MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN REMOTE ANTIQUITY
If it be insisted that no credence attaches to traditions unsupported
by written annals, then what the Records and the Chronicles, compiled
in the eighth century, tell of the manners and customs of Japan
twelve or thirteen hundred years previously, must be dismissed as
romance. A view so extreme is scarcely justified. There must be a
foundation of truth in works which, for the most part, have received
the imprimatur of all subsequent generations of Japanese. Especially
does that hold as to indications of manners, customs, and
institutions. These, at least, are likely to be mirrored with a
certain measure of accuracy, though they may often reflect an age
later than that to which they are referred, and may even have been
partially moulded to suit the ideas of their narrators. In briefly
epitomizing this page of history, the plan here pursued is to adhere
as far as possible to Japanese interpretations, since these must of
necessity be most intelligent.
THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE
At the basis of the social structure stand the trinity of Kami,
mythologically called the Central Master (Naka-Nushi) and the two
Constructive Chiefs (Musubi no Kami). The Central Master was the
progenitor of the Imperial family; the Constructive Chiefs were the
nobility, the official class. What was originally involved in the
conception of official functions, we learn from incidents prefatory
to the expedition conducted by Ninigi for the subjugation of Japan.
Amaterasu (the Sun goddess) attached to the person of her grandson
four chiefs and one chieftainess. To two of the former (Koyane and
Futodama) she entrusted all matters relating to religious rites, and
they became respectively the ancestors of the Nakatomi and the Imibe
families. To the female Kami (Usume) was entrusted the making of
sacred music and she founded the Sarume family. Finally, all military
functions were committed to the chiefs, Oshihi and Kume, whose
descendants constituted the Otomo and Kume families.
In every case these offices were hereditary for all time, and the
families of their holders constitute the aristocracy of the nation,
marrying among themselves and filling the highest offices from
generation to generation. Their members bore the title of hiko (son
of the Sun) and hime (daughter of the Sun), and those that governed
towns and villages were called tomo no miyatsuko, while those that
held provincial domains were entitled kuni no miyatsuko.
This was the origin of the Japanese polity. The descendants of
Amaterasu, herself a descendant of the Central Master, occupied the
throne in unbroken succession, and the descendants of the two
Constructive Chiefs served as councillors, ministers, and generals.
But the lineage of all being traceable to three chiefs who originally
occupied places of almost equal elevation, they were united by a bond
of the most durable nature. At the same time it appears that this
equality had its disadvantage; it disposed the members of the
aristocratic families to usurp the administrative power while
recognizing its source, the Throne, and it encouraged factional
dissensions, which sometimes resulted disastrously. As to the middle
and lower classes, no evidence bearing on their exact composition is
forthcoming. It is plain, however, that they accepted a subordinate
position without active protest, for nothing like a revolt on their
part is alluded to, directly or indirectly, in the Records or the
Chronicles. The term for all subjects was tomobe.
DWELLING-HOUSES
The palace of the sovereign--called miya or odono--corresponded in
appearance and construction with the shrines of the deities. It was
built by erecting central pillars--originally merely sunk in the
ground but in later times having a stone foundation--from which
rafters sloped to corner posts, similarly erected, the sides being
clapboarded. Nails were used, but the heavy timbers were tied
together with ropes made by twisting the fibrous stems of climbing
plants. A conspicuous feature was that the upper ends of the rafters
projected across each other, and in the V-shaped receptacle thus
formed, a ridge-pole was laid with a number of short logs crossing it
at right angles. This disposition of timbers was evidently devised to
facilitate tying and to impart stability to the thatch, which was
laid to a considerable thickness.
It is not certain whether in the earliest times floors were fully
boarded, or whether boarding was confined to a dais running round the
sides, the rest of the interior being of beaten mud. Subsequently,
however, the whole floor was boarded. Chimneys were not provided;
charcoal being the principal fuel, its smoke did not incommode, and
when firewood was employed, the fumes escaped through openings in the
gable. For windows there were holes closed by shutters which, like
the doors, swung upon hooks and staples. Rugs of skin or of rush
matting served to spread on the boarded floor, and in rare cases silk
cushions were employed.
The areas on which buildings stood were generally surrounded by
palisades, and for a long time no other kind of defence save these
palings seems to have been devised. Indeed, no mention of castles
occurs until the first century B.C., when the strange term
"rice-castle" (ina-ki) is found; the reference being apparently to a
palisade fortified with rice-bags, or to a rice-granary used as a
fortress. The palace of the sovereign towered so high by comparison
that it was termed Asahi-no-tada-sasu-miya (miya on which the morning
sun shines direct), or Yuhi-no-hiteru-miya (miya illumined by the
evening sun), or some other figurative epithet, and to the Emperor
himself was applied the title 0-mikado (great august Gate). The
dwellings occupied by the nobility were similarly built, though on a
less pretentious scale, and those of the inferior classes appear to
have been little better than huts, not a few of them being partially
sunk in the ground, as is attested by the fact that the term "enter"
took the form of "creep in" (hairu).
ADMINISTRATION AND WORSHIP
In the instruction said to have been given by Amaterasu to her
grandson Ninigi, on the eve of his expedition to Japan, the words are
recorded: "My child, regard this mirror as you regard me. Keep it in
the same house with yourself, and make it the mirror of purity."
