THE JAPANESE AT WORK AND PLAY
When we landed in Japan from our voyage across the Pacific, huge, gaily
colored paper fish were flying like banners in the breeze above
thousands of houses. Some were in clusters; some were so large that they
might have been taken for whales. When we inquired, we learned that they
were displayed in honor of the boys. In Japan each person does not have
an individual birthday, but certain dates in the year are considered the
anniversary of everyone, no matter on what particular day each was born.
A Japanese baby born in December is said to be two years old in January,
because it was regarded as a year old as soon as it was born and
everyone is considered to be a year older each New Year’s Day. But the
birthday celebrations of the girls are in March and those of the boys in
May. Therefore, as it was now May, every family with a boy, especially a
new baby boy, flew a paper fish in his honor.
This fish is supposed to be the carp, though the big paper things,
swollen out with the wind that blows in from the sea, sometimes look as
much like pickerel or bullheads. The carp is a sturdy fish, which fights
its way even up high waterfalls, and is not easily discouraged.
Therefore it is regarded by the Japanese as a symbol of courage. They
think, quite properly, that all boys should be as brave and persevering
as the carp.
[Illustration:
During the Boys’ Festival, every family in which there is a boy honors
him by flying a paper fish.
]
A Display of Toys
If we had gone into some of the houses over which the fish were flying,
we should have found all sorts of toys and boyish treasures laid out to
make the boys happy. The Japanese are great makers of toys. There are
whole shops given over entirely to playthings, most of them very gay in
color. Because they are more easily broken than our toys, the boys
become more careful of them. The usual reason for their flimsiness is
that they are sold very cheaply. Some of the things that are laid out on
the “fifth day of the fifth moon,” as the Boys’ Festival is called, are
very old, for they are handed down from father to son, sometimes for
many generations. Most of the toys are military ones, such as soldiers,
weapons and flags. The Japanese have always been warriors, and every boy
is expected to become a soldier, if necessary, and fight for the Mikado.
As it is not much more than half a century since the Japanese began to
dress, equip, and drill their armies like those of America and Europe,
many of the old toys represent the curious armor, swords, and gaily
dressed generals of the ancient days.
At the Girls’ Festival in March, dolls take the place of the paper fish.
This time all the dolls in the house, some of them old ones that have
been used for many generations, are set out. They remain for three days,
and the girls pretend to feed them three times a day. Some of the dolls
represent the Mikado and the Empress and the royal princes. These are
especially honored.
The Schools of Japan
No one can be long in Japan without seeing groups of children on their
way to school. Every child in that country is expected to stay in school
at least until he finishes what we would call the grammar grades. Girls
in school do not wear kimonos, as they do at home, but skirts, jackets,
long stockings, and usually leather shoes like ours. On their way to and
from school they wear hats, although at other times they do not.
Boys and girls both carry their books and other school things in
knapsacks held by a strap over one shoulder. If a pupil came to school
carrying books under one arm, or swinging them from a strap, he would be
scolded by the teacher and perhaps be punished. Because the Japanese are
a very orderly people and like things done in an almost military way,
the boys and girls on their way to school remind one of squads of
soldiers. The boys often wear a kind of uniform, of dark cloth in cold
weather and usually white during the summer. But whether or not they
wear a complete uniform, almost every schoolboy, from the first grade to
the last year at the university, has a uniform cap, something like those
of our policemen, or of the officers of our navy. The teachers, who are
nearly always men, also often have a kind of uniform. In some parts of
the empire the teacher wears a sword, but this is only a sign that he is
an officer of the Mikado. (You will find pictures of Japanese pupils and
a teacher in Chapters XII and XIII.)
[Illustration:
Photo from Maude W. Madden
Suppose we call the little Japanese girl who owns these dolls Haru-ko
San. They are mostly ancestral dolls (she calls them O-hina-sama),
with the Emperor and Empress at the top under the canopy, and lower
down courtiers, court musicians and others. On the lowest shelf is
probably such a figure as a maiden carrying a water pail to remind
Haru-ko San of household duties. And on the floor are three ordinary
“play” dolls, which perhaps she really loves best, for the others
must not be played with. The ancestral dolls are often dressed in
handsome brocaded robes, and may cost a great deal. They are kept
very carefully so that once a year, in March when the Doll Festival
occurs, they may all be brought out and displayed. With them are
shown the lacquered chests, kimono racks, trays, tables, and vases
that the ancestral dolls would need for housekeeping. These too are
very beautiful.
