"SPECIAL TRIBES"
(EHIME)
A frank basis of reality.--Meredith
In the prefecture of Ehime our journey was still by _basha_ or
_kuruma_ and near the sea. The first man we talked with was a _gunchō_
who said that "more than half the villages contained a strong
character who can lead." He told us of one of the new religions which
taught its adherents to do some good deed secretly. The people who
accepted this religion mended roads, cleaned out ponds and made
offerings at the graves of persons whose names were forgotten. I think
it was this man who used the phrase, "There is a shortage of
religions."
I had not before noticed wax trees. They are slighter than apple
trees, but often occupy about the same space as the old-fashioned
standard apple. The clusters of berries have some resemblance to
elderberries and would turn black if they were not picked green.[178]
Occasionally we saw fine camphor trees. Alas, owing to the high price
of camphor, some beautiful specimens near shrines, where they were as
imposing as cryptomeria, had been sacrificed.
I began to observe the dreadful destruction wrought in the early ear
stage of rice not by cold but by wind. The wind knocks the plants
against one another and the friction generates enough heat to arrest
further development. The crops affected in this way were grey in
patches and looked as if hot water had been sprayed over them. In one
county the loss was put as high as 90 per cent. Happily farmers
generally sow several sorts of rice. Therefore paddies come into ear
at different times.
The heads of millet and the threshed grain of other upland crops were
drying on mats by the roadside, for in the areas where land is so much
in demand there is no other space available. Sesame, not unlike
snapdragon gone to seed, only stronger in build, was set against the
houses. On the growing crops on the uplands dead stalks and chopped
straw were being used as mulch.
I noticed that implements seemed always to be well housed and to be
put away clean. Handcarts, boats and the stacks of poles used in
making frameworks for drying rice were protected from the weather by
being thatched over.
We continued to see many white-clad pilgrims and everywhere touring
students, as often afoot as on bicycles. I noted from the registers at
many village offices that the number of young men who married before
performing their military service seemed to be decreasing. In one
community, where there were two priests, one Tendai and the other
Shingon, neither seemed to count for much. One was very poor, and
cultivated a small patch near his temple; the other had a little more
than a _chō_. The custom was for the farmers to present to their
temple from 5 to 10 _shō_ of rice from the harvest.
In connection with the question of improved implements I noticed that
a reasonably efficient winnowing machine in use by a comfortably-off
tenant was forty-nine years old--that is, that it dated back to the
time of the Shogun. The secondary industry of this farmer was
dwarf-plant growing. He had also a loom for cotton-cloth making. There
were in his house, in addition to a Buddhist shrine, two Shinto
shrines. After leaving this man I visited an ex-teacher who had lost
his post at fifty, no doubt through being unable to keep step with
modern educational requirements. He had on his wall the lithograph of
Pestalozzi and the children which I saw in many school-houses.
On taking the road again I was told that the local landlords had held
a meeting in view of the losses of tenants through wind. Most had
agreed to forgo rents and to help with artificial manure for next
year. I found taro being grown in paddies or under irrigation. Not
only the tubers of the taro but its finer stalks are eaten. I saw
gourds cut into long lengths narrower than apple rings and put out to
dry. I also noticed orange trees a century old which were still
producing fruit. Boys were driving iron hoops--the native hoop was of
bamboo--and one of the hoop drivers wore a piece of red cloth stitched
on his shoulder, which indicated that he was head of his class. One
missed a dog bounding and barking after the hoop drivers. Sometimes at
the doors of houses I noticed dogs of the lap-dog type which one sees
in paintings or of the wolf type to which the native outdoor dog
belongs. The cats were as ugly as the dogs and no plumper or happier
looking. When I patted a dog or stroked a cat the act attracted
attention.
We saw a good deal of _hinoki_ (ground cypress), the wood of which is
still used at Shinto festivals for making fire by friction.
We were able to visit an Eta village or rather _oaza_. Whether the Eta
are largely the descendants of captives of an early era or of a low
class of people who on the introduction of Buddhism in the seventh or
eighth century were ostracised because of their association with
animal eating, animal slaughter, working in leather and grave digging
is in dispute. No doubt they have absorbed a certain number of
fugitives from higher grades of the population, broken samurai,
ne'er-do-weels and criminals. The situation as the foreigner discovers
it is that all over Japan there are hamlets of what are called
"special tribes." In 1876, when distinctions between them and Japanese
generally were officially abolished, the total number was given as
about a million. Most of these peculiar people, perhaps three-quarters
of them, are known as Eta. But whether they are known as Eta or Shuku,
or by some other name, ordinary Japanese do not care to eat with them,
marry with them or even talk with them. In the past Eta have often
been prosperous, and many are prosperous to-day, but a large number
are still restricted to earning a living as butchers and skin and
leather workers, and grave diggers. The members of these "special
tribes," believing themselves to be despised without cause, usually
make some effort to hide the fact that they are Eta.
Shuku seem to be living principally in hamlets of a score or so of
houses in the vicinity of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, and are often
travelling players, or, like some Eta, skilled in making tools and
musical instruments. There seems to be a half Shuku or intermarried
class. Many prostitutes are said to be Shuku or Eta. I was told that
most of the girls in the prostitutes' houses of Shimane prefecture are
from "special tribes," and that they are "preferred by the
proprietors" because, as I was gravely informed, "they do not weary of
their profession and are therefore more acceptable to customers." As
prostitutes are frequently married by their patrons, it is believed
that not a few women from "special villages" are taken to wife without
their origin being known. Unwitting marriage with an Eta woman has
long been a common motif in fiction and folk story. Many members of
the "special tribes" go to Hokkaido and there pass into the general
body of the population. The folk of this class are "despised," I was
told by a responsible Japanese, "not so much for themselves as for
what their fathers and grandfathers did." The country people
undoubtedly treat them more harshly than the townspeople, but a man of
the "special tribes" is often employed as a watchman of fields or
forests. I was warned that it was judicious to avoid using the word
Eta or Shuku in the presence of common people lest one might be
addressing by chance a member of the "special tribes."