Accordingly the insignia--the mirror, the jewel, and the sword--were
always kept in the main hall of the palace under the care of the
Nakatomi and the Imibe families. An ancient volume (Kogo-shui)
records that when the palace of Kashihara was reached by Jimmu's
army, the grandson of the founder of the Imibe family--cutting timber
with a consecrated axe (imi-ono) and digging foundations with a
consecrated spade (imi-suki)--constructed a palace in which he placed
the mirror, the jewel, and the sword, setting out offerings and
reciting prayers to celebrate the completion of the building and the
installation of the insignia.
"At that time the sovereign was still very close to the Kami, and the
articles and utensils for the latter were little distinguished from
those for the former. Within the palace there stood a store house
(imi-kura), the Imibe family discharging daily and nightly the duties
relating to it." Thus it is seen that in remote antiquity religious
rites and administrative functions were not distinguished. The
sovereign's residence was the shrine of the Kami, and the term for
"worship" (matsuri) was synonymous with that for "government."
RELIGIOUS RITES
The ceremony spoken of above--the Odono matsuri, or consecration of
the palace--is the earliest religious rite mentioned. Next in
importance was the "harvest festival." In the records of the
mythological age it is related that Amaterasu obtained seeds of the
"five cereals," and, recognizing their value as food, caused them to
be cultivated, offering a part to the Kami when they were ripe and
eating some herself. This became a yearly custom, and when Ninigi set
out to conquer Japan, his grandmother gave rice seed to the ancestors
of the Nakatomi and the Imibe families, who thenceforth conducted the
harvest festival (nii-name, literally "tasting the new rice") every
autumn, the sovereign himself taking part, and the head of the
Nakatomi reciting a prayer for the eternity of the Imperial line and
the longevity of the Emperor. Other important rites were the "great
purification" (Oharai) performed twice a year, on the last day of the
sixth month and the last day of the twelfth month; the "fire-subduing
fete," the "spirit-tranquillizing fete," etc.
Of all these rites the principal features were the recitation of
rituals and the offering of various objects, edible or otherwise
useful. The rituals (norito) being, in several cases, set formulas,
lent themselves with special facility to oral transmission from
generation to generation. It is certain that they were familiar to
the compilers of the Records and the Chronicles, and they contain
expressions dating from such a remote era as to have become
incomprehensible before history began to be written in Japan. In the
year A.D. 927, seventy-five of the norito were transcribed into a
book (Yengi-shiki, or Ceremonial Law) which contains, in addition to
these rituals, particulars as to the practice of the Shinto religion;
as to the organization of the priesthood--which included ten virgin
princesses of the Imperial family, one each for the two great temples
of Watarai in Ise and Kamo in Yamashiro--and as to the Shinto shrines
qualified to receive State support. These shrines totalled 3132,
among which number 737 were maintained at the Emperor's charges.
Considering that the nation at that time (tenth century) did not
comprise more than a very few millions, the familiar criticism that
the Japanese are indifferent to religion is certainly not proved by
any lack of places of worship. The language of the rituals is
occasionally poetic, often figurative and generally solemn,* but they
are largely devoted to enumeration of Kami, to formulae of praise for
past favours, to petitions for renewed assistance, and to
recapitulations of the offerings made in support of these requests.
As for the offerings, they comprise woven stuffs, and their raw
materials, models of swords, arrows, shields, stags' antlers, hoes,
fish (dried and fresh), salt, sake, and, in some cases, a horse, a
cock, and a pig. In short, the things offered were essentially
objects serviceable to living beings.
*The Norito of the Great Purification Service has been translated by
Mr. W. G. Aston in his Japanese Literature.
THE KAMI
The Kami may be broadly divided into two groups, namely, those
originally regarded as superior beings and those elevated to that
rank in consideration of illustrious deeds performed during life. Of
the former group the multitudinous and somewhat heterogenous
components have been supposed to suggest the amalgamation of two or
more religious systems in consequence of a blending of races alien to
one another. But such features may be due to survivals incidental to
the highest form of nature religion, namely, anthropomorphic
polytheism.
There were the numerous Kami, more or less abstract beings without
any distinguishing functions, who preceded the progenitors of the
Yamato race, and there was the goddess of the Sun, pre-eminent and
supreme, together with deities of the Moon, of the stars, of the
winds, of the rain, of fire, of water, of mountains, of mines, of
fields, of the sea, of the trees, and of the grass--the last a female
divinity (Kaya-no-hime). The second group those deified for
illustrious services during life--furnished the tutelary divinities
(uji-gami or ubusuna-Kami) of the localities where their families
lived and where their labours had been performed. Their protection
was specially solicited by the inhabitants of the regions where their
shrines stood, while the nation at large worshipped the Kami of the
first group. Out of this apotheosis of distinguished mortals there
grew, in logical sequence, the practice of ancestor worship. It was
merely a question of degrees of tutelary power. If the blessings of
prosperity and deliverance could be bestowed on the denizens of a
region by the deity enshrined there, the same benefits in a smaller
and more circumscribed measure might be conferred by the deceased
head of a family. As for the sovereign, standing to the whole nation
in the relation of priest and intercessor with the deities, he was
himself regarded as a sacred being, the direct descendant of the
heavenly ancestor (Tenson).
