TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS.
The woman question in Japan is at the present moment a matter of much
consideration. There seems to be an uneasy feeling in the minds of even
the more conservative men that some change in the status of woman is
inevitable, if the nation wishes to keep the pace it has set for itself.
The Japanese women of the past and of the present are exactly suited to
the position accorded them in society, and any attempt to alter them
without changing their status only results in making square pegs for
round holes. If the pegs hereafter are to be cut square, the holes must
be enlarged and squared to fit them. The Japanese woman stands in no
need of alteration unless her place in life is somehow enlarged, nor, on
the other hand, can she fill a larger place without additional
training. The men of New Japan, to whom the opinions and customs of the
Western world are becoming daily more familiar, while they shrink
aghast, in many cases, at the thought that their women may ever become
like the forward, self-assertive, half-masculine women of the West, show
a growing tendency to dissatisfaction with the smallness and narrowness
of the lives of their wives and daughters,--a growing belief that better
educated women would make better homes, and that the ideal home of
Europe and America is the product of a more advanced civilization than
that of Japan. Reluctantly in many cases, but still almost universally,
it is admitted that in the interest of the homes and for the sake of
future generations, something must be done to carry the women forward
into a position more in harmony with what the nation is reaching for in
other directions. This desire shows itself in individual efforts to
improve by more advanced education daughters of exceptional promise, and
in general efforts for the improvement of the condition of women.
Well-to-do fathers are willing to spend more money on the education of
their daughters, to send them abroad, if possible, to complete their
studies, or to postpone the time of marriage so that plans for higher
education may be carried through. Where, ten years ago, the number of
women who had been abroad for study might be counted on the fingers of
one hand, there are now three or four times that number in T[=o]ky[=o]
alone. Another sign of the times is the fact that husbands going abroad
on business or for pleasure are more inclined to take their wives with
them, even if it be only for a few months. There are now to be found, in
all the larger cities, women who have spent a longer or shorter time in
some foreign country, whose minds have been opened and whose horizons
have been enlarged by contact with new ideas. All this cannot fail to
have its effect, sooner or later, upon the country at large.
The efforts for the improvement of women in general may be grouped into
four classes: by legislation, by education, through the press, and by
means of societies for mutual improvement.
Of the recent legislation concerning marriage and divorce and its
effect on the family, I have spoken in a preceding chapter. The latest
statistics show that, while before the new laws were enacted divorces
were one to every three marriages, they have now been reduced to one in
five. It must be said, however, that the law is still somewhat in
advance of public opinion. While the chance of permanence in marriage is
better now than it was before the new code came into force, custom is
still stronger than the law, and marriage is too often a temporary
arrangement. In many cases the wife knows little or nothing of her new
rights, and even when she does know, she has seldom the self-assertion
to make a stand for them, but meekly submits to the dictates of those
whom she is bound by custom, if not by law, to respect and obey without
question. But the fact that the laws have actually been improved means,
in a country like Japan, in which the government is the moulder of
public opinion, that the custom will some day conform to the law.
In the matter of property owning, women, under the new code, are fairly
independent. As I have already stated, every woman in Japan is expected
to become a wife, and as a matter of fact, the number of unmarried women
is so small that it is hardly necessary to mention them. Wives, under
Japanese law, are divided into two classes: the wife who enters her
husband's family, and the wife whose husband becomes a member of her
family. In the latter case the wife is the head of the family, is
responsible for the debts of the family, and has the right to use and
profit by the husband's property. In the former case (and as I have
already stated, the great majority of wives enter their husband's
families), the husband is responsible, and has, consequently, the right
to use and profit by his wife's property. In all cases, unless the
husband is physically or mentally unfit, he has the management of his
wife's wealth. In case of the husband's disability the woman takes care
of her own. A wife may, by application to a court, cause the husband to
furnish security for the property that she has intrusted to him; and she
may, with her husband's consent, engage in independent business. The
property that she thus acquires is her own and not the husband's. Any
property in the family, the ownership of which is not perfectly
established, belongs to the head of the family, whether male or female.
We thus see that the law of Japan fully recognizes the right of married
women to hold property, although only in exceptional cases are they
allowed the management of their own holdings. The law also regards the
wife, in household matters, as her husband's agent.
In actual practice, it is not uncommon for the wife to manage the entire
income of the family, receiving it from her husband and acting as his
treasurer. The wife's own earnings are seldom given to the husband, and
her position is one of entire independence in the disposal of whatever
she adds to the family revenue. But should the wife bring into the
family at marriage property which passes into the husband's management,
the chances are that, unless a divorce should occur, she will never lay
any claim to the principal, or think of it again as her own. While her
husband cannot actually dispose of it without her consent, she is pretty
certain to give her consent should he ask it, and he may do very nearly
anything that he chooses with it. We thus see that the tendency is to
give the management of the income, as a part of the management of the
household, to the woman, and leave the disposal of the principal, as a
part of the outside business, to the care of the man. This system of
domestic finance seems not unlike the common practice in thrifty and
well-managed homes in America, and shows that a spirit of mutual
confidence between husband and wife belongs to Japan as to Western
nations. As the result of my own observation in a number of homes, I
should say that the judgment of the wife in money matters is quite as
much trusted in Japan as in America, and that, in this one respect at
least, her place in the home is as responsible a one as that of the
Western housekeeper. One instance may be cited of a woman whose business
ability is so well known as to have a national reputation. By birth a
member of a family which is remarkable for its success in all financial
undertakings, she has inherited a large share of the family
characteristic, and is credited with the personal management of a large
bank, as well as other successful business undertakings. Her husband's
name and not her own appears on the prospectuses and in the newspapers,
but unless report is very far astray, she is the business man of the
family, and her sound sense and good judgment have built up the fortune
which is their common possession.
In the educational system of Japan, schools for girls are provided by
the government, but no provision for studies more advanced than those of
the middle schools for boys is included in the scheme, with the single
exception of the Higher Normal School in T[=o]ky[=o], in which a limited
number of young women are trained to take positions as teachers in the
ordinary normal schools for girls. To quote from the Annual Report of
the Minister of Education for the year 1898, the latest to which I have
access, "Higher female schools are institutions designed to give
instruction in such higher subjects of general education as are
necessary for females." This shows with considerable completeness the
idea that dominates all government and much private effort for the
education of women in Japan. The schools are to teach simply such
subjects as are necessary for females; anything more would be
superfluous, possibly dangerous. The thought of women as individuals,
with minds and souls to be trained and developed to their highest
possibilities, is still somewhat foreign to the mind of the average
Japanese man. In its stead is the idea that females must be instructed
in such subjects as are necessary for a proper understanding of their
duties as wives and mothers. But if Japan to-day is where England and
America were in the first half of the nineteenth century, the country is
certainly moving forward, as the statistics in regard to education for
the three successive years 1896, 1897, and 1898 show. Great efforts are
being made to increase the attendance of girls at the common schools,
and with gratifying results.[43]
[43] The following in the report for 1898 may be of interest:--
Percentage of pupils of school age receiving instruction:--
Year. Girls. Boys.
1896 47.54 79.00
1897 50.86 80.67
1898 53.73 82.42
The total number of girls of school age not receiving instruction is
1,552,601; of boys, 662,985; while the total number of girls of school
age is 3,642,263, and of boys, 4,067,161.
