, ignorant, brutish: their faces contain no appeal
because they are the faces of Millet's "The Man With the Hoe." Centuries
of subjection have killed the pride which still lingers in the face and
bearing of the poorest Arab; the Egyptian peasant does not wear the
collar of Gurth, but he is a slave of the soil whose day of freedom is
afar off. Yet these degenerate people are seen against a background of
the most imposing ruins in the world. Luxor and Karnak and the tombs of
the kings near old Thebes contain enough remains of the splendor of
ancient Egyptian life to permit study for years. The mind is appalled by
this mass of temples, monuments, obelisks and colossal statues. It is
difficult to realize that the same people who are seen toiling in the
fields to-day raised these huge monuments to perpetuate the names of
their rulers. A climate as dry as that of the Colorado desert has
preserved these remains, so that in the rock tombs one may gaze upon
brightly painted hieroglyphs of the time of Moses that look as though
they were carved yesterday.
In this Oriental tour the stamp of strange religions is over all the
lands. The temple is the keynote of each race. And religion with the
Oriental is not a matter of one day's worship in seven: it is a vital,
daily function into which he puts all the dreamy mysticism of his race.
The first sight of several Mohammedans bowed in the dust by the
roadside, with their faces set toward Mecca, gives one a strange thrill,
but this spectacle soon loses its novelty. Everywhere in the Far East
religion is a matter of form and ceremony: it includes regular visits to
the temple and regular prayers and offerings to the deities enshrined in
these houses of worship. But it also includes a daily ritual that must
be observed at certain fixed hours, even though the believer may be in
the midst of the crowded market place. The spiritual isolation of an
Oriental at his prayers in any big city of the Far East is the most
significant feature of this life--so alien to all the mental, moral, and
religious training of the Occident. Vain is it for one of Anglo-Saxon
strain to attempt to bridge this abyss that lies between his mind and
that of the Burman or the Parsee. Each lives in a spiritual world of his
own and each would be homesick for heaven were he transferred to the
ideal paradise of the other. So the traveler in the Orient should give
heed to the temples, for in them is voiced the spiritual aspirations of
the people, who have little of comfort or hope to cheer them in this
world.
JAPAN, THE
PICTURE COUNTRY OF
THE ORIENT
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF JAPAN AND THE LIFE OF THE JAPANESE
Yokohama looks very beautiful to the traveler who has spent over two
weeks on the long sea voyage from Seattle; but it has little to commend
it to the tourist, for most of its native traits have been Europeanized.
It is noteworthy, however, as the best place except Hongkong for the
traveler to purchase an oriental outfit and it is probably the cheapest
place in the world for trunks and bags and all leather goods. Its bund,
or water-front, is spacious and its leading hotels are very comfortable.
Of Japan and the Japanese, all that can be given are a few general
impressions of the result of two weeks of constant travel over the
empire and of talks with many people.
Of the country itself, the prevailing impression of the tourist, who
crosses it on the railroad or who takes rides through the paddy fields
in a rickshaw, is of a perennial greenness. Instead of the tawny yellow
of California in October, one sees here miles on miles of rice fields,
some of vivid green, others of green turning to gold. The foothills of
the mountains remind one of the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, as they
all bear evidences of the rounding and smoothing of glacial action.
At a distance the rice fields look like grain fields, but seen near at
hand they are found to be great swamps of water, with row on row of
rice, the dead furrows either serving as ditches or as raised paths
across the fields. Every bit of hillside is terraced and planted to rice
or vegetables or fruit.
Often these little, terraced fields, which look like the natural mesa of
southern California, will not be over fifty feet long by ten or fifteen
feet wide. Between the rows of fruit trees are vegetables or corn or
sorghum. The farmers live in little villages and apparently go home
every night after tilling their fields. There are none of the scattered
farmhouses, with trees around them, which are so characteristic a
feature of any American rural scene.
The towns as well as the cities show a uniformity of architecture, as
most of the shops are one story or a story and one-half, while the
residences seem to be built on a uniform plan, with great variety in
gateways and decoration of grounds. Most of the roofs are made of a
black clay, corrugated so that it looks like the Spanish-American tile,
and many of the walls that surround residences and temples are of adobe,
with a tiled covering, precisely as one sees to-day the remains of adobe
walls in old Spanish-Californian towns.
The general impression of any Japanese city when seen from a height is
that of a great expanse of low buildings with a liberal sprinkling of
trees and a few pagodas or roofs of Buddhist temples.
