who had two daughters, by whom he was ministered to with all filial
piety. He was fond of shooting with a gun, and thus very often committed
the sin (according to the teaching of holy Buddha) of taking life.[19]
He would never hearken to the admonitions of his daughters. These,
mindful of the future, and aghast at the prospect in store for him in
the world to come, frequently endeavored to convert him. Many were the
tears they shed. At last one day, after they had pleaded with him more
earnestly still than before, the father, touched by their supplications,
promised to shoot no more. But, after a while, some of his neighbors
came round to request him to shoot for them two storks.[20] He was
easily led to consent by the strength of his natural liking for the
sport. Still he would not allow a word to be breathed to his daughters.
He slipped out at night, gun in hand, after they were, as he imagined,
fast asleep.
[18] _An independent gentleman_, a _ronin_ or "wave man," one who had
left the service of his feudal lord and was independent,--sometimes a
gentleman and a scholar, oftener a ruffian or vagabond.
[19] Buddhism, on account of the doctrine of the transmigration of
souls, forbids the taking of life.
[20] There are very few storks in Japan, but white heron are quite
common.
[Illustration: The Two White Birds.]
They, however, had heard everything, and the elder sister said to the
younger: "Do what we may, our father will not condescend to follow our
words of counsel, and nothing now remains but to bring him to a
knowledge of the truth by the sacrifice of one of our own lives.
To-night is fortunately moonless; and if I put on white garments and go
to the neighborhood of the bay, he will take me for a stork and shoot me
dead. Do you continue to live and tend our father with all the services
of filial piety." Thus she spake, her eyes dimmed with the rolling
tears. But the younger sister, with many sobs, exclaimed: "For you, my
sister, for you is it to receive the inheritance of this house. So do
you condescend to be the one to live, and to practise filial devotion to
our father, while I will offer up my life."
Thus did each strive for death. The elder one, without more words,
seizing a white garment rushed out of the house. The younger one,
unwilling to cede to her the place of honor, putting on a white gown
also, followed in her track to the shore of the bay. There, making her
way to her among the rushes, she continued the dispute as to which of
the two should be the one to die.
Meanwhile the father, peering around him in the darkness, saw something
white. Taking it for the storks, he aimed at the spot with his gun, and
did not miss his shot, for it pierced through the ribs of the elder of
the two girls. The younger, helpless in her grief, bent over her
sister's body. The father, not dreaming of what he was about, and
astonished to find that his having shot one of the storks did not make
the other fly away, discharged another shot at the remaining white
figure. Lamentable to relate, he hit his second daughter as he had the
first. She fell, pierced through the chest, and was laid on the same
grassy pillow as her sister.
The father, pleased with his success, came up to the rushes to look for
his game. But what! no storks, alas! alas! No, only his two daughters!
Filled with consternation, he asked what it all meant. The girls,
breathing with difficulty, told him that their resolve had been to show
him the crime of taking life, and thus respectfully to cause him to
desist therefrom. They expired before they had time to say more.
The father was filled with sorrow and remorse. He took the two corpses
home on his back. As there was now no help for what was done, he placed
them reverently on a wood stack, and there they burnt, making smoke to
the blowing wind. From that hour he was a converted man. He built
himself a small cell of branches of trees, near the village bridge.
Placing therein the memorial tablets of his two daughters, he performed
before them the due religious rites, and became the most pious follower
of Buddha. Ah! that was filial piety in very truth! a marvel, that these
girls should throw away their own lives, so that, by exterminating the
evil seed in their father's conduct in this world, they might guard him
from its awful fruit in the world to come!
SECOND SIGHT.
A traveller arrived at a village, and looking about for an inn, he found
one that, although rather shabby, would, he thought, suit him. So he
asked whether he could pass the night there, and the mistress said
certainly. No one lived at the inn except the mistress, so that the
traveller was quite undisturbed.
