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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Japanese Girls and Women
+       Revised and Enlarged Edition
+
+Author: Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, S.D., and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Page numbers from the original book have been added to asterisks that
+indicate notes in the Appendix (e.g. [*3]) in order to make it easier to
+match them to their corresponding notes. Page 61 has two notes: [*61a]
+and [*61b]. Footnotes are in the same format, without the asterisks
+(e.g. [1], [2])
+
+Please see the end of this book for more detailed notes on the text.]
+
+
+
+
+By Alice M. Bacon
+
+
+IN THE LAND OF THE GODS. 12mo, $1.50.
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside Library for Young
+People. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+_Holiday Edition._ With 12 full-page Illustrations in color and 43
+outline drawings by Japanese artists. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.
+
+A JAPANESE INTERIOR. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside School Library. 16mo, 60
+cents, _net_.
+
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+  JAPANESE GIRLS AND
+  WOMEN
+
+  BY
+
+  ALICE MABEL BACON
+
+  _REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION_
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+
+  Copyright, 1891, 1902,
+  BY ALICE MABEL BACON.
+
+  _All rights reserved._
+
+
+  To
+
+  STEMATZ, THE MARCHIONESS OYAMA,
+
+  IN THE NAME OF OUR GIRLHOOD'S FRIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND
+  UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPARATIONS OF OUR
+  MATURER YEARS,
+
+  This Volume
+
+  _IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                              PAGE
+
+     I. CHILDHOOD                         1
+
+    II. EDUCATION                        37
+
+   III. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE             57
+
+    IV. WIFE AND MOTHER                  84
+
+     V. OLD AGE                         119
+
+    VI. COURT LIFE                      138
+
+   VII. LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI      169
+
+  VIII. SAMURAI WOMEN                   196
+
+    IX. PEASANT WOMEN                   228
+
+     X. LIFE IN THE CITIES              262
+
+    XI. DOMESTIC SERVICE                299
+
+   XII. WITHIN THE HOME                 327
+
+  XIII. TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS           371
+
+        APPENDIX                        423
+
+        INDEX                           473
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+In offering a revised edition of a book which has been before the public
+for more than ten years, there is little to say that has not been said
+in the original Preface. The work as published before, however, was
+always, to its author's mind, unfinished, for the reason that a chapter
+on household customs, which was necessary for the completion of the
+plan, had to be omitted because it could not be written in America.
+
+This defect has now been remedied, and the chapter "Within the Home"
+contains the supplementary matter necessary to complete the picture of a
+Japanese woman's life. In addition to this a thorough revision has been
+made of the whole book, and the subjects discussed in each chapter have
+been brought up to date by means of notes in an Appendix. The reader
+will find these notes referred to by asterisks in the text.
+
+Finally, a second supplementary chapter has been added, in which an
+effort has been made to analyze present conditions. From its nature,
+this chapter is only a rapid survey of the progress of ten years. It is
+not easy to write with judgment of conditions actually present. A little
+perspective is necessary to make sure that one sees things in their
+proper proportions. It is therefore with some hesitation that I offer to
+the public the result of two years' experience of the present state of
+affairs. If subsequent events show that my observation has been
+incorrect, I can only say that what I have written has been the
+"Thing-as-I-see-It," and does not lay claim to being the
+"Thing-as-It-is."
+
+In closing, I would thank once more the friends whose names appear in
+the previous Preface, and would add to their number the names of Mr. H.
+Sakurai and Mr. and Mrs. Seijiro Saito, who have rendered me valuable
+aid in gathering material.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,
+   _November, 1902_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+It seems necessary for a new author to give some excuse for her boldness
+in offering to the public another volume upon a subject already so well
+written up as Japan. In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey,
+Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner can a woman hope to enter? This
+is the question that will be asked, and that accordingly the author must
+answer.
+
+While Japan as a whole has been closely studied, and while much and
+varied information has been gathered about the country and its people,
+one half of the population has been left entirely unnoticed, passed over
+with brief mention, or altogether misunderstood. It is of this neglected
+half that I have written, in the hope that the whole fabric of Japanese
+social life will be better comprehended when the women of the country,
+and so the homes that they make, are better known and understood.
+
+The reason why Japanese home-life is so little understood by foreigners,
+even by those who have lived long in Japan, is that the Japanese, under
+an appearance of frankness and candor, hides an impenetrable reserve in
+regard to all those personal concerns which he believes are not in the
+remotest degree the concerns of his foreign guest. Only life in the home
+itself can show what a Japanese home may be; and only by intimate
+association--such as no foreign man can ever hope to gain--with the
+Japanese ladies themselves can much be learned of the thoughts and daily
+lives of the best Japanese women.
+
+I have been peculiarly fortunate in having enjoyed the privilege of long
+and intimate friendship with a number of Japanese ladies, who have
+spoken with me as freely, and shown the details of their lives to me as
+openly, as if bound by closest ties of kindred. Through them, and only
+through them, I have been enabled to study life from the point of view
+of the refined and intelligent Japanese women, and have found the study
+so interesting and instructive that I have felt impelled to offer to
+others some part of what I have received through the aid of these
+friends. I have, moreover, been encouraged in my work by reading, when
+it was already more than half completed, the following words from
+Griffis's "Mikado's Empire:"--
+
+"The whole question of the position of Japanese women--in history,
+social life, education, employments, authorship, art, marriage,
+concubinage, prostitution, benevolent labor, the ideals of literature,
+popular superstitions, etc.--discloses such a wide and fascinating field
+of inquiry that I wonder no one has as yet entered it."
+
+In closing, I should say that this work is by no means entirely my own.
+It is, in the first place, largely the result of the interchange of
+thought through many and long conversations with Japanese ladies upon
+the topics herein treated. It has also been carefully revised and
+criticised; and many valuable additions have been made to it by Miss Umé
+Tsuda, teacher of English in the Peeresses' School in Tōkyō, and an old
+and intimate friend. Miss Tsuda is at present in this country, on a two
+years' leave, for purposes of further study. She has, amid her many
+duties as a student at Bryn Mawr College, given much time and thought to
+this work; and a large part of whatever value it may possess is due to
+her.
+
+I would say, too, that in the verification of dates, names, and
+historical incidents, I have relied altogether upon Griffis's "Mikado's
+Empire" and Rein's "Japan," knowing that those two authors represent the
+best that has been done by foreigners in the field of Japanese history.
+
+This work also owes much, not only to the suggestions and historical
+aids contained in the "Mikado's Empire," but to Mr. Griffis himself,
+for his careful reading of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and
+suggestions. No greater encouragement can be given to an inexperienced
+author than the helpful criticism of one who has already distinguished
+himself in the same field of labor; and for just such friendly aid my
+warmest thanks are due to Mr. Griffis.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+HAMPTON, VA., _February, 1891_.
+
+
+
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+
+To the Japanese baby the beginning of life is not very different from
+its beginning to babies in the Western world. Its birth, whether it be
+girl or boy, is the cause of much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry on
+the family name and inherit titles and estates, they are considered of
+more importance, but many parents' hearts are made glad by the addition
+of a daughter to the family circle.
+
+As soon as the event takes place, a special messenger is dispatched to
+notify relatives and intimate friends, while formal letters of
+announcement are sent to those less closely related. All persons thus
+notified must make an early visit to the newcomer, in order to welcome
+it into the world, and must either take with them or send before them
+some present. Toys, pieces of cotton, silk, or crêpe for the baby's
+dress are regarded as suitable; and everything must be accompanied by
+fish or eggs, for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they are neatly
+arranged in a covered box, which may contain thirty, forty, or even one
+hundred eggs.[1] The baby, especially if it be the first one in a
+family, receives many presents in the first few weeks of its life, and
+at a certain time proper acknowledgment must be made and return presents
+sent. This is done when the baby is about thirty days old.
+
+[1] All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white paper, although,
+except for funerals, this paper must have some writing on it, and must
+be tied with a peculiar red and white paper string, in which is inserted
+the _noshi_, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of colored
+paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of every present.
+
+Both baby and mother have a hard time of it for the first few weeks of
+its life. The baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed over, and talked
+to so much by the visitors that come in, that it must think this world a
+trying place. The mother, too, is denied the rest and quiet she needs,
+and wears herself out in the excitement of seeing her friends, and the
+physical exercise of going through, so far as possible, the ceremonious
+bows and salutations that etiquette prescribes.
+
+Before the seventh day the baby receives its name.[2] There is no
+especial ceremony connected with this, but the child's birth must be
+formally registered, together with its name, at the district office of
+registration, and the household keep holiday in honor of the event. A
+certain kind of rice, cooked with red beans, a festival dish denoting
+good fortune, is usually partaken of by the family on the seventh day.
+
+[2] A child is rarely given the name of a living member of the family,
+or of any friend. The father's name, slightly modified, is frequently
+given to a son, and those of ancestors long ago dead are sometimes used.
+One reason for this is probably the inconvenience of similar names in
+the same family, and middle names, as a way of avoiding this difficulty,
+are unknown. The father usually names the child, but some friend or
+patron of the family may be asked to do it. Names of beautiful objects
+in nature, such as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lotos, Gold, are commonly used
+for girls, while boys of the lower classes often rejoice in such
+appellations as Stone, Bear, Tiger, etc. To call a child after a person
+would not be considered any especial compliment.[*3]
+
+The next important event in the baby's life is the _miya mairi_, a
+ceremony which corresponds roughly with our christening. On the
+thirtieth day after birth,[*4] the baby is taken for its first visit to
+the temple. For this visit great preparations are made, and the baby is
+dressed in finest silk or crêpe, gayly figured,--garments made
+especially for the occasion. Upon the dress appears in various places
+the crest of the family, as on all ceremonial dresses, whether for young
+or old, for every Japanese family has its crest. Thus arrayed, and
+accompanied by members of the family, the young baby is carried to one
+of the Shinto temples, and there placed under the protection of the
+patron deity of the temple. This god, chosen from a great number of
+Shinto deities, is supposed to become the special guardian of the child
+through life. Offerings are made to the god and to the priest, and a
+blessing is obtained; and the baby is thus formally placed under the
+care of a special deity. This ceremony over, there is usually an
+entertainment of some kind at the home of the parents, especially if the
+family be one of high rank. Friends are invited, and if there are any
+who have not as yet sent in presents, they may give them at this time.
+
+It is usually on this day that the family send to their friends some
+acknowledgment of the presents received. This sometimes consists of the
+red bean rice, such as is prepared for the seventh day celebration, and
+sometimes of cakes of _mochi_, or rice paste. A letter of thanks usually
+accompanies the return present. If rice is sent, it is put in a handsome
+lacquered box, the box placed on a lacquered tray, and the whole covered
+with a square of crêpe or silk, richly decorated. The box, the tray, and
+the cover are of course returned, and, curious to say, the box must be
+returned unwashed, as it would be very unlucky to send it back clean. A
+piece of Japanese paper must be slipped into the box after its contents
+have been removed, and box and tray must be given back, just as they
+are, to the messenger. Sometimes a box of eggs, or a peculiar kind of
+dried fish, called _katsuobushi_, is sent with this present, when it is
+desired to make an especially handsome return. When as many as fifty or
+one hundred return presents of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight
+tax on the mistress of the house to see that no one is forgotten, and
+that all is properly done. As special messengers are sent, a number of
+men are sometimes kept busy for two or three days.
+
+After all these festivities, a quiet, undisturbed life begins for the
+baby,--a life which is neither unpleasant nor unhealthful. It is not
+jolted, rocked, or trotted to sleep; it is allowed to cry if it chooses,
+without anybody's supposing that the world will come to an end because
+of its crying; and its dress is loose and easily put on, so that very
+little time is spent in the tiresome process of dressing and undressing.
+Under these conditions the baby thrives and grows strong and fat; learns
+to take life with some philosophy, even at a very early age; and is not
+subject to fits of hysterical or passionate crying, brought on by much
+jolting or trotting, or by the wearisome process of pinning, buttoning,
+tying of strings, and thrusting of arms into tight sleeves.
+
+The Japanese baby's dress, though not as pretty as that of our babies,
+is in many ways much more sensible. It consists of as many wide-sleeved,
+straight, silk, cotton, or flannel garments as the season of the year
+may require,--all cut after nearly the same pattern, and that pattern
+the same in shape as the grown-up _kimono_. These garments are fitted,
+one inside of the other, before they are put on; then they are laid down
+on the floor and the baby is laid into them; a soft belt, attached to
+the outer garment or dress, is tied around the waist, and the baby is
+dressed without a shriek or a wail, as simply and easily as possible.
+The baby's dresses, like those of our babies, are made long enough to
+cover the little bare feet; and the sleeves cover the hands as well, so
+preventing the unmerciful scratching that most babies give to their
+faces, as well as keeping the hands warm and dry.
+
+Babies of the lower classes, within a few weeks after birth, are carried
+about tied upon the back of some member of the family, frequently an
+older sister or brother, who is sometimes not more than five or six
+years old. The poorer the family, the earlier is the young baby thus put
+on some one's back, and one frequently sees babies not more than a month
+old, with bobbing heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands of cloth
+to the backs of older brothers or sisters, and living in the streets in
+all weathers. When it is cold, the sister's _haori_, or coat, serves as
+an extra covering for the baby as well; and when the sun is hot, the
+sister's parasol keeps off its rays from the bobbing bald head.[*8]
+Living in public, as the Japanese babies do, they soon acquire an
+intelligent, interested look, and seem to enjoy the games of the elder
+children, upon whose backs they are carried, as much as the players
+themselves. Babies of the middle classes do not live in public in this
+way, but ride about upon the backs of their nurses until they are old
+enough to toddle by themselves, and they are not so often seen in the
+streets; as few but the poorest Japanese, even in the large cities, are
+unable to have a pleasant bit of garden in which the children can play
+and take the air. The children of the richest families, the nobility,
+and the imperial family, are never carried about in this way. The young
+child is borne in the arms of an attendant, within doors and without;
+but as this requires the care of some one constantly, and prevents the
+nurse from doing anything but care for the child, only the richest can
+afford this luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a woman is able to
+care for a child, and yet go on with her household labors, and baby
+watches over mother's or nurse's shoulder, between naps taken at all
+hours, the processes of drawing water, washing and cooking rice, and all
+the varied work of the house. Imperial babies are held in the arms of
+some one night and day, from the moment of birth until they have learned
+to walk, a custom which seems to render the lot of the high-born infant
+less comfortable in some ways than that of the plebeian child.
+
+The flexibility of the knees, which is required for comfort in the
+Japanese method of sitting, is gained in very early youth by the habit
+of setting a baby down with its knees bent under it, instead of with its
+legs out straight before it, as seems to us the natural way. To the
+Japanese, the normal way for a baby to sit is with its knees bent under
+it, and so, at a very early age, the muscles and tendons of the knees
+are accustomed to what seems to us a most unnatural and uncomfortable
+posture.[3]
+
+[3] That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really unnatural and
+unhygienic, is shown by recent measurements taken by the surgeons of the
+Japanese army. These measurements prove that the small stature of the
+Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower limbs, which are
+out of proportion to the rest of the body. The sitting from early
+childhood upon the legs bent at the knee, arrests the development of
+that part of the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole
+nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the peasants, who stand
+and walk so much as to secure proper development of the legs; but among
+merchants, literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most
+plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, as a
+necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would doubtless in time alter
+the physique of the Japanese as a people.
+
+Among the lower classes, where there are few bathing facilities in the
+houses, babies of a few weeks old are often taken to the public bath
+house and put into the hot bath. These Japanese baths are usually heated
+to a temperature of a hundred to a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit,--a
+temperature that most foreigners visiting Japan find almost unbearable.
+To a baby's delicate skin, the first bath or two is usually a severe
+trial, but it soon becomes accustomed to the high temperature, and takes
+its bath, as it does everything else, placidly and in public. Born into
+a country where cow's milk is never used, the Japanese baby is wholly
+dependent upon its mother for milk,[4] and is not weaned entirely until
+it reaches the age of three or four years, and is able to live upon the
+ordinary food of the class to which it belongs. There is no intermediate
+stage of bread and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap of some kind;
+for the all-important factor--milk--is absent from the bill of fare, in
+a land where there is neither "milk for babes" nor "strong meat for them
+that are full of age."
+
+[4] Sometimes, in the old days, rice water was given to babies instead
+of milk, but it was nearly impossible to bring up a baby on this alone.
+Now both fresh and condensed milk are used, where the mother's milk is
+insufficient, but only in those parts of Japan where the foreign
+influence is felt.[*11]
+
+In consequence, partly, of the lack of proper nourishment after the
+child is too old to live wholly upon its mother's milk, and partly,
+perhaps, because of the poor food that the mothers, even of the higher
+classes, live upon, many babies in Japan are afflicted with disagreeable
+skin troubles, especially of the scalp and face,--troubles which usually
+disappear as soon as the child becomes accustomed to the regular food of
+the adult. Another consequence, as I imagine, of the lack of proper
+food at the teething period, is the early loss of the child's first
+teeth, which usually turn black and decay some time before the second
+teeth begin to show themselves. With the exception of these two
+troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy, hearty, and happy to an
+extraordinary degree, and show that most of the conditions of their
+lives are wholesome. The constant out-of-door life and the healthful
+dress serve to make up in considerable measure for the poor food, and
+the Japanese baby, though small after the manner of the race, is usually
+plump, and of firm, hard flesh. One striking characteristic of the
+Japanese baby is, that at a very early age it learns to cling like a
+kitten to the back of whoever carries it, so that it is really difficult
+to drop it through carelessness, for the baby looks out for its own
+safety like a young monkey. The straps that tie it to the back are
+sufficient for safety; but the baby, from the age of one month, is
+dependent upon its own exertions to secure a comfortable position, and
+it soon learns to ride its bearer with considerable skill, instead of
+being merely a bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one who has ever
+handled a Japanese baby can testify to the amount of intelligence shown
+in this direction at a very early age; and this clinging with arms and
+legs is, perhaps, a valuable part of the training which gives to the
+whole nation the peculiar quickness of motion and hardness of muscle
+that characterize them from childhood. It is the agility and muscular
+quality that belong to wild animals, that we see something of in the
+Indian, but to a more marked degree in the Japanese, especially of the
+lower classes.
+
+The Japanese baby's first lessons in walking are taken under favorable
+circumstances. With feet comfortably shod in the soft _tabi_, or
+mitten-like sock, babies can tumble about as they like, with no bump nor
+bruise, upon the soft matted floors of the dwelling houses. There is no
+furniture to fall against, and nothing about the room to render falling
+a thing to be feared. After learning the art of walking in the house,
+the baby's first attempts out of doors are hampered by the _zori_ or
+_géta_,--a light straw sandal or small wooden clog attached to the foot
+by a strap passing between the toes. At the very beginning the sandal
+or clog is tied to the baby's foot by bits of string fastened around the
+ankle, but this provision for security is soon discarded, and the baby
+patters along like the grown people, holding on the _géta_ by the strap
+passing between the toes. This somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient foot
+gear must cause many falls at first, but baby's experience in the art of
+balancing upon people's backs now aids in this new art of balancing upon
+the little wooden clogs. Babies of two or three trot about quite
+comfortably in _géta_ that seem to give most insecure footing, and older
+children run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all manner of active games
+upon heavy clogs that would wrench our ankles and toes out of all
+possibility of usefulness. This foot gear, while producing an awkward,
+shuffling gait, has certain advantages over our own, especially for
+children whose feet are growing rapidly. The _géta_, even if outgrown,
+can never cramp the toes nor compress the ankles. If the foot is too
+long for the clog the heel laps over behind, but the toes do not suffer,
+and the use of the _géta_ strengthens the ankles by affording no
+artificial aid or support, and giving to all the muscles of foot and
+leg free play, with the foot in a natural position. The toes of the
+Japanese retain their prehensile qualities to a surprising degree, and
+are used, not only for grasping the foot gear, but among mechanics
+almost like two supplementary hands, to aid in holding the thing worked
+upon. Each toe knows its work and does it, and they are not reduced to
+the dull uniformity of motion that characterizes the toes of a
+leather-shod nation.
+
+The distinction between the dress of the boy and the girl, that one
+notices from childhood, begins in babyhood. A very young baby wears red
+and yellow, but soon the boy is dressed in sober colors,--blues, grays,
+greens, and browns; while the little girl still wears the most gorgeous
+of colors and the largest of patterns in her garments, red being the
+predominant hue. The sex, even of a young baby, may be distinguished by
+the color of its clothing. White, the garb of mourning in Japan, is
+never used for children, but the minutest babies are dressed in
+bright-colored garments, and of the same materials--wadded cotton, silk,
+or crêpe--as those worn by adults of their social grade. As these
+dresses are not as easily washed as our own cambric and flannel baby
+clothes, there is a loss among the poorer classes in the matter of
+cleanliness; and the gorgeous soiled gowns are not as attractive as the
+more washable white garments in which our babies are dressed. For model
+clothing for a baby, I would suggest a combination of the Japanese style
+with the foreign, easily washed materials,--a combination that I have
+seen used in their own families by Japanese ladies educated abroad, and
+one in which the objections to the Japanese style of dress are entirely
+obviated.
+
+The Japanese baby begins to practice the accomplishment of talking at a
+very early age, for its native language is singularly happy in easy
+expressions for children; and little babies will be heard chattering
+away in soft, easily spoken words long before they are able to venture
+alone from their perches on their mothers' or nurses' backs. A few
+simple words express much, and cover all wants. _Iya_ expresses
+discontent or dislike of any kind, and is also used for "no"; _mam ma_
+means food; _bé bé_ is the dress; _ta ta_ is the sock, or house shoe,
+etc. We find many of the same sounds as in the baby language of
+English, with meanings totally different. The baby is not troubled with
+difficult grammatical changes, for the Japanese language has few
+inflections; and it is too young to be puzzled with the intricacies of
+the various expressions denoting different degrees of politeness, which
+are the snare and the despair of the foreigner studying Japanese.
+
+As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening
+before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about closely by the
+proprieties, and one in which, from babyhood to old age, she must expect
+to be always under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position
+will be an honorable and respected one only as she learns in her youth
+the lesson of cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal
+cleanliness and neatness. Her duties must be always either within the
+house, or, if she belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no
+career or vocation open to her: she must be dependent always upon either
+father, husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained, not
+by cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the
+self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to an even greater
+degree than of the men. This self-control must consist, not simply in
+the concealment of all the outward signs of any disagreeable
+emotion,--whether of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a
+cheerful smile and agreeable manner under even the most distressing of
+circumstances. The duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls
+of the family from the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson,
+and is expatiated upon at all times by their elders. The little girl
+must sink herself entirely, must give up always to others, must never
+show emotions except such as will be pleasing to those about her: this
+is the secret of true politeness, and must be mastered if the woman
+wishes to be well thought of and to lead a happy life. The effect of
+this teaching is seen in the attractive but dignified manners of the
+Japanese women, and even of the very little girls. They are not forward
+nor pushing, neither are they awkwardly bashful; there is no
+self-consciousness, neither is there any lack of _savoir faire_; a
+childlike simplicity is united with a womanly consideration for the
+comfort of those around them. A Japanese child seems to be the product
+of a more perfect civilization than our own, for it comes into the world
+with little of the savagery and barbarian bad manners that distinguish
+children in this country, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life
+do not seem to be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of
+good manners that will help to render it less obnoxious in polite
+society. How much of the politeness of the Japanese is the result of
+training, and how much is inherited from generations of civilized
+ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is, that babies
+are born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and
+that the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment that they receive from
+those about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the
+principle of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with
+very little difficulty the universally attractive manners of the people.
+One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that
+pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every
+member of the family. The grandfather and grandmother come first of all
+in everything,--no one at table must be helped before them in any case;
+after them come the father and mother; and lastly, the children
+according to their ages. A younger sister must always wait for the elder
+and pay her due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room
+before her. The wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the
+younger, are to be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be
+learned early by children. The difference in years may be slight, but
+the elder-born has the first right in all cases.
+
+Our little girl's place in the family is a pleasant one: she is the pet
+and plaything of father and elder brothers, and she is never saluted by
+any one in the family, except her parents, without the title of respect
+due to her position. If she is the eldest daughter, to the servants she
+is _O Jō Sama_, literally, young lady; to her own brothers and sisters,
+_Né San_, elder sister. Should she be one of the younger ones, her given
+name, preceded by the honorific _O_ and followed by _San_, meaning Miss,
+will be the name by which she will be called by younger brothers and
+sisters, and by the servants. As she passes from babyhood to girlhood,
+and from girlhood to womanhood, she is the object of much love and care
+and solicitude; but she does not grow up irresponsible or untrained to
+meet the duties which womanhood will surely bring to her. She must learn
+all the duties that fall upon the wife and mother of a Japanese
+household, as well as obtain the instruction in books and mathematics
+that is coming to be more and more a necessity for the women of Japan.
+She must take a certain responsibility in the household; must see that
+tea is made for the guests who may be received by her parents,--in all
+but the families of highest rank, must serve it herself. Indeed, it is
+quite the custom in families of the higher classes, should a guest, whom
+it is desired to receive with especial honor, dine at the house, to
+serve the meal, not with the family, but separately for the father and
+his visitor; and it is the duty of the wife or daughter, oftener the
+latter, to wait on them. This is in honor of the guest, not on account
+of the lack of servants, for there may be any number of them within
+call, or even in the back part of the room, ready to receive from the
+hands of the young girl what she has removed. She must, therefore, know
+the proper etiquette of the table, how to serve carefully and neatly,
+and, above all, have the skill to ply the _saké_ bottle, so that the
+house may keep up its reputation for hospitality. Should guests arrive
+in the absence of her parents, she must receive and entertain them until
+the master or mistress of the house returns. She also feels a certain
+care about the behavior of the younger members of the family, especially
+in the absence of the parents. In these various ways she is trained for
+taking upon herself the cares of a household when the time comes. In all
+but the very wealthiest and most aristocratic families, the daughters of
+the house do a large part of the simple housework. In a house with no
+furniture, no carpets, no bric-à-brac, no mirrors, picture frames or
+glasses to be cared for, no stoves or furnaces, no windows to wash, a
+large part of the cooking to be done outside, and no latest styles to be
+imitated in clothing, the amount of work to be done by women is
+considerably diminished, but still there remains enough to take a good
+deal of time. Every morning there are the beds to be rolled up and
+stored away in the closet, the mosquito nets to be taken down, the rooms
+to be swept, dusted, and aired before breakfast. Besides this, there is
+the washing and polishing of the _engawa_, or piazza, which runs around
+the outside of a Japanese house between the _shoji_, or paper screens
+that serve as windows, and the _amado_, or sliding shutters, that are
+closed only at night, or during heavy, driving rains. Breakfast is to be
+cooked and served, dishes to be washed (in cold water); and then perhaps
+there is marketing to be done, either at shops outside or from the
+vendors of fish and vegetables who bring their huge baskets of
+provisions to the door; but after these duties are performed, it is
+possible to sit down quietly to the day's work of sewing, studying, or
+whatever else may suit the taste or necessities of the housewife. Of
+sewing there is always a good deal to be done, for many Japanese dresses
+must be taken to pieces whenever they are washed, and are turned, dyed,
+and made over again and again, so long as there is a shred of the
+original material left to work upon. There is washing, too, to be done,
+although neither with hot water nor soap; and in the place of ironing,
+the cotton garments, which are usually washed without ripping, must be
+hung up on a bamboo pole passed through the armholes, and pulled smooth
+and straight before they dry; and the silk, always ripped into breadths
+before washing, must be smoothed while wet upon a board which is set in
+the sun until the silk is dry.
+
+Then there are the every day dishes which our Japanese maiden must learn
+to prepare. The proper boiling of rice is in itself a study. The
+construction of the various soups which form the staple in the Japanese
+bill of fare; the preparation of _mochi_, a kind of rice dough, which is
+prepared at the New Year, or to send to friends on various festival
+occasions: these and many other branches of the culinary art must be
+mastered before the young girl is prepared to assume the cares of
+married life.
+
+But though the little girl's life is not without its duties and
+responsibilities, it is also not at all lacking in simple and innocent
+pleasures.[*24] First among the annual festivals, and bringing with it
+much mirth and frolic, comes the Feast of the New Year. At this time
+father, mother, and all older members of the family lay aside their work
+and their dignity, and join in the fun and sports that are
+characteristic of this season. Worries and anxieties are set aside with
+the close of the year, and the first beams of the New Year's sun bring
+in a season of unlimited joy for the children. For about one week the
+festival lasts, and the festal spirit remains through the whole month,
+prompting to fun and amusements of all kinds. From early morning until
+bedtime the children wear their prettiest clothes, in which they play
+without rebuke. Guests come and go, bringing congratulations to the
+family, and often gifts for all. The children's stock of toys is thus
+greatly increased, and the house overflows with the good things of the
+season, of which _mochi_, or cake made from rice dough, prepared always
+especially for this time, is one of the most important articles.
+
+The children are taken with their parents to make New Year's visits to
+their friends and to offer them congratulations, and much they enjoy
+this, as, dressed in their best, they ride from house to house in
+_jinrikishas_.[5]
+
+[5] _Jinrikisha_, or _kuruma_, a small, light carriage, usually with a
+broad top, which is drawn by a man. The _jinrikisha_ is the commonest of
+all vehicles now in use in Japan. _Jinrikisha_-man and _kurumaya_ are
+terms commonly used for the runner who draws the carriage.
+
+And then, during the long, happy evenings, the whole family, including
+even the old grandfather and grandmother, join in merry games; the
+servants, too, are invited to join the family party, and, without
+seeming forward or out of place, enter into the games with zest. One of
+the favorite games is "_Hyaku nin isshu_," literally "The poems of a
+hundred poets." It consists of two hundred cards, on each of which is
+printed either the first or last half of one of the hundred famous
+Japanese poems which give the name to the game. The poems are well known
+to all Japanese, of whatever sort or condition. All Japanese poems are
+short, containing only thirty-one syllables, and have a natural division
+into two parts. The one hundred cards containing the latter halves of
+the poems are dealt and laid out in rows, face upward, before the
+players. One person is appointed reader. To him are given the remaining
+hundred cards, and he reads the beginnings of the poems in whatever
+order they come from the shuffled pack. Skill in the game consists in
+remembering quickly the line following the one read, and rapidly finding
+the card on which it is written. Especially does the player watch his
+own cards, and if he finds there the end of the poem, the beginning of
+which has just been read, he must pick it up before any one sees it and
+lay it aside. If some one else spies the card first, he seizes it and
+gives to the careless player several cards from his own hand. Whoever
+first disposes of all his cards is the winner. The players usually
+arrange themselves in two lines down the middle of the room, and the two
+sides play against each other, the game not being ended until either one
+side or the other has disposed of all its cards. The game requires great
+quickness of thought and of motion, and is invaluable in giving to all
+young people an education in the classical poetry of their own nation,
+as well as being a source of great merriment and jollity among young and
+old.
+
+Scattered throughout the year are various flower festivals, when, often
+with her whole family, our little girl visits the famous gardens where
+the plum, the cherry, the chrysanthemum, the iris, or the azalea attain
+their greatest loveliness, and spends the day out of doors in æsthetic
+enjoyment of the beauties of nature supplemented by art. And then there
+is the feast most loved in the whole year, the Feast of Dolls, when on
+the third day of the third month the great fire-proof storehouse gives
+forth its treasures of dolls,--in an old family, many of them hundreds
+of years old,--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny
+furnishings in silver, lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme,
+arranged on red-covered shelves in the finest room of the house. Most
+prominent among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in
+antique court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered
+dais. Near them are the figures of the five court musicians in their
+robes of office, each with his instrument. Beside these dolls, which are
+always present and form the central figures at the feast, numerous
+others, more plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower
+shelves, and the array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on
+these occasions is something marvelous. It was my privilege to be
+present at the Feast of Dolls in the house of one of the _Tokugawa
+daimiōs_, a house in which the old forms and ceremonies were strictly
+observed, and over which the wave of foreign innovation had passed so
+slightly that even the calendar still remained unchanged, and the feast
+took place upon the third day of the third month of the old Japanese
+year, instead of on the third day of March, which is the usual time for
+it now. At this house, where the dolls had been accumulating for
+hundreds of years, five or six broad, red-covered shelves, perhaps
+twenty feet long or more, were completely filled with them and with
+their belongings. The Emperor and Empress appeared again and again, as
+well as the five court musicians, and the tiny furnishings and utensils
+were wonderfully costly and beautiful. Before each Emperor and Empress
+was set an elegant lacquered table service,--tray, bowls, cups, _saké_
+pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete; and in each utensil was placed
+the appropriate variety of food. The _saké_ used on this occasion is a
+sweet, white liquor, brewed especially for this feast, as different from
+the ordinary _saké_ as sweet cider is from the hard cider upon which a
+man may drink himself into a state of intoxication.[*30] Besides the
+table service, everything that an imperial doll can be expected to need
+or desire is placed upon the shelves. Lacquered _norimono_, or
+palanquins; lacquered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged black
+bulls,--these were the conveyances of the great in Old Japan, and these,
+in minute reproductions, are placed upon the red-covered shelves. Tiny
+silver and brass _hibachi_, or fire boxes, are there, with their
+accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets,--whole kitchens, with
+everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely
+made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus,--combs,
+mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows,
+for reddening the lips and whitening the face,--all these things are
+there to delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the
+opportunity to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are
+served sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family
+take pleasure in serving their imperial majesties; but when the feast
+ends, the dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and
+lodged in the fire-proof warehouse for another year.
+
+The Tokugawa collection, of which I have spoken, is remarkably full and
+costly, for it has been making for hundreds of years in one of the
+younger branches of a family which for two and a half centuries was
+possessed of almost imperial power, and lived in more than imperial
+luxury; but there are few households so poor that they do not from year
+to year accumulate a little store of toys wherewith to celebrate the
+feast, and, whether the toys are many or few, the feast is the event of
+the year in the lives of the little girls of Japan.[*31]
+
+Beside the regular feasts at stated seasons, our little girl has a great
+variety of toys and games, some belonging to particular seasons, some
+played at any time during the year. At the New Year the popular
+out-of-door games are battledoor and shuttlecock, and ball. There is no
+prettier sight, to my mind, than a group of little girls in their
+many-colored wide-sleeved dresses playing with battledoor or ball. The
+graceful, rhythmic motion of their bodies, the bright upturned eyes, the
+laughing faces, are set off to perfection by the coloring of their
+flowing drapery; and their agility on their high, lacquered clogs is a
+constant source of wonder and admiration to any one who has ever made an
+effort to walk upon the clumsy things. There are dolls, too, that are
+not relegated to the storehouse when the Feast of Dolls is ended, but
+who are the joy and comfort of their little mothers during the whole
+year; and at every _kwan-ko-ba_, or bazaar, an endless variety of games,
+puzzles, pictures to be cut out and glued together, and amusements of
+all kinds, may be purchased at extremely low rates. There is no dearth
+of games for our little girl, and many pleasant hours are spent in the
+household sitting room with games, or conundrums, or stories, or the
+simple girlish chatter that elicits constant laughter from sheer
+youthful merriment.
+
+As for fairy tales, so dear to the hearts of children in every country,
+the Japanese child has her full share. Often she listens, half asleep,
+while cuddling under the warm quilted cover of the _kotatsu_,[6] in the
+cold winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the old grandmother or
+nurse, who carries her away on the wings of imagination to the wonderful
+palace of the sea gods, or to the haunts of the terrible _oni_, monsters
+with red, distorted faces and fearful horns. Momotaro, the Peach Boy,
+with his wonderful feats in the conquest of the _oni_, is her hero,
+until he is supplanted by the more real ones of Japanese history.
+
+[6] _Kotatsu_, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fireplace in the
+floor, over which a wooden frame is set and the whole covered by a
+quilt. The family sit about it in cold weather with the quilt drawn up
+over the feet and knees.
+
+There are occasional all-day visits to the theatre, too, where, seated
+on the floor in a box, railed off from those adjoining, our little girl,
+in company with her mother and sisters, enjoys, though with paroxysms of
+horror and fear, the heroic historical plays which are now almost all
+that is left of the heroic old Japan. Here she catches the spirit of
+passionate loyalty that belonged to those days, forms her ideals of what
+a noble Japanese woman should be willing to do for parents or husband,
+and comes away taught, as she could be by no other teaching, what the
+spirit was that animated her ancestors,--what spirit must animate her,
+should she wish to be a worthy descendant of the women of old.
+
+Among these surroundings, with these duties and amusements, our little
+girl grows to womanhood. The unconscious and beautiful spirit of her
+childhood is not driven away at the dawn of womanhood by thoughts of
+beaux, of coming out in society, of a brief career of flirtation and
+conquest, and at the end as fine a marriage, either for love or money,
+as her imagination can picture. She takes no thought for these things
+herself, and her intercourse with young men, though free and
+unconstrained, has about it no grain of flirtation or romantic interest.
+When the time comes for her to marry, her father will have her meet some
+eligible young man, and both she and the young man will know, when they
+are brought together, what is the end in view, and will make up their
+minds about the matter. But until that time comes, the modest Japanese
+maiden carries on no flirtations, thinks little of men except as higher
+beings to be deferred to and waited on, and preserves the childlike
+innocence of manner, combined with a serene dignity under all
+circumstances, that is so noticeable a trait in the Japanese woman from
+childhood to old age.
+
+The Japanese woman is, under this discipline, a finished product at the
+age of sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet, and amiable, with great
+power of self-control, and a knowledge of what to do upon all occasions.
+The higher part of her nature is little developed; no great religious
+truths have lifted her soul above the world into a clearer and higher
+atmosphere; but as far as she goes, in regard to all the little things
+of daily life, she is bright, industrious, sweet-tempered, and
+attractive, and prepared to do well her duty, when that duty comes to
+her, as wife and mother and mistress of a household. The highest
+principle upon which she is taught to act is obedience, even to the
+point of violating all her finest feminine instincts, at the command of
+father or husband; and acting under that principle, she is capable of an
+entire self-abnegation such as few women of any race can achieve.
+
+With the close of her childhood, the happiest period in the life of a
+Japanese woman closes. The discipline that she has received so far,
+repressive and constant as it has often been, has been from kind and
+loving parents. She has freedom, to a certain degree, such as is unknown
+to any other country in Asia. In the home she is truly loved, often the
+pet and plaything of the household, though not receiving the caresses
+and words of endearment that children in America expect as a right, for
+love in Japan is undemonstrative.[7] But just at the time when her mind
+broadens, and the desire for knowledge and self-improvement develops,
+the restraints and checks upon her become more severe. Her sphere seems
+to grow narrower, difficulties one by one increase, and the young girl,
+who sees life before her as something broad and expansive, who looks to
+the future with expectant joy, may become, in a few years, the weary,
+disheartened woman.
+
+[7] Kisses are unknown, and regarded by conservative Japanese as an
+animal and disgusting way of expressing affection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+
+So far we have spoken only of the domestic training of a Japanese girl.
+That part of her education that she gains through teachers and schools
+must be the subject of a separate chapter. Japan differs from most
+Oriental countries in the fact that her women are considered worthy of a
+certain amount of the culture that comes from the study of books; and
+although, until recently, schools for girls were unknown in the empire,
+nevertheless every woman, except those of the lower classes, received
+instruction in the ordinary written language, while some were well
+versed in the Chinese classics and the poetic art. These, with some
+musical accomplishment, an acquaintance with etiquette and the arts of
+arranging flowers, of making the ceremonial tea, and in many cases not
+only of writing a beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as well, in the
+old days made up the whole of an ordinary woman's education. Among the
+lower classes, especially the merchant class, instruction was sometimes
+given in the various pantomimic dances which one sees most frequently
+presented by professional dancing girls. The art of dancing is not
+usually practiced by women of the higher classes, but among the
+daughters of the merchants special dances were learned for exhibition at
+home, or even at the _matsuri_ or religious festival, and their
+performance was for the amusement of spectators, and not especially for
+the pleasure of the dancers themselves. These dances are modest and
+graceful, but from the fact that they are always learned for
+entertaining an audience, however small and select, and are most
+frequently performed by professional dancers of questionable character,
+the more refined and higher class Japanese do not care especially to
+have their daughters learn them.
+
+In the old days, little girls were not sent to school, but, going to the
+house of a private teacher, received the necessary instruction in
+reading, and writing. The writing and reading at the beginning, are
+taught simultaneously, the teacher writing a letter upon a sheet of
+paper and telling the scholar its name, and the scholar writing it over
+and over until, by the time she has acquired the necessary skill in
+writing it, both name and form are indelibly imprinted upon her memory.
+To write, with a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft paper, the hand
+entirely without support, is an art that seldom can be acquired by a
+grown person, but when learned in childhood it gives great deftness in
+whatever other art may be subsequently studied. This is perhaps the
+reason why the Japanese value a good handwriting more highly than any
+other accomplishment, for it denotes a manual dexterity that is the
+secret of success in all the arts, and one who writes the Chinese
+characters well and rapidly can quickly learn to do anything else with
+the fingers.
+
+The fault that one finds with the Japanese system--a fault that lies
+deeper than the mere methods of teaching, and has its root in the
+ideographic character of the written language--is that, while it
+cultivates the memory and powers of observation to a remarkable extent,
+and while it gives great skill in the use of the fingers, it affords
+little opportunity for the development of the reasoning powers.[8] The
+years of study that are required for mastering the written language, so
+as to be able to grasp the thoughts already given to the world, leave
+comparatively little time for the conducting of any continuous thought
+on one's own account, and so we find in Japanese scholars--whether boys
+or girls--quickness of apprehension, retentive memories, industry and
+method in their study of their lessons, but not much originality of
+thought. This result comes, I believe, from the nature of the written
+language and the difficulties that attend the mastery of it; as a
+consequence of which, an educated man or woman becomes simply a student
+of other men's thoughts and sayings about things instead of being a
+student of the things themselves.
+
+[8] The Japanese written language is a strange combination of Chinese
+and Japanese, to read which a knowledge of the Chinese characters is
+necessary. Chinese literature written in the Chinese ideographs, which
+of course give no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the
+Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order of words in the
+sentence. When there have not been exact equivalent Japanese words, a
+Chinese term has come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well
+engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and spoken. In the
+forming of new words and technical terms Chinese words are used, as the
+Greek and Latin are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin
+of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese about
+the sixth century A. D. their cleverly planned but most complex method
+of expressing thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese
+literature has done much for Japan, and to master this language is one
+of the essentials in the education of every boy. At least seven or eight
+thousand characters must be learned for daily use, and there are several
+different styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as many,
+or even more, must be mastered in order to read the various works in
+that rich literature.
+
+The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty-eight letters, and
+in books and newspapers for the common people is printed, by the side of
+the Chinese character, the rendering of it, in the letters of the
+_kana_, or Japanese alphabet.[*40]
+
+A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the study of Chinese. She
+will, of course, learn a few of the most common characters, such as are
+used in letter-writing, and for the rest she will read by the help of
+the _kana_.
+
+Music in Japan is an accomplishment reserved almost entirely for women,
+for priests, and for blind men. It seems to me quite fortunate that the
+musical art is not more generally practiced, as Japanese music, as a
+rule, is far from agreeable to the untrained ear of the outside
+barbarian.[*41] The _koto_ is the pleasantest of the Japanese
+instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it
+inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among
+the higher classes, from the _samurai_[9] upwards. The _koto_ is an
+embryo piano, a horizontal sounding-board, some six feet long, upon
+which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges. It is played by
+means of ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, forefinger, and middle
+finger of the right hand, and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
+those of the harp. The player sits before the _koto_ on knees and heels,
+in the ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions are very graceful and
+pretty as she touches the strings, often supplementing the strains of
+the instrument with her voice. The teaching of this instrument and of
+the _samisen_, or Japanese guitar, is almost entirely in the hands of
+blind men, who in Japan support themselves by the two professions of
+music and massage,--all the blind, who cannot learn the former, becoming
+adepts in the latter profession.
+
+[9] The _samurai_ in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of a
+_daimiō_, or feudal lord. They formed the military and literary class.
+For further information, see chap. viii., on _Samurai Women_.
+
+The arrangement of flowers is taught as a fine art, and much time may
+be spent in learning how, by clipping, bending, and fixing in its place
+in the vase, each spray and twig may be made to look as if actually
+growing, for flower arranging is not merely to show the flower itself,
+but includes the proper arrangement of the branches, twigs, and leaves
+of plants. The flower plays only a small part, and is not used in
+decoration, except on the branch and stem as it is in nature, and the
+art consists in the preservation of the natural bend and growth when
+fixed in the vase. In every case, each branch has certain curves, which
+must be in harmony with the whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the
+flowering plum are much used.
+
+Teachers spend much time in showing proper and improper combinations of
+different flowers, as well as the arrangement of them. Many different
+styles have come up, originated by the famous teachers who have founded
+various schools of the art,--an art which is unique and exceedingly
+popular, requiring artistic talent and a cultivated eye. One often sees,
+on going into the guest room of a Japanese house, a vase containing
+gracefully arranged flowers set in the _tokonoma_, or raised alcove of
+the room, under the solitary _kakémono_[10] that forms the chief
+ornament of the apartment. As these two things, the vase of flowers and
+the hanging scroll, are the only adornments, it is more necessary that
+the flowers should be carefully arranged, than in our crowded rooms,
+where a vase of flowers may easily escape the eye, perplexed by the
+multitude of objects which surround it.
+
+[10] _Kakémono_, a hanging scroll, upon which a picture is painted, or
+some poem or sentiment written.
+
+The ceremonial tea must not be confounded with the ordinary serving of
+tea for refreshment. The proper making, and serving, and drinking of the
+ceremonial tea is the most formal of social observances, each step in
+which is prescribed by a rigid code of etiquette. The tea, instead of
+being the whole leaf, such as is used for ordinary occasions, is a fine,
+green powder. The infusion is made, not in a small pot, from which it is
+poured out into cups, but in a bowl, into which the hot water is poured
+from a dipper on to the powdered tea. The mixture is stirred with a
+bamboo whisk until it foams, then handed with much ceremony to the
+guest, who takes it with equal ceremony and drinks it from the bowl,
+emptying the receptacle at three gulps. Should there be a number of
+guests, tea is made for each in turn, in the order of their rank, in the
+same bowl. For this ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is used,
+all of antique and severely simple style. The charcoal used for heating
+the water is of a peculiar variety; and the room in which the tea is
+made and served is built for that special purpose, and kept sacred for
+that use. This art, which is often part of the education of women of the
+higher classes, is taught by regular teachers, often by gentlewomen who
+have fallen into distressed circumstances.[*45] I remember with great
+vividness a visit paid to an old lady living near a provincial city of
+Japan, who had for years supported herself by giving lessons in this
+politest of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest and neatest type,
+seemed filled to overflowing by three foreigners, whom she received with
+the courtliest of welcomes. At the request of my friend, an American
+lady engaged in missionary work in that part of the country, she gave us
+a lesson in the etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every motion, from the
+bringing in and arranging of the utensils to the final rinsing and
+wiping of the tea bowl, was according to rules strictly laid down, and
+the whole ceremony had more the solemnity of a religious ritual than the
+lightness and gayety of a social occasion.
+
+Etiquette of all kinds is not left in Japan to chance, to be learned by
+observation and imitation of any model that may present itself, but is
+taught regularly by teachers who make a specialty of it. Everything in
+the daily life has its rules, and the etiquette teacher has them all at
+her fingers' ends. There have been several famous teachers of etiquette,
+and they have formed systems which differ in minor points, while
+agreeing in the principal rules. The etiquette of bowing, the position
+of the body, the arms, and the head while saluting, the methods of
+shutting and opening the door, rising and sitting down on the floor, the
+manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all, with the minutest details,
+taught to the young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather irksome. I
+know two young girls of new Japan who find nothing so wearisome as
+their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be excused from it. I have
+heard them, after their teacher had left, slyly make fun of her stiff
+and formal manners. Such people as she will, I fear, soon belong only to
+the past, though it still remains to be seen how much of European
+manners will be engrafted on the old formalities of Japanese life. It
+is, perhaps, because of this regular teaching in the ways of polite
+society, that the Japanese girl seems never at a loss, even under
+unusual circumstances, but bears herself with self-possession in places
+where young girls in America would be embarrassed and awkward.
+
+But the Japanese are rapidly finding out that this busy nineteenth
+century gives little time for learning how to shut and open doors in the
+politest manner, and indeed such things under the newly established
+school system are now relegated entirely to the girls' schools, the boys
+having no lessons in etiquette.
+
+The method of teaching flower-painting is so interesting that I must
+speak of it before I leave the subject of accomplishments. I have said
+that the acquisition of skill in writing the Chinese characters was the
+best possible preparation for skill in all other arts. This is
+especially true of the art of painting, which is simply the next step,
+after writing has been learned. The painting master, when he comes to
+the house, brings no design as a model, but sits down on the floor
+before the little desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with great
+rapidity the design that he wishes the pupil to copy. It may be simply
+two or three blades of grass upon which the pupil makes a beginning, but
+she is expected to make her picture with exactly the same number of bold
+strokes that the master puts into his. Again and again she blunders her
+strokes on to a sheet of paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet
+has been spoiled, she begins to see some semblance of the master's copy
+in her own daub. She perseveres, making copy after copy, until she is
+able from memory to put upon the paper at a moment's notice the three
+blades of grass to her master's satisfaction. Only then can she go on to
+a new copy, and only after many such designs have been committed to
+memory, and the free, dashing stroke necessary for Japanese painting has
+been acquired, is she allowed to undertake any copying from nature, or
+original designing.[*49]
+
+I have dwelt thus far only upon the entirely Japanese education that was
+permitted to women under the old régime. That it was an effective and
+refining system, all can testify who have made the acquaintance of any
+of the charming Japanese ladies whose schooling was finished before
+Commodore Perry disturbed the repose of old Japan. As I write, the image
+comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright-eyed little gentlewoman with
+whom it was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted during my
+stay in Tōkyō. A widow, left penniless, with one child to support, she
+earned the merest pittance by teaching sewing at one of the government
+schools in Tōkyō; but in all the circumstances of her life, narrow and
+busy as it needs must be, she proved herself a lady through and through.
+Polite, cheerful, an intelligent and cultivated reader, a thrifty
+housekeeper, a loving and careful mother, a true and helpful friend, her
+memory is associated with many of my pleasantest hours in Japan, and she
+is but one of the many who bear witness to the culture that might be
+acquired by women in the old days.
+
+But the Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day, and in the school
+system now prevalent throughout the empire girls and boys are equally
+provided for. First the schools established by the various missionary
+societies, and then the government schools, offered to girls a broader
+education than the old instruction in Chinese, in etiquette, and in
+accomplishments. Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and
+villages are alive with boys and girls clattering along, with their
+books and lunch boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten, primary,
+grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in life, every grade in
+learning, may find its proper place in the new school system, and the
+girls eagerly grasp their opportunities, and show themselves apt and
+willing students of the new learning offered to them.
+
+By the new system, at its present stage of development, too much is
+expected of the Japanese boy or girl. The work required would be a
+burden to the quickest mind. The whole of the old education in Japanese
+and Chinese literature and composition--an education requiring the best
+years of a boy's life--is given, and grafted upon this, our
+common-school and high-school studies of mathematics, geography,
+history, and natural science. In addition to these, at all higher
+schools, one foreign language is required, and often two, English
+ranking first in the popular estimation. Many a headache do the poor,
+hard-working students have over the puzzling English language, in which
+they have to begin at the wrong end of the book and read across the page
+from left to right, instead of from top to bottom, and from right to
+left, as is natural to them. But in spite of its hard work, the new
+school life is cheerful and healthful, and the children enjoy it. It
+helps them to be really children, and, while they are young, to be merry
+and playful, not dignified and formal little ladies at all times. Upon
+the young girls, the influence of the schools is to make them more
+independent, self-reliant, and stronger women. In the houses of the
+higher classes, even now, much of the old-time system of repression is
+still in force. Children are indeed "seen but not heard," and from the
+time when they learn to walk they must learn to be polite and
+dignified. At school, the more progressive feeling of the times
+predominates among the authorities, and the children are encouraged to
+unbend and enjoy themselves in games and frolics, as true children
+should do. Much is done for the pleasure of the little ones, who often
+enjoy school better than home, and declare that they do not like
+holidays.[*52]
+
+But the young girl, who has finished this pleasant school life, with all
+its advantages, is not as well fitted as under the old system for the
+duties and trials of married life, unless under exceptional
+circumstances, where the husband chosen has advanced ideas. To those
+teaching the young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of how to educate
+them aright is a deep one, and with each newly trained girl sent out go
+many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in regard to the training she has
+had as a preparation for the new life she is about to enter. The few,
+the pioneers, will have to suffer for the happiness and good of the
+many, for the problem of grafting the new on to the old is indeed a
+difficult one, to be solved only after many experiments.
+
+There are many difficulties which lie in the way of the new schools
+that must be met, studied, and overcome. One of them is the one already
+referred to, the problem of how best to combine the new and the old in
+the school curriculum. That the old learning and literature, the old
+politeness and sweetness of manner, must not be given up or made little
+of, is evident to every right-minded student of the matter. That the
+newer and broader culture, with its higher morality, its greater
+development of the best powers of the mind, must play a large part in
+the Japan of the future, there is not a shadow of doubt, and the women
+must not be left behind in the onward movement of the nation. But how to
+give to the young minds the best products of the thought of two such
+distinct civilizations is a question that is as yet unanswered, and
+cannot be satisfactorily settled until the effect of the new education
+has begun to show itself in a generation or so of graduates from the new
+schools. Another difficulty is in the matter of health. Most of the new
+school-houses are fitted with seats and desks, such as are found in
+American schools. Many of them are heated by stoves or furnaces. The
+scholars in most cases wear the Japanese dress, which in winter is made
+warm enough to be worn in rooms having no artificial heat. Put this warm
+costume into an artificially heated room and the result is an
+over-heating of the body, and a subsequent chill when the pupil goes,
+with no extra covering, into the keen out-of-door air. From this cause
+alone, arise many colds and lung troubles, which can be prevented when
+more experience has shown how the costumes of the East and West can be
+combined to suit the new conditions. Another part of the health problem
+lies in the fact that in many cases the parents do not understand the
+proper care of a growing girl, ambitious to excel in her studies.
+Instead of the regular hours, healthful food, and gentle restraint that
+a girl needs under those circumstances, our little Japanese maiden is
+allowed to sit up to any hour of the night, or arise at any hour in the
+morning, to prepare her lessons, is given food of most indigestible
+quality at all hours of the day between her regular meals, and is
+frequently urged to greater mental exertion than her delicate body can
+endure.
+
+Another difficulty, in fitting the new school system into the customs
+of the people, lies in the early age at which marriages are contracted.
+Before the girl has finished her school course, her parents begin to
+wonder whether there is not danger of her being left on their hands
+altogether, if they do not hand her over to the first eligible young man
+who presents himself. Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight, and
+remains in school until her course is finished; more often she succumbs
+and is married off, bids a weeping farewell to her teachers and
+schoolmates, and leaves the school, to become a wife at sixteen, a
+mother at eighteen, and an old woman at thirty. In some cases, the
+breaking down of a girl's health may be traced to threats on the part of
+her parents that, if she does not take a certain rank in her studies,
+she will be taken from school and married off.[*55]
+
+These are difficulties that may be overcome when a generation has been
+educated who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes that now endanger the
+health of a Japanese school-girl. In the mean time, boarding schools,
+that can attend to matters of health and hygiene among the girls,
+would, if they could be conducted with the proper admixture of Eastern
+and Western learning and manners, do a great deal toward educating that
+generation. The missionary schools do much in this direction, but the
+criticism of the Japanese upon the manners of the girls educated in
+missionary schools is universally severe. To a foreigner who has lived
+almost entirely among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese education, the
+manners of the girls in these schools seem brusque and awkward; and
+though they are many of them noble women and doing noble work, there is
+room for hope that in the future of Japan the charm of manner which is
+the distinguishing feature of the Japanese woman will not be lost by
+contact with our Western shortness and roughness. A happy mean
+undoubtedly can be reached; and when it is, the women of new Japan will
+be able to bear a not unfavorable comparison with the women of the old
+régime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
+
+
+When the Japanese maiden arrives at the age of sixteen, or thereabouts,
+she is expected as a matter of course to marry. She is usually allowed
+her choice in regard to whether she will or will not marry a certain
+man, but she is expected to marry some one, and not to take too much
+time in making up her mind. The alternative of perpetual spinsterhood is
+never considered, either by herself or her parents. Marriage is as much
+a matter of course in a woman's life as death, and is no more to be
+avoided. This being the case, our young woman has only as much liberty
+of choice accorded to her as is likely to provide against a great amount
+of unhappiness in her married life. If she positively objects to the man
+who is proposed to her, she is seldom forced to marry him, but no more
+cordial feeling than simple toleration is expected of her before
+marriage.
+
+The courtship is somewhat after the following manner. A young man, who
+finds himself in a position to marry, speaks to some married friend, and
+asks him to be on the lookout for a beautiful[11] and accomplished
+maiden, who would be willing to become his wife. The friend, acting
+rather as advance agent, makes a canvass of all the young maidens of his
+acquaintance, inquiring among his friends; and finally decides that
+so-and-so (Miss Flower, let us say) will be a very good match for his
+friend. Having arrived at this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's
+parents and lays the case of his friend before them. Should they approve
+of the suitor, a party is arranged at the house of some common friend,
+where the young people may have a chance to meet each other and decide
+each upon the other's merits. Should the young folks find no fault with
+the match, presents are exchanged,[12] a formal betrothal is entered
+into, and the marriage is hastened forward. All arrangements between the
+contracting parties are made by go-betweens, or seconds, who hold
+themselves responsible for the success of the marriage, and must be
+concerned in the divorce proceedings, should divorce become desirable or
+necessary.
+
+[11] The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in many respects
+from our own, so that it is almost impossible for a foreigner visiting
+Japan to comprehend the judgments of the Japanese in regard to the
+beauty of their own women, and even more impossible for the untraveled
+Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreigner's judgments upon either
+Japanese or foreign beauties. To the Japanese, the ideal female face
+must be long and narrow; the forehead high and narrow in the middle, but
+widening and lowering at the sides, conforming to the outline of the
+beloved Fuji, the mountain that Japanese art loves to picture. The hair
+should be straight and glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese
+ladies who have the misfortune to have any wave or ripple in their hair,
+as many of them do, are at as much pains to straighten it in the
+dressing as American ladies are to simulate a natural curl, when Nature
+has denied them that charm. The eyes should be long and narrow, slanting
+upward at the outer corners; and the eyebrows should be delicate lines,
+high above the eye itself. The distinctly aquiline nose should be low at
+the bridge, the curve outward beginning much lower down than upon the
+Caucasian face; and the eye-socket should not be outlined at all, either
+by the brow, the cheek, or by the nose. It is this flatness of the face
+about the eyes that gives the mildness of expression to all young people
+of Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in their
+physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japanese lady must be small,
+and the lips full and red; the neck, a conspicuous feature always when
+the Japanese dress is worn, should be long and slender, and gracefully
+curved. The complexion should be light,--a clear ivory-white, with
+little color in the cheeks. The blooming country girl style of beauty is
+not admired, and everything, even to color in the cheeks, must be
+sacrificed to gain the delicacy that is the _sine qua non_ of the
+Japanese beauty. The figure should be slender, the waist long, but not
+especially small, and the hips narrow, to secure the best effect with
+the Japanese dress. The head and shoulders should be carried slightly
+forward, and the body should also be bent forward slightly at the waist,
+to secure the most womanly and aristocratic carriage. In walking, the
+step should be short and quick, with the toes turned in, and the foot
+lifted so slightly that either clog or sandal will scuff with every
+step. This is necessary for modesty, with the narrow skirt of the
+Japanese dress.
+
+Contrast with this type the fair, curling hair, the round blue eyes, the
+rosy cheeks, the erect, slim-waisted, large-hipped figures of many
+foreign beauties,--the rapid, long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of
+almost masculine strength and independence, which belongs especially to
+English and American women,--and one can see how the Japanese find
+little that they recognize as beauty among them. Blue eyes, set into
+deep sockets, and with the bridge of the nose rising as a barrier
+between them, impart a fierce grotesqueness to the face, that the
+untraveled Japanese seldom admire. The very babies will scream with
+horror at first sight of a blue-eyed, light-haired foreigner, and it is
+only after considerable familiarity with such persons that they can be
+induced to show anything but the wildest fright in their presence.
+Foreigners who have lived a great deal among the Japanese find their
+standards unconsciously changing, and see, to their own surprise, that
+their countrywomen look ungainly, fierce, aggressive, and awkward among
+the small, mild, shrinking, and graceful Japanese ladies.
+
+[12] The present from the groom is usually a piece of handsome silk,
+used for the _obi_ or girdle. This takes the place of the conventional
+engagement ring of Europe and America.[*60] From the family of the
+bride, silk, such as is made up into men's dresses, is sent.
+
+The marriage ceremony, which seems to be neither religious nor legal in
+its nature,[*61a] takes place at the house of the groom, to which the
+bride is carried, accompanied by her go-betweens, and, if she be of the
+higher classes, by her own confidential maid, who will serve her as her
+personal attendant in the new life in her husband's house. The trousseau
+and household goods, which the bride is expected to bring with her, are
+sent before.[*61b] The household goods required by custom as a part of
+the outfit of every bride are as follows: A bureau; a low desk or table
+for writing; a work-box; two of the lacquer trays or tables on which
+meals are served, together with everything required for furnishing them,
+even to the chopsticks; and two or more complete sets of handsome bed
+furnishings. The trousseau will contain, if the bride be of a well-to-do
+family, dresses for all seasons, and handsome sashes without number; for
+the unchanging fashions of Japan, together with the durable quality of
+the dress material, make it possible for a woman, at the time of her
+marriage, to enter her husband's house with a supply of clothing that
+may last her through her lifetime. The parents of the bride, in giving
+up their daughter, as they do when she marries, show the estimation in
+which they have held her by the beauty and completeness of the trousseau
+with which they provide her. This is her very own; and in the event of a
+divorce, she brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and
+household goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+With the bride and her trousseau are sent a great number of presents
+from the family of the bride to the members of the groom's household.
+Each member of the family, from the aged grandfather to the youngest
+grandchild, receives some remembrance of the occasion; and even the
+servants and retainers, down to the _jinrikisha_ men, and the _bettō_ in
+the stables, are not forgotten by the bride's relatives. Beside this
+present-giving, the friends and relatives of the bride and groom, as in
+this country, send gifts to the young couple, often some article for use
+in the household, or crêpe or silk for dresses.
+
+In old times, the wedding took place in the afternoon, but it is now
+usually celebrated in the evening. The ceremony consists merely in a
+formal drinking of the native wine (_saké_) from a two-spouted cup,
+which is presented to the mouths of the bride and groom alternately.
+This drinking from one cup is a symbol of the equal sharing of the joys
+and sorrows of married life. At the ceremony no one is present but the
+bride and bridegroom, their go-betweens, and a young girl, whose duty it
+is to present the cup to the lips of the contracting parties. When this
+is over, the wedding guests, who have been assembled in the next room
+during the ceremony, join the wedding party, a grand feast is spread,
+and much merriment ensues.[13]
+
+[13] Many women still blacken their teeth after marriage, after the
+manner universal in the past; but this custom is, fortunately, rapidly
+going out of fashion.
+
+On the third day after the wedding, the newly married couple are
+expected to make a visit to the bride's family, and for this great
+preparations are made. A large party is usually given by the bride's
+parents, either in the afternoon or evening, in honor of this occasion,
+to which the friends of the bride's family are invited. The young
+couple bring with them presents from the groom's family to the bride's,
+in return for the presents sent on the wedding day.[*64]
+
+The festivities often begin early in the afternoon and keep up until
+late at night. A fine dinner is served, and music and dancing, by
+professional performers, or some other entertainment, serve to make the
+time pass pleasantly. The bride appears as hostess with her mother,
+entertaining the company, and receiving their congratulations, and must
+remain to speed the last departing guest, before leaving the paternal
+roof.
+
+Within the course of two or three months, the newly married couple are
+expected to give an entertainment, or series of entertainments, to their
+friends, as an announcement of the marriage. As the wedding ceremony is
+private, and no notice is given, nor are cards sent out, this is
+sometimes the first intimation that is received of the marriage by many
+of the acquaintances, though the news of a wedding usually travels
+quickly. The entertainment may be a dinner party, given at home, or at
+some tea-house, similar in many ways to the one given at the bride's
+home by her parents. Sometimes it is a garden party, and very lately it
+has become the fashion for officials and people of high rank to give a
+ball in foreign style.
+
+Besides the entertainment, presents of red rice, or _mochi_, are sent as
+a token of thanks to all who have remembered the young couple. These are
+arranged even more elaborately than the ones sent after the birth of an
+heir.
+
+The young people are not, as in this country, expected to set up
+housekeeping by themselves, and establish a new home. Marriages often
+take place early in life, even before the husband has any means of
+supporting a family; and as a matter of course, a son with his wife
+makes his abode with his parents, and forms simply a new branch of the
+household.
+
+The only act required to make the marriage legal is the withdrawal of
+the bride's name from the list of her father's family as registered by
+the government, and its entry upon the register of her husband's family.
+From that time forward she severs all ties with her father's house, save
+those of affection, and is more closely related by law and custom to
+her husband's relatives than to her own. Even this legal recognition of
+her marriage is a comparatively new thing in Japan, as is any limitation
+of the right of divorce on the part of the husband, or extension of that
+right to the wife.[14]
+
+[14] "As early as 1870 an edict was published by which official notice
+and approbation were made necessary preliminaries to every matrimonial
+contract. In the following year the class-limitations upon freedom of
+marriage were abolished, and two years later the right of suing for a
+divorce was conceded to the wife."--Rein's _Japan_, p. 425.
+
+At present in Japan the marriage relation is by no means a permanent
+one, as it is virtually dissoluble at the will of either party, and the
+condition of public opinion is such among the lower classes that it is
+not an unknown occurrence for a man to marry and divorce several wives
+in succession; and for a woman, who has been divorced once or twice, to
+be willing and able to marry well a second or even a third time. Among
+the higher classes, the dread of the scandal and gossip, that must
+attach themselves to troubles between man and wife, serves as a
+restraint upon too free use of the power of divorce; but still,
+divorces among the higher classes are so common now that one meets
+numerous respectable and respected persons who have at some time in
+their lives gone through such an experience.
+
+One provision of the law, which serves to make most mothers endure any
+evil of married life rather than sue for a divorce, is the fact that the
+children belong to the father; and no matter how unfit a person he may
+be to have the care of them, the disposal of them in case of a divorce
+rests absolutely with him. A divorced woman returns childless to her
+father's house; and many women, in consequence of this law or custom,
+will do their best to keep the family together, working the more
+strenuously in this direction, the more brutal and worthless the husband
+proves himself to be.
+
+The ancestor worship, as found in Japan, the tracing of relationship in
+the male line only, and the generally accepted belief that children
+inherit their qualities from their father rather than from the mother,
+make them his children and not hers. Thus we often see children of noble
+rank on the father's side, but ignoble on the mother's, inherit the
+rank of their father, and not permitted even to recognize their mother
+as in any way their equal. If she is plebeian, the children are not
+regarded as tainted by it.
+
+In the case of divorce, even if the law allowed the mother to keep her
+children, it would be almost an impossibility for her to do so. She has
+no means of earning her bread and theirs, for few occupations are open
+to women, and she is forced to become a dependent on her father, or some
+male relative. Whatever they may be willing to do for her, it is quite
+likely that they would begrudge aid to the children of another family,
+with whom custom hardly recognizes any tie. The children are the
+children of the man whose name they bear. If the woman is a favorite
+daughter, it may happen that her father will take her and her children
+under his roof, and support them all; but this is a rare exception, and
+only possible when the husband first gives up all claim to the children.
+
+There comes to my mind now a case illustrating this point, which I think
+I may cite without betraying confidence. It is that of a most attractive
+young woman who was married to a worthless husband, but lived
+faithfully with him for several years, and became the mother of three
+children. The husband, who seemed at first merely good-for-nothing,
+became worse as the years went by, drank himself out of situation after
+situation procured for him by powerful relatives, and at last became so
+violent that he even beat his wife and threatened his children, a
+proceeding most unusual on the part of a Japanese husband and father.
+The poor wife was at last obliged to flee from her husband's house to
+her mother's, taking her children with her. She sued for a divorce and
+obtained it, and is now married again; her youth, good looks, and high
+connections procuring her a very good catch for her second venture in
+matrimony; but her children are lost to her, and belong wholly to their
+worthless, drunken father.
+
+Of the lack of permanence in the marriage relation among the lower
+classes, the domestic changes of one of my servants in Tōkyō afford an
+amusing illustration. The man, whom I had hired in the double capacity
+of _jinrikisha_ man and _bettō_ or groom, was a strong, faithful,
+pleasant-faced fellow, recently come to Tōkyō from the country. I
+inquired, when I engaged him, whether he had a wife, as I wanted some
+one who could remain in his room in the stable in care of the horse when
+he was pulling me about in the _jinrikisha_. He replied that he had a
+wife, but she was now at Utsunomiya, the country town from which he had
+come, but he would send for her at once, and she would be in Tōkyō in
+the course of a week or two. Two or three weeks passed and no wife
+appeared, so I inquired of my cook and head servant what had become of
+Yasaku's wife. He replied, with a twinkle in his eye, that she had found
+work in Utsunomiya and did not wish to come. A week more passed, and
+still no wife, and further inquiries elicited from the cook the
+information that Yasaku had divorced her for disobedience, and was on
+the lookout for a new and more docile helpmate. His first thought was of
+the maidservant of the Japanese family who lived in the same house with
+me, a broad-faced, red-cheeked country girl, of a very low grade of
+intelligence. He gave this up, however, because he thought it would not
+be polite to put my friends to inconvenience by taking away their
+servant. His next effort was by negotiation through a Tōkyō friend; but
+apparently Yasaku's country manners were not to the taste of the Tōkyō
+damsels, for he met with no success, and was at last driven to write to
+his father in Utsunomiya asking him to select him a wife and bring her
+down to Tōkyō.
+
+The selection took a week or two, and at last my maid told me that
+Yasaku's wife was coming by the next morning's train. A look into the
+_bettō's_ quarters in the stable showed great preparations for the
+bride. The mats, new-covered with nice straw matting, were white and
+clean; the _shoji_ were mended with new paper; the walls covered with
+bright-colored pictures; and various new domestic conveniences had
+nearly bankrupted Yasaku, in spite of his large salary of ten dollars a
+month. He had ordered a fine feast at a neighboring tea house, had had
+cards printed with his own name in English and Japanese, and had
+altogether been to such great expense that he had had to put his winter
+clothes in pawn to secure the necessary money.
+
+The day chosen for the marriage was rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all
+his time in going to trains, no bridal party appeared; and he came home
+at night disconsolate, to smoke his good-night pipe over his solitary
+_hibachi_. He was, no doubt, angry as well as disconsolate, for he sat
+down and penned a severe letter to his father, in which he said that, if
+the bride did not appear on the next day counted lucky for a wedding (no
+Japanese would be married on an unlucky day), they could send her back
+to her father's house, for he would none of her. This letter did its
+work, for on the next lucky day, about ten days later, the bride
+appeared, and Yasaku was given two days of holiday on the agreement that
+he should not be married again while he remained in my service. On the
+evening of the second day, the bride came in to pay me her respects,
+and, crouching on her hands and knees before me, literally trembled
+under the excitement of her first introduction to a foreigner. She was a
+girl of rather unattractive exterior, fat and heavy, and rather older
+than Yasaku had bargained for, I imagine; at any rate, from the first,
+he seemed dissatisfied with his "pig in a poke," and after a couple of
+months sent her home to her parents, and was all ready to start out
+again in the hope of better luck next time.
+
+Here is another instance, from the woman's side. Upon one occasion, when
+I was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank who kept a retinue of
+servants, the woman who came in with the tea bowed and smiled upon me as
+if greeting me after a long absence. As I was in and out of the house
+nearly every day, I was a little surprised at this demonstration, which
+was quite different from the formal bow that is given by the servant to
+her mistress's guest upon ordinary occasions. When she went out my
+friend said, "You see O Kiku has come back." As I did not know that the
+woman had been away, the news of her return did not affect me greatly
+until I learned the history of her departure. It seemed that about a
+month before, she had left her mistress's house to be married; and the
+day before my visit she had quietly presented herself, and announced
+that she had come back, if they would take her in. My friend had asked
+her what had happened,--whether she had found her husband unkind. No,
+her husband was very nice, very kind and good, but his mother was simply
+unbearable; she made her work so hard that she actually had no time to
+rest at all. She had known before her marriage that her proposed
+mother-in-law was a hard task-mistress, but her husband had promised
+that his mother should live with his older brother, and they should have
+their housekeeping quite independent and separate. As the mother was
+then living with her older son, it seemed unlikely that she would care
+to move, and O Kiku San had married on that supposition. But it seemed
+that the wife of the older brother was both lazy and bad-tempered, and
+the new wife of the younger brother soon proved herself industrious and
+good-natured. As the mother's main thought was to go where she would get
+the most comfort and waiting upon, she moved from the elder son's house
+to that of her younger son, and began leading her new daughter-in-law
+such a life that she soon gave up the effort to live with her husband,
+sued for a divorce, obtained it, and was back in her old place, all in a
+month's time from the date of her marriage.
+
+But our readers must not suppose, from the various incidents given,
+that few happy marriages take place in Japan, or that, in every rank of
+life, divorce is of every-day occurrence. On the contrary, there seems
+cause for wonder, not that there are so many divorces, but that there
+are so many happy marriages, with wives and husbands devoted and
+faithful. For a nobleman in the olden times to divorce his wife would
+have caused such a scandal and talk that it rarely occurred. If the wife
+were disliked, he need have little or nothing to do with her, their
+rooms, their meals, and their attendance being entirely separate, but he
+rarely took away from her the name of wife, empty as it might be. She
+usually would be from some other noble house, and great trouble would
+arise between the families if he attempted to divorce her. The _samurai_
+also, with the same loyalty which they displayed for their lords, were
+loyal to their wives, and many a novel has been written, or play acted,
+showing the devotion of husband and wife. The quiet, undemonstrative
+love, though very different from the ravings of a lover in the
+nineteenth century novel, is perhaps truer to life.
+
+Among the merchants and lower classes there has been, and is, a much
+lower standard of morality, but the few years which have passed since
+the Revolution of 1868 are not a fair sample of what Japan has been.
+Noblemen, _samurai_, and merchants have had much to undergo in the great
+changes, and, as is the case in all such transition periods, old customs
+and restraints, and old standards of morality, have been broken down and
+have not been replaced. There is no doubt that men have run to excesses
+of all sorts, and divorces have been much more frequent of late
+years.[*76]
+
+Our little Japanese maiden knows, when she blackens her teeth, dons her
+wedding dress, and starts on her bridal journey to her husband's house,
+that upon her good behavior alone depend her chances of a happy life.
+She is to be henceforth the property of a man of whom she probably knows
+little, and who has the power, at any whim, to send her back to her
+father's house in disgrace, deprived of her children, with nothing to
+live for or hope for, except that some man will overlook the disgrace of
+her divorce, and by marrying her give her the only opportunity that a
+Japanese woman can have of a home other than that of a servant or
+dependent. That these evils will be remedied in time, there seems little
+reason to doubt, but just now the various cooks who are engaged in
+brewing the broth of the new civilization are disagreed in regard to the
+condiments required for its proper flavoring. The conservatives wish to
+flavor strongly with the subjection and dependence of women, believing
+that only by that means can feminine virtue be preserved. The younger
+men, of foreign education, would drop into the boiling pot the flavor of
+culture and broader outlook; for by this means they hope to secure
+happier homes for all, and better mothers for their children. The
+missionaries and native Christians believe that, when the whole mixture
+is well impregnated with practical Christianity, the desired result will
+be achieved. All are agreed on this point, that a strong public opinion
+is necessary before improved legislation can produce much effect; and
+so, for the present, legislation remains in the background, until the
+time shall come when it can be used in the right way.
+
+Let us examine the two remedies suggested by the reformers, and see
+what effect has been produced by each so far, and what may be expected
+of them in the future. Taking education first, what are the effects
+produced so far by educating women to a point above the old Japanese
+standard? In many happy homes to-day, we find husbands educated abroad,
+and knowing something of the home life of foreign lands, who have sought
+out wives of broad intellectual culture, and who make them friends and
+confidants, not simply housekeepers and head-servants. In such homes the
+wife has freedom, not such as is enjoyed by American women, perhaps, but
+equal to that of most European women. In such homes love and equality
+rule, and the power of the mother-in-law grows weak. To her is paid due
+respect, but she seldom has the despotic control which often makes the
+beginning of married life hard to the Japanese wife. These homes are
+sending out healthy influences that are daily having their effect, and
+raising the position of women in Japan.
+
+But for the young girl whose mind has been broadened by the new
+education, and who marries, as the majority of Japanese girls must, not
+in accordance with her own wishes, but in obedience to the will of her
+parents, a hard life is in store. A woman's education, under the old
+régime, was one that fitted her well for the position that she was to
+occupy. The higher courses of study only serve to make her kick against
+the pricks, and render herself miserable where she might before have
+been happy. With mind and character developed by education, she may be
+obliged to enter the home of her husband's family, to be perhaps one
+among many members under the same roof. In the training of her own
+children, in the care of her own health and theirs, her wishes and
+judgment must often yield to the prejudices of those above her, under
+whose authority she is, and it may not be until many years have passed
+that she will be in a position to influence in any measure the lives of
+those nearest and dearest to her. Then, too, her life must be passed
+entirely within the home, with no opportunities to meet or to mingle
+with the great world of which she has read and studied. Surely her lot
+is harder than that of the woman of the olden time, whose plain duty
+always lay in the path of implicit obedience to her superiors, and who
+never for one moment considered obedience to the dictates of her own
+reason and conscience as an obligation higher than deference to the
+wishes of husband and parents. Education, without further amelioration
+of their lot as wives and mothers, can but result in making the women
+discontented and unhappy,--in many cases injuring their health by worry
+over the constant petty disappointments and baffled desires of their
+lives.
+
+This to superficial observers would seem a step backward rather than
+forward, and it is to this cause that the present reaction against
+female education may be traced. The first generation or two of educated
+women must endure much for the sake of those who come after, and by many
+this vicarious suffering is misunderstood, and distaste on the part of
+educated girls for marriage, as it now exists in Japan, is regarded as
+one of the sure signs that education is a failure. Without some change
+in the position of wife and mother, this feeling will grow into absolute
+repugnance, if women continue to be educated after the Western fashion.
+
+The second remedy that is suggested is Christianity, a remedy which is
+even now at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a Christian home, there
+one finds the wife and mother occupying the position that she occupies
+all over Christendom. The Christian man, in choosing his wife, feels
+that it is not an ordinary contract, which may be dissolved at any time
+at the will of the contracting parties, but that it is a union for life.
+Consequently, in making his choice he is more careful, takes more time,
+and thinks more of the personal qualities of the woman he is about to
+marry. Thus the chances are better at the beginning for the
+establishment of a happy home, and such homes form centres of influence
+throughout the length and breadth of the land to-day. Christianity in
+the future will do much to mould public sentiment in the right way, and
+can be trusted as a force that is sure to grow in time to be a mighty
+power in the councils of the nation.
+
+One more remedy might be suggested, as a preliminary to proper
+legislation, or a necessary accompaniment of it, and that is, the
+opening of new avenues of employment for women, and especially for
+women of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage, no matter how
+distasteful, is the only opening for a woman; for she can do nothing for
+her own support, and cannot require her father to support her after she
+has reached a marriageable age. As new ways of self-support present
+themselves, and a woman may look forward to making a single life
+tolerable by her own labor, the intelligent girls of the middle class
+will no longer accept marriage as inevitable, but will only marry when
+the suitor can offer a good home, kindness, affection, and security in
+the tenure of these blessings. So far, there is little employment for
+women, except as teachers; but even this change in the condition of
+things is forming a class, as yet small, but increasing yearly, of women
+who enjoy a life of independence, though accompanied by much hard work,
+more than the present life of a Japanese married woman. In this class we
+find some of the most intelligent and respected of the women of new
+Japan; and the growth of this class is one of the surest signs that the
+present state of the laws and customs concerning marriage and divorce
+is so unsatisfactory to the women that it must eventually be remedied,
+if the educated and intelligent of the men care to take for their wives,
+and for the mothers of their children, any but the less educated and
+less intelligent of the women of their own nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WIFE AND MOTHER.[*84]
+
+
+The young wife, when she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our
+own country, entering upon a new life as mistress of a house, with
+absolute control over all of her little domain. Should her husband's
+parents be living, she becomes almost as their servant, and even her
+husband is unable to defend her from the exactions of her mother-in-law,
+should this new relative be inclined to make full use of the power given
+her by custom. Happy is the girl whose husband has no parents. Her
+comfort in life is materially increased by her husband's loss, for,
+instead of having to serve two masters, she will then have to serve only
+one, and that one more kind and thoughtful of her strength and comfort
+than the mother-in-law.
+
+In Japan the idea of a wife's duty to her husband includes no thought of
+companionship on terms of equality. The wife is simply the housekeeper,
+the head of the establishment, to be honored by the servants because she
+is the one who is nearest to the master, but not for one moment to be
+regarded as the master's equal. She governs and directs the household,
+if it be a large one, and her position is one of much care and
+responsibility; but she is not the intimate friend of her husband, is in
+no sense his confidante or adviser, except in trivial affairs of the
+household. She appears rarely with him in public, is expected always to
+wait upon him and save him steps, and must bear all things from him with
+smiling face and agreeable manners, even to the receiving with open arms
+into the household some other woman, whom she knows to bear the relation
+of concubine to her own husband.
+
+In return for this, she has, if she be of the higher classes, much
+respect and honor from those beneath her. She has, in many cases the
+real though often inconsiderate affection of her husband. If she be the
+mother of children, she is doubly honored, and if she be endowed with a
+good temper, good manners, and tact, she can render her position not
+only agreeable to herself, but one of great usefulness to those about
+her. It lies with her alone to make the home a pleasant one, or to make
+it unpleasant. Nothing is expected of the husband in this direction; he
+may do as he likes with his own, and no one will blame him; but if his
+home is not happy, even through his own folly or bad temper, the blame
+will fall upon his wife, who should by management do whatever is
+necessary to supply the deficiencies caused by her husband's
+shortcomings. In all things the husband goes first, the wife second. If
+the husband drops his fan or his handkerchief the wife picks it up. The
+husband is served first, the wife afterwards, and so on through the
+countless minutiæ of daily life. It is not the idea of the strong man
+considering the weak woman, saving her exertion, guarding and deferring
+to her; but it is the less important waiting upon the more important,
+the servant deferring to her master.
+
+But though the present position of a Japanese wife is that of a
+dependent who owes all she has to her protector, and for whom she is
+bound to do all she can in return, the dependence is in many cases a
+happy one. The wife's position, especially if she be the mother of
+children, is often pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies in the
+proper conduct of her house and the training of her children. The
+service of her parents-in-law, however, must remain her first duty
+during their lifetime. She must make it her care to see that they are
+waited upon and served with what they like at meals, that their clothes
+are carefully and nicely made, and that countless little attentions are
+heaped upon them. As long as her mother-in-law lives, the latter is the
+real ruler of the house; and though in many cases the elder lady prefers
+freedom from responsibility to the personal superintendence of the
+details of housekeeping, she will not hesitate to require of her
+daughter-in-law that the house be kept to her satisfaction. If the
+maiden's lot is to be the first daughter-in-law in a large family, she
+becomes simply the one of the family from whom the most drudgery is
+expected, who obtains the fewest favors, and who is expected to have
+always the pleasantest of tempers under circumstances not altogether
+conducive to repose of spirit. The wife of the oldest son has, however,
+the advantage that, when her mother-in-law dies or retires, she becomes
+the mistress of the house and the head lady of the family, a position
+for which her apprenticeship to the old lady has probably exceptionally
+well fitted her.
+
+Next to her parents-in-law, her duty is to her husband. She must herself
+render to him the little services that a European expects of his valet.
+She must not only take care of his clothing, but must bring it to him
+and help him put it on, and must put away with care whatever he has
+taken off; and she often takes pride in doing with her own hands many
+acts of service which might be left to servants, and which are not
+actually demanded of her, unless she has no one under her to do them. In
+the poorer families all the washing, sewing, and mending that is
+required is always done by the wife; and even the Empress herself is not
+exempt from these duties of personal service, but must wait upon her
+husband in various ways.
+
+When the earliest beams of the sun shine in at the cracks of the dark
+wooden shutters which surround the house at night, the young wife in the
+family softly arises, puts out the feeble light of the _andon_,[15]
+which has burned all night, and, quietly opening one of the sliding
+doors, admits enough light to make her own toilet. She dresses hastily,
+only putting a few touches here and there to her elaborate coiffure,
+which she has not taken down for her night's rest.[16] Next she goes to
+arouse the servants, if they are not already up, and with them prepares
+the modest breakfast. When the little lacquer tables, with rice bowls,
+plates, and chopsticks are arranged in place, she goes softly to see
+whether her parents and husband are awake, and if they have hot water,
+charcoal fire, and whatever else they may need for their toilet. Then
+with her own hands, or with the help of the servants, she slides back
+the wooden shutters, opening the whole house to the fresh morning air
+and sunlight. It is she, also, who directs the washing and wiping of the
+polished floors, and the folding and putting away of the bedding, so
+that all is in readiness before the morning meal.
+
+[15] The _andon_ is the standing lamp, inclosed in a paper case, used as
+a night lamp in all Japanese houses. Until the introduction of kerosene
+lamps, the _andon_ was the only light used in Japanese houses. The light
+is produced by a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable oil.
+
+[16] The pillow used by ladies is merely a wooden rest for the head,
+that supports the neck, leaving the elaborate head-dress undisturbed.
+The hair is dressed by a professional hair-dresser, who comes to the
+house once in two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Kiōto,
+where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in Tōkyō, it is
+much less frequently arranged. The process takes two hours at least.
+
+When breakfast is over, the husband starts for his place of business,
+and the little wife is in waiting to send him off with her sweetest
+smile and her lowest bow, after having seen that his foot-gear--whether
+sandal, clog, or shoe--is at the door ready for him to put on, his
+umbrella, book, or bundle at hand, and his _kuruma_ waiting for him.
+
+Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in having all the little things in his
+life attended to by his thoughtful wife,--a good, considerate, careful
+body-servant, always on hand to bear for him the trifling worries and
+cares. There is no wonder that there are no bachelors in Japan. To some
+degree, I am sure, the men appreciate these attentions; for they often
+become much in love with their sweet, helpful wives, though they do not
+share with them the greater things of life, the ambitions and the hopes
+of men.
+
+The husband started on his daily rounds, the wife settles down to the
+work of the house. Her sphere is within her home, and though, unlike
+other Asiatic women, she goes without restraint alone through the
+streets, she does not concern herself with the great world, nor is she
+occupied with such a round of social duties as fill the lives of society
+women in this country. Yet she is not barred out from all intercourse
+with the outer world, for there are sometimes great dinner parties,
+given perhaps at home, when she must appear as hostess, side by side
+with her husband, and share with him the duty of entertaining the
+guests. There are, besides, smaller gatherings of friends of her
+husband, when she must see that the proper refreshments are served, if
+they be only the omnipresent tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join in the
+number and listen to the conversation; but if there are no ladies, she
+will probably not appear, except to attend to the wants of her guests.
+There are also lady visitors--friends and relatives--who come to make
+calls, oftentimes from a distance, and nearly always unexpectedly,
+whose entertainment devolves on the wife. Owing to the great distances
+in many of the cities, and the difficulties that used to attend going
+from place to place, it has become a custom not to make frequent visits,
+but long ones at long intervals. A guest often stays several hours,
+remaining to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and, should the
+distance be great, may spend the night. So rigid are the requirements of
+Japanese hospitality that no guest is ever allowed to leave a house
+without having been pressed to partake of food, if it be only tea and
+cake. Even tradesmen or messengers who come to the house must be offered
+tea, and if carpenters, gardeners, or workmen of any kind are employed
+about the house, tea must be served in the middle of the afternoon with
+a light lunch, and tea sent out to them often during their day's work.
+If a guest arrives in _jinrikisha_, not only the guest, but the
+_jinrikisha_ men must be supplied with refreshments. All these things
+involve much thought and care on the part of the lady of the house.
+
+In the homes of rich and influential men of wide acquaintance, there is
+a great deal going on to make a pleasant variety for the ladies of the
+household, even although the variety involves extra work and
+responsibility. The mistress of such a household sees and hears a great
+deal of life; and her position requires no little wisdom and tact, even
+where the housewife has the assistance of good servants, capable, as
+many are, of sharing not only the work, but the responsibility as well.
+Clever wives in such homes see and learn much, in an indirect way, of
+the outside world in which the men live; and may become, if they possess
+the natural capabilities for the work, wise advisers and sympathizers
+with their husbands in many things far beyond their ordinary field of
+action. An intelligent woman, with a strong will, has often been, unseen
+and unknown, a mighty influence in Japan. That her power for good or
+bad, outside of her influence as wife and mother, is a recognized fact,
+is seen in the circumstance that in novels and plays women are
+frequently brought in as factors in political plots and organized
+rebellions, as well as in acts of private revenge.
+
+Still the life of the average woman is a quiet one, with little to
+interrupt the monotony of her days with their never-ending round of
+duties; and to the most secluded homes only an occasional guest comes to
+enliven the dull hours. The principal occupation of the wife, outside of
+her housekeeping and the little duties of personal service to husband
+and parents, is needle-work. Every Japanese woman (excepting those of
+the highest rank) knows how to sew, and makes not only her own garments
+and those of her children, but her husband's as well. Sewing is one of
+the essentials in the education of a Japanese girl, and from childhood
+the cutting and putting together of crêpe, silk, and cotton is a
+familiar occupation to her. Though Japanese garments seem very simple,
+custom requires that each stitch and seam be placed in just such a way;
+and this way is something of a task to learn. To the uninitiated
+foreigner, the general effect of the loosely worn _kimono_ is the same,
+whether the garment be well or ill made; but the skillful seamstress can
+easily discover that this seam is not turned just as it should be, or
+that those stitches are too long or too short, or carelessly or unevenly
+set.
+
+Fancy work[17] or embroidery is not done in the house, the gorgeous
+embroidered Japanese robes being the product of professional workmen.
+Instead of the endless fancy work with silks, crewels, or worsteds, over
+which so many American ladies spend their leisure hours, many of the
+Japanese ladies, even of the highest rank, devote much time to the
+cultivation of the silkworm. In country homes, and in the great cities
+as well, wherever spacious grounds afford room for the growth of
+mulberry trees, silkworms are raised and watched with care; an
+employment giving much pleasure to those engaged in it.
+
+[17] The one exception to this statement, so far as I know, is the
+species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the _daimiōs'_ houses. (See
+chap. vii.)
+
+It is difficult for any one who has not experimented in this direction
+to realize how tender these little spinners are. If a strong breeze blow
+upon them, they are likely to suffer for it, and the least change in the
+atmosphere must be guarded against. For forty days they must be
+carefully watched, and the great, shallow, bamboo basket trays
+containing them changed almost daily. New leaves for their food must be
+given frequently, and as the least dampness might be fatal, each leaf,
+in case of rainy weather, is carefully wiped. Then, too, the different
+ages of the worms must be considered in preparing their food; as, for
+the young worms, the leaves should be cut up, while for the older ones
+it is better to serve them whole. When, finally, the buzzing noise of
+the crunching leaves has ceased, and the last worm has put himself to
+sleep in his precious white cocoon, the work of the ladies is ended; for
+the cocoons are sent to women especially skilled in the work, by them to
+be spun off, and the thread afterwards woven into the desired fabric.
+When at last the silk, woven and dyed, is returned to the ladies by
+whose care the worms were nourished until their work was done, it is
+shown with great pride as the product of the year's labor, and if given
+as a present will be highly prized by the recipient.
+
+Among the daily tasks of the housewife, one, and by no means the least
+of her duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and return in suitable
+manner, the presents received in the family. Presents are not confined
+to special seasons, although upon certain occasions etiquette is rigid
+in its requirements in this matter, but they may be given and received
+at all times, for the Japanese are preëminently a present-giving nation.
+For every present received, sooner or later, a proper return must be
+sent, appropriate to the season and to the rank of the receiver, and
+neatly arranged in the manner that etiquette prescribes. Presents are
+not necessarily elaborate; callers bring fruit of the season, cake, or
+any delicacy, and a visit to a sick person must be accompanied by
+something appropriate. Children visiting in the family are always given
+toys, and for this purpose a stock is kept on hand. The present-giving
+culminates at the close of the year, when all friends and acquaintances
+exchange gifts of more or less value, according to their feelings and
+means. Should there be any one who has been especially kind, and to whom
+return should be made, this is the time to do so.
+
+Tradesmen send presents to their patrons, scholars to teachers, patients
+to their physicians, and, in short, it is the time when all obligations
+and debts are paid off, in one way or another. On the seventh day of
+the seventh month, there is another general interchange of presents,
+although not so universal as at the New Year. It can easily be imagined
+that all this present-giving entails much care, especially in families
+of influence; and it must be attended to personally by the wife, who, in
+the secret recesses of her storeroom, skillfully manages to rearrange
+the gifts received, so that those not needed in the house may be sent,
+not back to their givers, but to some place where a present is due. The
+passing-on of the presents is an economy not of course acknowledged, but
+frequently practiced even in the best families, as it saves much of the
+otherwise ruinous expense of this custom.
+
+As time passes by, occasional visits are paid by the young wife to her
+own parents or to other relatives. At stated times, too, she, and others
+of the family, will visit the tombs of her husband's ancestors, or of
+her own parents, if they are no longer living, to make offerings and
+prayers at the graves, to place fresh branches of the _sakaki_[18]
+before the tombs, and to see that the priests in charge of the cemetery
+have attended to all the little things which the Japanese believe to be
+required by the spirits of the dead. Even these visits are often looked
+forward to as enlivening the monotony of the humdrum home life.
+Sometimes all the members of the family go together on a pleasure
+excursion, spending the day out of doors, in beautiful gardens, when
+some one of the much-loved flowers of the nation is in its glory; and
+the little wife may join in this pleasure with the rest, but more often
+she is the one who remains at home to keep the house in the absence of
+others. The theatre, too, a source of great amusement to Japanese
+ladies, is often a pleasure reserved for a time later in life.
+
+[18] _Sakaki_, the _Cleyera Japonica_, a sacred plant emblematic of
+purity, and much used at funerals and in the decoration of graves.
+
+The Japanese mother takes great delight and comfort in her children, and
+her constant thought and care is the right direction of their habits and
+manners. She seems to govern them entirely by gentle admonition, and the
+severest chiding that is given them is always in a pleasant voice, and
+accompanied by a smiling face. No matter how many servants there may be,
+the mother's influence is always direct and personal. No thick walls
+and long passageways separate the nursery from the grown people's
+apartments, but the thin paper partitions make it possible for the
+mother to know always what her children are doing, and whether they are
+good and gentle with their nurses, or irritable and passionate. The
+children never leave the house, nor return to it, without going to their
+mother's room, and there making the little bows and repeating the
+customary phrases used upon such occasions. In the same way, when the
+mother goes out, all the servants and the children escort her to the
+door; and when her attendant shouts "_O kaeri_," which is the signal of
+her return, children and servants hasten to the gate to greet her, and
+do what they can to help her from her conveyance and make her
+home-coming pleasant and restful.
+
+The father has little to do with the training of his children, which is
+left almost entirely to the mother, and, except for the interference of
+the mother-in-law, she has her own way in their training, until they are
+long past childhood. The children are taught to look to the father as
+the head, and to respect and obey him as the one to whom all must defer;
+but the mother comes next, almost as high in their estimation, and, if
+not so much feared and respected, certainly enjoys a larger share of
+their love.
+
+The Japanese mother's life is one of perfect devotion to her children;
+she is their willing slave. Her days are spent in caring for them, her
+evenings in watching over them; and she spares neither time nor trouble
+in doing anything for their comfort and pleasure. In sickness,[19] in
+health, day and night, the little ones are her one thought; and from the
+home of the noble to the humble cot of the peasant, this tender
+mother-love may be seen in all its different phases. The Japanese woman
+has so few on whom to lavish her affection, so little to live for beside
+her children, and no hopes in the future except through them, that it is
+no wonder that she devotes her life to their care and service, deeming
+the drudgery that custom requires of her for them the easiest of all her
+duties. Even with plenty of servants, the mother performs for her
+children nearly all the duties often delegated to nurses in this
+country. Mother and babe are rarely separated, night or day, during the
+first few years of the baby's life, and the mother denies herself any
+entertainment or journey from home when the baby cannot accompany her.
+To give the husband any share in the baby-work would be an unheard-of
+thing, and a disgrace to the wife; for in public and in private the baby
+is the mother's sole charge, and the husband is never asked to sit up
+all night with a sick baby, or to mind it in any way at all. Nothing in
+all one's study of Japanese life seems more beautiful and admirable than
+the influence of the mother over her children,--an influence that is
+gentle and all-pervading, bringing out all that is sweetest and noblest
+in the feminine character, and affording the one almost unlimited
+opportunity of a Japanese woman's life. The lot of a childless wife in
+Japan is a sad one. Not only is she denied the hopes and the pleasures
+of a mother in her children, but she is an object of pity to her
+friends, and well does she know that Confucius has laid down the law
+that a man is justified in divorcing a childless wife. All feel that
+through her, innocent though she is, the line has ceased; that her duty
+is unfulfilled; and that, though the name be given to adopted sons,
+there is no heir of the blood. A man rarely sends away his wife solely
+with this excuse, but children are the strongest of the ties which bind
+together husband and wife, and the childless wife is far less sure of
+pleasing her husband. In many cases she tries to make good her
+deficiencies by her care of adopted children; in them she often finds
+the love which fills the void in her heart and home, and she receives
+from them in after-life the respect and care which is the crown of old
+age.
+
+[19] Since the introduction of the foreign system of medicine and
+nursing, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack of conveniences and
+appliances for nursing the sick in their own homes, that cases of severe
+or even serious illness are usually sent to hospitals, where the
+invalids can have the comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes
+cannot furnish.
+
+We have hitherto spoken of married life when the wife is received into
+her husband's home. Another interesting side of Japanese marriage is
+when a man enters the wife's family, taking her name and becoming
+entirely one of her family, as usually the wife becomes of the
+husband's. When there are daughters but no sons in a family to inherit
+the name, one of three things may happen: a son may be adopted early in
+life and grow up as heir; or he may be adopted with the idea of marrying
+one of the daughters; or, again, no one may have been formally adopted,
+but on the eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable age, her family
+and friends seek for her a _yōshi_, that is to say, some man (usually a
+younger son) who is willing and able to give up his family name, and, by
+marrying the daughter, become a member of her family and heir to the
+name. He cuts off all ties from his own family, and becomes a member of
+hers, and the young couple are expected to live with her parents. In
+this case the tables are turned, and it is he who has to dread the
+mother-in-law; it is his turn to have to please his new relatives and to
+do all he can to be agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and divorced by
+the all-powerful parents, if he does not please; and such divorces are
+not uncommon. Of course, in such marriages, the woman has the greater
+power, and the man has to remember what he owes her; and though the
+woman yields to him obediently in all respects, it is an obedience not
+demanded by the husband, as under other circumstances. In such marriages
+the children belong to the family whose name they bear, so that in case
+of divorce they remain in the wife's family, unless some special
+arrangement is made about them.
+
+It may be wondered why young men ever care to enter a family as _yōshi_.
+There is only one answer,--it is the attraction of wealth and rank, very
+rarely that of the daughter herself. In the houses of rich _daimiōs_
+without sons, _yōshi_ are very common, and there are many younger sons
+of the nobility, themselves of high birth, but without prospects, who
+are glad enough to become great lords. In feudal times, the number of
+_samurai_ families was limited. Several sons of one family could not
+establish different _samurai_ families, but all but the eldest son, if
+they formed separate houses, must enroll themselves among the ranks of
+the common people. Hence the younger sons were often adopted into other
+_samurai_ families as _yōshi_, where it was desired to secure a
+succession to a name that must otherwise die out. Since the Restoration,
+and the breaking down of the old class distinctions, young men care
+more for independence than for their rank as _samurai_; and it is now
+quite difficult to find _yōshi_ to enter _samurai_ families, unless it
+be because of the attractiveness and beauty of the young lady herself.
+Many a young girl who could easily make a good marriage with some
+suitable husband, could she enter his family, is now obliged to take
+some inferior man as _yōshi_, because few men in these days are willing
+to change their names, give up their independence, and take upon
+themselves the support of aged parents-in-law; for this also is expected
+of the _yōshi_, unless the family that he enters is a wealthy one.
+
+From this custom of _yōshi_, and its effect upon the wife's position, we
+see that, in certain cases, Japanese women are treated as equal with
+men. It is not because of their sex that they are looked down upon and
+held in subjection, but it is because of their almost universal
+dependence of position. The men have the right of inheritance, the
+education, habits of self-reliance, and are the bread-winners. Wherever
+the tables are turned, and the men are dependents of the women, and
+even where the women are independent of the men,--there we find the
+relations of men to women vastly changed. The women of Japan must know
+how to do some definite work in the world beyond the work of the home,
+so that their position will not be one of entire dependence upon father,
+husband, or son. If fathers divided their estates between sons and
+daughters alike, and women were given, before the law, right to hold
+property in their own names, much would be accomplished towards securing
+them in their positions as wives and mothers; and divorce, the great
+evil of Japanese home life to-day, would become simply a last resort to
+preserve the purity of the home, as it is in most civilized countries
+now.
+
+The difference between the women of the lower and those of the higher
+classes, in the matter of equality with their husbands, is quite
+noticeable. The wife of the peasant or merchant is much nearer to her
+husband's level than is the wife of the Emperor. Apparently, each step
+in the social scale is a little higher for the man than it is for the
+woman, and lifts him a little farther above his wife. The peasant and
+his wife work side by side in the field, put their shoulders to the same
+wheel, eat together in the same room, at the same time, and whichever of
+them happens to be the stronger in character governs the house, without
+regard to sex. There is no great gulf fixed between them, and there is
+frequently a consideration for the wife shown by husbands of the lower
+class, that is not unlike what we see in our own country. I remember the
+case of a _jinrikisha_ man employed by a friend of mine in Tōkyō, who
+was much laughed at by his friends because he actually used to spend
+some of his leisure moments in drawing the water required for his
+household from a well some distance away, and carrying the heavy buckets
+to the house, in order to save the strength of his little, delicate
+wife. That cases of such devotion are rare is no doubt true, but that
+they occur shows that there is here and there a recognition of the
+claims that feminine weakness has upon masculine strength.
+
+A frequent sight in the morning, in Tōkyō, is a cart heavily laden with
+wood, charcoal, or some other country produce, creaking slowly along
+the streets, propelled by a farmer and his family. Sometimes one will
+see an old man, his son, and his son's wife with a baby on her back, all
+pushing or pulling with might and main; the woman with tucked-up skirts
+and tight-fitting blue trousers, a blue towel enveloping her head,--only
+to be distinguished from the men by her smaller size and the baby tied
+to her back. But when evening comes, and the load of produce has been
+disposed of, the woman and baby are seen seated upon the cart, while the
+two men pull it back to their home in some neighboring village. Here,
+again, is the recognition of the law that governs the position of woman
+in this country,--the theory, not of inferior position, but of inferior
+strength; and the sight of the women riding back in the empty carts at
+night, drawn by their husbands, is the thing that strikes a student of
+Japanese domestic life as nearest to the customs of our own civilization
+in regard to the relations of husbands and wives.
+
+Throughout the country districts, where the women have a large share in
+the labor that is directly productive of wealth, where they not only
+work in the rice fields, pick the tea crops, gather the harvests, and
+help draw them to market, but where they have their own productive
+industries, such as caring for the silkworms, and spinning, and weaving
+both silk and cotton, we find the conventional distance between the
+sexes much diminished by the important character of feminine labor; but
+in the cities, and among the classes who are largely either indirect
+producers or non-producers, the only labor of the women is that personal
+service which we account as menial. It is for this reason, perhaps, that
+the gap widens as we go upward in society, and between the same social
+levels as we go cityward.
+
+The wife of the countryman, though she may work harder and grow old
+earlier, is more free and independent than her city sister; and the wife
+of the peasant, pushing her produce to market, is in some ways happier
+and more considered than the wife of the noble, who must spend her life
+among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclusion of her great house with
+its beautiful garden, the plaything of her husband in his leisure hours,
+but never his equal, or the sharer of his cares or of his thoughts.
+
+One of the causes which must be mentioned as contributing to the
+lowering of the wife's position, among the higher and more wealthy
+classes, lies in the system of concubinage which custom allows, and the
+law until quite recently has not discouraged. From the Emperor, who was,
+by the old Chinese code of morals, allowed twelve supplementary wives,
+to the _samurai_, who are permitted two, the men of the higher classes
+are allowed to introduce into their families these _mékaké_, who, while
+beneath the wife in position, are frequently more beloved by the husband
+than the wife herself. It must be said, however, to the credit of many
+husbands, that in spite of this privilege, which custom allows, there
+are many men of the old school who are faithful to one wife, and never
+introduce this discordant element into the household. Even should he
+keep _mékaké_, it is often unknown to the wife, and she is placed in a
+separate establishment of her own. And in spite of the code of morals
+requiring submission in any case on the part of the woman, there are
+many wives of the _samurai_ and lower classes who have enough spirit and
+wit to prevent their husbands from ever introducing a rival under the
+same roof. In this way the practice is made better than the theory.
+
+Not so with the more helpless wife of the nobleman, for wealth and
+leisure make temptation greater for the husband. She submits
+unquestioningly to the custom requiring that the wife treat these women
+with all civility. Their children she may even have to adopt as her own.
+The lot of the _mékaké_ herself is rendered the less endurable, from the
+American point of view, by the fact that, should the father of her child
+decide to make it his heir, the mother is thenceforth no more to it than
+any other of the servants of the household. For instance, suppose a
+hitherto childless noble is presented with a son by one of his
+concubines, and he decides by legal adoption to make that son his heir:
+the child at its birth, or as soon afterwards as is practicable, is
+taken from its mother and placed in other hands, and the mother never
+sees her own child until, on the thirtieth day after its birth, she goes
+with the other servants of the household to pay her respects to her
+young master. If it were not for the habit of abject obedience to
+parents which Japanese custom has exalted into the one feminine virtue,
+few women could be found of respectable families who would take a
+position so devoid of either honor or satisfaction of any kind as that
+of _mékaké_. That these positions are not sought after must be said, to
+the honor of Japanese womanhood. A nobleman may obtain _samurai_ women
+for his "_O mékaké_" (literally, honorable concubines), but they are
+never respected by their own class for taking such positions. In the
+same way the _mékaké_ of _samurai_ are usually from the _héimin_. No
+woman who has any chance of a better lot will ever take the unenviable
+position of _mékaké_.
+
+A law which has recently been promulgated strikes at the root of this
+evil, and, if enforced, will in course of time go far toward extirpating
+it. Henceforth in Japan, no child of a concubine, or of adoption from
+any source, can inherit a noble title. The heir to the throne must
+hereafter be the son, not only of the Emperor, but of the Empress, or
+the succession passes to some collateral branch of the family. This law
+does not apply to Prince Haru, the present heir to the throne, as,
+although he is not the son of the Empress, he was legally adopted
+before the promulgation of the law; but should he die, it will apply to
+all future heirs.
+
+That public opinion is moving in the right direction is shown by the
+fact that the young men of the higher classes do not care to marry the
+daughters of _mékaké_, be they ever so legally adopted by their own
+fathers. When the girls born of such unions become a drug in the
+matrimonial market, and the boys are unable to keep up the succession,
+the _mékaké_ will go out of fashion, and the real wife will once more
+assume her proper importance.[20]
+
+[20] It is worth while to mention in this connection the noteworthy
+efforts made by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Japan in
+calling the attention of the public to this custom, and in arousing
+public sentiment in favor of legislation against not only this system,
+but against the licensed houses of prostitution. Though there has not
+yet been any practical result, much discussion has ensued in the
+newspapers and magazines, lectures have been given, and much strong
+feeling aroused, which may, before long, produce radical change.
+
+Upon the 11th day of February, 1889, the day on which the Emperor, by
+his own act in giving a constitution to the people, limited his own
+power for the sake of putting his nation upon a level with the most
+civilized nations of the earth, he at the same time, and for the first
+time, publicly placed his wife upon his own level. In an imperial
+progress made through the streets of Tōkyō, the Emperor and Empress, for
+the first time in the history of Japan, rode together in the imperial
+coach.[*115] Until then, the Emperor, attended by his chief
+gentlemen-in-waiting and his guards, had always headed the procession,
+while the Empress must follow at a distance with her own attendants.
+That this act on the part of the Emperor signifies the beginning of a
+new and better era for the women of Japan, we cannot but hope; for until
+the position of the wife and mother in Japan is improved and made
+secure, little permanence can be expected in the progress of the nation
+toward what is best and highest in the Western civilization. Better
+laws, broader education for the women, a change in public opinion on the
+subject, caused by the study, by the men educated abroad, of the homes
+of Europe and America,--these are the forces which alone can bring the
+women of Japan up to that place in the home which their intellectual and
+moral qualities fit them to fill. That Japan is infinitely ahead of
+other Oriental countries in her practices in this matter is greatly to
+her credit; but that she is far behind the civilized nations of Europe
+and America, not only in practice but in theory, is a fact that is
+incontestable, and a fact that, unless changed, must sooner or later be
+a stumbling-block in the path of her progress toward the highest
+civilization of which she is capable.[21] The European practice cannot
+be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the change in the home must be a
+radical one, to secure permanent good results. As long as the wife has
+no rights which the husband is bound to respect, no great advance can
+be made, for human nature is too mean and selfish to give in all cases
+to those who are entirely unprotected by law, and entirely unable to
+protect themselves, those things which the moral nature declares to be
+their due. In the old slave times in the South, many of the negroes were
+better fed, better cared for, and happier than they are to-day; but they
+were nevertheless at the mercy of men who too often thought only of
+themselves, and not of the human bodies and souls over which they had
+unlimited power. It was a condition of things that could not be
+prevented by educating the masters so as to induce them to be kind to
+their slaves; it was a condition that was wrong in theory, and so could
+not be righted in practice. In the same way the position of the Japanese
+wife is wrong in theory, and can never be righted until legislation has
+given to her rights which it still denies. Education will but aggravate
+the trouble to a point beyond endurance. The giving to the wife power to
+obtain a divorce will not help much, but simply tend to weaken still
+further the marriage tie. Nothing can help surely and permanently but
+the growth of a sound public opinion, in regard to the position of the
+wife, that will, sooner or later, have its effect upon the laws of the
+country. Legislation once effected, all the rest will come, and the
+wife, secure in her home and her children, will be at the point where
+her new education can be of use to her in the administration of her
+domestic affairs and the training of her children; and where she will
+finally become the friend and companion of her husband, instead of his
+mere waitress, seamstress, and housekeeper,--the plaything of his
+leisure moments, too often the victim of his caprices.
+
+[21] Many of the thinking men of Japan, though fully recognizing the
+injustice of the present position of woman in society, and the necessity
+of reform in the marriage and divorce laws, refuse to see the importance
+of any movement to change them. Their excuse is, that such power in the
+hands of the husband over his wife might be abused, but that in fact it
+is not. Wrongs and injustice are rare, they argue, and kind treatment,
+affection, and even respect for the wife is the general rule; and that
+the keeping of the power in the hands of the husband is better than
+giving too much freedom to women who are without education. These men
+wish to wait until every woman is educated, before acting in a reform
+movement, while many conservatives oppose the new system of education
+for girls as making them unwomanly. Between these two parties, the few
+who really wish for a change are utterly unable to act.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLD AGE.
+
+
+No Japanese woman is ashamed to show that she is getting along in years,
+but all take pains that every detail of the dress and coiffure shall
+show the full age of the wearer. The baby girl is dressed in the
+brightest of colors and the largest of patterns, and looks like a gay
+butterfly or tropical bird. As she grows older, colors become quieter,
+figures smaller, stripes narrower, until in old age she becomes a little
+gray moth or plain-colored sparrow. By the sophisticated eye, a woman's
+age can be told with considerable accuracy by the various little things
+about her costume,[22] and no woman cares to appear younger than her
+real age, or hesitates to tell with entire frankness the number of years
+that have passed over her head.
+
+[22] Children wear their hair on top of their heads while very young,
+and the manner of arranging it is one of the distinctive marks of the
+age of the child. The _marumagé_, the style of headdress of married
+ladies, consisting of a large puff of hair on the top of the head,
+diminishes in size with the age of the wearer until, at sixty or
+seventy, it is not more than a few inches in width. The number, size,
+and variety of ornamental hairpins, and the tortoise-shell comb worn in
+front, all vary with the age.
+
+The reason for this lies, at least in part, in the fact that every woman
+looks forward to the period of old age as the time when she will attain
+freedom from her life-long service to those about her,--will be in the
+position of adviser of her sons, and director of her daughters-in-law;
+will be a person of much consideration in the family, privileged to
+amuse herself in various ways, to speak her own mind on most subjects,
+and to be waited upon and cared for by children and grandchildren, in
+return for her long years of faithful service in the household. Should
+her sight and other bodily powers remain good, she will doubtless
+perform many light tasks for the general good, will seldom sit idle by
+herself, but will help about the sewing and mending, the marketing,
+shopping, housework, and care of the babies, tell stories to her
+grandchildren after their lessons are learned, give the benefit of her
+years of experience to the young people who are still bearing the heat
+and burden of the day, and, by her prayers and visits to the temple at
+stated seasons, will secure the favor of the gods for the whole family,
+as well as make her own preparations for entry into the great unknown
+toward which she is rapidly drifting. Is there wonder that the young
+wife, steering her course with difficulty among the many shoals and
+whirlpools of early married life, looks forward with anticipation to the
+period of comparative rest and security that comes at the end of the
+voyage? As she bears all things, endures all things, suffers long, and
+is kind, as she serves her mother-in-law, manages her husband's
+household, cares for her babies, the thought that cheers and encourages
+her in her busy and not too happy life is the thought of the sunny calm
+of old age, when she can lay her burdens and cares on younger shoulders,
+and bask in the warmth and sunshine which this Indian Summer of her life
+will bring to her.
+
+In the code of morals of the Japanese, obedience to father, husband, or
+son is exalted into the chief womanly virtue, but the obedience and
+respect of children, both male and female, to their parents, also
+occupies a prominent position in their ethical system. Hence, in this
+latter stage of a woman's career, the obedience expected of her is
+often only nominal, and in any case is not so absolute and unquestioning
+as that of the early period; and the consideration and respect that a
+son is bound to show to his mother necessitates a care of her comfort,
+and a consultation of her wishes, that renders her position one of much
+greater freedom than can be obtained by any woman earlier in life. She
+has, besides, reached an age when she is not expected to remain at home,
+and she may go out into the streets, to the theatre, or other shows,
+without the least restraint or fear of losing her dignity.
+
+A Japanese woman loses her beauty early. At thirty-five her fresh color
+is usually entirely gone, her eyes have begun to sink a little in their
+sockets, her youthful roundness and symmetry of figure have given place
+to an absolute leanness, her abundant black hair has grown thin, and
+much care and anxiety have given her face a pathetic expression of quiet
+endurance. One seldom sees a face that indicates a soured temper or a
+cross disposition, but the lines that show themselves as the years go by
+are lines that indicate suffering and disappointment, patiently and
+sweetly borne. The lips never forget to smile; the voice remains always
+cheerful and sympathetic, never grows peevish and worried, as is too
+often the case with overworked or disappointed women in this country.
+But youth with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its ambitions, gives
+way to age with its peaceful waiting for the end, with only a brief
+struggle for its place; and the woman of thirty-five is just at the
+point when she has bid good-by to her youth, and, having little to hope
+for in her middle life, is doing her work faithfully, and looking
+forward to an old age of privilege and authority, the mistress of her
+son's house, and the ruler of the little domain of home.
+
+But I have spoken so far only of those happy women whose sons grow to
+maturity, and who manage to evade the dangerous reefs of divorce upon
+which so many lives are shipwrecked. What becomes of the hundreds who
+have no children to rise up and call them blessed, but who have in old
+age to live as dependents upon their brothers or nephews? Even these,
+who in this country often lead hard and unrewarded lives of toil among
+their happier relatives, find in old age a pleasanter lot than that of
+youth. Many such old ladies I have met, whose short hair or shaven heads
+proclaim to all who see them that the sorrow of widowhood has taken from
+them the joy that falls to other women, but whose cheerful, wrinkled
+faces and happy, childlike ways have given one a feeling of pleasure
+that the sorrow is past, and peace and rest have come to their declining
+years. Fulfilling what little household tasks they can, respected and
+self-respecting members of the household, the _O Bă San_, or Aunty, is
+not far removed in the honor and affection of the children from the _O
+Bā San_, or Grandma, but both alike find a peaceful shelter in the homes
+of those nearest and dearest to them.
+
+One of the happiest old ladies I have ever seen was one who had had a
+rough and stormy life. The mother of many children, most of whom had
+died in infancy, she was at last left childless and a widow. In her
+children's death the last tie that bound her to her husband's family was
+broken, and, rather than be a burden to them, she made her home for many
+years with her own younger brother, taking up again the many cares and
+duties of a mother's life in sharing with the mother the bringing up of
+a large family of children. One by one, from the oldest to the youngest,
+each has learned to love the old aunty, to be lulled asleep on her back,
+and to go to her in trouble when mother's hands were too full of work.
+Many the caress received, the drives and walks enjoyed in her company,
+the toys and candies that came out unexpectedly from the depths of
+mysterious drawers, to comfort many an hour of childish grief. That was
+years ago, and the old aunty's hard times are nearly over. Hale and
+hearty at three-score years and ten, she has seen these children grow up
+one by one, until now some have gone to new homes of their own. Her bent
+form and wrinkled face are ever welcome to her children,--hers by the
+right of years of patient care and toil for them. They now, in their
+turn, enjoy giving her pleasure, and return to her all the love she has
+lavished upon them. It is a joy to see her childlike pride and
+confidence in them all, and to know that they have filled the place left
+vacant by the dead with whom had died all her hopes of earthly
+happiness.
+
+The old women of Japan,--how their withered faces, bent frames, and
+shrunken, yellow hands abide in one's memory! One seldom sees among them
+what we would call beauty, for the almost universal shrinking with age
+that takes place among the Japanese covers the face with multitudinous
+wrinkles, and produces the effect of a withered russet apple; for the
+skin, which in youth is usually brightened by red cheeks and glossy
+black hair, in old age, when color leaves cheek and hair, has a
+curiously yellow and parchment-like look. But with all their wrinkles
+and ugliness, there is a peculiar charm about the old women of Japan.
+
+In Tōkyō, when the grass grows long upon your lawn, and you send to the
+gardener to come and cut it, no boy with patent lawn-mower, nor stalwart
+countryman with scythe and sickle, answers your summons, but some
+morning you awake to find your lawn covered with old women. The
+much-washed cotton garments are faded to a light blue, the exact match
+of the light blue cotton towels in which their heads are swathed, and on
+hands and knees, each armed with an enormous pair of shears, the old
+ladies clip and chatter cheerfully all day long, until the lawn is as
+smooth as velvet under their careful cutting. An occasional rest under a
+tree, for pipes and tea, is the time for much cheerful talk and gossip;
+but the work, though done slowly and with due attention to the comfort
+of the worker, is well done, and certainly accomplished as rapidly as
+any one could expect of laborers who earn only from eight to twelve
+cents a day. Another employment for this same class of laborers is the
+picking of moss and grass from the crevices of the great walls that
+inclose the moats and embankments of the capital. Mounted on little
+ladders, they pick and scrape with knives until the wall is clear and
+fresh, with no insidious growth to push the great uncemented stones out
+of their places.
+
+In contrast with these humble but cheerful toilers may be mentioned
+another class of women, often met with in the great cities. Dressed in
+rags and with covered heads and faces, they wander about the streets
+playing the _samisen_ outside the latticed windows, and singing with
+cracked voices some wailing melody. As they go from house to house,
+gaining a miserable pittance by their weird music, they seem the
+embodiment of all that is hopeless and broken-hearted. What they are or
+whence they come, I know not, but they always remind me of the
+grasshopper in the fable, who danced and sang through the brief summer,
+to come, wailing and wretched, seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor
+when at last the winter closed in upon her.
+
+As one rides about the streets, one often sees a little, white-haired
+old woman trotting about with a yoke over her shoulders from which are
+suspended two swinging baskets, filled with fresh vegetables. The fact
+that her hair is still growing to its natural length shows that she is
+still a wife and not a widow; her worn and patched blue cotton clothes,
+bleached light from much washing, show that extreme poverty is her lot
+in life; and as she hobbles along with the gait peculiar to those who
+carry a yoke, my thoughts are busy with her home, which, though poor and
+small, is doubtless clean and comfortable, but my eye follows her
+through the city's crowd, where laborer, soldier, student, and high
+official jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I see her pause before
+the gateway of a temple. She sets her burden down, and there in the
+midst of the bustling throng, with bowed head, folded hands, and moving
+lips, she invokes her god, snatching this moment from her busy life to
+seek a blessing for herself and her dear ones. The throng moves busily
+on, making a little eddy around the burden she has laid down, but paying
+no heed to the devout little figure standing there; then in a moment the
+prayer is finished; she stoops, picks up her yoke, balances it on her
+shoulders, and moves on with the crowd, to do her share while her
+strength lasts, and to be cared for tenderly, I doubt not, by children
+and children's children when her work is done.
+
+Another picture comes to me, too, a picture of one whose memory is an
+inspiring thought to the many who have the honor to call her "mother." A
+stately old lady, left a widow many years ago, before the recent changes
+had wrought havoc preparatory to further progress, she seemed always to
+me the model of a mother of the old school. Herself a woman of thorough
+classical education, her example and teaching were to both sons and
+daughters a constant inspiration; and in her old age she found herself
+the honored head of a family well known in the arts of war and peace, a
+goodly company of sons and daughters, every one of them heirs of her
+spirit and of her intellect. Though conservative herself, and always
+clinging to the old customs, she put no block in the path of her
+children's progress, and her fine character, heroic spirit, and stanch
+loyalty to what she believed were worth more to her children than
+anything else could have been. Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by
+danger and sufferings of all kinds, to her was given at last an old age
+of prosperity among children of whom she might well be proud. Keeping
+her physical vigor to the end, and dying at last, after an illness of
+only two days, her spirit passed out into the great unknown, ready to
+meet its dangers as bravely as she had met those of earth, or to enjoy
+its rest as sweetly and appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of her
+old age in the house of her oldest son.
+
+My acquaintance with her was limited by our lack of common language, but
+was a most admiring and appreciative one on my side; and I esteem it one
+of the chief honors of my stay in Japan, that upon my last meeting with
+her, two weeks before her death, she gave me her wrinkled but still
+beautiful and delicately shaped hand at parting,--a deference to foreign
+customs that she only paid upon special occasions.
+
+Two weeks later, amid such rain as Japanese skies know all too well how
+to let fall, I attended her funeral at the cemetery of Aoyama. The
+cemetery chapel was crowded, but a place was reserved for me, on account
+of special ties that bound me to the family, just behind the long line
+of white-robed mourners. In the Buddhist faith she had lived, and by the
+Buddhist ceremonial she was buried,--the chanted ritual, the gorgeously
+robed priests, and the heavy smell of incense in the air reminding one
+of a Roman Catholic ceremony. The white wooden coffin was placed upon a
+bier at the entrance to the chapel, and when the priests had done their
+work, and the ecclesiastical ceremony was over, the relatives arose, one
+by one, walked over to the coffin, bowed low before it, and placed a
+grain of incense upon the little censer that stood on a table before
+the bier, then, bowing again, retired to their places. Slowly and
+solemnly, from the tall soldier son, his hair already streaked with
+gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all paid this last token of
+respect to a noble spirit; and after the relatives the guests, each in
+the order of rank or nearness to the deceased, stepped forward and
+performed the same ceremony before leaving the room. What the meaning of
+the rite was, I did not know, whether a worship of strange gods or no;
+but to me, as I performed the act, it only signified the honor in which
+I held the memory of a heroic woman who had done well her part in the
+world according to the light that God had given her.
+
+Japanese art loves to picture the old woman with her kindly, wrinkled
+face, leaving out no wrinkle of them all, but giving with equal
+truthfulness the charm of expression that one finds in them. Long life
+is desired by all as passionately as by ancient Hebrew poet and
+psalmist, and with good reason, for only by long life can a woman attain
+the greatest honor and happiness. We often exclaim in impatience at the
+thought of the weakness and dependence of old age, and pray that we may
+die in the fullness of our powers, before the decay of advancing years
+has made us a burden upon our friends. But in Japan, dependence is the
+lot of woman, and the dependence of old age is that which is most
+respected and considered. An aged parent is never a burden, is treated
+by all with the greatest love and tenderness; and if times are hard, and
+food and other comforts are scarce, the children, as a matter of course,
+deprive themselves and their children to give ungrudgingly to their old
+father and mother. Faults there are many in the Japanese social system,
+but ingratitude to parents, or disrespect to the aged, must not be named
+among them; and Young America may learn a salutary lesson by the study
+of the place that old people occupy in the home.
+
+It is not only for the women of Japan, but for the men as well, that old
+age is a time of peace and happiness. When a man reaches the age of
+fifty or thereabouts, often while apparently in the height of his vigor,
+he gives up his work or business and retires, leaving all the property
+and income to the care of his eldest son, upon whom he becomes entirely
+dependent for his support.[23] This support is never begrudged him, for
+the care of parents by their children is as much a matter of course in
+Japan as the care of children by those who give them birth. A man thus
+rarely makes provision for the future, and looks with scorn on foreign
+customs which seem to betoken a fear lest, in old age, ungrateful
+children may neglect their parents and cast them aside. The feeling, so
+strong in America, that dependence is of itself irksome and a thing to
+be dreaded, is altogether strange to the Japanese mind. The married son
+does not care to take his wife to a new and independent home of his own,
+and to support her and her children by his own labor or on his own
+income, but he takes her to his father's house, and thinks it no shame
+that his family live upon his parents. But in return, when the parents
+wish to retire from active life, the son takes upon himself ungrudgingly
+the burden of their support, and the bread of dependence is never
+bitter to the parents' lips, for it is given freely. To the time-honored
+European belief, that a young man must be independent and enterprising
+in early life in order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will answer
+that children in Japan are taught to love their parents rather than ease
+and luxury, and that care for the future is not the necessity that it is
+in Europe and America, where money is above everything else,--even
+filial love. This habit of thought may account for the utter want of
+provision for the future, and the disregard for things pertaining to the
+accumulation of wealth, which often strikes curiously the foreigner in
+Japan. A Japanese considers his provision for the future made when he
+has brought up and educated for usefulness a large family of children.
+He invests his capital in their support and education, secure of
+bountiful returns in their gratitude and care for his old age. It is
+hard for the men of old Japan to understand the rush and struggle for
+riches in America,--a struggle that too often leaves not a pause for
+rest or quiet pleasure until sickness or death overtakes the
+indefatigable worker. The _go inkyo_[24] of Japan is glad enough to lay
+down early in life the cares of the world, to have a few years of calm
+and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities or cares for outside matters.
+If he be an artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted, spend his days with
+his beloved art. If he is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole
+afternoons that he may devote to this æsthetic repast; and even if he
+has none of these higher tastes, he will always have congenial friends
+who are ready to share the _saké_ bottle, to join in a quiet smoke over
+the _hibachi_, or to play the deep-engrossing game of _go_, or _shogi_,
+the Japanese chess. To the Japanese mind, to be in the company of a few
+kindred souls, to spend the long hours of a summer's afternoon at the
+ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and conversing in a leisurely manner
+on various subjects, is an enjoyment second to none. A cultivated
+Japanese of the old times must receive an education fitting him
+especially for such pursuits. At these meetings of friends,
+artistically or poetically inclined, the time is spent in making poems
+and exchanging wittily turned sentiments, to be read, commented on, and
+responded to; or in the making of drawings, with a few bold strokes of
+the brush, in illustration of some subject given out. Such enjoyments as
+these, the Japanese believe, cannot be appreciated or even understood by
+the practical, rush-ahead American, the product of the wonderful but
+material civilization of the West.
+
+[23] It is this custom of going into early retirement that made it
+possible for the nobles in old times to keep the Emperor always a child.
+The ruling Emperor would be induced to retire from the throne at the age
+of sixteen or twenty; thus making room for some baby, who would be in
+his turn the puppet of his ambitious courtiers.
+
+[24] _Go Inkyo Sama_ is the title belonging to a retired old gentleman
+or old lady. _Inkyo_ is the name of the house or suite of rooms set
+apart for such a person, and the title itself is made up of this word
+with the Chinese honorific _go_ and the title _Sama_, the same as _San_,
+used in addressing all persons except inferiors.
+
+Thus, amid enjoyments and easy labors suited to their closing years, the
+elder couple spend their days with the young people, cared for and
+protected by them. Sometimes there will be a separate suite of rooms
+provided for them; sometimes a little house away from the noises of the
+household, and separated from the main building by a well-kept little
+garden. In any case, as long as they live they will spend their days in
+quiet and peace; and it is to this haven, the _inkyo_, that all Japanese
+look forward, as to the time when they may carry out their own
+inclinations and tastes with an income provided for the rest of their
+days.[*137]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+COURT LIFE.
+
+
+The court of the Emperor was, in the early ages of Japan, the centre of
+whatever culture and refinement the country could boast, and the
+emperors themselves took an active part in the promotion of
+civilization. The earliest history of Japan is so wrapped in the mists
+of legend and tradition that only here and there do we get glimpses of
+heroic figures,--leaders in those early days. Demigods they seem,
+children of Heaven, receiving from Heaven by special revelation the
+wisdom or strength by means of which they conquered their enemies, or
+gave to their subjects new arts and better laws. The traditional
+emperors, the early descendants of the great Jimmu Tenno,[25] seem to
+have been merely conquering chieftains, who by virtue of their descent
+were regarded as divine, but who lived the simple, hardy life of the
+savage king, surrounded by wives and concubines, done homage to by armed
+retainers and subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and moving in and
+out among the soldiers, not in the least retired into the mysterious
+solitude which in later days enveloped the Son of the Gods. The first
+emperors ruled not only by divine right, but by personal force and
+valor; and the stories of the valiant deeds of these early rulers kept
+strong the faith of the people in the divine qualities of the imperial
+house during the hundreds of years when the Emperor was a mere puppet in
+the hands of ambitious and powerful nobles.
+
+[25] The Japanese claim for their present Emperor direct descent from
+Jimmu Tenno, the Son of the Gods; and it is for this reason that the
+Emperor is supposed to be divine, and the representative of the gods on
+the earth. The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since Jimmu
+Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however, be said in connection
+with this statement, that the Japanese family is a much looser
+organization than that known to our Western civilization, on account of
+the customs of concubinage and adoption, and that descent through family
+lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood.
+
+Towards the end of this legendary period, a figure comes into view that
+for heroic qualities cannot be excelled in the annals of any
+nation,--Jingo Kōgō, the conqueror of Corea, who alone, among the nine
+female rulers of Japan, has made an era in the national history. She
+seems to have been from the beginning, like Jeanne D'Arc, a hearer of
+divine voices; and through her was conveyed to her unbelieving husband a
+divine command, to take ship and sail westward to the conquest of an
+unknown land. Her husband questioned the authenticity of the message,
+took the earthly and practical view that, as there was no land to be
+seen in the westward, there could be no land there, and refused to
+organize any expedition in fulfillment of the command; but for his
+unbelief was sternly told that he should never see the land, but that
+his wife should conquer it for the son whom she should bear after the
+father's death. This message from the gods was fulfilled. The Emperor
+died in battle shortly after, and the Empress, after suppressing the
+rebellion in which her husband had been killed, proceeded to organize an
+expedition for the conquest of the unknown land beyond the western sea.
+By as many signs as those required by Gideon to assure himself of his
+divine mission, the Empress tested the call that had come to her, but at
+last, satisfied that the voices were from Heaven, she gave her orders
+for the collection of troops and the building of a navy. I quote from
+Griffis the inspiring words with which she addressed her generals: "The
+safety or destruction of our country depends upon this enterprise. I
+intrust the details to you. It will be your fault if they are not
+carried out. I am a woman and young. I shall disguise myself as a man,
+and undertake this gallant expedition, trusting to the gods and to my
+troops and captains. We shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory is
+yours, if we succeed; if we fail, the guilt and disgrace shall be mine."
+What wonder that her captains responded to such an appeal, and that the
+work of recruiting and shipbuilding began with a will! It was a long
+preparation that was required--sometimes, to the impatient woman, it
+seemed unnecessarily slow--but by continual prayer and offerings she
+appealed to the gods for aid; and at last all was ready, and the brave
+array of ships set sail for the unknown shore, the Empress feeling
+within her the new inspiration of hope for her babe as yet unborn.
+Heaven smiled upon them from the start. The clearest of skies, the most
+favoring of breezes, the smoothest of seas, favored the god-sent
+expedition; and tradition says that even the fishes swarmed in shoals
+about their keels, and carried them on to their desired haven. The fleet
+ran safely across to southern Corea, but instead of finding battles and
+struggles awaiting them, the king of the country met them on the beach
+to receive and tender allegiance to the invaders, whose unexpected
+appearance from the unexplored East had led the natives to believe that
+their gods had forsaken them. The expedition returned laden with vast
+wealth, not the spoil of battle, but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless
+victory; and from that time forward Japan, through Corea, and later by
+direct contact with China itself, began to receive and assimilate the
+civilization, arts, and religions of China. Thus through a woman Japan
+received the start along the line of progress which made her what she is
+to-day, for the sequel of Jingo Kōgō's Corean expedition was the
+introduction of almost everything which we regard as peculiar to
+civilized countries. With characteristic belittling of the woman and
+exalting of the man, the whole martial career of the Empress is
+ascribed to the influence of her son as yet unborn,--a son who by his
+valor and prowess has secured for his deified spirit the position of God
+of War in the Japanese pantheon. We should say that pre-natal influences
+and heredity produced the heroic son; the Japanese reason from the other
+end, and show that all the noble qualities of the mother were produced
+by the influence of the unborn babe.
+
+With the introduction of literature, art, and Buddhism, a change took
+place in the relations of the court to the people. About the Emperor's
+throne there gathered not only soldiers and governors, but the learned,
+the accomplished, the witty, the artistic, who found in the Emperor and
+the court nobles munificent patrons by whom they were supported, and
+before whom they laid whatever pearls they were able to produce. The new
+culture sought not the clash of arms and the shout of soldiers, but the
+quiet and refinement of palaces and gardens far removed from the noise
+and clamor of the world. And while emperors sought to encourage the new
+learning and civilization, and to soften the warlike qualities of the
+people about them, there was a frontier along which the savages still
+made raids into the territory which the Japanese had wrested from them,
+and which it required a strong arm and a quick hand to guard for the
+defense of the people. But the Emperor gradually gave up the personal
+leadership in war, and passed the duty of defending the nation into the
+hands of one or another of the great noble families. The nobles were not
+by any means slow to see the advantage to be gained for themselves by
+the possession of the military power in an age when might made right,
+even more than it does to-day, and when force, used judiciously and with
+proper deference to the prejudices of the people, could be made to give
+to its possessor power even over the Emperor himself. And so gradually,
+in the pursuit of the new culture and the new religion, the emperors
+withdrew themselves more and more into seclusion, and the court became a
+little world in itself,--a centre of culture and refinement into which
+few excitements of war or politics ever came. While the great nobles
+wrangled for the possession of the power, schemed and fought and turned
+the nation upside down; while the heroes of the country rose, lived,
+fought, and died,--the Emperor, amid his ladies and his courtiers, his
+priests and his literary men, spent his life in a world of his own;
+thinking more of this pair of bright eyes, that new and charming poem,
+the other witty saying of those about him, than of the kingdom that he
+ruled by divine right; and retiring, after ten years or so of puppet
+kinghood, from the seclusion of his court to the deeper seclusion of
+some Buddhist monastery.
+
+Within the sacred precincts of the court, much time was given to such
+games and pastimes as were not too rude or noisy for the refinement that
+the new culture brought with it. Polo, football, hunting with falcons,
+archery, etc., were exercises not unworthy of even the most refined of
+gentlemen, and certain noble families were trained hereditarily in the
+execution of certain stately, antique dances, many of them of Chinese or
+Corean origin. The ladies, in trailing garments and with flowing hair,
+reaching often below the knees, played a not inconspicuous part, not
+only because of their beauty and grace, but for their quickness of wit,
+their learning in the classics, their skill in repartee, and their
+quaint fancies, which they embodied in poetic form.[26]
+
+[26] In ancient times, before the long civil wars of the Middle Ages,
+much attention was given by both men and women to poetry, and many of
+the classics of Japanese literature are the works of women. Among these
+distinguished writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu, Seishō Nagon,
+and Iséno Taiyu, all court ladies in the time of the Emperor Ichijō
+(about 1000 A. D.). The court at that time was the centre of learning,
+and much encouragement was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits,
+the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gathered around him
+talented men and women, but the great works that remain are, strange to
+say, mostly those of women.
+
+Much attention was given to that harmony of art with nature that the
+Japanese taste makes the _sine qua non_ of all true artistic effort. The
+gorgeously embroidered gowns must change with the changing season, so
+that the cherry succeeds the plum, the wistaria the cherry, and so on
+through the whole calendar of flowers, upon the silken robes of the
+court, as regularly as in the garden that graces the palace grounds. And
+so with the confectionery, which in Japan is made in dainty imitation of
+flowers and fruits. The chrysanthemum blooms in sugar no earlier than
+on its own stalk; the little golden orange, with its dark green leaves,
+is on the confectioner's list in winter, when the real orange is yellow
+on its tree. The very decorations of the palace must be changed with the
+changing of the months; and _kakémono_ and vase are alternately stored
+in the _kura_ and brought out to decorate the room, according as their
+designs seem in harmony with the mood of Nature. This effort to
+harmonize Nature and Art is seen to-day, not only in the splendid
+furnishings of the court, but all through the decorative art of Japan.
+In every house the decorations are changed to suit the changing seasons.
+
+Through the years when Japan was adopting the civilization of China, a
+danger threatened the nation,--the same danger that threatens it to-day:
+it was the danger lest the adoption of so much that was foreign should
+result in a servile copying of all that was not Japanese, and lest the
+introduction of literature, art, and numerous hitherto unknown luxuries
+should take from the people their independence, patriotism, and
+manliness. But this result was happily avoided; and at a time when the
+language was in danger of being swept almost out of existence by the
+introduction of Chinese learning through Chinese letters, the women of
+Japan, not only in their homes and conversation, but in the poetry and
+lighter literature of the country, preserved a strain of pure and
+graceful Japanese, and produced some of the standard works of a
+distinctly national literature. Favor at court to-day, as in the olden
+times, is the reward, not of mere rank, beauty, and grace of person, but
+must be obtained through the same intellectual endowments, polished by
+years of education, that made so many women famous in the mediæval
+history of Japan. Many court ladies have read much of their national
+literature, so that they are able to appreciate the _bonmots_ which
+contain allusions in many cases to old poems, or plays on words; and are
+able to write and present to others, at fitting times, those graceful
+but untranslatable turns of phrase which form the bulk of Japanese
+poetry.[27] Even in this busy era of Méiji,[28] the Emperor and his
+court keep up the old-time customs, and strive to promote a love of the
+beautiful poetry of Japan. At each New Year some subject appropriate to
+the time is chosen and publicly announced. Poems may be written upon
+this subject by any one in the whole realm, and may be sent to the
+palace before a certain date fixed as the time for closing the list of
+competitors. All the poems thus sent are examined by competent judges,
+who select the best five and send them to the Emperor, an honor more
+desired by the writers than the most favorable of reviews or the largest
+of emoluments are desired by American poets. Many of the other poems are
+published in the newspapers. It is interesting to note that many of the
+prominent men and women of the country are known as competitors, and
+that many of the court ladies join in the contest.
+
+[27] The court ladies in immediate contact with the Emperor and Empress
+are selected from the daughters of the nobles. Only in the present reign
+have a few samurai women risen to high positions at court on account of
+special talents.
+
+[28] _Méiji_ (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that began with
+the present Emperor's accession to the throne. The year A. D. 1890 is
+the twenty-third year of Méiji, and would be so designated in all
+Japanese dates.
+
+There are also, at the palace, frequent meetings of the poets and lovers
+of poetry connected with the court. At these meetings poems are
+composed for the entertainment of the Emperor and Empress, as well as
+for the amusement of the poets themselves.
+
+In the school recently established for the daughters of the nobles,
+under the charge of the imperial household, much attention is given to
+the work of thoroughly grounding the scholars in the Japanese language
+and literature, and also to making them skillful in the art of composing
+poetry. At the head of the school, in the highest position held by any
+woman in the employ of the government, is a former court lady, who is
+second to none in the kingdom, not only in her knowledge of all that
+belongs to court etiquette, but in her study of the history and
+literature of her own people, and in her skill in the composition of
+these dainty poems. A year or two ago, when one of the scholars in the
+school died after a brief decline, her schoolmates, teachers, and school
+friends wrote poems upon her death, which they sent to the bereaved
+parents.
+
+It is difficult for any Japanese, much more so for a foreigner, to
+penetrate into the seclusion of the palace and see anything of the life
+there, except what is shown to the public in the occasional
+entertainments given at court, such as formal receptions and dinner
+parties. In 1889, the new palace, built on the site of the old Tokugawa
+Castle, burnt seventeen years ago, was finally completed; and it was my
+privilege to see, before the removal of the court, not only the grand
+reception rooms, throne-room, and dining-room, but also the private
+apartments of the Emperor and Empress. The palace is built in Japanese
+style, surrounded by the old castle moats, but there are many foreign
+additions to the palace and grounds. It is heated and lighted in foreign
+style, and the larger rooms are all furnished after the magnificent
+manner of European palaces; while the lacquer work, carvings, and
+gorgeous paneled ceilings remind one of the finest of Japanese temples.
+The private apartments of the Emperor and Empress are, on the other
+hand, most simple, and in thorough Japanese style; and though the
+woodwork and polished floors of the corridors are very beautiful, the
+paintings and lacquer work most exquisite, there is little in this
+simplicity to denote the abode of royalty. It seems that their
+majesties, though outwardly conforming to many European customs, and to
+the European manner of dress, prefer to live in Japanese ways, on
+matted, not carpeted floors, reposing on them rather than on chairs and
+bedsteads.[*152]
+
+Their apartments are not large; each suite consisting of three rooms
+opening out of each other, the Empress's rooms being slightly smaller
+than the Emperor's, and those of the young Prince Haru, the heir
+apparent, again a little smaller. The young prince has a residence of
+his own, and it is only on his visits that he occupies his apartments in
+his father's palace. There are also rooms for the Empress dowager to
+occupy on her occasional visits. All of these apartments are quite close
+together in one part of the palace, and are connected by halls; but the
+private rooms of the court ladies are in an entirely separate place,
+quite removed, and only connected with the main building by a long,
+narrow passageway, running through the garden. There, in the rooms
+assigned to them, each one has her own private establishment, where she
+stays when she is not on duty in attendance on the Emperor and Empress.
+Each lady has her own servants, and sometimes a younger sister or a
+dependent may be living there with her, though they are entirely
+separate from the court and the life there, and must never be seen in
+any of the other parts of the building. In these rooms, which are like
+little homes in themselves, cooking and housekeeping are done, entirely
+independent of the other parts of the great palace; and the tradesmen
+find their way through some back gate to these little establishments,
+supplying them with all the necessaries of life, as well as the
+luxuries.
+
+A court lady is a personage of distinction, and lives in comparative
+ease and luxury, with plenty of servants to do all the necessary work.
+Besides her salary, which of course varies with the rank and the duties
+performed, but is always liberal enough to cover the necessary expenses
+of dress, the court lady receives many presents from the Emperor and
+Empress, which make her position one of much luxury.
+
+The etiquette of the imperial household is very complicated and very
+strict, though many of the formalities of the olden times have been
+given up. The court ladies are models of conservatism. In order to be
+trained for the life there and its duties, they usually enter the court
+while mere children of ten or eleven, and serve apprenticeship to the
+older members. In the rigid seclusion of the palace they are strictly,
+almost severely, brought up, and trained in all the details of court
+etiquette. Cut off from all outside influences while young, the little
+court maidens are taught to go through an endless round of formalities
+which they are made to think indispensable. These details of etiquette
+extend not only to all that concerns the imperial household, but to
+curious customs among themselves, and in regard to their own habits.
+Many of these ideas have come down from one generation to another,
+within the narrow limits of the court, so that the life there is a
+curious world in itself, and very unlike that in ordinary Japanese
+homes.
+
+But among all the ladies of Japan to-day,--charming, intellectual,
+refined, and lovely as many of them are,--there is no one nobler, more
+accomplished, more beautiful in life and character, than the Empress
+herself. The Emperor of Japan, though he may have many concubines, may
+have but one wife, and she must be chosen out of one of the five highest
+noble families.[29] Haru Ko, of the noble family of Ichijō, became
+Empress in the year 1868, one year after her husband, then a boy of
+seventeen, had ascended the throne, and the very year of the overthrow
+of the Shōgunate,[30] and the restoration of the Emperor to actual
+power and the leading part in the government. Reared amid the deep and
+scholarly seclusion of the old court at Kyōto, the young Empress found
+herself occupying a position very different from that for which she had
+been educated,--a position the duties and responsibilities of which grow
+more multifarious as the years go by. Instead of a life of rigid
+seclusion, unseeing and unseen, the Empress has had to go forth into the
+world, finding there the pleasures as well as the duties of actual
+leadership. With the removal of the court to Tōkyō, and the reappearance
+of the Emperor, in bodily form, before his people, there came new
+opportunities for the Empress, and nobly has she used them. From the
+time when, in 1871, she gave audience to the five little girls of the
+samurai class who were just setting forth on a journey to America, there
+to study and fit themselves to play a part in the Japan of the future,
+on through twenty years of change and progress, the Empress Haru Ko has
+done all that lay within her power to advance the women of her
+country.[*157] Many stories are afloat which show the lovable character
+of the woman, and which have given her an abiding place in the
+affections of the people.
+
+[29] The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any branch of the
+imperial family, but from among the daughters of the five of the great
+_kugé_, or court nobles, who are next in rank to the imperial princes.
+The choice usually rests with the Emperor or his advisers, and would be
+naturally given to the most worthy, whether in beauty or accomplishments.
+No doubt one reason why the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor
+is, that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of the
+Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the Emperor could never
+marry, as all men were far beneath them in rank. These usually devoted
+their lives to religion, and as Shintō priestesses or Buddhist nuns
+dwelt in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of cloisters.
+
+[30] Tokugawa Shōguns were the military rulers of the Tokugawa family,
+who held the power in Japan for a period of two hundred and fifty years.
+They are better known to Americans, perhaps, under the title of _Tycoon_
+(Great Prince), a name assumed, or rather revived, to impress the
+foreigners when Commodore Perry was negotiating in regard to treaties.
+The Shōgun held the daimiōs in forced subjection,--a subjection that was
+shaken in 1862, and broken at last in the year 1868, when, by the fall
+of the Shōgunate, the Emperor was restored to direct power over his
+people.
+
+Some years ago, when the castle in Tōkyō was burned, and the Emperor and
+Empress were obliged to take refuge in an old daimiō's house, a place
+entirely lacking in luxuries and considerably out of repair, some one
+expressed to her the grief that all her people felt, that she should
+have to put up with so many inconveniences. Her response was a graceful
+little poem, in which she said that the narrowness of her abode would
+not limit her love for her people, and that for them she would endeavor
+to explore wisely the unlimited fields of knowledge.
+
+Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwakura, one of the leaders of Japan
+in the early days of the crisis through which the country is still
+passing, lay dying at his home, the Empress sent him word that she was
+coming to visit him. The prince, afraid that he could not do honor to
+such a guest, sent her word back that he was very ill, and unable to
+make proper preparation to entertain an Empress. To this the Empress
+replied that he need make no preparations for her, for she was coming,
+not as an Empress, but as the daughter of Ichijō, his old friend and
+colleague, and as such he could receive her. And then, setting aside
+imperial state and etiquette, she visited the dying statesman, and
+brightened his last hours with the thought of how lovely a woman stood
+as an example before the women of his beloved country.