THERIANTHROPIC ELEMENTS
That the religion of ancient Japan--known as Shinto, or "the way of
the gods"--had not fully emerged from therianthropic polytheism is
proved by the fact that, though the deities were generally
represented in human shape, they were frequently conceived as
spiritual beings, embodying themselves in all kinds of things,
especially in animals, reptiles, or insects. Thus, tradition relates
that the Kami of Mimoro Mountain appeared to the Emperor Yuryaku
(A.D. 457-459) in the form of a snake; that during the reign of the
Emperor Keitai (A.D. 507-531), a local deity in the guise of a
serpent interfered with agricultural operations and could not be
placated until a shrine was built in its honour; that in the time of
the Emperor Kogyoku, the people of the eastern provinces devoted
themselves to the worship of an insect resembling a silkworm, which
they regarded as a manifestation of the Kami of the Moon; that the
Emperor Keiko (A.D. 71-130) declared a huge tree to be sacred; that
in the days of the Empress Suiko (A.D. 593-628), religious rites were
performed before cutting down a tree supposed to be an incarnation of
the thunder Kami; that on the mountain Kannabi, in Izumo, there stood
a rock embodying the spirit of the Kami whose expulsion from Yamato
constituted the objective of Ninigi's expedition, and that prayer to
it was efficacious in terminating drought, that the deity
Koto-shiro-nushi became transformed into a crocodile, and that "the
hero Yamato-dake emerged from his tomb in the shape of a white swan."
Many other cognate instances might be quoted. A belief in amulets and
charms, in revelations by dreams and in the efficacy of ordeal,
belongs to this category of superstitions. The usual form of ordeal
was by thrusting the hand into boiling water. It has been alleged
that the Shinto religion took no account of a soul or made any
scrutiny into a life beyond the grave. Certainly no ideas as to
places of future reward or punishment seem to have engrossed
attention, but there is evidence that not only was the spirit (tama)
recognized as surviving the body, but also that the spirit itself was
believed to consist of a rough element (am) and a gentle element
(nigi), either of which predominated according to the nature of the
functions to be performed; as when a nigi-tama was believed to have
attached itself to the person of the Empress Jingo at the time of her
expedition to Korea, while an ara-tama formed the vanguard of her
forces.
Some Japanese philosophers, however--notably the renowned
Motoori--have maintained that this alleged duality had reference
solely to the nature of the influence exercised by a spirit on
particular occasions. Shinto has no sacred canon like the Bible, the
Koran, or the Sutras. Neither has it any code of morals or body of
dogma. Cleanliness may be called its most prominent feature.
Izanagi's lustrations to remove the pollution contracted during his
visit to the nether world became the prototype of a rite of
purification (misogi) which always prefaced acts of worship. A
cognate ceremony was the harai (atonement). By the misogi the body
was cleansed; by the harai all offences were expiated; the origin of
the latter rite having been the exaction of certain penalties from
Susanoo for his violent conduct towards the Sun goddess.* The two
ceremonies, physical cleansing and moral cleansing, prepared a
worshipper to approach the shrine of the Kami. In later times both
rites were compounded into one, the misogi-harai, or simply the
harai. When a calamity threatened the country or befell it, a grand
harai (o-harai) was performed in atonement for the sins supposed to
have invited the catastrophe. This principle of cleanliness found
expression in the architecture of Shinto shrines; plain white wood
was everywhere employed and ornamentation of every kind eschewed. In
view of the paramount importance thus attached to purity, a
celebrated couplet of ancient times is often quoted as the unique and
complete canon of Shinto morality,
*His nails were extracted and his beard was plucked out.
"Unsought in prayer,
"The gods will guard
"The pure of heart."*
*Kokoro dani
Makoto no michi ni
Kanai naba
Inorazu tote mo
Kami ya mamoran.
It is plain, however, that Shinto cannot be included in the category
of ethical religions; it belongs essentially to the family of nature
religions.
CRIMES
The acts which constituted crimes in ancient Japan were divided into
two classes: namely, sins against heaven and sins against the State.
At the head of the former list stood injuries to agricultural
pursuits, as breaking down the ridges of rice-fields, filling up
drains, destroying aqueducts, sowing seeds twice in the same place,
putting spits in rice-fields, flaying an animal alive or against the
grain, etc. The crimes against the State were cutting and wounding
(whether the living or the dead), defilement on account of leprosy or
cognate diseases, unnatural offences, evil acts on the part of
children towards parents or of parents towards children, etc. Methods
of expiating crime were recognized, but, as was the universal custom
in remote times, very cruel punishments were employed against
evil-doers and enemies. Death was inflicted for comparatively trivial
offences, and such tortures were resorted to as cutting the sinews,
extracting the nails and the hair, burying alive, roasting, etc.
Branding or tattooing seems to have been occasionally practised, but
essentially as a penalty or a mark of ignominy.
DIVINATION
As is usually the case in a nation where a nature religion is
followed, divination and augury were practised largely in ancient
Japan. The earliest method of divination was by roasting the
shoulder-blade of a stag and comparing the cracks with a set of
diagrams. The Records and the Chronicles alike represent Izanagi and
Izanami as resorting to this method of presaging the future, and the
practice derives interest from the fact that a precisely similar
custom has prevailed in Mongolia from time immemorial. Subsequently
this device was abandoned in favour of the Chinese method, heating a
tortoise-shell; and ultimately the latter, in turn, gave way to the
Eight Trigrams of Fuhi. The use of auguries seems to have come at a
later date. They were obtained by playing a stringed instrument
called koto, by standing at a cross-street and watching the passers,
by manipulating stones, and by counting footsteps.
