THE PEOPLE--THEIR LIFE AND HABITS
After all, the life of the people is the most interesting, as I think
it is the most instructive, matter connected with any country. It is
assuredly impossible to form a clear or indeed any correct idea in
regard to a nation unless we know something of the manners and
customs, the daily life, the amusements, the vices of its people.
Unless we can, as it were, take a bird's-eye view of the people at
work and at play, at their daily avocations in their homes, see them
as they come into the world, as they go through life's pilgrimage,
and, finally, as they pay the debt of nature and are carried to their
last resting-place in accordance with the national customs, with the
respect or the indifference the nation shows for its dead.
If one is to arrive at a correct idea regarding the life and habits of
the Japanese people it is, I think, essential to get away from the
ports and large towns where they have been influenced by or brought
much into contact with Europeans, and see them as they really are,
free from conventionalities, artificialities, and the effects of
Western habits and customs which have undoubtedly been pronounced in
those centres where Europeans congregate.
The house in Japan does not play the important part it does in this
country. When a man in England, whatever his station in life may be,
contemplates taking a wife and settling down, as the phrase goes, the
home and the contents thereof become an all-important matter and one
needing much thought and discussion. In Japan there is no such
necessity. A Japanese house is easily run up--and taken down. The
"walls" are constructed of paper and slide in grooves between the
beams of the floor which is raised slightly above the ground. The
partitions between the rooms can easily be taken down and an
additional room as easily run up. The house is, as a rule, only one
storey high. The carpets consist of matting only, and practically no
furniture is necessary. A witty writer on Japan has aptly and wittily
remarked that "an Englishman's house may be his castle, a Japanese's
house is his bedroom and his bedroom is a passage." The occupant of
this house sits on the floor, sleeps on the floor, and has his meals
on the floor. The floor is kept clean by the simple process of the
inhabitants removing their boots, or what do duty for boots, and
leaving them at the entrance, so as to avoid soiling the matting with
which the floor of each room is covered. This is a habit which has
much to commend it, and is, I suggest, worthy of imitation by other
countries. After all, the Japanese mode of life has a great deal to be
said in its favour. It seems strange at first, but after the visitor
to the country has got over his initial fit of surprise at the
difference between the Japanese domestic economy and his own, he will,
if he be a man of unprejudiced mind, admit that it certainly has its
"points."
The bulk of the population is poor, very poor, but that poverty is not
emphasised in their homes to the same extent as in European countries.
The house--a doll's house some irreverent people term it--with paper
partitions doing duty for walls, white matting, a few cooking
utensils costs only a few shillings. It can, as I have said, be taken
down and run up easily, and enlarged almost indefinitely. The
inhabitants sleep on the floor, and the bedding consists not as with
us of mattresses, palliasses, and other more or less insanitary
articles, but of a number, great or small, and elaborate or otherwise,
in accordance with the means of the owner, of what I will term quilts.
The Japanese pillow is a fearful and wonderful article. I can never
imagine how it was evolved and why it has remained so long unimproved.
It is made of wood and there is a receptacle for the head. The
European who uses it finds that it effectually banishes sleep, while
the ordinary Japanese is apparently unable to sleep without it. In
most houses, however poor, a kakemono, or wall picture, is to be seen.
It is usually the only decoration save an occasional vase containing
flowers, and of course flowers themselves, which are in evidence
everywhere. Light is, or used to be, given by a "lamp," a kind of
Chinese lantern on a lacquer stand, the light being given by a rush
candle. I am sorry, however, to say that these in some respects
artistic lanterns are being generally replaced by hideous petroleum or
kerosene lamps, not only ugly but a constant source of danger in these
flimsy houses.
