SOME JAPANESE IMPRESSIONS OF ENGLAND
To my greatest delight, I got such good companions, two of my
country-fellows, Hara and Wakamiya. Hara came to London to study art,
and Wakamiya to read the books at British Museum. I would not be
surprised if Wakamiya has read all the books in the Museum during his
stay in London. At least, it is quite sure he has read the books there,
which he felt necessary.
These two Japanese friends used to call on me from time to time. I was
in such a strange position that they used to make me a second person and
not the first person like themselves, when we talked about the English
customs. Indeed they looked upon me as if I were an English person, and
questioned me many things about English life. Sometimes we all agreed
each other so well, and sometimes we had such dead-heat discussions
until midnight, or even until the next morning.
The English readers of this book might feel curious to know what we
Japanese were talking together, on the little top-floor room of 68
Sydney Street. Therefore I have made one chapter here specially about
the topics of our conversation.
Though the cranes have such long legs they would lament if we cut
one-tenth of an inch off them. Though the ducks have such short legs
they would grieve if we add half an inch on them. Different nations have
entirely different ideas, and whether their own ideas are too long or
too short, they are always at their utmost comfort with their own way.
We, the strangers, have no right to argue any English customs with the
English peoples.
What I am going to write here is my own idea. The readers might be
offended with me. But I sincerely wish to the readers, that as I am
always looking upon England as my second home, you will not hurt your
friendly feeling toward me, whatever I say which must be strange to your
ears.
Sometimes Hara and Wakamiya brought one or two more Japanese. Now I
don’t remember which of them said which. I remember they often told me
their own impressions, which I thought most splendid. But I feel I have
no privilege to write what they said without their consent. Let us hope
they themselves will write their own ideas some day.
“What do you think of the English free marriage?”
“I think that is no better, whatever they say. People say they marry by
their own love. That sounds awfully comfortable, but then I often wonder
how many of them really know what is love. So many times I have seen
terrible results through the free marriage. The people are unhappy as
could be. Even during their honeymoon they often quarrel each other.
Where is their love after all? In the average, un-harmonial and unhappy
families are no less in England than in Japan. Perhaps some of them
might be in a deep love when they married. But remember England has a
proverb--‘Love is blind.’ Indeed, some of them are too blind, and when
they begin to open their eyes that is only the beginning of the quarrel.
I am afraid such quarrels are the bitterest ones. On the other hand,
parents are not always so blind, therefore the fixed marriage of the
parents often makes their young children happier than the children
themselves are imagining. I say this especially for those who marry very
young. The fixed marriage by the parents could not always be happy, but
there is some duty in their hearts. I myself know several Japanese who
married by their parents’ will. First they could not love each other,
but they never forgot to be loyal to their parents. For the sake of
their parents they never quarreled, but always forgave each other, and
in their later life they became most harmonial. We cannot see such
beautiful ethics in England.
“Then, again, I often feel so sorry for young Englishwomen for their
custom of free marriage. So many young men go after them, especially if
the women are beautiful, and they annoy them too much. How wonderful are
those John Bullesses who manage all their difficulties so well. If I
were they my face would have hundred wrinkles in a few years, but is it
not simply miracle that they keep their faces so fresh like newly
blossomed flowers, as if they have never met any annoyance?”
“Ah,” my friend interrupted, “only if no young men come to them, they
will get enough wrinkles in their faces.”
“Pray don’t disturb me with your witty jokes, for I am talking very
seriously. I know some English young ladies who were much annoyed by
some young men. I really sympathized with them. I know too well how
awful it must be. Once I myself had an experience. Some lady whom I
could not love chased after me, and I was so much annoyed.”
Here all my friends laughed at me.
One of my friends said he could see so plainly one thing in London as
the result of the free marriage. “It seems to me,” he said, “that all
nice-looking women marry quite soon. And somewhat plain-looking women
are left alone. These women need some independent means for their life.
That is why we don’t see many beauties among lady artists or writers.”
I said, “That is rather cruel judgment. Because I know several lady
artists who are most charming and beautiful. Besides, if some artists or
writers look rather plain, there is a good cause. I am a man, but how
much am I suffering to reach to the goal as an artist! Women must suffer
more than men, because the former are more sensitive than the latter.
Most charming girl shall be turned into plain-looking woman by the time
she succeeds as an artist or a writer, and surely such women often miss
the chance of marriage only because they are too earnest to their own
ambition.”