MILITARY FORCES
It has been related that when the "heavenly grandson" undertook his
expedition to Japan, the military duties were entrusted to two
mikoto* who became the ancestors of the Otomo and the Kume families.
There is some confusion about the subsequent differentiation of these
families, but it is sufficient to know that, together with the
Mononobe family, they, were the hereditary repositories of military
authority. They wore armour, carried swords, spears and bows, and not
only mounted guard at the palace but also asserted the Imperial
authority throughout the provinces. No exact particulars of the
organization of these forces are on record, but it would seem that
the unit was a battalion divided into twenty-five companies, each
company consisting of five sections of five men per section, a
company being under the command of an officer whose rank was
miyatsuko.
*"August being," a term of respect applied to the descendants of the
Kami.
FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION
No mention is made of such a thing as currency in prehistoric Japan.
Commerce appears to have been conducted by barter only. In order to
procure funds for administrative and religious purposes, officers in
command of forces were despatched to various regions, and the
inhabitants were required to contribute certain quantities of local
produce. Steps were also taken to cultivate useful plants and cereals
and to promote manufactures. The Kogo-shui states that a certain
mikoto inaugurated the fashioning of gems in Izumo, and that his
descendants continued the work from generation to generation, sending
annual tribute of articles to the Court every year. Another mikoto
was sent to plant paper-mulberry and hemp in the province of Awa (awa
signifies "hemp"), and a similar record is found in the same book
with regard to the provinces of Kazusa and Shimosa, which were then
comprised in a region named Fusa-kuni. Other places owed their names
to similar causes.
It is plain that, whatever may have been the case at the outset, this
assignment of whole regions to the control of officials whose
responsibility was limited to the collection of taxes for the uses of
the Court, could not but tend to create a provincial nobility and
thus lay the foundations of a feudal system. The mythological
accounts of meetings of the Kami for purposes of consultation suggest
a kind of commonwealth, and recall "the village assemblies of
primitive times in many parts of the world, where the cleverness of
one and the general willingness to follow his suggestions fill the
place of the more definite organization of later times."* But though
that may be true of the Yamato race in the region of its origin, the
conditions found by it in Japan were not consistent with such a
system, for Chinese history shows that at about the beginning of the
Christian era the Island Empire was in a very uncentralized state and
that the sway of the Yamato was still far from receiving general
recognition. A great Japanese scholar** has contended that the
centralization which prevailed in later ages was wholly an imitation
of Chinese bureaucracy, and that organized feudalism was the original
form of government in Japan. The annals appear to support that view
to a limited extent, but the subject will presently be discussed at
greater length.
*B. H. Chamberlain.
**Hirata Atsutane.
RAIMENT
In the use of clothing and the specialization of garments the early
Japanese had reached a high level. We read in the ancient legends of
upper garments, skirts, trousers, anklets, and head-ornaments of
stones considered precious.* The principal material of wearing
apparel was cloth woven from threads of hemp and mulberry bark.
According to the annals, the arts of spinning, weaving, and dyeing
were known and practised from the earliest age. The Sun goddess
herself is depicted as seated in the hall of the sacred loom, reeling
silk from cocoons held in her mouth, and at the ceremony of enticing
her from her retirement, the weaving of blue-and-white stuffs
constituted an important adjunct. Terms are used (akarurtae and
teru-tae) which show that colour and lustre were esteemed as much as
quality. Ara-tae and nigi-tae were the names used to designate coarse
and fine cloth respectively; striped stuff was called shidori, and
the name of a princess, Taku-hata-chiji, goes to show that corrugated
cloth was woven from the bark of the taku. Silken fabrics were
manufactured, but the device of boiling the cocoons had not yet been
invented. They were held in the mouth for spinning purposes, and the
threads thus obtained being coarse and uneven, the loom could not
produce good results. Silk stuffs therefore did not find much favour:
they were employed chiefly for making cushions, cloth woven from
cotton, hemp, or mulberry bark being preferred for raiment. Pure
white was the favourite colour; red, blue, and black being placed in
a lower rank in that order. It has been conjectured that furs and
skins were worn, but there is no explicit mention of anything of the
kind. It would seem that their use was limited to making rugs and
covering utensils.** Sewing is not explicitly referred to, but the
needle is; and in spite of an assertion to the contrary made by the
Chinese author of the Shan-hai-ching (written in the fourth century
A.D.) there is no valid reason to doubt that the process of sewing
was familiar.
*B. H. Chamberlain.
**In China the case was different. There, garments made of skins or
covered with feathers were worn in remote antiquity before the art of
weaving had become known. The Records recount that in the age of the
Kami "there came" (to Japan) "riding on the crest of the waves, a
kami dressed in skins of geese," and this passage has been quoted as
showing that skins were used for garments in Japan. But it is pointed
out by Japanese commentators that this Kami Sukuna-bikona is
explicitly stated to have come from a foreign country, and that if
the passage warrants any inference, it is that the visitor's place of
departure had been China.