The next morning, after he had finished break-fast, the traveller went
out of the house to make arrangements for continuing his journey. To his
surprise, his hostess asked him to stop a moment. She said that he owed
her a thousand pounds, solemnly declaring that he had borrowed that sum
from her inn long years ago. The traveller was astonished greatly at
this, as it seemed to him a preposterous demand. So fetching his trunk,
he soon hid himself by drawing a curtain all round him.
After thus secluding himself for some time, he called the woman and
asked, "Was your father an adept in the art of second sight?" The woman
replied, "Yes; my father secluded himself just as you have done." Said
the traveller, "Explain fully to me why you say I owe you so large a
sum." The mistress then related that when her father was going to die,
he bequeathed her all his possessions except his money. He said, that
on a certain day, ten years later, a traveller would lodge at her house,
and that, as the said traveller owed him a thousand pounds, she could
reclaim at that time this sum from his debtor. She must subsist in the
meanwhile by the gradual sale of her father's goods.
Hitherto, being unable to earn as much money as she spent, she had been
disposing of the inherited valuables, but had now exhausted nearly all
of them. In the meantime, the predicted date had arrived, and a
traveller had lodged at her house, just as her father had foretold.
Hence she concluded he was the man from whom she should recover the
thousand pounds.
On hearing this the traveller said that all that the woman had related
was perfectly true. Taking her to one side of the room, he told her to
tap gently with her knuckles all over a wooden pillar. At one part the
pillar gave forth a hollow sound. The traveller said that the money
spoken about by the poor woman lay hidden in this part of the pillar.
Then advising her to spend it only gradually, he went on his way.
The father of this woman had been extremely skilful in the art of second
sight or clairvoyance. By its means he had discovered that his daughter
would pass through ten years of extreme poverty and that on a certain
future day a diviner would come and lodge in the house. The father was
also aware that if he bequeathed his daughter his money at once, she
would spend it extravagantly. Upon consideration, therefore, he hid the
money in the pillar, and instructed his daughter as related. In
accordance with the father's prophecy, the man came and lodged in the
house on the predicted day, and by the art of divination discovered the
thousand pounds.
GAMES.
[Illustration]
The games we are daily playing at in our nurseries, or some of them,
have been also played at for centuries by Japanese boys and girls. Such
are blindman's buff (eye-hiding), puss-in-the-corner, catching, racing,
scrambling, a variety of "here we go round the mulberry bush." The game
of knuckle-bones is played with five little stuffed bags instead of
sheep bones, which the children cannot get, as sheep are not used by the
Japanese. Also performances such as honey-pots, heads in chancery,
turning round back to back, or hand to hand, are popular among that
long-sleeved, shaven-pated small fry. Still better than snow-balling,
the lads like to make a snow-man, with a round charcoal ball for each
eye, and a streak of charcoal for his mouth. This they call Buddha's
squat follower "Daruma," whose legs rotted off through his stillness
over his lengthy prayers.
[Illustration: Eye-Hiding, or Blindman's Buff.]
[Illustration: Stilts and Clog-Throwing.]
As might be expected, some of the Japanese games differ slightly from
ours, or else are altogether peculiar to that country. The facility with
which a Japanese child slips its shoes on and off, and the absence on
the part of the parents of conventional or health scruples regarding
bare feet, lead to a sort of game of ball in which the shoes take the
part of the ball, and to hiding pranks with the sandal, something like
our hunt the slipper and hide-and-seek. On the other hand, kago play is
entirely Japanese. In this game, two children carry a bamboo pole on
their shoulders, on to which clings a third child, in imitation of a
usual mode of travelling in Japan. In this the passenger is seated in a
light bamboo palanquin borne on men's shoulders. A miniature festival is
thought great fun, when a few bits of rough wood mounted on wheels are
decorated with cut paper and evergreens, and drawn slowly along amidst
the shouts of the exultant contrivers, in mimicry of the real festival
cars. Games of soldiers are of two types. When copied from the
historical fights, one boy, with his kerchief bound round his temples,
makes a supposed marvelous and heroic defence. He slashes with his
bamboo sword, as a harlequin waves his baton, to deal magical
destruction all around on the attacking party. When the late
insurrection commenced in Satsuma, the Tokio boys, hearing of the
campaign on modern tactics, would form attack and defence parties. A
little company armed with bamboo breech-loaders would march to the
assault of the roguish battalion lurking round the corner.