The strongest impression that the unprejudiced observer receives in
Japan is of the small value set upon labor as well as upon time by the
great mass of the people. In Yokohama and in Kobe, which show the most
signs of foreign influence, the same traits prevail.
It is one of the astonishing spectacles of the world, this
accomplishment of the business of a great nation by man power alone.
Only in one city, Osaka, the Chicago of Japan, is there any general
evidence of the adoption of up-to-date methods in manufacturing.
Everywhere one sees all the small industries of the country carried on
in the same way that they were conducted in Palestine in the time of
Christ.
Everywhere men, harnessed to heavy push carts, are seen straining to
haul loads that are enough for a horse. The few horses in the cities are
used for heavy trucks, in common with bulls, for the Japanese bull is a
beast of burden and not one of the lords of creation as in our own
country.
The bull is harnessed with a short neckyoke and a saddle on his back,
which bears a close resemblance to the riding saddle of the Cossack.
Some rope traces are hitched to crude, home-made whiffletrees. The bull,
as well as the horse, is guided by a rope line. The carts are remarkably
heavy, with wheels of great weight, yet many of these carts are pulled
by two men.
In the big cities may be seen a few victorias, or other carriages, and
an occasional motor car, but both these means of conveyance can be used
with safety only on the broadest avenues. In the narrow streets of the
native quarter, which seldom exceed ten feet in width and which have no
sidewalks, the jinrikisha is the only carriage. This is a light,
two-wheeled gig, drawn by one man and frequently on the steep grades
pushed from the back by a second man. The rickshaw man has a bell gong
on one shaft, which he rings when approaching a sharp turn in the street
or when he sees several trucks or other rickshaws approaching. The bell
also serves to warn old people or children who may be careless, for the
rickshaw has the right of way and the pedestrian must turn to either
side to give it the road. Americans, who are far more considerate of the
feelings of the Japanese than other foreigners, frequently may be seen
walking up the steep grades in such hilly cities as Nikko, Nara and
Kobe, but long residence in Japan is said to make everyone callous of
the straining and the sweating of the rickshaw man.
Purposely my itinerary included a number of little towns, which
practically have been uninfluenced by foreign customs. In these places
may be seen the primitive Japanese life, unchanged for hundreds of
years. Yet everywhere one cannot fail to be impressed by the tireless
industry of the people, and by their general good nature and courtesy.
In any other country in the world, a party of Americans with their
foreign dress would have provoked some insulting remarks, some gestures
that could not be mistaken; but here in rural Japan was seen the same
perfect courtesy shown in the Europeanized sections of the big cities.
The people, to be sure, made no change in their way of life. Mothers
suckled their infants in front of their little shops, and children stood
naked and unashamed, lost in wonder over the strange spectacle of the
party of foreign people that dashed by in rickshaws.
Naked men, with only a G-string to distinguish them from the costume of
Adam before the expulsion from Eden, labored at many tasks, and
frequently our little cavalcade swept by the great Government schools
where hundreds of little Japanese are being educated to help out the
manifest destiny of the empire.
This courtesy and good nature among the poorest class of the Japanese
people is not confined to their treatment of foreigners; it extends to
all their daily relations with one another. A nearly naked coolie
pulling a heavy cart begs a light for his cigarette with a bow that
would do honor to a Chesterfield.
A street blockade that in New York or San Francisco would not be
untangled without much profanity and some police interference is cleared
here in a moment because everyone is willing to yield and to recognize
that the most heavily burdened has the right of way.
In all my wanderings by day or night in the large Japanese cities I
never except once saw a policeman lift his, hand to exercise his
authority. This exception was in Tokio, where a band of mischievous
schoolboys was following a party of gayly dressed ladies in rickshaws
and laughing and chattering. The guardian of the peace admonished them
with a few short, crisp words, and they scuttled into the nearest
alleys.
The industry of the people, whether in city or country, is as amazing as
their courtesy. The Japanese work seven days in the week, and the year
is broken only by a few festivals that are generally observed by the
complete cessation of labor. In the large cities work goes on in most of
the shops until ten or eleven o'clock at night, and it is resumed at six
o'clock the next morning.
The most impressive spectacle during several night rides through miles
of Tokio streets was the number of young lads from twelve to sixteen
years of age who had fallen asleep at their tasks. With head pillowed on
arm they slumbered on the hard benches, where they had been working
since early morning, while the older men labored alongside at their
tasks.