As we advance into the higher schools, the discrepancy in numbers
between the two sexes grows greater. In the kindergartens the attendance
of girls is nearly equal to that of boys; in the elementary schools
there are three boys to two girls; in the higher elementary schools,
seven boys to two girls. The boys' middle schools, which are equivalent
in grade to the girls' high schools, have fourteen boys taking their
courses to every two girls in the high schools. In the apprentice and
technical schools, there are fifteen men to every two women. Even the
normal schools, which in our own country are almost given over to women,
in Japan have six male students to every female. The "special schools,"
mainly professional, have, to 11,069 men, 73 women, all enrolled in
private schools, and presumably taking medical courses. Beyond this
point women have no opportunities offered to them. In the higher
schools, equivalent to the college and graduate courses given by
universities in America, 7,224 young men are given opportunities that
women must go abroad to obtain.
These figures are, as I have said, for the year 1898. The year 1901 sees
two hopeful movements well begun. One of these is the opening of an
institution bearing the title of "Female University," endowed and
supported by Japanese, through the strenuous efforts of Mr. Jinzo
Naruse, a prominent Christian who has spent some time in America. At its
opening, five hundred girls were glad to enter, but of these very few
are ready for college work. Mr. Naruse, however, believes that in time
he will be able to enlarge his college department and diminish the
preparatory, which is now almost the whole of the school. He has the
support and encouragement of many wealthy and influential Japanese,
among them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive statesman. On the day
of the opening of the school, Count Okuma, in a speech from the
platform, said that the nation would be twice as strong if its women
were well educated. This he called "setting up a double standard." He
pointed out that Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and China were countries which
had tried to get along with a "single standard," and which had fallen
conspicuously behind. He called attention to the fact that Japan's
primitive religion had for its central figure the Goddess of Light, but
that, unfortunately for the well-being of the state, woman had been
gradually dethroned and thrust down into a low place. After speaking of
the debt that Japan owed to China for the civilization and the ethical
system that had stood her so long in good stead, the veteran statesman
went on to say that society in Japan was disfigured by abuses which were
beyond any simple remedy. The only effective medicine was to be found in
a radical reform of the ideals of family life, and this could only be
effected by an improvement in the status of woman,--an improvement which
such institutions as the one that day opened would greatly aid in
bringing about.
These words from one of the most honored leaders of Japanese thought
voice the feeling that is prevalent throughout Japan in this
thirty-fourth year of Méiji. That it is actually moving both government
and people is shown by the words of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education,
to the Council of Provincial Governors held in T[=o]ky[=o] in June,
1901. In speaking of the progress of education throughout the country,
he stated his intention to push forward the work of secondary education
for girls, saying that a prefecture which refused to make provision for
such education by 1903 might be compelled to do so by the government.
The other hopeful educational effort to which I have alluded is a school
started on a small scale, but with a high standard, by a Japanese woman
whose name is almost as well known in America as in Japan, as an
educator of great ability and earnestness of purpose. After many years
of work as a teacher in the Peeresses' School, a place of great honor
from the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned her position to carry out
a long-cherished plan. With the pecuniary aid of friends in America, she
has founded a school for the preparation of young women who have
finished the courses heretofore open to them, and who wish to become
teachers of English in the Government schools. The examinations for such
positions have always been open to women, but, because of the difficulty
in securing proper preparation, there are few who pass them. Since its
opening in September, 1900, the school has been crowded with promising
pupils, and the small accommodations with which it began, although
already once enlarged, are stretched to the uttermost. The girls come
from the government high schools and from the mission schools, and the
course offered to them of three years of study in English literature,
composition, translation, and methods of teaching has proved a strong
attraction. In recognition, perhaps, of this effort on behalf of her
countrywomen, certainly, of her position at the head of her profession,
this same woman has this year been appointed on the examining committee
for the government English examinations, an honor never before given to
one of her sex,--in itself a sign of the change in thought that the last
few years have wrought.
There can be no doubt that the education of women is moving forward,
pushed by the leading men of the country and aided by the earnest work
of the women themselves. It is still far behind the education offered to
men, and the ideal of most of its promoters is limited to the purely
utilitarian; but as long as it moves forward and not backward, and as
long as the years of work show an increased number of women fitted to
meet the changing conditions of the time, we do well to approve rather
than criticise, remembering that the problem is an exceedingly intricate
one, and one of which even the best-instructed foreigner can see only a
small part of the difficulty.
The year 1901 sees the printing-press almost as much of a power in
Japan as in the Western world, and it is interesting to notice that
among the innumerable newspapers and magazines now published in the
country there are some twenty or more devoted exclusively to the
interests of women. To be sure, these women's magazines do not undertake
to furnish the loftiest intellectual pabulum, the best of them covering,
perhaps, the same range of subjects that is included in "Woman's
Journals" in the United States. They devote themselves largely to
lectures on morals and manners, and instruction as to how best to
perform the duties of the home. These magazines are for the most part
written and edited by men, many of them very young men, and serve to
show rather what men desire that women should think and do, than to give
any insight into the minds of the women themselves. With a combined
circulation of perhaps 40,000, they enter many homes, and do something,
at least, toward the general enlightening and quickening of the feminine
mind that is so noticeable in the Japan of to-day. In regard to the
general reading of Japanese women who have had the new education, my
own observation leads me to believe that they keep themselves well
informed of what is going on in their own country, and of the outside
world so far as it affects their own country; but that their interest in
the world at large is less than that of American women, and only in
exceptional cases do they care much for the sayings or doings of
foreigners. In this respect they differ widely from the men, whose minds
are reaching continually for new things to graft upon the old
civilization.
In the whole list of publications on the woman question, nothing has
ever come out in Japan that compares for outspokenness and radical
sentiments with a book published within a year or two by Mr. Fukuzawa,
the most influential teacher that Japan has seen in this era of
enlightenment. It is in two parts, the first an attack, conducted with
much skill and humor, upon Kaibara's "Great Learning of Woman," a book
which for nearly four hundred years has been supposed to contain all
that a woman should know. The last part of Mr. Fukuzawa's work is a
constructive essay upon the "New Great Learning of Woman." So
revolutionary are the sentiments expressed in the book that many
Japanese men hesitate about allowing their wives and daughters to read
it, and in at least one modern Christian school it has been ruled out
from the school library as too advanced for the reading of the girls. A
brief survey of the sentiments and ideas thus boldly set forth will show
how far is the attitude of the Japanese from that of the American public
on the woman question. We find in Mr. Fukuzawa's book the lofty ideal
that belongs to the most advanced modern thought, but its promulgation
as a practical working ideal in Japan was of the nature of a
thunderclap. Among less tolerant races, men have been lynched, or burned
at the stake, for slighter departures from the average code of thought
and morals.
Mr. Fukuzawa starts out with the proposition that women are quite equal
to men, and should hold equal position and influence. Although he allows
that woman's work in the world is quite distinct from that of man, he
holds that it is as important, and that she should have the same
property-holding privileges and rights. The greatest stress is laid on
the point that the same moral obligation for purity of life rests on the
husband as on the wife. He goes into the details of the unhappiness
resulting from concubinage, putting the duty of the husband in this
respect as equal to that of the wife to preserve her chastity, and as
this is, next to obedience, the virtue of virtues for a Japanese wife,
his argument is as strong as it could well be made. He insists that
women should demand as a right from their husbands and families the same
privileges and opportunities that men have in society.
Such sentiments are a matter of course in America, and they have been
held by a few advanced thinkers in Japan, but no one hitherto has dared
in so vigorous and positive a way, and with arguments that come so near
home, to try to break the chain of custom that holds women down as
inferior beings. Kaibara says that if a woman finds her husband doing
wrong, she should gently plead with him, choosing a time when he is
most inclined to listen. If he refuses, she should not insist on his
hearing her, but wait until he is willing to listen, and though she may
try two or three times, she should never anger or irritate him. Fukuzawa
says that if this applies to the woman, it should also to the man,--that
is to say, if a man finds his wife unfaithful, he is to wait for an
opportunity when she is in good humor before he remonstrates with her.