+
+Many of the charities and schools of new Japan are under the Empress's
+special patronage; and this does not mean simply that she allows her
+name to be used in connection with them, but it means that she thinks of
+them, studies them, asks questions about them, and even practices little
+economies that she may have the more money to give to them. There is a
+charity hospital in Tōkyō, having in connection with it a training
+school for nurses, that is one of the special objects of her care. Last
+year she gave to it, at the end of the year, the savings from her own
+private allowance, and concerning this act an editorial from the "Japan
+Mail" speaks as follows:--
+
+"The life of the Empress of Japan is an unvarying routine of faithful
+duty-doing and earnest charity. The public, indeed, hears with a certain
+listless indifference, engendered by habit, that her Majesty has visited
+this school, or gone round the wards at that hospital. Such incidents
+all seem to fall naturally into the routine of the imperial day's work.
+Yet to the Empress the weariness of long hours spent in classrooms or in
+laboratories, or by the beds of the sick, must soon become quite
+intolerable did she not contrive, out of the goodness of her heart, to
+retain a keen and kindly interest in everything that concerns the
+welfare of her subjects. That her Majesty does feel this interest, and
+that it grows rather than diminishes as the years go by, every one knows
+who has been present on any of the innumerable occasions when the
+promoters of some charity or the directors of some educational
+institution have presented, with merciless precision, all the petty
+details of their projects or organizations for the examination of the
+imperial lady. The latest evidence of her Majesty's benevolence is,
+however, more than usually striking. Since the founding of the Tōkyō
+Charity Hospital, where so many poor women and children are treated, the
+Empress has watched the institution closely, has bestowed on it
+patronage of the most active and helpful character, and has contributed
+handsomely to its funds. Little by little the hospital grew, extending
+its sphere of action and enlarging its ministrations, until the need of
+more capacious premises--a need familiar to such undertakings--began to
+be strongly felt. The Empress, knowing this, cast about for some means
+of assisting this project. To practice strict economy in her own
+personal expenses, and to devote whatever money might thus be saved from
+her yearly income to the aid of the hospital, appears to have suggested
+itself to her Majesty as the most feasible method of procedure. The
+result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90 sen, and 8 rin has just been
+handed over to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter and mainstay of the
+hospital, by Viscount Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamberlains. There
+is something picturesque about these sen and rin. They represent an
+account minutely and faithfully kept between her Majesty's unavoidable
+expenses and the benevolent impulse that constantly urged her to curtail
+them. Such gracious acts of sterling effort command admiration and
+love."
+
+Not very long ago, on one of her visits to the hospital, the Empress
+visited the children's ward, and took with her toys, which she gave with
+her own hand to each child there. When we consider that this hospital is
+free to the poorest and lowest person in Tōkyō, and that twenty years
+ago the persons of the Emperor and Empress were so sacred in the eyes of
+the people that no one but the highest nobles and the near officials of
+the court could come into their presence,--that even these high nobles
+were received at court by the Emperor at a distance of many feet, and
+his face even then could not be seen,--when we think of all this, we can
+begin to appreciate what the Empress Haru has done in bridging the
+distance between herself and her people so that the poorest child of a
+beggar may receive a gift from her hand. In the country places to this
+day, there are peasants who yet believe that no one can look on the
+sacred face of the Emperor and live.
+
+The school for the daughters of the nobles, to which I have before
+referred, is an institution whose welfare the Empress has very closely
+at heart, for she sees the need of rightly combining the new and the old
+in the education of the young girls who will so soon be filling places
+in the court. At the opening of the school the Empress was present, and
+herself made a speech to the scholars; and her visits, at intervals of
+one or two months, show her continued interest in the work that she has
+begun. Upon all state occasions, the scholars, standing with bowed heads
+as if in prayer, sing a little song written for them by the Empress
+herself; and at the graduating exercises, the speeches and addresses are
+listened to by her with the profoundest interest. The best specimens of
+poetry, painting, and composition done by the scholars are sent to the
+palace for her inspection, and some of these are kept by her in her own
+private rooms. When she visits the class-rooms, she does not simply pass
+in and pass out again, as if doing a formal duty, but sits for half an
+hour or so listening intently, and watching the faces of the scholars
+as they recite. In sewing and cooking classes (for the daughters of the
+nobles are taught to sew and cook), she sometimes speaks to the
+scholars, asking them questions. Upon one occasion she observed a young
+princess, a newcomer in the school, working somewhat awkwardly with
+needle and thimble. "The first time, Princess, is it not?" said the
+Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed Princess was obliged to confess
+that this was her first experience with those domestic implements.
+
+Sometimes in her leisure hours--and they are rare in her busy life--the
+Empress amuses herself by receiving the little daughters of some
+imperial prince or nobleman, or even the children of some of the high
+officials. In the kindness of her heart, she takes great pleasure in
+seeing and talking to these little ones, some of whom are intensely awed
+by being in the presence of the Empress, while others, in their
+innocence, ignorant of all etiquette, prattle away unrestrainedly, to
+the great entertainment of the court ladies as well as of the Empress
+herself. These visits always end with some choice toy or gift, which
+the child takes home and keeps among her most valued treasures in
+remembrance of her imperial hostess. In this way the Empress relieves
+the loneliness of the great palace, where the sound of childish voices
+is seldom heard, for the Emperor's children are brought up in separate
+establishments, and only pay occasional visits to the palace, until they
+have passed early childhood.[31]
+
+[31] The Emperor's children are placed, from birth, in the care of some
+noble or high official, who becomes the guardian of the child. Certain
+persons are appointed as attendants, and the child with its retinue
+lives in the establishment of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise
+his judgment and experience in the physical and mental training of the
+child.
+
+The present life of the Empress is not very different from that of
+European royalty. Her carriage and escort are frequently met with in the
+streets of Tōkyō as she goes or returns on one of her numerous visits of
+ceremony or beneficence. Policemen keep back the crowds of people who
+always gather to see the imperial carriage, and stand respectfully, but
+without demonstration, while the horsemen carrying the imperial
+insignia, followed closely by the carriages of the Empress and her
+attendants, pass by. The official Gazette announces almost daily visits
+by the Emperor, Empress, or other members of the imperial family, to
+different places of interest,--sometimes to various palaces in different
+parts of Tōkyō, at other times to schools, charitable institutions or
+exhibitions, as well as occasional visits to the homes of high officials
+or nobles, for which great preparations are made by those who have the
+honor of entertaining their Majesties.
+
+Among the amusements within the palace grounds, one lately introduced,
+and at present in high favor, is that of horseback-riding, an exercise
+hitherto unknown to the ladies of Japan. The Empress and her ladies are
+said to be very fond of this active exercise,--an amusement forming a
+striking contrast to the quiet of former years.
+
+The grounds about the palaces in Tōkyō are most beautifully laid out and
+cultivated, but not in that artificial manner, with regular flower beds
+and trees at certain equal distances, which is seen so often in the
+highly cultivated grounds of the rich in this country. The landscape
+gardening of Japan keeps unchanged the wildness and beauty of nature,
+and imitates it closely. The famous flowers, however, are, in the
+imperial gardens, changed by art and cultivated to their highest
+perfection, blooming each season for the enjoyment of the members of the
+court. Especially is attention given to the cultivation of the imperial
+flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum; and some day in November, when this
+flower is in its perfection, the gates of the Akasaka palace are thrown
+open to invited guests, who are received in person by the Emperor and
+Empress. Here the rarest species of this favorite flower, and the oddest
+colors and shapes, the results of much care and cultivation, are
+exhibited in spacious beds, shaded by temporary roofs of bamboo twigs
+and decorated with the imperial flags. This is the great chrysanthemum
+party of the Emperor, and another of similar character is given in the
+spring under the flower-laden boughs of the cherry trees.
+
+In these various ways the Empress shows herself to her people,--a
+gracious and lovely figure, though distant, as she needs must be, from
+common, every-day life. Only by glimpses do the people know her, but
+those glimpses reveal enough to excite the warmest admiration, the most
+tender love. Childless herself, destined to see a child not her own,
+although her husband's, heir to the throne, the Empress devotes her
+lonely and not too happy life to the actual, personal study of the wants
+of daughters of her people, and side by side with Jingo,[32] the
+majestic but shadowy Empress of the past, should be enshrined in the
+hearts of the women of Japan the memory of Haru Ko, the leader of her
+countrywomen into that freer and happier life that is opening to them.
+
+[32] Jingo Kōgō, like many of the heroic, half mythical figures of other
+nations, has suffered somewhat under the assaults of the modern
+historical criticism. Many of the best Japanese historians deny that she
+conquered Corea; some go so far as to doubt whether she had right to the
+title of Empress; all are sure that much of romance has gathered about
+the figure of this brave woman; but to the mass of the Japanese to-day,
+she is still an actual historic reality, and she represents to them in
+feminine form the Spirit of Japan. Whether she conquered Corea or no,
+she remains the prominent female figure upon the border line where the
+old barbaric life merges into the newer civilization, just as the
+present Empress, Haru Ko, stands upon the border line between the
+Eastern and the Western modes of thought and life.
+
+Each marks the beginning of a new era,--the first, of the era of
+civilization and morality founded upon the teachings of Buddha and
+Confucius; the second, of the civilization and morality that have sprung
+from the teachings of Christ. Buddhism and Confucianism were elevating
+and civilizing, but failed to place the women of Japan upon even as high
+a plane as they had occupied in the old barbaric times. To Christianity
+they must look for the security and happiness which it has never failed
+to give to the wives and mothers of all Christian nations.[*168]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI.[33]
+
+
+The seclusion of the Emperors and the gathering of the reins of
+government into the hands of Shōguns was a gradual process, beginning
+not long after the introduction of Chinese civilization, and continuing
+to grow until Iyéyasŭ, the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty, through his
+code of laws, took from the Emperor the last vestige of real power, and
+perfected the feudal system which maintained the sway of his house for
+two hundred and fifty years of peace.
+
+[33] _Yashiki_, or spread-out house, was the name given to the palace
+and grounds of a daimiō's city residence, and also to the barracks
+occupied by his retainers, both in city and country. In the city the
+barracks of the samurai were built as a hollow square, in the centre of
+which stood the palace and grounds of their lord, and this whole place
+was the daimiō's _yashiki_. In the castle towns the daimiō's palace and
+gardens stood within the castle inclosure, surrounded by a moat, while
+the _yashikis_ of the samurai were placed without the moat. They in turn
+were separated from the business part of the village sometimes by a
+second or third moat. By life in castle and _yashiki_ we mean the life
+of the daimiō, whether in city or country.
+
+The Emperor's court, with its literary and æsthetic quiet, its
+simplicity of life and complexity of etiquette, was the centre of the
+culture and art of Japan, but never the centre of luxury. After the
+growth of the Tokugawa power had secured for that house and its
+retainers great hereditary possessions, the Emperor's court was a mere
+shadow in the presence of the magnificence in which the Tokugawas and
+the daimiōs chose to live. The wealth of the country was in the hands of
+those who held the real power, and the Emperor was dependent for his
+support upon his great vassal, who held the land, collected the taxes,
+made the laws, and gave to his master whatever seemed necessary for his
+maintenance in the simple style of the old days, keeping for himself and
+for his retainers enough to make Yedo, the Tokugawa capital, the centre
+of a luxury far surpassing anything ever seen at the Emperor's own
+court. While the _kugé_, the old imperial nobility, formerly the
+governors of the provinces under the Emperors, lived in respectable but
+often extreme poverty at Kyōto, the landed nobility, or daimiōs,
+brought, after many struggles, under the sway of the Tokugawas, built
+for themselves palaces and pleasure gardens in the moated city of Yedo.
+At Yedo with its castle, its gardens, its _yashikis_, and its
+fortifications, was established a new court, more luxurious, but less
+artistic and cultivated, than the old court of Kyōto. In the various
+provinces, too, at every castle town, a little court arose about the
+castle, and the daimiō became not only the feudal chief, but the patron
+of literature and art among his people, as the years went by filling his
+_kura_ with choice works of art, in lacquer, bronze, silver, and
+pottery, to be brought out on special occasions. These nobles, under a
+law of Iyémitsŭ, the third of the Tokugawa line, were compelled to spend
+half of each year at the city of the Shōguns; and each had his
+_yashiki_, or large house and garden, in the city. At this house, his
+family must reside permanently, as hostages for the loyalty of their
+lord while away. The annual journeys to and from Yedo were events not
+only in the lives of the daimiōs and their trains of retainers, but in
+the lives of the country people who lived along the roads by which they
+must travel. The time and style of each journey for each daimiō were
+rigidly prescribed in the laws of Iyémitsŭ, as well as the behavior of
+the country people who might meet the procession moving towards Yedo, or
+returning therefrom. When some noble, or any member of his family, was
+to pass through a certain section of the country, great preparations
+were made beforehand. Not only was traffic stopped along the route, but
+every door and window had to be closed. By no means was any one to show
+himself, or to look in any way upon the passing procession. To do so was
+to commit a profane deed, punishable by a fine. Among other things, no
+cooking was allowed on that day. All the food must be prepared the day
+before, as the air was supposed to become polluted by the smoke from the
+fires. Thus through crowded cities, full and busy with life, the daimiō
+in his curtained palanquin, with numerous retinue, would pass by; but
+wherever he approached, the place would be as deserted and silent as if
+plague-stricken. It is hardly necessary to add that these journeys,
+attended with so much ceremony and inconvenience to the people, were
+not as frequent as the trips now taken, at a moment's notice, from one
+city to another, by these very same men.
+
+One story current in Tōkyō shows the narrowing effect of such seclusion.
+A noble who had traveled into Yedo, across one of the large bridges
+built over the Sumida River, remarked one day to his companions that he
+was greatly disappointed on seeing that bridge. "From the pictures," he
+said, "which I have seen, the bridge seemed alive with people, the
+centre of life and activity, but the artists must exaggerate, for not a
+soul was on the bridge when I passed by."
+
+The castle of the Shōgun in Yedo, with its moats and fortifications, and
+its fine house and great _kura_, was reproduced on a small scale in the
+castles scattered through the country; and as in Yedo the _yashikis_ of
+the daimiōs stood next to the inner moat of the castle, that the
+retainers might be ready to defend their lord at his earliest call, so
+in the provinces the _yashikis_ of the samurai occupied a similar
+position about the daimiō's castle.
+
+It is curious to see that, as the Shōgun took away the military and
+temporal power of the Emperor, making of him only a figure-head without
+real power, so, to a certain degree, the daimiō gave up, little by
+little, the personal control of his own province, the power falling into
+the hands of ambitious samurai, who became the councilors of their lord.
+The samurai were the learned class and the military class; they were and
+are the life of Japan; and it is no wonder that the nobles, protected
+and shielded from the world, and growing up without much education,
+should have changed in the course of centuries from strong, brave
+warriors into the delicate, effeminate, luxury-loving nobles of the
+present day. Upon the loyalty and wisdom of the samurai, often upon some
+one man of undoubted ability, rested the greatness of the province and
+the prosperity of the master's house.
+
+The life of the ladies in these daimiōs' houses is still a living memory
+to many of the older women of Japan; but it is a memory only, and has
+given place to a different state of things. The Emperor occupies the
+castle of the Shōgun to-day, and every daimiō's castle throughout the
+country is in the hands of the imperial government. The old pleasure
+gardens of the nobles are turned into arsenals, schools, public parks,
+and other improvements of the new era. But here and there one finds some
+conservative family of nobles still keeping up in some measure the
+customs of former times; and daimiōs' houses there are still in Tōkyō,
+though stripped of power and of retainers, where life goes on in many
+ways much as it did in the old days. In such a house as this, one finds
+ladies-in-waiting, of the samurai rank, who serve her ladyship--the
+daimiō's wife--in all personal service. In the old days, the daughters
+of the samurai were eager for the training in etiquette, and in all that
+belongs to nice housekeeping, that might be obtained by a few years of
+apprenticeship in a daimiō's house, and gladly assumed the most menial
+positions for the sake of the education and reputation to be gained by
+such training.
+
+The wife and daughters of a daimiō led the quietest of lives, rarely
+passing beyond the four great walls that inclose the palace with its
+grounds. They saw the changes of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed
+in their lovely gardens, when, followed by numerous attendants, they
+slowly walked through the bamboo groves or under the bloom-laden boughs
+of the plum or cherry trees, forming their views of life, its pleasures,
+its responsibilities, and its meaning, within the narrow limits of the
+daimiō's _yashiki_.
+
+Their mornings were passed in the adorning of their own persons, and in
+the elaborate dressing of their luxuriant hair; the afternoons were
+spent in the tea ceremony, in writing poetry, or the execution of a sort
+of silk mosaic that is a favorite variety of fancy work still among the
+ladies of Japan.
+
+A story is told of one of the Tokugawa princesses that illustrates the
+amusements of the Shōgun's daughters, and the pains that were taken to
+gratify their wishes, however unreasonable. The cherry-trees of the
+castle gardens of Tōkyō are noted for their beauty when in bloom during
+the month of April. It is said that once a daughter of the Tokugawa
+house expressed a wish to give a garden party amid the blossoming
+cherry-trees in the month of December, and nothing would do but that her
+wishes must be carried out. Her retainers accordingly summoned to their
+aid skillful artificers, who from pink and white tissue paper produced
+myriads of cherry blossoms, so natural that they could hardly be
+distinguished from the real ones. These they fastened upon the trees in
+just such places as the real flowers would have chosen to occupy, and
+the happy princess gave her garden party in December under the pink mist
+of cherry blooms.
+
+The children of a daimiō's wife occupied her attention but little. They
+were placed in the charge of careful attendants, and the mother, though
+allowed to see them when she wished, was deprived of the pleasure of
+constant intercourse with them, and had none of the mother's cares which
+form so large a part of life to an ordinary Japanese woman.
+
+When we know that the average Japanese girl is brought up strictly by
+her own mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedience and in all that is
+proper as regards etiquette and the duties of woman, we can imagine the
+narrowness of the education of the daimiō's poor little daughter,
+surrounded, from early childhood, with numerous attendants of the
+strictest sort, to teach her all that is proper according to the
+highest and severest standards. Sometimes, by the whim or the indulgence
+of parents, or through exceptional circumstances in her surroundings, a
+samurai's daughter became more independent, more self-reliant, or better
+educated, than others of her rank; but such opportunities never came to
+the more carefully reared noble's daughter.
+
+From her earliest childhood, she was addressed in the politest and most
+formal way, so that she could not help acquiring polite manners and
+speech. She was taught etiquette above all things, so that no rude
+action or speech would disgrace her rank; and that she should give due
+reverence to her superiors, courtesy to equals, and polite condescension
+to inferiors. She was taught especially to show kindness to the families
+under the rule of her father, and was early told of the noble's duty to
+protect and love his retainers, as a father loves and protects his
+children. From childhood, presents were made in her name to those around
+her, often without her previous knowledge or permission, and from them
+she would receive profuse thanks,--lessons in the delights of
+beneficence which could not fail to make their impression on the child
+princess. Even to inferiors she used the polite language,[34] and never
+the rude, brusque speech of men, or the careless phrases and expressions
+of the lower classes.
+
+[34] The Japanese language is full of expressions showing different
+shades of meaning in the politeness or respect implied. There are words
+and expressions which superiors in rank use to inferiors, or _vice
+versa_, and others used among equals. Some phrases belong especially to
+the language of the high-born, just as there are common expressions of
+the people. Some verbs in this extremely complex language must be
+altered in their termination according to the degree of honor in which
+the subject of the action is held in the speaker's mind.
+
+The education of the daimiō's daughter was conducted entirely at
+home.[35] Instead of going out to masters for instruction, she was
+taught by some one in the household,--one of her father's retainers, or
+perhaps a member of her own private retinue. Teachers for certain
+branches came from outside, and these were not expected to give the
+lesson within a certain time and hurry away, but they would remain,
+conversing, sipping tea, and partaking of sweetmeats, until their noble
+pupil was ready to receive them. Hospitality required that the teacher
+be offered a meal after the lesson, and this meal etiquette would not
+permit him to refuse, so that both teacher and pupil must spend much
+time waiting for each other and for the lesson.
+
+[35] The establishment of the peeress' school, mentioned in the last
+chapter, is a great innovation upon the old-time ways of many of the
+aristocratic families.
+
+Pursued in this leisurely way, the education of the noble's daughter
+could not advance very rapidly, and it usually ended with an extremely
+early marriage; and the girl wife would sometimes play with her doll in
+the new home until the living baby took its place to the young mother.
+
+The samurai women, who in one position or another were close attendants
+on these noble ladies, performing for them every act of service, were
+often women of more than average intelligence and education. From
+childhood to old age, the noble ladies were never without one or more of
+these maids of honor, close at hand to help or advise. Some entered the
+service in the lower positions for only a short period, leaving sooner
+or later to be married; for continued service in a daimiō's household
+meant a single life. Many of them remained in the palace all their days,
+leading lives of devotion to their mistress; the comfort and ease of
+which hardly compensated for the endless formalities and the monotonous
+seclusion.
+
+Even the less responsible and more menial positions were not looked down
+upon, and the higher offices in the household were exceedingly
+honorable. When, once in a long while, a day's leave of absence was
+granted to one of these gentlewomen, and, loaded with presents sent by
+the daimiō's lady, she went on her visit to her home, she was received
+as a greatly honored member of her own family. The respect which was
+paid to her knowledge of etiquette and dress was never lessened because
+of the menial services she might have performed for those of noble
+blood.
+
+The lady who was the head attendant, and those in the higher positions,
+had a great deal of power and influence in matters that concerned their
+mistress and the household; just as the male retainers decided for the
+prince, and in their own way, many of the affairs of the province. The
+few conservative old ladies, the last relics of the numerous retainers
+that once filled the castle, who still remain faithful in attendance in
+the homes now deprived of the grandeur of the olden times, look with
+horror upon the innovations of the present day, and sigh for the glory
+of old Japan. It is only upon compulsion that they give up many of the
+now useless formalities, and resign themselves to seeing their once so
+honored lords jostle elbow to elbow with the common citizen.
+
+I shall never forget the horror of one old lady, attendant on a noble's
+daughter of high rank, just entering the peeress' school, when it was
+told her that each student must carry in her own bundle of books and
+arrange them herself, and that the attendants were not allowed in the
+classroom. The poor old lady was doubtless indignant at the thought that
+her noble-born mistress should have to perform even so slight a task as
+the arranging of her own desk unaided.[*182]
+
+In the daimiōs' houses there was little of the culture or wit that
+graced the more aristocratic seclusion of Kyōto, and none of the duties
+and responsibilities that belonged to the samurai women, so that the
+life of the daimiō's lady was perhaps more purposeless, and less
+stimulating to the noble qualities, than the lives of any other of the
+women of Japan. Surrounded by endless restrictions of etiquette, lacking
+both the stimulus that comes from physical toil and that to be derived
+from intellectual exertion, the ladies of this class of the nobility
+simply vegetated. There is little wonder that the nobles degenerated
+both mentally and physically during the years when the Tokugawas held
+sway; for there was absolutely nothing in the lives of the women to fit
+them to be the wives and mothers of strong men. Delicate, dainty,
+refined, dexterous in all manner of little things but helpless to act
+for themselves,--ladies to the inmost core of their beings, with
+instincts of honor and of _noblesse oblige_ appearing in them from
+earliest childhood,--the years of seclusion, of deference from hundreds
+of retainers, of constant instruction in the duties as well as the
+dignities of their position, have produced an abiding effect upon the
+minds of the women of this aristocracy, and to-day even the youngest and
+smallest of them have the virtues as well as the failings produced by
+nearly three centuries of training. They are lacking in force, in
+ambition, in clearness of thought, among a nation abounding in those
+qualities; but the national characteristics of dignity, charming
+manners, a quick sense of honor, and indomitable pride of race and
+nation, combined with a personal modesty almost deprecating in its
+humility,--these are found among the daughters of the nobles developed
+to their highest extent. With the qualities of gentleness and delicacy
+possessed by these ladies, which make them shrink from rough contact
+with the outer world, there are mingled the stronger qualities of moral
+and physical courage. A daimiō's wife, as befitted the wife of a warrior
+and the daughter of long generations of brave men, never shrank from
+facing danger and death when necessary; and considered the taking of her
+own life an honorable and easy escape from being captured by her enemy.
+
+Two or three little ripples from the past broke into my life in Tōkyō,
+giving a little insight into those old feudal times, and the customs
+that were common then, but that are now gone forever. A story was told
+me in Japan by a lady who had herself, as a child, witnessed the events
+narrated. It illustrates the responsibility felt by the retainers for
+their lord and his house. A daimiō fell into disgrace with the Shōgun,
+and was banished to his own capital,--a castle town several days'
+journey from Yedo,--as a punishment for some offense. The castle gates
+were closed, and no communication with the outer world allowed. During
+this period of disgrace, it happened that the noble fell ill, and died
+quite suddenly before his punishment was ended. His death under such
+circumstances was the most terrible thing that could befall either
+himself or his family, as his funeral must be without the ordinary
+tokens of respect; and his tombstone, instead of bearing tribute to his
+virtues, and the favor in which he had been held by his lord, must be
+simply the monument of his disgrace. This being the case, the retainers
+felt that these evils must be averted at any cost. Knowing that the
+Shōgun's anger was probably not so great as to make him wish to bring
+eternal disgrace to their dead lord, they at once decided to send a
+messenger to the Shōgun, begging for pardon on the plea of desperate
+illness, and asking the restoration of his favor before the approach of
+death. The death was not announced, but the floor of the room in which
+the man had died was lifted up, and the body let down to the ground
+beneath; and through all the town it was announced that the daimiō was
+hopelessly ill. Forty days passed before the Shōgun sent to the
+retainers the token that the disgrace was removed, and during all those
+forty days, in castle and barrack and village, the fiction of the
+daimiō's illness was kept up. As soon as the messengers returned, the
+body was drawn up again through the floor and placed on the bed; and all
+the retainers, from the least unto the greatest, were summoned into the
+room to congratulate their master upon his restoration to favor. One by
+one they entered the darkened room, prostrated themselves before the
+corpse, and uttered the formal words of congratulation. Then when all,
+even to the little girl who, grown to womanhood, told me the story, had
+been through the horrible ceremony, it was announced that the master was
+dead,--that he had died immediately after the return of the messenger
+with the good tidings of pardon. All obstacles being thus removed, the
+funeral was celebrated with due pomp and circumstance; and the tombstone
+of the daimiō to-day gives no hint of the disgrace from which he so
+narrowly escaped.
+
+Another instance very similar, throwing some light on the custom of
+adoption or _yōshi_, referred to in a previous chapter, was the case of
+a nobleman who died without children, and without an heir appointed to
+inherit his title. It would never have done, in sending in the official
+notice of death, to be unable to name the legal head of the house and
+the successor to the title. There was also no male relative to perform
+the office of chief mourner at the funeral; and so the death of the
+nobleman was kept secret, and his house showed no signs of mourning
+during a long period, until a son satisfactory to all the members of the
+household had been adopted. When the legal notice of the adoption had
+been sent in, and the son received into the family as heir, then, and
+only then, was the death of the lord announced, the period of mourning
+begun, and the funeral ceremony performed.
+
+Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japanese lady, who knew the interest
+that I took in seeing and procuring the old-fashioned embroidered
+_kimonos_, which are now entirely out of style in Japan, and which can
+only be obtained at second-hand clothing stores, or at private sale. My
+friend said that she had just been shown an assortment of old garments
+which were offered at private sale by the heirs of a lady, recently
+deceased, who had once been a maid of honor in a daimiō's house. The
+clothes were still in the house, and were brought in, in a great basket,
+for my inspection. Very beautiful garments they were, of silk, crêpe,
+and linen, embroidered elaborately, and in extremely good order. Many of
+them seemed not to have been worn at all, but had been kept folded away
+for years, and only brought out when a fitting occasion came round at
+the proper season of the year. As we turned over the beautiful fabrics,
+a black broadcloth garment at the bottom of the basket aroused my
+curiosity, and I pulled it out and held it up for closer inspection. A
+curious garment it was, bound with white, and with a great white crest
+_appliqué_ on the middle of the back. Curious white stripes gave the
+coat a military look, and it seemed appropriate rather to the wardrobe
+of some two-sworded warrior than to that of a gentlewoman of the old
+type. To the question, How did such a coat come to be in such a place?
+the older lady of the company--one to whom the old days were still the
+natural order and the new customs an exotic growth--explained that the
+garment rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any lady-in-waiting in a
+daimiō's house, for it was made to wear in case of fire or attack when
+the men were away, and the women were expected to guard the premises.
+Further search among the relics of the past brought to light the rest of
+the costume: silk _hakama_, or full kilted trousers; a stiff, manlike
+black silk cap bound with a white band; and a spear cover of broadcloth,
+with a great white crest upon it, like the one on the broadcloth coat.
+These made up the uniform which must be donned in time of need by the
+ladies of the palace or the castle, for the defense of their lord's
+property. They had been folded away for twenty years among the
+embroidered robes, to come to light at last for the purpose of showing
+to a foreigner a phase of the old life that was so much a matter of
+course to the older Japanese that it never occurred to them even to
+mention it to a stranger. The elder lady of the house was wonderfully
+amused at my interest in these mute memorials of the past, and could
+never comprehend why I was willing to expend the sum of one dollar for
+the sake of gaining possession of a set of garments for which I could
+have no possible use. The uniform had probably never been worn in actual
+warfare, but its owner had been trained in the use of the long-handled
+spear, the cover of which she had kept stored away all these years; and
+had regarded herself as liable to be called into action at any time as
+one of the home guard, when the male retainers of her lord were in the
+field.
+
+There are in the shops of Tōkyō to-day hundreds of colored prints
+illustrating the splendor of the Shōgunate; for the fine clothes, the
+pageants, the show and display that ended with the fall of the house of
+Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular mind. In these one sees
+reproduced, in more than their original brilliancy of coloring, the
+daimiōs, with their trains of uniformed retainers, proceeding in stately
+pageant to the palace of the Shōgun; the games, the dances, the reviews
+held before the Shōgun himself; the princess, with her train of ladies
+and attendants, visiting the cherry blossoms at Uyéno, or crossing some
+swift but shallow river on her journey to Yedo. There one sees the fleet
+of red-lacquered pleasure barges in which the Shōgun with his court
+sailed up the river to Mukōjima, in the spring, to view the cherry-trees
+which bloom along the banks for miles. One sees, too, the interiors of
+the daimiōs' houses, the intimate domestic scenes into which no outsider
+could ever penetrate. One picture shows the excitements consequent upon
+the advent of an heir to a noble house,--the happy mother on her couch,
+surrounded by brightly dressed ladies-in-waiting; the baby in the room
+adjoining; another group of brilliant beings preparing his bath; while
+down the long piazza, which opens upon the little courtyard in the
+centre of the house, one sees still other groups of servants, bringing
+the gifts with which the great mansion is flooded at such a time. Still
+further away, across the courtyard, are the doctors, holding learned
+consultation around a little table, and mixing medicines to secure the
+health and strength of both mother and baby.
+
+The fall of the Shōgunate, and the abolition of castle and _yashiki_,
+have made a radical change in the fashions of dress in Japan. One sees
+no longer the beautiful embroidered robes, except upon the stage, for
+the abolition of the great leisure class has put the flowered _kimono_
+out of fashion. There are no courts, small and great, scattered all
+through the country, where the ladies must be dressed in changing styles
+for the changing seasons, and where the embroideries that imitate most
+closely the natural flowers are sure of a market. When one asks, as
+every foreigner is likely to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's
+acquaintance, "Why have you given up the beautiful embroideries and
+gorgeous colors that you used to wear?" the answer always is, "There are
+no daimiōs' houses now." And this is regarded as a sufficient
+explanation of the change.[*192]
+
+I have in my possession to-day two dainty bits of the silk mosaic work
+before mentioned, the work of the sixteen-year-old wife of one of the
+proudest and most conservative of the present generation of nobles. A
+dainty little creature she was, with a face upon which her two years of
+wifehood and one year of motherhood had left no trace of care. Living
+amid her host of ladies and women servants, most of them older and wiser
+than herself; having no care and no amusements save the easy task of
+keeping herself pretty and well-dressed, and the amusement of watching
+her baby grow, and hearing the chance rumors that might come to her from
+the great new world into which her husband daily went, but with which
+she herself never mingled,--her days were one pleasant, monotonous
+round, unawakening alike either to soul or intellect. Into this life of
+remoteness from all that belongs to the new era, imagine the excitement
+produced by the advent of a foreign lady, with an educated dog, whose
+wonderful intelligence had been already related to her by one of her own
+ladies-in-waiting. I shall always believe that my invitation into that
+exclusive house was due largely to the reports of my dog, carried to its
+proprietors by one of the lady servitors who had seen him perform upon
+one occasion. Certain it is that the first words of the little lady of
+the house to me were a question about the dog; and her last act of
+politeness to our party was a warm embrace of the handsome collie, who
+had given unimpeachable evidence that he understood a great deal of
+English,--a tongue which the daimiō himself was painfully learning. The
+dainty child-wife with both arms buried in the heavy ruff of the
+astonished dog is a picture that comes to me often, and that brings up
+most pathetically the monotony of an existence into which so small a
+thing can bring so much. The lifelike black and white silk puppy, the
+creeping baby doll from Kyōto, the silk mosaic box and chopstick
+case,--the work of my lady's delicate fingers,--are most agreeable
+reminders of the kindness and sweetness of the little wife, whose
+sixteen summers have been spent among the surroundings of thirty years
+ago, and who lives, like the enchanted princess of the fairy tales,
+wrapped about by a spell which separates her from the bustling world of
+to-day. The product of the past,--the daughter of the last of the
+Shōguns,--she dwells in her enchanted house, among the relics of a past
+which is still the present to her and to her household. So lovely, so
+æsthetic, so dainty and charming seems the world into which one enters
+there, that one would not care to break the spell that holds it as it
+is, and let the girl-wife, with her gentlewomen and her kneeling
+servants, hurry forward into the busy, perplexing life of to-day. May
+time deal gently with her and hers, nor rudely break the enchantment
+that surrounds her!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SAMURAI WOMEN.
+
+
+Samurai was the name given to the military class among the Japanese,--a
+class intermediate between the Emperor and his nobles and the great mass
+of the common people who were engaged in agriculture, mechanical arts,
+or trade. Upon the samurai rested the defense of the country from
+enemies at home or abroad, as well as the preservation of literature and
+learning, and the conduct of all official business. At the time of the
+fall of feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four millions of
+Japanese, about two million samurai; and in this class, in the broadest
+sense of the word, must be included the daimiōs, as well as their
+two-sworded retainers. But as the greater among the samurai were
+distinguished by special class names, the word as commonly used, and as
+used throughout this work, applies to the military class, who served
+the Shōgun and the daimiōs, and who were supported by yearly allowances
+from the treasuries of their lords. These form a distinct class,
+actuated by motives quite different from those of the lower classes, and
+filling a great place in the history of the country. As the nobility,
+through long inheritance of power and wealth, became weak in body and
+mind, the samurai grew to be, more and more, not only the sword, but the
+brain of Japan; and to-day the great work of bringing the country out of
+the middle ages into the nineteenth century is being performed by the
+samurai more than by any other class.
+
+What, it may be asked, are the traits of the samurai which distinguish
+them, and make them such honored types of the perfect Japanese
+gentleman, so that to live and die worthy the name of samurai was the
+highest ambition of the soldier? The samurai's duty may be expressed in
+one word, loyalty,--loyalty to his lord and master, and loyalty to his
+country,--loyalty so true and deep that for it all human ties, hopes,
+and affections, wife, children, and home, must be sacrificed if
+necessary. Those who have read the tale of "The Loyal Rōnins"[36]--a
+story which has been so well told by Mitford, Dickins, and Greey that
+many readers must be already familiar with it--will remember that the
+head councilor and retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for revenge for
+his lord's unjust death, divorces his wife and sends off his children,
+that they may not distract his thoughts from his plans; and performs his
+famous act of revenge without once seeing his wife, only letting her
+know at his death his faithfulness to her and the true cause of his
+seeming cruelty. And the wife, far from feeling wronged by such an act,
+only glories in the loyalty of her husband, who threw aside everything
+to fulfill his one great duty, even though she herself was his unhappy
+victim.
+
+[36] _Rōnin_ was the term applied to a samurai who had lost his master,
+and owed no feudal allegiance to any daimiō. The exact meaning of the
+word is _wave-man_, signifying one who wanders to and fro without
+purpose, like a wave driven by the wind.
+
+The true samurai is always brave, never fearing death or suffering in
+any form. Life and death are alike to him, if no disgrace is attached to
+his name.
+
+An incident comes into my mind which may serve as an example of the
+samurai spirit,--a spirit which has filled the history of Japan with
+heroic deeds. It is the story of a long siege, at the end of which the
+little garrison in the besieged castle was reduced to the last stages of
+endurance, though hourly expecting reinforcement. In this state of
+affairs, the great question is, whether to wait for the expected aid, or
+to surrender immediately, and the answer to the question can only be
+obtained through a knowledge of the enemy's strength. At this juncture,
+one of the samurai volunteers to steal into the camp of the besiegers,
+inspect their forces, and report their strength before the final
+decision is made. He disguises himself, and through various chances is
+able to penetrate, unsuspected, into the midst of the enemy's camp. He
+discovers that the besiegers are so weak that they cannot maintain the
+siege much longer, but while returning to the castle he is recognized
+and taken by the enemy. His captors give him one chance for escape from
+the horrible death of crucifixion. He is to go to the edge of the moat,
+and, standing on an elevated place, shout out to the soldiers that they
+must surrender, for the forces are too strong for them. He seemingly
+consents to this, and, led down to the water's edge, he sees across the
+moat his wife and child, who greet him with demonstrations of joy. To
+her he waves his hand; then, bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard
+by friend and foe, he shouts out the true tidings, "Wait for
+reinforcement at any cost, for the besiegers are weak and will soon have
+to give up." At these words his enraged enemies seize him and put him to
+a death of horrible torture, but he smiles in their faces as he tells
+them the sweetness of such a sacrifice for his master. Japanese history
+abounds with heroic deeds of blood displaying the indomitable courage of
+the samurai. In the reading of them, we are often reminded of the
+Spartan spirit of warfare, and samurai women are in some ways very like
+those Spartan mothers who would rather die than see their sons branded
+as cowards.
+
+The implicit obedience which samurai gave their lords, when conflicting
+with feelings of loyalty to their country, often produced two opposing
+forces which had to be overcome. When the daimiō gave orders that the
+keener-sighted retainer felt would not be for the good of the house, he
+had either to disobey his lord, or act against his feeling of loyalty.
+Divided between the two duties, the samurai would usually do as he
+thought right for his country or his lord, disobeying his master's
+orders; write a confession of his real motives; and save his name from
+disgrace by committing suicide. By this act he would atone for his
+disobedience, and his loyalty would never be questioned.
+
+The now abolished custom of _hara-kiri_, or the voluntary taking of
+one's life to avoid disgrace, and blot out entirely or partially the
+stain on an honorable name, is a curious custom which has come down from
+old times. The ancient heroes stabbed themselves as calmly as they did
+their enemies, and women as well as men knew how to use the short
+sword[37] worn always at the side of the samurai, his last and easy
+escape from shame.
+
+[37] The samurai always wore two swords, a long one for fighting only,
+and a short one for defense when possible, but, as a last resort, for
+_hara-kiri_. The sword is the emblem of the samurai spirit, and as such
+is respected and honored. A samurai took pride in keeping his swords as
+sharp and shining as was possible. He was never seen without the two
+swords, but the longer one he removed and left at the front door when he
+entered the house of a friend. To use a sword badly, to harm or injure
+it, or to step over it, was considered an insult to the owner.
+
+The young men of this class, as well as their masters, the daimiōs, were
+early instructed in the method of this self-stabbing, so that it might
+be cleanly and easily done, for a bloody and unseemly death would not
+redound to the honor of the suicide. The fatal cut was not instantaneous
+in its effect, and there was always opportunity for that display of
+courage--that show of disregard for death or pain--which was expected of
+the brave man.
+
+The _hara-kiri_ was of course a last resort, but it was an honorable
+death. The vulgar criminal must be put to death by the hands of others,
+but the nobler samurai, who never cares to survive disgrace, was
+condemned to _hara-kiri_ if found guilty of actions worthy of death. Not
+to be allowed to do this, but to be executed in the common way, was a
+double disgrace to a samurai. Even to this day, when crimes such as the
+assassination of a minister of state are committed, in the mistaken
+belief that the act is for the good of the country, the idea on the part
+of the assassin is never to escape detection. He calmly gives himself
+up to justice or takes his own life,[38] stating his motive for the
+deed; and, believing himself justified in the act, is willing that his
+life should be the cost.
+
+[38] Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma, the late
+Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889, committed suicide
+immediately after throwing the dynamite bomb which caused the minister
+the loss of his leg. This was the more remarkable in that, at the time
+of his death, the assassin supposed that his victim had escaped all
+injury.
+
+The old samurai was proud of his rank, his honorable vocation, his
+responsibility; proud of his ignorance of trade and barter and of his
+disregard for the sordid cares of the world, regarding as far beneath
+him all occupations but those of arms. Wealth, as artisan or farmer,
+rarely tempted him to sink into the lower ranks; and his support from
+the daimiō, often a mere pittance, insured to him more respect and
+greater privileges than wealth as a héimin. To this day even, this
+feeling exists. Preference for rank or position, rather than for mere
+salary, remains strongly among the present generation, so that official
+positions are more sought after than the more lucrative occupations of
+trade. Japan is flooded with small officials, and yet the samurai now
+is obliged to lay down his sword and devote his time to the once
+despised trades, and to learn how important are the arts of peace
+compared with those of war.
+
+The dislike of anything suggestive of trade or barter--of services and
+actions springing, not from duty and from the heart, but from the desire
+of gain--has strongly tinted many little customs of the day, often
+misunderstood and misconstrued by foreigners. In old Japan, experience
+and knowledge could not be bought and sold. Physicians did not charge
+for their services, but on the contrary would decline to name or even
+receive a compensation from those in their own clan. Patients, on their
+side, were too proud to accept services free, and would send to the
+physicians, not as pay exactly, but more as a gift or a token of
+gratitude, a sum of money which varied according to the means of the
+giver, as well as to the amount of service received. Daimiōs did not
+send to ask a teacher how much an hour his time was worth, and then
+arrange the lessons accordingly; the teacher was not insulted by being
+expected to barter his knowledge for so much filthy lucre, but was
+merely asked whether his time and convenience would allow of his taking
+extra teaching. The request was made, not as a matter of give and take,
+but a favor to be granted. Due compensation, however, would never fail
+to be made,--of this the teacher could be sure,--but no agreement was
+ever considered necessary.
+
+With this feeling yet remaining in Japan,--this dislike of contracts,
+and exact charges for professional services,--we can imagine the inward
+disgust of the samurai at the business-like habits of the foreigners
+with whom he has to deal. On the other hand, his feelings are not
+appreciated by the foreigner, and his actions clash with the European
+and American ideas of independence and self-respect. In Japan a present
+of money is more honorable than pay, whereas in America pay is much more
+honorable than a present.
+
+The samurai of to-day is rapidly imbibing new ideas, and is learning to
+see the world from a Western point of view; but his thoughts and actions
+are still moulded on the ideas of old Japan, and it will be a long time
+before the loyal, faithful, but proud spirit of the samurai will die
+out. The pride of clan is now changed to pride of race; loyalty to
+feudal chief has become loyalty to the Emperor as sovereign; and the old
+traits of character exist under the European costumes of to-day, as
+under the flowing robes of the two-sworded retainer.
+
+It is this same spirit of loyalty that has made it hard for Christianity
+to get a foothold in Japan. The Emperor was the representative of the
+gods of Japan. To embrace a new religion seemed a desertion of him, and
+the following of the strange gods of the foreigner. The work of the
+Catholic missionaries which ended so disastrously in 1637 has left the
+impression that a Christian is bound to offer allegiance to the Pope in
+much the same way as the Emperor now receives it from his people; and
+the bitterness of such a thought has made many refuse to hear what
+Christianity really is. Such words as "King" and "Lord" they have
+understood as referring to temporal things, and it has taken years to
+undo this prejudice; a feeling in no way surprising when we consider
+how the Jesuit missionaries once interfered with political movements in
+Japan.
+
+So bitter was this feeling, when Japan was first opened, that a native
+Christian was at once branded as a traitor to his country, and very
+severe was the persecution against all Christians. Missionaries at one
+time dared not acknowledge themselves as such, and lived in danger of
+their lives; and the Japanese Christian who remained faithful did so
+knowing that he was despised and hated. I know of one mother who,
+finding command and entreaty alike unavailing to move her son, a convert
+to the new religion, threatened to commit suicide, feeling that the
+disgrace which had fallen on the family could only be wiped out with her
+death. Happily, all this is of the past, and to-day the samurai has
+found that he can reconcile the new religion with his loyalty to Japan,
+and that in receiving the one he is not led to betray the other.
+
+The women of the samurai have shared with the men the responsibilities
+of their rank, and the pride that comes from hereditary positions of
+responsibility. A woman's first duty in all ranks of society is
+obedience; but sacrifice of self, in however horrible a way, was a duty
+most cheerfully and willingly performed, when by such sacrifice father,
+husband, or son might be the better able to fulfill his duty towards his
+feudal superior. The women in the daimiōs' castles who were taught
+fencing, drilled and uniformed, and relied upon to defend the castle in
+case of need, were women of this class,--women whose husbands and
+fathers were soldiers, and in whose veins ran the blood of generations
+of fighting ancestors. Gentle, feminine, delicate as they were, there
+was a possibility of martial prowess about them when the need for it
+came; and the long education in obedience and loyalty did not fail to
+produce the desired results. Death, and ignominy worse than death, could
+be met bravely, but disgrace involving loss of honor to husband or
+feudal lord was the one thing that must be avoided at all hazards. It
+was my good fortune, many years ago, to make the acquaintance of a
+little Japanese girl who had lived in the midst of the siege of
+Wakamatsu, the city in which the Shōgun's forces made their last stand
+for their lord and the system that he represented. As the Emperor's
+forces marched upon the castle town, moat after moat was taken,[*209]
+until at last men, women, and children took refuge within the citadel
+itself to defend it until the last gasp. The bombs of the besiegers fell
+crashing into the castle precincts, killing the women as they worked at
+whatever they could do in aid of the defenders; and even the little
+girls ran back and forth, amid the rain of bullets and balls, carrying
+cartridges, which the women were making within the castle, to the men
+who were defending the walls. "Weren't you afraid?" we asked the
+delicate child, when she told us of her own share in the defense. "No,"
+was the answer. A small but dangerous sword, of the finest Japanese
+steel, was shown us as the sword that she wore in her belt during all
+those days of war and tumult. "Why did you wear the sword?" we asked.
+"So that I would have it if I was taken prisoner." "What would you have
+done with it?" was the next question, for we could not believe that a
+child of eight would undertake to defend herself against armed soldiers
+with that little sword. "I would have killed myself," was the answer,
+with a flash of the eye that showed her quite capable of committing the
+act in case of need.
+
+In the olden times, when the spirit of warfare was strong and justice
+but scantily administered, revenge for personal insult, or for the death
+of father or lord, fell upon the children, or the retainers. Sometimes
+the bloody deed has fallen to the lot of a woman, to some weak and
+feeble girl, who, in many a tale, has braved all the difficulties that
+beset a woman's path, devoted her life to an act of vengeance, and, with
+the courage of a man, has often successfully consummated her revenge.
+
+One of the tales of old Japan, and a favorite subject of theatrical
+representation, is the death and revenge of a lady in a daimiō's palace.
+Onoyé, a daughter of the people, child of a merchant, has by chance
+risen to the position of lady-in-waiting to a daimiō's wife,--a thing so
+uncommon that it has roused the jealousy of the other ladies, who are of
+the samurai class. Iwafuji, one of the highest and proudest ladies at
+the court, takes pains on every occasion to insult and torment the poor,
+unoffending Onoyé, whom she cannot bear to have as an associate. She
+constantly reminds her of her inferior birth, and at last challenges her
+to a trial in fencing, in which accomplishment Onoyé is not proficient,
+having lacked the proper training in her early life. At last the hatred
+and anger of Iwafuji culminate in a frenzy of rage; she forgets herself,
+and strikes the meek and gentle Onoyé with her sandal,--the worst insult
+that could be offered to any one.
+
+Onoyé, overcome by this deep disgrace offered her in public, returns
+from the main palace to her own apartments, and ponders long and deeply,
+in the bitterness of her soul, how to wipe out the disgrace of an insult
+by such an enemy.
+
+Her own faithful maid, seeing her disordered hair and anxious looks,
+perceives some secret trouble, which her mistress will not disclose, and
+tries, while performing her acts of service, to dispel the gloom by
+telling gayly all the gossip of the day. This maid, O Haru, is a type of
+the clever faithful servant. She is really of higher birth than her
+mistress, for, though she has been obliged to go out to service, she was
+born of a samurai family. Onoyé, while listening to the talk of her
+servant, has made up her mind that only one thing can blot out her
+disgrace, and that is to commit suicide. She hastily pens a farewell to
+her family, for the deed must not be delayed, and sends with the letter
+the token of her disgrace,--Iwafuji's sandal, which she has kept. O Haru
+is sent on this errand, and, unconscious of the ill-news she is bearing,
+she starts out. On the way, the ominous croak of the ravens, who are
+making a dismal noise,--a presage of ill-luck,--frightens the observant
+O Haru. A little further on, the strap of her clog breaks,--a still more
+alarming sign. Thoroughly frightened, O Haru turns back, and reaches her
+mistress' room in time to find that the fatal deed is done, and her
+mistress is dying. O Haru is heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and
+vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved mistress.
+
+O Haru, unlike Onoyé, is thoroughly trained in fencing. An occasion
+arises when she returns to Iwafuji in public the malicious blow, and
+with the same sandal, which she has kept as a sign of her revenge. She
+then challenges Iwafuji, in behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing.
+The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept, and is thoroughly defeated and
+shamed before the spectators. The whole truth is now made known, and the
+daimiō, who admires and appreciates the spirit of O Haru, sends for her,
+and raises her from her low position to fill the post of her dead
+mistress.
+
+These stories show the spirit of the samurai women; they can suffer
+death bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands or the hands of husband
+or father, to avoid or wipe out any disgrace which they regard as a loss
+of honor; but they will as bravely and patiently subject themselves to a
+life of shame and ignominy, worse than death, for the sake of gaining
+for husband or father the means of carrying out a feudal obligation.
+There is a pathetic scene, in one of the most famous of the Japanese
+historical dramas, in which one seems to get the moral perspective of
+the ideal Japanese woman, as one cannot get it in any other way. The
+play is founded on the story of "The Loyal Rōnins," referred to in the
+beginning of this chapter. The loyal rōnins are plotting to avenge the
+death of their master upon the daimiō whose cupidity and injustice have
+brought it about. As there is danger of disloyalty even in their own
+ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead daimiō's retainers, displays great
+caution in the selection of his fellow-conspirators, and practices every
+artifice to secure absolute secrecy for his plans. One young man, who
+was in disgrace with his lord at the time of his death, applies to be
+admitted within the circle of conspirators; but as it is suspected that
+he may not be true to the cause, a payment in money is exacted from him
+as a pledge of his honorable intentions. It is thus made his first duty
+to redeem his honor from all suspicion by the payment of the money, in
+order that he may perform his feudal obligation of avenging the death of
+his lord. But the young man is poor; he has married a poor girl, and has
+agreed to support not only his wife, but her old parents as well, and
+the payment is impossible for him. In this emergency, his wife, at the
+suggestion of her parents, proposes, as the only way, to sell herself,
+for a term of two years, to the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that
+she may by this vile servitude enable her husband to escape the
+dishonor that must come to him if he fails to fulfill his feudal duty.
+Negotiations are entered into, the contract is made, and an advance
+payment is given which will furnish money enough for the pledge required
+by the conspirators. All this is done without the knowledge of the
+husband, lest his love for his wife and his grief for the sacrifice
+prevent him from accepting the only means left to prove his loyalty. The
+noble wife even plans to leave her home while he is away on a hunting
+expedition, and so spare him the pain of parting. His emotion upon
+learning of this venture in business is not of wrath at the disgrace
+that has overtaken his family, but simply of grief that his wife and her
+parents must make so great a sacrifice to save his honor. It is a
+terrible affliction, but it is not a disgrace in any way parallel to the
+disgrace of disloyalty to his lord. And the heroic wife, when the men
+come to carry her away, is upheld through all the trying farewells by
+the consciousness that she is making as noble a sacrifice of herself as
+did the wife of Yamato Daké when she leaped into the sea to avert the
+wrath of the sea-god from her husband. The Japanese, both men and
+women, knowing this story and many others similar in character, can see,
+as we cannot from our point of view, that, even if the body be defiled,
+there is no defilement of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling her
+highest duty in sacrificing all, even her dearest possession, for the
+honor of her husband. It is a climax of self-abnegation that brings
+nothing but honor to the soul of her who reaches it. Japanese women who
+read this story feel profound pity for the poor wife, and a horror of a
+sacrifice that binds her to a life which outwardly, to the Japanese mind
+even, is the lowest depth a woman ever reaches. But they do not despise
+her for the act; nor would they refuse to receive her even were she to
+appear in living form to-day in any Japanese home, where, thanks to
+happier fortunes, such sacrifices are not demanded. Just at this point
+is the difference of moral perspective that foreigners visiting Japan
+find so hard to understand, and that leads many, who have lived in the
+country the longest, to believe that there is no modesty and purity
+among Japanese women. It is this that makes it possible for the vilest
+of stories, and those that have the least foundation in fact, to find
+easy belief among foreigners, even if they be told about the purest,
+most high-minded, and most honorable of Japanese women. Our maidens, as
+they grow to womanhood, are taught that anything is better than personal
+dishonor, and their maidenly instincts side with the teaching. With us,
+a virtuous woman does not mean a brave, a heroic, an unselfish, or
+self-sacrificing woman, but means simply one who keeps herself from
+personal dishonor. Chastity is the supreme virtue for a woman; all other
+virtues are secondary compared with it. This is our point of view, and
+the whole perspective is arranged with that virtue in the foreground.
+Dismiss this for a moment, and consider the moral training of the
+Japanese maiden. From earliest youth until she reaches maturity, she is
+constantly taught that obedience and loyalty are the supreme virtues,
+which must be preserved even at the sacrifice of all other and lesser
+virtues. She is told that for the good of father or husband she must be
+willing to meet any danger, endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime,
+give up any treasure. She must consider that nothing belonging solely
+to herself is of any importance compared with the good of her master,
+her family, or her country. Place this thought of obedience and loyalty,
+to the point of absolute self-abnegation, in the foreground, and your
+perspective is altered, the other virtues occupying places of varying
+importance. Because a Japanese woman will sometimes sacrifice her
+personal virtue for the sake of father or husband, does it follow that
+all Japanese women are unchaste and impure? In many cases this sacrifice
+is the noblest that she believes possible, and she goes to it, as she
+would go to death in any dreadful form, for those whom she loves, and to
+whom she owes the duty of obedience. The Japanese maiden grows to
+womanhood no less pure and modest than our own girls, but our girls are
+never called upon to sacrifice their modesty for the sake of those whom
+they love best; nor is it expected of any woman in this country that she
+exist solely for the good of some one else, in whatever way he chooses
+to use her, during all the years of her life. Let us take this
+difference into our thought in forming our judgment, and let us rather
+seek the causes that underlie the actions than pass judgment upon the
+actions themselves. From a close study of the characters of many
+Japanese women and girls, I am quite convinced that few women in any
+country do their duty, as they see it, more nobly, more single-mindedly,
+and more satisfactorily to those about them, than the women of Japan.
+
+Many argue that the purity of Japanese women, as compared with the men,
+the ready obedience which they yield, their sweet characters and
+unselfish devotion as wives and mothers, are merely the results of the
+restraint under which they live, and that they are too weak to be
+allowed to enjoy freedom of thought and action. Whether this be true or
+no is a point which we leave for others to take up, as time shall have
+provided new data for reasoning on the subject.
+
+To me, the sense of duty seems to be strongly developed in the Japanese
+women, especially in those of the samurai class. Conscience seems as
+active, though often in a different manner, as the old-fashioned New
+England conscience, transmitted through the bluest of Puritan blood. And
+when a duty has once been recognized as such, no timidity, or
+mortification, or fear of ridicule will prevent the performance of it. A
+case comes to my mind now of a young girl of sixteen, who made public
+confession before her schoolmates of shortcomings of which none of them
+knew, for the sake of easing her troubled conscience and warning her
+schoolmates against similar errors. The circumstances were as follows:
+The young girl had recently lost her grandmother, a most loving and
+affectionate old lady, who had taken the place of a mother to the child
+from her earliest infancy. In a somewhat unhappy home, the love of the
+old grandmother was the one bright spot; and when she was taken away,
+the poor, lonely child's memory recalled all of her own shortcomings to
+this beloved friend; and, too late to make amendment to the old lady
+herself, she dwelt on her own undutifulness, and decided that she must
+by some means do penance, or make atonement for her fault. She might, if
+she made a confession before her schoolmates, warn them against similar
+mistakes; and accordingly she prepared, for the literary society in
+which the girls took what part they chose, a long confession, written
+in poetical style, and read it before her schoolmates and teachers. It
+was a terrible ordeal, as one could see by the blushing face and
+breaking voice, often choked with sobs; and when at the conclusion she
+urged her friends to behave in such a way to their dear ones that they
+need never suffer what she had had to endure since her grandmother's
+death, there was not a dry eye in the room, and many of the girls were
+sobbing aloud. It was a curious expiation and a touching one, but one
+not in the least exceptional or uncharacteristic of the spirit of duty
+that actuates the best women of the samurai class.
+
+Here is another instance which illustrates this sense of duty, and
+desire of atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the time of the
+overthrow of the feudal system, the samurai, bred to loyalty to their
+own feudal superiors as their highest duty, found themselves ranged on
+different sides in the struggle, according to the positions in which
+their lords placed themselves. At the end of the struggle, those who had
+followed their daimiōs to the field, in defense of the Shōgunate, found
+that they had been fighting against the Emperor, the Son of Heaven
+himself, who had at last emerged from the seclusion of centuries to
+govern his own empire. Thus the supporters of the Shōgunate, while
+absolutely loyal to their daimiōs, had been disloyal to the higher power
+of the Emperor; and had put themselves in the position of traitors to
+their country. There was a conflict of principles there somewhat similar
+to that which took place in our Civil War, when, in the South, he who
+was true to his State became a traitor to his country, and he who was
+true to his country became a traitor to his State. Two ladies of the
+finest samurai type had, with absolute loyalty to a lost cause, aided by
+every means in their power in the defense of the city of Wakamatsu
+against the victorious forces of the Emperor. They had held on to the
+bitter end, and had been banished, with others of their family and clan,
+to a remote province, for some years after the end of the war. In 1877,
+eleven years after the close of the War of the Restoration, a rebellion
+broke out in the south which required a considerable expenditure of
+blood and money for its suppression. When the new war began, these two
+ladies presented a petition to the government, in which they begged
+that they might be allowed to make amends for their former position of
+opposition to the Emperor, by going with the army to the field as
+hospital nurses. At that time, no lady in Japan had ever gone to the
+front to nurse the wounded soldiers; but to those two brave women was
+granted the privilege of making atonement for past disloyalty, by the
+exercise of the skill and nerve that they had gained in their experience
+of war against the Emperor, in the nursing of soldiers wounded in his
+defense.[*223]
+
+In the old days, the women of the samurai class fulfilled most nobly the
+duties that fell to their lot. As wives and mothers in time of peace,
+they performed their work faithfully in the quiet of their homes; and,
+their time filled with household cares, they busied themselves with the
+smaller duties of life. As the wives and mothers of soldiers, they
+cultivated the heroic spirit befitting their position, fearing no danger
+save such as involved disgrace. As the home-guard in time of need, they
+stood ready to defend their master's possessions with their own lives;
+as gentlewomen and ladies-in-waiting at the court of the daimiō or the
+Shōgun, they cultivated the arts and accomplishments required for their
+position, and veiled the martial spirit that dwelt within them under an
+exterior as feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and charming, as that
+of any ladies of Europe or America. To-day in the new Japan, where the
+samurai have no longer their yearly allowance from their lords and their
+feudal duties, but, scattered through the whole nation, are engaged in
+all the arts and trades, and are infusing the old spirit into the new
+life, what are the women doing? As the government of the land to-day
+lies in the hands of the samurai men under the Emperor, so the progress
+of the women, the new ideas of work for women, are in the hands of the
+samurai women, led by the Empress. Wherever there is progress among the
+women, wherever they are looking about for new opportunities, entering
+new occupations, elevating the home, opening hospitals, industrial
+schools, asylums, there you will find the leading spirits always of the
+samurai class. In the recent changes, some of this class have risen
+above their former state and joined the ranks of the nobility; and
+there the presence of the samurai spirit infuses new life into the
+aristocracy. So, too, the changes that have raised some have lowered
+others, and the samurai is now to be found in the formerly despised
+occupations of trade and industry, among the merchants, the farmers, the
+fishermen, the artisans, and the domestic servants. But wherever his lot
+is cast, the old training, the old ideals, the old pride of family,
+still keep him separate from his present rank, and, instead of pulling
+him down to the level of those about him, tend to raise that level by
+the example of honor and intelligence that he sets. The changed fortunes
+were not met without a murmur. Most of the outrages, the reactionary
+movements, the riots and inflammatory speeches and writings, that
+characterized the long period of disquiet following the Restoration,
+came from men of this class, who saw their support taken from them,
+leaving them unable to dig and ashamed to beg. But the greater part of
+them went sturdily to work, in government positions if they could get
+them, in the army, on the police force, on the farm, in the shop, at
+trades, at service,--even to the humble work of wheeling a
+_jinrikisha_, if other honest occupation could not be found; and the
+women shared patiently and bravely the changed fortunes of the men,
+doing whatever they could toward bettering them. The samurai women
+to-day are eagerly working into the positions of teachers, interpreters,
+trained nurses, and whatever other places there are which may be
+honorably occupied by women. The girls' schools, both government and
+private, find many of their pupils among the samurai class; and their
+deference and obedience to their teachers and superiors, their ambition
+and keen sense of honor in the school-room, show the influence of the
+samurai feeling over new Japan. To the samurai women belongs the
+task--and they have already begun to perform it--of establishing upon a
+broader and surer foundation the position of women in their own country.
+They, as the most intelligent, will be the first to perceive the remedy
+for present evils, and will, if I mistake not, move heaven and earth, at
+some time in the near future, to have that remedy applied to their own
+case. Most of them read the literature of the day, some of them in at
+least one language beside their own; a few have had the benefit of
+travel abroad, and have seen what the home and the family are in
+Christian lands. There is as much of the unconquerable spirit of the
+samurai to-day in the women as in the men; and it will not be very long
+before that spirit will begin to show itself in working for the
+establishment of their homes and families upon some stronger basis than
+the will of the husband and father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PEASANT WOMEN.
+
+
+The great héimin class includes not only the peasants of Japan, but also
+the artisans and merchants; artisans ranking below farmers, and
+merchants below artisans, in the social structure. It includes the whole
+of the common people, except such as were in former times altogether
+below the level of respectability, the _éta_ and _hinin_,[39]--outcasts
+who lived by begging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead bodies,
+tanning skins, and other employments which rendered them unclean
+according to the old notions. From very early times the agricultural
+class has been sharply divided from the samurai or military. Here and
+there one from the peasantry mounts by force of his personal qualities
+into the higher ranks, for there is no caste system that prevents the
+passing from one class into another,--only a class prejudice that serves
+very nearly the same purpose, in keeping samurai and héimin in their
+places, that the race prejudice in this country serves in confining the
+negroes, North and South, to certain positions and occupations. The
+first division of the military from the peasantry occurred in the eighth
+century, and since then the peculiar circumstances of each class have
+tended to produce quite different characteristics in persons originally
+of the same stock. To the soldier class have fallen learning, skill in
+arms and horsemanship, opportunities to rise to places of honor and
+power, lives free from sordid care in regard to the daily rice, and in
+which noble ideas of duty and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit in
+heroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his little rice-field year after
+year, have come the heavy burdens of taxation; the grinding toil for a
+mere pittance of food for himself and his family; the patient bearing of
+all things imposed by his superiors, with little hope of gain for
+himself, whatever change the fortunes of war may bring to those above
+him in the social scale. Is there wonder that, as the years have gone
+by, his wits have grown heavy under his daily drudgery; that he knows
+little and understands less of the changes that are taking place in his
+native land; that he is easily moved by only one thing, and that the
+failure of his crops, or the shortening of his returns from his land by
+heavier taxation? This is true of the héimin as a class: they are
+conservative, fearing that change will but tend to make harder a lot
+that is none too easy; and though peaceable and gentle usually, they may
+be moved to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any political change
+that seems likely to produce heavier taxation, or even by a failure of
+their crops, when they see themselves and their families starving while
+the military and official classes have enough and to spare. But though,
+as a class, the farmers are ignorant and heavy, they are seldom entirely
+illiterate; and everywhere, throughout the country, one finds men
+belonging to this class who are well educated and have risen to
+positions of much responsibility and power, and are able to hold their
+own, and think for themselves and for their brethren. From an article in
+the "Tōkyō Mail," entitled "A Memorialist of the Latter Days of the
+Tokugawa Government," I quote passages which show the thoughts of one of
+the héimin upon the condition of his own class about the year 1850. It
+is from a petition sent to the Shōgun by the head-man of the village of
+Ogushi.
+
+[39] The laws against the _éta_ and _hinin_, making of them a distinct,
+unclean class, and forbidding their intermarriage with any of the higher
+classes, have recently been abolished. There is now no rank distinction
+of any practical value, except that between noble and common people.
+Héimin and samurai are now indiscriminately mingled.
+
+The first point in the petition is, that there is a growing tendency to
+luxury among the military and official classes. "It is useless to issue
+orders commanding peasants and others to be frugal and industrious, when
+those in power, whose duty it is to show a good example to the people,
+are themselves steeped in luxury and idleness." He ventures to reproach
+the Shōguns themselves by pointing to the extravagance with which they
+have decorated the mausoleums at Nikkō and elsewhere. "Is this," he
+asks, "in keeping with the intentions of the glorious founder of your
+dynasty? Look at the shrines in Isé and elsewhere, and at the sepulchres
+of the Emperors of successive ages. Is gold or silver used in decorating
+them?" He then turns to the vassals of the Shōgun, and charges them
+with being tyrannical, rapacious, and low-minded. "Samurai," he
+continues,--"samurai are finely attired, but how contemptible they look
+in the eyes of those peasants who know how to be contented with what
+they have!"
+
+Further on in the same memorial, he points out what he regards as a
+grave mistake in the policy of the Shōgun. A decree had just been issued
+prohibiting the peasantry from exercising themselves with sword-play,
+and from wearing swords. Of this he says: "Perhaps this decree may have
+been issued on the supposition that Japan is naturally impregnable and
+defended on all sides. But when she receives insult from a foreign
+country, it may become necessary to call on the militia. And who knows
+that men of extraordinary military genius, like Toyotomi,[40] will not
+again appear among the lower classes?"
+
+[40] Toyotomi Hidéyoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the position of a
+groom to be the actual ruler of Japan during the Middle Ages. He it was
+who in 1587 issued a decree of banishment against the Christian
+missionaries in Japan. He is called Faxiba in the writings of these
+missionaries, and in Japan he is frequently spoken of as Taiko Sama, a
+title, not a name; but a title that, used alone, refers always to him.
+For further account of his life, see Griffis, _Mikado's Empire_, book
+i., chap. xxiv.
+
+He ends his memorial with this warning: "Should the Shōgun's court, and
+the military class in general, persist in the present oppressive way of
+government, Heaven will visit this land with still greater calamities.
+If this circumstance is not clearly kept in view, the consequence may be
+civil disturbance. I, therefore, beseech that the instructions of the
+glorious founder of the dynasty be acted upon; that simplicity and
+frugality be made the guiding principle of administration; and that a
+general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby complying with the will of Heaven
+and placating the people. Should these humble suggestions of mine be
+acted upon, prospective calamities will fly before the light of virtue.
+Whether the country is to be safe or not depends upon whether the
+administration is carried on with mercy or not. What I pray for is, that
+the country may enjoy peace and tranquillity, that the harvest may be
+plentiful, and that the people may be happy and prosperous."
+
+One is able to see, by this rather remarkable document, that the
+peasants of Japan, though frequently almost crushed by the heavy burdens
+of taxation, do not, even in the most grinding poverty, lose entirely
+that independence of thought and of action which is characteristic of
+their nation. They do not consider themselves as a servile class, nor
+their military rulers as beyond criticism or reproach, but are ready to
+speak boldly for their rights whenever an opportunity occurs. There is a
+pathetic story, told in Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," of a peasant,
+the head-man of his village, who goes to Yedo to present to the Shōgun a
+complaint, on behalf of his fellow-villagers, of the extortions and
+exactions of his daimiō. He is unable to get any one to present his
+memorial to the Shōgun, so at last he stops the great lord's palanquin
+in the street,--an act in itself punishable with death,--and thrusts the
+paper forcibly into his hand. The petition is read, and his
+fellow-villagers saved from further oppression, but the head-man, for
+his daring, is condemned by his own daimiō to suffer death by
+crucifixion,--a fate which he meets with the same heroism with which he
+dared everything to save his fellows from suffering.
+
+The peasant, though ignorant and oppressed, has not lost his manhood;
+has not become a slave or a serf, but clings to his rights, so far as
+he knows what they are; and is ready to hold his own against all comers,
+when the question in debate is one that appeals to his mind. The rulers
+of Japan have always the peasantry to reckon with when their ruling
+becomes unjust or oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though they may be
+misled for a time, and they form a conservative element that serves to
+hold in check too hasty rulers who would introduce new measures too
+quickly, and would be likely to find the new wine bursting the old
+bottles, as well as to prevent any rash extravagance in the way of
+personal expenditure on the part of government officials. The influence
+of this great class will be more and more felt as the new parliamentary
+institutions gain in power, and a more close connection is established
+between the throne and public opinion.
+
+In considering this great héimin class, it is well to remember that the
+artisans, who form so large a part of it, are also the artists who have
+made the reputation of Japan, in Europe and America, as one of the
+countries where art and the love of beauty in form and color are still
+instinct with life. The Japanese artisan works with patient toil, and
+with the skill and originality of the artist, to produce something that
+shall be individual and his own; not simply to make, after a pattern,
+some utensil or ornament for which he cares nothing, so long as a
+purchaser can be found for it, or an employer can be induced to pay him
+money for making it. It seems as easy for the Japanese to make things
+pretty and in good taste, even when they are cheap and only used by the
+poorer people, as it is for American mills and workers to turn out
+endless varieties of attempts at decoration,--all so hideous that a poor
+person must be content, either to be surrounded by the worst possible
+taste, or to purchase only such furnishings and utensils as are entirely
+without decoration of any kind. "Cheap" and "nasty" have come to be
+almost synonymous words with us, for the reason that taste in decoration
+is so rare that it commands a monopoly price, and can only be procured
+by the wealthy. In Japan this is not the case, for the cheapest of
+things may be found in graceful and artistic designs,--indeed can
+hardly be found in any designs that are not graceful and artistic; and
+the poorest and commonest of the people may have about them the little
+things that go to cultivate the æsthetic part of human nature. It was
+not the costly art of Japan that interested me the most, although that
+is, of course, the most wonderful proof of the capacity and patience of
+individuals among this héimin class: but it was the common, cheap,
+every-day art that meets one at every turn; the love for the beautiful,
+in both nature and art, that belongs to the common coolie as well as to
+the nobleman. The cheap prints, the blue and white towels, the common
+teacups and pots, the great iron kettles in use over the fire in the
+farmhouse kitchen,--all these are things as pretty and tasteful in their
+way as the rich crêpes, the silver incense burners, the delicate
+porcelain, and the elegant lacquer that fill the storehouse of the
+daimiō; and they show, much more conclusively than these costlier
+things, the universal sense of beauty among the people.
+
+The artisan works at his home, helped less often by hired laborers than
+by his own children, who learn the trade of their father; and his
+house, though small, is clean and tasteful, with its soft mats, its
+dainty tea service, its little hanging scroll upon the walls, and its
+vase of gracefully arranged flowers in the corner; for flowers, even in
+winter and in the great city of Tōkyō, are so cheap that they are never
+beyond the reach of the poorest. In homes that seem to the foreign mind
+utterly lacking in the comforts and even the necessities of life, one
+finds the few furnishings and utensils beautiful in shape and
+decoration; and the money that in this country must be spent in beds,
+tables, and chairs can be used for the purchase of _kakémonos_, flowers,
+and vases, and for various gratifications of the æsthetic taste. Hence
+it is that the Japanese laborer, who lives on a daily wage which would
+reduce an American or European to the verge of starvation, finds both
+time and money for the cultivation of that sense of beauty which is too
+often crushed completely out of the lower classes by the burdens of this
+nineteenth century civilization which they bear upon their shoulders. To
+the Japanese, the "life is more than meat," it is beauty as well; and
+this love of beauty has upon him a civilizing and refining effect, and
+makes him in many ways the superior of the American day-laborer.[*239]
+
+The peasants and farmers of Japan, thrifty and hard-working as they are,
+are not by any means a prosperous class. As one passes into the country
+districts from the large cities, there seems to be a conspicuous dearth
+of neat, pleasant homes,--a lack of the comforts and necessities of life
+such as are enjoyed by city people. The rich farmers are scarce, and the
+laborers in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days of hardest toil with
+the rudest implements, the little that will provide for their families.
+In the face of heavy taxes, the incessant toil, the frequent floods of
+late years, and the threatening famine, one would expect the poor
+peasants to be a most discouraged and unhappy class. That all this toil
+and anxiety does wear on them is no doubt true, but the laborers are
+always ready to bear submissively whatever comes, and are always hopeful
+and prepared to enjoy life again in happier times. The charms of the
+city tempt them sometimes to exchange their daily labor for the
+excitement of life as _jinrikisha_ men; but in any case they will be
+perfectly independent, and ask no man for their daily rations.
+
+Although there is much poverty, there are few or no beggars in Japan,
+for both strong and weak find each some occupation that brings the
+little pittance required to keep soul and body together, and gives to
+all enough to make them light-hearted, cheerful, and even happy. From
+the rich farmer, whose many acres yield enough to provide for a home of
+luxury quite as fine as the city homes, to the poor little vender of
+sticks of candy, around whose store the children flock like bees with
+their rin and sen, all seem independent, contented, and satisfied with
+their lot in life.
+
+The religious beliefs of old Japan are stronger to-day among the country
+people than among the dwellers in cities. And they are still willing to
+give of their substance for the aid of the dying faiths to which they
+cling, and to undertake toilsome pilgrimages to obtain some longed-for
+blessing from the gods whom they serve. A great Buddhist temple is being
+built in Kyōtō to-day, from the lofty ceiling of which hangs a striking
+proof of the devotion of some of the peasant women to the Buddhist
+faith. The whole temple, with its immense curved roof, its vast
+proportions, and its marvelous wood carvings, has been built by
+offerings of labor, money, and materials made by the faithful. The great
+timbers were given and brought to the spot by the countrymen; and the
+women, wishing to have some part in the sacred work, cut off their
+abundant hair, a beauty perhaps more prized by the Japanese women than
+by those of other countries, and from the material thus obtained they
+twisted immense cables, to be used in drawing the timbers from the
+mountains to the site of the temple. The great black cables hang in the
+unfinished temple to-day, a sign of the devotion of the women who spared
+not their chief ornament in the service of the gods in whom they still
+believe. And a close scrutiny of these touching offerings shows that the
+glossy black locks of the young women are mingled with the white hairs
+of those who, by this sacrifice, hope to make sure of a quick and easy
+departure from a life already near its close.
+
+All along the Tōkaidō, the great road from Tōkyō to Kyōto, in the
+neighborhood of some holy place, or in the district around the great
+and sacred Fuji, the mountain so much beloved and honored in Japanese
+art, will be seen bands of pilgrims slowly walking along the road, their
+worn and soiled white garments telling of many days' weary march. Their
+large hats shield them from the sun and the rain, and the pieces of
+matting slung over their backs serve them for beds to sleep on, when
+they take shelter for the night in rude huts. The way up the great
+mountain of Fuji is lined with these pilgrims; for to attain its summit,
+and worship there the rising sun, is believed to be the means of
+obtaining some special blessing. Among these religious devotees, in
+costumes not unlike those of the men, under the same large hat and
+coarse matting, old women often are seen, their aged faces belying their
+apparent vigor of body, as they walk along through miles and miles of
+country, jingling their bells and holding their rosaries until they
+reach the shrine, where they may ask some special blessing for their
+homes, or fulfill some vow already made.[*242]
+
+Journeying through rural Japan, one is impressed by the important part
+played by women in the various bread-winning industries. In the village
+homes, under the heavily thatched roofs, the constant struggle against
+poverty and famine will not permit the women to hold back, but they
+enter bravely into all the work of the men. In the rice-field the woman
+works side by side with the man, standing all day up to her knees in
+mud, her dress tucked up and her lower limbs encased in tight-fitting,
+blue cotton trousers, planting, transplanting, weeding, and turning over
+the evil-smelling mire, only to be distinguished from her husband by her
+broader belt tied in a bow behind. In mountain regions we meet the women
+climbing the steep mountain roads, pruning-hook in hand, after wood for
+winter fires; or descending, towards night, carrying a load that a
+donkey need not be ashamed of, packed on a frame attached to the
+shoulders, or poised lightly upon a straw mat upon the head. There is
+one village near Kyōto, Yasé by name, at the base of Hiyéi Zan, the
+historic Buddhist stronghold, where the women attain a stature and
+muscular development quite unique among the pigmy population of the
+island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked women they are, showing no
+evidence of the shrinking away with the advance of old age that is
+characteristic of most of their countrywomen. With their tucked-up
+_kimonos_ and blue cotton trousers, they stride up and down the
+mountain, carrying the heaviest and most unwieldy of burdens as lightly
+and easily as the ordinary woman carries her baby. My first acquaintance
+with them was during a camping expedition upon the sacred mountain. I
+myself was carried up the ascent by two small, nearly naked, finely
+tattooed and moxa-scarred men; but my baggage, consisting of two closely
+packed hampers as large as ordinary steamer trunks, was lifted lightly
+to the heads of these feminine porters, and, poised on little straw
+pads, carried easily up the narrow trail, made doubly difficult by
+low-hanging branches, to the camp, a distance of three or four miles.
+From among these women of Yasé, on account of their remarkable physical
+development, have been chosen frequently the nurses for the imperial
+infants; an honor which the Yasé villagers duly appreciate, and which
+makes them bear themselves proudly among their less favored neighbors.
+
+In other parts of the country, in the neighborhood of Nikkō, for
+instance, the care of the horses, mild little pack-mares that do much of
+the burden-bearing in those mountains, is mainly in the hands of the
+women. At Nikkō, when we would hire ponies for a two days' expedition to
+Yumoto, a little, elderly woman was the person with whom our bargains
+were made; and a close bargainer she proved to be, taking every
+advantage that lay in her power. When the caravan was ready to start, we
+found that, though each saddle-horse had a male groom in attendance, the
+pack-ponies on which our baggage was carried were led by pretty little
+country girls of twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes and red
+cheeks contrasting pleasantly with the blue handkerchiefs that adorned
+their heads; their slender limbs encased in blue cotton, and only their
+red sashes giving any hint of the fact that they belonged to the weaker
+sex. As we journeyed up the rough mountain roads, the little girls kept
+along easily with the rest of the party; leading their meek,
+shock-headed beasts up the slippery log steps, and passing an occasional
+greeting with some returning pack-train, in which the soft black eyes
+and bits of red about the costume of the little grooms showed that they,
+too, were mountain maidens, returning fresh and happy after a two days'
+tramp through the rocky passes.
+
+In the districts where the silkworm is raised, and the silk spun and
+woven, the women play a most important part in this productive industry.
+The care of the worms and of the cocoons falls entirely upon the women,
+as well as the spinning of the silk and the weaving of the cloth. It is
+almost safe to say that this largest and most productive industry of
+Japan is in the hands of the women; and it is to their care and skill
+that the silk product of the islands is due. In the silk districts one
+finds the woman on terms of equality with the man, for she is an
+important factor in the wealth-producing power of the family, and is
+thus able to make herself felt as she cannot when her work is inferior
+to that of the men. As a farmer, as a groom, or as a porter, a woman is
+and must remain an inferior, but in the care of the silkworms, and all
+the tasks that belong to silk culture, she is the equal of the stronger
+sex.
+
+Then, again, in the tea districts, the tea plantations are filled with
+young girls and old women, their long sleeves held back by a band over
+the shoulder, and a blue towel gracefully fastened over their heads to
+keep off the sun and the dust. They pick busily away at the green,
+tender leaves, which will soon be heated and rolled by strong men over
+the charcoal fire. The occupation is an easy one, only requiring care in
+the selection of leaves to be picked, and can be performed by young
+girls and old women, who gather the glossy leaves in their big baskets,
+while chatting to each other over the gossip and news of the day.
+
+In the hotels, both in the country and the city, women play an important
+part. The attendants are usually sweet-faced, prettily dressed girls,
+and frequently the proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My first
+experience of a Japanese hotel was at Nara, anciently the capital of
+Japan, and now a place of resort because of its fine old temples, its
+Dai Butsu, and its beautiful deer park. The day's ride in _jinrikisha_
+from Ōsaka had brought our party in very tired, only to find that the
+hotel to which we had telegraphed for rooms was already filled to
+overflowing by a daimiō and his suite. Not a room could be obtained, and
+we were at last obliged to walk some distance, for we had dismissed our
+tired _jinrikisha_ men, to a hotel in the village, of which we knew
+nothing. What with fatigue and disappointment, we were not prepared to
+view the unknown hotel in a very rosy light; and when our guide pointed
+to a small gate leading into a minute, damp courtyard, we were quite
+convinced that the hardships of travel in Japan were now about to begin;
+but disappointment gave way to hope, when we were met at the door by a
+buxom landlady, whose smile was in itself a refreshment. Although we had
+little in the way of language in common, she made us feel at home at
+once, took us to her best room, sent her blooming and prettily dressed
+daughters to bring us tea and whatever other refreshments the mysterious
+appetite of a foreigner might require, and altogether behaved toward us
+in such motherly fashion that fatigue and gloom departed forthwith,
+leaving us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we began to feel rested, and our
+kind friend, seeing this, took us upon a tour around the house, in
+which room after room, spotless, empty, with shining woodwork and
+softest of mats, showed the good housekeeping of our hostess. A little
+garden in the centre of the house, with dwarf trees, moss-covered
+stones, and running water, gave it an air of coolness on the hot July
+day that was almost deceptive; and the spotless wash-room, with its
+great stone sink, its polished brass basins, its stone well-curb, half
+in and half out of the house, was cool and clean and refreshing merely
+to look at. A two days' stay in this hotel showed that the landlady was
+the master of the house. Her husband was about the house constantly, as
+were one or two other men, but they all worked under the direction of
+the energetic head of affairs. She it was who managed everything, from
+the cooking of the meals in the kitchen to the filling and heating of
+the great bath-tub into which the guests were invited to enter every
+afternoon, one after the other, in the order of their rank. On the
+second night of my stay, at a late hour, when I supposed that the whole
+house had retired to rest, I crept softly out of my room to try to
+soothe the plaintive wails of my dog, who was complaining bitterly that
+he was made to sleep in the wood-cellar instead of in his mistress's
+room, as his habit had always been. As I stole quietly along, fearing
+lest I should arouse the sleeping house, I heard the inquiring voice of
+my landlady sound from the bath-room, the door of which stood wide open.
+Afraid that she would think me in mischief if I did not show myself, I
+went to the door, to find her, after her family was safely stowed away
+for the night, taking her ease in the great tub of hot water, and so
+preparing herself for a sound, if short, night's sleep. She accepted my
+murmured _Inu_ (dog) as an excuse, and graciously dismissed me with a
+smile, and I returned to my room feeling safe under the vigilant care
+that seemed to guard the house by night as well as by day. I have seen
+many Japanese hotels and many careful landladies since, but no one among
+them all has made such an impression as my pleasant hostess at Nara.
+
+Not only hotels, but little tea-houses all through Japan, form openings
+for the business abilities of women, both in country and city. Wherever
+you go, no matter how remote the district or how rough the road, at
+every halting point you find a tea-house. Sometimes it is quite an
+extensive restaurant, with several rooms for the entertainment of
+guests, and a regular kitchen where fairly elaborate cooking can be
+done; sometimes it is only a rough shelter, at one end of which water is
+kept boiling over a charcoal brazier, while at the other end a couple of
+seats, covered with mats or a scarlet blanket or two, serve as
+resting-places for the patrons of the establishment. But whatever the
+place is, there will be one woman or more in attendance; and if you sit
+down upon the mats, you will be served at once with tea, and later,
+should you require more, with whatever the establishment can afford,--it
+may be only a slice of watermelon, or a hard pear; it may be eels on
+rice, vermicelli, egg soup, or a regular dinner, should the tea-house be
+one of the larger and more elaborately appointed ones. When the feast is
+over, the refreshments you have especially ordered are paid for in the
+regular way; but for the tea and sweetmeats offered, for which no
+especial charge is made, you are expected to leave a small sum as a
+present. In the less aristocratic resting-places, a few cents for each
+person is sufficient to leave on the waiter with the empty cups of tea,
+for which loud and grateful thanks will be shouted out to the retiring
+party.
+
+In the regular inn, the _chadai_[41] amounts to several dollars, for a
+party remaining any time, and it is supposed to pay for all the extra
+services and attention bestowed on guests by the polite host and hostess
+and the servants in attendance. The _chadai_, done up neatly in paper,
+with the words _On chadai_ written on it, is given with as much
+formality as any present in Japan. The guest claps his hands to summon
+the maid. When it is heard, for the thin paper walls of a Japanese house
+let through every noise, voices from all sides will shout out _Hē´-hē´_,
+or _Hai_, which means that you have been heard, and understood.
+Presently a maid will softly open your door, and with head low down will
+ask what you wish. You tell her to summon the landlord. In a few
+moments he appears, and you push the _chadai_ to him, making some
+conventional self-depreciating speech, as, "You have done a great deal
+for our comfort, and we wish to give you this _chadai_, though it is
+only a trifle." The landlord, with every expression of surprise, will
+bow down to the ground with thanks, raising the small package to his
+head in token of acceptance and gratitude, and will murmur in low tones
+how little he has done for the comfort of his guests; and then, the
+self-depreciation and formal words of thanks on his side being ended, he
+will finally go down stairs to see how much he has gotten. But, whether
+more or less than he had expected, nothing but extreme gratitude and
+politeness appears on his face as he presents a fan, confectionery, or
+some trifle, as a return for the _chadai_, and speeds the parting guests
+with his lowest bow and kindliest smile, after having seen to every want
+that could be attended to.
+
+[41] _Chadai_ is, literally, "money for tea," and is equivalent to our
+tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The _chadai_ varies with the
+wealth and rank of the guests, the duration of the stay, and the
+attention which has been bestowed. _On_ is the honorific placed before
+the word in writing.
+
+Once, at Nikkō, I started with a friend for a morning walk to a place
+described in the guide-book. The day was hot and the guide-book hazy,
+and we lost the road to the place for which we had set out, but found
+ourselves at last in a beautiful garden, with a pretty lake in its
+centre, a little red-lacquered shrine reflected in the lake, and a
+tea-house hospitably open at one side. The teakettle was boiling over
+the little charcoal fire; melons, eggs, and various unknown comestibles
+were on the little counter; but no voice bade us welcome as we
+approached, and when we sat down on the edge of the piazza, we could see
+no one within the house. We waited, however, for the day was hot, and
+time is not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty soon a small, wizened
+figure made its appearance in the distance, hurrying and talking
+excitedly as it came near enough to see two foreign ladies seated upon
+the piazza. Many bows and profuse apologies were made by the little old
+woman, who seemed to be the solitary occupant of the pretty garden, and
+who had for the moment deserted her post to do the day's marketing in
+the neighboring village. The apologies having been smilingly received,
+the old lady set herself to the task of making her guests comfortable.
+First she brought two tumblers of water, cold as ice, from the spring
+that gushed out of a great rock in the middle of the little lake. Then
+she retired behind a screen and changed her dress, returning speedily to
+bring us tea. Then she retreated to her diminutive kitchen, and
+presently came back smiling, bearing eight large raw potatoes on a tray.
+These she presented to us with a deep bow, apparently satisfied that she
+had at last brought us something we would be sure to like. We left the
+potatoes behind us when we went away, and undoubtedly the old lady is
+wondering still over the mysterious ways of the foreigners, as we are
+over those of the Japanese tea-house keepers.
+
+One summer, when I was spending a week at a Japanese hotel at quite a
+fashionable seaside resort, I became interested in a little old woman
+who visited the hotel daily, carrying, suspended by a yoke from her
+shoulders, two baskets of fruit, which she sold to the guests of the
+hotel. As I was on the ground floor, and my room was, in the daytime,
+absolutely without walls on two sides, she was my frequent visitor, and,
+for the sake of her pleasant ways and cheerful smiles, I bought enough
+hard pears of her to have given the colic to an elephant. One day,
+after her visit to me, as I was sitting upon the matted and roofed
+square that served me for a room, my eye wandered idly toward the
+bathing beach, and, under the slight shelter where the bathers were in
+the habit of depositing their sandals and towels, I spied the well-known
+yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a small heap of blue cotton garments
+that I knew to be the clothing of the little fruit-vender. She had
+evidently taken a moment when trade was slack to enjoy a dip in the
+soft, blue, summer sea. Hardly had I made up my mind as to the meaning
+of the fruit baskets and the clothing, when our little friend herself
+emerged from the sea and, sitting down on a bench, proceeded to rub
+herself off with the small but artistically decorated blue towel that
+every peasant in Japan has always with him, however lacking he may be in
+all other appurtenances of the toilet. As she sat there, placidly
+rubbing away, a friend of the opposite sex made his appearance on the
+scene. I watched to see what she would do, for the Japanese code of
+etiquette is quite different from ours in such a predicament. She
+continued her employment until he was quite close, showing no unseemly
+haste, but continuing her polishing off in the same leisurely manner in
+which she had begun it; then at the proper moment she rose from her
+seat, bowed profoundly, and smilingly exchanged the greetings proper for
+the occasion, both parties apparently unconscious of any lack in the
+toilet of the lady. The male friend then passed on about his business;
+the little woman completed her toilet without further interruptions,
+shouldered her yoke, and jogged cheerfully on to her home in the little
+village, a couple of miles away.
+
+As one travels through rural Japan in summer and sees the half-naked
+men, women, and children that pour out from every village on one's route
+and surround the _kuruma_ at every stopping place, one sometimes wonders
+whether there is in the country any real civilization, whether these
+half-naked people are not more savage than civilized; but when one finds
+everywhere good hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments
+of toilet and table, polite and careful service, honest and willing
+performance of labor bargained for, together with the gentlest and
+pleasantest of manners, even on the part of the gaping crowd that shut
+out light and air from the traveling foreigner who rests for a moment at
+the village inn, one is forced to reconsider a judgment formed only upon
+one peculiarity of the national life, and to conclude that there is
+certainly a high type of civilization in Japan, though differing in many
+important particulars from our own. A careful study of the Japanese
+ideas of decency, and frequent conversation with refined and intelligent
+Japanese ladies upon this subject, has led me to the following
+conclusion. According to the Japanese standard, any exposure of the
+person that is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience
+in doing necessary work, is perfectly modest and allowable; but an
+exposure, no matter how slight, that is simply for show, is in the
+highest degree indelicate. In illustration of the first part of this
+conclusion, I would refer to the open bath-houses, the naked laborers,
+the exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather by the turning up of the
+_kimono_, the entirely nude condition of the country children in summer,
+and the very slight clothing that even adults regard as necessary about
+the house or in the country during the hot season. In illustration of
+the last part, I would mention the horror with which many Japanese
+ladies regard that style of foreign dress which, while covering the
+figure completely, reveals every detail of the form above the waist,
+and, as we say, shows off to advantage a pretty figure. To the Japanese
+mind it is immodest to want to show off a pretty figure. As for the
+ball-room costumes, where neck and arms are freely exposed to the gaze
+of multitudes, the Japanese woman, who would with entire composure take
+her bath in the presence of others, would be in an agony of shame at the
+thought of appearing in public in a costume so indecent as that worn by
+many respectable American and European women. Our judgment would indeed
+be a hasty one, should we conclude that the sense of decency is wanting
+in the Japanese as a race, or that the women are at all lacking in the
+womanly instinct of modesty. When the point of view from which they
+regard these matters is once obtained, the apparent inconsistencies and
+incongruities are fully explained, and we can do justice to our
+Japanese sister in a matter in regard to which she is too often cruelly
+misjudged.
+
+There seems no doubt at all that among the peasantry of Japan one finds
+the women who have the most freedom and independence. Among this class,
+all through the country, the women, though hard-worked and possessing
+few comforts, lead lives of intelligent, independent labor, and have in
+the family positions as respected and honored as those held by women in
+America. Their lives are fuller and happier than those of the women of
+the higher classes, for they are themselves bread-winners, contributing
+an important part of the family revenue, and they are obeyed and
+respected accordingly. The Japanese lady, at her marriage, lays aside
+her independent existence to become the subordinate and servant of her
+husband and parents-in-law, and her face, as the years go by, shows how
+much she has given up, how completely she has sacrificed herself to
+those about her. The Japanese peasant woman, when she marries, works
+side by side with her husband, finds life full of interest outside of
+the simple household work, and, as the years go by, her face shows more
+individuality, more pleasure in life, less suffering and disappointment,
+than that of her wealthier and less hard-working sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+LIFE IN THE CITIES.
+
+
+The great cities of Japan afford remarkable opportunities for seeing the
+life of the common people, for the little houses and shops, with their
+open fronts, reveal the _penetralia_ in a way not known in our more
+secluded homes. The employment of the merchant being formerly the lowest
+of respectable callings, one does not find even yet in Japan many great
+stores or a very high standard of business morality, for the business of
+the country was left in the hands of those who were too stupid or too
+unambitious to raise themselves above that social class. Hence English
+and American merchants, who only see Japan from the business side,
+continually speak of the Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and altogether
+unreliable, and greatly prefer to deal with the Chinese, who have much
+of the business virtue that is characteristic of the English as a
+nation. Only within a few years have the samurai, or indeed any one who
+was capable of figuring in any higher occupation in life, been willing
+to adopt the calling of the merchant; but many of the abler Japanese of
+to-day have begun to see that trade is one of the most important factors
+of a nation's well-being, and that the business of buying and selling,
+if wisely and honestly done, is an employment that nobody need be
+ashamed to enter. There are in Japan a few great merchants whose word
+may be trusted, and whose obligations will be fulfilled with absolute
+honesty; but a large part of the buying and selling is still in the
+hands of mercantile freebooters, who will take an advantage wherever it
+is possible to get one, in whose morality honesty has no place, and who
+have not yet discovered the efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter
+of policy. Their trade, conducted in a small way upon small means, is
+more of the nature of a game, in which one person is the winner and the
+other the loser, than a fair exchange, in which both parties obtain what
+they want. It is the mediæval, not the modern idea of business, that is
+still held among Japanese merchants. With them, trade is a warfare
+between buyer and seller, in which every man must take all possible
+advantage for himself, and it is the lookout of the other party if he is
+cheated.
+
+In Tōkyō, the greatest and most modernized of the cities of the empire,
+the shops are not the large city stores that one sees in European and
+American cities, but little open-fronted rooms, on the edge of which one
+sits to make one's purchases, while the proprietor smiles and bows and
+dickers; setting his price by the style of his customer's dress, or her
+apparent ignorance of the value of the desired article. Some few large
+dry-goods stores there are, where prices are set and dickering is
+unnecessary;[*264] and in the _kwankoba_, or bazaars, one may buy almost
+anything needed by Japanese of all classes, from house furnishings to
+foreign hats, at prices plainly marked upon them, and from which there
+is no variation. But one's impression of the state of trade in Japan is,
+that it is still in a very primitive and undeveloped condition, and is
+surprisingly behind the other parts of Japanese civilization.
+
+The shopping of the ladies of the large _yashikis_ and of wealthy
+families is done mostly in the home; for all the stores are willing at
+any time, on receiving an order, to send up a clerk with a bale of
+crêpes, silks, and cottons tied to his back, and frequently towering
+high above his head as he walks, making him look like the proverbial ant
+with a grain of wheat. He sets his great bundle carefully down on the
+floor, opens the enormous _furushiki_, or bundle handkerchief, in which
+it is enveloped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or chintz, neatly
+done up in paper or yellow cotton. With infinite patience, he waits
+while the merits of each piece are examined and discussed, and if none
+of his stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to come again with a new
+set of wares, knowing that in the end purchases will be made sufficient
+to cover all his trouble.
+
+The less aristocratic people are content to go to the stores themselves;
+and the business streets of a Japanese city, such as the Ginza in Tōkyō,
+are full of women, young and old, as well as merry children, who enjoy
+the life and bustle of the stores. Like all things else in Japan,
+shopping takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the largest silk store in
+Tōkyō, one will see crowds of clerks sitting upon the matted floors,
+each with his _soroban_, or adding machine, by his side; and innumerable
+small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying armfuls of fabrics to the
+different clerks, or picking up the same fabrics after the customer who
+has called for them has departed. The store appears, to the foreign eye,
+to be simply a roofed and matted platform upon which both clerks and
+customers sit. This platform is screened from the street by dark blue
+cotton curtains or awnings hung from the low projecting eaves of the
+heavy roof. As the customers take their seats, either on the edge of the
+platform, or, if they have come on an extended shopping bout, upon the
+straw mat of the platform itself, a small boy appears with tea for the
+party; an obsequious clerk greets them with the customary salutations of
+welcome, pushes the charcoal brazier toward them, that they may smoke,
+or warm their hands, before proceeding to business, and then waits
+expectantly for the name of the goods that his customers desire to see.
+When this is given, the work begins; the little boys are summoned, and
+are soon sent off to the great fire-proof warehouse, which stands with
+heavy doors thrown open, on the other side of the platform, away from
+the street. Through the doorway one can see endless piles of costly
+stuffs stored safely away, and from these piles the boys select the
+required fabric, loading themselves down with them so that they can
+barely stagger under the weights that they carry. As the right goods are
+not always brought the first time, and as, moreover, there is an endless
+variety in the colors and patterns in even one kind of silk, there is
+always plenty of time for watching the busy scene,--for sipping tea, or
+smoking a few whiffs from the tiny pipes that so many Japanese, both men
+and women, carry always with them. When the purchase is at last made,
+there is still some time to be spent by the customer in waiting until
+the clerk has made an abstruse calculation upon his _soroban_, the
+transaction has been entered in the books of the firm, and a long bill
+has been written and stamped, and handed to her with the bundle. During
+her stay in the store, the foreign customer, making her first visit to
+the place, is frequently startled by loud shouts from the whole staff
+of clerks and small boys,--outcries so sudden, so simultaneous, and so
+stentorian, that she cannot rid herself of the idea that something
+terrible is happening every time that they occur. She soon learns,
+however, that these manifestations of energy are but the way in which
+the Japanese merchant speeds the departing purchaser, and that the
+apparently inarticulate shouts are but the formal phrase, "Thanks for
+your continued favors," which is repeated in a loud tone by every
+employee in the store whenever a customer departs. When she herself is
+at last ready to leave, a chorus of yells arises, this time for her
+benefit; and as she skips into the _jinrikisha_ and is whirled away, she
+hears continued the busy hum of voices, the clattering of _sorobans_,
+the thumping of the bare feet of the heavily laden boys, and the loud
+shouts of thanks with which departing guests are honored.
+
+There is less pomp and circumstance about the smaller stores, for all
+the goods are within easy reach, and the shops for household utensils
+and chinaware seem to have nearly the whole stock in trade piled up in
+front, or even in the street itself. Many such little places are the
+homes of the people who keep them. And at the back are rooms, which
+serve for dwelling rooms, opening upon well-kept gardens. The whole work
+of the store is often attended to by the proprietor, assisted by his
+wife and family, and perhaps one or two apprentices. Each of the
+workers, in turn, takes an occasional holiday, for there is no day in
+the Japanese calendar when the shops are all closed; and even New Year's
+Day, the great festival of the year, finds most of the stores open. Yet
+the dwellers in these little homes, living almost in the street, and in
+the midst of the bustle and crowd and dust of Tōkyō, have still time to
+enjoy their holidays and their little gardens, and have more pleasure
+and less hard work than those under similar circumstances in our own
+country.
+
+The stranger visiting any of the great Japanese cities is surprised by
+the lack of large stores and manufactories, and often wonders where the
+beautiful lacquer work and porcelains are made, and where the gay silks
+and crêpes are woven. There are no large establishments where such
+things are turned out by wholesale. The delicate vases, the bronzes,
+and the silks are often made in humblest homes, the work of one or two
+laborers with rudest tools. There are no great manufactories to be seen,
+and the bane of so many cities, the polluting factory smoke, never rises
+over the cities of Japan. The hard, confining factory life, with its
+never-ceasing roar of machinery, bewildering the minds and intellects of
+the men who come under its deadening influences, until they become
+scarcely more than machines themselves, is a thing as yet almost unknown
+in Japan. The life of the _jinrikisha_ man even, hard and comfortless as
+it may seem to run all day like a horse through the crowded city
+streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh air, under the open sky, and
+quickens his powers both of body and mind. To the poor in Japanese
+cities is never denied the fresh air and sunshine, green trees and
+grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens are found everywhere, for the
+enjoyment of even the meanest and lowest.
+
+On certain days in the month, in different sections of the city, are
+held night festivals near temples, and many shopkeepers take the
+opportunity to erect temporary booths, in which they so arrange their
+wares as to tempt the passers-by as they go to and fro. Very often there
+is a magnificent display of young trees, potted plants, and flowers,
+brought in from the country and ranged on both sides of the street. Here
+the gardeners make lively sales, as the displays are often fine in
+themselves, and show to a special advantage in the flaring torchlight.
+The eager venders, who do all they can to call the attention of the
+crowd to their wares, make many good bargains. The purchase requires
+skill on both sides, for flower men are proverbial in their high
+charges, asking often five and ten times the real value of a plant, but
+coming down in price almost immediately on remonstrance. You ask the
+price of a dwarf wistaria growing in a pot. The man answers at once,
+"Two dollars." "Two dollars!" you answer in surprise, "it is not worth
+more than thirty or forty cents." "Seventy-five, then," he will respond;
+and thus the buyer and seller approach nearer in price, until the
+bargain is struck somewhere near the first price offered. Price another
+plant and there would be the same process to go over again; but as the
+evening passes, prices go lower and lower, for the distances that the
+plants have been brought are great, and the labor of loading up and
+carrying back the heavy pots is a weary one, and when the last customer
+has departed the merchants must work late into the night to get their
+wares safely home again.
+
+But beside the flower shows, there are long rows of booths, which, with
+the many visitors who throng the streets, make a gay and lively scene.
+So dense is the crowd that it is with difficulty one can push through on
+foot or in _jinrikisha_. The darkness is illuminated by torches, whose
+weird flames flare and smoke in the wind, and shine down upon the little
+sheds which line both sides of the road, and contain so tempting a
+display of cheap toys and trinkets that not only the children, but their
+elders, are attracted by them. Some of the booths are devoted to dolls;
+others to toys of various kinds; still others to birds in cages,
+goldfish in globes, queer chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty
+ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and cakes of all sorts, roasted
+beans and peanuts, and other things too numerous to mention. The long
+line of stalls ends with booths, or tents, in which shows of dancing,
+jugglery, educated animals, and monstrosities, natural or artificial,
+may be seen for the moderate admission fee of two sen. Each of these
+shows is well advertised by the beating of drums, by the shouting of
+doorkeepers, by wonderful pictures on the outside to entice the
+passer-by, or even by an occasional brief lifting of the curtains which
+veil the scene from the crowd without, just long enough to afford a
+tantalizing glimpse of the wonders within. Great is the fascination to
+the children in all these things, and the little feet are never weary
+until the last booth is passed, and the quiet of neighboring streets,
+lighted only by wandering lanterns, strikes the home-returning party by
+its contrast with the light and noise of the festival. The supposed
+object of the expedition, the visit to the temple, has occupied but a
+small share of time and attention, and the little hands are filled with
+the amusing toys and trifles bought, and the little minds with the merry
+sights seen. Nor are those who remain at home forgotten, but the
+pleasure-seekers who visit the fair carry away with them little gifts
+for each member of the family, and the _O miagé_, or present given on
+the return, is a regular institution of Japanese home life.[42]
+
+[42] _O miagé_ must be given, not only on the return from an evening of
+pleasure, but also on the return from a journey or pleasure trip of any
+kind. As a rule, the longer the absence, the finer and more costly must
+be the presents given on returning.
+
+By ten o'clock, when the crowds have dispersed and the purchasers have
+all gone home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keepers take down their
+stalls, pack up their wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the
+night's gayeties to greet the morning sun.
+
+Beside these evening shows, which occur monthly or oftener, there are
+also great festivals of the various gods, some celebrated annually,
+others at intervals of some years. These _matsuri_ last for several
+days, and during that time the quarter of the city in which they occur
+seems entirely given over to festivity. The streets are gayly decorated
+with flags, and bright lanterns--all alike in design and color--are hung
+in rows from the low eaves of the houses. Young bamboo-trees set along
+the street, and decorated with bits of bright-colored tissue paper, are
+a frequent and effective accompaniment of these festivals, and here and
+there throughout the district are set up high stands, on the tops of
+which musicians with squeaky flutes, and drums of varying calibre, keep
+up a din more festive than harmonious. It takes a day or two for the
+rejoicings to get fully under way, but by the second or third day the
+fun is at its height, and the streets are thronged with merrymakers. A
+great deal of labor and strength, as well as ingenuity, is spent in the
+construction of enormous floats, or _dashi_, lofty platforms of two
+stories, either set on wheels and drawn by black bullocks or crowds of
+shouting men, or carried by poles on men's shoulders. Upon the first
+floor of these great floats is usually a company of dancers, or mummers,
+who dance, attitudinize, or make faces for the amusement of the crowds
+that gather along their route; while up above, an effigy of some hero in
+Japanese history, or the figure of some animal or monster, looks down
+unmoved upon the absurdities below. Each _dashi_ is attended, not only
+by the men who draw it, but by companies of others in some uniform
+costume; and sometimes graceful professional dancing-girls are hired to
+march in the _matsuri_ procession, or to dance upon the lofty _dashi_.
+At the time of the festivities which accompanied the promulgation of the
+Constitution, three days of jollification were held in Tōkyō, days of
+such universal fun and frolic that it will be known among the common
+people, to all succeeding generations, as the "Emperor's big _matsuri_."
+Every quarter of the city vied with every other in the production of
+gorgeous _dashi_, and the streets were gay with every conceivable
+variety of decoration, from the little red-and-white paper lanterns,
+that even the poorest hung before their houses, to the great evergreen
+arches, set with electric lights, with which the great business streets
+were spanned thickly from end to end. An evening walk through one of
+these thoroughfares was a sight to be remembered for a lifetime. The
+magnificent _dashi_ represented all manner of quaint conceits. A great
+bivalve drawn by yelling crowds--which halted occasionally--opened and
+displayed between its shells a group of beautifully dressed girls, who
+danced one of the pantomimic dances of the country, accompanied by the
+twanging melodies of the _samisen_. Then slowly the great shell closed,
+once more the shouting crowds seized hold of the straining ropes, and
+the great bivalve with its fair freight was drawn slowly along through
+the gayly illuminated streets. Jimmu Tenno and other heroes of Japanese
+legend or history, each upon its lofty platform, a white elephant, and
+countless other subjects were represented in the festival cars sent
+forth by all the districts of the city to celebrate the great event.
+
+Upon such festival occasions the shopkeeper does not put up his shutters
+and leave his place of business, but the open shop-fronts add much to
+the gay appearance of the street. There are no signs of business about,
+but the floor of the shop is covered with bright-red blankets;
+magnificent gilded screens form an imposing background to the little
+room; and seated on the floor are the shopkeeper, his family, and
+guests, eating, drinking tea, and smoking, as cosily as if all the world
+and his wife were not gazing upon the gay and homelike interior.
+Sometimes companies of dancers, or other entertainments furnished by the
+wealthier shopkeepers, will attract gaping crowds, who watch and block
+the street until the advance guard of some approaching _dashi_ scatters
+them for a moment.
+
+In Japan, as in other parts of the world, the country people are rather
+looked down upon by the dwellers in the city for their slowness of
+intellect, dowdiness of dress, and boorishness of manners; while the
+country people make fun of the fads and fashions of the city, and
+rejoice that they are not themselves the slaves of novelty, and
+especially of the foreign innovations that play so prominent a part in
+Japanese city life to-day. "The frog in the well knows not the great
+ocean," is the snub with which the Japanese cockney sets down Farmer
+Rice-Field's expressions of opinion; while the conservative countryman
+laughs at the foreign affectations of the Tōkyō man, and returns to his
+village with tales of the cookery of the capital: so extravagant is it
+that sugar is used in everything; it is even rumored that the Tōkyōites
+put sugar in their tea.
+
+But while the country laughs and wonders at the city, nevertheless, in
+Japan as elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of the young life of
+the country into the livelier and more entertaining city. Tōkyō
+especially is the goal of every young countryman's ambition, and thither
+he goes to seek his fortune, finding, alas! too often, only the hard lot
+of the _jinrikisha_ man, instead of the wealth and power that his
+country dreams had shown him.
+
+The lower class women of the cities are in many respects like their
+sisters of the rural districts, except that they have less freedom than
+the country women in what the economists call "direct production." The
+wells and water tanks that stand at convenient distances along the
+streets of Tōkyō are frequently surrounded by crowds of women, drawing
+water, washing rice, and chattering merrily over their occupations. They
+meet and exchange ideas freely with each other and with the men, but
+they have not the diversity of labor that country life affords,
+confining themselves more closely to indoor and domestic work, and
+leaving the bread-winning more entirely to the men.
+
+There are, however, occupations in the city for women, by which they may
+support themselves or their families. A good hair-dresser may make a
+handsome living; indeed, she does so well that it is proverbial among
+the Japanese that a hair-dresser's husband has nothing to do. Though
+professional tailors are mostly men, many women earn a small pittance in
+taking in sewing and in giving sewing lessons; and as instructors in the
+ceremonial tea, etiquette, music, painting, and flower arrangement, many
+women of the old school are able to earn an independence, though none of
+these occupations are confined to the women alone.
+
+The business of hotel-keeping we have referred to in a previous chapter,
+and it is a well-known fact that unless a hotel-keeper has a capable
+wife, his business will not succeed. At present, all over Tōkyō, small
+restaurants, where food is served in the foreign style, are springing
+up, and these are usually conducted by a man and his wife who have at
+some time served as cook and waitress in a foreign family, and who
+conduct the business cöoperatively and on terms of good-fellowship and
+equality. In these little eating-houses, where a well-cooked foreign
+dinner of from three to six courses is served for the moderate sum of
+thirty or forty cents, the man usually does the cooking, the woman the
+serving and handling of the money, until the time arrives when the
+profits of the business are sufficient to justify the hiring of more
+help. When this time comes, the labor is redistributed, the woman
+frequently taking upon herself the reception of the guests and the
+keeping of the accounts, while the hired help waits on the tables.
+
+One important calling, in the eyes of many persons, especially those of
+the lower classes, is that of fortune-telling; and these guides in all
+matters of life, both great and small, are to be found in every section
+of the city. They are consulted on every important step by believing
+ones of all classes. An impending marriage, an illness, the loss of any
+valuable article, a journey about to be taken,--these are all subjects
+for the fortune-teller. He tells the right day of marriage, and says
+whether the fates of the two parties will combine well; gives clues to
+the causes of sudden illness, and information as to what has become of
+lost articles, and whether they will be recovered or not. Warned thus by
+the fortune-teller against evils that may happen, many ingenious
+expedients are resorted to, to avoid the ill foretold.
+
+A man and his family were about to move from their residence to another
+part of the city. They sent to know if the fates were propitious to the
+change for all the family. The day and year of birth of each was told,
+and then the fortune-teller hunted up the various signs, and sent word
+that the direction of the new home was excellent for the good luck of
+the family as a whole, and the move a good one for each member of it
+except one of the sons; the next year the same move would be bad for the
+father. As the family could not wait two years before moving, it was
+decided that the change of residence should be made at once, but that
+the son should live with his uncle until the next year. The uncle's home
+was, however, inconveniently remote, and so the young man stayed as a
+visitor at his father's house for the remaining months of the year,
+after which he became once more a member of the household. Thus the
+inconvenience and the evil were both avoided.[*282]
+
+Another story comes to my mind now of a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sama
+of a house of high rank, who late in life came to Tōkyō to live with
+her brother and his young and somewhat foreignized wife. The brother
+himself, while not a Christian, had little belief in the old
+superstitions of his people; his wife was a professing Christian. Soon
+after the old lady's arrival in Tōkyō, her sister-in-law fell ill, and
+before she had recovered her strength the children, one after another,
+came down with various diseases, which, though in no case fatal, kept
+the family in a state of anxiety for more than a year. The old lady was
+quite sure that there was some witchcraft or art-magic at work among her
+dear ones, and, after consulting the servants (for she knew that she
+could expect no sympathy in her plans from either her brother or his
+wife), she betook herself to a fortune-teller to discover through his
+means the causes of the illness in the family. The fortune-teller
+revealed to her the fact that two occult forces were at work bringing
+evil upon the house. One was the evil spirit of a spring or well that
+had been choked with stones, or otherwise obstructed in its flow, and
+that chose this way of bringing its afflictions to the attention of
+mortals. The other was the spirit of a horse that had once belonged in
+the family, and that after death revenged itself upon its former masters
+for the hard service wherewith it had been made to serve. The only way
+in which these two powers could be appeased would be by finding the
+well, and removing the obstructions that choked it, and by erecting an
+image of the horse and offering to it cakes and other meat-offerings.
+The fortune-teller hinted, moreover, that for a consideration he might
+be able to afford material aid in the search for the well.
+
+At this information Go Inkyo Sama was much perturbed, for further aid
+for her afflicted family seemed to require the use of money, and of that
+commodity she had very little, being mainly dependent upon her brother
+for support. She returned to her home and consulted the servants upon
+the matter; but though they quite agreed with her that something should
+be done, they had little capital to invest in the enterprises suggested
+by the fortune-teller. At last, the old lady went to her brother, but he
+only laughed at her well-meant attempts to help his family, and refused
+to give her money for such a purpose. She retired discouraged, but,
+urged by the servants, she decided to make a last appeal, this time to
+her sister-in-law, who must surely be moved by the evil that was
+threatening herself and her children. Taking some of the head servants
+with her, she went to her sister and presented the case. This was her
+last resort, and she clung to her forlorn hope longer than many would
+have done, the servants adding their arguments to her impassioned
+appeals, only to find out after all that the steadfast sister could not
+be moved, and that she would not propitiate the horse's spirit, or allow
+money to be used for such a purpose. She gave it up then, and sat down
+to await the fate of her doomed house, doubtless wondering much and
+sighing often over the foolish skepticism of her near relatives, and
+wishing that the rationalistic tendencies of the time would take a less
+dangerous form than the neglecting of the plainest precautions for life
+and health. The fate has not yet come, and now at last Go Inkyo Sama
+seems to have resigned herself to the belief that it has been averted
+from the heads of the dear ones by a power unknown to the
+fortune-teller.
+
+Beside these callings, there are other employments which are not
+regarded as wholly respectable by either Japanese or foreigners. The
+_géisha ya_, or establishments where dancing-girls are trained, and let
+out by the day or evening to tea-houses or private parties, are usually
+managed by women. At these establishments little girls are taken,
+sometimes by contract with their parents, sometimes adopted by the
+proprietors of the house, and from very early youth are trained not only
+in the art of dancing, but are taught singing and _samisen_-playing, all
+the etiquette of serving and entertaining guests, and whatever else goes
+to make a girl charming to the opposite sex. When thoroughly taught,
+they form a valuable investment, and well repay the labor spent upon
+them, for a popular géisha commands a good price everywhere, and has her
+time overcrowded with engagements. A Japanese entertainment is hardly
+regarded as complete without géishas in attendance, and their dancing,
+music, and graceful service at supper form a charming addition to an
+evening of enjoyment at a tea-house. It is these géishas, too, who at
+_matsuri_ are hired to march in quaint uniforms in the procession, or,
+borne aloft on great _dashi_, dance for the benefit of the admiring
+crowds.
+
+The Japanese dances are charmingly graceful and modest; the swaying of
+the body and limbs, the artistic management of the flowing draperies,
+the variety of themes and costumes of the different dances, all go to
+make an entertainment by géishas one of the pleasantest of Japanese
+enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet and yellow robes, the dainty maidens
+imitate, with their supple bodies, the dance of the maple leaves as they
+are driven hither and thither in the autumn wind; sometimes, with
+tucked-up _kimonos_ and jaunty red petticoats, they play the part of
+little country girls carrying their eggs to market in the neighboring
+village. Again, clad in armor, they simulate the warlike gestures and
+martial stamp of some of the old-time heroes; or, with whitened faces
+and hoary locks, they perform with rake and broom the dance of the good
+old man and old woman who play so prominent a part in Japanese pictures.
+And then, when the dance is over, and all are bewitched with their grace
+and beauty, they descend to the supper-room and ply their temporary
+employers with the _saké_ bottle, laughing and jesting the while, until
+there is little wonder if the young men at the entertainment drink more
+than is good for them, and leave the tea-house at last thoroughly tipsy,
+and enslaved by the bright eyes and merry wits of some of the Hebes who
+have beguiled them through the evening.
+
+The géishas unfortunately, though fair, are frail. In their system of
+education, manners stand higher than morals, and many a géisha gladly
+leaves the dancing in the tea-houses to become the concubine of some
+wealthy Japanese or foreigner, thinking none the worse of herself for
+such a business arrangement, and going cheerfully back to her regular
+work, should her contract be unexpectedly ended. The géisha is not
+necessarily bad, but there is in her life much temptation to evil, and
+little stimulus to do right, so that, where one lives blameless, many go
+wrong, and drop below the margin of respectability altogether. Yet so
+fascinating, bright, and lively are these géishas that many of them have
+been taken by men of good position as wives, and are now the heads of
+the most respectable homes. Without true education or morals, but
+trained thoroughly in all the arts and accomplishments that
+please,--witty, quick at repartee, pretty, and always well dressed,--the
+géisha has proved a formidable rival for the demure, quiet maiden of
+good family, who can only give her husband an unsullied name, silent
+obedience, and faithful service all her life. The freedom of the present
+age, as shown in the chapter on "Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in
+the choice of such wives, has presented this great problem to the
+thinking women of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in Japan are to
+come from among such a class of women, something must be done, and done
+quickly, for the sake of the future of Japan; either to raise the
+standards of the men in regard to women, or to change the old system of
+education for girls. A liberal education, and more freedom in early life
+for women, has been suggested, and is now being tried, but the problem
+of the géisha and her fascination is a deep one in Japan.
+
+Below the géisha in respectability stands the jōrō, or licensed
+prostitute. Every city in Japan has its disreputable quarter, where the
+various _jōrōya_, or licensed houses of prostitution, are situated. The
+supervision that the government exercises over these places is extremely
+rigid; the effort is made, by licensing and regulating them, to minimize
+the evils that must flow from them. The proprietors of the _jōrōya_ do
+everything in their power to make their houses, grounds, and employees
+attractive, and, to the unsuspecting foreigner, this portion of the city
+seems often the pleasantest and most respectable. A jōrō need never be
+taken for a respectable woman, for her dress is distinctive, and a stay
+of a short time in Japan is long enough to teach even the most obtuse
+that the _obi_, or sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one of the
+badges of shame. But though the occupation of the jōrō is altogether
+disreputable,--though the prostitute quarter is the spot to which the
+police turn for information in regard to criminals and law-breakers, a
+sort of a trap into which, sooner or later, the offender against the law
+is sure to fall,--Japanese public opinion, though recognizing the evil
+as a great one, does not look upon the professional prostitute with the
+loathing which she inspires in Christian countries. The reason for this
+lies, not solely in the lower moral standards although it is true that
+sins of this character are regarded much more leniently in Japan than in
+England or America. The reason lies very largely in the fact that these
+women are seldom free agents. Many of them are virtually slaves, sold in
+childhood to the keepers of the houses in which they work, and trained,
+amid the surroundings of the _jōrōya_, for the life which is the only
+life they have ever known. A few may have sacrificed themselves freely
+but reluctantly for those whom they love, and by their revolting slavery
+may be earning the means to keep their dear ones from starvation or
+disgrace. Many are the Japanese romances that are woven about the
+virtuous jōrō, who is eventually rewarded by finding, even in the
+_jōrōya_, a lover who is willing to raise her again to a life of
+respectability, and make her a happy wife and the mother of children.
+Such stories must necessarily lower the standard of morals in regard to
+chastity, but in a country in which innocent romance has little room for
+development, the imagination must find its materials where it can.
+These _jōrōya_ give employment to thousands of women throughout the
+country, but in few cases do the women seek that employment, and more
+openings in respectable directions, together with a change in public
+opinion securing to every woman the right to her own person, would tend
+to diminish the number of victims that these institutions yearly draw
+into their devouring current.
+
+Innocent and reputable amusements are many and varied in the cities. We
+have already mentioned incidentally the theatre as one of the favorite
+diversions of the people; and though it has never been regarded as a
+very refined amusement, it has done and is doing much for the education
+of the lower classes in the history and spirit of former times. Regular
+plays were never performed in the presence of the Emperor and his court,
+or the Shōgun and his nobles, but the _No_ dance was the only dramatic
+amusement of the nobility. This _No_ is an ancient Japanese theatrical
+performance, more, perhaps, like the Greek drama than anything in our
+modern life. All the movements of the actors are measured and
+conventionalized, speech is a poetical recitative, the costumes are
+stiff and antique, masks are much used, and a chorus seated upon the
+stage chants audible comments upon the various situations. This alone,
+the most ancient and classical of Japanese theatrical performances, is
+considered worthy of the attention of the Emperor and the nobility, and
+takes the place with them of the more vulgar and realistic plays which
+delight common people.
+
+The regular theatre preserves in many ways the life and costumes of old
+Japan, and the details of dress and scenery are most carefully studied.
+The actors are usually men, though there are "women theatres" in which
+all the parts are performed by women. In no case are the rôles taken by
+both sexes upon one stage. As the performances last all day, from ten or
+eleven in the forenoon until eight or nine in the evening, going to the
+theatre means much more than a few hours of entertainment after the
+day's work is over. A lunch and dinner, with innumerable light edibles
+between, go to make up the usual bill of fare for a day at the play, and
+tea-houses in the neighborhood of the theatre provide the necessary
+meals, a room to take them in, a resting-place between the acts, and
+whatever tea, cakes, and other refreshments may be ordered. These latter
+eatables are served by the attendants of the tea-house in the theatre
+boxes while the play is in progress, and the playgoers eat and smoke all
+day long through roaring farce or goriest tragedy.
+
+Similar to the theatre in many ways are the public halls, where
+professional story-tellers, the _hanashika_, night after night, relate
+long stories to crowded audiences, as powerfully and vividly as the best
+trained elocutionist. Each gesture, and each modulation of the voice, is
+studied as carefully as are those of the actors. Many charming tales are
+told of old Japan, and even Western stories have found their way to
+these assemblies. A long story is often continued from night to night
+until finished. Unfortunately, the class of people who patronize these
+places is low, and the moral tone of some of the stories is pitched
+accordingly; but the best of the story-tellers--those who have talent
+and reputation--are often invited to come to entertainments given at
+private houses, to amuse a large company by their eloquence or mimicry.
+
+This is a very favorite entertainment, and the _hanashika_ has so
+perfected the art of imitation that he can change in a moment from the
+tones of a child to those of an old woman. Solemn and sad subjects are
+touched upon, as well as merry and bright things, and he never fails to
+make his audience weep or laugh, according to his theme, and well merits
+the applause he always receives at the end.
+
+The _hanami_, or picnic to famous places to view certain flowers as they
+bloom in their season, though not belonging strictly to city life, forms
+one of the greatest of the pleasures of city people. The river Sumida,
+on which Tōkyō is situated, has lining its eastern shore for some miles
+the famous cherry-trees of Japan, with their large, double pink
+blossoms, and when, in April and May, these flowers are in their
+perfection, great crowds of sightseers flock to Mukōjima to enjoy the
+blossoms under the trees. The river is crowded with picnic parties in
+boats. Every tea-house along the banks is full of guests, and the little
+stalls and resting-places on the way find a quick sale for fruit,
+confectionery, and light lunches. _Saké_ is often too freely imbibed by
+the merrymakers, whose flushed faces show, when returning homeward, how
+their day was spent. There is much quiet enjoyment, too, of the lovely
+blossoms, the broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed crowds. Hundreds
+and thousands of visitors crowd to the suburban places about Tōkyō,--to
+Uyéno Park for its cherry and peach blossoms, Kaméido for the plum and
+wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees, and many others, each noted
+for some special beauty. Dango Zaka has its own peculiar attraction, the
+famous chrysanthemum dolls. These ingenious figures are arranged so as
+to form tableaux,--scenes from history or fiction well known to all the
+people. They are of life size, and the faces, hands, and feet are made
+of some composition, and closely resemble life in every detail. But the
+curious thing in these tableaux is that the scenery, whether it be the
+representation of a waterfall, rocks, or bushes, the animals, and the
+dresses of the figures are made entirely of chrysanthemum twigs, leaves,
+and flowers, not cut and woven in, as at the first glance they seem to
+be,--so closely are the leaves and flowers bound together to make the
+flat surface of different objects,--but alive and growing on the plants.
+It is impossible to tell where the roots and stems are hidden, for
+nothing is visible but (for example) the white spray and greenish
+shadows of a waterfall, or the parti-colored figures in a young girl's
+dress. But, should it be the visitor's good fortune to watch the
+repairing of one of these lifelike images, he will find that the entire
+body is a frame woven of split bamboo, within which the plants are
+placed, their roots packed in damp earth and bound about with straw,
+while their leaves and flowers are pulled through the basket frame and
+woven into whatsoever pattern the artistic eye and skillful fingers of
+the gardener may select. A roof of matting shields each group from the
+sun by day, and a slight sprinkling every night serves to keep the
+plants fresh for nearly a month, and the flowers continue their blooming
+during that time, as calmly as if in perfectly natural positions. Each
+of the gardeners of the neighborhood has his own little show, containing
+several tableaux, the entrance to which is guarded by an officious
+gate-keeper, who shouts out the merits of his particular groups of
+figures, and forces his show-bills upon the passer-by, in the hope of
+securing the two sen admission fee which is required for each exhibit.
+
+And so, amid the shopping, the festivals, the amusements of the great
+cities, the women find their lives varied in many ways. Their holidays
+from home duties are spent amid these enjoyments; and if they have not
+the out-of-door employments, the long walks up the mountains, the days
+spent in tea-picking, in harvesting, in all the varied work that comes
+to the country woman, the dwellers in the city have no lack of sights
+and sounds to amuse and interest them, and would not often care to
+exchange their lot for the freer and hardier life of the rustic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DOMESTIC SERVICE.
+
+
+To the foreigner, upon his arrival in Japan, the status of household
+servants is at first a source of much perplexity. There is a freedom in
+their relations with the families that they serve, that in this country
+would be regarded as impudence, and an independence of action that, in
+many cases, seems to take the form of direct disobedience to orders.
+From the steward of your household, who keeps your accounts, makes your
+purchases, and manages your affairs, to your _jinrikisha_ man or groom,
+every servant in your establishment does what is right in his own eyes,
+and after the manner that he thinks best. Mere blind obedience to orders
+is not regarded as a virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do his own
+thinking, and, if he cannot grasp the reason for your order, that order
+will not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan is frequently the despair
+of the thrifty American housewife, who has been accustomed in her own
+country to be the head of every detail of household work, leaving to her
+servants only the mechanical labor of the hands. She begins by showing
+her Oriental help the work to be done, and just the way in which she is
+accustomed to having it done at home, and the chances are about one in a
+hundred that her servant will carry out her instructions. In the
+ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish the desired result, but by
+means totally different from those to which the American housekeeper is
+accustomed. If the housewife is one of the worrying kind, who cares as
+much about the way in which the thing is done as about the accomplished
+result, the chances are that she will wear herself out in a fruitless
+endeavor to make her servants do things in her own way, and will, when
+she returns to America, assure you that Japanese servants are the most
+idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot that it was ever her bad
+fortune to have to do with. But on the other hand, if the lady of the
+house is one who is willing to give general orders, and then sit down
+and wait until the work is done before criticising it, she will find
+that by some means or other the work will be accomplished and her desire
+will be carried out, provided only that her servants see a reason for
+getting the thing done. And as she finds that her domestics will take
+responsibility upon themselves, and will work, not only with their
+hands, but with the will and intellect in her service, she soon yields
+to their protecting and thoughtful care for herself and her interests,
+and, when she returns to America, is loud in her praises of the
+competence and devotion of her Japanese servants. Even in the treaty
+ports, where contact with foreigners has given to the Japanese
+attendants the silent and repressed air that we regard as the standard
+manner for a servant, they have not resigned their right of private
+judgment, but, if faithful and honest, seek the best good of their
+employer, even if his best good involves disobedience of his orders.
+This characteristic of the Japanese servant is aggravated when he is in
+the employment of foreigners, for the simple reason that he is apt to
+regard the foreigner as a species of imbecile, who must be cared for
+tenderly because he is quite incompetent to care for himself, but whose
+fancies must not be too much regarded. Of the relations of foreign
+employers and Japanese servants much might be said, but our business is
+with the position of the servants in a Japanese household.
+
+Under the old feudal system, the servants of every family were its
+hereditary retainers, and from generation to generation desired no
+higher lot than personal service in the family to which they belonged.
+The principle of loyalty to the family interests was the leading
+principle in the lives of the servants, just as loyalty to the daimiō
+was the highest duty of the samurai. Long and intimate knowledge of the
+family history and traits of character rendered it possible for the
+retainer to work intelligently for his master, and do independently for
+him many things without orders. The servant in many cases knew his
+master and his master's interests as well as the master himself, or even
+better, and must act by the light of his own knowledge in cases where
+his master was ignorant or misinformed. One can easily see how ties of
+good-fellowship and sympathy would arise between masters and servants,
+how a community of interest would exist, so that the good of the master
+and his family would be the condition for the good of the servant and
+his family. In America, where the relation between servant and employer
+is usually a simple business arrangement, each giving certain specified
+considerations and nothing more, the relation of servant to master is
+shorn of all sentiment and affection; the servant's interests are quite
+apart from those of his employer, and his main object is to get the
+specified work done and obtain more time for himself, and sooner or
+later to leave the despised occupation of domestic service for some
+higher and more independent calling. In Japan, where faithful service of
+a master was regarded as a calling worthy of absorbing any one's highest
+abilities through a lifetime, the position of a servant was not menial
+or degrading, but might be higher than that of the farmer, merchant, or
+artisan. Whether the position was a high or a low one depended, not so
+much on the work done, as the person for whom it was done, and the
+servant of a daimiō or high rank samurai was worthy of more honor, and
+might be of far better birth, than the independent merchant or artisan.
+As the former feudal system is yet within the memory of many of the
+present generation, and its feelings still alive in Japan, much of the
+old sentiment remains, even with the merely hired domestics in a
+household of the present day. The servant, by his own master, is
+addressed by name, with no title of respect, is treated as an inferior,
+and spoken to in the language used toward inferiors; but to all others
+he is a person to be treated with respect,--to be bowed to profoundly,
+addressed by the title San, and spoken to in the politest of language.
+You make a call upon a Japanese household, and the servant who admits
+you will expect to exchange the formal salutations with you. When you
+are ushered into the reception-room, should the lady of the house be
+absent, the head servants will not only serve you with tea and
+refreshments and offer you hospitalities in their mistress's name, but
+may, if no one else be there, sit with you in the parlor, entertaining
+you with conversation until the return of the hostess. The servants of
+the household are by no means ignored socially, as they are with us, but
+are always recognized and saluted by visitors as they pass into and out
+of the room, and are free to join in the conversation of their betters,
+should they see any place where it is possible that they may shed light
+on the subject discussed. But though given this liberty of speech,
+treated with much consideration, and having sometimes much
+responsibility, servants do not forget their places in the household,
+and do not seem to be bold or out of place. Indeed, the manners of some
+of them would seem, to any one but a Japanese, to denote a lack of
+proper self-respect,--an excess of humility, or an affectation of it.
+
+In explaining to my scholars, who were reading "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
+in English, a passage where a footman is spoken of as having nearly
+disgraced himself by laughing at some quaint saying of the young lord,
+my little peeresses were amazed beyond measure to learn that in Europe
+and America a servant is expected never to show any interest in, or
+knowledge of, the conversation of his betters, never to speak unless
+addressed, and never to smile under any circumstances. Doubtless, in
+their shrewd little brains, they formed their opinion of a civilization
+imposing such barbarous restraints upon one class of persons.
+
+The women servants in a family are in position more like the
+self-respecting, old-fashioned New England "help" than they are like the
+modern "girl." They do not work all day while the mistress sits in the
+parlor doing nothing, and then, when their day's work is done, go out,
+anxious to forget, in the society of their friends, the drudgery which
+only the necessity for self-support and the high wages to be earned
+render tolerable. As has been explained in a previous chapter, the
+mistress of the house--be she princess or peasant--is herself the head
+servant, and only gives up to her helpers the part of the labor which
+she has not the time or strength to perform. Certain menial duties
+toward her husband and children, every Japanese wife and mother must do
+herself, and would scorn to delegate to any other woman except in case
+of absolute necessity. Thus there is not that gap between mistress and
+maid that exists in our days among the women of this country. The
+servants work with their mistress, helping her in every possible way,
+and are treated as responsible members of the household, if not of the
+family itself.
+
+At evening, when the wooden shutters are slid into their places around
+the porch and the lamps are lighted, the family gather together in the
+sitting-room around the _hibachi_ to talk, free from interruption, for
+no visitor comes at such an hour to disturb the family circle. The
+mother will have her sewing or work, the children will study their
+lessons, and the others will talk or amuse themselves in various ways.
+Then, perhaps, the maidservants, having finished their tasks about the
+house, will join the circle,--always at a respectful distance,--will do
+their sewing and listen to the talk, and often join in the conversation,
+but in the most humble manner. Perhaps, at times, some one more
+ambitious than the others will bring in a book, and ask the meaning of a
+word or a phrase she has met in studying, and little helps of this kind
+are given most willingly.
+
+We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting in the houses of the nobles are
+daughters of samurai, who gladly serve in these positions for the sake
+of the honor of such service, and the training they receive in noble
+houses. In a somewhat similar way, places in the homes of those of
+distinction or skill in any art or profession are held in great demand
+among the Japanese; and a prominent poet, scholar, physician, or
+professional man of any kind is often asked by anxious parents to take
+their sons under his own roof, so that they may be under his influence,
+and receive the benefits of stay in such an honorable house. The parents
+who thus send their children may not be of low rank at all, but are
+usually not sufficiently well-to-do to spend much money in the education
+of their children. The position that such boys occupy in the household
+is a curious one. They are called _Sho-séi_, meaning students, and
+students they usually are, spending all their leisure moments and their
+evenings in study. They are never treated as inferiors, except in age
+and experience; they may or may not eat with the family, and are always
+addressed with respect. On the other hand, they always feel themselves
+to be dependents, and must be willing without wages to work in any
+capacity about the house, for the sake of picking up what crumbs of
+knowledge may fall to them from their master's table. Service is not
+absolutely demanded of them, but they are expected to do what will pay
+for their board, and do not regard menial work as below them, performing
+cheerfully all that the master may require of them.
+
+In this way, a man of moderate means can help along many poor young men
+in whom he may feel interested, and in return be saved expense about his
+household work; and the students, while always considerately treated,
+are able without great expense to study,--often even to prepare for
+college, or get a start in one of the professions, for they have many
+leisure moments to devote to their books. Many prominent men of the
+present day have been students of this class, and are now in their turn
+helping the younger generation.
+
+The boys that one sees in shops, or, with workmen of all kinds, helping
+in many little ways, are not hirelings, but apprentices, who hope some
+day to hold just as good positions as their masters, and expect to know
+as much, if not a great deal more. At the shop or in the home, they not
+only help in the trades or occupations they are learning, but are
+willing to do any kind of menial work for their master or his family in
+return for what they receive from him; for they do not pay for their
+board nor for what they are taught. Even when the age of education is
+already past, grown men and women are willing to leave quite independent
+positions to shine with reflected glory as servants of persons of high
+rank or distinction. "The servant is not greater than his master" in
+Japan; but if the master is great, the servant is considerably greater
+than the man without a master.
+
+In a country like Japan, where one finds but few wealthy people, there
+may be cause for wonder at the large households, where there are so many
+servants. There will be often as many as ten or more servants in a home
+where, in other ways, luxury and wealth are not displayed. In the _oku_,
+or the part of the house where the lady of the house stays, are found
+her own maid, and women who help in the work about the house, sew in
+their leisure moments, and are the higher servants of the family; there
+are also the children's attendants, often one for each child, as well as
+the waiting women for the Go Inkyo Sama. In the kitchen are the cooks
+and their assistants, the lower servants, and usually one or more
+_jinrikisha_ men, who belong to the house, and, if this be the home of
+an official who keeps horses, a _bettō_ for each animal. There are also
+gardeners, errand-boys, and gate-keepers to guard the large _yashikis_.
+Such a retinue would seem a great deal to maintain; but servants' wages
+are so low, and the cost of living is so small, that in this matter
+Japanese can afford to be luxurious. Three or four dollars will cover
+the cost of food for a month for one person, and women servants expect
+only a few dollars in wages for that time. The men receive much higher
+pay, but at the most it is less than what a good cook receives in many
+homes here. The wages do not include occasional presents, especially
+those given semi-annually,--a small sum of money, or dress material of
+some kind,--which servants expect, and which, of course, are no small
+item in the family expense.
+
+Homes which maintain a great deal of style need many servants, for they
+expect to work less than the American servant, and are less able to
+hurry and rush through their work; and they do not desire, if they
+could, to take life so hard, even to earn greater pay. The family, too,
+in many cases are used to having plenty of hands to do the work; the
+ladies are much less independent, and life has more formalities and red
+tape in Japan than in America. A great deal of the shopping is done by
+servants, who are sent out on errands and often do important business.
+Maids accompany their mistresses to make visits; servants go with
+parties to the theatre, to picnics, or on journeys, and these
+expeditions are as heartily enjoyed by them as by their masters. It is
+expected, especially of ladies and persons of high rank, that the
+details of the journey, the bargaining with coolies, the hiring of
+vehicles, and paying of bills, be left in charge of some manservant, who
+is entirely responsible, and who makes all the bargains, arranges the
+journey for his employer, and takes charge of everything,--even to the
+amount of fees given along the way.
+
+Perhaps the highest positions of service now--positions honorable
+anywhere in Japan--are held by those who remain of the old retainers of
+daimiōs, and who regulate the households of the nobles. Such men must
+have good education, and good judgment; for much is left in their
+hands, and they are usually gentlemen, who would be known as such
+anywhere. They are the stewards of the household, the secretaries of
+their masters; keep all accounts, for which they are responsible, and
+attend to the minor affairs of etiquette,--the latter no trifling duty
+in a noble's home. It is they who accompany the nobles on their
+journeys,--regulate, advise, and attend to the little affairs of life,
+of which the master may be ignorant and cares not to learn. They are the
+last of the crowds of feudal retainers, who once filled castle and
+_yashiki_, and are now scattered throughout the length and breadth of
+the kingdom.
+
+The higher servants in the household must be always more or less trained
+in etiquette, and are expected to look neat and tidy; to serve guests
+with tea and refreshments, without any orders to that effect; and to use
+their judgment in little household affairs, and thus help the lady of
+the house. They are usually clever with their fingers, and can sew
+neatly. When their mistress goes out they assist her to dress, and only
+a few words from her will be necessary for them to have everything in
+readiness, from her sash and dress to all the little belongings of a
+lady's costume. Many a bright, quick servant is found who will
+understand and guess her mistress's wants without being told each
+detail, and these not only serve with their hands, but think for their
+employers.
+
+Much less is expected of the lower servants, who belong to the kitchen,
+and have less to do with the family in general, and little or no
+personal contact with their masters. They perform their round of duties
+with little responsibility, and are regarded as much lower in the social
+scale of servants, of which we have seen there are many degrees.
+
+The little _gozen-taki_, or rice-cook, who works all day in the kitchen,
+may be a fat, red-cheeked, frowsy-haired country girl,--patient,
+hard-working, and humble-minded,--willing to pother about all day with
+her kettles and pans, and sit up half the night over her own sewing, or
+the study of the often unfamiliar art of reading and writing; but
+entirely unacquainted with the details of etiquette, a knowledge of
+which is a necessity to the higher servants,--sometimes even thrown
+into an agony of diffidence should it become necessary to appear before
+master or mistress.
+
+Some of the customs of the household, in regard to servants, are quite
+striking to a foreigner. When the master of the house starts out each
+morning, besides the wife and children who see him off, all the servants
+who are not especially occupied--a goodly number, sometimes--come to the
+front door and bow down to bid him good-by. On his return, also, when
+the noise of the _kuruma_ is heard, and the shout of the men, who call
+out "_O kaeri!_" when near the house, the servants go out to greet him,
+and bowing low speak the customary words of salutation. To a greater or
+less degree, the same is done to every member of the family, the younger
+members, however, receiving a smaller share of the attention than their
+elders.
+
+When, as very often happens, a guest staying for any length of time in a
+family, or a frequent visitor, gives a servant a present of money or any
+trifle, the servant, after thanking the donor, takes the white paper
+bundle to the mistress of the house, and shows it to her, expressing his
+gratitude to her for the gift, and also asking her to thank the giver.
+This, of course, is always done, for a gift to a servant is as much of a
+favor to the mistress as a present to a child is to its mother.
+
+When a servant wishes to leave a family, she rarely goes to her mistress
+and states that she is dissatisfied with her position, and that some
+better chance has been offered her. Such a natural excuse never occurs
+to the Japanese servant, unless he be a _jinrikisha_ man or _bettō_, who
+may not know how to do better; for it is a very rude way of leaving
+service. The high-minded maid will proceed very differently.
+
+A few days' leave of absence to visit home will be asked and usually
+granted, for Japanese servants never have any settled time to take
+holiday. At the end of the given time the mistress will begin to wonder
+what has become of the girl, who has failed to return; and the lady will
+make up her mind she will not let her go again so readily. Just when she
+has a sharp reproof ready, a messenger or letter will arrive, with some
+good excuse, couched in most polite and humble terms. Sometimes it will
+be that she has found herself too weak for service, or that work at
+home, or the illness of some member of the family, detains her, so that
+she is not able to come back at present. The excuse is understood and
+accepted as final, and another servant is sought for and obtained. After
+several weeks have passed, very likely after entering a new place, the
+old servant will turn up some day, express her thanks for all past
+kindnesses and regrets at not returning in time, will take her pay and
+her bundles, and disappear forever.
+
+Even when servants come on trial for a few days, they often go away
+nominally to fetch their belongings, or make arrangements to return, but
+the lady of the house does not know whether the woman is satisfied or
+not. If she is not, her refusal is always brought by a third person. If
+the mistress, on her side, does not wish to hire the girl, she will not
+tell her so to her face, but will send word at this time to prevent her
+coming. Such is the etiquette in these matters of mistress and
+maid.[*317]
+
+Only by a multiplicity of details is it possible to give much idea of
+the position of servants in a Japanese house, and even then the result
+arrived at is that the positions of what we would call domestic
+servants vary so greatly in honor and responsibility that it is almost
+impossible to draw any general conclusions upon this subject. We have
+seen that there is no distinct servile class in Japan, and that a
+person's social status is not altered by the fact that he serves in a
+menial capacity, provided that service be of one above him in rank and
+not below him. This is largely the result of the grading of society upon
+other lines than those on which our social distinctions are founded, and
+partly the result of the fact that women, of whatever class, are
+servants so far as persons of the opposite sex in their own class are
+concerned. The women of Japan to-day form the great servile class, and,
+as they are also the wives and mothers of those whom they serve, they
+are treated, of course, with a certain consideration and respect never
+given to a mere servant; and through them, all domestic service is
+elevated.[*318]
+
+There are two employments which I have mentioned among those of domestic
+servants because they would be so classed by us, but which in Japan rank
+among the trades. The _jinrikisha_ man and the groom belong, as a rule,
+to a certain class at the bottom of the social ladder, and no samurai
+would think of entering either of these occupations, except under stress
+of severest poverty. The _bettōs_, or grooms, are a hereditary class and
+a regular guild, and have a reputation, among both Japanese and
+foreigners, as a betting, gambling, cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An
+honest _bettō_ is a rare phenomenon. The _jinrikisha_ men are, many of
+them, sons of peasants, who come to the cities for the sake of earning
+more money, or leading a livelier life than can be found in the little
+thatched cottage among the rice-fields. Few of them are married, or have
+homes of their own. Many of them drink and gamble, and sow their wild
+oats in all possible ways; but they are a well-meaning, fairly honest,
+happy-go-lucky set, who lead hard lives of exhausting labor, and endure
+long hours of exposure to heat and cold, rain, snow, and blinding
+sunshine, not only with little complaint or grumbling, but with absolute
+cheerfulness and hilarity. A strong, fast _jinrikisha_ man takes great
+pride in his strength and speed. It is a point of honor with him to pull
+his passenger up the steepest and most slippery of hills, and never to
+heed him if he expresses a desire to walk in order to save his man. I
+have had my _kurumaya_ stoutly refuse, again and again, my offers to
+walk up a steep hill, even when the snow was so soft and slippery under
+his bare feet that he fell three times in making the ascent. "_Dai
+jobu_" (safe) would be his smiling response to all my protestations;
+and, once in a _jinrikisha_, the passenger is entirely at the mercy of
+his man in all matters of getting into and out of the vehicle. But
+though the _jinrikisha_ man is, for the time being, the autocrat and
+controlling power over his passenger, and though he will not obey the
+behests of his employer, except so far as they seem reasonable and in
+accordance with the best interests of all concerned, he constitutes
+himself the protector and assistant, the adviser and counselor, of him
+whom he serves, and gives his best thought and intelligence, as well as
+his speed and strength, to the service in which he is engaged. If he
+thinks it safe, he will tear like an unbroken colt through the business
+portions of the city, knocking bundles out of the hands of foot
+passengers, or even hitting the wayfarers themselves in a fierce dash
+through their midst, laughing gayly at their protests, and at threats of
+wrath to come from his helpless passenger; but should hint of insult or
+injury against _kuruma_, passenger, or passenger's dog fall upon his
+ears, he will drop the _jinrikisha_ shafts, and administer condign
+punishment to the offender, unchecked by thoughts of the ever-present
+police, or by any terrors that his employer may hold over his head. In
+no other country in the world, perhaps, can a lady place more entire
+confidence in the honor and loyalty of her servant than she can in Japan
+in her _kurumaya_, whether he be her private servant, or one from a
+respectable stand. He may not do what she bids him, but that is quite a
+secondary matter. He will study her interests; will remember her likes
+and dislikes; will take a mental inventory of the various accessories or
+bundles that she carries with her, and will never permit her to lose or
+forget one of them; will run his legs off in her service, and defend her
+and her property valiantly in case of need. Of course, as in all classes
+there are different grades, so there are _jinrikisha_ men who seem to
+have sunk so low in their calling that they have lost all feeling of
+loyalty to their employer, and only care selfishly for the pittance they
+gain. Such men are often found in the treaty ports, eagerly seeking for
+the rich foreigner, from whom they can get an extra fee, and whom they
+regard as outside of their code of morals, and hence as their natural
+prey. Travelers, and even residents of Japan, have often complained of
+such treatment; and it is only after long stay in Japan, among the
+Japanese themselves, that one can tell what a _jinrikisha_ man is
+capable of.[*322]
+
+If you employ one _kurumaya_ for any length of time, you come to have a
+real affection for him on account of his loyal, faithful, cheerful
+service, such as we seldom find in this country except when inspired by
+personal feeling. When you have ridden miles and miles, by night and by
+day, through rain and sleet and hottest sunshine, behind a man who has
+used every power of body and mind in your service, you cannot but have a
+strong feeling of affection toward him, and of pride in him as well. It
+is something the feeling that one has for a good saddle-horse, but more
+developed. You rejoice, not only in his strength and speed, put forth so
+willingly in your service; in his picturesque, dark blue costume with
+your monogram embroidered on the back; in his handsomely turned ankles;
+in his black, wavy hair; in his delicate hands and trim waist,--though
+these are often a source of pride to you,--but his skill in divining
+your wants; his use of his tongue in your service; his helping out of
+your faltering Japanese with explanations which, if not elegant, have
+the merit of being easily understood; his combats with extortionate
+shopkeepers in your behalf; his interest in all your doings and
+concerns,--remain as a pleasant memory, upon your return to a land where
+no man would so far forget his manhood as to give himself so completely
+and without reserve to the service of any master save Mammon.