From the train one saw the rice farmer and his wife and children working
in the paddy fields as long as they could see. These people do not work
with the fierce energy of the American mechanic, but their workday is
from twelve to fourteen hours and, considering these long hours, they
show great industry and conscientiousness.
In some places women were employed at the hardest work, such as coaling
ships by hand and digging and carrying earth from canals and ditches.
Scarcely less impressive than the tireless industry of the people is the
enormous number of children that may be seen both in city and country.
It was impossible to get statistics of births, but any American
traveling through Japan must be struck with the fact that this is a land
not threatened by race suicide.
Women who looked far beyond the time of motherhood were suckling
infants, while all the young women seemed well provided with children.
Girls of five or six were playing games with sleeping infants strapped
to their backs, and even boys were impressed into this nursery work. The
younger children are clothed only in kimonos, so that the passer-by
witnesses many strange sights of naked Japanese cherubs.
In all quarters of Tokio the children were as numerous as in tenement
streets of American cities on a Sunday afternoon, and in small country
towns the number of children seemed even greater than in the big cities.
Another feature of Japanese life that made a profound impression on me
was the pilgrimage of school children to the various sacred shrines
throughout the empire. At Nikko and at Nara, two of the great seats of
Buddhist and Shinto shrines, these child pilgrims were conspicuous. They
were seen in bands of fifty or seventy-five, attended by tutors. The
boys were dressed in blue or black jackets, white or blue trousers and
white leggings. Each carried his few belongings in a small box or a
handkerchief and each had an umbrella to protect him from the frequent
showers.
The girls had dark red merino skirts, with kimono waists of some dark
stuff. Many were without stockings, but all wore straw sandals or those
with wooden sole and heavy wooden clogs. School children are admitted to
temples and shrines at half rates and in every place the guides pay
special attention to these young visitors.
Pilgrimages of soldiers and others are also very common. Whenever a
party of one hundred is formed it receives the benefit of the half-rate
admission. No observant tourist can fail to see that in the pilgrimages
of these school children and these soldiers the authorities of new Japan
find the best means of stimulating patriotism. Church and State are so
closely welded that the Mikado is regarded as a god. Passionate devotion
to country is the great ruling power which separates Japan from all
other modern nations.
The number of young men who leave their country to escape the three
years' conscription is very small. The schoolboy in his most
impressionable years is brought to these sacred shrines; he listens to
the story of the Forty-seven Ronins and other tales of Japanese
chivalry; his soul is fired to imitate their self-sacrificing
patriotism. The bloody slopes of Port Arthur witnessed the effect of
such training as this.
THE JAPANESE CAPITAL AND ITS PARKS AND TEMPLES
Tokio, the capital of Japan, is a picturesque city of enormous extent
and the tourist who sees it in two or three days must expect to do
strenuous work. The city, which actually covers one hundred square
miles, is built on the low shore of Tokio bay and is intersected by the
Sumi river and a network of narrow canals. The river and these canals
are crossed by frequent bridges. At night the tourist may mark his
approach to one of these canals by the evil odors that poison the air.
Even in October the air is sultry in Tokio during the day and far into
the night, but toward morning a penetrating damp wind arises.
Although Tokio's main streets have been widened to imposing avenues that
run through a series of great parks, the native life may be studied on
every hand--for a block from the big streets, with their clanging
electric cars, one comes upon narrow alleys lined with shops and teeming
with life. Here, for the first time, the tourist sees Japanese city
life, only slightly influenced by foreign customs. The streets are not
more than twelve or fifteen feet wide, curbed on each side by flat
blocks of granite, seldom more than a foot or eighteen inches wide.
These furnish the only substitute for a sidewalk in rainy weather, as
most of the streets are macadamized. A slight rainfall wets the surface
and makes walking for the foreigner very disagreeable. The Japanese use
in rainy weather the wooden sandal with two transverse clogs about two
inches high, which lifts him out of the mud. All Japanese dignitaries
and nearly all foreigners use the jinrikisha, which has the right of way
in the narrow streets. The most common sound in the streets is the bell
of the rickshaw man or his warning shout of "Hi! Hi!"