As to the form of the garments worn, the principal were the hakama
and the koromo. The hakama was a species of divided skirt, used by
men and women alike. It has preserved its shape from age to age, and
is to-day worn by school-girls throughout Japan. The koromo was a
tunic having tight sleeves reaching nearly to the knees. It was
folded across the breast from right to left and secured by a belt of
cloth or silk tied round the loins. Veils also were used by both
sexes, one kind (the katsugi) having been voluminous enough to cover
the whole body. "Combs are mentioned, and it is evident that much
attention was devoted to the dressing of the hair."* Men divided
theirs in the middle and bound it up in two bunches, one over each
ear. Youths tied theirs into a top-knot; girls wore their locks
hanging down the back but bound together at the neck, and married
ladies "dressed theirs after a fashion which apparently combined the
last two methods." Decoration of the head was carried far on
ceremonial occasions, gems, veils, and even coronets being used for
the purpose. "There is no mention in any of the old books of cutting
the hair or beard except in token of disgrace; neither do we gather
that the sexes, but for this matter of head-dress, were distinguished
by a diversity of apparel or ornamentation."*
*B. H. Chamberlain.
FOOD AND DRINK
Rice was the great staple of diet in ancient, as it is in modern,
times. The importance attaching to it is shown by the fact that the
Sun goddess herself is represented as engaging in its cultivation and
that injuring a rice-field was among the greatest offences. Barley,
millet, wheat, and beans are mentioned, but the evidence that they
were grown largely in remote antiquity is not conclusive. The flesh
of animals and birds was eaten, venison and wild boar being
particularly esteemed. Indeed, so extensively was the hunting of deer
practised that bows and arrows were often called kago-yumi and
kago-ya (kago signifies "deer"). Fish, however, constituted a much
more important staple of diet than flesh, and fishing in the
abundantly stocked seas that surround the Japanese islands was
largely engaged in. Horses and cattle were not killed for food. It is
recorded in the Kogo-shui that the butchering of oxen to furnish meat
for workers in a rice-field roused the resentment of a Kami called
Mitoshi. There does not appear to have been any religious or
superstitious scruple connected with this abstention: the animals
were spared simply because of their usefulness. Vegetables occupied a
large space in the list of articles of food. There were the radish,
the cabbage, the lotus, the melon, and the wild garlic, as well as as
several kinds of seaweed. Salt was used for seasoning, the process of
its manufacture having been familiar from the earliest times. Only
one kind of intoxicating liquor was ever known in Japan until the
opening of intercourse with the Occident. It was a kind of beer
brewed* from rice and called sake. The process is said to have been
taught by Sukuna, who, as shown above, came to Japan from a foreign
country--probably China--when the Kami, Okuni-nushi, was establishing
order in the Japanese islands.
*The term for "brew" being kamu or kamosu, the former of which is
homonymous with the equivalent for "to chew," some commentators have
supposed that sake was manufactured in early times by grinding rice
with the teeth. This is at once disproved by the term for "yeast,"
namely, kabi-tachi (fermenting).
COOKING AND TABLE EQUIPAGE
From time immemorial there were among the officials at the Imperial
Court men called kashiwa-de, or oak-leaf hands. They had charge of
the food and drink, and their appellation was derived from the fact
that rice and other edibles were usually served on oak leaves.
Earthenware utensils were used, but their surface, not being glazed,
was not allowed to come into direct contact with the viands placed on
them. In this practice another example is seen of the love of
cleanliness that has always characterized and distinguished the
Japanese nation. Edibles having been thus served, the vessels
containing them were ranged on a table, one for each person, and
chop-sticks were used. Everything was cooked, with the exception of
certain vegetables and a few varieties of fish. Friction of wood upon
wood provided fire, a fact attested by the name of the tree chiefly
used for the purpose, hi-no-ki, or fire-tree. To this day the same
method of obtaining a spark is practised at the principal religious
ceremonials. Striking metal upon stone was another device for the
same purpose, and there is no record in Japan, as there is in China,
of any age when food was not cooked. Various vessels of unglazed
pottery are mentioned in the Records, as bowls, plates, jars,
and wine-holders, the last being often made of metal. These
were all included in the term suemono, which may be translated
"table-utensils."
ARMS, ARMOUR, AND GEMS
It has already been stated that archaeological research shows the
Yamato race to have been in possession of iron swords and spears, as
well as metal armour and shields, from a very early period, probably
the date of these colonists' first coming to Japan. They also used
saddles, stirrups, bridles, and bits for horses, so that a Yamato
warrior in full mail and with complete equipment was perhaps as
formidable a fighting man as any contemporary nation could produce.
Bows and arrows were also in use. The latter, tipped with iron or
stone and feathered, were carried in a quiver. The swords employed by
men were originally double-edged. Their names* show that they were
used alike for cutting and thrusting, and that they varied in length
from ten "hands" to five. There was also a small single-edged sword**
carried by women and fastened inside the robe. The value attached to
the sword is attested by numerous appellations given to blades of
special quality. In later times the two-edged sword virtually fell
out of use, being replaced by the single-edged.
*Tsurugi (to pierce) and tachi (to cut).
**This was originally called himo-kala-ha, which literally means
"cord single edge." subsequently kala-ha became katana, by which term
all Japanese swords are now known.
