But there is an abundance of native vegetables. The most common one is
a large, coarse radish called _daikon_, which is pickled, and eaten at
nearly every meal. This daikon is very cheap, and is a chief part of
the diet of that small portion of the population that cannot afford
rice. Sweet potatoes are abundant and cheap. {82} They are considered
the poor man's food, and the well-to-do people are ashamed to eat them.
Often at hotels, when I have asked for sweet potatoes, the servant has
replied in astonishment, "Why, do you eat sweet potatoes? They are for
coolies." A mountain-potato and the roots of the lotus and bamboo are
also eaten. Since the country has been opened to foreign trade and
foreigners have settled here it is possible to get meats and flour and
some foreign vegetables at most places.
Japanese clothing is frequently conspicuous by its absence. Many of
the people do not realize the necessity of burdening themselves with
clothing on a hot summer day, and wear very little. The government has
been constrained to make laws against nudity, but these are enforced
only in the cities. The usual summer garment of many of the children
in my city is simply the dark-brown one given them by nature. Most of
the coolies wear nothing but a little loin-cloth when at work.
The real native costume is both pretty and becoming. It consists
usually of a single robe reaching from the shoulders to the ankles, and
tied round the waist with a heavy girdle. Tight-fitting undergarments,
in foreign style, are sometimes worn now, but they form no part of the
original native costume. A black outer garment, {83} reaching only to
the knees, is placed over the ordinary robe on state occasions.
Formerly the Japanese did not wear hats, and even now half of the men
one meets on the street are bareheaded. The women wear neither hats
nor bonnets.
It is not considered improper to go barefooted in Japan, but generally
the better classes are shod when they go out of doors. If anything
resembling a stocking is worn, it is what they call _tabi_, a sort of
foot-glove, made of either white or black cloth, with a separate
inclosure for the great toe. A block of wood called _geta_ corresponds
to our shoes. It has two cords attached to the same place in front,
and then dividing, one being fastened on each side at the back. These
cords slip in between the great toe and the others, and, passing over
the foot, secure the geta.
Japanese bathing customs are peculiar. Perhaps there are no other
people on earth that bathe as often as they. It is customary for every
one, even the coolies, to bathe well the whole body every day. The
baths are taken very hot--about 110°F. Each private house has a large
bath-tub, which in many instances is capacious enough to accommodate
the whole family at once. Besides these private baths each city and
town has its public ones, where a good hot bath, in a place large
enough for you to swim round, can be had for one cent. Men, women, and
children go into {84} them at the same time, indiscriminately. Japan
is a land of hot springs, so that almost every district has its natural
hot baths. Most of them have medicinal value, and the people flock to
them by thousands.
The funeral customs are very different from ours. It is a strange
feature of the native character that when one is deeply moved he is
very likely to cover up his emotion with a laugh. If a man announces
to you the death of his child, he will probably laugh as he does so.
At funerals there is not that solemn silence which we expect, but
frequently loud talking and laughter. The coffin is a square, upright
box with considerable ornamentation. The corpse is placed in it in a
sitting posture. In Japan are found the hired mourners of whom we read
in the Bible. Anciently they were employed to follow the corpse,
mourning in a loud voice; but that has become obsolete, and now they
simply follow in the procession, wearing the white garments. The usual
manner of disposing of dead bodies is by interment, but cremation is
rapidly growing in favor. The government will not permit a body to be
buried until it has been dead twenty-four hours.
For several weeks after a body has been interred it is customary for
the members of the bereaved family to make daily visits to the tomb and
present offerings to the departed spirit in the temple. {85} Each
year, on the anniversary of the death, the children are expected to
visit the tomb and worship the spirit of the departed. This custom of
ancestor-worship is forbidden by Christianity, and hence the people
charge us with teaching disrespect to parents and ancestors.
[Illustration: Hara-kiri.]
A custom peculiar to Japan is a form of suicide known as hara-kiri, or
"belly-cutting." From time immemorial, to take one's own life in this
manner has been considered very honorable and has expiated all crimes
and offenses. In olden times, if the life of any one of noble blood
became hurtful to the state, he was simply sent a certain kind of short
sword. This meant that he was to take his own life by the favorite
national method. So the recipient quietly ate his last meal, bade his
family farewell, and, seating himself squarely on the mat, deliberately
thrust the sword into the left side of his abdomen, and drew it across
to the right side. As this cut does not kill immediately, a retainer,
from behind, placed there for that purpose, struck off his master's
head with one blow of a heavy sword. In the eyes of the law this death
atoned for all sins and offenses; hence it was often practised in old
Japan. It is almost obsolete now.