Fukuzawa also throws new light on the duty of husbands and fathers to
their wives and children in another respect. He says that no man should
let the sole responsibility for the happiness of the home fall upon his
wife; that a man is responsible for the peace of the home as well as the
woman. This view of the matter is entirely new in Japan, as the
responsibility for an unhappy home is laid as a matter of course upon
the wife. The duty of a wife to her parents-in-law is also treated after
the same revolutionary manner. Is it to be wondered at that many men
fear the influence of such a book upon their gentle, submissive wives?
In this connection it is interesting, however, to note that at a recent
Shint[=o] wedding, after the religious ceremony, which in itself marks a
great step forward in the Japanese ideal of marriage, the priest who
united the couple presented to the bride a copy each of the Kaibara and
Fukuzawa books, perhaps with a view to letting her take her choice
between the old style and the new, perhaps that she might instruct her
husband out of the Fukuzawa book while she put in practice herself the
time-honored precepts of Kaibara.
* * * * *
One feature of the times in T[=o]ky[=o], that is perhaps worthy of passing
notice, is the tendency of women to form themselves into societies and
clubs for the attainment of some common object. Of these women's clubs,
the greater proportion are perhaps educational, the members meeting once
a month or once a fortnight to listen to a lecture upon some subject
that helps to keep them up with the times. There is also a patriotic
society, that concerns itself with raising money for sending supplies to
soldiers in the field, or for widows and orphans of soldiers, or to
help along some other patriotic enterprise. There are societies, too,
for general benevolence, or to help in carrying on the work of some one
institution. A glance at the membership lists of these associations
shows that the motive power is, in almost all cases, the same group of
earnest, educated women, who are, in this way and in countless others,
doing their utmost to broaden the horizons of their countrywomen, and
lead them out into a larger life. This is probably true in the other
cities in which a movement of women into clubs and societies is
noticeable.
It is when the active women of the new way of thinking, whose lives and
thoughts are devoted to work and endeavor rather than to the passive
submission and self-abnegation of the old days, find themselves suddenly
placed among the surroundings of thirty years ago, that the change of
conditions becomes most evident. I cannot think of a better way to
illustrate this than to tell the story of one of my Japanese friends and
her visit to her husband's relatives in a distant provincial city. The
lady who told me the story is a stirring, capable young matron,
educated after the modern ways, who has spent most of her happy married
life of some fifteen or sixteen years entirely in T[=o]ky[=o], except
for a visit of a year to America. She bears a closer resemblance to many
kind-hearted, strong, energetic young American women than to the
old-time Japanese lady portrayed in these pages. She rises every morning
at five, attends to every detail of her housekeeping, watches carefully
and with educated common sense over her family of young children,
believes in good food, fresh air, and exercise, for boys and girls
alike, and is a helpful friend and good neighbor, filling to the full
the position of work and influence in which she is placed. Her husband
is a successful business man, whom frequent journeys across the Pacific
have made thoroughly cosmopolitan, and their children are accustomed to
a freedom from conventional restraints and a healthful diet and regimen
such as old Japan never knew.
Last year the plan of spending the summer with the husband's relatives,
which had been long projected, was actually carried out, and the whole
family migrated to the provincial city from which the husband had
sprung. The aged mother, a gentlewoman of the old type, was delighted to
meet and entertain her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, and did her
best, with all old-fashioned courtesy, to make the visit a pleasant one.
The house was clean and spacious, the mats soft and white, the bows of
the lowest, the voices and speech the politest that Japan could furnish,
but the healthy, restless children found the conventional restraints
irksome, and the old-fashioned diet of rice and pickles, with hardly a
variation from morning till night and from week to week, was quite
different from the bountiful table to which they had been accustomed.
The younger woman could not criticise her mother-in-law's arrangements,
neither could she bear to see her children growing thin and pale before
her eyes. She consulted her husband, who, in accordance with the antique
ideas of propriety, was served his meals at a different time and in a
different room from his wife and family. To his food his mother had
always added various delicacies which her old-time Spartan spirit would
not allow her to set before her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It
would have been quite contrary to her ideas of rank and etiquette for
her to make any modification of her ordinary fare for them. As the son
was already supplying the funds for carrying on his mother's
establishment, it occurred to him that he might increase her allowance
on the plea that her summer expenses must be heavy with so large an
addition to her household. But the old lady was sure that nothing more
was necessary, and would not think of burdening her son with any larger
expenses, and could not be induced to accept the offered increase.
Another effort was made to get along upon the meagre fare, but the
youngest boy fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, and the mother
decided that something must be done if all the family did not wish to
follow him. The happy thought occurred to her of buying something that
would be an addition to their scanty menu, and giving it as a present
to her mother-in-law. Now a present in Japan can never be refused, so it
seemed to the younger woman that she must have found a way of escape
from her difficulties. Of course, the present was accepted with many
thanks and expressions of unworthiness, and when the meal-hour arrived,
each member of the family found an infinitesimal quantity of the
delicacy in a small plate at his side. But as soon as the meal was over,
the dear old lady, who had by strict economy managed to leave the
greater part of the gift untouched, sent out to all the neighbors
presents from what had been intended to feed the hungry children at
home. The experiment was tried again and again, but always with the same
result. No present could be kept for family use alone. Of everything but
the barest necessaries, the greater part must be sent out in gifts to
others.
At last the husband and wife put their heads together to decide on some
course of action that, without hurting the feelings of the older lady,
would secure sufficient nourishment for the children, and forthwith
began a series of all-day picnics to the noted places in the
vicinity,--picnics that included always a good meal at some well-kept
restaurant before the return to the old-fashioned fare of the
grandmother's house. In this way the summer was passed without further
illness, though the poor mother on her return to T[=o]ky[=o] spent several
weeks in bed,--what with starvation and worry and the effort to bear
heroically, and with a smiling face, the hard life and scanty fare that
were the life and fare of most of Japan only a few years ago.
In the changes that the past few years have wrought, perhaps nothing is
more striking than the new openings for work that Japan now offers to
women. The growth of the public school system has made a demand for
women as teachers that is steadily increasing. Although in the normal
schools the proportion of women to men is still only one to six, and
while teaching, even in the primary schools, is not yet mainly in
feminine hands as it is with us, there is still a good showing of women
employed as teachers. From the figures of the school report of 1898, we
find over 10,000 women as teachers and assistants in the public and
private schools. The profession of nursing, too, which ten years ago was
just opening, has already drawn many women into its ranks. In the Red
Cross hospitals alone there are this year nearly a thousand nurses
taking the course, and a thousand graduates scattered throughout the
country hold themselves ready to answer the call of the society in the
time of need, in the mean time practicing their profession wherever they
may chance to be. The quality of the Red Cross graduates has been tested
now in two wars, and they show the soldierly virtues of their nation, as
well as the more womanly qualities of tenderness and gentleness; and a
self-respect that has kept them pure and free from stain in the midst of
severe temptation. It is impossible for me to gather statistics of the
work done by other institutions for the training of nurses, but the
figures given above may, I think, be doubled with absolute safety in
making an estimate of the total number of nurses trained and in training
throughout the empire.
The growth of commerce and industry has greatly increased the demand
for feminine labor outside the home. In the old days the two most
important industries of the country, tea and silk, were mainly carried
on by women in their homes, but the use of modern machinery is rapidly
taking the weaving industries out of the homes and making factory hands
of the women and children.[44]
[44] In the Japan _Mail_ of July 8, 1901, the following statistics of
women employees in factories in Japan were given:--
Manufacture. No. of Women. No. to 100 Men.