Sometimes a spear was decorated with gems. It is curious that gems
should have been profusely used for personal adornment in ancient
times by people who subsequently eschewed the custom well-nigh
altogether, as the Japanese did. The subject has already been
referred to in the archaeological section, but it may be added here
that there were guilds of gem-makers (Tama-tsukuri-be) in several
provinces, and that, apart from imported minerals, the materials with
which they worked were coral, quartz, amber, gold, silver, and
certain pebbles found in Izumo.
AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY
It appears that when the Yamato immigrants reached Japan, the coast
lands were overgrown with reeds and the greater part of the island
was covered with primeval forests. Fabulous accounts are given of
monster trees. Thus, in the Tsukushi Fudoki we read of an oak in
Chikugo which towered to a height of 9700 feet, its branches shading
the peaks of Hizen in the morning and the mountains of Higo in the
evening. The Konjaku Monogatari tells of another oak with a stem
measuring 3000 feet in circumference and casting its shadow over
Tamba at dawn and on Ise at sunset. In the Fudoki of other provinces
reference is made to forest giants in Harima, Bungo, Hitachi, etc.,
and when full allowance has been made for the exaggerations of
tradition, there remains enough to indicate that the aboriginal
inhabitants did not attempt any work of reclamation.
Over regions measuring scores of miles perpetual darkness reigned,
and large districts were often submerged by the overflow of rivers.
There is no mention, however, of a deluge, and Professor Chamberlain
has called attention to the remarkable fact that a so-called "Altaic
myth" finds no place in the traditions of "the oldest of the
undoubtedly Altaic nations."
The annals are eloquent in their accounts of the peopling of the
forests by wild and fierce animals and the infesting of the vallies
by noxious reptiles. The Nihongi, several of the Fudoki, the Konjaku
Monogatari, etc., speak of an eight-headed snake in Izumo, of a
horned serpent in Hitachi, and of big snakes in Yamato, Mimasaka,
Bungo, and other provinces; while the Nihon Bummei Shiryaku tells of
wolves, bears, monkeys, monster centipedes, whales, etc., in Harima,
Hida, Izumo, Oki, Tajima, and Kaga. In some cases these gigantic
serpents were probably bandit chiefs transfigured into reptiles by
tradition, but of the broad fact that the country was, for the most
part, in a state of natural wilderness there can be little doubt.
Under the sway of the Yamato, however, a great change was gradually
effected. Frequent allusions are made to the encouragement of
agriculture and even its direct pursuit by the Kami. The Sun goddess
is represented as having obtained seeds of the five cereals from the
female Kami, Ukemochi,* and as having appointed a village chief to
superintend their culture. She had three regions of her own specially
devoted to rice growing, and her unruly brother, Susanoo, had a
similar number, but the latter proved barren. The same goddess
inaugurated sericulture, and entrusted the care of it to a princess,
who caused mulberry trees to be planted and was able to present silk
fabrics to Amaterasu. In the reign of Jimmu, hemp is said to have
been cultivated, and Susanoo, after his reformation, became the
guardian of forests, one of his functions being to fix the uses of
the various trees, as pine and hinoki (ground-cypress) for house
building, maki (podocarpus Chinensis) for coffin making, and
camphor-wood for constructing boats. He also planted various kinds of
fruit-trees. Thenceforth successive sovereigns encouraged
agriculture, so that the face of the country was materially changed.
*The Sun goddess, Amaterasu, and the goddess of Food (Ukemochi no
Kami) are the two deities now worshipped at the great shrine of Ise.
In the matter of farming implements, however, neither archaeology nor
history indicates anything more than iron spades, wooden hoes shod
with bronze or iron, hand-ploughs, and axes. As to manufacturing
industries, there were spinners and weavers of cotton and silk,
makers of kitchen utensils, polishers of gems, workers in gold,
silver, copper, and iron, forgers of arms and armour, potters of
ornamental vessels, and dressers of leather. In later eras the
persons skilled in these various enterprises formed themselves into
guilds (be), each of which carried on its own industry from
generation to generation.
The fact that there must have been an exchange of goods between these
various groups is almost the only indication furnished by the annals
as to trade or commerce. In the name of a daughter of Susa (Princess
Kamu-o-ichi) we find a suggestion that markets (ichi) existed, and
according to the Wei Records (A.D. 211-265) there were, at that time,
"in each province of Japan markets where the people exchanged their
superfluous produce for articles of which they were in need." But
Japanese history is silent on this subject.
About the be, however, a great deal is heard. It may be described as
a corporated association having for purpose the securing of
efficiency by specialization. Its members seem to have been at the
outset men who independently pursued some branch of industry. These
being ultimately formed into a guild, carried on the same pursuit
from generation to generation under a chief officially appointed.
"Potters, makers of stone coffins, of shields, of arrows, of swords,
of mirrors, saddlers, painters, weavers, seamstresses, local
recorders, scribes, farmers, fleshers, horse-keepers, bird-feeders,
the mibu who provided wet-nurses for Imperial princes, palace
attendants, and reciters (katari) were organized into be under
special chiefs who were probably responsible for their efficient
services. It would appear, however, that 'chief of be' was sometimes
a title bestowed for exceptional service and that it was occasionally
posthumous."*
*Munro.
Be were also organized for the purpose of commemorating a name quite
irrespective of industrial pursuits. "The religious be were for
general or special purposes. For instance, there was a be of
sun-worshippers, while the Imibe, a body of abstainers, were obliged
to avoid ritual contamination or impurity. They carried out a
technique of spiritual aseptics, both in their persons and through
the utensils which they employed, much as a modern surgeon guards
against infection of his patient. Thus they were prepared to perform
sacred functions."*
*Munro.