The Japanese are an exceedingly polite people. They have been called
the Frenchmen of the Orient in recognition of this national
characteristic. Politeness is exalted above everything, above {86}
even truth and honor. If you ask an ordinary Japanese which is better,
to tell a falsehood or be impolite, he will at once reply, "To tell a
falsehood." But while the people are exceedingly polite, a large part
of this politeness is merely surface, without any meaning. Etiquette
requires that you always address and treat your equals as though they
were your superiors. There is a separate form of address for each step
in the social scale. I have seen Japanese men stand at a door for five
minutes, and blush, and beg each other to pass through first, each
hesitating to precede the other. A Japanese gentleman never stops to
converse with a friend, be he only a child, without taking off his hat.
To look down upon one from a superior elevation is considered very
impolite. Thus if the emperor or any one of especial distinction
passes through a city, all the upper stories of the houses must be
vacated. Under no circumstances are any permitted to observe the
procession from an upper window. I was out walking one day in our good
city of Saga with a foreign friend who was leading his little boy by
the hand. It happened that a countess was passing through the city.
The policemen had cleared the street for the procession, and a large
crowd was standing at the corner. We joined this crowd. The little
boy could not see, so his father held him up that {87} he might look
over the people's heads. At once the police forbade it and made him
put the child down.
In many instances forms of politeness are carried to a ridiculous
extreme. When you give a present, no matter how nice, you must
apologize by saying that it is so _cheap_ and _insignificant_ that you
are ashamed to _lift it up_ to the honorable person, but if he will
_condescend_ to accept it he will make you very happy. If you receive
a present you must elevate it toward the top of the head (as that is
considered the most honorable part of the body) and at the same time
say that it is the _most beautiful thing on earth_. When you are
invited to a dinner the invitation will carefully state that no special
preparation will be made for the occasion. At the beginning of the
meal the hostess will apologize for presuming to set before you such
mean, dirty food, and will declare that she has nothing whatever for
you to eat, although she will doubtless have a feast fit for a king.
Even if it should not be good, you must say that it is and praise it
extravagantly.
The greetings between friends are sometimes right funny. I have often
overheard such conversations as the following. Two men meet in the
street, and, taking off their hats, bow very low, and begin as follows:
_A_. "I have not had the pleasure of {88} hanging myself in your
honorable eyes for a long time."
_B_. "I was exceedingly rude the last time I saw you."
_A_. "No; it was surely I who was rude. Please excuse me."
_B_. "How is your august health?"
_A_. "Very good, thanks to your kind assistance."
_B_. "Is the august lady, your honorable wife, well?"
_A_. "Yes, thank you; the lazy old woman is quite well."
_B_. "And how are your princely children?"
_A_. "A thousand thanks for your kind interest. The noisy, dirty
little brats are well too."
_B_. "I am now living on a little back street, and my house is awfully
small and dirty; but if you can endure it, please honor me by a visit."
_A_. "I am overcome with thanks, and will early ascend to your
honorable residence, and impose my uninteresting self upon your
hospitality."
_B_. "I will now be very impolite and leave you."
_A_. "If that is so, excuse me. _Sayonara_."
{89}
V
JAPANESE CIVILIZATION
The question is often asked, Are the Japanese a civilized people? The
answer will entirely depend upon our definition of civilization. If
civilization consists in a highly organized commercial and industrial
life, in the construction and use of huge, towering piles of
manufactories and commercial houses, such as are seen in New York and
Chicago, in amassing enormous capital, controlling the trade of the
country by monopolies, and doing the work of the world by machinery
that moves with the precision of clockwork, then Japan is not yet
civilized. But if civilization consists in a courteous, refined
manner, in a calm enjoyment of literature and the arts, in an ability
to live easily and comfortably with a due regard to all the amenities
of life, then the Japanese are a civilized people.
A very brilliant writer on Japanese subjects[1] {90} has said that the
Japanese have been a civilized people for at least a thousand years.
Chinese civilization was brought to Japan early in the Christian era,
and flourished for more than fifteen hundred years. While it differs
much from European civilization, it is a highly organized and developed
system, venerable with age. When people of the West speak of civilized
countries they are apt to think of Europe and America, to the exclusion
of all the rest of the world. This is unfair. Chinese civilization is
much older than our own. Long before the dark ages of Europe the
Chinese were living under a regular system of laws and were engaged in
all peaceful pursuits. Systematic methods of agriculture, the art of
printing, gunpowder, and the mariners' compass were all known and used.
While our own forefathers in northern Europe roamed the forests as wild
men and dressed in skins, the Chinese were living quietly in cities and
towns, dressed in silks. This venerable Chinese civilization was
readily adopted in Japan, and prevailed down to the time of the
Restoration, in 1868. Since that time the adoption and assimilation of
Western civilization have been progressing with a rapidity and success
which have no precedent in the history of the world. The old immobile,
crystallized Chinese civilization has been thrown off, and the
vigorous, elastic forms of the West have been successfully {91}
adopted. Japanese civilization of to-day is European, only with a
national coloring.