[Illustration: Playing at Batter-Cakes.]
Wrestling, again, is popular with children, not so much on account of
the actual throwing, as from the love of imitating the curious growling
an animal-like springing, with which the professional wrestlers
encounter one another. Swimming, fishing, and general puddling about are
congenial occupation for hot summer days; whilst some with a toy bamboo
pump, like a Japanese feeble fire-engine, manage to send a squirt of
water at a friend, as the firemen souse their comrades standing on the
burning housetops. Itinerant street sellers have, on stalls of a height
suited to their little customers, an array of what looks like pickles.
This is made of bright seaweed pods that the children buy to make a
"clup!" sort of noise with between their lips, so that they go about
apparently hiccoughing all day long. The smooth glossy leaves of the
camellia, as common as hedge roses are in England, make very fair little
trumpets when blown after having been expertly rolled up, or in spring
their fallen blossoms are strung into gay chains.
On a border-land between games and sweets are the stalls of the
itinerant batter-sellers. At these the tiny purchaser enjoys the
evidently much appreciated privilege of himself arranging his little
measure of batter in fantastic forms, and drying them upon a hot metal
plate. A turtle is a favorite design, as the first blotch of batter
makes its body, and six judiciously arranged smaller dabs soon suggest
its head, tail, and feet.
THE GAMES AND SPORTS OF JAPANESE CHILDREN[21]
How often in Japan one sees that the children of a larger growth enjoy
with equal zest games which are the same, or nearly the same, as those
of lesser size and fewer years! Certain it is that the adults do all in
their power to provide for the children their full quota of play and
harmless sports. We frequently see full-grown and able-bodied natives
indulging in amusements which the men of the West lay aside with their
pinafores, or when their curls are cut. If we, in the conceited pride of
our superior civilization, look down upon this as childish, we must
remember that the Oriental, from the pinnacle of his lofty, and to him
immeasurably elevated, civilization, looks down upon our manly sports
with contempt, thinking it a condescension even to notice them.
[21] From the paper read before The Asiatic Society of Japan.
[Illustration: Hoisting the Rice-beer Keg On Festival-day.]
A very noticeable change has passed over the Japanese people since the
modern advent of foreigners in respect to their love of amusement. Their
sports are by no means as numerous or elaborate as formerly, and they do
not enter into them with the enthusiasm that formerly characterized
them. The children's festivals and sports are rapidly losing their
importance, and some now are rarely seen. Formerly the holidays were
almost as numerous as saints' days in the calendar. Apprentice-boys had
a liberal quota of holidays stipulated in their indentures; and as the
children counted the days before each great holiday on their fingers, we
may believe that a great deal of digital arithmetic was being
continually done. We do not know of any country in the world in which
there are so many toy-shops or so many fairs for the sale of things
which delight children. Not only are the streets of every city
abundantly supplied with shops, filled as full as a Christmas stocking
with gaudy toys, but in small towns and villages one or more children's
bazaars may be found. The most gorgeous display of all things pleasing
to the eye of a Japanese child is found in the courts or streets leading
to celebrated temples. On a festival day, the toy-sellers and itinerant
showmen throng with their most attractive wares or sights in front of
the shrine or temple. On the walls and in conspicuous places near the
churches and cathedrals in Europe and America, the visitor is usually
regaled with the sight of undertakers' signs and gravediggers'
advertisements. How differently the Japanese act in these respects let
any one see, by visiting one or all of the three greatest temples in
Tokio, or one of the numerous smaller shrines on some renowned festival
day.
We have not space in this paper to name or describe the numerous street
shows and showmen who are supposed to be interested mainly in
entertaining children; though in reality adults form a part, often the
major part, of their audiences. Any one desirous of seeing these in full
glory must ramble down some of the side streets in Tokio, on some fair
day, and especially on a general holiday.
