Christianity. The usual objection that is made against our faith is
that it is a Western religion, and there are thousands of people who
oppose it solely on this ground. But, even while opposing the Western
religion, they are daily using all kinds of Western institutions
gladly. All manner of material things are received from abroad with
pleasure, and are considered none the worse for their foreign origin,
the line being drawn at religion.
Japanese character is largely wanting in originality. The people have
originated almost nothing, having accepted nearly everything at the
hands of others. In ancient times Japan had Korea for a teacher;
afterward she studied under China; now she is at school to Europe and
America. Her medieval civilization was accepted bodily from Asia, just
as her modern is from Europe. No important inventions have been made.
Even the little jinrikisha, which is the universal means of locomotion,
and which, I believe, is found nowhere else except in certain Chinese
ports, is said to have been first made by an American missionary for
the comfort and convenience of his invalid wife. It should be said,
however, that some claim the native origin of the jinrikisha, and
contend that its inventor lived in Kyoto.
But while the Japanese are not originators, they {64} are excellent
imitators. The ability to imitate well is a power not to be despised.
This, when coupled with assimilation, is a very fruitful source of
progress, as the Japan of to-day witnesses. The ease and facility with
which Japan has imitated the West and assimilated her institutions,
applying them to new and changed conditions, is marvelous. Given a
model, the people can make anything, no matter how diminutive or
complicated. Even the American dude is most successfully imitated.
The Japanese do not slavishly follow their models, but are able to
change, modify, and develop them at will. Given the general idea, they
can easily construct the rest. Thus in the adoption of Western
institutions they have in some cases actually improved upon their
models. Especially is this true of the postal and telegraph systems,
which, though copied after our own, are in many respects superior.
They are not blind followers of their teachers, but often start out on
independent exploration and investigation. Such powers of imitation
are second only to those of invention, and have made Japan what she is
to-day.
Another national peculiarity is the slight value placed upon human
life. The idea that the family, and not the individual, is of supreme
importance, and the Buddhistic teaching that life itself is the
greatest of all evils, are responsible for this. To {65} pour out
one's blood upon the battle-field for one's lord has from of old been
considered a privilege. Death has not that terror that it has in the
West, and the people are not afraid to die. Hence suicides are of very
frequent occurrence, and to take one's own life is, under certain
circumstances, considered a meritorious act. Under the old régime a
member of the samurai or warrior classes could not be executed like a
common man, but after condemnation was left to take his own life.
About seven thousand suicides occur in Japan each year. The slightest
reasons will induce a man to take his own life. Statistics show that
the proportion of suicides varies with the success or failure of the
rice crop. If sustenance is cheap, people live; if it is dear, they
rid themselves of the burden of life. The number of suicides also
varies much with the season of the year, showing that such little
matters as heat and discomfort will outweigh the value put upon life.
A young girl recently came to Saga from Kagoshima as a household
servant She did not like her new home, and asked her mistress to send
her back to her birthplace. The mistress refused, and the next morning
the poor girl was found dead in the yard, having hanged herself during
the night--all, forsooth, because she could not go home. So low is the
value placed upon life here! Human life is valued highly in the West
{66} solely because of Christian teaching; outside of Christendom it is
cheap.
It has been charged upon the Japanese that they are wanting in
gratitude, or, at least, that their gratitude lasts only so long as
they are looking for favors. This is but partially true. Ever since I
came to Japan I have been teaching a few boys English at odd hours, and
they have really embarrassed me by the number of their presents. On
the other hand, I have helped young men with money at school, who were
at first grateful apparently, and would come to my home to perform
various small services in return, but by and by would object to doing
the least service, even while living on my charity.
In past years Japan has in various capacities employed a great number
of Americans and Europeans, and has usually rendered them a very
adequate return for their services. In addition to the stipulated
salary, she has often given them costly presents. But recently a good
deal of complaint has been made by foreign employees to the effect
that, after they have given the best years of their lives to the
service of Japan, they have been summarily dismissed, without previous
notice and without thanks.
Evidences of ingratitude are very numerous in the native church. The
missionary who has left home, friends, and country for the sake of
these {67} people, and who labors for them with all the powers God has
given him, is often not rewarded by that gratitude and kindness on the
part of his converts which he reasonably expects. Frequently he takes
young men from the humbler walks of life, provides both their food and
clothing, gives them six or eight years' instruction in well-equipped
schools, supports them liberally as evangelists, only to have them rise
up against him, oppose him in his work, and pronounce him an ignoramus.
In many parts of the native church there is a strong anti-missionary
spirit, and the feeling of gratitude which these churches should have
for their founders, organizers, and supporters is wanting. From such
facts as these we are forced to conclude that the feeling of gratitude
is not very strong.