The most important accessory of nearly all Japanese houses is the
bath-room, or wash-house, to use a more appropriate term. The hot bath
is a universal institution in the country, and nearly every Japanese
man and woman, whatever his or her station in life, washes the body
thoroughly in extremely hot water more than once daily. The Japanese,
as regards the washing of their persons, are the cleanest race in the
world, but many hygienic laws are set at defiance possibly because
they are not understood. A gradual improvement is, however, taking
place in these matters, and the cleanliness as regards the body and
their houses, which is such a pleasing feature of the people, will no
doubt extend in other directions also.
Japanese houses are habitable enough in warm weather, but in
winter-time they are, as might be expected, exceedingly cold,
especially as the arrangements for warming them are of an extremely
primitive nature. Those complaints which are induced or produced by
cold are prevalent in the country.
The food of the people is as simple as their houses, and as
inexpensive. A Japanese family it has been calculated can live on
about L10 a year. A little fish, rice, and vegetables, with incessant
tea, is the national dietary. The people living on this meagre fare
are, on the whole, a strong and sturdy race, but it is questionable if
the national physique would not be vastly improved were the national
diet also. I have touched on this matter elsewhere, so I need not
refer to it further here. Tobacco is the constant consoler of the
Japanese in all his troubles. Why he smokes such diminutive pipes I
have never been able to understand. They only hold sufficient tobacco
for a few whiffs, and when staying in a Japanese house the constant
tap, tap, tap of the owner's pipe as he empties the ashes out prior to
refilling it reminds one of the woodpecker.
There are doubtless some persons, especially those persons who
consider that to enjoy life a superabundance or even a plethora of
material comforts are necessary, who, after reading a description of
the home and fare of the Japanese peasant, will assume that his life
is a burden and that he derives no enjoyment whatever from it. Nothing
could be more erroneous. There is probably not a more joyous being on
the face of the globe than the Japanese. His wants are few, and in
that fact probably lies his happiness. He does not find his enjoyment
in material things, but he has his enjoyment all the same, and I think
on the whole that he probably gets more out of life and has more
fitting ideas regarding it than the Englishman who considers an
abundance of beef and beer its objective point.
To me one of the most pleasing features of Japan is the fondness and
tenderness of the Japanese of all ranks and classes for children. The
Japanese infant is the tyrant of Japan, and nothing is good enough for
it. The women, as most people know, carry their babies on their backs
instead of in their arms. A baby is, however, not so for very long in
Japan. Very young Japanese girls may be seen carrying their little
baby brothers and sisters behind their backs, and thus learning their
maternal duties in advance. The position of women in Japan, married
women, is not so satisfactory as it ought to be. The laws in regard to
divorce are, I think, too easy, and a Japanese possesses facilities
for getting rid of his wife which does not tend to the conservation of
home-life. The custom, which was at one time universal, of women
blackening their teeth, has largely diminished, and will no doubt in
due course become obsolete. The idea which underlay it was that the
woman should render herself unattractive to other men. There was no
object in having such an adventitious attraction as pearly teeth for
her husband, who might be presumed to know what her attractions really
were. The Japanese woman in her education has inculcated three
obediences, viz., obedience to parents, obedience to husband, and
after the death of the latter obedience to son. Although the Japanese
girl comes of age at 14 she cannot marry without her father's consent
until she is 25.
The dress of the Japanese people is so well known that it is not
necessary for me to describe it. The kimono is, I think, a graceful
costume, and I am very sorry that so many women in the upper classes
have discarded the national dress for European garments. Japanese
women who wear the national costume do not don gloves. If their hands
are cold they place them in their sleeves, which are long and have
receptacles containing many and various things, including a
pocket-handkerchief, which is usually made of paper, and sometimes a
pot of lip-salve to colour the lips to the orthodox tint. The poorer
classes, of course, do not go in for such frivolities. Talking of
paper handkerchiefs reminds me of the innumerable uses to which paper
is put in Japan; it serves for umbrellas and even for coats, and is
altogether a necessity of existence almost for the great mass of the
people.