Except that the houses of the village we were visiting looked possibly
a trifle more primitive than those of the non-Eta population outside
the _oaza_, I did not discern anything different from what I saw
elsewhere. The people were of the Shinshu sect; there was no Shinto
shrine. At the public room I noticed the gymnastic apparatus of the
"fire defenders." The hamlet was traditionally 300 years old and one
family was still recognised as chief. According to the constable, who
eagerly imparted the information, the crops were larger than those of
neighbouring villages "because the people, male and female, are always
diligent."
The man who was brought forward as the representative of the village
was an ex-soldier and seemed a quiet, able and self-respecting but sad
human being. His house and holding were in excellent order. None of
his neighbours smiled on us. Some I thought went indoors needlessly; a
few came as near to glowering as can be expected in Japan. I got the
impression that the people were cared for but were conscious of being
"hauden doon" or kept at arm's length.[179]
Our next stop was for a rest in a fine garden, the effect of which was
spoilt in one place by a distressing life-size statue of the owner's
father. When we took to our _kuruma_ again we passed through a village
at the approaches to which thick straw ropes such as are seen at
shrines had been stretched across the road. Charms were attached. The
object was to keep off an epidemic.
The indigo leaves drying on mats in front of some of the cottages were
a delight to the eye. There were also mats covered with cotton which
looked like fluffy cocoons. On the telegraph wires, the poles of which
all over Japan take short cuts through the paddies, swallows clustered
as in England, but it is to the South Seas, not to Africa, that the
Japanese swallow migrates. When the telegraph was a newer feature of
the Japanese landscape than it is now swallows on the wires were a
favourite subject for young painters.
We crossed a dry river bed of considerable width at a place where the
current had made an excavation in the gravel, rocks and earth several
yards deep. It was an impressive illustration of the power of a heavy
flood.
I found in one mountainous county that only about a sixth of the area
was under cultivation. A responsible man said: "This is a county of
the biggest landlords and the smallest tenants. Too many landowners
are thinking of themselves, so there arise sometimes severe conflicts.
Some 4,000 tenants have gone to Hokkaido." The conversation got round
to the young men's societies and I was told a story of how an Eta
village threatened by floods had been saved by the young men of the
neighbouring non-Eta village working all night at a weakened
embankment. Some days later an Eta deputation came to the village and
"with tears in their eyes gave thanks for what had been done." The
comment of a Japanese friend was: "In the present state of Japan
hypocrisy may be valuable. The boys and the Eta were at least
exercising themselves in virtue."
Four villages in this county have among them eight fish nurseries, the
area of salt water enclosed being roughly 120 acres. I looked into
several cottages where paper making was going on.[180]
I also went into two cotton mills. In both there were girls who were
not more than eleven or twelve. "They are exempted from school by
national regulation because of the poverty of their parents,"[181] I
was told.
As we passed the open shop fronts of the village barbers I saw that as
often as not a woman was shaving the customer or using the patent
clippers on him.
We looked at a big dam which an enterprising landowner was
constructing. Three hundred women were consolidating the earthwork by
means of round, flat blocks of granite about twice the size of a
curling stone. Round each block was a groove in which was a leather
belt with a number of rings threaded on it. To each ring a rope was
attached. When these ropes were extended the granite block became the
hub of a wheel of which the ropes were the spokes. A number of women
and girls took ropes apiece and jerked them simultaneously, whereupon
the granite block rose in the air to the level of the rope pullers'
heads. It was then allowed to fall with a thud. After each thud the
pullers moved along a foot so that the block should drop on a fresh
spot. The gangs hauling at the rammers worked to the tune of a
plaintive ditty which went slowly so as to give them plenty of
breathing time. It was something like this:
Weep not,
Do not lament,
This world is as the wheel of a car.
If we live long,
We may meet again on the road.
None of the sturdy earth thumpers seemed to be overworked in the
bracing air of the dam top, and they certainly looked picturesque with
their white and blue towels round their heads. Indeed, with all the
singing and movement, not to speak of the refreshment stalls, the
scene was not unlike a fair. When we got back to the road again we
passed through a well-watered rice district which was equal to the
production of heavy crops. Only three years before it had been covered
by a thick forest in which it was not uncommon for robbers to lurk.
The transformation had been brought about by the construction of a dam
in the hills somewhat similar to the one we had just visited.
I could not but notice in this district the considerable areas given
up to grave-plots. No crematoria seemed to be in use. There had been a
newspaper proposal that in areas where the population was very large
in proportion to the land available for cultivation the dead should be
taken out to sea. Where land is scarce one sees various expedients
practised so that every square foot shall be cropped. I repeatedly
found stacks of straw or sticks standing not on the land but on a
rough bridge thrown for the purpose over a drainage ditch. In this
district land had been recovered from the sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[178] For an account of a vegetable wax factory, see Appendix XLVIII.
[179] For further particulars of Eta in Japan and America, see
Appendix XLIX.
[180] See Appendix L.
[181] In 1918 net profits of 33 million yen were made by cotton
factories. The factories are anticipating sharp competition from
China.