NAVIGATION AND FISHING
No information is obtainable as to the nature of the boats used in
very early times, but it may reasonably be inferred that the Yamato
and other immigrant races possessed craft of some capacity. Several
names of boats are incidentally mentioned. They evidently refer to
the speed of the craft--as bird-boat (tori-fune), pigeon-boat
(hato-fune)--or to the material employed, as "rock-camphor boat"
(iwa-kusu-bune). "The presence of neolithic remains on the islands
around Japan proves that the boats of the primitive people were large
enough to traverse fifty miles, or more, of open sea."* Only one
distinct reference to sailing occurs, however, in the ancient annals.
On the occasion of the alleged expedition to Korea (A.D. 200) under
the Empress Jingo, the Chronicles say, "Sail was set from the harbour
of Wani." At a date nearly three centuries earlier, there appears to
have been a marked deficiency of coasting vessels, for the Chronicles
quote an Imperial decree issued B.C. 81, which says: "Ships are of
cardinal importance to the Empire. At present the people of the
coast, not having ships, suffer grievously by land transport.
Therefore let every province be caused to have ships built;"* and it
is related that, a few months later, the building of ships was begun.
Again, in A.D. 274, a vessel (the Karano) one hundred feet in length,
was constructed in the province of Izu, and twenty-six years later,
according to the Chronicles, the Emperor issued this order: "The
Government ship named Karano was sent as tribute by the Lord of Izu.
It is rotten and unfit for use. It has, however, been in the
Government use for a long time, and its services should not be
forgotten. Shall we not keep the name of that ship from being lost
and hand it down to after ages?" The Karano was then broken and her
timbers being employed as firewood for roasting salt, the latter was
given to the various provinces, which, in return, were caused to
build ships for the State, the result being a fleet of five hundred
vessels.
*Aston's Nihongi.
It would seem that there was always an abundance of fishing-boats,
for fishing by traps, hooks, and nets was industriously carried on. A
passage in the Records speaks of a thousand-fathom rope of
paper-mulberry which was used to draw the net in perch fishing.
Spearing was also practised by fishermen, and in the rivers
cormorants were used just as they are to-day.
MARRIAGE
It does not appear that the marriage tie possessed any grave
significance in ancient Japan, or that any wedding ceremony was
performed; unless, indeed, the three circuits made by Izanagi and
Izanami prior to cohabitation round a "heavenly august pillar" be
interpreted as the circumambulatory rite observed in certain
primitive societies. Pouring water over a bride seems, however, to
have been practised and is still customary in some provinces, though
as to its antiquity nothing can be said. An exchange of presents is
the only fact made clear by the annals. There did not exist in Japan,
as in China, a veto on marriages between people of the same tribe,
but this difference does not signify any reproach to Japan: the
interdict was purely political in China's case, and corresponding
conditions did not exist in Japan.
On the other hand, the Japanese system permitted a degree of licence
which in the Occident is called incest: brothers and sisters might
intermarry provided that they had not been brought up together. To
understand this condition it is necessary to observe that a bride
generally continued to live in her family dwelling where she received
her husband's visits, and since there was nothing to prevent a
husband from contracting many such alliances, it was possible for him
to have several groups of children, the members of each group being
altogether unknown to the members of all the rest. In a later, but
not definitely ascertained era, it became customary for a husband to
take his wife to his own home, and thereafter the veto upon such
unions soon became imperative, so that a Prince Imperial in the fifth
century who cohabited with his sister forfeited the succession and
had to commit suicide, his conduct being described in the Chronicles
as "a barbarous outrage."
In all eras sisters might marry the same man, and polygamy was
common. A Chinese book, compiled in the early years of the Christian
epoch, speaks of women being so numerous in Japan that nobles had
four or five wives and commoners two or three. Of course, the reason
assigned for this custom is incorrect: not plenitude of females but
desire of abundant progeny was primarily the cause. It is notable
that although the line between nobles and commoners was strictly
drawn and rigidly observed, it did not extend to marriage in one
sense: a nobleman could always take a wife or a concubine from the
family of an inferior. In fact, orders were commonly issued to this
or that province to furnish so many ladies-in-waiting (uneme)--a term
having deeper significance than it suggests--and several instances
are recorded of sovereigns summoning to court girls famed for beauty.
That no distinction was made between wives and concubines has been
alleged, but is not confirmed by the annals. Differentiation by rank
appears to have been always practised, and the offspring was
certainly thus distinguished.
BIRTH AND EDUCATION
A child in ancient Japan was born under considerable difficulties:
its mother had to segregate herself in a parturition hut (ubuya),
whence even light was excluded and where she was cut off from all
attendance. This strange custom was an outcome of the Shinto canon of
purity. Soon after birth, a child received from its mother a name
generally containing some appropriate personal reference. In the
most ancient times each person (so far as we can judge) bore one
name, or rather one string of words compounded together into a sort
of personal designation. But already at the dawn of the historical
epoch we are met by the mention of surnames and of "gentile names
bestowed by the sovereign as a recompense for some noteworthy deed."*
These names constantly occur. The principal of them are suzerain
(atae), departmental suzerain (agata-no-atae), departmental lord
(agata-no-nushi), Court noble (ason), territorial lord (inaki), lord
(iratsuko), lady (iratsume), duke (kimi), ruler (miyatsuko), chief
(muraji), grandee (omi), noble (sukune), and lord (wake). In the case
of the Emperors there are also canonical names, which were applied at
a comparatively late date in imitation of Chinese usages, and which
may be said to have completely replaced the names borne during life.