+
+As old Japan, with its quaintness, its mediæval flavor, its feudalism,
+its loyalty, its sense of honor, and its transcendental contempt for
+money and luxury, recedes into the past, and as the memories of my life
+there grow dim, two figures stand out more and more boldly from the
+fading background,--both, the figures of faithful servants. One, Yasaku,
+the _kurumaya_, a very Hercules, who could keep close to a pair of coach
+horses through miles of city streets, and who never suffered mortal
+_jinrikisha_ man to pass him. My champion in all times of danger and
+alarm, but a very autocrat in all minor matters,--his cheery face, his
+broad shoulders with their blue draperies, his jolly, boyish voice, and
+his dainty, delicate hands come before me as I write, and I wonder to
+what fortunate person he is now giving the intelligent service that he
+once gave so whole-heartedly to me. The other, O Kaio, my maid, her
+plain little face, with its upturned eyes, growing, as the days went by,
+absolutely beautiful in the light of pure goodness that beamed from it.
+A Japanese Christian, with all the Christian virtues well developed, she
+became to me not only a good servant, doing her work with conscientious
+fidelity, but a sympathetic friend, to whom I turned for help in time of
+need; and whom I left, when I returned to America, with a sincere sorrow
+in my heart at parting with one who had grown to fill so large a place
+in my thoughts. Her little, half-shy, half-motherly ways toward her big
+foreign mistress had a charm all their own. Her pride and delight over
+my progress in the language; her patient efforts to make me understand
+new words, or to understand my uncouth foreign idioms; her joy, when at
+last I reached the point where a story told by her lips could be
+comprehended and enjoyed,--gave a continual encouragement in a task too
+often completely disheartening.
+
+During the last summer of my stay in Japan, cutting loose from all
+foreigners and foreign associations, I traveled alone with her through
+the heart of the country, stopping only at Japanese hotels, and carrying
+with me no supplies to eke out the simple Japanese fare. Through floods
+and typhoons we journeyed. Long days of scorching heat or driving rain
+in no way abated her cheerfulness, or lessened her desire to do all that
+she could for my aid and comfort. Not one sad look nor impatient word
+showed a flaw in her perfect temper; and if she privately made up her
+mind that I was crazy, she never by word or look gave a hint of her
+thought. _Jinrikisha_ men grumbled and gave out; hotel-keepers resented
+the presence of my dog, or presented extortionate bills; but O Kaio's
+good temper and tact never failed her. Difficulties were smoothed away;
+bills were compromised and reduced; the dog slept securely by my side on
+a red blanket in the best rooms of the best hotels; and O Kaio smiled,
+told her quaint stories, amused me and ministered to me, as if I were
+her one object in life, though husband and children were far away in
+distant Tōkyō, and her mother's heart yearned for her little ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WITHIN THE HOME.
+
+
+Into the life of a Japanese home enter many customs and observances that
+have not been dwelt upon in the preceding pages, but without some
+understanding of which our knowledge of the life of Japanese women is by
+no means complete. In Japan the woman's place is so entirely in the home
+that all the ceremonies and superstitions that gather about the conduct
+of every-day affairs are more to her than they are to the freer and
+broader-minded man. The household worship, the yearly round of
+festivals, each with its special food to be prepared, the observances
+connected with birth and marriage and death; what is to be done in time
+of illness, of earthquake, of fire, or of the frequent flittings that
+render life in Japan one succession of packings and unpackings,--all
+these are matters of high importance to the wife and mother, and their
+proper observance is left largely in her hands.
+
+Every well-ordered Japanese home of the old-fashioned kind has its
+little shrine, which is the centre of the religious life of the house.
+If the household is of the Shintō faith, this shrine is called the
+_kami-dana_, or god shelf, and contains the symbols of the gods, _gohei_
+in vases, receptacles for food and drink, and a primitive lamp,--only a
+saucer of oil in which a bit of pith serves for a wick. Daily offerings
+must be made before this shrine, and reverence paid by the clapping of
+hands; while on feast days special offerings and invocations are
+required. In Buddhist families, the _Butsudan_, or Buddha shelf, takes
+the place of the _kami-dana_, and the worship is slightly more
+complicated. Greater variety of food is offered, and the simple clapping
+of the hands and bowing of the head that is the form of prayer in the
+Shintō religion is replaced by the burning of incense and by actual
+verbal invocation of Buddha. These religious ceremonies must be
+attended to by the mother or wife. She it is who sets the rice and wine
+before the ancestral tablets, who lights the little lamp each night, and
+who sees that at each feast day and anniversary season the proper food
+is prepared and set out for the household gods.
+
+Upon the wife, and her attention to minute and apparently trifling
+details, depends much of the well-being of the family. Each child, as it
+grows toward maturity, gathers from various sources a collection of
+amulets, which, while worn always when the child is in full dress, are
+frequently too precious for ordinary play times and the risks and perils
+of every-day life. These must be kept carefully by the mother as a
+safeguard against the many evils that beset child-life. I have spoken of
+the amulets given at the times of the _miya mairi_,--both the first,
+when the name is given to the baby, and the subsequent visits made to
+the temple by the children as they pass certain stated points in their
+progress toward maturity. These amulets are simply written papers or
+slips of wood with the seal of the temple from which they are issued
+stamped upon them. Visits to noted temples by relatives and friends
+often result in additions to the child's collection. One kind of charm
+is good to keep the eyes strong; another will help its possessor to that
+much-prized accomplishment, a good handwriting; another acts as an
+assurance against accident and saves the child from harm in case of a
+fall. All these are put together by the careful mother and preserved as
+jealously as Queen Althea kept the charred stick that governed the
+destiny of her son. As the children arrive at years of discretion, these
+treasures pass out of the mother's faithful keeping into the hands of
+their actual owners, and they are usually kept stored away in some
+little-used drawer or cabinet until death removes the necessity for any
+further safeguards over life. Perhaps of all the curious things that go
+to make up these intimate personal belongings of a Japanese man or
+woman, there is none more curious than the small white parcel containing
+a portion of the umbilical cord,--saved at birth and preserved until
+death that it may be buried with its possessor and furnish him the means
+of a new birth. These little paper packages, each marked with the name
+of the child to whom it belongs, are kept by the mother.
+
+Upon the mother of the family rests very largely the determining of
+lucky and unlucky days for the beginning or transaction of different
+kinds of business. A fortune-teller is consulted for important things,
+such as removals or marriages, but in every-day life one cannot be
+running to a fortune-teller about everything; and yet there is bad luck
+lurking in the background that may baffle all our plans if we do not
+observe the proper times and seasons for our undertakings. Just as the
+Japanese calendar divides time into cycles of twelve years, each year
+named for a different animal, so also the days and hours are divided
+into twelves and bear the names of the same twelve animals,--the Chinese
+signs of the zodiac. These animals are as follows: the rat, the bull,
+the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the
+monkey, the cock, the dog, and the boar. Each animal brings its own
+kind of good or bad luck into the hour, day, or year over which it
+presides, and only a skillful balancer of pros and cons can read aright
+the combinations, and understand what the luck of any particular hour in
+any particular day of any particular year will be. For instance, the
+rat, which is the companion of Daikoku, the money god, is a lucky animal
+so far as money is concerned. A person born in the year of the rat will
+never need money, and will be economical, possibly miserly; and in one
+born on the day of the rat in the year of the rat these chances and
+qualities will be doubled. But the luck of the rat may be very seriously
+interfered with by the bad luck of the monkey or of the proverbially
+unlucky dog, when their days and hours occur in the rat year. On the
+other hand, their bad luck may be counteracted by the good luck of the
+tiger or hare, for as a rule three animals of different portent are
+presiding over human prospects every hour. This makes prophecy a
+ticklish business, requiring a wise head, but it also leaves much room
+for the subsequent explanation of failures by the superior and unusual
+influence of one or another of the animals, as the case may require.
+Momentous questions of this kind have frequently to be settled by the
+Japanese wife and mother, and she gains dignity and value in her home
+and neighborhood according to her skill in interpreting the portents of
+the day and hour.
+
+For the greater events of family life the home prophecies are felt to be
+too uncertain, and the services of the fortune-teller must be called in.
+No well-managed family would think of building a new house without
+finding in what direction to face the front door. In an American city
+this necessity would cause considerable inconvenience, as the position
+of the front door is usually determined by the relation of the
+building-lot to the street; but in a Japanese city, where, in all but
+the business quarters, every house is concealed by a high board fence,
+and where the gate that admits one within the fence is the only sign by
+which any one in the street can judge of the worldly condition of the
+dwellers within, the houses are faced about any and every way, and the
+position of each is determined by the good luck that it will bring its
+owner. After this matter has been settled and the house is fairly begun,
+there are occasional crises in its construction upon which much depends.
+Of these the most important is the day when the roof is raised. The roof
+timbers, which are unsquared logs, often rather crooked, after being
+carefully fitted and framed in some convenient vacant lot, are brought
+on carts to the site of the new building, and when all is ready, the
+head carpenter sends word to the house-owner that he is about to set the
+roof in place. The house-owner then decides whether the day set by the
+builder is a lucky one for himself and his family. If it is not, a delay
+in the building is always preferable to any danger of incurring the
+displeasure of the luck gods. This crisis safely passed, and the last of
+the roof beams secured in its place, the men take a holiday, and are
+feasted on _saké_ and spaghetti by the house-owner. A present of money
+to each workman is also in order, and will conduce to the rapid and
+faithful execution of the job in hand. When, at last, the house is
+finished, and carpenters and plasterers are ready to leave it, the local
+firemen, who have assisted all along in the building as unskilled
+laborers, often ascend to the roof, and from the ridge-pole cast down
+cakes, for which the children of the neighborhood scramble joyfully.
+
+When the builders have left, and the house is ready for occupation, even
+to the soft, thick mats on the floor and the white paper windows, the
+family will move in on the first day thereafter that is both lucky and
+pleasant. So far as possible, everything in the old house will be packed
+and ready the day before, and very early in the morning the relatives
+and friends of the mover will begin to rally around him. All come who
+can, and those who cannot come send servants or provisions. Every
+tradesman or _kurumaya_ who has had or who hopes to have the patronage
+of the moving household sends a representative to help along the work,
+so that there is always a sufficient force to carry the household
+belongings into the new home and settle them in place before the day is
+over. All these visiting helpers must be fed and provided with tea and
+cakes at proper intervals, and the presents of cooked food that pour in
+at such times are highly acceptable and of great practical usefulness.
+When the long day is ended and the visitors return one by one to their
+homes, it is the mistress of the house who must see that every servant
+and representative of a business firm receives, neatly done up in white
+paper, a present of money properly proportioned to his services, and the
+style and circumstances of the family he has been aiding. And when all
+are gone, the shutters closed, and the family left alone in their new
+home, the little wife must make a list of all who have helped in any way
+during the day, and to all, within a short time, make some
+acknowledgment of their kindness by either a call or a present. It is
+upon the wife, too, that the duty falls of sending to each of the near
+neighbors _soba_, a kind of macaroni, as an announcement of the family's
+arrival. The number of neighbors to whom this gift is sent is
+determined differently according to circumstances. If the house is one
+of several in a compound, _soba_ will be sent to all within the gate;
+but if the compound is very large, so that the sending to all would be
+too great an expense, the five nearest houses will be selected to
+receive the gift, or all who draw water from the same well. A very late
+fashion in Tōkyō, but one that is gaining ground because of its
+convenience, is to send, not the macaroni itself, but an order on the
+nearest restaurant at which that delicacy is sold.
+
+As I have already said, much of a woman's time and thought must be given
+to the proper distribution of presents among friends and dependents. The
+subject of what to give, when to give, to whom to give, and how to do up
+the gift acceptably, is one the thorough understanding of which requires
+the study of years. No foreigner can hope to do more than dabble in the
+shallows of it. Presents seem to be used more for the purpose of keeping
+those persons whose services you may need, or whose enmity you dread,
+under a sense of obligation, than they are as expressions of sentiment.
+Every housekeeper, for instance, must need the occasional services of a
+carpenter or a gardener, and in a large city like Tōkyō the chances are
+that she will some day need, and need very badly, the services of a
+fireman. A wise woman--one who is not penny wise and pound foolish--will
+by timely presents keep herself constantly in the minds of such persons,
+so that when she sends for them, they may feel under sufficient
+obligation to her to come at once. So will her house be quickly put in
+repair after earthquake or other accident; her garden show for only the
+briefest interval the ravages of the typhoon which has gullied out her
+lawn and leveled her choicest trees; and when some night "the flower of
+Yedo" blooms suddenly by her side, she will have the speedy assistance
+of the firemen, who will seal her storehouse securely with clay, wet her
+roof and walls thoroughly with water, and light at her gates the great
+alarm lanterns to tell her friends that her house is in danger and
+summon them to her assistance. No friend can disregard such a signal,
+but all will rally round her once more to help in this less orderly and
+cheerful moving,--will pack and cord and carry out her goods, and if at
+last the fire consumes her dwelling, will gather her household and
+belongings into their hospitable homes. But the foolish woman, who
+neglects or forgets her dependents when she does not need them, finds
+some day that her roof is leaking, but all the carpenters are too busy
+to mend it, her garden is destroyed because the gardener had an
+important engagement elsewhere just when she needed him, and her
+property is burned up or ruined by water and smoke because the firemen
+attended to her house last when the fire swept over her compound.
+
+When death enters a house in Japan, there are no undertakers to relieve
+the family of the painful duty of caring for the dead body and placing
+it in the coffin. There are coffin-makers and funeral managers who
+supply the great white bier and lanterns and the bunches of paper
+flowers that adorn every funeral procession, but within the house the
+preparations are all made by the family and friends, and the heaviest
+and most painful part of the work falls, as usual, on the women of the
+family. As soon as the breath finally leaves the body, it is wrapped in
+a quilt, laid with its head to the north, and an inverted screen placed
+around it. On one corner of the screen is hung a sword or knife to keep
+off any evil spirit that may wander into the room in the shape of a cat
+and disturb the dead.
+
+Etiquette requires that relatives and intimate friends of the family
+call immediately on learning of the death. To receive these calls the
+mourners, in full ceremonial dress, must sit in the death chamber and
+remove for each guest the covering from the face of the dead. The
+visitors then offer the ceremonial bows to the corpse, as if it were
+alive. During this time, too, presents to the spirit of the dead are
+pouring in. The proper offerings are flowers, cake, vegetables, candles,
+incense, or small gifts of money for the purchase of incense. If the
+deceased is a person of rank or distinction, the house is flooded with
+cumbersome and useless offerings. This custom has become so great an
+addition to the trials necessarily incident to a bereavement that one
+occasionally sees in the newspaper announcements of deaths a request
+that no offerings to the dead be sent.
+
+On the day after the death, often in the evening, the body must be
+placed in the cask-shaped coffin that until recently was the style
+commonly in use in Japan. Now, among the wealthier classes, the long
+coffin has superseded the small square or round one, but the smaller
+expense connected with burial in the old way makes the survival of the
+old type a necessity for the majority of Japanese. At an appointed time
+all the relatives assemble in the death chamber, and preparations are
+made for the bathing of the corpse. Two of the _tatami_, or floor mats,
+are turned over, and upon them are placed a new tub, a new pail, and a
+new dipper. These utensils must have no metal of any kind about them. In
+the washing of the body none but members of the family must assist, and
+respect for the dead absolutely requires that all the relatives of the
+deceased who are below him in rank must have a hand in these final
+ablutions. In Japan, the mourning for the dead is the duty of inferiors,
+never of superiors. There is no official, ceremonial mourning of parents
+for their children, nor does custom require them to perform any of the
+last rites, or attend the funeral. Upon the younger brothers and sisters
+falls the duty of attending to all the last sad ministrations. If the
+wife dies, her husband does not mourn for her, though her children do;
+but if the husband dies, the wife must mourn the rest of her life,
+cutting off her hair and placing it in the coffin as a sign of her
+perpetual faithfulness.
+
+When the body has been washed, it is dressed in white, in silk _habutai_
+whenever the family can afford it. The dress, which must be appropriate
+to the season, in the making of which all the women of the family must
+assist, is the plain, straight kimono, but must be folded from right to
+left, instead of from left to right as in life. The body, to be placed
+in the coffin, must be folded into a sitting posture, the chin resting
+upon the knees,--the position of the mummies found in many aboriginal
+American tombs. This difficult, to us apparently impossible feat, safely
+accomplished, there are placed in the coffin a number of small things
+that the dead takes with him to the next world. Some of these have been
+already mentioned, the others are little keepsakes, or perhaps tokens of
+the tastes and employments of the dead,--dice, cards, _saké_ bottles,
+the image of a horse, toy weapons,--anything, provided only that it be
+not of metal, may be used for this purpose. The single exception to this
+rule about metal is that small copper coins may be put in, to fee the
+old hag who guards the bank of the river of death. Last of all, the
+vacant spaces in the coffin are filled in with bags of tea. Then the
+coffin is closed and nailed up, wrapped with a white silk cloth fastened
+with a white silk or cotton cord, and placed on a high stand, and food
+and incense are placed before it.
+
+So long as the coffin is in the house, it must be watched over
+continually. To aid in this protracted vigil, which must be kept up day
+and night until the burial, the relatives, friends, and retainers of the
+dead assemble at the house in large numbers. In the case of a person of
+wealth and influence, there will often be a hundred or more of these
+watchers, who must be fed and cared for; and who take turns in watching,
+eating, and sleeping. It is their duty to see that the incense burning
+before the coffin is never allowed to go out, while the food for the
+dead is renewed at regular intervals by the mourners themselves.
+
+This somewhat detailed description of the duties to be performed by the
+members of a bereaved family in the house of mourning is sufficient to
+show that the presence of death in the home is made as terrible as
+possible by the painful ceremonies, the continual bustle and excitement,
+and the strain upon the resources and executive ability of the
+housekeeper and her assistants. There are few enlightened Japanese who
+will defend the present system of cruelty to the afflicted, or who do
+not long for some change, but so great is the force of conservatism in
+this regard, so haunting the fear that any change may indicate a lack
+of respect for the dead, that reform advances slowly.
+
+Individual instances occur in which some of the worst features of these
+customs are modified. A case in point is that of the late Mr. Fukuzawa,
+a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of his countrymen in
+modern ways, and who in his death continued his teaching. In his will he
+provided that his body was to be buried, without washing, in the
+clothing in which he died. This provision would seem in most countries
+to be mere eccentricity, but when one has seen or heard of the gruesome
+ceremony that follows immediately after death, and the burden of which
+falls, not on the old and hardened, but on the young and tender,
+suffering, in many cases, under the weight of a first and crushing
+affliction, one can see that only through such means as this can the
+burden ever be lifted from the shoulders of those who mourn. There are
+young and enlightened mothers in Japan to-day who have felt, in minds
+awakened to thought and action, the horrors of the system, and who will
+not allow their children to suffer for them what they have suffered in
+paying respect to their dead parents. Through this growing feeling and
+the unselfishness of maternal affection may come in time the release
+from these mournful ceremonies.
+
+While the body remains in the house, a priest comes from time to time to
+offer prayers, longer or shorter according to the wealth of the family
+employing him; and when the funeral cortège sets out on its way to the
+cemetery, the priests in their professional robes form an imposing part
+of the spectacle. The day of the burial is selected with due respect to
+the calendar, for, though there may be little good luck about a funeral,
+there is a chance of extremely bad luck growing out of it unless every
+precaution is taken. Just before the procession starts, a religious
+ceremony is held at the house, which is attended by the friends of the
+deceased, and which is substantially the same as that performed at the
+cemetery. On the day of the burial, great bunches of natural flowers are
+sent to the dead, each bunch so large as to require the services of one
+man to carry it. Sometimes with the gift a man is sent to take part in
+the procession, but if the giver feels too poor to hire a man, this
+burden, too, falls upon the bereaved household, for etiquette requires
+that all flowers sent be borne to the grave by uniformed coolies, who
+march in the funeral train. Another favorite present at this time, among
+Buddhists, is a cage of living birds, to be borne to the grave and
+released thereon. This act of mercy is counted to the deceased for
+righteousness, and is believed to aid in rendering his next incarnation
+a happy one.
+
+A funeral procession is an imposing spectacle, and, to the uninstructed
+foreigner, a cheerful one; for there is nothing sad or sombre in the
+white, or bright-colored, robes of the priests, the white,
+tinsel-decorated bier, the red and white flags borne aloft, the enormous
+bunches of gay-colored flowers;--the very mourners in white silk, and
+with faces apparently unmoved by grief, bring no thought of the object
+of the procession to the Western mind. It seems more like a bridal than
+a burial. But if you follow the cortège to the cemetery and there
+listen to the wailing of the wind instruments, and the droning of the
+priests as they perform the last rites, and watch the silent company
+that one by one go forward to bow before the coffin and place upon it a
+branch of _sakaki_ or burn a bit of incense, the trappings of woe in
+Japan will impress themselves strongly upon your mind, and the gayly
+appareled funeral processions will seem to you ever afterward as
+mournful and hopeless a spectacle as you can find in any country.
+
+The house of death remains a place of mourning for forty-nine days after
+the funeral. During this period the spirit of the deceased is supposed
+to be still inhabiting the house, and a tablet or shrine is set up in
+the death chamber before which food and flowers are renewed daily.
+Visitors are expected to make obeisance to the dead. At the end of this
+time, some acknowledgment must be sent to every friend who has sent
+anything to the house at the funeral. For a time after death has come
+into the family the relatives of the dead are regarded as ceremonially
+unclean. The period of defilement varies with the nearness of
+relationship. In the old days, no one thus defiled was allowed to go
+about his regular business or to mingle with other men; but busy modern
+Japan does not find it convenient to pause long in its work, so that
+government officials and school-children are now sent written papers
+excusing them for coming back to their tasks even while ceremonially
+unclean. Thus the old custom is passing away. In the first year after
+death, certain days are observed with special honors before the memorial
+tablet, and later, certain anniversaries of the death must be kept,
+until, at last, at the end of fifty or one hundred years, the
+personality of the spirit seems to become merged with that of the other
+ancestral spirits, and no offerings are made to it except at the general
+feasts of the dead.
+
+With the coming in of the last month of the year begin the preparations
+for the great New Year's festival, and the housekeeper finds herself
+occupied through every moment of the brief days. A woman who is at the
+head of a large household has upon her hands in the month of December
+spring house-cleaning and preparations for Christmas, New Year's,
+Thanksgiving, and Easter, all at once. The work of getting the family
+wardrobe ready for the festival must begin very early in the month, for
+every man, woman, and child in the household must be provided with new
+clothes, and the thrifty housewife sends no sewing out. In the old days,
+it was ordained that the eighth day of the twelfth month should be a
+needle festival,--a day on which all women rest from their sewing and
+amuse themselves by indulging their own fancies instead of their
+husbands', as is their duty on other days. This day was supposed to mark
+the dividing line between the old year's and the new year's sewing, but,
+as a matter of fact, the forehanded woman will finish up the old and
+begin the new even earlier in the month, so as to have this part of her
+work well out of the way before the house-cleaning, which should be
+begun not later than the fifteenth.
+
+This house-cleaning, even with the small amount of furniture found in a
+Japanese house, is an elaborate affair. Every box and closet and
+rubbish-hole in the house is turned out and put in order, the _tatami_
+are taken up and brushed and beaten, the woodwork from ceiling to floor
+is carefully washed, the plaster and paper walls flicked with the paper
+flapper that takes the place in Japan of our feather duster. All the
+quilts and clothing must be sunned and aired, the kakémonos and curios
+belonging to the family unpacked, carefully dusted, and put back into
+their wrappings and boxes, and the house and garden put into perfect
+repair. This work, if thoroughly done, takes about a week. When all is
+finished, even to the final purification by beating everything in the
+house with a fresh bamboo, games and festivities and _soba_ are in
+order. In the old daimiō houses, where great numbers of men and women
+were employed, and where the women's quarters were in a distinct part of
+the house, it was considered a great joke to catch a man on the women's
+side any time between the close of the cleaning and the beginning of the
+new year. The intruder was promptly seized and shouldered by the women,
+who carried him about the house in triumph, finally returning him to his
+own quarters. If, by any chance, they could catch the chief steward,
+they sang as they carried him about:--
+
+    "This is the great pillar of the house!
+     May he be happy till the stone foundations rot!"
+
+The week following the house-cleaning is devoted to the preparation of
+food for the festival. Of this, the most characteristic is _mochi_, a
+sort of dumpling made of rice steamed and pounded, the preparation of
+which is so difficult and protracted a process that it is not lightly
+undertaken. It is so distinctively the festival food of Japan that if
+you find _mochi_ in a friend's house at any time except the new year,
+you immediately ask what has happened, and are pretty sure to be told
+that it is a present received in celebration of a birth or a marriage,
+or some other domestic festival. It is, to Japanese children, what
+turkey and cranberry sauce are to American children, not only a delight
+to the palate, but a dish the very smell of which brings back the most
+cheerful occasions in the year.
+
+When the _mochi_ is made and set away to await the festal day, the
+matter of decoration must be attended to. At every gate is erected some
+token of the season, if it be only a bit of pine stuck into the ground,
+or a wisp of straw rope decorated with white paper _gohei_. The great
+black gates that indicate the homes of the wealthier classes are almost
+concealed by structures of pine and bamboo, on which oranges, lobsters,
+straw rope, straw fringe, white paper, and images of the good luck gods
+are used as decorations. All these things are either efficacious in
+keeping off evil spirits, or are symbols of good luck. Within the house,
+in the _tokonoma_, or place of honor, in the best room, great cakes of
+_mochi_, two, three, five, or seven in number, are set one upon another
+in a dish covered with fern leaves, and the structure surrounded by
+seaweed.
+
+Before the new year comes in the capable housewife will have sent out
+presents to every one who has during the year been of service to her
+husband, her children, or herself in any way. Her own servants will be
+remembered with gifts of clothing, something will be sent to the
+servants of friends at whose houses any of the family have visited
+often, and every dependent, poor relation, employee, and employee's
+child must be given a present, large or small, according to the amount
+of obligation felt by the giver. To persons of greater wealth and
+importance, to whom the family are grateful for past favors or from whom
+they are hoping for something in the future, gifts, often quite out of
+proportion to the resources of the givers, are sent,--a method of
+investing capital that is a little risky, though it sometimes yields
+prompt and bountiful returns. On the other hand, all the merchants and
+marketmen who supply the house send presents to the mistress and
+frequently to the head servants as well, and _furushiki_ (bundle
+handkerchiefs), cooking utensils, packages of sugar, boxes of eggs,
+dried fish, etc., flow in at the kitchen; while crêpe, silk, cotton
+cloth, money, toys, curios, and other valuables flow out of the parlor.
+All this present-giving is a severe tax upon the strength and resources
+of the housekeeper, and adds heavily to the burden that the last month
+of the year imposes upon her.
+
+By the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of the month the trades-people begin
+to send in their bills, for every man expects to square up all his
+accounts by the last night of the old year, and early payments are
+expected and made, so that all may begin the new year out of debt. So
+universal is this custom that the man who finds at the eleventh hour
+that he cannot clear off all his debts is likely to offer his property
+at a heavy sacrifice in order to secure the necessary cash. For any one
+with ready money extraordinary bargains are to be met with in Japanese
+shops during the last week of the year. In case this resource fails,
+suicide is still a short and honorable way out of a world that has
+become too difficult to live in.
+
+The Japanese housewife must feel, when December has been successfully
+passed, like the Yankee who had noticed that if he lived through the
+month of March he generally lived through the rest of the year. The
+observances of January, for which December has been one long
+preparation, begin with the rising of the New Year's sun, and continue
+in one form or another for about two weeks. Almost every day has its
+special food and its special festival duty. For the first three days the
+very best clothes in the wardrobe are worn by everybody, then till the
+seventh the second best, and from the seventh to the end of the month
+new clothes, though not the very best, must be worn. Within the first
+seven days every man in Japan is expected to call on all his friends and
+acquaintances, but the women, probably out of consideration for the many
+duties that the festival season puts upon them, are given until March to
+finish up their New Year's calls.
+
+The streets of the cities, and even of the small villages, are full of
+life and interest for a week or two. _Kurumayas_ in their new winter
+liveries trundle around fathers and mothers and happy children. All
+manner of mummers, musicians, and dancers go from house to house in
+search of custom. The _manzai_, who, with dances and songs and strange
+grimaces, undertake to drive out from your house for the new year all
+the devils who may have been residing there hitherto, are a special
+feature of this season. In every garden and in the public streets little
+girls, their faces freshly covered with white paint, their shining black
+hair newly dressed, their wing-sleeved kimonos gorgeous with many
+colors, play battledore and shuttlecock, toss small bags half filled
+with rice, or pat balls wound with shining silk to the accompaniment of
+a weird little chant. For the boys there are kites of many shapes and
+colors, or tops that they spin under every one's feet, well knowing that
+no one in Japan is too busy to turn aside for a child's pleasure. The
+very horses--small, shock-headed, evil-tempered beasts, who drag
+tremendous loads with many snorts and snaps at their masters--are decked
+out with gay streamers that reach nearly to the ground, at the ends of
+which are tinkling bells. The festival season closes on the fifteenth
+and sixteenth with a visit to the temple of Yemma, the god of hell, and
+with a holiday for all the apprentices.
+
+Next to the New Year's holiday, perhaps the most important festival of
+the Japanese year is _O Bon_, the Feast of the Dead. This is, in its
+present form, a Buddhist institution, but in spirit it fitted so exactly
+into the ancient Japanese ideas of the tastes and habits of departed
+spirits that it merely supplanted the old Shintō feasts of the dead, and
+it is a little difficult to-day to determine whether its observance is
+more Buddhist or Shintō in its character. To find the O Bon ceremonies
+in their most perfect form, it is necessary now to go into the more
+remote country villages, for though, even in Tōkyō, this feast is still
+one of the most important in the whole year, it seems to be more
+distinctly itself in a small village, where all the old forms are still
+kept up.
+
+In Tōkyō, the three days' festival is kept by the new calendar, and
+occurs on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of July. At O Bon, as
+at New Year's time, it is customary to square off all obligations by a
+general giving of presents. This, while not quite as important a matter
+as at the beginning of the year, is still a severe tax upon the time,
+purse, and memory of the wife and mother in any large family. At this
+time, too, as at New Year's, _mochi_ or some other festival dish must be
+provided, but at this point the resemblance between the two occasions
+ceases. In accordance with its character as a feast of departed spirits,
+the observance of O Bon is distinctively religious. On the twelfth, the
+family go to the graveyard and clean and put in order the graves and
+tombstones, so that the returning spirits may find all properly cared
+for. Fresh water and flowers are placed before each stone, and sometimes
+rice and fresh vegetables. At home, the ancestral tablets in the
+_Butsudan_ form the centre of the ceremonies. Before the shrine are
+placed, on the thirteenth, offerings of food of any kind that can be
+made without fish or meat. Great balls of _mochi_, _saké_, flowers, and
+choice new varieties of vegetables are appropriate offerings. All are
+tastefully arranged, the lamps are carefully lighted every night, and
+special services are held before the shrine. For the three days of the
+feast, the souls of the dead are believed to be visiting their old
+haunts, and to need light and food and all the conveniences that their
+descendants can spare them. Each house is decorated with lanterns, that
+the spirits may be able to find their way. It is from this custom that
+the feast is often called by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns.
+
+As I have already said, in Tōkyō and other modernized places, this feast
+is not seen at its best. Only the soft glow of the lanterns swinging
+from every house, and the decorations in the graveyards and at the
+household shrines, indicate to the traveler that anything unusual is
+going on. But in the country regions it is quite another matter, and the
+welcoming, entertainment, and proper dismissal of the visiting spirits
+form the entire business of the community for three days. Usually the
+middle of August is the time for the country celebration. On the
+twelfth, bands of children carrying red lanterns march singing through
+the village on their way to the graveyard, where the annual cleaning is
+taking place. That night bonfires in the cemetery and before the houses
+light the pathway of the wanderers. Then for three nights all the young
+people of the village gather in the temple court in grotesque disguises
+and with towels over their faces, and dance all night long in the
+moonlight, to primitive music produced by a drum and the monotonous
+chant of the dancers themselves. These three dance-nights are the great
+occasion of the year to the young peasants, for this is the only time
+when persons of both sexes meet together in a social way, and it is long
+looked forward to and enjoyed intensely. Of late years, the government,
+fearing the abuses that grow out of this exceptional social event, has
+endeavored to suppress the dancing, but it continues in full vigor
+throughout most of rural Japan, though conducted with more decorum than
+formerly on account of the standing dread of police interference. The
+object of the dance is to amuse the spirits of the ancestors, who must
+be imagined as hovering in the background, viewing with approval the
+antics of their descendants.
+
+Other amusements are going on in the village on the O Bon evenings. At
+a summer resort every hotel-keeper will have a professional
+story-teller, a company of musicians, or some other entertainment to
+which the guests of the hotel are invited, and at which as many of the
+villagers as can crowd to the open house fronts stare until the dance
+drum in the temple court draws their feet in that direction. And then,
+on the last night of the feast, bonfires are once more kindled at every
+house, so that the spirits may find their way safely back to the land
+whence they came, and not stay to haunt their descendants at improper
+seasons.
+
+No account of life in a Japanese home would be complete without a little
+space devoted to the special delights of the small boy. Although this
+book deals mainly with feminine concerns, the small boy in Japan, as in
+America, is the life and fun of the home, and one cannot fail to notice
+his times of surpassing enjoyment. He rules the house and his mother and
+his grandmother and his sisters, at all times, and his activity and
+enterprise secure for him a good share in any fun that is going on; but
+there are certain seasons that appeal to the boyish heart with a special
+message and of which he is the central figure.
+
+As the Feast of Dolls is to the girls, so is the Feast of Flags to the
+boys,--their own special day, set apart for them out of the whole year.
+It comes on the fifth day of the fifth month (now May fifth), and for
+long before its arrival the shops are gay with all manner of tempting
+toys, while in every yard rises a great bamboo pole, from which, when
+the time comes, will float an enormous carp, its body inflated by the
+strong spring wind, its great mouth wide open, and its eyes glaring
+hideously, as it fights its way against the air currents. Sometimes
+there will be half a dozen such poles in one yard,--signs either that
+the household is blessed with many boys, or that the way to its heart is
+through gifts of toys to its son and heir. When the great day at last
+arrives, the feast within the home is conducted in much the same way as
+the Feast of Dolls. There are the same red-covered shelves, the same
+offerings of food and drink; but instead of the placid images of the
+Emperor and Empress and the five court musicians, the household
+furnishings and toilet articles, there are effigies of the heroes of
+history and folklore: Jingo, the warrior Empress; Takenouchi, her
+white-haired prime minister, holding in his arms her son, the infant
+war-god; Benkei, the giant retainer of Yoshitsune; Yoshitsune himself,
+the marvelous fencer and general; Kintaro, the fat, hairy, red boy, who
+was born and grew up in the mountains, and even in his babyhood fought
+with bears; Shoki Sama, the strong man who could conquer _oni_;--these
+are some of the characters to be found on the shelves at the boys'
+feast. Behind each figure stands a flag with the crest of the hero that
+it represents, and before them are set all manner of weapons in
+miniature. The food offered is _mochi_ wrapped in oak leaves, because
+the oak is among trees what the carp is among fishes, the emblem of
+strength and endurance. The flower of this day is the iris or flag,
+because of its sword-shaped leaves,--hence the name, _Shobu Matsuri_,
+feast of iris or flag.
+
+Another feast, which, while not founded for the boys, seems to have
+been adopted by them as a great occasion, is what is known as Buddha's
+birthday, celebrated on April eighth. On this day in every Buddhist
+temple a temporary platform is erected, the roof of which is covered
+with flowers. Upon this platform, in a great tub filled with licorice
+tea, is set a small image of the infant Buddha. Hither flock the small
+boys with bamboo dippers, and spend the day ladling up the tea and
+pouring it over the image, and then ladling it out into small bamboo
+buckets. This licorice tea, through contact with the image, acquires
+miraculous healing properties, and the devout, after making offerings of
+money twisted up in white paper, carry away the little buckets. The tea
+is good for the eyes and the throat, and if some of it be used in mixing
+ink, and then, with the ink thus mixed, a charm be written and placed
+about the house, it will keep away all vermin. It is not easy to see
+exactly what the fascination of this feast is to the boys, but I am told
+that many of them like it even better than their own specially
+appointed day.
+
+But of all the delights that come into the year, there is nothing to
+compare for joyous excitement with the great _matsuri_ of the parish
+temple. For at least a week beforehand there are enough interesting
+things going on in every house and shop along the street to keep every
+small boy in the parish agog from morning till night. Here are lanterns
+being made with the _mon_ of the gods on one side and the rising sun of
+the Japanese flag on the other. There a dancing platform is being
+erected, and at every stage of its development it is swarming with
+active youngsters, who shin up its poles, turn somersaults on the
+platform, and sit in rows on its edge, with bare legs swinging high over
+the heads of the passers-by; and when it is done, and the drums
+installed, they take turns all day and far into the night in keeping
+them going. Then, too, there are the _dashi_, or floats, on one of which
+each street in the parish spends its money and its ingenuity. How the
+boys haunt the shops in which they are being made! How they watch the
+wondrous changes of paper into flowers, and of bamboo and cotton cloth
+into sea waves, or castle walls, or monsters of earth or sea or air! How
+they chatter and wriggle and push and squirm for front places, when at
+last the great cars are built up in the open street, the marvelous
+edifices erected upon them, and at the top of all the heroic figures of
+well-known mythological or historical characters rise majestic in
+flowing robes! Then, when the black bullocks, resplendent in collars and
+halters of red rope, are yoked to the triumphal car, and the structure
+moves slowly down the shouting street, how the boys crawl into every
+joint and cranny of the _dashi_, how they hang from every beam, how they
+yell from before and behind in sheer abandon of joy! And at last, when
+the procession forms, and with fantastically garbed men marching in
+front and wild-eyed singers yelling just behind them, with dancing-girls
+on moving platforms and jugglers and tumblers on the _dashi_ themselves,
+the twenty or more festal cars move, with frequent stops, down to the
+temple, to escort the sacred symbols on their annual pilgrimage through
+the parish, who so noisy or so ubiquitous as these same bullet-headed,
+blue-gowned boys? They bob up at every turn, ooze out at every pore of
+the procession, and enjoy, as only boys can enjoy, the noise and
+confusion, the barbaric splendor, the dancing and tumbling, the mumming
+and drumming, the excruciating howls of the singers, the jingling of the
+marshals' iron-ringed staves, the clapping of the great wooden clappers
+that time the movement and the stops of the pageant.
+
+Better than all, perhaps, is the evening, when the streets, lighted by
+many lanterns, are filled with throngs of holiday-makers,--now stopping
+to stare in at some shop where the devout worshiper has established a
+beautiful shrine, has set out _mochi_ and other offerings before some
+image, or has arranged a landscape garden in a box, or constructed a
+_matsuri_ procession just entering the court of a miniature temple; now
+haggling with the ever-present booth-keepers for lanterns or cakes or
+hairpins to take back to the friends left at home. Suddenly there is a
+joyous, rhythmic shout of many excited boyish voices, there is a
+gleaming of square red lanterns, a whirl and a rush through the crowd.
+Now is the time to get out of the way, for the boys move quickly and are
+too excited to turn aside for anything. On they come at a sharp trot,
+each little round head bound about with a fillet of blue and white
+toweling, each lithe, active body more or less covered by a blue and
+white gown, all shouting in unison and bearing on their shoulders a
+miniature _dashi_, made most often of a _saké_ tub mounted on a frame,
+and decorated with lanterns and white paper. They charge through the
+crowd, which makes way quickly at their approach, until the pace, the
+weight of their burden, and the frantic shouting exhaust their breath.
+Then they plunge down a side street, rest for a few moments, gather
+themselves together, and charge once more into the crowd. There must be
+some pretty tired little boys in the parish when the fun is all over,
+for these performances are kept up far into the night; but for absolute
+and perfect enjoyment there is nothing I have yet seen that seems to me
+to compare with the enjoyment that a Japanese boy gets out of a
+_matsuri_. It is worth being tired for!
+
+There is no space in this work for a more detailed picture of life in a
+Japanese home. Enough has been said in this chapter to show that it is
+made up of many little things,--of cares and sorrows and
+pleasures,--just as is life in any American home, and it is the little
+things we care about that make the oneness of the family, and the
+nation, and the oneness, too, of humanity, if we can only understand one
+another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS.
+
+
+The woman question in Japan is at the present moment a matter of much
+consideration. There seems to be an uneasy feeling in the minds of even
+the more conservative men that some change in the status of woman is
+inevitable, if the nation wishes to keep the pace it has set for itself.
+The Japanese women of the past and of the present are exactly suited to
+the position accorded them in society, and any attempt to alter them
+without changing their status only results in making square pegs for
+round holes. If the pegs hereafter are to be cut square, the holes must
+be enlarged and squared to fit them. The Japanese woman stands in no
+need of alteration unless her place in life is somehow enlarged, nor, on
+the other hand, can she fill a larger place without additional
+training. The men of New Japan, to whom the opinions and customs of the
+Western world are becoming daily more familiar, while they shrink
+aghast, in many cases, at the thought that their women may ever become
+like the forward, self-assertive, half-masculine women of the West, show
+a growing tendency to dissatisfaction with the smallness and narrowness
+of the lives of their wives and daughters,--a growing belief that better
+educated women would make better homes, and that the ideal home of
+Europe and America is the product of a more advanced civilization than
+that of Japan. Reluctantly in many cases, but still almost universally,
+it is admitted that in the interest of the homes and for the sake of
+future generations, something must be done to carry the women forward
+into a position more in harmony with what the nation is reaching for in
+other directions. This desire shows itself in individual efforts to
+improve by more advanced education daughters of exceptional promise, and
+in general efforts for the improvement of the condition of women.
+Well-to-do fathers are willing to spend more money on the education of
+their daughters, to send them abroad, if possible, to complete their
+studies, or to postpone the time of marriage so that plans for higher
+education may be carried through. Where, ten years ago, the number of
+women who had been abroad for study might be counted on the fingers of
+one hand, there are now three or four times that number in Tōkyō alone.
+Another sign of the times is the fact that husbands going abroad on
+business or for pleasure are more inclined to take their wives with
+them, even if it be only for a few months. There are now to be found, in
+all the larger cities, women who have spent a longer or shorter time in
+some foreign country, whose minds have been opened and whose horizons
+have been enlarged by contact with new ideas. All this cannot fail to
+have its effect, sooner or later, upon the country at large.
+
+The efforts for the improvement of women in general may be grouped into
+four classes: by legislation, by education, through the press, and by
+means of societies for mutual improvement.
+
+Of the recent legislation concerning marriage and divorce and its
+effect on the family, I have spoken in a preceding chapter. The latest
+statistics show that, while before the new laws were enacted divorces
+were one to every three marriages, they have now been reduced to one in
+five. It must be said, however, that the law is still somewhat in
+advance of public opinion. While the chance of permanence in marriage is
+better now than it was before the new code came into force, custom is
+still stronger than the law, and marriage is too often a temporary
+arrangement. In many cases the wife knows little or nothing of her new
+rights, and even when she does know, she has seldom the self-assertion
+to make a stand for them, but meekly submits to the dictates of those
+whom she is bound by custom, if not by law, to respect and obey without
+question. But the fact that the laws have actually been improved means,
+in a country like Japan, in which the government is the moulder of
+public opinion, that the custom will some day conform to the law.
+
+In the matter of property owning, women, under the new code, are fairly
+independent. As I have already stated, every woman in Japan is expected
+to become a wife, and as a matter of fact, the number of unmarried women
+is so small that it is hardly necessary to mention them. Wives, under
+Japanese law, are divided into two classes: the wife who enters her
+husband's family, and the wife whose husband becomes a member of her
+family. In the latter case the wife is the head of the family, is
+responsible for the debts of the family, and has the right to use and
+profit by the husband's property. In the former case (and as I have
+already stated, the great majority of wives enter their husband's
+families), the husband is responsible, and has, consequently, the right
+to use and profit by his wife's property. In all cases, unless the
+husband is physically or mentally unfit, he has the management of his
+wife's wealth. In case of the husband's disability the woman takes care
+of her own. A wife may, by application to a court, cause the husband to
+furnish security for the property that she has intrusted to him; and she
+may, with her husband's consent, engage in independent business. The
+property that she thus acquires is her own and not the husband's. Any
+property in the family, the ownership of which is not perfectly
+established, belongs to the head of the family, whether male or female.
+We thus see that the law of Japan fully recognizes the right of married
+women to hold property, although only in exceptional cases are they
+allowed the management of their own holdings. The law also regards the
+wife, in household matters, as her husband's agent.
+
+In actual practice, it is not uncommon for the wife to manage the entire
+income of the family, receiving it from her husband and acting as his
+treasurer. The wife's own earnings are seldom given to the husband, and
+her position is one of entire independence in the disposal of whatever
+she adds to the family revenue. But should the wife bring into the
+family at marriage property which passes into the husband's management,
+the chances are that, unless a divorce should occur, she will never lay
+any claim to the principal, or think of it again as her own. While her
+husband cannot actually dispose of it without her consent, she is pretty
+certain to give her consent should he ask it, and he may do very nearly
+anything that he chooses with it. We thus see that the tendency is to
+give the management of the income, as a part of the management of the
+household, to the woman, and leave the disposal of the principal, as a
+part of the outside business, to the care of the man. This system of
+domestic finance seems not unlike the common practice in thrifty and
+well-managed homes in America, and shows that a spirit of mutual
+confidence between husband and wife belongs to Japan as to Western
+nations. As the result of my own observation in a number of homes, I
+should say that the judgment of the wife in money matters is quite as
+much trusted in Japan as in America, and that, in this one respect at
+least, her place in the home is as responsible a one as that of the
+Western housekeeper. One instance may be cited of a woman whose business
+ability is so well known as to have a national reputation. By birth a
+member of a family which is remarkable for its success in all financial
+undertakings, she has inherited a large share of the family
+characteristic, and is credited with the personal management of a large
+bank, as well as other successful business undertakings. Her husband's
+name and not her own appears on the prospectuses and in the newspapers,
+but unless report is very far astray, she is the business man of the
+family, and her sound sense and good judgment have built up the fortune
+which is their common possession.
+
+In the educational system of Japan, schools for girls are provided by
+the government, but no provision for studies more advanced than those of
+the middle schools for boys is included in the scheme, with the single
+exception of the Higher Normal School in Tōkyō, in which a limited
+number of young women are trained to take positions as teachers in the
+ordinary normal schools for girls. To quote from the Annual Report of
+the Minister of Education for the year 1898, the latest to which I have
+access, "Higher female schools are institutions designed to give
+instruction in such higher subjects of general education as are
+necessary for females." This shows with considerable completeness the
+idea that dominates all government and much private effort for the
+education of women in Japan. The schools are to teach simply such
+subjects as are necessary for females; anything more would be
+superfluous, possibly dangerous. The thought of women as individuals,
+with minds and souls to be trained and developed to their highest
+possibilities, is still somewhat foreign to the mind of the average
+Japanese man. In its stead is the idea that females must be instructed
+in such subjects as are necessary for a proper understanding of their
+duties as wives and mothers. But if Japan to-day is where England and
+America were in the first half of the nineteenth century, the country is
+certainly moving forward, as the statistics in regard to education for
+the three successive years 1896, 1897, and 1898 show. Great efforts are
+being made to increase the attendance of girls at the common schools,
+and with gratifying results.[43]
+
+[43] The following in the report for 1898 may be of interest:--
+
+Percentage of pupils of school age receiving instruction:--
+
+  Year.          Girls.   Boys.
+  1896           47.54    79.00
+  1897           50.86    80.67
+  1898           53.73    82.42
+
+The total number of girls of school age not receiving instruction is
+1,552,601; of boys, 662,985; while the total number of girls of school
+age is 3,642,263, and of boys, 4,067,161.
+
+As we advance into the higher schools, the discrepancy in numbers
+between the two sexes grows greater. In the kindergartens the attendance
+of girls is nearly equal to that of boys; in the elementary schools
+there are three boys to two girls; in the higher elementary schools,
+seven boys to two girls. The boys' middle schools, which are equivalent
+in grade to the girls' high schools, have fourteen boys taking their
+courses to every two girls in the high schools. In the apprentice and
+technical schools, there are fifteen men to every two women. Even the
+normal schools, which in our own country are almost given over to women,
+in Japan have six male students to every female. The "special schools,"
+mainly professional, have, to 11,069 men, 73 women, all enrolled in
+private schools, and presumably taking medical courses. Beyond this
+point women have no opportunities offered to them. In the higher
+schools, equivalent to the college and graduate courses given by
+universities in America, 7,224 young men are given opportunities that
+women must go abroad to obtain.
+
+These figures are, as I have said, for the year 1898. The year 1901 sees
+two hopeful movements well begun. One of these is the opening of an
+institution bearing the title of "Female University," endowed and
+supported by Japanese, through the strenuous efforts of Mr. Jinzo
+Naruse, a prominent Christian who has spent some time in America. At its
+opening, five hundred girls were glad to enter, but of these very few
+are ready for college work. Mr. Naruse, however, believes that in time
+he will be able to enlarge his college department and diminish the
+preparatory, which is now almost the whole of the school. He has the
+support and encouragement of many wealthy and influential Japanese,
+among them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive statesman. On the day
+of the opening of the school, Count Okuma, in a speech from the
+platform, said that the nation would be twice as strong if its women
+were well educated. This he called "setting up a double standard." He
+pointed out that Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and China were countries which
+had tried to get along with a "single standard," and which had fallen
+conspicuously behind. He called attention to the fact that Japan's
+primitive religion had for its central figure the Goddess of Light, but
+that, unfortunately for the well-being of the state, woman had been
+gradually dethroned and thrust down into a low place. After speaking of
+the debt that Japan owed to China for the civilization and the ethical
+system that had stood her so long in good stead, the veteran statesman
+went on to say that society in Japan was disfigured by abuses which were
+beyond any simple remedy. The only effective medicine was to be found in
+a radical reform of the ideals of family life, and this could only be
+effected by an improvement in the status of woman,--an improvement which
+such institutions as the one that day opened would greatly aid in
+bringing about.
+
+These words from one of the most honored leaders of Japanese thought
+voice the feeling that is prevalent throughout Japan in this
+thirty-fourth year of Méiji. That it is actually moving both government
+and people is shown by the words of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education,
+to the Council of Provincial Governors held in Tōkyō in June, 1901. In
+speaking of the progress of education throughout the country, he stated
+his intention to push forward the work of secondary education for girls,
+saying that a prefecture which refused to make provision for such
+education by 1903 might be compelled to do so by the government.
+
+The other hopeful educational effort to which I have alluded is a school
+started on a small scale, but with a high standard, by a Japanese woman
+whose name is almost as well known in America as in Japan, as an
+educator of great ability and earnestness of purpose. After many years
+of work as a teacher in the Peeresses' School, a place of great honor
+from the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned her position to carry out
+a long-cherished plan. With the pecuniary aid of friends in America, she
+has founded a school for the preparation of young women who have
+finished the courses heretofore open to them, and who wish to become
+teachers of English in the Government schools. The examinations for such
+positions have always been open to women, but, because of the difficulty
+in securing proper preparation, there are few who pass them. Since its
+opening in September, 1900, the school has been crowded with promising
+pupils, and the small accommodations with which it began, although
+already once enlarged, are stretched to the uttermost. The girls come
+from the government high schools and from the mission schools, and the
+course offered to them of three years of study in English literature,
+composition, translation, and methods of teaching has proved a strong
+attraction. In recognition, perhaps, of this effort on behalf of her
+countrywomen, certainly, of her position at the head of her profession,
+this same woman has this year been appointed on the examining committee
+for the government English examinations, an honor never before given to
+one of her sex,--in itself a sign of the change in thought that the last
+few years have wrought.
+
+There can be no doubt that the education of women is moving forward,
+pushed by the leading men of the country and aided by the earnest work
+of the women themselves. It is still far behind the education offered to
+men, and the ideal of most of its promoters is limited to the purely
+utilitarian; but as long as it moves forward and not backward, and as
+long as the years of work show an increased number of women fitted to
+meet the changing conditions of the time, we do well to approve rather
+than criticise, remembering that the problem is an exceedingly intricate
+one, and one of which even the best-instructed foreigner can see only a
+small part of the difficulty.
+
+The year 1901 sees the printing-press almost as much of a power in
+Japan as in the Western world, and it is interesting to notice that
+among the innumerable newspapers and magazines now published in the
+country there are some twenty or more devoted exclusively to the
+interests of women. To be sure, these women's magazines do not undertake
+to furnish the loftiest intellectual pabulum, the best of them covering,
+perhaps, the same range of subjects that is included in "Woman's
+Journals" in the United States. They devote themselves largely to
+lectures on morals and manners, and instruction as to how best to
+perform the duties of the home. These magazines are for the most part
+written and edited by men, many of them very young men, and serve to
+show rather what men desire that women should think and do, than to give
+any insight into the minds of the women themselves. With a combined
+circulation of perhaps 40,000, they enter many homes, and do something,
+at least, toward the general enlightening and quickening of the feminine
+mind that is so noticeable in the Japan of to-day. In regard to the
+general reading of Japanese women who have had the new education, my
+own observation leads me to believe that they keep themselves well
+informed of what is going on in their own country, and of the outside
+world so far as it affects their own country; but that their interest in
+the world at large is less than that of American women, and only in
+exceptional cases do they care much for the sayings or doings of
+foreigners. In this respect they differ widely from the men, whose minds
+are reaching continually for new things to graft upon the old
+civilization.
+
+In the whole list of publications on the woman question, nothing has
+ever come out in Japan that compares for outspokenness and radical
+sentiments with a book published within a year or two by Mr. Fukuzawa,
+the most influential teacher that Japan has seen in this era of
+enlightenment. It is in two parts, the first an attack, conducted with
+much skill and humor, upon Kaibara's "Great Learning of Woman," a book
+which for nearly four hundred years has been supposed to contain all
+that a woman should know. The last part of Mr. Fukuzawa's work is a
+constructive essay upon the "New Great Learning of Woman." So
+revolutionary are the sentiments expressed in the book that many
+Japanese men hesitate about allowing their wives and daughters to read
+it, and in at least one modern Christian school it has been ruled out
+from the school library as too advanced for the reading of the girls. A
+brief survey of the sentiments and ideas thus boldly set forth will show
+how far is the attitude of the Japanese from that of the American public
+on the woman question. We find in Mr. Fukuzawa's book the lofty ideal
+that belongs to the most advanced modern thought, but its promulgation
+as a practical working ideal in Japan was of the nature of a
+thunderclap. Among less tolerant races, men have been lynched, or burned
+at the stake, for slighter departures from the average code of thought
+and morals.
+
+Mr. Fukuzawa starts out with the proposition that women are quite equal
+to men, and should hold equal position and influence. Although he allows
+that woman's work in the world is quite distinct from that of man, he
+holds that it is as important, and that she should have the same
+property-holding privileges and rights. The greatest stress is laid on
+the point that the same moral obligation for purity of life rests on the
+husband as on the wife. He goes into the details of the unhappiness
+resulting from concubinage, putting the duty of the husband in this
+respect as equal to that of the wife to preserve her chastity, and as
+this is, next to obedience, the virtue of virtues for a Japanese wife,
+his argument is as strong as it could well be made. He insists that
+women should demand as a right from their husbands and families the same
+privileges and opportunities that men have in society.
+
+Such sentiments are a matter of course in America, and they have been
+held by a few advanced thinkers in Japan, but no one hitherto has dared
+in so vigorous and positive a way, and with arguments that come so near
+home, to try to break the chain of custom that holds women down as
+inferior beings. Kaibara says that if a woman finds her husband doing
+wrong, she should gently plead with him, choosing a time when he is
+most inclined to listen. If he refuses, she should not insist on his
+hearing her, but wait until he is willing to listen, and though she may
+try two or three times, she should never anger or irritate him. Fukuzawa
+says that if this applies to the woman, it should also to the man,--that
+is to say, if a man finds his wife unfaithful, he is to wait for an
+opportunity when she is in good humor before he remonstrates with her.
+Fukuzawa also throws new light on the duty of husbands and fathers to
+their wives and children in another respect. He says that no man should
+let the sole responsibility for the happiness of the home fall upon his
+wife; that a man is responsible for the peace of the home as well as the
+woman. This view of the matter is entirely new in Japan, as the
+responsibility for an unhappy home is laid as a matter of course upon
+the wife. The duty of a wife to her parents-in-law is also treated after
+the same revolutionary manner. Is it to be wondered at that many men
+fear the influence of such a book upon their gentle, submissive wives?
+In this connection it is interesting, however, to note that at a recent
+Shintō wedding, after the religious ceremony, which in itself marks a
+great step forward in the Japanese ideal of marriage, the priest who
+united the couple presented to the bride a copy each of the Kaibara and
+Fukuzawa books, perhaps with a view to letting her take her choice
+between the old style and the new, perhaps that she might instruct her
+husband out of the Fukuzawa book while she put in practice herself the
+time-honored precepts of Kaibara.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One feature of the times in Tōkyō, that is perhaps worthy of passing
+notice, is the tendency of women to form themselves into societies and
+clubs for the attainment of some common object. Of these women's clubs,
+the greater proportion are perhaps educational, the members meeting once
+a month or once a fortnight to listen to a lecture upon some subject
+that helps to keep them up with the times. There is also a patriotic
+society, that concerns itself with raising money for sending supplies to
+soldiers in the field, or for widows and orphans of soldiers, or to
+help along some other patriotic enterprise. There are societies, too,
+for general benevolence, or to help in carrying on the work of some one
+institution. A glance at the membership lists of these associations
+shows that the motive power is, in almost all cases, the same group of
+earnest, educated women, who are, in this way and in countless others,
+doing their utmost to broaden the horizons of their countrywomen, and
+lead them out into a larger life. This is probably true in the other
+cities in which a movement of women into clubs and societies is
+noticeable.
+
+It is when the active women of the new way of thinking, whose lives and
+thoughts are devoted to work and endeavor rather than to the passive
+submission and self-abnegation of the old days, find themselves suddenly
+placed among the surroundings of thirty years ago, that the change of
+conditions becomes most evident. I cannot think of a better way to
+illustrate this than to tell the story of one of my Japanese friends and
+her visit to her husband's relatives in a distant provincial city. The
+lady who told me the story is a stirring, capable young matron,
+educated after the modern ways, who has spent most of her happy married
+life of some fifteen or sixteen years entirely in Tōkyō, except for a
+visit of a year to America. She bears a closer resemblance to many
+kind-hearted, strong, energetic young American women than to the
+old-time Japanese lady portrayed in these pages. She rises every morning
+at five, attends to every detail of her housekeeping, watches carefully
+and with educated common sense over her family of young children,
+believes in good food, fresh air, and exercise, for boys and girls
+alike, and is a helpful friend and good neighbor, filling to the full
+the position of work and influence in which she is placed. Her husband
+is a successful business man, whom frequent journeys across the Pacific
+have made thoroughly cosmopolitan, and their children are accustomed to
+a freedom from conventional restraints and a healthful diet and regimen
+such as old Japan never knew.
+
+Last year the plan of spending the summer with the husband's relatives,
+which had been long projected, was actually carried out, and the whole
+family migrated to the provincial city from which the husband had
+sprung. The aged mother, a gentlewoman of the old type, was delighted to
+meet and entertain her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, and did her
+best, with all old-fashioned courtesy, to make the visit a pleasant one.
+The house was clean and spacious, the mats soft and white, the bows of
+the lowest, the voices and speech the politest that Japan could furnish,
+but the healthy, restless children found the conventional restraints
+irksome, and the old-fashioned diet of rice and pickles, with hardly a
+variation from morning till night and from week to week, was quite
+different from the bountiful table to which they had been accustomed.
+The younger woman could not criticise her mother-in-law's arrangements,
+neither could she bear to see her children growing thin and pale before
+her eyes. She consulted her husband, who, in accordance with the antique
+ideas of propriety, was served his meals at a different time and in a
+different room from his wife and family. To his food his mother had
+always added various delicacies which her old-time Spartan spirit would
+not allow her to set before her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It
+would have been quite contrary to her ideas of rank and etiquette for
+her to make any modification of her ordinary fare for them. As the son
+was already supplying the funds for carrying on his mother's
+establishment, it occurred to him that he might increase her allowance
+on the plea that her summer expenses must be heavy with so large an
+addition to her household. But the old lady was sure that nothing more
+was necessary, and would not think of burdening her son with any larger
+expenses, and could not be induced to accept the offered increase.
+
+Another effort was made to get along upon the meagre fare, but the
+youngest boy fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, and the mother
+decided that something must be done if all the family did not wish to
+follow him. The happy thought occurred to her of buying something that
+would be an addition to their scanty menu, and giving it as a present
+to her mother-in-law. Now a present in Japan can never be refused, so it
+seemed to the younger woman that she must have found a way of escape
+from her difficulties. Of course, the present was accepted with many
+thanks and expressions of unworthiness, and when the meal-hour arrived,
+each member of the family found an infinitesimal quantity of the
+delicacy in a small plate at his side. But as soon as the meal was over,
+the dear old lady, who had by strict economy managed to leave the
+greater part of the gift untouched, sent out to all the neighbors
+presents from what had been intended to feed the hungry children at
+home. The experiment was tried again and again, but always with the same
+result. No present could be kept for family use alone. Of everything but
+the barest necessaries, the greater part must be sent out in gifts to
+others.
+
+At last the husband and wife put their heads together to decide on some
+course of action that, without hurting the feelings of the older lady,
+would secure sufficient nourishment for the children, and forthwith
+began a series of all-day picnics to the noted places in the
+vicinity,--picnics that included always a good meal at some well-kept
+restaurant before the return to the old-fashioned fare of the
+grandmother's house. In this way the summer was passed without further
+illness, though the poor mother on her return to Tōkyō spent several
+weeks in bed,--what with starvation and worry and the effort to bear
+heroically, and with a smiling face, the hard life and scanty fare that
+were the life and fare of most of Japan only a few years ago.
+
+In the changes that the past few years have wrought, perhaps nothing is
+more striking than the new openings for work that Japan now offers to
+women. The growth of the public school system has made a demand for
+women as teachers that is steadily increasing. Although in the normal
+schools the proportion of women to men is still only one to six, and
+while teaching, even in the primary schools, is not yet mainly in
+feminine hands as it is with us, there is still a good showing of women
+employed as teachers. From the figures of the school report of 1898, we
+find over 10,000 women as teachers and assistants in the public and
+private schools. The profession of nursing, too, which ten years ago was
+just opening, has already drawn many women into its ranks. In the Red
+Cross hospitals alone there are this year nearly a thousand nurses
+taking the course, and a thousand graduates scattered throughout the
+country hold themselves ready to answer the call of the society in the
+time of need, in the mean time practicing their profession wherever they
+may chance to be. The quality of the Red Cross graduates has been tested
+now in two wars, and they show the soldierly virtues of their nation, as
+well as the more womanly qualities of tenderness and gentleness; and a
+self-respect that has kept them pure and free from stain in the midst of
+severe temptation. It is impossible for me to gather statistics of the
+work done by other institutions for the training of nurses, but the
+figures given above may, I think, be doubled with absolute safety in
+making an estimate of the total number of nurses trained and in training
+throughout the empire.
+
+The growth of commerce and industry has greatly increased the demand
+for feminine labor outside the home. In the old days the two most
+important industries of the country, tea and silk, were mainly carried
+on by women in their homes, but the use of modern machinery is rapidly
+taking the weaving industries out of the homes and making factory hands
+of the women and children.[44]
+
+[44] In the Japan _Mail_ of July 8, 1901, the following statistics of
+women employees in factories in Japan were given:--
+
+  Manufacture.      No. of Women.   No. to 100 Men.
+  Raw Silk            107,348            93
+  Cotton Spinning      53,053            79
+  Matches              11,385            69
+  Cotton Fabrics       10,656            86
+  Tobacco               7,874            72
+  Matting               1,641            59
+
+One of the most noticeable effects of this new demand for female labor
+is the extreme scarcity of servants. Although wages are nearly double
+what they were ten years ago, it is extremely difficult for Japanese
+housekeepers now to find servants to replace the old ones as they drop
+out of the ranks, and the women who apply for positions are apt to be
+far inferior to those who came to the same families to do the same work
+ten years ago.
+
+In other ways, too, women are learning to fill new places in the world.
+The telephone, which now connects towns and cities and villages in
+Japan, employs girls in large numbers. In the printing-offices we find
+women at work, not as compositors, but as compositors' assistants,
+darting from case to case about the room and selecting for the
+compositor the ideographs that he needs in his work. Inasmuch as a small
+printing-office cannot get along with less than four thousand
+characters, and as larger ones may have several times that number, the
+need of quick-witted and quick-footed assistants to each compositor may
+be easily recognized. As the schools turn out each year more girls
+fitted by education to do this kind of work, and as the number of
+newspapers and other printed matter is continually on the increase, the
+demand for and supply of this special variety of labor are likely to
+increase proportionately for some time to come.
+
+A few women are now making their way as reporters on the daily papers,
+a few more are engaged in literary work. One of the best of modern
+Japanese novelists was a woman, but she died several years ago at so
+early an age that her work was a promise rather than a fulfillment.
+Artists, too, there are, who are making names for themselves, as well as
+a living, in a country where art is so common that success in that line
+means hard work and special talent. A few young women support themselves
+by stenography, a few more as clerks and secretaries in business
+offices. Until a writing-machine has been invented that will write four
+thousand characters, there will not be much demand for typewriter girls
+in Japan outside of the treaty ports, where a few are now employed. The
+Japanese government has found, as Uncle Sam discovered some time ago,
+that for the counting of paper money women's fingers are more deft than
+those of men, and it consequently gives employment to a few women in
+that work. One railroad has recently begun to employ women as
+ticket-sellers, and three medical schools have already graduated some
+women physicians, though it is still doubtful whether there is any
+great opening for them in the country. These are some of the ways in
+which women now find themselves able to gain a little more independence
+of life. The whole matter is so new that no statistics are available
+that will show the exact extent of the demand for labor in these
+directions, but from my own observation I am inclined to think that
+there is little change in the employments of women except in the
+neighborhood of the larger cities, and that the new occupations as yet
+have a very slight effect upon the conditions in this country at large.
+
+It is not possible to understand the actual progress made in Japan in
+improving the condition of women, without some consideration of the
+effect that Christian thought and Christian lives have had on the
+thought and lives of the modern Japanese. If Japanese women are ever to
+be raised to the measure of opportunity accorded to women in Christian
+countries, it can only be through the growth of Christianity in their
+own country, and for that reason a study of that growth is pertinent to
+a study of their condition.
+
+The past ten years in Japan have been discouraging to the missionaries
+in many ways, and it is not unusual to hear from the less hopeful of
+them the statement that their work has been at a standstill, or even
+going backward, during that time. The statistics of missionary effort
+show a steady, though slight, increase in the number of professing
+Christians, but if the sum total of the results of missionary effort
+were the number of converts made, it might, perhaps, be doubtful whether
+the money spent on missions in Japan might not be better turned to other
+purposes. There are now in Japan, of Christians of all sects,
+Protestant, and Roman and Greek Catholic, 121,000, or about one half of
+one per cent. of the total population of the country; but the influence
+of these Christians as leaders of thought is out of all proportion to
+their number. Christian men are found in the Diet, in the army and navy,
+in the universities and colleges, and in the newspaper offices, in a
+proportion far beyond their ratio to the total population, exerting
+their influence in many ways for the uplifting of the nation to loftier
+moral ideals. The proportion of Christian men and women in the
+government schools with which I have been connected is rather
+surprising. In the Higher Normal School, training young women to go out
+into the whole country as teachers, the proportion of professing
+Christians upon the teaching staff is striking; and in the Peeresses'
+School, which is as conservative and anti-foreign as any educational
+institution in Japan, there are five professing Christians among the
+thirty-five teachers. While, on the one hand, the Japanese Christians
+are not all models of all the virtues, while there is with many of them
+a tendency to modify their Christianity so as to accommodate a
+considerable amount of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the other hand,
+that the most active workers in the cause of philanthropy are men who
+have accepted the Christian faith, and who are striving in all
+earnestness to model their lives after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
+The Christian Church in Japan to-day has its heroes and its
+back-sliders, and has between these two extremes a rank and file of
+every-day, commonplace men and women, who amidst frequent failures and
+in the midst of many temptations are making the name of Christian stand
+for a certain kind of life and a certain standard of virtue quite above
+and beyond the lives and standards of their countrymen. It is largely
+because of them that a Christian public opinion is growing up among
+non-Christian Japanese. Men to-day who have no special leanings toward
+Christianity shake their heads over vices and sins which a few years ago
+were not even thought of as wrong. There is a great deal of talk about
+the growth of moral depravity in the country, but as a matter of fact,
+the standards of virtue have never been so high since Japan was opened
+as they are to-day: it is only that Christian thought has held up a
+mirror to an un-Christian society, in which it views all too clearly its
+own defects. There is, to my mind, no more hopeful sign of the times
+than the growing discouragement over the present condition of morals.
+When there is added to this a steadily increasing respect for the
+honesty and strength of character of Christian men and women, it must
+mean that a great and lasting impression has been made. To-day banks,
+business offices, and other places requiring trustworthy clerks and
+employees, prefer, other things being equal, Christian young men, for it
+is generally known that they are more worthy of confidence than the
+majority of applicants for such places.
+
+One instance of this increased moral sensitiveness may be cited in the
+recent successful efforts to limit the power of the brothel-keepers over
+their victims and virtual slaves, the _jōrō_ or licensed prostitutes. As
+I have stated in a previous chapter, the women who carry on this
+business in Japan are, many of them, unwilling victims of a system which
+allows parents to sell their children to a life of shame; and they enter
+upon that life so young that they can hardly be regarded as morally
+responsible for their condition. Even after the actual sale of girls was
+forbidden by an imperial ordinance in 1872, the purchase price was
+called a loan to the parents of the girl, and subsequent loans for
+clothing entered upon the books of the establishment kept the
+unfortunates so continually in debt to their masters that they could
+never escape from the bondage in which they were held except through
+death, or by purchase by some infatuated admirer. Public opinion, while
+it indulged in some sentimental pity for the hard lot of the _jōrō_, did
+little or nothing to aid any one who desired to help them, regarding the
+profession as a necessary one, and caring not at all for the injustice
+to which the girls were subjected. Ten or twelve years ago, a movement
+started by some prominent Japanese Christians against the _jōroya_ fell
+flat for want of a public opinion behind it. Speeches on the subject
+were hissed down by audiences of young men, and nothing could be done to
+help even the most innocent and unhappy of the girls to a better life.
+In the new code, perhaps as an effect of this movement, a new law
+provided that the _jōrō_ might leave her calling by giving notice to the
+police. A police regulation, however, forbade any girl to cease her
+employment, or to leave the house in which she was kept, unless her
+official notice of cessation was countersigned by the keeper of the
+_jōroya_, so that by her own effort she could not free herself.
+
+In the year 1900, one of these girls in a provincial city appealed to an
+American missionary for help in getting her liberty. Through his aid,
+and that of his Japanese helpers, her case came before the court, which
+decided that the contract under which she was held was opposed to the
+public welfare and good morals, and that the keeper must affix his seal
+to her notice without regard to her debt. Although the local police
+refused to act in the matter, and although the missionary and his
+helpers were subjected to personal violence by the employees of the
+_jōroya_, an appeal to the authorities at Tōkyō resulted in an
+enforcement of the court's decision, and the girl was freed.
+
+At this juncture the Salvation Army, which has a valiant contingent in
+Tōkyō, and which was actually spoiling for a good fight with the world,
+the flesh, and the Devil, in any form, took up the cause of the
+oppressed _jōrō_. A special edition of the "War Cry" containing appeals
+to the girls to leave their lives of shame, and offering aid to any one
+who might apply to the Army, was published and hawked through the
+Yoshiwara. When the keepers and their employees found out what the
+strangely costumed news-venders were about, they charged down upon them,
+and after a street fight, drove them out of the quarter. Thus the war
+began, but the Tōkyō police took up the matter, the Tōkyō press joined
+hands with the Salvationists, and in the end the whole country was
+stirred to aid in the attack. In return, the brothel-keepers and their
+employees, feeling that the profits of their business were at stake,
+made it extremely warm for any Salvationists or newspaper reporters who
+dared set foot in the disreputable quarters, and in their zeal sometimes
+made mistakes and drove out their would-be patrons. The office of one
+newspaper was wrecked by sympathetic roughs, and it took a squad of
+fifty or sixty police to escort Army officers when they had occasion to
+visit any of the houses to secure the release of a girl. No lives were
+lost, though some hard knocks were received, and the work was kept up
+with unabated noise on both sides, until every girl held in unwilling
+bondage knew how she might escape and to whom she could go for aid.
+
+During the month of September, 1900, as a direct result of the attacks
+of and upon the Army, the number of visitors to these houses in Tōkyō
+was decreased by about 2,000 a night. On October 2, a government
+ordinance was issued that at one stroke removed all obstacles in the way
+of a girl's securing her freedom at any moment when she wanted to leave
+the business. The new regulations made the descent to Avernus as
+difficult as possible, and the return to the upper world a mere step. In
+Tōkyō alone, in the first four months after the promulgation of this
+order, 1,100 out of the 6,335 girls who were licensed as prostitutes
+left the houses in which they were employed, most of them returning to
+their homes and families, and as many as applied being cared for in the
+Rescue Home of the Salvation Army. The places thus vacated are not easy
+to fill, because the keepers will not advance money to the parents of a
+girl, now that they can no longer hold her as security for the debt. In
+consequence, too, of the revelations of the evils of the system, the
+business has fallen off alarmingly. Thus many of the houses have been
+obliged to close, owing to lack of custom and to inability to pay the
+heavy taxes.
+
+We have here the story of a successful attack on a system which has
+existed in Japan for three hundred years, by a Christian agency acting
+with the support of so strong a public opinion that police and
+government have felt bound to obey its behests. There has been no more
+striking example of the effect of Christian thought upon public
+sentiment in any country than this crusade against the brothels in
+Japan. When we remember that ten years ago it was not possible for a
+speaker to attack the institution before an audience of students without
+being silenced by hisses, it is interesting to note that this year, the
+students of that same school greeted with applause and respectful
+attention an address on this very subject.
+
+It seems to me rather striking that in the year 1900 fifty thousand
+copies of the Bible were sold in Japan--more than of any other book.
+Although the present translation is regarded as far from perfect, and
+much of it is unintelligible to the average Japanese without
+instruction, whether directly or indirectly, by mission workers, it is
+still sought after and read for the sake of its literature, and because
+of the reputation that has been gained for it throughout the country.
+There are few missionaries of any experience in Japan who cannot tell
+stories of men coming to them from country villages, who, through the
+reading of a copy of the Bible in some way fallen into their hands, have
+been brought by the beauty and nobility of the parts that they could
+understand to seek additional explanation from some teacher or preacher.
+One case that is amusing, but at the same time striking, I have heard
+vouched for from a number of sources:--
+
+Two thieves, one night, broke into the dormitory of a girls' school in
+search of booty, and by chance awakened two of the girls. As they sat
+up in their beds, wondering what was best to do under the circumstances,
+one zealous damsel reached for the Bible in which she had been reading
+before she went to sleep, and handed it to one of the thieves, saying,
+"If you read this book, you will not want to steal any more." The other
+girl followed her companion's example and gave her Bible to the other
+thief. That was all, so far as the girls knew, and it was some years
+before the sequel came to light.
+
+There is one place in Japan to which released convicts who are trying to
+get back to respectability again drift from all parts of the empire. It
+is a prisoners' home in Tōkyō, where one man, aided by his capable and
+devoted wife, receives into his own family and gives aid and succor to
+hundreds of society's outcasts. To this place came one day an ex-convict
+who told a remarkable story of his conversion, and of his desire to lead
+a new life. He had received a Bible from a little girl one night in a
+house that he was robbing, but was too full of professional engagements
+at the time to follow her advice and read it. Later, however, as he was
+resting from his labors in the enforced seclusion of a prison, he began
+to read, and spelled out enough to make up his mind that he did not want
+to steal any more. Accordingly, as soon as his term was ended, he made
+his way to the prisoners' refuge, and by the aid of its founder and
+head, and his good wife, settled down to steady habits of industry.
+Later, when the prison look had worn off from his face and the prison
+gait from his walk, he returned to his family and friends, where he is
+now a respectable member of the society upon which he formerly preyed.
+
+There are other stories showing as deep impressions made on men of
+culture and respectability, not so striking and amusing as this one, but
+meaning as much, or even more, for the future of Japan. Such things are
+hardly possible in Christian countries to-day, for there is little or no
+novelty in the message that the old book brings to us; but to the
+Japanese mind the thoughts are absolutely new in many ways, and the
+reading alone will often change the whole life, because it lifts up the
+nature to a higher set of ideals.
+
+As a direct effect of Christian thought upon the thought of the
+Japanese nation, it is interesting to notice the change in meaning of
+one word. In the teachings of Confucius the highest virtue is
+benevolence, rendered into Japanese by the word _jin_; in the teachings
+of Buddhism the highest virtue is mercy, or _jishi_. When the Christian
+missionaries first came to Japan, there was no term in the language that
+covered the thought of love as it is taught by Christ. For lack of
+anything better, the word _ai_, which indicated the love of a superior
+for an inferior, was made to do duty for the greater thought; and now
+the old word _ai_, throughout the length and breadth of Japan, is
+accepted and understood in its new meaning, a continual witness to the
+effect of Christianity upon the national mind. Is this a little thing in
+the education of a race that has shown in the past so great a capacity
+for living up to its ideals?
+
+One more direct effect of Christian teaching upon Japanese society is
+the great quickening of philanthropic and benevolent effort. Scattered
+throughout the country are benevolent or educational societies,
+orphanages, hospitals, free kindergartens, reform schools, and other
+evidences of a desire on the part of the more fortunate to help the
+unfortunate by some means or other; and if you study into the history of
+any of these efforts, you will usually find that some Japanese
+Christian, or some man who has come home impressed with the
+philanthropies of Christian countries, has started the scheme, and has
+created a society, and a public opinion behind the society, which
+carries on the work. Even in the government institutions there is no
+difficulty in tracing the influence of Christians and Christianity. The
+Red Cross Society, with its seven thousand members, and its hospitals in
+every prefecture of the empire, bears the sign of Christendom upon all
+its property and employees. It seems to me quite safe to say that but
+for the Christian influences of the past forty years, there would be
+very little altruistic work done in Japan to-day; but by means of the
+Christians and their teachings, the latest and best thought of the world
+is working its way out in practical service for humanity in Japan, and
+this service is ascribed by enlightened Buddhist and Shintō believers
+alike to the spirit of Christianity, which will not let the fortunate
+rest while their less fortunate brothers are in want or sin.
+
+No one who studies the religious question in Japan at all can fail to
+notice the extraordinary revivifying of Buddhism for what it feels to be
+a life and death struggle with an alien faith. The disestablishment of
+the Buddhist church by the government at the time of the restoration
+must be credited with its share of the awakening process; for the
+priests, finding their own support and that of the temples dependent
+upon the voluntary contributions of worshipers, were forced to bestir
+themselves as they had not done since the old missionary days, when they
+were working for a foothold in the country. But without the competition
+of Christianity, it is extremely doubtful whether their efforts would
+have been turned so largely along educational and philanthropic lines,
+whether the standard of intelligence among the priesthood would have
+been so quickly raised, whether they would have sent young men abroad to
+study Sanskrit and history with a view to a better understanding of
+their own scriptures, or whether they would not rather have relied on
+less radical methods of quickening the religious life within their body.
+Certain it is that Buddhism, which upon its introduction into Japan
+actually lowered the status of women, is now making a bid for public
+favor by holding meetings and founding societies especially for women,
+and is doing its best to increase their self-respect and the respect in
+which they are held by society.
+
+An interesting story which throws some light upon the new influence that
+is at work among the Buddhists came to me not long ago through a
+Japanese friend. There were two brothers living in a poor little village
+on the northern coast of Japan, who were joint heirs to a small piece of
+property. As the land was not enough for the support of two families,
+the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful youth, gave up all title to his
+share of the inheritance and entered a Buddhist monastery. In the quiet
+of this retreat, amid the beautiful surroundings, the daily services,
+the chanting of priests, and the mellow booming of the great monastery
+bell, his thoughts went out to the poor and the sinful among his own
+people. He began to feel that a life which seeks merely spiritual uplift
+for itself is not the highest life, and that only as spiritual gain is
+shared with others is it real and lasting. Forthwith he began a life of
+helpfulness to the poor about him,--of teaching and preaching and good
+deeds that won him many humble friends. Within the monastery, however,
+his work was not approved. His ideas and actions were not in harmony
+with the teachings of the sect. He was first disciplined and then
+expelled, and found his way back at last, penniless, to his native
+village.
+
+Now, in northern Japan the winters are long and hard, and the most
+industrious of farmers and fisher-folk can wring only a bare subsistence
+from the conditions of their toil. It is from these villages, perhaps,
+more than from any other sources, that the girls are obtained to supply
+the _jōroya_ of the great cities. At any rate, in this particular
+village, the only hope that any girl possessed of escaping from the hard
+home toil was by the sale of her person, and the thought of seeing the
+great cities, of wearing beautiful dresses, of being admired and petted,
+and perhaps at last of marrying some rich lover and becoming a great
+lady, was a tempting bait to these poor peasant girls. To this young
+man, whose soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness during his
+absence, the full horror of the conditions that could so warp and dwarf
+the souls of women appealed as it had never done before. He must do
+something to help them, but what to do his previous experience did not
+help him to know. He sought for aid and sympathy in his native place,
+among his friends and co-religionists; but the state of affairs was too
+old and too familiar to excite interest, and at last he worked his way
+to the capital, feeling that somewhere in that great city he would find
+light on the question that perplexed him. It was a mere question of ways
+and means--how to begin a work which he felt driven from within to do.
+In Tōkyō, as he inquired among his friends, he was told that Christians
+knew all about the kind of work that he wished to begin, that he must go
+to them and study their methods, if he would help the people of his
+native village. So the devout young Buddhist, who had found in his own
+faith the divine impulse, turned to the study of what Christians had
+done and were doing for the unfortunate. The story is not finished yet.
+We cannot tell whether in the end it will result in another addition to
+the ranks of the Japanese Christians, or whether it will aid in the
+quickening that has come to Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends, it
+shows in a concrete example what Christianity is now doing for Japan,
+and especially for the women of the country.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+_The following Notes refer to passages marked by asterisks in the
+foregoing pages._
+
+
+_Page 3._
+
+The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but
+some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the
+name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to
+bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much
+importance as it is with us. In some families the boys are called by
+names indicating their position in the family, the words _Taro_, "Big
+one," _Jiro_, "Second one," _Saburo_, "Third one," _Shiro_, "Fourth
+one," _Goro_, "Fifth one," etc., being used alone, or placed after
+adjectives indicating some quality that it is hoped the child may
+possess. Such combinations are, _Eitaro_, "Glorious big one," _Seijiro_,
+"Pure second one," _Tomisaburo_, "Rich third one," and so on.
+
+
+_Page 4._
+
+To speak with greater exactness, the _miya mairi_ of a boy is on the
+thirty-first day of his life,--of a girl, on the thirty-third.
+
+
+_Page 8._
+
+Tōkyō just now shows a tendency to change this national custom. Gayly
+painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in large
+quantities in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters of the
+lower classes, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon
+instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly. These carriages are, of
+course, the exception, and may prove to be but a passing Tōkyō fashion,
+but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of Japan,
+and may prove of value in the physical development of the common people.
+
+
+_Page 11._
+
+In the Tōkyō of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in evidence,
+as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few foreigners and
+foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a mile or so in
+the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the principal business streets in
+a purely Japanese section of the city, shows five meat shops; and
+milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with golf-stockings
+and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts everywhere through the
+city, and call at a large proportion of the houses. Condensed milk,
+too, is to be found on the shelves of every provision store, together
+with canned and dried meats, and the restaurants where foreign food is
+served are distributed throughout the entire city, and do a thriving
+business on Japanese patronage. The less extravagant country people
+declare that Tōkyō is "eating itself up," but so far no terrible
+increase of indebtedness seems to follow the change in the standard of
+living. It is interesting to note that the scalp troubles referred to on
+page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in the last ten years, whether
+because of the change in the food or for other reasons, I cannot
+determine.
+
+
+_Page 24._
+
+Twice, after the _miya mairi_ of her babyhood, does our little maid
+repair to the temple to seek the blessing of her patron god upon a step
+forward in her short life: once, when at the age of three, the hair on
+her small head, which until then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is
+allowed to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood; and once,
+when she has attained her seventh year, and exchanges the soft, narrow
+sash of infancy for the stiff, wide _obi_ which is the pride of every
+well-dressed Japanese woman. Her little brother, too, though now no
+longer destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of the old-time Japanese
+warrior, and whose fuzzy black head is now usually left unshaven in his
+babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of three to give thanks,
+and when he comes to be five years old, the little boy again goes up to
+the temple, this time wearing for the first time the manly _hakama_, or
+kilt-pleated trousers, and makes offerings to the god who has protected
+him thus far.
+
+The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th of November, and there is
+no prettier sight in all Japan than a popular temple on that day. All
+the streets that converge on the shrine are crowded with gayly dressed
+children hurrying along to make their offerings, accompanied by parents
+brimming with pride and pleasure.
+
+    "Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+     Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"
+
+three-year-old tots of both sexes trudging sturdily along on their
+clogs: square little red-cheeked boys, their black eyes shining with
+pride in their rustling new silk _hakama_, feeling that they are big
+boys and no longer to be confused with the babies that they were
+yesterday: here, too, are the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their
+many-colored garments and their gorgeous new _obi_ setting off to
+advantage their shining black hair and sparkling eyes. The children are
+so many, so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it is to be older
+than they were, that the grown folks who accompany them seem like
+shadows; the only real thing is the children.
+
+Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers and toy-merchants who
+can find standing-room for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags are
+flying, drums are beating, a _kagura_ dance is going on in the pavilion,
+about which stands a crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and
+the steps that lead to the temple itself are as thronged as Jacob's
+ladder with little ones ascending and descending. Within the shrine the
+white-robed priests are hard at work from morning to night. A little
+company forms in the vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room,
+where they bow and make their offerings, and wait until there is space
+for them in the inner sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a
+droning chant, which ends at last, and then a party that has finished
+its worship issues forth, and those who have been waiting without go in;
+and when the few minutes of worship are over, and the amulet that
+rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the
+dances to be seen, and the _o miyagé_ to be purchased, and at last the
+happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of
+life has been passed propitiously.
+
+
+_Page 30._
+
+The _shirōzaké_ (white _saké_) used for this occasion is a curious
+drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially
+for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest
+form of _saké_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this
+ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.
+
+
+_Page 31._
+
+The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom
+that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set
+apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was
+the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
+semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to
+take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for
+purification, they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year of the
+user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early
+times, the season for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
+among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast
+are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern Japanese means a
+chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else
+except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated with the
+ancient cock-fighting, an amusement which has now almost gone out,
+except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.
+
+The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a
+man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper
+dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Shōguns had firmly
+established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
+designating the five feast days upon which the daimiōs were to present
+themselves at the Shōgun's palace and offer their congratulations. One
+of the days thus appointed was the third day of the third month. It is
+believed that the giving of the chief place at the feast to effigies of
+the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of the Shōgunate,--a
+policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of loyalty to the throne,
+while at the same time the occupant of the throne remained a puppet in
+the hands of his vice-gerent.
+
+Each girl born into a family has a pair of _O Hina Sama_ placed for her
+upon the red-covered shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after
+her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her husband's house, she
+carries the dolls with her, and the first feast after her marriage she
+observes with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter old enough
+to carry out the observance, she must keep up the ceremony. The feast,
+as it exists to-day, is said by the Japanese to serve three purposes: it
+makes the children of both sexes loyal to the imperial family, it
+interests the girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial
+etiquette.
+
+
+_Page 40._
+
+Because of the complexity of the Chinese language and the time needed
+for its mastery, there has been a movement to lessen the study of pure
+Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it altogether, and with
+this to simplify the use of the ideographs in the Sinico-Japanese. The
+educational department is requiring that text-books be limited in their
+use of ideographs; that those used be written in only one way and that
+the simplest, and that the _kana_ (the Japanese syllabary) be
+substituted wherever possible. Several plans for reform in this matter
+are being agitated, one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to
+nouns and verbs only.
+
+
+_Page 41._
+
+No one who has been in Japan can have failed to notice the peculiarly
+strident quality of the Japanese voice in singing, a quality that is
+gained by professional singers through much labor and actual physical
+suffering. That this is not a natural characteristic of the Japanese
+voice is shown by the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of
+children and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to me to be brought
+about by the pursuit of a wrong musical ideal, or at least, of a musical
+ideal quite distinct from that of the Western world. In Japan one seldom
+finds singing birds kept in cages, but instead crickets, grasshoppers,
+katydids, and other noisy members of the insect family may be seen
+exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any summer night in the Tōkyō
+streets. These insects delight the ears of the Japanese with their
+melody, and it seems to me that the voices of singers throughout the
+empire are modeled after the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect,
+rather than after the fuller notes of the bird's song.
+
+The introduction of European music by the schools and churches has
+already begun to show in the songs of the children in the streets, and
+where ten years ago one might live in Tōkyō for a year, and never hear a
+note of music except the semi-musical cries of the workmen, when they
+are pulling or striking in concert, now there are few days when some
+strain of song from some passing school-child does not come in at the
+window of one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress made in
+catching foreign ideas of time and tune is quite surprising, but the
+singing will never be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice is
+modulated according to the foreign standards.
+
+
+_Page 45._
+
+It is said by Japanese versed in the most refined ways that a woman who
+has learned the tea ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior
+bearing and manner on all occasions.
+
+
+_Page 49._
+
+Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in a series of
+studies,--leaves, flowers, roots, and stalks being shown in every
+possible position and combination,--until not only the stroke is
+mastered, but the plant is thoroughly known. In the book that lies
+before me as I write, a book used as a copy-book by a young lady
+beginning the practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six large
+pages to studies of one small and simple flower and the pupil has
+covered hundreds of sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.
+She has now finished that part of the course, and can, at a moment's
+notice, reproduce with just the right strokes any of the designs or any
+part of the plant. The next step forward will be a similar series of
+bamboo.
+
+
+_Page 52._
+
+In the government schools for girls, much attention is paid just now to
+physical culture. The gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and
+English and mathematics as important parts of the course, and the girls
+are encouraged to spend their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all
+kinds of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war, marches, and
+quadrilles are entered into with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in
+their dark red _hakama_ are as well able to move quickly and freely as
+girls of the same age in America. If it were not for the queer
+pigeon-toed gait, acquired by years of walking in narrow _kimono_ and on
+high clogs, the Japanese girls would be fully abreast of the American in
+all these sports. So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical
+strength seized upon the nation, that a girl of delicate physique has
+less chance of marriage than one who is robust and strong.
+
+
+_Page 55._
+
+It is in the mistakes and failures made in adapting the education given
+in the schools to the exact conditions that present themselves in the
+constantly changing Japan of to-day, that the opponents of all
+alteration in the education of women find their strongest arguments. The
+conservatives point with scorn to this girl whose new ideas have led
+her into folly or trouble, or to that one whose health has been broken
+down by the adverse conditions surrounding her student life, and say,
+"This will be the case with all our women if we continue this insane
+practice of educating them along new lines." Advance in female
+education, as in all other lines of progress in Japan, is a series of
+violent actions and reactions. In 1889, partly through ill-advised
+conduct on the part of supporters of the cause, one of the most serious
+reverses that has come in the progress of Western education for women
+began to show itself. The reaction was helped along by a paper read
+before some of the most influential men of Japan, and subsequently
+reported and discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor in the
+medical department of the imperial University in Tōkyō. The paper was a
+serious warning to the men of the country that no women could be good
+wives, mothers, and housekeepers and at the same time have undergone a
+thorough literary education. The arguments were reinforced by statistics
+showing that American college women either did not marry, or that if
+they married they had very few children. All Japan took fright at this
+alarming showing, and for several years the education of girls in
+anything more than the primary studies was not encouraged by the
+government. The lowest depth of this reaction was reached during or soon
+after the Japan-China war, when the growth of national vanity resulted
+in a temporary disdain for all foreign ideas. The tide has turned again
+now, girls' schools that have been closed for years are being reopened,
+young men who are thinking of marrying are looking for educated wives,
+and among the women themselves there is a strong desire for
+self-improvement. Under this impulse a new generation of educated women
+will be added to those already exerting an influence in the country, and
+it is to be hoped that the forward movement will be more difficult to
+set back when the next reactionary wave strikes the Japanese coast.
+
+
+_Page 60._
+
+The _obi_ is supposed to express by its length the hope that the
+marriage may be an enduring one. Among the more modernized Japanese a
+ring is now often given in place of, or, in the wealthier classes, in
+addition to the _obi_.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 6._
+
+It is interesting, however, as a sign of the times, to notice that for
+the wedding of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, the Shinto high priest,
+who is master of ceremonies at the Imperial Court, instituted a solemn
+religious ceremony within the sanctuary of the palace. Following the
+example set in so high a quarter, a number of couples, during the winter
+of 1900-1901, have repaired to Shinto temples in various parts of the
+empire, to secure the sanction of the ancient national faith upon their
+union. But still, for the great majority of the Japanese, the wedding
+ceremony is what it has always been.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 15._
+
+Although new methods of transportation have come into use now in most of
+the Japanese cities, and wheeled carts drawn by men or horses are used
+for carrying all other kinds of luggage, the wedding outfit, wrapped in
+great cloths on which the crest of the bride's family is conspicuous, is
+borne on men's shoulders to the bridegroom's home, the length of the
+baggage train and the number and size of the burdens showing the wealth
+and importance of the bride's family. The bride who goes to her
+husband's house well provided by her own family, will carry, not only a
+full wardrobe and the house-furnishings already mentioned, but will be
+supplied, so far as foresight can manage it, with all the little things
+that she can need for months in advance. Paper, pens, ink, postage
+stamps, needles, thread, and sewing materials of all kinds, a store of
+dress materials and other things to be given as presents to any and all
+who may do her favors, and pocket money with which she may make good any
+deficiencies, or meet any unforeseen emergency. When she goes from her
+father's house, she should be so thoroughly fitted out that she will not
+have to ask her husband for the smallest thing for a number of months.
+The parents of the bride, in giving up their daughter, as they do when
+she marries, show the estimation in which they have held her by the
+beauty and completeness of the trousseau with which they provide her.
+The expense of this wedding outfit is often very great, persons even in
+the most moderate circumstances spending as much as one thousand yen
+upon the necessary purchases, and among the wealthy, four thousand to
+five thousand yen is not extravagant. As material wealth increases in
+Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase the style and cost of the
+trousseau, and the marriage of a daughter has come to be, in many cases,
+a severe strain on the family finances. But this outfit is of the nature
+of a dowry, for it is her very own; and in the event of a divorce, she
+brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and household
+goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+
+_Page 64._
+
+For this visit the bride wears for the first time a dress made for her
+by her husband's family and bearing its crest, as a sign that she is
+now a member of that family and only a guest in her father's house.
+
+
+_Page 76._
+
+Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions of marriage and of
+divorce have been altered for the better. At present no divorce is
+possible except through the courts or through mutual consent; the simple
+change of registration by one party or the other does not constitute a
+legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent cannot be arranged
+without the consent of the parents or head of the family of a married
+person who is under twenty-five years of age. The grounds upon which
+judicial divorce may be granted seem very trivial measured by European
+standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct gain over the
+former practice. The wife is no longer dependent for her position simply
+upon the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure her consent to
+the separation, he must formulate charges of immorality or conviction of
+crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on the part of the wife or
+of her relatives, or of desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
+three years or more. Only when some such charge has been made and proved
+before a court can a husband send away his wife. In the case of a
+separation by mutual consent, though the law still gives the care of the
+children to the father in case no previous agreement has been made, if a
+woman sees her way clear to supporting them, she may stipulate for the
+custody of one or more of them as a condition of her consent to the
+divorce. In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in the interests of the
+children, take them away from their father and assign them to the care
+of some other person.
+
+In these changes we can see a distinct advance toward permanence of the
+family tie; and we can see, too, that the wife has gained a new power to
+hold her own against injustice and wrong. That when the people have
+become used to these changes, other and more binding laws will be
+enacted, we can feel pretty sure, for the drift of enlightened public
+opinion seems to be in favor of securing better and more firmly
+established homes just as fast as "the hardness of their hearts" will
+permit.
+
+
+_Page 84._
+
+It is difficult for us in America, who live under customs and laws in
+which the individual is the social unit and the family a union of
+individuals, to understand a system of society in which the individual
+is little or nothing and the family the social unit recognized both by
+law and custom. In Japan, a man is simply a member of some family, and
+his daily affairs, his marrying and giving in marriage, are more or less
+under the control of the head of his family, or of the family council.
+Only in case he is the head of the family is he able to marry without
+securing some one's consent, and then his responsibilities in regard to
+the headship may in themselves hamper him. If this is the case with the
+more independent man, it may be imagined how completely the woman is
+submerged under family influence. She may, under exceptional
+circumstances, become the head of a family, but this is usually only a
+temporary expedient, and even then she must subordinate herself more
+completely to the family and its interests than when she occupies a
+lowlier place.
+
+The headship of an unmarried woman lasts only until a husband has been
+selected for her, and the headship of a widow lasts during her
+guardianship of the rightful heir to the position. By Japanese law a
+widow is always the guardian of her minor children.
+
+The only way in which individuality before the law can be obtained by
+man or woman in Japan is through cutting the tie that binds to the
+family, and starting out in life afresh as the head of a new family.
+This new family must always be _héimin_, or plebeian, no matter how high
+in rank may have been the family from which the founder has gone out,
+but there is a continually increasing number of young men and women who
+prefer the freedom that comes from the headship of a small and new
+family, even if of low rank, to the state of tutelage or of hampering
+responsibility which must accompany connection with a larger and older
+social group. It seems likely that through this means an evolution from
+the family to the individual system will be effected, as the nation
+grows more and more modernized in its way of looking at things.
+
+For the Japanese woman, as I have already said, marriage is in most
+cases the entrance into a new family. She is cut off from the old ways
+and interests, in which she has until now had her part, and she has
+begun life anew as the latest addition to and therefore the lowest and
+most ignorant member of another social group. It is her duty simply to
+learn the ways and obey the will of those above her, and it is the duty
+of those above her, and especially of her husband's mother, to fit her
+by training and discipline for her new surroundings. The physical
+strength of the young wife, her sweetness of temper, her manners, her
+morals, her way of looking at life, are all put to the test by this
+sharp-eyed guardian of the family interests, and woe to the younger
+woman if she fail to come up to the standard set. She may be a good
+woman and a faithful wife, but if, under the training given her, she
+does not adapt herself readily to the traditions and customs of the
+family she enters, it is more than likely, even under the new laws, that
+she may be sent back to her father's house as _persona non grata_, and
+even her husband's love cannot save her. It is because of this
+predominance of the family over the individual that the young wife, when
+she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our own country, entering
+upon a new life as mistress of a house, with absolute control over all
+of her little domain.
+
+
+_Page 115._
+
+At the time of the celebration of his silver wedding, in 1895, the
+Emperor came into the Audience Room with the Empress on his arm, an
+example which was followed by the Imperial Princes.
+
+With the engagement and marriage of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, an
+entirely new precedent was established in the relations of the Imperial
+couple. The Western idea of marriage between equals has never existed in
+the Japanese mind in its thought of the union between their Emperor and
+Empress. The Empress, though of noble family, was chosen from among the
+subjects of the Emperor, and the marriage was of the nature of an
+appointment by the Emperor to the position of Imperial Consort, just as
+any other appointment might have been made of a subject to fill an
+important position in the government. In the marriage of the Crown
+Prince a very different course was pursued. While no departure was made
+from the old precedents in the selection of a Princess from one of the
+five families that trace their descent from Jimmu Tenno, the whole
+manner of obtaining the bride was different from anything that Japan had
+before known. The Prince asked the father of the young lady to give her
+to him just as a common man might have done, and everything in the
+preliminary arrangements was carried out with the idea that by the
+marriage she was to be raised to his rank and position. Reference has
+already been made to the religious ceremony that was devised for the
+occasion, an act that in itself altered the meaning of marriage for the
+whole nation.
+
+Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the world outside of the
+palace gates, of the kindness and consideration with which the young
+wife is treated by her husband. To the scandal of some of the more
+old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants, the heir to the throne insists
+on observing toward his wife, in private as well as in public, all the
+minutiæ of Western etiquette. She enters the carriage ahead of him when
+they drive together, they habitually take their meals together, and he
+finds in her a cheerful companion and friend, and not simply a devoted
+and humble servant. In this way, by the highest example that can be set
+to them, the Japanese people are learning a new lesson.
+
+All these things have a deep significance in showing that the sacredness
+of the marriage tie is gradually being recognized.
+
+
+_Page 137._
+
+Something, indeed, may be said on the other side in regard to this
+system, which I seem to have painted as ideal. If in America we find the
+burden of expensive grown-up sons and daughters sometimes too heavy upon
+parents whose powers are on the wane, we must remember that in Japan a
+young man is often seriously handicapped at the beginning of his active
+life by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting labor,
+and that the young wife entering the home of her parents-in-law often
+finds a happy married life rendered impossible by the fact that she must
+please an elderly couple thoroughly fixed in their ways,--the rulers of
+the household and with little to do but rule. With this custom, as with
+all human customs, everything in the long run depends upon how it is
+used, and without deep affection between parents and children there
+seems to be as much danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
+generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents in Japan, as there is in
+America of the wearing out of the older people's lives and strength in
+the service of ungrateful and lazy children.
+
+
+_Page 152._
+
+The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made of heavy _futons_, or
+quilts, of white _habutai_ wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
+consists of as many similar _futons_ as the state of the weather may
+require. Every month new _futons_ are provided for Her Majesty, and the
+discarded ones are given to one of her attendants. The happy recipient
+is thus provided with wadding enough for all her winter dresses for the
+rest of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress material.
+
+
+_Page 157._
+
+Only those who have seen the inner life of the court can realize the
+difficulties which have attended every step of the Empress Haru's way,
+for the court has been the scene of great struggles between the
+conservative and radical elements. Mean and petty jealousies have moved
+those surrounding the throne. The slightest word or token from the
+Empress would be used as a weapon for private ends. To move among these
+varied and discordant factions, and to move for progress, without
+causing undue friction, has been a task more difficult than the conquest
+of armies, and to do so successfully has required almost infinite
+patience, sympathy, and love.
+
+
+_Page 168._
+
+And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened rule of the present
+Emperor, and of the beneficent life and example of the Empress Haru, is
+there any assurance that the progress made during their occupation of
+the throne will be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?
+
+Prince Haru, or Yoshihito, is now a man twenty-two years of age, with
+character sufficiently developed to be used as the basis for a guess at
+what his qualities as a sovereign may prove to be. "As far as the East
+is from the West" have his life and education been from the life and
+education of his illustrious father. Instead of the curtained seclusion,
+the quiet and calm of the old palace in the old capital, the present
+Crown Prince has known from babyhood the sights and sounds of the
+stirring city of Tōkyō. He has driven in an open carriage or walked
+through its streets; he has been to school with boys of his own age,
+taking the school work and the drill and the games with the other boys,
+learning to know men and things and himself too, in a way in which none
+of his ancestors, since the days when they were simply savage chiefs,
+have had opportunity of knowing. As he grew toward manhood, his delicate
+health required that he leave the school and pursue his studies as his
+strength permitted, under masters; but he has retained his love for all
+athletic exercises, for dogs and horses and guns and bicycles, and he is
+as expert in outdoor sports as any youth of Western training. His mind
+is quick and eager, interested especially in foreign ways and thoughts,
+and seeking most of all to understand how other people think and feel
+and live. Though he has been emancipated to a wonderful degree from the
+state and ceremony that surrounded his ancestors, he is nevertheless
+impatient of what remains, and would gladly dispense with many forms
+that his conservative guardians regard as necessary; and these same
+guardians at times find their young eaglet difficult to manage. He has
+views and ideas of his own, and acts occasionally upon his own
+initiative in a way that fairly scandalizes his advisers. He wishes to
+visit his future subjects upon something like equal terms. The rôle of
+Son of Heaven seems to him less interesting at times than some smaller
+and more human part. When he walks, he wants to lead his own dog, not
+have him led by some one else; to stop in the street and watch the
+common people at their work; to drop in on his friends in a neighborly
+way and see how they live when they are not expecting a visit from
+royalty. Provided he does not go too fast or too far, when his turn
+comes to ascend the throne, he cannot but make a better emperor for the
+intimate personal knowledge that he is seeking and gaining of the lives
+and feelings of his people.
+
+The Crown Princess Sada, who has now been for one year in the line of
+succession to the present beloved Empress, shows in her training and
+character the influence of the new impulse that is driving Japan
+forward. The circumstances that led to her selection as the bride of the
+Prince are in themselves curious enough to be worth recording. The Kujo
+family is one of the five families from which alone can the wife of the
+Crown Prince be chosen, and the present Prince Kujo is blessed with many
+daughters. Of these, the oldest is about the age of Prince Haru, and at
+one time it was hoped that she might be selected as his consort, but at
+last that hope was given up, and she was married to another prince. The
+second daughter was as bright and charming as the first, but she was
+just enough younger than the Prince to make her marriage with him so
+dangerous a matter according to all the rules that govern good and bad
+luck in Japan, that no hope was entertained for her, and she was
+married, when her time came, with no reference to the greatest match
+that any Japanese princess can make. The third daughter was six years
+younger than the Prince, so much younger that it was thought that he
+would be married long before she grew up, so no special care or
+attention was given to her. In her babyhood, like most Japanese babies
+of high rank, she was sent out into the country to be nursed. Her foster
+parents were plain farmer folk, who loved her and cared for her as their
+own child. She played bareheaded and barefooted in the sun and wind,
+tumbled about, jolly and happy, with the village children, and lived and
+grew like a kitten or a puppy rather than like a future empress until
+she was old enough for the kindergarten. Then she came back to Tōkyō, to
+her father's house, and from there she attended the Peeresses' School,
+going backward and forward every day with her bundle of books, and
+taking her share of the work and play with the other children. In her
+school-days she was noticeable for her great physical activity and her
+hearty enjoyment of the outdoor sports which form so important a part of
+the training in Japanese schools for girls at present; and for her
+strength of will and character among a class of students upon whom
+self-repression amounting almost to self-abnegation has been inculcated
+from earliest childhood.
+
+When this little princess reached the age of fifteen, the Crown Prince's
+marriage, which had been somewhat deferred on account of his ill-health,
+was pressed forward, and to the extreme surprise of her own family, and
+of many others as well, the Princess Sada was chosen, largely on account
+of her great physical vigor. Then began a great change in her life. From
+being one of the lowest and least considered in her family, she was
+suddenly raised high above all the rest, even her father addressing her
+as a superior. The merry, romping school-girl was transformed in a few
+days into the great lady, too grand to associate on equal terms with any
+but the imperial family. Small cause was there for wonder if she shrank
+from the change and begged that the honor might be bestowed on some one
+else. The old free life was gone forever, and she dreaded the heavy
+responsibility that was to fall upon her slender shoulders.
+
+The choice was made in August, 1899, and from the moment that the
+engagement was entered into, the Princess Sada became an honored guest
+in her father's house. She could no longer play with her brothers and
+sisters, or take a meal with any member of her own family. A new and
+handsome suite of rooms was built for her, her old wardrobe was
+discarded and an entirely new one provided for her, all her table
+service was new and distinct from that of the rest of the family, and
+she was addressed by all as if she were already Empress. Her studies
+were not given up, but masters were chosen for her who came to her and
+instructed her, with due deference to her high station, in the subjects
+that she had been studying at school. So passed the nine months of her
+engagement, and on May 8, 1900, she became one of the principals in a
+state wedding such as Japan had never before seen. Through all the show
+and ceremony she acquitted herself decorously and bravely, and since her
+marriage no word save of approval of the young wife has come out from
+the palace gates. Her little sisters-in-law, the four small daughters of
+the Emperor, enjoy nothing so much as to go and spend the day with her,
+for she is so amusing, and her life has been such a busy and happy one,
+that she comes like a breath of fresh air into the seclusion of the
+Court. Her young husband, too, finds in her congenial society, and his
+frail health seems to be daily strengthening with the brightness that
+has come into his home.
+
+Great was the joy in the empire when, on April 29, 1901, this happy
+union was rendered still happier by the birth of a strong little prince
+to carry on the ancient line. By an auspicious coincidence, his birth
+came just at the time of the annual boys' feast, or Feast of Flags, and
+his naming day was appointed for May 5, the great day of the feast, when
+all Japan is decorated with giant carp swinging from tall poles outside
+of every house, and swimming vigorously at the ends of their tethers in
+the strong spring wind. The carp is to the Japanese mind the emblem of
+courage and perseverance, for he swims up the strongest current, leaping
+the waterfalls that oppose his progress. The baby was named by his
+grandfather, and will have the personal name of Hirohito, and the title
+Prince Michi. With this new little prince there are no polite fictions
+to maintain, nor conventional relationships to be established. He is the
+son of his father's lawful wife, as well as of his father. There is to
+be no breaking off of natural ties, and his own mother will nurse and
+care for him, a fortune that never falls to the lot of the imperial son
+of a _mékaké_. If he lives, he will be a standing argument in favor of
+monogamy, even in noble families, and his birth bodes well for family
+life throughout the country.
+
+
+_Page 182._
+
+A pretty, but most shocking sight, if seen through the eyes of some of
+these old-fashioned attendants, is the semi-annual _undo kai_, or
+exercise day of the Peeresses' School. The large playground is, for
+this occasion, surrounded by seats divided off to accommodate invited
+guests of various ranks, who spend the day watching the entertainment.
+In the most honorable place, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, sits
+the Empress herself, for the education of the daughters of the nobles is
+a matter of the liveliest interest to her; and the parents and friends
+and teachers of the girls fill up all available seats after the school
+itself has been accommodated.
+
+The programme is usually a long one, occupying the greater part of the
+morning and afternoon, with an interval for lunch. Most of the ordinary
+English field games--tennis, basket-ball, etc.--are played with skill
+and vigor, and in addition to these there are races of various kinds,
+devised to show, not simply fleetness of foot, but quickness of hand and
+wit as well. These races vary from year to year, as the ingenuity of the
+directors of the sports may be able to devise new forms of exercise. One
+extremely pretty contest is as follows: On the playground between the
+starting-point and the goal are set at equal distances four upright
+sticks for each runner. Four branches of cherry blossoms and four
+bright-colored ribbons for each contestant are laid on the ground at the
+starting-point. At the signal, each girl picks up a cherry branch and a
+ribbon, and runs to one of the upright sticks, tying the flowers firmly
+thereto; then she runs back for a second branch, and so on until all
+four have been fastened in place. The race is won by the child who first
+reaches the goal leaving behind her four blooming trees where before
+there were bare poles. This seems to be the æsthetic Japanese equivalent
+for our prosaic potato race. Another contest is after this manner: Along
+the course of each runner are laid at certain intervals bright-colored
+balls,--a different color for each contestant. The object of the race
+is, within a certain time, to pick up all the balls and throw them into
+the nearly closed mouth of a great net at the far end of the grounds.
+The contest is not decided until the balls have been counted, when the
+girl who has succeeded in getting the greatest number of balls of her
+color into the net is declared the winner. Another and extremely pretty
+race, calling for great steadiness of hand and body, is the running from
+one end of the ground to the other with a ball balanced on a battledore.
+The Japanese battledore is made of light but hard wood, and is long and
+narrow in shape. If one had not seen it done, it would be well-nigh
+impossible to believe that any child could carry a ball upon it for more
+than a few slow steps: but these children run at a smart trot, keeping
+the ball immovable upon its small and smooth surface.
+
+Beside the games and races, there are calisthenic exhibitions, in which
+great precision of motion and flexibility of body are manifested. One of
+the most graceful and attractive of these is the fan drill shown on this
+occasion, when some twenty or thirty girls, with their bright-colored
+dresses, long, waving sleeves, and red _hakama_, posture in perfect
+rhythm, with fans opened or closed, waving above the head, held before
+the face, changed from position to position, with the performers'
+changes of attitude, each new figure seemingly more graceful than the
+last.
+
+In these and many other ways the nobility of new Japan are being fitted
+for the new part that they have to play in the world. No wonder that the
+education now given, awakening the mind, toughening the body, arousing
+ambition and individuality, is regarded by many of the ultra-conservatives
+as a dangerous innovation, and one likely to bring the nobility down to
+the level of the common people. Whether this new education is better or
+worse than the old, we can hardly tell as yet, but there are no signs of
+the immediate breakdown of the old spirit of the nobility, and the
+better health and stronger characters of the young women who have
+received the modern training promise much for the next generation.
+
+
+_Page 192._
+
+While this was entirely true in 1890, it is interesting to observe that
+after ten years of commercial and industrial progress there are signs
+that the embroidered kimono is coming back into fashion. With the growth
+of large fortunes and of luxury that has marked the past decade, has
+come the custom of providing wedding garments as magnificently
+embroidered as were the robes of the daimiōs' ladies, and even the
+_montsuki_ or ceremonial dress, which was severely plain in 1890, now
+has little delicate embroidery about the bottom. It will not be
+surprising if some day, when the present growing commercial and
+industrial enterprise has reaped a more abundant harvest, Japan blooms
+forth again in the beautiful garments that went out of fashion when the
+great political upheaval cut off the revenues of the old nobility.
+
+
+_Page 209._
+
+At each encroachment of the enemy those of the population who could not
+find refuge at once within the inner defenses were driven to choose
+between surrender and self-inflicted death. The unconquerable samurai
+spirit flamed out in the choice of hundreds of women and children as
+well as men, and whole families were wiped out of existence at once,
+the little ones, who were too young to understand the proper method of
+_hara-kiri_, kneeling calmly with bowed heads for the death-stroke from
+father or brother which should free them from the disgrace of defeat.
+
+
+_Page 223._
+
+That the spirit of the samurai women is still a living force in Japan,
+no one can doubt who listens to the stories of what the women did and
+bore in the Japan-China war of 1895. The old self-sacrifice and devotion
+showed itself throughout the country in deeds of real, if sometimes
+mistaken, heroism. Husbands, sons, and brothers were sent out to danger
+and death with smiles and cheerful words, by women dependent upon them
+for everything in a way that can hardly be understood by Americans. Even
+tears of grief for the dear ones offered in the country's cause were
+suppressed as disloyal, and women learned with unmoved countenances of
+the death of those they loved best, and found the courage to express, in
+the first shock of bereavement, their sense of the honor conferred on
+the family by the death of one of its members in the cause of his
+country.
+
+A few incidents quoted from an article by Miss Umé Tsuda that appeared
+in the New York "Independent" in 1895 will give my readers an idea of
+the forms that this devotion assumed:--
+
+"One instance comes into my mind of an old lady who sent out cheerfully
+and with a smiling face her young and only son, the sole stay of her old
+age. Left a widow while young, she had lived a life of much sorrow and
+trouble, and had with almost superhuman efforts managed to give her son
+an education that would start him in life. It was only a few years ago
+that the son had begun to help in the family support, and to be able to
+repay to the mother her tender care of him. Her pride in her son and his
+young wife was a pleasure to see, and the little home they had together
+seemed a safe haven for the coming years of old age. Now, in a moment
+all this was changed,--the son must start off for the wars. Yet not for
+one instant was a cloud seen on the mother's face, as, smilingly and
+cheerfully, she assisted in the preparations for his departure. Not in
+public or in secret did one sigh or regret escape her; not even to the
+son did a word of anxiety pass her lips. Her face, beaming with joy,
+looked with pride on the manly strength of the young soldier as he
+started to fight for his country and win honor for himself,--honor which
+would surely come to him whether he lived or died.
+
+"Another woman who is well on in years, and whose eldest son is a naval
+officer, furnishes an interesting example of mother love. Though never
+showing her anxiety on his account, or grief at his danger, she has
+taken upon herself, in spite of her old age and by no means vigorous
+health, to go on foot every morning to one of the temples and worship
+there before daylight, in order to propitiate the gods, that they may
+protect her son. She arises at four o'clock in the morning on the
+coldest of cold days, washes and purifies herself with ice-cold water,
+and then starts out before daylight for her three-mile walk to the
+temple. Thus through wind and storm and cold have the faith and love of
+this old woman upheld her, and one is happy to add that so far her
+prayers have been heard and no harm has come to the one she has called
+on her gods to protect.
+
+"A touching story is told of the aged mother of Sakamoto, commander of
+the warship Akagi, who was killed in the thickest of the fight during
+the great naval battle of the Yellow Sea. Commander Sakamoto left an
+aged mother, a wife, and three children. As soon as his death was
+officially ascertained, a messenger was dispatched from the naval
+department to convey the sad tidings to his family. The communication
+was made duly to his wife, and before the messenger had left the house
+it reached the ears of the old mother, who, tottering into the room
+where the officer was, saluted and greeted him duly, and then, with dry
+eyes and a clear voice, said, 'So it seems by your tidings that my son
+has been of some service this time.'
+
+"One reads pathetic stories in the newspapers daily in connection with
+the war. Not long ago a sad account was given of a young woman, just
+past her twentieth year, and only recently married to an army officer.
+She had belonged by birth to a military family, and, as befitted the
+wife and daughter of a soldier, she resolved, on hearing of the death of
+her husband, that she would not survive him, but would follow him to the
+great unknown. Sending away her servant on some excuse, she remained
+alone in her home, which she put into perfect order. Then she arranged
+all her papers, wrote a number of letters, and made her last
+preparations for death. She dressed herself in full ceremonial dress as
+she had been dressed for her bridal, and seated herself before a large
+portrait of her husband. Then, with a short dirk, such as is owned by
+every samurai woman, she stabbed herself. In her last letters she gives
+as the reason for her death that, having no ties in the world, she would
+not survive her husband, but wished to remain faithful to him in death
+as she had been in life.
+
+"Many such stories might be cited, but enough has been given to show the
+spirit that exists in Japan. With such women and such teachings in
+their homes, can it be wondered at that Japan is a brave nation, and
+that her soldiers are winning battles? Certainly some of the honor and
+credit must be given to these wives and mothers scattered throughout
+Japan, who are surely, in some cases, the inspirers of that courage and
+spirit which is just now surprising the world."
+
+
+_Page 239._
+
+Much surprise is evinced by foreigners visiting Japan at the lack of
+taste shown by the Japanese in the imitation of foreign styles. And yet,
+for these same foreigners, who condemn so patronizingly the Japanese
+lack of taste in foreign things, the Japanese manufacture pottery, fans,
+scrolls, screens, etc., that are most excruciating to their sense of
+beauty, and export them to markets in which they find a ready sale,
+their manufacturers wondering, the while, why foreigners want such ugly
+things. The fact is that neither civilization has as yet come into any
+understanding of the other's æsthetic side, and the sense of beauty of
+the one is a sealed book to the other. The Japanese nation, in its
+efforts to adopt foreign ways, has been, up to the present time, blindly
+imitating, with little or no comprehension of underlying principles. As
+a result there is an absolute crudeness in foreign things as attempted
+in Japan that grates on the nerves of travelers fresh from the best to
+be found in Europe or America.
+
+There are signs, however, that the stage of imitation is past and that
+adaptation has begun. Here and there in Tōkyō may be seen buildings in
+which the solidity of foreign architecture has been grafted upon the
+Japanese type. Ten years ago, Japanese men who adopted foreign dress
+went about in misfitting garments, soiled linen, untidy shoes, and hats
+that had been discarded by the civilization for which they were made
+many seasons before they reached Japan. They wore Turkish towels about
+their necks and red blankets over their shoulders at the desire of
+unscrupulous importers, who persuaded them that towels for neck-cloths
+and blankets for overcoats were the latest styles of London and Paris.
+To-day one sees no such eccentricities of costume in the purely Japanese
+city of Tōkyō. Men who wear foreign dress wear it made correctly in
+every particular by Japanese tailors, shoemakers, and hatters. The
+standard has been attained, for men at least, and in foreign dress as
+well as in Japanese, the natural good taste of the people has begun to
+assert itself. So it will be in time with other new things adopted. As
+no single element of the Chinese civilization secured a permanent
+footing in Japan except such as could be adapted, not only to the
+national life, but to the national taste as well, so it will be with
+European things. All things that are adopted will be adapted, and
+whatever is adapted is likely in time to be improved and made more
+beautiful by the national instinct for beauty. During the transition,
+enormities are omitted and monstrosities are constructed, but when the
+standard is at last attained, we may expect that the genius of the race
+will triumph over the difficulties that it is now encountering.
+Individual Japanese who have lived long in Europe or America show the
+same nice discrimination in regard to foreign things that they do in
+their Japanese surroundings, and are rarely at fault in their taste.
+What is true of the individual now will be true of the nation when
+European standards have become common property.
+
+
+_Page 242._
+
+In the remote mountain regions, where the majesty and uncertainty of the
+great natural forces impress themselves constantly upon the minds of the
+peasantry, one finds a simple nature worship, and a desire to propitiate
+all the unseen powers, that is not so evident in the daily life of the
+dwellers in more populous and progressive parts of the country. As the
+mountains close in about the road that runs up from the plains below, a
+great stone, on which is deeply carved "To the God of the Mountains,"
+calls the attention of the traveler to the fact that the supernatural is
+a recognized power among the mountaineers. In such regions one finds
+the stated offerings at the shrines which stand near the wayside kept
+constantly renewed. Nearly every house is protected by some slip of
+paper pasted above the door, a charm obtained by toilsome pilgrimage to
+some noted temple. Behind or near the village temple one may see rude
+wigwams of straw, each sheltering a _gohei_,[45]--witnesses to the vows
+of devotees who hope, sooner or later, to erect small wooden shrines and
+so win favor from the unknown rulers of human destinies. In places where
+pack-horses form a large part of the wealth of the people, stones to the
+horses' spirits are erected, and the halters of all the horses that die
+are left upon these stones. Prayers, too, are offered to the guardian
+spirits of the living horses, before stones on which are carved
+sometimes the image of a horse bearing a _gohei_ on his back, sometimes
+a rough figure of the horse-headed Kwannon. To such stones or shrines
+are brought horses suffering from sickness of any kind, and the hand is
+rubbed first on the stone and then on the part of the animal supposed to
+be affected. In one district, when a horse epidemic broke out, its rapid
+spread was attributed by the authorities to this custom, and all persons
+were warned of the danger, with what effect in breaking up the ancient
+habit the newspaper reports failed to say. It is in such regions as this
+that the _oni_ and the _tengu_[46] still live in the every-day thought
+of the people; it is here, too, that the old custom of offering flowers
+and fruit to the spirits of the dead at the midsummer festival is most
+conscientiously kept up. All possible spirits are included in these
+offerings, so that even by the roadside one finds bunches of flowers set
+up in the clefts of the rock, to the spirits of travelers who have died
+on the way.
+
+[45] _Gohei_, a piece of white paper, cut and folded in a peculiar
+manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shintō faith.
+
+[46] _Tengu_, a winged, long-nosed or beak-mouthed monster, supposed to
+inhabit the mountain regions of Japan. It was from a _tengu_ that
+Yoshitsune, one of the greatest of Japanese heroes, learned to fence,
+and so became a swordsman of almost miraculous expertness. _Oni_, a
+demon or goblin.
+
+In one little mountain resort, far from the railroad but in touch with
+the outside world through the hundreds of visitors that seek its hot
+baths during the summer, it was my good fortune to spend a few weeks
+recently. Our walks were rather limited in variety, as the village lay
+in an almost inaccessible mountain valley through which a carefully
+engineered road ran along the edge of the river gorge. About half a mile
+out of the village, close to the road and overhanging the waters of the
+river at a spot where the rocks were so worn and carved by the rushing
+torrent as to have gained the appropriate title of the "Screen Rocks,"
+was a little shop and a tea-house. It was a pleasant resting-place after
+a warm and dusty walk, and almost daily we would halt there for a cup of
+tea and a slice of _yokan_, or bean marmalade, before returning to our
+rooms in the hotel. The managers of the place were an old man and his
+wife, who divided their labor between the shop and the tea-house. The
+old man was an artist in roots. His life was devoted to searching out
+grotesquely shaped roots on the forest-covered hills, and whittling,
+turning, and trimming them into the semblance of animal or human forms.
+_Tengu_ and goblins, long-legged birds and short-legged beasts, all
+manner of weird products of his imagination and his handiwork, peopled
+the interior of the little shop, and he was always ready to welcome us
+and show us his latest work, with the pride of an artist in his
+masterpiece.
+
+His wife, a cheery old woman, attended to the tea-house, and as soon as
+we had seated ourselves, bustled about to bring us cool water from the
+spring that bubbled out of the rocks across the road, and to set before
+us the tiny cups of straw-colored tea and the delicious slices of
+_yokan_ which we soon learned was the specialty of the place. She was
+glad to have a little gossip as we sipped and nibbled, telling us many
+interesting bits of folklore about the immediate locality. It was from
+her that we learned that the pinnacle of rock that dominated the village
+was built by _tengu_ long ago, though now they were all gone from the
+woods, for she had looked for them often at night when she went out to
+shut the house, but she had never seen one,--and even the monkeys were
+becoming scarce. She it was, too, who sent us to look for the mysterious
+draught of cold air that crossed the road near the base of the great
+rock, colder on hot days than on cool ones, and at all times
+astonishing,--the "Tengu's Wind Hole." We learned through her about the
+snakes to be found in the woods, and of the wonderful tonic virtues of
+the _mamushi_ (the one poisonous snake of Japan), if caught and bottled
+with a sufficient quantity of _saké_. The _saké_ may be renewed again
+and again, and the longer the snake has been bottled the more medicinal
+does it become, so that one _mamushi_ may, if used perseveringly,
+medicate several casks of _saké_. We had opportunity later to verify her
+statements, for we found at a small grocery store, where we stopped to
+add a few delicacies to our somewhat scanty bill of fare, two snakes,
+neatly coiled in quart bottles and pickled in _saké_, one of which could
+be obtained for the sum of seventy-five sen, though the other, who in
+his rage at being bottled had buried his fangs in his own body,
+commanded a higher price because of his courage. We did not feel in
+need of a tonic that day, so left the _mamushi_ on the grocery shelves,
+but it is probable that their disintegrating remains are being
+industriously quaffed to-day by some elderly Japanese whose failing
+strength demands an unfailing remedy.
+
+When our little friend had learned of our interest in snakes, she was on
+the lookout for snake stories of all kinds. One day she stopped us as we
+came by rather later than usual, hurrying home before a threatening
+shower, to tell us that we ought to have come a little sooner, for the
+great black snake who was the messenger of the god that lived on the
+mountain had just been by, and we might have been interested to see him.
+She had seen him before, herself, so he was no novelty to her, but she
+was sure that the matter would interest us. Poor little old lady, with
+her kindly face and pleasant ways, and her friendly cracked voice. Her
+firm belief in all the uncanny and supernatural things that wiser people
+have outgrown brought us face to face with the childhood of our race,
+and drew us into sympathy with a phase of culture in which all nature is
+wrapped in inscrutable mystery.
+
+
+_Page 264._
+
+Each year that passes sees a few more stores adopting the habit of fixed
+prices, not to be altered by haggling.
+
+
+_Page 282._
+
+On another occasion the good offices of the fortune-teller were sought
+concerning a marriage, and the powerful arranger of human destinies
+discovered that though everything else was favorable, the bride
+contracted for was to come from a quarter quite opposed to the luck of
+the bridegroom. This was no laughing matter, as the bride was of a noble
+family and the breaking of the engagement would be attended with much
+talk and trouble on both sides; but, on the other hand, the family of
+the bridegroom dared not face the danger so mysteriously prophesied by
+the fortune-teller. In this predicament, there was nothing to do but to
+pull the wool over the eyes of the gods as best they might. For this
+purpose the bride with all her belongings was sent the day before the
+wedding from her father's house to that of an uncle living in another
+part of the city, and on the morning of the wedding-day she came to her
+husband from a quarter quite favorable to his fortunes. It seems quite
+probable that the gods were taken in by this somewhat transparent
+subterfuge, for no serious evil has befallen the young couple in three
+years of married life.
+
+
+_Page 317._
+
+To the American mind this method of terminating relations is always
+irritating and frequently embarrassing, but in Japan any discomfort is
+to be endured rather than the slightest suspicion of bad manners. If the
+foreign visitor is trying to learn to be a good Japanese, she must
+submit patiently when the servant solemnly engaged fails to appear at
+the appointed hour, sending a letter instead to say that she is ill; or
+when the woman upon whom she is depending to travel with her the next
+day to the country receives a telegram calling her to the bedside of a
+mythical son, and departs, bag and baggage, at a moment's notice,
+leaving her quondam mistress to shift for herself as best she may.
+
+
+_Page 318._
+
+Among the many changes that have come over Japan in the transition from
+feudalism to the conditions of modern life, there is none that Japanese
+ladies regard with greater regret than the change in the servant
+question. As the years go by and new employments open to women, it
+becomes increasingly difficult to engage and keep servants of the
+old-time, faithful, intelligent sort. Notwithstanding increased pay, and
+the still existing conditions of considerate treatment, comfortable
+homes, and light work, it is hard to fill places vacated, even in noble
+households: and there is almost as much shaking of heads and despondent
+talk over the servant question in Japan to-day as there is in America.
+
+
+_Page 322._
+
+It is interesting to note that it is to the quickness and courage of a
+jinrikisha man who interposed between him and his would-be assassin that
+the present Czar of Russia owes his escape from death at Otsu, near
+Kyōtō, in 1891.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+My task is ended. One half of Japan, with its virtues and its frailties,
+its privileges and its wrongs, has been brought, so far as my pen can
+bring it, within the knowledge of the American public. If, through this
+work, one person setting forth for the Land of the Rising Sun goes
+better prepared to comprehend the thoughts, the needs, and the virtues
+of the noble, gentle, self-sacrificing women who make up one half the
+population of the Island Empire, my labor will not have been in vain.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Adoption, 103, 112, 187.
+
+Agility of Japanese, 13.
+
+Ai, love, 415.
+
+Amado, sliding wooden shutters used to inclose a Japanese house at
+night, 23.
+
+Amulets, 329.
+
+Andon, a standing lamp inclosed in a paper case, 89.
+
+Ané San, or Né San, elder sister (_San_ the honorific), a title used by
+the younger children in a family in speaking to their eldest sister, 20.
+
+Aoyama, 131.
+
+Apprentices, 309, 310.
+
+Art in common things, 237-239, 462, 463.
+
+Artisans, 235-239, 270.
+
+
+Babies, 1-17;
+  bathing, 10;
+  conditions of life, 6, 7;
+  dress, 6, 15;
+  food, 10, 11;
+  imperial babies, 8, 9;
+  learning to talk, 16;
+  learning to walk, 13, 14;
+  of lower classes, 7;
+  of middle classes, 8;
+  of nobility, 8;
+  skin troubles, 11;
+  teething, 12;
+  tied to the back, 7, 8, 12.
+
+Baby carriages, 424.
+
+Baths, public, 10.
+
+Beauty, Japanese standard of, 58; early loss of, 122.
+
+Bé bé, a child's word for dress, 16.
+
+Bed, the Empress's, 446.
+
+Betrothal, 60.
+
+Bettō, a groom or footman who cares for the horse in the stable and runs
+ahead of it on the road, 62, 71, 311, 316, 319.
+
+Bible, circulation of, in Japan, 412-414.
+
+Birth, 1.
+
+Boys, amusements of, 362-370.
+
+Breakfast, 89.
+
+Brothels. _See_ Jōroya.
+
+Buddha's birthday, 365.
+
+Buddhism, 168, 240;
+  affected by Christianity, 417-421;
+  introduction of, 143-145.
+
+Buddhist funerals, 131, 132, 347.
+
+Buddhist nuns, 155.
+
+Buddhist priest, story of a, 418-421.
+
+Building, 333-335.
+
+Butsudan, the household shrine
+used by Buddhists, 323.
+
+
+Castles, 151, 157, 169, 171, 173, 174, 185, 186, 192.
+
+Chadai, literally "tea money," the fee given at an inn, 251-253.
+
+Cherry blossoms, 28, 146, 166, 176, 177, 191, 295, 296.
+
+Childhood. _See_ Girlhood.
+
+Children, intellectual characteristics of Japanese, 41;
+  Japanese compared with American, 19.
+
+Chinese characters, 40.
+
+Chinese civilization introduced, 142.
+
+Chinese code of morals, 103, 111.
+
+Christian ideas, progress of, 402-421.
+
+Christianity, 77, 81, 168, 206, 207.
+
+Christians, Japanese, 404.
+
+Chrysanthemum, 166, 296-298.
+
+Civilization, new, 77.
+
+Clubs, women's, 391.
+
+Concubinage, 85, 111.
+
+Confectionery, 146.
+
+Confucius, 103, 168.
+
+Constitution, promulgation of the, 114, 276.
+
+Corea, conquest of, 139-143.
+
+Country and city, 278, 279.
+
+Court, after conquest of Corea, 143-146;
+  amusements of, 145;
+  costumes, 146;
+  in early times, 138, 139;
+  ladies, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  life, 138-168;
+  of daimiō, 171;
+  of Shōgun, 170, 171;
+  removal to Tōkyō, 156.
+
+Courtship, 58.
+
+Crown Prince's wedding, the, 434, 442-445, 449-453.
+
+Crucifixion, 199, 234.
+
+
+Daikoku, the money god, 332.
+
+Dai jobu, "Safe," "All right," 320.
+
+Daimiō, a member of the landed nobility under the feudal system, 169-195;
+  his castles, 169;
+  his courts, 17;
+  his daughters, 175, 177, 180, 182-184, 191, 192-195;
+  his journeys to Yedo, 171-173;
+  his retainers, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177-179, 181, 183, 185, 186;
+  his wife, 175, 177, 182, 192-195;
+  seclusion of, 172-174.
+
+Dancing, 38, 287, 288.
+
+Dancing girls. _See_ Géisha.
+
+Dango Zaka, 296.
+
+Dashi, a float used in festival processions, 275-278, 366-369.
+
+Days, lucky and unlucky, 331.
+
+Decency, Japanese standard of, 255-260.
+
+Deformity, caused by position in sitting, 9.
+
+Diet, changes in, 424.
+
+Divorce, among lower classes, 66, 69, 73;
+  among higher classes, 66, 68;
+  effect of recent legislation on, 374, 439;
+  new laws, 438, 439;
+  right to children in case of, 67, 105, 439.
+
+Dolls, Feast of, 28-31, 428-430;
+  origin of, 428;
+  present meaning of, 430.
+
+Dress, baby, 6, 15;
+  court, 145, 146;
+  in daimiōs' houses, 187, 192;
+  military, of samurai women, 188;
+  of lower classes, 126-128;
+  of pilgrims, 243;
+  present tendencies, 457;
+  showing age of wearer, 119.
+
+
+Education, higher, a doubtful help, 79;
+  effect on home life, 77;
+  producing repugnance to marriage, 80.
+
+Education of daimiō's daughter, 177-180.
+
+Education of girls, 37-56;
+  action and reaction in, 433, 434;
+  difficulties in new system, 52-56;
+  fault in Japanese system, 39;
+  in old times, 37.
+
+Embroidered robes, 95, 146, 188, 192, 456.
+
+Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153, 155-157, 161, 164-166, 292.
+
+Emperors, after introduction of Chinese civilization, 143-145;
+  children of, 164;
+  daughters of, 155;
+  early retirement of, 134;
+  in early times, 138;
+  seclusion of, 143-145, 155, 156, 161, 169.
+
+Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-168.
+
+Empress, Dowager, 152.
+
+Engawa, the piazza that runs around a Japanese house, 23.
+
+Etiquette, court, 153;
+  in daimiōs' houses, 177-179;
+  in the home, 19, 20;
+  instruction in, 46, 47;
+  of leaving service, 316, 317;
+  towards servants, 304, 305.
+
+
+Factory workers, women, 399 _note_.
+
+Fairy tales, 32.
+
+Family, organization of, 139, 439-442.
+
+Fancy work, 95.
+
+Father's relation to children, 100.
+
+Feast of Flags, 363, 364;
+  of Lanterns, 358-362;
+  of the Dead, 358-362;
+  of Dolls, 28-31, 428-430.
+
+Festivals, of flowers, 27, 99, 295-297;
+  of the New Year, 25, 349-358;
+  temple, 270-278, 364-370.
+
+Feudal system, 169.
+
+Feudal times, pictures of, 190-192;
+  stories of, 184-187.
+
+Firemen, 335, 338, 339.
+
+Flirtation, unknown to Japanese girls, 34.
+
+Flower arrangement, 42.
+
+Flower painting, 47, 432.
+
+Flower shows, 270-272.
+
+Fortune-telling, 281-285, 331-333, 470.
+
+Fuji, 58, 242.
+
+Fukuzawa, his book on the woman question, 387-391;
+  his will, 345.
+
+Funeral customs, 131, 132, 339-349.
+
+Furushiki, a square of cloth used for wrapping up a bundle, 354.
+
+
+Games, battledore and shuttlecock, 31, 32;
+  at court, 145;
+  go, 136;
+  hyaku nin isshu, 26, 27;
+  shogi, 136.
+
+Géisha, a professional dancing and singing girl, 286-289.
+
+Géisha ya, an establishment where géishas may be hired, 286.
+
+Géta, a wooden clog, 13, 14.
+
+Ginza, 265.
+
+Girlhood, 17-34.
+
+Gohei, a piece of white paper folded and cut in a peculiar manner, one
+of the sacred symbols of the Shintō faith, 464.
+
+
+Hakama, the kilt-pleated trousers that formed a part of the dress of
+every Japanese gentleman, also the skirt worn by school-girls over the
+kimono, 433, 456.
+
+Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or crêpe, worn over the kimono, 8.
+
+Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in the abdomen, 201, 202.
+
+Haru, Prince, 113, 152, 442-444, 446-452.
+
+Haru, Empress, 155-168.
+
+Héimin, the class of farmers, artisans, and merchants, 203, 228, 229;
+  class characteristics of, 229-240, 464-468.
+
+Hibachi, a brazier for burning charcoal, 30, 72, 136, 307.
+
+Hidéyoshi. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Hinin, a class of paupers, 228.
+
+Hiyéi Zan, 243.
+
+Holidays, 269.
+
+Hotel-keepers, 280, 281.
+
+Hotels, 247-250.
+
+Household duties, training for, 21.
+
+Household worship, 328.
+
+Hyaku nin isshu, "Poems of a Hundred Poets," the name of a game, 26.
+
+
+Inkyo, a place of retirement, the home of a person who has retired from
+active life, 136.
+
+Instruction, in etiquette, 46;
+  in flower arranging, 42;
+  in music, 41, 431;
+  in painting, 47, 432;
+  in reading and writing, 38;
+  in tea ceremony, 44.
+
+Inu, a dog, 250.
+
+Isé, 231.
+
+Iwafuji, 210-213.
+
+Iwakura, Prince, 157.
+
+Iya, a child's word, denoting dislike or negation, 16.
+
+Iyémitsŭ, 171, 172.
+
+Iyéyasŭ, 169.
+
+
+Japan-China war, 458-462.
+
+Japanese language, 16, 40, 179.
+
+Japanese literature, 147-150.
+
+Jimmu Tenno, 138.
+
+Jin, benevolence, 415.
+
+Jingo Kōgō, 139-143, 147.
+
+Jinrikisha, a light carriage drawn by one or more men, and which will
+hold one or two persons, 26, 70, 92, 268, 272, 320, 321.
+
+Jinrikisha man, 26, 62, 69, 92, 108, 270, 279, 299, 316, 319-324, 473.
+
+Jishi, mercy, 415.
+
+Jōrō, a prostitute, 289-292, 406-411.
+
+Jōroya, a house of prostitution, 290-292, 406-411.
+
+
+Kaibara's "Great Learning of Women," 387, 389, 391.
+
+Kakémono, a hanging scroll, 44, 147, 238.
+
+Kaméido, 296.
+
+Kami-dana, "god-shelf," the household shrine used by Shintō worshippers,
+328.
+
+Kana, Japanese phonetic characters, 40 _note_, 430.
+
+Katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish, 5.
+
+Kimono, a long gown with wide sleeves and open in front, worn by
+Japanese of all classes, 7, 94, 188, 192, 287.
+
+Kisses, 36.
+
+Knees, flexibility of, 9.
+
+Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or small fireplace in the floor,
+over which a wooden frame is set, and the whole covered by a quilt, 33.
+
+Koto, a musical instrument, 42.
+
+Kugé, the court nobility, 155, 170.
+
+Kura, a fire-proof storehouse, 147, 171, 173.
+
+Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of any kind, used as synonymous with
+jinrikisha.
+
+Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuruma. _See_ Jinrikisha man.
+
+Kurushima, 203.
+
+Kyōtō, 156, 171, 240, 241.
+
+
+Ladies, court, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  of daimiōs' families, 175-180, 182-184.
+
+Loyalty, 33, 75, 197, 206-208, 217, 302-304.
+
+
+Mam ma, a baby's word for rice or food, 16.
+
+Mamushi, a poisonous snake, 467, 468.
+
+Manners of children, 18.
+
+Manzai, exorcists who drive devils out of the houses at New Year's time,
+357.
+
+Marriage, 57-83;
+  ceremony, 61, 63, 435, 436;
+  feast, 63;
+  festivities after, 63, 64, 437;
+  guests, 63;
+  presents, 62, 435;
+  registration, 65;
+  to yōshi, 104;
+  trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Marumagé, a style of arranging the hair of married ladies, 119.
+
+Matsuri, a festival, usually in honor of some god, 274-278, 366-370.
+
+Matsuri, Shobu, feast of flags, 363, 364.
+
+Méiji (Enlightened Rule), the name of the era that began with the
+accession of the present Emperor in 1868, 149.
+
+Mékaké, a concubine, 111-114.
+
+Men, old, dependence of, 133;
+  amusements of, 136.
+
+Merchants, 262-269, 469.
+
+Military service of women, 188-190, 208, 223.
+
+Missionary schools, 56.
+
+Miya mairi, the presentation of the child at the temple when it is a
+month old. The term is also used to describe the visits to the temple at
+the ages of three, five, and seven, 3-6, 425-427.
+
+Mochi, a kind of rice dumpling, 4, 24, 25, 65, 352, 353.
+
+Momotaro, 33.
+
+Mon, a family crest, 366.
+
+Montsuki, a kimono bearing the crest of the wearer, 457.
+
+Morality, standards of, 76.
+
+Mother, her relation to her children, 99-102.
+
+Mother-in-law, 84, 87;
+  O Kiku's, 74.
+
+Moving, 335-337.
+
+Mukōjima, 191, 295.
+
+Music, 41, 42, 430-432.
+
+
+Names, 3, 423.
+
+Nara, 247.
+
+Né San. _See_ Ané San.
+
+New Year, preparation for, 349-356;
+  festival of, 25-27, 356-358.
+
+Nikkō, 231, 245.
+
+No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293.
+
+Norimono, a palanquin, 30.
+
+Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually folded in colored paper, given with
+a present for good luck, 2.
+
+Nurses, trained, 398.
+
+Nursing the sick, 101.
+
+
+O, an honorific used before many nouns, and before most names of women,
+20.
+
+O Bā San, grandmother, 124.
+
+O Bă San, aunt, 124.
+
+Obi, a girdle or sash, 60, 435.
+
+O Bon, the feast of the dead, 358-362.
+
+Occupations, of the blind, 42;
+  of the court, 143-150;
+  of the daimiōs' ladies, 175-180;
+  of the Empress, 156-160;
+  of old people, 120-122, 124-128, 136;
+  of samurai women, 223, 224;
+  of servants, 299, 304, 306, 308-315, 318;
+  of women, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  of young girls, 21-34, 38-47.
+
+O Haru, 211-213.
+
+Oishi, 198, 214.
+
+Oji, 296.
+
+O Jō Sama, young lady, 20.
+
+O kaeri, "Honorable return," a greeting shouted by the attendant upon
+the master's or mistress's return to the house, 100, 315.
+
+O Kaio, 324-326.
+
+O Kiku's marriage and divorce, 73, 74.
+
+Okuma, Count, 203;
+  his speech on education, 382.
+
+Old age, privileges of, 120, 122, 123;
+  provision for, 134.
+
+Old men, 133, 136.
+
+O miyagé, a present given on returning from a journey or pleasure
+excursion, 274.
+
+Oni, a devil or goblin, 33, 466.
+
+Onoyé, 210, 213.
+
+
+Palace, new, 151-153.
+
+Parents, duties to, 134;
+  respect for, 133;
+  disadvantages in Japanese system, 445.
+
+Parents-in-law, 84, 87.
+
+Peasant women, 108, 240-261.
+
+Peasantry, 228-240.
+
+Philanthropic efforts, 415-417, 418-421.
+
+Physical culture in schools, 433, 453-456.
+
+Physicians' fees, 204.
+
+Pilgrims, 241, 242.
+
+Pillow, 89.
+
+Pleasure excursions, 99.
+
+"Poems of a hundred poets," 26.
+
+Poetry, 26, 148-150.
+
+Presents, 96;
+  after a wedding, 65;
+  at betrothal, 60, 435;
+  at miya mairi, 4;
+  at New Year's, 353-355;
+  at O Bon, 358;
+  at weddings, 62;
+  how wrapped, 2;
+  in honor of a birth, 1;
+  of eggs, 2, 5;
+  of money, 204, 205;
+  on returning from a journey, 274;
+  to servants, 311, 315.
+
+Prisoners' Home in Tōkyō, 413.
+
+Prostitutes. _See_ Jōrō.
+
+Prostitution, houses of. _See_ Jōroya.
+
+Purity of Japanese women, 216-219.
+
+
+Reading of women, 385-387.
+
+Red Cross Society, 398, 416.
+
+Religion of peasantry, 464-466.
+
+Retirement from business, 133.
+
+Retirement of Emperors, 134.
+
+Revenge, 198, 210-214.
+
+Revolution of 1868, 76, 221.
+
+Rice, red bean, 3, 5, 65.
+
+Rin, one tenth of a sen, or about one half mill, 240.
+
+Rōnin, a samurai who had lost his master and owed no allegiance to any
+daimiō, 198, 213.
+
+
+Sada, Princess, 449-453.
+
+Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, 98.
+
+Saké, wine made from rice, 22, 63, 136, 296;
+  white, 29.
+
+Salvation Army's attack on jōroya, 408-411.
+
+Sama, or San, an honorific placed after names, equivalent to Mr., Mrs.,
+or Miss, 20, 73, 124, 136, 232, 283, 284, 304.
+
+Samisen, a musical instrument, 42, 127, 277, 286.
+
+Samurai, the military class, 42, 75, 76, 105, 169, 174, 175, 180,
+196-227, 232, 263, 302, 303, 307, 319;
+  character of, 197-207.