Much has been said in regard to the commercial honor and integrity of
the Japanese. Our first American minister to Japan, Townsend Harris,
pronounced them "the greatest liars upon the face of the earth." A
foreign employee in a government school, when asked concerning the
native character, replied in two words--_deceit_ and _conceit_. The
numerous exceptions to upright dealing in mercantile circles seem to
justify these judgments. Native merchants are unreliable in such
matters as punctuality, veracity, and the keeping of contracts. They
will do all in their {68} power to avoid the fulfilment of a contract
which would entail a loss. The artisan class is even more unreliable
in these respects than are the merchants.
To offset this, it should be said that, while the people are frequently
unreliable in private matters, in public affairs and in all
governmental relations they are honest and fair-dealing. Public office
is seldom perverted for private ends, and the national conscience would
quickly call to account any official who would enrich himself at the
public expense. In this respect Japan is in striking contrast with the
other nations of the East, and, alas! with many of those of the West as
well.
I have not endeavored to give an exhaustive statement of the national
characteristics of the Japanese people, but have simply tried to give
enough to help my readers to an appreciation of the native character.
I have endeavored to be strictly truthful and at the same time to do
justice to the race. While fully recognizing the failings of the
Japanese, we must also recognize the great improvement of the national
character in recent years, and must remember that they are in many
respects laboring at a great disadvantage, and deserve, not hatred and
contempt, but our warmest sympathy and love.
{69}
IV
MANNERS AND CUSTOMS
A study of the manners and customs of foreign peoples is both
interesting and profitable. If we have no knowledge of the customs of
other nations we are apt to think that our own customs have their
ground in eternal reason, and that all customs differing from ours are
necessarily false and wrong. But if we study the manners of other
lands, and learn of the daily observance of customs many of which are
squarely opposed to our own, and which nevertheless work well, we will
be led to value our own customs at their true worth, and to realize
that we have not a monopoly of all that is good, convenient, and useful.
To know the manners and customs of a country is to know much about that
country. There is no truer index of the character of a people's life.
Knowing these, the prevailing morality and governing laws may be very
largely inferred. In fact, {70} every phase of a nation's life has so
intimate a connection with the manners and customs that a study of
these is exceedingly profitable.
Such a study is especially necessary to those who would gain a correct
knowledge of the nature and difficulties of mission work in foreign
lands. The customs of a people will have a direct bearing upon mission
work among them. If Christianity violates national customs it will be
condemned; if it observes them it will be tolerated. Whether it
observes or violates them must depend upon the nature of the customs
themselves. The success of Christianity in any country will depend, in
part, upon the nature of the customs prevalent there. Therefore it is
wise for us to study those of Japan, in order to a better understanding
of the people and of the condition and prospects of mission work among
them.
One of the most striking facts in connection with Japanese customs is
that many of them are exactly opposed to those which prevail in the
West. People who have been accustomed to doing certain things one way
all their lives, and have come to look upon that as the only way, upon
coming out here are shocked to find these very same things done in
precisely the opposite way. This is so to such an extent that Japan
has been called "Topsyturvydom." But to those who are acquainted with
the customs of both East and {71} West it is a serious question which
one is topsy-turvy. After one has become used to them, many of the
customs appear just as sensible and convenient as those of America or
Europe. Why this opposition, we do not know, but perhaps the fact that
the Japanese are antipodal to us makes it fitting that their customs
should be antipodal too. I will point out a few of the things that are
so different.
The manner of making books and of writing letters is very different
from that to which my readers are accustomed. An Occidental has an
idea that something inherent in things necessitates that a book begin
at the left side, and the thought of beginning at the other side
appears to him ridiculous. But in reality it is every whit as
convenient, fitting, and sensible to begin at one side as at the other;
and all Japanese books begin at the side which people of the West call
the end, i.e., at the right side, and read toward the left. While
English books are printed across the page in lines from left to right,
Japanese books are printed from right to left in columns. An
Occidental generally turns the leaves of his book from the top with his
left hand; an Oriental turns them from the bottom with his right hand.
In Western libraries the books are placed on their ends in rows; in
Japan they are laid flat down on their sides and piled up in columns.
If we see several good dictionaries {72} or encyclopedias in a man's
study we are apt to infer that he is a man of studious habits; the
Japanese of olden times inferred just the opposite. The idea seems to
have been that a scholar would already have the meaning and use of all
words in his head and would not need to refer to a dictionary. A
Japanese friend who came into my study one day expressed great surprise
at seeing several large dictionaries there. "You have certainly had
better educational advantages than I have," he said, "and yet I can get
along with a very small dictionary; why cannot you?" Upon inquiry, I
learned that many Japanese keep their dictionaries concealed, because
they do not want it said that they must refer to them often.
The manner of addressing letters in Japan is exactly opposed to ours.
Take a familiar example. We write:
MR. FRANK JONES,
110 Gay Street,
Knoxville,
Tennessee.