]
In the olden days Japanese schools were very different from our own.
Then the pupils studied very much as many Chinese boys still do. That
is, they all squatted on the floor, rocked back and forth, and shouted
at the top of their voices the words they were trying to learn. These
words were taken from the old Japanese or Chinese classics, the ancient
books of the Far East. Even small children were expected to learn long
sentences and sometimes whole pages from solemn volumes either of poems
or of morals, resembling sermons. When they learned to write, it was by
holding sheets of tissue paper in the hand and painting upon them with a
little brush made of camel’s hair.
The Japanese school children still write with such a brush, but they
also learn to use a pen and even the typewriter. In the schools, more
than anywhere else, we can see the influence our Western world has had
on Japan. In all the cities big stone and brick buildings that look
almost as if they had been brought bodily from America are filled with
school children. There are benches and desks, blackboards and chalk
boxes. The lessons are on many different subjects, just as in our
schools, and not merely the old classics. Nor do the children any longer
shout their lessons and memorize long passages. They learn to read much
as American children do, though it takes them longer, and no wonder!
Japan still has the written language of the Chinese, with every word
represented by a very intricate sign, instead of separate letters that
can be made up into all kinds of words. In place of an alphabet of
twenty-six letters, the poor Japanese pupil has to memorize hundreds,
and later thousands, of these queer drawings. It is easier to write
these with a little brush than with a pen. Gradually, however, the
Japanese are getting away from the difficult Chinese signs. In place of
them they use much simpler ones called _cana_, which look something like
our shorthand. Much of what now appears in Japanese newspapers and other
popular publications is printed in _cana_.
[Illustration:
These lines, which to us look so odd, would mean a great deal to a
Japanese child. Together, they make a poem on “Spring,” which was
written on thin paper with a little brush and handed in by a
schoolgirl as an exercise in penmanship. The girl was a pupil of an
American teacher in Japan, Mrs. Maude W. Madden. You will be
interested to know that this “writing” received a prize. Here is the
poem, in English:
]
When Spring comes
And her flowers I see,
With the mists of the fields
My cares vanish away.
The Use of the Abacus
The study of arithmetic in Japanese schools is still very different from
what it is in ours. That is because even grown-up people of Japan do not
do their figuring with pencil and paper but on the _abacus_ or
_soroban_. This has a frame like that of a slate. In place of the slate,
however, there are stiff wires running from one side of the frame to the
opposite side and on these wires little wooden balls are strung like
beads. When a Japanese schoolboy, or a Japanese merchant or business
man, wishes to add or subtract, to multiply or divide, he moves these
balls back and forth skillfully until he finds his answer. He has to
think, of course, when he is doing a sum, just as we do. But the balls
show the result of each operation and he does not write it down. He gets
the answer quickly.
[Illustration:
Keystone View Co.
Japanese schoolboys are very fond of flying kites. Do you see the
“rising sun” of Japan on these kites?
]
The _soroban_, or calculating-board, as it is sometimes called, is used
not only in Japan, but all over China, and even in Russia. The Russians
have much larger ones, as if the little wooden balls of the Japanese and
Chinese were not large enough for their bigger fingers. It is amusing to
see how helpless the people of any of these lands are when they are
asked to do even a simple exercise in arithmetic with pencil and paper.
But then, you can imagine that an American professor of mathematics
would not do any better if he were told to add or subtract on one of
these frames that the Orientals find so simple.
After reading, writing, and arithmetic have been learned, the upper
classes in Japanese schools go on much as ours do. There are
laboratories, and lectures, and oral and written recitations, and
mid-term and final examinations. There are gymnasiums, too, for the
Japanese believe as throughly in building up strong bodies as did the
ancient Spartans. I am reminded of the Spartans because that is what the
Japanese are trained to be. A boy is not expected to cry out, no matter
how much he is hurt. Nor, for that matter, is a girl expected to cry.