I have referred to the lack of what may be deemed material comforts in
Japan, as also to the fact that the Japanese are a joyous race but
that their enjoyment is not of a material nature. They are, in fact,
easily amused, and their enjoyment takes forms which would hardly
appeal to a less emotional people. In the large towns the theatre is a
perennial source of amusement. I have referred to the theatre in the
chapter dealing with the drama, and remarked therein that the excess
of by-play, irrelevant by-play, in a Japanese drama was rather
wearisome to the European spectator. Not so to the Japanese. He
positively revels in it. The theatre is for him something real and
moving. He has, whatever his age, all the zest of a youth for plays
and spectacles. How far the Europeanising of the country, which is
having, and is bound still further to have, an effect on dramatic art,
will affect the amusements of the people and their proneness for the
theatre remains to be seen. There is so far nothing approaching the
English music-hall in Japan. Let me express a hope that there never
will be. It is a long cry from the graceful Geisha to the inanities
and banalities which appear to be the stock-in-trade of music-hall
performances in this country. These appear to meet a home want, but I
sincerely trust they will be reserved for home delectation and not be
inflicted in any guise upon Japan. The matter of music-halls suggests
some reference to the ideas of the Japanese in respect of music. The
educated classes appear to have an appreciation of European music, but
Japanese music requires, I should say, an educational process. Some
superficial European writers declare that the Japanese have not the
least conception of either harmony or melody, and that what passes for
music in the country is simply discord. It might have struck these
writers that criticism of this kind in reference to a most artistic
people could hardly be correct. Any one who has listened to the Geisha
or heard the singing of trained Japanese would certainly not agree in
such statements as I have referred to. Japanese music is like Japanese
art--it has its own characteristics and will, I am sure, repay being
carefully studied.
Festivals and feasts, religious and otherwise, which are many and
varied, afford some relaxation for the people. There are, according to
a list compiled, some 28 religious festivals, 16 national holidays,
and 14 popular feast-days. New Year's Day is termed Shihohai, and on
it the Emperor prays to all his ancestors for a peaceful reign. Two
days subsequently, on Genjisai, he makes offerings to him and all his
Imperial ancestors, while two days later still all Government officers
make official calls. These are legal holidays. The 11th of February
(Kigen Setsu) and the 3rd of April (Jimmu-Tenno-sai) are observed as
the anniversaries respectively of the accession to the throne and the
death of Jimmu-Tenno, the first Emperor. The 17th of October
(Shinsho-sai) is the national harvest festival. On this day the
Emperor offers the first crop of the year to his divine ancestor,
Tenshoko Daijin. It may be interesting to record that the 25th of
December (Christmas Day), is observed as a holiday by the Custom-house
department "for the accommodation of foreign employees."
The popular festivals are equally interesting and curious. The 3rd of
March (Oshinasama), is the girls' or dolls' festival, while the 5th of
May (Osekku), is the boys' festival, or Feast of Flags. A three days'
festival, 13th-15th of July (Bon Matsuri), is the All Souls' Day of
Japan in honour of the sacred dead. The 9th of September (Kikku No
Sekku), is the festival of chrysanthemums, the national flower, and
the 20th of November, appropriately near the Lord Mayor of London's
day, is the festival held by the merchants in honour of Ebisuko, the
God of Wealth. The Feast of Flags--the boys' festival--is one much
esteemed by the Japanese people. On the occasion of it every house the
owner of which has been blessed with sons displays a paper carp
floating from a flagstaff. If a male child has come to the
establishment during the year the carp is extra large. It is
considered a reproach to any married woman not to have this symbol
flying outside the house on the occasion of this feast. Why the carp
has been selected as a symbol is a matter upon which there is much
difference of opinion. The carp, it is said, is emblematic of the
youth who overcomes all the difficulties that lie in his path during
life, but I confess I rather fail to see what connection there is
between this fish and such an energetic youth. On this day the boys
have dolls representative of Japanese heroes and personages of the
past as well as toy swords and toy armour. On the girls' festival--the
Feast of Dolls--there is no outward and visible display. The fact of a
girl having been born in the family is not considered a matter to be
boasted of. On this feast there is a great display indoors of dolls.