+
+Samurai girls in school, 226.
+
+Samurai women, character of, 207-223, 458-460;
+  present work, 223-327.
+
+Satsuma rebellion, 222.
+
+School system, 50, 378-381;
+  object of, 379;
+  statistics of, 380.
+
+School, Girls', for Higher English, 383-385;
+  Mr. Naruse's Female University, 381-383.
+
+Schools, missionary, 56.
+
+Self-possession of Japanese girls, 47.
+
+Self-sacrifice, 214-219.
+
+Sen, one hundredth part of a yen, value about five mills, 240, 273, 298.
+
+Servants, characteristics of, 209-302;
+  duties of, 302-315;
+  in employ of foreigners, 299-302;
+  number employed, 310, 311;
+  position of, 302-310;
+  wages, 311.
+
+Sewing, 23, 94.
+
+Shirōzaké, a sweet white saké used at the feast of dolls, 427.
+
+Shogi, Japanese chess, 136.
+
+Shōgun, or Tycoon, the Viceroy or so-called temporal ruler of Japan
+under the feudal system, 155, 169, 171, 173, 176, 185, 186, 191, 194,
+197, 208, 224, 231-234, 292;
+  daughter of, 176, 194.
+
+Shōgunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222.
+
+Shoji, sliding windows covered with white paper, 23, 71.
+
+Shopping, 264-268.
+
+Sho-séi, a student, 308.
+
+Silk mosaic, 95, 192.
+
+Silkworms, 95, 246.
+
+Soba, a kind of macaroni made of buckwheat, 336.
+
+Soroban, an abacus, 266-268.
+
+Sumida River, 173, 295.
+
+
+Tabi, a mitten-like sock, 13.
+
+Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or tabi, 16.
+
+Taiko Sama. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Tea, 91, 92;
+  ceremonial, 44, 136, 176, 432.
+
+Tea-gardens, 247.
+
+Tea-houses, 250-255.
+
+Teachers, pay of, 204;
+  women as, 398.
+
+Teaching. _See_ Instruction.
+
+Teeth, blackened after marriage, 63.
+
+Temple, 4, 120, 129, 240.
+
+Tengu, a monster in Japanese folklore, 466, 468.
+
+Theatre, 33, 99, 292-294.
+
+Titles used in families, 20.
+
+Toes, prehensile, 15.
+
+Toilet apparatus, 30.
+
+Tōkaidō, 241.
+
+Tokonoma, the raised alcove in a Japanese room, 44.
+
+Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231.
+
+Tōkyō, 49, 69-71, 108, 115.
+
+Tōkyō Mail, 231.
+
+Tombs, 98.
+
+Toyotomi Hidéyoshi, 232.
+
+Training-schools for nurses, 158, 398.
+
+Trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Tsuda, Miss Umé, viii, 458.
+
+
+Utsunomiya, 70, 71.
+
+Uyéno Park, 296.
+
+
+Virtue, Japanese and Western ideas of, 215-219.
+
+Visits, after marriage, 63;
+  in honor of a birth, 1, 2;
+  New Year's, 25;
+  to a house of mourning, 340;
+  to parents, 98;
+  to tombs, 98, 359.
+
+Voice in singing, 430-432.
+
+
+Wakamatsu, 208, 222, 457.
+
+Wedding. _See_ Marriage.
+
+Widows, childless, 123.
+
+Wife, childless, 102;
+  duties of, 85-99;
+  in great houses, 92;
+  relation to husband, 84;
+  relation to parents-in-law, 84;
+  social relations, 91.
+
+Woman question, new feeling about, 371-373.
+
+Women, general reading of, 386;
+  in the city, 279-298;
+  new openings for, 397-402;
+  occupations of, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  position of, 17-22, 35, 36, 57, 65-68, 76-88, 90, 91, 93, 99-118,
+  120-124, 132, 133, 139, 143, 145, 146, 148, 168, 189, 190, 208,
+  216-219, 223-227, 242-247, 260, 261, 279, 292, 298, 306, 318, 371-378,
+  438-440;
+  property rights of, 374-378;
+  publications for, 385-391;
+  purity of, 216-219;
+  the new woman in old surroundings, 392-397.
+
+Women, old, appearance of, 119;
+  examples of, 124, 126-129, 467-469;
+  in Japanese pictures, 132.
+
+Written language, proposed reforms in, 430.
+
+
+Yamato Daké, 215.
+
+Yasaku, 324;
+  marriage and divorce of, 69-73.
+
+Yasé, 243, 244.
+
+Yashiki, a daimiō's mansion and grounds, 169, 171, 173, 311, 313.
+
+Yedo. _See_ Tōkyō.
+
+Yōshi, an adopted son, 104.
+
+Yoshiwara, a district in Tōkyō given over to disreputable houses, 409.
+
+
+Zodiac, Chinese signs of the, 331.
+
+Zori, a straw sandal, 13.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Except where index entries and the body of the text did not match,
+irregularities in hyphenation (e.g. kwankoba and kwan-ko-ba), italics,
+and spellings (e.g. vendors and venders) have not been changed. Except
+where noted below, inconsistent accents (e.g. jōroya vs. jōrōya) have
+been retained.
+
+The following corrections and changes were made:
+
+p. 120: marumage to marumagé (The _marumagé_, the style of headdress of
+married ladies)
+
+p. 175: daimios' to daimiōs' (and daimiōs' houses)
+
+p. 351: kakemonos to kakémonos (the kakémonos and curios)
+
+p. 383: Meiji to Méiji (thirty-fourth year of Méiji)
+
+p. 427: miyage to miyagé (the _o miyagé_ to be purchased)
+
+p. 428: shirozaké to shirōzaké (The _shirōzaké_ (white _saké_))
+
+p. 429: accents added to Shōguns, Shōgun's, and Shōgunate
+
+p. 437: oufit to outfit (But this outfit)
+
+p. 440: heimin to héimin (_héimin_, or plebeian)
+
+p. 473: Bé-bé to Bé bé (Index entry)
+
+p. 475: Index entry for "Girlhood, 17-34." added (Index entry
+"Childhood. _See_ Girlhood." originally pointed to non-existent entry)
+
+p. 475: Iyemitsŭ to Iyémitsŭ (Index entry)
+
+p. 475: Iyeyasŭ to Iyéyasŭ (Index entry)
+
+p. 476: fireproof to fire-proof (Index: Kura, a fire-proof storehouse)
+
+p. 476: Jo to Jō (Index: O Jō Sama, young lady)
+
+p. 477: Onouyé to Onoyé (Index entry)
+
+p. 478: folk-lore to folklore (Index: Tengu, a monster in Japanese
+folklore)]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
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diff --git a/32449-0.zip b/32449-0.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Japanese Girls and Women
+       Revised and Enlarged Edition
+
+Author: Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, S.D., and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+For the Latin-1 version of this e-book, letters with a macron over them
+have been represented as [=o], and letters with a breve as [)u].
+
+Page numbers from the original book have been added to asterisks that
+indicate notes in the Appendix (e.g. [*3]) in order to make it easier to
+match them to their corresponding notes. Page 61 has two notes: [*61a]
+and [*61b]. Footnotes are in the same format, without the asterisks
+(e.g. [1], [2])
+
+Please see the end of this book for more detailed notes on the text.]
+
+
+
+
+By Alice M. Bacon
+
+
+IN THE LAND OF THE GODS. 12mo, $1.50.
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside Library for Young
+People. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+_Holiday Edition._ With 12 full-page Illustrations in color and 43
+outline drawings by Japanese artists. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.
+
+A JAPANESE INTERIOR. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside School Library. 16mo, 60
+cents, _net_.
+
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+  JAPANESE GIRLS AND
+  WOMEN
+
+  BY
+
+  ALICE MABEL BACON
+
+  _REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION_
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+
+  Copyright, 1891, 1902,
+  BY ALICE MABEL BACON.
+
+  _All rights reserved._
+
+
+  To
+
+  STEMATZ, THE MARCHIONESS OYAMA,
+
+  IN THE NAME OF OUR GIRLHOOD'S FRIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND
+  UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPARATIONS OF OUR
+  MATURER YEARS,
+
+  This Volume
+
+  _IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                              PAGE
+
+     I. CHILDHOOD                         1
+
+    II. EDUCATION                        37
+
+   III. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE             57
+
+    IV. WIFE AND MOTHER                  84
+
+     V. OLD AGE                         119
+
+    VI. COURT LIFE                      138
+
+   VII. LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI      169
+
+  VIII. SAMURAI WOMEN                   196
+
+    IX. PEASANT WOMEN                   228
+
+     X. LIFE IN THE CITIES              262
+
+    XI. DOMESTIC SERVICE                299
+
+   XII. WITHIN THE HOME                 327
+
+  XIII. TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS           371
+
+        APPENDIX                        423
+
+        INDEX                           473
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+In offering a revised edition of a book which has been before the public
+for more than ten years, there is little to say that has not been said
+in the original Preface. The work as published before, however, was
+always, to its author's mind, unfinished, for the reason that a chapter
+on household customs, which was necessary for the completion of the
+plan, had to be omitted because it could not be written in America.
+
+This defect has now been remedied, and the chapter "Within the Home"
+contains the supplementary matter necessary to complete the picture of a
+Japanese woman's life. In addition to this a thorough revision has been
+made of the whole book, and the subjects discussed in each chapter have
+been brought up to date by means of notes in an Appendix. The reader
+will find these notes referred to by asterisks in the text.
+
+Finally, a second supplementary chapter has been added, in which an
+effort has been made to analyze present conditions. From its nature,
+this chapter is only a rapid survey of the progress of ten years. It is
+not easy to write with judgment of conditions actually present. A little
+perspective is necessary to make sure that one sees things in their
+proper proportions. It is therefore with some hesitation that I offer to
+the public the result of two years' experience of the present state of
+affairs. If subsequent events show that my observation has been
+incorrect, I can only say that what I have written has been the
+"Thing-as-I-see-It," and does not lay claim to being the
+"Thing-as-It-is."
+
+In closing, I would thank once more the friends whose names appear in
+the previous Preface, and would add to their number the names of Mr. H.
+Sakurai and Mr. and Mrs. Seijiro Saito, who have rendered me valuable
+aid in gathering material.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,
+   _November, 1902_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+It seems necessary for a new author to give some excuse for her boldness
+in offering to the public another volume upon a subject already so well
+written up as Japan. In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey,
+Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner can a woman hope to enter? This
+is the question that will be asked, and that accordingly the author must
+answer.
+
+While Japan as a whole has been closely studied, and while much and
+varied information has been gathered about the country and its people,
+one half of the population has been left entirely unnoticed, passed over
+with brief mention, or altogether misunderstood. It is of this neglected
+half that I have written, in the hope that the whole fabric of Japanese
+social life will be better comprehended when the women of the country,
+and so the homes that they make, are better known and understood.
+
+The reason why Japanese home-life is so little understood by foreigners,
+even by those who have lived long in Japan, is that the Japanese, under
+an appearance of frankness and candor, hides an impenetrable reserve in
+regard to all those personal concerns which he believes are not in the
+remotest degree the concerns of his foreign guest. Only life in the home
+itself can show what a Japanese home may be; and only by intimate
+association--such as no foreign man can ever hope to gain--with the
+Japanese ladies themselves can much be learned of the thoughts and daily
+lives of the best Japanese women.
+
+I have been peculiarly fortunate in having enjoyed the privilege of long
+and intimate friendship with a number of Japanese ladies, who have
+spoken with me as freely, and shown the details of their lives to me as
+openly, as if bound by closest ties of kindred. Through them, and only
+through them, I have been enabled to study life from the point of view
+of the refined and intelligent Japanese women, and have found the study
+so interesting and instructive that I have felt impelled to offer to
+others some part of what I have received through the aid of these
+friends. I have, moreover, been encouraged in my work by reading, when
+it was already more than half completed, the following words from
+Griffis's "Mikado's Empire:"--
+
+"The whole question of the position of Japanese women--in history,
+social life, education, employments, authorship, art, marriage,
+concubinage, prostitution, benevolent labor, the ideals of literature,
+popular superstitions, etc.--discloses such a wide and fascinating field
+of inquiry that I wonder no one has as yet entered it."
+
+In closing, I should say that this work is by no means entirely my own.
+It is, in the first place, largely the result of the interchange of
+thought through many and long conversations with Japanese ladies upon
+the topics herein treated. It has also been carefully revised and
+criticised; and many valuable additions have been made to it by Miss Um�
+Tsuda, teacher of English in the Peeresses' School in T[=o]ky[=o], and
+an old and intimate friend. Miss Tsuda is at present in this country, on
+a two years' leave, for purposes of further study. She has, amid her
+many duties as a student at Bryn Mawr College, given much time and
+thought to this work; and a large part of whatever value it may possess
+is due to her.
+
+I would say, too, that in the verification of dates, names, and
+historical incidents, I have relied altogether upon Griffis's "Mikado's
+Empire" and Rein's "Japan," knowing that those two authors represent the
+best that has been done by foreigners in the field of Japanese history.
+
+This work also owes much, not only to the suggestions and historical
+aids contained in the "Mikado's Empire," but to Mr. Griffis himself,
+for his careful reading of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and
+suggestions. No greater encouragement can be given to an inexperienced
+author than the helpful criticism of one who has already distinguished
+himself in the same field of labor; and for just such friendly aid my
+warmest thanks are due to Mr. Griffis.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+HAMPTON, VA., _February, 1891_.
+
+
+
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+
+To the Japanese baby the beginning of life is not very different from
+its beginning to babies in the Western world. Its birth, whether it be
+girl or boy, is the cause of much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry on
+the family name and inherit titles and estates, they are considered of
+more importance, but many parents' hearts are made glad by the addition
+of a daughter to the family circle.
+
+As soon as the event takes place, a special messenger is dispatched to
+notify relatives and intimate friends, while formal letters of
+announcement are sent to those less closely related. All persons thus
+notified must make an early visit to the newcomer, in order to welcome
+it into the world, and must either take with them or send before them
+some present. Toys, pieces of cotton, silk, or cr�pe for the baby's
+dress are regarded as suitable; and everything must be accompanied by
+fish or eggs, for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they are neatly
+arranged in a covered box, which may contain thirty, forty, or even one
+hundred eggs.[1] The baby, especially if it be the first one in a
+family, receives many presents in the first few weeks of its life, and
+at a certain time proper acknowledgment must be made and return presents
+sent. This is done when the baby is about thirty days old.
+
+[1] All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white paper, although,
+except for funerals, this paper must have some writing on it, and must
+be tied with a peculiar red and white paper string, in which is inserted
+the _noshi_, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of colored
+paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of every present.
+
+Both baby and mother have a hard time of it for the first few weeks of
+its life. The baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed over, and talked
+to so much by the visitors that come in, that it must think this world a
+trying place. The mother, too, is denied the rest and quiet she needs,
+and wears herself out in the excitement of seeing her friends, and the
+physical exercise of going through, so far as possible, the ceremonious
+bows and salutations that etiquette prescribes.
+
+Before the seventh day the baby receives its name.[2] There is no
+especial ceremony connected with this, but the child's birth must be
+formally registered, together with its name, at the district office of
+registration, and the household keep holiday in honor of the event. A
+certain kind of rice, cooked with red beans, a festival dish denoting
+good fortune, is usually partaken of by the family on the seventh day.
+
+[2] A child is rarely given the name of a living member of the family,
+or of any friend. The father's name, slightly modified, is frequently
+given to a son, and those of ancestors long ago dead are sometimes used.
+One reason for this is probably the inconvenience of similar names in
+the same family, and middle names, as a way of avoiding this difficulty,
+are unknown. The father usually names the child, but some friend or
+patron of the family may be asked to do it. Names of beautiful objects
+in nature, such as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lotos, Gold, are commonly used
+for girls, while boys of the lower classes often rejoice in such
+appellations as Stone, Bear, Tiger, etc. To call a child after a person
+would not be considered any especial compliment.[*3]
+
+The next important event in the baby's life is the _miya mairi_, a
+ceremony which corresponds roughly with our christening. On the
+thirtieth day after birth,[*4] the baby is taken for its first visit to
+the temple. For this visit great preparations are made, and the baby is
+dressed in finest silk or cr�pe, gayly figured,--garments made
+especially for the occasion. Upon the dress appears in various places
+the crest of the family, as on all ceremonial dresses, whether for young
+or old, for every Japanese family has its crest. Thus arrayed, and
+accompanied by members of the family, the young baby is carried to one
+of the Shinto temples, and there placed under the protection of the
+patron deity of the temple. This god, chosen from a great number of
+Shinto deities, is supposed to become the special guardian of the child
+through life. Offerings are made to the god and to the priest, and a
+blessing is obtained; and the baby is thus formally placed under the
+care of a special deity. This ceremony over, there is usually an
+entertainment of some kind at the home of the parents, especially if the
+family be one of high rank. Friends are invited, and if there are any
+who have not as yet sent in presents, they may give them at this time.
+
+It is usually on this day that the family send to their friends some
+acknowledgment of the presents received. This sometimes consists of the
+red bean rice, such as is prepared for the seventh day celebration, and
+sometimes of cakes of _mochi_, or rice paste. A letter of thanks usually
+accompanies the return present. If rice is sent, it is put in a handsome
+lacquered box, the box placed on a lacquered tray, and the whole covered
+with a square of cr�pe or silk, richly decorated. The box, the tray, and
+the cover are of course returned, and, curious to say, the box must be
+returned unwashed, as it would be very unlucky to send it back clean. A
+piece of Japanese paper must be slipped into the box after its contents
+have been removed, and box and tray must be given back, just as they
+are, to the messenger. Sometimes a box of eggs, or a peculiar kind of
+dried fish, called _katsuobushi_, is sent with this present, when it is
+desired to make an especially handsome return. When as many as fifty or
+one hundred return presents of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight
+tax on the mistress of the house to see that no one is forgotten, and
+that all is properly done. As special messengers are sent, a number of
+men are sometimes kept busy for two or three days.
+
+After all these festivities, a quiet, undisturbed life begins for the
+baby,--a life which is neither unpleasant nor unhealthful. It is not
+jolted, rocked, or trotted to sleep; it is allowed to cry if it chooses,
+without anybody's supposing that the world will come to an end because
+of its crying; and its dress is loose and easily put on, so that very
+little time is spent in the tiresome process of dressing and undressing.
+Under these conditions the baby thrives and grows strong and fat; learns
+to take life with some philosophy, even at a very early age; and is not
+subject to fits of hysterical or passionate crying, brought on by much
+jolting or trotting, or by the wearisome process of pinning, buttoning,
+tying of strings, and thrusting of arms into tight sleeves.
+
+The Japanese baby's dress, though not as pretty as that of our babies,
+is in many ways much more sensible. It consists of as many wide-sleeved,
+straight, silk, cotton, or flannel garments as the season of the year
+may require,--all cut after nearly the same pattern, and that pattern
+the same in shape as the grown-up _kimono_. These garments are fitted,
+one inside of the other, before they are put on; then they are laid down
+on the floor and the baby is laid into them; a soft belt, attached to
+the outer garment or dress, is tied around the waist, and the baby is
+dressed without a shriek or a wail, as simply and easily as possible.
+The baby's dresses, like those of our babies, are made long enough to
+cover the little bare feet; and the sleeves cover the hands as well, so
+preventing the unmerciful scratching that most babies give to their
+faces, as well as keeping the hands warm and dry.
+
+Babies of the lower classes, within a few weeks after birth, are carried
+about tied upon the back of some member of the family, frequently an
+older sister or brother, who is sometimes not more than five or six
+years old. The poorer the family, the earlier is the young baby thus put
+on some one's back, and one frequently sees babies not more than a month
+old, with bobbing heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands of cloth
+to the backs of older brothers or sisters, and living in the streets in
+all weathers. When it is cold, the sister's _haori_, or coat, serves as
+an extra covering for the baby as well; and when the sun is hot, the
+sister's parasol keeps off its rays from the bobbing bald head.[*8]
+Living in public, as the Japanese babies do, they soon acquire an
+intelligent, interested look, and seem to enjoy the games of the elder
+children, upon whose backs they are carried, as much as the players
+themselves. Babies of the middle classes do not live in public in this
+way, but ride about upon the backs of their nurses until they are old
+enough to toddle by themselves, and they are not so often seen in the
+streets; as few but the poorest Japanese, even in the large cities, are
+unable to have a pleasant bit of garden in which the children can play
+and take the air. The children of the richest families, the nobility,
+and the imperial family, are never carried about in this way. The young
+child is borne in the arms of an attendant, within doors and without;
+but as this requires the care of some one constantly, and prevents the
+nurse from doing anything but care for the child, only the richest can
+afford this luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a woman is able to
+care for a child, and yet go on with her household labors, and baby
+watches over mother's or nurse's shoulder, between naps taken at all
+hours, the processes of drawing water, washing and cooking rice, and all
+the varied work of the house. Imperial babies are held in the arms of
+some one night and day, from the moment of birth until they have learned
+to walk, a custom which seems to render the lot of the high-born infant
+less comfortable in some ways than that of the plebeian child.
+
+The flexibility of the knees, which is required for comfort in the
+Japanese method of sitting, is gained in very early youth by the habit
+of setting a baby down with its knees bent under it, instead of with its
+legs out straight before it, as seems to us the natural way. To the
+Japanese, the normal way for a baby to sit is with its knees bent under
+it, and so, at a very early age, the muscles and tendons of the knees
+are accustomed to what seems to us a most unnatural and uncomfortable
+posture.[3]
+
+[3] That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really unnatural and
+unhygienic, is shown by recent measurements taken by the surgeons of the
+Japanese army. These measurements prove that the small stature of the
+Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower limbs, which are
+out of proportion to the rest of the body. The sitting from early
+childhood upon the legs bent at the knee, arrests the development of
+that part of the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole
+nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the peasants, who stand
+and walk so much as to secure proper development of the legs; but among
+merchants, literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most
+plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, as a
+necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would doubtless in time alter
+the physique of the Japanese as a people.
+
+Among the lower classes, where there are few bathing facilities in the
+houses, babies of a few weeks old are often taken to the public bath
+house and put into the hot bath. These Japanese baths are usually heated
+to a temperature of a hundred to a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit,--a
+temperature that most foreigners visiting Japan find almost unbearable.
+To a baby's delicate skin, the first bath or two is usually a severe
+trial, but it soon becomes accustomed to the high temperature, and takes
+its bath, as it does everything else, placidly and in public. Born into
+a country where cow's milk is never used, the Japanese baby is wholly
+dependent upon its mother for milk,[4] and is not weaned entirely until
+it reaches the age of three or four years, and is able to live upon the
+ordinary food of the class to which it belongs. There is no intermediate
+stage of bread and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap of some kind;
+for the all-important factor--milk--is absent from the bill of fare, in
+a land where there is neither "milk for babes" nor "strong meat for them
+that are full of age."
+
+[4] Sometimes, in the old days, rice water was given to babies instead
+of milk, but it was nearly impossible to bring up a baby on this alone.
+Now both fresh and condensed milk are used, where the mother's milk is
+insufficient, but only in those parts of Japan where the foreign
+influence is felt.[*11]
+
+In consequence, partly, of the lack of proper nourishment after the
+child is too old to live wholly upon its mother's milk, and partly,
+perhaps, because of the poor food that the mothers, even of the higher
+classes, live upon, many babies in Japan are afflicted with disagreeable
+skin troubles, especially of the scalp and face,--troubles which usually
+disappear as soon as the child becomes accustomed to the regular food of
+the adult. Another consequence, as I imagine, of the lack of proper
+food at the teething period, is the early loss of the child's first
+teeth, which usually turn black and decay some time before the second
+teeth begin to show themselves. With the exception of these two
+troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy, hearty, and happy to an
+extraordinary degree, and show that most of the conditions of their
+lives are wholesome. The constant out-of-door life and the healthful
+dress serve to make up in considerable measure for the poor food, and
+the Japanese baby, though small after the manner of the race, is usually
+plump, and of firm, hard flesh. One striking characteristic of the
+Japanese baby is, that at a very early age it learns to cling like a
+kitten to the back of whoever carries it, so that it is really difficult
+to drop it through carelessness, for the baby looks out for its own
+safety like a young monkey. The straps that tie it to the back are
+sufficient for safety; but the baby, from the age of one month, is
+dependent upon its own exertions to secure a comfortable position, and
+it soon learns to ride its bearer with considerable skill, instead of
+being merely a bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one who has ever
+handled a Japanese baby can testify to the amount of intelligence shown
+in this direction at a very early age; and this clinging with arms and
+legs is, perhaps, a valuable part of the training which gives to the
+whole nation the peculiar quickness of motion and hardness of muscle
+that characterize them from childhood. It is the agility and muscular
+quality that belong to wild animals, that we see something of in the
+Indian, but to a more marked degree in the Japanese, especially of the
+lower classes.
+
+The Japanese baby's first lessons in walking are taken under favorable
+circumstances. With feet comfortably shod in the soft _tabi_, or
+mitten-like sock, babies can tumble about as they like, with no bump nor
+bruise, upon the soft matted floors of the dwelling houses. There is no
+furniture to fall against, and nothing about the room to render falling
+a thing to be feared. After learning the art of walking in the house,
+the baby's first attempts out of doors are hampered by the _zori_ or
+_g�ta_,--a light straw sandal or small wooden clog attached to the foot
+by a strap passing between the toes. At the very beginning the sandal
+or clog is tied to the baby's foot by bits of string fastened around the
+ankle, but this provision for security is soon discarded, and the baby
+patters along like the grown people, holding on the _g�ta_ by the strap
+passing between the toes. This somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient foot
+gear must cause many falls at first, but baby's experience in the art of
+balancing upon people's backs now aids in this new art of balancing upon
+the little wooden clogs. Babies of two or three trot about quite
+comfortably in _g�ta_ that seem to give most insecure footing, and older
+children run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all manner of active games
+upon heavy clogs that would wrench our ankles and toes out of all
+possibility of usefulness. This foot gear, while producing an awkward,
+shuffling gait, has certain advantages over our own, especially for
+children whose feet are growing rapidly. The _g�ta_, even if outgrown,
+can never cramp the toes nor compress the ankles. If the foot is too
+long for the clog the heel laps over behind, but the toes do not suffer,
+and the use of the _g�ta_ strengthens the ankles by affording no
+artificial aid or support, and giving to all the muscles of foot and
+leg free play, with the foot in a natural position. The toes of the
+Japanese retain their prehensile qualities to a surprising degree, and
+are used, not only for grasping the foot gear, but among mechanics
+almost like two supplementary hands, to aid in holding the thing worked
+upon. Each toe knows its work and does it, and they are not reduced to
+the dull uniformity of motion that characterizes the toes of a
+leather-shod nation.
+
+The distinction between the dress of the boy and the girl, that one
+notices from childhood, begins in babyhood. A very young baby wears red
+and yellow, but soon the boy is dressed in sober colors,--blues, grays,
+greens, and browns; while the little girl still wears the most gorgeous
+of colors and the largest of patterns in her garments, red being the
+predominant hue. The sex, even of a young baby, may be distinguished by
+the color of its clothing. White, the garb of mourning in Japan, is
+never used for children, but the minutest babies are dressed in
+bright-colored garments, and of the same materials--wadded cotton, silk,
+or cr�pe--as those worn by adults of their social grade. As these
+dresses are not as easily washed as our own cambric and flannel baby
+clothes, there is a loss among the poorer classes in the matter of
+cleanliness; and the gorgeous soiled gowns are not as attractive as the
+more washable white garments in which our babies are dressed. For model
+clothing for a baby, I would suggest a combination of the Japanese style
+with the foreign, easily washed materials,--a combination that I have
+seen used in their own families by Japanese ladies educated abroad, and
+one in which the objections to the Japanese style of dress are entirely
+obviated.
+
+The Japanese baby begins to practice the accomplishment of talking at a
+very early age, for its native language is singularly happy in easy
+expressions for children; and little babies will be heard chattering
+away in soft, easily spoken words long before they are able to venture
+alone from their perches on their mothers' or nurses' backs. A few
+simple words express much, and cover all wants. _Iya_ expresses
+discontent or dislike of any kind, and is also used for "no"; _mam ma_
+means food; _b� b�_ is the dress; _ta ta_ is the sock, or house shoe,
+etc. We find many of the same sounds as in the baby language of
+English, with meanings totally different. The baby is not troubled with
+difficult grammatical changes, for the Japanese language has few
+inflections; and it is too young to be puzzled with the intricacies of
+the various expressions denoting different degrees of politeness, which
+are the snare and the despair of the foreigner studying Japanese.
+
+As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening
+before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about closely by the
+proprieties, and one in which, from babyhood to old age, she must expect
+to be always under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position
+will be an honorable and respected one only as she learns in her youth
+the lesson of cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal
+cleanliness and neatness. Her duties must be always either within the
+house, or, if she belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no
+career or vocation open to her: she must be dependent always upon either
+father, husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained, not
+by cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the
+self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to an even greater
+degree than of the men. This self-control must consist, not simply in
+the concealment of all the outward signs of any disagreeable
+emotion,--whether of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a
+cheerful smile and agreeable manner under even the most distressing of
+circumstances. The duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls
+of the family from the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson,
+and is expatiated upon at all times by their elders. The little girl
+must sink herself entirely, must give up always to others, must never
+show emotions except such as will be pleasing to those about her: this
+is the secret of true politeness, and must be mastered if the woman
+wishes to be well thought of and to lead a happy life. The effect of
+this teaching is seen in the attractive but dignified manners of the
+Japanese women, and even of the very little girls. They are not forward
+nor pushing, neither are they awkwardly bashful; there is no
+self-consciousness, neither is there any lack of _savoir faire_; a
+childlike simplicity is united with a womanly consideration for the
+comfort of those around them. A Japanese child seems to be the product
+of a more perfect civilization than our own, for it comes into the world
+with little of the savagery and barbarian bad manners that distinguish
+children in this country, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life
+do not seem to be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of
+good manners that will help to render it less obnoxious in polite
+society. How much of the politeness of the Japanese is the result of
+training, and how much is inherited from generations of civilized
+ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is, that babies
+are born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and
+that the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment that they receive from
+those about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the
+principle of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with
+very little difficulty the universally attractive manners of the people.
+One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that
+pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every
+member of the family. The grandfather and grandmother come first of all
+in everything,--no one at table must be helped before them in any case;
+after them come the father and mother; and lastly, the children
+according to their ages. A younger sister must always wait for the elder
+and pay her due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room
+before her. The wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the
+younger, are to be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be
+learned early by children. The difference in years may be slight, but
+the elder-born has the first right in all cases.
+
+Our little girl's place in the family is a pleasant one: she is the pet
+and plaything of father and elder brothers, and she is never saluted by
+any one in the family, except her parents, without the title of respect
+due to her position. If she is the eldest daughter, to the servants she
+is _O J[=o] Sama_, literally, young lady; to her own brothers and sisters,
+_N� San_, elder sister. Should she be one of the younger ones, her given
+name, preceded by the honorific _O_ and followed by _San_, meaning Miss,
+will be the name by which she will be called by younger brothers and
+sisters, and by the servants. As she passes from babyhood to girlhood,
+and from girlhood to womanhood, she is the object of much love and care
+and solicitude; but she does not grow up irresponsible or untrained to
+meet the duties which womanhood will surely bring to her. She must learn
+all the duties that fall upon the wife and mother of a Japanese
+household, as well as obtain the instruction in books and mathematics
+that is coming to be more and more a necessity for the women of Japan.
+She must take a certain responsibility in the household; must see that
+tea is made for the guests who may be received by her parents,--in all
+but the families of highest rank, must serve it herself. Indeed, it is
+quite the custom in families of the higher classes, should a guest, whom
+it is desired to receive with especial honor, dine at the house, to
+serve the meal, not with the family, but separately for the father and
+his visitor; and it is the duty of the wife or daughter, oftener the
+latter, to wait on them. This is in honor of the guest, not on account
+of the lack of servants, for there may be any number of them within
+call, or even in the back part of the room, ready to receive from the
+hands of the young girl what she has removed. She must, therefore, know
+the proper etiquette of the table, how to serve carefully and neatly,
+and, above all, have the skill to ply the _sak�_ bottle, so that the
+house may keep up its reputation for hospitality. Should guests arrive
+in the absence of her parents, she must receive and entertain them until
+the master or mistress of the house returns. She also feels a certain
+care about the behavior of the younger members of the family, especially
+in the absence of the parents. In these various ways she is trained for
+taking upon herself the cares of a household when the time comes. In all
+but the very wealthiest and most aristocratic families, the daughters of
+the house do a large part of the simple housework. In a house with no
+furniture, no carpets, no bric-�-brac, no mirrors, picture frames or
+glasses to be cared for, no stoves or furnaces, no windows to wash, a
+large part of the cooking to be done outside, and no latest styles to be
+imitated in clothing, the amount of work to be done by women is
+considerably diminished, but still there remains enough to take a good
+deal of time. Every morning there are the beds to be rolled up and
+stored away in the closet, the mosquito nets to be taken down, the rooms
+to be swept, dusted, and aired before breakfast. Besides this, there is
+the washing and polishing of the _engawa_, or piazza, which runs around
+the outside of a Japanese house between the _shoji_, or paper screens
+that serve as windows, and the _amado_, or sliding shutters, that are
+closed only at night, or during heavy, driving rains. Breakfast is to be
+cooked and served, dishes to be washed (in cold water); and then perhaps
+there is marketing to be done, either at shops outside or from the
+vendors of fish and vegetables who bring their huge baskets of
+provisions to the door; but after these duties are performed, it is
+possible to sit down quietly to the day's work of sewing, studying, or
+whatever else may suit the taste or necessities of the housewife. Of
+sewing there is always a good deal to be done, for many Japanese dresses
+must be taken to pieces whenever they are washed, and are turned, dyed,
+and made over again and again, so long as there is a shred of the
+original material left to work upon. There is washing, too, to be done,
+although neither with hot water nor soap; and in the place of ironing,
+the cotton garments, which are usually washed without ripping, must be
+hung up on a bamboo pole passed through the armholes, and pulled smooth
+and straight before they dry; and the silk, always ripped into breadths
+before washing, must be smoothed while wet upon a board which is set in
+the sun until the silk is dry.
+
+Then there are the every day dishes which our Japanese maiden must learn
+to prepare. The proper boiling of rice is in itself a study. The
+construction of the various soups which form the staple in the Japanese
+bill of fare; the preparation of _mochi_, a kind of rice dough, which is
+prepared at the New Year, or to send to friends on various festival
+occasions: these and many other branches of the culinary art must be
+mastered before the young girl is prepared to assume the cares of
+married life.
+
+But though the little girl's life is not without its duties and
+responsibilities, it is also not at all lacking in simple and innocent
+pleasures.[*24] First among the annual festivals, and bringing with it
+much mirth and frolic, comes the Feast of the New Year. At this time
+father, mother, and all older members of the family lay aside their work
+and their dignity, and join in the fun and sports that are
+characteristic of this season. Worries and anxieties are set aside with
+the close of the year, and the first beams of the New Year's sun bring
+in a season of unlimited joy for the children. For about one week the
+festival lasts, and the festal spirit remains through the whole month,
+prompting to fun and amusements of all kinds. From early morning until
+bedtime the children wear their prettiest clothes, in which they play
+without rebuke. Guests come and go, bringing congratulations to the
+family, and often gifts for all. The children's stock of toys is thus
+greatly increased, and the house overflows with the good things of the
+season, of which _mochi_, or cake made from rice dough, prepared always
+especially for this time, is one of the most important articles.
+
+The children are taken with their parents to make New Year's visits to
+their friends and to offer them congratulations, and much they enjoy
+this, as, dressed in their best, they ride from house to house in
+_jinrikishas_.[5]
+
+[5] _Jinrikisha_, or _kuruma_, a small, light carriage, usually with a
+broad top, which is drawn by a man. The _jinrikisha_ is the commonest of
+all vehicles now in use in Japan. _Jinrikisha_-man and _kurumaya_ are
+terms commonly used for the runner who draws the carriage.
+
+And then, during the long, happy evenings, the whole family, including
+even the old grandfather and grandmother, join in merry games; the
+servants, too, are invited to join the family party, and, without
+seeming forward or out of place, enter into the games with zest. One of
+the favorite games is "_Hyaku nin isshu_," literally "The poems of a
+hundred poets." It consists of two hundred cards, on each of which is
+printed either the first or last half of one of the hundred famous
+Japanese poems which give the name to the game. The poems are well known
+to all Japanese, of whatever sort or condition. All Japanese poems are
+short, containing only thirty-one syllables, and have a natural division
+into two parts. The one hundred cards containing the latter halves of
+the poems are dealt and laid out in rows, face upward, before the
+players. One person is appointed reader. To him are given the remaining
+hundred cards, and he reads the beginnings of the poems in whatever
+order they come from the shuffled pack. Skill in the game consists in
+remembering quickly the line following the one read, and rapidly finding
+the card on which it is written. Especially does the player watch his
+own cards, and if he finds there the end of the poem, the beginning of
+which has just been read, he must pick it up before any one sees it and
+lay it aside. If some one else spies the card first, he seizes it and
+gives to the careless player several cards from his own hand. Whoever
+first disposes of all his cards is the winner. The players usually
+arrange themselves in two lines down the middle of the room, and the two
+sides play against each other, the game not being ended until either one
+side or the other has disposed of all its cards. The game requires great
+quickness of thought and of motion, and is invaluable in giving to all
+young people an education in the classical poetry of their own nation,
+as well as being a source of great merriment and jollity among young and
+old.
+
+Scattered throughout the year are various flower festivals, when, often
+with her whole family, our little girl visits the famous gardens where
+the plum, the cherry, the chrysanthemum, the iris, or the azalea attain
+their greatest loveliness, and spends the day out of doors in �sthetic
+enjoyment of the beauties of nature supplemented by art. And then there
+is the feast most loved in the whole year, the Feast of Dolls, when on
+the third day of the third month the great fire-proof storehouse gives
+forth its treasures of dolls,--in an old family, many of them hundreds
+of years old,--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny
+furnishings in silver, lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme,
+arranged on red-covered shelves in the finest room of the house. Most
+prominent among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in
+antique court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered
+dais. Near them are the figures of the five court musicians in their
+robes of office, each with his instrument. Beside these dolls, which are
+always present and form the central figures at the feast, numerous
+others, more plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower
+shelves, and the array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on
+these occasions is something marvelous. It was my privilege to be
+present at the Feast of Dolls in the house of one of the _Tokugawa
+daimi[=o]s_, a house in which the old forms and ceremonies were strictly
+observed, and over which the wave of foreign innovation had passed so
+slightly that even the calendar still remained unchanged, and the feast
+took place upon the third day of the third month of the old Japanese
+year, instead of on the third day of March, which is the usual time for
+it now. At this house, where the dolls had been accumulating for
+hundreds of years, five or six broad, red-covered shelves, perhaps
+twenty feet long or more, were completely filled with them and with
+their belongings. The Emperor and Empress appeared again and again, as
+well as the five court musicians, and the tiny furnishings and utensils
+were wonderfully costly and beautiful. Before each Emperor and Empress
+was set an elegant lacquered table service,--tray, bowls, cups, _sak�_
+pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete; and in each utensil was placed
+the appropriate variety of food. The _sak�_ used on this occasion is a
+sweet, white liquor, brewed especially for this feast, as different from
+the ordinary _sak�_ as sweet cider is from the hard cider upon which a
+man may drink himself into a state of intoxication.[*30] Besides the
+table service, everything that an imperial doll can be expected to need
+or desire is placed upon the shelves. Lacquered _norimono_, or
+palanquins; lacquered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged black
+bulls,--these were the conveyances of the great in Old Japan, and these,
+in minute reproductions, are placed upon the red-covered shelves. Tiny
+silver and brass _hibachi_, or fire boxes, are there, with their
+accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets,--whole kitchens, with
+everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely
+made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus,--combs,
+mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows,
+for reddening the lips and whitening the face,--all these things are
+there to delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the
+opportunity to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are
+served sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family
+take pleasure in serving their imperial majesties; but when the feast
+ends, the dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and
+lodged in the fire-proof warehouse for another year.
+
+The Tokugawa collection, of which I have spoken, is remarkably full and
+costly, for it has been making for hundreds of years in one of the
+younger branches of a family which for two and a half centuries was
+possessed of almost imperial power, and lived in more than imperial
+luxury; but there are few households so poor that they do not from year
+to year accumulate a little store of toys wherewith to celebrate the
+feast, and, whether the toys are many or few, the feast is the event of
+the year in the lives of the little girls of Japan.[*31]
+
+Beside the regular feasts at stated seasons, our little girl has a great
+variety of toys and games, some belonging to particular seasons, some
+played at any time during the year. At the New Year the popular
+out-of-door games are battledoor and shuttlecock, and ball. There is no
+prettier sight, to my mind, than a group of little girls in their
+many-colored wide-sleeved dresses playing with battledoor or ball. The
+graceful, rhythmic motion of their bodies, the bright upturned eyes, the
+laughing faces, are set off to perfection by the coloring of their
+flowing drapery; and their agility on their high, lacquered clogs is a
+constant source of wonder and admiration to any one who has ever made an
+effort to walk upon the clumsy things. There are dolls, too, that are
+not relegated to the storehouse when the Feast of Dolls is ended, but
+who are the joy and comfort of their little mothers during the whole
+year; and at every _kwan-ko-ba_, or bazaar, an endless variety of games,
+puzzles, pictures to be cut out and glued together, and amusements of
+all kinds, may be purchased at extremely low rates. There is no dearth
+of games for our little girl, and many pleasant hours are spent in the
+household sitting room with games, or conundrums, or stories, or the
+simple girlish chatter that elicits constant laughter from sheer
+youthful merriment.
+
+As for fairy tales, so dear to the hearts of children in every country,
+the Japanese child has her full share. Often she listens, half asleep,
+while cuddling under the warm quilted cover of the _kotatsu_,[6] in the
+cold winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the old grandmother or
+nurse, who carries her away on the wings of imagination to the wonderful
+palace of the sea gods, or to the haunts of the terrible _oni_, monsters
+with red, distorted faces and fearful horns. Momotaro, the Peach Boy,
+with his wonderful feats in the conquest of the _oni_, is her hero,
+until he is supplanted by the more real ones of Japanese history.
+
+[6] _Kotatsu_, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fireplace in the
+floor, over which a wooden frame is set and the whole covered by a
+quilt. The family sit about it in cold weather with the quilt drawn up
+over the feet and knees.
+
+There are occasional all-day visits to the theatre, too, where, seated
+on the floor in a box, railed off from those adjoining, our little girl,
+in company with her mother and sisters, enjoys, though with paroxysms of
+horror and fear, the heroic historical plays which are now almost all
+that is left of the heroic old Japan. Here she catches the spirit of
+passionate loyalty that belonged to those days, forms her ideals of what
+a noble Japanese woman should be willing to do for parents or husband,
+and comes away taught, as she could be by no other teaching, what the
+spirit was that animated her ancestors,--what spirit must animate her,
+should she wish to be a worthy descendant of the women of old.
+
+Among these surroundings, with these duties and amusements, our little
+girl grows to womanhood. The unconscious and beautiful spirit of her
+childhood is not driven away at the dawn of womanhood by thoughts of
+beaux, of coming out in society, of a brief career of flirtation and
+conquest, and at the end as fine a marriage, either for love or money,
+as her imagination can picture. She takes no thought for these things
+herself, and her intercourse with young men, though free and
+unconstrained, has about it no grain of flirtation or romantic interest.
+When the time comes for her to marry, her father will have her meet some
+eligible young man, and both she and the young man will know, when they
+are brought together, what is the end in view, and will make up their
+minds about the matter. But until that time comes, the modest Japanese
+maiden carries on no flirtations, thinks little of men except as higher
+beings to be deferred to and waited on, and preserves the childlike
+innocence of manner, combined with a serene dignity under all
+circumstances, that is so noticeable a trait in the Japanese woman from
+childhood to old age.
+
+The Japanese woman is, under this discipline, a finished product at the
+age of sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet, and amiable, with great
+power of self-control, and a knowledge of what to do upon all occasions.
+The higher part of her nature is little developed; no great religious
+truths have lifted her soul above the world into a clearer and higher
+atmosphere; but as far as she goes, in regard to all the little things
+of daily life, she is bright, industrious, sweet-tempered, and
+attractive, and prepared to do well her duty, when that duty comes to
+her, as wife and mother and mistress of a household. The highest
+principle upon which she is taught to act is obedience, even to the
+point of violating all her finest feminine instincts, at the command of
+father or husband; and acting under that principle, she is capable of an
+entire self-abnegation such as few women of any race can achieve.
+
+With the close of her childhood, the happiest period in the life of a
+Japanese woman closes. The discipline that she has received so far,
+repressive and constant as it has often been, has been from kind and
+loving parents. She has freedom, to a certain degree, such as is unknown
+to any other country in Asia. In the home she is truly loved, often the
+pet and plaything of the household, though not receiving the caresses
+and words of endearment that children in America expect as a right, for
+love in Japan is undemonstrative.[7] But just at the time when her mind
+broadens, and the desire for knowledge and self-improvement develops,
+the restraints and checks upon her become more severe. Her sphere seems
+to grow narrower, difficulties one by one increase, and the young girl,
+who sees life before her as something broad and expansive, who looks to
+the future with expectant joy, may become, in a few years, the weary,
+disheartened woman.
+
+[7] Kisses are unknown, and regarded by conservative Japanese as an
+animal and disgusting way of expressing affection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+
+So far we have spoken only of the domestic training of a Japanese girl.
+That part of her education that she gains through teachers and schools
+must be the subject of a separate chapter. Japan differs from most
+Oriental countries in the fact that her women are considered worthy of a
+certain amount of the culture that comes from the study of books; and
+although, until recently, schools for girls were unknown in the empire,
+nevertheless every woman, except those of the lower classes, received
+instruction in the ordinary written language, while some were well
+versed in the Chinese classics and the poetic art. These, with some
+musical accomplishment, an acquaintance with etiquette and the arts of
+arranging flowers, of making the ceremonial tea, and in many cases not
+only of writing a beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as well, in the
+old days made up the whole of an ordinary woman's education. Among the
+lower classes, especially the merchant class, instruction was sometimes
+given in the various pantomimic dances which one sees most frequently
+presented by professional dancing girls. The art of dancing is not
+usually practiced by women of the higher classes, but among the
+daughters of the merchants special dances were learned for exhibition at
+home, or even at the _matsuri_ or religious festival, and their
+performance was for the amusement of spectators, and not especially for
+the pleasure of the dancers themselves. These dances are modest and
+graceful, but from the fact that they are always learned for
+entertaining an audience, however small and select, and are most
+frequently performed by professional dancers of questionable character,
+the more refined and higher class Japanese do not care especially to
+have their daughters learn them.
+
+In the old days, little girls were not sent to school, but, going to the
+house of a private teacher, received the necessary instruction in
+reading, and writing. The writing and reading at the beginning, are
+taught simultaneously, the teacher writing a letter upon a sheet of
+paper and telling the scholar its name, and the scholar writing it over
+and over until, by the time she has acquired the necessary skill in
+writing it, both name and form are indelibly imprinted upon her memory.
+To write, with a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft paper, the hand
+entirely without support, is an art that seldom can be acquired by a
+grown person, but when learned in childhood it gives great deftness in
+whatever other art may be subsequently studied. This is perhaps the
+reason why the Japanese value a good handwriting more highly than any
+other accomplishment, for it denotes a manual dexterity that is the
+secret of success in all the arts, and one who writes the Chinese
+characters well and rapidly can quickly learn to do anything else with
+the fingers.
+
+The fault that one finds with the Japanese system--a fault that lies
+deeper than the mere methods of teaching, and has its root in the
+ideographic character of the written language--is that, while it
+cultivates the memory and powers of observation to a remarkable extent,
+and while it gives great skill in the use of the fingers, it affords
+little opportunity for the development of the reasoning powers.[8] The
+years of study that are required for mastering the written language, so
+as to be able to grasp the thoughts already given to the world, leave
+comparatively little time for the conducting of any continuous thought
+on one's own account, and so we find in Japanese scholars--whether boys
+or girls--quickness of apprehension, retentive memories, industry and
+method in their study of their lessons, but not much originality of
+thought. This result comes, I believe, from the nature of the written
+language and the difficulties that attend the mastery of it; as a
+consequence of which, an educated man or woman becomes simply a student
+of other men's thoughts and sayings about things instead of being a
+student of the things themselves.
+
+[8] The Japanese written language is a strange combination of Chinese
+and Japanese, to read which a knowledge of the Chinese characters is
+necessary. Chinese literature written in the Chinese ideographs, which
+of course give no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the
+Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order of words in the
+sentence. When there have not been exact equivalent Japanese words, a
+Chinese term has come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well
+engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and spoken. In the
+forming of new words and technical terms Chinese words are used, as the
+Greek and Latin are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin
+of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese about
+the sixth century A. D. their cleverly planned but most complex method
+of expressing thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese
+literature has done much for Japan, and to master this language is one
+of the essentials in the education of every boy. At least seven or eight
+thousand characters must be learned for daily use, and there are several
+different styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as many,
+or even more, must be mastered in order to read the various works in
+that rich literature.
+
+The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty-eight letters, and
+in books and newspapers for the common people is printed, by the side of
+the Chinese character, the rendering of it, in the letters of the
+_kana_, or Japanese alphabet.[*40]
+
+A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the study of Chinese. She
+will, of course, learn a few of the most common characters, such as are
+used in letter-writing, and for the rest she will read by the help of
+the _kana_.
+
+Music in Japan is an accomplishment reserved almost entirely for women,
+for priests, and for blind men. It seems to me quite fortunate that the
+musical art is not more generally practiced, as Japanese music, as a
+rule, is far from agreeable to the untrained ear of the outside
+barbarian.[*41] The _koto_ is the pleasantest of the Japanese
+instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it
+inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among
+the higher classes, from the _samurai_[9] upwards. The _koto_ is an
+embryo piano, a horizontal sounding-board, some six feet long, upon
+which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges. It is played by
+means of ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, forefinger, and middle
+finger of the right hand, and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
+those of the harp. The player sits before the _koto_ on knees and heels,
+in the ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions are very graceful and
+pretty as she touches the strings, often supplementing the strains of
+the instrument with her voice. The teaching of this instrument and of
+the _samisen_, or Japanese guitar, is almost entirely in the hands of
+blind men, who in Japan support themselves by the two professions of
+music and massage,--all the blind, who cannot learn the former, becoming
+adepts in the latter profession.
+
+[9] The _samurai_ in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of a
+_daimi[=o]_, or feudal lord. They formed the military and literary class.
+For further information, see chap. viii., on _Samurai Women_.
+
+The arrangement of flowers is taught as a fine art, and much time may
+be spent in learning how, by clipping, bending, and fixing in its place
+in the vase, each spray and twig may be made to look as if actually
+growing, for flower arranging is not merely to show the flower itself,
+but includes the proper arrangement of the branches, twigs, and leaves
+of plants. The flower plays only a small part, and is not used in
+decoration, except on the branch and stem as it is in nature, and the
+art consists in the preservation of the natural bend and growth when
+fixed in the vase. In every case, each branch has certain curves, which
+must be in harmony with the whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the
+flowering plum are much used.
+
+Teachers spend much time in showing proper and improper combinations of
+different flowers, as well as the arrangement of them. Many different
+styles have come up, originated by the famous teachers who have founded
+various schools of the art,--an art which is unique and exceedingly
+popular, requiring artistic talent and a cultivated eye. One often sees,
+on going into the guest room of a Japanese house, a vase containing
+gracefully arranged flowers set in the _tokonoma_, or raised alcove of
+the room, under the solitary _kak�mono_[10] that forms the chief
+ornament of the apartment. As these two things, the vase of flowers and
+the hanging scroll, are the only adornments, it is more necessary that
+the flowers should be carefully arranged, than in our crowded rooms,
+where a vase of flowers may easily escape the eye, perplexed by the
+multitude of objects which surround it.
+
+[10] _Kak�mono_, a hanging scroll, upon which a picture is painted, or
+some poem or sentiment written.
+
+The ceremonial tea must not be confounded with the ordinary serving of
+tea for refreshment. The proper making, and serving, and drinking of the
+ceremonial tea is the most formal of social observances, each step in
+which is prescribed by a rigid code of etiquette. The tea, instead of
+being the whole leaf, such as is used for ordinary occasions, is a fine,
+green powder. The infusion is made, not in a small pot, from which it is
+poured out into cups, but in a bowl, into which the hot water is poured
+from a dipper on to the powdered tea. The mixture is stirred with a
+bamboo whisk until it foams, then handed with much ceremony to the
+guest, who takes it with equal ceremony and drinks it from the bowl,
+emptying the receptacle at three gulps. Should there be a number of
+guests, tea is made for each in turn, in the order of their rank, in the
+same bowl. For this ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is used,
+all of antique and severely simple style. The charcoal used for heating
+the water is of a peculiar variety; and the room in which the tea is
+made and served is built for that special purpose, and kept sacred for
+that use. This art, which is often part of the education of women of the
+higher classes, is taught by regular teachers, often by gentlewomen who
+have fallen into distressed circumstances.[*45] I remember with great
+vividness a visit paid to an old lady living near a provincial city of
+Japan, who had for years supported herself by giving lessons in this
+politest of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest and neatest type,
+seemed filled to overflowing by three foreigners, whom she received with
+the courtliest of welcomes. At the request of my friend, an American
+lady engaged in missionary work in that part of the country, she gave us
+a lesson in the etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every motion, from the
+bringing in and arranging of the utensils to the final rinsing and
+wiping of the tea bowl, was according to rules strictly laid down, and
+the whole ceremony had more the solemnity of a religious ritual than the
+lightness and gayety of a social occasion.
+
+Etiquette of all kinds is not left in Japan to chance, to be learned by
+observation and imitation of any model that may present itself, but is
+taught regularly by teachers who make a specialty of it. Everything in
+the daily life has its rules, and the etiquette teacher has them all at
+her fingers' ends. There have been several famous teachers of etiquette,
+and they have formed systems which differ in minor points, while
+agreeing in the principal rules. The etiquette of bowing, the position
+of the body, the arms, and the head while saluting, the methods of
+shutting and opening the door, rising and sitting down on the floor, the
+manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all, with the minutest details,
+taught to the young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather irksome. I
+know two young girls of new Japan who find nothing so wearisome as
+their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be excused from it. I have
+heard them, after their teacher had left, slyly make fun of her stiff
+and formal manners. Such people as she will, I fear, soon belong only to
+the past, though it still remains to be seen how much of European
+manners will be engrafted on the old formalities of Japanese life. It
+is, perhaps, because of this regular teaching in the ways of polite
+society, that the Japanese girl seems never at a loss, even under
+unusual circumstances, but bears herself with self-possession in places
+where young girls in America would be embarrassed and awkward.
+
+But the Japanese are rapidly finding out that this busy nineteenth
+century gives little time for learning how to shut and open doors in the
+politest manner, and indeed such things under the newly established
+school system are now relegated entirely to the girls' schools, the boys
+having no lessons in etiquette.
+
+The method of teaching flower-painting is so interesting that I must
+speak of it before I leave the subject of accomplishments. I have said
+that the acquisition of skill in writing the Chinese characters was the
+best possible preparation for skill in all other arts. This is
+especially true of the art of painting, which is simply the next step,
+after writing has been learned. The painting master, when he comes to
+the house, brings no design as a model, but sits down on the floor
+before the little desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with great
+rapidity the design that he wishes the pupil to copy. It may be simply
+two or three blades of grass upon which the pupil makes a beginning, but
+she is expected to make her picture with exactly the same number of bold
+strokes that the master puts into his. Again and again she blunders her
+strokes on to a sheet of paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet
+has been spoiled, she begins to see some semblance of the master's copy
+in her own daub. She perseveres, making copy after copy, until she is
+able from memory to put upon the paper at a moment's notice the three
+blades of grass to her master's satisfaction. Only then can she go on to
+a new copy, and only after many such designs have been committed to
+memory, and the free, dashing stroke necessary for Japanese painting has
+been acquired, is she allowed to undertake any copying from nature, or
+original designing.[*49]
+
+I have dwelt thus far only upon the entirely Japanese education that was
+permitted to women under the old r�gime. That it was an effective and
+refining system, all can testify who have made the acquaintance of any
+of the charming Japanese ladies whose schooling was finished before
+Commodore Perry disturbed the repose of old Japan. As I write, the image
+comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright-eyed little gentlewoman with
+whom it was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted during my
+stay in T[=o]ky[=o]. A widow, left penniless, with one child to support,
+she earned the merest pittance by teaching sewing at one of the
+government schools in T[=o]ky[=o]; but in all the circumstances of her
+life, narrow and busy as it needs must be, she proved herself a lady
+through and through. Polite, cheerful, an intelligent and cultivated
+reader, a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and careful mother, a true and
+helpful friend, her memory is associated with many of my pleasantest
+hours in Japan, and she is but one of the many who bear witness to the
+culture that might be acquired by women in the old days.
+
+But the Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day, and in the school
+system now prevalent throughout the empire girls and boys are equally
+provided for. First the schools established by the various missionary
+societies, and then the government schools, offered to girls a broader
+education than the old instruction in Chinese, in etiquette, and in
+accomplishments. Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and
+villages are alive with boys and girls clattering along, with their
+books and lunch boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten, primary,
+grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in life, every grade in
+learning, may find its proper place in the new school system, and the
+girls eagerly grasp their opportunities, and show themselves apt and
+willing students of the new learning offered to them.
+
+By the new system, at its present stage of development, too much is
+expected of the Japanese boy or girl. The work required would be a
+burden to the quickest mind. The whole of the old education in Japanese
+and Chinese literature and composition--an education requiring the best
+years of a boy's life--is given, and grafted upon this, our
+common-school and high-school studies of mathematics, geography,
+history, and natural science. In addition to these, at all higher
+schools, one foreign language is required, and often two, English
+ranking first in the popular estimation. Many a headache do the poor,
+hard-working students have over the puzzling English language, in which
+they have to begin at the wrong end of the book and read across the page
+from left to right, instead of from top to bottom, and from right to
+left, as is natural to them. But in spite of its hard work, the new
+school life is cheerful and healthful, and the children enjoy it. It
+helps them to be really children, and, while they are young, to be merry
+and playful, not dignified and formal little ladies at all times. Upon
+the young girls, the influence of the schools is to make them more
+independent, self-reliant, and stronger women. In the houses of the
+higher classes, even now, much of the old-time system of repression is
+still in force. Children are indeed "seen but not heard," and from the
+time when they learn to walk they must learn to be polite and
+dignified. At school, the more progressive feeling of the times
+predominates among the authorities, and the children are encouraged to
+unbend and enjoy themselves in games and frolics, as true children
+should do. Much is done for the pleasure of the little ones, who often
+enjoy school better than home, and declare that they do not like
+holidays.[*52]
+
+But the young girl, who has finished this pleasant school life, with all
+its advantages, is not as well fitted as under the old system for the
+duties and trials of married life, unless under exceptional
+circumstances, where the husband chosen has advanced ideas. To those
+teaching the young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of how to educate
+them aright is a deep one, and with each newly trained girl sent out go
+many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in regard to the training she has
+had as a preparation for the new life she is about to enter. The few,
+the pioneers, will have to suffer for the happiness and good of the
+many, for the problem of grafting the new on to the old is indeed a
+difficult one, to be solved only after many experiments.
+
+There are many difficulties which lie in the way of the new schools
+that must be met, studied, and overcome. One of them is the one already
+referred to, the problem of how best to combine the new and the old in
+the school curriculum. That the old learning and literature, the old
+politeness and sweetness of manner, must not be given up or made little
+of, is evident to every right-minded student of the matter. That the
+newer and broader culture, with its higher morality, its greater
+development of the best powers of the mind, must play a large part in
+the Japan of the future, there is not a shadow of doubt, and the women
+must not be left behind in the onward movement of the nation. But how to
+give to the young minds the best products of the thought of two such
+distinct civilizations is a question that is as yet unanswered, and
+cannot be satisfactorily settled until the effect of the new education
+has begun to show itself in a generation or so of graduates from the new
+schools. Another difficulty is in the matter of health. Most of the new
+school-houses are fitted with seats and desks, such as are found in
+American schools. Many of them are heated by stoves or furnaces. The
+scholars in most cases wear the Japanese dress, which in winter is made
+warm enough to be worn in rooms having no artificial heat. Put this warm
+costume into an artificially heated room and the result is an
+over-heating of the body, and a subsequent chill when the pupil goes,
+with no extra covering, into the keen out-of-door air. From this cause
+alone, arise many colds and lung troubles, which can be prevented when
+more experience has shown how the costumes of the East and West can be
+combined to suit the new conditions. Another part of the health problem
+lies in the fact that in many cases the parents do not understand the
+proper care of a growing girl, ambitious to excel in her studies.
+Instead of the regular hours, healthful food, and gentle restraint that
+a girl needs under those circumstances, our little Japanese maiden is
+allowed to sit up to any hour of the night, or arise at any hour in the
+morning, to prepare her lessons, is given food of most indigestible
+quality at all hours of the day between her regular meals, and is
+frequently urged to greater mental exertion than her delicate body can
+endure.
+
+Another difficulty, in fitting the new school system into the customs
+of the people, lies in the early age at which marriages are contracted.
+Before the girl has finished her school course, her parents begin to
+wonder whether there is not danger of her being left on their hands
+altogether, if they do not hand her over to the first eligible young man
+who presents himself. Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight, and
+remains in school until her course is finished; more often she succumbs
+and is married off, bids a weeping farewell to her teachers and
+schoolmates, and leaves the school, to become a wife at sixteen, a
+mother at eighteen, and an old woman at thirty. In some cases, the
+breaking down of a girl's health may be traced to threats on the part of
+her parents that, if she does not take a certain rank in her studies,
+she will be taken from school and married off.[*55]
+
+These are difficulties that may be overcome when a generation has been
+educated who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes that now endanger the
+health of a Japanese school-girl. In the mean time, boarding schools,
+that can attend to matters of health and hygiene among the girls,
+would, if they could be conducted with the proper admixture of Eastern
+and Western learning and manners, do a great deal toward educating that
+generation. The missionary schools do much in this direction, but the
+criticism of the Japanese upon the manners of the girls educated in
+missionary schools is universally severe. To a foreigner who has lived
+almost entirely among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese education, the
+manners of the girls in these schools seem brusque and awkward; and
+though they are many of them noble women and doing noble work, there is
+room for hope that in the future of Japan the charm of manner which is
+the distinguishing feature of the Japanese woman will not be lost by
+contact with our Western shortness and roughness. A happy mean
+undoubtedly can be reached; and when it is, the women of new Japan will
+be able to bear a not unfavorable comparison with the women of the old
+r�gime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
+
+
+When the Japanese maiden arrives at the age of sixteen, or thereabouts,
+she is expected as a matter of course to marry. She is usually allowed
+her choice in regard to whether she will or will not marry a certain
+man, but she is expected to marry some one, and not to take too much
+time in making up her mind. The alternative of perpetual spinsterhood is
+never considered, either by herself or her parents. Marriage is as much
+a matter of course in a woman's life as death, and is no more to be
+avoided. This being the case, our young woman has only as much liberty
+of choice accorded to her as is likely to provide against a great amount
+of unhappiness in her married life. If she positively objects to the man
+who is proposed to her, she is seldom forced to marry him, but no more
+cordial feeling than simple toleration is expected of her before
+marriage.
+
+The courtship is somewhat after the following manner. A young man, who
+finds himself in a position to marry, speaks to some married friend, and
+asks him to be on the lookout for a beautiful[11] and accomplished
+maiden, who would be willing to become his wife. The friend, acting
+rather as advance agent, makes a canvass of all the young maidens of his
+acquaintance, inquiring among his friends; and finally decides that
+so-and-so (Miss Flower, let us say) will be a very good match for his
+friend. Having arrived at this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's
+parents and lays the case of his friend before them. Should they approve
+of the suitor, a party is arranged at the house of some common friend,
+where the young people may have a chance to meet each other and decide
+each upon the other's merits. Should the young folks find no fault with
+the match, presents are exchanged,[12] a formal betrothal is entered
+into, and the marriage is hastened forward. All arrangements between the
+contracting parties are made by go-betweens, or seconds, who hold
+themselves responsible for the success of the marriage, and must be
+concerned in the divorce proceedings, should divorce become desirable or
+necessary.
+
+[11] The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in many respects
+from our own, so that it is almost impossible for a foreigner visiting
+Japan to comprehend the judgments of the Japanese in regard to the
+beauty of their own women, and even more impossible for the untraveled
+Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreigner's judgments upon either
+Japanese or foreign beauties. To the Japanese, the ideal female face
+must be long and narrow; the forehead high and narrow in the middle, but
+widening and lowering at the sides, conforming to the outline of the
+beloved Fuji, the mountain that Japanese art loves to picture. The hair
+should be straight and glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese
+ladies who have the misfortune to have any wave or ripple in their hair,
+as many of them do, are at as much pains to straighten it in the
+dressing as American ladies are to simulate a natural curl, when Nature
+has denied them that charm. The eyes should be long and narrow, slanting
+upward at the outer corners; and the eyebrows should be delicate lines,
+high above the eye itself. The distinctly aquiline nose should be low at
+the bridge, the curve outward beginning much lower down than upon the
+Caucasian face; and the eye-socket should not be outlined at all, either
+by the brow, the cheek, or by the nose. It is this flatness of the face
+about the eyes that gives the mildness of expression to all young people
+of Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in their
+physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japanese lady must be small,
+and the lips full and red; the neck, a conspicuous feature always when
+the Japanese dress is worn, should be long and slender, and gracefully
+curved. The complexion should be light,--a clear ivory-white, with
+little color in the cheeks. The blooming country girl style of beauty is
+not admired, and everything, even to color in the cheeks, must be
+sacrificed to gain the delicacy that is the _sine qua non_ of the
+Japanese beauty. The figure should be slender, the waist long, but not
+especially small, and the hips narrow, to secure the best effect with
+the Japanese dress. The head and shoulders should be carried slightly
+forward, and the body should also be bent forward slightly at the waist,
+to secure the most womanly and aristocratic carriage. In walking, the
+step should be short and quick, with the toes turned in, and the foot
+lifted so slightly that either clog or sandal will scuff with every
+step. This is necessary for modesty, with the narrow skirt of the
+Japanese dress.
+
+Contrast with this type the fair, curling hair, the round blue eyes, the
+rosy cheeks, the erect, slim-waisted, large-hipped figures of many
+foreign beauties,--the rapid, long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of
+almost masculine strength and independence, which belongs especially to
+English and American women,--and one can see how the Japanese find
+little that they recognize as beauty among them. Blue eyes, set into
+deep sockets, and with the bridge of the nose rising as a barrier
+between them, impart a fierce grotesqueness to the face, that the
+untraveled Japanese seldom admire. The very babies will scream with
+horror at first sight of a blue-eyed, light-haired foreigner, and it is
+only after considerable familiarity with such persons that they can be
+induced to show anything but the wildest fright in their presence.
+Foreigners who have lived a great deal among the Japanese find their
+standards unconsciously changing, and see, to their own surprise, that
+their countrywomen look ungainly, fierce, aggressive, and awkward among
+the small, mild, shrinking, and graceful Japanese ladies.
+
+[12] The present from the groom is usually a piece of handsome silk,
+used for the _obi_ or girdle. This takes the place of the conventional
+engagement ring of Europe and America.[*60] From the family of the
+bride, silk, such as is made up into men's dresses, is sent.
+
+The marriage ceremony, which seems to be neither religious nor legal in
+its nature,[*61a] takes place at the house of the groom, to which the
+bride is carried, accompanied by her go-betweens, and, if she be of the
+higher classes, by her own confidential maid, who will serve her as her
+personal attendant in the new life in her husband's house. The trousseau
+and household goods, which the bride is expected to bring with her, are
+sent before.[*61b] The household goods required by custom as a part of
+the outfit of every bride are as follows: A bureau; a low desk or table
+for writing; a work-box; two of the lacquer trays or tables on which
+meals are served, together with everything required for furnishing them,
+even to the chopsticks; and two or more complete sets of handsome bed
+furnishings. The trousseau will contain, if the bride be of a well-to-do
+family, dresses for all seasons, and handsome sashes without number; for
+the unchanging fashions of Japan, together with the durable quality of
+the dress material, make it possible for a woman, at the time of her
+marriage, to enter her husband's house with a supply of clothing that
+may last her through her lifetime. The parents of the bride, in giving
+up their daughter, as they do when she marries, show the estimation in
+which they have held her by the beauty and completeness of the trousseau
+with which they provide her. This is her very own; and in the event of a
+divorce, she brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and
+household goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+With the bride and her trousseau are sent a great number of presents
+from the family of the bride to the members of the groom's household.
+Each member of the family, from the aged grandfather to the youngest
+grandchild, receives some remembrance of the occasion; and even the
+servants and retainers, down to the _jinrikisha_ men, and the _bett[=o]_
+in the stables, are not forgotten by the bride's relatives. Beside this
+present-giving, the friends and relatives of the bride and groom, as in
+this country, send gifts to the young couple, often some article for use
+in the household, or cr�pe or silk for dresses.
+
+In old times, the wedding took place in the afternoon, but it is now
+usually celebrated in the evening. The ceremony consists merely in a
+formal drinking of the native wine (_sak�_) from a two-spouted cup,
+which is presented to the mouths of the bride and groom alternately.
+This drinking from one cup is a symbol of the equal sharing of the joys
+and sorrows of married life. At the ceremony no one is present but the
+bride and bridegroom, their go-betweens, and a young girl, whose duty it
+is to present the cup to the lips of the contracting parties. When this
+is over, the wedding guests, who have been assembled in the next room
+during the ceremony, join the wedding party, a grand feast is spread,
+and much merriment ensues.[13]
+
+[13] Many women still blacken their teeth after marriage, after the
+manner universal in the past; but this custom is, fortunately, rapidly
+going out of fashion.
+
+On the third day after the wedding, the newly married couple are
+expected to make a visit to the bride's family, and for this great
+preparations are made. A large party is usually given by the bride's
+parents, either in the afternoon or evening, in honor of this occasion,
+to which the friends of the bride's family are invited. The young
+couple bring with them presents from the groom's family to the bride's,
+in return for the presents sent on the wedding day.[*64]
+
+The festivities often begin early in the afternoon and keep up until
+late at night. A fine dinner is served, and music and dancing, by
+professional performers, or some other entertainment, serve to make the
+time pass pleasantly. The bride appears as hostess with her mother,
+entertaining the company, and receiving their congratulations, and must
+remain to speed the last departing guest, before leaving the paternal
+roof.
+
+Within the course of two or three months, the newly married couple are
+expected to give an entertainment, or series of entertainments, to their
+friends, as an announcement of the marriage. As the wedding ceremony is
+private, and no notice is given, nor are cards sent out, this is
+sometimes the first intimation that is received of the marriage by many
+of the acquaintances, though the news of a wedding usually travels
+quickly. The entertainment may be a dinner party, given at home, or at
+some tea-house, similar in many ways to the one given at the bride's
+home by her parents. Sometimes it is a garden party, and very lately it
+has become the fashion for officials and people of high rank to give a
+ball in foreign style.
+
+Besides the entertainment, presents of red rice, or _mochi_, are sent as
+a token of thanks to all who have remembered the young couple. These are
+arranged even more elaborately than the ones sent after the birth of an
+heir.
+
+The young people are not, as in this country, expected to set up
+housekeeping by themselves, and establish a new home. Marriages often
+take place early in life, even before the husband has any means of
+supporting a family; and as a matter of course, a son with his wife
+makes his abode with his parents, and forms simply a new branch of the
+household.
+
+The only act required to make the marriage legal is the withdrawal of
+the bride's name from the list of her father's family as registered by
+the government, and its entry upon the register of her husband's family.
+From that time forward she severs all ties with her father's house, save
+those of affection, and is more closely related by law and custom to
+her husband's relatives than to her own. Even this legal recognition of
+her marriage is a comparatively new thing in Japan, as is any limitation
+of the right of divorce on the part of the husband, or extension of that
+right to the wife.[14]
+
+[14] "As early as 1870 an edict was published by which official notice
+and approbation were made necessary preliminaries to every matrimonial
+contract. In the following year the class-limitations upon freedom of
+marriage were abolished, and two years later the right of suing for a
+divorce was conceded to the wife."--Rein's _Japan_, p. 425.
+
+At present in Japan the marriage relation is by no means a permanent
+one, as it is virtually dissoluble at the will of either party, and the
+condition of public opinion is such among the lower classes that it is
+not an unknown occurrence for a man to marry and divorce several wives
+in succession; and for a woman, who has been divorced once or twice, to
+be willing and able to marry well a second or even a third time. Among
+the higher classes, the dread of the scandal and gossip, that must
+attach themselves to troubles between man and wife, serves as a
+restraint upon too free use of the power of divorce; but still,
+divorces among the higher classes are so common now that one meets
+numerous respectable and respected persons who have at some time in
+their lives gone through such an experience.
+
+One provision of the law, which serves to make most mothers endure any
+evil of married life rather than sue for a divorce, is the fact that the
+children belong to the father; and no matter how unfit a person he may
+be to have the care of them, the disposal of them in case of a divorce
+rests absolutely with him. A divorced woman returns childless to her
+father's house; and many women, in consequence of this law or custom,
+will do their best to keep the family together, working the more
+strenuously in this direction, the more brutal and worthless the husband
+proves himself to be.
+
+The ancestor worship, as found in Japan, the tracing of relationship in
+the male line only, and the generally accepted belief that children
+inherit their qualities from their father rather than from the mother,
+make them his children and not hers. Thus we often see children of noble
+rank on the father's side, but ignoble on the mother's, inherit the
+rank of their father, and not permitted even to recognize their mother
+as in any way their equal. If she is plebeian, the children are not
+regarded as tainted by it.
+
+In the case of divorce, even if the law allowed the mother to keep her
+children, it would be almost an impossibility for her to do so. She has
+no means of earning her bread and theirs, for few occupations are open
+to women, and she is forced to become a dependent on her father, or some
+male relative. Whatever they may be willing to do for her, it is quite
+likely that they would begrudge aid to the children of another family,
+with whom custom hardly recognizes any tie. The children are the
+children of the man whose name they bear. If the woman is a favorite
+daughter, it may happen that her father will take her and her children
+under his roof, and support them all; but this is a rare exception, and
+only possible when the husband first gives up all claim to the children.
+
+There comes to my mind now a case illustrating this point, which I think
+I may cite without betraying confidence. It is that of a most attractive
+young woman who was married to a worthless husband, but lived
+faithfully with him for several years, and became the mother of three
+children. The husband, who seemed at first merely good-for-nothing,
+became worse as the years went by, drank himself out of situation after
+situation procured for him by powerful relatives, and at last became so
+violent that he even beat his wife and threatened his children, a
+proceeding most unusual on the part of a Japanese husband and father.
+The poor wife was at last obliged to flee from her husband's house to
+her mother's, taking her children with her. She sued for a divorce and
+obtained it, and is now married again; her youth, good looks, and high
+connections procuring her a very good catch for her second venture in
+matrimony; but her children are lost to her, and belong wholly to their
+worthless, drunken father.
+
+Of the lack of permanence in the marriage relation among the lower
+classes, the domestic changes of one of my servants in T[=o]ky[=o]
+afford an amusing illustration. The man, whom I had hired in the double
+capacity of _jinrikisha_ man and _bett[=o]_ or groom, was a strong,
+faithful, pleasant-faced fellow, recently come to T[=o]ky[=o] from the
+country. I inquired, when I engaged him, whether he had a wife, as I
+wanted some one who could remain in his room in the stable in care of
+the horse when he was pulling me about in the _jinrikisha_. He replied
+that he had a wife, but she was now at Utsunomiya, the country town from
+which he had come, but he would send for her at once, and she would be
+in T[=o]ky[=o] in the course of a week or two. Two or three weeks passed
+and no wife appeared, so I inquired of my cook and head servant what had
+become of Yasaku's wife. He replied, with a twinkle in his eye, that she
+had found work in Utsunomiya and did not wish to come. A week more
+passed, and still no wife, and further inquiries elicited from the cook
+the information that Yasaku had divorced her for disobedience, and was
+on the lookout for a new and more docile helpmate. His first thought was
+of the maidservant of the Japanese family who lived in the same house
+with me, a broad-faced, red-cheeked country girl, of a very low grade of
+intelligence. He gave this up, however, because he thought it would not
+be polite to put my friends to inconvenience by taking away their
+servant. His next effort was by negotiation through a T[=o]ky[=o]
+friend; but apparently Yasaku's country manners were not to the taste of
+the T[=o]ky[=o] damsels, for he met with no success, and was at last
+driven to write to his father in Utsunomiya asking him to select him a
+wife and bring her down to T[=o]ky[=o].
+
+The selection took a week or two, and at last my maid told me that
+Yasaku's wife was coming by the next morning's train. A look into the
+_bett[=o]'s_ quarters in the stable showed great preparations for the
+bride. The mats, new-covered with nice straw matting, were white and
+clean; the _shoji_ were mended with new paper; the walls covered with
+bright-colored pictures; and various new domestic conveniences had
+nearly bankrupted Yasaku, in spite of his large salary of ten dollars a
+month. He had ordered a fine feast at a neighboring tea house, had had
+cards printed with his own name in English and Japanese, and had
+altogether been to such great expense that he had had to put his winter
+clothes in pawn to secure the necessary money.
+
+The day chosen for the marriage was rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all
+his time in going to trains, no bridal party appeared; and he came home
+at night disconsolate, to smoke his good-night pipe over his solitary
+_hibachi_. He was, no doubt, angry as well as disconsolate, for he sat
+down and penned a severe letter to his father, in which he said that, if
+the bride did not appear on the next day counted lucky for a wedding (no
+Japanese would be married on an unlucky day), they could send her back
+to her father's house, for he would none of her. This letter did its
+work, for on the next lucky day, about ten days later, the bride
+appeared, and Yasaku was given two days of holiday on the agreement that
+he should not be married again while he remained in my service. On the
+evening of the second day, the bride came in to pay me her respects,
+and, crouching on her hands and knees before me, literally trembled
+under the excitement of her first introduction to a foreigner. She was a
+girl of rather unattractive exterior, fat and heavy, and rather older
+than Yasaku had bargained for, I imagine; at any rate, from the first,
+he seemed dissatisfied with his "pig in a poke," and after a couple of
+months sent her home to her parents, and was all ready to start out
+again in the hope of better luck next time.
+
+Here is another instance, from the woman's side. Upon one occasion, when
+I was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank who kept a retinue of
+servants, the woman who came in with the tea bowed and smiled upon me as
+if greeting me after a long absence. As I was in and out of the house
+nearly every day, I was a little surprised at this demonstration, which
+was quite different from the formal bow that is given by the servant to
+her mistress's guest upon ordinary occasions. When she went out my
+friend said, "You see O Kiku has come back." As I did not know that the
+woman had been away, the news of her return did not affect me greatly
+until I learned the history of her departure. It seemed that about a
+month before, she had left her mistress's house to be married; and the
+day before my visit she had quietly presented herself, and announced
+that she had come back, if they would take her in. My friend had asked
+her what had happened,--whether she had found her husband unkind. No,
+her husband was very nice, very kind and good, but his mother was simply
+unbearable; she made her work so hard that she actually had no time to
+rest at all. She had known before her marriage that her proposed
+mother-in-law was a hard task-mistress, but her husband had promised
+that his mother should live with his older brother, and they should have
+their housekeeping quite independent and separate. As the mother was
+then living with her older son, it seemed unlikely that she would care
+to move, and O Kiku San had married on that supposition. But it seemed
+that the wife of the older brother was both lazy and bad-tempered, and
+the new wife of the younger brother soon proved herself industrious and
+good-natured. As the mother's main thought was to go where she would get
+the most comfort and waiting upon, she moved from the elder son's house
+to that of her younger son, and began leading her new daughter-in-law
+such a life that she soon gave up the effort to live with her husband,
+sued for a divorce, obtained it, and was back in her old place, all in a
+month's time from the date of her marriage.
+
+But our readers must not suppose, from the various incidents given,
+that few happy marriages take place in Japan, or that, in every rank of
+life, divorce is of every-day occurrence. On the contrary, there seems
+cause for wonder, not that there are so many divorces, but that there
+are so many happy marriages, with wives and husbands devoted and
+faithful. For a nobleman in the olden times to divorce his wife would
+have caused such a scandal and talk that it rarely occurred. If the wife
+were disliked, he need have little or nothing to do with her, their
+rooms, their meals, and their attendance being entirely separate, but he
+rarely took away from her the name of wife, empty as it might be. She
+usually would be from some other noble house, and great trouble would
+arise between the families if he attempted to divorce her. The _samurai_
+also, with the same loyalty which they displayed for their lords, were
+loyal to their wives, and many a novel has been written, or play acted,
+showing the devotion of husband and wife. The quiet, undemonstrative
+love, though very different from the ravings of a lover in the
+nineteenth century novel, is perhaps truer to life.
+
+Among the merchants and lower classes there has been, and is, a much
+lower standard of morality, but the few years which have passed since
+the Revolution of 1868 are not a fair sample of what Japan has been.
+Noblemen, _samurai_, and merchants have had much to undergo in the great
+changes, and, as is the case in all such transition periods, old customs
+and restraints, and old standards of morality, have been broken down and
+have not been replaced. There is no doubt that men have run to excesses
+of all sorts, and divorces have been much more frequent of late
+years.[*76]
+
+Our little Japanese maiden knows, when she blackens her teeth, dons her
+wedding dress, and starts on her bridal journey to her husband's house,
+that upon her good behavior alone depend her chances of a happy life.
+She is to be henceforth the property of a man of whom she probably knows
+little, and who has the power, at any whim, to send her back to her
+father's house in disgrace, deprived of her children, with nothing to
+live for or hope for, except that some man will overlook the disgrace of
+her divorce, and by marrying her give her the only opportunity that a
+Japanese woman can have of a home other than that of a servant or
+dependent. That these evils will be remedied in time, there seems little
+reason to doubt, but just now the various cooks who are engaged in
+brewing the broth of the new civilization are disagreed in regard to the
+condiments required for its proper flavoring. The conservatives wish to
+flavor strongly with the subjection and dependence of women, believing
+that only by that means can feminine virtue be preserved. The younger
+men, of foreign education, would drop into the boiling pot the flavor of
+culture and broader outlook; for by this means they hope to secure
+happier homes for all, and better mothers for their children. The
+missionaries and native Christians believe that, when the whole mixture
+is well impregnated with practical Christianity, the desired result will
+be achieved. All are agreed on this point, that a strong public opinion
+is necessary before improved legislation can produce much effect; and
+so, for the present, legislation remains in the background, until the
+time shall come when it can be used in the right way.
+
+Let us examine the two remedies suggested by the reformers, and see
+what effect has been produced by each so far, and what may be expected
+of them in the future. Taking education first, what are the effects
+produced so far by educating women to a point above the old Japanese
+standard? In many happy homes to-day, we find husbands educated abroad,
+and knowing something of the home life of foreign lands, who have sought
+out wives of broad intellectual culture, and who make them friends and
+confidants, not simply housekeepers and head-servants. In such homes the
+wife has freedom, not such as is enjoyed by American women, perhaps, but
+equal to that of most European women. In such homes love and equality
+rule, and the power of the mother-in-law grows weak. To her is paid due
+respect, but she seldom has the despotic control which often makes the
+beginning of married life hard to the Japanese wife. These homes are
+sending out healthy influences that are daily having their effect, and
+raising the position of women in Japan.
+
+But for the young girl whose mind has been broadened by the new
+education, and who marries, as the majority of Japanese girls must, not
+in accordance with her own wishes, but in obedience to the will of her
+parents, a hard life is in store. A woman's education, under the old
+r�gime, was one that fitted her well for the position that she was to
+occupy. The higher courses of study only serve to make her kick against
+the pricks, and render herself miserable where she might before have
+been happy. With mind and character developed by education, she may be
+obliged to enter the home of her husband's family, to be perhaps one
+among many members under the same roof. In the training of her own
+children, in the care of her own health and theirs, her wishes and
+judgment must often yield to the prejudices of those above her, under
+whose authority she is, and it may not be until many years have passed
+that she will be in a position to influence in any measure the lives of
+those nearest and dearest to her. Then, too, her life must be passed
+entirely within the home, with no opportunities to meet or to mingle
+with the great world of which she has read and studied. Surely her lot
+is harder than that of the woman of the olden time, whose plain duty
+always lay in the path of implicit obedience to her superiors, and who
+never for one moment considered obedience to the dictates of her own
+reason and conscience as an obligation higher than deference to the
+wishes of husband and parents. Education, without further amelioration
+of their lot as wives and mothers, can but result in making the women
+discontented and unhappy,--in many cases injuring their health by worry
+over the constant petty disappointments and baffled desires of their
+lives.
+
+This to superficial observers would seem a step backward rather than
+forward, and it is to this cause that the present reaction against
+female education may be traced. The first generation or two of educated
+women must endure much for the sake of those who come after, and by many
+this vicarious suffering is misunderstood, and distaste on the part of
+educated girls for marriage, as it now exists in Japan, is regarded as
+one of the sure signs that education is a failure. Without some change
+in the position of wife and mother, this feeling will grow into absolute
+repugnance, if women continue to be educated after the Western fashion.
+
+The second remedy that is suggested is Christianity, a remedy which is
+even now at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a Christian home, there
+one finds the wife and mother occupying the position that she occupies
+all over Christendom. The Christian man, in choosing his wife, feels
+that it is not an ordinary contract, which may be dissolved at any time
+at the will of the contracting parties, but that it is a union for life.
+Consequently, in making his choice he is more careful, takes more time,
+and thinks more of the personal qualities of the woman he is about to
+marry. Thus the chances are better at the beginning for the
+establishment of a happy home, and such homes form centres of influence
+throughout the length and breadth of the land to-day. Christianity in
+the future will do much to mould public sentiment in the right way, and
+can be trusted as a force that is sure to grow in time to be a mighty
+power in the councils of the nation.
+
+One more remedy might be suggested, as a preliminary to proper
+legislation, or a necessary accompaniment of it, and that is, the
+opening of new avenues of employment for women, and especially for
+women of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage, no matter how
+distasteful, is the only opening for a woman; for she can do nothing for
+her own support, and cannot require her father to support her after she
+has reached a marriageable age. As new ways of self-support present
+themselves, and a woman may look forward to making a single life
+tolerable by her own labor, the intelligent girls of the middle class
+will no longer accept marriage as inevitable, but will only marry when
+the suitor can offer a good home, kindness, affection, and security in
+the tenure of these blessings. So far, there is little employment for
+women, except as teachers; but even this change in the condition of
+things is forming a class, as yet small, but increasing yearly, of women
+who enjoy a life of independence, though accompanied by much hard work,
+more than the present life of a Japanese married woman. In this class we
+find some of the most intelligent and respected of the women of new
+Japan; and the growth of this class is one of the surest signs that the
+present state of the laws and customs concerning marriage and divorce
+is so unsatisfactory to the women that it must eventually be remedied,
+if the educated and intelligent of the men care to take for their wives,
+and for the mothers of their children, any but the less educated and
+less intelligent of the women of their own nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WIFE AND MOTHER.[*84]
+
+
+The young wife, when she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our
+own country, entering upon a new life as mistress of a house, with
+absolute control over all of her little domain. Should her husband's
+parents be living, she becomes almost as their servant, and even her
+husband is unable to defend her from the exactions of her mother-in-law,
+should this new relative be inclined to make full use of the power given
+her by custom. Happy is the girl whose husband has no parents. Her
+comfort in life is materially increased by her husband's loss, for,
+instead of having to serve two masters, she will then have to serve only
+one, and that one more kind and thoughtful of her strength and comfort
+than the mother-in-law.
+
+In Japan the idea of a wife's duty to her husband includes no thought of
+companionship on terms of equality. The wife is simply the housekeeper,
+the head of the establishment, to be honored by the servants because she
+is the one who is nearest to the master, but not for one moment to be
+regarded as the master's equal. She governs and directs the household,
+if it be a large one, and her position is one of much care and
+responsibility; but she is not the intimate friend of her husband, is in
+no sense his confidante or adviser, except in trivial affairs of the
+household. She appears rarely with him in public, is expected always to
+wait upon him and save him steps, and must bear all things from him with
+smiling face and agreeable manners, even to the receiving with open arms
+into the household some other woman, whom she knows to bear the relation
+of concubine to her own husband.
+
+In return for this, she has, if she be of the higher classes, much
+respect and honor from those beneath her. She has, in many cases the
+real though often inconsiderate affection of her husband. If she be the
+mother of children, she is doubly honored, and if she be endowed with a
+good temper, good manners, and tact, she can render her position not
+only agreeable to herself, but one of great usefulness to those about
+her. It lies with her alone to make the home a pleasant one, or to make
+it unpleasant. Nothing is expected of the husband in this direction; he
+may do as he likes with his own, and no one will blame him; but if his
+home is not happy, even through his own folly or bad temper, the blame
+will fall upon his wife, who should by management do whatever is
+necessary to supply the deficiencies caused by her husband's
+shortcomings. In all things the husband goes first, the wife second. If
+the husband drops his fan or his handkerchief the wife picks it up. The
+husband is served first, the wife afterwards, and so on through the
+countless minuti� of daily life. It is not the idea of the strong man
+considering the weak woman, saving her exertion, guarding and deferring
+to her; but it is the less important waiting upon the more important,
+the servant deferring to her master.
+
+But though the present position of a Japanese wife is that of a
+dependent who owes all she has to her protector, and for whom she is
+bound to do all she can in return, the dependence is in many cases a
+happy one. The wife's position, especially if she be the mother of
+children, is often pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies in the
+proper conduct of her house and the training of her children. The
+service of her parents-in-law, however, must remain her first duty
+during their lifetime. She must make it her care to see that they are
+waited upon and served with what they like at meals, that their clothes
+are carefully and nicely made, and that countless little attentions are
+heaped upon them. As long as her mother-in-law lives, the latter is the
+real ruler of the house; and though in many cases the elder lady prefers
+freedom from responsibility to the personal superintendence of the
+details of housekeeping, she will not hesitate to require of her
+daughter-in-law that the house be kept to her satisfaction. If the
+maiden's lot is to be the first daughter-in-law in a large family, she
+becomes simply the one of the family from whom the most drudgery is
+expected, who obtains the fewest favors, and who is expected to have
+always the pleasantest of tempers under circumstances not altogether
+conducive to repose of spirit. The wife of the oldest son has, however,
+the advantage that, when her mother-in-law dies or retires, she becomes
+the mistress of the house and the head lady of the family, a position
+for which her apprenticeship to the old lady has probably exceptionally
+well fitted her.
+
+Next to her parents-in-law, her duty is to her husband. She must herself
+render to him the little services that a European expects of his valet.
+She must not only take care of his clothing, but must bring it to him
+and help him put it on, and must put away with care whatever he has
+taken off; and she often takes pride in doing with her own hands many
+acts of service which might be left to servants, and which are not
+actually demanded of her, unless she has no one under her to do them. In
+the poorer families all the washing, sewing, and mending that is
+required is always done by the wife; and even the Empress herself is not
+exempt from these duties of personal service, but must wait upon her
+husband in various ways.
+
+When the earliest beams of the sun shine in at the cracks of the dark
+wooden shutters which surround the house at night, the young wife in the
+family softly arises, puts out the feeble light of the _andon_,[15]
+which has burned all night, and, quietly opening one of the sliding
+doors, admits enough light to make her own toilet. She dresses hastily,
+only putting a few touches here and there to her elaborate coiffure,
+which she has not taken down for her night's rest.[16] Next she goes to
+arouse the servants, if they are not already up, and with them prepares
+the modest breakfast. When the little lacquer tables, with rice bowls,
+plates, and chopsticks are arranged in place, she goes softly to see
+whether her parents and husband are awake, and if they have hot water,
+charcoal fire, and whatever else they may need for their toilet. Then
+with her own hands, or with the help of the servants, she slides back
+the wooden shutters, opening the whole house to the fresh morning air
+and sunlight. It is she, also, who directs the washing and wiping of the
+polished floors, and the folding and putting away of the bedding, so
+that all is in readiness before the morning meal.
+
+[15] The _andon_ is the standing lamp, inclosed in a paper case, used as
+a night lamp in all Japanese houses. Until the introduction of kerosene
+lamps, the _andon_ was the only light used in Japanese houses. The light
+is produced by a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable oil.
+
+[16] The pillow used by ladies is merely a wooden rest for the head,
+that supports the neck, leaving the elaborate head-dress undisturbed.
+The hair is dressed by a professional hair-dresser, who comes to the
+house once in two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Ki[=o]to,
+where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in T[=o]ky[=o], it is
+much less frequently arranged. The process takes two hours at least.
+
+When breakfast is over, the husband starts for his place of business,
+and the little wife is in waiting to send him off with her sweetest
+smile and her lowest bow, after having seen that his foot-gear--whether
+sandal, clog, or shoe--is at the door ready for him to put on, his
+umbrella, book, or bundle at hand, and his _kuruma_ waiting for him.
+
+Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in having all the little things in his
+life attended to by his thoughtful wife,--a good, considerate, careful
+body-servant, always on hand to bear for him the trifling worries and
+cares. There is no wonder that there are no bachelors in Japan. To some
+degree, I am sure, the men appreciate these attentions; for they often
+become much in love with their sweet, helpful wives, though they do not
+share with them the greater things of life, the ambitions and the hopes
+of men.
+
+The husband started on his daily rounds, the wife settles down to the
+work of the house. Her sphere is within her home, and though, unlike
+other Asiatic women, she goes without restraint alone through the
+streets, she does not concern herself with the great world, nor is she
+occupied with such a round of social duties as fill the lives of society
+women in this country. Yet she is not barred out from all intercourse
+with the outer world, for there are sometimes great dinner parties,
+given perhaps at home, when she must appear as hostess, side by side
+with her husband, and share with him the duty of entertaining the
+guests. There are, besides, smaller gatherings of friends of her
+husband, when she must see that the proper refreshments are served, if
+they be only the omnipresent tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join in the
+number and listen to the conversation; but if there are no ladies, she
+will probably not appear, except to attend to the wants of her guests.
+There are also lady visitors--friends and relatives--who come to make
+calls, oftentimes from a distance, and nearly always unexpectedly,
+whose entertainment devolves on the wife. Owing to the great distances
+in many of the cities, and the difficulties that used to attend going
+from place to place, it has become a custom not to make frequent visits,
+but long ones at long intervals. A guest often stays several hours,
+remaining to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and, should the
+distance be great, may spend the night. So rigid are the requirements of
+Japanese hospitality that no guest is ever allowed to leave a house
+without having been pressed to partake of food, if it be only tea and
+cake. Even tradesmen or messengers who come to the house must be offered
+tea, and if carpenters, gardeners, or workmen of any kind are employed
+about the house, tea must be served in the middle of the afternoon with
+a light lunch, and tea sent out to them often during their day's work.
+If a guest arrives in _jinrikisha_, not only the guest, but the
+_jinrikisha_ men must be supplied with refreshments. All these things
+involve much thought and care on the part of the lady of the house.
+
+In the homes of rich and influential men of wide acquaintance, there is
+a great deal going on to make a pleasant variety for the ladies of the
+household, even although the variety involves extra work and
+responsibility. The mistress of such a household sees and hears a great
+deal of life; and her position requires no little wisdom and tact, even
+where the housewife has the assistance of good servants, capable, as
+many are, of sharing not only the work, but the responsibility as well.
+Clever wives in such homes see and learn much, in an indirect way, of
+the outside world in which the men live; and may become, if they possess
+the natural capabilities for the work, wise advisers and sympathizers
+with their husbands in many things far beyond their ordinary field of
+action. An intelligent woman, with a strong will, has often been, unseen
+and unknown, a mighty influence in Japan. That her power for good or
+bad, outside of her influence as wife and mother, is a recognized fact,
+is seen in the circumstance that in novels and plays women are
+frequently brought in as factors in political plots and organized
+rebellions, as well as in acts of private revenge.
+
+Still the life of the average woman is a quiet one, with little to
+interrupt the monotony of her days with their never-ending round of
+duties; and to the most secluded homes only an occasional guest comes to
+enliven the dull hours. The principal occupation of the wife, outside of
+her housekeeping and the little duties of personal service to husband
+and parents, is needle-work. Every Japanese woman (excepting those of
+the highest rank) knows how to sew, and makes not only her own garments
+and those of her children, but her husband's as well. Sewing is one of
+the essentials in the education of a Japanese girl, and from childhood
+the cutting and putting together of cr�pe, silk, and cotton is a
+familiar occupation to her. Though Japanese garments seem very simple,
+custom requires that each stitch and seam be placed in just such a way;
+and this way is something of a task to learn. To the uninitiated
+foreigner, the general effect of the loosely worn _kimono_ is the same,
+whether the garment be well or ill made; but the skillful seamstress can
+easily discover that this seam is not turned just as it should be, or
+that those stitches are too long or too short, or carelessly or unevenly
+set.
+
+Fancy work[17] or embroidery is not done in the house, the gorgeous
+embroidered Japanese robes being the product of professional workmen.
+Instead of the endless fancy work with silks, crewels, or worsteds, over
+which so many American ladies spend their leisure hours, many of the
+Japanese ladies, even of the highest rank, devote much time to the
+cultivation of the silkworm. In country homes, and in the great cities
+as well, wherever spacious grounds afford room for the growth of
+mulberry trees, silkworms are raised and watched with care; an
+employment giving much pleasure to those engaged in it.
+
+[17] The one exception to this statement, so far as I know, is the
+species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the _daimi[=o]s'_ houses.
+(See chap. vii.)
+
+It is difficult for any one who has not experimented in this direction
+to realize how tender these little spinners are. If a strong breeze blow
+upon them, they are likely to suffer for it, and the least change in the
+atmosphere must be guarded against. For forty days they must be
+carefully watched, and the great, shallow, bamboo basket trays
+containing them changed almost daily. New leaves for their food must be
+given frequently, and as the least dampness might be fatal, each leaf,
+in case of rainy weather, is carefully wiped. Then, too, the different
+ages of the worms must be considered in preparing their food; as, for
+the young worms, the leaves should be cut up, while for the older ones
+it is better to serve them whole. When, finally, the buzzing noise of
+the crunching leaves has ceased, and the last worm has put himself to
+sleep in his precious white cocoon, the work of the ladies is ended; for
+the cocoons are sent to women especially skilled in the work, by them to
+be spun off, and the thread afterwards woven into the desired fabric.
+When at last the silk, woven and dyed, is returned to the ladies by
+whose care the worms were nourished until their work was done, it is
+shown with great pride as the product of the year's labor, and if given
+as a present will be highly prized by the recipient.
+
+Among the daily tasks of the housewife, one, and by no means the least
+of her duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and return in suitable
+manner, the presents received in the family. Presents are not confined
+to special seasons, although upon certain occasions etiquette is rigid
+in its requirements in this matter, but they may be given and received
+at all times, for the Japanese are pre�minently a present-giving nation.
+For every present received, sooner or later, a proper return must be
+sent, appropriate to the season and to the rank of the receiver, and
+neatly arranged in the manner that etiquette prescribes. Presents are
+not necessarily elaborate; callers bring fruit of the season, cake, or
+any delicacy, and a visit to a sick person must be accompanied by
+something appropriate. Children visiting in the family are always given
+toys, and for this purpose a stock is kept on hand. The present-giving
+culminates at the close of the year, when all friends and acquaintances
+exchange gifts of more or less value, according to their feelings and
+means. Should there be any one who has been especially kind, and to whom
+return should be made, this is the time to do so.
+
+Tradesmen send presents to their patrons, scholars to teachers, patients
+to their physicians, and, in short, it is the time when all obligations
+and debts are paid off, in one way or another. On the seventh day of
+the seventh month, there is another general interchange of presents,
+although not so universal as at the New Year. It can easily be imagined
+that all this present-giving entails much care, especially in families
+of influence; and it must be attended to personally by the wife, who, in
+the secret recesses of her storeroom, skillfully manages to rearrange
+the gifts received, so that those not needed in the house may be sent,
+not back to their givers, but to some place where a present is due. The
+passing-on of the presents is an economy not of course acknowledged, but
+frequently practiced even in the best families, as it saves much of the
+otherwise ruinous expense of this custom.
+
+As time passes by, occasional visits are paid by the young wife to her
+own parents or to other relatives. At stated times, too, she, and others
+of the family, will visit the tombs of her husband's ancestors, or of
+her own parents, if they are no longer living, to make offerings and
+prayers at the graves, to place fresh branches of the _sakaki_[18]
+before the tombs, and to see that the priests in charge of the cemetery
+have attended to all the little things which the Japanese believe to be
+required by the spirits of the dead. Even these visits are often looked
+forward to as enlivening the monotony of the humdrum home life.
+Sometimes all the members of the family go together on a pleasure
+excursion, spending the day out of doors, in beautiful gardens, when
+some one of the much-loved flowers of the nation is in its glory; and
+the little wife may join in this pleasure with the rest, but more often
+she is the one who remains at home to keep the house in the absence of
+others. The theatre, too, a source of great amusement to Japanese
+ladies, is often a pleasure reserved for a time later in life.
+
+[18] _Sakaki_, the _Cleyera Japonica_, a sacred plant emblematic of
+purity, and much used at funerals and in the decoration of graves.
+
+The Japanese mother takes great delight and comfort in her children, and
+her constant thought and care is the right direction of their habits and
+manners. She seems to govern them entirely by gentle admonition, and the
+severest chiding that is given them is always in a pleasant voice, and
+accompanied by a smiling face. No matter how many servants there may be,
+the mother's influence is always direct and personal. No thick walls
+and long passageways separate the nursery from the grown people's
+apartments, but the thin paper partitions make it possible for the
+mother to know always what her children are doing, and whether they are
+good and gentle with their nurses, or irritable and passionate. The
+children never leave the house, nor return to it, without going to their
+mother's room, and there making the little bows and repeating the
+customary phrases used upon such occasions. In the same way, when the
+mother goes out, all the servants and the children escort her to the
+door; and when her attendant shouts "_O kaeri_," which is the signal of
+her return, children and servants hasten to the gate to greet her, and
+do what they can to help her from her conveyance and make her
+home-coming pleasant and restful.
+
+The father has little to do with the training of his children, which is
+left almost entirely to the mother, and, except for the interference of
+the mother-in-law, she has her own way in their training, until they are
+long past childhood. The children are taught to look to the father as
+the head, and to respect and obey him as the one to whom all must defer;
+but the mother comes next, almost as high in their estimation, and, if
+not so much feared and respected, certainly enjoys a larger share of
+their love.
+
+The Japanese mother's life is one of perfect devotion to her children;
+she is their willing slave. Her days are spent in caring for them, her
+evenings in watching over them; and she spares neither time nor trouble
+in doing anything for their comfort and pleasure. In sickness,[19] in
+health, day and night, the little ones are her one thought; and from the
+home of the noble to the humble cot of the peasant, this tender
+mother-love may be seen in all its different phases. The Japanese woman
+has so few on whom to lavish her affection, so little to live for beside
+her children, and no hopes in the future except through them, that it is
+no wonder that she devotes her life to their care and service, deeming
+the drudgery that custom requires of her for them the easiest of all her
+duties. Even with plenty of servants, the mother performs for her
+children nearly all the duties often delegated to nurses in this
+country. Mother and babe are rarely separated, night or day, during the
+first few years of the baby's life, and the mother denies herself any
+entertainment or journey from home when the baby cannot accompany her.
+To give the husband any share in the baby-work would be an unheard-of
+thing, and a disgrace to the wife; for in public and in private the baby
+is the mother's sole charge, and the husband is never asked to sit up
+all night with a sick baby, or to mind it in any way at all. Nothing in
+all one's study of Japanese life seems more beautiful and admirable than
+the influence of the mother over her children,--an influence that is
+gentle and all-pervading, bringing out all that is sweetest and noblest
+in the feminine character, and affording the one almost unlimited
+opportunity of a Japanese woman's life. The lot of a childless wife in
+Japan is a sad one. Not only is she denied the hopes and the pleasures
+of a mother in her children, but she is an object of pity to her
+friends, and well does she know that Confucius has laid down the law
+that a man is justified in divorcing a childless wife. All feel that
+through her, innocent though she is, the line has ceased; that her duty
+is unfulfilled; and that, though the name be given to adopted sons,
+there is no heir of the blood. A man rarely sends away his wife solely
+with this excuse, but children are the strongest of the ties which bind
+together husband and wife, and the childless wife is far less sure of
+pleasing her husband. In many cases she tries to make good her
+deficiencies by her care of adopted children; in them she often finds
+the love which fills the void in her heart and home, and she receives
+from them in after-life the respect and care which is the crown of old
+age.
+
+[19] Since the introduction of the foreign system of medicine and
+nursing, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack of conveniences and
+appliances for nursing the sick in their own homes, that cases of severe
+or even serious illness are usually sent to hospitals, where the
+invalids can have the comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes
+cannot furnish.
+
+We have hitherto spoken of married life when the wife is received into
+her husband's home. Another interesting side of Japanese marriage is
+when a man enters the wife's family, taking her name and becoming
+entirely one of her family, as usually the wife becomes of the
+husband's. When there are daughters but no sons in a family to inherit
+the name, one of three things may happen: a son may be adopted early in
+life and grow up as heir; or he may be adopted with the idea of marrying
+one of the daughters; or, again, no one may have been formally adopted,
+but on the eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable age, her family
+and friends seek for her a _y[=o]shi_, that is to say, some man (usually a
+younger son) who is willing and able to give up his family name, and, by
+marrying the daughter, become a member of her family and heir to the
+name. He cuts off all ties from his own family, and becomes a member of
+hers, and the young couple are expected to live with her parents. In
+this case the tables are turned, and it is he who has to dread the
+mother-in-law; it is his turn to have to please his new relatives and to
+do all he can to be agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and divorced by
+the all-powerful parents, if he does not please; and such divorces are
+not uncommon. Of course, in such marriages, the woman has the greater
+power, and the man has to remember what he owes her; and though the
+woman yields to him obediently in all respects, it is an obedience not
+demanded by the husband, as under other circumstances. In such marriages
+the children belong to the family whose name they bear, so that in case
+of divorce they remain in the wife's family, unless some special
+arrangement is made about them.
+
+It may be wondered why young men ever care to enter a family as
+_y[=o]shi_. There is only one answer,--it is the attraction of wealth
+and rank, very rarely that of the daughter herself. In the houses of
+rich _daimi[=o]s_ without sons, _y[=o]shi_ are very common, and there
+are many younger sons of the nobility, themselves of high birth, but
+without prospects, who are glad enough to become great lords. In feudal
+times, the number of _samurai_ families was limited. Several sons of one
+family could not establish different _samurai_ families, but all but the
+eldest son, if they formed separate houses, must enroll themselves among
+the ranks of the common people. Hence the younger sons were often
+adopted into other _samurai_ families as _y[=o]shi_, where it was
+desired to secure a succession to a name that must otherwise die out.
+Since the Restoration, and the breaking down of the old class
+distinctions, young men care more for independence than for their rank
+as _samurai_; and it is now quite difficult to find _y[=o]shi_ to enter
+_samurai_ families, unless it be because of the attractiveness and
+beauty of the young lady herself. Many a young girl who could easily
+make a good marriage with some suitable husband, could she enter his
+family, is now obliged to take some inferior man as _y[=o]shi_, because
+few men in these days are willing to change their names, give up their
+independence, and take upon themselves the support of aged
+parents-in-law; for this also is expected of the _y[=o]shi_, unless the
+family that he enters is a wealthy one.
+
+From this custom of _y[=o]shi_, and its effect upon the wife's position,
+we see that, in certain cases, Japanese women are treated as equal with
+men. It is not because of their sex that they are looked down upon and
+held in subjection, but it is because of their almost universal
+dependence of position. The men have the right of inheritance, the
+education, habits of self-reliance, and are the bread-winners. Wherever
+the tables are turned, and the men are dependents of the women, and
+even where the women are independent of the men,--there we find the
+relations of men to women vastly changed. The women of Japan must know
+how to do some definite work in the world beyond the work of the home,
+so that their position will not be one of entire dependence upon father,
+husband, or son. If fathers divided their estates between sons and
+daughters alike, and women were given, before the law, right to hold
+property in their own names, much would be accomplished towards securing
+them in their positions as wives and mothers; and divorce, the great
+evil of Japanese home life to-day, would become simply a last resort to
+preserve the purity of the home, as it is in most civilized countries
+now.
+
+The difference between the women of the lower and those of the higher
+classes, in the matter of equality with their husbands, is quite
+noticeable. The wife of the peasant or merchant is much nearer to her
+husband's level than is the wife of the Emperor. Apparently, each step
+in the social scale is a little higher for the man than it is for the
+woman, and lifts him a little farther above his wife. The peasant and
+his wife work side by side in the field, put their shoulders to the same
+wheel, eat together in the same room, at the same time, and whichever of
+them happens to be the stronger in character governs the house, without
+regard to sex. There is no great gulf fixed between them, and there is
+frequently a consideration for the wife shown by husbands of the lower
+class, that is not unlike what we see in our own country. I remember the
+case of a _jinrikisha_ man employed by a friend of mine in T[=o]ky[=o],
+who was much laughed at by his friends because he actually used to spend
+some of his leisure moments in drawing the water required for his
+household from a well some distance away, and carrying the heavy buckets
+to the house, in order to save the strength of his little, delicate
+wife. That cases of such devotion are rare is no doubt true, but that
+they occur shows that there is here and there a recognition of the
+claims that feminine weakness has upon masculine strength.
+
+A frequent sight in the morning, in T[=o]ky[=o], is a cart heavily laden
+with wood, charcoal, or some other country produce, creaking slowly
+along the streets, propelled by a farmer and his family. Sometimes one
+will see an old man, his son, and his son's wife with a baby on her
+back, all pushing or pulling with might and main; the woman with
+tucked-up skirts and tight-fitting blue trousers, a blue towel
+enveloping her head,--only to be distinguished from the men by her
+smaller size and the baby tied to her back. But when evening comes, and
+the load of produce has been disposed of, the woman and baby are seen
+seated upon the cart, while the two men pull it back to their home in
+some neighboring village. Here, again, is the recognition of the law
+that governs the position of woman in this country,--the theory, not of
+inferior position, but of inferior strength; and the sight of the women
+riding back in the empty carts at night, drawn by their husbands, is the
+thing that strikes a student of Japanese domestic life as nearest to the
+customs of our own civilization in regard to the relations of husbands
+and wives.
+
+Throughout the country districts, where the women have a large share in
+the labor that is directly productive of wealth, where they not only
+work in the rice fields, pick the tea crops, gather the harvests, and
+help draw them to market, but where they have their own productive
+industries, such as caring for the silkworms, and spinning, and weaving
+both silk and cotton, we find the conventional distance between the
+sexes much diminished by the important character of feminine labor; but
+in the cities, and among the classes who are largely either indirect
+producers or non-producers, the only labor of the women is that personal
+service which we account as menial. It is for this reason, perhaps, that
+the gap widens as we go upward in society, and between the same social
+levels as we go cityward.
+
+The wife of the countryman, though she may work harder and grow old
+earlier, is more free and independent than her city sister; and the wife
+of the peasant, pushing her produce to market, is in some ways happier
+and more considered than the wife of the noble, who must spend her life
+among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclusion of her great house with
+its beautiful garden, the plaything of her husband in his leisure hours,
+but never his equal, or the sharer of his cares or of his thoughts.
+
+One of the causes which must be mentioned as contributing to the
+lowering of the wife's position, among the higher and more wealthy
+classes, lies in the system of concubinage which custom allows, and the
+law until quite recently has not discouraged. From the Emperor, who was,
+by the old Chinese code of morals, allowed twelve supplementary wives,
+to the _samurai_, who are permitted two, the men of the higher classes
+are allowed to introduce into their families these _m�kak�_, who, while
+beneath the wife in position, are frequently more beloved by the husband
+than the wife herself. It must be said, however, to the credit of many
+husbands, that in spite of this privilege, which custom allows, there
+are many men of the old school who are faithful to one wife, and never
+introduce this discordant element into the household. Even should he
+keep _m�kak�_, it is often unknown to the wife, and she is placed in a
+separate establishment of her own. And in spite of the code of morals
+requiring submission in any case on the part of the woman, there are
+many wives of the _samurai_ and lower classes who have enough spirit and
+wit to prevent their husbands from ever introducing a rival under the
+same roof. In this way the practice is made better than the theory.
+
+Not so with the more helpless wife of the nobleman, for wealth and
+leisure make temptation greater for the husband. She submits
+unquestioningly to the custom requiring that the wife treat these women
+with all civility. Their children she may even have to adopt as her own.
+The lot of the _m�kak�_ herself is rendered the less endurable, from the
+American point of view, by the fact that, should the father of her child
+decide to make it his heir, the mother is thenceforth no more to it than
+any other of the servants of the household. For instance, suppose a
+hitherto childless noble is presented with a son by one of his
+concubines, and he decides by legal adoption to make that son his heir:
+the child at its birth, or as soon afterwards as is practicable, is
+taken from its mother and placed in other hands, and the mother never
+sees her own child until, on the thirtieth day after its birth, she goes
+with the other servants of the household to pay her respects to her
+young master. If it were not for the habit of abject obedience to
+parents which Japanese custom has exalted into the one feminine virtue,
+few women could be found of respectable families who would take a
+position so devoid of either honor or satisfaction of any kind as that
+of _m�kak�_. That these positions are not sought after must be said, to
+the honor of Japanese womanhood. A nobleman may obtain _samurai_ women
+for his "_O m�kak�_" (literally, honorable concubines), but they are
+never respected by their own class for taking such positions. In the
+same way the _m�kak�_ of _samurai_ are usually from the _h�imin_. No
+woman who has any chance of a better lot will ever take the unenviable
+position of _m�kak�_.
+
+A law which has recently been promulgated strikes at the root of this
+evil, and, if enforced, will in course of time go far toward extirpating
+it. Henceforth in Japan, no child of a concubine, or of adoption from
+any source, can inherit a noble title. The heir to the throne must
+hereafter be the son, not only of the Emperor, but of the Empress, or
+the succession passes to some collateral branch of the family. This law
+does not apply to Prince Haru, the present heir to the throne, as,
+although he is not the son of the Empress, he was legally adopted
+before the promulgation of the law; but should he die, it will apply to
+all future heirs.
+
+That public opinion is moving in the right direction is shown by the
+fact that the young men of the higher classes do not care to marry the
+daughters of _m�kak�_, be they ever so legally adopted by their own
+fathers. When the girls born of such unions become a drug in the
+matrimonial market, and the boys are unable to keep up the succession,
+the _m�kak�_ will go out of fashion, and the real wife will once more
+assume her proper importance.[20]
+
+[20] It is worth while to mention in this connection the noteworthy
+efforts made by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Japan in
+calling the attention of the public to this custom, and in arousing
+public sentiment in favor of legislation against not only this system,
+but against the licensed houses of prostitution. Though there has not
+yet been any practical result, much discussion has ensued in the
+newspapers and magazines, lectures have been given, and much strong
+feeling aroused, which may, before long, produce radical change.
+
+Upon the 11th day of February, 1889, the day on which the Emperor, by
+his own act in giving a constitution to the people, limited his own
+power for the sake of putting his nation upon a level with the most
+civilized nations of the earth, he at the same time, and for the first
+time, publicly placed his wife upon his own level. In an imperial
+progress made through the streets of T[=o]ky[=o], the Emperor and
+Empress, for the first time in the history of Japan, rode together in
+the imperial coach.[*115] Until then, the Emperor, attended by his chief
+gentlemen-in-waiting and his guards, had always headed the procession,
+while the Empress must follow at a distance with her own attendants.
+That this act on the part of the Emperor signifies the beginning of a
+new and better era for the women of Japan, we cannot but hope; for until
+the position of the wife and mother in Japan is improved and made
+secure, little permanence can be expected in the progress of the nation
+toward what is best and highest in the Western civilization. Better
+laws, broader education for the women, a change in public opinion on the
+subject, caused by the study, by the men educated abroad, of the homes
+of Europe and America,--these are the forces which alone can bring the
+women of Japan up to that place in the home which their intellectual and
+moral qualities fit them to fill. That Japan is infinitely ahead of
+other Oriental countries in her practices in this matter is greatly to
+her credit; but that she is far behind the civilized nations of Europe
+and America, not only in practice but in theory, is a fact that is
+incontestable, and a fact that, unless changed, must sooner or later be
+a stumbling-block in the path of her progress toward the highest
+civilization of which she is capable.[21] The European practice cannot
+be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the change in the home must be a
+radical one, to secure permanent good results. As long as the wife has
+no rights which the husband is bound to respect, no great advance can
+be made, for human nature is too mean and selfish to give in all cases
+to those who are entirely unprotected by law, and entirely unable to
+protect themselves, those things which the moral nature declares to be
+their due. In the old slave times in the South, many of the negroes were
+better fed, better cared for, and happier than they are to-day; but they
+were nevertheless at the mercy of men who too often thought only of
+themselves, and not of the human bodies and souls over which they had
+unlimited power. It was a condition of things that could not be
+prevented by educating the masters so as to induce them to be kind to
+their slaves; it was a condition that was wrong in theory, and so could
+not be righted in practice. In the same way the position of the Japanese
+wife is wrong in theory, and can never be righted until legislation has
+given to her rights which it still denies. Education will but aggravate
+the trouble to a point beyond endurance. The giving to the wife power to
+obtain a divorce will not help much, but simply tend to weaken still
+further the marriage tie. Nothing can help surely and permanently but
+the growth of a sound public opinion, in regard to the position of the
+wife, that will, sooner or later, have its effect upon the laws of the
+country. Legislation once effected, all the rest will come, and the
+wife, secure in her home and her children, will be at the point where
+her new education can be of use to her in the administration of her
+domestic affairs and the training of her children; and where she will
+finally become the friend and companion of her husband, instead of his
+mere waitress, seamstress, and housekeeper,--the plaything of his
+leisure moments, too often the victim of his caprices.
+
+[21] Many of the thinking men of Japan, though fully recognizing the
+injustice of the present position of woman in society, and the necessity
+of reform in the marriage and divorce laws, refuse to see the importance
+of any movement to change them. Their excuse is, that such power in the
+hands of the husband over his wife might be abused, but that in fact it
+is not. Wrongs and injustice are rare, they argue, and kind treatment,
+affection, and even respect for the wife is the general rule; and that
+the keeping of the power in the hands of the husband is better than
+giving too much freedom to women who are without education. These men
+wish to wait until every woman is educated, before acting in a reform
+movement, while many conservatives oppose the new system of education
+for girls as making them unwomanly. Between these two parties, the few
+who really wish for a change are utterly unable to act.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLD AGE.
+
+
+No Japanese woman is ashamed to show that she is getting along in years,
+but all take pains that every detail of the dress and coiffure shall
+show the full age of the wearer. The baby girl is dressed in the
+brightest of colors and the largest of patterns, and looks like a gay
+butterfly or tropical bird. As she grows older, colors become quieter,
+figures smaller, stripes narrower, until in old age she becomes a little
+gray moth or plain-colored sparrow. By the sophisticated eye, a woman's
+age can be told with considerable accuracy by the various little things
+about her costume,[22] and no woman cares to appear younger than her
+real age, or hesitates to tell with entire frankness the number of years
+that have passed over her head.
+
+[22] Children wear their hair on top of their heads while very young,
+and the manner of arranging it is one of the distinctive marks of the
+age of the child. The _marumag�_, the style of headdress of married
+ladies, consisting of a large puff of hair on the top of the head,
+diminishes in size with the age of the wearer until, at sixty or
+seventy, it is not more than a few inches in width. The number, size,
+and variety of ornamental hairpins, and the tortoise-shell comb worn in
+front, all vary with the age.
+
+The reason for this lies, at least in part, in the fact that every woman
+looks forward to the period of old age as the time when she will attain
+freedom from her life-long service to those about her,--will be in the
+position of adviser of her sons, and director of her daughters-in-law;
+will be a person of much consideration in the family, privileged to
+amuse herself in various ways, to speak her own mind on most subjects,
+and to be waited upon and cared for by children and grandchildren, in
+return for her long years of faithful service in the household. Should
+her sight and other bodily powers remain good, she will doubtless
+perform many light tasks for the general good, will seldom sit idle by
+herself, but will help about the sewing and mending, the marketing,
+shopping, housework, and care of the babies, tell stories to her
+grandchildren after their lessons are learned, give the benefit of her
+years of experience to the young people who are still bearing the heat
+and burden of the day, and, by her prayers and visits to the temple at
+stated seasons, will secure the favor of the gods for the whole family,
+as well as make her own preparations for entry into the great unknown
+toward which she is rapidly drifting. Is there wonder that the young
+wife, steering her course with difficulty among the many shoals and
+whirlpools of early married life, looks forward with anticipation to the
+period of comparative rest and security that comes at the end of the
+voyage? As she bears all things, endures all things, suffers long, and
+is kind, as she serves her mother-in-law, manages her husband's
+household, cares for her babies, the thought that cheers and encourages
+her in her busy and not too happy life is the thought of the sunny calm
+of old age, when she can lay her burdens and cares on younger shoulders,
+and bask in the warmth and sunshine which this Indian Summer of her life
+will bring to her.
+
+In the code of morals of the Japanese, obedience to father, husband, or
+son is exalted into the chief womanly virtue, but the obedience and
+respect of children, both male and female, to their parents, also
+occupies a prominent position in their ethical system. Hence, in this
+latter stage of a woman's career, the obedience expected of her is
+often only nominal, and in any case is not so absolute and unquestioning
+as that of the early period; and the consideration and respect that a
+son is bound to show to his mother necessitates a care of her comfort,
+and a consultation of her wishes, that renders her position one of much
+greater freedom than can be obtained by any woman earlier in life. She
+has, besides, reached an age when she is not expected to remain at home,
+and she may go out into the streets, to the theatre, or other shows,
+without the least restraint or fear of losing her dignity.
+
+A Japanese woman loses her beauty early. At thirty-five her fresh color
+is usually entirely gone, her eyes have begun to sink a little in their
+sockets, her youthful roundness and symmetry of figure have given place
+to an absolute leanness, her abundant black hair has grown thin, and
+much care and anxiety have given her face a pathetic expression of quiet
+endurance. One seldom sees a face that indicates a soured temper or a
+cross disposition, but the lines that show themselves as the years go by
+are lines that indicate suffering and disappointment, patiently and
+sweetly borne. The lips never forget to smile; the voice remains always
+cheerful and sympathetic, never grows peevish and worried, as is too
+often the case with overworked or disappointed women in this country.
+But youth with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its ambitions, gives
+way to age with its peaceful waiting for the end, with only a brief
+struggle for its place; and the woman of thirty-five is just at the
+point when she has bid good-by to her youth, and, having little to hope
+for in her middle life, is doing her work faithfully, and looking
+forward to an old age of privilege and authority, the mistress of her
+son's house, and the ruler of the little domain of home.
+
+But I have spoken so far only of those happy women whose sons grow to
+maturity, and who manage to evade the dangerous reefs of divorce upon
+which so many lives are shipwrecked. What becomes of the hundreds who
+have no children to rise up and call them blessed, but who have in old
+age to live as dependents upon their brothers or nephews? Even these,
+who in this country often lead hard and unrewarded lives of toil among
+their happier relatives, find in old age a pleasanter lot than that of
+youth. Many such old ladies I have met, whose short hair or shaven heads
+proclaim to all who see them that the sorrow of widowhood has taken from
+them the joy that falls to other women, but whose cheerful, wrinkled
+faces and happy, childlike ways have given one a feeling of pleasure
+that the sorrow is past, and peace and rest have come to their declining
+years. Fulfilling what little household tasks they can, respected and
+self-respecting members of the household, the _O B[)a] San_, or Aunty,
+is not far removed in the honor and affection of the children from the
+_O B[=a] San_, or Grandma, but both alike find a peaceful shelter in the
+homes of those nearest and dearest to them.
+
+One of the happiest old ladies I have ever seen was one who had had a
+rough and stormy life. The mother of many children, most of whom had
+died in infancy, she was at last left childless and a widow. In her
+children's death the last tie that bound her to her husband's family was
+broken, and, rather than be a burden to them, she made her home for many
+years with her own younger brother, taking up again the many cares and
+duties of a mother's life in sharing with the mother the bringing up of
+a large family of children. One by one, from the oldest to the youngest,
+each has learned to love the old aunty, to be lulled asleep on her back,
+and to go to her in trouble when mother's hands were too full of work.
+Many the caress received, the drives and walks enjoyed in her company,
+the toys and candies that came out unexpectedly from the depths of
+mysterious drawers, to comfort many an hour of childish grief. That was
+years ago, and the old aunty's hard times are nearly over. Hale and
+hearty at three-score years and ten, she has seen these children grow up
+one by one, until now some have gone to new homes of their own. Her bent
+form and wrinkled face are ever welcome to her children,--hers by the
+right of years of patient care and toil for them. They now, in their
+turn, enjoy giving her pleasure, and return to her all the love she has
+lavished upon them. It is a joy to see her childlike pride and
+confidence in them all, and to know that they have filled the place left
+vacant by the dead with whom had died all her hopes of earthly
+happiness.
+
+The old women of Japan,--how their withered faces, bent frames, and
+shrunken, yellow hands abide in one's memory! One seldom sees among them
+what we would call beauty, for the almost universal shrinking with age
+that takes place among the Japanese covers the face with multitudinous
+wrinkles, and produces the effect of a withered russet apple; for the
+skin, which in youth is usually brightened by red cheeks and glossy
+black hair, in old age, when color leaves cheek and hair, has a
+curiously yellow and parchment-like look. But with all their wrinkles
+and ugliness, there is a peculiar charm about the old women of Japan.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], when the grass grows long upon your lawn, and you send
+to the gardener to come and cut it, no boy with patent lawn-mower, nor
+stalwart countryman with scythe and sickle, answers your summons, but
+some morning you awake to find your lawn covered with old women. The
+much-washed cotton garments are faded to a light blue, the exact match
+of the light blue cotton towels in which their heads are swathed, and on
+hands and knees, each armed with an enormous pair of shears, the old
+ladies clip and chatter cheerfully all day long, until the lawn is as
+smooth as velvet under their careful cutting. An occasional rest under a
+tree, for pipes and tea, is the time for much cheerful talk and gossip;
+but the work, though done slowly and with due attention to the comfort
+of the worker, is well done, and certainly accomplished as rapidly as
+any one could expect of laborers who earn only from eight to twelve
+cents a day. Another employment for this same class of laborers is the
+picking of moss and grass from the crevices of the great walls that
+inclose the moats and embankments of the capital. Mounted on little
+ladders, they pick and scrape with knives until the wall is clear and
+fresh, with no insidious growth to push the great uncemented stones out
+of their places.
+
+In contrast with these humble but cheerful toilers may be mentioned
+another class of women, often met with in the great cities. Dressed in
+rags and with covered heads and faces, they wander about the streets
+playing the _samisen_ outside the latticed windows, and singing with
+cracked voices some wailing melody. As they go from house to house,
+gaining a miserable pittance by their weird music, they seem the
+embodiment of all that is hopeless and broken-hearted. What they are or
+whence they come, I know not, but they always remind me of the
+grasshopper in the fable, who danced and sang through the brief summer,
+to come, wailing and wretched, seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor
+when at last the winter closed in upon her.
+
+As one rides about the streets, one often sees a little, white-haired
+old woman trotting about with a yoke over her shoulders from which are
+suspended two swinging baskets, filled with fresh vegetables. The fact
+that her hair is still growing to its natural length shows that she is
+still a wife and not a widow; her worn and patched blue cotton clothes,
+bleached light from much washing, show that extreme poverty is her lot
+in life; and as she hobbles along with the gait peculiar to those who
+carry a yoke, my thoughts are busy with her home, which, though poor and
+small, is doubtless clean and comfortable, but my eye follows her
+through the city's crowd, where laborer, soldier, student, and high
+official jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I see her pause before
+the gateway of a temple. She sets her burden down, and there in the
+midst of the bustling throng, with bowed head, folded hands, and moving
+lips, she invokes her god, snatching this moment from her busy life to
+seek a blessing for herself and her dear ones. The throng moves busily
+on, making a little eddy around the burden she has laid down, but paying
+no heed to the devout little figure standing there; then in a moment the
+prayer is finished; she stoops, picks up her yoke, balances it on her
+shoulders, and moves on with the crowd, to do her share while her
+strength lasts, and to be cared for tenderly, I doubt not, by children
+and children's children when her work is done.
+
+Another picture comes to me, too, a picture of one whose memory is an
+inspiring thought to the many who have the honor to call her "mother." A
+stately old lady, left a widow many years ago, before the recent changes
+had wrought havoc preparatory to further progress, she seemed always to
+me the model of a mother of the old school. Herself a woman of thorough
+classical education, her example and teaching were to both sons and
+daughters a constant inspiration; and in her old age she found herself
+the honored head of a family well known in the arts of war and peace, a
+goodly company of sons and daughters, every one of them heirs of her
+spirit and of her intellect. Though conservative herself, and always
+clinging to the old customs, she put no block in the path of her
+children's progress, and her fine character, heroic spirit, and stanch
+loyalty to what she believed were worth more to her children than
+anything else could have been. Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by
+danger and sufferings of all kinds, to her was given at last an old age
+of prosperity among children of whom she might well be proud. Keeping
+her physical vigor to the end, and dying at last, after an illness of
+only two days, her spirit passed out into the great unknown, ready to
+meet its dangers as bravely as she had met those of earth, or to enjoy
+its rest as sweetly and appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of her
+old age in the house of her oldest son.
+
+My acquaintance with her was limited by our lack of common language, but
+was a most admiring and appreciative one on my side; and I esteem it one
+of the chief honors of my stay in Japan, that upon my last meeting with
+her, two weeks before her death, she gave me her wrinkled but still
+beautiful and delicately shaped hand at parting,--a deference to foreign
+customs that she only paid upon special occasions.
+
+Two weeks later, amid such rain as Japanese skies know all too well how
+to let fall, I attended her funeral at the cemetery of Aoyama. The
+cemetery chapel was crowded, but a place was reserved for me, on account
+of special ties that bound me to the family, just behind the long line
+of white-robed mourners. In the Buddhist faith she had lived, and by the
+Buddhist ceremonial she was buried,--the chanted ritual, the gorgeously
+robed priests, and the heavy smell of incense in the air reminding one
+of a Roman Catholic ceremony. The white wooden coffin was placed upon a
+bier at the entrance to the chapel, and when the priests had done their
+work, and the ecclesiastical ceremony was over, the relatives arose, one
+by one, walked over to the coffin, bowed low before it, and placed a
+grain of incense upon the little censer that stood on a table before
+the bier, then, bowing again, retired to their places. Slowly and
+solemnly, from the tall soldier son, his hair already streaked with
+gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all paid this last token of
+respect to a noble spirit; and after the relatives the guests, each in
+the order of rank or nearness to the deceased, stepped forward and
+performed the same ceremony before leaving the room. What the meaning of
+the rite was, I did not know, whether a worship of strange gods or no;
+but to me, as I performed the act, it only signified the honor in which
+I held the memory of a heroic woman who had done well her part in the
+world according to the light that God had given her.
+
+Japanese art loves to picture the old woman with her kindly, wrinkled
+face, leaving out no wrinkle of them all, but giving with equal
+truthfulness the charm of expression that one finds in them. Long life
+is desired by all as passionately as by ancient Hebrew poet and
+psalmist, and with good reason, for only by long life can a woman attain
+the greatest honor and happiness. We often exclaim in impatience at the
+thought of the weakness and dependence of old age, and pray that we may
+die in the fullness of our powers, before the decay of advancing years
+has made us a burden upon our friends. But in Japan, dependence is the
+lot of woman, and the dependence of old age is that which is most
+respected and considered. An aged parent is never a burden, is treated
+by all with the greatest love and tenderness; and if times are hard, and
+food and other comforts are scarce, the children, as a matter of course,
+deprive themselves and their children to give ungrudgingly to their old
+father and mother. Faults there are many in the Japanese social system,
+but ingratitude to parents, or disrespect to the aged, must not be named
+among them; and Young America may learn a salutary lesson by the study
+of the place that old people occupy in the home.
+
+It is not only for the women of Japan, but for the men as well, that old
+age is a time of peace and happiness. When a man reaches the age of
+fifty or thereabouts, often while apparently in the height of his vigor,
+he gives up his work or business and retires, leaving all the property
+and income to the care of his eldest son, upon whom he becomes entirely
+dependent for his support.[23] This support is never begrudged him, for
+the care of parents by their children is as much a matter of course in
+Japan as the care of children by those who give them birth. A man thus
+rarely makes provision for the future, and looks with scorn on foreign
+customs which seem to betoken a fear lest, in old age, ungrateful
+children may neglect their parents and cast them aside. The feeling, so
+strong in America, that dependence is of itself irksome and a thing to
+be dreaded, is altogether strange to the Japanese mind. The married son
+does not care to take his wife to a new and independent home of his own,
+and to support her and her children by his own labor or on his own
+income, but he takes her to his father's house, and thinks it no shame
+that his family live upon his parents. But in return, when the parents
+wish to retire from active life, the son takes upon himself ungrudgingly
+the burden of their support, and the bread of dependence is never
+bitter to the parents' lips, for it is given freely. To the time-honored
+European belief, that a young man must be independent and enterprising
+in early life in order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will answer
+that children in Japan are taught to love their parents rather than ease
+and luxury, and that care for the future is not the necessity that it is
+in Europe and America, where money is above everything else,--even
+filial love. This habit of thought may account for the utter want of
+provision for the future, and the disregard for things pertaining to the
+accumulation of wealth, which often strikes curiously the foreigner in
+Japan. A Japanese considers his provision for the future made when he
+has brought up and educated for usefulness a large family of children.
+He invests his capital in their support and education, secure of
+bountiful returns in their gratitude and care for his old age. It is
+hard for the men of old Japan to understand the rush and struggle for
+riches in America,--a struggle that too often leaves not a pause for
+rest or quiet pleasure until sickness or death overtakes the
+indefatigable worker. The _go inkyo_[24] of Japan is glad enough to lay
+down early in life the cares of the world, to have a few years of calm
+and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities or cares for outside matters.
+If he be an artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted, spend his days with
+his beloved art. If he is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole
+afternoons that he may devote to this �sthetic repast; and even if he
+has none of these higher tastes, he will always have congenial friends
+who are ready to share the _sak�_ bottle, to join in a quiet smoke over
+the _hibachi_, or to play the deep-engrossing game of _go_, or _shogi_,
+the Japanese chess. To the Japanese mind, to be in the company of a few
+kindred souls, to spend the long hours of a summer's afternoon at the
+ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and conversing in a leisurely manner
+on various subjects, is an enjoyment second to none. A cultivated
+Japanese of the old times must receive an education fitting him
+especially for such pursuits. At these meetings of friends,
+artistically or poetically inclined, the time is spent in making poems
+and exchanging wittily turned sentiments, to be read, commented on, and
+responded to; or in the making of drawings, with a few bold strokes of
+the brush, in illustration of some subject given out. Such enjoyments as
+these, the Japanese believe, cannot be appreciated or even understood by
+the practical, rush-ahead American, the product of the wonderful but
+material civilization of the West.
+
+[23] It is this custom of going into early retirement that made it
+possible for the nobles in old times to keep the Emperor always a child.
+The ruling Emperor would be induced to retire from the throne at the age
+of sixteen or twenty; thus making room for some baby, who would be in
+his turn the puppet of his ambitious courtiers.
+
+[24] _Go Inkyo Sama_ is the title belonging to a retired old gentleman
+or old lady. _Inkyo_ is the name of the house or suite of rooms set
+apart for such a person, and the title itself is made up of this word
+with the Chinese honorific _go_ and the title _Sama_, the same as _San_,
+used in addressing all persons except inferiors.
+
+Thus, amid enjoyments and easy labors suited to their closing years, the
+elder couple spend their days with the young people, cared for and
+protected by them. Sometimes there will be a separate suite of rooms
+provided for them; sometimes a little house away from the noises of the
+household, and separated from the main building by a well-kept little
+garden. In any case, as long as they live they will spend their days in
+quiet and peace; and it is to this haven, the _inkyo_, that all Japanese
+look forward, as to the time when they may carry out their own
+inclinations and tastes with an income provided for the rest of their
+days.[*137]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+COURT LIFE.
+
+
+The court of the Emperor was, in the early ages of Japan, the centre of
+whatever culture and refinement the country could boast, and the
+emperors themselves took an active part in the promotion of
+civilization. The earliest history of Japan is so wrapped in the mists
+of legend and tradition that only here and there do we get glimpses of
+heroic figures,--leaders in those early days. Demigods they seem,
+children of Heaven, receiving from Heaven by special revelation the
+wisdom or strength by means of which they conquered their enemies, or
+gave to their subjects new arts and better laws. The traditional
+emperors, the early descendants of the great Jimmu Tenno,[25] seem to
+have been merely conquering chieftains, who by virtue of their descent
+were regarded as divine, but who lived the simple, hardy life of the
+savage king, surrounded by wives and concubines, done homage to by armed
+retainers and subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and moving in and
+out among the soldiers, not in the least retired into the mysterious
+solitude which in later days enveloped the Son of the Gods. The first
+emperors ruled not only by divine right, but by personal force and
+valor; and the stories of the valiant deeds of these early rulers kept
+strong the faith of the people in the divine qualities of the imperial
+house during the hundreds of years when the Emperor was a mere puppet in
+the hands of ambitious and powerful nobles.
+
+[25] The Japanese claim for their present Emperor direct descent from
+Jimmu Tenno, the Son of the Gods; and it is for this reason that the
+Emperor is supposed to be divine, and the representative of the gods on
+the earth. The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since Jimmu
+Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however, be said in connection
+with this statement, that the Japanese family is a much looser
+organization than that known to our Western civilization, on account of
+the customs of concubinage and adoption, and that descent through family
+lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood.
+
+Towards the end of this legendary period, a figure comes into view that
+for heroic qualities cannot be excelled in the annals of any
+nation,--Jingo K[=o]g[=o], the conqueror of Corea, who alone, among the
+nine female rulers of Japan, has made an era in the national history.
+She seems to have been from the beginning, like Jeanne D'Arc, a hearer
+of divine voices; and through her was conveyed to her unbelieving
+husband a divine command, to take ship and sail westward to the conquest
+of an unknown land. Her husband questioned the authenticity of the
+message, took the earthly and practical view that, as there was no land
+to be seen in the westward, there could be no land there, and refused to
+organize any expedition in fulfillment of the command; but for his
+unbelief was sternly told that he should never see the land, but that
+his wife should conquer it for the son whom she should bear after the
+father's death. This message from the gods was fulfilled. The Emperor
+died in battle shortly after, and the Empress, after suppressing the
+rebellion in which her husband had been killed, proceeded to organize an
+expedition for the conquest of the unknown land beyond the western sea.
+By as many signs as those required by Gideon to assure himself of his
+divine mission, the Empress tested the call that had come to her, but at
+last, satisfied that the voices were from Heaven, she gave her orders
+for the collection of troops and the building of a navy. I quote from
+Griffis the inspiring words with which she addressed her generals: "The
+safety or destruction of our country depends upon this enterprise. I
+intrust the details to you. It will be your fault if they are not
+carried out. I am a woman and young. I shall disguise myself as a man,
+and undertake this gallant expedition, trusting to the gods and to my
+troops and captains. We shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory is
+yours, if we succeed; if we fail, the guilt and disgrace shall be mine."
+What wonder that her captains responded to such an appeal, and that the
+work of recruiting and shipbuilding began with a will! It was a long
+preparation that was required--sometimes, to the impatient woman, it
+seemed unnecessarily slow--but by continual prayer and offerings she
+appealed to the gods for aid; and at last all was ready, and the brave
+array of ships set sail for the unknown shore, the Empress feeling
+within her the new inspiration of hope for her babe as yet unborn.
+Heaven smiled upon them from the start. The clearest of skies, the most
+favoring of breezes, the smoothest of seas, favored the god-sent
+expedition; and tradition says that even the fishes swarmed in shoals
+about their keels, and carried them on to their desired haven. The fleet
+ran safely across to southern Corea, but instead of finding battles and
+struggles awaiting them, the king of the country met them on the beach
+to receive and tender allegiance to the invaders, whose unexpected
+appearance from the unexplored East had led the natives to believe that
+their gods had forsaken them. The expedition returned laden with vast
+wealth, not the spoil of battle, but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless
+victory; and from that time forward Japan, through Corea, and later by
+direct contact with China itself, began to receive and assimilate the
+civilization, arts, and religions of China. Thus through a woman Japan
+received the start along the line of progress which made her what she is
+to-day, for the sequel of Jingo K[=o]g[=o]'s Corean expedition was the
+introduction of almost everything which we regard as peculiar to
+civilized countries. With characteristic belittling of the woman and
+exalting of the man, the whole martial career of the Empress is
+ascribed to the influence of her son as yet unborn,--a son who by his
+valor and prowess has secured for his deified spirit the position of God
+of War in the Japanese pantheon. We should say that pre-natal influences
+and heredity produced the heroic son; the Japanese reason from the other
+end, and show that all the noble qualities of the mother were produced
+by the influence of the unborn babe.
+
+With the introduction of literature, art, and Buddhism, a change took
+place in the relations of the court to the people. About the Emperor's
+throne there gathered not only soldiers and governors, but the learned,
+the accomplished, the witty, the artistic, who found in the Emperor and
+the court nobles munificent patrons by whom they were supported, and
+before whom they laid whatever pearls they were able to produce. The new
+culture sought not the clash of arms and the shout of soldiers, but the
+quiet and refinement of palaces and gardens far removed from the noise
+and clamor of the world. And while emperors sought to encourage the new
+learning and civilization, and to soften the warlike qualities of the
+people about them, there was a frontier along which the savages still
+made raids into the territory which the Japanese had wrested from them,
+and which it required a strong arm and a quick hand to guard for the
+defense of the people. But the Emperor gradually gave up the personal
+leadership in war, and passed the duty of defending the nation into the
+hands of one or another of the great noble families. The nobles were not
+by any means slow to see the advantage to be gained for themselves by
+the possession of the military power in an age when might made right,
+even more than it does to-day, and when force, used judiciously and with
+proper deference to the prejudices of the people, could be made to give
+to its possessor power even over the Emperor himself. And so gradually,
+in the pursuit of the new culture and the new religion, the emperors
+withdrew themselves more and more into seclusion, and the court became a
+little world in itself,--a centre of culture and refinement into which
+few excitements of war or politics ever came. While the great nobles
+wrangled for the possession of the power, schemed and fought and turned
+the nation upside down; while the heroes of the country rose, lived,
+fought, and died,--the Emperor, amid his ladies and his courtiers, his
+priests and his literary men, spent his life in a world of his own;
+thinking more of this pair of bright eyes, that new and charming poem,
+the other witty saying of those about him, than of the kingdom that he
+ruled by divine right; and retiring, after ten years or so of puppet
+kinghood, from the seclusion of his court to the deeper seclusion of
+some Buddhist monastery.
+
+Within the sacred precincts of the court, much time was given to such
+games and pastimes as were not too rude or noisy for the refinement that
+the new culture brought with it. Polo, football, hunting with falcons,
+archery, etc., were exercises not unworthy of even the most refined of
+gentlemen, and certain noble families were trained hereditarily in the
+execution of certain stately, antique dances, many of them of Chinese or
+Corean origin. The ladies, in trailing garments and with flowing hair,
+reaching often below the knees, played a not inconspicuous part, not
+only because of their beauty and grace, but for their quickness of wit,
+their learning in the classics, their skill in repartee, and their
+quaint fancies, which they embodied in poetic form.[26]
+
+[26] In ancient times, before the long civil wars of the Middle Ages,
+much attention was given by both men and women to poetry, and many of
+the classics of Japanese literature are the works of women. Among these
+distinguished writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu, Seish[=o] Nagon,
+and Is�no Taiyu, all court ladies in the time of the Emperor Ichij[=o]
+(about 1000 A. D.). The court at that time was the centre of learning,
+and much encouragement was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits,
+the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gathered around him
+talented men and women, but the great works that remain are, strange to
+say, mostly those of women.
+
+Much attention was given to that harmony of art with nature that the
+Japanese taste makes the _sine qua non_ of all true artistic effort. The
+gorgeously embroidered gowns must change with the changing season, so
+that the cherry succeeds the plum, the wistaria the cherry, and so on
+through the whole calendar of flowers, upon the silken robes of the
+court, as regularly as in the garden that graces the palace grounds. And
+so with the confectionery, which in Japan is made in dainty imitation of
+flowers and fruits. The chrysanthemum blooms in sugar no earlier than
+on its own stalk; the little golden orange, with its dark green leaves,
+is on the confectioner's list in winter, when the real orange is yellow
+on its tree. The very decorations of the palace must be changed with the
+changing of the months; and _kak�mono_ and vase are alternately stored
+in the _kura_ and brought out to decorate the room, according as their
+designs seem in harmony with the mood of Nature. This effort to
+harmonize Nature and Art is seen to-day, not only in the splendid
+furnishings of the court, but all through the decorative art of Japan.
+In every house the decorations are changed to suit the changing seasons.
+
+Through the years when Japan was adopting the civilization of China, a
+danger threatened the nation,--the same danger that threatens it to-day:
+it was the danger lest the adoption of so much that was foreign should
+result in a servile copying of all that was not Japanese, and lest the
+introduction of literature, art, and numerous hitherto unknown luxuries
+should take from the people their independence, patriotism, and
+manliness. But this result was happily avoided; and at a time when the
+language was in danger of being swept almost out of existence by the
+introduction of Chinese learning through Chinese letters, the women of
+Japan, not only in their homes and conversation, but in the poetry and
+lighter literature of the country, preserved a strain of pure and
+graceful Japanese, and produced some of the standard works of a
+distinctly national literature. Favor at court to-day, as in the olden
+times, is the reward, not of mere rank, beauty, and grace of person, but
+must be obtained through the same intellectual endowments, polished by
+years of education, that made so many women famous in the medi�val
+history of Japan. Many court ladies have read much of their national
+literature, so that they are able to appreciate the _bonmots_ which
+contain allusions in many cases to old poems, or plays on words; and are
+able to write and present to others, at fitting times, those graceful
+but untranslatable turns of phrase which form the bulk of Japanese
+poetry.[27] Even in this busy era of M�iji,[28] the Emperor and his
+court keep up the old-time customs, and strive to promote a love of the
+beautiful poetry of Japan. At each New Year some subject appropriate to
+the time is chosen and publicly announced. Poems may be written upon
+this subject by any one in the whole realm, and may be sent to the
+palace before a certain date fixed as the time for closing the list of
+competitors. All the poems thus sent are examined by competent judges,
+who select the best five and send them to the Emperor, an honor more
+desired by the writers than the most favorable of reviews or the largest
+of emoluments are desired by American poets. Many of the other poems are
+published in the newspapers. It is interesting to note that many of the
+prominent men and women of the country are known as competitors, and
+that many of the court ladies join in the contest.
+
+[27] The court ladies in immediate contact with the Emperor and Empress
+are selected from the daughters of the nobles. Only in the present reign
+have a few samurai women risen to high positions at court on account of
+special talents.
+
+[28] _M�iji_ (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that began with
+the present Emperor's accession to the throne. The year A. D. 1890 is
+the twenty-third year of M�iji, and would be so designated in all
+Japanese dates.
+
+There are also, at the palace, frequent meetings of the poets and lovers
+of poetry connected with the court. At these meetings poems are
+composed for the entertainment of the Emperor and Empress, as well as
+for the amusement of the poets themselves.
+
+In the school recently established for the daughters of the nobles,
+under the charge of the imperial household, much attention is given to
+the work of thoroughly grounding the scholars in the Japanese language
+and literature, and also to making them skillful in the art of composing
+poetry. At the head of the school, in the highest position held by any
+woman in the employ of the government, is a former court lady, who is
+second to none in the kingdom, not only in her knowledge of all that
+belongs to court etiquette, but in her study of the history and
+literature of her own people, and in her skill in the composition of
+these dainty poems. A year or two ago, when one of the scholars in the
+school died after a brief decline, her schoolmates, teachers, and school
+friends wrote poems upon her death, which they sent to the bereaved
+parents.
