EDUCATION.
So far we have spoken only of the domestic training of a Japanese girl.
That part of her education that she gains through teachers and schools
must be the subject of a separate chapter. Japan differs from most
Oriental countries in the fact that her women are considered worthy of a
certain amount of the culture that comes from the study of books; and
although, until recently, schools for girls were unknown in the empire,
nevertheless every woman, except those of the lower classes, received
instruction in the ordinary written language, while some were well
versed in the Chinese classics and the poetic art. These, with some
musical accomplishment, an acquaintance with etiquette and the arts of
arranging flowers, of making the ceremonial tea, and in many cases not
only of writing a beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as well, in the
old days made up the whole of an ordinary woman's education. Among the
lower classes, especially the merchant class, instruction was sometimes
given in the various pantomimic dances which one sees most frequently
presented by professional dancing girls. The art of dancing is not
usually practiced by women of the higher classes, but among the
daughters of the merchants special dances were learned for exhibition at
home, or even at the _matsuri_ or religious festival, and their
performance was for the amusement of spectators, and not especially for
the pleasure of the dancers themselves. These dances are modest and
graceful, but from the fact that they are always learned for
entertaining an audience, however small and select, and are most
frequently performed by professional dancers of questionable character,
the more refined and higher class Japanese do not care especially to
have their daughters learn them.
In the old days, little girls were not sent to school, but, going to the
house of a private teacher, received the necessary instruction in
reading, and writing. The writing and reading at the beginning, are
taught simultaneously, the teacher writing a letter upon a sheet of
paper and telling the scholar its name, and the scholar writing it over
and over until, by the time she has acquired the necessary skill in
writing it, both name and form are indelibly imprinted upon her memory.
To write, with a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft paper, the hand
entirely without support, is an art that seldom can be acquired by a
grown person, but when learned in childhood it gives great deftness in
whatever other art may be subsequently studied. This is perhaps the
reason why the Japanese value a good handwriting more highly than any
other accomplishment, for it denotes a manual dexterity that is the
secret of success in all the arts, and one who writes the Chinese
characters well and rapidly can quickly learn to do anything else with
the fingers.
The fault that one finds with the Japanese system--a fault that lies
deeper than the mere methods of teaching, and has its root in the
ideographic character of the written language--is that, while it
cultivates the memory and powers of observation to a remarkable extent,
and while it gives great skill in the use of the fingers, it affords
little opportunity for the development of the reasoning powers.[8] The
years of study that are required for mastering the written language, so
as to be able to grasp the thoughts already given to the world, leave
comparatively little time for the conducting of any continuous thought
on one's own account, and so we find in Japanese scholars--whether boys
or girls--quickness of apprehension, retentive memories, industry and
method in their study of their lessons, but not much originality of
thought. This result comes, I believe, from the nature of the written
language and the difficulties that attend the mastery of it; as a
consequence of which, an educated man or woman becomes simply a student
of other men's thoughts and sayings about things instead of being a
student of the things themselves.
[8] The Japanese written language is a strange combination of Chinese
and Japanese, to read which a knowledge of the Chinese characters is
necessary. Chinese literature written in the Chinese ideographs, which
of course give no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the
Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order of words in the
sentence. When there have not been exact equivalent Japanese words, a
Chinese term has come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well
engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and spoken. In the
forming of new words and technical terms Chinese words are used, as the
Greek and Latin are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin
of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese about
the sixth century A. D. their cleverly planned but most complex method
of expressing thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese
literature has done much for Japan, and to master this language is one
of the essentials in the education of every boy. At least seven or eight
thousand characters must be learned for daily use, and there are several
different styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as many,
or even more, must be mastered in order to read the various works in
that rich literature.
The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty-eight letters, and
in books and newspapers for the common people is printed, by the side of
the Chinese character, the rendering of it, in the letters of the
_kana_, or Japanese alphabet.[*40]
A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the study of Chinese. She
will, of course, learn a few of the most common characters, such as are
used in letter-writing, and for the rest she will read by the help of
the _kana_.