A Japanese would write it:
Tennessee,
Knoxville,
Gay Street, 110,
JONES, FRANK, MR.
The latter is certainly the more sensible method, because what the
postmaster wants to see is not {73} the name of the man to whom the
letter is addressed, but the place to which it is to go.
In matters of dress there are some customs quite opposed to our own.
The American lady, especially if she goes to a ball, has her neck and
arms bare, but she would be shocked at the very mention of having her
feet bare. The Japanese lady puts her heaviest clothing on her arms
and shoulders, but does not at all mind being seen with bare feet and
ankles. Many of the ladies do not wear any foot-gear at all in the
house, but these same women could hardly be induced to expose their
arms and necks as Western women do.
A Western lady is very anxious to have a thin, narrow waist; her
Japanese sister wants a broad one. In the West curly hair is highly
prized on girls and women; in the East it is considered an abomination.
If you tell a little girl here that her hair is curly, she will
consider it a disgrace and will cry bitterly. The most striking
difference in regard to dress, however, is in mourning dress. Whereas
in the West it is always black, in Japan it is always white.
Another remarkable contrast is found in the relation of the sexes. In
America the woman is given the precedence in everything. Her husband,
and all other men who come within her influence, must serve and honor
her. Attend an evening party and see woman in her glory. How {74} the
men crowd round her, anxious to serve or entertain! When supper is
announced they vie with one another for the honor of escorting her to
the dining-room. She must have first seat at table and be first
served, and during the progress of the meal the men must be careful to
see that she has everything her sweet will desires. When supper is
over the ladies precede the men to the drawing-room, and by the time
the men again appear on the scene the ladies, including the hostess,
are settled in the easiest chairs. When the time for departure has
come it is my lady who announces to the hostess--not the host--her
departure, and her husband or escort simply awaits her bidding. In
Japan all of this is changed. The man takes precedence everywhere, and
the woman must serve him. At meals the woman must first wait on her
husband and then she herself may eat. When, guests come, the husband
is the chief entertainer, and the wife takes a back seat and says
little. On passing through a door, entering a train or carriage, etc.,
the husband always precedes his wife. When walking on the street
together she does not walk by his side, but comes along behind. The
men do not intend to mistreat the women; they simply take what they
regard their due as the head of the family.
Among the customs most peculiar in the eyes of Westerners and most
squarely opposed to their {75} own are those relating to marriage. In
Japan the young man and woman have nothing whatever to do with the
match-making, except to give their consent to the arrangements of their
parents; and frequently even this is not asked. The wedding is
arranged in some such manner as this: Whenever the parents of a young
man think their son old enough to get married they secure the services
of some friend, who acts as "go-between." It is the duty of this party
to search out a suitable girl and win the consent of her parents to the
marriage. While this is going on it is not likely that either of the
young people is aware of it, but as soon as the parents have arranged
matters to their own satisfaction they are informed. It often happens
that the man has never seen his bride until the wedding-day. Young
people seldom object to the arrangements of their parents, and
marriages made in this way seem to work well.
In the West the wedding often takes place in church; in Japan the
temples are studiously avoided at such times. There a minister is
nearly always present; here they are very careful to exclude priests.
The wedding is to be joyous, and as priests are known best as
officiators at funerals, and ideas of sadness and misfortune are
associated with them, they are excluded.
In the West, if the wedding does not take place in church, it will
probably be held in the home of {76} the bride; in the East it is
always held in the home of the groom. There the bride's household
prepares the feast; here the groom's prepares it. There the groom must
go to fetch his bride; here she must come to him. It makes no
difference whether she lives in the same city or in a distant province;
she must go to the groom, not he to her.
The poor mother-in-law is evil spoken of in the East as well as in the
West; but while there it is the mother of the bride who is said to make
life miserable for the groom, here it is the mother of the groom who
often makes life miserable for the bride.
Customs in regard to the use of houses are quite different. In America
the front rooms of a house are considered most desirable; in Japan the
back rooms are preferred. There the parlors, sitting-rooms, etc., are
in front, and the kitchen and store-rooms are relegated to the back;
here the kitchen and store-rooms are in front, and the parlors and
sitting-rooms behind. There the front yards are kept clean, but the
back yards are proverbially dirty; here all sorts of dirt and trash may
be lying around in the front yard, while the back yard is a perfect
little garden of beauty.
Signs made with the hands are very different in Japan from those to
which my readers are accustomed, and are much more graceful. Here,
when we call some one to us by the hand, {77} instead of the awkward,
ungainly motion of the index-finger used in the West, we simply hold
out the whole hand horizontally in front of us and gently move all the
fingers up and down. The latter motion is very graceful, while even a
pretty girl cannot execute the former one gracefully. Here, when we
refuse a request or repel one from us by a sign of the hand, instead of
turning the palm of the hand outward and pushing it from the body in a
rough, uncivil manner, we merely hold the hand perpendicularly before
the face, palm outward, and move it back and forth a few times.