+
+It is difficult for any Japanese, much more so for a foreigner, to
+penetrate into the seclusion of the palace and see anything of the life
+there, except what is shown to the public in the occasional
+entertainments given at court, such as formal receptions and dinner
+parties. In 1889, the new palace, built on the site of the old Tokugawa
+Castle, burnt seventeen years ago, was finally completed; and it was my
+privilege to see, before the removal of the court, not only the grand
+reception rooms, throne-room, and dining-room, but also the private
+apartments of the Emperor and Empress. The palace is built in Japanese
+style, surrounded by the old castle moats, but there are many foreign
+additions to the palace and grounds. It is heated and lighted in foreign
+style, and the larger rooms are all furnished after the magnificent
+manner of European palaces; while the lacquer work, carvings, and
+gorgeous paneled ceilings remind one of the finest of Japanese temples.
+The private apartments of the Emperor and Empress are, on the other
+hand, most simple, and in thorough Japanese style; and though the
+woodwork and polished floors of the corridors are very beautiful, the
+paintings and lacquer work most exquisite, there is little in this
+simplicity to denote the abode of royalty. It seems that their
+majesties, though outwardly conforming to many European customs, and to
+the European manner of dress, prefer to live in Japanese ways, on
+matted, not carpeted floors, reposing on them rather than on chairs and
+bedsteads.[*152]
+
+Their apartments are not large; each suite consisting of three rooms
+opening out of each other, the Empress's rooms being slightly smaller
+than the Emperor's, and those of the young Prince Haru, the heir
+apparent, again a little smaller. The young prince has a residence of
+his own, and it is only on his visits that he occupies his apartments in
+his father's palace. There are also rooms for the Empress dowager to
+occupy on her occasional visits. All of these apartments are quite close
+together in one part of the palace, and are connected by halls; but the
+private rooms of the court ladies are in an entirely separate place,
+quite removed, and only connected with the main building by a long,
+narrow passageway, running through the garden. There, in the rooms
+assigned to them, each one has her own private establishment, where she
+stays when she is not on duty in attendance on the Emperor and Empress.
+Each lady has her own servants, and sometimes a younger sister or a
+dependent may be living there with her, though they are entirely
+separate from the court and the life there, and must never be seen in
+any of the other parts of the building. In these rooms, which are like
+little homes in themselves, cooking and housekeeping are done, entirely
+independent of the other parts of the great palace; and the tradesmen
+find their way through some back gate to these little establishments,
+supplying them with all the necessaries of life, as well as the
+luxuries.
+
+A court lady is a personage of distinction, and lives in comparative
+ease and luxury, with plenty of servants to do all the necessary work.
+Besides her salary, which of course varies with the rank and the duties
+performed, but is always liberal enough to cover the necessary expenses
+of dress, the court lady receives many presents from the Emperor and
+Empress, which make her position one of much luxury.
+
+The etiquette of the imperial household is very complicated and very
+strict, though many of the formalities of the olden times have been
+given up. The court ladies are models of conservatism. In order to be
+trained for the life there and its duties, they usually enter the court
+while mere children of ten or eleven, and serve apprenticeship to the
+older members. In the rigid seclusion of the palace they are strictly,
+almost severely, brought up, and trained in all the details of court
+etiquette. Cut off from all outside influences while young, the little
+court maidens are taught to go through an endless round of formalities
+which they are made to think indispensable. These details of etiquette
+extend not only to all that concerns the imperial household, but to
+curious customs among themselves, and in regard to their own habits.
+Many of these ideas have come down from one generation to another,
+within the narrow limits of the court, so that the life there is a
+curious world in itself, and very unlike that in ordinary Japanese
+homes.
+
+But among all the ladies of Japan to-day,--charming, intellectual,
+refined, and lovely as many of them are,--there is no one nobler, more
+accomplished, more beautiful in life and character, than the Empress
+herself. The Emperor of Japan, though he may have many concubines, may
+have but one wife, and she must be chosen out of one of the five highest
+noble families.[29] Haru Ko, of the noble family of Ichij[=o], became
+Empress in the year 1868, one year after her husband, then a boy of
+seventeen, had ascended the throne, and the very year of the overthrow
+of the Sh[=o]gunate,[30] and the restoration of the Emperor to actual
+power and the leading part in the government. Reared amid the deep and
+scholarly seclusion of the old court at Ky[=o]to, the young Empress
+found herself occupying a position very different from that for which
+she had been educated,--a position the duties and responsibilities of
+which grow more multifarious as the years go by. Instead of a life of
+rigid seclusion, unseeing and unseen, the Empress has had to go forth
+into the world, finding there the pleasures as well as the duties of
+actual leadership. With the removal of the court to T[=o]ky[=o], and the
+reappearance of the Emperor, in bodily form, before his people, there
+came new opportunities for the Empress, and nobly has she used them.
+From the time when, in 1871, she gave audience to the five little girls
+of the samurai class who were just setting forth on a journey to
+America, there to study and fit themselves to play a part in the Japan
+of the future, on through twenty years of change and progress, the
+Empress Haru Ko has done all that lay within her power to advance the
+women of her country.[*157] Many stories are afloat which show the
+lovable character of the woman, and which have given her an abiding
+place in the affections of the people.
+
+[29] The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any branch of the
+imperial family, but from among the daughters of the five of the great
+_kug�_, or court nobles, who are next in rank to the imperial princes.
+The choice usually rests with the Emperor or his advisers, and would be
+naturally given to the most worthy, whether in beauty or accomplishments.
+No doubt one reason why the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor
+is, that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of the
+Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the Emperor could never
+marry, as all men were far beneath them in rank. These usually devoted
+their lives to religion, and as Shint[=o] priestesses or Buddhist nuns
+dwelt in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of cloisters.
+
+[30] Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns were the military rulers of the Tokugawa
+family, who held the power in Japan for a period of two hundred and
+fifty years. They are better known to Americans, perhaps, under the
+title of _Tycoon_ (Great Prince), a name assumed, or rather revived, to
+impress the foreigners when Commodore Perry was negotiating in regard to
+treaties. The Sh[=o]gun held the daimi[=o]s in forced subjection,--a
+subjection that was shaken in 1862, and broken at last in the year 1868,
+when, by the fall of the Sh[=o]gunate, the Emperor was restored to
+direct power over his people.
+
+Some years ago, when the castle in T[=o]ky[=o] was burned, and the
+Emperor and Empress were obliged to take refuge in an old daimi[=o]'s
+house, a place entirely lacking in luxuries and considerably out of
+repair, some one expressed to her the grief that all her people felt,
+that she should have to put up with so many inconveniences. Her response
+was a graceful little poem, in which she said that the narrowness of her
+abode would not limit her love for her people, and that for them she
+would endeavor to explore wisely the unlimited fields of knowledge.
+
+Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwakura, one of the leaders of Japan
+in the early days of the crisis through which the country is still
+passing, lay dying at his home, the Empress sent him word that she was
+coming to visit him. The prince, afraid that he could not do honor to
+such a guest, sent her word back that he was very ill, and unable to
+make proper preparation to entertain an Empress. To this the Empress
+replied that he need make no preparations for her, for she was coming,
+not as an Empress, but as the daughter of Ichij[=o], his old friend and
+colleague, and as such he could receive her. And then, setting aside
+imperial state and etiquette, she visited the dying statesman, and
+brightened his last hours with the thought of how lovely a woman stood
+as an example before the women of his beloved country.
+
+Many of the charities and schools of new Japan are under the Empress's
+special patronage; and this does not mean simply that she allows her
+name to be used in connection with them, but it means that she thinks of
+them, studies them, asks questions about them, and even practices little
+economies that she may have the more money to give to them. There is a
+charity hospital in T[=o]ky[=o], having in connection with it a training
+school for nurses, that is one of the special objects of her care. Last
+year she gave to it, at the end of the year, the savings from her own
+private allowance, and concerning this act an editorial from the "Japan
+Mail" speaks as follows:--
+
+"The life of the Empress of Japan is an unvarying routine of faithful
+duty-doing and earnest charity. The public, indeed, hears with a certain
+listless indifference, engendered by habit, that her Majesty has visited
+this school, or gone round the wards at that hospital. Such incidents
+all seem to fall naturally into the routine of the imperial day's work.
+Yet to the Empress the weariness of long hours spent in classrooms or in
+laboratories, or by the beds of the sick, must soon become quite
+intolerable did she not contrive, out of the goodness of her heart, to
+retain a keen and kindly interest in everything that concerns the
+welfare of her subjects. That her Majesty does feel this interest, and
+that it grows rather than diminishes as the years go by, every one knows
+who has been present on any of the innumerable occasions when the
+promoters of some charity or the directors of some educational
+institution have presented, with merciless precision, all the petty
+details of their projects or organizations for the examination of the
+imperial lady. The latest evidence of her Majesty's benevolence is,
+however, more than usually striking. Since the founding of the T[=o]ky[=o]
+Charity Hospital, where so many poor women and children are treated, the
+Empress has watched the institution closely, has bestowed on it
+patronage of the most active and helpful character, and has contributed
+handsomely to its funds. Little by little the hospital grew, extending
+its sphere of action and enlarging its ministrations, until the need of
+more capacious premises--a need familiar to such undertakings--began to
+be strongly felt. The Empress, knowing this, cast about for some means
+of assisting this project. To practice strict economy in her own
+personal expenses, and to devote whatever money might thus be saved from
+her yearly income to the aid of the hospital, appears to have suggested
+itself to her Majesty as the most feasible method of procedure. The
+result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90 sen, and 8 rin has just been
+handed over to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter and mainstay of the
+hospital, by Viscount Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamberlains. There
+is something picturesque about these sen and rin. They represent an
+account minutely and faithfully kept between her Majesty's unavoidable
+expenses and the benevolent impulse that constantly urged her to curtail
+them. Such gracious acts of sterling effort command admiration and
+love."
+
+Not very long ago, on one of her visits to the hospital, the Empress
+visited the children's ward, and took with her toys, which she gave with
+her own hand to each child there. When we consider that this hospital is
+free to the poorest and lowest person in T[=o]ky[=o], and that twenty
+years ago the persons of the Emperor and Empress were so sacred in the
+eyes of the people that no one but the highest nobles and the near
+officials of the court could come into their presence,--that even these
+high nobles were received at court by the Emperor at a distance of many
+feet, and his face even then could not be seen,--when we think of all
+this, we can begin to appreciate what the Empress Haru has done in
+bridging the distance between herself and her people so that the poorest
+child of a beggar may receive a gift from her hand. In the country
+places to this day, there are peasants who yet believe that no one can
+look on the sacred face of the Emperor and live.
+
+The school for the daughters of the nobles, to which I have before
+referred, is an institution whose welfare the Empress has very closely
+at heart, for she sees the need of rightly combining the new and the old
+in the education of the young girls who will so soon be filling places
+in the court. At the opening of the school the Empress was present, and
+herself made a speech to the scholars; and her visits, at intervals of
+one or two months, show her continued interest in the work that she has
+begun. Upon all state occasions, the scholars, standing with bowed heads
+as if in prayer, sing a little song written for them by the Empress
+herself; and at the graduating exercises, the speeches and addresses are
+listened to by her with the profoundest interest. The best specimens of
+poetry, painting, and composition done by the scholars are sent to the
+palace for her inspection, and some of these are kept by her in her own
+private rooms. When she visits the class-rooms, she does not simply pass
+in and pass out again, as if doing a formal duty, but sits for half an
+hour or so listening intently, and watching the faces of the scholars
+as they recite. In sewing and cooking classes (for the daughters of the
+nobles are taught to sew and cook), she sometimes speaks to the
+scholars, asking them questions. Upon one occasion she observed a young
+princess, a newcomer in the school, working somewhat awkwardly with
+needle and thimble. "The first time, Princess, is it not?" said the
+Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed Princess was obliged to confess
+that this was her first experience with those domestic implements.
+
+Sometimes in her leisure hours--and they are rare in her busy life--the
+Empress amuses herself by receiving the little daughters of some
+imperial prince or nobleman, or even the children of some of the high
+officials. In the kindness of her heart, she takes great pleasure in
+seeing and talking to these little ones, some of whom are intensely awed
+by being in the presence of the Empress, while others, in their
+innocence, ignorant of all etiquette, prattle away unrestrainedly, to
+the great entertainment of the court ladies as well as of the Empress
+herself. These visits always end with some choice toy or gift, which
+the child takes home and keeps among her most valued treasures in
+remembrance of her imperial hostess. In this way the Empress relieves
+the loneliness of the great palace, where the sound of childish voices
+is seldom heard, for the Emperor's children are brought up in separate
+establishments, and only pay occasional visits to the palace, until they
+have passed early childhood.[31]
+
+[31] The Emperor's children are placed, from birth, in the care of some
+noble or high official, who becomes the guardian of the child. Certain
+persons are appointed as attendants, and the child with its retinue
+lives in the establishment of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise
+his judgment and experience in the physical and mental training of the
+child.
+
+The present life of the Empress is not very different from that of
+European royalty. Her carriage and escort are frequently met with in the
+streets of T[=o]ky[=o] as she goes or returns on one of her numerous
+visits of ceremony or beneficence. Policemen keep back the crowds of
+people who always gather to see the imperial carriage, and stand
+respectfully, but without demonstration, while the horsemen carrying the
+imperial insignia, followed closely by the carriages of the Empress and
+her attendants, pass by. The official Gazette announces almost daily
+visits by the Emperor, Empress, or other members of the imperial family,
+to different places of interest,--sometimes to various palaces in
+different parts of T[=o]ky[=o], at other times to schools, charitable
+institutions or exhibitions, as well as occasional visits to the homes
+of high officials or nobles, for which great preparations are made by
+those who have the honor of entertaining their Majesties.
+
+Among the amusements within the palace grounds, one lately introduced,
+and at present in high favor, is that of horseback-riding, an exercise
+hitherto unknown to the ladies of Japan. The Empress and her ladies are
+said to be very fond of this active exercise,--an amusement forming a
+striking contrast to the quiet of former years.
+
+The grounds about the palaces in T[=o]ky[=o] are most beautifully laid
+out and cultivated, but not in that artificial manner, with regular
+flower beds and trees at certain equal distances, which is seen so often
+in the highly cultivated grounds of the rich in this country. The
+landscape gardening of Japan keeps unchanged the wildness and beauty of
+nature, and imitates it closely. The famous flowers, however, are, in
+the imperial gardens, changed by art and cultivated to their highest
+perfection, blooming each season for the enjoyment of the members of the
+court. Especially is attention given to the cultivation of the imperial
+flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum; and some day in November, when this
+flower is in its perfection, the gates of the Akasaka palace are thrown
+open to invited guests, who are received in person by the Emperor and
+Empress. Here the rarest species of this favorite flower, and the oddest
+colors and shapes, the results of much care and cultivation, are
+exhibited in spacious beds, shaded by temporary roofs of bamboo twigs
+and decorated with the imperial flags. This is the great chrysanthemum
+party of the Emperor, and another of similar character is given in the
+spring under the flower-laden boughs of the cherry trees.
+
+In these various ways the Empress shows herself to her people,--a
+gracious and lovely figure, though distant, as she needs must be, from
+common, every-day life. Only by glimpses do the people know her, but
+those glimpses reveal enough to excite the warmest admiration, the most
+tender love. Childless herself, destined to see a child not her own,
+although her husband's, heir to the throne, the Empress devotes her
+lonely and not too happy life to the actual, personal study of the wants
+of daughters of her people, and side by side with Jingo,[32] the
+majestic but shadowy Empress of the past, should be enshrined in the
+hearts of the women of Japan the memory of Haru Ko, the leader of her
+countrywomen into that freer and happier life that is opening to them.
+
+[32] Jingo K[=o]g[=o], like many of the heroic, half mythical figures of
+other nations, has suffered somewhat under the assaults of the modern
+historical criticism. Many of the best Japanese historians deny that she
+conquered Corea; some go so far as to doubt whether she had right to the
+title of Empress; all are sure that much of romance has gathered about
+the figure of this brave woman; but to the mass of the Japanese to-day,
+she is still an actual historic reality, and she represents to them in
+feminine form the Spirit of Japan. Whether she conquered Corea or no,
+she remains the prominent female figure upon the border line where the
+old barbaric life merges into the newer civilization, just as the
+present Empress, Haru Ko, stands upon the border line between the
+Eastern and the Western modes of thought and life.
+
+Each marks the beginning of a new era,--the first, of the era of
+civilization and morality founded upon the teachings of Buddha and
+Confucius; the second, of the civilization and morality that have sprung
+from the teachings of Christ. Buddhism and Confucianism were elevating
+and civilizing, but failed to place the women of Japan upon even as high
+a plane as they had occupied in the old barbaric times. To Christianity
+they must look for the security and happiness which it has never failed
+to give to the wives and mothers of all Christian nations.[*168]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI.[33]
+
+
+The seclusion of the Emperors and the gathering of the reins of
+government into the hands of Sh[=o]guns was a gradual process, beginning
+not long after the introduction of Chinese civilization, and continuing
+to grow until Iy�yas[)u], the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty, through his
+code of laws, took from the Emperor the last vestige of real power, and
+perfected the feudal system which maintained the sway of his house for
+two hundred and fifty years of peace.
+
+[33] _Yashiki_, or spread-out house, was the name given to the palace
+and grounds of a daimi[=o]'s city residence, and also to the barracks
+occupied by his retainers, both in city and country. In the city the
+barracks of the samurai were built as a hollow square, in the centre of
+which stood the palace and grounds of their lord, and this whole place
+was the daimi[=o]'s _yashiki_. In the castle towns the daimi[=o]'s
+palace and gardens stood within the castle inclosure, surrounded by a
+moat, while the _yashikis_ of the samurai were placed without the moat.
+They in turn were separated from the business part of the village
+sometimes by a second or third moat. By life in castle and _yashiki_ we
+mean the life of the daimi[=o], whether in city or country.
+
+The Emperor's court, with its literary and �sthetic quiet, its
+simplicity of life and complexity of etiquette, was the centre of the
+culture and art of Japan, but never the centre of luxury. After the
+growth of the Tokugawa power had secured for that house and its
+retainers great hereditary possessions, the Emperor's court was a mere
+shadow in the presence of the magnificence in which the Tokugawas and
+the daimi[=o]s chose to live. The wealth of the country was in the hands
+of those who held the real power, and the Emperor was dependent for his
+support upon his great vassal, who held the land, collected the taxes,
+made the laws, and gave to his master whatever seemed necessary for his
+maintenance in the simple style of the old days, keeping for himself and
+for his retainers enough to make Yedo, the Tokugawa capital, the centre
+of a luxury far surpassing anything ever seen at the Emperor's own
+court. While the _kug�_, the old imperial nobility, formerly the
+governors of the provinces under the Emperors, lived in respectable but
+often extreme poverty at Ky[=o]to, the landed nobility, or daimi[=o]s,
+brought, after many struggles, under the sway of the Tokugawas, built
+for themselves palaces and pleasure gardens in the moated city of Yedo.
+At Yedo with its castle, its gardens, its _yashikis_, and its
+fortifications, was established a new court, more luxurious, but less
+artistic and cultivated, than the old court of Ky[=o]to. In the various
+provinces, too, at every castle town, a little court arose about the
+castle, and the daimi[=o] became not only the feudal chief, but the
+patron of literature and art among his people, as the years went by
+filling his _kura_ with choice works of art, in lacquer, bronze, silver,
+and pottery, to be brought out on special occasions. These nobles, under
+a law of Iy�mits[)u], the third of the Tokugawa line, were compelled to
+spend half of each year at the city of the Sh[=o]guns; and each had his
+_yashiki_, or large house and garden, in the city. At this house, his
+family must reside permanently, as hostages for the loyalty of their
+lord while away. The annual journeys to and from Yedo were events not
+only in the lives of the daimi[=o]s and their trains of retainers, but
+in the lives of the country people who lived along the roads by which
+they must travel. The time and style of each journey for each daimi[=o]
+were rigidly prescribed in the laws of Iy�mits[)u], as well as the
+behavior of the country people who might meet the procession moving
+towards Yedo, or returning therefrom. When some noble, or any member of
+his family, was to pass through a certain section of the country, great
+preparations were made beforehand. Not only was traffic stopped along
+the route, but every door and window had to be closed. By no means was
+any one to show himself, or to look in any way upon the passing
+procession. To do so was to commit a profane deed, punishable by a fine.
+Among other things, no cooking was allowed on that day. All the food
+must be prepared the day before, as the air was supposed to become
+polluted by the smoke from the fires. Thus through crowded cities, full
+and busy with life, the daimi[=o] in his curtained palanquin, with
+numerous retinue, would pass by; but wherever he approached, the place
+would be as deserted and silent as if plague-stricken. It is hardly
+necessary to add that these journeys, attended with so much ceremony
+and inconvenience to the people, were not as frequent as the trips now
+taken, at a moment's notice, from one city to another, by these very
+same men.
+
+One story current in T[=o]ky[=o] shows the narrowing effect of such
+seclusion. A noble who had traveled into Yedo, across one of the large
+bridges built over the Sumida River, remarked one day to his companions
+that he was greatly disappointed on seeing that bridge. "From the
+pictures," he said, "which I have seen, the bridge seemed alive with
+people, the centre of life and activity, but the artists must
+exaggerate, for not a soul was on the bridge when I passed by."
+
+The castle of the Sh[=o]gun in Yedo, with its moats and fortifications,
+and its fine house and great _kura_, was reproduced on a small scale in
+the castles scattered through the country; and as in Yedo the _yashikis_
+of the daimi[=o]s stood next to the inner moat of the castle, that the
+retainers might be ready to defend their lord at his earliest call, so
+in the provinces the _yashikis_ of the samurai occupied a similar
+position about the daimi[=o]'s castle.
+
+It is curious to see that, as the Sh[=o]gun took away the military and
+temporal power of the Emperor, making of him only a figure-head without
+real power, so, to a certain degree, the daimi[=o] gave up, little by
+little, the personal control of his own province, the power falling into
+the hands of ambitious samurai, who became the councilors of their lord.
+The samurai were the learned class and the military class; they were and
+are the life of Japan; and it is no wonder that the nobles, protected
+and shielded from the world, and growing up without much education,
+should have changed in the course of centuries from strong, brave
+warriors into the delicate, effeminate, luxury-loving nobles of the
+present day. Upon the loyalty and wisdom of the samurai, often upon some
+one man of undoubted ability, rested the greatness of the province and
+the prosperity of the master's house.
+
+The life of the ladies in these daimi[=o]s' houses is still a living
+memory to many of the older women of Japan; but it is a memory only, and
+has given place to a different state of things. The Emperor occupies the
+castle of the Sh[=o]gun to-day, and every daimi[=o]'s castle throughout
+the country is in the hands of the imperial government. The old
+pleasure gardens of the nobles are turned into arsenals, schools, public
+parks, and other improvements of the new era. But here and there one
+finds some conservative family of nobles still keeping up in some
+measure the customs of former times; and daimi[=o]s' houses there are
+still in T[=o]ky[=o], though stripped of power and of retainers, where
+life goes on in many ways much as it did in the old days. In such a
+house as this, one finds ladies-in-waiting, of the samurai rank, who
+serve her ladyship--the daimi[=o]'s wife--in all personal service. In
+the old days, the daughters of the samurai were eager for the training
+in etiquette, and in all that belongs to nice housekeeping, that might
+be obtained by a few years of apprenticeship in a daimi[=o]'s house, and
+gladly assumed the most menial positions for the sake of the education
+and reputation to be gained by such training.
+
+The wife and daughters of a daimi[=o] led the quietest of lives, rarely
+passing beyond the four great walls that inclose the palace with its
+grounds. They saw the changes of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed
+in their lovely gardens, when, followed by numerous attendants, they
+slowly walked through the bamboo groves or under the bloom-laden boughs
+of the plum or cherry trees, forming their views of life, its pleasures,
+its responsibilities, and its meaning, within the narrow limits of the
+daimi[=o]'s _yashiki_.
+
+Their mornings were passed in the adorning of their own persons, and in
+the elaborate dressing of their luxuriant hair; the afternoons were
+spent in the tea ceremony, in writing poetry, or the execution of a sort
+of silk mosaic that is a favorite variety of fancy work still among the
+ladies of Japan.
+
+A story is told of one of the Tokugawa princesses that illustrates the
+amusements of the Sh[=o]gun's daughters, and the pains that were taken
+to gratify their wishes, however unreasonable. The cherry-trees of the
+castle gardens of T[=o]ky[=o] are noted for their beauty when in bloom
+during the month of April. It is said that once a daughter of the
+Tokugawa house expressed a wish to give a garden party amid the
+blossoming cherry-trees in the month of December, and nothing would do
+but that her wishes must be carried out. Her retainers accordingly
+summoned to their aid skillful artificers, who from pink and white
+tissue paper produced myriads of cherry blossoms, so natural that they
+could hardly be distinguished from the real ones. These they fastened
+upon the trees in just such places as the real flowers would have chosen
+to occupy, and the happy princess gave her garden party in December
+under the pink mist of cherry blooms.
+
+The children of a daimi[=o]'s wife occupied her attention but little.
+They were placed in the charge of careful attendants, and the mother,
+though allowed to see them when she wished, was deprived of the pleasure
+of constant intercourse with them, and had none of the mother's cares
+which form so large a part of life to an ordinary Japanese woman.
+
+When we know that the average Japanese girl is brought up strictly by
+her own mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedience and in all that is
+proper as regards etiquette and the duties of woman, we can imagine the
+narrowness of the education of the daimi[=o]'s poor little daughter,
+surrounded, from early childhood, with numerous attendants of the
+strictest sort, to teach her all that is proper according to the
+highest and severest standards. Sometimes, by the whim or the indulgence
+of parents, or through exceptional circumstances in her surroundings, a
+samurai's daughter became more independent, more self-reliant, or better
+educated, than others of her rank; but such opportunities never came to
+the more carefully reared noble's daughter.
+
+From her earliest childhood, she was addressed in the politest and most
+formal way, so that she could not help acquiring polite manners and
+speech. She was taught etiquette above all things, so that no rude
+action or speech would disgrace her rank; and that she should give due
+reverence to her superiors, courtesy to equals, and polite condescension
+to inferiors. She was taught especially to show kindness to the families
+under the rule of her father, and was early told of the noble's duty to
+protect and love his retainers, as a father loves and protects his
+children. From childhood, presents were made in her name to those around
+her, often without her previous knowledge or permission, and from them
+she would receive profuse thanks,--lessons in the delights of
+beneficence which could not fail to make their impression on the child
+princess. Even to inferiors she used the polite language,[34] and never
+the rude, brusque speech of men, or the careless phrases and expressions
+of the lower classes.
+
+[34] The Japanese language is full of expressions showing different
+shades of meaning in the politeness or respect implied. There are words
+and expressions which superiors in rank use to inferiors, or _vice
+versa_, and others used among equals. Some phrases belong especially to
+the language of the high-born, just as there are common expressions of
+the people. Some verbs in this extremely complex language must be
+altered in their termination according to the degree of honor in which
+the subject of the action is held in the speaker's mind.
+
+The education of the daimi[=o]'s daughter was conducted entirely at
+home.[35] Instead of going out to masters for instruction, she was
+taught by some one in the household,--one of her father's retainers, or
+perhaps a member of her own private retinue. Teachers for certain
+branches came from outside, and these were not expected to give the
+lesson within a certain time and hurry away, but they would remain,
+conversing, sipping tea, and partaking of sweetmeats, until their noble
+pupil was ready to receive them. Hospitality required that the teacher
+be offered a meal after the lesson, and this meal etiquette would not
+permit him to refuse, so that both teacher and pupil must spend much
+time waiting for each other and for the lesson.
+
+[35] The establishment of the peeress' school, mentioned in the last
+chapter, is a great innovation upon the old-time ways of many of the
+aristocratic families.
+
+Pursued in this leisurely way, the education of the noble's daughter
+could not advance very rapidly, and it usually ended with an extremely
+early marriage; and the girl wife would sometimes play with her doll in
+the new home until the living baby took its place to the young mother.
+
+The samurai women, who in one position or another were close attendants
+on these noble ladies, performing for them every act of service, were
+often women of more than average intelligence and education. From
+childhood to old age, the noble ladies were never without one or more of
+these maids of honor, close at hand to help or advise. Some entered the
+service in the lower positions for only a short period, leaving sooner
+or later to be married; for continued service in a daimi[=o]'s household
+meant a single life. Many of them remained in the palace all their days,
+leading lives of devotion to their mistress; the comfort and ease of
+which hardly compensated for the endless formalities and the monotonous
+seclusion.
+
+Even the less responsible and more menial positions were not looked down
+upon, and the higher offices in the household were exceedingly
+honorable. When, once in a long while, a day's leave of absence was
+granted to one of these gentlewomen, and, loaded with presents sent by
+the daimi[=o]'s lady, she went on her visit to her home, she was received
+as a greatly honored member of her own family. The respect which was
+paid to her knowledge of etiquette and dress was never lessened because
+of the menial services she might have performed for those of noble
+blood.
+
+The lady who was the head attendant, and those in the higher positions,
+had a great deal of power and influence in matters that concerned their
+mistress and the household; just as the male retainers decided for the
+prince, and in their own way, many of the affairs of the province. The
+few conservative old ladies, the last relics of the numerous retainers
+that once filled the castle, who still remain faithful in attendance in
+the homes now deprived of the grandeur of the olden times, look with
+horror upon the innovations of the present day, and sigh for the glory
+of old Japan. It is only upon compulsion that they give up many of the
+now useless formalities, and resign themselves to seeing their once so
+honored lords jostle elbow to elbow with the common citizen.
+
+I shall never forget the horror of one old lady, attendant on a noble's
+daughter of high rank, just entering the peeress' school, when it was
+told her that each student must carry in her own bundle of books and
+arrange them herself, and that the attendants were not allowed in the
+classroom. The poor old lady was doubtless indignant at the thought that
+her noble-born mistress should have to perform even so slight a task as
+the arranging of her own desk unaided.[*182]
+
+In the daimi[=o]s' houses there was little of the culture or wit that
+graced the more aristocratic seclusion of Ky[=o]to, and none of the
+duties and responsibilities that belonged to the samurai women, so that
+the life of the daimi[=o]'s lady was perhaps more purposeless, and less
+stimulating to the noble qualities, than the lives of any other of the
+women of Japan. Surrounded by endless restrictions of etiquette, lacking
+both the stimulus that comes from physical toil and that to be derived
+from intellectual exertion, the ladies of this class of the nobility
+simply vegetated. There is little wonder that the nobles degenerated
+both mentally and physically during the years when the Tokugawas held
+sway; for there was absolutely nothing in the lives of the women to fit
+them to be the wives and mothers of strong men. Delicate, dainty,
+refined, dexterous in all manner of little things but helpless to act
+for themselves,--ladies to the inmost core of their beings, with
+instincts of honor and of _noblesse oblige_ appearing in them from
+earliest childhood,--the years of seclusion, of deference from hundreds
+of retainers, of constant instruction in the duties as well as the
+dignities of their position, have produced an abiding effect upon the
+minds of the women of this aristocracy, and to-day even the youngest and
+smallest of them have the virtues as well as the failings produced by
+nearly three centuries of training. They are lacking in force, in
+ambition, in clearness of thought, among a nation abounding in those
+qualities; but the national characteristics of dignity, charming
+manners, a quick sense of honor, and indomitable pride of race and
+nation, combined with a personal modesty almost deprecating in its
+humility,--these are found among the daughters of the nobles developed
+to their highest extent. With the qualities of gentleness and delicacy
+possessed by these ladies, which make them shrink from rough contact
+with the outer world, there are mingled the stronger qualities of moral
+and physical courage. A daimi[=o]'s wife, as befitted the wife of a
+warrior and the daughter of long generations of brave men, never shrank
+from facing danger and death when necessary; and considered the taking
+of her own life an honorable and easy escape from being captured by her
+enemy.
+
+Two or three little ripples from the past broke into my life in
+T[=o]ky[=o], giving a little insight into those old feudal times, and
+the customs that were common then, but that are now gone forever. A
+story was told me in Japan by a lady who had herself, as a child,
+witnessed the events narrated. It illustrates the responsibility felt by
+the retainers for their lord and his house. A daimi[=o] fell into
+disgrace with the Sh[=o]gun, and was banished to his own capital,--a
+castle town several days' journey from Yedo,--as a punishment for some
+offense. The castle gates were closed, and no communication with the
+outer world allowed. During this period of disgrace, it happened that
+the noble fell ill, and died quite suddenly before his punishment was
+ended. His death under such circumstances was the most terrible thing
+that could befall either himself or his family, as his funeral must be
+without the ordinary tokens of respect; and his tombstone, instead of
+bearing tribute to his virtues, and the favor in which he had been held
+by his lord, must be simply the monument of his disgrace. This being the
+case, the retainers felt that these evils must be averted at any cost.
+Knowing that the Sh[=o]gun's anger was probably not so great as to make
+him wish to bring eternal disgrace to their dead lord, they at once
+decided to send a messenger to the Sh[=o]gun, begging for pardon on the
+plea of desperate illness, and asking the restoration of his favor
+before the approach of death. The death was not announced, but the floor
+of the room in which the man had died was lifted up, and the body let
+down to the ground beneath; and through all the town it was announced
+that the daimi[=o] was hopelessly ill. Forty days passed before the
+Sh[=o]gun sent to the retainers the token that the disgrace was removed,
+and during all those forty days, in castle and barrack and village, the
+fiction of the daimi[=o]'s illness was kept up. As soon as the
+messengers returned, the body was drawn up again through the floor and
+placed on the bed; and all the retainers, from the least unto the
+greatest, were summoned into the room to congratulate their master upon
+his restoration to favor. One by one they entered the darkened room,
+prostrated themselves before the corpse, and uttered the formal words of
+congratulation. Then when all, even to the little girl who, grown to
+womanhood, told me the story, had been through the horrible ceremony, it
+was announced that the master was dead,--that he had died immediately
+after the return of the messenger with the good tidings of pardon. All
+obstacles being thus removed, the funeral was celebrated with due pomp
+and circumstance; and the tombstone of the daimi[=o] to-day gives no
+hint of the disgrace from which he so narrowly escaped.
+
+Another instance very similar, throwing some light on the custom of
+adoption or _y[=o]shi_, referred to in a previous chapter, was the case of
+a nobleman who died without children, and without an heir appointed to
+inherit his title. It would never have done, in sending in the official
+notice of death, to be unable to name the legal head of the house and
+the successor to the title. There was also no male relative to perform
+the office of chief mourner at the funeral; and so the death of the
+nobleman was kept secret, and his house showed no signs of mourning
+during a long period, until a son satisfactory to all the members of the
+household had been adopted. When the legal notice of the adoption had
+been sent in, and the son received into the family as heir, then, and
+only then, was the death of the lord announced, the period of mourning
+begun, and the funeral ceremony performed.
+
+Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japanese lady, who knew the interest
+that I took in seeing and procuring the old-fashioned embroidered
+_kimonos_, which are now entirely out of style in Japan, and which can
+only be obtained at second-hand clothing stores, or at private sale. My
+friend said that she had just been shown an assortment of old garments
+which were offered at private sale by the heirs of a lady, recently
+deceased, who had once been a maid of honor in a daimi[=o]'s house. The
+clothes were still in the house, and were brought in, in a great basket,
+for my inspection. Very beautiful garments they were, of silk, cr�pe,
+and linen, embroidered elaborately, and in extremely good order. Many of
+them seemed not to have been worn at all, but had been kept folded away
+for years, and only brought out when a fitting occasion came round at
+the proper season of the year. As we turned over the beautiful fabrics,
+a black broadcloth garment at the bottom of the basket aroused my
+curiosity, and I pulled it out and held it up for closer inspection. A
+curious garment it was, bound with white, and with a great white crest
+_appliqu�_ on the middle of the back. Curious white stripes gave the
+coat a military look, and it seemed appropriate rather to the wardrobe
+of some two-sworded warrior than to that of a gentlewoman of the old
+type. To the question, How did such a coat come to be in such a place?
+the older lady of the company--one to whom the old days were still the
+natural order and the new customs an exotic growth--explained that the
+garment rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any lady-in-waiting in a
+daimi[=o]'s house, for it was made to wear in case of fire or attack when
+the men were away, and the women were expected to guard the premises.
+Further search among the relics of the past brought to light the rest of
+the costume: silk _hakama_, or full kilted trousers; a stiff, manlike
+black silk cap bound with a white band; and a spear cover of broadcloth,
+with a great white crest upon it, like the one on the broadcloth coat.
+These made up the uniform which must be donned in time of need by the
+ladies of the palace or the castle, for the defense of their lord's
+property. They had been folded away for twenty years among the
+embroidered robes, to come to light at last for the purpose of showing
+to a foreigner a phase of the old life that was so much a matter of
+course to the older Japanese that it never occurred to them even to
+mention it to a stranger. The elder lady of the house was wonderfully
+amused at my interest in these mute memorials of the past, and could
+never comprehend why I was willing to expend the sum of one dollar for
+the sake of gaining possession of a set of garments for which I could
+have no possible use. The uniform had probably never been worn in actual
+warfare, but its owner had been trained in the use of the long-handled
+spear, the cover of which she had kept stored away all these years; and
+had regarded herself as liable to be called into action at any time as
+one of the home guard, when the male retainers of her lord were in the
+field.
+
+There are in the shops of T[=o]ky[=o] to-day hundreds of colored prints
+illustrating the splendor of the Sh[=o]gunate; for the fine clothes, the
+pageants, the show and display that ended with the fall of the house of
+Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular mind. In these one sees
+reproduced, in more than their original brilliancy of coloring, the
+daimi[=o]s, with their trains of uniformed retainers, proceeding in
+stately pageant to the palace of the Sh[=o]gun; the games, the dances,
+the reviews held before the Sh[=o]gun himself; the princess, with her
+train of ladies and attendants, visiting the cherry blossoms at Uy�no,
+or crossing some swift but shallow river on her journey to Yedo. There
+one sees the fleet of red-lacquered pleasure barges in which the
+Sh[=o]gun with his court sailed up the river to Muk[=o]jima, in the
+spring, to view the cherry-trees which bloom along the banks for miles.
+One sees, too, the interiors of the daimi[=o]s' houses, the intimate
+domestic scenes into which no outsider could ever penetrate. One picture
+shows the excitements consequent upon the advent of an heir to a noble
+house,--the happy mother on her couch, surrounded by brightly dressed
+ladies-in-waiting; the baby in the room adjoining; another group of
+brilliant beings preparing his bath; while down the long piazza, which
+opens upon the little courtyard in the centre of the house, one sees
+still other groups of servants, bringing the gifts with which the great
+mansion is flooded at such a time. Still further away, across the
+courtyard, are the doctors, holding learned consultation around a
+little table, and mixing medicines to secure the health and strength of
+both mother and baby.
+
+The fall of the Sh[=o]gunate, and the abolition of castle and _yashiki_,
+have made a radical change in the fashions of dress in Japan. One sees
+no longer the beautiful embroidered robes, except upon the stage, for
+the abolition of the great leisure class has put the flowered _kimono_
+out of fashion. There are no courts, small and great, scattered all
+through the country, where the ladies must be dressed in changing styles
+for the changing seasons, and where the embroideries that imitate most
+closely the natural flowers are sure of a market. When one asks, as
+every foreigner is likely to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's
+acquaintance, "Why have you given up the beautiful embroideries and
+gorgeous colors that you used to wear?" the answer always is, "There are
+no daimi[=o]s' houses now." And this is regarded as a sufficient
+explanation of the change.[*192]
+
+I have in my possession to-day two dainty bits of the silk mosaic work
+before mentioned, the work of the sixteen-year-old wife of one of the
+proudest and most conservative of the present generation of nobles. A
+dainty little creature she was, with a face upon which her two years of
+wifehood and one year of motherhood had left no trace of care. Living
+amid her host of ladies and women servants, most of them older and wiser
+than herself; having no care and no amusements save the easy task of
+keeping herself pretty and well-dressed, and the amusement of watching
+her baby grow, and hearing the chance rumors that might come to her from
+the great new world into which her husband daily went, but with which
+she herself never mingled,--her days were one pleasant, monotonous
+round, unawakening alike either to soul or intellect. Into this life of
+remoteness from all that belongs to the new era, imagine the excitement
+produced by the advent of a foreign lady, with an educated dog, whose
+wonderful intelligence had been already related to her by one of her own
+ladies-in-waiting. I shall always believe that my invitation into that
+exclusive house was due largely to the reports of my dog, carried to its
+proprietors by one of the lady servitors who had seen him perform upon
+one occasion. Certain it is that the first words of the little lady of
+the house to me were a question about the dog; and her last act of
+politeness to our party was a warm embrace of the handsome collie, who
+had given unimpeachable evidence that he understood a great deal of
+English,--a tongue which the daimi[=o] himself was painfully learning. The
+dainty child-wife with both arms buried in the heavy ruff of the
+astonished dog is a picture that comes to me often, and that brings up
+most pathetically the monotony of an existence into which so small a
+thing can bring so much. The lifelike black and white silk puppy, the
+creeping baby doll from Ky[=o]to, the silk mosaic box and chopstick
+case,--the work of my lady's delicate fingers,--are most agreeable
+reminders of the kindness and sweetness of the little wife, whose
+sixteen summers have been spent among the surroundings of thirty years
+ago, and who lives, like the enchanted princess of the fairy tales,
+wrapped about by a spell which separates her from the bustling world of
+to-day. The product of the past,--the daughter of the last of the
+Sh[=o]guns,--she dwells in her enchanted house, among the relics of a past
+which is still the present to her and to her household. So lovely, so
+�sthetic, so dainty and charming seems the world into which one enters
+there, that one would not care to break the spell that holds it as it
+is, and let the girl-wife, with her gentlewomen and her kneeling
+servants, hurry forward into the busy, perplexing life of to-day. May
+time deal gently with her and hers, nor rudely break the enchantment
+that surrounds her!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SAMURAI WOMEN.
+
+
+Samurai was the name given to the military class among the Japanese,--a
+class intermediate between the Emperor and his nobles and the great mass
+of the common people who were engaged in agriculture, mechanical arts,
+or trade. Upon the samurai rested the defense of the country from
+enemies at home or abroad, as well as the preservation of literature and
+learning, and the conduct of all official business. At the time of the
+fall of feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four millions of
+Japanese, about two million samurai; and in this class, in the broadest
+sense of the word, must be included the daimi[=o]s, as well as their
+two-sworded retainers. But as the greater among the samurai were
+distinguished by special class names, the word as commonly used, and as
+used throughout this work, applies to the military class, who served
+the Sh[=o]gun and the daimi[=o]s, and who were supported by yearly
+allowances from the treasuries of their lords. These form a distinct
+class, actuated by motives quite different from those of the lower
+classes, and filling a great place in the history of the country. As the
+nobility, through long inheritance of power and wealth, became weak in
+body and mind, the samurai grew to be, more and more, not only the
+sword, but the brain of Japan; and to-day the great work of bringing the
+country out of the middle ages into the nineteenth century is being
+performed by the samurai more than by any other class.
+
+What, it may be asked, are the traits of the samurai which distinguish
+them, and make them such honored types of the perfect Japanese
+gentleman, so that to live and die worthy the name of samurai was the
+highest ambition of the soldier? The samurai's duty may be expressed in
+one word, loyalty,--loyalty to his lord and master, and loyalty to his
+country,--loyalty so true and deep that for it all human ties, hopes,
+and affections, wife, children, and home, must be sacrificed if
+necessary. Those who have read the tale of "The Loyal R[=o]nins"[36]--a
+story which has been so well told by Mitford, Dickins, and Greey that
+many readers must be already familiar with it--will remember that the
+head councilor and retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for revenge for
+his lord's unjust death, divorces his wife and sends off his children,
+that they may not distract his thoughts from his plans; and performs his
+famous act of revenge without once seeing his wife, only letting her
+know at his death his faithfulness to her and the true cause of his
+seeming cruelty. And the wife, far from feeling wronged by such an act,
+only glories in the loyalty of her husband, who threw aside everything
+to fulfill his one great duty, even though she herself was his unhappy
+victim.
+
+[36] _R[=o]nin_ was the term applied to a samurai who had lost his master,
+and owed no feudal allegiance to any daimi[=o]. The exact meaning of the
+word is _wave-man_, signifying one who wanders to and fro without
+purpose, like a wave driven by the wind.
+
+The true samurai is always brave, never fearing death or suffering in
+any form. Life and death are alike to him, if no disgrace is attached to
+his name.
+
+An incident comes into my mind which may serve as an example of the
+samurai spirit,--a spirit which has filled the history of Japan with
+heroic deeds. It is the story of a long siege, at the end of which the
+little garrison in the besieged castle was reduced to the last stages of
+endurance, though hourly expecting reinforcement. In this state of
+affairs, the great question is, whether to wait for the expected aid, or
+to surrender immediately, and the answer to the question can only be
+obtained through a knowledge of the enemy's strength. At this juncture,
+one of the samurai volunteers to steal into the camp of the besiegers,
+inspect their forces, and report their strength before the final
+decision is made. He disguises himself, and through various chances is
+able to penetrate, unsuspected, into the midst of the enemy's camp. He
+discovers that the besiegers are so weak that they cannot maintain the
+siege much longer, but while returning to the castle he is recognized
+and taken by the enemy. His captors give him one chance for escape from
+the horrible death of crucifixion. He is to go to the edge of the moat,
+and, standing on an elevated place, shout out to the soldiers that they
+must surrender, for the forces are too strong for them. He seemingly
+consents to this, and, led down to the water's edge, he sees across the
+moat his wife and child, who greet him with demonstrations of joy. To
+her he waves his hand; then, bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard
+by friend and foe, he shouts out the true tidings, "Wait for
+reinforcement at any cost, for the besiegers are weak and will soon have
+to give up." At these words his enraged enemies seize him and put him to
+a death of horrible torture, but he smiles in their faces as he tells
+them the sweetness of such a sacrifice for his master. Japanese history
+abounds with heroic deeds of blood displaying the indomitable courage of
+the samurai. In the reading of them, we are often reminded of the
+Spartan spirit of warfare, and samurai women are in some ways very like
+those Spartan mothers who would rather die than see their sons branded
+as cowards.
+
+The implicit obedience which samurai gave their lords, when conflicting
+with feelings of loyalty to their country, often produced two opposing
+forces which had to be overcome. When the daimi[=o] gave orders that the
+keener-sighted retainer felt would not be for the good of the house, he
+had either to disobey his lord, or act against his feeling of loyalty.
+Divided between the two duties, the samurai would usually do as he
+thought right for his country or his lord, disobeying his master's
+orders; write a confession of his real motives; and save his name from
+disgrace by committing suicide. By this act he would atone for his
+disobedience, and his loyalty would never be questioned.
+
+The now abolished custom of _hara-kiri_, or the voluntary taking of
+one's life to avoid disgrace, and blot out entirely or partially the
+stain on an honorable name, is a curious custom which has come down from
+old times. The ancient heroes stabbed themselves as calmly as they did
+their enemies, and women as well as men knew how to use the short
+sword[37] worn always at the side of the samurai, his last and easy
+escape from shame.
+
+[37] The samurai always wore two swords, a long one for fighting only,
+and a short one for defense when possible, but, as a last resort, for
+_hara-kiri_. The sword is the emblem of the samurai spirit, and as such
+is respected and honored. A samurai took pride in keeping his swords as
+sharp and shining as was possible. He was never seen without the two
+swords, but the longer one he removed and left at the front door when he
+entered the house of a friend. To use a sword badly, to harm or injure
+it, or to step over it, was considered an insult to the owner.
+
+The young men of this class, as well as their masters, the daimi[=o]s,
+were early instructed in the method of this self-stabbing, so that it
+might be cleanly and easily done, for a bloody and unseemly death would
+not redound to the honor of the suicide. The fatal cut was not
+instantaneous in its effect, and there was always opportunity for that
+display of courage--that show of disregard for death or pain--which was
+expected of the brave man.
+
+The _hara-kiri_ was of course a last resort, but it was an honorable
+death. The vulgar criminal must be put to death by the hands of others,
+but the nobler samurai, who never cares to survive disgrace, was
+condemned to _hara-kiri_ if found guilty of actions worthy of death. Not
+to be allowed to do this, but to be executed in the common way, was a
+double disgrace to a samurai. Even to this day, when crimes such as the
+assassination of a minister of state are committed, in the mistaken
+belief that the act is for the good of the country, the idea on the part
+of the assassin is never to escape detection. He calmly gives himself
+up to justice or takes his own life,[38] stating his motive for the
+deed; and, believing himself justified in the act, is willing that his
+life should be the cost.
+
+[38] Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma, the late
+Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889, committed suicide
+immediately after throwing the dynamite bomb which caused the minister
+the loss of his leg. This was the more remarkable in that, at the time
+of his death, the assassin supposed that his victim had escaped all
+injury.
+
+The old samurai was proud of his rank, his honorable vocation, his
+responsibility; proud of his ignorance of trade and barter and of his
+disregard for the sordid cares of the world, regarding as far beneath
+him all occupations but those of arms. Wealth, as artisan or farmer,
+rarely tempted him to sink into the lower ranks; and his support from
+the daimi[=o], often a mere pittance, insured to him more respect and
+greater privileges than wealth as a h�imin. To this day even, this
+feeling exists. Preference for rank or position, rather than for mere
+salary, remains strongly among the present generation, so that official
+positions are more sought after than the more lucrative occupations of
+trade. Japan is flooded with small officials, and yet the samurai now
+is obliged to lay down his sword and devote his time to the once
+despised trades, and to learn how important are the arts of peace
+compared with those of war.
+
+The dislike of anything suggestive of trade or barter--of services and
+actions springing, not from duty and from the heart, but from the desire
+of gain--has strongly tinted many little customs of the day, often
+misunderstood and misconstrued by foreigners. In old Japan, experience
+and knowledge could not be bought and sold. Physicians did not charge
+for their services, but on the contrary would decline to name or even
+receive a compensation from those in their own clan. Patients, on their
+side, were too proud to accept services free, and would send to the
+physicians, not as pay exactly, but more as a gift or a token of
+gratitude, a sum of money which varied according to the means of the
+giver, as well as to the amount of service received. Daimi[=o]s did not
+send to ask a teacher how much an hour his time was worth, and then
+arrange the lessons accordingly; the teacher was not insulted by being
+expected to barter his knowledge for so much filthy lucre, but was
+merely asked whether his time and convenience would allow of his taking
+extra teaching. The request was made, not as a matter of give and take,
+but a favor to be granted. Due compensation, however, would never fail
+to be made,--of this the teacher could be sure,--but no agreement was
+ever considered necessary.
+
+With this feeling yet remaining in Japan,--this dislike of contracts,
+and exact charges for professional services,--we can imagine the inward
+disgust of the samurai at the business-like habits of the foreigners
+with whom he has to deal. On the other hand, his feelings are not
+appreciated by the foreigner, and his actions clash with the European
+and American ideas of independence and self-respect. In Japan a present
+of money is more honorable than pay, whereas in America pay is much more
+honorable than a present.
+
+The samurai of to-day is rapidly imbibing new ideas, and is learning to
+see the world from a Western point of view; but his thoughts and actions
+are still moulded on the ideas of old Japan, and it will be a long time
+before the loyal, faithful, but proud spirit of the samurai will die
+out. The pride of clan is now changed to pride of race; loyalty to
+feudal chief has become loyalty to the Emperor as sovereign; and the old
+traits of character exist under the European costumes of to-day, as
+under the flowing robes of the two-sworded retainer.
+
+It is this same spirit of loyalty that has made it hard for Christianity
+to get a foothold in Japan. The Emperor was the representative of the
+gods of Japan. To embrace a new religion seemed a desertion of him, and
+the following of the strange gods of the foreigner. The work of the
+Catholic missionaries which ended so disastrously in 1637 has left the
+impression that a Christian is bound to offer allegiance to the Pope in
+much the same way as the Emperor now receives it from his people; and
+the bitterness of such a thought has made many refuse to hear what
+Christianity really is. Such words as "King" and "Lord" they have
+understood as referring to temporal things, and it has taken years to
+undo this prejudice; a feeling in no way surprising when we consider
+how the Jesuit missionaries once interfered with political movements in
+Japan.
+
+So bitter was this feeling, when Japan was first opened, that a native
+Christian was at once branded as a traitor to his country, and very
+severe was the persecution against all Christians. Missionaries at one
+time dared not acknowledge themselves as such, and lived in danger of
+their lives; and the Japanese Christian who remained faithful did so
+knowing that he was despised and hated. I know of one mother who,
+finding command and entreaty alike unavailing to move her son, a convert
+to the new religion, threatened to commit suicide, feeling that the
+disgrace which had fallen on the family could only be wiped out with her
+death. Happily, all this is of the past, and to-day the samurai has
+found that he can reconcile the new religion with his loyalty to Japan,
+and that in receiving the one he is not led to betray the other.
+
+The women of the samurai have shared with the men the responsibilities
+of their rank, and the pride that comes from hereditary positions of
+responsibility. A woman's first duty in all ranks of society is
+obedience; but sacrifice of self, in however horrible a way, was a duty
+most cheerfully and willingly performed, when by such sacrifice father,
+husband, or son might be the better able to fulfill his duty towards his
+feudal superior. The women in the daimi[=o]s' castles who were taught
+fencing, drilled and uniformed, and relied upon to defend the castle in
+case of need, were women of this class,--women whose husbands and
+fathers were soldiers, and in whose veins ran the blood of generations
+of fighting ancestors. Gentle, feminine, delicate as they were, there
+was a possibility of martial prowess about them when the need for it
+came; and the long education in obedience and loyalty did not fail to
+produce the desired results. Death, and ignominy worse than death, could
+be met bravely, but disgrace involving loss of honor to husband or
+feudal lord was the one thing that must be avoided at all hazards. It
+was my good fortune, many years ago, to make the acquaintance of a
+little Japanese girl who had lived in the midst of the siege of
+Wakamatsu, the city in which the Sh[=o]gun's forces made their last stand
+for their lord and the system that he represented. As the Emperor's
+forces marched upon the castle town, moat after moat was taken,[*209]
+until at last men, women, and children took refuge within the citadel
+itself to defend it until the last gasp. The bombs of the besiegers fell
+crashing into the castle precincts, killing the women as they worked at
+whatever they could do in aid of the defenders; and even the little
+girls ran back and forth, amid the rain of bullets and balls, carrying
+cartridges, which the women were making within the castle, to the men
+who were defending the walls. "Weren't you afraid?" we asked the
+delicate child, when she told us of her own share in the defense. "No,"
+was the answer. A small but dangerous sword, of the finest Japanese
+steel, was shown us as the sword that she wore in her belt during all
+those days of war and tumult. "Why did you wear the sword?" we asked.
+"So that I would have it if I was taken prisoner." "What would you have
+done with it?" was the next question, for we could not believe that a
+child of eight would undertake to defend herself against armed soldiers
+with that little sword. "I would have killed myself," was the answer,
+with a flash of the eye that showed her quite capable of committing the
+act in case of need.
+
+In the olden times, when the spirit of warfare was strong and justice
+but scantily administered, revenge for personal insult, or for the death
+of father or lord, fell upon the children, or the retainers. Sometimes
+the bloody deed has fallen to the lot of a woman, to some weak and
+feeble girl, who, in many a tale, has braved all the difficulties that
+beset a woman's path, devoted her life to an act of vengeance, and, with
+the courage of a man, has often successfully consummated her revenge.
+
+One of the tales of old Japan, and a favorite subject of theatrical
+representation, is the death and revenge of a lady in a daimi[=o]'s
+palace. Onoy�, a daughter of the people, child of a merchant, has by
+chance risen to the position of lady-in-waiting to a daimi[=o]'s
+wife,--a thing so uncommon that it has roused the jealousy of the other
+ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwafuji, one of the highest and
+proudest ladies at the court, takes pains on every occasion to insult
+and torment the poor, unoffending Onoy�, whom she cannot bear to have
+as an associate. She constantly reminds her of her inferior birth, and
+at last challenges her to a trial in fencing, in which accomplishment
+Onoy� is not proficient, having lacked the proper training in her early
+life. At last the hatred and anger of Iwafuji culminate in a frenzy of
+rage; she forgets herself, and strikes the meek and gentle Onoy� with
+her sandal,--the worst insult that could be offered to any one.
+
+Onoy�, overcome by this deep disgrace offered her in public, returns
+from the main palace to her own apartments, and ponders long and deeply,
+in the bitterness of her soul, how to wipe out the disgrace of an insult
+by such an enemy.
+
+Her own faithful maid, seeing her disordered hair and anxious looks,
+perceives some secret trouble, which her mistress will not disclose, and
+tries, while performing her acts of service, to dispel the gloom by
+telling gayly all the gossip of the day. This maid, O Haru, is a type of
+the clever faithful servant. She is really of higher birth than her
+mistress, for, though she has been obliged to go out to service, she was
+born of a samurai family. Onoy�, while listening to the talk of her
+servant, has made up her mind that only one thing can blot out her
+disgrace, and that is to commit suicide. She hastily pens a farewell to
+her family, for the deed must not be delayed, and sends with the letter
+the token of her disgrace,--Iwafuji's sandal, which she has kept. O Haru
+is sent on this errand, and, unconscious of the ill-news she is bearing,
+she starts out. On the way, the ominous croak of the ravens, who are
+making a dismal noise,--a presage of ill-luck,--frightens the observant
+O Haru. A little further on, the strap of her clog breaks,--a still more
+alarming sign. Thoroughly frightened, O Haru turns back, and reaches her
+mistress' room in time to find that the fatal deed is done, and her
+mistress is dying. O Haru is heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and
+vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved mistress.
+
+O Haru, unlike Onoy�, is thoroughly trained in fencing. An occasion
+arises when she returns to Iwafuji in public the malicious blow, and
+with the same sandal, which she has kept as a sign of her revenge. She
+then challenges Iwafuji, in behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing.
+The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept, and is thoroughly defeated and
+shamed before the spectators. The whole truth is now made known, and the
+daimi[=o], who admires and appreciates the spirit of O Haru, sends for
+her, and raises her from her low position to fill the post of her dead
+mistress.
+
+These stories show the spirit of the samurai women; they can suffer
+death bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands or the hands of husband
+or father, to avoid or wipe out any disgrace which they regard as a loss
+of honor; but they will as bravely and patiently subject themselves to a
+life of shame and ignominy, worse than death, for the sake of gaining
+for husband or father the means of carrying out a feudal obligation.
+There is a pathetic scene, in one of the most famous of the Japanese
+historical dramas, in which one seems to get the moral perspective of
+the ideal Japanese woman, as one cannot get it in any other way. The
+play is founded on the story of "The Loyal R[=o]nins," referred to in the
+beginning of this chapter. The loyal r[=o]nins are plotting to avenge the
+death of their master upon the daimi[=o] whose cupidity and injustice have
+brought it about. As there is danger of disloyalty even in their own
+ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead daimi[=o]'s retainers, displays great
+caution in the selection of his fellow-conspirators, and practices every
+artifice to secure absolute secrecy for his plans. One young man, who
+was in disgrace with his lord at the time of his death, applies to be
+admitted within the circle of conspirators; but as it is suspected that
+he may not be true to the cause, a payment in money is exacted from him
+as a pledge of his honorable intentions. It is thus made his first duty
+to redeem his honor from all suspicion by the payment of the money, in
+order that he may perform his feudal obligation of avenging the death of
+his lord. But the young man is poor; he has married a poor girl, and has
+agreed to support not only his wife, but her old parents as well, and
+the payment is impossible for him. In this emergency, his wife, at the
+suggestion of her parents, proposes, as the only way, to sell herself,
+for a term of two years, to the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that
+she may by this vile servitude enable her husband to escape the
+dishonor that must come to him if he fails to fulfill his feudal duty.
+Negotiations are entered into, the contract is made, and an advance
+payment is given which will furnish money enough for the pledge required
+by the conspirators. All this is done without the knowledge of the
+husband, lest his love for his wife and his grief for the sacrifice
+prevent him from accepting the only means left to prove his loyalty. The
+noble wife even plans to leave her home while he is away on a hunting
+expedition, and so spare him the pain of parting. His emotion upon
+learning of this venture in business is not of wrath at the disgrace
+that has overtaken his family, but simply of grief that his wife and her
+parents must make so great a sacrifice to save his honor. It is a
+terrible affliction, but it is not a disgrace in any way parallel to the
+disgrace of disloyalty to his lord. And the heroic wife, when the men
+come to carry her away, is upheld through all the trying farewells by
+the consciousness that she is making as noble a sacrifice of herself as
+did the wife of Yamato Dak� when she leaped into the sea to avert the
+wrath of the sea-god from her husband. The Japanese, both men and
+women, knowing this story and many others similar in character, can see,
+as we cannot from our point of view, that, even if the body be defiled,
+there is no defilement of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling her
+highest duty in sacrificing all, even her dearest possession, for the
+honor of her husband. It is a climax of self-abnegation that brings
+nothing but honor to the soul of her who reaches it. Japanese women who
+read this story feel profound pity for the poor wife, and a horror of a
+sacrifice that binds her to a life which outwardly, to the Japanese mind
+even, is the lowest depth a woman ever reaches. But they do not despise
+her for the act; nor would they refuse to receive her even were she to
+appear in living form to-day in any Japanese home, where, thanks to
+happier fortunes, such sacrifices are not demanded. Just at this point
+is the difference of moral perspective that foreigners visiting Japan
+find so hard to understand, and that leads many, who have lived in the
+country the longest, to believe that there is no modesty and purity
+among Japanese women. It is this that makes it possible for the vilest
+of stories, and those that have the least foundation in fact, to find
+easy belief among foreigners, even if they be told about the purest,
+most high-minded, and most honorable of Japanese women. Our maidens, as
+they grow to womanhood, are taught that anything is better than personal
+dishonor, and their maidenly instincts side with the teaching. With us,
+a virtuous woman does not mean a brave, a heroic, an unselfish, or
+self-sacrificing woman, but means simply one who keeps herself from
+personal dishonor. Chastity is the supreme virtue for a woman; all other
+virtues are secondary compared with it. This is our point of view, and
+the whole perspective is arranged with that virtue in the foreground.
+Dismiss this for a moment, and consider the moral training of the
+Japanese maiden. From earliest youth until she reaches maturity, she is
+constantly taught that obedience and loyalty are the supreme virtues,
+which must be preserved even at the sacrifice of all other and lesser
+virtues. She is told that for the good of father or husband she must be
+willing to meet any danger, endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime,
+give up any treasure. She must consider that nothing belonging solely
+to herself is of any importance compared with the good of her master,
+her family, or her country. Place this thought of obedience and loyalty,
+to the point of absolute self-abnegation, in the foreground, and your
+perspective is altered, the other virtues occupying places of varying
+importance. Because a Japanese woman will sometimes sacrifice her
+personal virtue for the sake of father or husband, does it follow that
+all Japanese women are unchaste and impure? In many cases this sacrifice
+is the noblest that she believes possible, and she goes to it, as she
+would go to death in any dreadful form, for those whom she loves, and to
+whom she owes the duty of obedience. The Japanese maiden grows to
+womanhood no less pure and modest than our own girls, but our girls are
+never called upon to sacrifice their modesty for the sake of those whom
+they love best; nor is it expected of any woman in this country that she
+exist solely for the good of some one else, in whatever way he chooses
+to use her, during all the years of her life. Let us take this
+difference into our thought in forming our judgment, and let us rather
+seek the causes that underlie the actions than pass judgment upon the
+actions themselves. From a close study of the characters of many
+Japanese women and girls, I am quite convinced that few women in any
+country do their duty, as they see it, more nobly, more single-mindedly,
+and more satisfactorily to those about them, than the women of Japan.
+
+Many argue that the purity of Japanese women, as compared with the men,
+the ready obedience which they yield, their sweet characters and
+unselfish devotion as wives and mothers, are merely the results of the
+restraint under which they live, and that they are too weak to be
+allowed to enjoy freedom of thought and action. Whether this be true or
+no is a point which we leave for others to take up, as time shall have
+provided new data for reasoning on the subject.
+
+To me, the sense of duty seems to be strongly developed in the Japanese
+women, especially in those of the samurai class. Conscience seems as
+active, though often in a different manner, as the old-fashioned New
+England conscience, transmitted through the bluest of Puritan blood. And
+when a duty has once been recognized as such, no timidity, or
+mortification, or fear of ridicule will prevent the performance of it. A
+case comes to my mind now of a young girl of sixteen, who made public
+confession before her schoolmates of shortcomings of which none of them
+knew, for the sake of easing her troubled conscience and warning her
+schoolmates against similar errors. The circumstances were as follows:
+The young girl had recently lost her grandmother, a most loving and
+affectionate old lady, who had taken the place of a mother to the child
+from her earliest infancy. In a somewhat unhappy home, the love of the
+old grandmother was the one bright spot; and when she was taken away,
+the poor, lonely child's memory recalled all of her own shortcomings to
+this beloved friend; and, too late to make amendment to the old lady
+herself, she dwelt on her own undutifulness, and decided that she must
+by some means do penance, or make atonement for her fault. She might, if
+she made a confession before her schoolmates, warn them against similar
+mistakes; and accordingly she prepared, for the literary society in
+which the girls took what part they chose, a long confession, written
+in poetical style, and read it before her schoolmates and teachers. It
+was a terrible ordeal, as one could see by the blushing face and
+breaking voice, often choked with sobs; and when at the conclusion she
+urged her friends to behave in such a way to their dear ones that they
+need never suffer what she had had to endure since her grandmother's
+death, there was not a dry eye in the room, and many of the girls were
+sobbing aloud. It was a curious expiation and a touching one, but one
+not in the least exceptional or uncharacteristic of the spirit of duty
+that actuates the best women of the samurai class.
+
+Here is another instance which illustrates this sense of duty, and
+desire of atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the time of the
+overthrow of the feudal system, the samurai, bred to loyalty to their
+own feudal superiors as their highest duty, found themselves ranged on
+different sides in the struggle, according to the positions in which
+their lords placed themselves. At the end of the struggle, those who had
+followed their daimi[=o]s to the field, in defense of the Sh[=o]gunate,
+found that they had been fighting against the Emperor, the Son of
+Heaven himself, who had at last emerged from the seclusion of centuries
+to govern his own empire. Thus the supporters of the Sh[=o]gunate, while
+absolutely loyal to their daimi[=o]s, had been disloyal to the higher
+power of the Emperor; and had put themselves in the position of traitors
+to their country. There was a conflict of principles there somewhat
+similar to that which took place in our Civil War, when, in the South,
+he who was true to his State became a traitor to his country, and he who
+was true to his country became a traitor to his State. Two ladies of the
+finest samurai type had, with absolute loyalty to a lost cause, aided by
+every means in their power in the defense of the city of Wakamatsu
+against the victorious forces of the Emperor. They had held on to the
+bitter end, and had been banished, with others of their family and clan,
+to a remote province, for some years after the end of the war. In 1877,
+eleven years after the close of the War of the Restoration, a rebellion
+broke out in the south which required a considerable expenditure of
+blood and money for its suppression. When the new war began, these two
+ladies presented a petition to the government, in which they begged
+that they might be allowed to make amends for their former position of
+opposition to the Emperor, by going with the army to the field as
+hospital nurses. At that time, no lady in Japan had ever gone to the
+front to nurse the wounded soldiers; but to those two brave women was
+granted the privilege of making atonement for past disloyalty, by the
+exercise of the skill and nerve that they had gained in their experience
+of war against the Emperor, in the nursing of soldiers wounded in his
+defense.[*223]
+
+In the old days, the women of the samurai class fulfilled most nobly the
+duties that fell to their lot. As wives and mothers in time of peace,
+they performed their work faithfully in the quiet of their homes; and,
+their time filled with household cares, they busied themselves with the
+smaller duties of life. As the wives and mothers of soldiers, they
+cultivated the heroic spirit befitting their position, fearing no danger
+save such as involved disgrace. As the home-guard in time of need, they
+stood ready to defend their master's possessions with their own lives;
+as gentlewomen and ladies-in-waiting at the court of the daimi[=o] or the
+Sh[=o]gun, they cultivated the arts and accomplishments required for their
+position, and veiled the martial spirit that dwelt within them under an
+exterior as feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and charming, as that
+of any ladies of Europe or America. To-day in the new Japan, where the
+samurai have no longer their yearly allowance from their lords and their
+feudal duties, but, scattered through the whole nation, are engaged in
+all the arts and trades, and are infusing the old spirit into the new
+life, what are the women doing? As the government of the land to-day
+lies in the hands of the samurai men under the Emperor, so the progress
+of the women, the new ideas of work for women, are in the hands of the
+samurai women, led by the Empress. Wherever there is progress among the
+women, wherever they are looking about for new opportunities, entering
+new occupations, elevating the home, opening hospitals, industrial
+schools, asylums, there you will find the leading spirits always of the
+samurai class. In the recent changes, some of this class have risen
+above their former state and joined the ranks of the nobility; and
+there the presence of the samurai spirit infuses new life into the
+aristocracy. So, too, the changes that have raised some have lowered
+others, and the samurai is now to be found in the formerly despised
+occupations of trade and industry, among the merchants, the farmers, the
+fishermen, the artisans, and the domestic servants. But wherever his lot
+is cast, the old training, the old ideals, the old pride of family,
+still keep him separate from his present rank, and, instead of pulling
+him down to the level of those about him, tend to raise that level by
+the example of honor and intelligence that he sets. The changed fortunes
+were not met without a murmur. Most of the outrages, the reactionary
+movements, the riots and inflammatory speeches and writings, that
+characterized the long period of disquiet following the Restoration,
+came from men of this class, who saw their support taken from them,
+leaving them unable to dig and ashamed to beg. But the greater part of
+them went sturdily to work, in government positions if they could get
+them, in the army, on the police force, on the farm, in the shop, at
+trades, at service,--even to the humble work of wheeling a
+_jinrikisha_, if other honest occupation could not be found; and the
+women shared patiently and bravely the changed fortunes of the men,
+doing whatever they could toward bettering them. The samurai women
+to-day are eagerly working into the positions of teachers, interpreters,
+trained nurses, and whatever other places there are which may be
+honorably occupied by women. The girls' schools, both government and
+private, find many of their pupils among the samurai class; and their
+deference and obedience to their teachers and superiors, their ambition
+and keen sense of honor in the school-room, show the influence of the
+samurai feeling over new Japan. To the samurai women belongs the
+task--and they have already begun to perform it--of establishing upon a
+broader and surer foundation the position of women in their own country.
+They, as the most intelligent, will be the first to perceive the remedy
+for present evils, and will, if I mistake not, move heaven and earth, at
+some time in the near future, to have that remedy applied to their own
+case. Most of them read the literature of the day, some of them in at
+least one language beside their own; a few have had the benefit of
+travel abroad, and have seen what the home and the family are in
+Christian lands. There is as much of the unconquerable spirit of the
+samurai to-day in the women as in the men; and it will not be very long
+before that spirit will begin to show itself in working for the
+establishment of their homes and families upon some stronger basis than
+the will of the husband and father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PEASANT WOMEN.
+
+
+The great h�imin class includes not only the peasants of Japan, but also
+the artisans and merchants; artisans ranking below farmers, and
+merchants below artisans, in the social structure. It includes the whole
+of the common people, except such as were in former times altogether
+below the level of respectability, the _�ta_ and _hinin_,[39]--outcasts
+who lived by begging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead bodies,
+tanning skins, and other employments which rendered them unclean
+according to the old notions. From very early times the agricultural
+class has been sharply divided from the samurai or military. Here and
+there one from the peasantry mounts by force of his personal qualities
+into the higher ranks, for there is no caste system that prevents the
+passing from one class into another,--only a class prejudice that serves
+very nearly the same purpose, in keeping samurai and h�imin in their
+places, that the race prejudice in this country serves in confining the
+negroes, North and South, to certain positions and occupations. The
+first division of the military from the peasantry occurred in the eighth
+century, and since then the peculiar circumstances of each class have
+tended to produce quite different characteristics in persons originally
+of the same stock. To the soldier class have fallen learning, skill in
+arms and horsemanship, opportunities to rise to places of honor and
+power, lives free from sordid care in regard to the daily rice, and in
+which noble ideas of duty and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit in
+heroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his little rice-field year after
+year, have come the heavy burdens of taxation; the grinding toil for a
+mere pittance of food for himself and his family; the patient bearing of
+all things imposed by his superiors, with little hope of gain for
+himself, whatever change the fortunes of war may bring to those above
+him in the social scale. Is there wonder that, as the years have gone
+by, his wits have grown heavy under his daily drudgery; that he knows
+little and understands less of the changes that are taking place in his
+native land; that he is easily moved by only one thing, and that the
+failure of his crops, or the shortening of his returns from his land by
+heavier taxation? This is true of the h�imin as a class: they are
+conservative, fearing that change will but tend to make harder a lot
+that is none too easy; and though peaceable and gentle usually, they may
+be moved to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any political change
+that seems likely to produce heavier taxation, or even by a failure of
+their crops, when they see themselves and their families starving while
+the military and official classes have enough and to spare. But though,
+as a class, the farmers are ignorant and heavy, they are seldom entirely
+illiterate; and everywhere, throughout the country, one finds men
+belonging to this class who are well educated and have risen to
+positions of much responsibility and power, and are able to hold their
+own, and think for themselves and for their brethren. From an article in
+the "T[=o]ky[=o] Mail," entitled "A Memorialist of the Latter Days of the
+Tokugawa Government," I quote passages which show the thoughts of one of
+the h�imin upon the condition of his own class about the year 1850. It
+is from a petition sent to the Sh[=o]gun by the head-man of the village of
+Ogushi.
+
+[39] The laws against the _�ta_ and _hinin_, making of them a distinct,
+unclean class, and forbidding their intermarriage with any of the higher
+classes, have recently been abolished. There is now no rank distinction
+of any practical value, except that between noble and common people.
+H�imin and samurai are now indiscriminately mingled.
+
+The first point in the petition is, that there is a growing tendency to
+luxury among the military and official classes. "It is useless to issue
+orders commanding peasants and others to be frugal and industrious, when
+those in power, whose duty it is to show a good example to the people,
+are themselves steeped in luxury and idleness." He ventures to reproach
+the Sh[=o]guns themselves by pointing to the extravagance with which they
+have decorated the mausoleums at Nikk[=o] and elsewhere. "Is this," he
+asks, "in keeping with the intentions of the glorious founder of your
+dynasty? Look at the shrines in Is� and elsewhere, and at the sepulchres
+of the Emperors of successive ages. Is gold or silver used in decorating
+them?" He then turns to the vassals of the Sh[=o]gun, and charges them
+with being tyrannical, rapacious, and low-minded. "Samurai," he
+continues,--"samurai are finely attired, but how contemptible they look
+in the eyes of those peasants who know how to be contented with what
+they have!"
+
+Further on in the same memorial, he points out what he regards as a
+grave mistake in the policy of the Sh[=o]gun. A decree had just been
+issued prohibiting the peasantry from exercising themselves with
+sword-play, and from wearing swords. Of this he says: "Perhaps this
+decree may have been issued on the supposition that Japan is naturally
+impregnable and defended on all sides. But when she receives insult from
+a foreign country, it may become necessary to call on the militia. And
+who knows that men of extraordinary military genius, like Toyotomi,[40]
+will not again appear among the lower classes?"
+
+[40] Toyotomi Hid�yoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the position of a
+groom to be the actual ruler of Japan during the Middle Ages. He it was
+who in 1587 issued a decree of banishment against the Christian
+missionaries in Japan. He is called Faxiba in the writings of these
+missionaries, and in Japan he is frequently spoken of as Taiko Sama, a
+title, not a name; but a title that, used alone, refers always to him.
+For further account of his life, see Griffis, _Mikado's Empire_, book
+i., chap. xxiv.
+
+He ends his memorial with this warning: "Should the Sh[=o]gun's court, and
+the military class in general, persist in the present oppressive way of
+government, Heaven will visit this land with still greater calamities.
+If this circumstance is not clearly kept in view, the consequence may be
+civil disturbance. I, therefore, beseech that the instructions of the
+glorious founder of the dynasty be acted upon; that simplicity and
+frugality be made the guiding principle of administration; and that a
+general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby complying with the will of Heaven
+and placating the people. Should these humble suggestions of mine be
+acted upon, prospective calamities will fly before the light of virtue.
+Whether the country is to be safe or not depends upon whether the
+administration is carried on with mercy or not. What I pray for is, that
+the country may enjoy peace and tranquillity, that the harvest may be
+plentiful, and that the people may be happy and prosperous."
+
+One is able to see, by this rather remarkable document, that the
+peasants of Japan, though frequently almost crushed by the heavy burdens
+of taxation, do not, even in the most grinding poverty, lose entirely
+that independence of thought and of action which is characteristic of
+their nation. They do not consider themselves as a servile class, nor
+their military rulers as beyond criticism or reproach, but are ready to
+speak boldly for their rights whenever an opportunity occurs. There is a
+pathetic story, told in Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," of a peasant,
+the head-man of his village, who goes to Yedo to present to the
+Sh[=o]gun a complaint, on behalf of his fellow-villagers, of the
+extortions and exactions of his daimi[=o]. He is unable to get any one
+to present his memorial to the Sh[=o]gun, so at last he stops the great
+lord's palanquin in the street,--an act in itself punishable with
+death,--and thrusts the paper forcibly into his hand. The petition is
+read, and his fellow-villagers saved from further oppression, but the
+head-man, for his daring, is condemned by his own daimi[=o] to suffer
+death by crucifixion,--a fate which he meets with the same heroism with
+which he dared everything to save his fellows from suffering.
+
+The peasant, though ignorant and oppressed, has not lost his manhood;
+has not become a slave or a serf, but clings to his rights, so far as
+he knows what they are; and is ready to hold his own against all comers,
+when the question in debate is one that appeals to his mind. The rulers
+of Japan have always the peasantry to reckon with when their ruling
+becomes unjust or oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though they may be
+misled for a time, and they form a conservative element that serves to
+hold in check too hasty rulers who would introduce new measures too
+quickly, and would be likely to find the new wine bursting the old
+bottles, as well as to prevent any rash extravagance in the way of
+personal expenditure on the part of government officials. The influence
+of this great class will be more and more felt as the new parliamentary
+institutions gain in power, and a more close connection is established
+between the throne and public opinion.
+
+In considering this great h�imin class, it is well to remember that the
+artisans, who form so large a part of it, are also the artists who have
+made the reputation of Japan, in Europe and America, as one of the
+countries where art and the love of beauty in form and color are still
+instinct with life. The Japanese artisan works with patient toil, and
+with the skill and originality of the artist, to produce something that
+shall be individual and his own; not simply to make, after a pattern,
+some utensil or ornament for which he cares nothing, so long as a
+purchaser can be found for it, or an employer can be induced to pay him
+money for making it. It seems as easy for the Japanese to make things
+pretty and in good taste, even when they are cheap and only used by the
+poorer people, as it is for American mills and workers to turn out
+endless varieties of attempts at decoration,--all so hideous that a poor
+person must be content, either to be surrounded by the worst possible
+taste, or to purchase only such furnishings and utensils as are entirely
+without decoration of any kind. "Cheap" and "nasty" have come to be
+almost synonymous words with us, for the reason that taste in decoration
+is so rare that it commands a monopoly price, and can only be procured
+by the wealthy. In Japan this is not the case, for the cheapest of
+things may be found in graceful and artistic designs,--indeed can
+hardly be found in any designs that are not graceful and artistic; and
+the poorest and commonest of the people may have about them the little
+things that go to cultivate the �sthetic part of human nature. It was
+not the costly art of Japan that interested me the most, although that
+is, of course, the most wonderful proof of the capacity and patience of
+individuals among this h�imin class: but it was the common, cheap,
+every-day art that meets one at every turn; the love for the beautiful,
+in both nature and art, that belongs to the common coolie as well as to
+the nobleman. The cheap prints, the blue and white towels, the common
+teacups and pots, the great iron kettles in use over the fire in the
+farmhouse kitchen,--all these are things as pretty and tasteful in their
+way as the rich cr�pes, the silver incense burners, the delicate
+porcelain, and the elegant lacquer that fill the storehouse of the
+daimi[=o]; and they show, much more conclusively than these costlier
+things, the universal sense of beauty among the people.
+
+The artisan works at his home, helped less often by hired laborers than
+by his own children, who learn the trade of their father; and his
+house, though small, is clean and tasteful, with its soft mats, its
+dainty tea service, its little hanging scroll upon the walls, and its
+vase of gracefully arranged flowers in the corner; for flowers, even in
+winter and in the great city of T[=o]ky[=o], are so cheap that they are
+never beyond the reach of the poorest. In homes that seem to the foreign
+mind utterly lacking in the comforts and even the necessities of life,
+one finds the few furnishings and utensils beautiful in shape and
+decoration; and the money that in this country must be spent in beds,
+tables, and chairs can be used for the purchase of _kak�monos_, flowers,
+and vases, and for various gratifications of the �sthetic taste. Hence
+it is that the Japanese laborer, who lives on a daily wage which would
+reduce an American or European to the verge of starvation, finds both
+time and money for the cultivation of that sense of beauty which is too
+often crushed completely out of the lower classes by the burdens of this
+nineteenth century civilization which they bear upon their shoulders. To
+the Japanese, the "life is more than meat," it is beauty as well; and
+this love of beauty has upon him a civilizing and refining effect, and
+makes him in many ways the superior of the American day-laborer.[*239]
+
+The peasants and farmers of Japan, thrifty and hard-working as they are,
+are not by any means a prosperous class. As one passes into the country
+districts from the large cities, there seems to be a conspicuous dearth
+of neat, pleasant homes,--a lack of the comforts and necessities of life
+such as are enjoyed by city people. The rich farmers are scarce, and the
+laborers in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days of hardest toil with
+the rudest implements, the little that will provide for their families.
+In the face of heavy taxes, the incessant toil, the frequent floods of
+late years, and the threatening famine, one would expect the poor
+peasants to be a most discouraged and unhappy class. That all this toil
+and anxiety does wear on them is no doubt true, but the laborers are
+always ready to bear submissively whatever comes, and are always hopeful
+and prepared to enjoy life again in happier times. The charms of the
+city tempt them sometimes to exchange their daily labor for the
+excitement of life as _jinrikisha_ men; but in any case they will be
+perfectly independent, and ask no man for their daily rations.
+
+Although there is much poverty, there are few or no beggars in Japan,
+for both strong and weak find each some occupation that brings the
+little pittance required to keep soul and body together, and gives to
+all enough to make them light-hearted, cheerful, and even happy. From
+the rich farmer, whose many acres yield enough to provide for a home of
+luxury quite as fine as the city homes, to the poor little vender of
+sticks of candy, around whose store the children flock like bees with
+their rin and sen, all seem independent, contented, and satisfied with
+their lot in life.
+
+The religious beliefs of old Japan are stronger to-day among the country
+people than among the dwellers in cities. And they are still willing to
+give of their substance for the aid of the dying faiths to which they
+cling, and to undertake toilsome pilgrimages to obtain some longed-for
+blessing from the gods whom they serve. A great Buddhist temple is being
+built in Ky[=o]t[=o] to-day, from the lofty ceiling of which hangs a
+striking proof of the devotion of some of the peasant women to the
+Buddhist faith. The whole temple, with its immense curved roof, its vast
+proportions, and its marvelous wood carvings, has been built by
+offerings of labor, money, and materials made by the faithful. The great
+timbers were given and brought to the spot by the countrymen; and the
+women, wishing to have some part in the sacred work, cut off their
+abundant hair, a beauty perhaps more prized by the Japanese women than
+by those of other countries, and from the material thus obtained they
+twisted immense cables, to be used in drawing the timbers from the
+mountains to the site of the temple. The great black cables hang in the
+unfinished temple to-day, a sign of the devotion of the women who spared
+not their chief ornament in the service of the gods in whom they still
+believe. And a close scrutiny of these touching offerings shows that the
+glossy black locks of the young women are mingled with the white hairs
+of those who, by this sacrifice, hope to make sure of a quick and easy
+departure from a life already near its close.
+
+All along the T[=o]kaid[=o], the great road from T[=o]ky[=o] to
+Ky[=o]to, in the neighborhood of some holy place, or in the district
+around the great and sacred Fuji, the mountain so much beloved and
+honored in Japanese art, will be seen bands of pilgrims slowly walking
+along the road, their worn and soiled white garments telling of many
+days' weary march. Their large hats shield them from the sun and the
+rain, and the pieces of matting slung over their backs serve them for
+beds to sleep on, when they take shelter for the night in rude huts. The
+way up the great mountain of Fuji is lined with these pilgrims; for to
+attain its summit, and worship there the rising sun, is believed to be
+the means of obtaining some special blessing. Among these religious
+devotees, in costumes not unlike those of the men, under the same large
+hat and coarse matting, old women often are seen, their aged faces
+belying their apparent vigor of body, as they walk along through miles
+and miles of country, jingling their bells and holding their rosaries
+until they reach the shrine, where they may ask some special blessing
+for their homes, or fulfill some vow already made.[*242]
+
+Journeying through rural Japan, one is impressed by the important part
+played by women in the various bread-winning industries. In the village
+homes, under the heavily thatched roofs, the constant struggle against
+poverty and famine will not permit the women to hold back, but they
+enter bravely into all the work of the men. In the rice-field the woman
+works side by side with the man, standing all day up to her knees in
+mud, her dress tucked up and her lower limbs encased in tight-fitting,
+blue cotton trousers, planting, transplanting, weeding, and turning over
+the evil-smelling mire, only to be distinguished from her husband by her
+broader belt tied in a bow behind. In mountain regions we meet the women
+climbing the steep mountain roads, pruning-hook in hand, after wood for
+winter fires; or descending, towards night, carrying a load that a
+donkey need not be ashamed of, packed on a frame attached to the
+shoulders, or poised lightly upon a straw mat upon the head. There is
+one village near Ky[=o]to, Yas� by name, at the base of Hiy�i Zan, the
+historic Buddhist stronghold, where the women attain a stature and
+muscular development quite unique among the pigmy population of the
+island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked women they are, showing no
+evidence of the shrinking away with the advance of old age that is
+characteristic of most of their countrywomen. With their tucked-up
+_kimonos_ and blue cotton trousers, they stride up and down the
+mountain, carrying the heaviest and most unwieldy of burdens as lightly
+and easily as the ordinary woman carries her baby. My first acquaintance
+with them was during a camping expedition upon the sacred mountain. I
+myself was carried up the ascent by two small, nearly naked, finely
+tattooed and moxa-scarred men; but my baggage, consisting of two closely
+packed hampers as large as ordinary steamer trunks, was lifted lightly
+to the heads of these feminine porters, and, poised on little straw
+pads, carried easily up the narrow trail, made doubly difficult by
+low-hanging branches, to the camp, a distance of three or four miles.
+From among these women of Yas�, on account of their remarkable physical
+development, have been chosen frequently the nurses for the imperial
+infants; an honor which the Yas� villagers duly appreciate, and which
+makes them bear themselves proudly among their less favored neighbors.
+
+In other parts of the country, in the neighborhood of Nikk[=o], for
+instance, the care of the horses, mild little pack-mares that do much of
+the burden-bearing in those mountains, is mainly in the hands of the
+women. At Nikk[=o], when we would hire ponies for a two days' expedition
+to Yumoto, a little, elderly woman was the person with whom our bargains
+were made; and a close bargainer she proved to be, taking every
+advantage that lay in her power. When the caravan was ready to start, we
+found that, though each saddle-horse had a male groom in attendance, the
+pack-ponies on which our baggage was carried were led by pretty little
+country girls of twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes and red
+cheeks contrasting pleasantly with the blue handkerchiefs that adorned
+their heads; their slender limbs encased in blue cotton, and only their
+red sashes giving any hint of the fact that they belonged to the weaker
+sex. As we journeyed up the rough mountain roads, the little girls kept
+along easily with the rest of the party; leading their meek,
+shock-headed beasts up the slippery log steps, and passing an occasional
+greeting with some returning pack-train, in which the soft black eyes
+and bits of red about the costume of the little grooms showed that they,
+too, were mountain maidens, returning fresh and happy after a two days'
+tramp through the rocky passes.
+
+In the districts where the silkworm is raised, and the silk spun and
+woven, the women play a most important part in this productive industry.
+The care of the worms and of the cocoons falls entirely upon the women,
+as well as the spinning of the silk and the weaving of the cloth. It is
+almost safe to say that this largest and most productive industry of
+Japan is in the hands of the women; and it is to their care and skill
+that the silk product of the islands is due. In the silk districts one
+finds the woman on terms of equality with the man, for she is an
+important factor in the wealth-producing power of the family, and is
+thus able to make herself felt as she cannot when her work is inferior
+to that of the men. As a farmer, as a groom, or as a porter, a woman is
+and must remain an inferior, but in the care of the silkworms, and all
+the tasks that belong to silk culture, she is the equal of the stronger
+sex.
+
+Then, again, in the tea districts, the tea plantations are filled with
+young girls and old women, their long sleeves held back by a band over
+the shoulder, and a blue towel gracefully fastened over their heads to
+keep off the sun and the dust. They pick busily away at the green,
+tender leaves, which will soon be heated and rolled by strong men over
+the charcoal fire. The occupation is an easy one, only requiring care in
+the selection of leaves to be picked, and can be performed by young
+girls and old women, who gather the glossy leaves in their big baskets,
+while chatting to each other over the gossip and news of the day.
+
+In the hotels, both in the country and the city, women play an important
+part. The attendants are usually sweet-faced, prettily dressed girls,
+and frequently the proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My first
+experience of a Japanese hotel was at Nara, anciently the capital of
+Japan, and now a place of resort because of its fine old temples, its
+Dai Butsu, and its beautiful deer park. The day's ride in _jinrikisha_
+from [=O]saka had brought our party in very tired, only to find that the
+hotel to which we had telegraphed for rooms was already filled to
+overflowing by a daimi[=o] and his suite. Not a room could be obtained,
+and we were at last obliged to walk some distance, for we had dismissed
+our tired _jinrikisha_ men, to a hotel in the village, of which we knew
+nothing. What with fatigue and disappointment, we were not prepared to
+view the unknown hotel in a very rosy light; and when our guide pointed
+to a small gate leading into a minute, damp courtyard, we were quite
+convinced that the hardships of travel in Japan were now about to begin;
+but disappointment gave way to hope, when we were met at the door by a
+buxom landlady, whose smile was in itself a refreshment. Although we had
+little in the way of language in common, she made us feel at home at
+once, took us to her best room, sent her blooming and prettily dressed
+daughters to bring us tea and whatever other refreshments the mysterious
+appetite of a foreigner might require, and altogether behaved toward us
+in such motherly fashion that fatigue and gloom departed forthwith,
+leaving us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we began to feel rested, and our
+kind friend, seeing this, took us upon a tour around the house, in
+which room after room, spotless, empty, with shining woodwork and
+softest of mats, showed the good housekeeping of our hostess. A little
+garden in the centre of the house, with dwarf trees, moss-covered
+stones, and running water, gave it an air of coolness on the hot July
+day that was almost deceptive; and the spotless wash-room, with its
+great stone sink, its polished brass basins, its stone well-curb, half
+in and half out of the house, was cool and clean and refreshing merely
+to look at. A two days' stay in this hotel showed that the landlady was
+the master of the house. Her husband was about the house constantly, as
+were one or two other men, but they all worked under the direction of
+the energetic head of affairs. She it was who managed everything, from
+the cooking of the meals in the kitchen to the filling and heating of
+the great bath-tub into which the guests were invited to enter every
+afternoon, one after the other, in the order of their rank. On the
+second night of my stay, at a late hour, when I supposed that the whole
+house had retired to rest, I crept softly out of my room to try to
+soothe the plaintive wails of my dog, who was complaining bitterly that
+he was made to sleep in the wood-cellar instead of in his mistress's
+room, as his habit had always been. As I stole quietly along, fearing
+lest I should arouse the sleeping house, I heard the inquiring voice of
+my landlady sound from the bath-room, the door of which stood wide open.
+Afraid that she would think me in mischief if I did not show myself, I
+went to the door, to find her, after her family was safely stowed away
+for the night, taking her ease in the great tub of hot water, and so
+preparing herself for a sound, if short, night's sleep. She accepted my
+murmured _Inu_ (dog) as an excuse, and graciously dismissed me with a
+smile, and I returned to my room feeling safe under the vigilant care
+that seemed to guard the house by night as well as by day. I have seen
+many Japanese hotels and many careful landladies since, but no one among
+them all has made such an impression as my pleasant hostess at Nara.
+
+Not only hotels, but little tea-houses all through Japan, form openings
+for the business abilities of women, both in country and city. Wherever
+you go, no matter how remote the district or how rough the road, at
+every halting point you find a tea-house. Sometimes it is quite an
+extensive restaurant, with several rooms for the entertainment of
+guests, and a regular kitchen where fairly elaborate cooking can be
+done; sometimes it is only a rough shelter, at one end of which water is
+kept boiling over a charcoal brazier, while at the other end a couple of
+seats, covered with mats or a scarlet blanket or two, serve as
+resting-places for the patrons of the establishment. But whatever the
+place is, there will be one woman or more in attendance; and if you sit
+down upon the mats, you will be served at once with tea, and later,
+should you require more, with whatever the establishment can afford,--it
+may be only a slice of watermelon, or a hard pear; it may be eels on
+rice, vermicelli, egg soup, or a regular dinner, should the tea-house be
+one of the larger and more elaborately appointed ones. When the feast is
+over, the refreshments you have especially ordered are paid for in the
+regular way; but for the tea and sweetmeats offered, for which no
+especial charge is made, you are expected to leave a small sum as a
+present. In the less aristocratic resting-places, a few cents for each
+person is sufficient to leave on the waiter with the empty cups of tea,
+for which loud and grateful thanks will be shouted out to the retiring
+party.
+
+In the regular inn, the _chadai_[41] amounts to several dollars, for a
+party remaining any time, and it is supposed to pay for all the extra
+services and attention bestowed on guests by the polite host and hostess
+and the servants in attendance. The _chadai_, done up neatly in paper,
+with the words _On chadai_ written on it, is given with as much
+formality as any present in Japan. The guest claps his hands to summon
+the maid. When it is heard, for the thin paper walls of a Japanese house
+let through every noise, voices from all sides will shout out
+_H[=e]�-h[=e]�_, or _Hai_, which means that you have been heard, and
+understood. Presently a maid will softly open your door, and with head
+low down will ask what you wish. You tell her to summon the landlord.
+In a few moments he appears, and you push the _chadai_ to him, making
+some conventional self-depreciating speech, as, "You have done a great
+deal for our comfort, and we wish to give you this _chadai_, though it
+is only a trifle." The landlord, with every expression of surprise, will
+bow down to the ground with thanks, raising the small package to his
+head in token of acceptance and gratitude, and will murmur in low tones
+how little he has done for the comfort of his guests; and then, the
+self-depreciation and formal words of thanks on his side being ended, he
+will finally go down stairs to see how much he has gotten. But, whether
+more or less than he had expected, nothing but extreme gratitude and
+politeness appears on his face as he presents a fan, confectionery, or
+some trifle, as a return for the _chadai_, and speeds the parting guests
+with his lowest bow and kindliest smile, after having seen to every want
+that could be attended to.
+
+[41] _Chadai_ is, literally, "money for tea," and is equivalent to our
+tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The _chadai_ varies with the
+wealth and rank of the guests, the duration of the stay, and the
+attention which has been bestowed. _On_ is the honorific placed before
+the word in writing.
+
+Once, at Nikk[=o], I started with a friend for a morning walk to a place
+described in the guide-book. The day was hot and the guide-book hazy,
+and we lost the road to the place for which we had set out, but found
+ourselves at last in a beautiful garden, with a pretty lake in its
+centre, a little red-lacquered shrine reflected in the lake, and a
+tea-house hospitably open at one side. The teakettle was boiling over
+the little charcoal fire; melons, eggs, and various unknown comestibles
+were on the little counter; but no voice bade us welcome as we
+approached, and when we sat down on the edge of the piazza, we could see
+no one within the house. We waited, however, for the day was hot, and
+time is not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty soon a small, wizened
+figure made its appearance in the distance, hurrying and talking
+excitedly as it came near enough to see two foreign ladies seated upon
+the piazza. Many bows and profuse apologies were made by the little old
+woman, who seemed to be the solitary occupant of the pretty garden, and
+who had for the moment deserted her post to do the day's marketing in
+the neighboring village. The apologies having been smilingly received,
+the old lady set herself to the task of making her guests comfortable.
+First she brought two tumblers of water, cold as ice, from the spring
+that gushed out of a great rock in the middle of the little lake. Then
+she retired behind a screen and changed her dress, returning speedily to
+bring us tea. Then she retreated to her diminutive kitchen, and
+presently came back smiling, bearing eight large raw potatoes on a tray.
+These she presented to us with a deep bow, apparently satisfied that she
+had at last brought us something we would be sure to like. We left the
+potatoes behind us when we went away, and undoubtedly the old lady is
+wondering still over the mysterious ways of the foreigners, as we are
+over those of the Japanese tea-house keepers.
+
+One summer, when I was spending a week at a Japanese hotel at quite a
+fashionable seaside resort, I became interested in a little old woman
+who visited the hotel daily, carrying, suspended by a yoke from her
+shoulders, two baskets of fruit, which she sold to the guests of the
+hotel. As I was on the ground floor, and my room was, in the daytime,
+absolutely without walls on two sides, she was my frequent visitor, and,
+for the sake of her pleasant ways and cheerful smiles, I bought enough
+hard pears of her to have given the colic to an elephant. One day,
+after her visit to me, as I was sitting upon the matted and roofed
+square that served me for a room, my eye wandered idly toward the
+bathing beach, and, under the slight shelter where the bathers were in
+the habit of depositing their sandals and towels, I spied the well-known
+yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a small heap of blue cotton garments
+that I knew to be the clothing of the little fruit-vender. She had
+evidently taken a moment when trade was slack to enjoy a dip in the
+soft, blue, summer sea. Hardly had I made up my mind as to the meaning
+of the fruit baskets and the clothing, when our little friend herself
+emerged from the sea and, sitting down on a bench, proceeded to rub
+herself off with the small but artistically decorated blue towel that
+every peasant in Japan has always with him, however lacking he may be in
+all other appurtenances of the toilet. As she sat there, placidly
+rubbing away, a friend of the opposite sex made his appearance on the
+scene. I watched to see what she would do, for the Japanese code of
+etiquette is quite different from ours in such a predicament. She
+continued her employment until he was quite close, showing no unseemly
+haste, but continuing her polishing off in the same leisurely manner in
+which she had begun it; then at the proper moment she rose from her
+seat, bowed profoundly, and smilingly exchanged the greetings proper for
+the occasion, both parties apparently unconscious of any lack in the
+toilet of the lady. The male friend then passed on about his business;
+the little woman completed her toilet without further interruptions,
+shouldered her yoke, and jogged cheerfully on to her home in the little
+village, a couple of miles away.
+
+As one travels through rural Japan in summer and sees the half-naked
+men, women, and children that pour out from every village on one's route
+and surround the _kuruma_ at every stopping place, one sometimes wonders
+whether there is in the country any real civilization, whether these
+half-naked people are not more savage than civilized; but when one finds
+everywhere good hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments
+of toilet and table, polite and careful service, honest and willing
+performance of labor bargained for, together with the gentlest and
+pleasantest of manners, even on the part of the gaping crowd that shut
+out light and air from the traveling foreigner who rests for a moment at
+the village inn, one is forced to reconsider a judgment formed only upon
+one peculiarity of the national life, and to conclude that there is
+certainly a high type of civilization in Japan, though differing in many
+important particulars from our own. A careful study of the Japanese
+ideas of decency, and frequent conversation with refined and intelligent
+Japanese ladies upon this subject, has led me to the following
+conclusion. According to the Japanese standard, any exposure of the
+person that is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience
+in doing necessary work, is perfectly modest and allowable; but an
+exposure, no matter how slight, that is simply for show, is in the
+highest degree indelicate. In illustration of the first part of this
+conclusion, I would refer to the open bath-houses, the naked laborers,
+the exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather by the turning up of the
+_kimono_, the entirely nude condition of the country children in summer,
+and the very slight clothing that even adults regard as necessary about
+the house or in the country during the hot season. In illustration of
+the last part, I would mention the horror with which many Japanese
+ladies regard that style of foreign dress which, while covering the
+figure completely, reveals every detail of the form above the waist,
+and, as we say, shows off to advantage a pretty figure. To the Japanese
+mind it is immodest to want to show off a pretty figure. As for the
+ball-room costumes, where neck and arms are freely exposed to the gaze
+of multitudes, the Japanese woman, who would with entire composure take
+her bath in the presence of others, would be in an agony of shame at the
+thought of appearing in public in a costume so indecent as that worn by
+many respectable American and European women. Our judgment would indeed
+be a hasty one, should we conclude that the sense of decency is wanting
+in the Japanese as a race, or that the women are at all lacking in the
+womanly instinct of modesty. When the point of view from which they
+regard these matters is once obtained, the apparent inconsistencies and
+incongruities are fully explained, and we can do justice to our
+Japanese sister in a matter in regard to which she is too often cruelly
+misjudged.
+
+There seems no doubt at all that among the peasantry of Japan one finds
+the women who have the most freedom and independence. Among this class,
+all through the country, the women, though hard-worked and possessing
+few comforts, lead lives of intelligent, independent labor, and have in
+the family positions as respected and honored as those held by women in
+America. Their lives are fuller and happier than those of the women of
+the higher classes, for they are themselves bread-winners, contributing
+an important part of the family revenue, and they are obeyed and
+respected accordingly. The Japanese lady, at her marriage, lays aside
+her independent existence to become the subordinate and servant of her
+husband and parents-in-law, and her face, as the years go by, shows how
+much she has given up, how completely she has sacrificed herself to
+those about her. The Japanese peasant woman, when she marries, works
+side by side with her husband, finds life full of interest outside of
+the simple household work, and, as the years go by, her face shows more
+individuality, more pleasure in life, less suffering and disappointment,
+than that of her wealthier and less hard-working sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+LIFE IN THE CITIES.
+
+
+The great cities of Japan afford remarkable opportunities for seeing the
+life of the common people, for the little houses and shops, with their
+open fronts, reveal the _penetralia_ in a way not known in our more
+secluded homes. The employment of the merchant being formerly the lowest
+of respectable callings, one does not find even yet in Japan many great
+stores or a very high standard of business morality, for the business of
+the country was left in the hands of those who were too stupid or too
+unambitious to raise themselves above that social class. Hence English
+and American merchants, who only see Japan from the business side,
+continually speak of the Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and altogether
+unreliable, and greatly prefer to deal with the Chinese, who have much
+of the business virtue that is characteristic of the English as a
+nation. Only within a few years have the samurai, or indeed any one who
+was capable of figuring in any higher occupation in life, been willing
+to adopt the calling of the merchant; but many of the abler Japanese of
+to-day have begun to see that trade is one of the most important factors
+of a nation's well-being, and that the business of buying and selling,
+if wisely and honestly done, is an employment that nobody need be
+ashamed to enter. There are in Japan a few great merchants whose word
+may be trusted, and whose obligations will be fulfilled with absolute
+honesty; but a large part of the buying and selling is still in the
+hands of mercantile freebooters, who will take an advantage wherever it
+is possible to get one, in whose morality honesty has no place, and who
+have not yet discovered the efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter
+of policy. Their trade, conducted in a small way upon small means, is
+more of the nature of a game, in which one person is the winner and the
+other the loser, than a fair exchange, in which both parties obtain what
+they want. It is the medi�val, not the modern idea of business, that is
+still held among Japanese merchants. With them, trade is a warfare
+between buyer and seller, in which every man must take all possible
+advantage for himself, and it is the lookout of the other party if he is
+cheated.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], the greatest and most modernized of the cities of the
+empire, the shops are not the large city stores that one sees in
+European and American cities, but little open-fronted rooms, on the edge
+of which one sits to make one's purchases, while the proprietor smiles
+and bows and dickers; setting his price by the style of his customer's
+dress, or her apparent ignorance of the value of the desired article.
+Some few large dry-goods stores there are, where prices are set and
+dickering is unnecessary;[*264] and in the _kwankoba_, or bazaars, one
+may buy almost anything needed by Japanese of all classes, from house
+furnishings to foreign hats, at prices plainly marked upon them, and
+from which there is no variation. But one's impression of the state of
+trade in Japan is, that it is still in a very primitive and undeveloped
+condition, and is surprisingly behind the other parts of Japanese
+civilization.
+
+The shopping of the ladies of the large _yashikis_ and of wealthy
+families is done mostly in the home; for all the stores are willing at
+any time, on receiving an order, to send up a clerk with a bale of
+cr�pes, silks, and cottons tied to his back, and frequently towering
+high above his head as he walks, making him look like the proverbial ant
+with a grain of wheat. He sets his great bundle carefully down on the
+floor, opens the enormous _furushiki_, or bundle handkerchief, in which
+it is enveloped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or chintz, neatly
+done up in paper or yellow cotton. With infinite patience, he waits
+while the merits of each piece are examined and discussed, and if none
+of his stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to come again with a new
+set of wares, knowing that in the end purchases will be made sufficient
+to cover all his trouble.
+
+The less aristocratic people are content to go to the stores themselves;
+and the business streets of a Japanese city, such as the Ginza in
+T[=o]ky[=o], are full of women, young and old, as well as merry
+children, who enjoy the life and bustle of the stores. Like all things
+else in Japan, shopping takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the largest
+silk store in T[=o]ky[=o], one will see crowds of clerks sitting upon
+the matted floors, each with his _soroban_, or adding machine, by his
+side; and innumerable small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying armfuls
+of fabrics to the different clerks, or picking up the same fabrics after
+the customer who has called for them has departed. The store appears, to
+the foreign eye, to be simply a roofed and matted platform upon which
+both clerks and customers sit. This platform is screened from the street
+by dark blue cotton curtains or awnings hung from the low projecting
+eaves of the heavy roof. As the customers take their seats, either on
+the edge of the platform, or, if they have come on an extended shopping
+bout, upon the straw mat of the platform itself, a small boy appears
+with tea for the party; an obsequious clerk greets them with the
+customary salutations of welcome, pushes the charcoal brazier toward
+them, that they may smoke, or warm their hands, before proceeding to
+business, and then waits expectantly for the name of the goods that his
+customers desire to see. When this is given, the work begins; the little
+boys are summoned, and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof
+warehouse, which stands with heavy doors thrown open, on the other side
+of the platform, away from the street. Through the doorway one can see
+endless piles of costly stuffs stored safely away, and from these piles
+the boys select the required fabric, loading themselves down with them
+so that they can barely stagger under the weights that they carry. As
+the right goods are not always brought the first time, and as, moreover,
+there is an endless variety in the colors and patterns in even one kind
+of silk, there is always plenty of time for watching the busy
+scene,--for sipping tea, or smoking a few whiffs from the tiny pipes
+that so many Japanese, both men and women, carry always with them. When
+the purchase is at last made, there is still some time to be spent by
+the customer in waiting until the clerk has made an abstruse calculation
+upon his _soroban_, the transaction has been entered in the books of the
+firm, and a long bill has been written and stamped, and handed to her
+with the bundle. During her stay in the store, the foreign customer,
+making her first visit to the place, is frequently startled by loud
+shouts from the whole staff of clerks and small boys,--outcries so
+sudden, so simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she cannot rid herself
+of the idea that something terrible is happening every time that they
+occur. She soon learns, however, that these manifestations of energy are
+but the way in which the Japanese merchant speeds the departing
+purchaser, and that the apparently inarticulate shouts are but the
+formal phrase, "Thanks for your continued favors," which is repeated in
+a loud tone by every employee in the store whenever a customer departs.
+When she herself is at last ready to leave, a chorus of yells arises,
+this time for her benefit; and as she skips into the _jinrikisha_ and is
+whirled away, she hears continued the busy hum of voices, the clattering
+of _sorobans_, the thumping of the bare feet of the heavily laden boys,
+and the loud shouts of thanks with which departing guests are honored.
+
+There is less pomp and circumstance about the smaller stores, for all
+the goods are within easy reach, and the shops for household utensils
+and chinaware seem to have nearly the whole stock in trade piled up in
+front, or even in the street itself. Many such little places are the
+homes of the people who keep them. And at the back are rooms, which
+serve for dwelling rooms, opening upon well-kept gardens. The whole work
+of the store is often attended to by the proprietor, assisted by his
+wife and family, and perhaps one or two apprentices. Each of the
+workers, in turn, takes an occasional holiday, for there is no day in
+the Japanese calendar when the shops are all closed; and even New Year's
+Day, the great festival of the year, finds most of the stores open. Yet
+the dwellers in these little homes, living almost in the street, and in
+the midst of the bustle and crowd and dust of T[=o]ky[=o], have still
+time to enjoy their holidays and their little gardens, and have more
+pleasure and less hard work than those under similar circumstances in
+our own country.
+
+The stranger visiting any of the great Japanese cities is surprised by
+the lack of large stores and manufactories, and often wonders where the
+beautiful lacquer work and porcelains are made, and where the gay silks
+and cr�pes are woven. There are no large establishments where such
+things are turned out by wholesale. The delicate vases, the bronzes,
+and the silks are often made in humblest homes, the work of one or two
+laborers with rudest tools. There are no great manufactories to be seen,
+and the bane of so many cities, the polluting factory smoke, never rises
+over the cities of Japan. The hard, confining factory life, with its
+never-ceasing roar of machinery, bewildering the minds and intellects of
+the men who come under its deadening influences, until they become
+scarcely more than machines themselves, is a thing as yet almost unknown
+in Japan. The life of the _jinrikisha_ man even, hard and comfortless as
+it may seem to run all day like a horse through the crowded city
+streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh air, under the open sky, and
+quickens his powers both of body and mind. To the poor in Japanese
+cities is never denied the fresh air and sunshine, green trees and
+grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens are found everywhere, for the
+enjoyment of even the meanest and lowest.
+
+On certain days in the month, in different sections of the city, are
+held night festivals near temples, and many shopkeepers take the
+opportunity to erect temporary booths, in which they so arrange their
+wares as to tempt the passers-by as they go to and fro. Very often there
+is a magnificent display of young trees, potted plants, and flowers,
+brought in from the country and ranged on both sides of the street. Here
+the gardeners make lively sales, as the displays are often fine in
+themselves, and show to a special advantage in the flaring torchlight.
+The eager venders, who do all they can to call the attention of the
+crowd to their wares, make many good bargains. The purchase requires
+skill on both sides, for flower men are proverbial in their high
+charges, asking often five and ten times the real value of a plant, but
+coming down in price almost immediately on remonstrance. You ask the
+price of a dwarf wistaria growing in a pot. The man answers at once,
+"Two dollars." "Two dollars!" you answer in surprise, "it is not worth
+more than thirty or forty cents." "Seventy-five, then," he will respond;
+and thus the buyer and seller approach nearer in price, until the
+bargain is struck somewhere near the first price offered. Price another
+plant and there would be the same process to go over again; but as the
+evening passes, prices go lower and lower, for the distances that the
+plants have been brought are great, and the labor of loading up and
+carrying back the heavy pots is a weary one, and when the last customer
+has departed the merchants must work late into the night to get their
+wares safely home again.
+
+But beside the flower shows, there are long rows of booths, which, with
+the many visitors who throng the streets, make a gay and lively scene.
+So dense is the crowd that it is with difficulty one can push through on
+foot or in _jinrikisha_. The darkness is illuminated by torches, whose
+weird flames flare and smoke in the wind, and shine down upon the little
+sheds which line both sides of the road, and contain so tempting a
+display of cheap toys and trinkets that not only the children, but their
+elders, are attracted by them. Some of the booths are devoted to dolls;
+others to toys of various kinds; still others to birds in cages,
+goldfish in globes, queer chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty
+ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and cakes of all sorts, roasted
+beans and peanuts, and other things too numerous to mention. The long
+line of stalls ends with booths, or tents, in which shows of dancing,
+jugglery, educated animals, and monstrosities, natural or artificial,
+may be seen for the moderate admission fee of two sen. Each of these
+shows is well advertised by the beating of drums, by the shouting of
+doorkeepers, by wonderful pictures on the outside to entice the
+passer-by, or even by an occasional brief lifting of the curtains which
+veil the scene from the crowd without, just long enough to afford a
+tantalizing glimpse of the wonders within. Great is the fascination to
+the children in all these things, and the little feet are never weary
+until the last booth is passed, and the quiet of neighboring streets,
+lighted only by wandering lanterns, strikes the home-returning party by
+its contrast with the light and noise of the festival. The supposed
+object of the expedition, the visit to the temple, has occupied but a
+small share of time and attention, and the little hands are filled with
+the amusing toys and trifles bought, and the little minds with the merry
+sights seen. Nor are those who remain at home forgotten, but the
+pleasure-seekers who visit the fair carry away with them little gifts
+for each member of the family, and the _O miag�_, or present given on
+the return, is a regular institution of Japanese home life.[42]
+
+[42] _O miag�_ must be given, not only on the return from an evening of
+pleasure, but also on the return from a journey or pleasure trip of any
+kind. As a rule, the longer the absence, the finer and more costly must
+be the presents given on returning.
+
+By ten o'clock, when the crowds have dispersed and the purchasers have
+all gone home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keepers take down their
+stalls, pack up their wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the
+night's gayeties to greet the morning sun.
+
+Beside these evening shows, which occur monthly or oftener, there are
+also great festivals of the various gods, some celebrated annually,
+others at intervals of some years. These _matsuri_ last for several
+days, and during that time the quarter of the city in which they occur
+seems entirely given over to festivity. The streets are gayly decorated
+with flags, and bright lanterns--all alike in design and color--are hung
+in rows from the low eaves of the houses. Young bamboo-trees set along
+the street, and decorated with bits of bright-colored tissue paper, are
+a frequent and effective accompaniment of these festivals, and here and
+there throughout the district are set up high stands, on the tops of
+which musicians with squeaky flutes, and drums of varying calibre, keep
+up a din more festive than harmonious. It takes a day or two for the
+rejoicings to get fully under way, but by the second or third day the
+fun is at its height, and the streets are thronged with merrymakers. A
+great deal of labor and strength, as well as ingenuity, is spent in the
+construction of enormous floats, or _dashi_, lofty platforms of two
+stories, either set on wheels and drawn by black bullocks or crowds of
+shouting men, or carried by poles on men's shoulders. Upon the first
+floor of these great floats is usually a company of dancers, or mummers,
+who dance, attitudinize, or make faces for the amusement of the crowds
+that gather along their route; while up above, an effigy of some hero in
+Japanese history, or the figure of some animal or monster, looks down
+unmoved upon the absurdities below. Each _dashi_ is attended, not only
+by the men who draw it, but by companies of others in some uniform
+costume; and sometimes graceful professional dancing-girls are hired to
+march in the _matsuri_ procession, or to dance upon the lofty _dashi_.
+At the time of the festivities which accompanied the promulgation of the
+Constitution, three days of jollification were held in T[=o]ky[=o], days
+of such universal fun and frolic that it will be known among the common
+people, to all succeeding generations, as the "Emperor's big _matsuri_."
+Every quarter of the city vied with every other in the production of
+gorgeous _dashi_, and the streets were gay with every conceivable
+variety of decoration, from the little red-and-white paper lanterns,
+that even the poorest hung before their houses, to the great evergreen
+arches, set with electric lights, with which the great business streets
+were spanned thickly from end to end. An evening walk through one of
+these thoroughfares was a sight to be remembered for a lifetime. The
+magnificent _dashi_ represented all manner of quaint conceits. A great
+bivalve drawn by yelling crowds--which halted occasionally--opened and
+displayed between its shells a group of beautifully dressed girls, who
+danced one of the pantomimic dances of the country, accompanied by the
+twanging melodies of the _samisen_. Then slowly the great shell closed,
+once more the shouting crowds seized hold of the straining ropes, and
+the great bivalve with its fair freight was drawn slowly along through
+the gayly illuminated streets. Jimmu Tenno and other heroes of Japanese
+legend or history, each upon its lofty platform, a white elephant, and
+countless other subjects were represented in the festival cars sent
+forth by all the districts of the city to celebrate the great event.
+
+Upon such festival occasions the shopkeeper does not put up his shutters
+and leave his place of business, but the open shop-fronts add much to
+the gay appearance of the street. There are no signs of business about,
+but the floor of the shop is covered with bright-red blankets;
+magnificent gilded screens form an imposing background to the little
+room; and seated on the floor are the shopkeeper, his family, and
+guests, eating, drinking tea, and smoking, as cosily as if all the world
+and his wife were not gazing upon the gay and homelike interior.
+Sometimes companies of dancers, or other entertainments furnished by the
+wealthier shopkeepers, will attract gaping crowds, who watch and block
+the street until the advance guard of some approaching _dashi_ scatters
+them for a moment.
+
+In Japan, as in other parts of the world, the country people are rather
+looked down upon by the dwellers in the city for their slowness of
+intellect, dowdiness of dress, and boorishness of manners; while the
+country people make fun of the fads and fashions of the city, and
+rejoice that they are not themselves the slaves of novelty, and
+especially of the foreign innovations that play so prominent a part in
+Japanese city life to-day. "The frog in the well knows not the great
+ocean," is the snub with which the Japanese cockney sets down Farmer
+Rice-Field's expressions of opinion; while the conservative countryman
+laughs at the foreign affectations of the T[=o]ky[=o] man, and returns
+to his village with tales of the cookery of the capital: so extravagant
+is it that sugar is used in everything; it is even rumored that the
+T[=o]ky[=o]ites put sugar in their tea.
+
+But while the country laughs and wonders at the city, nevertheless, in
+Japan as elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of the young life of
+the country into the livelier and more entertaining city. T[=o]ky[=o]
+especially is the goal of every young countryman's ambition, and thither
+he goes to seek his fortune, finding, alas! too often, only the hard lot
+of the _jinrikisha_ man, instead of the wealth and power that his
+country dreams had shown him.
+
+The lower class women of the cities are in many respects like their
+sisters of the rural districts, except that they have less freedom than
+the country women in what the economists call "direct production." The
+wells and water tanks that stand at convenient distances along the
+streets of T[=o]ky[=o] are frequently surrounded by crowds of women,
+drawing water, washing rice, and chattering merrily over their
+occupations. They meet and exchange ideas freely with each other and
+with the men, but they have not the diversity of labor that country life
+affords, confining themselves more closely to indoor and domestic work,
+and leaving the bread-winning more entirely to the men.
+
+There are, however, occupations in the city for women, by which they may
+support themselves or their families. A good hair-dresser may make a
+handsome living; indeed, she does so well that it is proverbial among
+the Japanese that a hair-dresser's husband has nothing to do. Though
+professional tailors are mostly men, many women earn a small pittance in
+taking in sewing and in giving sewing lessons; and as instructors in the
+ceremonial tea, etiquette, music, painting, and flower arrangement, many
+women of the old school are able to earn an independence, though none of
+these occupations are confined to the women alone.
+
+The business of hotel-keeping we have referred to in a previous chapter,
+and it is a well-known fact that unless a hotel-keeper has a capable
+wife, his business will not succeed. At present, all over T[=o]ky[=o],
+small restaurants, where food is served in the foreign style, are
+springing up, and these are usually conducted by a man and his wife who
+have at some time served as cook and waitress in a foreign family, and
+who conduct the business c�operatively and on terms of good-fellowship
+and equality. In these little eating-houses, where a well-cooked foreign
+dinner of from three to six courses is served for the moderate sum of
+thirty or forty cents, the man usually does the cooking, the woman the
+serving and handling of the money, until the time arrives when the
+profits of the business are sufficient to justify the hiring of more
+help. When this time comes, the labor is redistributed, the woman
+frequently taking upon herself the reception of the guests and the
+keeping of the accounts, while the hired help waits on the tables.
+
+One important calling, in the eyes of many persons, especially those of
+the lower classes, is that of fortune-telling; and these guides in all
+matters of life, both great and small, are to be found in every section
+of the city. They are consulted on every important step by believing
+ones of all classes. An impending marriage, an illness, the loss of any
+valuable article, a journey about to be taken,--these are all subjects
+for the fortune-teller. He tells the right day of marriage, and says
+whether the fates of the two parties will combine well; gives clues to
+the causes of sudden illness, and information as to what has become of
+lost articles, and whether they will be recovered or not. Warned thus by
+the fortune-teller against evils that may happen, many ingenious
+expedients are resorted to, to avoid the ill foretold.
+
+A man and his family were about to move from their residence to another
+part of the city. They sent to know if the fates were propitious to the
+change for all the family. The day and year of birth of each was told,
+and then the fortune-teller hunted up the various signs, and sent word
+that the direction of the new home was excellent for the good luck of
+the family as a whole, and the move a good one for each member of it
+except one of the sons; the next year the same move would be bad for the
+father. As the family could not wait two years before moving, it was
+decided that the change of residence should be made at once, but that
+the son should live with his uncle until the next year. The uncle's home
+was, however, inconveniently remote, and so the young man stayed as a
+visitor at his father's house for the remaining months of the year,
+after which he became once more a member of the household. Thus the
+inconvenience and the evil were both avoided.[*282]
+
+Another story comes to my mind now of a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sama
+of a house of high rank, who late in life came to T[=o]ky[=o] to live
+with her brother and his young and somewhat foreignized wife. The
+brother himself, while not a Christian, had little belief in the old
+superstitions of his people; his wife was a professing Christian. Soon
+after the old lady's arrival in T[=o]ky[=o], her sister-in-law fell ill,
+and before she had recovered her strength the children, one after
+another, came down with various diseases, which, though in no case
+fatal, kept the family in a state of anxiety for more than a year. The
+old lady was quite sure that there was some witchcraft or art-magic at
+work among her dear ones, and, after consulting the servants (for she
+knew that she could expect no sympathy in her plans from either her
+brother or his wife), she betook herself to a fortune-teller to discover
+through his means the causes of the illness in the family. The
+fortune-teller revealed to her the fact that two occult forces were at
+work bringing evil upon the house. One was the evil spirit of a spring
+or well that had been choked with stones, or otherwise obstructed in its
+flow, and that chose this way of bringing its afflictions to the
+attention of mortals. The other was the spirit of a horse that had once
+belonged in the family, and that after death revenged itself upon its
+former masters for the hard service wherewith it had been made to serve.
+The only way in which these two powers could be appeased would be by
+finding the well, and removing the obstructions that choked it, and by
+erecting an image of the horse and offering to it cakes and other
+meat-offerings. The fortune-teller hinted, moreover, that for a
+consideration he might be able to afford material aid in the search for
+the well.
+
+At this information Go Inkyo Sama was much perturbed, for further aid
+for her afflicted family seemed to require the use of money, and of that
+commodity she had very little, being mainly dependent upon her brother
+for support. She returned to her home and consulted the servants upon
+the matter; but though they quite agreed with her that something should
+be done, they had little capital to invest in the enterprises suggested
+by the fortune-teller. At last, the old lady went to her brother, but he
+only laughed at her well-meant attempts to help his family, and refused
+to give her money for such a purpose. She retired discouraged, but,
+urged by the servants, she decided to make a last appeal, this time to
+her sister-in-law, who must surely be moved by the evil that was
+threatening herself and her children. Taking some of the head servants
+with her, she went to her sister and presented the case. This was her
+last resort, and she clung to her forlorn hope longer than many would
+have done, the servants adding their arguments to her impassioned
+appeals, only to find out after all that the steadfast sister could not
+be moved, and that she would not propitiate the horse's spirit, or allow
+money to be used for such a purpose. She gave it up then, and sat down
+to await the fate of her doomed house, doubtless wondering much and
+sighing often over the foolish skepticism of her near relatives, and
+wishing that the rationalistic tendencies of the time would take a less
+dangerous form than the neglecting of the plainest precautions for life
+and health. The fate has not yet come, and now at last Go Inkyo Sama
+seems to have resigned herself to the belief that it has been averted
+from the heads of the dear ones by a power unknown to the
+fortune-teller.
+
+Beside these callings, there are other employments which are not
+regarded as wholly respectable by either Japanese or foreigners. The
+_g�isha ya_, or establishments where dancing-girls are trained, and let
+out by the day or evening to tea-houses or private parties, are usually
+managed by women. At these establishments little girls are taken,
+sometimes by contract with their parents, sometimes adopted by the
+proprietors of the house, and from very early youth are trained not only
+in the art of dancing, but are taught singing and _samisen_-playing, all
+the etiquette of serving and entertaining guests, and whatever else goes
+to make a girl charming to the opposite sex. When thoroughly taught,
+they form a valuable investment, and well repay the labor spent upon
+them, for a popular g�isha commands a good price everywhere, and has her
+time overcrowded with engagements. A Japanese entertainment is hardly
+regarded as complete without g�ishas in attendance, and their dancing,
+music, and graceful service at supper form a charming addition to an
+evening of enjoyment at a tea-house. It is these g�ishas, too, who at
+_matsuri_ are hired to march in quaint uniforms in the procession, or,
+borne aloft on great _dashi_, dance for the benefit of the admiring
+crowds.
+
+The Japanese dances are charmingly graceful and modest; the swaying of
+the body and limbs, the artistic management of the flowing draperies,
+the variety of themes and costumes of the different dances, all go to
+make an entertainment by g�ishas one of the pleasantest of Japanese
+enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet and yellow robes, the dainty maidens
+imitate, with their supple bodies, the dance of the maple leaves as they
+are driven hither and thither in the autumn wind; sometimes, with
+tucked-up _kimonos_ and jaunty red petticoats, they play the part of
+little country girls carrying their eggs to market in the neighboring
+village. Again, clad in armor, they simulate the warlike gestures and
+martial stamp of some of the old-time heroes; or, with whitened faces
+and hoary locks, they perform with rake and broom the dance of the good
+old man and old woman who play so prominent a part in Japanese pictures.
+And then, when the dance is over, and all are bewitched with their grace
+and beauty, they descend to the supper-room and ply their temporary
+employers with the _sak�_ bottle, laughing and jesting the while, until
+there is little wonder if the young men at the entertainment drink more
+than is good for them, and leave the tea-house at last thoroughly tipsy,
+and enslaved by the bright eyes and merry wits of some of the Hebes who
+have beguiled them through the evening.
+
+The g�ishas unfortunately, though fair, are frail. In their system of
+education, manners stand higher than morals, and many a g�isha gladly
+leaves the dancing in the tea-houses to become the concubine of some
+wealthy Japanese or foreigner, thinking none the worse of herself for
+such a business arrangement, and going cheerfully back to her regular
+work, should her contract be unexpectedly ended. The g�isha is not
+necessarily bad, but there is in her life much temptation to evil, and
+little stimulus to do right, so that, where one lives blameless, many go
+wrong, and drop below the margin of respectability altogether. Yet so
+fascinating, bright, and lively are these g�ishas that many of them have
+been taken by men of good position as wives, and are now the heads of
+the most respectable homes. Without true education or morals, but
+trained thoroughly in all the arts and accomplishments that
+please,--witty, quick at repartee, pretty, and always well dressed,--the
+g�isha has proved a formidable rival for the demure, quiet maiden of
+good family, who can only give her husband an unsullied name, silent
+obedience, and faithful service all her life. The freedom of the present
+age, as shown in the chapter on "Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in
+the choice of such wives, has presented this great problem to the
+thinking women of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in Japan are to
+come from among such a class of women, something must be done, and done
+quickly, for the sake of the future of Japan; either to raise the
+standards of the men in regard to women, or to change the old system of
+education for girls. A liberal education, and more freedom in early life
+for women, has been suggested, and is now being tried, but the problem
+of the g�isha and her fascination is a deep one in Japan.
+
+Below the g�isha in respectability stands the j[=o]r[=o], or licensed
+prostitute. Every city in Japan has its disreputable quarter, where the
+various _j[=o]r[=o]ya_, or licensed houses of prostitution, are
+situated. The supervision that the government exercises over these
+places is extremely rigid; the effort is made, by licensing and
+regulating them, to minimize the evils that must flow from them. The
+proprietors of the _j[=o]r[=o]ya_ do everything in their power to make
+their houses, grounds, and employees attractive, and, to the
+unsuspecting foreigner, this portion of the city seems often the
+pleasantest and most respectable. A j[=o]r[=o] need never be taken for a
+respectable woman, for her dress is distinctive, and a stay of a short
+time in Japan is long enough to teach even the most obtuse that the
+_obi_, or sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one of the badges of
+shame. But though the occupation of the j[=o]r[=o] is altogether
+disreputable,--though the prostitute quarter is the spot to which the
+police turn for information in regard to criminals and law-breakers, a
+sort of a trap into which, sooner or later, the offender against the law
+is sure to fall,--Japanese public opinion, though recognizing the evil
+as a great one, does not look upon the professional prostitute with the
+loathing which she inspires in Christian countries. The reason for this
+lies, not solely in the lower moral standards although it is true that
+sins of this character are regarded much more leniently in Japan than in
+England or America. The reason lies very largely in the fact that these
+women are seldom free agents. Many of them are virtually slaves, sold in
+childhood to the keepers of the houses in which they work, and trained,
+amid the surroundings of the _j[=o]r[=o]ya_, for the life which is the
+only life they have ever known. A few may have sacrificed themselves
+freely but reluctantly for those whom they love, and by their revolting
+slavery may be earning the means to keep their dear ones from starvation
+or disgrace. Many are the Japanese romances that are woven about the
+virtuous j[=o]r[=o], who is eventually rewarded by finding, even in the
+_j[=o]r[=o]ya_, a lover who is willing to raise her again to a life of
+respectability, and make her a happy wife and the mother of children.
+Such stories must necessarily lower the standard of morals in regard to
+chastity, but in a country in which innocent romance has little room for
+development, the imagination must find its materials where it can.
+These _j[=o]r[=o]ya_ give employment to thousands of women throughout
+the country, but in few cases do the women seek that employment, and
+more openings in respectable directions, together with a change in
+public opinion securing to every woman the right to her own person,
+would tend to diminish the number of victims that these institutions
+yearly draw into their devouring current.
+
+Innocent and reputable amusements are many and varied in the cities. We
+have already mentioned incidentally the theatre as one of the favorite
+diversions of the people; and though it has never been regarded as a
+very refined amusement, it has done and is doing much for the education
+of the lower classes in the history and spirit of former times. Regular
+plays were never performed in the presence of the Emperor and his court,
+or the Sh[=o]gun and his nobles, but the _No_ dance was the only
+dramatic amusement of the nobility. This _No_ is an ancient Japanese
+theatrical performance, more, perhaps, like the Greek drama than
+anything in our modern life. All the movements of the actors are
+measured and conventionalized, speech is a poetical recitative, the
+costumes are stiff and antique, masks are much used, and a chorus seated
+upon the stage chants audible comments upon the various situations. This
+alone, the most ancient and classical of Japanese theatrical
+performances, is considered worthy of the attention of the Emperor and
+the nobility, and takes the place with them of the more vulgar and
+realistic plays which delight common people.
+
+The regular theatre preserves in many ways the life and costumes of old
+Japan, and the details of dress and scenery are most carefully studied.
+The actors are usually men, though there are "women theatres" in which
+all the parts are performed by women. In no case are the r�les taken by
+both sexes upon one stage. As the performances last all day, from ten or
+eleven in the forenoon until eight or nine in the evening, going to the
+theatre means much more than a few hours of entertainment after the
+day's work is over. A lunch and dinner, with innumerable light edibles
+between, go to make up the usual bill of fare for a day at the play, and
+tea-houses in the neighborhood of the theatre provide the necessary
+meals, a room to take them in, a resting-place between the acts, and
+whatever tea, cakes, and other refreshments may be ordered. These latter
+eatables are served by the attendants of the tea-house in the theatre
+boxes while the play is in progress, and the playgoers eat and smoke all
+day long through roaring farce or goriest tragedy.
+
+Similar to the theatre in many ways are the public halls, where
+professional story-tellers, the _hanashika_, night after night, relate
+long stories to crowded audiences, as powerfully and vividly as the best
+trained elocutionist. Each gesture, and each modulation of the voice, is
+studied as carefully as are those of the actors. Many charming tales are
+told of old Japan, and even Western stories have found their way to
+these assemblies. A long story is often continued from night to night
+until finished. Unfortunately, the class of people who patronize these
+places is low, and the moral tone of some of the stories is pitched
+accordingly; but the best of the story-tellers--those who have talent
+and reputation--are often invited to come to entertainments given at
+private houses, to amuse a large company by their eloquence or mimicry.
+
+This is a very favorite entertainment, and the _hanashika_ has so
+perfected the art of imitation that he can change in a moment from the
+tones of a child to those of an old woman. Solemn and sad subjects are
+touched upon, as well as merry and bright things, and he never fails to
+make his audience weep or laugh, according to his theme, and well merits
+the applause he always receives at the end.
+
+The _hanami_, or picnic to famous places to view certain flowers as they
+bloom in their season, though not belonging strictly to city life, forms
+one of the greatest of the pleasures of city people. The river Sumida,
+on which T[=o]ky[=o] is situated, has lining its eastern shore for some
+miles the famous cherry-trees of Japan, with their large, double pink
+blossoms, and when, in April and May, these flowers are in their
+perfection, great crowds of sightseers flock to Muk[=o]jima to enjoy the
+blossoms under the trees. The river is crowded with picnic parties in
+boats. Every tea-house along the banks is full of guests, and the little
+stalls and resting-places on the way find a quick sale for fruit,
+confectionery, and light lunches. _Sak�_ is often too freely imbibed by
+the merrymakers, whose flushed faces show, when returning homeward, how
+their day was spent. There is much quiet enjoyment, too, of the lovely
+blossoms, the broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed crowds. Hundreds
+and thousands of visitors crowd to the suburban places about
+T[=o]ky[=o],--to Uy�no Park for its cherry and peach blossoms, Kam�ido
+for the plum and wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees, and many
+others, each noted for some special beauty. Dango Zaka has its own
+peculiar attraction, the famous chrysanthemum dolls. These ingenious
+figures are arranged so as to form tableaux,--scenes from history or
+fiction well known to all the people. They are of life size, and the
+faces, hands, and feet are made of some composition, and closely
+resemble life in every detail. But the curious thing in these tableaux
+is that the scenery, whether it be the representation of a waterfall,
+rocks, or bushes, the animals, and the dresses of the figures are made
+entirely of chrysanthemum twigs, leaves, and flowers, not cut and woven
+in, as at the first glance they seem to be,--so closely are the leaves
+and flowers bound together to make the flat surface of different
+objects,--but alive and growing on the plants. It is impossible to tell
+where the roots and stems are hidden, for nothing is visible but (for
+example) the white spray and greenish shadows of a waterfall, or the
+parti-colored figures in a young girl's dress. But, should it be the
+visitor's good fortune to watch the repairing of one of these lifelike
+images, he will find that the entire body is a frame woven of split
+bamboo, within which the plants are placed, their roots packed in damp
+earth and bound about with straw, while their leaves and flowers are
+pulled through the basket frame and woven into whatsoever pattern the
+artistic eye and skillful fingers of the gardener may select. A roof of
+matting shields each group from the sun by day, and a slight sprinkling
+every night serves to keep the plants fresh for nearly a month, and the
+flowers continue their blooming during that time, as calmly as if in
+perfectly natural positions. Each of the gardeners of the neighborhood
+has his own little show, containing several tableaux, the entrance to
+which is guarded by an officious gate-keeper, who shouts out the merits
+of his particular groups of figures, and forces his show-bills upon the
+passer-by, in the hope of securing the two sen admission fee which is
+required for each exhibit.
+
+And so, amid the shopping, the festivals, the amusements of the great
+cities, the women find their lives varied in many ways. Their holidays
+from home duties are spent amid these enjoyments; and if they have not
+the out-of-door employments, the long walks up the mountains, the days
+spent in tea-picking, in harvesting, in all the varied work that comes
+to the country woman, the dwellers in the city have no lack of sights
+and sounds to amuse and interest them, and would not often care to
+exchange their lot for the freer and hardier life of the rustic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DOMESTIC SERVICE.
+
+
+To the foreigner, upon his arrival in Japan, the status of household
+servants is at first a source of much perplexity. There is a freedom in
+their relations with the families that they serve, that in this country
+would be regarded as impudence, and an independence of action that, in
+many cases, seems to take the form of direct disobedience to orders.
+From the steward of your household, who keeps your accounts, makes your
+purchases, and manages your affairs, to your _jinrikisha_ man or groom,
+every servant in your establishment does what is right in his own eyes,
+and after the manner that he thinks best. Mere blind obedience to orders
+is not regarded as a virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do his own
+thinking, and, if he cannot grasp the reason for your order, that order
+will not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan is frequently the despair
+of the thrifty American housewife, who has been accustomed in her own
+country to be the head of every detail of household work, leaving to her
+servants only the mechanical labor of the hands. She begins by showing
+her Oriental help the work to be done, and just the way in which she is
+accustomed to having it done at home, and the chances are about one in a
+hundred that her servant will carry out her instructions. In the
+ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish the desired result, but by
+means totally different from those to which the American housekeeper is
+accustomed. If the housewife is one of the worrying kind, who cares as
+much about the way in which the thing is done as about the accomplished
+result, the chances are that she will wear herself out in a fruitless
+endeavor to make her servants do things in her own way, and will, when
+she returns to America, assure you that Japanese servants are the most
+idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot that it was ever her bad
+fortune to have to do with. But on the other hand, if the lady of the
+house is one who is willing to give general orders, and then sit down
+and wait until the work is done before criticising it, she will find
+that by some means or other the work will be accomplished and her desire
+will be carried out, provided only that her servants see a reason for
+getting the thing done. And as she finds that her domestics will take
+responsibility upon themselves, and will work, not only with their
+hands, but with the will and intellect in her service, she soon yields
+to their protecting and thoughtful care for herself and her interests,
+and, when she returns to America, is loud in her praises of the
+competence and devotion of her Japanese servants. Even in the treaty
+ports, where contact with foreigners has given to the Japanese
+attendants the silent and repressed air that we regard as the standard
+manner for a servant, they have not resigned their right of private
+judgment, but, if faithful and honest, seek the best good of their
+employer, even if his best good involves disobedience of his orders.
+This characteristic of the Japanese servant is aggravated when he is in
+the employment of foreigners, for the simple reason that he is apt to
+regard the foreigner as a species of imbecile, who must be cared for
+tenderly because he is quite incompetent to care for himself, but whose
+fancies must not be too much regarded. Of the relations of foreign
+employers and Japanese servants much might be said, but our business is
+with the position of the servants in a Japanese household.
+
+Under the old feudal system, the servants of every family were its
+hereditary retainers, and from generation to generation desired no
+higher lot than personal service in the family to which they belonged.
+The principle of loyalty to the family interests was the leading
+principle in the lives of the servants, just as loyalty to the daimi[=o]
+was the highest duty of the samurai. Long and intimate knowledge of the
+family history and traits of character rendered it possible for the
+retainer to work intelligently for his master, and do independently for
+him many things without orders. The servant in many cases knew his
+master and his master's interests as well as the master himself, or even
+better, and must act by the light of his own knowledge in cases where
+his master was ignorant or misinformed. One can easily see how ties of
+good-fellowship and sympathy would arise between masters and servants,
+how a community of interest would exist, so that the good of the master
+and his family would be the condition for the good of the servant and
+his family. In America, where the relation between servant and employer
+is usually a simple business arrangement, each giving certain specified
+considerations and nothing more, the relation of servant to master is
+shorn of all sentiment and affection; the servant's interests are quite
+apart from those of his employer, and his main object is to get the
+specified work done and obtain more time for himself, and sooner or
+later to leave the despised occupation of domestic service for some
+higher and more independent calling. In Japan, where faithful service of
+a master was regarded as a calling worthy of absorbing any one's highest
+abilities through a lifetime, the position of a servant was not menial
+or degrading, but might be higher than that of the farmer, merchant, or
+artisan. Whether the position was a high or a low one depended, not so
+much on the work done, as the person for whom it was done, and the
+servant of a daimi[=o] or high rank samurai was worthy of more honor, and
+might be of far better birth, than the independent merchant or artisan.
+As the former feudal system is yet within the memory of many of the
+present generation, and its feelings still alive in Japan, much of the
+old sentiment remains, even with the merely hired domestics in a
+household of the present day. The servant, by his own master, is
+addressed by name, with no title of respect, is treated as an inferior,
+and spoken to in the language used toward inferiors; but to all others
+he is a person to be treated with respect,--to be bowed to profoundly,
+addressed by the title San, and spoken to in the politest of language.
+You make a call upon a Japanese household, and the servant who admits
+you will expect to exchange the formal salutations with you. When you
+are ushered into the reception-room, should the lady of the house be
+absent, the head servants will not only serve you with tea and
+refreshments and offer you hospitalities in their mistress's name, but
+may, if no one else be there, sit with you in the parlor, entertaining
+you with conversation until the return of the hostess. The servants of
+the household are by no means ignored socially, as they are with us, but
+are always recognized and saluted by visitors as they pass into and out
+of the room, and are free to join in the conversation of their betters,
+should they see any place where it is possible that they may shed light
+on the subject discussed. But though given this liberty of speech,
+treated with much consideration, and having sometimes much
+responsibility, servants do not forget their places in the household,
+and do not seem to be bold or out of place. Indeed, the manners of some
+of them would seem, to any one but a Japanese, to denote a lack of
+proper self-respect,--an excess of humility, or an affectation of it.
+
+In explaining to my scholars, who were reading "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
+in English, a passage where a footman is spoken of as having nearly
+disgraced himself by laughing at some quaint saying of the young lord,
+my little peeresses were amazed beyond measure to learn that in Europe
+and America a servant is expected never to show any interest in, or
+knowledge of, the conversation of his betters, never to speak unless
+addressed, and never to smile under any circumstances. Doubtless, in
+their shrewd little brains, they formed their opinion of a civilization
+imposing such barbarous restraints upon one class of persons.
+
+The women servants in a family are in position more like the
+self-respecting, old-fashioned New England "help" than they are like the
+modern "girl." They do not work all day while the mistress sits in the
+parlor doing nothing, and then, when their day's work is done, go out,
+anxious to forget, in the society of their friends, the drudgery which
+only the necessity for self-support and the high wages to be earned
+render tolerable. As has been explained in a previous chapter, the
+mistress of the house--be she princess or peasant--is herself the head
+servant, and only gives up to her helpers the part of the labor which
+she has not the time or strength to perform. Certain menial duties
+toward her husband and children, every Japanese wife and mother must do
+herself, and would scorn to delegate to any other woman except in case
+of absolute necessity. Thus there is not that gap between mistress and
+maid that exists in our days among the women of this country. The
+servants work with their mistress, helping her in every possible way,
+and are treated as responsible members of the household, if not of the
+family itself.
+
+At evening, when the wooden shutters are slid into their places around
+the porch and the lamps are lighted, the family gather together in the
+sitting-room around the _hibachi_ to talk, free from interruption, for
+no visitor comes at such an hour to disturb the family circle. The
+mother will have her sewing or work, the children will study their
+lessons, and the others will talk or amuse themselves in various ways.
+Then, perhaps, the maidservants, having finished their tasks about the
+house, will join the circle,--always at a respectful distance,--will do
+their sewing and listen to the talk, and often join in the conversation,
+but in the most humble manner. Perhaps, at times, some one more
+ambitious than the others will bring in a book, and ask the meaning of a
+word or a phrase she has met in studying, and little helps of this kind
+are given most willingly.
+
+We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting in the houses of the nobles are
+daughters of samurai, who gladly serve in these positions for the sake
+of the honor of such service, and the training they receive in noble
+houses. In a somewhat similar way, places in the homes of those of
+distinction or skill in any art or profession are held in great demand
+among the Japanese; and a prominent poet, scholar, physician, or
+professional man of any kind is often asked by anxious parents to take
+their sons under his own roof, so that they may be under his influence,
+and receive the benefits of stay in such an honorable house. The parents
+who thus send their children may not be of low rank at all, but are
+usually not sufficiently well-to-do to spend much money in the education
+of their children. The position that such boys occupy in the household
+is a curious one. They are called _Sho-s�i_, meaning students, and
+students they usually are, spending all their leisure moments and their
+evenings in study. They are never treated as inferiors, except in age
+and experience; they may or may not eat with the family, and are always
+addressed with respect. On the other hand, they always feel themselves
+to be dependents, and must be willing without wages to work in any
+capacity about the house, for the sake of picking up what crumbs of
+knowledge may fall to them from their master's table. Service is not
+absolutely demanded of them, but they are expected to do what will pay
+for their board, and do not regard menial work as below them, performing
+cheerfully all that the master may require of them.
+
+In this way, a man of moderate means can help along many poor young men
+in whom he may feel interested, and in return be saved expense about his
+household work; and the students, while always considerately treated,
+are able without great expense to study,--often even to prepare for
+college, or get a start in one of the professions, for they have many
+leisure moments to devote to their books. Many prominent men of the
+present day have been students of this class, and are now in their turn
+helping the younger generation.
+
+The boys that one sees in shops, or, with workmen of all kinds, helping
+in many little ways, are not hirelings, but apprentices, who hope some
+day to hold just as good positions as their masters, and expect to know
+as much, if not a great deal more. At the shop or in the home, they not
+only help in the trades or occupations they are learning, but are
+willing to do any kind of menial work for their master or his family in
+return for what they receive from him; for they do not pay for their
+board nor for what they are taught. Even when the age of education is
+already past, grown men and women are willing to leave quite independent
+positions to shine with reflected glory as servants of persons of high
+rank or distinction. "The servant is not greater than his master" in
+Japan; but if the master is great, the servant is considerably greater
+than the man without a master.
+
+In a country like Japan, where one finds but few wealthy people, there
+may be cause for wonder at the large households, where there are so many
+servants. There will be often as many as ten or more servants in a home
+where, in other ways, luxury and wealth are not displayed. In the _oku_,
+or the part of the house where the lady of the house stays, are found
+her own maid, and women who help in the work about the house, sew in
+their leisure moments, and are the higher servants of the family; there
+are also the children's attendants, often one for each child, as well as
+the waiting women for the Go Inkyo Sama. In the kitchen are the cooks
+and their assistants, the lower servants, and usually one or more
+_jinrikisha_ men, who belong to the house, and, if this be the home of
+an official who keeps horses, a _bett[=o]_ for each animal. There are also
+gardeners, errand-boys, and gate-keepers to guard the large _yashikis_.
+Such a retinue would seem a great deal to maintain; but servants' wages
+are so low, and the cost of living is so small, that in this matter
+Japanese can afford to be luxurious. Three or four dollars will cover
+the cost of food for a month for one person, and women servants expect
+only a few dollars in wages for that time. The men receive much higher
+pay, but at the most it is less than what a good cook receives in many
+homes here. The wages do not include occasional presents, especially
+those given semi-annually,--a small sum of money, or dress material of
+some kind,--which servants expect, and which, of course, are no small
+item in the family expense.
+
+Homes which maintain a great deal of style need many servants, for they
+expect to work less than the American servant, and are less able to
+hurry and rush through their work; and they do not desire, if they
+could, to take life so hard, even to earn greater pay. The family, too,
+in many cases are used to having plenty of hands to do the work; the
+ladies are much less independent, and life has more formalities and red
+tape in Japan than in America. A great deal of the shopping is done by
+servants, who are sent out on errands and often do important business.
+Maids accompany their mistresses to make visits; servants go with
+parties to the theatre, to picnics, or on journeys, and these
+expeditions are as heartily enjoyed by them as by their masters. It is
+expected, especially of ladies and persons of high rank, that the
+details of the journey, the bargaining with coolies, the hiring of
+vehicles, and paying of bills, be left in charge of some manservant, who
+is entirely responsible, and who makes all the bargains, arranges the
+journey for his employer, and takes charge of everything,--even to the
+amount of fees given along the way.
+
+Perhaps the highest positions of service now--positions honorable
+anywhere in Japan--are held by those who remain of the old retainers of
+daimi[=o]s, and who regulate the households of the nobles. Such men must
+have good education, and good judgment; for much is left in their
+hands, and they are usually gentlemen, who would be known as such
+anywhere. They are the stewards of the household, the secretaries of
+their masters; keep all accounts, for which they are responsible, and
+attend to the minor affairs of etiquette,--the latter no trifling duty
+in a noble's home. It is they who accompany the nobles on their
+journeys,--regulate, advise, and attend to the little affairs of life,
+of which the master may be ignorant and cares not to learn. They are the
+last of the crowds of feudal retainers, who once filled castle and
+_yashiki_, and are now scattered throughout the length and breadth of
+the kingdom.