Music in Japan is an accomplishment reserved almost entirely for women,
for priests, and for blind men. It seems to me quite fortunate that the
musical art is not more generally practiced, as Japanese music, as a
rule, is far from agreeable to the untrained ear of the outside
barbarian.[*41] The _koto_ is the pleasantest of the Japanese
instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it
inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among
the higher classes, from the _samurai_[9] upwards. The _koto_ is an
embryo piano, a horizontal sounding-board, some six feet long, upon
which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges. It is played by
means of ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, forefinger, and middle
finger of the right hand, and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
those of the harp. The player sits before the _koto_ on knees and heels,
in the ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions are very graceful and
pretty as she touches the strings, often supplementing the strains of
the instrument with her voice. The teaching of this instrument and of
the _samisen_, or Japanese guitar, is almost entirely in the hands of
blind men, who in Japan support themselves by the two professions of
music and massage,--all the blind, who cannot learn the former, becoming
adepts in the latter profession.
[9] The _samurai_ in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of a
_daimi[=o]_, or feudal lord. They formed the military and literary class.
For further information, see chap. viii., on _Samurai Women_.
The arrangement of flowers is taught as a fine art, and much time may
be spent in learning how, by clipping, bending, and fixing in its place
in the vase, each spray and twig may be made to look as if actually
growing, for flower arranging is not merely to show the flower itself,
but includes the proper arrangement of the branches, twigs, and leaves
of plants. The flower plays only a small part, and is not used in
decoration, except on the branch and stem as it is in nature, and the
art consists in the preservation of the natural bend and growth when
fixed in the vase. In every case, each branch has certain curves, which
must be in harmony with the whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the
flowering plum are much used.
Teachers spend much time in showing proper and improper combinations of
different flowers, as well as the arrangement of them. Many different
styles have come up, originated by the famous teachers who have founded
various schools of the art,--an art which is unique and exceedingly
popular, requiring artistic talent and a cultivated eye. One often sees,
on going into the guest room of a Japanese house, a vase containing
gracefully arranged flowers set in the _tokonoma_, or raised alcove of
the room, under the solitary _kakémono_[10] that forms the chief
ornament of the apartment. As these two things, the vase of flowers and
the hanging scroll, are the only adornments, it is more necessary that
the flowers should be carefully arranged, than in our crowded rooms,
where a vase of flowers may easily escape the eye, perplexed by the
multitude of objects which surround it.
[10] _Kakémono_, a hanging scroll, upon which a picture is painted, or
some poem or sentiment written.
The ceremonial tea must not be confounded with the ordinary serving of
tea for refreshment. The proper making, and serving, and drinking of the
ceremonial tea is the most formal of social observances, each step in
which is prescribed by a rigid code of etiquette. The tea, instead of
being the whole leaf, such as is used for ordinary occasions, is a fine,
green powder. The infusion is made, not in a small pot, from which it is
poured out into cups, but in a bowl, into which the hot water is poured
from a dipper on to the powdered tea. The mixture is stirred with a
bamboo whisk until it foams, then handed with much ceremony to the
guest, who takes it with equal ceremony and drinks it from the bowl,
emptying the receptacle at three gulps. Should there be a number of
guests, tea is made for each in turn, in the order of their rank, in the
same bowl. For this ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is used,
all of antique and severely simple style. The charcoal used for heating
the water is of a peculiar variety; and the room in which the tea is
made and served is built for that special purpose, and kept sacred for
that use. This art, which is often part of the education of women of the
higher classes, is taught by regular teachers, often by gentlewomen who
have fallen into distressed circumstances.[*45] I remember with great
vividness a visit paid to an old lady living near a provincial city of
Japan, who had for years supported herself by giving lessons in this
politest of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest and neatest type,
seemed filled to overflowing by three foreigners, whom she received with
the courtliest of welcomes. At the request of my friend, an American
lady engaged in missionary work in that part of the country, she gave us
a lesson in the etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every motion, from the
bringing in and arranging of the utensils to the final rinsing and
wiping of the tea bowl, was according to rules strictly laid down, and
the whole ceremony had more the solemnity of a religious ritual than the
lightness and gayety of a social occasion.