[1] Lafcadio Hearn.
On the advice of an American missionary,[2] who was then president of
the Imperial University, and who arranged the program for the
expedition, in 1872 a committee of seventy intelligent Japanese
gentlemen, many of them from the noble families, was sent to the West
to visit the capitals of the several countries, examine into their
forms of government and civilization, and, of all that they found, to
choose and bring back with them what was best adapted to Japan. This
committee, after visiting Washington, London, Berlin, and other places,
and carefully examining into their different institutions, returned and
reported to the government. From this time began the rapid adoption of
Western civilization, which is still in progress.
[2] Dr. Verbeck.
Foreign employees have played an important part in this peaceful
revolution. At first nearly everything that was adopted was under
foreign superintendence; but the Japanese are such apt learners that
they are now capable of managing this new civilization for themselves,
and the foreign employees have been mostly dispensed with.
With this brief history of Japanese progress before us, let us now
examine into the present condition of Japanese civilization.
{92}
One of the best indicators of the civilization of a country is its
literature. No writers of world-wide fame have arisen in Japan, yet
the country has a literature of which she is not ashamed. In ancient
times the Chinese classics were alone studied, and all literature was
molded by Confucian ideas; to-day these models have been cast aside,
and a school of young, independent writers has arisen, by whom history,
political and moral science, botany, sociology, belles-lettres, and
numerous other subjects are discussed with vigor and originality.
In the number of newspapers and magazines published Japan can compare
favorably with any country of equal size. The great dailies have not
yet grown to such importance as those of America or England, but they
already wield a mighty influence. Nearly every small town has its
morning and its evening sheet. Even in our backward old town of Saga
we have two very good dailies. There are a large number of able
magazines published. Nearly every branch of learning has a magazine
devoted exclusively to its interests, as is frequently the case in the
West. The very existence of this innumerable multitude of newspapers
and magazines shows that the Japanese are great readers.
The educational system in vogue is a good index of a nation's
civilization. Perhaps no {93} nation of the West has a better
organized and developed free-school system than has Japan. Schools are
found in every village and hamlet, and as all children of a prescribed
age are required to attend, they are full to overflowing. The little
round-faced, sleek-headed Japanese children swarm round them like bees.
There are four grades of schools: the primary lower, the advanced
lower, the lower middle, and the higher middle. The lower schools are
found everywhere; the higher ones only in the large towns and cities.
Of the higher middle schools (which correspond to our American colleges
of middle grade) there are seven, distributed at various points over
the empire. At the head of this whole system stands the Imperial
University in Tokyo, which is itself the outgrowth of several colleges,
and is largely modeled after the German universities. The lower
schools are modeled after our American schools. Unfortunately, so
large a part of the time of the school-children must be spent in
studying Chinese characters that it takes about eight years to learn to
read. What a pity that the awkward, antiquated system of Chinese
writing is not abandoned! It seems that the native _kana_, of which
there are about forty-eight, with a few of the more common Chinese
characters, would answer all purposes; then the long years spent in
studying Chinese could be devoted to other things, to {94} the immense
advantage of the student. In the lower schools very little is studied
except Chinese. In the middle schools the branches studied are just
about what American youths study in the academies. Formerly
considerable stress was laid upon the study of modern languages, and
all students of the middle schools were required to study English and
either French or German. But in recent years only English has been
required, and it, even, is not studied so carefully as it was. Since
the revision of the treaties the study of foreign languages seems to be
on the increase.
The Imperial University compares very favorably with Western
universities of the middle class. It has six faculties, namely, law,
medicine, literature, science, engineering, and agriculture. The
medical department is under German influence; the others have
professors of various nationalities, mostly English, German, and
Japanese. The students number over 1000. The government has recently
undertaken the establishment of another university in Kyoto. It also
supports two higher normal schools, a higher commercial school, naval
and military academies, fine-arts school, technical school, the nobles'
school, the musical academy, and the blind and dumb school. Professor
Chamberlain, of the Imperial University, says the leading idea of the
Japanese government {95} in all its educational improvements is the
desire to assimilate the national ways of thinking to those of European
countries. In view of the difference between the East and the West,
this is an enormous task; and great credit is due that brave body of
educators who, fighting against fearful odds, are gradually
accomplishing their purpose.