Thus, the Emperor known to posterity as Jimmu was called Iware in
life, the Emperor named Homuda while he sat on the throne is now
designated Ojin, and the Emperor who ruled as Osazaki is remembered
as Nintoku. In the Imperial family, and doubtless in the households
of the nobility, wet-nurses were employed, if necessary, as also were
bathing-women, washing-women, and rice-chewers.**
*B.H. Chamberlain.
**"Rice, which is mainly carbohydrate, is transformed into grape-sugar
by the action of the saliva. This practice is still common in China
and used to be so in Japan where it is now rarely met with. It was
employed only until dentition was complete." (Munro.)
"To what we should call education, whether mental or physical, there
is absolutely no reference made in the histories. All that can be
inferred is that, when old enough to do so; the boys began to follow
one of the callings of hunter or fisherman, while the girls stayed at
home weaving the garments of the family. There was a great deal of
fighting, generally of a treacherous kind, in the intervals of which
the warriors occupied themselves in cultivating patches of ground."*
*B.H. Chamberlain.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD
Burial rites were important ceremonials. The house hitherto tenanted
by the deceased was abandoned--a custom exemplified in the removal of
the capital to a new site at the commencement of each reign--and the
body was transferred to a specially erected mourning-hut draped
inside with fine, white cloth. The relatives and friends then
assembled, and for several days performed a ceremony which resembled
an Irish wake, food and sake being offered to the spirit of the dead,
prayers put up, and the intervals devoted to weird singing and solemn
dancing. Wooden coffins appear to have been used until the beginning
of the Christian era, when stone is said to have come into vogue.
At the obsequies of nobles there was considerable organization. Men
(mike-hito) were duly told off to take charge of the offerings of
food and liquor; others (kisari-mochi) were appointed to carry the
viands; others (hahaki-mochi) carried brooms to sweep the cemetery;
there were females (usu-me) who pounded rice, and females (naki-me)
who sung dirges interspersed with eulogies of the deceased. The
Records mention that at the burial of Prince Waka a number of birds
were used instead of these female threnodists. It appears, further,
that those following a funeral walked round the coffin waving
blue-and-red banners, carrying lighted torches, and playing music.
In the sepulchres the arms, utensils, and ornaments used daily by the
deceased were interred, and it was customary to bury alive around the
tombs of Imperial personages and great nobles a number of the
deceased's principal retainers. The latter inhuman habit was
nominally abandoned at the close of the last century before Christ,
images of baked clay being substituted for human sacrifices, but the
spirit which informed the habit survived, and even down to modern
times there were instances of men and women committing suicide for
the purpose of rejoining the deceased beyond the grave. As to the
nature of the tombs raised over the dead, the main facts have been
stated in Chapter VI.
TEETH BLACKENING AND FACE PAINTING
The habit of blackening the teeth has long prevailed among married
women in Japan, but the Yamato tombs have thus far furnished only one
example of the practice, and no mention occurs in the ancient annals.
Face painting, however, would seem to have been indulged in by both
sexes. Several of the pottery images (haniwa) taken from the tombs
indicate that red pigment was freely and invariably used for that
purpose. It was applied in broad streaks or large patches, the former
encircling the face or forming bands across it; the latter, covering
the eyes or triangulating the cheeks. It is probable that this
bizarre decoration was used only on ceremonial occasions and that it
appears in a greatly accentuated form on the haniwa.
AMUSEMENTS
As to amusements in prehistoric times little information is
furnished. Hunting the boar and the stag was the principal pastime,
and hawking is described as having been practised in the fourth
century of the Christian era. Music and dancing seem to have been in
vogue from time immemorial, but there is nothing to tell what kind of
musical instruments were in the hands of the early Yamato. The koto,
a kind of horizontal lute, and the flute are spoken of in the
Chronicles, but the date of their introduction is not indicated.
Wrestling, cockfighting (with metal spurs), picnics, a kind of
drafts, gambling with dice, and football are all referred to, and
were probably indulged in from a very early date.
SLAVERY
The institution of slavery existed among the Yamato. It will be
presently spoken of.
POSITION OF WOMEN
There is evidence to show that in the prehistoric age a high position
was accorded to women and that their rights received large
recognition. The facts that the first place in the Japanese pantheon
was assigned to a goddess; that the throne was frequently occupied by
Empresses; that females were chiefs of tribes and led armies on
campaign; that jealous wives turned their backs upon faithless
husbands; that mothers chose names for their children and often had
complete charge of their upbringing--all these things go to show that
the self-effacing rank taken by Japanese women in later ages was a
radical departure from the original canon of society. It is not to be
inferred, however, that fidelity to the nuptial tie imposed any check
on extra-marital relations in the case of men: it had no such effect.
ENGRAVING: "IKEBANA" FLOWER ARRANGEMENT
ENGRAVING: ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB OF THE EMPEROR JIMMU IN UNEBI-YAMA