About the social life of English men and women, I used to praise that to
my Japanese friends. The scholars of Confucius said, “Men and women must
be separated in different rooms since six years of their age.” They said
this evidently because they were afraid of any impropriety. I must
decidedly say they were mistaken. If you keep any difficulty aside the
longer, the more will be the difficulty. It is not only about the
different sexes but it is so with everything. One who faces towards any
difficulty the sooner always conquers it the sooner. The English life
shows it to me. I have noticed more than once that when I have had walk
with a woman of the different nationality she gave me a queer feminine
feeling. But with my English lady friends I always feel as if they were
my own sisters or schoolmates. John Bulless is the best to keep on the
pure friendship.
Now, talking of this subject, I must say a few words about the pictures
of nude figures. Why do some peoples say the nude figures are improper?
Look at those savage nations who have no clothes! Have they more vulgar
passions than we have? I don’t think so. If possible I wish all the
ladies would be quite nude. There is nothing more graceful than the
human figure. Those best dressmakers may be able not to destroy the
beauty of the natural figure, but they cannot help it by any means. Any
smart dressmaker in Bond Street or in Rue de la Paix could not cut dress
as graceful as the nude. They cannot make dresses better than the
natural figure.
If the readers doubt me, ask any serious art student in life class. They
shall surely approve my logic. Only one thing I sincerely object to, is
those poorly cut dresses which are so often too vulgar to look at.
I am very keen to read the divorce cases in the daily papers. Readers,
are you shocked at me? Perhaps you are, but it is quite true. Now let me
write why. I myself don’t understand why clergymen or any ethical
peoples don’t read them. There is much to learn from the divorce cases.
They are not the dreams or fantasies of novelists, but the real facts
which are actually going on around us every day. They are not laughing
or sneering matter, but most serious human philosophy. Fancy! Your own
sisters and brothers are actually having such life around you! I must
call those peoples “paradise-fools” who read only nice articles and hate
to read the divorce cases. Why do peoples laugh when I talk about love?
And then why don’t they get rid of it either? When the humans are in
graceful love there seems to me nothing could be nobler, and when they
mislead their love, they are uglier than pigs or donkeys. Whenever I
read the divorce case, I am always studying how their love was stolen
away. My Japanese friends and I often had the question, which would be
greater crime, the one who commits misconduct by temporary temptation,
even if he or she is quite faithful in other respects, or the one who
controls his passion yet devotes his or her heart absolutely to the
co-respondent?
We often spent whole evening for this discussion. My own idea is that
the former is savage animal, who has really “unsounded mind,” quite
different from the peoples who commit suicide, and the latter is
intentional insincerity. The intentional insincerity must be a crime,
yet too often a very pitiable condition exists in it too, and sometimes
its condition is only too foolish. I was often told that I must not mix
my philosophy with the laws. Ah, then, what is the law? Are we made to
adopt ourselves to the law, or is the law made to adopt it to our life?
This question is exactly the same as saying, “Is the language made for
the grammar or the grammar made for the language?”
If the law is made for our life, the law must be same with our cloth.
Could we wear the same cloth all the time? Indeed we are growing every
day; how could we wear the cloth which we made when we were children?
Certainly we cannot adopt the law of a hundred years ago to our modern
life. The last question is, how long could we be under one same law?
One of my friends used to sigh and say, “I don’t understand the life of
those city clerks. They go to the office every morning. They come back
every evening. What is their pleasure beside eating and sleeping? Do
they really know what human life is?”
I said, “They must have ‘a life’ with their wives.”
“But,” he said, “I often see some of them are quarreling with their
wives.”
I said, “Perhaps they enjoy their children.”
My friend asked, “Ah, could they not be any more than the human
manufacturing machines, then?”
I said, “The human manufacturing machines are very important for the
country. Any country never feels it has too many soldiers or sailors.”
At this moment, one voice broke in from a corner. “How cruel you are, my
dear friend! Do you mean to make them as cattle? You know it is the
butcher’s business to breed the cattles and kill them. Now do you really
expect the Government should act to the nation as the butchers to the
cattle?”
“But my own idea is always that if peoples could sleep without locking
their doors, they would love that comfortableness. But as long as there
are robbers and thieves in this world, we are all obliged to lock our
doors. Is there any one lamenting, because we are wasting most useful
metal like iron for making the locks? If one who has taste makes a
little artistic touch on the locks they would be not merely the
protection for thieves, but very nice decoration too. So with the
sailors and soldiers! They can be the nicest decorations of their
countries, and I am sure they are feeling that they have ‘Life.’”