Raw Silk 107,348 93
Cotton Spinning 53,053 79
Matches 11,385 69
Cotton Fabrics 10,656 86
Tobacco 7,874 72
Matting 1,641 59
One of the most noticeable effects of this new demand for female labor
is the extreme scarcity of servants. Although wages are nearly double
what they were ten years ago, it is extremely difficult for Japanese
housekeepers now to find servants to replace the old ones as they drop
out of the ranks, and the women who apply for positions are apt to be
far inferior to those who came to the same families to do the same work
ten years ago.
In other ways, too, women are learning to fill new places in the world.
The telephone, which now connects towns and cities and villages in
Japan, employs girls in large numbers. In the printing-offices we find
women at work, not as compositors, but as compositors' assistants,
darting from case to case about the room and selecting for the
compositor the ideographs that he needs in his work. Inasmuch as a small
printing-office cannot get along with less than four thousand
characters, and as larger ones may have several times that number, the
need of quick-witted and quick-footed assistants to each compositor may
be easily recognized. As the schools turn out each year more girls
fitted by education to do this kind of work, and as the number of
newspapers and other printed matter is continually on the increase, the
demand for and supply of this special variety of labor are likely to
increase proportionately for some time to come.
A few women are now making their way as reporters on the daily papers,
a few more are engaged in literary work. One of the best of modern
Japanese novelists was a woman, but she died several years ago at so
early an age that her work was a promise rather than a fulfillment.
Artists, too, there are, who are making names for themselves, as well as
a living, in a country where art is so common that success in that line
means hard work and special talent. A few young women support themselves
by stenography, a few more as clerks and secretaries in business
offices. Until a writing-machine has been invented that will write four
thousand characters, there will not be much demand for typewriter girls
in Japan outside of the treaty ports, where a few are now employed. The
Japanese government has found, as Uncle Sam discovered some time ago,
that for the counting of paper money women's fingers are more deft than
those of men, and it consequently gives employment to a few women in
that work. One railroad has recently begun to employ women as
ticket-sellers, and three medical schools have already graduated some
women physicians, though it is still doubtful whether there is any
great opening for them in the country. These are some of the ways in
which women now find themselves able to gain a little more independence
of life. The whole matter is so new that no statistics are available
that will show the exact extent of the demand for labor in these
directions, but from my own observation I am inclined to think that
there is little change in the employments of women except in the
neighborhood of the larger cities, and that the new occupations as yet
have a very slight effect upon the conditions in this country at large.
It is not possible to understand the actual progress made in Japan in
improving the condition of women, without some consideration of the
effect that Christian thought and Christian lives have had on the
thought and lives of the modern Japanese. If Japanese women are ever to
be raised to the measure of opportunity accorded to women in Christian
countries, it can only be through the growth of Christianity in their
own country, and for that reason a study of that growth is pertinent to
a study of their condition.
The past ten years in Japan have been discouraging to the missionaries
in many ways, and it is not unusual to hear from the less hopeful of
them the statement that their work has been at a standstill, or even
going backward, during that time. The statistics of missionary effort
show a steady, though slight, increase in the number of professing
Christians, but if the sum total of the results of missionary effort
were the number of converts made, it might, perhaps, be doubtful whether
the money spent on missions in Japan might not be better turned to other
purposes. There are now in Japan, of Christians of all sects,
Protestant, and Roman and Greek Catholic, 121,000, or about one half of
one per cent. of the total population of the country; but the influence
of these Christians as leaders of thought is out of all proportion to
their number. Christian men are found in the Diet, in the army and navy,
in the universities and colleges, and in the newspaper offices, in a
proportion far beyond their ratio to the total population, exerting
their influence in many ways for the uplifting of the nation to loftier
moral ideals. The proportion of Christian men and women in the
government schools with which I have been connected is rather
surprising. In the Higher Normal School, training young women to go out
into the whole country as teachers, the proportion of professing
Christians upon the teaching staff is striking; and in the Peeresses'
School, which is as conservative and anti-foreign as any educational
institution in Japan, there are five professing Christians among the
thirty-five teachers. While, on the one hand, the Japanese Christians
are not all models of all the virtues, while there is with many of them
a tendency to modify their Christianity so as to accommodate a
considerable amount of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the other hand,
that the most active workers in the cause of philanthropy are men who
have accepted the Christian faith, and who are striving in all
earnestness to model their lives after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Christian Church in Japan to-day has its heroes and its
back-sliders, and has between these two extremes a rank and file of
every-day, commonplace men and women, who amidst frequent failures and
in the midst of many temptations are making the name of Christian stand
for a certain kind of life and a certain standard of virtue quite above
and beyond the lives and standards of their countrymen. It is largely
because of them that a Christian public opinion is growing up among
non-Christian Japanese. Men to-day who have no special leanings toward
Christianity shake their heads over vices and sins which a few years ago
were not even thought of as wrong. There is a great deal of talk about
the growth of moral depravity in the country, but as a matter of fact,
the standards of virtue have never been so high since Japan was opened
as they are to-day: it is only that Christian thought has held up a
mirror to an un-Christian society, in which it views all too clearly its
own defects. There is, to my mind, no more hopeful sign of the times
than the growing discouragement over the present condition of morals.
When there is added to this a steadily increasing respect for the
honesty and strength of character of Christian men and women, it must
mean that a great and lasting impression has been made. To-day banks,
business offices, and other places requiring trustworthy clerks and
employees, prefer, other things being equal, Christian young men, for it
is generally known that they are more worthy of confidence than the
majority of applicants for such places.
One instance of this increased moral sensitiveness may be cited in the
recent successful efforts to limit the power of the brothel-keepers over
their victims and virtual slaves, the _j[=o]r[=o]_ or licensed
prostitutes. As I have stated in a previous chapter, the women who carry
on this business in Japan are, many of them, unwilling victims of a
system which allows parents to sell their children to a life of shame;
and they enter upon that life so young that they can hardly be regarded
as morally responsible for their condition. Even after the actual sale
of girls was forbidden by an imperial ordinance in 1872, the purchase
price was called a loan to the parents of the girl, and subsequent
loans for clothing entered upon the books of the establishment kept the
unfortunates so continually in debt to their masters that they could
never escape from the bondage in which they were held except through
death, or by purchase by some infatuated admirer. Public opinion, while
it indulged in some sentimental pity for the hard lot of the
_j[=o]r[=o]_, did little or nothing to aid any one who desired to help
them, regarding the profession as a necessary one, and caring not at all
for the injustice to which the girls were subjected. Ten or twelve years
ago, a movement started by some prominent Japanese Christians against
the _j[=o]roya_ fell flat for want of a public opinion behind it.
Speeches on the subject were hissed down by audiences of young men, and
nothing could be done to help even the most innocent and unhappy of the
girls to a better life. In the new code, perhaps as an effect of this
movement, a new law provided that the _j[=o]r[=o]_ might leave her
calling by giving notice to the police. A police regulation, however,
forbade any girl to cease her employment, or to leave the house in
which she was kept, unless her official notice of cessation was
countersigned by the keeper of the _j[=o]roya_, so that by her own
effort she could not free herself.
In the year 1900, one of these girls in a provincial city appealed to an
American missionary for help in getting her liberty. Through his aid,
and that of his Japanese helpers, her case came before the court, which
decided that the contract under which she was held was opposed to the
public welfare and good morals, and that the keeper must affix his seal
to her notice without regard to her debt. Although the local police
refused to act in the matter, and although the missionary and his
helpers were subjected to personal violence by the employees of the
_j[=o]roya_, an appeal to the authorities at T[=o]ky[=o] resulted in an
enforcement of the court's decision, and the girl was freed.