As a matter of fact dolls form a very important part of the heirlooms
of every Japanese family of any importance. When a girl is born a pair
of dolls are procured for her. Dolls are much more seriously treated
than they are in European countries, where they are bought with the
full knowledge that they will quickly be destroyed. In Japan the dolls
are packed away for nearly the whole of the year in the go-down, and
are only produced at this particular festival. I may add that not only
the dolls themselves but furniture for them are largely in request in
Japan, and that this dolls' festival is really a very important
function in the national life.
New Year's festival is the great day of the year in Japan. In this
respect it approximates to our Christmas. Not only the houses but the
streets are decorated, and every town in the land has at this
particular season an unusually festive appearance. At this period
visits are exchanged, and New Year's presents are the correct thing.
On the Bon Matsuri, or All Souls' Day, the Japanese have a custom
somewhat similar to that which obtains in Roman Catholic countries on
the 2nd of November. On the first night of the feast the tombs of the
dead during the past year are adorned with Japanese lanterns. On the
second night the remaining tombs are likewise decorated, while on the
third night it is the custom, although it is now somewhat falling into
desuetude, for the relatives of the dead to launch toy vessels made of
straw laden with fruit and coins as well as a lantern. These toy
ships have toy sails, and the dead are supposed to sail in them to
oblivion until next year's festival. These toy ships, of course, catch
fire from the lanterns. Not so very many years ago the spectacle of
these little vessels catching fire on some large bay was a very pretty
one. I am afraid this feast has a tendency to die out--a fact which is
greatly to be regretted, as there is behind it much that is poetical
and beautiful.
Wrestling, as most people know, is a favourite amusement of the
Japanese, and wrestling matches excite quite as much interest as
boxing used to do in this country. Of late years English people have
taken much interest in Ju Jitsu. The Japanese style of wrestling is
certainly peculiar, and training does not apparently enter so much
into it as is considered essential in reference to displays of
strength or skill in this country. One sometimes sees very expert
Japanese wrestlers who are not only fat but bloated.
The Japanese have long been celebrated archers, and archery, though it
is largely on the wane, is much more in evidence than is the case in
this country. It is an art in which a great many of the people excel,
and archery grounds still exist in many of the towns.
Marriages and christenings have important parts in the social life of
the people. These ceremonies, however, are not quite so obtrusive as
they are in Western lands. As regards christenings, if I may use such
a term in reference to a non-Christian people, the first, or almost
the first, ceremony in reference to the infant in Japan is, or used to
be, the shaving of its head thirty days after birth, after which it
was taken to the temple to make its first offering, a pecuniary one,
to the gods. This shaving of babies is no doubt diminishing, at any
rate in the large towns. Indeed, everything in regard to the
dressing of and dealing with the hair in Japan is, if I may use the
term, in a state of transition.
[Illustration: STREET SCENE ON NEW YEAR'S DAY
FROM A PRINT BY HIROSHIGE]
Some writers on Japan have been impressed by the fact that the
Japanese appear to be more concerned about the dead than the living.