All my Japanese friends, as well as I myself, always very much praised
the night school system in London. How splendid that one can study the
scientific theories in the evening classes, while they practice all what
they are learning on the daytime, and at the same time, make money for
their own livelihood. Academical students often succumb themselves into
too much science, so they are less practical, while the bread-makers
often become ignorant of all the theories. The night schools combine
these together to make one quite perfect.
One evening, my Japanese friend said to me, “It seems to me as the
general rule that in every country in this world, the lower middle-class
peoples are keeping the highest morals. The highest and richest class
peoples are just as bad as the lowest and poorest class peoples. I
suppose England is no exception to this rule?”
“Certainly England is no exception. But my own opinion is a little
different. It is true that the middle-class peoples are behaving
themselves best. But it is a great question, whether could I call them
the highest moral or not. Once I kept a cat. She used to steal foods.
Every time when she acted thief I used to smack her hard. In a few
weeks’ time, she began to behave herself so well, because she was afraid
to be smacked again. Could I call that cat very loyal to me?
“The only one thing quite sure was that she did not annoy me. So with
the middle-class peoples. They give no annoyance to this world. Perhaps
their systematical life gives the pleasure to the Government, very much
indeed. But, to talk frankly, I think many of them are very artificial,
while the highest and the lowest class peoples are natural. The highest
peoples are very natural, because they have money enough, and they can
do just as they like. The lowest peoples are quite natural as well,
because they are in despair, and have no hope to elevate their own life.
Only the middle-class peoples alone have the ambition to climb up. These
sorts of peoples are always thinking not to be cast away from the
social life. Perhaps they may meet with great temptation, but they
control themselves so well, not for their religious heart, but for the
fear that they might lose the next day’s bread. Look at the life of
clerks. They cannot get their good position unless they have some good
references, and to get good references they must ‘behave’ themselves
well. I suppose one who served ‘hard’ once, shall never be able to
return his post again. I know so many of this class people. They are so
timid and so trembling in their daily life as if they are walking on
thin ice in order not to be drowned! At this moment how could they be
natural? Accordingly their moral is more like some wood covered with
varnish than some well-planed and polished wood. Varnished wood often
looks smoother than any self-polished wood. But the latter is much
safer. Indeed, I have seen so often that the varnish was cracked and
some ugly grain appeared from the inside. How many times have I wondered
that those supposed to be ‘very sweetest friends’ should have acted such
mean thing about a little money matter upon me!
“On the other hand, I have seen so many sympathetic peoples who were
trying to perish their own beautiful nature by all means and to keep
themselves as cool as possible. Confucius said, ‘Those who are desiring
nothing but to be rich, shall never understand my doctrine.’ I remember
Christ said something quite same in Bible, too. It is very difficult to
find a real friend among these peoples. That is why I have more friends
among the highest and the lowest classes, who are so natural. Look at
the playgoers. Any pathetic tragedies are always unpopular among the
middle-class peoples. They always mock at them and say, ‘Oh, this is too
heavy,’ ‘Oh, that is too silly.’ They are trying not to be drawn into
any pathetic feeling, which would be the greatest danger against their
own ambition.”
My Japanese friends remarked to me that it is most unavoidable result in
such a thickly populated town like London. They must struggle like that,
or else they shall become prey of the others.
May I introduce my cats here once more?
When I was in San Francisco, my landlady had a mother cat and one baby
cat. These two cats were such great friends to each other. But we all
had to go away for a few weeks’ summer holiday. The landlady asked our
neighbor to look after our cats. When we came back after the holidays, I
was so surprised to see that the mother cat and baby cat were so
severely fighting. They became such great enemies to each other. I have
discovered that our neighbor did not give enough food to them. I
sincerely ask the readers, shall we have to fight with our best friends
when our foods are getting scarce? Are we the same class animals as cat?
I cannot help without recollecting the kindness of those landladies of
most common lodging-houses where I passed my poor life. Without their
noblest conduct, I could not enjoy my life to-day.
It was one of these days I was reading an evening paper, and all my
Japanese friends came. There was a news of a murder case. I think it had
occurred in a lonely country somewhere about Tottenham (I forget where
it was). Anyhow, one young farmer had shot his neighbor. There was no
witness except his own father. The father so dearly loved his only one
son. Of course it was the gravest news to him. But when the father stood
in the witness-box and kissed the Bible, he gave all evidence against
his own dear child, and afterwards he was broken down. I put the
newspaper on my desk and said, “Why should the father give witness
against his own son? If I were he, I would refuse to go to the
witness-box!”