At this juncture the Salvation Army, which has a valiant contingent in
T[=o]ky[=o], and which was actually spoiling for a good fight with the
world, the flesh, and the Devil, in any form, took up the cause of the
oppressed _j[=o]r[=o]_. A special edition of the "War Cry" containing
appeals to the girls to leave their lives of shame, and offering aid to
any one who might apply to the Army, was published and hawked through
the Yoshiwara. When the keepers and their employees found out what the
strangely costumed news-venders were about, they charged down upon them,
and after a street fight, drove them out of the quarter. Thus the war
began, but the T[=o]ky[=o] police took up the matter, the T[=o]ky[=o]
press joined hands with the Salvationists, and in the end the whole
country was stirred to aid in the attack. In return, the brothel-keepers
and their employees, feeling that the profits of their business were at
stake, made it extremely warm for any Salvationists or newspaper
reporters who dared set foot in the disreputable quarters, and in their
zeal sometimes made mistakes and drove out their would-be patrons. The
office of one newspaper was wrecked by sympathetic roughs, and it took a
squad of fifty or sixty police to escort Army officers when they had
occasion to visit any of the houses to secure the release of a girl. No
lives were lost, though some hard knocks were received, and the work was
kept up with unabated noise on both sides, until every girl held in
unwilling bondage knew how she might escape and to whom she could go for
aid.
During the month of September, 1900, as a direct result of the attacks
of and upon the Army, the number of visitors to these houses in
T[=o]ky[=o] was decreased by about 2,000 a night. On October 2, a
government ordinance was issued that at one stroke removed all obstacles
in the way of a girl's securing her freedom at any moment when she
wanted to leave the business. The new regulations made the descent to
Avernus as difficult as possible, and the return to the upper world a
mere step. In T[=o]ky[=o] alone, in the first four months after the
promulgation of this order, 1,100 out of the 6,335 girls who were
licensed as prostitutes left the houses in which they were employed,
most of them returning to their homes and families, and as many as
applied being cared for in the Rescue Home of the Salvation Army. The
places thus vacated are not easy to fill, because the keepers will not
advance money to the parents of a girl, now that they can no longer hold
her as security for the debt. In consequence, too, of the revelations of
the evils of the system, the business has fallen off alarmingly. Thus
many of the houses have been obliged to close, owing to lack of custom
and to inability to pay the heavy taxes.
We have here the story of a successful attack on a system which has
existed in Japan for three hundred years, by a Christian agency acting
with the support of so strong a public opinion that police and
government have felt bound to obey its behests. There has been no more
striking example of the effect of Christian thought upon public
sentiment in any country than this crusade against the brothels in
Japan. When we remember that ten years ago it was not possible for a
speaker to attack the institution before an audience of students without
being silenced by hisses, it is interesting to note that this year, the
students of that same school greeted with applause and respectful
attention an address on this very subject.
It seems to me rather striking that in the year 1900 fifty thousand
copies of the Bible were sold in Japan--more than of any other book.
Although the present translation is regarded as far from perfect, and
much of it is unintelligible to the average Japanese without
instruction, whether directly or indirectly, by mission workers, it is
still sought after and read for the sake of its literature, and because
of the reputation that has been gained for it throughout the country.
There are few missionaries of any experience in Japan who cannot tell
stories of men coming to them from country villages, who, through the
reading of a copy of the Bible in some way fallen into their hands, have
been brought by the beauty and nobility of the parts that they could
understand to seek additional explanation from some teacher or preacher.
One case that is amusing, but at the same time striking, I have heard
vouched for from a number of sources:--
Two thieves, one night, broke into the dormitory of a girls' school in
search of booty, and by chance awakened two of the girls. As they sat
up in their beds, wondering what was best to do under the circumstances,
one zealous damsel reached for the Bible in which she had been reading
before she went to sleep, and handed it to one of the thieves, saying,
"If you read this book, you will not want to steal any more." The other
girl followed her companion's example and gave her Bible to the other
thief. That was all, so far as the girls knew, and it was some years
before the sequel came to light.
There is one place in Japan to which released convicts who are trying to
get back to respectability again drift from all parts of the empire. It
is a prisoners' home in T[=o]ky[=o], where one man, aided by his capable
and devoted wife, receives into his own family and gives aid and succor
to hundreds of society's outcasts. To this place came one day an
ex-convict who told a remarkable story of his conversion, and of his
desire to lead a new life. He had received a Bible from a little girl
one night in a house that he was robbing, but was too full of
professional engagements at the time to follow her advice and read it.
Later, however, as he was resting from his labors in the enforced
seclusion of a prison, he began to read, and spelled out enough to make
up his mind that he did not want to steal any more. Accordingly, as soon
as his term was ended, he made his way to the prisoners' refuge, and by
the aid of its founder and head, and his good wife, settled down to
steady habits of industry. Later, when the prison look had worn off from
his face and the prison gait from his walk, he returned to his family
and friends, where he is now a respectable member of the society upon
which he formerly preyed.
There are other stories showing as deep impressions made on men of
culture and respectability, not so striking and amusing as this one, but
meaning as much, or even more, for the future of Japan. Such things are
hardly possible in Christian countries to-day, for there is little or no
novelty in the message that the old book brings to us; but to the
Japanese mind the thoughts are absolutely new in many ways, and the
reading alone will often change the whole life, because it lifts up the
nature to a higher set of ideals.
As a direct effect of Christian thought upon the thought of the
Japanese nation, it is interesting to notice the change in meaning of
one word. In the teachings of Confucius the highest virtue is
benevolence, rendered into Japanese by the word _jin_; in the teachings
of Buddhism the highest virtue is mercy, or _jishi_. When the Christian
missionaries first came to Japan, there was no term in the language that
covered the thought of love as it is taught by Christ. For lack of
anything better, the word _ai_, which indicated the love of a superior
for an inferior, was made to do duty for the greater thought; and now
the old word _ai_, throughout the length and breadth of Japan, is
accepted and understood in its new meaning, a continual witness to the
effect of Christianity upon the national mind. Is this a little thing in
the education of a race that has shown in the past so great a capacity
for living up to its ideals?
One more direct effect of Christian teaching upon Japanese society is
the great quickening of philanthropic and benevolent effort. Scattered
throughout the country are benevolent or educational societies,
orphanages, hospitals, free kindergartens, reform schools, and other
evidences of a desire on the part of the more fortunate to help the
unfortunate by some means or other; and if you study into the history of
any of these efforts, you will usually find that some Japanese
Christian, or some man who has come home impressed with the
philanthropies of Christian countries, has started the scheme, and has
created a society, and a public opinion behind the society, which
carries on the work. Even in the government institutions there is no
difficulty in tracing the influence of Christians and Christianity. The
Red Cross Society, with its seven thousand members, and its hospitals in
every prefecture of the empire, bears the sign of Christendom upon all
its property and employees. It seems to me quite safe to say that but
for the Christian influences of the past forty years, there would be
very little altruistic work done in Japan to-day; but by means of the
Christians and their teachings, the latest and best thought of the world
is working its way out in practical service for humanity in Japan, and
this service is ascribed by enlightened Buddhist and Shint[=o] believers
alike to the spirit of Christianity, which will not let the fortunate
rest while their less fortunate brothers are in want or sin.