Among the most common are the street theatricals, in which two, three,
or four trained boys and girls do some very creditable acting, chiefly
in comedy. Raree shows, in which the looker-on sees the inside splendors
of the nobles' homes, or the heroic acts of Japanese warriors, or some
famous natural scenery, are very common. The showman, as he pulls the
wires that change the scenes, entertains the spectators with songs. The
outside of his box is usually adorned with pictures of famous actors,
nine-tailed foxes, demons of all colors, people committing hari-kiri or
stomach cutting, bloody massacres, or some such staple horror in which
the normal Japanese so delights. Story-tellers, posturers, dancers,
actors of charades, conjurers, flute-players, song-singers are found on
these streets, but those who specially delight the children are the men
who, by dint of fingers and breath, work a paste made of wheat-gluten
into all sorts of curious and gayly-smeared toys, such as flowers,
trees, noblemen, fair ladies, various utensils, the foreigner, the
jin-riki-sha, etc. Nearly every itinerant seller of candy,
starch-cakes, sugared peas, and sweetened beans, has several methods of
lottery by which he adds to the attractions on his stall. A disk having
a revolving arrow, whirled round by the hand of a child, or a number of
strings which are connected with the faces of imps, goddesses, devils,
or heroes, lends the excitement of chance, and, when a lucky pull or
whirl occurs, occasions the subsequent addition to the small fraction of
a sen's worth to be bought. Men or women walk about, carrying a small
charcoal brazier under a copper griddle, with batter, spoons, cups, and
shoyu[22] sauce to hire out for the price of a jumon[23] each to the
little urchins who spend an afternoon of bliss, making their own
griddle-cakes and eating them. The seller of sugar-jelly exhibits a
devil, taps a drum, and dances for the benefit of his baby-customers.
The seller of nice pastry does the same, with the addition of gymnastics
and skilful tricks with balls of dough. In every Japanese city there are
scores, if not hundreds of men and women who obtain a livelihood by
amusing the children.
[22] _Shoyu_: the origin of the English soy.
[23] _A jumon_: the tenth part of a sen or cent.
Some of the games of Japanese children are of a national character, and
are indulged in by all classes. Others are purely local or exclusive.
Among the former are those which belong to the great festival days,
which in the old calendar (before 1872) enjoyed vastly more importance
than under the new one. Beginning with the first of the year, there are
a number of games and sports peculiar to this time. The girls, dressed
in their best robes and girdles, with their faces powdered and their
lips painted, until they resemble the peculiar colors seen on a beetle's
wings, and their hair arranged in the most attractive coiffure, are out
upon the street playing battledore and shuttlecock. They play not only
in twos and threes, but also in circles. The shuttlecock is a small
seed, often gilded, stuck round with feathers arranged like the petals
of a flower. The battledore is a wooden bat; one side of which is of
bare wood, while the other has the raised effigy of some popular actor,
hero of romance, or singing girl in the most ultra-Japanese style of
beauty. The girls evidently highly appreciate this game, as it gives
abundant opportunity for the display of personal beauty, figure, and
dress. Those who fail in the game often have their faces marked with
ink, or a circle drawn round the eyes. The boys sing a song that the
wind will blow, the girls sing that it may be calm so that their
shuttlecocks may fly straight. The little girls at this time play with a
ball made of cotton cord, covered elaborately with many strands of
bright vari-colored silk.
Inside the house they have games suited not only for the daytime, but
for the evenings. Many foreigners have wondered what the Japanese do at
night, and how the long winter evenings are spent. On fair, and
especially moonlight nights, most of the people are out of doors, and
many of the children with them. Markets and fairs are held regularly at
night in Tokio, and in other large cities. The foreigner living in a
Japanese city, even if he were blind, could tell by stepping out of
doors, whether the weather were clear and fine, or disagreeable. On dark
and stormy nights the stillness of a great city like Tokio is unbroken
and very impressive; but on a fair and moonlight night the hum and
bustle tell one that the people are out in throngs, and make one feel
that it is a city that he lives in.
