A JAPANESE DAY
The first person astir in a Japanese household is the mistress of the
house. She rises from the quilts on the floor which form her bed and puts
out the lamp, which has been burning all night. No Japanese sleeps without
an andon, a tall paper lamp, in which a dim light burns. Next she unlocks
the amado, the wooden shutters, and calls the servants.
Now the breakfast-table must be set out. In one way this is very simple,
for there is no cloth to spread, for tablecloths are unknown, and when
enough rice has been boiled and enough tea has been made, the breakfast
is ready. But there is one point upon which she must be very careful. The
lacquer rice-bowls and the chopsticks must be set in their proper order,
according to the importance of each person in the family. The slightest
mistake in arranging the position at a meal of any member of the family
or of a guest under the roof would be a matter of the deepest disgrace.
Etiquette is the tyrant of Japan. A slip in the manner of serving the food
is a thousand times more important in Japanese eyes than the quality of the
food itself. A hostess might serve burned rice and the most shocking tea,
but if it were handed round in correct form, there would be nothing more to
be said; but to serve a twice-honourable guest before a thrice-honourable
guest--ah! that would be truly dreadful, a blot never to be wiped off the
family escutcheon.
After breakfast the master of the house will go about his business. If the
day is fine the wife has his straw sandals ready for him; if it is wet
she gets his high wooden clogs and his umbrella of oiled paper. Then she
and the servants escort him to the door and speed his departure with many
low bows, rubbing their knees together--the latter is a sign of deep
respect--and calling good wishes after him.
It may seem odd to us that the servants should accompany their mistress on
such an errand, but the servants in Japan are not like other servants: they
are as much a part of the family as the children of the house. Domestic
service in Japan is a most honourable calling, and ranks far higher than
trade. A domestic servant who married a tradesman would be considered as
going down a step in the social scale. In Japan trade has been left until
lately to the lower classes of the population, and tradespeople have ranked
with coolies and labourers.
This importance of domestic servants arises from two reasons: First, the
old custom which compels the mistress of the house, even if she be of
the highest rank, to serve her husband and children herself, and also to
wait on her parents-in-law, has the effect of raising domestic service to a
high and honourable level. Second, many Japanese servants are of good birth
and excellent family. Only a generation ago their fathers were samurai,
followers of some great Prince, a Daimio, and members of his clan. In the
feudal days of Japan, so recently past, the position of the samurai was
exactly the same as the clansmen of a Highland chief, say at the time of
the "Forty-Five."
The Daimio, the Japanese chief, had a great estate and vast revenues,
counted in measures of rice; one Daimio had as much as 1,000,000 koku
of rice, the koku being a weight of about 132 pounds. But out of these
revenues he had to maintain his clan, his samurai, the members of his
private army. The samurai clansmen were the exact counterparts of
Highlanders. The poorest considered himself a gentleman and a member of
his chief's family; he held trade and handicrafts in the utmost disdain:
he lived only for war and the defence of his lord. But he regarded service
in his lord's household as a high honour, and thus all service was made
honourable. When the feudal system came to an end, when the Daimios retired
into private life, and the samurai were disbanded, then the latter and
their families found that they must work for their own support, and great
numbers entered domestic service.
Boys and girls who are meant for servants have to go through a course of
training in etiquette, quite apart from the training they receive in their
duties. This training is intended to maintain the proper distance between
employer and servant, while, in a sense, allowing them to be perfectly
familiar. The Japanese servant bows low and kneels to her mistress,
and addresses her always in the tone of voice used by an inferior to a
superior, yet she will join in a conversation between her mistress and
a caller, and laugh with the rest at any joke which is made.
It sounds difficult to believe that servants do not become too forward
under such conditions, but they never do. Their perfect taste and good
breeding forbid that they should pass over a certain line where familiarity
would go too far. The position of a servant in Japan is shown by the fact
that, though her master or mistress will speak to her as a servant, yet a
caller or guest must always use the tone of equality and address her as san
(miss). In the absence of the mistress, servants are expected to entertain
any callers, and they do this with the perfection of gentle manners and
exquisite politeness. A lady writer says:
"I remember once being very much at sea when I was taken to pay a call on
a Japanese lady of the well-to-do class. Not being able to speak a word
of the language, I was unable to follow the conversation which took place
between the charming little lady who greeted us at the inner shutters and
my friend. She was dressed in the soft grey kimono and obi of a middle-aged
woman, and her exquisite manner and gentleness made me feel as heavy as my
boots, which I had not been allowed to take off, sounded on the delicate
floor-matting compared to her soft white foot-gloves.
"My friend addressed her as san, and seemed to speak to her just as a
guest would to her hostess. We had tea on the floor, and my friend chatted
pleasantly for some time with the little grey figure, when suddenly the
sound of wheels on the gravel outside caught my ears, and the next instant
there was the scuffling of many feet along the polished wooden passage
which led to the front door, and the eager cry of 'O kaeri! O kaeri!'
(honourable return). Our hostess for the time rose from her knees, smiled,
and begged us to excuse her honourable rudeness. When she had hurried off
to join in the cry of welcome, my friend said, 'Oh, I am glad she has
come!'
"'Who has come ?' I asked.
"'The lady we came to see,' she said.
"'Then, who was the charming little lady who poured out tea for us?' I
asked. My friend smiled.
"'Oh, that was only the housemaid.'"
A man dealing with the same point remarks: "It is very important that a
Japanese upper servant should have good manners, for he is expected to have
sufficient knowledge of etiquette to entertain his master's guests if his
master is out. After rubbing his knees together and hissing and kowtowing
(bowing low), he will invite you to take a seat on the floor, or, more
correctly speaking, on your heels, with a flat cushion between your knees
and the floor to make the ordeal a little less painful. He will then offer
you five cups of tea (it is the number of cups that signifies, not the
number of callers), and dropping on his own heels with ease and grace,
enter into an affable conversation, humble to a degree, but perfectly
familiar, until his master arrives to relieve him. Even after his master
has arrived he may stay in the room, and is quite likely to cut into the
conversation, and dead certain to laugh at the smallest apology for a
joke!"