All through life the people show themselves cheerful, however they may
feel. To let one’s face show suffering or sorrow is regarded as bad
manners.
Fencing and Jiu-jitsu
[Illustration:
Japanese youths become quite expert as baseball players in spite of
their hampering costume.
]
One of the oldest forms of exercise in Japan is fencing. Japanese
fencers do not use thin, slender foils such as are common in Europe and
America. When the Japanese schoolboy goes to the gymnasium for a fencing
lesson, he puts heavily padded garments about his head and shoulders and
a kind of armor about his waist. He wears thick gloves with padded
gauntlets reaching to the elbows and a mask much like that of a baseball
catcher. All this protection takes danger out of the sport, though to
see two boys at it you would hardly think so. Instead of the steel sword
of ancient Japan, each boy is armed with a bamboo shaped like a sword.
With this each tries to strike the other as often as possible over the
padded head or neck, on the wrists, or in the ribs. That is because in
real fighting those would be the most vital places. The players dodge
and shuffle back and forth on their straw sandals or bare feet,
thrusting and striking at each other, and parrying as many blows as
possible. The bamboo swords make a terrific noise every time they
strike. To add to the uproar, the masked fighters howl fierce warlike
cries of olden days as they leap about. This is an excellent form of
exercise, because it gives the boys both agility and strength. Not only
in the schools, but in the army and navy and in young men’s clubs and
other organizations, fencing is part of the training and recreation.
Even more common is what the Japanese call _jiu-jitsu_. Almost every man
in Japan knows how to use this ancient form of self-defense. It is not
boxing and it is not wrestling, though it sometimes looks like both.
_Jiu-jitsu_ is the art of knowing just when and how to use slight
strength in a way to make a stronger opponent defeat himself. Suppose a
large clumsy boy tried to bully a small agile boy. The small boy, if he
had been trained in this Japanese science of tricks, would know just
when to give the big boy a pull or a push that would make him sprawl. Or
if the small boy, at just the right moment, were to twist the arm or the
neck or the back of the big fellow, the latter might find himself down
before his greater strength could help him. After the defeat of great
Russia by little Japan in 1905, some people called that a case of
_jiu-jitsu_ among nations.
Other Games
Other games and exercises on Japanese playgrounds and gymnasium floors
are more like our own. Schoolboys and university students play some
football, though it is rather the English game of soccer than ours.
During the last few years baseball has come to be quite a favorite sport
among students in Japan. One of the universities in Tokyo held the
baseball championship of the Far East for several years, defeating even
the American teams sent out there to play. Its team, in fact, came to
America, and won about as many games as it lost. As they are small and
sinewy and quick on their feet, it is natural that the Japanese should
be good baseball players.
Before we leave the schools we must not forget to mention the military
games and drilling given to all the boys, and sometimes to the girls, by
their gymnasium instructors. Because Japan has been a nation of soldiers
for many centuries, it is natural that these instructors should often be
men from the army. Then there is swimming. Every boy and girl in Japan
is expected to learn to swim, which of course is an excellent idea,
especially for a people that live on islands. I have seen a whole class
in a pond or a little lake in a Japanese city park. The swimming teacher
stands at the edge of the pool giving his lesson very much as he would
at a desk. Pupils who have not yet learned to swim well wear red caps,
and go only a little way out into the pond. The teacher can see them
easily, and quickly help anyone in danger of drowning. The children who
have learned to swim wear white bathing-caps, and are allowed to swim as
far out into the little lake as they wish. The Japanese will not
graduate a pupil until he or she learns to swim.
The Wrestlers of Japan
There is little if any boxing or prize fighting in Japan. But wrestling
is an ancient Japanese sport, and the men who become best at it are as
popular as champion boxers are in the United States. All other games
played by the Japanese are for amateurs, but the wrestlers are
professionals—that is, they make a business of wrestling. In fact, they
are in a class by themselves, quite separate from the rest of the
people. This difference is quickly seen, for though the Japanese as a
whole are small, wiry people, the wrestlers are enormous men, often six
feet tall and heavily built. Not only are they easily recognized by
their great size, but they have special marks on their kimonos and they
wear their hair long. Before the coming of Commodore Perry, all Japanese
men let their hair grow to its full length and did it up in a topknot at
the back of the head. To-day a man with long hair is usually a wrestler,
and in a crowd of modern Japanese he looks like someone brought back
from ancient times.