Etiquette of all kinds is not left in Japan to chance, to be learned by
observation and imitation of any model that may present itself, but is
taught regularly by teachers who make a specialty of it. Everything in
the daily life has its rules, and the etiquette teacher has them all at
her fingers' ends. There have been several famous teachers of etiquette,
and they have formed systems which differ in minor points, while
agreeing in the principal rules. The etiquette of bowing, the position
of the body, the arms, and the head while saluting, the methods of
shutting and opening the door, rising and sitting down on the floor, the
manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all, with the minutest details,
taught to the young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather irksome. I
know two young girls of new Japan who find nothing so wearisome as
their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be excused from it. I have
heard them, after their teacher had left, slyly make fun of her stiff
and formal manners. Such people as she will, I fear, soon belong only to
the past, though it still remains to be seen how much of European
manners will be engrafted on the old formalities of Japanese life. It
is, perhaps, because of this regular teaching in the ways of polite
society, that the Japanese girl seems never at a loss, even under
unusual circumstances, but bears herself with self-possession in places
where young girls in America would be embarrassed and awkward.
But the Japanese are rapidly finding out that this busy nineteenth
century gives little time for learning how to shut and open doors in the
politest manner, and indeed such things under the newly established
school system are now relegated entirely to the girls' schools, the boys
having no lessons in etiquette.
The method of teaching flower-painting is so interesting that I must
speak of it before I leave the subject of accomplishments. I have said
that the acquisition of skill in writing the Chinese characters was the
best possible preparation for skill in all other arts. This is
especially true of the art of painting, which is simply the next step,
after writing has been learned. The painting master, when he comes to
the house, brings no design as a model, but sits down on the floor
before the little desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with great
rapidity the design that he wishes the pupil to copy. It may be simply
two or three blades of grass upon which the pupil makes a beginning, but
she is expected to make her picture with exactly the same number of bold
strokes that the master puts into his. Again and again she blunders her
strokes on to a sheet of paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet
has been spoiled, she begins to see some semblance of the master's copy
in her own daub. She perseveres, making copy after copy, until she is
able from memory to put upon the paper at a moment's notice the three
blades of grass to her master's satisfaction. Only then can she go on to
a new copy, and only after many such designs have been committed to
memory, and the free, dashing stroke necessary for Japanese painting has
been acquired, is she allowed to undertake any copying from nature, or
original designing.[*49]
I have dwelt thus far only upon the entirely Japanese education that was
permitted to women under the old régime. That it was an effective and
refining system, all can testify who have made the acquaintance of any
of the charming Japanese ladies whose schooling was finished before
Commodore Perry disturbed the repose of old Japan. As I write, the image
comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright-eyed little gentlewoman with
whom it was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted during my
stay in T[=o]ky[=o]. A widow, left penniless, with one child to support,
she earned the merest pittance by teaching sewing at one of the
government schools in T[=o]ky[=o]; but in all the circumstances of her
life, narrow and busy as it needs must be, she proved herself a lady
through and through. Polite, cheerful, an intelligent and cultivated
reader, a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and careful mother, a true and
helpful friend, her memory is associated with many of my pleasantest
hours in Japan, and she is but one of the many who bear witness to the
culture that might be acquired by women in the old days.
But the Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day, and in the school
system now prevalent throughout the empire girls and boys are equally
provided for. First the schools established by the various missionary
societies, and then the government schools, offered to girls a broader
education than the old instruction in Chinese, in etiquette, and in
accomplishments. Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and
villages are alive with boys and girls clattering along, with their
books and lunch boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten, primary,
grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in life, every grade in
learning, may find its proper place in the new school system, and the
girls eagerly grasp their opportunities, and show themselves apt and
willing students of the new learning offered to them.