Ancestor worship plays an important part in the religious economy of
Japanese life, and, as I have shown, the All Souls' Day in Japan is an
important national festival. But the respect that these people have
for their dead is not shown only on one or two or three days of the
year; it may be deduced from a visit to any of their cemeteries. These
are nearly always picturesquely situated, adorned with beautiful
trees, and exquisitely kept in order. Indeed, the cemeteries are in
striking contrast to those of European countries. The hideous and
inartistic tombstones and monuments, the urns and angels, and the
stereotyped conventionalities of graveyards in this country are all
absent. There is usually only a simple tablet over each grave bearing
the name of the deceased and the date of his death, and occasionally
some simple word or two summing up succinctly those qualities he had,
or was supposed to have, possessed. Near each grave is usually a
flower-vase, and it is nearly always filled with fresh flowers. As I
have remarked, flowers play an important part in the lives of the
Japanese people, and with them no part is more important than the
decoration of the graves of their dead. In England flowers also play
an important part in connection with the dead--on the day of the
funeral. It is then considered the correct thing for every one who
knew the deceased to send a wreath to be placed upon his coffin. These
wreaths, frequently exceedingly numerous, are conveyed to the
cemetery, where they are allowed to rot on top of the grave. To me
there is no more mournful sight than a visit to a great London
cemetery, where one sees these rotting emblems, which quite palpably
meant nothing save the practice of a conventionality. The Japanese,
however poor his worldly circumstances may be, is not content with
flowers, costly flowers on the day of the funeral; he places his vase
alongside the grave of the departed, and by keeping that vase filled
with fresh and beautiful flowers he sets forth as far as he possibly
can his feeling of respect for the dead and the fact that the dead one
still lives in his memory.
One cannot study, however cursorily, the lives of the Japanese people
on the whole without being convinced of the fact that there is among
them not only a total absence of but no desire whatever for luxury.
The whole conception of life among these people seems to me to be a
healthy and a simple one. It is not in any way, or at any rate to any
great extent, a material conception. The ordinary Japanese--the
peasant, for example--does not hanker after a time when he will have
more to eat and more to drink. He finds himself placed in a certain
position in life, and he attempts to get the best out of life that he
can. I do not suggest, of course, that the Japanese peasant has ever
philosophically discussed this matter with himself or perhaps thought
deeply, if at all, about it. I am merely recording what his view of
life is judging by his actions. He, I feel confident, enjoys life. In
some respects his life no doubt is a hard one, but it has its
alleviations, and if I judge him aright the ordinary Japanese does not
let his mind dwell overmuch on his hardships, but is content to get
what pleasure he can out of his surrounding conditions.
One very pleasing characteristic of the Japanese men and women to
which I have already referred is the habit of personal cleanliness.
In every town in the country public baths are numerous, and every
house of any pretensions has a bath-room. The Japanese use extremely
hot water to wash in. The women do not enter the bath immediately upon
undressing, but in the first instance, throwing some pailsful of water
over the body, they sit on the floor and scrub themselves with bran
prior to entering the bath, performing this operation two or three
times. Men do not indulge in a similar practice, and I have never been
able to understand why this different mode of bathing should obtain in
reference to the two sexes. In houses possessing a bath-room the bath
consists merely of a wooden tub with a stove to heat the water. The
bath is used by the whole family in succession--father, mother,
children, servants. Shampooing also forms an important part of the
Japanese system of cleanliness. It is not, as in this country,
confined to the head, but approximates to what we term massage, and
consists in a rubbing of the muscles of the body--a fact which not
only has a beneficial effect physically, but is also efficacious in
the direction of cleanliness.
Nearly every house in Japan possesses a garden, and the garden is a
source of perpetual delight to every Japanese. He is enabled to give
full vent therein to his love of flowers. Some critics have found
fault with Japanese gardens on account of their monotony. Miniature
lakes, grass plots, dwarfed trees, and trees clipped and trained into
representations of objects animate and inanimate are the prevailing
characteristics. A similar remark might, however, be made in regard to
the gardens of, say, London suburban houses, with this exception--that
the Japanese gardens show infinitely more good taste on the part of
the cultivators of them. These little gardens throw a brightness into
the life of the people which it is impossible to estimate.