[Illustration:
A group of Japanese wrestlers strolling between bouts. They are
aggressive beings, who look down upon the ordinary people.
]
Great wrestling matches are held in Tokyo twice a year. We had arrived
at the time of the spring games, and managed to get seats quite close to
the ring. This was a raised platform, made of what seemed to be bags
filled with sand or earth. (Perhaps if it were made of wood the
wrestlers would be more likely to get hurt.) It stood in the center of
an enormous auditorium that was shaped much like a circus tent. Hundreds
of rows of seats, rising from the platform in the center, surrounded it.
There were a number of boxes partitioned off for parties.
[Illustration:
Japanese wrestling pavilions remind one a little of an American circus
tent. The banners or signs advertise the attractions.
]
The wrestling lasts from morning until late at night. During the
evening, or even in the afternoon when the best wrestlers get together
in the finals, the auditorium is packed with spectators. Then the uproar
must be great, for even with a smaller audience there was as much
excitement as at one of our Big League baseball games. Many of the
audience seemed to stay all day and evening, for tea and food were
constantly being brought them from little restaurants and booths around
the edge of the arena.
The first two men to step into the ring were large, but they seemed
small by comparison with those who came later. The bouts are arranged
just as they are in our boxing rings, starting with the less important
wrestlers and working up to the biggest and most famous ones. When he
first stepped into the ring each wrestler had his hair very carefully
oiled and combed and tied in its topknot, and he wore what looked like a
big apron, made of thick, costly cloth and gorgeously embroidered in
gold and bright colors. These aprons, which are a symbol of the vocation
and highly prized, were taken off, and the wrestlers stepped toward each
other clothed only in a stout pair of trunks and a heavy belt.
Wrestling in a Queer Way
The Japanese way of wrestling is quite different from our own. As soon
as the referee had given the signal, the two men began raising first one
leg and then the other, bringing each foot down on the earth-bag floor
with a great stamp. They did this so many times that they suggested
angry bulls pawing the earth. Then each took some salt and threw it
about him in the ring, for they have a superstition that they cannot win
a wrestling bout unless they do this. Finally each crouched with his
knuckles on the ground, in the position of “On your mark!” Instead of
pitching into each other at once, however, they remained perfectly
motionless, staring at each other, for some time. Then they shifted
about, stamping their bare feet some more, but still did not lay hands
on each other. In Japanese wrestling, starting properly and getting the
right holds are considered more important than the wrestling itself.
Several pairs of these men spent five, six, even ten minutes crouching
and eyeing each other and shifting about, and sometimes hardly that many
seconds in actual wrestling when once they had come to grips.
When they finally did begin, we understood why it is more necessary for
Japanese wrestlers to be heavy than to be muscular and well trained. The
men usually grasped each other by the trunks they wore or by the belt.
There was a sharp, swift tugging and pushing, with a loud slap now and
then as one struck the bare skin of the other with his open hand.
Suddenly the bout would be over, for the instant one man makes the other
fall inside the ring or touch a foot or a hand outside it, he has won.
Therefore the man who is heaviest and bulkiest and hardest to move has
the advantage. In spite of their weight, however, the wrestlers are very
hard, for they train by beating themselves against posts, and by similar
forms of exercise.
To be the greatest wrestler in Japan is much like being the champion
heavyweight boxer of America. The best wrestlers make large sums of
money, and as they are men who give more attention to their physical
than to their mental training, they do not always use good sense in
spending it. Groups of them may sometimes be seen strutting about town
as if they thought themselves very much above the ordinary people. But
when they are in the ring they always instantly obey the referee, even
though he is armed only with an old-fashioned fan.
[Illustration:
The ticket booth of a wrestling pavilion. Contrast the garb of the
ticket seller, squatting, with that of the two patrons. Western hats
and caps seem to be popular even though the kimono may not be
discarded in favor of coat and trousers.
]