No one who studies the religious question in Japan at all can fail to
notice the extraordinary revivifying of Buddhism for what it feels to be
a life and death struggle with an alien faith. The disestablishment of
the Buddhist church by the government at the time of the restoration
must be credited with its share of the awakening process; for the
priests, finding their own support and that of the temples dependent
upon the voluntary contributions of worshipers, were forced to bestir
themselves as they had not done since the old missionary days, when they
were working for a foothold in the country. But without the competition
of Christianity, it is extremely doubtful whether their efforts would
have been turned so largely along educational and philanthropic lines,
whether the standard of intelligence among the priesthood would have
been so quickly raised, whether they would have sent young men abroad to
study Sanskrit and history with a view to a better understanding of
their own scriptures, or whether they would not rather have relied on
less radical methods of quickening the religious life within their body.
Certain it is that Buddhism, which upon its introduction into Japan
actually lowered the status of women, is now making a bid for public
favor by holding meetings and founding societies especially for women,
and is doing its best to increase their self-respect and the respect in
which they are held by society.
An interesting story which throws some light upon the new influence that
is at work among the Buddhists came to me not long ago through a
Japanese friend. There were two brothers living in a poor little village
on the northern coast of Japan, who were joint heirs to a small piece of
property. As the land was not enough for the support of two families,
the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful youth, gave up all title to his
share of the inheritance and entered a Buddhist monastery. In the quiet
of this retreat, amid the beautiful surroundings, the daily services,
the chanting of priests, and the mellow booming of the great monastery
bell, his thoughts went out to the poor and the sinful among his own
people. He began to feel that a life which seeks merely spiritual uplift
for itself is not the highest life, and that only as spiritual gain is
shared with others is it real and lasting. Forthwith he began a life of
helpfulness to the poor about him,--of teaching and preaching and good
deeds that won him many humble friends. Within the monastery, however,
his work was not approved. His ideas and actions were not in harmony
with the teachings of the sect. He was first disciplined and then
expelled, and found his way back at last, penniless, to his native
village.
Now, in northern Japan the winters are long and hard, and the most
industrious of farmers and fisher-folk can wring only a bare subsistence
from the conditions of their toil. It is from these villages, perhaps,
more than from any other sources, that the girls are obtained to supply
the _j[=o]roya_ of the great cities. At any rate, in this particular
village, the only hope that any girl possessed of escaping from the hard
home toil was by the sale of her person, and the thought of seeing the
great cities, of wearing beautiful dresses, of being admired and petted,
and perhaps at last of marrying some rich lover and becoming a great
lady, was a tempting bait to these poor peasant girls. To this young
man, whose soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness during his
absence, the full horror of the conditions that could so warp and dwarf
the souls of women appealed as it had never done before. He must do
something to help them, but what to do his previous experience did not
help him to know. He sought for aid and sympathy in his native place,
among his friends and co-religionists; but the state of affairs was too
old and too familiar to excite interest, and at last he worked his way
to the capital, feeling that somewhere in that great city he would find
light on the question that perplexed him. It was a mere question of ways
and means--how to begin a work which he felt driven from within to do.
In T[=o]ky[=o], as he inquired among his friends, he was told that
Christians knew all about the kind of work that he wished to begin, that
he must go to them and study their methods, if he would help the people
of his native village. So the devout young Buddhist, who had found in
his own faith the divine impulse, turned to the study of what Christians
had done and were doing for the unfortunate. The story is not finished
yet. We cannot tell whether in the end it will result in another
addition to the ranks of the Japanese Christians, or whether it will aid
in the quickening that has come to Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends,
it shows in a concrete example what Christianity is now doing for Japan,
and especially for the women of the country.
APPENDIX.
_The following Notes refer to passages marked by asterisks in the
foregoing pages._
_Page 3._
The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but
some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the
name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to
bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much
importance as it is with us. In some families the boys are called by
names indicating their position in the family, the words _Taro_, "Big
one," _Jiro_, "Second one," _Saburo_, "Third one," _Shiro_, "Fourth
one," _Goro_, "Fifth one," etc., being used alone, or placed after
adjectives indicating some quality that it is hoped the child may
possess. Such combinations are, _Eitaro_, "Glorious big one," _Seijiro_,
"Pure second one," _Tomisaburo_, "Rich third one," and so on.
_Page 4._
To speak with greater exactness, the _miya mairi_ of a boy is on the
thirty-first day of his life,--of a girl, on the thirty-third.
_Page 8._
T[=o]ky[=o] just now shows a tendency to change this national custom.
Gayly painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in
large quantities in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters
of the lower classes, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon
instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly. These carriages are, of
course, the exception, and may prove to be but a passing T[=o]ky[=o]
fashion, but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of
Japan, and may prove of value in the physical development of the common
people.
_Page 11._
In the T[=o]ky[=o] of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in
evidence, as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few
foreigners and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a
mile or so in the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the principal
business streets in a purely Japanese section of the city, shows five
meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with
golf-stockings and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts
everywhere through the city, and call at a large proportion of the
houses. Condensed milk, too, is to be found on the shelves of every
provision store, together with canned and dried meats, and the
restaurants where foreign food is served are distributed throughout the
entire city, and do a thriving business on Japanese patronage. The less
extravagant country people declare that T[=o]ky[=o] is "eating itself
up," but so far no terrible increase of indebtedness seems to follow the
change in the standard of living. It is interesting to note that the
scalp troubles referred to on page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in
the last ten years, whether because of the change in the food or for
other reasons, I cannot determine.
_Page 24._
Twice, after the _miya mairi_ of her babyhood, does our little maid
repair to the temple to seek the blessing of her patron god upon a step
forward in her short life: once, when at the age of three, the hair on
her small head, which until then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is
allowed to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood; and once,
when she has attained her seventh year, and exchanges the soft, narrow
sash of infancy for the stiff, wide _obi_ which is the pride of every
well-dressed Japanese woman. Her little brother, too, though now no
longer destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of the old-time Japanese
warrior, and whose fuzzy black head is now usually left unshaven in his
babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of three to give thanks,
and when he comes to be five years old, the little boy again goes up to
the temple, this time wearing for the first time the manly _hakama_, or
kilt-pleated trousers, and makes offerings to the god who has protected
him thus far.
The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th of November, and there is
no prettier sight in all Japan than a popular temple on that day. All
the streets that converge on the shrine are crowded with gayly dressed
children hurrying along to make their offerings, accompanied by parents
brimming with pride and pleasure.
"Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"
three-year-old tots of both sexes trudging sturdily along on their
clogs: square little red-cheeked boys, their black eyes shining with
pride in their rustling new silk _hakama_, feeling that they are big
boys and no longer to be confused with the babies that they were
yesterday: here, too, are the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their
many-colored garments and their gorgeous new _obi_ setting off to
advantage their shining black hair and sparkling eyes. The children are
so many, so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it is to be older
than they were, that the grown folks who accompany them seem like
shadows; the only real thing is the children.
Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers and toy-merchants who
can find standing-room for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags are
flying, drums are beating, a _kagura_ dance is going on in the pavilion,
about which stands a crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and
the steps that lead to the temple itself are as thronged as Jacob's
ladder with little ones ascending and descending. Within the shrine the
white-robed priests are hard at work from morning to night. A little
company forms in the vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room,
where they bow and make their offerings, and wait until there is space
for them in the inner sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a
droning chant, which ends at last, and then a party that has finished
its worship issues forth, and those who have been waiting without go in;
and when the few minutes of worship are over, and the amulet that
rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the
dances to be seen, and the _o miyagé_ to be purchased, and at last the
happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of
life has been passed propitiously.
_Page 30._
The _shir[=o]zaké_ (white _saké_) used for this occasion is a curious
drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially
for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest
form of _saké_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this
ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.
_Page 31._
The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom
that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set
apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was
the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to
take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for
purification, they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year of the
user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early
times, the season for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast
are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern Japanese means a
chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else
except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated with the
ancient cock-fighting, an amusement which has now almost gone out,
except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.