In most of the castle towns in Japan, it was formerly the custom of the
people, especially of the younger, to assemble on moonlight nights in
the streets or open spaces near the castle gates, and dance a sort of
subdued dance, moving round in circles and clapping their hands. These
dances often continued during the entire night, the following day being
largely consumed in sleep. In the winter evenings in Japanese households
the Japanese children amuse themselves with their sports, or are amused
by their elders, who tell them entertaining stories. The Samurai father
relates to his son Japanese history and heroic lore, to fire him with
enthusiasm and a love of those achievements which every Samurai youth
hopes at some day to perform. Then there are numerous social
entertainments, at which the children above a certain age are allowed to
be present.
But the games relied on as standard means of amusement, and seen
especially about New Year, are those of cards. In one of these, a large,
square sheet of paper is laid on the floor. On this card are the names
and pictures of the fifty-three post-stations between old Yedo and
Kioto. At the place Kioto are put a few coins, or a pile of cakes, or
some such prizes, and the game is played with dice. Each throw advances
the player toward the goal, and the one arriving first obtains the
prize. At this time of the year, also, the games of what we may call
literary cards are played a great deal. The Iroha Garuta[24] are small
cards each containing a proverb. The proverb is printed on one card, and
the picture illustrating it upon another. Each proverb begins with a
certain one of the fifty Japanese letters, i, ro, ha, etc., and so
through the syllabary. The children range themselves in a circle, and
the cards are shuffled and dealt. One is appointed to be reader. Looking
at his cards he reads the proverb. The player who has the picture
corresponding to the proverb calls out, and the match is made. Those
who are rid of their cards first, win the game. The one holding the
last card is the loser. If he be a boy, he has his face marked curiously
with ink. If a girl, she has a paper or wisp of straw stuck in her hair.
[24] _Garuta_, or karuta, our word "card," as spoken on Japanese lips.
The One Verse (from each of the) Hundred Poets game consists of two
hundred cards, on which are inscribed the one hundred stanzas or poems
so celebrated and known in every household. A stanza of Japanese poetry
usually consists of two parts, a first and second, or upper and lower
clause. The manner of playing the game is as follows: The reader reads
half the stanza on his card, and the player, having the card on which
the other half is written, calls out, and makes a match. Some children
become so familiar with these poems that they do not need to hear the
entire half of the stanza read, but frequently only the first word.
The game of Ancient Odes, that named after the celebrated Genji
(Minamoto) family of the Middle Ages, and the Shi Garuta are all
card-games of a similar nature, but can be thoroughly enjoyed only by
well-educated Chinese scholars, as the references and quotations are
written in Chinese and require a good knowledge of the Chinese and
Japanese classics to play them well. To boys who are eager to become
proficient in Chinese it often acts as an incentive to be told that
they will enjoy these games after certain attainments in scholarship
have been made. Having made these attainments, they play the game
frequently, especially during vacation, to impress on their minds what
they have already learned.
Two other games are played which may be said to have an educational
value. They are the "Wisdom Boards" and the "Ring of Wisdom." The former
consists of a number of flat thin pieces of wood, cut in many
geometrical shapes. Certain possible figures are printed on paper as
models, and the boy tries to form them out of the pieces given him. In
some cases much time and thinking are required to form the figure. The
ring-puzzle is made of rings of bamboo or iron, on a bar. Boys having a
talent for mathematics, or those who have a natural capacity to
distinguish size and form, succeed very well at these games and enjoy
them.
The game of Checkers is played on a raised stand or table about six
inches in height. The number of "go" or checkers, including black and
white, is 360. In the Sho-gi, or game of Chess, the pieces number 40 in
all. Backgammon is also a favorite play, and there are several forms of
it.
[Illustration: Getting Ready to Raise the big Humming Kite with the Sun
Emblem.]