My first day's excursion included a ride through Shiba and Hibiya parks
to Uyeno Park, the resting place of many of the shoguns. This makes a
trip which will consume the entire day. Shiba Park is noteworthy for its
temples (which contain some of the most remarkable specimens of Japanese
art) and for the tombs of seven of the fifteen shoguns or native rulers
who preceded the Mikado in the government of Japan. The first and third
shoguns are buried at Nikko, while the fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth,
eleventh and thirteenth lie in Uyeno Park, Tokio. These mortuary chapels
in Shiba Park are all similar in general design, the only differences
being in the lavishness of the decoration. Out of regard for the foreign
visitor it is not necessary to remove one's shoes in entering these
temples, as cloth covers are provided. Each temple is divided into three
parts--the outer oratory, a corridor and the inner sanctum, where the
shogun alone was privileged to worship. The daimyos or nobles were lined
up in the corridor, while the smaller nobles and chiefs filled the
oratory. It would be tedious to describe these temples, but one will
serve as a specimen of all. This is the temple of the second shogun,
which is noteworthy for the beauty of the decoration of the sanctum and
the tomb.
Two enormous gilded pillars support the vaulted roof of the sanctum,
which is formed of beams in a very curious pattern. A frieze of
medallions of birds, gilded and painted, runs around the top of the
wall. The shrine dates back for two and one-half centuries and is of
rich gold lacquer. The bronze incense burner, in the form of a lion,
bears the date of 1635. The great war drum of Ieyasu, the first of the
Tokugawa shoguns, lies upon a richly decorated stand. Back of the temple
is the octagonal hall, which houses the tomb of the second shogun. This
tomb is the largest example of gold lacquer in the world, and parts of
it are inlaid with enamel and crystal. Scenes from Liao-Ling, China, and
Lake Biwa, Japan, adorn the upper half, while the lower half bears
elaborate decoration of the lion and the peony. The base of the tomb is
a solid block of stone in the shape of the lotus. The hall is supported
by eight pillars covered with gilded copper, and the walls are covered
with gilded lacquer. The enormous amount of money expended on these
shrines will amaze any foreign visitor, as well as the profound
reverence shown by the Japanese for these resting places of the shoguns.
Passing along a wide avenue traversed by electric cars one soon reaches
Hibiya Park, one of the show places of Tokio. To the European tourist or
the visitor from our Eastern States the beauty of the vegetation is a
source of marvel, but San Francisco's Golden Gate Park can equal
everything that grows here in the way of ornamental shrubs, trees and
flowers. On the south side of the park are the Parliament buildings, and
near by the fine, new brick buildings of the Naval and Judicial
Departments and the courts. Near by are grouped many of the foreign
legations, the palaces of princes and the mansions of the Japanese
officials and foreign embassadors. Here also is the Museum of Arms,
which is very interesting because of the many specimens of ancient
Japanese weapons and the trophies of the wars with China and Russia. In
this museum one may see the profound interest which the Japanese
pilgrims from all parts of the empire take in these memorials of
conquest. To them they rank with the sacred shrines as objects of
veneration.
Not far away is the moat which surrounds the massive walls of the
imperial palace, open only to those who have the honor of an imperial
audience. These walls are of granite laid up without mortar, the corner
stones being of unusual size. The visitor may see the handsome roofs of
the imperial palaces. Those who have been admitted declare that the
decorations and the furniture are in the highest style of Japanese art,
although the simplicity and the neutral colors that mark the Shinto
temples prevail in the private chambers of the Emperor. In the throne
chamber and the banquet hall, on the other hand, gold and brilliant hues
make a blaze of color. Near the palace grounds are the Government
printing office and a number of schools.
Turning down into Yoken street, one of the great avenues of traffic, you
soon reach Uyeno Park--the most popular pleasure ground of the capital,
and famous in the spring for its long lines of cherry trees in full
blossom. In the autumn it impressed me, as did all the other Japanese
parks, as rather damp and unwholesome. The ground was saturated from
recent rain; all the stonework was covered with moss and lichen; the
trees dripped moisture, and the little lakes scattered here and there
were like those gloomy tarns that Poe loved to paint in his poems. Near
the entrance to this park is a shallow lake covered with lotus plants,
and a short distance beyond from a little hill one may get a good view
of the buildings of the imperial university. Here is a good foreign
restaurant where one may enjoy a palatable lunch. Near by on a slight
eminence stands a huge bronze image of Buddha, twenty-one and one-half
feet high, called the Daibutsu. It is one of several such figures
scattered over the empire. Passing through a massive granite torii, or
gate, one reaches an avenue of stately cryptomeria, or cedar trees that
leads to a row of stone lanterns presented in 1651 by daimyos as a
memorial to the first shogun. The temple beyond is famous for its
beautiful lacquer.