The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a
man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper
dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns had firmly
established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
designating the five feast days upon which the daimi[=o]s were to
present themselves at the Sh[=o]gun's palace and offer their
congratulations. One of the days thus appointed was the third day of the
third month. It is believed that the giving of the chief place at the
feast to effigies of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of
the Sh[=o]gunate,--a policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of
loyalty to the throne, while at the same time the occupant of the throne
remained a puppet in the hands of his vice-gerent.
Each girl born into a family has a pair of _O Hina Sama_ placed for her
upon the red-covered shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after
her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her husband's house, she
carries the dolls with her, and the first feast after her marriage she
observes with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter old enough
to carry out the observance, she must keep up the ceremony. The feast,
as it exists to-day, is said by the Japanese to serve three purposes: it
makes the children of both sexes loyal to the imperial family, it
interests the girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial
etiquette.
_Page 40._
Because of the complexity of the Chinese language and the time needed
for its mastery, there has been a movement to lessen the study of pure
Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it altogether, and with
this to simplify the use of the ideographs in the Sinico-Japanese. The
educational department is requiring that text-books be limited in their
use of ideographs; that those used be written in only one way and that
the simplest, and that the _kana_ (the Japanese syllabary) be
substituted wherever possible. Several plans for reform in this matter
are being agitated, one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to
nouns and verbs only.
_Page 41._
No one who has been in Japan can have failed to notice the peculiarly
strident quality of the Japanese voice in singing, a quality that is
gained by professional singers through much labor and actual physical
suffering. That this is not a natural characteristic of the Japanese
voice is shown by the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of
children and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to me to be brought
about by the pursuit of a wrong musical ideal, or at least, of a musical
ideal quite distinct from that of the Western world. In Japan one seldom
finds singing birds kept in cages, but instead crickets, grasshoppers,
katydids, and other noisy members of the insect family may be seen
exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any summer night in the
T[=o]ky[=o] streets. These insects delight the ears of the Japanese with
their melody, and it seems to me that the voices of singers throughout
the empire are modeled after the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect,
rather than after the fuller notes of the bird's song.
The introduction of European music by the schools and churches has
already begun to show in the songs of the children in the streets, and
where ten years ago one might live in T[=o]ky[=o] for a year, and never
hear a note of music except the semi-musical cries of the workmen, when
they are pulling or striking in concert, now there are few days when
some strain of song from some passing school-child does not come in at
the window of one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress made
in catching foreign ideas of time and tune is quite surprising, but the
singing will never be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice is
modulated according to the foreign standards.
_Page 45._
It is said by Japanese versed in the most refined ways that a woman who
has learned the tea ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior
bearing and manner on all occasions.
_Page 49._
Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in a series of
studies,--leaves, flowers, roots, and stalks being shown in every
possible position and combination,--until not only the stroke is
mastered, but the plant is thoroughly known. In the book that lies
before me as I write, a book used as a copy-book by a young lady
beginning the practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six large
pages to studies of one small and simple flower and the pupil has
covered hundreds of sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.
She has now finished that part of the course, and can, at a moment's
notice, reproduce with just the right strokes any of the designs or any
part of the plant. The next step forward will be a similar series of
bamboo.
_Page 52._
In the government schools for girls, much attention is paid just now to
physical culture. The gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and
English and mathematics as important parts of the course, and the girls
are encouraged to spend their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all
kinds of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war, marches, and
quadrilles are entered into with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in
their dark red _hakama_ are as well able to move quickly and freely as
girls of the same age in America. If it were not for the queer
pigeon-toed gait, acquired by years of walking in narrow _kimono_ and on
high clogs, the Japanese girls would be fully abreast of the American in
all these sports. So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical
strength seized upon the nation, that a girl of delicate physique has
less chance of marriage than one who is robust and strong.
_Page 55._
It is in the mistakes and failures made in adapting the education given
in the schools to the exact conditions that present themselves in the
constantly changing Japan of to-day, that the opponents of all
alteration in the education of women find their strongest arguments. The
conservatives point with scorn to this girl whose new ideas have led
her into folly or trouble, or to that one whose health has been broken
down by the adverse conditions surrounding her student life, and say,
"This will be the case with all our women if we continue this insane
practice of educating them along new lines." Advance in female
education, as in all other lines of progress in Japan, is a series of
violent actions and reactions. In 1889, partly through ill-advised
conduct on the part of supporters of the cause, one of the most serious
reverses that has come in the progress of Western education for women
began to show itself. The reaction was helped along by a paper read
before some of the most influential men of Japan, and subsequently
reported and discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor in the
medical department of the imperial University in T[=o]ky[=o]. The paper
was a serious warning to the men of the country that no women could be
good wives, mothers, and housekeepers and at the same time have
undergone a thorough literary education. The arguments were reinforced
by statistics showing that American college women either did not marry,
or that if they married they had very few children. All Japan took
fright at this alarming showing, and for several years the education of
girls in anything more than the primary studies was not encouraged by
the government. The lowest depth of this reaction was reached during or
soon after the Japan-China war, when the growth of national vanity
resulted in a temporary disdain for all foreign ideas. The tide has
turned again now, girls' schools that have been closed for years are
being reopened, young men who are thinking of marrying are looking for
educated wives, and among the women themselves there is a strong desire
for self-improvement. Under this impulse a new generation of educated
women will be added to those already exerting an influence in the
country, and it is to be hoped that the forward movement will be more
difficult to set back when the next reactionary wave strikes the
Japanese coast.
_Page 60._
The _obi_ is supposed to express by its length the hope that the
marriage may be an enduring one. Among the more modernized Japanese a
ring is now often given in place of, or, in the wealthier classes, in
addition to the _obi_.
_Page 61, line 6._
It is interesting, however, as a sign of the times, to notice that for
the wedding of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, the Shinto high priest,
who is master of ceremonies at the Imperial Court, instituted a solemn
religious ceremony within the sanctuary of the palace. Following the
example set in so high a quarter, a number of couples, during the winter
of 1900-1901, have repaired to Shinto temples in various parts of the
empire, to secure the sanction of the ancient national faith upon their
union. But still, for the great majority of the Japanese, the wedding
ceremony is what it has always been.
_Page 61, line 15._
Although new methods of transportation have come into use now in most of
the Japanese cities, and wheeled carts drawn by men or horses are used
for carrying all other kinds of luggage, the wedding outfit, wrapped in
great cloths on which the crest of the bride's family is conspicuous, is
borne on men's shoulders to the bridegroom's home, the length of the
baggage train and the number and size of the burdens showing the wealth
and importance of the bride's family. The bride who goes to her
husband's house well provided by her own family, will carry, not only a
full wardrobe and the house-furnishings already mentioned, but will be
supplied, so far as foresight can manage it, with all the little things
that she can need for months in advance. Paper, pens, ink, postage
stamps, needles, thread, and sewing materials of all kinds, a store of
dress materials and other things to be given as presents to any and all
who may do her favors, and pocket money with which she may make good any
deficiencies, or meet any unforeseen emergency. When she goes from her
father's house, she should be so thoroughly fitted out that she will not
have to ask her husband for the smallest thing for a number of months.
The parents of the bride, in giving up their daughter, as they do when
she marries, show the estimation in which they have held her by the
beauty and completeness of the trousseau with which they provide her.
The expense of this wedding outfit is often very great, persons even in
the most moderate circumstances spending as much as one thousand yen
upon the necessary purchases, and among the wealthy, four thousand to
five thousand yen is not extravagant. As material wealth increases in
Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase the style and cost of the
trousseau, and the marriage of a daughter has come to be, in many cases,
a severe strain on the family finances. But this outfit is of the nature
of a dowry, for it is her very own; and in the event of a divorce, she
brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and household
goods that she carried away as a bride.