One of my Japanese friends sighed deeply, and said, “Perhaps in such a
case I too may have the same idea with you. But just bring your thought
one step further. That English father certainly had the nobler moral. I
must admire the English custom most seriously.”
We often talked about the religions too.
My idea is that peoples ought to stick to the religion in which they
were born and brought up, because it ought to come to them most natural.
It is the sweetest part of the human life. Indeed, the religions could
not be served by any logic. If one tries to attack other’s faith by his
own logic, he would only injure the sweetest and tenderest part of the
heart of his friend. But here I have a few things to mention. Those
early Christians were most wonderful. What could be more beautiful than
those faiths for which they sacrificed their own lives? Here is the
translation of a Japanese poetry. “Mostly everything in this world
seems to be false, yet one who gives up his life for anything must be
really sincere.”
But nowadays most of those so-called earnest Christians are nothing more
than the masked hypocrites. I have had much experience with these sorts
of peoples. There is another kind of Christian who is not so bad as
those hypocrites. But their faith is so miserably shallow. They say,
“Oh, that is God’s will,” or “Oh, this is God’s will.” They bring
everything to God too quickly. When they go to this extremity they begin
to feel that doctors are not needed for their illness. If they see one
whose heart is aching with misery, they so cruelly mock at it and say,
“Oh, you have no faith to God.” These sorts of Christians often become
so proud before the outside people, and they often mock us and call us
with bad names. What great traitors to Christ!
I sincerely ask them, “Hasn’t God given us our head and heart to think
and to feel?” If flowers were blossomed directly on a big trunk of tree
they would not be quite so beautiful. Don’t you think some long slender
stalk makes the blossoms so beautiful? Let us hope that the stalk
between God and us is as long as possible. That is the way to make our
mutual life so sweet. Perhaps to shed tears whole evening for the sake
of our friends is one of the sweetest moments of our life.
Do you say our food is only for appetite, and would you swallow it? Only
very low-class animals do so. We human beings must grind our food with
our teeth and taste it very carefully, whether it may be sour or sweet.
Some great Buddhist priest in Japan said, “Those who talk too much of
Buddha with their mouths are not real Buddhists. The real Buddhism
dwells in the hearts of those who are silent.”
I think I can apply these words to the Christianity too.
I have several English friends who are always silent, but I can see most
beautiful Christianity in their hearts.
Now let me write a few more of our conversations.
“I say, Markino, don’t you think the London cabmen are awfully stupid?
Whenever I get in cab, the cabman never understands where I want to go.
He always asks me my destination again and again.”
“My dear friend, if cabmen were clever enough to understand your broken
English so quick as you want, they would not be cabmen. But I teach you
one thing. You tell your cabman from next time the name of a ‘pub’ near
by your destination, he will understand you at once.”
“Well, but don’t you think those cabmen or bus-drivers talk so vulgar
when they were struck by something passing by? They sound simply awful.”
“Ah, that is their own natural sound. Do you beat a slack drum and
expect to hear the sound of a nice bell? Have you not seen those
salesmen ring your coin on the desk whether it sounds the real gold or
forgery? If you want to know anything or anybody’s real nature, just
strike them; they will always give the sound of their own nature.”
“I say, Markino, what do you dislike most in London?”
“The servants’ breath. I don’t know why, but when those servants talk to
me, they generally put their faces so near to mine and shout so loud. I
have to inhale all disgusting odor of their breath.”
“Hear, hear; we are experiencing that uncomfortable job, too. The best
way to avoid it is to tell them we are not deafs, so we can clearly hear
their low whispers from far away.”
“Oh, then, Markino, what do you like most in London?”
“The safety in the midnight. Wherever in this world is such a safe town
like London? You can walk anywhere in London at any time in night. You
need not have any fear at all. This is awfully convenient to me to study
the night effect.”
“I say, Markino, don’t you feel it is more like a shop than a
drawing-room when you go to the English house? They put all their
properties on their drawing-rooms.”
“I love both way, Japanese as well as English. It is only different
taste, that is all. Certainly it is very artistic taste to have only one
genuine Kakemono on the Tokonoma, and it concentrates all our eyes
there. It gives me a very pleasant feeling. But on the other hand, I
don’t object the English idea at all. When they are arranged beautifully
it is awfully nice. Besides, we must think how long could we live in
this world. Suppose one had more than five hundred pictures, and he was
keeping them in Japanese way, how many times could he see the same
picture in his life? How pity to hide some pictures or curios which he
so dearly loves. When I think this point, I like the English way quite
well.”