Near at hand are the temples and tombs of the six shoguns of the
Tokugawa family, buried in Uyeno Park. These temples are regarded as
among the finest remains of old Japanese art. The mortuary temples bear
a close resemblance to those in Shiba Park. The second temple is the
finer and is celebrated for the gilding of the interior walls, the
gorgeous decoration of the shrines and the memorial tablets in gold
lacquer. Here, also, are eight tablets erected to the memory of eight
mothers of shoguns, all of whom were concubines.
[Illustration:
The Yomei-mori Gate, Ieyasu Temple, Nikko.
One of the Most Beautiful Gates in all Japan. The Columns
Are Painted White, with Capitals of Unicorn's Heads.
The Roof is Supported by Gilt Dragon's Heads.]
A short distance from Uyeno Park is the great Buddhist temple known as
Asakusa Kwannon, dedicated to Kwannon, the goddess of mercy. The
approaches to this temple on any pleasant day look like a country fair.
The crowd is so dense that jinrikishas can not approach within one
hundred yards. The shrine dates back to the sixth century and the temple
is the most popular resort of its kind in Tokio. On each side of the
entrance lane are shops, where all kinds of curios, toys, cakes, et
cetera, are sold. The temple itself is crowded with votaries who offer
coins to the various idols, while below (near the stairs that give
entrance to the temple) are various side booths that are patronized by
worshipers. Some of these gods promise long life; others give
happiness, and several insure big families to women who offer money and
say prayers.
One of the remarkable jinrikisha rides in Japan is that from Uyeno to
Shimbashi station through the heart of Tokio by night. This takes about
a half hour and it gives a series of pictures of the great Japanese city
that can be gained in no other way. Here may be seen miles of little
shops lining alleys not over ten or twelve feet wide, in most of which
work is going on busily as late as eleven o'clock. In places the sleepy
proprietors are putting up their shutters, preparatory to going to bed,
but in others the work of artisan or baker or weaver goes on as though
the day had only fairly begun. Most of these shops are lighted by
electricity, but this light is the only modern thing about them. The
weaver sits at the loom precisely as he sat two thousand years ago, and
the baker kneads his dough and bakes his cakes precisely as he did
before the days of the first shogun. This ride gives a panorama of
oriental life which can be equaled in few cities in the world.
Occasionally the jinrikisha dashes up a little bank and across a bridge
that spans a canal and one catches a glimpse of long lines of house
boats, with dim lights, nestling under overhanging balconies. Overall is
that penetrating odor of the Far East, mingled with the smell of bilge
water and the reek of thousands of sweating human beings. These smells
are of the earth earthy and they led one to dream that night of weird
and terrible creatures such as De Quincey paints in his _Confessions of
an English Opium Eater_.
THE MOST FAMOUS CITY OF TEMPLES IN ALL JAPAN
The most magnificent temples in Japan are at Nikko, in the mountains,
five hours' ride by train from Tokio. What makes this trip the more
enjoyable to the American tourist is that the country reminds him of the
Catskills, and that he gets some glimpses of primitive Japanese life.
The Japanese have a proverb: "Do not use the word 'magnificent' until
you have seen Nikko." And anyone who goes through the three splendid
temples that serve as memorials of the early shoguns will agree that the
proverb is true.
The railroad ride to Nikko is tedious, although it furnishes greater
variety than most of the other trips by rail through the Mikado's
empire. But as soon as one is landed at the little station he recognizes
that here is a place unlike any that he has seen. The road runs up a
steep hill to the Kanaya Hotel, which is perched on a high bank
overlooking the Daiyagawa river. Tall cedar trees clothe the banks, and
across the river rise mountains, with the roofs of temples showing
through the foliage at their base. This hotel is gratefully remembered
by all tourists because of the artistic decoration of the rooms in
Japanese style and the beneficent care of the proprietor, which includes
a pretty kimono to wear to the morning bath, with straw sandals for the
feet, and charming waitresses in picturesque costumes.
The first Buddhist temple at Nikko dates back to the eighth century, but
it was not until the seventeenth century that the place was made a
national shrine by building here the mausoleum of the first shogun,
Ieyasu, and of his grandson, Iemitsu. Hardly less noteworthy than these
shrines and temples is the great avenue of giant cryptomeria trees,
which stretches across the country for twenty miles, from Nikko to
Utsunomiya.