_Page 64._
For this visit the bride wears for the first time a dress made for her
by her husband's family and bearing its crest, as a sign that she is
now a member of that family and only a guest in her father's house.
_Page 76._
Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions of marriage and of
divorce have been altered for the better. At present no divorce is
possible except through the courts or through mutual consent; the simple
change of registration by one party or the other does not constitute a
legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent cannot be arranged
without the consent of the parents or head of the family of a married
person who is under twenty-five years of age. The grounds upon which
judicial divorce may be granted seem very trivial measured by European
standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct gain over the
former practice. The wife is no longer dependent for her position simply
upon the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure her consent to
the separation, he must formulate charges of immorality or conviction of
crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on the part of the wife or
of her relatives, or of desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
three years or more. Only when some such charge has been made and proved
before a court can a husband send away his wife. In the case of a
separation by mutual consent, though the law still gives the care of the
children to the father in case no previous agreement has been made, if a
woman sees her way clear to supporting them, she may stipulate for the
custody of one or more of them as a condition of her consent to the
divorce. In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in the interests of the
children, take them away from their father and assign them to the care
of some other person.
In these changes we can see a distinct advance toward permanence of the
family tie; and we can see, too, that the wife has gained a new power to
hold her own against injustice and wrong. That when the people have
become used to these changes, other and more binding laws will be
enacted, we can feel pretty sure, for the drift of enlightened public
opinion seems to be in favor of securing better and more firmly
established homes just as fast as "the hardness of their hearts" will
permit.
_Page 84._
It is difficult for us in America, who live under customs and laws in
which the individual is the social unit and the family a union of
individuals, to understand a system of society in which the individual
is little or nothing and the family the social unit recognized both by
law and custom. In Japan, a man is simply a member of some family, and
his daily affairs, his marrying and giving in marriage, are more or less
under the control of the head of his family, or of the family council.
Only in case he is the head of the family is he able to marry without
securing some one's consent, and then his responsibilities in regard to
the headship may in themselves hamper him. If this is the case with the
more independent man, it may be imagined how completely the woman is
submerged under family influence. She may, under exceptional
circumstances, become the head of a family, but this is usually only a
temporary expedient, and even then she must subordinate herself more
completely to the family and its interests than when she occupies a
lowlier place.
The headship of an unmarried woman lasts only until a husband has been
selected for her, and the headship of a widow lasts during her
guardianship of the rightful heir to the position. By Japanese law a
widow is always the guardian of her minor children.
The only way in which individuality before the law can be obtained by
man or woman in Japan is through cutting the tie that binds to the
family, and starting out in life afresh as the head of a new family.
This new family must always be _héimin_, or plebeian, no matter how high
in rank may have been the family from which the founder has gone out,
but there is a continually increasing number of young men and women who
prefer the freedom that comes from the headship of a small and new
family, even if of low rank, to the state of tutelage or of hampering
responsibility which must accompany connection with a larger and older
social group. It seems likely that through this means an evolution from
the family to the individual system will be effected, as the nation
grows more and more modernized in its way of looking at things.
For the Japanese woman, as I have already said, marriage is in most
cases the entrance into a new family. She is cut off from the old ways
and interests, in which she has until now had her part, and she has
begun life anew as the latest addition to and therefore the lowest and
most ignorant member of another social group. It is her duty simply to
learn the ways and obey the will of those above her, and it is the duty
of those above her, and especially of her husband's mother, to fit her
by training and discipline for her new surroundings. The physical
strength of the young wife, her sweetness of temper, her manners, her
morals, her way of looking at life, are all put to the test by this
sharp-eyed guardian of the family interests, and woe to the younger
woman if she fail to come up to the standard set. She may be a good
woman and a faithful wife, but if, under the training given her, she
does not adapt herself readily to the traditions and customs of the
family she enters, it is more than likely, even under the new laws, that
she may be sent back to her father's house as _persona non grata_, and
even her husband's love cannot save her. It is because of this
predominance of the family over the individual that the young wife, when
she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our own country, entering
upon a new life as mistress of a house, with absolute control over all
of her little domain.
_Page 115._
At the time of the celebration of his silver wedding, in 1895, the
Emperor came into the Audience Room with the Empress on his arm, an
example which was followed by the Imperial Princes.
With the engagement and marriage of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, an
entirely new precedent was established in the relations of the Imperial
couple. The Western idea of marriage between equals has never existed in
the Japanese mind in its thought of the union between their Emperor and
Empress. The Empress, though of noble family, was chosen from among the
subjects of the Emperor, and the marriage was of the nature of an
appointment by the Emperor to the position of Imperial Consort, just as
any other appointment might have been made of a subject to fill an
important position in the government. In the marriage of the Crown
Prince a very different course was pursued. While no departure was made
from the old precedents in the selection of a Princess from one of the
five families that trace their descent from Jimmu Tenno, the whole
manner of obtaining the bride was different from anything that Japan had
before known. The Prince asked the father of the young lady to give her
to him just as a common man might have done, and everything in the
preliminary arrangements was carried out with the idea that by the
marriage she was to be raised to his rank and position. Reference has
already been made to the religious ceremony that was devised for the
occasion, an act that in itself altered the meaning of marriage for the
whole nation.
Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the world outside of the
palace gates, of the kindness and consideration with which the young
wife is treated by her husband. To the scandal of some of the more
old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants, the heir to the throne insists
on observing toward his wife, in private as well as in public, all the
minutiæ of Western etiquette. She enters the carriage ahead of him when
they drive together, they habitually take their meals together, and he
finds in her a cheerful companion and friend, and not simply a devoted
and humble servant. In this way, by the highest example that can be set
to them, the Japanese people are learning a new lesson.
All these things have a deep significance in showing that the sacredness
of the marriage tie is gradually being recognized.
_Page 137._
Something, indeed, may be said on the other side in regard to this
system, which I seem to have painted as ideal. If in America we find the
burden of expensive grown-up sons and daughters sometimes too heavy upon
parents whose powers are on the wane, we must remember that in Japan a
young man is often seriously handicapped at the beginning of his active
life by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting labor,
and that the young wife entering the home of her parents-in-law often
finds a happy married life rendered impossible by the fact that she must
please an elderly couple thoroughly fixed in their ways,--the rulers of
the household and with little to do but rule. With this custom, as with
all human customs, everything in the long run depends upon how it is
used, and without deep affection between parents and children there
seems to be as much danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents in Japan, as there is in
America of the wearing out of the older people's lives and strength in
the service of ungrateful and lazy children.
_Page 152._
The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made of heavy _futons_, or
quilts, of white _habutai_ wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
consists of as many similar _futons_ as the state of the weather may
require. Every month new _futons_ are provided for Her Majesty, and the
discarded ones are given to one of her attendants. The happy recipient
is thus provided with wadding enough for all her winter dresses for the
rest of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress material.
_Page 157._
Only those who have seen the inner life of the court can realize the
difficulties which have attended every step of the Empress Haru's way,
for the court has been the scene of great struggles between the
conservative and radical elements. Mean and petty jealousies have moved
those surrounding the throne. The slightest word or token from the
Empress would be used as a weapon for private ends. To move among these
varied and discordant factions, and to move for progress, without
causing undue friction, has been a task more difficult than the conquest
of armies, and to do so successfully has required almost infinite
patience, sympathy, and love.
_Page 168._
And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened rule of the present
Emperor, and of the beneficent life and example of the Empress Haru, is
there any assurance that the progress made during their occupation of
the throne will be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?