In the chapter which I have devoted to the religions of the Japanese
people, I have remarked that religion appears to be losing its
influence upon the educated classes of the country, who are quickly
developing into agnostics. No such remark can, however, be made in
reference to the great mass of the Japanese people. For them religion
is an actuality. Take it out of their lives and you will take much
that makes their lives not only enjoyable but endurable. As a writer
on Japan has somewhat irreverently observed, the Japanese "is very
chummy with heaven. He just as readily invokes the aid of his
household gods in the pursuit of his amours as in less illegitimate
aspirations. He regards them as kind friends who will help, rather
than as severe censors who have to be propitiated." The spiritual
aspect of the Deity has not, I think, entered at all into the
conceptions of the ordinary Japanese. His ideas in regard to God or
the gods--his pantheon is a large and a comprehensive one--are
altogether anthropomorphic. Every action of his life, however small,
is in some way or other connected with an unseen world. In this
matter, Buddhism and Shintoism have got rather mixed, and, as I have
elsewhere said, if the founder of Buddhism were reincarnated in Japan
to-day, he would find it difficult to recognise his religion in some
of the developments of Buddhism as it exists in Japan. Nevertheless,
this anthropomorphic idea of God, however it may fit the Japanese for
the next world, undoubtedly comforts him in this. The religious
festivals, which are numerous, are gala days in his life, and the
services of religion bring him undoubtedly much consolation. But he
does not of necessity go to a temple to conduct that uplifting of the
heart which is, after all, the best service of man to the Creator.
Every house has its little shrine, and although some superior persons
may laugh at the act of burning a joss-stick, or some other trivial
act of worship, as merely ignorant superstition, I think the
unprejudiced man would look rather at the motive which inspired the
act. If this poor ignorant native burns his joss-stick, makes his
offering of a cake, lights a lamp in front of an image, or takes part
in any other act which in effect means the lifting up of his soul to
something higher and greater than himself that he can now only see
through a glass darkly, surely he ought not to be condemned. At any
rate I will pass no condemnation on him. Outside the accretions which
have undoubtedly come upon Buddhism and Shintoism in the many
centuries they have existed in Japan, I desire once more to emphasise
the fact, to which I have previously made reference, that both these
religions have had, and I believe still have, a beneficial effect,
from a moral point of view, on the Japanese people. There is nothing
in their ethical code to which the most censorious person can raise
the slightest objection. They have inculcated on the Japanese people
through all the ages, not only the necessity, but the advisability of
doing good. Buddhism, in particular, has preached the doctrine of
doing good, not only to one's fellow-creatures but to the whole of
animate nature. These two religions have, in my opinion, placed the
ethical conceptions of the Japanese people on a high plane.
In my remarks on the people of Japan I do not think I can more
effectually sum up their salient characteristics than has been done by
the writer of a guide to that country. "The courtly demeanour of the
people," he says, "is a matter of remark with all who visit Japan, and
so universal is the studied politeness of all classes that the casual
observer would conclude that it was innate and born of the nature of
the people; and probably the quality has become somewhat of a national
characteristic, having been held in such high esteem, and so
universally taught for so many centuries--at least, it seems to be as
natural for them to be polite and formal as it is for them to breathe.
Their religion teaches the fundamental tenets of true politeness, in
that it inculcates the reverence to parents as one of the highest
virtues. The family circle fosters the germs of the great national
trait of ceremonious politeness. Deference to age is universal with
the young. The respect paid to parents does not cease when the
children are mature men and women. It is considered a privilege as
well as an evidence of filial duty to study the wants and wishes of
the parents, even before the necessities of the progeny of those who
have households of their own."
I do not think that it is necessary for me to add much to these wise
and pregnant remarks. The more one studies the Japanese people, the
more I think one's admiration of them increases. They have, in my
opinion, in many respects arrived, probably as the result of the
accumulated experience of many ages, at a right perception and
conception of the philosophy of life. Judged from the highest, and as
I think only true, standpoint, that is the standpoint of happiness not
in a merely material but in a spiritual form, they have reached a
condition that but few nations have yet attained. They may provoke the
pity of the man who believes in full diet and plenty of it, and who
fails to comprehend how a people living on a meagre fare of fish and
rice can be contented, much less happy, but the Japanese in his
philosophy has realised a fact that happiness is something other than
material, and that a man or woman can be largely independent of the
accidentals of life and can attain a realisation of true happiness by
keeping under the, too often, supremacy of matter over mind in the
average human being.