Japanese carpenters saw by pulling the saw toward them instead of
pushing it from them; the planes cut in the same way; and screws are
put in by turning them to the left instead of the right.
Even in the nursery we find customs directly antipodal. While the
American nurse takes the child up in her arms, the Japanese nurse takes
it on her back.
These are some of the customs most squarely opposed to our own. The
first thought of my readers when learning of them will probably be, how
ridiculous and inconvenient! And yet they are just as convenient and
sensible as their own, and some of them much more so. There is nothing
in the nature of things why most customs should be either this way or
that.
{78}
The most interesting things about foreign peoples are those connected
with their daily lives--their homes, food, and dress. Let us examine a
Japanese house, take a meal with its occupants, and then observe their
manner of dress.
The houses are usually very light structures, built of wood, one or two
stories high. They resemble an American house but little. The roofs
are made of tiles, straw, or shingles. Tiles make a pretty and durable
roof, but they cost much more than straw, and hence the common people
generally use the latter. The skilful Japanese workman can make a very
pretty, lasting, and effective roof of straw. The houses of the rich
are large and have many nice rooms in them; those of the poor are
small, with only one or two rooms. Houses are so constructed as to
permit the air to pass through them freely. The rooms are separated
only by light, detachable partitions made of paper, and these are
frequently taken away and the whole house thrown into one room. Many
of the outer walls are also detachable, and on a warm summer day are
put aside, when a delightful breeze constantly passes through the
house. The floors are covered with thick, soft straw mats, which are
kept so clean that the people, even when dressed in their best clothes,
sit or loll on them. On entering a Japanese house you must leave your
shoes at the door, just as you {79} do your hat. It would be an
unpardonable offense to come inside and tread on the mats with your
shoes on.
[Illustration: A Kitchen Scene.]
The average Japanese eats, sleeps, and lives in the same room. He has
no chairs, no bedsteads, and no tables to get in his way. During the
day he sits on the soft straw mats; when evening comes two large
comfortables are brought, and one is spread on the floor to lie on,
while the other is used for covering. No sheets are used, and the
pillow is a funny little block of wood. On this simple bed the man
sleeps as soundly as we in our more elaborate ones. In the morning the
bed is rolled up and packed away. At meal-time little tables, four or
six inches high and about sixteen inches square, are brought, and one
is placed before each person. The food is served in pretty little
lacquer or china bowls, and each one's portion is placed on his own
table. The people eat with chopsticks about eight inches long and one
fourth of an inch in diameter. These answer their purpose well, but
are hard to use until one is accustomed to them. When the meal is over
all these things are carried away to the kitchen, and the room is ready
for any other use to which one may desire to put it. In this way one
room is made to serve for all the purposes of a household.
The most conspicuous thing in a Japanese room {80} is the _hibachi_--a
little wooden or china box about one foot square. This is kept half
full of ashes, and on top of the ashes is a handful of burning
charcoal. On this usually sits a little tea-kettle, filled with
boiling water used in making the tea, which is drunk without milk or
sugar at every hour of the day. When one first enters a Japanese
house, politeness requires that the host or hostess immediately offer
the guest a small cup of this tea. There is no other provision than
this hibachi for heating a room; and, as one would imagine, it gives
out but little heat Japanese houses are very cold in winter. They
would not at all answer in a cold climate, and even here the people
suffer from the cold.
Japanese food is unpalatable to most foreigners, and the eating of it
is an art which must be acquired gradually. After repeated experiments
we learn to like it, and can live on it fairly well; but most foreign
residents usually take more or less European food with them every time
they go into the interior.
From of old Buddhism forbade the eating of anything that had animal
life, and hence it came about that the Japanese are probably as
vegetarian in their diet as any people on earth. Even such animal food
as butter and milk is not used. Butter is very unpalatable to them,
but many are beginning to use a little milk. Bread, so necessary {81}
to a Western table, forms no part of a Japanese bill of fare. The
staple here is rice, not boiled and mashed to pieces, with milk and
butter, but simply boiled in water sufficiently to cook it well without
breaking the grains. When it is cooked each grain remains intact, and
it is snowy white and perfectly dry. No salt or seasoning of any kind
is put into it, as it is thought to spoil the flavor.
The rivers, lakes, and seas of Japan are teeming with splendid fish,
which form an important part of the native diet. It seems that
Buddhism, while forbidding the use of meats generally, permitted the
eating of fish. Certain kinds of fish, cut into thin slices and eaten
raw with a kind of sauce, are considered a great delicacy. The idea of
eating raw fish seems very repugnant, but many of my readers would eat
it without realizing what it is unless they were told. I often eat it.
But only a few of the fish consumed are eaten raw; most are boiled or
fried.