+
+The higher servants in the household must be always more or less trained
+in etiquette, and are expected to look neat and tidy; to serve guests
+with tea and refreshments, without any orders to that effect; and to use
+their judgment in little household affairs, and thus help the lady of
+the house. They are usually clever with their fingers, and can sew
+neatly. When their mistress goes out they assist her to dress, and only
+a few words from her will be necessary for them to have everything in
+readiness, from her sash and dress to all the little belongings of a
+lady's costume. Many a bright, quick servant is found who will
+understand and guess her mistress's wants without being told each
+detail, and these not only serve with their hands, but think for their
+employers.
+
+Much less is expected of the lower servants, who belong to the kitchen,
+and have less to do with the family in general, and little or no
+personal contact with their masters. They perform their round of duties
+with little responsibility, and are regarded as much lower in the social
+scale of servants, of which we have seen there are many degrees.
+
+The little _gozen-taki_, or rice-cook, who works all day in the kitchen,
+may be a fat, red-cheeked, frowsy-haired country girl,--patient,
+hard-working, and humble-minded,--willing to pother about all day with
+her kettles and pans, and sit up half the night over her own sewing, or
+the study of the often unfamiliar art of reading and writing; but
+entirely unacquainted with the details of etiquette, a knowledge of
+which is a necessity to the higher servants,--sometimes even thrown
+into an agony of diffidence should it become necessary to appear before
+master or mistress.
+
+Some of the customs of the household, in regard to servants, are quite
+striking to a foreigner. When the master of the house starts out each
+morning, besides the wife and children who see him off, all the servants
+who are not especially occupied--a goodly number, sometimes--come to the
+front door and bow down to bid him good-by. On his return, also, when
+the noise of the _kuruma_ is heard, and the shout of the men, who call
+out "_O kaeri!_" when near the house, the servants go out to greet him,
+and bowing low speak the customary words of salutation. To a greater or
+less degree, the same is done to every member of the family, the younger
+members, however, receiving a smaller share of the attention than their
+elders.
+
+When, as very often happens, a guest staying for any length of time in a
+family, or a frequent visitor, gives a servant a present of money or any
+trifle, the servant, after thanking the donor, takes the white paper
+bundle to the mistress of the house, and shows it to her, expressing his
+gratitude to her for the gift, and also asking her to thank the giver.
+This, of course, is always done, for a gift to a servant is as much of a
+favor to the mistress as a present to a child is to its mother.
+
+When a servant wishes to leave a family, she rarely goes to her mistress
+and states that she is dissatisfied with her position, and that some
+better chance has been offered her. Such a natural excuse never occurs
+to the Japanese servant, unless he be a _jinrikisha_ man or _bett[=o]_,
+who may not know how to do better; for it is a very rude way of leaving
+service. The high-minded maid will proceed very differently.
+
+A few days' leave of absence to visit home will be asked and usually
+granted, for Japanese servants never have any settled time to take
+holiday. At the end of the given time the mistress will begin to wonder
+what has become of the girl, who has failed to return; and the lady will
+make up her mind she will not let her go again so readily. Just when she
+has a sharp reproof ready, a messenger or letter will arrive, with some
+good excuse, couched in most polite and humble terms. Sometimes it will
+be that she has found herself too weak for service, or that work at
+home, or the illness of some member of the family, detains her, so that
+she is not able to come back at present. The excuse is understood and
+accepted as final, and another servant is sought for and obtained. After
+several weeks have passed, very likely after entering a new place, the
+old servant will turn up some day, express her thanks for all past
+kindnesses and regrets at not returning in time, will take her pay and
+her bundles, and disappear forever.
+
+Even when servants come on trial for a few days, they often go away
+nominally to fetch their belongings, or make arrangements to return, but
+the lady of the house does not know whether the woman is satisfied or
+not. If she is not, her refusal is always brought by a third person. If
+the mistress, on her side, does not wish to hire the girl, she will not
+tell her so to her face, but will send word at this time to prevent her
+coming. Such is the etiquette in these matters of mistress and
+maid.[*317]
+
+Only by a multiplicity of details is it possible to give much idea of
+the position of servants in a Japanese house, and even then the result
+arrived at is that the positions of what we would call domestic
+servants vary so greatly in honor and responsibility that it is almost
+impossible to draw any general conclusions upon this subject. We have
+seen that there is no distinct servile class in Japan, and that a
+person's social status is not altered by the fact that he serves in a
+menial capacity, provided that service be of one above him in rank and
+not below him. This is largely the result of the grading of society upon
+other lines than those on which our social distinctions are founded, and
+partly the result of the fact that women, of whatever class, are
+servants so far as persons of the opposite sex in their own class are
+concerned. The women of Japan to-day form the great servile class, and,
+as they are also the wives and mothers of those whom they serve, they
+are treated, of course, with a certain consideration and respect never
+given to a mere servant; and through them, all domestic service is
+elevated.[*318]
+
+There are two employments which I have mentioned among those of domestic
+servants because they would be so classed by us, but which in Japan rank
+among the trades. The _jinrikisha_ man and the groom belong, as a rule,
+to a certain class at the bottom of the social ladder, and no samurai
+would think of entering either of these occupations, except under stress
+of severest poverty. The _bett[=o]s_, or grooms, are a hereditary class
+and a regular guild, and have a reputation, among both Japanese and
+foreigners, as a betting, gambling, cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An
+honest _bett[=o]_ is a rare phenomenon. The _jinrikisha_ men are, many
+of them, sons of peasants, who come to the cities for the sake of
+earning more money, or leading a livelier life than can be found in the
+little thatched cottage among the rice-fields. Few of them are married,
+or have homes of their own. Many of them drink and gamble, and sow their
+wild oats in all possible ways; but they are a well-meaning, fairly
+honest, happy-go-lucky set, who lead hard lives of exhausting labor, and
+endure long hours of exposure to heat and cold, rain, snow, and blinding
+sunshine, not only with little complaint or grumbling, but with absolute
+cheerfulness and hilarity. A strong, fast _jinrikisha_ man takes great
+pride in his strength and speed. It is a point of honor with him to pull
+his passenger up the steepest and most slippery of hills, and never to
+heed him if he expresses a desire to walk in order to save his man. I
+have had my _kurumaya_ stoutly refuse, again and again, my offers to
+walk up a steep hill, even when the snow was so soft and slippery under
+his bare feet that he fell three times in making the ascent. "_Dai
+jobu_" (safe) would be his smiling response to all my protestations;
+and, once in a _jinrikisha_, the passenger is entirely at the mercy of
+his man in all matters of getting into and out of the vehicle. But
+though the _jinrikisha_ man is, for the time being, the autocrat and
+controlling power over his passenger, and though he will not obey the
+behests of his employer, except so far as they seem reasonable and in
+accordance with the best interests of all concerned, he constitutes
+himself the protector and assistant, the adviser and counselor, of him
+whom he serves, and gives his best thought and intelligence, as well as
+his speed and strength, to the service in which he is engaged. If he
+thinks it safe, he will tear like an unbroken colt through the business
+portions of the city, knocking bundles out of the hands of foot
+passengers, or even hitting the wayfarers themselves in a fierce dash
+through their midst, laughing gayly at their protests, and at threats of
+wrath to come from his helpless passenger; but should hint of insult or
+injury against _kuruma_, passenger, or passenger's dog fall upon his
+ears, he will drop the _jinrikisha_ shafts, and administer condign
+punishment to the offender, unchecked by thoughts of the ever-present
+police, or by any terrors that his employer may hold over his head. In
+no other country in the world, perhaps, can a lady place more entire
+confidence in the honor and loyalty of her servant than she can in Japan
+in her _kurumaya_, whether he be her private servant, or one from a
+respectable stand. He may not do what she bids him, but that is quite a
+secondary matter. He will study her interests; will remember her likes
+and dislikes; will take a mental inventory of the various accessories or
+bundles that she carries with her, and will never permit her to lose or
+forget one of them; will run his legs off in her service, and defend her
+and her property valiantly in case of need. Of course, as in all classes
+there are different grades, so there are _jinrikisha_ men who seem to
+have sunk so low in their calling that they have lost all feeling of
+loyalty to their employer, and only care selfishly for the pittance they
+gain. Such men are often found in the treaty ports, eagerly seeking for
+the rich foreigner, from whom they can get an extra fee, and whom they
+regard as outside of their code of morals, and hence as their natural
+prey. Travelers, and even residents of Japan, have often complained of
+such treatment; and it is only after long stay in Japan, among the
+Japanese themselves, that one can tell what a _jinrikisha_ man is
+capable of.[*322]
+
+If you employ one _kurumaya_ for any length of time, you come to have a
+real affection for him on account of his loyal, faithful, cheerful
+service, such as we seldom find in this country except when inspired by
+personal feeling. When you have ridden miles and miles, by night and by
+day, through rain and sleet and hottest sunshine, behind a man who has
+used every power of body and mind in your service, you cannot but have a
+strong feeling of affection toward him, and of pride in him as well. It
+is something the feeling that one has for a good saddle-horse, but more
+developed. You rejoice, not only in his strength and speed, put forth so
+willingly in your service; in his picturesque, dark blue costume with
+your monogram embroidered on the back; in his handsomely turned ankles;
+in his black, wavy hair; in his delicate hands and trim waist,--though
+these are often a source of pride to you,--but his skill in divining
+your wants; his use of his tongue in your service; his helping out of
+your faltering Japanese with explanations which, if not elegant, have
+the merit of being easily understood; his combats with extortionate
+shopkeepers in your behalf; his interest in all your doings and
+concerns,--remain as a pleasant memory, upon your return to a land where
+no man would so far forget his manhood as to give himself so completely
+and without reserve to the service of any master save Mammon.
+
+As old Japan, with its quaintness, its medi�val flavor, its feudalism,
+its loyalty, its sense of honor, and its transcendental contempt for
+money and luxury, recedes into the past, and as the memories of my life
+there grow dim, two figures stand out more and more boldly from the
+fading background,--both, the figures of faithful servants. One, Yasaku,
+the _kurumaya_, a very Hercules, who could keep close to a pair of coach
+horses through miles of city streets, and who never suffered mortal
+_jinrikisha_ man to pass him. My champion in all times of danger and
+alarm, but a very autocrat in all minor matters,--his cheery face, his
+broad shoulders with their blue draperies, his jolly, boyish voice, and
+his dainty, delicate hands come before me as I write, and I wonder to
+what fortunate person he is now giving the intelligent service that he
+once gave so whole-heartedly to me. The other, O Kaio, my maid, her
+plain little face, with its upturned eyes, growing, as the days went by,
+absolutely beautiful in the light of pure goodness that beamed from it.
+A Japanese Christian, with all the Christian virtues well developed, she
+became to me not only a good servant, doing her work with conscientious
+fidelity, but a sympathetic friend, to whom I turned for help in time of
+need; and whom I left, when I returned to America, with a sincere sorrow
+in my heart at parting with one who had grown to fill so large a place
+in my thoughts. Her little, half-shy, half-motherly ways toward her big
+foreign mistress had a charm all their own. Her pride and delight over
+my progress in the language; her patient efforts to make me understand
+new words, or to understand my uncouth foreign idioms; her joy, when at
+last I reached the point where a story told by her lips could be
+comprehended and enjoyed,--gave a continual encouragement in a task too
+often completely disheartening.
+
+During the last summer of my stay in Japan, cutting loose from all
+foreigners and foreign associations, I traveled alone with her through
+the heart of the country, stopping only at Japanese hotels, and carrying
+with me no supplies to eke out the simple Japanese fare. Through floods
+and typhoons we journeyed. Long days of scorching heat or driving rain
+in no way abated her cheerfulness, or lessened her desire to do all that
+she could for my aid and comfort. Not one sad look nor impatient word
+showed a flaw in her perfect temper; and if she privately made up her
+mind that I was crazy, she never by word or look gave a hint of her
+thought. _Jinrikisha_ men grumbled and gave out; hotel-keepers resented
+the presence of my dog, or presented extortionate bills; but O Kaio's
+good temper and tact never failed her. Difficulties were smoothed away;
+bills were compromised and reduced; the dog slept securely by my side on
+a red blanket in the best rooms of the best hotels; and O Kaio smiled,
+told her quaint stories, amused me and ministered to me, as if I were
+her one object in life, though husband and children were far away in
+distant T[=o]ky[=o], and her mother's heart yearned for her little ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WITHIN THE HOME.
+
+
+Into the life of a Japanese home enter many customs and observances that
+have not been dwelt upon in the preceding pages, but without some
+understanding of which our knowledge of the life of Japanese women is by
+no means complete. In Japan the woman's place is so entirely in the home
+that all the ceremonies and superstitions that gather about the conduct
+of every-day affairs are more to her than they are to the freer and
+broader-minded man. The household worship, the yearly round of
+festivals, each with its special food to be prepared, the observances
+connected with birth and marriage and death; what is to be done in time
+of illness, of earthquake, of fire, or of the frequent flittings that
+render life in Japan one succession of packings and unpackings,--all
+these are matters of high importance to the wife and mother, and their
+proper observance is left largely in her hands.
+
+Every well-ordered Japanese home of the old-fashioned kind has its
+little shrine, which is the centre of the religious life of the house.
+If the household is of the Shint[=o] faith, this shrine is called the
+_kami-dana_, or god shelf, and contains the symbols of the gods, _gohei_
+in vases, receptacles for food and drink, and a primitive lamp,--only a
+saucer of oil in which a bit of pith serves for a wick. Daily offerings
+must be made before this shrine, and reverence paid by the clapping of
+hands; while on feast days special offerings and invocations are
+required. In Buddhist families, the _Butsudan_, or Buddha shelf, takes
+the place of the _kami-dana_, and the worship is slightly more
+complicated. Greater variety of food is offered, and the simple clapping
+of the hands and bowing of the head that is the form of prayer in the
+Shint[=o] religion is replaced by the burning of incense and by actual
+verbal invocation of Buddha. These religious ceremonies must be
+attended to by the mother or wife. She it is who sets the rice and wine
+before the ancestral tablets, who lights the little lamp each night, and
+who sees that at each feast day and anniversary season the proper food
+is prepared and set out for the household gods.
+
+Upon the wife, and her attention to minute and apparently trifling
+details, depends much of the well-being of the family. Each child, as it
+grows toward maturity, gathers from various sources a collection of
+amulets, which, while worn always when the child is in full dress, are
+frequently too precious for ordinary play times and the risks and perils
+of every-day life. These must be kept carefully by the mother as a
+safeguard against the many evils that beset child-life. I have spoken of
+the amulets given at the times of the _miya mairi_,--both the first,
+when the name is given to the baby, and the subsequent visits made to
+the temple by the children as they pass certain stated points in their
+progress toward maturity. These amulets are simply written papers or
+slips of wood with the seal of the temple from which they are issued
+stamped upon them. Visits to noted temples by relatives and friends
+often result in additions to the child's collection. One kind of charm
+is good to keep the eyes strong; another will help its possessor to that
+much-prized accomplishment, a good handwriting; another acts as an
+assurance against accident and saves the child from harm in case of a
+fall. All these are put together by the careful mother and preserved as
+jealously as Queen Althea kept the charred stick that governed the
+destiny of her son. As the children arrive at years of discretion, these
+treasures pass out of the mother's faithful keeping into the hands of
+their actual owners, and they are usually kept stored away in some
+little-used drawer or cabinet until death removes the necessity for any
+further safeguards over life. Perhaps of all the curious things that go
+to make up these intimate personal belongings of a Japanese man or
+woman, there is none more curious than the small white parcel containing
+a portion of the umbilical cord,--saved at birth and preserved until
+death that it may be buried with its possessor and furnish him the means
+of a new birth. These little paper packages, each marked with the name
+of the child to whom it belongs, are kept by the mother.
+
+Upon the mother of the family rests very largely the determining of
+lucky and unlucky days for the beginning or transaction of different
+kinds of business. A fortune-teller is consulted for important things,
+such as removals or marriages, but in every-day life one cannot be
+running to a fortune-teller about everything; and yet there is bad luck
+lurking in the background that may baffle all our plans if we do not
+observe the proper times and seasons for our undertakings. Just as the
+Japanese calendar divides time into cycles of twelve years, each year
+named for a different animal, so also the days and hours are divided
+into twelves and bear the names of the same twelve animals,--the Chinese
+signs of the zodiac. These animals are as follows: the rat, the bull,
+the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the
+monkey, the cock, the dog, and the boar. Each animal brings its own
+kind of good or bad luck into the hour, day, or year over which it
+presides, and only a skillful balancer of pros and cons can read aright
+the combinations, and understand what the luck of any particular hour in
+any particular day of any particular year will be. For instance, the
+rat, which is the companion of Daikoku, the money god, is a lucky animal
+so far as money is concerned. A person born in the year of the rat will
+never need money, and will be economical, possibly miserly; and in one
+born on the day of the rat in the year of the rat these chances and
+qualities will be doubled. But the luck of the rat may be very seriously
+interfered with by the bad luck of the monkey or of the proverbially
+unlucky dog, when their days and hours occur in the rat year. On the
+other hand, their bad luck may be counteracted by the good luck of the
+tiger or hare, for as a rule three animals of different portent are
+presiding over human prospects every hour. This makes prophecy a
+ticklish business, requiring a wise head, but it also leaves much room
+for the subsequent explanation of failures by the superior and unusual
+influence of one or another of the animals, as the case may require.
+Momentous questions of this kind have frequently to be settled by the
+Japanese wife and mother, and she gains dignity and value in her home
+and neighborhood according to her skill in interpreting the portents of
+the day and hour.
+
+For the greater events of family life the home prophecies are felt to be
+too uncertain, and the services of the fortune-teller must be called in.
+No well-managed family would think of building a new house without
+finding in what direction to face the front door. In an American city
+this necessity would cause considerable inconvenience, as the position
+of the front door is usually determined by the relation of the
+building-lot to the street; but in a Japanese city, where, in all but
+the business quarters, every house is concealed by a high board fence,
+and where the gate that admits one within the fence is the only sign by
+which any one in the street can judge of the worldly condition of the
+dwellers within, the houses are faced about any and every way, and the
+position of each is determined by the good luck that it will bring its
+owner. After this matter has been settled and the house is fairly begun,
+there are occasional crises in its construction upon which much depends.
+Of these the most important is the day when the roof is raised. The roof
+timbers, which are unsquared logs, often rather crooked, after being
+carefully fitted and framed in some convenient vacant lot, are brought
+on carts to the site of the new building, and when all is ready, the
+head carpenter sends word to the house-owner that he is about to set the
+roof in place. The house-owner then decides whether the day set by the
+builder is a lucky one for himself and his family. If it is not, a delay
+in the building is always preferable to any danger of incurring the
+displeasure of the luck gods. This crisis safely passed, and the last of
+the roof beams secured in its place, the men take a holiday, and are
+feasted on _sak�_ and spaghetti by the house-owner. A present of money
+to each workman is also in order, and will conduce to the rapid and
+faithful execution of the job in hand. When, at last, the house is
+finished, and carpenters and plasterers are ready to leave it, the local
+firemen, who have assisted all along in the building as unskilled
+laborers, often ascend to the roof, and from the ridge-pole cast down
+cakes, for which the children of the neighborhood scramble joyfully.
+
+When the builders have left, and the house is ready for occupation, even
+to the soft, thick mats on the floor and the white paper windows, the
+family will move in on the first day thereafter that is both lucky and
+pleasant. So far as possible, everything in the old house will be packed
+and ready the day before, and very early in the morning the relatives
+and friends of the mover will begin to rally around him. All come who
+can, and those who cannot come send servants or provisions. Every
+tradesman or _kurumaya_ who has had or who hopes to have the patronage
+of the moving household sends a representative to help along the work,
+so that there is always a sufficient force to carry the household
+belongings into the new home and settle them in place before the day is
+over. All these visiting helpers must be fed and provided with tea and
+cakes at proper intervals, and the presents of cooked food that pour in
+at such times are highly acceptable and of great practical usefulness.
+When the long day is ended and the visitors return one by one to their
+homes, it is the mistress of the house who must see that every servant
+and representative of a business firm receives, neatly done up in white
+paper, a present of money properly proportioned to his services, and the
+style and circumstances of the family he has been aiding. And when all
+are gone, the shutters closed, and the family left alone in their new
+home, the little wife must make a list of all who have helped in any way
+during the day, and to all, within a short time, make some
+acknowledgment of their kindness by either a call or a present. It is
+upon the wife, too, that the duty falls of sending to each of the near
+neighbors _soba_, a kind of macaroni, as an announcement of the family's
+arrival. The number of neighbors to whom this gift is sent is
+determined differently according to circumstances. If the house is one
+of several in a compound, _soba_ will be sent to all within the gate;
+but if the compound is very large, so that the sending to all would be
+too great an expense, the five nearest houses will be selected to
+receive the gift, or all who draw water from the same well. A very late
+fashion in T[=o]ky[=o], but one that is gaining ground because of its
+convenience, is to send, not the macaroni itself, but an order on the
+nearest restaurant at which that delicacy is sold.
+
+As I have already said, much of a woman's time and thought must be given
+to the proper distribution of presents among friends and dependents. The
+subject of what to give, when to give, to whom to give, and how to do up
+the gift acceptably, is one the thorough understanding of which requires
+the study of years. No foreigner can hope to do more than dabble in the
+shallows of it. Presents seem to be used more for the purpose of keeping
+those persons whose services you may need, or whose enmity you dread,
+under a sense of obligation, than they are as expressions of sentiment.
+Every housekeeper, for instance, must need the occasional services of a
+carpenter or a gardener, and in a large city like T[=o]ky[=o] the
+chances are that she will some day need, and need very badly, the
+services of a fireman. A wise woman--one who is not penny wise and pound
+foolish--will by timely presents keep herself constantly in the minds of
+such persons, so that when she sends for them, they may feel under
+sufficient obligation to her to come at once. So will her house be
+quickly put in repair after earthquake or other accident; her garden
+show for only the briefest interval the ravages of the typhoon which has
+gullied out her lawn and leveled her choicest trees; and when some night
+"the flower of Yedo" blooms suddenly by her side, she will have the
+speedy assistance of the firemen, who will seal her storehouse securely
+with clay, wet her roof and walls thoroughly with water, and light at
+her gates the great alarm lanterns to tell her friends that her house is
+in danger and summon them to her assistance. No friend can disregard
+such a signal, but all will rally round her once more to help in this
+less orderly and cheerful moving,--will pack and cord and carry out her
+goods, and if at last the fire consumes her dwelling, will gather her
+household and belongings into their hospitable homes. But the foolish
+woman, who neglects or forgets her dependents when she does not need
+them, finds some day that her roof is leaking, but all the carpenters
+are too busy to mend it, her garden is destroyed because the gardener
+had an important engagement elsewhere just when she needed him, and her
+property is burned up or ruined by water and smoke because the firemen
+attended to her house last when the fire swept over her compound.
+
+When death enters a house in Japan, there are no undertakers to relieve
+the family of the painful duty of caring for the dead body and placing
+it in the coffin. There are coffin-makers and funeral managers who
+supply the great white bier and lanterns and the bunches of paper
+flowers that adorn every funeral procession, but within the house the
+preparations are all made by the family and friends, and the heaviest
+and most painful part of the work falls, as usual, on the women of the
+family. As soon as the breath finally leaves the body, it is wrapped in
+a quilt, laid with its head to the north, and an inverted screen placed
+around it. On one corner of the screen is hung a sword or knife to keep
+off any evil spirit that may wander into the room in the shape of a cat
+and disturb the dead.
+
+Etiquette requires that relatives and intimate friends of the family
+call immediately on learning of the death. To receive these calls the
+mourners, in full ceremonial dress, must sit in the death chamber and
+remove for each guest the covering from the face of the dead. The
+visitors then offer the ceremonial bows to the corpse, as if it were
+alive. During this time, too, presents to the spirit of the dead are
+pouring in. The proper offerings are flowers, cake, vegetables, candles,
+incense, or small gifts of money for the purchase of incense. If the
+deceased is a person of rank or distinction, the house is flooded with
+cumbersome and useless offerings. This custom has become so great an
+addition to the trials necessarily incident to a bereavement that one
+occasionally sees in the newspaper announcements of deaths a request
+that no offerings to the dead be sent.
+
+On the day after the death, often in the evening, the body must be
+placed in the cask-shaped coffin that until recently was the style
+commonly in use in Japan. Now, among the wealthier classes, the long
+coffin has superseded the small square or round one, but the smaller
+expense connected with burial in the old way makes the survival of the
+old type a necessity for the majority of Japanese. At an appointed time
+all the relatives assemble in the death chamber, and preparations are
+made for the bathing of the corpse. Two of the _tatami_, or floor mats,
+are turned over, and upon them are placed a new tub, a new pail, and a
+new dipper. These utensils must have no metal of any kind about them. In
+the washing of the body none but members of the family must assist, and
+respect for the dead absolutely requires that all the relatives of the
+deceased who are below him in rank must have a hand in these final
+ablutions. In Japan, the mourning for the dead is the duty of inferiors,
+never of superiors. There is no official, ceremonial mourning of parents
+for their children, nor does custom require them to perform any of the
+last rites, or attend the funeral. Upon the younger brothers and sisters
+falls the duty of attending to all the last sad ministrations. If the
+wife dies, her husband does not mourn for her, though her children do;
+but if the husband dies, the wife must mourn the rest of her life,
+cutting off her hair and placing it in the coffin as a sign of her
+perpetual faithfulness.
+
+When the body has been washed, it is dressed in white, in silk _habutai_
+whenever the family can afford it. The dress, which must be appropriate
+to the season, in the making of which all the women of the family must
+assist, is the plain, straight kimono, but must be folded from right to
+left, instead of from left to right as in life. The body, to be placed
+in the coffin, must be folded into a sitting posture, the chin resting
+upon the knees,--the position of the mummies found in many aboriginal
+American tombs. This difficult, to us apparently impossible feat, safely
+accomplished, there are placed in the coffin a number of small things
+that the dead takes with him to the next world. Some of these have been
+already mentioned, the others are little keepsakes, or perhaps tokens of
+the tastes and employments of the dead,--dice, cards, _sak�_ bottles,
+the image of a horse, toy weapons,--anything, provided only that it be
+not of metal, may be used for this purpose. The single exception to this
+rule about metal is that small copper coins may be put in, to fee the
+old hag who guards the bank of the river of death. Last of all, the
+vacant spaces in the coffin are filled in with bags of tea. Then the
+coffin is closed and nailed up, wrapped with a white silk cloth fastened
+with a white silk or cotton cord, and placed on a high stand, and food
+and incense are placed before it.
+
+So long as the coffin is in the house, it must be watched over
+continually. To aid in this protracted vigil, which must be kept up day
+and night until the burial, the relatives, friends, and retainers of the
+dead assemble at the house in large numbers. In the case of a person of
+wealth and influence, there will often be a hundred or more of these
+watchers, who must be fed and cared for; and who take turns in watching,
+eating, and sleeping. It is their duty to see that the incense burning
+before the coffin is never allowed to go out, while the food for the
+dead is renewed at regular intervals by the mourners themselves.
+
+This somewhat detailed description of the duties to be performed by the
+members of a bereaved family in the house of mourning is sufficient to
+show that the presence of death in the home is made as terrible as
+possible by the painful ceremonies, the continual bustle and excitement,
+and the strain upon the resources and executive ability of the
+housekeeper and her assistants. There are few enlightened Japanese who
+will defend the present system of cruelty to the afflicted, or who do
+not long for some change, but so great is the force of conservatism in
+this regard, so haunting the fear that any change may indicate a lack
+of respect for the dead, that reform advances slowly.
+
+Individual instances occur in which some of the worst features of these
+customs are modified. A case in point is that of the late Mr. Fukuzawa,
+a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of his countrymen in
+modern ways, and who in his death continued his teaching. In his will he
+provided that his body was to be buried, without washing, in the
+clothing in which he died. This provision would seem in most countries
+to be mere eccentricity, but when one has seen or heard of the gruesome
+ceremony that follows immediately after death, and the burden of which
+falls, not on the old and hardened, but on the young and tender,
+suffering, in many cases, under the weight of a first and crushing
+affliction, one can see that only through such means as this can the
+burden ever be lifted from the shoulders of those who mourn. There are
+young and enlightened mothers in Japan to-day who have felt, in minds
+awakened to thought and action, the horrors of the system, and who will
+not allow their children to suffer for them what they have suffered in
+paying respect to their dead parents. Through this growing feeling and
+the unselfishness of maternal affection may come in time the release
+from these mournful ceremonies.
+
+While the body remains in the house, a priest comes from time to time to
+offer prayers, longer or shorter according to the wealth of the family
+employing him; and when the funeral cort�ge sets out on its way to the
+cemetery, the priests in their professional robes form an imposing part
+of the spectacle. The day of the burial is selected with due respect to
+the calendar, for, though there may be little good luck about a funeral,
+there is a chance of extremely bad luck growing out of it unless every
+precaution is taken. Just before the procession starts, a religious
+ceremony is held at the house, which is attended by the friends of the
+deceased, and which is substantially the same as that performed at the
+cemetery. On the day of the burial, great bunches of natural flowers are
+sent to the dead, each bunch so large as to require the services of one
+man to carry it. Sometimes with the gift a man is sent to take part in
+the procession, but if the giver feels too poor to hire a man, this
+burden, too, falls upon the bereaved household, for etiquette requires
+that all flowers sent be borne to the grave by uniformed coolies, who
+march in the funeral train. Another favorite present at this time, among
+Buddhists, is a cage of living birds, to be borne to the grave and
+released thereon. This act of mercy is counted to the deceased for
+righteousness, and is believed to aid in rendering his next incarnation
+a happy one.
+
+A funeral procession is an imposing spectacle, and, to the uninstructed
+foreigner, a cheerful one; for there is nothing sad or sombre in the
+white, or bright-colored, robes of the priests, the white,
+tinsel-decorated bier, the red and white flags borne aloft, the enormous
+bunches of gay-colored flowers;--the very mourners in white silk, and
+with faces apparently unmoved by grief, bring no thought of the object
+of the procession to the Western mind. It seems more like a bridal than
+a burial. But if you follow the cort�ge to the cemetery and there
+listen to the wailing of the wind instruments, and the droning of the
+priests as they perform the last rites, and watch the silent company
+that one by one go forward to bow before the coffin and place upon it a
+branch of _sakaki_ or burn a bit of incense, the trappings of woe in
+Japan will impress themselves strongly upon your mind, and the gayly
+appareled funeral processions will seem to you ever afterward as
+mournful and hopeless a spectacle as you can find in any country.
+
+The house of death remains a place of mourning for forty-nine days after
+the funeral. During this period the spirit of the deceased is supposed
+to be still inhabiting the house, and a tablet or shrine is set up in
+the death chamber before which food and flowers are renewed daily.
+Visitors are expected to make obeisance to the dead. At the end of this
+time, some acknowledgment must be sent to every friend who has sent
+anything to the house at the funeral. For a time after death has come
+into the family the relatives of the dead are regarded as ceremonially
+unclean. The period of defilement varies with the nearness of
+relationship. In the old days, no one thus defiled was allowed to go
+about his regular business or to mingle with other men; but busy modern
+Japan does not find it convenient to pause long in its work, so that
+government officials and school-children are now sent written papers
+excusing them for coming back to their tasks even while ceremonially
+unclean. Thus the old custom is passing away. In the first year after
+death, certain days are observed with special honors before the memorial
+tablet, and later, certain anniversaries of the death must be kept,
+until, at last, at the end of fifty or one hundred years, the
+personality of the spirit seems to become merged with that of the other
+ancestral spirits, and no offerings are made to it except at the general
+feasts of the dead.
+
+With the coming in of the last month of the year begin the preparations
+for the great New Year's festival, and the housekeeper finds herself
+occupied through every moment of the brief days. A woman who is at the
+head of a large household has upon her hands in the month of December
+spring house-cleaning and preparations for Christmas, New Year's,
+Thanksgiving, and Easter, all at once. The work of getting the family
+wardrobe ready for the festival must begin very early in the month, for
+every man, woman, and child in the household must be provided with new
+clothes, and the thrifty housewife sends no sewing out. In the old days,
+it was ordained that the eighth day of the twelfth month should be a
+needle festival,--a day on which all women rest from their sewing and
+amuse themselves by indulging their own fancies instead of their
+husbands', as is their duty on other days. This day was supposed to mark
+the dividing line between the old year's and the new year's sewing, but,
+as a matter of fact, the forehanded woman will finish up the old and
+begin the new even earlier in the month, so as to have this part of her
+work well out of the way before the house-cleaning, which should be
+begun not later than the fifteenth.
+
+This house-cleaning, even with the small amount of furniture found in a
+Japanese house, is an elaborate affair. Every box and closet and
+rubbish-hole in the house is turned out and put in order, the _tatami_
+are taken up and brushed and beaten, the woodwork from ceiling to floor
+is carefully washed, the plaster and paper walls flicked with the paper
+flapper that takes the place in Japan of our feather duster. All the
+quilts and clothing must be sunned and aired, the kak�monos and curios
+belonging to the family unpacked, carefully dusted, and put back into
+their wrappings and boxes, and the house and garden put into perfect
+repair. This work, if thoroughly done, takes about a week. When all is
+finished, even to the final purification by beating everything in the
+house with a fresh bamboo, games and festivities and _soba_ are in
+order. In the old daimi[=o] houses, where great numbers of men and women
+were employed, and where the women's quarters were in a distinct part of
+the house, it was considered a great joke to catch a man on the women's
+side any time between the close of the cleaning and the beginning of the
+new year. The intruder was promptly seized and shouldered by the women,
+who carried him about the house in triumph, finally returning him to his
+own quarters. If, by any chance, they could catch the chief steward,
+they sang as they carried him about:--
+
+    "This is the great pillar of the house!
+     May he be happy till the stone foundations rot!"
+
+The week following the house-cleaning is devoted to the preparation of
+food for the festival. Of this, the most characteristic is _mochi_, a
+sort of dumpling made of rice steamed and pounded, the preparation of
+which is so difficult and protracted a process that it is not lightly
+undertaken. It is so distinctively the festival food of Japan that if
+you find _mochi_ in a friend's house at any time except the new year,
+you immediately ask what has happened, and are pretty sure to be told
+that it is a present received in celebration of a birth or a marriage,
+or some other domestic festival. It is, to Japanese children, what
+turkey and cranberry sauce are to American children, not only a delight
+to the palate, but a dish the very smell of which brings back the most
+cheerful occasions in the year.
+
+When the _mochi_ is made and set away to await the festal day, the
+matter of decoration must be attended to. At every gate is erected some
+token of the season, if it be only a bit of pine stuck into the ground,
+or a wisp of straw rope decorated with white paper _gohei_. The great
+black gates that indicate the homes of the wealthier classes are almost
+concealed by structures of pine and bamboo, on which oranges, lobsters,
+straw rope, straw fringe, white paper, and images of the good luck gods
+are used as decorations. All these things are either efficacious in
+keeping off evil spirits, or are symbols of good luck. Within the house,
+in the _tokonoma_, or place of honor, in the best room, great cakes of
+_mochi_, two, three, five, or seven in number, are set one upon another
+in a dish covered with fern leaves, and the structure surrounded by
+seaweed.
+
+Before the new year comes in the capable housewife will have sent out
+presents to every one who has during the year been of service to her
+husband, her children, or herself in any way. Her own servants will be
+remembered with gifts of clothing, something will be sent to the
+servants of friends at whose houses any of the family have visited
+often, and every dependent, poor relation, employee, and employee's
+child must be given a present, large or small, according to the amount
+of obligation felt by the giver. To persons of greater wealth and
+importance, to whom the family are grateful for past favors or from whom
+they are hoping for something in the future, gifts, often quite out of
+proportion to the resources of the givers, are sent,--a method of
+investing capital that is a little risky, though it sometimes yields
+prompt and bountiful returns. On the other hand, all the merchants and
+marketmen who supply the house send presents to the mistress and
+frequently to the head servants as well, and _furushiki_ (bundle
+handkerchiefs), cooking utensils, packages of sugar, boxes of eggs,
+dried fish, etc., flow in at the kitchen; while cr�pe, silk, cotton
+cloth, money, toys, curios, and other valuables flow out of the parlor.
+All this present-giving is a severe tax upon the strength and resources
+of the housekeeper, and adds heavily to the burden that the last month
+of the year imposes upon her.
+
+By the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of the month the trades-people begin
+to send in their bills, for every man expects to square up all his
+accounts by the last night of the old year, and early payments are
+expected and made, so that all may begin the new year out of debt. So
+universal is this custom that the man who finds at the eleventh hour
+that he cannot clear off all his debts is likely to offer his property
+at a heavy sacrifice in order to secure the necessary cash. For any one
+with ready money extraordinary bargains are to be met with in Japanese
+shops during the last week of the year. In case this resource fails,
+suicide is still a short and honorable way out of a world that has
+become too difficult to live in.
+
+The Japanese housewife must feel, when December has been successfully
+passed, like the Yankee who had noticed that if he lived through the
+month of March he generally lived through the rest of the year. The
+observances of January, for which December has been one long
+preparation, begin with the rising of the New Year's sun, and continue
+in one form or another for about two weeks. Almost every day has its
+special food and its special festival duty. For the first three days the
+very best clothes in the wardrobe are worn by everybody, then till the
+seventh the second best, and from the seventh to the end of the month
+new clothes, though not the very best, must be worn. Within the first
+seven days every man in Japan is expected to call on all his friends and
+acquaintances, but the women, probably out of consideration for the many
+duties that the festival season puts upon them, are given until March to
+finish up their New Year's calls.
+
+The streets of the cities, and even of the small villages, are full of
+life and interest for a week or two. _Kurumayas_ in their new winter
+liveries trundle around fathers and mothers and happy children. All
+manner of mummers, musicians, and dancers go from house to house in
+search of custom. The _manzai_, who, with dances and songs and strange
+grimaces, undertake to drive out from your house for the new year all
+the devils who may have been residing there hitherto, are a special
+feature of this season. In every garden and in the public streets little
+girls, their faces freshly covered with white paint, their shining black
+hair newly dressed, their wing-sleeved kimonos gorgeous with many
+colors, play battledore and shuttlecock, toss small bags half filled
+with rice, or pat balls wound with shining silk to the accompaniment of
+a weird little chant. For the boys there are kites of many shapes and
+colors, or tops that they spin under every one's feet, well knowing that
+no one in Japan is too busy to turn aside for a child's pleasure. The
+very horses--small, shock-headed, evil-tempered beasts, who drag
+tremendous loads with many snorts and snaps at their masters--are decked
+out with gay streamers that reach nearly to the ground, at the ends of
+which are tinkling bells. The festival season closes on the fifteenth
+and sixteenth with a visit to the temple of Yemma, the god of hell, and
+with a holiday for all the apprentices.
+
+Next to the New Year's holiday, perhaps the most important festival of
+the Japanese year is _O Bon_, the Feast of the Dead. This is, in its
+present form, a Buddhist institution, but in spirit it fitted so exactly
+into the ancient Japanese ideas of the tastes and habits of departed
+spirits that it merely supplanted the old Shint[=o] feasts of the dead,
+and it is a little difficult to-day to determine whether its observance
+is more Buddhist or Shint[=o] in its character. To find the O Bon
+ceremonies in their most perfect form, it is necessary now to go into
+the more remote country villages, for though, even in T[=o]ky[=o], this
+feast is still one of the most important in the whole year, it seems to
+be more distinctly itself in a small village, where all the old forms
+are still kept up.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], the three days' festival is kept by the new calendar, and
+occurs on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of July. At O Bon, as
+at New Year's time, it is customary to square off all obligations by a
+general giving of presents. This, while not quite as important a matter
+as at the beginning of the year, is still a severe tax upon the time,
+purse, and memory of the wife and mother in any large family. At this
+time, too, as at New Year's, _mochi_ or some other festival dish must be
+provided, but at this point the resemblance between the two occasions
+ceases. In accordance with its character as a feast of departed spirits,
+the observance of O Bon is distinctively religious. On the twelfth, the
+family go to the graveyard and clean and put in order the graves and
+tombstones, so that the returning spirits may find all properly cared
+for. Fresh water and flowers are placed before each stone, and sometimes
+rice and fresh vegetables. At home, the ancestral tablets in the
+_Butsudan_ form the centre of the ceremonies. Before the shrine are
+placed, on the thirteenth, offerings of food of any kind that can be
+made without fish or meat. Great balls of _mochi_, _sak�_, flowers, and
+choice new varieties of vegetables are appropriate offerings. All are
+tastefully arranged, the lamps are carefully lighted every night, and
+special services are held before the shrine. For the three days of the
+feast, the souls of the dead are believed to be visiting their old
+haunts, and to need light and food and all the conveniences that their
+descendants can spare them. Each house is decorated with lanterns, that
+the spirits may be able to find their way. It is from this custom that
+the feast is often called by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns.
+
+As I have already said, in T[=o]ky[=o] and other modernized places, this
+feast is not seen at its best. Only the soft glow of the lanterns
+swinging from every house, and the decorations in the graveyards and at
+the household shrines, indicate to the traveler that anything unusual is
+going on. But in the country regions it is quite another matter, and the
+welcoming, entertainment, and proper dismissal of the visiting spirits
+form the entire business of the community for three days. Usually the
+middle of August is the time for the country celebration. On the
+twelfth, bands of children carrying red lanterns march singing through
+the village on their way to the graveyard, where the annual cleaning is
+taking place. That night bonfires in the cemetery and before the houses
+light the pathway of the wanderers. Then for three nights all the young
+people of the village gather in the temple court in grotesque disguises
+and with towels over their faces, and dance all night long in the
+moonlight, to primitive music produced by a drum and the monotonous
+chant of the dancers themselves. These three dance-nights are the great
+occasion of the year to the young peasants, for this is the only time
+when persons of both sexes meet together in a social way, and it is long
+looked forward to and enjoyed intensely. Of late years, the government,
+fearing the abuses that grow out of this exceptional social event, has
+endeavored to suppress the dancing, but it continues in full vigor
+throughout most of rural Japan, though conducted with more decorum than
+formerly on account of the standing dread of police interference. The
+object of the dance is to amuse the spirits of the ancestors, who must
+be imagined as hovering in the background, viewing with approval the
+antics of their descendants.
+
+Other amusements are going on in the village on the O Bon evenings. At
+a summer resort every hotel-keeper will have a professional
+story-teller, a company of musicians, or some other entertainment to
+which the guests of the hotel are invited, and at which as many of the
+villagers as can crowd to the open house fronts stare until the dance
+drum in the temple court draws their feet in that direction. And then,
+on the last night of the feast, bonfires are once more kindled at every
+house, so that the spirits may find their way safely back to the land
+whence they came, and not stay to haunt their descendants at improper
+seasons.
+
+No account of life in a Japanese home would be complete without a little
+space devoted to the special delights of the small boy. Although this
+book deals mainly with feminine concerns, the small boy in Japan, as in
+America, is the life and fun of the home, and one cannot fail to notice
+his times of surpassing enjoyment. He rules the house and his mother and
+his grandmother and his sisters, at all times, and his activity and
+enterprise secure for him a good share in any fun that is going on; but
+there are certain seasons that appeal to the boyish heart with a special
+message and of which he is the central figure.
+
+As the Feast of Dolls is to the girls, so is the Feast of Flags to the
+boys,--their own special day, set apart for them out of the whole year.
+It comes on the fifth day of the fifth month (now May fifth), and for
+long before its arrival the shops are gay with all manner of tempting
+toys, while in every yard rises a great bamboo pole, from which, when
+the time comes, will float an enormous carp, its body inflated by the
+strong spring wind, its great mouth wide open, and its eyes glaring
+hideously, as it fights its way against the air currents. Sometimes
+there will be half a dozen such poles in one yard,--signs either that
+the household is blessed with many boys, or that the way to its heart is
+through gifts of toys to its son and heir. When the great day at last
+arrives, the feast within the home is conducted in much the same way as
+the Feast of Dolls. There are the same red-covered shelves, the same
+offerings of food and drink; but instead of the placid images of the
+Emperor and Empress and the five court musicians, the household
+furnishings and toilet articles, there are effigies of the heroes of
+history and folklore: Jingo, the warrior Empress; Takenouchi, her
+white-haired prime minister, holding in his arms her son, the infant
+war-god; Benkei, the giant retainer of Yoshitsune; Yoshitsune himself,
+the marvelous fencer and general; Kintaro, the fat, hairy, red boy, who
+was born and grew up in the mountains, and even in his babyhood fought
+with bears; Shoki Sama, the strong man who could conquer _oni_;--these
+are some of the characters to be found on the shelves at the boys'
+feast. Behind each figure stands a flag with the crest of the hero that
+it represents, and before them are set all manner of weapons in
+miniature. The food offered is _mochi_ wrapped in oak leaves, because
+the oak is among trees what the carp is among fishes, the emblem of
+strength and endurance. The flower of this day is the iris or flag,
+because of its sword-shaped leaves,--hence the name, _Shobu Matsuri_,
+feast of iris or flag.
+
+Another feast, which, while not founded for the boys, seems to have
+been adopted by them as a great occasion, is what is known as Buddha's
+birthday, celebrated on April eighth. On this day in every Buddhist
+temple a temporary platform is erected, the roof of which is covered
+with flowers. Upon this platform, in a great tub filled with licorice
+tea, is set a small image of the infant Buddha. Hither flock the small
+boys with bamboo dippers, and spend the day ladling up the tea and
+pouring it over the image, and then ladling it out into small bamboo
+buckets. This licorice tea, through contact with the image, acquires
+miraculous healing properties, and the devout, after making offerings of
+money twisted up in white paper, carry away the little buckets. The tea
+is good for the eyes and the throat, and if some of it be used in mixing
+ink, and then, with the ink thus mixed, a charm be written and placed
+about the house, it will keep away all vermin. It is not easy to see
+exactly what the fascination of this feast is to the boys, but I am told
+that many of them like it even better than their own specially
+appointed day.
+
+But of all the delights that come into the year, there is nothing to
+compare for joyous excitement with the great _matsuri_ of the parish
+temple. For at least a week beforehand there are enough interesting
+things going on in every house and shop along the street to keep every
+small boy in the parish agog from morning till night. Here are lanterns
+being made with the _mon_ of the gods on one side and the rising sun of
+the Japanese flag on the other. There a dancing platform is being
+erected, and at every stage of its development it is swarming with
+active youngsters, who shin up its poles, turn somersaults on the
+platform, and sit in rows on its edge, with bare legs swinging high over
+the heads of the passers-by; and when it is done, and the drums
+installed, they take turns all day and far into the night in keeping
+them going. Then, too, there are the _dashi_, or floats, on one of which
+each street in the parish spends its money and its ingenuity. How the
+boys haunt the shops in which they are being made! How they watch the
+wondrous changes of paper into flowers, and of bamboo and cotton cloth
+into sea waves, or castle walls, or monsters of earth or sea or air! How
+they chatter and wriggle and push and squirm for front places, when at
+last the great cars are built up in the open street, the marvelous
+edifices erected upon them, and at the top of all the heroic figures of
+well-known mythological or historical characters rise majestic in
+flowing robes! Then, when the black bullocks, resplendent in collars and
+halters of red rope, are yoked to the triumphal car, and the structure
+moves slowly down the shouting street, how the boys crawl into every
+joint and cranny of the _dashi_, how they hang from every beam, how they
+yell from before and behind in sheer abandon of joy! And at last, when
+the procession forms, and with fantastically garbed men marching in
+front and wild-eyed singers yelling just behind them, with dancing-girls
+on moving platforms and jugglers and tumblers on the _dashi_ themselves,
+the twenty or more festal cars move, with frequent stops, down to the
+temple, to escort the sacred symbols on their annual pilgrimage through
+the parish, who so noisy or so ubiquitous as these same bullet-headed,
+blue-gowned boys? They bob up at every turn, ooze out at every pore of
+the procession, and enjoy, as only boys can enjoy, the noise and
+confusion, the barbaric splendor, the dancing and tumbling, the mumming
+and drumming, the excruciating howls of the singers, the jingling of the
+marshals' iron-ringed staves, the clapping of the great wooden clappers
+that time the movement and the stops of the pageant.
+
+Better than all, perhaps, is the evening, when the streets, lighted by
+many lanterns, are filled with throngs of holiday-makers,--now stopping
+to stare in at some shop where the devout worshiper has established a
+beautiful shrine, has set out _mochi_ and other offerings before some
+image, or has arranged a landscape garden in a box, or constructed a
+_matsuri_ procession just entering the court of a miniature temple; now
+haggling with the ever-present booth-keepers for lanterns or cakes or
+hairpins to take back to the friends left at home. Suddenly there is a
+joyous, rhythmic shout of many excited boyish voices, there is a
+gleaming of square red lanterns, a whirl and a rush through the crowd.
+Now is the time to get out of the way, for the boys move quickly and are
+too excited to turn aside for anything. On they come at a sharp trot,
+each little round head bound about with a fillet of blue and white
+toweling, each lithe, active body more or less covered by a blue and
+white gown, all shouting in unison and bearing on their shoulders a
+miniature _dashi_, made most often of a _sak�_ tub mounted on a frame,
+and decorated with lanterns and white paper. They charge through the
+crowd, which makes way quickly at their approach, until the pace, the
+weight of their burden, and the frantic shouting exhaust their breath.
+Then they plunge down a side street, rest for a few moments, gather
+themselves together, and charge once more into the crowd. There must be
+some pretty tired little boys in the parish when the fun is all over,
+for these performances are kept up far into the night; but for absolute
+and perfect enjoyment there is nothing I have yet seen that seems to me
+to compare with the enjoyment that a Japanese boy gets out of a
+_matsuri_. It is worth being tired for!
+
+There is no space in this work for a more detailed picture of life in a
+Japanese home. Enough has been said in this chapter to show that it is
+made up of many little things,--of cares and sorrows and
+pleasures,--just as is life in any American home, and it is the little
+things we care about that make the oneness of the family, and the
+nation, and the oneness, too, of humanity, if we can only understand one
+another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS.
+
+
+The woman question in Japan is at the present moment a matter of much
+consideration. There seems to be an uneasy feeling in the minds of even
+the more conservative men that some change in the status of woman is
+inevitable, if the nation wishes to keep the pace it has set for itself.
+The Japanese women of the past and of the present are exactly suited to
+the position accorded them in society, and any attempt to alter them
+without changing their status only results in making square pegs for
+round holes. If the pegs hereafter are to be cut square, the holes must
+be enlarged and squared to fit them. The Japanese woman stands in no
+need of alteration unless her place in life is somehow enlarged, nor, on
+the other hand, can she fill a larger place without additional
+training. The men of New Japan, to whom the opinions and customs of the
+Western world are becoming daily more familiar, while they shrink
+aghast, in many cases, at the thought that their women may ever become
+like the forward, self-assertive, half-masculine women of the West, show
+a growing tendency to dissatisfaction with the smallness and narrowness
+of the lives of their wives and daughters,--a growing belief that better
+educated women would make better homes, and that the ideal home of
+Europe and America is the product of a more advanced civilization than
+that of Japan. Reluctantly in many cases, but still almost universally,
+it is admitted that in the interest of the homes and for the sake of
+future generations, something must be done to carry the women forward
+into a position more in harmony with what the nation is reaching for in
+other directions. This desire shows itself in individual efforts to
+improve by more advanced education daughters of exceptional promise, and
+in general efforts for the improvement of the condition of women.
+Well-to-do fathers are willing to spend more money on the education of
+their daughters, to send them abroad, if possible, to complete their
+studies, or to postpone the time of marriage so that plans for higher
+education may be carried through. Where, ten years ago, the number of
+women who had been abroad for study might be counted on the fingers of
+one hand, there are now three or four times that number in T[=o]ky[=o]
+alone. Another sign of the times is the fact that husbands going abroad
+on business or for pleasure are more inclined to take their wives with
+them, even if it be only for a few months. There are now to be found, in
+all the larger cities, women who have spent a longer or shorter time in
+some foreign country, whose minds have been opened and whose horizons
+have been enlarged by contact with new ideas. All this cannot fail to
+have its effect, sooner or later, upon the country at large.
+
+The efforts for the improvement of women in general may be grouped into
+four classes: by legislation, by education, through the press, and by
+means of societies for mutual improvement.
+
+Of the recent legislation concerning marriage and divorce and its
+effect on the family, I have spoken in a preceding chapter. The latest
+statistics show that, while before the new laws were enacted divorces
+were one to every three marriages, they have now been reduced to one in
+five. It must be said, however, that the law is still somewhat in
+advance of public opinion. While the chance of permanence in marriage is
+better now than it was before the new code came into force, custom is
+still stronger than the law, and marriage is too often a temporary
+arrangement. In many cases the wife knows little or nothing of her new
+rights, and even when she does know, she has seldom the self-assertion
+to make a stand for them, but meekly submits to the dictates of those
+whom she is bound by custom, if not by law, to respect and obey without
+question. But the fact that the laws have actually been improved means,
+in a country like Japan, in which the government is the moulder of
+public opinion, that the custom will some day conform to the law.
+
+In the matter of property owning, women, under the new code, are fairly
+independent. As I have already stated, every woman in Japan is expected
+to become a wife, and as a matter of fact, the number of unmarried women
+is so small that it is hardly necessary to mention them. Wives, under
+Japanese law, are divided into two classes: the wife who enters her
+husband's family, and the wife whose husband becomes a member of her
+family. In the latter case the wife is the head of the family, is
+responsible for the debts of the family, and has the right to use and
+profit by the husband's property. In the former case (and as I have
+already stated, the great majority of wives enter their husband's
+families), the husband is responsible, and has, consequently, the right
+to use and profit by his wife's property. In all cases, unless the
+husband is physically or mentally unfit, he has the management of his
+wife's wealth. In case of the husband's disability the woman takes care
+of her own. A wife may, by application to a court, cause the husband to
+furnish security for the property that she has intrusted to him; and she
+may, with her husband's consent, engage in independent business. The
+property that she thus acquires is her own and not the husband's. Any
+property in the family, the ownership of which is not perfectly
+established, belongs to the head of the family, whether male or female.
+We thus see that the law of Japan fully recognizes the right of married
+women to hold property, although only in exceptional cases are they
+allowed the management of their own holdings. The law also regards the
+wife, in household matters, as her husband's agent.
+
+In actual practice, it is not uncommon for the wife to manage the entire
+income of the family, receiving it from her husband and acting as his
+treasurer. The wife's own earnings are seldom given to the husband, and
+her position is one of entire independence in the disposal of whatever
+she adds to the family revenue. But should the wife bring into the
+family at marriage property which passes into the husband's management,
+the chances are that, unless a divorce should occur, she will never lay
+any claim to the principal, or think of it again as her own. While her
+husband cannot actually dispose of it without her consent, she is pretty
+certain to give her consent should he ask it, and he may do very nearly
+anything that he chooses with it. We thus see that the tendency is to
+give the management of the income, as a part of the management of the
+household, to the woman, and leave the disposal of the principal, as a
+part of the outside business, to the care of the man. This system of
+domestic finance seems not unlike the common practice in thrifty and
+well-managed homes in America, and shows that a spirit of mutual
+confidence between husband and wife belongs to Japan as to Western
+nations. As the result of my own observation in a number of homes, I
+should say that the judgment of the wife in money matters is quite as
+much trusted in Japan as in America, and that, in this one respect at
+least, her place in the home is as responsible a one as that of the
+Western housekeeper. One instance may be cited of a woman whose business
+ability is so well known as to have a national reputation. By birth a
+member of a family which is remarkable for its success in all financial
+undertakings, she has inherited a large share of the family
+characteristic, and is credited with the personal management of a large
+bank, as well as other successful business undertakings. Her husband's
+name and not her own appears on the prospectuses and in the newspapers,
+but unless report is very far astray, she is the business man of the
+family, and her sound sense and good judgment have built up the fortune
+which is their common possession.
+
+In the educational system of Japan, schools for girls are provided by
+the government, but no provision for studies more advanced than those of
+the middle schools for boys is included in the scheme, with the single
+exception of the Higher Normal School in T[=o]ky[=o], in which a limited
+number of young women are trained to take positions as teachers in the
+ordinary normal schools for girls. To quote from the Annual Report of
+the Minister of Education for the year 1898, the latest to which I have
+access, "Higher female schools are institutions designed to give
+instruction in such higher subjects of general education as are
+necessary for females." This shows with considerable completeness the
+idea that dominates all government and much private effort for the
+education of women in Japan. The schools are to teach simply such
+subjects as are necessary for females; anything more would be
+superfluous, possibly dangerous. The thought of women as individuals,
+with minds and souls to be trained and developed to their highest
+possibilities, is still somewhat foreign to the mind of the average
+Japanese man. In its stead is the idea that females must be instructed
+in such subjects as are necessary for a proper understanding of their
+duties as wives and mothers. But if Japan to-day is where England and
+America were in the first half of the nineteenth century, the country is
+certainly moving forward, as the statistics in regard to education for
+the three successive years 1896, 1897, and 1898 show. Great efforts are
+being made to increase the attendance of girls at the common schools,
+and with gratifying results.[43]
+
+[43] The following in the report for 1898 may be of interest:--
+
+Percentage of pupils of school age receiving instruction:--
+
+  Year.          Girls.   Boys.
+  1896           47.54    79.00
+  1897           50.86    80.67
+  1898           53.73    82.42
+
+The total number of girls of school age not receiving instruction is
+1,552,601; of boys, 662,985; while the total number of girls of school
+age is 3,642,263, and of boys, 4,067,161.
+
+As we advance into the higher schools, the discrepancy in numbers
+between the two sexes grows greater. In the kindergartens the attendance
+of girls is nearly equal to that of boys; in the elementary schools
+there are three boys to two girls; in the higher elementary schools,
+seven boys to two girls. The boys' middle schools, which are equivalent
+in grade to the girls' high schools, have fourteen boys taking their
+courses to every two girls in the high schools. In the apprentice and
+technical schools, there are fifteen men to every two women. Even the
+normal schools, which in our own country are almost given over to women,
+in Japan have six male students to every female. The "special schools,"
+mainly professional, have, to 11,069 men, 73 women, all enrolled in
+private schools, and presumably taking medical courses. Beyond this
+point women have no opportunities offered to them. In the higher
+schools, equivalent to the college and graduate courses given by
+universities in America, 7,224 young men are given opportunities that
+women must go abroad to obtain.
+
+These figures are, as I have said, for the year 1898. The year 1901 sees
+two hopeful movements well begun. One of these is the opening of an
+institution bearing the title of "Female University," endowed and
+supported by Japanese, through the strenuous efforts of Mr. Jinzo
+Naruse, a prominent Christian who has spent some time in America. At its
+opening, five hundred girls were glad to enter, but of these very few
+are ready for college work. Mr. Naruse, however, believes that in time
+he will be able to enlarge his college department and diminish the
+preparatory, which is now almost the whole of the school. He has the
+support and encouragement of many wealthy and influential Japanese,
+among them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive statesman. On the day
+of the opening of the school, Count Okuma, in a speech from the
+platform, said that the nation would be twice as strong if its women
+were well educated. This he called "setting up a double standard." He
+pointed out that Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and China were countries which
+had tried to get along with a "single standard," and which had fallen
+conspicuously behind. He called attention to the fact that Japan's
+primitive religion had for its central figure the Goddess of Light, but
+that, unfortunately for the well-being of the state, woman had been
+gradually dethroned and thrust down into a low place. After speaking of
+the debt that Japan owed to China for the civilization and the ethical
+system that had stood her so long in good stead, the veteran statesman
+went on to say that society in Japan was disfigured by abuses which were
+beyond any simple remedy. The only effective medicine was to be found in
+a radical reform of the ideals of family life, and this could only be
+effected by an improvement in the status of woman,--an improvement which
+such institutions as the one that day opened would greatly aid in
+bringing about.
+
+These words from one of the most honored leaders of Japanese thought
+voice the feeling that is prevalent throughout Japan in this
+thirty-fourth year of M�iji. That it is actually moving both government
+and people is shown by the words of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education,
+to the Council of Provincial Governors held in T[=o]ky[=o] in June,
+1901. In speaking of the progress of education throughout the country,
+he stated his intention to push forward the work of secondary education
+for girls, saying that a prefecture which refused to make provision for
+such education by 1903 might be compelled to do so by the government.
+
+The other hopeful educational effort to which I have alluded is a school
+started on a small scale, but with a high standard, by a Japanese woman
+whose name is almost as well known in America as in Japan, as an
+educator of great ability and earnestness of purpose. After many years
+of work as a teacher in the Peeresses' School, a place of great honor
+from the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned her position to carry out
+a long-cherished plan. With the pecuniary aid of friends in America, she
+has founded a school for the preparation of young women who have
+finished the courses heretofore open to them, and who wish to become
+teachers of English in the Government schools. The examinations for such
+positions have always been open to women, but, because of the difficulty
+in securing proper preparation, there are few who pass them. Since its
+opening in September, 1900, the school has been crowded with promising
+pupils, and the small accommodations with which it began, although
+already once enlarged, are stretched to the uttermost. The girls come
+from the government high schools and from the mission schools, and the
+course offered to them of three years of study in English literature,
+composition, translation, and methods of teaching has proved a strong
+attraction. In recognition, perhaps, of this effort on behalf of her
+countrywomen, certainly, of her position at the head of her profession,
+this same woman has this year been appointed on the examining committee
+for the government English examinations, an honor never before given to
+one of her sex,--in itself a sign of the change in thought that the last
+few years have wrought.
+
+There can be no doubt that the education of women is moving forward,
+pushed by the leading men of the country and aided by the earnest work
+of the women themselves. It is still far behind the education offered to
+men, and the ideal of most of its promoters is limited to the purely
+utilitarian; but as long as it moves forward and not backward, and as
+long as the years of work show an increased number of women fitted to
+meet the changing conditions of the time, we do well to approve rather
+than criticise, remembering that the problem is an exceedingly intricate
+one, and one of which even the best-instructed foreigner can see only a
+small part of the difficulty.
+
+The year 1901 sees the printing-press almost as much of a power in
+Japan as in the Western world, and it is interesting to notice that
+among the innumerable newspapers and magazines now published in the
+country there are some twenty or more devoted exclusively to the
+interests of women. To be sure, these women's magazines do not undertake
+to furnish the loftiest intellectual pabulum, the best of them covering,
+perhaps, the same range of subjects that is included in "Woman's
+Journals" in the United States. They devote themselves largely to
+lectures on morals and manners, and instruction as to how best to
+perform the duties of the home. These magazines are for the most part
+written and edited by men, many of them very young men, and serve to
+show rather what men desire that women should think and do, than to give
+any insight into the minds of the women themselves. With a combined
+circulation of perhaps 40,000, they enter many homes, and do something,
+at least, toward the general enlightening and quickening of the feminine
+mind that is so noticeable in the Japan of to-day. In regard to the
+general reading of Japanese women who have had the new education, my
+own observation leads me to believe that they keep themselves well
+informed of what is going on in their own country, and of the outside
+world so far as it affects their own country; but that their interest in
+the world at large is less than that of American women, and only in
+exceptional cases do they care much for the sayings or doings of
+foreigners. In this respect they differ widely from the men, whose minds
+are reaching continually for new things to graft upon the old
+civilization.
+
+In the whole list of publications on the woman question, nothing has
+ever come out in Japan that compares for outspokenness and radical
+sentiments with a book published within a year or two by Mr. Fukuzawa,
+the most influential teacher that Japan has seen in this era of
+enlightenment. It is in two parts, the first an attack, conducted with
+much skill and humor, upon Kaibara's "Great Learning of Woman," a book
+which for nearly four hundred years has been supposed to contain all
+that a woman should know. The last part of Mr. Fukuzawa's work is a
+constructive essay upon the "New Great Learning of Woman." So
+revolutionary are the sentiments expressed in the book that many
+Japanese men hesitate about allowing their wives and daughters to read
+it, and in at least one modern Christian school it has been ruled out
+from the school library as too advanced for the reading of the girls. A
+brief survey of the sentiments and ideas thus boldly set forth will show
+how far is the attitude of the Japanese from that of the American public
+on the woman question. We find in Mr. Fukuzawa's book the lofty ideal
+that belongs to the most advanced modern thought, but its promulgation
+as a practical working ideal in Japan was of the nature of a
+thunderclap. Among less tolerant races, men have been lynched, or burned
+at the stake, for slighter departures from the average code of thought
+and morals.
+
+Mr. Fukuzawa starts out with the proposition that women are quite equal
+to men, and should hold equal position and influence. Although he allows
+that woman's work in the world is quite distinct from that of man, he
+holds that it is as important, and that she should have the same
+property-holding privileges and rights. The greatest stress is laid on
+the point that the same moral obligation for purity of life rests on the
+husband as on the wife. He goes into the details of the unhappiness
+resulting from concubinage, putting the duty of the husband in this
+respect as equal to that of the wife to preserve her chastity, and as
+this is, next to obedience, the virtue of virtues for a Japanese wife,
+his argument is as strong as it could well be made. He insists that
+women should demand as a right from their husbands and families the same
+privileges and opportunities that men have in society.
+
+Such sentiments are a matter of course in America, and they have been
+held by a few advanced thinkers in Japan, but no one hitherto has dared
+in so vigorous and positive a way, and with arguments that come so near
+home, to try to break the chain of custom that holds women down as
+inferior beings. Kaibara says that if a woman finds her husband doing
+wrong, she should gently plead with him, choosing a time when he is
+most inclined to listen. If he refuses, she should not insist on his
+hearing her, but wait until he is willing to listen, and though she may
+try two or three times, she should never anger or irritate him. Fukuzawa
+says that if this applies to the woman, it should also to the man,--that
+is to say, if a man finds his wife unfaithful, he is to wait for an
+opportunity when she is in good humor before he remonstrates with her.
+Fukuzawa also throws new light on the duty of husbands and fathers to
+their wives and children in another respect. He says that no man should
+let the sole responsibility for the happiness of the home fall upon his
+wife; that a man is responsible for the peace of the home as well as the
+woman. This view of the matter is entirely new in Japan, as the
+responsibility for an unhappy home is laid as a matter of course upon
+the wife. The duty of a wife to her parents-in-law is also treated after
+the same revolutionary manner. Is it to be wondered at that many men
+fear the influence of such a book upon their gentle, submissive wives?
+In this connection it is interesting, however, to note that at a recent
+Shint[=o] wedding, after the religious ceremony, which in itself marks a
+great step forward in the Japanese ideal of marriage, the priest who
+united the couple presented to the bride a copy each of the Kaibara and
+Fukuzawa books, perhaps with a view to letting her take her choice
+between the old style and the new, perhaps that she might instruct her
+husband out of the Fukuzawa book while she put in practice herself the
+time-honored precepts of Kaibara.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One feature of the times in T[=o]ky[=o], that is perhaps worthy of passing
+notice, is the tendency of women to form themselves into societies and
+clubs for the attainment of some common object. Of these women's clubs,
+the greater proportion are perhaps educational, the members meeting once
+a month or once a fortnight to listen to a lecture upon some subject
+that helps to keep them up with the times. There is also a patriotic
+society, that concerns itself with raising money for sending supplies to
+soldiers in the field, or for widows and orphans of soldiers, or to
+help along some other patriotic enterprise. There are societies, too,
+for general benevolence, or to help in carrying on the work of some one
+institution. A glance at the membership lists of these associations
+shows that the motive power is, in almost all cases, the same group of
+earnest, educated women, who are, in this way and in countless others,
+doing their utmost to broaden the horizons of their countrywomen, and
+lead them out into a larger life. This is probably true in the other
+cities in which a movement of women into clubs and societies is
+noticeable.
+
+It is when the active women of the new way of thinking, whose lives and
+thoughts are devoted to work and endeavor rather than to the passive
+submission and self-abnegation of the old days, find themselves suddenly
+placed among the surroundings of thirty years ago, that the change of
+conditions becomes most evident. I cannot think of a better way to
+illustrate this than to tell the story of one of my Japanese friends and
+her visit to her husband's relatives in a distant provincial city. The
+lady who told me the story is a stirring, capable young matron,
+educated after the modern ways, who has spent most of her happy married
+life of some fifteen or sixteen years entirely in T[=o]ky[=o], except
+for a visit of a year to America. She bears a closer resemblance to many
+kind-hearted, strong, energetic young American women than to the
+old-time Japanese lady portrayed in these pages. She rises every morning
+at five, attends to every detail of her housekeeping, watches carefully
+and with educated common sense over her family of young children,
+believes in good food, fresh air, and exercise, for boys and girls
+alike, and is a helpful friend and good neighbor, filling to the full
+the position of work and influence in which she is placed. Her husband
+is a successful business man, whom frequent journeys across the Pacific
+have made thoroughly cosmopolitan, and their children are accustomed to
+a freedom from conventional restraints and a healthful diet and regimen
+such as old Japan never knew.
+
+Last year the plan of spending the summer with the husband's relatives,
+which had been long projected, was actually carried out, and the whole
+family migrated to the provincial city from which the husband had
+sprung. The aged mother, a gentlewoman of the old type, was delighted to
+meet and entertain her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, and did her
+best, with all old-fashioned courtesy, to make the visit a pleasant one.
+The house was clean and spacious, the mats soft and white, the bows of
+the lowest, the voices and speech the politest that Japan could furnish,
+but the healthy, restless children found the conventional restraints
+irksome, and the old-fashioned diet of rice and pickles, with hardly a
+variation from morning till night and from week to week, was quite
+different from the bountiful table to which they had been accustomed.
+The younger woman could not criticise her mother-in-law's arrangements,
+neither could she bear to see her children growing thin and pale before
+her eyes. She consulted her husband, who, in accordance with the antique
+ideas of propriety, was served his meals at a different time and in a
+different room from his wife and family. To his food his mother had
+always added various delicacies which her old-time Spartan spirit would
+not allow her to set before her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It
+would have been quite contrary to her ideas of rank and etiquette for
+her to make any modification of her ordinary fare for them. As the son
+was already supplying the funds for carrying on his mother's
+establishment, it occurred to him that he might increase her allowance
+on the plea that her summer expenses must be heavy with so large an
+addition to her household. But the old lady was sure that nothing more
+was necessary, and would not think of burdening her son with any larger
+expenses, and could not be induced to accept the offered increase.
+
+Another effort was made to get along upon the meagre fare, but the
+youngest boy fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, and the mother
+decided that something must be done if all the family did not wish to
+follow him. The happy thought occurred to her of buying something that
+would be an addition to their scanty menu, and giving it as a present
+to her mother-in-law. Now a present in Japan can never be refused, so it
+seemed to the younger woman that she must have found a way of escape
+from her difficulties. Of course, the present was accepted with many
+thanks and expressions of unworthiness, and when the meal-hour arrived,
+each member of the family found an infinitesimal quantity of the
+delicacy in a small plate at his side. But as soon as the meal was over,
+the dear old lady, who had by strict economy managed to leave the
+greater part of the gift untouched, sent out to all the neighbors
+presents from what had been intended to feed the hungry children at
+home. The experiment was tried again and again, but always with the same
+result. No present could be kept for family use alone. Of everything but
+the barest necessaries, the greater part must be sent out in gifts to
+others.
+
+At last the husband and wife put their heads together to decide on some
+course of action that, without hurting the feelings of the older lady,
+would secure sufficient nourishment for the children, and forthwith
+began a series of all-day picnics to the noted places in the
+vicinity,--picnics that included always a good meal at some well-kept
+restaurant before the return to the old-fashioned fare of the
+grandmother's house. In this way the summer was passed without further
+illness, though the poor mother on her return to T[=o]ky[=o] spent several
+weeks in bed,--what with starvation and worry and the effort to bear
+heroically, and with a smiling face, the hard life and scanty fare that
+were the life and fare of most of Japan only a few years ago.
+
+In the changes that the past few years have wrought, perhaps nothing is
+more striking than the new openings for work that Japan now offers to
+women. The growth of the public school system has made a demand for
+women as teachers that is steadily increasing. Although in the normal
+schools the proportion of women to men is still only one to six, and
+while teaching, even in the primary schools, is not yet mainly in
+feminine hands as it is with us, there is still a good showing of women
+employed as teachers. From the figures of the school report of 1898, we
+find over 10,000 women as teachers and assistants in the public and
+private schools. The profession of nursing, too, which ten years ago was
+just opening, has already drawn many women into its ranks. In the Red
+Cross hospitals alone there are this year nearly a thousand nurses
+taking the course, and a thousand graduates scattered throughout the
+country hold themselves ready to answer the call of the society in the
+time of need, in the mean time practicing their profession wherever they
+may chance to be. The quality of the Red Cross graduates has been tested
+now in two wars, and they show the soldierly virtues of their nation, as
+well as the more womanly qualities of tenderness and gentleness; and a
+self-respect that has kept them pure and free from stain in the midst of
+severe temptation. It is impossible for me to gather statistics of the
+work done by other institutions for the training of nurses, but the
+figures given above may, I think, be doubled with absolute safety in
+making an estimate of the total number of nurses trained and in training
+throughout the empire.
+
+The growth of commerce and industry has greatly increased the demand
+for feminine labor outside the home. In the old days the two most
+important industries of the country, tea and silk, were mainly carried
+on by women in their homes, but the use of modern machinery is rapidly
+taking the weaving industries out of the homes and making factory hands
+of the women and children.[44]
+
+[44] In the Japan _Mail_ of July 8, 1901, the following statistics of
+women employees in factories in Japan were given:--
+
+  Manufacture.      No. of Women.   No. to 100 Men.
+  Raw Silk            107,348            93
+  Cotton Spinning      53,053            79
+  Matches              11,385            69
+  Cotton Fabrics       10,656            86
+  Tobacco               7,874            72
+  Matting               1,641            59
+
+One of the most noticeable effects of this new demand for female labor
+is the extreme scarcity of servants. Although wages are nearly double
+what they were ten years ago, it is extremely difficult for Japanese
+housekeepers now to find servants to replace the old ones as they drop
+out of the ranks, and the women who apply for positions are apt to be
+far inferior to those who came to the same families to do the same work
+ten years ago.
+
+In other ways, too, women are learning to fill new places in the world.
+The telephone, which now connects towns and cities and villages in
+Japan, employs girls in large numbers. In the printing-offices we find
+women at work, not as compositors, but as compositors' assistants,
+darting from case to case about the room and selecting for the
+compositor the ideographs that he needs in his work. Inasmuch as a small
+printing-office cannot get along with less than four thousand
+characters, and as larger ones may have several times that number, the
+need of quick-witted and quick-footed assistants to each compositor may
+be easily recognized. As the schools turn out each year more girls
+fitted by education to do this kind of work, and as the number of
+newspapers and other printed matter is continually on the increase, the
+demand for and supply of this special variety of labor are likely to
+increase proportionately for some time to come.
+
+A few women are now making their way as reporters on the daily papers,
+a few more are engaged in literary work. One of the best of modern
+Japanese novelists was a woman, but she died several years ago at so
+early an age that her work was a promise rather than a fulfillment.
+Artists, too, there are, who are making names for themselves, as well as
+a living, in a country where art is so common that success in that line
+means hard work and special talent. A few young women support themselves
+by stenography, a few more as clerks and secretaries in business
+offices. Until a writing-machine has been invented that will write four
+thousand characters, there will not be much demand for typewriter girls
+in Japan outside of the treaty ports, where a few are now employed. The
+Japanese government has found, as Uncle Sam discovered some time ago,
+that for the counting of paper money women's fingers are more deft than
+those of men, and it consequently gives employment to a few women in
+that work. One railroad has recently begun to employ women as
+ticket-sellers, and three medical schools have already graduated some
+women physicians, though it is still doubtful whether there is any
+great opening for them in the country. These are some of the ways in
+which women now find themselves able to gain a little more independence
+of life. The whole matter is so new that no statistics are available
+that will show the exact extent of the demand for labor in these
+directions, but from my own observation I am inclined to think that
+there is little change in the employments of women except in the
+neighborhood of the larger cities, and that the new occupations as yet
+have a very slight effect upon the conditions in this country at large.
+
+It is not possible to understand the actual progress made in Japan in
+improving the condition of women, without some consideration of the
+effect that Christian thought and Christian lives have had on the
+thought and lives of the modern Japanese. If Japanese women are ever to
+be raised to the measure of opportunity accorded to women in Christian
+countries, it can only be through the growth of Christianity in their
+own country, and for that reason a study of that growth is pertinent to
+a study of their condition.
+
+The past ten years in Japan have been discouraging to the missionaries
+in many ways, and it is not unusual to hear from the less hopeful of
+them the statement that their work has been at a standstill, or even
+going backward, during that time. The statistics of missionary effort
+show a steady, though slight, increase in the number of professing
+Christians, but if the sum total of the results of missionary effort
+were the number of converts made, it might, perhaps, be doubtful whether
+the money spent on missions in Japan might not be better turned to other
+purposes. There are now in Japan, of Christians of all sects,
+Protestant, and Roman and Greek Catholic, 121,000, or about one half of
+one per cent. of the total population of the country; but the influence
+of these Christians as leaders of thought is out of all proportion to
+their number. Christian men are found in the Diet, in the army and navy,
+in the universities and colleges, and in the newspaper offices, in a
+proportion far beyond their ratio to the total population, exerting
+their influence in many ways for the uplifting of the nation to loftier
+moral ideals. The proportion of Christian men and women in the
+government schools with which I have been connected is rather
+surprising. In the Higher Normal School, training young women to go out
+into the whole country as teachers, the proportion of professing
+Christians upon the teaching staff is striking; and in the Peeresses'
+School, which is as conservative and anti-foreign as any educational
+institution in Japan, there are five professing Christians among the
+thirty-five teachers. While, on the one hand, the Japanese Christians
+are not all models of all the virtues, while there is with many of them
+a tendency to modify their Christianity so as to accommodate a
+considerable amount of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the other hand,
+that the most active workers in the cause of philanthropy are men who
+have accepted the Christian faith, and who are striving in all
+earnestness to model their lives after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
+The Christian Church in Japan to-day has its heroes and its
+back-sliders, and has between these two extremes a rank and file of
+every-day, commonplace men and women, who amidst frequent failures and
+in the midst of many temptations are making the name of Christian stand
+for a certain kind of life and a certain standard of virtue quite above
+and beyond the lives and standards of their countrymen. It is largely
+because of them that a Christian public opinion is growing up among
+non-Christian Japanese. Men to-day who have no special leanings toward
+Christianity shake their heads over vices and sins which a few years ago
+were not even thought of as wrong. There is a great deal of talk about
+the growth of moral depravity in the country, but as a matter of fact,
+the standards of virtue have never been so high since Japan was opened
+as they are to-day: it is only that Christian thought has held up a
+mirror to an un-Christian society, in which it views all too clearly its
+own defects. There is, to my mind, no more hopeful sign of the times
+than the growing discouragement over the present condition of morals.
+When there is added to this a steadily increasing respect for the
+honesty and strength of character of Christian men and women, it must
+mean that a great and lasting impression has been made. To-day banks,
+business offices, and other places requiring trustworthy clerks and
+employees, prefer, other things being equal, Christian young men, for it
+is generally known that they are more worthy of confidence than the
+majority of applicants for such places.
+
+One instance of this increased moral sensitiveness may be cited in the
+recent successful efforts to limit the power of the brothel-keepers over
+their victims and virtual slaves, the _j[=o]r[=o]_ or licensed
+prostitutes. As I have stated in a previous chapter, the women who carry
+on this business in Japan are, many of them, unwilling victims of a
+system which allows parents to sell their children to a life of shame;
+and they enter upon that life so young that they can hardly be regarded
+as morally responsible for their condition. Even after the actual sale
+of girls was forbidden by an imperial ordinance in 1872, the purchase
+price was called a loan to the parents of the girl, and subsequent
+loans for clothing entered upon the books of the establishment kept the
+unfortunates so continually in debt to their masters that they could
+never escape from the bondage in which they were held except through
+death, or by purchase by some infatuated admirer. Public opinion, while
+it indulged in some sentimental pity for the hard lot of the
+_j[=o]r[=o]_, did little or nothing to aid any one who desired to help
+them, regarding the profession as a necessary one, and caring not at all
+for the injustice to which the girls were subjected. Ten or twelve years
+ago, a movement started by some prominent Japanese Christians against
+the _j[=o]roya_ fell flat for want of a public opinion behind it.
+Speeches on the subject were hissed down by audiences of young men, and
+nothing could be done to help even the most innocent and unhappy of the
+girls to a better life. In the new code, perhaps as an effect of this
+movement, a new law provided that the _j[=o]r[=o]_ might leave her
+calling by giving notice to the police. A police regulation, however,
+forbade any girl to cease her employment, or to leave the house in
+which she was kept, unless her official notice of cessation was
+countersigned by the keeper of the _j[=o]roya_, so that by her own
+effort she could not free herself.
+
+In the year 1900, one of these girls in a provincial city appealed to an
+American missionary for help in getting her liberty. Through his aid,
+and that of his Japanese helpers, her case came before the court, which
+decided that the contract under which she was held was opposed to the
+public welfare and good morals, and that the keeper must affix his seal
+to her notice without regard to her debt. Although the local police
+refused to act in the matter, and although the missionary and his
+helpers were subjected to personal violence by the employees of the
+_j[=o]roya_, an appeal to the authorities at T[=o]ky[=o] resulted in an
+enforcement of the court's decision, and the girl was freed.
+
+At this juncture the Salvation Army, which has a valiant contingent in
+T[=o]ky[=o], and which was actually spoiling for a good fight with the
+world, the flesh, and the Devil, in any form, took up the cause of the
+oppressed _j[=o]r[=o]_. A special edition of the "War Cry" containing
+appeals to the girls to leave their lives of shame, and offering aid to
+any one who might apply to the Army, was published and hawked through
+the Yoshiwara. When the keepers and their employees found out what the
+strangely costumed news-venders were about, they charged down upon them,
+and after a street fight, drove them out of the quarter. Thus the war
+began, but the T[=o]ky[=o] police took up the matter, the T[=o]ky[=o]
+press joined hands with the Salvationists, and in the end the whole
+country was stirred to aid in the attack. In return, the brothel-keepers
+and their employees, feeling that the profits of their business were at
+stake, made it extremely warm for any Salvationists or newspaper
+reporters who dared set foot in the disreputable quarters, and in their
+zeal sometimes made mistakes and drove out their would-be patrons. The
+office of one newspaper was wrecked by sympathetic roughs, and it took a
+squad of fifty or sixty police to escort Army officers when they had
+occasion to visit any of the houses to secure the release of a girl. No
+lives were lost, though some hard knocks were received, and the work was
+kept up with unabated noise on both sides, until every girl held in
+unwilling bondage knew how she might escape and to whom she could go for
+aid.
+
+During the month of September, 1900, as a direct result of the attacks
+of and upon the Army, the number of visitors to these houses in
+T[=o]ky[=o] was decreased by about 2,000 a night. On October 2, a
+government ordinance was issued that at one stroke removed all obstacles
+in the way of a girl's securing her freedom at any moment when she
+wanted to leave the business. The new regulations made the descent to
+Avernus as difficult as possible, and the return to the upper world a
+mere step. In T[=o]ky[=o] alone, in the first four months after the
+promulgation of this order, 1,100 out of the 6,335 girls who were
+licensed as prostitutes left the houses in which they were employed,
+most of them returning to their homes and families, and as many as
+applied being cared for in the Rescue Home of the Salvation Army. The
+places thus vacated are not easy to fill, because the keepers will not
+advance money to the parents of a girl, now that they can no longer hold
+her as security for the debt. In consequence, too, of the revelations of
+the evils of the system, the business has fallen off alarmingly. Thus
+many of the houses have been obliged to close, owing to lack of custom
+and to inability to pay the heavy taxes.
+
+We have here the story of a successful attack on a system which has
+existed in Japan for three hundred years, by a Christian agency acting
+with the support of so strong a public opinion that police and
+government have felt bound to obey its behests. There has been no more
+striking example of the effect of Christian thought upon public
+sentiment in any country than this crusade against the brothels in
+Japan. When we remember that ten years ago it was not possible for a
+speaker to attack the institution before an audience of students without
+being silenced by hisses, it is interesting to note that this year, the
+students of that same school greeted with applause and respectful
+attention an address on this very subject.
+
+It seems to me rather striking that in the year 1900 fifty thousand
+copies of the Bible were sold in Japan--more than of any other book.
+Although the present translation is regarded as far from perfect, and
+much of it is unintelligible to the average Japanese without
+instruction, whether directly or indirectly, by mission workers, it is
+still sought after and read for the sake of its literature, and because
+of the reputation that has been gained for it throughout the country.
+There are few missionaries of any experience in Japan who cannot tell
+stories of men coming to them from country villages, who, through the
+reading of a copy of the Bible in some way fallen into their hands, have
+been brought by the beauty and nobility of the parts that they could
+understand to seek additional explanation from some teacher or preacher.
+One case that is amusing, but at the same time striking, I have heard
+vouched for from a number of sources:--
+
+Two thieves, one night, broke into the dormitory of a girls' school in
+search of booty, and by chance awakened two of the girls. As they sat
+up in their beds, wondering what was best to do under the circumstances,
+one zealous damsel reached for the Bible in which she had been reading
+before she went to sleep, and handed it to one of the thieves, saying,
+"If you read this book, you will not want to steal any more." The other
+girl followed her companion's example and gave her Bible to the other
+thief. That was all, so far as the girls knew, and it was some years
+before the sequel came to light.
+
+There is one place in Japan to which released convicts who are trying to
+get back to respectability again drift from all parts of the empire. It
+is a prisoners' home in T[=o]ky[=o], where one man, aided by his capable
+and devoted wife, receives into his own family and gives aid and succor
+to hundreds of society's outcasts. To this place came one day an
+ex-convict who told a remarkable story of his conversion, and of his
+desire to lead a new life. He had received a Bible from a little girl
+one night in a house that he was robbing, but was too full of
+professional engagements at the time to follow her advice and read it.
+Later, however, as he was resting from his labors in the enforced
+seclusion of a prison, he began to read, and spelled out enough to make
+up his mind that he did not want to steal any more. Accordingly, as soon
+as his term was ended, he made his way to the prisoners' refuge, and by
+the aid of its founder and head, and his good wife, settled down to
+steady habits of industry. Later, when the prison look had worn off from
+his face and the prison gait from his walk, he returned to his family
+and friends, where he is now a respectable member of the society upon
+which he formerly preyed.
+
+There are other stories showing as deep impressions made on men of
+culture and respectability, not so striking and amusing as this one, but
+meaning as much, or even more, for the future of Japan. Such things are
+hardly possible in Christian countries to-day, for there is little or no
+novelty in the message that the old book brings to us; but to the
+Japanese mind the thoughts are absolutely new in many ways, and the
+reading alone will often change the whole life, because it lifts up the
+nature to a higher set of ideals.
+
+As a direct effect of Christian thought upon the thought of the
+Japanese nation, it is interesting to notice the change in meaning of
+one word. In the teachings of Confucius the highest virtue is
+benevolence, rendered into Japanese by the word _jin_; in the teachings
+of Buddhism the highest virtue is mercy, or _jishi_. When the Christian
+missionaries first came to Japan, there was no term in the language that
+covered the thought of love as it is taught by Christ. For lack of
+anything better, the word _ai_, which indicated the love of a superior
+for an inferior, was made to do duty for the greater thought; and now
+the old word _ai_, throughout the length and breadth of Japan, is
+accepted and understood in its new meaning, a continual witness to the
+effect of Christianity upon the national mind. Is this a little thing in
+the education of a race that has shown in the past so great a capacity
+for living up to its ideals?
+
+One more direct effect of Christian teaching upon Japanese society is
+the great quickening of philanthropic and benevolent effort. Scattered
+throughout the country are benevolent or educational societies,
+orphanages, hospitals, free kindergartens, reform schools, and other
+evidences of a desire on the part of the more fortunate to help the
+unfortunate by some means or other; and if you study into the history of
+any of these efforts, you will usually find that some Japanese
+Christian, or some man who has come home impressed with the
+philanthropies of Christian countries, has started the scheme, and has
+created a society, and a public opinion behind the society, which
+carries on the work. Even in the government institutions there is no
+difficulty in tracing the influence of Christians and Christianity. The
+Red Cross Society, with its seven thousand members, and its hospitals in
+every prefecture of the empire, bears the sign of Christendom upon all
+its property and employees. It seems to me quite safe to say that but
+for the Christian influences of the past forty years, there would be
+very little altruistic work done in Japan to-day; but by means of the
+Christians and their teachings, the latest and best thought of the world
+is working its way out in practical service for humanity in Japan, and
+this service is ascribed by enlightened Buddhist and Shint[=o] believers
+alike to the spirit of Christianity, which will not let the fortunate
+rest while their less fortunate brothers are in want or sin.
+
+No one who studies the religious question in Japan at all can fail to
+notice the extraordinary revivifying of Buddhism for what it feels to be
+a life and death struggle with an alien faith. The disestablishment of
+the Buddhist church by the government at the time of the restoration
+must be credited with its share of the awakening process; for the
+priests, finding their own support and that of the temples dependent
+upon the voluntary contributions of worshipers, were forced to bestir
+themselves as they had not done since the old missionary days, when they
+were working for a foothold in the country. But without the competition
+of Christianity, it is extremely doubtful whether their efforts would
+have been turned so largely along educational and philanthropic lines,
+whether the standard of intelligence among the priesthood would have
+been so quickly raised, whether they would have sent young men abroad to
+study Sanskrit and history with a view to a better understanding of
+their own scriptures, or whether they would not rather have relied on
+less radical methods of quickening the religious life within their body.
+Certain it is that Buddhism, which upon its introduction into Japan
+actually lowered the status of women, is now making a bid for public
+favor by holding meetings and founding societies especially for women,
+and is doing its best to increase their self-respect and the respect in
+which they are held by society.
+
+An interesting story which throws some light upon the new influence that
+is at work among the Buddhists came to me not long ago through a
+Japanese friend. There were two brothers living in a poor little village
+on the northern coast of Japan, who were joint heirs to a small piece of
+property. As the land was not enough for the support of two families,
+the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful youth, gave up all title to his
+share of the inheritance and entered a Buddhist monastery. In the quiet
+of this retreat, amid the beautiful surroundings, the daily services,
+the chanting of priests, and the mellow booming of the great monastery
+bell, his thoughts went out to the poor and the sinful among his own
+people. He began to feel that a life which seeks merely spiritual uplift
+for itself is not the highest life, and that only as spiritual gain is
+shared with others is it real and lasting. Forthwith he began a life of
+helpfulness to the poor about him,--of teaching and preaching and good
+deeds that won him many humble friends. Within the monastery, however,
+his work was not approved. His ideas and actions were not in harmony
+with the teachings of the sect. He was first disciplined and then
+expelled, and found his way back at last, penniless, to his native
+village.
+
+Now, in northern Japan the winters are long and hard, and the most
+industrious of farmers and fisher-folk can wring only a bare subsistence
+from the conditions of their toil. It is from these villages, perhaps,
+more than from any other sources, that the girls are obtained to supply
+the _j[=o]roya_ of the great cities. At any rate, in this particular
+village, the only hope that any girl possessed of escaping from the hard
+home toil was by the sale of her person, and the thought of seeing the
+great cities, of wearing beautiful dresses, of being admired and petted,
+and perhaps at last of marrying some rich lover and becoming a great
+lady, was a tempting bait to these poor peasant girls. To this young
+man, whose soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness during his
+absence, the full horror of the conditions that could so warp and dwarf
+the souls of women appealed as it had never done before. He must do
+something to help them, but what to do his previous experience did not
+help him to know. He sought for aid and sympathy in his native place,
+among his friends and co-religionists; but the state of affairs was too
+old and too familiar to excite interest, and at last he worked his way
+to the capital, feeling that somewhere in that great city he would find
+light on the question that perplexed him. It was a mere question of ways
+and means--how to begin a work which he felt driven from within to do.
+In T[=o]ky[=o], as he inquired among his friends, he was told that
+Christians knew all about the kind of work that he wished to begin, that
+he must go to them and study their methods, if he would help the people
+of his native village. So the devout young Buddhist, who had found in
+his own faith the divine impulse, turned to the study of what Christians
+had done and were doing for the unfortunate. The story is not finished
+yet. We cannot tell whether in the end it will result in another
+addition to the ranks of the Japanese Christians, or whether it will aid
+in the quickening that has come to Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends,
+it shows in a concrete example what Christianity is now doing for Japan,
+and especially for the women of the country.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+_The following Notes refer to passages marked by asterisks in the
+foregoing pages._
+
+
+_Page 3._
+
+The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but
+some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the
+name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to
+bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much
+importance as it is with us. In some families the boys are called by
+names indicating their position in the family, the words _Taro_, "Big
+one," _Jiro_, "Second one," _Saburo_, "Third one," _Shiro_, "Fourth
+one," _Goro_, "Fifth one," etc., being used alone, or placed after
+adjectives indicating some quality that it is hoped the child may
+possess. Such combinations are, _Eitaro_, "Glorious big one," _Seijiro_,
+"Pure second one," _Tomisaburo_, "Rich third one," and so on.
+
+
+_Page 4._
+
+To speak with greater exactness, the _miya mairi_ of a boy is on the
+thirty-first day of his life,--of a girl, on the thirty-third.
+
+
+_Page 8._
+
+T[=o]ky[=o] just now shows a tendency to change this national custom.
+Gayly painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in
+large quantities in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters
+of the lower classes, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon
+instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly. These carriages are, of
+course, the exception, and may prove to be but a passing T[=o]ky[=o]
+fashion, but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of
+Japan, and may prove of value in the physical development of the common
+people.
+
+
+_Page 11._
+
+In the T[=o]ky[=o] of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in
+evidence, as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few
+foreigners and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a
+mile or so in the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the principal
+business streets in a purely Japanese section of the city, shows five
+meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with
+golf-stockings and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts
+everywhere through the city, and call at a large proportion of the
+houses. Condensed milk, too, is to be found on the shelves of every
+provision store, together with canned and dried meats, and the
+restaurants where foreign food is served are distributed throughout the
+entire city, and do a thriving business on Japanese patronage. The less
+extravagant country people declare that T[=o]ky[=o] is "eating itself
+up," but so far no terrible increase of indebtedness seems to follow the
+change in the standard of living. It is interesting to note that the
+scalp troubles referred to on page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in
+the last ten years, whether because of the change in the food or for
+other reasons, I cannot determine.
+
+
+_Page 24._
+
+Twice, after the _miya mairi_ of her babyhood, does our little maid
+repair to the temple to seek the blessing of her patron god upon a step
+forward in her short life: once, when at the age of three, the hair on
+her small head, which until then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is
+allowed to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood; and once,
+when she has attained her seventh year, and exchanges the soft, narrow
+sash of infancy for the stiff, wide _obi_ which is the pride of every
+well-dressed Japanese woman. Her little brother, too, though now no
+longer destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of the old-time Japanese
+warrior, and whose fuzzy black head is now usually left unshaven in his
+babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of three to give thanks,
+and when he comes to be five years old, the little boy again goes up to
+the temple, this time wearing for the first time the manly _hakama_, or
+kilt-pleated trousers, and makes offerings to the god who has protected
+him thus far.
+
+The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th of November, and there is
+no prettier sight in all Japan than a popular temple on that day. All
+the streets that converge on the shrine are crowded with gayly dressed
+children hurrying along to make their offerings, accompanied by parents
+brimming with pride and pleasure.
+
+    "Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+     Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"
+
+three-year-old tots of both sexes trudging sturdily along on their
+clogs: square little red-cheeked boys, their black eyes shining with
+pride in their rustling new silk _hakama_, feeling that they are big
+boys and no longer to be confused with the babies that they were
+yesterday: here, too, are the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their
+many-colored garments and their gorgeous new _obi_ setting off to
+advantage their shining black hair and sparkling eyes. The children are
+so many, so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it is to be older
+than they were, that the grown folks who accompany them seem like
+shadows; the only real thing is the children.
+
+Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers and toy-merchants who
+can find standing-room for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags are
+flying, drums are beating, a _kagura_ dance is going on in the pavilion,
+about which stands a crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and
+the steps that lead to the temple itself are as thronged as Jacob's
+ladder with little ones ascending and descending. Within the shrine the
+white-robed priests are hard at work from morning to night. A little
+company forms in the vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room,
+where they bow and make their offerings, and wait until there is space
+for them in the inner sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a
+droning chant, which ends at last, and then a party that has finished
+its worship issues forth, and those who have been waiting without go in;
+and when the few minutes of worship are over, and the amulet that
+rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the
+dances to be seen, and the _o miyag�_ to be purchased, and at last the
+happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of
+life has been passed propitiously.
+
+
+_Page 30._
+
+The _shir[=o]zak�_ (white _sak�_) used for this occasion is a curious
+drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially
+for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest
+form of _sak�_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this
+ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.
+
+
+_Page 31._
+
+The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom
+that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set
+apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was
+the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
+semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to
+take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for
+purification, they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year of the
+user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early
+times, the season for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
+among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast
+are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern Japanese means a
+chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else
+except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated with the
+ancient cock-fighting, an amusement which has now almost gone out,
+except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.
+
+The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a
+man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper
+dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns had firmly
+established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
+designating the five feast days upon which the daimi[=o]s were to
+present themselves at the Sh[=o]gun's palace and offer their
+congratulations. One of the days thus appointed was the third day of the
+third month. It is believed that the giving of the chief place at the
+feast to effigies of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of
+the Sh[=o]gunate,--a policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of
+loyalty to the throne, while at the same time the occupant of the throne
+remained a puppet in the hands of his vice-gerent.
+
+Each girl born into a family has a pair of _O Hina Sama_ placed for her
+upon the red-covered shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after
+her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her husband's house, she
+carries the dolls with her, and the first feast after her marriage she
+observes with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter old enough
+to carry out the observance, she must keep up the ceremony. The feast,
+as it exists to-day, is said by the Japanese to serve three purposes: it
+makes the children of both sexes loyal to the imperial family, it
+interests the girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial
+etiquette.
+
+
+_Page 40._
+
+Because of the complexity of the Chinese language and the time needed
+for its mastery, there has been a movement to lessen the study of pure
+Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it altogether, and with
+this to simplify the use of the ideographs in the Sinico-Japanese. The
+educational department is requiring that text-books be limited in their
+use of ideographs; that those used be written in only one way and that
+the simplest, and that the _kana_ (the Japanese syllabary) be
+substituted wherever possible. Several plans for reform in this matter
+are being agitated, one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to
+nouns and verbs only.
+
+
+_Page 41._
+
+No one who has been in Japan can have failed to notice the peculiarly
+strident quality of the Japanese voice in singing, a quality that is
+gained by professional singers through much labor and actual physical
+suffering. That this is not a natural characteristic of the Japanese
+voice is shown by the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of
+children and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to me to be brought
+about by the pursuit of a wrong musical ideal, or at least, of a musical
+ideal quite distinct from that of the Western world. In Japan one seldom
+finds singing birds kept in cages, but instead crickets, grasshoppers,
+katydids, and other noisy members of the insect family may be seen
+exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any summer night in the
+T[=o]ky[=o] streets. These insects delight the ears of the Japanese with
+their melody, and it seems to me that the voices of singers throughout
+the empire are modeled after the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect,
+rather than after the fuller notes of the bird's song.
+
+The introduction of European music by the schools and churches has
+already begun to show in the songs of the children in the streets, and
+where ten years ago one might live in T[=o]ky[=o] for a year, and never
+hear a note of music except the semi-musical cries of the workmen, when
+they are pulling or striking in concert, now there are few days when
+some strain of song from some passing school-child does not come in at
+the window of one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress made
+in catching foreign ideas of time and tune is quite surprising, but the
+singing will never be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice is
+modulated according to the foreign standards.
+
+
+_Page 45._
+
+It is said by Japanese versed in the most refined ways that a woman who
+has learned the tea ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior
+bearing and manner on all occasions.
+
+
+_Page 49._
+
+Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in a series of
+studies,--leaves, flowers, roots, and stalks being shown in every
+possible position and combination,--until not only the stroke is
+mastered, but the plant is thoroughly known. In the book that lies
+before me as I write, a book used as a copy-book by a young lady
+beginning the practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six large
+pages to studies of one small and simple flower and the pupil has
+covered hundreds of sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.
+She has now finished that part of the course, and can, at a moment's
+notice, reproduce with just the right strokes any of the designs or any
+part of the plant. The next step forward will be a similar series of
+bamboo.
+
+
+_Page 52._
+
+In the government schools for girls, much attention is paid just now to
+physical culture. The gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and
+English and mathematics as important parts of the course, and the girls
+are encouraged to spend their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all
+kinds of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war, marches, and
+quadrilles are entered into with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in
+their dark red _hakama_ are as well able to move quickly and freely as
+girls of the same age in America. If it were not for the queer
+pigeon-toed gait, acquired by years of walking in narrow _kimono_ and on
+high clogs, the Japanese girls would be fully abreast of the American in
+all these sports. So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical
+strength seized upon the nation, that a girl of delicate physique has
+less chance of marriage than one who is robust and strong.
+
+
+_Page 55._
+
+It is in the mistakes and failures made in adapting the education given
+in the schools to the exact conditions that present themselves in the
+constantly changing Japan of to-day, that the opponents of all
+alteration in the education of women find their strongest arguments. The
+conservatives point with scorn to this girl whose new ideas have led
+her into folly or trouble, or to that one whose health has been broken
+down by the adverse conditions surrounding her student life, and say,
+"This will be the case with all our women if we continue this insane
+practice of educating them along new lines." Advance in female
+education, as in all other lines of progress in Japan, is a series of
+violent actions and reactions. In 1889, partly through ill-advised
+conduct on the part of supporters of the cause, one of the most serious
+reverses that has come in the progress of Western education for women
+began to show itself. The reaction was helped along by a paper read
+before some of the most influential men of Japan, and subsequently
+reported and discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor in the
+medical department of the imperial University in T[=o]ky[=o]. The paper
+was a serious warning to the men of the country that no women could be
+good wives, mothers, and housekeepers and at the same time have
+undergone a thorough literary education. The arguments were reinforced
+by statistics showing that American college women either did not marry,
+or that if they married they had very few children. All Japan took
+fright at this alarming showing, and for several years the education of
+girls in anything more than the primary studies was not encouraged by
+the government. The lowest depth of this reaction was reached during or
+soon after the Japan-China war, when the growth of national vanity
+resulted in a temporary disdain for all foreign ideas. The tide has
+turned again now, girls' schools that have been closed for years are
+being reopened, young men who are thinking of marrying are looking for
+educated wives, and among the women themselves there is a strong desire
+for self-improvement. Under this impulse a new generation of educated
+women will be added to those already exerting an influence in the
+country, and it is to be hoped that the forward movement will be more
+difficult to set back when the next reactionary wave strikes the
+Japanese coast.
+
+
+_Page 60._
+
+The _obi_ is supposed to express by its length the hope that the
+marriage may be an enduring one. Among the more modernized Japanese a
+ring is now often given in place of, or, in the wealthier classes, in
+addition to the _obi_.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 6._
+
+It is interesting, however, as a sign of the times, to notice that for
+the wedding of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, the Shinto high priest,
+who is master of ceremonies at the Imperial Court, instituted a solemn
+religious ceremony within the sanctuary of the palace. Following the
+example set in so high a quarter, a number of couples, during the winter
+of 1900-1901, have repaired to Shinto temples in various parts of the
+empire, to secure the sanction of the ancient national faith upon their
+union. But still, for the great majority of the Japanese, the wedding
+ceremony is what it has always been.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 15._
+
+Although new methods of transportation have come into use now in most of
+the Japanese cities, and wheeled carts drawn by men or horses are used
+for carrying all other kinds of luggage, the wedding outfit, wrapped in
+great cloths on which the crest of the bride's family is conspicuous, is
+borne on men's shoulders to the bridegroom's home, the length of the
+baggage train and the number and size of the burdens showing the wealth
+and importance of the bride's family. The bride who goes to her
+husband's house well provided by her own family, will carry, not only a
+full wardrobe and the house-furnishings already mentioned, but will be
+supplied, so far as foresight can manage it, with all the little things
+that she can need for months in advance. Paper, pens, ink, postage
+stamps, needles, thread, and sewing materials of all kinds, a store of
+dress materials and other things to be given as presents to any and all
+who may do her favors, and pocket money with which she may make good any
+deficiencies, or meet any unforeseen emergency. When she goes from her
+father's house, she should be so thoroughly fitted out that she will not
+have to ask her husband for the smallest thing for a number of months.
+The parents of the bride, in giving up their daughter, as they do when
+she marries, show the estimation in which they have held her by the
+beauty and completeness of the trousseau with which they provide her.
+The expense of this wedding outfit is often very great, persons even in
+the most moderate circumstances spending as much as one thousand yen
+upon the necessary purchases, and among the wealthy, four thousand to
+five thousand yen is not extravagant. As material wealth increases in
+Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase the style and cost of the
+trousseau, and the marriage of a daughter has come to be, in many cases,
+a severe strain on the family finances. But this outfit is of the nature
+of a dowry, for it is her very own; and in the event of a divorce, she
+brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and household
+goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+
+_Page 64._
+
+For this visit the bride wears for the first time a dress made for her
+by her husband's family and bearing its crest, as a sign that she is
+now a member of that family and only a guest in her father's house.
+
+
+_Page 76._
+
+Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions of marriage and of
+divorce have been altered for the better. At present no divorce is
+possible except through the courts or through mutual consent; the simple
+change of registration by one party or the other does not constitute a
+legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent cannot be arranged
+without the consent of the parents or head of the family of a married
+person who is under twenty-five years of age. The grounds upon which
+judicial divorce may be granted seem very trivial measured by European
+standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct gain over the
+former practice. The wife is no longer dependent for her position simply
+upon the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure her consent to
+the separation, he must formulate charges of immorality or conviction of
+crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on the part of the wife or
+of her relatives, or of desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
+three years or more. Only when some such charge has been made and proved
+before a court can a husband send away his wife. In the case of a
+separation by mutual consent, though the law still gives the care of the
+children to the father in case no previous agreement has been made, if a
+woman sees her way clear to supporting them, she may stipulate for the
+custody of one or more of them as a condition of her consent to the
+divorce. In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in the interests of the
+children, take them away from their father and assign them to the care
+of some other person.
+
+In these changes we can see a distinct advance toward permanence of the
+family tie; and we can see, too, that the wife has gained a new power to
+hold her own against injustice and wrong. That when the people have
+become used to these changes, other and more binding laws will be
+enacted, we can feel pretty sure, for the drift of enlightened public
+opinion seems to be in favor of securing better and more firmly
+established homes just as fast as "the hardness of their hearts" will
+permit.
+
+
+_Page 84._
+
+It is difficult for us in America, who live under customs and laws in
+which the individual is the social unit and the family a union of
+individuals, to understand a system of society in which the individual
+is little or nothing and the family the social unit recognized both by
+law and custom. In Japan, a man is simply a member of some family, and
+his daily affairs, his marrying and giving in marriage, are more or less
+under the control of the head of his family, or of the family council.
+Only in case he is the head of the family is he able to marry without
+securing some one's consent, and then his responsibilities in regard to
+the headship may in themselves hamper him. If this is the case with the
+more independent man, it may be imagined how completely the woman is
+submerged under family influence. She may, under exceptional
+circumstances, become the head of a family, but this is usually only a
+temporary expedient, and even then she must subordinate herself more
+completely to the family and its interests than when she occupies a
+lowlier place.
+
+The headship of an unmarried woman lasts only until a husband has been
+selected for her, and the headship of a widow lasts during her
+guardianship of the rightful heir to the position. By Japanese law a
+widow is always the guardian of her minor children.
+
+The only way in which individuality before the law can be obtained by
+man or woman in Japan is through cutting the tie that binds to the
+family, and starting out in life afresh as the head of a new family.
+This new family must always be _h�imin_, or plebeian, no matter how high
+in rank may have been the family from which the founder has gone out,
+but there is a continually increasing number of young men and women who
+prefer the freedom that comes from the headship of a small and new
+family, even if of low rank, to the state of tutelage or of hampering
+responsibility which must accompany connection with a larger and older
+social group. It seems likely that through this means an evolution from
+the family to the individual system will be effected, as the nation
+grows more and more modernized in its way of looking at things.
+
+For the Japanese woman, as I have already said, marriage is in most
+cases the entrance into a new family. She is cut off from the old ways
+and interests, in which she has until now had her part, and she has
+begun life anew as the latest addition to and therefore the lowest and
+most ignorant member of another social group. It is her duty simply to
+learn the ways and obey the will of those above her, and it is the duty
+of those above her, and especially of her husband's mother, to fit her
+by training and discipline for her new surroundings. The physical
+strength of the young wife, her sweetness of temper, her manners, her
+morals, her way of looking at life, are all put to the test by this
+sharp-eyed guardian of the family interests, and woe to the younger
+woman if she fail to come up to the standard set. She may be a good
+woman and a faithful wife, but if, under the training given her, she
+does not adapt herself readily to the traditions and customs of the
+family she enters, it is more than likely, even under the new laws, that
+she may be sent back to her father's house as _persona non grata_, and
+even her husband's love cannot save her. It is because of this
+predominance of the family over the individual that the young wife, when
+she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our own country, entering
+upon a new life as mistress of a house, with absolute control over all
+of her little domain.
+
+
+_Page 115._
+
+At the time of the celebration of his silver wedding, in 1895, the
+Emperor came into the Audience Room with the Empress on his arm, an
+example which was followed by the Imperial Princes.
+
+With the engagement and marriage of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, an
+entirely new precedent was established in the relations of the Imperial
+couple. The Western idea of marriage between equals has never existed in
+the Japanese mind in its thought of the union between their Emperor and
+Empress. The Empress, though of noble family, was chosen from among the
+subjects of the Emperor, and the marriage was of the nature of an
+appointment by the Emperor to the position of Imperial Consort, just as
+any other appointment might have been made of a subject to fill an
+important position in the government. In the marriage of the Crown
+Prince a very different course was pursued. While no departure was made
+from the old precedents in the selection of a Princess from one of the
+five families that trace their descent from Jimmu Tenno, the whole
+manner of obtaining the bride was different from anything that Japan had
+before known. The Prince asked the father of the young lady to give her
+to him just as a common man might have done, and everything in the
+preliminary arrangements was carried out with the idea that by the
+marriage she was to be raised to his rank and position. Reference has
+already been made to the religious ceremony that was devised for the
+occasion, an act that in itself altered the meaning of marriage for the
+whole nation.
+
+Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the world outside of the
+palace gates, of the kindness and consideration with which the young
+wife is treated by her husband. To the scandal of some of the more
+old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants, the heir to the throne insists
+on observing toward his wife, in private as well as in public, all the
+minuti� of Western etiquette. She enters the carriage ahead of him when
+they drive together, they habitually take their meals together, and he
+finds in her a cheerful companion and friend, and not simply a devoted
+and humble servant. In this way, by the highest example that can be set
+to them, the Japanese people are learning a new lesson.
+
+All these things have a deep significance in showing that the sacredness
+of the marriage tie is gradually being recognized.
+
+
+_Page 137._
+
+Something, indeed, may be said on the other side in regard to this
+system, which I seem to have painted as ideal. If in America we find the
+burden of expensive grown-up sons and daughters sometimes too heavy upon
+parents whose powers are on the wane, we must remember that in Japan a
+young man is often seriously handicapped at the beginning of his active
+life by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting labor,
+and that the young wife entering the home of her parents-in-law often
+finds a happy married life rendered impossible by the fact that she must
+please an elderly couple thoroughly fixed in their ways,--the rulers of
+the household and with little to do but rule. With this custom, as with
+all human customs, everything in the long run depends upon how it is
+used, and without deep affection between parents and children there
+seems to be as much danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
+generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents in Japan, as there is in
+America of the wearing out of the older people's lives and strength in
+the service of ungrateful and lazy children.
+
+
+_Page 152._
+
+The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made of heavy _futons_, or
+quilts, of white _habutai_ wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
+consists of as many similar _futons_ as the state of the weather may
+require. Every month new _futons_ are provided for Her Majesty, and the
+discarded ones are given to one of her attendants. The happy recipient
+is thus provided with wadding enough for all her winter dresses for the
+rest of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress material.
+
+
+_Page 157._
+
+Only those who have seen the inner life of the court can realize the
+difficulties which have attended every step of the Empress Haru's way,
+for the court has been the scene of great struggles between the
+conservative and radical elements. Mean and petty jealousies have moved
+those surrounding the throne. The slightest word or token from the
+Empress would be used as a weapon for private ends. To move among these
+varied and discordant factions, and to move for progress, without
+causing undue friction, has been a task more difficult than the conquest
+of armies, and to do so successfully has required almost infinite
+patience, sympathy, and love.
+
+
+_Page 168._
+
+And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened rule of the present
+Emperor, and of the beneficent life and example of the Empress Haru, is
+there any assurance that the progress made during their occupation of
+the throne will be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?
+
+Prince Haru, or Yoshihito, is now a man twenty-two years of age, with
+character sufficiently developed to be used as the basis for a guess at
+what his qualities as a sovereign may prove to be. "As far as the East
+is from the West" have his life and education been from the life and
+education of his illustrious father. Instead of the curtained seclusion,
+the quiet and calm of the old palace in the old capital, the present
+Crown Prince has known from babyhood the sights and sounds of the
+stirring city of T[=o]ky[=o]. He has driven in an open carriage or walked
+through its streets; he has been to school with boys of his own age,
+taking the school work and the drill and the games with the other boys,
+learning to know men and things and himself too, in a way in which none
+of his ancestors, since the days when they were simply savage chiefs,
+have had opportunity of knowing. As he grew toward manhood, his delicate
+health required that he leave the school and pursue his studies as his
+strength permitted, under masters; but he has retained his love for all
+athletic exercises, for dogs and horses and guns and bicycles, and he is
+as expert in outdoor sports as any youth of Western training. His mind
+is quick and eager, interested especially in foreign ways and thoughts,
+and seeking most of all to understand how other people think and feel
+and live. Though he has been emancipated to a wonderful degree from the
+state and ceremony that surrounded his ancestors, he is nevertheless
+impatient of what remains, and would gladly dispense with many forms
+that his conservative guardians regard as necessary; and these same
+guardians at times find their young eaglet difficult to manage. He has
+views and ideas of his own, and acts occasionally upon his own
+initiative in a way that fairly scandalizes his advisers. He wishes to
+visit his future subjects upon something like equal terms. The r�le of
+Son of Heaven seems to him less interesting at times than some smaller
+and more human part. When he walks, he wants to lead his own dog, not
+have him led by some one else; to stop in the street and watch the
+common people at their work; to drop in on his friends in a neighborly
+way and see how they live when they are not expecting a visit from
+royalty. Provided he does not go too fast or too far, when his turn
+comes to ascend the throne, he cannot but make a better emperor for the
+intimate personal knowledge that he is seeking and gaining of the lives
+and feelings of his people.
+
+The Crown Princess Sada, who has now been for one year in the line of
+succession to the present beloved Empress, shows in her training and
+character the influence of the new impulse that is driving Japan
+forward. The circumstances that led to her selection as the bride of the
+Prince are in themselves curious enough to be worth recording. The Kujo
+family is one of the five families from which alone can the wife of the
+Crown Prince be chosen, and the present Prince Kujo is blessed with many
+daughters. Of these, the oldest is about the age of Prince Haru, and at
+one time it was hoped that she might be selected as his consort, but at
+last that hope was given up, and she was married to another prince. The
+second daughter was as bright and charming as the first, but she was
+just enough younger than the Prince to make her marriage with him so
+dangerous a matter according to all the rules that govern good and bad
+luck in Japan, that no hope was entertained for her, and she was
+married, when her time came, with no reference to the greatest match
+that any Japanese princess can make. The third daughter was six years
+younger than the Prince, so much younger that it was thought that he
+would be married long before she grew up, so no special care or
+attention was given to her. In her babyhood, like most Japanese babies
+of high rank, she was sent out into the country to be nursed. Her foster
+parents were plain farmer folk, who loved her and cared for her as their
+own child. She played bareheaded and barefooted in the sun and wind,
+tumbled about, jolly and happy, with the village children, and lived and
+grew like a kitten or a puppy rather than like a future empress until
+she was old enough for the kindergarten. Then she came back to
+T[=o]ky[=o], to her father's house, and from there she attended the
+Peeresses' School, going backward and forward every day with her bundle
+of books, and taking her share of the work and play with the other
+children. In her school-days she was noticeable for her great physical
+activity and her hearty enjoyment of the outdoor sports which form so
+important a part of the training in Japanese schools for girls at
+present; and for her strength of will and character among a class of
+students upon whom self-repression amounting almost to self-abnegation
+has been inculcated from earliest childhood.
+
+When this little princess reached the age of fifteen, the Crown Prince's
+marriage, which had been somewhat deferred on account of his ill-health,
+was pressed forward, and to the extreme surprise of her own family, and
+of many others as well, the Princess Sada was chosen, largely on account
+of her great physical vigor. Then began a great change in her life. From
+being one of the lowest and least considered in her family, she was
+suddenly raised high above all the rest, even her father addressing her
+as a superior. The merry, romping school-girl was transformed in a few
+days into the great lady, too grand to associate on equal terms with any
+but the imperial family. Small cause was there for wonder if she shrank
+from the change and begged that the honor might be bestowed on some one
+else. The old free life was gone forever, and she dreaded the heavy
+responsibility that was to fall upon her slender shoulders.
+
+The choice was made in August, 1899, and from the moment that the
+engagement was entered into, the Princess Sada became an honored guest
+in her father's house. She could no longer play with her brothers and
+sisters, or take a meal with any member of her own family. A new and
+handsome suite of rooms was built for her, her old wardrobe was
+discarded and an entirely new one provided for her, all her table
+service was new and distinct from that of the rest of the family, and
+she was addressed by all as if she were already Empress. Her studies
+were not given up, but masters were chosen for her who came to her and
+instructed her, with due deference to her high station, in the subjects
+that she had been studying at school. So passed the nine months of her
+engagement, and on May 8, 1900, she became one of the principals in a
+state wedding such as Japan had never before seen. Through all the show
+and ceremony she acquitted herself decorously and bravely, and since her
+marriage no word save of approval of the young wife has come out from
+the palace gates. Her little sisters-in-law, the four small daughters of
+the Emperor, enjoy nothing so much as to go and spend the day with her,
+for she is so amusing, and her life has been such a busy and happy one,
+that she comes like a breath of fresh air into the seclusion of the
+Court. Her young husband, too, finds in her congenial society, and his
+frail health seems to be daily strengthening with the brightness that
+has come into his home.
+
+Great was the joy in the empire when, on April 29, 1901, this happy
+union was rendered still happier by the birth of a strong little prince
+to carry on the ancient line. By an auspicious coincidence, his birth
+came just at the time of the annual boys' feast, or Feast of Flags, and
+his naming day was appointed for May 5, the great day of the feast, when
+all Japan is decorated with giant carp swinging from tall poles outside
+of every house, and swimming vigorously at the ends of their tethers in
+the strong spring wind. The carp is to the Japanese mind the emblem of
+courage and perseverance, for he swims up the strongest current, leaping
+the waterfalls that oppose his progress. The baby was named by his
+grandfather, and will have the personal name of Hirohito, and the title
+Prince Michi. With this new little prince there are no polite fictions
+to maintain, nor conventional relationships to be established. He is the
+son of his father's lawful wife, as well as of his father. There is to
+be no breaking off of natural ties, and his own mother will nurse and
+care for him, a fortune that never falls to the lot of the imperial son
+of a _m�kak�_. If he lives, he will be a standing argument in favor of
+monogamy, even in noble families, and his birth bodes well for family
+life throughout the country.
+
+
+_Page 182._
+
+A pretty, but most shocking sight, if seen through the eyes of some of
+these old-fashioned attendants, is the semi-annual _undo kai_, or
+exercise day of the Peeresses' School. The large playground is, for
+this occasion, surrounded by seats divided off to accommodate invited
+guests of various ranks, who spend the day watching the entertainment.
+In the most honorable place, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, sits
+the Empress herself, for the education of the daughters of the nobles is
+a matter of the liveliest interest to her; and the parents and friends
+and teachers of the girls fill up all available seats after the school
+itself has been accommodated.
+
+The programme is usually a long one, occupying the greater part of the
+morning and afternoon, with an interval for lunch. Most of the ordinary
+English field games--tennis, basket-ball, etc.--are played with skill
+and vigor, and in addition to these there are races of various kinds,
+devised to show, not simply fleetness of foot, but quickness of hand and
+wit as well. These races vary from year to year, as the ingenuity of the
+directors of the sports may be able to devise new forms of exercise. One
+extremely pretty contest is as follows: On the playground between the
+starting-point and the goal are set at equal distances four upright
+sticks for each runner. Four branches of cherry blossoms and four
+bright-colored ribbons for each contestant are laid on the ground at the
+starting-point. At the signal, each girl picks up a cherry branch and a
+ribbon, and runs to one of the upright sticks, tying the flowers firmly
+thereto; then she runs back for a second branch, and so on until all
+four have been fastened in place. The race is won by the child who first
+reaches the goal leaving behind her four blooming trees where before
+there were bare poles. This seems to be the �sthetic Japanese equivalent
+for our prosaic potato race. Another contest is after this manner: Along
+the course of each runner are laid at certain intervals bright-colored
+balls,--a different color for each contestant. The object of the race
+is, within a certain time, to pick up all the balls and throw them into
+the nearly closed mouth of a great net at the far end of the grounds.
+The contest is not decided until the balls have been counted, when the
+girl who has succeeded in getting the greatest number of balls of her
+color into the net is declared the winner. Another and extremely pretty
+race, calling for great steadiness of hand and body, is the running from
+one end of the ground to the other with a ball balanced on a battledore.
+The Japanese battledore is made of light but hard wood, and is long and
+narrow in shape. If one had not seen it done, it would be well-nigh
+impossible to believe that any child could carry a ball upon it for more
+than a few slow steps: but these children run at a smart trot, keeping
+the ball immovable upon its small and smooth surface.
+
+Beside the games and races, there are calisthenic exhibitions, in which
+great precision of motion and flexibility of body are manifested. One of
+the most graceful and attractive of these is the fan drill shown on this
+occasion, when some twenty or thirty girls, with their bright-colored
+dresses, long, waving sleeves, and red _hakama_, posture in perfect
+rhythm, with fans opened or closed, waving above the head, held before
+the face, changed from position to position, with the performers'
+changes of attitude, each new figure seemingly more graceful than the
+last.
+
+In these and many other ways the nobility of new Japan are being fitted
+for the new part that they have to play in the world. No wonder that the
+education now given, awakening the mind, toughening the body, arousing
+ambition and individuality, is regarded by many of the ultra-conservatives
+as a dangerous innovation, and one likely to bring the nobility down to
+the level of the common people. Whether this new education is better or
+worse than the old, we can hardly tell as yet, but there are no signs of
+the immediate breakdown of the old spirit of the nobility, and the
+better health and stronger characters of the young women who have
+received the modern training promise much for the next generation.
+
+
+_Page 192._
+
+While this was entirely true in 1890, it is interesting to observe that
+after ten years of commercial and industrial progress there are signs
+that the embroidered kimono is coming back into fashion. With the growth
+of large fortunes and of luxury that has marked the past decade, has
+come the custom of providing wedding garments as magnificently
+embroidered as were the robes of the daimi[=o]s' ladies, and even the
+_montsuki_ or ceremonial dress, which was severely plain in 1890, now
+has little delicate embroidery about the bottom. It will not be
+surprising if some day, when the present growing commercial and
+industrial enterprise has reaped a more abundant harvest, Japan blooms
+forth again in the beautiful garments that went out of fashion when the
+great political upheaval cut off the revenues of the old nobility.
+
+
+_Page 209._
+
+At each encroachment of the enemy those of the population who could not
+find refuge at once within the inner defenses were driven to choose
+between surrender and self-inflicted death. The unconquerable samurai
+spirit flamed out in the choice of hundreds of women and children as
+well as men, and whole families were wiped out of existence at once,
+the little ones, who were too young to understand the proper method of
+_hara-kiri_, kneeling calmly with bowed heads for the death-stroke from
+father or brother which should free them from the disgrace of defeat.
+
+
+_Page 223._
+
+That the spirit of the samurai women is still a living force in Japan,
+no one can doubt who listens to the stories of what the women did and
+bore in the Japan-China war of 1895. The old self-sacrifice and devotion
+showed itself throughout the country in deeds of real, if sometimes
+mistaken, heroism. Husbands, sons, and brothers were sent out to danger
+and death with smiles and cheerful words, by women dependent upon them
+for everything in a way that can hardly be understood by Americans. Even
+tears of grief for the dear ones offered in the country's cause were
+suppressed as disloyal, and women learned with unmoved countenances of
+the death of those they loved best, and found the courage to express, in
+the first shock of bereavement, their sense of the honor conferred on
+the family by the death of one of its members in the cause of his
+country.
+
+A few incidents quoted from an article by Miss Um� Tsuda that appeared
+in the New York "Independent" in 1895 will give my readers an idea of
+the forms that this devotion assumed:--
+
+"One instance comes into my mind of an old lady who sent out cheerfully
+and with a smiling face her young and only son, the sole stay of her old
+age. Left a widow while young, she had lived a life of much sorrow and
+trouble, and had with almost superhuman efforts managed to give her son
+an education that would start him in life. It was only a few years ago
+that the son had begun to help in the family support, and to be able to
+repay to the mother her tender care of him. Her pride in her son and his
+young wife was a pleasure to see, and the little home they had together
+seemed a safe haven for the coming years of old age. Now, in a moment
+all this was changed,--the son must start off for the wars. Yet not for
+one instant was a cloud seen on the mother's face, as, smilingly and
+cheerfully, she assisted in the preparations for his departure. Not in
+public or in secret did one sigh or regret escape her; not even to the
+son did a word of anxiety pass her lips. Her face, beaming with joy,
+looked with pride on the manly strength of the young soldier as he
+started to fight for his country and win honor for himself,--honor which
+would surely come to him whether he lived or died.
+
+"Another woman who is well on in years, and whose eldest son is a naval
+officer, furnishes an interesting example of mother love. Though never
+showing her anxiety on his account, or grief at his danger, she has
+taken upon herself, in spite of her old age and by no means vigorous
+health, to go on foot every morning to one of the temples and worship
+there before daylight, in order to propitiate the gods, that they may
+protect her son. She arises at four o'clock in the morning on the
+coldest of cold days, washes and purifies herself with ice-cold water,
+and then starts out before daylight for her three-mile walk to the
+temple. Thus through wind and storm and cold have the faith and love of
+this old woman upheld her, and one is happy to add that so far her
+prayers have been heard and no harm has come to the one she has called
+on her gods to protect.
+
+"A touching story is told of the aged mother of Sakamoto, commander of
+the warship Akagi, who was killed in the thickest of the fight during
+the great naval battle of the Yellow Sea. Commander Sakamoto left an
+aged mother, a wife, and three children. As soon as his death was
+officially ascertained, a messenger was dispatched from the naval
+department to convey the sad tidings to his family. The communication
+was made duly to his wife, and before the messenger had left the house
+it reached the ears of the old mother, who, tottering into the room
+where the officer was, saluted and greeted him duly, and then, with dry
+eyes and a clear voice, said, 'So it seems by your tidings that my son
+has been of some service this time.'
+
+"One reads pathetic stories in the newspapers daily in connection with
+the war. Not long ago a sad account was given of a young woman, just
+past her twentieth year, and only recently married to an army officer.
+She had belonged by birth to a military family, and, as befitted the
+wife and daughter of a soldier, she resolved, on hearing of the death of
+her husband, that she would not survive him, but would follow him to the
+great unknown. Sending away her servant on some excuse, she remained
+alone in her home, which she put into perfect order. Then she arranged
+all her papers, wrote a number of letters, and made her last
+preparations for death. She dressed herself in full ceremonial dress as
+she had been dressed for her bridal, and seated herself before a large
+portrait of her husband. Then, with a short dirk, such as is owned by
+every samurai woman, she stabbed herself. In her last letters she gives
+as the reason for her death that, having no ties in the world, she would
+not survive her husband, but wished to remain faithful to him in death
+as she had been in life.
+
+"Many such stories might be cited, but enough has been given to show the
+spirit that exists in Japan. With such women and such teachings in
+their homes, can it be wondered at that Japan is a brave nation, and
+that her soldiers are winning battles? Certainly some of the honor and
+credit must be given to these wives and mothers scattered throughout
+Japan, who are surely, in some cases, the inspirers of that courage and
+spirit which is just now surprising the world."
+
+
+_Page 239._
+
+Much surprise is evinced by foreigners visiting Japan at the lack of
+taste shown by the Japanese in the imitation of foreign styles. And yet,
+for these same foreigners, who condemn so patronizingly the Japanese
+lack of taste in foreign things, the Japanese manufacture pottery, fans,
+scrolls, screens, etc., that are most excruciating to their sense of
+beauty, and export them to markets in which they find a ready sale,
+their manufacturers wondering, the while, why foreigners want such ugly
+things. The fact is that neither civilization has as yet come into any
+understanding of the other's �sthetic side, and the sense of beauty of
+the one is a sealed book to the other. The Japanese nation, in its
+efforts to adopt foreign ways, has been, up to the present time, blindly
+imitating, with little or no comprehension of underlying principles. As
+a result there is an absolute crudeness in foreign things as attempted
+in Japan that grates on the nerves of travelers fresh from the best to
+be found in Europe or America.
+
+There are signs, however, that the stage of imitation is past and that
+adaptation has begun. Here and there in T[=o]ky[=o] may be seen
+buildings in which the solidity of foreign architecture has been grafted
+upon the Japanese type. Ten years ago, Japanese men who adopted foreign
+dress went about in misfitting garments, soiled linen, untidy shoes, and
+hats that had been discarded by the civilization for which they were
+made many seasons before they reached Japan. They wore Turkish towels
+about their necks and red blankets over their shoulders at the desire of
+unscrupulous importers, who persuaded them that towels for neck-cloths
+and blankets for overcoats were the latest styles of London and Paris.
+To-day one sees no such eccentricities of costume in the purely Japanese
+city of T[=o]ky[=o]. Men who wear foreign dress wear it made correctly
+in every particular by Japanese tailors, shoemakers, and hatters. The
+standard has been attained, for men at least, and in foreign dress as
+well as in Japanese, the natural good taste of the people has begun to
+assert itself. So it will be in time with other new things adopted. As
+no single element of the Chinese civilization secured a permanent
+footing in Japan except such as could be adapted, not only to the
+national life, but to the national taste as well, so it will be with
+European things. All things that are adopted will be adapted, and
+whatever is adapted is likely in time to be improved and made more
+beautiful by the national instinct for beauty. During the transition,
+enormities are omitted and monstrosities are constructed, but when the
+standard is at last attained, we may expect that the genius of the race
+will triumph over the difficulties that it is now encountering.
+Individual Japanese who have lived long in Europe or America show the
+same nice discrimination in regard to foreign things that they do in
+their Japanese surroundings, and are rarely at fault in their taste.
+What is true of the individual now will be true of the nation when
+European standards have become common property.
+
+
+_Page 242._
+
+In the remote mountain regions, where the majesty and uncertainty of the
+great natural forces impress themselves constantly upon the minds of the
+peasantry, one finds a simple nature worship, and a desire to propitiate
+all the unseen powers, that is not so evident in the daily life of the
+dwellers in more populous and progressive parts of the country. As the
+mountains close in about the road that runs up from the plains below, a
+great stone, on which is deeply carved "To the God of the Mountains,"
+calls the attention of the traveler to the fact that the supernatural is
+a recognized power among the mountaineers. In such regions one finds
+the stated offerings at the shrines which stand near the wayside kept
+constantly renewed. Nearly every house is protected by some slip of
+paper pasted above the door, a charm obtained by toilsome pilgrimage to
+some noted temple. Behind or near the village temple one may see rude
+wigwams of straw, each sheltering a _gohei_,[45]--witnesses to the vows
+of devotees who hope, sooner or later, to erect small wooden shrines and
+so win favor from the unknown rulers of human destinies. In places where
+pack-horses form a large part of the wealth of the people, stones to the
+horses' spirits are erected, and the halters of all the horses that die
+are left upon these stones. Prayers, too, are offered to the guardian
+spirits of the living horses, before stones on which are carved
+sometimes the image of a horse bearing a _gohei_ on his back, sometimes
+a rough figure of the horse-headed Kwannon. To such stones or shrines
+are brought horses suffering from sickness of any kind, and the hand is
+rubbed first on the stone and then on the part of the animal supposed to
+be affected. In one district, when a horse epidemic broke out, its rapid
+spread was attributed by the authorities to this custom, and all persons
+were warned of the danger, with what effect in breaking up the ancient
+habit the newspaper reports failed to say. It is in such regions as this
+that the _oni_ and the _tengu_[46] still live in the every-day thought
+of the people; it is here, too, that the old custom of offering flowers
+and fruit to the spirits of the dead at the midsummer festival is most
+conscientiously kept up. All possible spirits are included in these
+offerings, so that even by the roadside one finds bunches of flowers set
+up in the clefts of the rock, to the spirits of travelers who have died
+on the way.
+
+[45] _Gohei_, a piece of white paper, cut and folded in a peculiar
+manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shint[=o] faith.
+
+[46] _Tengu_, a winged, long-nosed or beak-mouthed monster, supposed to
+inhabit the mountain regions of Japan. It was from a _tengu_ that
+Yoshitsune, one of the greatest of Japanese heroes, learned to fence,
+and so became a swordsman of almost miraculous expertness. _Oni_, a
+demon or goblin.
+
+In one little mountain resort, far from the railroad but in touch with
+the outside world through the hundreds of visitors that seek its hot
+baths during the summer, it was my good fortune to spend a few weeks
+recently. Our walks were rather limited in variety, as the village lay
+in an almost inaccessible mountain valley through which a carefully
+engineered road ran along the edge of the river gorge. About half a mile
+out of the village, close to the road and overhanging the waters of the
+river at a spot where the rocks were so worn and carved by the rushing
+torrent as to have gained the appropriate title of the "Screen Rocks,"
+was a little shop and a tea-house. It was a pleasant resting-place after
+a warm and dusty walk, and almost daily we would halt there for a cup of
+tea and a slice of _yokan_, or bean marmalade, before returning to our
+rooms in the hotel. The managers of the place were an old man and his
+wife, who divided their labor between the shop and the tea-house. The
+old man was an artist in roots. His life was devoted to searching out
+grotesquely shaped roots on the forest-covered hills, and whittling,
+turning, and trimming them into the semblance of animal or human forms.
+_Tengu_ and goblins, long-legged birds and short-legged beasts, all
+manner of weird products of his imagination and his handiwork, peopled
+the interior of the little shop, and he was always ready to welcome us
+and show us his latest work, with the pride of an artist in his
+masterpiece.
+
+His wife, a cheery old woman, attended to the tea-house, and as soon as
+we had seated ourselves, bustled about to bring us cool water from the
+spring that bubbled out of the rocks across the road, and to set before
+us the tiny cups of straw-colored tea and the delicious slices of
+_yokan_ which we soon learned was the specialty of the place. She was
+glad to have a little gossip as we sipped and nibbled, telling us many
+interesting bits of folklore about the immediate locality. It was from
+her that we learned that the pinnacle of rock that dominated the village
+was built by _tengu_ long ago, though now they were all gone from the
+woods, for she had looked for them often at night when she went out to
+shut the house, but she had never seen one,--and even the monkeys were
+becoming scarce. She it was, too, who sent us to look for the mysterious
+draught of cold air that crossed the road near the base of the great
+rock, colder on hot days than on cool ones, and at all times
+astonishing,--the "Tengu's Wind Hole." We learned through her about the
+snakes to be found in the woods, and of the wonderful tonic virtues of
+the _mamushi_ (the one poisonous snake of Japan), if caught and bottled
+with a sufficient quantity of _sak�_. The _sak�_ may be renewed again
+and again, and the longer the snake has been bottled the more medicinal
+does it become, so that one _mamushi_ may, if used perseveringly,
+medicate several casks of _sak�_. We had opportunity later to verify her
+statements, for we found at a small grocery store, where we stopped to
+add a few delicacies to our somewhat scanty bill of fare, two snakes,
+neatly coiled in quart bottles and pickled in _sak�_, one of which could
+be obtained for the sum of seventy-five sen, though the other, who in
+his rage at being bottled had buried his fangs in his own body,
+commanded a higher price because of his courage. We did not feel in
+need of a tonic that day, so left the _mamushi_ on the grocery shelves,
+but it is probable that their disintegrating remains are being
+industriously quaffed to-day by some elderly Japanese whose failing
+strength demands an unfailing remedy.
+
+When our little friend had learned of our interest in snakes, she was on
+the lookout for snake stories of all kinds. One day she stopped us as we
+came by rather later than usual, hurrying home before a threatening
+shower, to tell us that we ought to have come a little sooner, for the
+great black snake who was the messenger of the god that lived on the
+mountain had just been by, and we might have been interested to see him.
+She had seen him before, herself, so he was no novelty to her, but she
+was sure that the matter would interest us. Poor little old lady, with
+her kindly face and pleasant ways, and her friendly cracked voice. Her
+firm belief in all the uncanny and supernatural things that wiser people
+have outgrown brought us face to face with the childhood of our race,
+and drew us into sympathy with a phase of culture in which all nature is
+wrapped in inscrutable mystery.
+
+
+_Page 264._
+
+Each year that passes sees a few more stores adopting the habit of fixed
+prices, not to be altered by haggling.
+
+
+_Page 282._
+
+On another occasion the good offices of the fortune-teller were sought
+concerning a marriage, and the powerful arranger of human destinies
+discovered that though everything else was favorable, the bride
+contracted for was to come from a quarter quite opposed to the luck of
+the bridegroom. This was no laughing matter, as the bride was of a noble
+family and the breaking of the engagement would be attended with much
+talk and trouble on both sides; but, on the other hand, the family of
+the bridegroom dared not face the danger so mysteriously prophesied by
+the fortune-teller. In this predicament, there was nothing to do but to
+pull the wool over the eyes of the gods as best they might. For this
+purpose the bride with all her belongings was sent the day before the
+wedding from her father's house to that of an uncle living in another
+part of the city, and on the morning of the wedding-day she came to her
+husband from a quarter quite favorable to his fortunes. It seems quite
+probable that the gods were taken in by this somewhat transparent
+subterfuge, for no serious evil has befallen the young couple in three
+years of married life.
+
+
+_Page 317._
+
+To the American mind this method of terminating relations is always
+irritating and frequently embarrassing, but in Japan any discomfort is
+to be endured rather than the slightest suspicion of bad manners. If the
+foreign visitor is trying to learn to be a good Japanese, she must
+submit patiently when the servant solemnly engaged fails to appear at
+the appointed hour, sending a letter instead to say that she is ill; or
+when the woman upon whom she is depending to travel with her the next
+day to the country receives a telegram calling her to the bedside of a
+mythical son, and departs, bag and baggage, at a moment's notice,
+leaving her quondam mistress to shift for herself as best she may.
+
+
+_Page 318._
+
+Among the many changes that have come over Japan in the transition from
+feudalism to the conditions of modern life, there is none that Japanese
+ladies regard with greater regret than the change in the servant
+question. As the years go by and new employments open to women, it
+becomes increasingly difficult to engage and keep servants of the
+old-time, faithful, intelligent sort. Notwithstanding increased pay, and
+the still existing conditions of considerate treatment, comfortable
+homes, and light work, it is hard to fill places vacated, even in noble
+households: and there is almost as much shaking of heads and despondent
+talk over the servant question in Japan to-day as there is in America.
+
+
+_Page 322._
+
+It is interesting to note that it is to the quickness and courage of a
+jinrikisha man who interposed between him and his would-be assassin that
+the present Czar of Russia owes his escape from death at Otsu, near
+Ky[=o]t[=o], in 1891.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+My task is ended. One half of Japan, with its virtues and its frailties,
+its privileges and its wrongs, has been brought, so far as my pen can
+bring it, within the knowledge of the American public. If, through this
+work, one person setting forth for the Land of the Rising Sun goes
+better prepared to comprehend the thoughts, the needs, and the virtues
+of the noble, gentle, self-sacrificing women who make up one half the
+population of the Island Empire, my labor will not have been in vain.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Adoption, 103, 112, 187.
+
+Agility of Japanese, 13.
+
+Ai, love, 415.
+
+Amado, sliding wooden shutters used to inclose a Japanese house at
+night, 23.
+
+Amulets, 329.
+
+Andon, a standing lamp inclosed in a paper case, 89.
+
+An� San, or N� San, elder sister (_San_ the honorific), a title used by
+the younger children in a family in speaking to their eldest sister, 20.
+
+Aoyama, 131.
+
+Apprentices, 309, 310.
+
+Art in common things, 237-239, 462, 463.
+
+Artisans, 235-239, 270.
+
+
+Babies, 1-17;
+  bathing, 10;
+  conditions of life, 6, 7;
+  dress, 6, 15;
+  food, 10, 11;
+  imperial babies, 8, 9;
+  learning to talk, 16;
+  learning to walk, 13, 14;
+  of lower classes, 7;
+  of middle classes, 8;
+  of nobility, 8;
+  skin troubles, 11;
+  teething, 12;
+  tied to the back, 7, 8, 12.
+
+Baby carriages, 424.
+
+Baths, public, 10.
+
+Beauty, Japanese standard of, 58; early loss of, 122.
+
+B� b�, a child's word for dress, 16.
+
+Bed, the Empress's, 446.
+
+Betrothal, 60.
+
+Bett[=o], a groom or footman who cares for the horse in the stable and
+runs ahead of it on the road, 62, 71, 311, 316, 319.
+
+Bible, circulation of, in Japan, 412-414.
+
+Birth, 1.
+
+Boys, amusements of, 362-370.
+
+Breakfast, 89.
+
+Brothels. _See_ J[=o]roya.
+
+Buddha's birthday, 365.
+
+Buddhism, 168, 240;
+  affected by Christianity, 417-421;
+  introduction of, 143-145.
+
+Buddhist funerals, 131, 132, 347.
+
+Buddhist nuns, 155.
+
+Buddhist priest, story of a, 418-421.
+
+Building, 333-335.
+
+Butsudan, the household shrine
+used by Buddhists, 323.
+
+
+Castles, 151, 157, 169, 171, 173, 174, 185, 186, 192.
+
+Chadai, literally "tea money," the fee given at an inn, 251-253.
+
+Cherry blossoms, 28, 146, 166, 176, 177, 191, 295, 296.
+
+Childhood. _See_ Girlhood.
+
+Children, intellectual characteristics of Japanese, 41;
+  Japanese compared with American, 19.
+
+Chinese characters, 40.
+
+Chinese civilization introduced, 142.
+
+Chinese code of morals, 103, 111.
+
+Christian ideas, progress of, 402-421.
+
+Christianity, 77, 81, 168, 206, 207.
+
+Christians, Japanese, 404.
+
+Chrysanthemum, 166, 296-298.
+
+Civilization, new, 77.
+
+Clubs, women's, 391.
+
+Concubinage, 85, 111.
+
+Confectionery, 146.
+
+Confucius, 103, 168.
+
+Constitution, promulgation of the, 114, 276.
+
+Corea, conquest of, 139-143.
+
+Country and city, 278, 279.
+
+Court, after conquest of Corea, 143-146;
+  amusements of, 145;
+  costumes, 146;
+  in early times, 138, 139;
+  ladies, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  life, 138-168;
+  of daimi[=o], 171;
+  of Sh[=o]gun, 170, 171;
+  removal to T[=o]ky[=o], 156.
+
+Courtship, 58.
+
+Crown Prince's wedding, the, 434, 442-445, 449-453.
+
+Crucifixion, 199, 234.
+
+
+Daikoku, the money god, 332.
+
+Dai jobu, "Safe," "All right," 320.
+
+Daimi[=o], a member of the landed nobility under the feudal system,
+169-195;
+  his castles, 169;
+  his courts, 17;
+  his daughters, 175, 177, 180, 182-184, 191, 192-195;
+  his journeys to Yedo, 171-173;
+  his retainers, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177-179, 181, 183, 185, 186;
+  his wife, 175, 177, 182, 192-195;
+  seclusion of, 172-174.
+
+Dancing, 38, 287, 288.
+
+Dancing girls. _See_ G�isha.
+
+Dango Zaka, 296.
+
+Dashi, a float used in festival processions, 275-278, 366-369.
+
+Days, lucky and unlucky, 331.
+
+Decency, Japanese standard of, 255-260.
+
+Deformity, caused by position in sitting, 9.
+
+Diet, changes in, 424.
+
+Divorce, among lower classes, 66, 69, 73;
+  among higher classes, 66, 68;
+  effect of recent legislation on, 374, 439;
+  new laws, 438, 439;
+  right to children in case of, 67, 105, 439.
+
+Dolls, Feast of, 28-31, 428-430;
+  origin of, 428;
+  present meaning of, 430.
+
+Dress, baby, 6, 15;
+  court, 145, 146;
+  in daimi[=o]s' houses, 187, 192;
+  military, of samurai women, 188;
+  of lower classes, 126-128;
+  of pilgrims, 243;
+  present tendencies, 457;
+  showing age of wearer, 119.
+
+
+Education, higher, a doubtful help, 79;
+  effect on home life, 77;
+  producing repugnance to marriage, 80.
+
+Education of daimi[=o]'s daughter, 177-180.
+
+Education of girls, 37-56;
+  action and reaction in, 433, 434;
+  difficulties in new system, 52-56;
+  fault in Japanese system, 39;
+  in old times, 37.
+
+Embroidered robes, 95, 146, 188, 192, 456.
+
+Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153, 155-157, 161, 164-166, 292.
+
+Emperors, after introduction of Chinese civilization, 143-145;
+  children of, 164;
+  daughters of, 155;
+  early retirement of, 134;
+  in early times, 138;
+  seclusion of, 143-145, 155, 156, 161, 169.
+
+Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-168.
+
+Empress, Dowager, 152.
+
+Engawa, the piazza that runs around a Japanese house, 23.
+
+Etiquette, court, 153;
+  in daimi[=o]s' houses, 177-179;
+  in the home, 19, 20;
+  instruction in, 46, 47;
+  of leaving service, 316, 317;
+  towards servants, 304, 305.
+
+
+Factory workers, women, 399 _note_.
+
+Fairy tales, 32.
+
+Family, organization of, 139, 439-442.
+
+Fancy work, 95.
+
+Father's relation to children, 100.
+
+Feast of Flags, 363, 364;
+  of Lanterns, 358-362;
+  of the Dead, 358-362;
+  of Dolls, 28-31, 428-430.
+
+Festivals, of flowers, 27, 99, 295-297;
+  of the New Year, 25, 349-358;
+  temple, 270-278, 364-370.
+
+Feudal system, 169.
+
+Feudal times, pictures of, 190-192;
+  stories of, 184-187.
+
+Firemen, 335, 338, 339.
+
+Flirtation, unknown to Japanese girls, 34.
+
+Flower arrangement, 42.
+
+Flower painting, 47, 432.
+
+Flower shows, 270-272.
+
+Fortune-telling, 281-285, 331-333, 470.
+
+Fuji, 58, 242.
+
+Fukuzawa, his book on the woman question, 387-391;
+  his will, 345.
+
+Funeral customs, 131, 132, 339-349.
+
+Furushiki, a square of cloth used for wrapping up a bundle, 354.
+
+
+Games, battledore and shuttlecock, 31, 32;
+  at court, 145;
+  go, 136;
+  hyaku nin isshu, 26, 27;
+  shogi, 136.
+
+G�isha, a professional dancing and singing girl, 286-289.
+
+G�isha ya, an establishment where g�ishas may be hired, 286.
+
+G�ta, a wooden clog, 13, 14.
+
+Ginza, 265.
+
+Girlhood, 17-34.
+
+Gohei, a piece of white paper folded and cut in a peculiar manner, one
+of the sacred symbols of the Shint[=o] faith, 464.
+
+
+Hakama, the kilt-pleated trousers that formed a part of the dress of
+every Japanese gentleman, also the skirt worn by school-girls over the
+kimono, 433, 456.