By the new system, at its present stage of development, too much is
expected of the Japanese boy or girl. The work required would be a
burden to the quickest mind. The whole of the old education in Japanese
and Chinese literature and composition--an education requiring the best
years of a boy's life--is given, and grafted upon this, our
common-school and high-school studies of mathematics, geography,
history, and natural science. In addition to these, at all higher
schools, one foreign language is required, and often two, English
ranking first in the popular estimation. Many a headache do the poor,
hard-working students have over the puzzling English language, in which
they have to begin at the wrong end of the book and read across the page
from left to right, instead of from top to bottom, and from right to
left, as is natural to them. But in spite of its hard work, the new
school life is cheerful and healthful, and the children enjoy it. It
helps them to be really children, and, while they are young, to be merry
and playful, not dignified and formal little ladies at all times. Upon
the young girls, the influence of the schools is to make them more
independent, self-reliant, and stronger women. In the houses of the
higher classes, even now, much of the old-time system of repression is
still in force. Children are indeed "seen but not heard," and from the
time when they learn to walk they must learn to be polite and
dignified. At school, the more progressive feeling of the times
predominates among the authorities, and the children are encouraged to
unbend and enjoy themselves in games and frolics, as true children
should do. Much is done for the pleasure of the little ones, who often
enjoy school better than home, and declare that they do not like
holidays.[*52]
But the young girl, who has finished this pleasant school life, with all
its advantages, is not as well fitted as under the old system for the
duties and trials of married life, unless under exceptional
circumstances, where the husband chosen has advanced ideas. To those
teaching the young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of how to educate
them aright is a deep one, and with each newly trained girl sent out go
many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in regard to the training she has
had as a preparation for the new life she is about to enter. The few,
the pioneers, will have to suffer for the happiness and good of the
many, for the problem of grafting the new on to the old is indeed a
difficult one, to be solved only after many experiments.
There are many difficulties which lie in the way of the new schools
that must be met, studied, and overcome. One of them is the one already
referred to, the problem of how best to combine the new and the old in
the school curriculum. That the old learning and literature, the old
politeness and sweetness of manner, must not be given up or made little
of, is evident to every right-minded student of the matter. That the
newer and broader culture, with its higher morality, its greater
development of the best powers of the mind, must play a large part in
the Japan of the future, there is not a shadow of doubt, and the women
must not be left behind in the onward movement of the nation. But how to
give to the young minds the best products of the thought of two such
distinct civilizations is a question that is as yet unanswered, and
cannot be satisfactorily settled until the effect of the new education
has begun to show itself in a generation or so of graduates from the new
schools. Another difficulty is in the matter of health. Most of the new
school-houses are fitted with seats and desks, such as are found in
American schools. Many of them are heated by stoves or furnaces. The
scholars in most cases wear the Japanese dress, which in winter is made
warm enough to be worn in rooms having no artificial heat. Put this warm
costume into an artificially heated room and the result is an
over-heating of the body, and a subsequent chill when the pupil goes,
with no extra covering, into the keen out-of-door air. From this cause
alone, arise many colds and lung troubles, which can be prevented when
more experience has shown how the costumes of the East and West can be
combined to suit the new conditions. Another part of the health problem
lies in the fact that in many cases the parents do not understand the
proper care of a growing girl, ambitious to excel in her studies.
Instead of the regular hours, healthful food, and gentle restraint that
a girl needs under those circumstances, our little Japanese maiden is
allowed to sit up to any hour of the night, or arise at any hour in the
morning, to prepare her lessons, is given food of most indigestible
quality at all hours of the day between her regular meals, and is
frequently urged to greater mental exertion than her delicate body can
endure.
Another difficulty, in fitting the new school system into the customs
of the people, lies in the early age at which marriages are contracted.
Before the girl has finished her school course, her parents begin to
wonder whether there is not danger of her being left on their hands
altogether, if they do not hand her over to the first eligible young man
who presents himself. Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight, and
remains in school until her course is finished; more often she succumbs
and is married off, bids a weeping farewell to her teachers and
schoolmates, and leaves the school, to become a wife at sixteen, a
mother at eighteen, and an old woman at thirty. In some cases, the
breaking down of a girl's health may be traced to threats on the part of
her parents that, if she does not take a certain rank in her studies,
she will be taken from school and married off.[*55]
These are difficulties that may be overcome when a generation has been
educated who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes that now endanger the
health of a Japanese school-girl. In the mean time, boarding schools,
that can attend to matters of health and hygiene among the girls,
would, if they could be conducted with the proper admixture of Eastern
and Western learning and manners, do a great deal toward educating that
generation. The missionary schools do much in this direction, but the
criticism of the Japanese upon the manners of the girls educated in
missionary schools is universally severe. To a foreigner who has lived
almost entirely among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese education, the
manners of the girls in these schools seem brusque and awkward; and
though they are many of them noble women and doing noble work, there is
room for hope that in the future of Japan the charm of manner which is
the distinguishing feature of the Japanese woman will not be lost by
contact with our Western shortness and roughness. A happy mean
undoubtedly can be reached; and when it is, the women of new Japan will
be able to bear a not unfavorable comparison with the women of the old
régime.