The Japanese are a nation of artists. Life in one of the most
beautiful countries in the world has, to a rare degree, developed in
them the love of the beautiful; and this has expressed itself in the
various phases of national art. In general, Japanese art is pretty,
but small, isolated, and lacking in breadth of view. Its chief use in
former times was largely decorative, to paint a screen or a piece of
porcelain, and the artists did this to perfection. As a nation the
Japanese are very skilful with the pencil. Long writing of Chinese
characters has given them a control of the pencil or crayon not
commonly found among the people of the West. Drawing is taught in the
schools, and every school-boy can draw pretty pictures. But in art, as
in other things, the Japanese are frequently inconsistent, and show a
haughty disregard of details. They excel in portraying nature.
The government of Japan is progressive and enlightened. In reality it
is an absolute monarchy, ruled by the "heaven-descended mikado." {96}
The empire belongs to him by divine right, and none has ever disputed
this. Unquestioning, implicit obedience is the duty of all subjects.
But the present emperor, who is a liberal-minded monarch, has
graciously given his people a voice in the government. In 1889 the
constitution was promulgated, which laid the foundation for a new order
of things. It established the Diet, consisting of two houses, and gave
many rights to the people, including local self-government, within
certain limits. The franchise is so limited in Japan that a man must
annually pay a stipulated amount of tax before he can either vote or
run for office.
Japanese laws have for years been gradually approaching Western
standards. The transition has been difficult and necessarily slow, but
praise-worthy progress has been made. A code somewhat resembling the
Code Napoleon is now the law of the land, and is being applied in the
courts as fast as circumstances will permit. People coming from Europe
or America will find that, in the main, the laws are not very different
from those they have been accustomed to.
Nearly all the material expressions of an advanced civilization found
at home are likewise met with in Japan--good railways, steamboats,
telegraphs, mails, electric lights, etc. It is often a surprise to the
traveler from the West who has {97} read little about the country, and
who expects only the rudest form of civilization, to find instead
nearly all the conveniences to which he has been accustomed.
RAILWAYS.--Japanese railways are narrow gauge, and while in recent
years the question of changing them to standard gauge has been
agitated, nothing definite has been done. The narrow-gauge system
seems fairly adequate to the present demand. The railways are modeled
after those of England, and are miniature as compared with those
thundering monsters that make the American valleys tremble with their
tread. The coaches are much smaller than the American and are
differently arranged, opening on the side instead of the end, passage
from one coach to another being precluded. There is no conductor to
come around and disturb one with the continual cry of "Tickets!" The
_punch, punch, punch_, so annoying to sensitive people, is not heard.
As the passenger leaves the station to enter the train his ticket is
examined, and this ends the matter until he reaches his destination,
when he must pass out through the station, where his ticket is taken by
a polite official. One of the things that have most impressed me about
the railroad service is the kindness and politeness of the officials,
in striking contrast with the gruffness and incivility one often
encounters in America.
{98}
The average Japanese train has three classes of coaches. The first
class corresponds to the ordinary first-class day-coach at home; second
class corresponds to our smoking-cars; while third class is poorer
still. The fares are just about one half what they are in America, and
one can travel in first-class style for a cent and a half per mile.
Third-class fare is only a little over half a cent, and most of the
people travel in this class. The trains do not have the conveniences
to which my readers are accustomed. There are no sleeping- and
dining-cars, no provision for heating in winter, and no water. The
average running speed is about 20 miles per hour--a rate which would
not at all suffice for the high-tensioned, nervous, always-in-a-hurry
civilization of the West, but which meets all the demands of the
slower, quieter life of the East. Running at this rate, accidents are
comparatively rare, and the trains easily make their scheduled time.
There is one main trunk-line running throughout the length of the land,
besides numerous shorter lines. All of the more prominent towns and
cities are connected by rail. At present a railroad-construction craze
has seized Japan. Many are being constructed, others are being
surveyed, and the papers daily contain accounts of new ones projected.
So far, Japanese railway stocks have yielded good dividends. That the
{99} more important lines are owned and operated by the government is
not the result of any political or economic theory, but simply because
at first private individuals had neither the means nor the energy to
inaugurate such huge and hitherto untried enterprises. Many of the
smaller roads are now owned and controlled by private corporations, and
most of those in process of construction are private enterprises. Some
months ago a private corporation made a proposition to the government
to buy its main railway, but the offer was rejected.
STEAMERS.--Steamboat service in Japan is good. As the country is only
a range of islands, the largest of which are very narrow, and as all
the more important towns are on the sea-coast or only a short distance
inland, it is possible to go nearly everywhere by boat. Travel by
water is very popular. There are fairly good steamers plying daily
between the most important ports, but foreigners generally prefer to
travel only on those officered by Europeans or Americans. There are a
number of native steamers, comfortable and speedy, which are officered
by foreigners, and differ but little from the transpacific liners.
These were nearly all built in England, but in recent years they are
building very good ones in Japan. The facilities for travel in this
empire leave little to be desired.