+
+Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or cr�pe, worn over the kimono, 8.
+
+Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in the abdomen, 201, 202.
+
+Haru, Prince, 113, 152, 442-444, 446-452.
+
+Haru, Empress, 155-168.
+
+H�imin, the class of farmers, artisans, and merchants, 203, 228, 229;
+  class characteristics of, 229-240, 464-468.
+
+Hibachi, a brazier for burning charcoal, 30, 72, 136, 307.
+
+Hid�yoshi. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Hinin, a class of paupers, 228.
+
+Hiy�i Zan, 243.
+
+Holidays, 269.
+
+Hotel-keepers, 280, 281.
+
+Hotels, 247-250.
+
+Household duties, training for, 21.
+
+Household worship, 328.
+
+Hyaku nin isshu, "Poems of a Hundred Poets," the name of a game, 26.
+
+
+Inkyo, a place of retirement, the home of a person who has retired from
+active life, 136.
+
+Instruction, in etiquette, 46;
+  in flower arranging, 42;
+  in music, 41, 431;
+  in painting, 47, 432;
+  in reading and writing, 38;
+  in tea ceremony, 44.
+
+Inu, a dog, 250.
+
+Is�, 231.
+
+Iwafuji, 210-213.
+
+Iwakura, Prince, 157.
+
+Iya, a child's word, denoting dislike or negation, 16.
+
+Iy�mits[)u], 171, 172.
+
+Iy�yas[)u], 169.
+
+
+Japan-China war, 458-462.
+
+Japanese language, 16, 40, 179.
+
+Japanese literature, 147-150.
+
+Jimmu Tenno, 138.
+
+Jin, benevolence, 415.
+
+Jingo K[=o]g[=o], 139-143, 147.
+
+Jinrikisha, a light carriage drawn by one or more men, and which will
+hold one or two persons, 26, 70, 92, 268, 272, 320, 321.
+
+Jinrikisha man, 26, 62, 69, 92, 108, 270, 279, 299, 316, 319-324, 473.
+
+Jishi, mercy, 415.
+
+J[=o]r[=o], a prostitute, 289-292, 406-411.
+
+J[=o]roya, a house of prostitution, 290-292, 406-411.
+
+
+Kaibara's "Great Learning of Women," 387, 389, 391.
+
+Kak�mono, a hanging scroll, 44, 147, 238.
+
+Kam�ido, 296.
+
+Kami-dana, "god-shelf," the household shrine used by Shint[=o]
+worshippers, 328.
+
+Kana, Japanese phonetic characters, 40 _note_, 430.
+
+Katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish, 5.
+
+Kimono, a long gown with wide sleeves and open in front, worn by
+Japanese of all classes, 7, 94, 188, 192, 287.
+
+Kisses, 36.
+
+Knees, flexibility of, 9.
+
+Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or small fireplace in the floor,
+over which a wooden frame is set, and the whole covered by a quilt, 33.
+
+Koto, a musical instrument, 42.
+
+Kug�, the court nobility, 155, 170.
+
+Kura, a fire-proof storehouse, 147, 171, 173.
+
+Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of any kind, used as synonymous with
+jinrikisha.
+
+Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuruma. _See_ Jinrikisha man.
+
+Kurushima, 203.
+
+Ky[=o]t[=o], 156, 171, 240, 241.
+
+
+Ladies, court, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  of daimi[=o]s' families, 175-180, 182-184.
+
+Loyalty, 33, 75, 197, 206-208, 217, 302-304.
+
+
+Mam ma, a baby's word for rice or food, 16.
+
+Mamushi, a poisonous snake, 467, 468.
+
+Manners of children, 18.
+
+Manzai, exorcists who drive devils out of the houses at New Year's time,
+357.
+
+Marriage, 57-83;
+  ceremony, 61, 63, 435, 436;
+  feast, 63;
+  festivities after, 63, 64, 437;
+  guests, 63;
+  presents, 62, 435;
+  registration, 65;
+  to y[=o]shi, 104;
+  trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Marumag�, a style of arranging the hair of married ladies, 119.
+
+Matsuri, a festival, usually in honor of some god, 274-278, 366-370.
+
+Matsuri, Shobu, feast of flags, 363, 364.
+
+M�iji (Enlightened Rule), the name of the era that began with the
+accession of the present Emperor in 1868, 149.
+
+M�kak�, a concubine, 111-114.
+
+Men, old, dependence of, 133;
+  amusements of, 136.
+
+Merchants, 262-269, 469.
+
+Military service of women, 188-190, 208, 223.
+
+Missionary schools, 56.
+
+Miya mairi, the presentation of the child at the temple when it is a
+month old. The term is also used to describe the visits to the temple at
+the ages of three, five, and seven, 3-6, 425-427.
+
+Mochi, a kind of rice dumpling, 4, 24, 25, 65, 352, 353.
+
+Momotaro, 33.
+
+Mon, a family crest, 366.
+
+Montsuki, a kimono bearing the crest of the wearer, 457.
+
+Morality, standards of, 76.
+
+Mother, her relation to her children, 99-102.
+
+Mother-in-law, 84, 87;
+  O Kiku's, 74.
+
+Moving, 335-337.
+
+Muk[=o]jima, 191, 295.
+
+Music, 41, 42, 430-432.
+
+
+Names, 3, 423.
+
+Nara, 247.
+
+N� San. _See_ An� San.
+
+New Year, preparation for, 349-356;
+  festival of, 25-27, 356-358.
+
+Nikk[=o], 231, 245.
+
+No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293.
+
+Norimono, a palanquin, 30.
+
+Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually folded in colored paper, given with
+a present for good luck, 2.
+
+Nurses, trained, 398.
+
+Nursing the sick, 101.
+
+
+O, an honorific used before many nouns, and before most names of women,
+20.
+
+O B[=a] San, grandmother, 124.
+
+O B[)a] San, aunt, 124.
+
+Obi, a girdle or sash, 60, 435.
+
+O Bon, the feast of the dead, 358-362.
+
+Occupations, of the blind, 42;
+  of the court, 143-150;
+  of the daimi[=o]s' ladies, 175-180;
+  of the Empress, 156-160;
+  of old people, 120-122, 124-128, 136;
+  of samurai women, 223, 224;
+  of servants, 299, 304, 306, 308-315, 318;
+  of women, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  of young girls, 21-34, 38-47.
+
+O Haru, 211-213.
+
+Oishi, 198, 214.
+
+Oji, 296.
+
+O J[=o] Sama, young lady, 20.
+
+O kaeri, "Honorable return," a greeting shouted by the attendant upon
+the master's or mistress's return to the house, 100, 315.
+
+O Kaio, 324-326.
+
+O Kiku's marriage and divorce, 73, 74.
+
+Okuma, Count, 203;
+  his speech on education, 382.
+
+Old age, privileges of, 120, 122, 123;
+  provision for, 134.
+
+Old men, 133, 136.
+
+O miyag�, a present given on returning from a journey or pleasure
+excursion, 274.
+
+Oni, a devil or goblin, 33, 466.
+
+Onoy�, 210, 213.
+
+
+Palace, new, 151-153.
+
+Parents, duties to, 134;
+  respect for, 133;
+  disadvantages in Japanese system, 445.
+
+Parents-in-law, 84, 87.
+
+Peasant women, 108, 240-261.
+
+Peasantry, 228-240.
+
+Philanthropic efforts, 415-417, 418-421.
+
+Physical culture in schools, 433, 453-456.
+
+Physicians' fees, 204.
+
+Pilgrims, 241, 242.
+
+Pillow, 89.
+
+Pleasure excursions, 99.
+
+"Poems of a hundred poets," 26.
+
+Poetry, 26, 148-150.
+
+Presents, 96;
+  after a wedding, 65;
+  at betrothal, 60, 435;
+  at miya mairi, 4;
+  at New Year's, 353-355;
+  at O Bon, 358;
+  at weddings, 62;
+  how wrapped, 2;
+  in honor of a birth, 1;
+  of eggs, 2, 5;
+  of money, 204, 205;
+  on returning from a journey, 274;
+  to servants, 311, 315.
+
+Prisoners' Home in T[=o]ky[=o], 413.
+
+Prostitutes. _See_ J[=o]r[=o].
+
+Prostitution, houses of. _See_ J[=o]roya.
+
+Purity of Japanese women, 216-219.
+
+
+Reading of women, 385-387.
+
+Red Cross Society, 398, 416.
+
+Religion of peasantry, 464-466.
+
+Retirement from business, 133.
+
+Retirement of Emperors, 134.
+
+Revenge, 198, 210-214.
+
+Revolution of 1868, 76, 221.
+
+Rice, red bean, 3, 5, 65.
+
+Rin, one tenth of a sen, or about one half mill, 240.
+
+R[=o]nin, a samurai who had lost his master and owed no allegiance to any
+daimi[=o], 198, 213.
+
+
+Sada, Princess, 449-453.
+
+Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, 98.
+
+Sak�, wine made from rice, 22, 63, 136, 296;
+  white, 29.
+
+Salvation Army's attack on j[=o]roya, 408-411.
+
+Sama, or San, an honorific placed after names, equivalent to Mr., Mrs.,
+or Miss, 20, 73, 124, 136, 232, 283, 284, 304.
+
+Samisen, a musical instrument, 42, 127, 277, 286.
+
+Samurai, the military class, 42, 75, 76, 105, 169, 174, 175, 180,
+196-227, 232, 263, 302, 303, 307, 319;
+  character of, 197-207.
+
+Samurai girls in school, 226.
+
+Samurai women, character of, 207-223, 458-460;
+  present work, 223-327.
+
+Satsuma rebellion, 222.
+
+School system, 50, 378-381;
+  object of, 379;
+  statistics of, 380.
+
+School, Girls', for Higher English, 383-385;
+  Mr. Naruse's Female University, 381-383.
+
+Schools, missionary, 56.
+
+Self-possession of Japanese girls, 47.
+
+Self-sacrifice, 214-219.
+
+Sen, one hundredth part of a yen, value about five mills, 240, 273, 298.
+
+Servants, characteristics of, 209-302;
+  duties of, 302-315;
+  in employ of foreigners, 299-302;
+  number employed, 310, 311;
+  position of, 302-310;
+  wages, 311.
+
+Sewing, 23, 94.
+
+Shir[=o]zak�, a sweet white sak� used at the feast of dolls, 427.
+
+Shogi, Japanese chess, 136.
+
+Sh[=o]gun, or Tycoon, the Viceroy or so-called temporal ruler of Japan
+under the feudal system, 155, 169, 171, 173, 176, 185, 186, 191, 194,
+197, 208, 224, 231-234, 292;
+  daughter of, 176, 194.
+
+Sh[=o]gunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222.
+
+Shoji, sliding windows covered with white paper, 23, 71.
+
+Shopping, 264-268.
+
+Sho-s�i, a student, 308.
+
+Silk mosaic, 95, 192.
+
+Silkworms, 95, 246.
+
+Soba, a kind of macaroni made of buckwheat, 336.
+
+Soroban, an abacus, 266-268.
+
+Sumida River, 173, 295.
+
+
+Tabi, a mitten-like sock, 13.
+
+Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or tabi, 16.
+
+Taiko Sama. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Tea, 91, 92;
+  ceremonial, 44, 136, 176, 432.
+
+Tea-gardens, 247.
+
+Tea-houses, 250-255.
+
+Teachers, pay of, 204;
+  women as, 398.
+
+Teaching. _See_ Instruction.
+
+Teeth, blackened after marriage, 63.
+
+Temple, 4, 120, 129, 240.
+
+Tengu, a monster in Japanese folklore, 466, 468.
+
+Theatre, 33, 99, 292-294.
+
+Titles used in families, 20.
+
+Toes, prehensile, 15.
+
+Toilet apparatus, 30.
+
+T[=o]kaid[=o], 241.
+
+Tokonoma, the raised alcove in a Japanese room, 44.
+
+Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231.
+
+T[=o]ky[=o], 49, 69-71, 108, 115.
+
+T[=o]ky[=o] Mail, 231.
+
+Tombs, 98.
+
+Toyotomi Hid�yoshi, 232.
+
+Training-schools for nurses, 158, 398.
+
+Trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Tsuda, Miss Um�, viii, 458.
+
+
+Utsunomiya, 70, 71.
+
+Uy�no Park, 296.
+
+
+Virtue, Japanese and Western ideas of, 215-219.
+
+Visits, after marriage, 63;
+  in honor of a birth, 1, 2;
+  New Year's, 25;
+  to a house of mourning, 340;
+  to parents, 98;
+  to tombs, 98, 359.
+
+Voice in singing, 430-432.
+
+
+Wakamatsu, 208, 222, 457.
+
+Wedding. _See_ Marriage.
+
+Widows, childless, 123.
+
+Wife, childless, 102;
+  duties of, 85-99;
+  in great houses, 92;
+  relation to husband, 84;
+  relation to parents-in-law, 84;
+  social relations, 91.
+
+Woman question, new feeling about, 371-373.
+
+Women, general reading of, 386;
+  in the city, 279-298;
+  new openings for, 397-402;
+  occupations of, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  position of, 17-22, 35, 36, 57, 65-68, 76-88, 90, 91, 93, 99-118,
+  120-124, 132, 133, 139, 143, 145, 146, 148, 168, 189, 190, 208,
+  216-219, 223-227, 242-247, 260, 261, 279, 292, 298, 306, 318, 371-378,
+  438-440;
+  property rights of, 374-378;
+  publications for, 385-391;
+  purity of, 216-219;
+  the new woman in old surroundings, 392-397.
+
+Women, old, appearance of, 119;
+  examples of, 124, 126-129, 467-469;
+  in Japanese pictures, 132.
+
+Written language, proposed reforms in, 430.
+
+
+Yamato Dak�, 215.
+
+Yasaku, 324;
+  marriage and divorce of, 69-73.
+
+Yas�, 243, 244.
+
+Yashiki, a daimi[=o]'s mansion and grounds, 169, 171, 173, 311, 313.
+
+Yedo. _See_ T[=o]ky[=o].
+
+Y[=o]shi, an adopted son, 104.
+
+Yoshiwara, a district in T[=o]ky[=o] given over to disreputable houses,
+409.
+
+
+Zodiac, Chinese signs of the, 331.
+
+Zori, a straw sandal, 13.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Except where index entries and the body of the text did not match,
+irregularities in hyphenation (e.g. kwankoba and kwan-ko-ba), italics,
+and spellings (e.g. vendors and venders) have not been changed. Except
+where noted below, inconsistent accents (e.g. j[=o]roya vs.
+j[=o]r[=o]ya) have been retained.
+
+The following corrections and changes were made:
+
+p. 120: marumage to marumag� (The _marumag�_, the style of headdress of
+married ladies)
+
+p. 175: daimios' to daimi[=o]s' (and daimi[=o]s' houses)
+
+p. 351: kakemonos to kak�monos (the kak�monos and curios)
+
+p. 383: Meiji to M�iji (thirty-fourth year of M�iji)
+
+p. 427: miyage to miyag� (the _o miyag�_ to be purchased)
+
+p. 429: accents added to Sh[=o]guns, Sh[=o]gun's, and Sh[=o]gunate
+
+p. 428: shirozak� to shir[=o]zak� (The _shir[=o]zak�_ (white _sak�_))
+
+p. 437: oufit to outfit (But this outfit)
+
+p. 440: heimin to h�imin (_h�imin_, or plebeian)
+
+p. 473: B�-b� to B� b� (Index entry)
+
+p. 475: Index entry for "Girlhood, 17-34." added (Index entry
+"Childhood. _See_ Girlhood." originally pointed to non-existent entry)
+
+p. 475: Iyemits[)u] to Iy�mits[)u] (Index entry)
+
+p. 475: Iyeyas[)u] to Iy�yas[)u] (Index entry)
+
+p. 476: fireproof to fire-proof (Index: Kura, a fire-proof storehouse)
+
+p. 476: Jo to J[=o] (Index: O J[=o] Sama, young lady)
+
+p. 477: Onouy� to Onoy� (Index entry)
+
+p. 478: folk-lore to folklore (Index: Tengu, a monster in Japanese
+folklore)]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
+
+***** This file should be named 32449-8.txt or 32449-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
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+
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Japanese Girls and Women
+       Revised and Enlarged Edition
+
+Author: Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, S.D., and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div id="fig-cover" style="width: 359px;">
+<img id="cover" src="images/cover.jpg" width="359" height="600" alt="Book Cover" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<div id="other-books">
+<p class="center lg bold no-pad-b">By Alice M. Bacon</p>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 90px;">
+<img src="images/longish-line.png" width="90" height="2" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="hang"><span class="sans">IN THE LAND OF THE GODS.</span> 12mo, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><span class="sans">JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.</span> 16mo, $1.25.
+In Riverside Library for Young People. 16mo,
+75 cents.</p>
+
+<p class="no-pad-t hang"><i>Holiday Edition.</i> With 12 full-page Illustrations
+in color and 43 outline drawings by Japanese
+artists. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><span class="sans">A JAPANESE INTERIOR.</span> 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside
+School Library. 16mo, 60 cents, <i>net</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="center">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY<br />
+<span class="smcap">Boston and New York</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="tp">
+<h1>JAPANESE GIRLS AND<br />
+WOMEN</h1>
+
+<p class="center pad-tb tall"><span class="sm">BY</span><br />
+<span class="med">ALICE MABEL BACON</span><br />
+<i>REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION</i></p>
+
+<div id="fig-logo" style="width: 132px;">
+<img src="images/logo.png" width="132" height="175" alt="Riverside Press Logo: Tout bien ou rien" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">BOSTON AND NEW YORK<br />
+<span class="med">HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY</span><br />
+The Riverside Press Cambridge
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="copy">
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1891, 1902,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By ALICE MABEL BACON</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="dedication">
+<p class="center">To<br />
+STEMATZ, THE MARCHIONESS OYAMA,<br />
+<span class="sm">IN THE NAME OF OUR GIRLHOOD'S FRIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND
+UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPARATIONS OF OUR
+MATURER YEARS,</span><br />
+This Volume<br />
+<i>IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/line-1diamond-short.png" width="81" height="9" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><th class="toc" colspan="2" align="left">CHAPTER</th><th align="right"  class="toc">PAGE</th></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>I.</td> <td class="smcap">Childhood</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>II.</td> <td class="smcap">Education</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_37">37</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>III.</td> <td class="smcap">Marriage and Divorce</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_57">57</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IV.</td> <td class="smcap">Wife and Mother</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_84">84</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>V.</td> <td class="smcap">Old Age</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VI.</td> <td class="smcap">Court Life</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_138">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VII.</td> <td class="smcap pad-r5">Life in Castle and Yashiki</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>VIII.</td> <td class="smcap">Samurai Women</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>IX.</td> <td class="smcap">Peasant Women</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>X.</td> <td class="smcap">Life in the Cities</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_262">262</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XI.</td> <td class="smcap">Domestic Service</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XII.</td> <td class="smcap">Within the Home</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>XIII.</td> <td class="smcap">Ten Years of Progress</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_371">371</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td class="smcap">Appendix</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_423">423</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td class="smcap">Index</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_473">473</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.</h2>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/line-1diamond-short.png" width="81" height="9" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> offering a revised edition of a book
+which has been before the public for more
+than ten years, there is little to say that has
+not been said in the original Preface. The
+work as published before, however, was always,
+to its author's mind, unfinished, for
+the reason that a chapter on household customs,
+which was necessary for the completion
+of the plan, had to be omitted because it
+could not be written in America.</p>
+
+<p>This defect has now been remedied, and
+the chapter "Within the Home" contains
+the supplementary matter necessary to complete
+the picture of a Japanese woman's life.
+In addition to this a thorough revision has
+been made of the whole book, and the subjects
+discussed in each chapter have been
+brought up to date by means of notes in an
+Appendix. The reader will find these notes
+referred to by asterisks in the text.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span></p>
+<p>Finally, a second supplementary chapter
+has been added, in which an effort has been
+made to analyze present conditions. From
+its nature, this chapter is only a rapid survey
+of the progress of ten years. It is not
+easy to write with judgment of conditions
+actually present. A little perspective is
+necessary to make sure that one sees things
+in their proper proportions. It is therefore
+with some hesitation that I offer to the public
+the result of two years' experience of the
+present state of affairs. If subsequent events
+show that my observation has been incorrect,
+I can only say that what I have written has
+been the "Thing-as-I-see-It," and does not
+lay claim to being the "Thing-as-It-is."</p>
+
+<p>In closing, I would thank once more the
+friends whose names appear in the previous
+Preface, and would add to their number the
+names of Mr. H. Sakurai and Mr. and Mrs.
+Seijiro Saito, who have rendered me valuable
+aid in gathering material.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">A. M. B.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">New Haven, Connecticut</span>,<br />
+<i>November</i>, 1902.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.</h2>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/line-1diamond-short.png" width="81" height="9" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">It</span> seems necessary for a new author to
+give some excuse for her boldness in offering
+to the public another volume upon a
+subject already so well written up as Japan.
+In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey,
+Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner
+can a woman hope to enter? This is the
+question that will be asked, and that accordingly
+the author must answer.</p>
+
+<p>While Japan as a whole has been closely
+studied, and while much and varied information
+has been gathered about the country
+and its people, one half of the population
+has been left entirely unnoticed,
+passed over with brief mention, or altogether
+misunderstood. It is of this neglected
+half that I have written, in the hope
+that the whole fabric of Japanese social<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span>
+life will be better comprehended when the
+women of the country, and so the homes
+that they make, are better known and
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>The reason why Japanese home-life is
+so little understood by foreigners, even by
+those who have lived long in Japan, is
+that the Japanese, under an appearance of
+frankness and candor, hides an impenetrable
+reserve in regard to all those personal
+concerns which he believes are not
+in the remotest degree the concerns of his
+foreign guest. Only life in the home itself
+can show what a Japanese home may be;
+and only by intimate association&mdash;such as
+no foreign man can ever hope to gain&mdash;with
+the Japanese ladies themselves can
+much be learned of the thoughts and daily
+lives of the best Japanese women.</p>
+
+<p>I have been peculiarly fortunate in having
+enjoyed the privilege of long and intimate
+friendship with a number of Japanese
+ladies, who have spoken with me as freely,
+and shown the details of their lives to me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span>
+as openly, as if bound by closest ties of kindred.
+Through them, and only through
+them, I have been enabled to study life
+from the point of view of the refined and
+intelligent Japanese women, and have found
+the study so interesting and instructive
+that I have felt impelled to offer to others
+some part of what I have received
+through the aid of these friends. I have,
+moreover, been encouraged in my work
+by reading, when it was already more than
+half completed, the following words from
+Griffis's "Mikado's Empire:"&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The whole question of the position of
+Japanese women&mdash;in history, social life,
+education, employments, authorship, art,
+marriage, concubinage, prostitution, benevolent
+labor, the ideals of literature, popular
+superstitions, etc.&mdash;discloses such a
+wide and fascinating field of inquiry that
+I wonder no one has as yet entered it."</p>
+
+<p>In closing, I should say that this work
+is by no means entirely my own. It is, in
+the first place, largely the result of the interchange
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span>of thought through many and
+long conversations with Japanese ladies
+upon the topics herein treated. It has
+also been carefully revised and criticised;
+and many valuable additions have been
+made to it by Miss Umé Tsuda, teacher
+of English in the Peeresses' School in
+Tōkyō, and an old and intimate friend.
+Miss Tsuda is at present in this country,
+on a two years' leave, for purposes of
+further study. She has, amid her many
+duties as a student at Bryn Mawr College,
+given much time and thought to
+this work; and a large part of whatever
+value it may possess is due to her.</p>
+
+<p>I would say, too, that in the verification
+of dates, names, and historical incidents, I
+have relied altogether upon Griffis's "Mikado's
+Empire" and Rein's "Japan,"
+knowing that those two authors represent
+the best that has been done by foreigners
+in the field of Japanese history.</p>
+
+<p>This work also owes much, not only to
+the suggestions and historical aids contained
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span>in the "Mikado's Empire," but to
+Mr. Griffis himself, for his careful reading
+of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and
+suggestions. No greater encouragement
+can be given to an inexperienced author
+than the helpful criticism of one who has
+already distinguished himself in the same
+field of labor; and for just such friendly
+aid my warmest thanks are due to Mr.
+Griffis.</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">A. M. B.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Hampton, Va.</span>, <i>February</i>, 1891.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1 id="chap1">JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.</h1>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/line-1diamond-short.png" width="81" height="9" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<h2 id="first">CHAPTER I.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">CHILDHOOD.</span></h2>
+
+<p>To the Japanese baby the beginning of
+life is not very different from its beginning
+to babies in the Western world. Its birth,
+whether it be girl or boy, is the cause of
+much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry
+on the family name and inherit titles and
+estates, they are considered of more importance,
+but many parents' hearts are made
+glad by the addition of a daughter to the
+family circle.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the event takes place, a special
+messenger is dispatched to notify relatives
+and intimate friends, while formal
+letters of announcement are sent to those
+less closely related. All persons thus notified
+must make an early visit to the newcomer,
+in order to welcome it into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
+world, and must either take with them or
+send before them some present. Toys,
+pieces of cotton, silk, or crêpe for the baby's
+dress are regarded as suitable; and everything
+must be accompanied by fish or eggs,
+for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they
+are neatly arranged in a covered box, which
+may contain thirty, forty, or even one hundred
+eggs.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The baby, especially if it be
+the first one in a family, receives many
+presents in the first few weeks of its life,
+and at a certain time proper acknowledgment
+must be made and return presents
+sent. This is done when the baby is
+about thirty days old.</p>
+
+<p>Both baby and mother have a hard time
+of it for the first few weeks of its life. The
+baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed
+over, and talked to so much by the visitors
+that come in, that it must think this world
+a trying place. The mother, too, is denied
+the rest and quiet she needs, and wears<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+herself out in the excitement of seeing her
+friends, and the physical exercise of going
+through, so far as possible, the ceremonious
+bows and salutations that etiquette
+prescribes.</p>
+
+<p>Before the seventh day the baby receives
+its name.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> There is no especial ceremony
+connected with this, but the child's birth
+must be formally registered, together with
+its name, at the district office of registration,
+and the household keep holiday in
+honor of the event. A certain kind of rice,
+cooked with red beans, a festival dish denoting
+good fortune, is usually partaken of
+by the family on the seventh day.</p>
+
+<p>The next important event in the baby's
+life is the <i>miya mairi</i>, a ceremony which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
+corresponds roughly with our christening.
+On the thirtieth day after birth,<a name="APXanchor_4" id="APXanchor_4" href="#APX_4" class="apxanchor">[*]</a>
+the baby is taken for its first visit to the
+temple. For this visit great preparations
+are made, and the baby is dressed in finest
+silk or crêpe, gayly figured,&mdash;garments
+made especially for the occasion. Upon
+the dress appears in various places the
+crest of the family, as on all ceremonial
+dresses, whether for young or old, for
+every Japanese family has its crest. Thus
+arrayed, and accompanied by members of
+the family, the young baby is carried to one
+of the Shinto temples, and there placed
+under the protection of the patron deity of
+the temple. This god, chosen from a great
+number of Shinto deities, is supposed to
+become the special guardian of the child
+through life. Offerings are made to the
+god and to the priest, and a blessing is
+obtained; and the baby is thus formally
+placed under the care of a special deity.
+This ceremony over, there is usually an
+entertainment of some kind at the home of
+the parents, especially if the family be one
+of high rank. Friends are invited, and if
+there are any who have not as yet sent
+in presents, they may give them at this
+time.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p><p>It is usually on this day that the family
+send to their friends some acknowledgment
+of the presents received. This sometimes
+consists of the red bean rice, such
+as is prepared for the seventh day celebration,
+and sometimes of cakes of <i>mochi</i>,
+or rice paste. A letter of thanks usually
+accompanies the return present. If rice
+is sent, it is put in a handsome lacquered
+box, the box placed on a lacquered tray,
+and the whole covered with a square of
+crêpe or silk, richly decorated. The box,
+the tray, and the cover are of course returned,
+and, curious to say, the box must
+be returned unwashed, as it would be very
+unlucky to send it back clean. A piece
+of Japanese paper must be slipped into the
+box after its contents have been removed,
+and box and tray must be given back, just
+as they are, to the messenger. Sometimes
+a box of eggs, or a peculiar kind of dried
+fish, called <i>katsuobushi</i>, is sent with this
+present, when it is desired to make an especially
+handsome return. When as many
+as fifty or one hundred return presents
+of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight
+tax on the mistress of the house to see
+that no one is forgotten, and that all is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
+properly done. As special messengers are
+sent, a number of men are sometimes kept
+busy for two or three days.</p>
+
+<p>After all these festivities, a quiet, undisturbed
+life begins for the baby,&mdash;a life
+which is neither unpleasant nor unhealthful.
+It is not jolted, rocked, or trotted to
+sleep; it is allowed to cry if it chooses,
+without anybody's supposing that the
+world will come to an end because of its
+crying; and its dress is loose and easily put
+on, so that very little time is spent in the
+tiresome process of dressing and undressing.
+Under these conditions the baby
+thrives and grows strong and fat; learns to
+take life with some philosophy, even at a
+very early age; and is not subject to fits
+of hysterical or passionate crying, brought
+on by much jolting or trotting, or by the
+wearisome process of pinning, buttoning,
+tying of strings, and thrusting of arms
+into tight sleeves.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese baby's dress, though not
+as pretty as that of our babies, is in many
+ways much more sensible. It consists of
+as many wide-sleeved, straight, silk, cotton,
+or flannel garments as the season of the
+year may require,&mdash;all cut after nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>
+the same pattern, and that pattern the
+same in shape as the grown-up <i>kimono</i>.
+These garments are fitted, one inside of
+the other, before they are put on; then
+they are laid down on the floor and the
+baby is laid into them; a soft belt, attached
+to the outer garment or dress, is tied
+around the waist, and the baby is dressed
+without a shriek or a wail, as simply and
+easily as possible. The baby's dresses, like
+those of our babies, are made long enough
+to cover the little bare feet; and the
+sleeves cover the hands as well, so preventing
+the unmerciful scratching that
+most babies give to their faces, as well as
+keeping the hands warm and dry.</p>
+
+<p>Babies of the lower classes, within a few
+weeks after birth, are carried about tied
+upon the back of some member of the family,
+frequently an older sister or brother,
+who is sometimes not more than five or
+six years old. The poorer the family, the
+earlier is the young baby thus put on some
+one's back, and one frequently sees babies
+not more than a month old, with bobbing
+heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands
+of cloth to the backs of older brothers or
+sisters, and living in the streets in all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
+weathers. When it is cold, the sister's
+<i>haori</i>, or coat, serves as an extra covering
+for the baby as well; and when the sun is
+hot, the sister's parasol keeps off its rays
+from the bobbing bald head.<a name="APXanchor_8" id="APXanchor_8" href="#APX_8" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> Living in
+public, as the Japanese babies do, they
+soon acquire an intelligent, interested look,
+and seem to enjoy the games of the elder
+children, upon whose backs they are carried,
+as much as the players themselves.
+Babies of the middle classes do not live in
+public in this way, but ride about upon the
+backs of their nurses until they are old
+enough to toddle by themselves, and they
+are not so often seen in the streets; as
+few but the poorest Japanese, even in the
+large cities, are unable to have a pleasant
+bit of garden in which the children can
+play and take the air. The children of the
+richest families, the nobility, and the imperial
+family, are never carried about in
+this way. The young child is borne in the
+arms of an attendant, within doors and
+without; but as this requires the care of
+some one constantly, and prevents the
+nurse from doing anything but care for the
+child, only the richest can afford this
+luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+woman is able to care for a child, and yet
+go on with her household labors, and baby
+watches over mother's or nurse's shoulder,
+between naps taken at all hours, the processes
+of drawing water, washing and
+cooking rice, and all the varied work of the
+house. Imperial babies are held in the
+arms of some one night and day, from the
+moment of birth until they have learned
+to walk, a custom which seems to render
+the lot of the high-born infant less comfortable
+in some ways than that of the plebeian
+child.</p>
+
+<p>The flexibility of the knees, which is required
+for comfort in the Japanese method
+of sitting, is gained in very early youth by
+the habit of setting a baby down with its
+knees bent under it, instead of with its
+legs out straight before it, as seems to us
+the natural way. To the Japanese, the
+normal way for a baby to sit is with its
+knees bent under it, and so, at a very early
+age, the muscles and tendons of the knees
+are accustomed to what seems to us a most
+unnatural and uncomfortable posture.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p><p>Among the lower classes, where there
+are few bathing facilities in the houses,
+babies of a few weeks old are often taken
+to the public bath house and put into the
+hot bath. These Japanese baths are usually
+heated to a temperature of a hundred
+to a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit,&mdash;a
+temperature that most foreigners visiting
+Japan find almost unbearable. To a baby's
+delicate skin, the first bath or two is usually
+a severe trial, but it soon becomes accustomed
+to the high temperature, and
+takes its bath, as it does everything else,
+placidly and in public. Born into a country
+where cow's milk is never used, the
+Japanese baby is wholly dependent upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+its mother for milk,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> and is not weaned
+entirely until it reaches the age of three or
+four years, and is able to live upon the ordinary
+food of the class to which it belongs.
+There is no intermediate stage of bread
+and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap
+of some kind; for the all-important factor&mdash;milk&mdash;is
+absent from the bill of fare, in
+a land where there is neither "milk for
+babes" nor "strong meat for them that
+are full of age."</p>
+
+<p>In consequence, partly, of the lack
+of proper nourishment after the child is
+too old to live wholly upon its mother's
+milk, and partly, perhaps, because of
+the poor food that the mothers, even of
+the higher classes, live upon, many babies
+in Japan are afflicted with disagreeable
+skin troubles, especially of the scalp
+and face,&mdash;troubles which usually disappear
+as soon as the child becomes accustomed
+to the regular food of the adult.
+Another consequence, as I imagine, of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+lack of proper food at the teething period,
+is the early loss of the child's first teeth,
+which usually turn black and decay some
+time before the second teeth begin to show
+themselves. With the exception of these
+two troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy,
+hearty, and happy to an extraordinary degree,
+and show that most of the conditions
+of their lives are wholesome. The
+constant out-of-door life and the healthful
+dress serve to make up in considerable
+measure for the poor food, and the Japanese
+baby, though small after the manner
+of the race, is usually plump, and of firm,
+hard flesh. One striking characteristic of
+the Japanese baby is, that at a very early
+age it learns to cling like a kitten to the
+back of whoever carries it, so that it is
+really difficult to drop it through carelessness,
+for the baby looks out for its own
+safety like a young monkey. The straps
+that tie it to the back are sufficient for
+safety; but the baby, from the age of one
+month, is dependent upon its own exertions
+to secure a comfortable position, and
+it soon learns to ride its bearer with considerable
+skill, instead of being merely a
+bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+who has ever handled a Japanese baby can
+testify to the amount of intelligence shown
+in this direction at a very early age; and
+this clinging with arms and legs is, perhaps,
+a valuable part of the training which
+gives to the whole nation the peculiar
+quickness of motion and hardness of
+muscle that characterize them from childhood.
+It is the agility and muscular
+quality that belong to wild animals, that
+we see something of in the Indian, but to
+a more marked degree in the Japanese,
+especially of the lower classes.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese baby's first lessons in walking
+are taken under favorable circumstances.
+With feet comfortably shod in the
+soft <i>tabi</i>, or mitten-like sock, babies can
+tumble about as they like, with no bump
+nor bruise, upon the soft matted floors of
+the dwelling houses. There is no furniture
+to fall against, and nothing about the
+room to render falling a thing to be feared.
+After learning the art of walking in the
+house, the baby's first attempts out of
+doors are hampered by the <i>zori</i> or <i>géta</i>,&mdash;a
+light straw sandal or small wooden clog
+attached to the foot by a strap passing between
+the toes. At the very beginning the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+sandal or clog is tied to the baby's foot by
+bits of string fastened around the ankle,
+but this provision for security is soon discarded,
+and the baby patters along like the
+grown people, holding on the <i>géta</i> by the
+strap passing between the toes. This
+somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient
+foot gear must cause many falls at first,
+but baby's experience in the art of balancing
+upon people's backs now aids in this
+new art of balancing upon the little wooden
+clogs. Babies of two or three trot about
+quite comfortably in <i>géta</i> that seem to give
+most insecure footing, and older children
+run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all
+manner of active games upon heavy clogs
+that would wrench our ankles and toes out
+of all possibility of usefulness. This foot
+gear, while producing an awkward, shuffling
+gait, has certain advantages over our
+own, especially for children whose feet are
+growing rapidly. The <i>géta</i>, even if outgrown,
+can never cramp the toes nor compress
+the ankles. If the foot is too long
+for the clog the heel laps over behind, but
+the toes do not suffer, and the use of the
+<i>géta</i> strengthens the ankles by affording
+no artificial aid or support, and giving to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+all the muscles of foot and leg free play,
+with the foot in a natural position. The
+toes of the Japanese retain their prehensile
+qualities to a surprising degree, and are
+used, not only for grasping the foot gear,
+but among mechanics almost like two supplementary
+hands, to aid in holding the
+thing worked upon. Each toe knows its
+work and does it, and they are not reduced
+to the dull uniformity of motion that characterizes
+the toes of a leather-shod nation.</p>
+
+<p>The distinction between the dress of the
+boy and the girl, that one notices from
+childhood, begins in babyhood. A very
+young baby wears red and yellow, but soon
+the boy is dressed in sober colors,&mdash;blues,
+grays, greens, and browns; while the little
+girl still wears the most gorgeous of
+colors and the largest of patterns in her
+garments, red being the predominant hue.
+The sex, even of a young baby, may be distinguished
+by the color of its clothing.
+White, the garb of mourning in Japan, is
+never used for children, but the minutest
+babies are dressed in bright-colored garments,
+and of the same materials&mdash;wadded
+cotton, silk, or crêpe&mdash;as those worn by
+adults of their social grade. As these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
+dresses are not as easily washed as our own
+cambric and flannel baby clothes, there is
+a loss among the poorer classes in the matter
+of cleanliness; and the gorgeous soiled
+gowns are not as attractive as the more
+washable white garments in which our
+babies are dressed. For model clothing
+for a baby, I would suggest a combination
+of the Japanese style with the foreign,
+easily washed materials,&mdash;a combination
+that I have seen used in their own families
+by Japanese ladies educated abroad,
+and one in which the objections to the Japanese
+style of dress are entirely obviated.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese baby begins to practice the
+accomplishment of talking at a very early
+age, for its native language is singularly
+happy in easy expressions for children;
+and little babies will be heard chattering
+away in soft, easily spoken words long before
+they are able to venture alone from
+their perches on their mothers' or nurses'
+backs. A few simple words express much,
+and cover all wants. <i>Iya</i> expresses discontent
+or dislike of any kind, and is also used
+for "no"; <i>mam ma</i> means food; <i>bé bé</i> is the
+dress; <i>ta ta</i> is the sock, or house shoe, etc.
+We find many of the same sounds as in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+baby language of English, with meanings
+totally different. The baby is not troubled
+with difficult grammatical changes, for the
+Japanese language has few inflections; and
+it is too young to be puzzled with the intricacies
+of the various expressions denoting
+different degrees of politeness, which are
+the snare and the despair of the foreigner
+studying Japanese.</p>
+
+<p>As our little girl emerges from babyhood
+she finds the life opening before her
+a bright and happy one, but one hedged
+about closely by the proprieties, and one
+in which, from babyhood to old age, she
+must expect to be always under the control
+of one of the stronger sex. Her position
+will be an honorable and respected one
+only as she learns in her youth the lesson
+of cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners,
+and of personal cleanliness and neatness.
+Her duties must be always either within
+the house, or, if she belongs to the peasant
+class, on the farm. There is no career or
+vocation open to her: she must be dependent
+always upon either father, husband,
+or son, and her greatest happiness is to be
+gained, not by cultivation of the intellect,
+but by the early acquisition of the self-control
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>which is expected of all Japanese women
+to an even greater degree than of the
+men. This self-control must consist, not
+simply in the concealment of all the outward
+signs of any disagreeable emotion,&mdash;whether
+of grief, anger, or pain,&mdash;but in
+the assumption of a cheerful smile and
+agreeable manner under even the most
+distressing of circumstances. The duty of
+self-restraint is taught to the little girls of
+the family from the tenderest years; it is
+their great moral lesson, and is expatiated
+upon at all times by their elders. The little
+girl must sink herself entirely, must give up
+always to others, must never show emotions
+except such as will be pleasing to those
+about her: this is the secret of true politeness,
+and must be mastered if the woman
+wishes to be well thought of and to lead a
+happy life. The effect of this teaching is
+seen in the attractive but dignified manners
+of the Japanese women, and even of the
+very little girls. They are not forward nor
+pushing, neither are they awkwardly bashful;
+there is no self-consciousness, neither
+is there any lack of <i>savoir faire</i>; a childlike
+simplicity is united with a womanly consideration
+for the comfort of those around<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+them. A Japanese child seems to be the
+product of a more perfect civilization than
+our own, for it comes into the world with
+little of the savagery and barbarian bad
+manners that distinguish children in this
+country, and the first ten or fifteen years of
+its life do not seem to be passed in one long
+struggle to acquire a coating of good manners
+that will help to render it less obnoxious
+in polite society. How much of the
+politeness of the Japanese is the result of
+training, and how much is inherited from
+generations of civilized ancestors, it is difficult
+to tell; but my impression is, that
+babies are born into the world with a good
+start in the matter of manners, and that the
+uniformly gentle and courteous treatment
+that they receive from those about them,
+together with the continual verbal teaching
+of the principle of self-restraint and
+thoughtfulness of others, produce with very
+little difficulty the universally attractive
+manners of the people. One curious thing
+in a Japanese household is to see the formalities
+that pass between brothers and
+sisters, and the respect paid to age by
+every member of the family. The grandfather
+and grandmother come first of all in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+everything,&mdash;no one at table must be
+helped before them in any case; after them
+come the father and mother; and lastly,
+the children according to their ages. A
+younger sister must always wait for the
+elder and pay her due respect, even in the
+matter of walking into the room before
+her. The wishes and convenience of the
+elder, rather than of the younger, are to
+be consulted in everything, and this lesson
+must be learned early by children.
+The difference in years may be slight, but
+the elder-born has the first right in all
+cases.</p>
+
+<p>Our little girl's place in the family is a
+pleasant one: she is the pet and plaything
+of father and elder brothers, and she is
+never saluted by any one in the family, except
+her parents, without the title of respect
+due to her position. If she is the
+eldest daughter, to the servants she is <i>O
+Jō Sama</i>, literally, young lady; to her own
+brothers and sisters, <i>Né San</i>, elder sister.
+Should she be one of the younger ones,
+her given name, preceded by the honorific
+<i>O</i> and followed by <i>San</i>, meaning Miss,
+will be the name by which she will be
+called by younger brothers and sisters, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+by the servants. As she passes from babyhood
+to girlhood, and from girlhood to
+womanhood, she is the object of much love
+and care and solicitude; but she does not
+grow up irresponsible or untrained to meet
+the duties which womanhood will surely
+bring to her. She must learn all the duties
+that fall upon the wife and mother of
+a Japanese household, as well as obtain
+the instruction in books and mathematics
+that is coming to be more and more a
+necessity for the women of Japan. She
+must take a certain responsibility in the
+household; must see that tea is made for
+the guests who may be received by her
+parents,&mdash;in all but the families of highest
+rank, must serve it herself. Indeed, it is
+quite the custom in families of the higher
+classes, should a guest, whom it is desired
+to receive with especial honor, dine at the
+house, to serve the meal, not with the
+family, but separately for the father and
+his visitor; and it is the duty of the wife
+or daughter, oftener the latter, to wait on
+them. This is in honor of the guest, not
+on account of the lack of servants, for there
+may be any number of them within call, or
+even in the back part of the room, ready<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+to receive from the hands of the young girl
+what she has removed. She must, therefore,
+know the proper etiquette of the
+table, how to serve carefully and neatly,
+and, above all, have the skill to ply the <i>saké</i>
+bottle, so that the house may keep up its
+reputation for hospitality. Should guests
+arrive in the absence of her parents, she
+must receive and entertain them until the
+master or mistress of the house returns.
+She also feels a certain care about the behavior
+of the younger members of the
+family, especially in the absence of the
+parents. In these various ways she is
+trained for taking upon herself the cares
+of a household when the time comes. In
+all but the very wealthiest and most aristocratic
+families, the daughters of the house
+do a large part of the simple housework.
+In a house with no furniture, no carpets,
+no bric-à-brac, no mirrors, picture frames
+or glasses to be cared for, no stoves or
+furnaces, no windows to wash, a large part
+of the cooking to be done outside, and no
+latest styles to be imitated in clothing, the
+amount of work to be done by women is
+considerably diminished, but still there remains
+enough to take a good deal of time.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+Every morning there are the beds to be
+rolled up and stored away in the closet, the
+mosquito nets to be taken down, the rooms
+to be swept, dusted, and aired before breakfast.
+Besides this, there is the washing
+and polishing of the <i>engawa</i>, or piazza,
+which runs around the outside of a Japanese
+house between the <i>shoji</i>, or paper
+screens that serve as windows, and the
+<i>amado</i>, or sliding shutters, that are closed
+only at night, or during heavy, driving
+rains. Breakfast is to be cooked and
+served, dishes to be washed (in cold water);
+and then perhaps there is marketing to be
+done, either at shops outside or from the
+vendors of fish and vegetables who bring
+their huge baskets of provisions to the
+door; but after these duties are performed,
+it is possible to sit down quietly to the
+day's work of sewing, studying, or whatever
+else may suit the taste or necessities
+of the housewife. Of sewing there is always
+a good deal to be done, for many
+Japanese dresses must be taken to pieces
+whenever they are washed, and are turned,
+dyed, and made over again and again, so
+long as there is a shred of the original
+material left to work upon. There is washing,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>too, to be done, although neither with
+hot water nor soap; and in the place of
+ironing, the cotton garments, which are
+usually washed without ripping, must be
+hung up on a bamboo pole passed through
+the armholes, and pulled smooth and
+straight before they dry; and the silk,
+always ripped into breadths before washing,
+must be smoothed while wet upon a
+board which is set in the sun until the silk
+is dry.</p>
+
+<p>Then there are the every day dishes
+which our Japanese maiden must learn to
+prepare. The proper boiling of rice is in
+itself a study. The construction of the various
+soups which form the staple in the
+Japanese bill of fare; the preparation of
+<i>mochi</i>, a kind of rice dough, which is
+prepared at the New Year, or to send to
+friends on various festival occasions: these
+and many other branches of the culinary
+art must be mastered before the young girl
+is prepared to assume the cares of married
+life.</p>
+
+<p>But though the little girl's life is not
+without its duties and responsibilities, it is
+also not at all lacking in simple and innocent
+pleasures.<a name="APXanchor_24" id="APXanchor_24" href="#APX_24" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> First among the annual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+festivals, and bringing with it much mirth
+and frolic, comes the Feast of the New
+Year. At this time father, mother, and
+all older members of the family lay aside
+their work and their dignity, and join in
+the fun and sports that are characteristic
+of this season. Worries and anxieties are
+set aside with the close of the year, and the
+first beams of the New Year's sun bring in
+a season of unlimited joy for the children.
+For about one week the festival
+lasts, and the festal spirit remains through
+the whole month, prompting to fun and
+amusements of all kinds. From early
+morning until bedtime the children wear
+their prettiest clothes, in which they play
+without rebuke. Guests come and go,
+bringing congratulations to the family,
+and often gifts for all. The children's
+stock of toys is thus greatly increased, and
+the house overflows with the good things
+of the season, of which <i>mochi</i>, or cake made
+from rice dough, prepared always especially
+for this time, is one of the most important
+articles.</p>
+
+<p>The children are taken with their parents
+to make New Year's visits to their
+friends and to offer them congratulations,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+and much they enjoy this, as, dressed in
+their best, they ride from house to house
+in <i>jinrikishas</i>.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>And then, during the long, happy evenings,
+the whole family, including even the
+old grandfather and grandmother, join in
+merry games; the servants, too, are invited
+to join the family party, and, without seeming
+forward or out of place, enter into
+the games with zest. One of the favorite
+games is "<i>Hyaku nin isshu</i>," literally "The
+poems of a hundred poets." It consists of
+two hundred cards, on each of which is
+printed either the first or last half of one
+of the hundred famous Japanese poems
+which give the name to the game. The
+poems are well known to all Japanese, of
+whatever sort or condition. All Japanese
+poems are short, containing only thirty-one
+syllables, and have a natural division
+into two parts. The one hundred cards
+containing the latter halves of the poems
+are dealt and laid out in rows, face upward,
+before the players. One person is appointed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>reader. To him are given the remaining
+hundred cards, and he reads the
+beginnings of the poems in whatever order
+they come from the shuffled pack. Skill
+in the game consists in remembering
+quickly the line following the one read,
+and rapidly finding the card on which it is
+written. Especially does the player watch
+his own cards, and if he finds there the
+end of the poem, the beginning of which
+has just been read, he must pick it up before
+any one sees it and lay it aside. If
+some one else spies the card first, he seizes
+it and gives to the careless player several
+cards from his own hand. Whoever first
+disposes of all his cards is the winner.
+The players usually arrange themselves in
+two lines down the middle of the room, and
+the two sides play against each other, the
+game not being ended until either one side
+or the other has disposed of all its cards.
+The game requires great quickness of
+thought and of motion, and is invaluable
+in giving to all young people an education
+in the classical poetry of their own nation,
+as well as being a source of great merriment
+and jollity among young and old.</p>
+
+<p>Scattered throughout the year are various
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>flower festivals, when, often with her
+whole family, our little girl visits the
+famous gardens where the plum, the
+cherry, the chrysanthemum, the iris, or
+the azalea attain their greatest loveliness,
+and spends the day out of doors in æsthetic
+enjoyment of the beauties of nature
+supplemented by art. And then there is
+the feast most loved in the whole year, the
+Feast of Dolls, when on the third day of the
+third month the great fire-proof storehouse
+gives forth its treasures of dolls,&mdash;in an
+old family, many of them hundreds of years
+old,&mdash;and for three days, with all their
+belongings of tiny furnishings in silver,
+lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme,
+arranged on red-covered shelves in the
+finest room of the house. Most prominent
+among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor
+and Empress in antique court costume,
+seated in dignified calm, each on a
+lacquered dais. Near them are the figures
+of the five court musicians in their robes
+of office, each with his instrument. Beside
+these dolls, which are always present
+and form the central figures at the feast,
+numerous others, more plebeian, but more
+lovable, find places on the lower shelves,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+and the array of dolls' furnishings which
+is brought out on these occasions is something
+marvelous. It was my privilege to
+be present at the Feast of Dolls in the
+house of one of the <i>Tokugawa daimiōs</i>, a
+house in which the old forms and ceremonies
+were strictly observed, and over
+which the wave of foreign innovation had
+passed so slightly that even the calendar
+still remained unchanged, and the feast
+took place upon the third day of the third
+month of the old Japanese year, instead of
+on the third day of March, which is the
+usual time for it now. At this house,
+where the dolls had been accumulating for
+hundreds of years, five or six broad, red-covered
+shelves, perhaps twenty feet long
+or more, were completely filled with them
+and with their belongings. The Emperor
+and Empress appeared again and again, as
+well as the five court musicians, and the
+tiny furnishings and utensils were wonderfully
+costly and beautiful. Before each
+Emperor and Empress was set an elegant
+lacquered table service,&mdash;tray, bowls, cups,
+<i>saké</i> pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete;
+and in each utensil was placed the appropriate
+variety of food. The <i>saké</i> used on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+this occasion is a sweet, white liquor,
+brewed especially for this feast, as different
+from the ordinary <i>saké</i> as sweet cider is
+from the hard cider upon which a man
+may drink himself into a state of intoxication.<a name="APXanchor_30" id="APXanchor_30" href="#APX_30" class="apxanchor">[*]</a>
+Besides the table service, everything
+that an imperial doll can be expected to
+need or desire is placed upon the shelves.
+Lacquered <i>norimono</i>, or palanquins; lacquered
+bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged
+black bulls,&mdash;these were the conveyances
+of the great in Old Japan, and these, in
+minute reproductions, are placed upon the
+red-covered shelves. Tiny silver and brass
+<i>hibachi</i>, or fire boxes, are there, with their
+accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets,&mdash;whole
+kitchens, with everything required
+for cooking the finest of Japanese
+feasts, as finely made as if for actual
+use; all the necessary toilet apparatus,&mdash;combs,
+mirrors, utensils for blackening the
+teeth, for shaving the eyebrows, for reddening
+the lips and whitening the face,&mdash;all
+these things are there to delight the souls
+of all the little girls who may have the opportunity
+to behold them. For three days
+the imperial effigies are served sumptuously
+at each meal, and the little girls of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+the family take pleasure in serving their
+imperial majesties; but when the feast
+ends, the dolls and their belongings are
+packed away in their boxes, and lodged in
+the fire-proof warehouse for another year.</p>
+
+<p>The Tokugawa collection, of which I
+have spoken, is remarkably full and costly,
+for it has been making for hundreds of
+years in one of the younger branches of a
+family which for two and a half centuries
+was possessed of almost imperial power,
+and lived in more than imperial luxury;
+but there are few households so poor that
+they do not from year to year accumulate
+a little store of toys wherewith to celebrate
+the feast, and, whether the toys are
+many or few, the feast is the event of
+the year in the lives of the little girls of
+Japan.<a name="APXanchor_31" id="APXanchor_31" href="#APX_31" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Beside the regular feasts at stated seasons,
+our little girl has a great variety of
+toys and games, some belonging to particular
+seasons, some played at any time
+during the year. At the New Year the
+popular out-of-door games are battledoor
+and shuttlecock, and ball. There is no
+prettier sight, to my mind, than a group
+of little girls in their many-colored wide-sleeved
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>dresses playing with battledoor or
+ball. The graceful, rhythmic motion of
+their bodies, the bright upturned eyes, the
+laughing faces, are set off to perfection by
+the coloring of their flowing drapery; and
+their agility on their high, lacquered clogs
+is a constant source of wonder and admiration
+to any one who has ever made
+an effort to walk upon the clumsy things.
+There are dolls, too, that are not relegated
+to the storehouse when the Feast of Dolls
+is ended, but who are the joy and comfort
+of their little mothers during the whole
+year; and at every <i>kwan-ko-ba</i>, or bazaar,
+an endless variety of games, puzzles, pictures
+to be cut out and glued together, and
+amusements of all kinds, may be purchased
+at extremely low rates. There is no dearth
+of games for our little girl, and many
+pleasant hours are spent in the household
+sitting room with games, or conundrums,
+or stories, or the simple girlish chatter
+that elicits constant laughter from sheer
+youthful merriment.</p>
+
+<p>As for fairy tales, so dear to the hearts
+of children in every country, the Japanese
+child has her full share. Often she listens,
+half asleep, while cuddling under the warm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+quilted cover of the <i>kotatsu</i>,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> in the cold
+winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the
+old grandmother or nurse, who carries her
+away on the wings of imagination to the
+wonderful palace of the sea gods, or to the
+haunts of the terrible <i>oni</i>, monsters with
+red, distorted faces and fearful horns.
+Momotaro, the Peach Boy, with his wonderful
+feats in the conquest of the <i>oni</i>, is
+her hero, until he is supplanted by the
+more real ones of Japanese history.</p>
+
+<p>There are occasional all-day visits to the
+theatre, too, where, seated on the floor in
+a box, railed off from those adjoining, our
+little girl, in company with her mother and
+sisters, enjoys, though with paroxysms of
+horror and fear, the heroic historical plays
+which are now almost all that is left of the
+heroic old Japan. Here she catches the
+spirit of passionate loyalty that belonged
+to those days, forms her ideals of what a
+noble Japanese woman should be willing
+to do for parents or husband, and comes
+away taught, as she could be by no other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+teaching, what the spirit was that animated
+her ancestors,&mdash;what spirit must
+animate her, should she wish to be a
+worthy descendant of the women of old.</p>
+
+<p>Among these surroundings, with these
+duties and amusements, our little girl
+grows to womanhood. The unconscious
+and beautiful spirit of her childhood is not
+driven away at the dawn of womanhood by
+thoughts of beaux, of coming out in society,
+of a brief career of flirtation and conquest,
+and at the end as fine a marriage,
+either for love or money, as her imagination
+can picture. She takes no thought
+for these things herself, and her intercourse
+with young men, though free and
+unconstrained, has about it no grain of
+flirtation or romantic interest. When the
+time comes for her to marry, her father
+will have her meet some eligible young
+man, and both she and the young man will
+know, when they are brought together,
+what is the end in view, and will make up
+their minds about the matter. But until
+that time comes, the modest Japanese
+maiden carries on no flirtations, thinks
+little of men except as higher beings to
+be deferred to and waited on, and preserves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+the childlike innocence of manner, combined
+with a serene dignity under all circumstances,
+that is so noticeable a trait
+in the Japanese woman from childhood to
+old age.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese woman is, under this discipline,
+a finished product at the age of
+sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet,
+and amiable, with great power of self-control,
+and a knowledge of what to do upon
+all occasions. The higher part of her nature
+is little developed; no great religious
+truths have lifted her soul above the world
+into a clearer and higher atmosphere; but
+as far as she goes, in regard to all the little
+things of daily life, she is bright, industrious,
+sweet-tempered, and attractive, and
+prepared to do well her duty, when that
+duty comes to her, as wife and mother and
+mistress of a household. The highest
+principle upon which she is taught to act
+is obedience, even to the point of violating
+all her finest feminine instincts, at the
+command of father or husband; and acting
+under that principle, she is capable of an
+entire self-abnegation such as few women
+of any race can achieve.</p>
+
+<p>With the close of her childhood, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+happiest period in the life of a Japanese
+woman closes. The discipline that she
+has received so far, repressive and constant
+as it has often been, has been from kind
+and loving parents. She has freedom, to
+a certain degree, such as is unknown to
+any other country in Asia. In the home
+she is truly loved, often the pet and plaything
+of the household, though not receiving
+the caresses and words of endearment
+that children in America expect as a right,
+for love in Japan is undemonstrative.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> But
+just at the time when her mind broadens,
+and the desire for knowledge and self-improvement
+develops, the restraints and
+checks upon her become more severe. Her
+sphere seems to grow narrower, difficulties
+one by one increase, and the young girl,
+who sees life before her as something
+broad and expansive, who looks to the future
+with expectant joy, may become, in a
+few years, the weary, disheartened woman.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white
+paper, although, except for funerals, this paper must
+have some writing on it, and must be tied with a peculiar
+red and white paper string, in which is inserted the
+<i>noshi</i>, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of colored
+paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of
+every present.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A child is rarely given the name of a living member
+of the family, or of any friend. The father's name,
+slightly modified, is frequently given to a son, and those
+of ancestors long ago dead are sometimes used. One
+reason for this is probably the inconvenience of similar
+names in the same family, and middle names, as a way
+of avoiding this difficulty, are unknown. The father
+usually names the child, but some friend or patron of
+the family may be asked to do it. Names of beautiful
+objects in nature, such as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lotos,
+Gold, are commonly used for girls, while boys of the
+lower classes often rejoice in such appellations as Stone,
+Bear, Tiger, etc. To call a child after a person would
+not be considered any especial compliment.<a name="APXanchor_3" id="APXanchor_3" href="#APX_3" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really
+unnatural and unhygienic, is shown by recent measurements
+taken by the surgeons of the Japanese army.
+These measurements prove that the small stature of the
+Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower
+limbs, which are out of proportion to the rest of the
+body. The sitting from early childhood upon the legs
+bent at the knee, arrests the development of that part of
+the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole
+nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the
+peasants, who stand and walk so much as to secure
+proper development of the legs; but among merchants,
+literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most
+plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables,
+as a necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would
+doubtless in time alter the physique of the Japanese as
+a people.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Sometimes, in the old days, rice water was given to
+babies instead of milk, but it was nearly impossible to
+bring up a baby on this alone. Now both fresh and
+condensed milk are used, where the mother's milk is insufficient,
+but only in those parts of Japan where the
+foreign influence is felt.<a name="APXanchor_11" id="APXanchor_11" href="#APX_11" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> <i>Jinrikisha</i>, or <i>kuruma</i>, a small, light carriage, usually
+with a broad top, which is drawn by a man. The <i>jinrikisha</i>
+is the commonest of all vehicles now in use in Japan.
+<i>Jinrikisha</i>-man and <i>kurumaya</i> are terms commonly used
+for the runner who draws the carriage.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> <i>Kotatsu</i>, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fireplace
+in the floor, over which a wooden frame is set and
+the whole covered by a quilt. The family sit about it in
+cold weather with the quilt drawn up over the feet and
+knees.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Kisses are unknown, and regarded by conservative
+Japanese as an animal and disgusting way of expressing
+affection.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER II.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">EDUCATION.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">So</span> far we have spoken only of the domestic
+training of a Japanese girl. That part
+of her education that she gains through
+teachers and schools must be the subject
+of a separate chapter. Japan differs from
+most Oriental countries in the fact that
+her women are considered worthy of a certain
+amount of the culture that comes from
+the study of books; and although, until
+recently, schools for girls were unknown in
+the empire, nevertheless every woman, except
+those of the lower classes, received instruction
+in the ordinary written language,
+while some were well versed in the Chinese
+classics and the poetic art. These, with
+some musical accomplishment, an acquaintance
+with etiquette and the arts of arranging
+flowers, of making the ceremonial tea,
+and in many cases not only of writing a
+beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as
+well, in the old days made up the whole of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
+an ordinary woman's education. Among
+the lower classes, especially the merchant
+class, instruction was sometimes given in
+the various pantomimic dances which one
+sees most frequently presented by professional
+dancing girls. The art of dancing
+is not usually practiced by women of the
+higher classes, but among the daughters of
+the merchants special dances were learned
+for exhibition at home, or even at the
+<i>matsuri</i> or religious festival, and their performance
+was for the amusement of spectators,
+and not especially for the pleasure
+of the dancers themselves. These dances
+are modest and graceful, but from the fact
+that they are always learned for entertaining
+an audience, however small and select,
+and are most frequently performed by professional
+dancers of questionable character,
+the more refined and higher class Japanese
+do not care especially to have their
+daughters learn them.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days, little girls were not sent
+to school, but, going to the house of a
+private teacher, received the necessary instruction
+in reading, and writing. The
+writing and reading at the beginning, are
+taught simultaneously, the teacher writing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+a letter upon a sheet of paper and telling
+the scholar its name, and the scholar writing
+it over and over until, by the time she
+has acquired the necessary skill in writing
+it, both name and form are indelibly imprinted
+upon her memory. To write, with
+a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft
+paper, the hand entirely without support, is
+an art that seldom can be acquired by a
+grown person, but when learned in childhood
+it gives great deftness in whatever
+other art may be subsequently studied.
+This is perhaps the reason why the Japanese
+value a good handwriting more
+highly than any other accomplishment, for
+it denotes a manual dexterity that is the
+secret of success in all the arts, and one
+who writes the Chinese characters well and
+rapidly can quickly learn to do anything
+else with the fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The fault that one finds with the Japanese
+system&mdash;a fault that lies deeper than
+the mere methods of teaching, and has its
+root in the ideographic character of the
+written language&mdash;is that, while it cultivates
+the memory and powers of observation
+to a remarkable extent, and while it
+gives great skill in the use of the fingers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>
+it affords little opportunity for the development
+of the reasoning powers.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+years of study that are required for mastering
+the written language, so as to be able
+to grasp the thoughts already given to the
+world, leave comparatively little time for
+the conducting of any continuous thought
+on one's own account, and so we find in
+Japanese scholars&mdash;whether boys or girls&mdash;quickness
+of apprehension, retentive
+memories, industry and method in their
+study of their lessons, but not much originality
+of thought. This result comes, I
+believe, from the nature of the written
+language and the difficulties that attend
+the mastery of it; as a consequence of
+which, an educated man or woman becomes
+simply a student of other men's
+thoughts and sayings about things instead
+of being a student of the things themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Music in Japan is an accomplishment
+reserved almost entirely for women, for
+priests, and for blind men. It seems to
+me quite fortunate that the musical art
+is not more generally practiced, as Japanese
+music, as a rule, is far from agreeable
+to the untrained ear of the outside
+barbarian.<a name="APXanchor_41" id="APXanchor_41" href="#APX_41" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> The <i>koto</i> is the pleasantest of
+the Japanese instruments, but probably on
+account of its large size, which makes it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese
+house, it is used most among the higher
+classes, from the <i>samurai</i><a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> upwards. The
+<i>koto</i> is an embryo piano, a horizontal
+sounding-board, some six feet long, upon
+which are stretched strings supported by
+ivory bridges. It is played by means of
+ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, forefinger,
+and middle finger of the right hand,
+and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
+those of the harp. The player sits
+before the <i>koto</i> on knees and heels, in the
+ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions
+are very graceful and pretty as she
+touches the strings, often supplementing
+the strains of the instrument with her
+voice. The teaching of this instrument
+and of the <i>samisen</i>, or Japanese guitar, is
+almost entirely in the hands of blind men,
+who in Japan support themselves by the
+two professions of music and massage,&mdash;all
+the blind, who cannot learn the former,
+becoming adepts in the latter profession.</p>
+
+<p>The arrangement of flowers is taught as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+a fine art, and much time may be spent in
+learning how, by clipping, bending, and
+fixing in its place in the vase, each spray
+and twig may be made to look as if actually
+growing, for flower arranging is not
+merely to show the flower itself, but includes
+the proper arrangement of the
+branches, twigs, and leaves of plants. The
+flower plays only a small part, and is not
+used in decoration, except on the branch
+and stem as it is in nature, and the art
+consists in the preservation of the natural
+bend and growth when fixed in the vase.
+In every case, each branch has certain
+curves, which must be in harmony with the
+whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the
+flowering plum are much used.</p>
+
+<p>Teachers spend much time in showing
+proper and improper combinations of different
+flowers, as well as the arrangement
+of them. Many different styles have come
+up, originated by the famous teachers who
+have founded various schools of the art,&mdash;an
+art which is unique and exceedingly
+popular, requiring artistic talent and a
+cultivated eye. One often sees, on going
+into the guest room of a Japanese house, a
+vase containing gracefully arranged flowers
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>set in the <i>tokonoma</i>, or raised alcove of
+the room, under the solitary <i>kakémono</i><a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+that forms the chief ornament of the
+apartment. As these two things, the vase
+of flowers and the hanging scroll, are the
+only adornments, it is more necessary that
+the flowers should be carefully arranged,
+than in our crowded rooms, where a vase
+of flowers may easily escape the eye, perplexed
+by the multitude of objects which
+surround it.</p>
+
+<p>The ceremonial tea must not be confounded
+with the ordinary serving of tea
+for refreshment. The proper making, and
+serving, and drinking of the ceremonial
+tea is the most formal of social observances,
+each step in which is prescribed by a rigid
+code of etiquette. The tea, instead of
+being the whole leaf, such as is used for
+ordinary occasions, is a fine, green powder.
+The infusion is made, not in a small pot,
+from which it is poured out into cups,
+but in a bowl, into which the hot water is
+poured from a dipper on to the powdered
+tea. The mixture is stirred with a bamboo
+whisk until it foams, then handed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+much ceremony to the guest, who takes it
+with equal ceremony and drinks it from
+the bowl, emptying the receptacle at three
+gulps. Should there be a number of guests,
+tea is made for each in turn, in the order
+of their rank, in the same bowl. For this
+ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is
+used, all of antique and severely simple
+style. The charcoal used for heating the
+water is of a peculiar variety; and the
+room in which the tea is made and served
+is built for that special purpose, and kept
+sacred for that use. This art, which is
+often part of the education of women of
+the higher classes, is taught by regular
+teachers, often by gentlewomen who have
+fallen into distressed circumstances.<a name="APXanchor_45" id="APXanchor_45" href="#APX_45" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> I remember
+with great vividness a visit paid
+to an old lady living near a provincial
+city of Japan, who had for years supported
+herself by giving lessons in this politest
+of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest
+and neatest type, seemed filled to overflowing
+by three foreigners, whom she received
+with the courtliest of welcomes. At
+the request of my friend, an American lady
+engaged in missionary work in that part of
+the country, she gave us a lesson in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every motion,
+from the bringing in and arranging
+of the utensils to the final rinsing and
+wiping of the tea bowl, was according to
+rules strictly laid down, and the whole
+ceremony had more the solemnity of a religious
+ritual than the lightness and gayety
+of a social occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Etiquette of all kinds is not left in
+Japan to chance, to be learned by observation
+and imitation of any model that may
+present itself, but is taught regularly by
+teachers who make a specialty of it. Everything
+in the daily life has its rules, and the
+etiquette teacher has them all at her fingers'
+ends. There have been several famous
+teachers of etiquette, and they have formed
+systems which differ in minor points, while
+agreeing in the principal rules. The etiquette
+of bowing, the position of the body,
+the arms, and the head while saluting, the
+methods of shutting and opening the door,
+rising and sitting down on the floor, the
+manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all,
+with the minutest details, taught to the
+young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather
+irksome. I know two young girls of new
+Japan who find nothing so wearisome as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be
+excused from it. I have heard them, after
+their teacher had left, slyly make fun of
+her stiff and formal manners. Such people
+as she will, I fear, soon belong only to the
+past, though it still remains to be seen
+how much of European manners will be
+engrafted on the old formalities of Japanese
+life. It is, perhaps, because of this
+regular teaching in the ways of polite society,
+that the Japanese girl seems never at
+a loss, even under unusual circumstances,
+but bears herself with self-possession in
+places where young girls in America would
+be embarrassed and awkward.</p>
+
+<p>But the Japanese are rapidly finding out
+that this busy nineteenth century gives
+little time for learning how to shut and
+open doors in the politest manner, and indeed
+such things under the newly established
+school system are now relegated entirely
+to the girls' schools, the boys having
+no lessons in etiquette.</p>
+
+<p>The method of teaching flower-painting
+is so interesting that I must speak of it
+before I leave the subject of accomplishments.
+I have said that the acquisition of
+skill in writing the Chinese characters was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+the best possible preparation for skill in all
+other arts. This is especially true of the
+art of painting, which is simply the next
+step, after writing has been learned. The
+painting master, when he comes to the
+house, brings no design as a model, but
+sits down on the floor before the little
+desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with
+great rapidity the design that he wishes
+the pupil to copy. It may be simply two
+or three blades of grass upon which the
+pupil makes a beginning, but she is expected
+to make her picture with exactly
+the same number of bold strokes that the
+master puts into his. Again and again
+she blunders her strokes on to a sheet of
+paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet
+has been spoiled, she begins to see some
+semblance of the master's copy in her own
+daub. She perseveres, making copy after
+copy, until she is able from memory to put
+upon the paper at a moment's notice the
+three blades of grass to her master's satisfaction.
+Only then can she go on to a
+new copy, and only after many such designs
+have been committed to memory,
+and the free, dashing stroke necessary for
+Japanese painting has been acquired, is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+she allowed to undertake any copying from
+nature, or original designing.<a name="APXanchor_49" id="APXanchor_49" href="#APX_49" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have dwelt thus far only upon the entirely
+Japanese education that was permitted
+to women under the old régime.
+That it was an effective and refining system,
+all can testify who have made the acquaintance
+of any of the charming Japanese
+ladies whose schooling was finished
+before Commodore Perry disturbed the repose
+of old Japan. As I write, the image
+comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright-eyed
+little gentlewoman with whom it was
+my good fortune to become intimately acquainted
+during my stay in Tōkyō. A
+widow, left penniless, with one child to
+support, she earned the merest pittance
+by teaching sewing at one of the government
+schools in Tōkyō; but in all the circumstances
+of her life, narrow and busy
+as it needs must be, she proved herself a
+lady through and through. Polite, cheerful,
+an intelligent and cultivated reader,
+a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and careful
+mother, a true and helpful friend, her
+memory is associated with many of my
+pleasantest hours in Japan, and she is but
+one of the many who bear witness to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+culture that might be acquired by women
+in the old days.</p>
+
+<p>But the Japan of old is not the Japan
+of to-day, and in the school system now
+prevalent throughout the empire girls and
+boys are equally provided for. First the
+schools established by the various missionary
+societies, and then the government
+schools, offered to girls a broader education
+than the old instruction in Chinese, in
+etiquette, and in accomplishments. Now,
+every morning, the streets of the cities and
+villages are alive with boys and girls clattering
+along, with their books and lunch
+boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten,
+primary, grammar, high, or normal school.
+Every rank in life, every grade in learning,
+may find its proper place in the new school
+system, and the girls eagerly grasp their
+opportunities, and show themselves apt
+and willing students of the new learning
+offered to them.</p>
+
+<p>By the new system, at its present stage
+of development, too much is expected of
+the Japanese boy or girl. The work required
+would be a burden to the quickest
+mind. The whole of the old education in
+Japanese and Chinese literature and composition&mdash;an
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>education requiring the best
+years of a boy's life&mdash;is given, and grafted
+upon this, our common-school and high-school
+studies of mathematics, geography,
+history, and natural science. In addition
+to these, at all higher schools, one foreign
+language is required, and often two, English
+ranking first in the popular estimation.
+Many a headache do the poor, hard-working
+students have over the puzzling
+English language, in which they have to
+begin at the wrong end of the book and
+read across the page from left to right, instead
+of from top to bottom, and from right
+to left, as is natural to them. But in spite
+of its hard work, the new school life is
+cheerful and healthful, and the children
+enjoy it. It helps them to be really children,
+and, while they are young, to be
+merry and playful, not dignified and formal
+little ladies at all times. Upon the young
+girls, the influence of the schools is to
+make them more independent, self-reliant,
+and stronger women. In the houses of
+the higher classes, even now, much of the
+old-time system of repression is still in
+force. Children are indeed "seen but not
+heard," and from the time when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+learn to walk they must learn to be polite
+and dignified. At school, the more progressive
+feeling of the times predominates
+among the authorities, and the children
+are encouraged to unbend and enjoy themselves
+in games and frolics, as true children
+should do. Much is done for the pleasure
+of the little ones, who often enjoy school
+better than home, and declare that they do
+not like holidays.<a name="APXanchor_52" id="APXanchor_52" href="#APX_52" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the young girl, who has finished
+this pleasant school life, with all its advantages,
+is not as well fitted as under
+the old system for the duties and trials
+of married life, unless under exceptional
+circumstances, where the husband chosen
+has advanced ideas. To those teaching the
+young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of
+how to educate them aright is a deep one,
+and with each newly trained girl sent out
+go many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in
+regard to the training she has had as a
+preparation for the new life she is about to
+enter. The few, the pioneers, will have to
+suffer for the happiness and good of the
+many, for the problem of grafting the new
+on to the old is indeed a difficult one, to be
+solved only after many experiments.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span></p><p>There are many difficulties which lie in
+the way of the new schools that must be
+met, studied, and overcome. One of them
+is the one already referred to, the problem
+of how best to combine the new and the
+old in the school curriculum. That the old
+learning and literature, the old politeness
+and sweetness of manner, must not be
+given up or made little of, is evident to
+every right-minded student of the matter.
+That the newer and broader culture, with
+its higher morality, its greater development
+of the best powers of the mind, must
+play a large part in the Japan of the future,
+there is not a shadow of doubt, and
+the women must not be left behind in the
+onward movement of the nation. But how
+to give to the young minds the best products
+of the thought of two such distinct
+civilizations is a question that is as yet unanswered,
+and cannot be satisfactorily settled
+until the effect of the new education
+has begun to show itself in a generation or
+so of graduates from the new schools. Another
+difficulty is in the matter of health.
+Most of the new school-houses are fitted
+with seats and desks, such as are found
+in American schools. Many of them are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+heated by stoves or furnaces. The scholars
+in most cases wear the Japanese dress,
+which in winter is made warm enough to
+be worn in rooms having no artificial heat.
+Put this warm costume into an artificially
+heated room and the result is an over-heating
+of the body, and a subsequent chill
+when the pupil goes, with no extra covering,
+into the keen out-of-door air. From
+this cause alone, arise many colds and
+lung troubles, which can be prevented
+when more experience has shown how the
+costumes of the East and West can be combined
+to suit the new conditions. Another
+part of the health problem lies in the fact
+that in many cases the parents do not
+understand the proper care of a growing
+girl, ambitious to excel in her studies. Instead
+of the regular hours, healthful food,
+and gentle restraint that a girl needs under
+those circumstances, our little Japanese
+maiden is allowed to sit up to any hour of
+the night, or arise at any hour in the
+morning, to prepare her lessons, is given
+food of most indigestible quality at all
+hours of the day between her regular meals,
+and is frequently urged to greater mental
+exertion than her delicate body can endure.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p><p>Another difficulty, in fitting the new
+school system into the customs of the people,
+lies in the early age at which marriages
+are contracted. Before the girl has
+finished her school course, her parents begin
+to wonder whether there is not danger
+of her being left on their hands altogether,
+if they do not hand her over to the first
+eligible young man who presents himself.
+Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight,
+and remains in school until her course is
+finished; more often she succumbs and is
+married off, bids a weeping farewell to her
+teachers and schoolmates, and leaves the
+school, to become a wife at sixteen, a
+mother at eighteen, and an old woman at
+thirty. In some cases, the breaking down
+of a girl's health may be traced to threats
+on the part of her parents that, if she does
+not take a certain rank in her studies, she
+will be taken from school and married off.<a name="APXanchor_55" id="APXanchor_55" href="#APX_55" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>These are difficulties that may be overcome
+when a generation has been educated
+who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes
+that now endanger the health of a Japanese
+school-girl. In the mean time, boarding
+schools, that can attend to matters of
+health and hygiene among the girls, would,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+if they could be conducted with the proper
+admixture of Eastern and Western learning
+and manners, do a great deal toward
+educating that generation. The missionary
+schools do much in this direction, but
+the criticism of the Japanese upon the
+manners of the girls educated in missionary
+schools is universally severe. To a
+foreigner who has lived almost entirely
+among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese
+education, the manners of the girls in these
+schools seem brusque and awkward; and
+though they are many of them noble
+women and doing noble work, there is
+room for hope that in the future of Japan
+the charm of manner which is the distinguishing
+feature of the Japanese woman
+will not be lost by contact with our Western
+shortness and roughness. A happy
+mean undoubtedly can be reached; and
+when it is, the women of new Japan will
+be able to bear a not unfavorable comparison
+with the women of the old régime.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The Japanese written language is a strange combination
+of Chinese and Japanese, to read which a knowledge
+of the Chinese characters is necessary. Chinese literature
+written in the Chinese ideographs, which of course give
+no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the
+Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order
+of words in the sentence. When there have not been
+exact equivalent Japanese words, a Chinese term has
+come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well
+engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and
+spoken. In the forming of new words and technical
+terms Chinese words are used, as the Greek and Latin
+are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin
+of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from
+the Chinese about the sixth century <span class="ucsmcap">A. D.</span> their cleverly
+planned but most complex method of expressing
+thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese literature
+has done much for Japan, and to master this
+language is one of the essentials in the education of every
+boy. At least seven or eight thousand characters must
+be learned for daily use, and there are several different
+styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as
+many, or even more, must be mastered in order to read
+the various works in that rich literature.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty-eight
+letters, and in books and newspapers for the common
+people is printed, by the side of the Chinese character,
+the rendering of it, in the letters of the <i>kana</i>, or
+Japanese alphabet.<a name="APXanchor_40" id="APXanchor_40" href="#APX_40" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the
+study of Chinese. She will, of course, learn a few of the
+most common characters, such as are used in letter-writing,
+and for the rest she will read by the help of the
+<i>kana</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The <i>samurai</i> in the feudal times were the hereditary
+retainers of a <i>daimiō</i>, or feudal lord. They formed the
+military and literary class. For further information, <a href="#Page_196">see
+chap. viii.</a>, on <i>Samurai Women</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>Kakémono</i>, a hanging scroll, upon which a picture is
+painted, or some poem or sentiment written.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER III.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">When</span> the Japanese maiden arrives at
+the age of sixteen, or thereabouts, she is
+expected as a matter of course to marry.
+She is usually allowed her choice in regard
+to whether she will or will not marry a
+certain man, but she is expected to marry
+some one, and not to take too much time
+in making up her mind. The alternative
+of perpetual spinsterhood is never considered,
+either by herself or her parents.
+Marriage is as much a matter of course
+in a woman's life as death, and is no more
+to be avoided. This being the case, our
+young woman has only as much liberty of
+choice accorded to her as is likely to provide
+against a great amount of unhappiness
+in her married life. If she positively
+objects to the man who is proposed to her,
+she is seldom forced to marry him, but no
+more cordial feeling than simple toleration
+is expected of her before marriage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p><p>The courtship is somewhat after the following
+manner. A young man, who finds
+himself in a position to marry, speaks to
+some married friend, and asks him to be
+on the lookout for a beautiful<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and accomplished
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>maiden, who would be willing
+to become his wife. The friend, acting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"><br />[60]</a></span>
+rather as advance agent, makes a canvass
+of all the young maidens of his acquaintance,
+inquiring among his friends;
+and finally decides that so-and-so (Miss
+Flower, let us say) will be a very good
+match for his friend. Having arrived at
+this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's
+parents and lays the case of his friend before
+them. Should they approve of the
+suitor, a party is arranged at the house
+of some common friend, where the young
+people may have a chance to meet each
+other and decide each upon the other's
+merits. Should the young folks find no
+fault with the match, presents are exchanged,<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>
+a formal betrothal is entered
+into, and the marriage is hastened forward.
+All arrangements between the contracting
+parties are made by go-betweens,
+or seconds, who hold themselves responsible
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>for the success of the marriage, and
+must be concerned in the divorce proceedings,
+should divorce become desirable or
+necessary.</p>
+
+<p>The marriage ceremony, which seems to
+be neither religious nor legal in its nature,<a name="APXanchor_61a" id="APXanchor_61a" href="#APX_61a" class="apxanchor">[*]</a>
+takes place at the house of the groom, to
+which the bride is carried, accompanied by
+her go-betweens, and, if she be of the
+higher classes, by her own confidential
+maid, who will serve her as her personal
+attendant in the new life in her husband's
+house. The trousseau and household goods,
+which the bride is expected to bring with
+her, are sent before.<a name="APXanchor_61b" id="APXanchor_61b" href="#APX_61b" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> The household goods
+required by custom as a part of the outfit
+of every bride are as follows: A bureau; a
+low desk or table for writing; a work-box;
+two of the lacquer trays or tables on which
+meals are served, together with everything
+required for furnishing them, even to the
+chopsticks; and two or more complete sets
+of handsome bed furnishings. The trousseau
+will contain, if the bride be of a well-to-do
+family, dresses for all seasons, and
+handsome sashes without number; for the
+unchanging fashions of Japan, together
+with the durable quality of the dress material,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>make it possible for a woman, at the
+time of her marriage, to enter her husband's
+house with a supply of clothing that
+may last her through her lifetime. The
+parents of the bride, in giving up their
+daughter, as they do when she marries,
+show the estimation in which they have
+held her by the beauty and completeness
+of the trousseau with which they provide
+her. This is her very own; and in the
+event of a divorce, she brings back with
+her to her father's house the clothing and
+household goods that she carried away as
+a bride.</p>
+
+<p>With the bride and her trousseau are
+sent a great number of presents from the
+family of the bride to the members of the
+groom's household. Each member of the
+family, from the aged grandfather to the
+youngest grandchild, receives some remembrance
+of the occasion; and even the servants
+and retainers, down to the <i>jinrikisha</i>
+men, and the <i>bettō</i> in the stables, are not
+forgotten by the bride's relatives. Beside
+this present-giving, the friends and relatives
+of the bride and groom, as in this
+country, send gifts to the young couple,
+often some article for use in the household,
+or crêpe or silk for dresses.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p><p>In old times, the wedding took place in
+the afternoon, but it is now usually celebrated
+in the evening. The ceremony consists
+merely in a formal drinking of the
+native wine (<i>saké</i>) from a two-spouted cup,
+which is presented to the mouths of the
+bride and groom alternately. This drinking
+from one cup is a symbol of the equal
+sharing of the joys and sorrows of married
+life. At the ceremony no one is present
+but the bride and bridegroom, their go-betweens,
+and a young girl, whose duty it
+is to present the cup to the lips of the contracting
+parties. When this is over, the
+wedding guests, who have been assembled
+in the next room during the ceremony,
+join the wedding party, a grand feast is
+spread, and much merriment ensues.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the third day after the wedding, the
+newly married couple are expected to make
+a visit to the bride's family, and for this
+great preparations are made. A large
+party is usually given by the bride's parents,
+either in the afternoon or evening, in
+honor of this occasion, to which the friends<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>
+of the bride's family are invited. The young
+couple bring with them presents from the
+groom's family to the bride's, in return for
+the presents sent on the wedding day.<a name="APXanchor_64" id="APXanchor_64" href="#APX_64" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>The festivities often begin early in the
+afternoon and keep up until late at night.
+A fine dinner is served, and music and
+dancing, by professional performers, or
+some other entertainment, serve to make
+the time pass pleasantly. The bride appears
+as hostess with her mother, entertaining
+the company, and receiving their
+congratulations, and must remain to speed
+the last departing guest, before leaving
+the paternal roof.</p>
+
+<p>Within the course of two or three
+months, the newly married couple are expected
+to give an entertainment, or series
+of entertainments, to their friends, as an
+announcement of the marriage. As the
+wedding ceremony is private, and no notice
+is given, nor are cards sent out, this is
+sometimes the first intimation that is received
+of the marriage by many of the
+acquaintances, though the news of a wedding
+usually travels quickly. The entertainment
+may be a dinner party, given at
+home, or at some tea-house, similar in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+many ways to the one given at the bride's
+home by her parents. Sometimes it is a
+garden party, and very lately it has become
+the fashion for officials and people of high
+rank to give a ball in foreign style.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the entertainment, presents of
+red rice, or <i>mochi</i>, are sent as a token of
+thanks to all who have remembered the
+young couple. These are arranged even
+more elaborately than the ones sent after
+the birth of an heir.</p>
+
+<p>The young people are not, as in this
+country, expected to set up housekeeping
+by themselves, and establish a new home.
+Marriages often take place early in life,
+even before the husband has any means of
+supporting a family; and as a matter of
+course, a son with his wife makes his
+abode with his parents, and forms simply
+a new branch of the household.</p>
+
+<p>The only act required to make the marriage
+legal is the withdrawal of the bride's
+name from the list of her father's family as
+registered by the government, and its entry
+upon the register of her husband's family.
+From that time forward she severs all ties
+with her father's house, save those of
+affection, and is more closely related by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+law and custom to her husband's relatives
+than to her own. Even this legal recognition
+of her marriage is a comparatively
+new thing in Japan, as is any limitation of
+the right of divorce on the part of the
+husband, or extension of that right to the
+wife.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>At present in Japan the marriage relation
+is by no means a permanent one, as it
+is virtually dissoluble at the will of either
+party, and the condition of public opinion
+is such among the lower classes that it is
+not an unknown occurrence for a man to
+marry and divorce several wives in succession;
+and for a woman, who has been
+divorced once or twice, to be willing and
+able to marry well a second or even a third
+time. Among the higher classes, the
+dread of the scandal and gossip, that must
+attach themselves to troubles between man
+and wife, serves as a restraint upon too
+free use of the power of divorce; but still,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+divorces among the higher classes are so
+common now that one meets numerous
+respectable and respected persons who
+have at some time in their lives gone
+through such an experience.</p>
+
+<p>One provision of the law, which serves to
+make most mothers endure any evil of
+married life rather than sue for a divorce,
+is the fact that the children belong to the
+father; and no matter how unfit a person
+he may be to have the care of them, the
+disposal of them in case of a divorce rests
+absolutely with him. A divorced woman
+returns childless to her father's house;
+and many women, in consequence of this
+law or custom, will do their best to keep
+the family together, working the more
+strenuously in this direction, the more
+brutal and worthless the husband proves
+himself to be.</p>
+
+<p>The ancestor worship, as found in Japan,
+the tracing of relationship in the male
+line only, and the generally accepted belief
+that children inherit their qualities
+from their father rather than from the
+mother, make them his children and not
+hers. Thus we often see children of noble
+rank on the father's side, but ignoble on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+the mother's, inherit the rank of their
+father, and not permitted even to recognize
+their mother as in any way their
+equal. If she is plebeian, the children
+are not regarded as tainted by it.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of divorce, even if the law
+allowed the mother to keep her children,
+it would be almost an impossibility for her
+to do so. She has no means of earning
+her bread and theirs, for few occupations
+are open to women, and she is forced to
+become a dependent on her father, or some
+male relative. Whatever they may be
+willing to do for her, it is quite likely that
+they would begrudge aid to the children of
+another family, with whom custom hardly
+recognizes any tie. The children are the
+children of the man whose name they bear.
+If the woman is a favorite daughter, it may
+happen that her father will take her and
+her children under his roof, and support
+them all; but this is a rare exception, and
+only possible when the husband first gives
+up all claim to the children.</p>
+
+<p>There comes to my mind now a case
+illustrating this point, which I think I may
+cite without betraying confidence. It is
+that of a most attractive young woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+who was married to a worthless husband,
+but lived faithfully with him for several
+years, and became the mother of three
+children. The husband, who seemed at
+first merely good-for-nothing, became
+worse as the years went by, drank himself
+out of situation after situation procured
+for him by powerful relatives, and at
+last became so violent that he even beat
+his wife and threatened his children, a
+proceeding most unusual on the part of
+a Japanese husband and father. The poor
+wife was at last obliged to flee from her
+husband's house to her mother's, taking
+her children with her. She sued for a divorce
+and obtained it, and is now married
+again; her youth, good looks, and high
+connections procuring her a very good
+catch for her second venture in matrimony;
+but her children are lost to her,
+and belong wholly to their worthless,
+drunken father.</p>
+
+<p>Of the lack of permanence in the marriage
+relation among the lower classes, the
+domestic changes of one of my servants in
+Tōkyō afford an amusing illustration. The
+man, whom I had hired in the double
+capacity of <i>jinrikisha</i> man and <i>bettō</i> or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+groom, was a strong, faithful, pleasant-faced
+fellow, recently come to Tōkyō from
+the country. I inquired, when I engaged
+him, whether he had a wife, as I wanted
+some one who could remain in his room in
+the stable in care of the horse when he
+was pulling me about in the <i>jinrikisha</i>. He
+replied that he had a wife, but she was now
+at Utsunomiya, the country town from
+which he had come, but he would send for
+her at once, and she would be in Tōkyō in
+the course of a week or two. Two or three
+weeks passed and no wife appeared, so I
+inquired of my cook and head servant
+what had become of Yasaku's wife. He
+replied, with a twinkle in his eye, that she
+had found work in Utsunomiya and did not
+wish to come. A week more passed, and
+still no wife, and further inquiries elicited
+from the cook the information that Yasaku
+had divorced her for disobedience, and was
+on the lookout for a new and more docile
+helpmate. His first thought was of the
+maidservant of the Japanese family who
+lived in the same house with me, a broad-faced,
+red-cheeked country girl, of a very
+low grade of intelligence. He gave this
+up, however, because he thought it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+not be polite to put my friends to inconvenience
+by taking away their servant. His
+next effort was by negotiation through a
+Tōkyō friend; but apparently Yasaku's
+country manners were not to the taste of
+the Tōkyō damsels, for he met with no success,
+and was at last driven to write to his
+father in Utsunomiya asking him to select
+him a wife and bring her down to Tōkyō.</p>
+
+<p>The selection took a week or two, and at
+last my maid told me that Yasaku's wife
+was coming by the next morning's train.
+A look into the <i>bettō's</i> quarters in the
+stable showed great preparations for the
+bride. The mats, new-covered with nice
+straw matting, were white and clean; the
+<i>shoji</i> were mended with new paper; the
+walls covered with bright-colored pictures;
+and various new domestic conveniences
+had nearly bankrupted Yasaku, in spite of
+his large salary of ten dollars a month.
+He had ordered a fine feast at a neighboring
+tea house, had had cards printed with
+his own name in English and Japanese,
+and had altogether been to such great expense
+that he had had to put his winter
+clothes in pawn to secure the necessary
+money.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span></p><p>The day chosen for the marriage was
+rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all his
+time in going to trains, no bridal party
+appeared; and he came home at night disconsolate,
+to smoke his good-night pipe
+over his solitary <i>hibachi</i>. He was, no
+doubt, angry as well as disconsolate, for he
+sat down and penned a severe letter to his
+father, in which he said that, if the bride
+did not appear on the next day counted
+lucky for a wedding (no Japanese would
+be married on an unlucky day), they could
+send her back to her father's house, for he
+would none of her. This letter did its
+work, for on the next lucky day, about ten
+days later, the bride appeared, and Yasaku
+was given two days of holiday on the agreement
+that he should not be married again
+while he remained in my service. On the
+evening of the second day, the bride came
+in to pay me her respects, and, crouching
+on her hands and knees before me, literally
+trembled under the excitement of her
+first introduction to a foreigner. She was
+a girl of rather unattractive exterior, fat
+and heavy, and rather older than Yasaku
+had bargained for, I imagine; at any rate,
+from the first, he seemed dissatisfied with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+his "pig in a poke," and after a couple of
+months sent her home to her parents, and
+was all ready to start out again in the hope
+of better luck next time.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another instance, from the woman's
+side. Upon one occasion, when I
+was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank
+who kept a retinue of servants, the woman
+who came in with the tea bowed and
+smiled upon me as if greeting me after a
+long absence. As I was in and out of the
+house nearly every day, I was a little surprised
+at this demonstration, which was
+quite different from the formal bow that
+is given by the servant to her mistress's
+guest upon ordinary occasions. When she
+went out my friend said, "You see O Kiku
+has come back." As I did not know that
+the woman had been away, the news of
+her return did not affect me greatly until
+I learned the history of her departure. It
+seemed that about a month before, she had
+left her mistress's house to be married;
+and the day before my visit she had quietly
+presented herself, and announced that she
+had come back, if they would take her in.
+My friend had asked her what had happened,&mdash;whether
+she had found her husband
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>unkind. No, her husband was very
+nice, very kind and good, but his mother
+was simply unbearable; she made her work
+so hard that she actually had no time to
+rest at all. She had known before her
+marriage that her proposed mother-in-law
+was a hard task-mistress, but her husband
+had promised that his mother should live
+with his older brother, and they should
+have their housekeeping quite independent
+and separate. As the mother was then
+living with her older son, it seemed unlikely
+that she would care to move, and
+O Kiku San had married on that supposition.
+But it seemed that the wife of the
+older brother was both lazy and bad-tempered,
+and the new wife of the younger
+brother soon proved herself industrious
+and good-natured. As the mother's main
+thought was to go where she would get
+the most comfort and waiting upon, she
+moved from the elder son's house to that
+of her younger son, and began leading her
+new daughter-in-law such a life that she
+soon gave up the effort to live with her
+husband, sued for a divorce, obtained it,
+and was back in her old place, all in a
+month's time from the date of her marriage.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p><p>But our readers must not suppose, from
+the various incidents given, that few
+happy marriages take place in Japan, or
+that, in every rank of life, divorce is of
+every-day occurrence. On the contrary,
+there seems cause for wonder, not that
+there are so many divorces, but that there
+are so many happy marriages, with wives
+and husbands devoted and faithful. For a
+nobleman in the olden times to divorce his
+wife would have caused such a scandal and
+talk that it rarely occurred. If the wife
+were disliked, he need have little or nothing
+to do with her, their rooms, their
+meals, and their attendance being entirely
+separate, but he rarely took away from her
+the name of wife, empty as it might be.
+She usually would be from some other
+noble house, and great trouble would arise
+between the families if he attempted to
+divorce her. The <i>samurai</i> also, with the
+same loyalty which they displayed for their
+lords, were loyal to their wives, and many
+a novel has been written, or play acted,
+showing the devotion of husband and wife.
+The quiet, undemonstrative love, though
+very different from the ravings of a lover
+in the nineteenth century novel, is perhaps
+truer to life.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p><p>Among the merchants and lower classes
+there has been, and is, a much lower standard
+of morality, but the few years which
+have passed since the Revolution of 1868
+are not a fair sample of what Japan has
+been. Noblemen, <i>samurai</i>, and merchants
+have had much to undergo in the great
+changes, and, as is the case in all such
+transition periods, old customs and restraints,
+and old standards of morality,
+have been broken down and have not been
+replaced. There is no doubt that men
+have run to excesses of all sorts, and divorces
+have been much more frequent of
+late years.<a name="APXanchor_76" id="APXanchor_76" href="#APX_76" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Our little Japanese maiden knows, when
+she blackens her teeth, dons her wedding
+dress, and starts on her bridal journey to
+her husband's house, that upon her good
+behavior alone depend her chances of a
+happy life. She is to be henceforth the
+property of a man of whom she probably
+knows little, and who has the power, at
+any whim, to send her back to her father's
+house in disgrace, deprived of her children,
+with nothing to live for or hope for, except
+that some man will overlook the disgrace
+of her divorce, and by marrying her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+give her the only opportunity that a Japanese
+woman can have of a home other
+than that of a servant or dependent. That
+these evils will be remedied in time, there
+seems little reason to doubt, but just now
+the various cooks who are engaged in brewing
+the broth of the new civilization are
+disagreed in regard to the condiments required
+for its proper flavoring. The conservatives
+wish to flavor strongly with the
+subjection and dependence of women, believing
+that only by that means can feminine
+virtue be preserved. The younger
+men, of foreign education, would drop into
+the boiling pot the flavor of culture and
+broader outlook; for by this means they
+hope to secure happier homes for all, and
+better mothers for their children. The
+missionaries and native Christians believe
+that, when the whole mixture is well impregnated
+with practical Christianity, the
+desired result will be achieved. All are
+agreed on this point, that a strong public
+opinion is necessary before improved legislation
+can produce much effect; and
+so, for the present, legislation remains in
+the background, until the time shall come
+when it can be used in the right way.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p><p>Let us examine the two remedies suggested
+by the reformers, and see what
+effect has been produced by each so far,
+and what may be expected of them in the
+future. Taking education first, what are
+the effects produced so far by educating
+women to a point above the old Japanese
+standard? In many happy homes to-day,
+we find husbands educated abroad, and
+knowing something of the home life of
+foreign lands, who have sought out wives
+of broad intellectual culture, and who make
+them friends and confidants, not simply
+housekeepers and head-servants. In such
+homes the wife has freedom, not such as
+is enjoyed by American women, perhaps,
+but equal to that of most European women.
+In such homes love and equality rule, and
+the power of the mother-in-law grows weak.
+To her is paid due respect, but she seldom
+has the despotic control which often makes
+the beginning of married life hard to the
+Japanese wife. These homes are sending
+out healthy influences that are daily having
+their effect, and raising the position of
+women in Japan.</p>
+
+<p>But for the young girl whose mind has
+been broadened by the new education, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+who marries, as the majority of Japanese
+girls must, not in accordance with her own
+wishes, but in obedience to the will of her
+parents, a hard life is in store. A woman's
+education, under the old régime, was one
+that fitted her well for the position that
+she was to occupy. The higher courses of
+study only serve to make her kick against
+the pricks, and render herself miserable
+where she might before have been happy.
+With mind and character developed by
+education, she may be obliged to enter the
+home of her husband's family, to be perhaps
+one among many members under the
+same roof. In the training of her own
+children, in the care of her own health
+and theirs, her wishes and judgment must
+often yield to the prejudices of those above
+her, under whose authority she is, and it
+may not be until many years have passed
+that she will be in a position to influence
+in any measure the lives of those nearest
+and dearest to her. Then, too, her life
+must be passed entirely within the home,
+with no opportunities to meet or to mingle
+with the great world of which she has read
+and studied. Surely her lot is harder than
+that of the woman of the olden time, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+plain duty always lay in the path of implicit
+obedience to her superiors, and who
+never for one moment considered obedience
+to the dictates of her own reason and
+conscience as an obligation higher than
+deference to the wishes of husband and
+parents. Education, without further amelioration
+of their lot as wives and mothers,
+can but result in making the women discontented
+and unhappy,&mdash;in many cases
+injuring their health by worry over the
+constant petty disappointments and baffled
+desires of their lives.</p>
+
+<p>This to superficial observers would seem
+a step backward rather than forward, and
+it is to this cause that the present reaction
+against female education may be traced.
+The first generation or two of educated
+women must endure much for the sake of
+those who come after, and by many this
+vicarious suffering is misunderstood, and
+distaste on the part of educated girls for
+marriage, as it now exists in Japan, is regarded
+as one of the sure signs that education
+is a failure. Without some change
+in the position of wife and mother, this
+feeling will grow into absolute repugnance,
+if women continue to be educated after the
+Western fashion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p><p>The second remedy that is suggested is
+Christianity, a remedy which is even now
+at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a
+Christian home, there one finds the wife
+and mother occupying the position that
+she occupies all over Christendom. The
+Christian man, in choosing his wife, feels
+that it is not an ordinary contract, which
+may be dissolved at any time at the will of
+the contracting parties, but that it is a
+union for life. Consequently, in making
+his choice he is more careful, takes more
+time, and thinks more of the personal
+qualities of the woman he is about to
+marry. Thus the chances are better at
+the beginning for the establishment of a
+happy home, and such homes form centres
+of influence throughout the length and
+breadth of the land to-day. Christianity
+in the future will do much to mould public
+sentiment in the right way, and can be
+trusted as a force that is sure to grow in
+time to be a mighty power in the councils
+of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>One more remedy might be suggested,
+as a preliminary to proper legislation, or a
+necessary accompaniment of it, and that
+is, the opening of new avenues of employment
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>for women, and especially for women
+of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage,
+no matter how distasteful, is the only opening
+for a woman; for she can do nothing for
+her own support, and cannot require her
+father to support her after she has reached
+a marriageable age. As new ways of self-support
+present themselves, and a woman
+may look forward to making a single life
+tolerable by her own labor, the intelligent
+girls of the middle class will no longer
+accept marriage as inevitable, but will only
+marry when the suitor can offer a good
+home, kindness, affection, and security in
+the tenure of these blessings. So far,
+there is little employment for women, except
+as teachers; but even this change in
+the condition of things is forming a class,
+as yet small, but increasing yearly, of
+women who enjoy a life of independence,
+though accompanied by much hard work,
+more than the present life of a Japanese
+married woman. In this class we find
+some of the most intelligent and respected
+of the women of new Japan; and the
+growth of this class is one of the surest
+signs that the present state of the laws
+and customs concerning marriage and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+divorce is so unsatisfactory to the women
+that it must eventually be remedied, if the
+educated and intelligent of the men care
+to take for their wives, and for the mothers
+of their children, any but the less
+educated and less intelligent of the women
+of their own nation.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in
+many respects from our own, so that it is almost impossible
+for a foreigner visiting Japan to comprehend the
+judgments of the Japanese in regard to the beauty of
+their own women, and even more impossible for the untraveled
+Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreigner's
+judgments upon either Japanese or foreign beauties.
+To the Japanese, the ideal female face must be long and
+narrow; the forehead high and narrow in the middle, but
+widening and lowering at the sides, conforming to the
+outline of the beloved Fuji, the mountain that Japanese
+art loves to picture. The hair should be straight and
+glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese ladies
+who have the misfortune to have any wave or ripple in
+their hair, as many of them do, are at as much pains to
+straighten it in the dressing as American ladies are to
+simulate a natural curl, when Nature has denied them
+that charm. The eyes should be long and narrow, slanting
+upward at the outer corners; and the eyebrows
+should be delicate lines, high above the eye itself. The
+distinctly aquiline nose should be low at the bridge, the
+curve outward beginning much lower down than upon
+the Caucasian face; and the eye-socket should not be outlined
+at all, either by the brow, the cheek, or by the
+nose. It is this flatness of the face about the eyes that
+gives the mildness of expression to all young people of
+Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in
+their physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japanese
+lady must be small, and the lips full and red; the
+neck, a conspicuous feature always when the Japanese
+dress is worn, should be long and slender, and gracefully
+curved. The complexion should be light,&mdash;a clear
+ivory-white, with little color in the cheeks. The blooming
+country girl style of beauty is not admired, and everything,
+even to color in the cheeks, must be sacrificed to
+gain the delicacy that is the <i>sine qua non</i> of the Japanese
+beauty. The figure should be slender, the waist long,
+but not especially small, and the hips narrow, to secure
+the best effect with the Japanese dress. The head and
+shoulders should be carried slightly forward, and the
+body should also be bent forward slightly at the waist, to
+secure the most womanly and aristocratic carriage. In
+walking, the step should be short and quick, with the
+toes turned in, and the foot lifted so slightly that either
+clog or sandal will scuff with every step. This is necessary
+for modesty, with the narrow skirt of the Japanese
+dress.
+</p><p>
+Contrast with this type the fair, curling hair, the round
+blue eyes, the rosy cheeks, the erect, slim-waisted, large-hipped
+figures of many foreign beauties,&mdash;the rapid,
+long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of almost masculine
+strength and independence, which belongs especially to
+English and American women,&mdash;and one can see how the
+Japanese find little that they recognize as beauty among
+them. Blue eyes, set into deep sockets, and with the
+bridge of the nose rising as a barrier between them, impart
+a fierce grotesqueness to the face, that the untraveled
+Japanese seldom admire. The very babies will scream
+with horror at first sight of a blue-eyed, light-haired
+foreigner, and it is only after considerable familiarity
+with such persons that they can be induced to show anything
+but the wildest fright in their presence. Foreigners
+who have lived a great deal among the Japanese find
+their standards unconsciously changing, and see, to their
+own surprise, that their countrywomen look ungainly,
+fierce, aggressive, and awkward among the small, mild,
+shrinking, and graceful Japanese ladies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The present from the groom is usually a piece of
+handsome silk, used for the <i>obi</i> or girdle. This takes the
+place of the conventional engagement ring of Europe and
+America.<a name="APXanchor_60" id="APXanchor_60" href="#APX_60" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> From the family of the bride, silk, such as is
+made up into men's dresses, is sent.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Many women still blacken their teeth after marriage,
+after the manner universal in the past; but this custom
+is, fortunately, rapidly going out of fashion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> "As early as 1870 an edict was published by which
+official notice and approbation were made necessary preliminaries
+to every matrimonial contract. In the following
+year the class-limitations upon freedom of marriage
+were abolished, and two years later the right of suing for
+a divorce was conceded to the wife."&mdash;Rein's <cite>Japan</cite>, p.
+425.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">WIFE AND MOTHER.<a name="APXanchor_84" id="APXanchor_84" href="#APX_84" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> young wife, when she enters her
+husband's home, is not, as in our own country,
+entering upon a new life as mistress of
+a house, with absolute control over all of
+her little domain. Should her husband's
+parents be living, she becomes almost as
+their servant, and even her husband is unable
+to defend her from the exactions of
+her mother-in-law, should this new relative
+be inclined to make full use of the power
+given her by custom. Happy is the girl
+whose husband has no parents. Her comfort
+in life is materially increased by her
+husband's loss, for, instead of having to
+serve two masters, she will then have to
+serve only one, and that one more kind
+and thoughtful of her strength and comfort
+than the mother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p>In Japan the idea of a wife's duty to her
+husband includes no thought of companionship
+on terms of equality. The wife is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+simply the housekeeper, the head of the
+establishment, to be honored by the servants
+because she is the one who is nearest
+to the master, but not for one moment to
+be regarded as the master's equal. She
+governs and directs the household, if it be
+a large one, and her position is one of much
+care and responsibility; but she is not the
+intimate friend of her husband, is in no
+sense his confidante or adviser, except in
+trivial affairs of the household. She appears
+rarely with him in public, is expected
+always to wait upon him and save
+him steps, and must bear all things from
+him with smiling face and agreeable manners,
+even to the receiving with open arms
+into the household some other woman,
+whom she knows to bear the relation of
+concubine to her own husband.</p>
+
+<p>In return for this, she has, if she be of
+the higher classes, much respect and honor
+from those beneath her. She has, in
+many cases the real though often inconsiderate
+affection of her husband. If she
+be the mother of children, she is doubly
+honored, and if she be endowed with a good
+temper, good manners, and tact, she can
+render her position not only agreeable to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+herself, but one of great usefulness to
+those about her. It lies with her alone to
+make the home a pleasant one, or to make
+it unpleasant. Nothing is expected of the
+husband in this direction; he may do as he
+likes with his own, and no one will blame
+him; but if his home is not happy, even
+through his own folly or bad temper, the
+blame will fall upon his wife, who should
+by management do whatever is necessary
+to supply the deficiencies caused by her
+husband's shortcomings. In all things
+the husband goes first, the wife second.
+If the husband drops his fan or his handkerchief
+the wife picks it up. The husband
+is served first, the wife afterwards, and so
+on through the countless minutiæ of daily
+life. It is not the idea of the strong man
+considering the weak woman, saving her
+exertion, guarding and deferring to her;
+but it is the less important waiting upon
+the more important, the servant deferring
+to her master.</p>
+
+<p>But though the present position of a
+Japanese wife is that of a dependent who
+owes all she has to her protector, and for
+whom she is bound to do all she can in
+return, the dependence is in many cases a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+happy one. The wife's position, especially
+if she be the mother of children, is often
+pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies
+in the proper conduct of her house and the
+training of her children. The service of
+her parents-in-law, however, must remain
+her first duty during their lifetime. She
+must make it her care to see that they are
+waited upon and served with what they
+like at meals, that their clothes are carefully
+and nicely made, and that countless
+little attentions are heaped upon them.
+As long as her mother-in-law lives, the
+latter is the real ruler of the house; and
+though in many cases the elder lady prefers
+freedom from responsibility to the personal
+superintendence of the details of housekeeping,
+she will not hesitate to require of
+her daughter-in-law that the house be kept
+to her satisfaction. If the maiden's lot is
+to be the first daughter-in-law in a large
+family, she becomes simply the one of the
+family from whom the most drudgery is
+expected, who obtains the fewest favors,
+and who is expected to have always the
+pleasantest of tempers under circumstances
+not altogether conducive to repose of spirit.
+The wife of the oldest son has, however,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+the advantage that, when her mother-in-law
+dies or retires, she becomes the mistress
+of the house and the head lady of the
+family, a position for which her apprenticeship
+to the old lady has probably exceptionally
+well fitted her.</p>
+
+<p>Next to her parents-in-law, her duty is
+to her husband. She must herself render
+to him the little services that a European
+expects of his valet. She must not only
+take care of his clothing, but must bring it
+to him and help him put it on, and must
+put away with care whatever he has taken
+off; and she often takes pride in doing
+with her own hands many acts of service
+which might be left to servants, and which
+are not actually demanded of her, unless
+she has no one under her to do them. In
+the poorer families all the washing, sewing,
+and mending that is required is always
+done by the wife; and even the Empress
+herself is not exempt from these duties of
+personal service, but must wait upon her
+husband in various ways.</p>
+
+<p>When the earliest beams of the sun
+shine in at the cracks of the dark wooden
+shutters which surround the house at
+night, the young wife in the family softly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+arises, puts out the feeble light of the
+<i>andon</i>,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> which has burned all night, and,
+quietly opening one of the sliding doors,
+admits enough light to make her own
+toilet. She dresses hastily, only putting a
+few touches here and there to her elaborate
+coiffure, which she has not taken down for
+her night's rest.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> Next she goes to arouse
+the servants, if they are not already up,
+and with them prepares the modest breakfast.
+When the little lacquer tables, with
+rice bowls, plates, and chopsticks are arranged
+in place, she goes softly to see
+whether her parents and husband are
+awake, and if they have hot water, charcoal
+fire, and whatever else they may need
+for their toilet. Then with her own hands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+or with the help of the servants, she slides
+back the wooden shutters, opening the
+whole house to the fresh morning air and
+sunlight. It is she, also, who directs the
+washing and wiping of the polished floors,
+and the folding and putting away of the
+bedding, so that all is in readiness before
+the morning meal.</p>
+
+<p>When breakfast is over, the husband
+starts for his place of business, and the little
+wife is in waiting to send him off with
+her sweetest smile and her lowest bow,
+after having seen that his foot-gear&mdash;whether
+sandal, clog, or shoe&mdash;is at the
+door ready for him to put on, his umbrella,
+book, or bundle at hand, and his <i>kuruma</i>
+waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in
+having all the little things in his life attended
+to by his thoughtful wife,&mdash;a good,
+considerate, careful body-servant, always
+on hand to bear for him the trifling worries
+and cares. There is no wonder that
+there are no bachelors in Japan. To some
+degree, I am sure, the men appreciate
+these attentions; for they often become
+much in love with their sweet, helpful
+wives, though they do not share with them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+the greater things of life, the ambitions
+and the hopes of men.</p>
+
+<p>The husband started on his daily rounds,
+the wife settles down to the work of the
+house. Her sphere is within her home,
+and though, unlike other Asiatic women,
+she goes without restraint alone through
+the streets, she does not concern herself
+with the great world, nor is she occupied
+with such a round of social duties as fill
+the lives of society women in this country.
+Yet she is not barred out from all intercourse
+with the outer world, for there are
+sometimes great dinner parties, given perhaps
+at home, when she must appear as
+hostess, side by side with her husband, and
+share with him the duty of entertaining
+the guests. There are, besides, smaller
+gatherings of friends of her husband, when
+she must see that the proper refreshments
+are served, if they be only the omnipresent
+tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join
+in the number and listen to the conversation;
+but if there are no ladies, she will
+probably not appear, except to attend to
+the wants of her guests. There are also
+lady visitors&mdash;friends and relatives&mdash;who
+come to make calls, oftentimes from a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+distance, and nearly always unexpectedly,
+whose entertainment devolves on the wife.
+Owing to the great distances in many of
+the cities, and the difficulties that used to
+attend going from place to place, it has
+become a custom not to make frequent
+visits, but long ones at long intervals. A
+guest often stays several hours, remaining
+to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and,
+should the distance be great, may spend
+the night. So rigid are the requirements
+of Japanese hospitality that no guest is
+ever allowed to leave a house without having
+been pressed to partake of food, if it
+be only tea and cake. Even tradesmen or
+messengers who come to the house must
+be offered tea, and if carpenters, gardeners,
+or workmen of any kind are employed
+about the house, tea must be served in the
+middle of the afternoon with a light lunch,
+and tea sent out to them often during their
+day's work. If a guest arrives in <i>jinrikisha</i>,
+not only the guest, but the <i>jinrikisha</i> men
+must be supplied with refreshments. All
+these things involve much thought and
+care on the part of the lady of the house.</p>
+
+<p>In the homes of rich and influential men
+of wide acquaintance, there is a great deal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+going on to make a pleasant variety for
+the ladies of the household, even although
+the variety involves extra work and responsibility.
+The mistress of such a household
+sees and hears a great deal of life;
+and her position requires no little wisdom
+and tact, even where the housewife has
+the assistance of good servants, capable, as
+many are, of sharing not only the work,
+but the responsibility as well. Clever wives
+in such homes see and learn much, in
+an indirect way, of the outside world in
+which the men live; and may become, if
+they possess the natural capabilities for
+the work, wise advisers and sympathizers
+with their husbands in many things far
+beyond their ordinary field of action. An
+intelligent woman, with a strong will, has
+often been, unseen and unknown, a mighty
+influence in Japan. That her power for
+good or bad, outside of her influence as
+wife and mother, is a recognized fact, is
+seen in the circumstance that in novels
+and plays women are frequently brought in
+as factors in political plots and organized
+rebellions, as well as in acts of private revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Still the life of the average woman is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+quiet one, with little to interrupt the monotony
+of her days with their never-ending
+round of duties; and to the most secluded
+homes only an occasional guest comes to
+enliven the dull hours. The principal occupation
+of the wife, outside of her housekeeping
+and the little duties of personal
+service to husband and parents, is needle-work.
+Every Japanese woman (excepting
+those of the highest rank) knows how to
+sew, and makes not only her own garments
+and those of her children, but her
+husband's as well. Sewing is one of the
+essentials in the education of a Japanese
+girl, and from childhood the cutting and
+putting together of crêpe, silk, and cotton
+is a familiar occupation to her. Though
+Japanese garments seem very simple, custom
+requires that each stitch and seam be
+placed in just such a way; and this way is
+something of a task to learn. To the uninitiated
+foreigner, the general effect of the
+loosely worn <i>kimono</i> is the same, whether
+the garment be well or ill made; but the
+skillful seamstress can easily discover that
+this seam is not turned just as it should
+be, or that those stitches are too long or
+too short, or carelessly or unevenly set.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p><p>Fancy work<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> or embroidery is not done
+in the house, the gorgeous embroidered
+Japanese robes being the product of professional
+workmen. Instead of the endless
+fancy work with silks, crewels, or worsteds,
+over which so many American ladies spend
+their leisure hours, many of the Japanese
+ladies, even of the highest rank, devote
+much time to the cultivation of the silkworm.
+In country homes, and in the great
+cities as well, wherever spacious grounds
+afford room for the growth of mulberry
+trees, silkworms are raised and watched
+with care; an employment giving much
+pleasure to those engaged in it.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult for any one who has not
+experimented in this direction to realize
+how tender these little spinners are. If a
+strong breeze blow upon them, they are
+likely to suffer for it, and the least change
+in the atmosphere must be guarded against.
+For forty days they must be carefully
+watched, and the great, shallow, bamboo
+basket trays containing them changed almost
+daily. New leaves for their food<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+must be given frequently, and as the least
+dampness might be fatal, each leaf, in case
+of rainy weather, is carefully wiped. Then,
+too, the different ages of the worms must
+be considered in preparing their food; as,
+for the young worms, the leaves should be
+cut up, while for the older ones it is better
+to serve them whole. When, finally, the
+buzzing noise of the crunching leaves has
+ceased, and the last worm has put himself
+to sleep in his precious white cocoon,
+the work of the ladies is ended; for the
+cocoons are sent to women especially
+skilled in the work, by them to be spun
+off, and the thread afterwards woven into
+the desired fabric. When at last the silk,
+woven and dyed, is returned to the ladies
+by whose care the worms were nourished
+until their work was done, it is shown
+with great pride as the product of the
+year's labor, and if given as a present will
+be highly prized by the recipient.</p>
+
+<p>Among the daily tasks of the housewife,
+one, and by no means the least of her
+duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and
+return in suitable manner, the presents
+received in the family. Presents are not
+confined to special seasons, although upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+certain occasions etiquette is rigid in its
+requirements in this matter, but they may
+be given and received at all times, for the
+Japanese are preëminently a present-giving
+nation. For every present received,
+sooner or later, a proper return must be
+sent, appropriate to the season and to the
+rank of the receiver, and neatly arranged
+in the manner that etiquette prescribes.
+Presents are not necessarily elaborate;
+callers bring fruit of the season, cake, or
+any delicacy, and a visit to a sick person
+must be accompanied by something appropriate.
+Children visiting in the family are
+always given toys, and for this purpose a
+stock is kept on hand. The present-giving
+culminates at the close of the year, when
+all friends and acquaintances exchange
+gifts of more or less value, according to
+their feelings and means. Should there be
+any one who has been especially kind, and
+to whom return should be made, this is the
+time to do so.</p>
+
+<p>Tradesmen send presents to their patrons,
+scholars to teachers, patients to
+their physicians, and, in short, it is the
+time when all obligations and debts are
+paid off, in one way or another. On the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+seventh day of the seventh month, there is
+another general interchange of presents,
+although not so universal as at the New
+Year. It can easily be imagined that all
+this present-giving entails much care, especially
+in families of influence; and it
+must be attended to personally by the wife,
+who, in the secret recesses of her storeroom,
+skillfully manages to rearrange the
+gifts received, so that those not needed in
+the house may be sent, not back to their
+givers, but to some place where a present
+is due. The passing-on of the presents is
+an economy not of course acknowledged,
+but frequently practiced even in the best
+families, as it saves much of the otherwise
+ruinous expense of this custom.</p>
+
+<p>As time passes by, occasional visits are
+paid by the young wife to her own parents
+or to other relatives. At stated times, too,
+she, and others of the family, will visit
+the tombs of her husband's ancestors, or of
+her own parents, if they are no longer living,
+to make offerings and prayers at the
+graves, to place fresh branches of the
+<i>sakaki</i><a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> before the tombs, and to see that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+the priests in charge of the cemetery have
+attended to all the little things which the
+Japanese believe to be required by the
+spirits of the dead. Even these visits are
+often looked forward to as enlivening the
+monotony of the humdrum home life.
+Sometimes all the members of the family
+go together on a pleasure excursion, spending
+the day out of doors, in beautiful gardens,
+when some one of the much-loved
+flowers of the nation is in its glory; and
+the little wife may join in this pleasure
+with the rest, but more often she is the
+one who remains at home to keep the house
+in the absence of others. The theatre, too,
+a source of great amusement to Japanese
+ladies, is often a pleasure reserved for a
+time later in life.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese mother takes great delight
+and comfort in her children, and
+her constant thought and care is the
+right direction of their habits and manners.
+She seems to govern them entirely
+by gentle admonition, and the severest
+chiding that is given them is always in
+a pleasant voice, and accompanied by a
+smiling face. No matter how many servants
+there may be, the mother's influence
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>is always direct and personal. No
+thick walls and long passageways separate
+the nursery from the grown people's apartments,
+but the thin paper partitions make
+it possible for the mother to know always
+what her children are doing, and
+whether they are good and gentle with
+their nurses, or irritable and passionate.
+The children never leave the house, nor
+return to it, without going to their mother's
+room, and there making the little
+bows and repeating the customary phrases
+used upon such occasions. In the same
+way, when the mother goes out, all the
+servants and the children escort her to
+the door; and when her attendant shouts
+"<i>O kaeri</i>," which is the signal of her return,
+children and servants hasten to the
+gate to greet her, and do what they can
+to help her from her conveyance and make
+her home-coming pleasant and restful.</p>
+
+<p>The father has little to do with the
+training of his children, which is left almost
+entirely to the mother, and, except
+for the interference of the mother-in-law,
+she has her own way in their training,
+until they are long past childhood. The
+children are taught to look to the father<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+as the head, and to respect and obey him
+as the one to whom all must defer; but
+the mother comes next, almost as high in
+their estimation, and, if not so much feared
+and respected, certainly enjoys a larger
+share of their love.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese mother's life is one of
+perfect devotion to her children; she is
+their willing slave. Her days are spent
+in caring for them, her evenings in watching
+over them; and she spares neither
+time nor trouble in doing anything for
+their comfort and pleasure. In sickness,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+in health, day and night, the little ones
+are her one thought; and from the home
+of the noble to the humble cot of the
+peasant, this tender mother-love may be
+seen in all its different phases. The Japanese
+woman has so few on whom to lavish
+her affection, so little to live for beside her
+children, and no hopes in the future except
+through them, that it is no wonder that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span>
+she devotes her life to their care and service,
+deeming the drudgery that custom
+requires of her for them the easiest of
+all her duties. Even with plenty of servants,
+the mother performs for her children
+nearly all the duties often delegated
+to nurses in this country. Mother and
+babe are rarely separated, night or day,
+during the first few years of the baby's
+life, and the mother denies herself any
+entertainment or journey from home when
+the baby cannot accompany her. To give
+the husband any share in the baby-work
+would be an unheard-of thing, and a disgrace
+to the wife; for in public and in
+private the baby is the mother's sole
+charge, and the husband is never asked
+to sit up all night with a sick baby, or
+to mind it in any way at all. Nothing
+in all one's study of Japanese life seems
+more beautiful and admirable than the
+influence of the mother over her children,&mdash;an
+influence that is gentle and all-pervading,
+bringing out all that is sweetest
+and noblest in the feminine character, and
+affording the one almost unlimited opportunity
+of a Japanese woman's life. The
+lot of a childless wife in Japan is a sad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+one. Not only is she denied the hopes
+and the pleasures of a mother in her children,
+but she is an object of pity to her
+friends, and well does she know that Confucius
+has laid down the law that a man is
+justified in divorcing a childless wife. All
+feel that through her, innocent though she
+is, the line has ceased; that her duty is
+unfulfilled; and that, though the name be
+given to adopted sons, there is no heir of
+the blood. A man rarely sends away his
+wife solely with this excuse, but children
+are the strongest of the ties which bind
+together husband and wife, and the childless
+wife is far less sure of pleasing her
+husband. In many cases she tries to make
+good her deficiencies by her care of adopted
+children; in them she often finds the love
+which fills the void in her heart and home,
+and she receives from them in after-life the
+respect and care which is the crown of old
+age.</p>
+
+<p>We have hitherto spoken of married life
+when the wife is received into her husband's
+home. Another interesting side of
+Japanese marriage is when a man enters
+the wife's family, taking her name and
+becoming entirely one of her family, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
+usually the wife becomes of the husband's.
+When there are daughters but no sons in
+a family to inherit the name, one of three
+things may happen: a son may be adopted
+early in life and grow up as heir; or he
+may be adopted with the idea of marrying
+one of the daughters; or, again, no one
+may have been formally adopted, but on the
+eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable
+age, her family and friends seek for her a
+<i>yōshi</i>, that is to say, some man (usually a
+younger son) who is willing and able to
+give up his family name, and, by marrying
+the daughter, become a member of
+her family and heir to the name. He
+cuts off all ties from his own family, and
+becomes a member of hers, and the young
+couple are expected to live with her parents.
+In this case the tables are turned,
+and it is he who has to dread the mother-in-law;
+it is his turn to have to please his
+new relatives and to do all he can to be
+agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and
+divorced by the all-powerful parents, if he
+does not please; and such divorces are not
+uncommon. Of course, in such marriages,
+the woman has the greater power, and the
+man has to remember what he owes her;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+and though the woman yields to him obediently
+in all respects, it is an obedience not
+demanded by the husband, as under other
+circumstances. In such marriages the
+children belong to the family whose name
+they bear, so that in case of divorce they
+remain in the wife's family, unless some
+special arrangement is made about them.</p>
+
+<p>It may be wondered why young men
+ever care to enter a family as <i>yōshi</i>. There
+is only one answer,&mdash;it is the attraction
+of wealth and rank, very rarely that of the
+daughter herself. In the houses of rich
+<i>daimiōs</i> without sons, <i>yōshi</i> are very common,
+and there are many younger sons of
+the nobility, themselves of high birth, but
+without prospects, who are glad enough to
+become great lords. In feudal times, the
+number of <i>samurai</i> families was limited.
+Several sons of one family could not establish
+different <i>samurai</i> families, but all but
+the eldest son, if they formed separate
+houses, must enroll themselves among the
+ranks of the common people. Hence the
+younger sons were often adopted into other
+<i>samurai</i> families as <i>yōshi</i>, where it was desired
+to secure a succession to a name that
+must otherwise die out. Since the Restoration,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>and the breaking down of the old
+class distinctions, young men care more
+for independence than for their rank as
+<i>samurai</i>; and it is now quite difficult to
+find <i>yōshi</i> to enter <i>samurai</i> families, unless
+it be because of the attractiveness and
+beauty of the young lady herself. Many a
+young girl who could easily make a good
+marriage with some suitable husband, could
+she enter his family, is now obliged to take
+some inferior man as <i>yōshi</i>, because few
+men in these days are willing to change
+their names, give up their independence,
+and take upon themselves the support of
+aged parents-in-law; for this also is expected
+of the <i>yōshi</i>, unless the family that
+he enters is a wealthy one.</p>
+
+<p>From this custom of <i>yōshi</i>, and its effect
+upon the wife's position, we see that, in
+certain cases, Japanese women are treated
+as equal with men. It is not because of
+their sex that they are looked down upon
+and held in subjection, but it is because of
+their almost universal dependence of position.
+The men have the right of inheritance,
+the education, habits of self-reliance,
+and are the bread-winners. Wherever the
+tables are turned, and the men are dependents
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>of the women, and even where the
+women are independent of the men,&mdash;there
+we find the relations of men to
+women vastly changed. The women of
+Japan must know how to do some definite
+work in the world beyond the work of the
+home, so that their position will not be one
+of entire dependence upon father, husband,
+or son. If fathers divided their estates
+between sons and daughters alike, and
+women were given, before the law, right
+to hold property in their own names, much
+would be accomplished towards securing
+them in their positions as wives and mothers;
+and divorce, the great evil of Japanese
+home life to-day, would become simply
+a last resort to preserve the purity of the
+home, as it is in most civilized countries
+now.</p>
+
+<p>The difference between the women of
+the lower and those of the higher classes,
+in the matter of equality with their husbands,
+is quite noticeable. The wife of the
+peasant or merchant is much nearer to
+her husband's level than is the wife of the
+Emperor. Apparently, each step in the
+social scale is a little higher for the man
+than it is for the woman, and lifts him a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+little farther above his wife. The peasant
+and his wife work side by side in the field,
+put their shoulders to the same wheel, eat
+together in the same room, at the same
+time, and whichever of them happens to
+be the stronger in character governs the
+house, without regard to sex. There is no
+great gulf fixed between them, and there
+is frequently a consideration for the wife
+shown by husbands of the lower class, that
+is not unlike what we see in our own country.
+I remember the case of a <i>jinrikisha</i>
+man employed by a friend of mine in Tōkyō,
+who was much laughed at by his
+friends because he actually used to spend
+some of his leisure moments in drawing
+the water required for his household from
+a well some distance away, and carrying
+the heavy buckets to the house, in order
+to save the strength of his little, delicate
+wife. That cases of such devotion are rare
+is no doubt true, but that they occur
+shows that there is here and there a recognition
+of the claims that feminine weakness
+has upon masculine strength.</p>
+
+<p>A frequent sight in the morning, in
+Tōkyō, is a cart heavily laden with wood,
+charcoal, or some other country produce,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+creaking slowly along the streets, propelled
+by a farmer and his family. Sometimes
+one will see an old man, his son, and
+his son's wife with a baby on her back, all
+pushing or pulling with might and main;
+the woman with tucked-up skirts and tight-fitting
+blue trousers, a blue towel enveloping
+her head,&mdash;only to be distinguished
+from the men by her smaller size and the
+baby tied to her back. But when evening
+comes, and the load of produce has
+been disposed of, the woman and baby are
+seen seated upon the cart, while the two
+men pull it back to their home in some
+neighboring village. Here, again, is the
+recognition of the law that governs the
+position of woman in this country,&mdash;the
+theory, not of inferior position, but of
+inferior strength; and the sight of the
+women riding back in the empty carts at
+night, drawn by their husbands, is the
+thing that strikes a student of Japanese
+domestic life as nearest to the customs of
+our own civilization in regard to the relations
+of husbands and wives.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the country districts, where
+the women have a large share in the labor
+that is directly productive of wealth, where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+they not only work in the rice fields, pick
+the tea crops, gather the harvests, and
+help draw them to market, but where they
+have their own productive industries, such
+as caring for the silkworms, and spinning,
+and weaving both silk and cotton,
+we find the conventional distance between
+the sexes much diminished by the important
+character of feminine labor; but in
+the cities, and among the classes who are
+largely either indirect producers or non-producers,
+the only labor of the women is
+that personal service which we account as
+menial. It is for this reason, perhaps, that
+the gap widens as we go upward in society,
+and between the same social levels
+as we go cityward.</p>
+
+<p>The wife of the countryman, though she
+may work harder and grow old earlier, is
+more free and independent than her city
+sister; and the wife of the peasant, pushing
+her produce to market, is in some ways
+happier and more considered than the wife
+of the noble, who must spend her life
+among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclusion
+of her great house with its beautiful
+garden, the plaything of her husband in
+his leisure hours, but never his equal, or
+the sharer of his cares or of his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p><p>One of the causes which must be mentioned
+as contributing to the lowering of
+the wife's position, among the higher and
+more wealthy classes, lies in the system of
+concubinage which custom allows, and the
+law until quite recently has not discouraged.
+From the Emperor, who was, by the
+old Chinese code of morals, allowed twelve
+supplementary wives, to the <i>samurai</i>, who
+are permitted two, the men of the higher
+classes are allowed to introduce into their
+families these <i>mékaké</i>, who, while beneath
+the wife in position, are frequently more
+beloved by the husband than the wife herself.
+It must be said, however, to the
+credit of many husbands, that in spite of
+this privilege, which custom allows, there
+are many men of the old school who are
+faithful to one wife, and never introduce
+this discordant element into the household.
+Even should he keep <i>mékaké</i>, it is often
+unknown to the wife, and she is placed in
+a separate establishment of her own. And
+in spite of the code of morals requiring
+submission in any case on the part of the
+woman, there are many wives of the <i>samurai</i>
+and lower classes who have enough
+spirit and wit to prevent their husbands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+from ever introducing a rival under the
+same roof. In this way the practice is
+made better than the theory.</p>
+
+<p>Not so with the more helpless wife of
+the nobleman, for wealth and leisure make
+temptation greater for the husband. She
+submits unquestioningly to the custom requiring
+that the wife treat these women
+with all civility. Their children she may
+even have to adopt as her own. The lot of
+the <i>mékaké</i> herself is rendered the less endurable,
+from the American point of view,
+by the fact that, should the father of her
+child decide to make it his heir, the mother
+is thenceforth no more to it than any other
+of the servants of the household. For instance,
+suppose a hitherto childless noble is
+presented with a son by one of his concubines,
+and he decides by legal adoption to
+make that son his heir: the child at its birth,
+or as soon afterwards as is practicable, is
+taken from its mother and placed in other
+hands, and the mother never sees her own
+child until, on the thirtieth day after its
+birth, she goes with the other servants of
+the household to pay her respects to her
+young master. If it were not for the habit
+of abject obedience to parents which Japanese
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>custom has exalted into the one feminine
+virtue, few women could be found of
+respectable families who would take a position
+so devoid of either honor or satisfaction
+of any kind as that of <i>mékaké</i>. That
+these positions are not sought after must be
+said, to the honor of Japanese womanhood.
+A nobleman may obtain <i>samurai</i> women
+for his "<i>O mékaké</i>" (literally, honorable
+concubines), but they are never respected
+by their own class for taking such positions.
+In the same way the <i>mékaké</i> of <i>samurai</i>
+are usually from the <i>héimin</i>. No woman
+who has any chance of a better lot will ever
+take the unenviable position of <i>mékaké</i>.</p>
+
+<p>A law which has recently been promulgated
+strikes at the root of this evil, and, if
+enforced, will in course of time go far toward
+extirpating it. Henceforth in Japan,
+no child of a concubine, or of adoption from
+any source, can inherit a noble title. The
+heir to the throne must hereafter be the
+son, not only of the Emperor, but of the
+Empress, or the succession passes to some
+collateral branch of the family. This law
+does not apply to Prince Haru, the present
+heir to the throne, as, although he is not
+the son of the Empress, he was legally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+adopted before the promulgation of the
+law; but should he die, it will apply to all
+future heirs.</p>
+
+<p>That public opinion is moving in the
+right direction is shown by the fact that
+the young men of the higher classes do
+not care to marry the daughters of <i>mékaké</i>,
+be they ever so legally adopted by their
+own fathers. When the girls born of such
+unions become a drug in the matrimonial
+market, and the boys are unable to keep
+up the succession, the <i>mékaké</i> will go out
+of fashion, and the real wife will once more
+assume her proper importance.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>Upon the 11th day of February, 1889,
+the day on which the Emperor, by his own
+act in giving a constitution to the people,
+limited his own power for the sake of putting
+his nation upon a level with the most
+civilized nations of the earth, he at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+same time, and for the first time, publicly
+placed his wife upon his own level. In an
+imperial progress made through the streets
+of Tōkyō, the Emperor and Empress, for
+the first time in the history of Japan, rode
+together in the imperial coach.<a name="APXanchor_115" id="APXanchor_115" href="#APX_115" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> Until
+then, the Emperor, attended by his chief
+gentlemen-in-waiting and his guards, had
+always headed the procession, while the
+Empress must follow at a distance with her
+own attendants. That this act on the part
+of the Emperor signifies the beginning of a
+new and better era for the women of Japan,
+we cannot but hope; for until the position
+of the wife and mother in Japan is improved
+and made secure, little permanence
+can be expected in the progress of the
+nation toward what is best and highest
+in the Western civilization. Better laws,
+broader education for the women, a change
+in public opinion on the subject, caused by
+the study, by the men educated abroad, of
+the homes of Europe and America,&mdash;these
+are the forces which alone can bring the
+women of Japan up to that place in the
+home which their intellectual and moral
+qualities fit them to fill. That Japan is
+infinitely ahead of other Oriental countries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+in her practices in this matter is greatly
+to her credit; but that she is far behind
+the civilized nations of Europe and America,
+not only in practice but in theory, is a
+fact that is incontestable, and a fact that,
+unless changed, must sooner or later be a
+stumbling-block in the path of her progress
+toward the highest civilization of which she
+is capable.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The European practice cannot
+be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the
+change in the home must be a radical one,
+to secure permanent good results. As long
+as the wife has no rights which the husband
+is bound to respect, no great advance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+can be made, for human nature is too
+mean and selfish to give in all cases to
+those who are entirely unprotected by law,
+and entirely unable to protect themselves,
+those things which the moral nature declares
+to be their due. In the old slave
+times in the South, many of the negroes
+were better fed, better cared for, and happier
+than they are to-day; but they were
+nevertheless at the mercy of men who
+too often thought only of themselves, and
+not of the human bodies and souls over
+which they had unlimited power. It was a
+condition of things that could not be prevented
+by educating the masters so as to
+induce them to be kind to their slaves; it
+was a condition that was wrong in theory,
+and so could not be righted in practice. In
+the same way the position of the Japanese
+wife is wrong in theory, and can never be
+righted until legislation has given to her
+rights which it still denies. Education will
+but aggravate the trouble to a point beyond
+endurance. The giving to the wife power
+to obtain a divorce will not help much, but
+simply tend to weaken still further the
+marriage tie. Nothing can help surely
+and permanently but the growth of a sound<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+public opinion, in regard to the position of
+the wife, that will, sooner or later, have
+its effect upon the laws of the country.
+Legislation once effected, all the rest will
+come, and the wife, secure in her home and
+her children, will be at the point where
+her new education can be of use to her
+in the administration of her domestic affairs
+and the training of her children;
+and where she will finally become the
+friend and companion of her husband, instead
+of his mere waitress, seamstress, and
+housekeeper,&mdash;the plaything of his leisure
+moments, too often the victim of his caprices.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> The <i>andon</i> is the standing lamp, inclosed in a paper
+case, used as a night lamp in all Japanese houses.
+Until the introduction of kerosene lamps, the <i>andon</i> was
+the only light used in Japanese houses. The light is produced
+by a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable
+oil.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The pillow used by ladies is merely a wooden rest for
+the head, that supports the neck, leaving the elaborate
+head-dress undisturbed. The hair is dressed by a professional
+hair-dresser, who comes to the house once in
+two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Kiōto,
+where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in
+Tōkyō, it is much less frequently arranged. The process
+takes two hours at least.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> The one exception to this statement, so far as I know,
+is the species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the
+<i>daimiōs'</i> houses. (<a href="#Page_169">See chap. vii.</a>)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <i>Sakaki</i>, the <i>Cleyera Japonica</i>, a sacred plant emblematic
+of purity, and much used at funerals and in
+the decoration of graves.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Since the introduction of the foreign system of medicine
+and nursing, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack
+of conveniences and appliances for nursing the sick in
+their own homes, that cases of severe or even serious illness
+are usually sent to hospitals, where the invalids can
+have the comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes
+cannot furnish.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> It is worth while to mention in this connection the
+noteworthy efforts made by the Woman's Christian Temperance
+Union of Japan in calling the attention of the
+public to this custom, and in arousing public sentiment
+in favor of legislation against not only this system, but
+against the licensed houses of prostitution. Though
+there has not yet been any practical result, much discussion
+has ensued in the newspapers and magazines, lectures
+have been given, and much strong feeling aroused,
+which may, before long, produce radical change.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Many of the thinking men of Japan, though fully
+recognizing the injustice of the present position of woman
+in society, and the necessity of reform in the marriage
+and divorce laws, refuse to see the importance of any
+movement to change them. Their excuse is, that such
+power in the hands of the husband over his wife might be
+abused, but that in fact it is not. Wrongs and injustice
+are rare, they argue, and kind treatment, affection, and
+even respect for the wife is the general rule; and that
+the keeping of the power in the hands of the husband is
+better than giving too much freedom to women who are
+without education. These men wish to wait until every
+woman is educated, before acting in a reform movement,
+while many conservatives oppose the new system of education
+for girls as making them unwomanly. Between
+these two parties, the few who really wish for a change
+are utterly unable to act.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER V.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">OLD AGE.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">No</span> Japanese woman is ashamed to show
+that she is getting along in years, but all
+take pains that every detail of the dress
+and coiffure shall show the full age of the
+wearer. The baby girl is dressed in the
+brightest of colors and the largest of patterns,
+and looks like a gay butterfly or
+tropical bird. As she grows older, colors
+become quieter, figures smaller, stripes
+narrower, until in old age she becomes a
+little gray moth or plain-colored sparrow.
+By the sophisticated eye, a woman's age
+can be told with considerable accuracy by
+the various little things about her costume,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>
+and no woman cares to appear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+younger than her real age, or hesitates to
+tell with entire frankness the number of
+years that have passed over her head.</p>
+
+<p>The reason for this lies, at least in part,
+in the fact that every woman looks forward
+to the period of old age as the time when
+she will attain freedom from her life-long
+service to those about her,&mdash;will be in the
+position of adviser of her sons, and director
+of her daughters-in-law; will be a person
+of much consideration in the family, privileged
+to amuse herself in various ways, to
+speak her own mind on most subjects, and
+to be waited upon and cared for by children
+and grandchildren, in return for her
+long years of faithful service in the household.
+Should her sight and other bodily
+powers remain good, she will doubtless
+perform many light tasks for the general
+good, will seldom sit idle by herself, but
+will help about the sewing and mending,
+the marketing, shopping, housework, and
+care of the babies, tell stories to her grandchildren
+after their lessons are learned,
+give the benefit of her years of experience
+to the young people who are still bearing
+the heat and burden of the day, and, by her
+prayers and visits to the temple at stated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+seasons, will secure the favor of the gods
+for the whole family, as well as make her
+own preparations for entry into the great
+unknown toward which she is rapidly drifting.
+Is there wonder that the young
+wife, steering her course with difficulty
+among the many shoals and whirlpools of
+early married life, looks forward with anticipation
+to the period of comparative rest
+and security that comes at the end of the
+voyage? As she bears all things, endures
+all things, suffers long, and is kind, as she
+serves her mother-in-law, manages her
+husband's household, cares for her babies,
+the thought that cheers and encourages
+her in her busy and not too happy life is
+the thought of the sunny calm of old age,
+when she can lay her burdens and cares
+on younger shoulders, and bask in the
+warmth and sunshine which this Indian
+Summer of her life will bring to her.</p>
+
+<p>In the code of morals of the Japanese,
+obedience to father, husband, or son is exalted
+into the chief womanly virtue, but
+the obedience and respect of children, both
+male and female, to their parents, also occupies
+a prominent position in their ethical
+system. Hence, in this latter stage of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
+woman's career, the obedience expected of
+her is often only nominal, and in any case
+is not so absolute and unquestioning as
+that of the early period; and the consideration
+and respect that a son is bound to
+show to his mother necessitates a care of
+her comfort, and a consultation of her
+wishes, that renders her position one of
+much greater freedom than can be obtained
+by any woman earlier in life. She
+has, besides, reached an age when she is
+not expected to remain at home, and she
+may go out into the streets, to the theatre,
+or other shows, without the least restraint
+or fear of losing her dignity.</p>
+
+<p>A Japanese woman loses her beauty early.
+At thirty-five her fresh color is usually entirely
+gone, her eyes have begun to sink a
+little in their sockets, her youthful roundness
+and symmetry of figure have given
+place to an absolute leanness, her abundant
+black hair has grown thin, and much care
+and anxiety have given her face a pathetic
+expression of quiet endurance. One seldom
+sees a face that indicates a soured
+temper or a cross disposition, but the lines
+that show themselves as the years go by
+are lines that indicate suffering and disappointment,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>patiently and sweetly borne.
+The lips never forget to smile; the voice
+remains always cheerful and sympathetic,
+never grows peevish and worried, as is too
+often the case with overworked or disappointed
+women in this country. But youth
+with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its
+ambitions, gives way to age with its peaceful
+waiting for the end, with only a brief
+struggle for its place; and the woman of
+thirty-five is just at the point when she
+has bid good-by to her youth, and, having
+little to hope for in her middle life, is
+doing her work faithfully, and looking forward
+to an old age of privilege and authority,
+the mistress of her son's house,
+and the ruler of the little domain of home.</p>
+
+<p>But I have spoken so far only of those
+happy women whose sons grow to maturity,
+and who manage to evade the dangerous
+reefs of divorce upon which so many lives
+are shipwrecked. What becomes of the
+hundreds who have no children to rise up
+and call them blessed, but who have in
+old age to live as dependents upon their
+brothers or nephews? Even these, who
+in this country often lead hard and unrewarded
+lives of toil among their happier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+relatives, find in old age a pleasanter lot
+than that of youth. Many such old ladies
+I have met, whose short hair or shaven
+heads proclaim to all who see them that
+the sorrow of widowhood has taken from
+them the joy that falls to other women,
+but whose cheerful, wrinkled faces and
+happy, childlike ways have given one a feeling
+of pleasure that the sorrow is past, and
+peace and rest have come to their declining
+years. Fulfilling what little household
+tasks they can, respected and self-respecting
+members of the household, the
+<i>O Bă San</i>, or Aunty, is not far removed in
+the honor and affection of the children
+from the <i>O Bā San</i>, or Grandma, but both
+alike find a peaceful shelter in the homes
+of those nearest and dearest to them.</p>
+
+<p>One of the happiest old ladies I have
+ever seen was one who had had a rough
+and stormy life. The mother of many
+children, most of whom had died in infancy,
+she was at last left childless and a
+widow. In her children's death the last
+tie that bound her to her husband's family
+was broken, and, rather than be a burden
+to them, she made her home for many
+years with her own younger brother, taking
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>up again the many cares and duties of
+a mother's life in sharing with the mother
+the bringing up of a large family of children.
+One by one, from the oldest to the
+youngest, each has learned to love the old
+aunty, to be lulled asleep on her back, and
+to go to her in trouble when mother's
+hands were too full of work. Many the
+caress received, the drives and walks enjoyed
+in her company, the toys and candies
+that came out unexpectedly from the
+depths of mysterious drawers, to comfort
+many an hour of childish grief. That was
+years ago, and the old aunty's hard times
+are nearly over. Hale and hearty at three-score
+years and ten, she has seen these
+children grow up one by one, until now
+some have gone to new homes of their
+own. Her bent form and wrinkled face
+are ever welcome to her children,&mdash;hers
+by the right of years of patient care and
+toil for them. They now, in their turn,
+enjoy giving her pleasure, and return to
+her all the love she has lavished upon
+them. It is a joy to see her childlike
+pride and confidence in them all, and to
+know that they have filled the place left
+vacant by the dead with whom had died
+all her hopes of earthly happiness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span></p><p>The old women of Japan,&mdash;how their
+withered faces, bent frames, and shrunken,
+yellow hands abide in one's memory! One
+seldom sees among them what we would
+call beauty, for the almost universal shrinking
+with age that takes place among the
+Japanese covers the face with multitudinous
+wrinkles, and produces the effect of a
+withered russet apple; for the skin, which
+in youth is usually brightened by red
+cheeks and glossy black hair, in old age,
+when color leaves cheek and hair, has a
+curiously yellow and parchment-like look.
+But with all their wrinkles and ugliness,
+there is a peculiar charm about the old
+women of Japan.</p>
+
+<p>In Tōkyō, when the grass grows long
+upon your lawn, and you send to the gardener
+to come and cut it, no boy with
+patent lawn-mower, nor stalwart countryman
+with scythe and sickle, answers your
+summons, but some morning you awake to
+find your lawn covered with old women.
+The much-washed cotton garments are
+faded to a light blue, the exact match of
+the light blue cotton towels in which their
+heads are swathed, and on hands and
+knees, each armed with an enormous pair<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+of shears, the old ladies clip and chatter
+cheerfully all day long, until the lawn is as
+smooth as velvet under their careful cutting.
+An occasional rest under a tree, for
+pipes and tea, is the time for much cheerful
+talk and gossip; but the work, though
+done slowly and with due attention to the
+comfort of the worker, is well done, and
+certainly accomplished as rapidly as any
+one could expect of laborers who earn only
+from eight to twelve cents a day. Another
+employment for this same class of laborers
+is the picking of moss and grass from the
+crevices of the great walls that inclose the
+moats and embankments of the capital.
+Mounted on little ladders, they pick and
+scrape with knives until the wall is clear
+and fresh, with no insidious growth to push
+the great uncemented stones out of their
+places.</p>
+
+<p>In contrast with these humble but cheerful
+toilers may be mentioned another class
+of women, often met with in the great
+cities. Dressed in rags and with covered
+heads and faces, they wander about the
+streets playing the <i>samisen</i> outside the
+latticed windows, and singing with cracked
+voices some wailing melody. As they go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+from house to house, gaining a miserable
+pittance by their weird music, they seem
+the embodiment of all that is hopeless and
+broken-hearted. What they are or whence
+they come, I know not, but they always remind
+me of the grasshopper in the fable,
+who danced and sang through the brief
+summer, to come, wailing and wretched,
+seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor
+when at last the winter closed in upon her.</p>
+
+<p>As one rides about the streets, one often
+sees a little, white-haired old woman trotting
+about with a yoke over her shoulders
+from which are suspended two swinging
+baskets, filled with fresh vegetables. The
+fact that her hair is still growing to its
+natural length shows that she is still a wife
+and not a widow; her worn and patched
+blue cotton clothes, bleached light from
+much washing, show that extreme poverty
+is her lot in life; and as she hobbles along
+with the gait peculiar to those who carry a
+yoke, my thoughts are busy with her home,
+which, though poor and small, is doubtless
+clean and comfortable, but my eye follows
+her through the city's crowd, where laborer,
+soldier, student, and high official
+jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+see her pause before the gateway of a temple.
+She sets her burden down, and there
+in the midst of the bustling throng, with
+bowed head, folded hands, and moving lips,
+she invokes her god, snatching this moment
+from her busy life to seek a blessing
+for herself and her dear ones. The throng
+moves busily on, making a little eddy
+around the burden she has laid down, but
+paying no heed to the devout little figure
+standing there; then in a moment the
+prayer is finished; she stoops, picks up her
+yoke, balances it on her shoulders, and
+moves on with the crowd, to do her share
+while her strength lasts, and to be cared
+for tenderly, I doubt not, by children and
+children's children when her work is done.</p>
+
+<p>Another picture comes to me, too, a picture
+of one whose memory is an inspiring
+thought to the many who have the honor
+to call her "mother." A stately old lady,
+left a widow many years ago, before the
+recent changes had wrought havoc preparatory
+to further progress, she seemed always
+to me the model of a mother of the
+old school. Herself a woman of thorough
+classical education, her example and teaching
+were to both sons and daughters a constant
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>inspiration; and in her old age she
+found herself the honored head of a family
+well known in the arts of war and peace,
+a goodly company of sons and daughters,
+every one of them heirs of her spirit and
+of her intellect. Though conservative herself,
+and always clinging to the old customs,
+she put no block in the path of her
+children's progress, and her fine character,
+heroic spirit, and stanch loyalty to what
+she believed were worth more to her children
+than anything else could have been.
+Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by
+danger and sufferings of all kinds, to her
+was given at last an old age of prosperity
+among children of whom she might well
+be proud. Keeping her physical vigor to
+the end, and dying at last, after an illness
+of only two days, her spirit passed out into
+the great unknown, ready to meet its dangers
+as bravely as she had met those of
+earth, or to enjoy its rest as sweetly and
+appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of
+her old age in the house of her oldest son.</p>
+
+<p>My acquaintance with her was limited by
+our lack of common language, but was a
+most admiring and appreciative one on my
+side; and I esteem it one of the chief<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+honors of my stay in Japan, that upon my
+last meeting with her, two weeks before
+her death, she gave me her wrinkled but
+still beautiful and delicately shaped hand
+at parting,&mdash;a deference to foreign customs
+that she only paid upon special occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Two weeks later, amid such rain as Japanese
+skies know all too well how to let
+fall, I attended her funeral at the cemetery
+of Aoyama. The cemetery chapel was
+crowded, but a place was reserved for me,
+on account of special ties that bound me
+to the family, just behind the long line of
+white-robed mourners. In the Buddhist
+faith she had lived, and by the Buddhist
+ceremonial she was buried,&mdash;the chanted
+ritual, the gorgeously robed priests, and
+the heavy smell of incense in the air reminding
+one of a Roman Catholic ceremony.
+The white wooden coffin was placed
+upon a bier at the entrance to the chapel,
+and when the priests had done their work,
+and the ecclesiastical ceremony was over,
+the relatives arose, one by one, walked over
+to the coffin, bowed low before it, and
+placed a grain of incense upon the little
+censer that stood on a table before the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+bier, then, bowing again, retired to their
+places. Slowly and solemnly, from the tall
+soldier son, his hair already streaked with
+gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all
+paid this last token of respect to a noble
+spirit; and after the relatives the guests,
+each in the order of rank or nearness to
+the deceased, stepped forward and performed
+the same ceremony before leaving
+the room. What the meaning of the rite
+was, I did not know, whether a worship of
+strange gods or no; but to me, as I performed
+the act, it only signified the honor
+in which I held the memory of a heroic
+woman who had done well her part in the
+world according to the light that God had
+given her.</p>
+
+<p>Japanese art loves to picture the old woman
+with her kindly, wrinkled face, leaving
+out no wrinkle of them all, but giving with
+equal truthfulness the charm of expression
+that one finds in them. Long life is desired
+by all as passionately as by ancient
+Hebrew poet and psalmist, and with good
+reason, for only by long life can a woman attain
+the greatest honor and happiness. We
+often exclaim in impatience at the thought
+of the weakness and dependence of old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+age, and pray that we may die in the fullness
+of our powers, before the decay of advancing
+years has made us a burden upon
+our friends. But in Japan, dependence is
+the lot of woman, and the dependence of
+old age is that which is most respected
+and considered. An aged parent is never
+a burden, is treated by all with the greatest
+love and tenderness; and if times are hard,
+and food and other comforts are scarce, the
+children, as a matter of course, deprive
+themselves and their children to give ungrudgingly
+to their old father and mother.
+Faults there are many in the Japanese
+social system, but ingratitude to parents,
+or disrespect to the aged, must not be
+named among them; and Young America
+may learn a salutary lesson by the study of
+the place that old people occupy in the
+home.</p>
+
+<p>It is not only for the women of Japan,
+but for the men as well, that old age is a
+time of peace and happiness. When a man
+reaches the age of fifty or thereabouts,
+often while apparently in the height of his
+vigor, he gives up his work or business and
+retires, leaving all the property and income
+to the care of his eldest son, upon whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+he becomes entirely dependent for his support.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a>
+This support is never begrudged
+him, for the care of parents by their children
+is as much a matter of course in
+Japan as the care of children by those who
+give them birth. A man thus rarely makes
+provision for the future, and looks with
+scorn on foreign customs which seem to
+betoken a fear lest, in old age, ungrateful
+children may neglect their parents and
+cast them aside. The feeling, so strong in
+America, that dependence is of itself irksome
+and a thing to be dreaded, is altogether
+strange to the Japanese mind.
+The married son does not care to take his
+wife to a new and independent home of his
+own, and to support her and her children by
+his own labor or on his own income, but he
+takes her to his father's house, and thinks
+it no shame that his family live upon his
+parents. But in return, when the parents
+wish to retire from active life, the son takes
+upon himself ungrudgingly the burden of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+their support, and the bread of dependence
+is never bitter to the parents' lips, for it is
+given freely. To the time-honored European
+belief, that a young man must be independent
+and enterprising in early life in
+order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will
+answer that children in Japan are taught
+to love their parents rather than ease and
+luxury, and that care for the future is
+not the necessity that it is in Europe
+and America, where money is above everything
+else,&mdash;even filial love. This habit of
+thought may account for the utter want of
+provision for the future, and the disregard
+for things pertaining to the accumulation
+of wealth, which often strikes curiously the
+foreigner in Japan. A Japanese considers
+his provision for the future made when he
+has brought up and educated for usefulness
+a large family of children. He invests
+his capital in their support and education,
+secure of bountiful returns in their
+gratitude and care for his old age. It is
+hard for the men of old Japan to understand
+the rush and struggle for riches in
+America,&mdash;a struggle that too often leaves
+not a pause for rest or quiet pleasure until
+sickness or death overtakes the indefatigable
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>worker. The <i>go inkyo</i><a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> of Japan is glad
+enough to lay down early in life the cares
+of the world, to have a few years of calm
+and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities
+or cares for outside matters. If he be an
+artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted,
+spend his days with his beloved art. If he
+is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole
+afternoons that he may devote to this æsthetic
+repast; and even if he has none of
+these higher tastes, he will always have
+congenial friends who are ready to share
+the <i>saké</i> bottle, to join in a quiet smoke over
+the <i>hibachi</i>, or to play the deep-engrossing
+game of <i>go</i>, or <i>shogi</i>, the Japanese chess.
+To the Japanese mind, to be in the company
+of a few kindred souls, to spend the
+long hours of a summer's afternoon at the
+ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and conversing
+in a leisurely manner on various
+subjects, is an enjoyment second to none.
+A cultivated Japanese of the old times must
+receive an education fitting him especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+for such pursuits. At these meetings of
+friends, artistically or poetically inclined,
+the time is spent in making poems and exchanging
+wittily turned sentiments, to be
+read, commented on, and responded to; or
+in the making of drawings, with a few bold
+strokes of the brush, in illustration of some
+subject given out. Such enjoyments as
+these, the Japanese believe, cannot be appreciated
+or even understood by the practical,
+rush-ahead American, the product of
+the wonderful but material civilization of
+the West.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, amid enjoyments and easy labors
+suited to their closing years, the elder
+couple spend their days with the young
+people, cared for and protected by them.
+Sometimes there will be a separate suite
+of rooms provided for them; sometimes a
+little house away from the noises of the
+household, and separated from the main
+building by a well-kept little garden. In
+any case, as long as they live they will
+spend their days in quiet and peace; and it
+is to this haven, the <i>inkyo</i>, that all Japanese
+look forward, as to the time when
+they may carry out their own inclinations
+and tastes with an income provided for the
+rest of their days.<a name="APXanchor_137" id="APXanchor_137" href="#APX_137" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Children wear their hair on top of their heads while
+very young, and the manner of arranging it is one of the
+distinctive marks of the age of the child. The <i>marumagé</i>,
+the style of headdress of married ladies, consisting of a
+large puff of hair on the top of the head, diminishes in
+size with the age of the wearer until, at sixty or seventy,
+it is not more than a few inches in width. The number,
+size, and variety of ornamental hairpins, and the tortoise-shell
+comb worn in front, all vary with the age.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> It is this custom of going into early retirement that
+made it possible for the nobles in old times to keep the
+Emperor always a child. The ruling Emperor would be
+induced to retire from the throne at the age of sixteen or
+twenty; thus making room for some baby, who would be
+in his turn the puppet of his ambitious courtiers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> <i>Go Inkyo Sama</i> is the title belonging to a retired old
+gentleman or old lady. <i>Inkyo</i> is the name of the house or
+suite of rooms set apart for such a person, and the title
+itself is made up of this word with the Chinese honorific
+<i>go</i> and the title <i>Sama</i>, the same as <i>San</i>, used in addressing
+all persons except inferiors.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VI.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">COURT LIFE.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> court of the Emperor was, in the
+early ages of Japan, the centre of whatever
+culture and refinement the country could
+boast, and the emperors themselves took
+an active part in the promotion of civilization.
+The earliest history of Japan is so
+wrapped in the mists of legend and tradition
+that only here and there do we get
+glimpses of heroic figures,&mdash;leaders in
+those early days. Demigods they seem, children
+of Heaven, receiving from Heaven by
+special revelation the wisdom or strength
+by means of which they conquered their
+enemies, or gave to their subjects new arts
+and better laws. The traditional emperors,
+the early descendants of the great Jimmu
+Tenno,<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> seem to have been merely conquering
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>chieftains, who by virtue of their descent
+were regarded as divine, but who
+lived the simple, hardy life of the savage
+king, surrounded by wives and concubines,
+done homage to by armed retainers and
+subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and
+moving in and out among the soldiers, not
+in the least retired into the mysterious solitude
+which in later days enveloped the
+Son of the Gods. The first emperors ruled
+not only by divine right, but by personal
+force and valor; and the stories of the valiant
+deeds of these early rulers kept strong
+the faith of the people in the divine qualities
+of the imperial house during the hundreds
+of years when the Emperor was a
+mere puppet in the hands of ambitious and
+powerful nobles.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of this legendary period,
+a figure comes into view that for heroic
+qualities cannot be excelled in the annals
+of any nation,&mdash;Jingo Kōgō, the conqueror<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
+of Corea, who alone, among the nine female
+rulers of Japan, has made an era in the
+national history. She seems to have been
+from the beginning, like Jeanne D'Arc, a
+hearer of divine voices; and through her
+was conveyed to her unbelieving husband
+a divine command, to take ship and sail
+westward to the conquest of an unknown
+land. Her husband questioned the authenticity
+of the message, took the earthly and
+practical view that, as there was no land
+to be seen in the westward, there could be
+no land there, and refused to organize any
+expedition in fulfillment of the command;
+but for his unbelief was sternly told that he
+should never see the land, but that his wife
+should conquer it for the son whom she
+should bear after the father's death. This
+message from the gods was fulfilled. The
+Emperor died in battle shortly after, and
+the Empress, after suppressing the rebellion
+in which her husband had been killed,
+proceeded to organize an expedition for the
+conquest of the unknown land beyond the
+western sea. By as many signs as those
+required by Gideon to assure himself of his
+divine mission, the Empress tested the call
+that had come to her, but at last, satisfied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+that the voices were from Heaven, she gave
+her orders for the collection of troops and
+the building of a navy. I quote from Griffis
+the inspiring words with which she addressed
+her generals: "The safety or destruction
+of our country depends upon this
+enterprise. I intrust the details to you.
+It will be your fault if they are not carried
+out. I am a woman and young. I shall
+disguise myself as a man, and undertake
+this gallant expedition, trusting to the
+gods and to my troops and captains. We
+shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory
+is yours, if we succeed; if we fail, the guilt
+and disgrace shall be mine." What wonder
+that her captains responded to such an
+appeal, and that the work of recruiting and
+shipbuilding began with a will! It was a
+long preparation that was required&mdash;sometimes,
+to the impatient woman, it seemed unnecessarily
+slow&mdash;but by continual prayer
+and offerings she appealed to the gods for
+aid; and at last all was ready, and the brave
+array of ships set sail for the unknown
+shore, the Empress feeling within her the
+new inspiration of hope for her babe as yet
+unborn. Heaven smiled upon them from
+the start. The clearest of skies, the most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+favoring of breezes, the smoothest of seas,
+favored the god-sent expedition; and tradition
+says that even the fishes swarmed in
+shoals about their keels, and carried them
+on to their desired haven. The fleet ran
+safely across to southern Corea, but instead
+of finding battles and struggles awaiting
+them, the king of the country met them on
+the beach to receive and tender allegiance to
+the invaders, whose unexpected appearance
+from the unexplored East had led the natives
+to believe that their gods had forsaken
+them. The expedition returned laden
+with vast wealth, not the spoil of battle,
+but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless victory;
+and from that time forward Japan,
+through Corea, and later by direct contact
+with China itself, began to receive and assimilate
+the civilization, arts, and religions
+of China. Thus through a woman Japan
+received the start along the line of progress
+which made her what she is to-day,
+for the sequel of Jingo Kōgō's Corean expedition
+was the introduction of almost
+everything which we regard as peculiar
+to civilized countries. With characteristic
+belittling of the woman and exalting of
+the man, the whole martial career of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+Empress is ascribed to the influence of her
+son as yet unborn,&mdash;a son who by his valor
+and prowess has secured for his deified
+spirit the position of God of War in the
+Japanese pantheon. We should say that
+pre-natal influences and heredity produced
+the heroic son; the Japanese reason from
+the other end, and show that all the noble
+qualities of the mother were produced by
+the influence of the unborn babe.</p>
+
+<p>With the introduction of literature, art,
+and Buddhism, a change took place in
+the relations of the court to the people.
+About the Emperor's throne there gathered
+not only soldiers and governors, but the
+learned, the accomplished, the witty, the
+artistic, who found in the Emperor and the
+court nobles munificent patrons by whom
+they were supported, and before whom they
+laid whatever pearls they were able to produce.
+The new culture sought not the clash
+of arms and the shout of soldiers, but the
+quiet and refinement of palaces and gardens
+far removed from the noise and clamor of
+the world. And while emperors sought to
+encourage the new learning and civilization,
+and to soften the warlike qualities of
+the people about them, there was a frontier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+along which the savages still made raids
+into the territory which the Japanese had
+wrested from them, and which it required
+a strong arm and a quick hand to guard
+for the defense of the people. But the
+Emperor gradually gave up the personal
+leadership in war, and passed the duty of
+defending the nation into the hands of one
+or another of the great noble families. The
+nobles were not by any means slow to see
+the advantage to be gained for themselves
+by the possession of the military power in
+an age when might made right, even more
+than it does to-day, and when force, used
+judiciously and with proper deference to
+the prejudices of the people, could be made
+to give to its possessor power even over
+the Emperor himself. And so gradually,
+in the pursuit of the new culture and the
+new religion, the emperors withdrew themselves
+more and more into seclusion, and
+the court became a little world in itself,&mdash;a
+centre of culture and refinement into
+which few excitements of war or politics
+ever came. While the great nobles wrangled
+for the possession of the power,
+schemed and fought and turned the nation
+upside down; while the heroes of the country
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>rose, lived, fought, and died,&mdash;the Emperor,
+amid his ladies and his courtiers, his
+priests and his literary men, spent his life
+in a world of his own; thinking more of
+this pair of bright eyes, that new and
+charming poem, the other witty saying
+of those about him, than of the kingdom
+that he ruled by divine right; and
+retiring, after ten years or so of puppet
+kinghood, from the seclusion of his court
+to the deeper seclusion of some Buddhist
+monastery.</p>
+
+<p>Within the sacred precincts of the court,
+much time was given to such games and
+pastimes as were not too rude or noisy
+for the refinement that the new culture
+brought with it. Polo, football, hunting
+with falcons, archery, etc., were exercises
+not unworthy of even the most refined of
+gentlemen, and certain noble families were
+trained hereditarily in the execution of certain
+stately, antique dances, many of them
+of Chinese or Corean origin. The ladies,
+in trailing garments and with flowing hair,
+reaching often below the knees, played a
+not inconspicuous part, not only because of
+their beauty and grace, but for their quickness
+of wit, their learning in the classics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+their skill in repartee, and their quaint
+fancies, which they embodied in poetic
+form.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<p>Much attention was given to that harmony
+of art with nature that the Japanese
+taste makes the <i>sine qua non</i> of all true
+artistic effort. The gorgeously embroidered
+gowns must change with the changing
+season, so that the cherry succeeds
+the plum, the wistaria the cherry, and so on
+through the whole calendar of flowers, upon
+the silken robes of the court, as regularly
+as in the garden that graces the palace
+grounds. And so with the confectionery,
+which in Japan is made in dainty imitation
+of flowers and fruits. The chrysanthemum
+blooms in sugar no earlier than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+on its own stalk; the little golden orange,
+with its dark green leaves, is on the confectioner's
+list in winter, when the real orange
+is yellow on its tree. The very decorations
+of the palace must be changed with the
+changing of the months; and <i>kakémono</i> and
+vase are alternately stored in the <i>kura</i> and
+brought out to decorate the room, according
+as their designs seem in harmony with
+the mood of Nature. This effort to harmonize
+Nature and Art is seen to-day, not
+only in the splendid furnishings of the
+court, but all through the decorative art
+of Japan. In every house the decorations
+are changed to suit the changing seasons.</p>
+
+<p>Through the years when Japan was
+adopting the civilization of China, a danger
+threatened the nation,&mdash;the same
+danger that threatens it to-day: it was the
+danger lest the adoption of so much that
+was foreign should result in a servile copying
+of all that was not Japanese, and lest
+the introduction of literature, art, and numerous
+hitherto unknown luxuries should
+take from the people their independence,
+patriotism, and manliness. But this result
+was happily avoided; and at a time when
+the language was in danger of being swept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+almost out of existence by the introduction
+of Chinese learning through Chinese letters,
+the women of Japan, not only in their
+homes and conversation, but in the poetry
+and lighter literature of the country, preserved
+a strain of pure and graceful Japanese,
+and produced some of the standard
+works of a distinctly national literature.
+Favor at court to-day, as in the olden
+times, is the reward, not of mere rank,
+beauty, and grace of person, but must be
+obtained through the same intellectual endowments,
+polished by years of education,
+that made so many women famous in the
+mediæval history of Japan. Many court
+ladies have read much of their national
+literature, so that they are able to appreciate
+the <i>bonmots</i> which contain allusions
+in many cases to old poems, or plays on
+words; and are able to write and present
+to others, at fitting times, those graceful
+but untranslatable turns of phrase which
+form the bulk of Japanese poetry.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> Even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+in this busy era of Méiji,<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> the Emperor and
+his court keep up the old-time customs,
+and strive to promote a love of the beautiful
+poetry of Japan. At each New Year
+some subject appropriate to the time is
+chosen and publicly announced. Poems
+may be written upon this subject by any
+one in the whole realm, and may be sent
+to the palace before a certain date fixed as
+the time for closing the list of competitors.
+All the poems thus sent are examined by
+competent judges, who select the best five
+and send them to the Emperor, an honor
+more desired by the writers than the most
+favorable of reviews or the largest of emoluments
+are desired by American poets.
+Many of the other poems are published in
+the newspapers. It is interesting to note
+that many of the prominent men and women
+of the country are known as competitors,
+and that many of the court ladies
+join in the contest.</p>
+
+<p>There are also, at the palace, frequent
+meetings of the poets and lovers of poetry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+connected with the court. At these meetings
+poems are composed for the entertainment
+of the Emperor and Empress, as
+well as for the amusement of the poets
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>In the school recently established for the
+daughters of the nobles, under the charge
+of the imperial household, much attention
+is given to the work of thoroughly grounding
+the scholars in the Japanese language
+and literature, and also to making them
+skillful in the art of composing poetry. At
+the head of the school, in the highest position
+held by any woman in the employ of
+the government, is a former court lady,
+who is second to none in the kingdom, not
+only in her knowledge of all that belongs
+to court etiquette, but in her study of the
+history and literature of her own people,
+and in her skill in the composition of these
+dainty poems. A year or two ago, when
+one of the scholars in the school died after
+a brief decline, her schoolmates, teachers,
+and school friends wrote poems upon her
+death, which they sent to the bereaved
+parents.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult for any Japanese, much
+more so for a foreigner, to penetrate into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+the seclusion of the palace and see anything
+of the life there, except what is
+shown to the public in the occasional entertainments
+given at court, such as formal
+receptions and dinner parties. In
+1889, the new palace, built on the site of
+the old Tokugawa Castle, burnt seventeen
+years ago, was finally completed; and it
+was my privilege to see, before the removal
+of the court, not only the grand reception
+rooms, throne-room, and dining-room, but
+also the private apartments of the Emperor
+and Empress. The palace is built in
+Japanese style, surrounded by the old castle
+moats, but there are many foreign additions
+to the palace and grounds. It is
+heated and lighted in foreign style, and
+the larger rooms are all furnished after
+the magnificent manner of European palaces;
+while the lacquer work, carvings,
+and gorgeous paneled ceilings remind one
+of the finest of Japanese temples. The
+private apartments of the Emperor and
+Empress are, on the other hand, most
+simple, and in thorough Japanese style;
+and though the woodwork and polished
+floors of the corridors are very beautiful,
+the paintings and lacquer work most exquisite,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>there is little in this simplicity
+to denote the abode of royalty. It seems
+that their majesties, though outwardly conforming
+to many European customs, and
+to the European manner of dress, prefer
+to live in Japanese ways, on matted, not
+carpeted floors, reposing on them rather
+than on chairs and bedsteads.<a name="APXanchor_152" id="APXanchor_152" href="#APX_152" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Their apartments are not large; each
+suite consisting of three rooms opening
+out of each other, the Empress's rooms
+being slightly smaller than the Emperor's,
+and those of the young Prince Haru,
+the heir apparent, again a little smaller.
+The young prince has a residence of his
+own, and it is only on his visits that he
+occupies his apartments in his father's
+palace. There are also rooms for the Empress
+dowager to occupy on her occasional
+visits. All of these apartments are quite
+close together in one part of the palace,
+and are connected by halls; but the private
+rooms of the court ladies are in an
+entirely separate place, quite removed, and
+only connected with the main building
+by a long, narrow passageway, running
+through the garden. There, in the rooms
+assigned to them, each one has her own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+private establishment, where she stays
+when she is not on duty in attendance on
+the Emperor and Empress. Each lady has
+her own servants, and sometimes a younger
+sister or a dependent may be living there
+with her, though they are entirely separate
+from the court and the life there, and
+must never be seen in any of the other
+parts of the building. In these rooms,
+which are like little homes in themselves,
+cooking and housekeeping are done, entirely
+independent of the other parts of
+the great palace; and the tradesmen find
+their way through some back gate to these
+little establishments, supplying them with
+all the necessaries of life, as well as the
+luxuries.</p>
+
+<p>A court lady is a personage of distinction,
+and lives in comparative ease and
+luxury, with plenty of servants to do all
+the necessary work. Besides her salary,
+which of course varies with the rank and
+the duties performed, but is always liberal
+enough to cover the necessary expenses of
+dress, the court lady receives many presents
+from the Emperor and Empress, which
+make her position one of much luxury.</p>
+
+<p>The etiquette of the imperial household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+is very complicated and very strict, though
+many of the formalities of the olden times
+have been given up. The court ladies are
+models of conservatism. In order to be
+trained for the life there and its duties,
+they usually enter the court while mere
+children of ten or eleven, and serve apprenticeship
+to the older members. In
+the rigid seclusion of the palace they are
+strictly, almost severely, brought up, and
+trained in all the details of court etiquette.
+Cut off from all outside influences while
+young, the little court maidens are taught
+to go through an endless round of formalities
+which they are made to think
+indispensable. These details of etiquette
+extend not only to all that concerns the
+imperial household, but to curious customs
+among themselves, and in regard to
+their own habits. Many of these ideas
+have come down from one generation to
+another, within the narrow limits of the
+court, so that the life there is a curious
+world in itself, and very unlike that in
+ordinary Japanese homes.</p>
+
+<p>But among all the ladies of Japan to-day,&mdash;charming,
+intellectual, refined, and
+lovely as many of them are,&mdash;there is no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+one nobler, more accomplished, more beautiful
+in life and character, than the Empress
+herself. The Emperor of Japan,
+though he may have many concubines, may
+have but one wife, and she must be chosen
+out of one of the five highest noble families.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>
+Haru Ko, of the noble family of
+Ichijō, became Empress in the year 1868,
+one year after her husband, then a boy of
+seventeen, had ascended the throne, and
+the very year of the overthrow of the Shōgunate,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>
+and the restoration of the Emperor
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>to actual power and the leading part
+in the government. Reared amid the deep
+and scholarly seclusion of the old court at
+Kyōto, the young Empress found herself
+occupying a position very different from
+that for which she had been educated,&mdash;a
+position the duties and responsibilities of
+which grow more multifarious as the years
+go by. Instead of a life of rigid seclusion,
+unseeing and unseen, the Empress has had
+to go forth into the world, finding there
+the pleasures as well as the duties of actual
+leadership. With the removal of the court
+to Tōkyō, and the reappearance of the Emperor,
+in bodily form, before his people,
+there came new opportunities for the Empress,
+and nobly has she used them. From
+the time when, in 1871, she gave audience
+to the five little girls of the samurai class
+who were just setting forth on a journey
+to America, there to study and fit themselves
+to play a part in the Japan of the
+future, on through twenty years of change<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+and progress, the Empress Haru Ko has
+done all that lay within her power to advance
+the women of her country.<a name="APXanchor_157" id="APXanchor_157" href="#APX_157" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> Many
+stories are afloat which show the lovable
+character of the woman, and which have
+given her an abiding place in the affections
+of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Some years ago, when the castle in
+Tōkyō was burned, and the Emperor and
+Empress were obliged to take refuge in an
+old daimiō's house, a place entirely lacking
+in luxuries and considerably out of repair,
+some one expressed to her the grief that
+all her people felt, that she should have to
+put up with so many inconveniences. Her
+response was a graceful little poem, in
+which she said that the narrowness of her
+abode would not limit her love for her
+people, and that for them she would endeavor
+to explore wisely the unlimited fields
+of knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwakura,
+one of the leaders of Japan in the
+early days of the crisis through which the
+country is still passing, lay dying at his
+home, the Empress sent him word that
+she was coming to visit him. The prince,
+afraid that he could not do honor to such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+a guest, sent her word back that he was
+very ill, and unable to make proper preparation
+to entertain an Empress. To this
+the Empress replied that he need make no
+preparations for her, for she was coming,
+not as an Empress, but as the daughter of
+Ichijō, his old friend and colleague, and as
+such he could receive her. And then, setting
+aside imperial state and etiquette, she
+visited the dying statesman, and brightened
+his last hours with the thought of
+how lovely a woman stood as an example
+before the women of his beloved country.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the charities and schools of new
+Japan are under the Empress's special
+patronage; and this does not mean simply
+that she allows her name to be used in
+connection with them, but it means that
+she thinks of them, studies them, asks
+questions about them, and even practices
+little economies that she may have the
+more money to give to them. There is a
+charity hospital in Tōkyō, having in connection
+with it a training school for nurses,
+that is one of the special objects of her
+care. Last year she gave to it, at the
+end of the year, the savings from her own
+private allowance, and concerning this act<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+an editorial from the "Japan Mail" speaks
+as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The life of the Empress of Japan is an
+unvarying routine of faithful duty-doing
+and earnest charity. The public, indeed,
+hears with a certain listless indifference,
+engendered by habit, that her Majesty has
+visited this school, or gone round the wards
+at that hospital. Such incidents all seem
+to fall naturally into the routine of the
+imperial day's work. Yet to the Empress
+the weariness of long hours spent in classrooms
+or in laboratories, or by the beds of
+the sick, must soon become quite intolerable
+did she not contrive, out of the goodness
+of her heart, to retain a keen and
+kindly interest in everything that concerns
+the welfare of her subjects. That her Majesty
+does feel this interest, and that it
+grows rather than diminishes as the years
+go by, every one knows who has been present
+on any of the innumerable occasions
+when the promoters of some charity or the
+directors of some educational institution
+have presented, with merciless precision,
+all the petty details of their projects or
+organizations for the examination of the
+imperial lady. The latest evidence of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+Majesty's benevolence is, however, more
+than usually striking. Since the founding
+of the Tōkyō Charity Hospital, where so
+many poor women and children are treated,
+the Empress has watched the institution
+closely, has bestowed on it patronage of the
+most active and helpful character, and has
+contributed handsomely to its funds. Little
+by little the hospital grew, extending its
+sphere of action and enlarging its ministrations,
+until the need of more capacious
+premises&mdash;a need familiar to such undertakings&mdash;began
+to be strongly felt. The
+Empress, knowing this, cast about for some
+means of assisting this project. To practice
+strict economy in her own personal
+expenses, and to devote whatever money
+might thus be saved from her yearly income
+to the aid of the hospital, appears
+to have suggested itself to her Majesty
+as the most feasible method of procedure.
+The result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90
+sen, and 8 rin has just been handed over
+to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter and
+mainstay of the hospital, by Viscount
+Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamberlains.
+There is something picturesque
+about these sen and rin. They represent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+an account minutely and faithfully kept
+between her Majesty's unavoidable expenses
+and the benevolent impulse that constantly
+urged her to curtail them. Such gracious
+acts of sterling effort command admiration
+and love."</p>
+
+<p>Not very long ago, on one of her visits to
+the hospital, the Empress visited the children's
+ward, and took with her toys, which
+she gave with her own hand to each child
+there. When we consider that this hospital
+is free to the poorest and lowest person
+in Tōkyō, and that twenty years ago the
+persons of the Emperor and Empress were
+so sacred in the eyes of the people that no
+one but the highest nobles and the near
+officials of the court could come into their
+presence,&mdash;that even these high nobles
+were received at court by the Emperor at
+a distance of many feet, and his face even
+then could not be seen,&mdash;when we think of
+all this, we can begin to appreciate what
+the Empress Haru has done in bridging
+the distance between herself and her
+people so that the poorest child of a beggar
+may receive a gift from her hand. In
+the country places to this day, there are
+peasants who yet believe that no one can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+look on the sacred face of the Emperor
+and live.</p>
+
+<p>The school for the daughters of the
+nobles, to which I have before referred, is
+an institution whose welfare the Empress
+has very closely at heart, for she sees the
+need of rightly combining the new and the
+old in the education of the young girls
+who will so soon be filling places in the
+court. At the opening of the school the
+Empress was present, and herself made a
+speech to the scholars; and her visits, at
+intervals of one or two months, show her
+continued interest in the work that she
+has begun. Upon all state occasions, the
+scholars, standing with bowed heads as if
+in prayer, sing a little song written for
+them by the Empress herself; and at the
+graduating exercises, the speeches and addresses
+are listened to by her with the profoundest
+interest. The best specimens of
+poetry, painting, and composition done by
+the scholars are sent to the palace for her
+inspection, and some of these are kept by
+her in her own private rooms. When she
+visits the class-rooms, she does not simply
+pass in and pass out again, as if doing a
+formal duty, but sits for half an hour or so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+listening intently, and watching the faces
+of the scholars as they recite. In sewing
+and cooking classes (for the daughters of
+the nobles are taught to sew and cook),
+she sometimes speaks to the scholars, asking
+them questions. Upon one occasion
+she observed a young princess, a newcomer
+in the school, working somewhat awkwardly
+with needle and thimble. "The
+first time, Princess, is it not?" said the
+Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed
+Princess was obliged to confess that this
+was her first experience with those domestic
+implements.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes in her leisure hours&mdash;and
+they are rare in her busy life&mdash;the Empress
+amuses herself by receiving the little
+daughters of some imperial prince or
+nobleman, or even the children of some of
+the high officials. In the kindness of her
+heart, she takes great pleasure in seeing
+and talking to these little ones, some of
+whom are intensely awed by being in the
+presence of the Empress, while others, in
+their innocence, ignorant of all etiquette,
+prattle away unrestrainedly, to the great
+entertainment of the court ladies as well
+as of the Empress herself. These visits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+always end with some choice toy or gift,
+which the child takes home and keeps
+among her most valued treasures in remembrance
+of her imperial hostess. In
+this way the Empress relieves the loneliness
+of the great palace, where the sound
+of childish voices is seldom heard, for the
+Emperor's children are brought up in separate
+establishments, and only pay occasional
+visits to the palace, until they have
+passed early childhood.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p>
+
+<p>The present life of the Empress is not
+very different from that of European royalty.
+Her carriage and escort are frequently
+met with in the streets of Tōkyō
+as she goes or returns on one of her numerous
+visits of ceremony or beneficence.
+Policemen keep back the crowds of people
+who always gather to see the imperial
+carriage, and stand respectfully, but without
+demonstration, while the horsemen
+carrying the imperial insignia, followed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+closely by the carriages of the Empress
+and her attendants, pass by. The official
+Gazette announces almost daily visits by
+the Emperor, Empress, or other members
+of the imperial family, to different places of
+interest,&mdash;sometimes to various palaces
+in different parts of Tōkyō, at other times
+to schools, charitable institutions or exhibitions,
+as well as occasional visits to the
+homes of high officials or nobles, for which
+great preparations are made by those who
+have the honor of entertaining their Majesties.</p>
+
+<p>Among the amusements within the palace
+grounds, one lately introduced, and at
+present in high favor, is that of horseback-riding,
+an exercise hitherto unknown to
+the ladies of Japan. The Empress and her
+ladies are said to be very fond of this active
+exercise,&mdash;an amusement forming a
+striking contrast to the quiet of former
+years.</p>
+
+<p>The grounds about the palaces in Tōkyō
+are most beautifully laid out and cultivated,
+but not in that artificial manner, with regular
+flower beds and trees at certain equal
+distances, which is seen so often in the
+highly cultivated grounds of the rich in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+this country. The landscape gardening of
+Japan keeps unchanged the wildness and
+beauty of nature, and imitates it closely.
+The famous flowers, however, are, in the
+imperial gardens, changed by art and cultivated
+to their highest perfection, blooming
+each season for the enjoyment of the
+members of the court. Especially is attention
+given to the cultivation of the imperial
+flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum;
+and some day in November, when this
+flower is in its perfection, the gates of the
+Akasaka palace are thrown open to invited
+guests, who are received in person by the
+Emperor and Empress. Here the rarest
+species of this favorite flower, and the oddest
+colors and shapes, the results of much
+care and cultivation, are exhibited in spacious
+beds, shaded by temporary roofs of
+bamboo twigs and decorated with the imperial
+flags. This is the great chrysanthemum
+party of the Emperor, and another
+of similar character is given in the spring
+under the flower-laden boughs of the cherry
+trees.</p>
+
+<p>In these various ways the Empress shows
+herself to her people,&mdash;a gracious and
+lovely figure, though distant, as she needs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+must be, from common, every-day life.
+Only by glimpses do the people know her,
+but those glimpses reveal enough to excite
+the warmest admiration, the most tender
+love. Childless herself, destined to see
+a child not her own, although her husband's,
+heir to the throne, the Empress
+devotes her lonely and not too happy life
+to the actual, personal study of the wants
+of daughters of her people, and side by
+side with Jingo,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> the majestic but shadowy
+Empress of the past, should be enshrined
+in the hearts of the women of Japan the
+memory of Haru Ko, the leader of her
+countrywomen into that freer and happier
+life that is opening to them.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p><p>Each marks the beginning of a new era,&mdash;the
+first, of the era of civilization and
+morality founded upon the teachings of
+Buddha and Confucius; the second, of the
+civilization and morality that have sprung
+from the teachings of Christ. Buddhism
+and Confucianism were elevating and civilizing,
+but failed to place the women of
+Japan upon even as high a plane as they
+had occupied in the old barbaric times. To
+Christianity they must look for the security
+and happiness which it has never failed to
+give to the wives and mothers of all Christian
+nations.<a name="APXanchor_168" id="APXanchor_168" href="#APX_168" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The Japanese claim for their present Emperor direct
+descent from Jimmu Tenno, the Son of the Gods; and
+it is for this reason that the Emperor is supposed to be
+divine, and the representative of the gods on the earth.
+The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since
+Jimmu Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however,
+be said in connection with this statement, that the Japanese
+family is a much looser organization than that known
+to our Western civilization, on account of the customs of
+concubinage and adoption, and that descent through family
+lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> In ancient times, before the long civil wars of the
+Middle Ages, much attention was given by both men and
+women to poetry, and many of the classics of Japanese
+literature are the works of women. Among these distinguished
+writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu,
+Seishō Nagon, and Iséno Taiyu, all court ladies in the
+time of the Emperor Ichijō (about 1000 <span class="ucsmcap">A. D.</span>). The court
+at that time was the centre of learning, and much encouragement
+was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits,
+the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gathered
+around him talented men and women, but the great
+works that remain are, strange to say, mostly those of
+women.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The court ladies in immediate contact with the Emperor
+and Empress are selected from the daughters of
+the nobles. Only in the present reign have a few samurai
+women risen to high positions at court on account of
+special talents.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Méiji</i> (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that
+began with the present Emperor's accession to the throne.
+The year <span class="ucsmcap">A. D.</span> 1890 is the twenty-third year of Méiji, and
+would be so designated in all Japanese dates.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any
+branch of the imperial family, but from among the
+daughters of the five of the great <i>kugé</i>, or court nobles,
+who are next in rank to the imperial princes. The
+choice usually rests with the Emperor or his advisers, and
+would be naturally given to the most worthy, whether in
+beauty or accomplishments. No doubt one reason why
+the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor is,
+that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of
+the Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the Emperor
+could never marry, as all men were far beneath
+them in rank. These usually devoted their lives to religion,
+and as Shintō priestesses or Buddhist nuns dwelt
+in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of
+cloisters.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Tokugawa Shōguns were the military rulers of the
+Tokugawa family, who held the power in Japan for a
+period of two hundred and fifty years. They are better
+known to Americans, perhaps, under the title of <i>Tycoon</i>
+(Great Prince), a name assumed, or rather revived, to impress
+the foreigners when Commodore Perry was negotiating
+in regard to treaties. The Shōgun held the daimiōs
+in forced subjection,&mdash;a subjection that was shaken in
+1862, and broken at last in the year 1868, when, by the
+fall of the Shōgunate, the Emperor was restored to direct
+power over his people.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The Emperor's children are placed, from birth, in
+the care of some noble or high official, who becomes the
+guardian of the child. Certain persons are appointed as
+attendants, and the child with its retinue lives in the establishment
+of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise
+his judgment and experience in the physical and mental
+training of the child.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Jingo Kōgō, like many of the heroic, half mythical
+figures of other nations, has suffered somewhat under the
+assaults of the modern historical criticism. Many of the
+best Japanese historians deny that she conquered Corea;
+some go so far as to doubt whether she had right to the
+title of Empress; all are sure that much of romance has
+gathered about the figure of this brave woman; but to
+the mass of the Japanese to-day, she is still an actual historic
+reality, and she represents to them in feminine form
+the Spirit of Japan. Whether she conquered Corea or
+no, she remains the prominent female figure upon the
+border line where the old barbaric life merges into the
+newer civilization, just as the present Empress, Haru Ko,
+stands upon the border line between the Eastern and the
+Western modes of thought and life.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VII.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> seclusion of the Emperors and the
+gathering of the reins of government into
+the hands of Shōguns was a gradual process,
+beginning not long after the introduction
+of Chinese civilization, and continuing
+to grow until Iyéyasŭ, the founder
+of the Tokugawa dynasty, through his code
+of laws, took from the Emperor the last
+vestige of real power, and perfected the
+feudal system which maintained the sway<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>
+of his house for two hundred and fifty years
+of peace.</p>
+
+<p>The Emperor's court, with its literary
+and æsthetic quiet, its simplicity of life and
+complexity of etiquette, was the centre of
+the culture and art of Japan, but never
+the centre of luxury. After the growth of
+the Tokugawa power had secured for that
+house and its retainers great hereditary
+possessions, the Emperor's court was a
+mere shadow in the presence of the magnificence
+in which the Tokugawas and the
+daimiōs chose to live. The wealth of the
+country was in the hands of those who
+held the real power, and the Emperor
+was dependent for his support upon his
+great vassal, who held the land, collected
+the taxes, made the laws, and gave to his
+master whatever seemed necessary for his
+maintenance in the simple style of the old
+days, keeping for himself and for his retainers
+enough to make Yedo, the Tokugawa
+capital, the centre of a luxury far
+surpassing anything ever seen at the Emperor's
+own court. While the <i>kugé</i>, the
+old imperial nobility, formerly the governors
+of the provinces under the Emperors,
+lived in respectable but often extreme poverty
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>at Kyōto, the landed nobility, or daimiōs,
+brought, after many struggles, under
+the sway of the Tokugawas, built for themselves
+palaces and pleasure gardens in the
+moated city of Yedo. At Yedo with its castle,
+its gardens, its <i>yashikis</i>, and its fortifications,
+was established a new court, more
+luxurious, but less artistic and cultivated,
+than the old court of Kyōto. In the various
+provinces, too, at every castle town, a
+little court arose about the castle, and the
+daimiō became not only the feudal chief,
+but the patron of literature and art among
+his people, as the years went by filling his
+<i>kura</i> with choice works of art, in lacquer,
+bronze, silver, and pottery, to be brought
+out on special occasions. These nobles,
+under a law of Iyémitsŭ, the third of the
+Tokugawa line, were compelled to spend
+half of each year at the city of the Shōguns;
+and each had his <i>yashiki</i>, or large
+house and garden, in the city. At this
+house, his family must reside permanently,
+as hostages for the loyalty of their lord
+while away. The annual journeys to and
+from Yedo were events not only in the lives
+of the daimiōs and their trains of retainers,
+but in the lives of the country people who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+lived along the roads by which they must
+travel. The time and style of each journey
+for each daimiō were rigidly prescribed in
+the laws of Iyémitsŭ, as well as the behavior
+of the country people who might
+meet the procession moving towards Yedo,
+or returning therefrom. When some noble,
+or any member of his family, was to pass
+through a certain section of the country,
+great preparations were made beforehand.
+Not only was traffic stopped along the
+route, but every door and window had to
+be closed. By no means was any one to
+show himself, or to look in any way upon
+the passing procession. To do so was to
+commit a profane deed, punishable by a
+fine. Among other things, no cooking was
+allowed on that day. All the food must be
+prepared the day before, as the air was
+supposed to become polluted by the smoke
+from the fires. Thus through crowded
+cities, full and busy with life, the daimiō
+in his curtained palanquin, with numerous
+retinue, would pass by; but wherever he
+approached, the place would be as deserted
+and silent as if plague-stricken. It is
+hardly necessary to add that these journeys,
+attended with so much ceremony and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+inconvenience to the people, were not as
+frequent as the trips now taken, at a moment's
+notice, from one city to another,
+by these very same men.</p>
+
+<p>One story current in Tōkyō shows the
+narrowing effect of such seclusion. A
+noble who had traveled into Yedo, across
+one of the large bridges built over the
+Sumida River, remarked one day to his
+companions that he was greatly disappointed
+on seeing that bridge. "From the
+pictures," he said, "which I have seen, the
+bridge seemed alive with people, the centre
+of life and activity, but the artists must exaggerate,
+for not a soul was on the bridge
+when I passed by."</p>
+
+<p>The castle of the Shōgun in Yedo, with
+its moats and fortifications, and its fine
+house and great <i>kura</i>, was reproduced on a
+small scale in the castles scattered through
+the country; and as in Yedo the <i>yashikis</i>
+of the daimiōs stood next to the inner
+moat of the castle, that the retainers might
+be ready to defend their lord at his earliest
+call, so in the provinces the <i>yashikis</i> of the
+samurai occupied a similar position about
+the daimiō's castle.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to see that, as the Shōgun<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+took away the military and temporal power
+of the Emperor, making of him only a
+figure-head without real power, so, to a
+certain degree, the daimiō gave up, little by
+little, the personal control of his own province,
+the power falling into the hands of
+ambitious samurai, who became the councilors
+of their lord. The samurai were
+the learned class and the military class;
+they were and are the life of Japan; and
+it is no wonder that the nobles, protected
+and shielded from the world, and growing
+up without much education, should have
+changed in the course of centuries from
+strong, brave warriors into the delicate, effeminate,
+luxury-loving nobles of the present
+day. Upon the loyalty and wisdom of
+the samurai, often upon some one man of
+undoubted ability, rested the greatness of
+the province and the prosperity of the master's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>The life of the ladies in these daimiōs'
+houses is still a living memory to many of
+the older women of Japan; but it is a memory
+only, and has given place to a different
+state of things. The Emperor occupies
+the castle of the Shōgun to-day, and every
+daimiō's castle throughout the country is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+in the hands of the imperial government.
+The old pleasure gardens of the nobles are
+turned into arsenals, schools, public parks,
+and other improvements of the new era.
+But here and there one finds some conservative
+family of nobles still keeping up in
+some measure the customs of former times;
+and daimiōs' houses there are still in Tōkyō,
+though stripped of power and of retainers,
+where life goes on in many ways much as
+it did in the old days. In such a house as
+this, one finds ladies-in-waiting, of the samurai
+rank, who serve her ladyship&mdash;the
+daimiō's wife&mdash;in all personal service. In
+the old days, the daughters of the samurai
+were eager for the training in etiquette,
+and in all that belongs to nice housekeeping,
+that might be obtained by a few years
+of apprenticeship in a daimiō's house, and
+gladly assumed the most menial positions
+for the sake of the education and reputation
+to be gained by such training.</p>
+
+<p>The wife and daughters of a daimiō led
+the quietest of lives, rarely passing beyond
+the four great walls that inclose the palace
+with its grounds. They saw the changes
+of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed
+in their lovely gardens, when, followed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+numerous attendants, they slowly walked
+through the bamboo groves or under the
+bloom-laden boughs of the plum or cherry
+trees, forming their views of life, its pleasures,
+its responsibilities, and its meaning,
+within the narrow limits of the daimiō's
+<i>yashiki</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Their mornings were passed in the
+adorning of their own persons, and in the
+elaborate dressing of their luxuriant hair;
+the afternoons were spent in the tea ceremony,
+in writing poetry, or the execution
+of a sort of silk mosaic that is a favorite
+variety of fancy work still among the ladies
+of Japan.</p>
+
+<p>A story is told of one of the Tokugawa
+princesses that illustrates the amusements
+of the Shōgun's daughters, and the pains
+that were taken to gratify their wishes,
+however unreasonable. The cherry-trees
+of the castle gardens of Tōkyō are noted
+for their beauty when in bloom during the
+month of April. It is said that once a
+daughter of the Tokugawa house expressed
+a wish to give a garden party amid the
+blossoming cherry-trees in the month
+of December, and nothing would do but
+that her wishes must be carried out. Her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+retainers accordingly summoned to their
+aid skillful artificers, who from pink and
+white tissue paper produced myriads of
+cherry blossoms, so natural that they could
+hardly be distinguished from the real ones.
+These they fastened upon the trees in just
+such places as the real flowers would have
+chosen to occupy, and the happy princess
+gave her garden party in December under
+the pink mist of cherry blooms.</p>
+
+<p>The children of a daimiō's wife occupied
+her attention but little. They were placed
+in the charge of careful attendants, and the
+mother, though allowed to see them when
+she wished, was deprived of the pleasure of
+constant intercourse with them, and had
+none of the mother's cares which form so
+large a part of life to an ordinary Japanese
+woman.</p>
+
+<p>When we know that the average Japanese
+girl is brought up strictly by her own
+mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedience
+and in all that is proper as regards
+etiquette and the duties of woman, we can
+imagine the narrowness of the education
+of the daimiō's poor little daughter, surrounded,
+from early childhood, with numerous
+attendants of the strictest sort, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+teach her all that is proper according to
+the highest and severest standards. Sometimes,
+by the whim or the indulgence of
+parents, or through exceptional circumstances
+in her surroundings, a samurai's
+daughter became more independent, more
+self-reliant, or better educated, than others
+of her rank; but such opportunities
+never came to the more carefully reared
+noble's daughter.</p>
+
+<p>From her earliest childhood, she was
+addressed in the politest and most formal
+way, so that she could not help acquiring
+polite manners and speech. She was
+taught etiquette above all things, so that
+no rude action or speech would disgrace
+her rank; and that she should give due
+reverence to her superiors, courtesy to
+equals, and polite condescension to inferiors.
+She was taught especially to show
+kindness to the families under the rule of
+her father, and was early told of the noble's
+duty to protect and love his retainers, as
+a father loves and protects his children.
+From childhood, presents were made in
+her name to those around her, often without
+her previous knowledge or permission,
+and from them she would receive profuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+thanks,&mdash;lessons in the delights of beneficence
+which could not fail to make
+their impression on the child princess.
+Even to inferiors she used the polite language,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a>
+and never the rude, brusque speech
+of men, or the careless phrases and expressions
+of the lower classes.</p>
+
+<p>The education of the daimiō's daughter
+was conducted entirely at home.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> Instead
+of going out to masters for instruction,
+she was taught by some one in the household,&mdash;one
+of her father's retainers, or
+perhaps a member of her own private retinue.
+Teachers for certain branches came
+from outside, and these were not expected
+to give the lesson within a certain time
+and hurry away, but they would remain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+conversing, sipping tea, and partaking of
+sweetmeats, until their noble pupil was
+ready to receive them. Hospitality required
+that the teacher be offered a meal
+after the lesson, and this meal etiquette
+would not permit him to refuse, so that
+both teacher and pupil must spend much
+time waiting for each other and for the
+lesson.</p>
+
+<p>Pursued in this leisurely way, the education
+of the noble's daughter could not
+advance very rapidly, and it usually ended
+with an extremely early marriage; and the
+girl wife would sometimes play with her
+doll in the new home until the living baby
+took its place to the young mother.</p>
+
+<p>The samurai women, who in one position
+or another were close attendants on these
+noble ladies, performing for them every
+act of service, were often women of more
+than average intelligence and education.
+From childhood to old age, the noble ladies
+were never without one or more of these
+maids of honor, close at hand to help or
+advise. Some entered the service in the
+lower positions for only a short period,
+leaving sooner or later to be married; for
+continued service in a daimiō's household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+meant a single life. Many of them remained
+in the palace all their days, leading
+lives of devotion to their mistress; the
+comfort and ease of which hardly compensated
+for the endless formalities and the
+monotonous seclusion.</p>
+
+<p>Even the less responsible and more menial
+positions were not looked down upon,
+and the higher offices in the household
+were exceedingly honorable. When, once
+in a long while, a day's leave of absence
+was granted to one of these gentlewomen,
+and, loaded with presents sent by the daimiō's
+lady, she went on her visit to her
+home, she was received as a greatly honored
+member of her own family. The respect
+which was paid to her knowledge of
+etiquette and dress was never lessened
+because of the menial services she might
+have performed for those of noble blood.</p>
+
+<p>The lady who was the head attendant,
+and those in the higher positions, had a
+great deal of power and influence in matters
+that concerned their mistress and the
+household; just as the male retainers decided
+for the prince, and in their own
+way, many of the affairs of the province.
+The few conservative old ladies, the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+relics of the numerous retainers that once
+filled the castle, who still remain faithful
+in attendance in the homes now deprived
+of the grandeur of the olden times, look
+with horror upon the innovations of the
+present day, and sigh for the glory of old
+Japan. It is only upon compulsion that
+they give up many of the now useless formalities,
+and resign themselves to seeing
+their once so honored lords jostle elbow to
+elbow with the common citizen.</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget the horror of one
+old lady, attendant on a noble's daughter
+of high rank, just entering the peeress'
+school, when it was told her that each student
+must carry in her own bundle of books
+and arrange them herself, and that the attendants
+were not allowed in the classroom.
+The poor old lady was doubtless
+indignant at the thought that her noble-born
+mistress should have to perform even
+so slight a task as the arranging of her
+own desk unaided.<a name="APXanchor_182" id="APXanchor_182" href="#APX_182" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the daimiōs' houses there was little
+of the culture or wit that graced the more
+aristocratic seclusion of Kyōto, and none
+of the duties and responsibilities that belonged
+to the samurai women, so that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+life of the daimiō's lady was perhaps more
+purposeless, and less stimulating to the
+noble qualities, than the lives of any other
+of the women of Japan. Surrounded by
+endless restrictions of etiquette, lacking
+both the stimulus that comes from physical
+toil and that to be derived from intellectual
+exertion, the ladies of this class of the
+nobility simply vegetated. There is little
+wonder that the nobles degenerated both
+mentally and physically during the years
+when the Tokugawas held sway; for there
+was absolutely nothing in the lives of the
+women to fit them to be the wives and
+mothers of strong men. Delicate, dainty,
+refined, dexterous in all manner of little
+things but helpless to act for themselves,&mdash;ladies
+to the inmost core of their beings,
+with instincts of honor and of <i>noblesse oblige</i>
+appearing in them from earliest childhood,&mdash;the
+years of seclusion, of deference from
+hundreds of retainers, of constant instruction
+in the duties as well as the dignities
+of their position, have produced an abiding
+effect upon the minds of the women of this
+aristocracy, and to-day even the youngest
+and smallest of them have the virtues as
+well as the failings produced by nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+three centuries of training. They are lacking
+in force, in ambition, in clearness of
+thought, among a nation abounding in
+those qualities; but the national characteristics
+of dignity, charming manners,
+a quick sense of honor, and indomitable
+pride of race and nation, combined with
+a personal modesty almost deprecating in
+its humility,&mdash;these are found among the
+daughters of the nobles developed to their
+highest extent. With the qualities of gentleness
+and delicacy possessed by these ladies,
+which make them shrink from rough
+contact with the outer world, there are
+mingled the stronger qualities of moral
+and physical courage. A daimiō's wife,
+as befitted the wife of a warrior and the
+daughter of long generations of brave men,
+never shrank from facing danger and death
+when necessary; and considered the taking
+of her own life an honorable and easy escape
+from being captured by her enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three little ripples from the past
+broke into my life in Tōkyō, giving a little
+insight into those old feudal times, and the
+customs that were common then, but that
+are now gone forever. A story was told
+me in Japan by a lady who had herself, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+a child, witnessed the events narrated. It
+illustrates the responsibility felt by the retainers
+for their lord and his house. A
+daimiō fell into disgrace with the Shōgun,
+and was banished to his own capital,&mdash;a
+castle town several days' journey from
+Yedo,&mdash;as a punishment for some offense.
+The castle gates were closed, and no communication
+with the outer world allowed.
+During this period of disgrace, it happened
+that the noble fell ill, and died quite suddenly
+before his punishment was ended.
+His death under such circumstances was
+the most terrible thing that could befall
+either himself or his family, as his funeral
+must be without the ordinary tokens of respect;
+and his tombstone, instead of bearing
+tribute to his virtues, and the favor in
+which he had been held by his lord, must
+be simply the monument of his disgrace.
+This being the case, the retainers felt that
+these evils must be averted at any cost.
+Knowing that the Shōgun's anger was
+probably not so great as to make him wish
+to bring eternal disgrace to their dead
+lord, they at once decided to send a messenger
+to the Shōgun, begging for pardon
+on the plea of desperate illness, and asking
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>the restoration of his favor before the
+approach of death. The death was not
+announced, but the floor of the room in
+which the man had died was lifted up, and
+the body let down to the ground beneath;
+and through all the town it was announced
+that the daimiō was hopelessly ill. Forty
+days passed before the Shōgun sent to the
+retainers the token that the disgrace was
+removed, and during all those forty days,
+in castle and barrack and village, the fiction
+of the daimiō's illness was kept up.
+As soon as the messengers returned, the
+body was drawn up again through the floor
+and placed on the bed; and all the retainers,
+from the least unto the greatest,
+were summoned into the room to congratulate
+their master upon his restoration to
+favor. One by one they entered the darkened
+room, prostrated themselves before
+the corpse, and uttered the formal words
+of congratulation. Then when all, even to
+the little girl who, grown to womanhood,
+told me the story, had been through the
+horrible ceremony, it was announced that
+the master was dead,&mdash;that he had died
+immediately after the return of the messenger
+with the good tidings of pardon.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+All obstacles being thus removed, the funeral
+was celebrated with due pomp and
+circumstance; and the tombstone of the
+daimiō to-day gives no hint of the disgrace
+from which he so narrowly escaped.</p>
+
+<p>Another instance very similar, throwing
+some light on the custom of adoption or
+<i>yōshi</i>, referred to in a previous chapter, was
+the case of a nobleman who died without
+children, and without an heir appointed to
+inherit his title. It would never have done,
+in sending in the official notice of death, to
+be unable to name the legal head of the
+house and the successor to the title. There
+was also no male relative to perform the
+office of chief mourner at the funeral; and
+so the death of the nobleman was kept
+secret, and his house showed no signs of
+mourning during a long period, until a
+son satisfactory to all the members of the
+household had been adopted. When the
+legal notice of the adoption had been sent
+in, and the son received into the family as
+heir, then, and only then, was the death of
+the lord announced, the period of mourning
+begun, and the funeral ceremony performed.</p>
+
+<p>Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japanese
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>lady, who knew the interest that I
+took in seeing and procuring the old-fashioned
+embroidered <i>kimonos</i>, which are now
+entirely out of style in Japan, and which
+can only be obtained at second-hand clothing
+stores, or at private sale. My friend
+said that she had just been shown an assortment
+of old garments which were offered
+at private sale by the heirs of a lady,
+recently deceased, who had once been a
+maid of honor in a daimiō's house. The
+clothes were still in the house, and were
+brought in, in a great basket, for my inspection.
+Very beautiful garments they
+were, of silk, crêpe, and linen, embroidered
+elaborately, and in extremely good order.
+Many of them seemed not to have been
+worn at all, but had been kept folded away
+for years, and only brought out when a fitting
+occasion came round at the proper
+season of the year. As we turned over the
+beautiful fabrics, a black broadcloth garment
+at the bottom of the basket aroused
+my curiosity, and I pulled it out and held
+it up for closer inspection. A curious garment
+it was, bound with white, and with a
+great white crest <i>appliqué</i> on the middle of
+the back. Curious white stripes gave the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+coat a military look, and it seemed appropriate
+rather to the wardrobe of some two-sworded
+warrior than to that of a gentlewoman
+of the old type. To the question,
+How did such a coat come to be in such a
+place? the older lady of the company&mdash;one
+to whom the old days were still the
+natural order and the new customs an exotic
+growth&mdash;explained that the garment
+rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any
+lady-in-waiting in a daimiō's house, for it
+was made to wear in case of fire or attack
+when the men were away, and the women
+were expected to guard the premises. Further
+search among the relics of the past
+brought to light the rest of the costume:
+silk <i>hakama</i>, or full kilted trousers; a stiff,
+manlike black silk cap bound with a white
+band; and a spear cover of broadcloth, with
+a great white crest upon it, like the one on
+the broadcloth coat. These made up the
+uniform which must be donned in time of
+need by the ladies of the palace or the
+castle, for the defense of their lord's property.
+They had been folded away for twenty
+years among the embroidered robes, to
+come to light at last for the purpose of
+showing to a foreigner a phase of the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+life that was so much a matter of course to
+the older Japanese that it never occurred
+to them even to mention it to a stranger.
+The elder lady of the house was wonderfully
+amused at my interest in these mute
+memorials of the past, and could never comprehend
+why I was willing to expend the
+sum of one dollar for the sake of gaining
+possession of a set of garments for which I
+could have no possible use. The uniform
+had probably never been worn in actual
+warfare, but its owner had been trained
+in the use of the long-handled spear, the
+cover of which she had kept stored away
+all these years; and had regarded herself
+as liable to be called into action at any
+time as one of the home guard, when the
+male retainers of her lord were in the field.</p>
+
+<p>There are in the shops of Tōkyō to-day
+hundreds of colored prints illustrating the
+splendor of the Shōgunate; for the fine
+clothes, the pageants, the show and display
+that ended with the fall of the house of
+Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular
+mind. In these one sees reproduced, in
+more than their original brilliancy of coloring,
+the daimiōs, with their trains of uniformed
+retainers, proceeding in stately pageant
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>to the palace of the Shōgun; the
+games, the dances, the reviews held before
+the Shōgun himself; the princess, with her
+train of ladies and attendants, visiting the
+cherry blossoms at Uyéno, or crossing some
+swift but shallow river on her journey to
+Yedo. There one sees the fleet of red-lacquered
+pleasure barges in which the
+Shōgun with his court sailed up the river
+to Mukōjima, in the spring, to view the
+cherry-trees which bloom along the banks
+for miles. One sees, too, the interiors of
+the daimiōs' houses, the intimate domestic
+scenes into which no outsider could ever
+penetrate. One picture shows the excitements
+consequent upon the advent of an
+heir to a noble house,&mdash;the happy mother
+on her couch, surrounded by brightly
+dressed ladies-in-waiting; the baby in the
+room adjoining; another group of brilliant
+beings preparing his bath; while down the
+long piazza, which opens upon the little
+courtyard in the centre of the house, one
+sees still other groups of servants, bringing
+the gifts with which the great mansion
+is flooded at such a time. Still further
+away, across the courtyard, are the doctors,
+holding learned consultation around a little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
+table, and mixing medicines to secure the
+health and strength of both mother and
+baby.</p>
+
+<p>The fall of the Shōgunate, and the abolition
+of castle and <i>yashiki</i>, have made a
+radical change in the fashions of dress in
+Japan. One sees no longer the beautiful
+embroidered robes, except upon the stage,
+for the abolition of the great leisure class
+has put the flowered <i>kimono</i> out of fashion.
+There are no courts, small and great, scattered
+all through the country, where the
+ladies must be dressed in changing styles
+for the changing seasons, and where the
+embroideries that imitate most closely the
+natural flowers are sure of a market.
+When one asks, as every foreigner is likely
+to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's acquaintance,
+"Why have you given up the
+beautiful embroideries and gorgeous colors
+that you used to wear?" the answer
+always is, "There are no daimiōs' houses
+now." And this is regarded as a sufficient
+explanation of the change.<a name="APXanchor_192" id="APXanchor_192" href="#APX_192" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have in my possession to-day two dainty
+bits of the silk mosaic work before mentioned,
+the work of the sixteen-year-old
+wife of one of the proudest and most conservative
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>of the present generation of nobles.
+A dainty little creature she was,
+with a face upon which her two years of
+wifehood and one year of motherhood had
+left no trace of care. Living amid her
+host of ladies and women servants, most of
+them older and wiser than herself; having
+no care and no amusements save the easy
+task of keeping herself pretty and well-dressed,
+and the amusement of watching
+her baby grow, and hearing the chance
+rumors that might come to her from the
+great new world into which her husband
+daily went, but with which she herself
+never mingled,&mdash;her days were one pleasant,
+monotonous round, unawakening alike
+either to soul or intellect. Into this life of
+remoteness from all that belongs to the
+new era, imagine the excitement produced
+by the advent of a foreign lady, with an
+educated dog, whose wonderful intelligence
+had been already related to her by one of
+her own ladies-in-waiting. I shall always
+believe that my invitation into that exclusive
+house was due largely to the reports
+of my dog, carried to its proprietors by one
+of the lady servitors who had seen him perform
+upon one occasion. Certain it is that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+the first words of the little lady of the
+house to me were a question about the dog;
+and her last act of politeness to our party
+was a warm embrace of the handsome
+collie, who had given unimpeachable evidence
+that he understood a great deal of
+English,&mdash;a tongue which the daimiō himself
+was painfully learning. The dainty
+child-wife with both arms buried in the
+heavy ruff of the astonished dog is a picture
+that comes to me often, and that
+brings up most pathetically the monotony
+of an existence into which so small a thing
+can bring so much. The lifelike black and
+white silk puppy, the creeping baby doll
+from Kyōto, the silk mosaic box and chopstick
+case,&mdash;the work of my lady's delicate
+fingers,&mdash;are most agreeable reminders
+of the kindness and sweetness of the
+little wife, whose sixteen summers have
+been spent among the surroundings of
+thirty years ago, and who lives, like the
+enchanted princess of the fairy tales,
+wrapped about by a spell which separates
+her from the bustling world of to-day. The
+product of the past,&mdash;the daughter of the
+last of the Shōguns,&mdash;she dwells in her
+enchanted house, among the relics of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+past which is still the present to her and
+to her household. So lovely, so æsthetic,
+so dainty and charming seems the world
+into which one enters there, that one
+would not care to break the spell that
+holds it as it is, and let the girl-wife,
+with her gentlewomen and her kneeling
+servants, hurry forward into the busy,
+perplexing life of to-day. May time deal
+gently with her and hers, nor rudely break
+the enchantment that surrounds her!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> <i>Yashiki</i>, or spread-out house, was the name given to
+the palace and grounds of a daimiō's city residence, and
+also to the barracks occupied by his retainers, both in
+city and country. In the city the barracks of the samurai
+were built as a hollow square, in the centre of which stood
+the palace and grounds of their lord, and this whole place
+was the daimiō's <i>yashiki</i>. In the castle towns the daimiō's
+palace and gardens stood within the castle inclosure, surrounded
+by a moat, while the <i>yashikis</i> of the samurai were
+placed without the moat. They in turn were separated
+from the business part of the village sometimes by a
+second or third moat. By life in castle and <i>yashiki</i> we
+mean the life of the daimiō, whether in city or country.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> The Japanese language is full of expressions showing
+different shades of meaning in the politeness or respect
+implied. There are words and expressions which superiors
+in rank use to inferiors, or <i>vice versa</i>, and others used
+among equals. Some phrases belong especially to the
+language of the high-born, just as there are common expressions
+of the people. Some verbs in this extremely
+complex language must be altered in their termination
+according to the degree of honor in which the subject of
+the action is held in the speaker's mind.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> The establishment of the peeress' school, mentioned
+in the last chapter, is a great innovation upon the old-time
+ways of many of the aristocratic families.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">SAMURAI WOMEN.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Samurai</span> was the name given to the
+military class among the Japanese,&mdash;a
+class intermediate between the Emperor
+and his nobles and the great mass of the
+common people who were engaged in agriculture,
+mechanical arts, or trade. Upon
+the samurai rested the defense of the
+country from enemies at home or abroad,
+as well as the preservation of literature
+and learning, and the conduct of all official
+business. At the time of the fall of
+feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four
+millions of Japanese, about two million
+samurai; and in this class, in the
+broadest sense of the word, must be included
+the daimiōs, as well as their two-sworded
+retainers. But as the greater
+among the samurai were distinguished by
+special class names, the word as commonly
+used, and as used throughout this work,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+applies to the military class, who served
+the Shōgun and the daimiōs, and who
+were supported by yearly allowances from
+the treasuries of their lords. These form
+a distinct class, actuated by motives quite
+different from those of the lower classes,
+and filling a great place in the history of
+the country. As the nobility, through long
+inheritance of power and wealth, became
+weak in body and mind, the samurai grew
+to be, more and more, not only the sword,
+but the brain of Japan; and to-day the
+great work of bringing the country out of
+the middle ages into the nineteenth century
+is being performed by the samurai
+more than by any other class.</p>
+
+<p>What, it may be asked, are the traits of
+the samurai which distinguish them, and
+make them such honored types of the perfect
+Japanese gentleman, so that to live and
+die worthy the name of samurai was the
+highest ambition of the soldier? The samurai's
+duty may be expressed in one word,
+loyalty,&mdash;loyalty to his lord and master, and
+loyalty to his country,&mdash;loyalty so true and
+deep that for it all human ties, hopes, and
+affections, wife, children, and home, must
+be sacrificed if necessary. Those who have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+read the tale of "The Loyal Rōnins"<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>&mdash;a
+story which has been so well told by Mitford,
+Dickins, and Greey that many readers
+must be already familiar with it&mdash;will
+remember that the head councilor and
+retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for revenge
+for his lord's unjust death, divorces
+his wife and sends off his children, that they
+may not distract his thoughts from his
+plans; and performs his famous act of revenge
+without once seeing his wife, only
+letting her know at his death his faithfulness
+to her and the true cause of his seeming
+cruelty. And the wife, far from feeling
+wronged by such an act, only glories in
+the loyalty of her husband, who threw aside
+everything to fulfill his one great duty,
+even though she herself was his unhappy
+victim.</p>
+
+<p>The true samurai is always brave, never
+fearing death or suffering in any form.
+Life and death are alike to him, if no disgrace
+is attached to his name.</p>
+
+<p>An incident comes into my mind which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+may serve as an example of the samurai
+spirit,&mdash;a spirit which has filled the history
+of Japan with heroic deeds. It is the
+story of a long siege, at the end of which
+the little garrison in the besieged castle
+was reduced to the last stages of endurance,
+though hourly expecting reinforcement.
+In this state of affairs, the great
+question is, whether to wait for the expected
+aid, or to surrender immediately,
+and the answer to the question can only
+be obtained through a knowledge of the
+enemy's strength. At this juncture, one
+of the samurai volunteers to steal into the
+camp of the besiegers, inspect their forces,
+and report their strength before the final
+decision is made. He disguises himself,
+and through various chances is able to
+penetrate, unsuspected, into the midst of
+the enemy's camp. He discovers that the
+besiegers are so weak that they cannot
+maintain the siege much longer, but while
+returning to the castle he is recognized
+and taken by the enemy. His captors give
+him one chance for escape from the horrible
+death of crucifixion. He is to go to
+the edge of the moat, and, standing on an
+elevated place, shout out to the soldiers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
+that they must surrender, for the forces are
+too strong for them. He seemingly consents
+to this, and, led down to the water's
+edge, he sees across the moat his wife and
+child, who greet him with demonstrations
+of joy. To her he waves his hand; then,
+bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard
+by friend and foe, he shouts out the true
+tidings, "Wait for reinforcement at any
+cost, for the besiegers are weak and will
+soon have to give up." At these words
+his enraged enemies seize him and put
+him to a death of horrible torture, but he
+smiles in their faces as he tells them the
+sweetness of such a sacrifice for his master.
+Japanese history abounds with heroic
+deeds of blood displaying the indomitable
+courage of the samurai. In the reading of
+them, we are often reminded of the Spartan
+spirit of warfare, and samurai women
+are in some ways very like those Spartan
+mothers who would rather die than see
+their sons branded as cowards.</p>
+
+<p>The implicit obedience which samurai
+gave their lords, when conflicting with
+feelings of loyalty to their country, often
+produced two opposing forces which had
+to be overcome. When the daimiō gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+orders that the keener-sighted retainer felt
+would not be for the good of the house,
+he had either to disobey his lord, or act
+against his feeling of loyalty. Divided between
+the two duties, the samurai would
+usually do as he thought right for his
+country or his lord, disobeying his master's
+orders; write a confession of his real
+motives; and save his name from disgrace
+by committing suicide. By this act he
+would atone for his disobedience, and his
+loyalty would never be questioned.</p>
+
+<p>The now abolished custom of <i>hara-kiri</i>,
+or the voluntary taking of one's life to
+avoid disgrace, and blot out entirely or
+partially the stain on an honorable name,
+is a curious custom which has come down
+from old times. The ancient heroes stabbed
+themselves as calmly as they did their enemies,
+and women as well as men knew
+how to use the short sword<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> worn always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+at the side of the samurai, his last and
+easy escape from shame.</p>
+
+<p>The young men of this class, as well as
+their masters, the daimiōs, were early instructed
+in the method of this self-stabbing,
+so that it might be cleanly and easily
+done, for a bloody and unseemly death
+would not redound to the honor of the
+suicide. The fatal cut was not instantaneous
+in its effect, and there was always
+opportunity for that display of courage&mdash;that
+show of disregard for death or
+pain&mdash;which was expected of the brave
+man.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>hara-kiri</i> was of course a last resort,
+but it was an honorable death. The vulgar
+criminal must be put to death by the hands
+of others, but the nobler samurai, who
+never cares to survive disgrace, was condemned
+to <i>hara-kiri</i> if found guilty of actions
+worthy of death. Not to be allowed
+to do this, but to be executed in the common
+way, was a double disgrace to a samurai.
+Even to this day, when crimes such
+as the assassination of a minister of state
+are committed, in the mistaken belief that
+the act is for the good of the country, the
+idea on the part of the assassin is never to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+escape detection. He calmly gives himself
+up to justice or takes his own life,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> stating
+his motive for the deed; and, believing
+himself justified in the act, is willing that
+his life should be the cost.</p>
+
+<p>The old samurai was proud of his rank,
+his honorable vocation, his responsibility;
+proud of his ignorance of trade and barter
+and of his disregard for the sordid cares of
+the world, regarding as far beneath him all
+occupations but those of arms. Wealth,
+as artisan or farmer, rarely tempted him
+to sink into the lower ranks; and his support
+from the daimiō, often a mere pittance,
+insured to him more respect and
+greater privileges than wealth as a héimin.
+To this day even, this feeling exists. Preference
+for rank or position, rather than
+for mere salary, remains strongly among
+the present generation, so that official positions
+are more sought after than the more
+lucrative occupations of trade. Japan<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+is flooded with small officials, and yet the
+samurai now is obliged to lay down his
+sword and devote his time to the once
+despised trades, and to learn how important
+are the arts of peace compared with
+those of war.</p>
+
+<p>The dislike of anything suggestive of
+trade or barter&mdash;of services and actions
+springing, not from duty and from the
+heart, but from the desire of gain&mdash;has
+strongly tinted many little customs of the
+day, often misunderstood and misconstrued
+by foreigners. In old Japan, experience
+and knowledge could not be bought and
+sold. Physicians did not charge for their
+services, but on the contrary would decline
+to name or even receive a compensation
+from those in their own clan. Patients,
+on their side, were too proud to accept
+services free, and would send to the physicians,
+not as pay exactly, but more as
+a gift or a token of gratitude, a sum
+of money which varied according to the
+means of the giver, as well as to the
+amount of service received. Daimiōs did
+not send to ask a teacher how much an
+hour his time was worth, and then arrange
+the lessons accordingly; the teacher was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+not insulted by being expected to barter
+his knowledge for so much filthy lucre,
+but was merely asked whether his time
+and convenience would allow of his taking
+extra teaching. The request was made,
+not as a matter of give and take, but a
+favor to be granted. Due compensation,
+however, would never fail to be made,&mdash;of
+this the teacher could be sure,&mdash;but no
+agreement was ever considered necessary.</p>
+
+<p>With this feeling yet remaining in Japan,&mdash;this
+dislike of contracts, and exact
+charges for professional services,&mdash;we can
+imagine the inward disgust of the samurai
+at the business-like habits of the foreigners
+with whom he has to deal. On the
+other hand, his feelings are not appreciated
+by the foreigner, and his actions clash with
+the European and American ideas of independence
+and self-respect. In Japan a
+present of money is more honorable than
+pay, whereas in America pay is much more
+honorable than a present.</p>
+
+<p>The samurai of to-day is rapidly imbibing
+new ideas, and is learning to see the
+world from a Western point of view; but
+his thoughts and actions are still moulded
+on the ideas of old Japan, and it will be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+long time before the loyal, faithful, but
+proud spirit of the samurai will die out.
+The pride of clan is now changed to pride
+of race; loyalty to feudal chief has become
+loyalty to the Emperor as sovereign; and
+the old traits of character exist under the
+European costumes of to-day, as under
+the flowing robes of the two-sworded retainer.</p>
+
+<p>It is this same spirit of loyalty that
+has made it hard for Christianity to get a
+foothold in Japan. The Emperor was the
+representative of the gods of Japan. To
+embrace a new religion seemed a desertion
+of him, and the following of the strange
+gods of the foreigner. The work of the
+Catholic missionaries which ended so disastrously
+in 1637 has left the impression
+that a Christian is bound to offer allegiance
+to the Pope in much the same
+way as the Emperor now receives it from
+his people; and the bitterness of such
+a thought has made many refuse to hear
+what Christianity really is. Such words as
+"King" and "Lord" they have understood
+as referring to temporal things, and it
+has taken years to undo this prejudice; a
+feeling in no way surprising when we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+consider how the Jesuit missionaries once
+interfered with political movements in
+Japan.</p>
+
+<p>So bitter was this feeling, when Japan
+was first opened, that a native Christian
+was at once branded as a traitor to his
+country, and very severe was the persecution
+against all Christians. Missionaries
+at one time dared not acknowledge themselves
+as such, and lived in danger of their
+lives; and the Japanese Christian who remained
+faithful did so knowing that he
+was despised and hated. I know of one
+mother who, finding command and entreaty
+alike unavailing to move her son, a
+convert to the new religion, threatened to
+commit suicide, feeling that the disgrace
+which had fallen on the family could only
+be wiped out with her death. Happily, all
+this is of the past, and to-day the samurai
+has found that he can reconcile the new
+religion with his loyalty to Japan, and that
+in receiving the one he is not led to betray
+the other.</p>
+
+<p>The women of the samurai have shared
+with the men the responsibilities of their
+rank, and the pride that comes from hereditary
+positions of responsibility. A woman's
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>first duty in all ranks of society is
+obedience; but sacrifice of self, in however
+horrible a way, was a duty most cheerfully
+and willingly performed, when by such sacrifice
+father, husband, or son might be
+the better able to fulfill his duty towards
+his feudal superior. The women in the
+daimiōs' castles who were taught fencing,
+drilled and uniformed, and relied upon
+to defend the castle in case of need, were
+women of this class,&mdash;women whose husbands
+and fathers were soldiers, and in
+whose veins ran the blood of generations
+of fighting ancestors. Gentle, feminine,
+delicate as they were, there was a possibility
+of martial prowess about them when
+the need for it came; and the long education
+in obedience and loyalty did not
+fail to produce the desired results. Death,
+and ignominy worse than death, could be
+met bravely, but disgrace involving loss of
+honor to husband or feudal lord was the
+one thing that must be avoided at all hazards.
+It was my good fortune, many years
+ago, to make the acquaintance of a little
+Japanese girl who had lived in the midst
+of the siege of Wakamatsu, the city in
+which the Shōgun's forces made their last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+stand for their lord and the system that
+he represented. As the Emperor's forces
+marched upon the castle town, moat after
+moat was taken,<a name="APXanchor_209" id="APXanchor_209" href="#APX_209" class="apxanchor">[*]</a> until at last men, women,
+and children took refuge within the citadel
+itself to defend it until the last gasp. The
+bombs of the besiegers fell crashing into
+the castle precincts, killing the women as
+they worked at whatever they could do in
+aid of the defenders; and even the little
+girls ran back and forth, amid the rain of
+bullets and balls, carrying cartridges, which
+the women were making within the castle,
+to the men who were defending the walls.
+"Weren't you afraid?" we asked the delicate
+child, when she told us of her own share
+in the defense. "No," was the answer. A
+small but dangerous sword, of the finest
+Japanese steel, was shown us as the sword
+that she wore in her belt during all those
+days of war and tumult. "Why did you
+wear the sword?" we asked. "So that I
+would have it if I was taken prisoner."
+"What would you have done with it?" was
+the next question, for we could not believe
+that a child of eight would undertake to
+defend herself against armed soldiers with
+that little sword. "I would have killed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+myself," was the answer, with a flash of
+the eye that showed her quite capable of
+committing the act in case of need.</p>
+
+<p>In the olden times, when the spirit of
+warfare was strong and justice but scantily
+administered, revenge for personal insult,
+or for the death of father or lord, fell upon
+the children, or the retainers. Sometimes
+the bloody deed has fallen to the lot of a
+woman, to some weak and feeble girl, who,
+in many a tale, has braved all the difficulties
+that beset a woman's path, devoted her
+life to an act of vengeance, and, with the
+courage of a man, has often successfully
+consummated her revenge.</p>
+
+<p>One of the tales of old Japan, and a favorite
+subject of theatrical representation,
+is the death and revenge of a lady in a daimiō's
+palace. Onoyé, a daughter of the
+people, child of a merchant, has by chance
+risen to the position of lady-in-waiting to a
+daimiō's wife,&mdash;a thing so uncommon that
+it has roused the jealousy of the other
+ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwafuji,
+one of the highest and proudest ladies
+at the court, takes pains on every occasion
+to insult and torment the poor, unoffending
+Onoyé, whom she cannot bear to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+have as an associate. She constantly reminds
+her of her inferior birth, and at last
+challenges her to a trial in fencing, in
+which accomplishment Onoyé is not proficient,
+having lacked the proper training
+in her early life. At last the hatred and
+anger of Iwafuji culminate in a frenzy of
+rage; she forgets herself, and strikes the
+meek and gentle Onoyé with her sandal,&mdash;the
+worst insult that could be offered to
+any one.</p>
+
+<p>Onoyé, overcome by this deep disgrace offered
+her in public, returns from the main
+palace to her own apartments, and ponders
+long and deeply, in the bitterness of her
+soul, how to wipe out the disgrace of an
+insult by such an enemy.</p>
+
+<p>Her own faithful maid, seeing her disordered
+hair and anxious looks, perceives
+some secret trouble, which her mistress
+will not disclose, and tries, while performing
+her acts of service, to dispel the gloom
+by telling gayly all the gossip of the day.
+This maid, O Haru, is a type of the clever
+faithful servant. She is really of higher
+birth than her mistress, for, though she
+has been obliged to go out to service, she
+was born of a samurai family. Onoyé,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+while listening to the talk of her servant,
+has made up her mind that only one thing
+can blot out her disgrace, and that is to
+commit suicide. She hastily pens a farewell
+to her family, for the deed must not
+be delayed, and sends with the letter the
+token of her disgrace,&mdash;Iwafuji's sandal,
+which she has kept. O Haru is sent on
+this errand, and, unconscious of the ill-news
+she is bearing, she starts out. On
+the way, the ominous croak of the ravens,
+who are making a dismal noise,&mdash;a presage
+of ill-luck,&mdash;frightens the observant
+O Haru. A little further on, the strap
+of her clog breaks,&mdash;a still more alarming
+sign. Thoroughly frightened, O Haru
+turns back, and reaches her mistress' room
+in time to find that the fatal deed is done,
+and her mistress is dying. O Haru is
+heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and
+vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved
+mistress.</p>
+
+<p>O Haru, unlike Onoyé, is thoroughly
+trained in fencing. An occasion arises
+when she returns to Iwafuji in public the
+malicious blow, and with the same sandal,
+which she has kept as a sign of her revenge.
+She then challenges Iwafuji, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing.
+The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept,
+and is thoroughly defeated and shamed
+before the spectators. The whole truth is
+now made known, and the daimiō, who admires
+and appreciates the spirit of O Haru,
+sends for her, and raises her from her low
+position to fill the post of her dead mistress.</p>
+
+<p>These stories show the spirit of the
+samurai women; they can suffer death
+bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands
+or the hands of husband or father, to avoid
+or wipe out any disgrace which they regard
+as a loss of honor; but they will as
+bravely and patiently subject themselves to
+a life of shame and ignominy, worse than
+death, for the sake of gaining for husband
+or father the means of carrying out a feudal
+obligation. There is a pathetic scene, in
+one of the most famous of the Japanese historical
+dramas, in which one seems to get
+the moral perspective of the ideal Japanese
+woman, as one cannot get it in any other
+way. The play is founded on the story of
+"The Loyal Rōnins," referred to in the beginning
+of this chapter. The loyal rōnins
+are plotting to avenge the death of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+master upon the daimiō whose cupidity
+and injustice have brought it about. As
+there is danger of disloyalty even in their
+own ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead
+daimiō's retainers, displays great caution
+in the selection of his fellow-conspirators,
+and practices every artifice to secure absolute
+secrecy for his plans. One young
+man, who was in disgrace with his lord at
+the time of his death, applies to be admitted
+within the circle of conspirators;
+but as it is suspected that he may not be
+true to the cause, a payment in money is
+exacted from him as a pledge of his honorable
+intentions. It is thus made his first
+duty to redeem his honor from all suspicion
+by the payment of the money, in order
+that he may perform his feudal obligation
+of avenging the death of his lord. But the
+young man is poor; he has married a poor
+girl, and has agreed to support not only his
+wife, but her old parents as well, and the
+payment is impossible for him. In this
+emergency, his wife, at the suggestion of
+her parents, proposes, as the only way, to
+sell herself, for a term of two years, to
+the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that
+she may by this vile servitude enable her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+husband to escape the dishonor that must
+come to him if he fails to fulfill his feudal
+duty. Negotiations are entered into,
+the contract is made, and an advance payment
+is given which will furnish money
+enough for the pledge required by the conspirators.
+All this is done without the
+knowledge of the husband, lest his love
+for his wife and his grief for the sacrifice
+prevent him from accepting the only
+means left to prove his loyalty. The noble
+wife even plans to leave her home while
+he is away on a hunting expedition, and
+so spare him the pain of parting. His
+emotion upon learning of this venture in
+business is not of wrath at the disgrace
+that has overtaken his family, but simply
+of grief that his wife and her parents must
+make so great a sacrifice to save his honor.
+It is a terrible affliction, but it is not a disgrace
+in any way parallel to the disgrace
+of disloyalty to his lord. And the heroic
+wife, when the men come to carry her away,
+is upheld through all the trying farewells
+by the consciousness that she is making as
+noble a sacrifice of herself as did the wife
+of Yamato Daké when she leaped into the
+sea to avert the wrath of the sea-god from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+her husband. The Japanese, both men
+and women, knowing this story and many
+others similar in character, can see, as we
+cannot from our point of view, that, even if
+the body be defiled, there is no defilement
+of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling her
+highest duty in sacrificing all, even her
+dearest possession, for the honor of her
+husband. It is a climax of self-abnegation
+that brings nothing but honor to the soul
+of her who reaches it. Japanese women
+who read this story feel profound pity for
+the poor wife, and a horror of a sacrifice
+that binds her to a life which outwardly,
+to the Japanese mind even, is the lowest
+depth a woman ever reaches. But they do
+not despise her for the act; nor would they
+refuse to receive her even were she to appear
+in living form to-day in any Japanese
+home, where, thanks to happier fortunes,
+such sacrifices are not demanded. Just
+at this point is the difference of moral
+perspective that foreigners visiting Japan
+find so hard to understand, and that leads
+many, who have lived in the country the
+longest, to believe that there is no modesty
+and purity among Japanese women. It is
+this that makes it possible for the vilest<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+of stories, and those that have the least
+foundation in fact, to find easy belief among
+foreigners, even if they be told about the
+purest, most high-minded, and most honorable
+of Japanese women. Our maidens, as
+they grow to womanhood, are taught that
+anything is better than personal dishonor,
+and their maidenly instincts side with the
+teaching. With us, a virtuous woman does
+not mean a brave, a heroic, an unselfish, or
+self-sacrificing woman, but means simply
+one who keeps herself from personal dishonor.
+Chastity is the supreme virtue for
+a woman; all other virtues are secondary
+compared with it. This is our point of
+view, and the whole perspective is arranged
+with that virtue in the foreground. Dismiss
+this for a moment, and consider the
+moral training of the Japanese maiden.
+From earliest youth until she reaches maturity,
+she is constantly taught that obedience
+and loyalty are the supreme virtues,
+which must be preserved even at the sacrifice
+of all other and lesser virtues. She is
+told that for the good of father or husband
+she must be willing to meet any danger,
+endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime,
+give up any treasure. She must consider<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>
+that nothing belonging solely to herself is
+of any importance compared with the good
+of her master, her family, or her country.
+Place this thought of obedience and loyalty,
+to the point of absolute self-abnegation, in
+the foreground, and your perspective is altered,
+the other virtues occupying places of
+varying importance. Because a Japanese
+woman will sometimes sacrifice her personal
+virtue for the sake of father or husband,
+does it follow that all Japanese women are
+unchaste and impure? In many cases this
+sacrifice is the noblest that she believes
+possible, and she goes to it, as she would
+go to death in any dreadful form, for those
+whom she loves, and to whom she owes the
+duty of obedience. The Japanese maiden
+grows to womanhood no less pure and
+modest than our own girls, but our girls
+are never called upon to sacrifice their modesty
+for the sake of those whom they love
+best; nor is it expected of any woman in
+this country that she exist solely for the
+good of some one else, in whatever way he
+chooses to use her, during all the years of
+her life. Let us take this difference into
+our thought in forming our judgment, and
+let us rather seek the causes that underlie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+the actions than pass judgment upon the
+actions themselves. From a close study of
+the characters of many Japanese women
+and girls, I am quite convinced that few
+women in any country do their duty, as
+they see it, more nobly, more single-mindedly,
+and more satisfactorily to those about
+them, than the women of Japan.</p>
+
+<p>Many argue that the purity of Japanese
+women, as compared with the men, the
+ready obedience which they yield, their
+sweet characters and unselfish devotion as
+wives and mothers, are merely the results
+of the restraint under which they live,
+and that they are too weak to be allowed
+to enjoy freedom of thought and action.
+Whether this be true or no is a point
+which we leave for others to take up, as
+time shall have provided new data for reasoning
+on the subject.</p>
+
+<p>To me, the sense of duty seems to be
+strongly developed in the Japanese women,
+especially in those of the samurai
+class. Conscience seems as active, though
+often in a different manner, as the old-fashioned
+New England conscience, transmitted
+through the bluest of Puritan blood. And
+when a duty has once been recognized as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+such, no timidity, or mortification, or fear
+of ridicule will prevent the performance
+of it. A case comes to my mind now of
+a young girl of sixteen, who made public
+confession before her schoolmates of shortcomings
+of which none of them knew, for
+the sake of easing her troubled conscience
+and warning her schoolmates against similar
+errors. The circumstances were as follows:
+The young girl had recently lost her
+grandmother, a most loving and affectionate
+old lady, who had taken the place of
+a mother to the child from her earliest
+infancy. In a somewhat unhappy home,
+the love of the old grandmother was the
+one bright spot; and when she was taken
+away, the poor, lonely child's memory recalled
+all of her own shortcomings to this
+beloved friend; and, too late to make amendment
+to the old lady herself, she dwelt
+on her own undutifulness, and decided that
+she must by some means do penance, or
+make atonement for her fault. She might,
+if she made a confession before her schoolmates,
+warn them against similar mistakes;
+and accordingly she prepared, for the literary
+society in which the girls took what
+part they chose, a long confession, written<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+in poetical style, and read it before her
+schoolmates and teachers. It was a terrible
+ordeal, as one could see by the blushing
+face and breaking voice, often choked
+with sobs; and when at the conclusion she
+urged her friends to behave in such a way
+to their dear ones that they need never
+suffer what she had had to endure since
+her grandmother's death, there was not a
+dry eye in the room, and many of the girls
+were sobbing aloud. It was a curious expiation
+and a touching one, but one not in
+the least exceptional or uncharacteristic of
+the spirit of duty that actuates the best
+women of the samurai class.</p>
+
+<p>Here is another instance which illustrates
+this sense of duty, and desire of
+atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the
+time of the overthrow of the feudal system,
+the samurai, bred to loyalty to their
+own feudal superiors as their highest duty,
+found themselves ranged on different sides
+in the struggle, according to the positions
+in which their lords placed themselves. At
+the end of the struggle, those who had
+followed their daimiōs to the field, in defense
+of the Shōgunate, found that they
+had been fighting against the Emperor, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+Son of Heaven himself, who had at last
+emerged from the seclusion of centuries to
+govern his own empire. Thus the supporters
+of the Shōgunate, while absolutely
+loyal to their daimiōs, had been disloyal to
+the higher power of the Emperor; and
+had put themselves in the position of traitors
+to their country. There was a conflict
+of principles there somewhat similar to
+that which took place in our Civil War,
+when, in the South, he who was true to his
+State became a traitor to his country, and
+he who was true to his country became
+a traitor to his State. Two ladies of the
+finest samurai type had, with absolute loyalty
+to a lost cause, aided by every means
+in their power in the defense of the city of
+Wakamatsu against the victorious forces
+of the Emperor. They had held on to the
+bitter end, and had been banished, with
+others of their family and clan, to a remote
+province, for some years after the end of
+the war. In 1877, eleven years after the
+close of the War of the Restoration, a rebellion
+broke out in the south which required
+a considerable expenditure of blood
+and money for its suppression. When the
+new war began, these two ladies presented<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+a petition to the government, in which
+they begged that they might be allowed to
+make amends for their former position of
+opposition to the Emperor, by going with
+the army to the field as hospital nurses.
+At that time, no lady in Japan had ever
+gone to the front to nurse the wounded
+soldiers; but to those two brave women
+was granted the privilege of making atonement
+for past disloyalty, by the exercise of
+the skill and nerve that they had gained in
+their experience of war against the Emperor,
+in the nursing of soldiers wounded
+in his defense.<a name="APXanchor_223" id="APXanchor_223" href="#APX_223" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>In the old days, the women of the samurai
+class fulfilled most nobly the duties
+that fell to their lot. As wives and mothers
+in time of peace, they performed their
+work faithfully in the quiet of their homes;
+and, their time filled with household cares,
+they busied themselves with the smaller
+duties of life. As the wives and mothers
+of soldiers, they cultivated the heroic spirit
+befitting their position, fearing no danger
+save such as involved disgrace. As the
+home-guard in time of need, they stood
+ready to defend their master's possessions
+with their own lives; as gentlewomen and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+ladies-in-waiting at the court of the daimiō
+or the Shōgun, they cultivated the arts
+and accomplishments required for their
+position, and veiled the martial spirit that
+dwelt within them under an exterior as
+feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and
+charming, as that of any ladies of Europe
+or America. To-day in the new Japan,
+where the samurai have no longer their
+yearly allowance from their lords and their
+feudal duties, but, scattered through the
+whole nation, are engaged in all the arts
+and trades, and are infusing the old spirit
+into the new life, what are the women
+doing? As the government of the land
+to-day lies in the hands of the samurai
+men under the Emperor, so the progress
+of the women, the new ideas of work for
+women, are in the hands of the samurai
+women, led by the Empress. Wherever
+there is progress among the women, wherever
+they are looking about for new opportunities,
+entering new occupations, elevating
+the home, opening hospitals, industrial
+schools, asylums, there you will find
+the leading spirits always of the samurai
+class. In the recent changes, some of this
+class have risen above their former state<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+and joined the ranks of the nobility; and
+there the presence of the samurai spirit infuses
+new life into the aristocracy. So, too,
+the changes that have raised some have
+lowered others, and the samurai is now to
+be found in the formerly despised occupations
+of trade and industry, among the
+merchants, the farmers, the fishermen, the
+artisans, and the domestic servants. But
+wherever his lot is cast, the old training,
+the old ideals, the old pride of family, still
+keep him separate from his present rank,
+and, instead of pulling him down to the
+level of those about him, tend to raise that
+level by the example of honor and intelligence
+that he sets. The changed fortunes
+were not met without a murmur. Most of
+the outrages, the reactionary movements,
+the riots and inflammatory speeches and
+writings, that characterized the long period
+of disquiet following the Restoration, came
+from men of this class, who saw their support
+taken from them, leaving them unable
+to dig and ashamed to beg. But the
+greater part of them went sturdily to work,
+in government positions if they could get
+them, in the army, on the police force, on
+the farm, in the shop, at trades, at service,&mdash;even
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>to the humble work of wheeling a
+<i>jinrikisha</i>, if other honest occupation could
+not be found; and the women shared patiently
+and bravely the changed fortunes of
+the men, doing whatever they could toward
+bettering them. The samurai women to-day
+are eagerly working into the positions
+of teachers, interpreters, trained nurses,
+and whatever other places there are which
+may be honorably occupied by women. The
+girls' schools, both government and private,
+find many of their pupils among the
+samurai class; and their deference and
+obedience to their teachers and superiors,
+their ambition and keen sense of honor in
+the school-room, show the influence of the
+samurai feeling over new Japan. To the
+samurai women belongs the task&mdash;and
+they have already begun to perform it&mdash;of
+establishing upon a broader and surer
+foundation the position of women in their
+own country. They, as the most intelligent,
+will be the first to perceive the
+remedy for present evils, and will, if I
+mistake not, move heaven and earth, at
+some time in the near future, to have that
+remedy applied to their own case. Most of
+them read the literature of the day, some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+of them in at least one language beside
+their own; a few have had the benefit of
+travel abroad, and have seen what the home
+and the family are in Christian lands.
+There is as much of the unconquerable
+spirit of the samurai to-day in the women
+as in the men; and it will not be very long
+before that spirit will begin to show itself
+in working for the establishment of their
+homes and families upon some stronger
+basis than the will of the husband and
+father.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Rōnin</i> was the term applied to a samurai who had
+lost his master, and owed no feudal allegiance to any
+daimiō. The exact meaning of the word is <i>wave-man</i>,
+signifying one who wanders to and fro without purpose,
+like a wave driven by the wind.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The samurai always wore two swords, a long one for
+fighting only, and a short one for defense when possible,
+but, as a last resort, for <i>hara-kiri</i>. The sword is the emblem
+of the samurai spirit, and as such is respected and
+honored. A samurai took pride in keeping his swords as
+sharp and shining as was possible. He was never seen
+without the two swords, but the longer one he removed
+and left at the front door when he entered the house of a
+friend. To use a sword badly, to harm or injure it, or to
+step over it, was considered an insult to the owner.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma,
+the late Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889,
+committed suicide immediately after throwing the dynamite
+bomb which caused the minister the loss of his leg.
+This was the more remarkable in that, at the time of his
+death, the assassin supposed that his victim had escaped
+all injury.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER IX.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">PEASANT WOMEN.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> great héimin class includes not
+only the peasants of Japan, but also the
+artisans and merchants; artisans ranking
+below farmers, and merchants below artisans,
+in the social structure. It includes
+the whole of the common people, except
+such as were in former times altogether
+below the level of respectability, the <i>éta</i>
+and <i>hinin</i>,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>&mdash;outcasts who lived by begging,
+slaughtering animals, caring for dead
+bodies, tanning skins, and other employments
+which rendered them unclean according
+to the old notions. From very
+early times the agricultural class has been
+sharply divided from the samurai or military.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>Here and there one from the peasantry
+mounts by force of his personal qualities
+into the higher ranks, for there is no
+caste system that prevents the passing
+from one class into another,&mdash;only a class
+prejudice that serves very nearly the same
+purpose, in keeping samurai and héimin in
+their places, that the race prejudice in this
+country serves in confining the negroes,
+North and South, to certain positions and
+occupations. The first division of the military
+from the peasantry occurred in the
+eighth century, and since then the peculiar
+circumstances of each class have tended to
+produce quite different characteristics in
+persons originally of the same stock. To
+the soldier class have fallen learning, skill
+in arms and horsemanship, opportunities
+to rise to places of honor and power, lives
+free from sordid care in regard to the
+daily rice, and in which noble ideas of duty
+and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit in
+heroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his
+little rice-field year after year, have come
+the heavy burdens of taxation; the grinding
+toil for a mere pittance of food for
+himself and his family; the patient bearing
+of all things imposed by his superiors, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+little hope of gain for himself, whatever
+change the fortunes of war may bring to
+those above him in the social scale. Is
+there wonder that, as the years have gone
+by, his wits have grown heavy under his
+daily drudgery; that he knows little and
+understands less of the changes that are
+taking place in his native land; that he is
+easily moved by only one thing, and that
+the failure of his crops, or the shortening
+of his returns from his land by heavier
+taxation? This is true of the héimin as a
+class: they are conservative, fearing that
+change will but tend to make harder a lot
+that is none too easy; and though peaceable
+and gentle usually, they may be moved
+to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any
+political change that seems likely to produce
+heavier taxation, or even by a failure
+of their crops, when they see themselves
+and their families starving while the military
+and official classes have enough and
+to spare. But though, as a class, the farmers
+are ignorant and heavy, they are seldom
+entirely illiterate; and everywhere,
+throughout the country, one finds men belonging
+to this class who are well educated
+and have risen to positions of much responsibility
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>and power, and are able to hold
+their own, and think for themselves and
+for their brethren. From an article in the
+"Tōkyō Mail," entitled "A Memorialist of
+the Latter Days of the Tokugawa Government,"
+I quote passages which show the
+thoughts of one of the héimin upon the
+condition of his own class about the year
+1850. It is from a petition sent to the
+Shōgun by the head-man of the village of
+Ogushi.</p>
+
+<p>The first point in the petition is, that
+there is a growing tendency to luxury
+among the military and official classes.
+"It is useless to issue orders commanding
+peasants and others to be frugal and industrious,
+when those in power, whose
+duty it is to show a good example to the
+people, are themselves steeped in luxury
+and idleness." He ventures to reproach
+the Shōguns themselves by pointing to the
+extravagance with which they have decorated
+the mausoleums at Nikkō and elsewhere.
+"Is this," he asks, "in keeping
+with the intentions of the glorious founder
+of your dynasty? Look at the shrines in
+Isé and elsewhere, and at the sepulchres of
+the Emperors of successive ages. Is gold
+or silver used in decorating them?" He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+then turns to the vassals of the Shōgun,
+and charges them with being tyrannical,
+rapacious, and low-minded. "Samurai,"
+he continues,&mdash;"samurai are finely attired,
+but how contemptible they look in the eyes
+of those peasants who know how to be contented
+with what they have!"</p>
+
+<p>Further on in the same memorial, he
+points out what he regards as a grave mistake
+in the policy of the Shōgun. A decree
+had just been issued prohibiting the
+peasantry from exercising themselves with
+sword-play, and from wearing swords. Of
+this he says: "Perhaps this decree may
+have been issued on the supposition that
+Japan is naturally impregnable and defended
+on all sides. But when she receives
+insult from a foreign country, it may become
+necessary to call on the militia. And
+who knows that men of extraordinary military
+genius, like Toyotomi,<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> will not again
+appear among the lower classes?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span></p><p>He ends his memorial with this warning:
+"Should the Shōgun's court, and the
+military class in general, persist in the
+present oppressive way of government, Heaven
+will visit this land with still greater
+calamities. If this circumstance is not
+clearly kept in view, the consequence may
+be civil disturbance. I, therefore, beseech
+that the instructions of the glorious founder
+of the dynasty be acted upon; that
+simplicity and frugality be made the guiding
+principle of administration; and that
+a general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby
+complying with the will of Heaven and placating
+the people. Should these humble
+suggestions of mine be acted upon, prospective
+calamities will fly before the light
+of virtue. Whether the country is to be
+safe or not depends upon whether the administration
+is carried on with mercy or
+not. What I pray for is, that the country
+may enjoy peace and tranquillity, that the
+harvest may be plentiful, and that the people
+may be happy and prosperous."</p>
+
+<p>One is able to see, by this rather remarkable
+document, that the peasants of
+Japan, though frequently almost crushed
+by the heavy burdens of taxation, do not,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+even in the most grinding poverty, lose
+entirely that independence of thought and
+of action which is characteristic of their
+nation. They do not consider themselves
+as a servile class, nor their military rulers
+as beyond criticism or reproach, but are
+ready to speak boldly for their rights whenever
+an opportunity occurs. There is a
+pathetic story, told in Mitford's "Tales of
+Old Japan," of a peasant, the head-man of
+his village, who goes to Yedo to present
+to the Shōgun a complaint, on behalf of
+his fellow-villagers, of the extortions and
+exactions of his daimiō. He is unable to
+get any one to present his memorial to the
+Shōgun, so at last he stops the great lord's
+palanquin in the street,&mdash;an act in itself
+punishable with death,&mdash;and thrusts the
+paper forcibly into his hand. The petition
+is read, and his fellow-villagers saved from
+further oppression, but the head-man, for
+his daring, is condemned by his own daimiō
+to suffer death by crucifixion,&mdash;a fate
+which he meets with the same heroism
+with which he dared everything to save his
+fellows from suffering.</p>
+
+<p>The peasant, though ignorant and oppressed,
+has not lost his manhood; has not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+become a slave or a serf, but clings to his
+rights, so far as he knows what they are;
+and is ready to hold his own against all
+comers, when the question in debate is one
+that appeals to his mind. The rulers of
+Japan have always the peasantry to reckon
+with when their ruling becomes unjust or
+oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though
+they may be misled for a time, and they
+form a conservative element that serves to
+hold in check too hasty rulers who would
+introduce new measures too quickly, and
+would be likely to find the new wine bursting
+the old bottles, as well as to prevent
+any rash extravagance in the way of personal
+expenditure on the part of government
+officials. The influence of this great
+class will be more and more felt as the
+new parliamentary institutions gain in
+power, and a more close connection is established
+between the throne and public
+opinion.</p>
+
+<p>In considering this great héimin class,
+it is well to remember that the artisans,
+who form so large a part of it, are also the
+artists who have made the reputation of
+Japan, in Europe and America, as one of
+the countries where art and the love of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+beauty in form and color are still instinct
+with life. The Japanese artisan works
+with patient toil, and with the skill and
+originality of the artist, to produce something
+that shall be individual and his own;
+not simply to make, after a pattern, some
+utensil or ornament for which he cares
+nothing, so long as a purchaser can be
+found for it, or an employer can be induced
+to pay him money for making it. It seems
+as easy for the Japanese to make things
+pretty and in good taste, even when they
+are cheap and only used by the poorer
+people, as it is for American mills and
+workers to turn out endless varieties of attempts
+at decoration,&mdash;all so hideous that
+a poor person must be content, either to be
+surrounded by the worst possible taste, or
+to purchase only such furnishings and
+utensils as are entirely without decoration
+of any kind. "Cheap" and "nasty" have
+come to be almost synonymous words with
+us, for the reason that taste in decoration
+is so rare that it commands a monopoly
+price, and can only be procured by the
+wealthy. In Japan this is not the case,
+for the cheapest of things may be found in
+graceful and artistic designs,&mdash;indeed can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+hardly be found in any designs that are not
+graceful and artistic; and the poorest and
+commonest of the people may have about
+them the little things that go to cultivate
+the æsthetic part of human nature. It
+was not the costly art of Japan that interested
+me the most, although that is, of
+course, the most wonderful proof of the
+capacity and patience of individuals among
+this héimin class: but it was the common,
+cheap, every-day art that meets one at
+every turn; the love for the beautiful, in
+both nature and art, that belongs to the
+common coolie as well as to the nobleman.
+The cheap prints, the blue and white towels,
+the common teacups and pots, the
+great iron kettles in use over the fire in
+the farmhouse kitchen,&mdash;all these are
+things as pretty and tasteful in their way
+as the rich crêpes, the silver incense burners,
+the delicate porcelain, and the elegant
+lacquer that fill the storehouse of the daimiō;
+and they show, much more conclusively
+than these costlier things, the universal
+sense of beauty among the people.</p>
+
+<p>The artisan works at his home, helped
+less often by hired laborers than by his
+own children, who learn the trade of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+father; and his house, though small, is
+clean and tasteful, with its soft mats, its
+dainty tea service, its little hanging scroll
+upon the walls, and its vase of gracefully
+arranged flowers in the corner; for flowers,
+even in winter and in the great city of
+Tōkyō, are so cheap that they are never
+beyond the reach of the poorest. In homes
+that seem to the foreign mind utterly
+lacking in the comforts and even the necessities
+of life, one finds the few furnishings
+and utensils beautiful in shape and
+decoration; and the money that in this
+country must be spent in beds, tables, and
+chairs can be used for the purchase of
+<i>kakémonos</i>, flowers, and vases, and for various
+gratifications of the æsthetic taste.
+Hence it is that the Japanese laborer, who
+lives on a daily wage which would reduce
+an American or European to the verge of
+starvation, finds both time and money for
+the cultivation of that sense of beauty
+which is too often crushed completely out
+of the lower classes by the burdens of this
+nineteenth century civilization which they
+bear upon their shoulders. To the Japanese,
+the "life is more than meat," it is
+beauty as well; and this love of beauty has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+upon him a civilizing and refining effect,
+and makes him in many ways the superior
+of the American day-laborer.<a name="APXanchor_239" id="APXanchor_239" href="#APX_239" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>The peasants and farmers of Japan,
+thrifty and hard-working as they are, are
+not by any means a prosperous class. As
+one passes into the country districts from
+the large cities, there seems to be a conspicuous
+dearth of neat, pleasant homes,&mdash;a
+lack of the comforts and necessities
+of life such as are enjoyed by city people.
+The rich farmers are scarce, and the laborers
+in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days
+of hardest toil with the rudest implements,
+the little that will provide for their
+families. In the face of heavy taxes, the
+incessant toil, the frequent floods of late
+years, and the threatening famine, one
+would expect the poor peasants to be a
+most discouraged and unhappy class. That
+all this toil and anxiety does wear on them is
+no doubt true, but the laborers are always
+ready to bear submissively whatever comes,
+and are always hopeful and prepared to enjoy
+life again in happier times. The charms
+of the city tempt them sometimes to exchange
+their daily labor for the excitement
+of life as <i>jinrikisha</i> men; but in any case<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
+they will be perfectly independent, and ask
+no man for their daily rations.</p>
+
+<p>Although there is much poverty, there
+are few or no beggars in Japan, for both
+strong and weak find each some occupation
+that brings the little pittance required
+to keep soul and body together, and gives
+to all enough to make them light-hearted,
+cheerful, and even happy. From the rich
+farmer, whose many acres yield enough to
+provide for a home of luxury quite as fine
+as the city homes, to the poor little vender
+of sticks of candy, around whose store the
+children flock like bees with their rin and
+sen, all seem independent, contented, and
+satisfied with their lot in life.</p>
+
+<p>The religious beliefs of old Japan are
+stronger to-day among the country people
+than among the dwellers in cities. And
+they are still willing to give of their substance
+for the aid of the dying faiths to
+which they cling, and to undertake toilsome
+pilgrimages to obtain some longed-for
+blessing from the gods whom they
+serve. A great Buddhist temple is being
+built in Kyōtō to-day, from the lofty ceiling
+of which hangs a striking proof of the
+devotion of some of the peasant women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+to the Buddhist faith. The whole temple,
+with its immense curved roof, its vast
+proportions, and its marvelous wood carvings,
+has been built by offerings of labor,
+money, and materials made by the faithful.
+The great timbers were given and brought
+to the spot by the countrymen; and the
+women, wishing to have some part in the
+sacred work, cut off their abundant hair,
+a beauty perhaps more prized by the Japanese
+women than by those of other countries,
+and from the material thus obtained
+they twisted immense cables, to be used in
+drawing the timbers from the mountains
+to the site of the temple. The great black
+cables hang in the unfinished temple to-day,
+a sign of the devotion of the women
+who spared not their chief ornament in the
+service of the gods in whom they still believe.
+And a close scrutiny of these touching
+offerings shows that the glossy black
+locks of the young women are mingled
+with the white hairs of those who, by this
+sacrifice, hope to make sure of a quick and
+easy departure from a life already near its
+close.</p>
+
+<p>All along the Tōkaidō, the great road
+from Tōkyō to Kyōto, in the neighborhood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+of some holy place, or in the district around
+the great and sacred Fuji, the mountain so
+much beloved and honored in Japanese art,
+will be seen bands of pilgrims slowly walking
+along the road, their worn and soiled
+white garments telling of many days' weary
+march. Their large hats shield them from
+the sun and the rain, and the pieces of
+matting slung over their backs serve them
+for beds to sleep on, when they take shelter
+for the night in rude huts. The way up the
+great mountain of Fuji is lined with these
+pilgrims; for to attain its summit, and
+worship there the rising sun, is believed
+to be the means of obtaining some special
+blessing. Among these religious devotees,
+in costumes not unlike those of the men,
+under the same large hat and coarse matting,
+old women often are seen, their aged
+faces belying their apparent vigor of body,
+as they walk along through miles and miles
+of country, jingling their bells and holding
+their rosaries until they reach the shrine,
+where they may ask some special blessing
+for their homes, or fulfill some vow already
+made.<a name="APXanchor_242" id="APXanchor_242" href="#APX_242" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Journeying through rural Japan, one is
+impressed by the important part played by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+women in the various bread-winning industries.
+In the village homes, under the
+heavily thatched roofs, the constant struggle
+against poverty and famine will not
+permit the women to hold back, but they
+enter bravely into all the work of the men.
+In the rice-field the woman works side by
+side with the man, standing all day up to
+her knees in mud, her dress tucked up and
+her lower limbs encased in tight-fitting,
+blue cotton trousers, planting, transplanting,
+weeding, and turning over the evil-smelling
+mire, only to be distinguished from
+her husband by her broader belt tied in a
+bow behind. In mountain regions we meet
+the women climbing the steep mountain
+roads, pruning-hook in hand, after wood for
+winter fires; or descending, towards night,
+carrying a load that a donkey need not be
+ashamed of, packed on a frame attached
+to the shoulders, or poised lightly upon a
+straw mat upon the head. There is one
+village near Kyōto, Yasé by name, at the
+base of Hiyéi Zan, the historic Buddhist
+stronghold, where the women attain a
+stature and muscular development quite
+unique among the pigmy population of the
+island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+women they are, showing no evidence of
+the shrinking away with the advance of
+old age that is characteristic of most of
+their countrywomen. With their tucked-up
+<i>kimonos</i> and blue cotton trousers, they
+stride up and down the mountain, carrying
+the heaviest and most unwieldy of burdens
+as lightly and easily as the ordinary woman
+carries her baby. My first acquaintance
+with them was during a camping expedition
+upon the sacred mountain. I myself
+was carried up the ascent by two small,
+nearly naked, finely tattooed and moxa-scarred
+men; but my baggage, consisting
+of two closely packed hampers as large as
+ordinary steamer trunks, was lifted lightly
+to the heads of these feminine porters, and,
+poised on little straw pads, carried easily
+up the narrow trail, made doubly difficult
+by low-hanging branches, to the camp, a
+distance of three or four miles. From
+among these women of Yasé, on account
+of their remarkable physical development,
+have been chosen frequently the nurses for
+the imperial infants; an honor which the
+Yasé villagers duly appreciate, and which
+makes them bear themselves proudly among
+their less favored neighbors.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span></p><p>In other parts of the country, in the
+neighborhood of Nikkō, for instance, the
+care of the horses, mild little pack-mares
+that do much of the burden-bearing in
+those mountains, is mainly in the hands of
+the women. At Nikkō, when we would hire
+ponies for a two days' expedition to Yumoto,
+a little, elderly woman was the person
+with whom our bargains were made;
+and a close bargainer she proved to be, taking
+every advantage that lay in her power.
+When the caravan was ready to start, we
+found that, though each saddle-horse had
+a male groom in attendance, the pack-ponies
+on which our baggage was carried
+were led by pretty little country girls of
+twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes
+and red cheeks contrasting pleasantly with
+the blue handkerchiefs that adorned their
+heads; their slender limbs encased in blue
+cotton, and only their red sashes giving any
+hint of the fact that they belonged to the
+weaker sex. As we journeyed up the rough
+mountain roads, the little girls kept along
+easily with the rest of the party; leading
+their meek, shock-headed beasts up the slippery
+log steps, and passing an occasional
+greeting with some returning pack-train,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+in which the soft black eyes and bits of
+red about the costume of the little grooms
+showed that they, too, were mountain maidens,
+returning fresh and happy after a two
+days' tramp through the rocky passes.</p>
+
+<p>In the districts where the silkworm is
+raised, and the silk spun and woven, the
+women play a most important part in this
+productive industry. The care of the
+worms and of the cocoons falls entirely
+upon the women, as well as the spinning
+of the silk and the weaving of the cloth.
+It is almost safe to say that this largest
+and most productive industry of Japan is
+in the hands of the women; and it is to
+their care and skill that the silk product
+of the islands is due. In the silk districts
+one finds the woman on terms of equality
+with the man, for she is an important factor
+in the wealth-producing power of the family,
+and is thus able to make herself felt
+as she cannot when her work is inferior to
+that of the men. As a farmer, as a groom,
+or as a porter, a woman is and must remain
+an inferior, but in the care of the silkworms,
+and all the tasks that belong to silk
+culture, she is the equal of the stronger
+sex.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p><p>Then, again, in the tea districts, the tea
+plantations are filled with young girls and
+old women, their long sleeves held back by
+a band over the shoulder, and a blue towel
+gracefully fastened over their heads to
+keep off the sun and the dust. They pick
+busily away at the green, tender leaves,
+which will soon be heated and rolled by
+strong men over the charcoal fire. The
+occupation is an easy one, only requiring
+care in the selection of leaves to be picked,
+and can be performed by young girls and
+old women, who gather the glossy leaves
+in their big baskets, while chatting to
+each other over the gossip and news of the
+day.</p>
+
+<p>In the hotels, both in the country and
+the city, women play an important part.
+The attendants are usually sweet-faced,
+prettily dressed girls, and frequently the
+proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My
+first experience of a Japanese hotel was at
+Nara, anciently the capital of Japan, and
+now a place of resort because of its fine old
+temples, its Dai Butsu, and its beautiful
+deer park. The day's ride in <i>jinrikisha</i>
+from Ōsaka had brought our party in very
+tired, only to find that the hotel to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+we had telegraphed for rooms was already
+filled to overflowing by a daimiō and his
+suite. Not a room could be obtained, and
+we were at last obliged to walk some distance,
+for we had dismissed our tired <i>jinrikisha</i>
+men, to a hotel in the village, of
+which we knew nothing. What with fatigue
+and disappointment, we were not prepared
+to view the unknown hotel in a very
+rosy light; and when our guide pointed to
+a small gate leading into a minute, damp
+courtyard, we were quite convinced that
+the hardships of travel in Japan were now
+about to begin; but disappointment gave
+way to hope, when we were met at the
+door by a buxom landlady, whose smile
+was in itself a refreshment. Although we
+had little in the way of language in common,
+she made us feel at home at once,
+took us to her best room, sent her blooming
+and prettily dressed daughters to bring
+us tea and whatever other refreshments
+the mysterious appetite of a foreigner
+might require, and altogether behaved toward
+us in such motherly fashion that fatigue
+and gloom departed forthwith, leaving
+us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we
+began to feel rested, and our kind friend,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+seeing this, took us upon a tour around the
+house, in which room after room, spotless,
+empty, with shining woodwork and softest
+of mats, showed the good housekeeping of
+our hostess. A little garden in the centre
+of the house, with dwarf trees, moss-covered
+stones, and running water, gave it an
+air of coolness on the hot July day that was
+almost deceptive; and the spotless wash-room,
+with its great stone sink, its polished
+brass basins, its stone well-curb, half in
+and half out of the house, was cool and
+clean and refreshing merely to look at. A
+two days' stay in this hotel showed that the
+landlady was the master of the house. Her
+husband was about the house constantly, as
+were one or two other men, but they all
+worked under the direction of the energetic
+head of affairs. She it was who managed
+everything, from the cooking of the meals
+in the kitchen to the filling and heating of
+the great bath-tub into which the guests
+were invited to enter every afternoon, one
+after the other, in the order of their rank.
+On the second night of my stay, at a late
+hour, when I supposed that the whole
+house had retired to rest, I crept softly out
+of my room to try to soothe the plaintive<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
+wails of my dog, who was complaining bitterly
+that he was made to sleep in the
+wood-cellar instead of in his mistress's
+room, as his habit had always been. As I
+stole quietly along, fearing lest I should
+arouse the sleeping house, I heard the inquiring
+voice of my landlady sound from
+the bath-room, the door of which stood
+wide open. Afraid that she would think
+me in mischief if I did not show myself, I
+went to the door, to find her, after her
+family was safely stowed away for the night,
+taking her ease in the great tub of hot
+water, and so preparing herself for a sound,
+if short, night's sleep. She accepted my
+murmured <i>Inu</i> (dog) as an excuse, and
+graciously dismissed me with a smile, and
+I returned to my room feeling safe under
+the vigilant care that seemed to guard
+the house by night as well as by day. I
+have seen many Japanese hotels and many
+careful landladies since, but no one among
+them all has made such an impression as
+my pleasant hostess at Nara.</p>
+
+<p>Not only hotels, but little tea-houses all
+through Japan, form openings for the business
+abilities of women, both in country
+and city. Wherever you go, no matter how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+remote the district or how rough the road,
+at every halting point you find a tea-house.
+Sometimes it is quite an extensive restaurant,
+with several rooms for the entertainment
+of guests, and a regular kitchen
+where fairly elaborate cooking can be done;
+sometimes it is only a rough shelter, at one
+end of which water is kept boiling over a
+charcoal brazier, while at the other end a
+couple of seats, covered with mats or a scarlet
+blanket or two, serve as resting-places
+for the patrons of the establishment. But
+whatever the place is, there will be one
+woman or more in attendance; and if you
+sit down upon the mats, you will be served
+at once with tea, and later, should you require
+more, with whatever the establishment
+can afford,&mdash;it may be only a slice of
+watermelon, or a hard pear; it may be eels
+on rice, vermicelli, egg soup, or a regular
+dinner, should the tea-house be one of the
+larger and more elaborately appointed ones.
+When the feast is over, the refreshments
+you have especially ordered are paid for in
+the regular way; but for the tea and sweetmeats
+offered, for which no especial charge
+is made, you are expected to leave a small
+sum as a present. In the less aristocratic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+resting-places, a few cents for each person
+is sufficient to leave on the waiter with the
+empty cups of tea, for which loud and grateful
+thanks will be shouted out to the retiring
+party.</p>
+
+<p>In the regular inn, the <i>chadai</i><a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> amounts
+to several dollars, for a party remaining
+any time, and it is supposed to pay for all
+the extra services and attention bestowed
+on guests by the polite host and hostess
+and the servants in attendance. The <i>chadai</i>,
+done up neatly in paper, with the words
+<i>On chadai</i> written on it, is given with as
+much formality as any present in Japan.
+The guest claps his hands to summon the
+maid. When it is heard, for the thin paper
+walls of a Japanese house let through
+every noise, voices from all sides will shout
+out <i>Hē´-hē´</i>, or <i>Hai</i>, which means that you
+have been heard, and understood. Presently
+a maid will softly open your door,
+and with head low down will ask what
+you wish. You tell her to summon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+landlord. In a few moments he appears,
+and you push the <i>chadai</i> to him, making
+some conventional self-depreciating
+speech, as, "You have done a great deal
+for our comfort, and we wish to give you
+this <i>chadai</i>, though it is only a trifle."
+The landlord, with every expression of surprise,
+will bow down to the ground with
+thanks, raising the small package to his
+head in token of acceptance and gratitude,
+and will murmur in low tones how little
+he has done for the comfort of his guests;
+and then, the self-depreciation and formal
+words of thanks on his side being ended,
+he will finally go down stairs to see how
+much he has gotten. But, whether more
+or less than he had expected, nothing but
+extreme gratitude and politeness appears
+on his face as he presents a fan, confectionery,
+or some trifle, as a return for the
+<i>chadai</i>, and speeds the parting guests with
+his lowest bow and kindliest smile, after
+having seen to every want that could be
+attended to.</p>
+
+<p>Once, at Nikkō, I started with a friend
+for a morning walk to a place described in
+the guide-book. The day was hot and the
+guide-book hazy, and we lost the road to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+the place for which we had set out, but
+found ourselves at last in a beautiful garden,
+with a pretty lake in its centre, a little
+red-lacquered shrine reflected in the
+lake, and a tea-house hospitably open at
+one side. The teakettle was boiling over
+the little charcoal fire; melons, eggs, and
+various unknown comestibles were on the
+little counter; but no voice bade us welcome
+as we approached, and when we sat
+down on the edge of the piazza, we could
+see no one within the house. We waited,
+however, for the day was hot, and time is
+not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty
+soon a small, wizened figure made its appearance
+in the distance, hurrying and
+talking excitedly as it came near enough
+to see two foreign ladies seated upon the
+piazza. Many bows and profuse apologies
+were made by the little old woman, who
+seemed to be the solitary occupant of the
+pretty garden, and who had for the moment
+deserted her post to do the day's marketing
+in the neighboring village. The
+apologies having been smilingly received,
+the old lady set herself to the task of
+making her guests comfortable. First she
+brought two tumblers of water, cold as ice,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+from the spring that gushed out of a great
+rock in the middle of the little lake. Then
+she retired behind a screen and changed
+her dress, returning speedily to bring us
+tea. Then she retreated to her diminutive
+kitchen, and presently came back smiling,
+bearing eight large raw potatoes on a tray.
+These she presented to us with a deep bow,
+apparently satisfied that she had at last
+brought us something we would be sure
+to like. We left the potatoes behind us
+when we went away, and undoubtedly the
+old lady is wondering still over the mysterious
+ways of the foreigners, as we are
+over those of the Japanese tea-house keepers.</p>
+
+<p>One summer, when I was spending a
+week at a Japanese hotel at quite a fashionable
+seaside resort, I became interested
+in a little old woman who visited the hotel
+daily, carrying, suspended by a yoke from
+her shoulders, two baskets of fruit, which
+she sold to the guests of the hotel. As I
+was on the ground floor, and my room was,
+in the daytime, absolutely without walls
+on two sides, she was my frequent visitor,
+and, for the sake of her pleasant ways
+and cheerful smiles, I bought enough hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+pears of her to have given the colic to an
+elephant. One day, after her visit to me,
+as I was sitting upon the matted and roofed
+square that served me for a room, my eye
+wandered idly toward the bathing beach,
+and, under the slight shelter where the
+bathers were in the habit of depositing
+their sandals and towels, I spied the well-known
+yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a
+small heap of blue cotton garments that I
+knew to be the clothing of the little fruit-vender.
+She had evidently taken a moment
+when trade was slack to enjoy a dip
+in the soft, blue, summer sea. Hardly had
+I made up my mind as to the meaning of
+the fruit baskets and the clothing, when
+our little friend herself emerged from the
+sea and, sitting down on a bench, proceeded
+to rub herself off with the small
+but artistically decorated blue towel that
+every peasant in Japan has always with
+him, however lacking he may be in all
+other appurtenances of the toilet. As she
+sat there, placidly rubbing away, a friend
+of the opposite sex made his appearance
+on the scene. I watched to see what she
+would do, for the Japanese code of etiquette
+is quite different from ours in such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+a predicament. She continued her employment
+until he was quite close, showing
+no unseemly haste, but continuing her polishing
+off in the same leisurely manner in
+which she had begun it; then at the proper
+moment she rose from her seat, bowed
+profoundly, and smilingly exchanged the
+greetings proper for the occasion, both
+parties apparently unconscious of any lack
+in the toilet of the lady. The male friend
+then passed on about his business; the little
+woman completed her toilet without
+further interruptions, shouldered her yoke,
+and jogged cheerfully on to her home in
+the little village, a couple of miles away.</p>
+
+<p>As one travels through rural Japan in
+summer and sees the half-naked men, women,
+and children that pour out from every
+village on one's route and surround the
+<i>kuruma</i> at every stopping place, one sometimes
+wonders whether there is in the
+country any real civilization, whether these
+half-naked people are not more savage than
+civilized; but when one finds everywhere
+good hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all
+the appointments of toilet and table, polite
+and careful service, honest and willing performance
+of labor bargained for, together<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+with the gentlest and pleasantest of manners,
+even on the part of the gaping crowd
+that shut out light and air from the traveling
+foreigner who rests for a moment at
+the village inn, one is forced to reconsider
+a judgment formed only upon one peculiarity
+of the national life, and to conclude
+that there is certainly a high type of civilization
+in Japan, though differing in many
+important particulars from our own. A
+careful study of the Japanese ideas of decency,
+and frequent conversation with refined
+and intelligent Japanese ladies upon
+this subject, has led me to the following
+conclusion. According to the Japanese
+standard, any exposure of the person that
+is merely incidental to health, cleanliness,
+or convenience in doing necessary work,
+is perfectly modest and allowable; but an
+exposure, no matter how slight, that is
+simply for show, is in the highest degree
+indelicate. In illustration of the first part
+of this conclusion, I would refer to the
+open bath-houses, the naked laborers, the
+exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather
+by the turning up of the <i>kimono</i>, the entirely
+nude condition of the country children
+in summer, and the very slight clothing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>that even adults regard as necessary
+about the house or in the country during
+the hot season. In illustration of the last
+part, I would mention the horror with
+which many Japanese ladies regard that
+style of foreign dress which, while covering
+the figure completely, reveals every detail
+of the form above the waist, and, as we say,
+shows off to advantage a pretty figure. To
+the Japanese mind it is immodest to want
+to show off a pretty figure. As for the
+ball-room costumes, where neck and arms
+are freely exposed to the gaze of multitudes,
+the Japanese woman, who would
+with entire composure take her bath in
+the presence of others, would be in an
+agony of shame at the thought of appearing
+in public in a costume so indecent as
+that worn by many respectable American
+and European women. Our judgment
+would indeed be a hasty one, should we
+conclude that the sense of decency is wanting
+in the Japanese as a race, or that the
+women are at all lacking in the womanly
+instinct of modesty. When the point of
+view from which they regard these matters
+is once obtained, the apparent inconsistencies
+and incongruities are fully explained,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>and we can do justice to our Japanese
+sister in a matter in regard to which
+she is too often cruelly misjudged.</p>
+
+<p>There seems no doubt at all that among
+the peasantry of Japan one finds the women
+who have the most freedom and independence.
+Among this class, all through
+the country, the women, though hard-worked
+and possessing few comforts, lead
+lives of intelligent, independent labor, and
+have in the family positions as respected
+and honored as those held by women in
+America. Their lives are fuller and happier
+than those of the women of the higher
+classes, for they are themselves bread-winners,
+contributing an important part of
+the family revenue, and they are obeyed
+and respected accordingly. The Japanese
+lady, at her marriage, lays aside her independent
+existence to become the subordinate
+and servant of her husband and
+parents-in-law, and her face, as the years
+go by, shows how much she has given up,
+how completely she has sacrificed herself
+to those about her. The Japanese peasant
+woman, when she marries, works side by
+side with her husband, finds life full of
+interest outside of the simple household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+work, and, as the years go by, her face
+shows more individuality, more pleasure in
+life, less suffering and disappointment, than
+that of her wealthier and less hard-working
+sister.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> The laws against the <i>éta</i> and <i>hinin</i>, making of them
+a distinct, unclean class, and forbidding their intermarriage
+with any of the higher classes, have recently been
+abolished. There is now no rank distinction of any
+practical value, except that between noble and common
+people. Héimin and samurai are now indiscriminately
+mingled.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Toyotomi Hidéyoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the
+position of a groom to be the actual ruler of Japan during
+the Middle Ages. He it was who in 1587 issued a
+decree of banishment against the Christian missionaries
+in Japan. He is called Faxiba in the writings of these
+missionaries, and in Japan he is frequently spoken of as
+Taiko Sama, a title, not a name; but a title that, used
+alone, refers always to him. For further account of his
+life, see Griffis, <cite>Mikado's Empire</cite>, book i., chap. xxiv.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Chadai</i> is, literally, "money for tea," and is equivalent
+to our tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The
+<i>chadai</i> varies with the wealth and rank of the guests, the
+duration of the stay, and the attention which has been
+bestowed. <i>On</i> is the honorific placed before the word in
+writing.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER X.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">LIFE IN THE CITIES.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> great cities of Japan afford remarkable
+opportunities for seeing the life of the
+common people, for the little houses and
+shops, with their open fronts, reveal the
+<i>penetralia</i> in a way not known in our more
+secluded homes. The employment of the
+merchant being formerly the lowest of respectable
+callings, one does not find even
+yet in Japan many great stores or a very
+high standard of business morality, for the
+business of the country was left in the
+hands of those who were too stupid or too
+unambitious to raise themselves above that
+social class. Hence English and American
+merchants, who only see Japan from
+the business side, continually speak of the
+Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and altogether
+unreliable, and greatly prefer to
+deal with the Chinese, who have much of
+the business virtue that is characteristic
+of the English as a nation. Only within a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+few years have the samurai, or indeed any
+one who was capable of figuring in any
+higher occupation in life, been willing to
+adopt the calling of the merchant; but
+many of the abler Japanese of to-day have
+begun to see that trade is one of the most
+important factors of a nation's well-being,
+and that the business of buying and selling,
+if wisely and honestly done, is an employment
+that nobody need be ashamed to
+enter. There are in Japan a few great
+merchants whose word may be trusted, and
+whose obligations will be fulfilled with absolute
+honesty; but a large part of the
+buying and selling is still in the hands of
+mercantile freebooters, who will take an
+advantage wherever it is possible to get
+one, in whose morality honesty has no
+place, and who have not yet discovered the
+efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter
+of policy. Their trade, conducted in a
+small way upon small means, is more of
+the nature of a game, in which one person
+is the winner and the other the loser, than
+a fair exchange, in which both parties obtain
+what they want. It is the mediæval,
+not the modern idea of business, that is
+still held among Japanese merchants. With<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+them, trade is a warfare between buyer
+and seller, in which every man must take
+all possible advantage for himself, and it
+is the lookout of the other party if he is
+cheated.</p>
+
+<p>In Tōkyō, the greatest and most modernized
+of the cities of the empire, the shops
+are not the large city stores that one sees
+in European and American cities, but little
+open-fronted rooms, on the edge of which
+one sits to make one's purchases, while the
+proprietor smiles and bows and dickers;
+setting his price by the style of his customer's
+dress, or her apparent ignorance
+of the value of the desired article. Some
+few large dry-goods stores there are, where
+prices are set and dickering is unnecessary;<a name="APXanchor_264" id="APXanchor_264" href="#APX_264" class="apxanchor">[*]</a>
+and in the <i>kwankoba</i>, or bazaars, one
+may buy almost anything needed by Japanese
+of all classes, from house furnishings
+to foreign hats, at prices plainly marked
+upon them, and from which there is no
+variation. But one's impression of the
+state of trade in Japan is, that it is still
+in a very primitive and undeveloped condition,
+and is surprisingly behind the other
+parts of Japanese civilization.</p>
+
+<p>The shopping of the ladies of the large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+<i>yashikis</i> and of wealthy families is done
+mostly in the home; for all the stores are
+willing at any time, on receiving an order,
+to send up a clerk with a bale of crêpes,
+silks, and cottons tied to his back, and frequently
+towering high above his head as
+he walks, making him look like the proverbial
+ant with a grain of wheat. He
+sets his great bundle carefully down on
+the floor, opens the enormous <i>furushiki</i>, or
+bundle handkerchief, in which it is enveloped,
+and takes out roll after roll of silk or
+chintz, neatly done up in paper or yellow
+cotton. With infinite patience, he waits
+while the merits of each piece are examined
+and discussed, and if none of his
+stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to
+come again with a new set of wares, knowing
+that in the end purchases will be made
+sufficient to cover all his trouble.</p>
+
+<p>The less aristocratic people are content
+to go to the stores themselves; and the
+business streets of a Japanese city, such as
+the Ginza in Tōkyō, are full of women,
+young and old, as well as merry children,
+who enjoy the life and bustle of the stores.
+Like all things else in Japan, shopping
+takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+largest silk store in Tōkyō, one will see
+crowds of clerks sitting upon the matted
+floors, each with his <i>soroban</i>, or adding
+machine, by his side; and innumerable
+small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying
+armfuls of fabrics to the different clerks,
+or picking up the same fabrics after the
+customer who has called for them has departed.
+The store appears, to the foreign
+eye, to be simply a roofed and matted platform
+upon which both clerks and customers
+sit. This platform is screened from the
+street by dark blue cotton curtains or awnings
+hung from the low projecting eaves
+of the heavy roof. As the customers
+take their seats, either on the edge of the
+platform, or, if they have come on an extended
+shopping bout, upon the straw mat
+of the platform itself, a small boy appears
+with tea for the party; an obsequious clerk
+greets them with the customary salutations
+of welcome, pushes the charcoal brazier
+toward them, that they may smoke,
+or warm their hands, before proceeding to
+business, and then waits expectantly for
+the name of the goods that his customers
+desire to see. When this is given, the
+work begins; the little boys are summoned,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof
+warehouse, which stands with heavy doors
+thrown open, on the other side of the platform,
+away from the street. Through the
+doorway one can see endless piles of costly
+stuffs stored safely away, and from these
+piles the boys select the required fabric,
+loading themselves down with them so that
+they can barely stagger under the weights
+that they carry. As the right goods are
+not always brought the first time, and as,
+moreover, there is an endless variety in the
+colors and patterns in even one kind of
+silk, there is always plenty of time for
+watching the busy scene,&mdash;for sipping
+tea, or smoking a few whiffs from the tiny
+pipes that so many Japanese, both men and
+women, carry always with them. When
+the purchase is at last made, there is still
+some time to be spent by the customer in
+waiting until the clerk has made an abstruse
+calculation upon his <i>soroban</i>, the
+transaction has been entered in the books
+of the firm, and a long bill has been written
+and stamped, and handed to her with
+the bundle. During her stay in the store,
+the foreign customer, making her first
+visit to the place, is frequently startled by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>
+loud shouts from the whole staff of clerks
+and small boys,&mdash;outcries so sudden, so
+simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she
+cannot rid herself of the idea that something
+terrible is happening every time that
+they occur. She soon learns, however, that
+these manifestations of energy are but
+the way in which the Japanese merchant
+speeds the departing purchaser, and that
+the apparently inarticulate shouts are but
+the formal phrase, "Thanks for your continued
+favors," which is repeated in a loud
+tone by every employee in the store whenever
+a customer departs. When she herself
+is at last ready to leave, a chorus of
+yells arises, this time for her benefit; and as
+she skips into the <i>jinrikisha</i> and is whirled
+away, she hears continued the busy hum
+of voices, the clattering of <i>sorobans</i>, the
+thumping of the bare feet of the heavily
+laden boys, and the loud shouts of thanks
+with which departing guests are honored.</p>
+
+<p>There is less pomp and circumstance
+about the smaller stores, for all the goods
+are within easy reach, and the shops for
+household utensils and chinaware seem to
+have nearly the whole stock in trade piled
+up in front, or even in the street itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+Many such little places are the homes of
+the people who keep them. And at the
+back are rooms, which serve for dwelling
+rooms, opening upon well-kept gardens.
+The whole work of the store is often attended
+to by the proprietor, assisted by his
+wife and family, and perhaps one or two
+apprentices. Each of the workers, in turn,
+takes an occasional holiday, for there is
+no day in the Japanese calendar when the
+shops are all closed; and even New Year's
+Day, the great festival of the year, finds
+most of the stores open. Yet the dwellers
+in these little homes, living almost in the
+street, and in the midst of the bustle and
+crowd and dust of Tōkyō, have still time
+to enjoy their holidays and their little gardens,
+and have more pleasure and less hard
+work than those under similar circumstances
+in our own country.</p>
+
+<p>The stranger visiting any of the great
+Japanese cities is surprised by the lack of
+large stores and manufactories, and often
+wonders where the beautiful lacquer work
+and porcelains are made, and where the
+gay silks and crêpes are woven. There
+are no large establishments where such
+things are turned out by wholesale. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+delicate vases, the bronzes, and the silks
+are often made in humblest homes, the
+work of one or two laborers with rudest
+tools. There are no great manufactories
+to be seen, and the bane of so many cities,
+the polluting factory smoke, never rises
+over the cities of Japan. The hard, confining
+factory life, with its never-ceasing
+roar of machinery, bewildering the minds
+and intellects of the men who come under
+its deadening influences, until they become
+scarcely more than machines themselves,
+is a thing as yet almost unknown in Japan.
+The life of the <i>jinrikisha</i> man even, hard
+and comfortless as it may seem to run all
+day like a horse through the crowded city
+streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh
+air, under the open sky, and quickens his
+powers both of body and mind. To the
+poor in Japanese cities is never denied the
+fresh air and sunshine, green trees and
+grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens
+are found everywhere, for the enjoyment of
+even the meanest and lowest.</p>
+
+<p>On certain days in the month, in different
+sections of the city, are held night festivals
+near temples, and many shopkeepers
+take the opportunity to erect temporary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+booths, in which they so arrange their
+wares as to tempt the passers-by as they
+go to and fro. Very often there is a magnificent
+display of young trees, potted
+plants, and flowers, brought in from the
+country and ranged on both sides of the
+street. Here the gardeners make lively
+sales, as the displays are often fine in
+themselves, and show to a special advantage
+in the flaring torchlight. The eager
+venders, who do all they can to call the
+attention of the crowd to their wares, make
+many good bargains. The purchase requires
+skill on both sides, for flower men
+are proverbial in their high charges, asking
+often five and ten times the real value
+of a plant, but coming down in price almost
+immediately on remonstrance. You
+ask the price of a dwarf wistaria growing
+in a pot. The man answers at once, "Two
+dollars." "Two dollars!" you answer in
+surprise, "it is not worth more than thirty
+or forty cents." "Seventy-five, then," he
+will respond; and thus the buyer and
+seller approach nearer in price, until the
+bargain is struck somewhere near the first
+price offered. Price another plant and
+there would be the same process to go over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
+again; but as the evening passes, prices go
+lower and lower, for the distances that the
+plants have been brought are great, and
+the labor of loading up and carrying back
+the heavy pots is a weary one, and when
+the last customer has departed the merchants
+must work late into the night to
+get their wares safely home again.</p>
+
+<p>But beside the flower shows, there are
+long rows of booths, which, with the many
+visitors who throng the streets, make a gay
+and lively scene. So dense is the crowd
+that it is with difficulty one can push
+through on foot or in <i>jinrikisha</i>. The
+darkness is illuminated by torches, whose
+weird flames flare and smoke in the wind,
+and shine down upon the little sheds which
+line both sides of the road, and contain
+so tempting a display of cheap toys and
+trinkets that not only the children, but
+their elders, are attracted by them. Some
+of the booths are devoted to dolls; others
+to toys of various kinds; still others to
+birds in cages, goldfish in globes, queer
+chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty
+ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and
+cakes of all sorts, roasted beans and peanuts,
+and other things too numerous to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+mention. The long line of stalls ends with
+booths, or tents, in which shows of dancing,
+jugglery, educated animals, and monstrosities,
+natural or artificial, may be seen
+for the moderate admission fee of two
+sen. Each of these shows is well advertised
+by the beating of drums, by the shouting
+of doorkeepers, by wonderful pictures
+on the outside to entice the passer-by, or
+even by an occasional brief lifting of the
+curtains which veil the scene from the
+crowd without, just long enough to afford
+a tantalizing glimpse of the wonders
+within. Great is the fascination to the
+children in all these things, and the little
+feet are never weary until the last booth
+is passed, and the quiet of neighboring
+streets, lighted only by wandering lanterns,
+strikes the home-returning party by
+its contrast with the light and noise of the
+festival. The supposed object of the expedition,
+the visit to the temple, has occupied
+but a small share of time and attention,
+and the little hands are filled with the
+amusing toys and trifles bought, and the
+little minds with the merry sights seen.
+Nor are those who remain at home forgotten,
+but the pleasure-seekers who visit the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+fair carry away with them little gifts for
+each member of the family, and the <i>O miagé</i>,
+or present given on the return, is a
+regular institution of Japanese home life.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p>
+
+<p>By ten o'clock, when the crowds have
+dispersed and the purchasers have all gone
+home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keepers
+take down their stalls, pack up their
+wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the
+night's gayeties to greet the morning sun.</p>
+
+<p>Beside these evening shows, which occur
+monthly or oftener, there are also great
+festivals of the various gods, some celebrated
+annually, others at intervals of some
+years. These <i>matsuri</i> last for several days,
+and during that time the quarter of the
+city in which they occur seems entirely
+given over to festivity. The streets are
+gayly decorated with flags, and bright lanterns&mdash;all
+alike in design and color&mdash;are
+hung in rows from the low eaves of the
+houses. Young bamboo-trees set along the
+street, and decorated with bits of bright-colored
+tissue paper, are a frequent and effective
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>accompaniment of these festivals,
+and here and there throughout the district
+are set up high stands, on the tops of
+which musicians with squeaky flutes, and
+drums of varying calibre, keep up a din
+more festive than harmonious. It takes
+a day or two for the rejoicings to get fully
+under way, but by the second or third day
+the fun is at its height, and the streets
+are thronged with merrymakers. A great
+deal of labor and strength, as well as ingenuity,
+is spent in the construction of enormous
+floats, or <i>dashi</i>, lofty platforms of
+two stories, either set on wheels and drawn
+by black bullocks or crowds of shouting
+men, or carried by poles on men's shoulders.
+Upon the first floor of these great
+floats is usually a company of dancers, or
+mummers, who dance, attitudinize, or make
+faces for the amusement of the crowds
+that gather along their route; while up
+above, an effigy of some hero in Japanese
+history, or the figure of some animal or
+monster, looks down unmoved upon the absurdities
+below. Each <i>dashi</i> is attended,
+not only by the men who draw it, but by
+companies of others in some uniform costume;
+and sometimes graceful professional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+dancing-girls are hired to march in the
+<i>matsuri</i> procession, or to dance upon the
+lofty <i>dashi</i>. At the time of the festivities
+which accompanied the promulgation of
+the Constitution, three days of jollification
+were held in Tōkyō, days of such universal
+fun and frolic that it will be known among
+the common people, to all succeeding generations,
+as the "Emperor's big <i>matsuri</i>."
+Every quarter of the city vied with every
+other in the production of gorgeous <i>dashi</i>,
+and the streets were gay with every conceivable
+variety of decoration, from the little
+red-and-white paper lanterns, that even
+the poorest hung before their houses, to
+the great evergreen arches, set with electric
+lights, with which the great business
+streets were spanned thickly from end to
+end. An evening walk through one of
+these thoroughfares was a sight to be remembered
+for a lifetime. The magnificent
+<i>dashi</i> represented all manner of quaint
+conceits. A great bivalve drawn by yelling
+crowds&mdash;which halted occasionally&mdash;opened
+and displayed between its shells
+a group of beautifully dressed girls, who
+danced one of the pantomimic dances of
+the country, accompanied by the twanging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+melodies of the <i>samisen</i>. Then slowly the
+great shell closed, once more the shouting
+crowds seized hold of the straining
+ropes, and the great bivalve with its fair
+freight was drawn slowly along through the
+gayly illuminated streets. Jimmu Tenno
+and other heroes of Japanese legend or history,
+each upon its lofty platform, a white
+elephant, and countless other subjects were
+represented in the festival cars sent forth
+by all the districts of the city to celebrate
+the great event.</p>
+
+<p>Upon such festival occasions the shopkeeper
+does not put up his shutters and
+leave his place of business, but the open
+shop-fronts add much to the gay appearance
+of the street. There are no signs of
+business about, but the floor of the shop is
+covered with bright-red blankets; magnificent
+gilded screens form an imposing background
+to the little room; and seated on
+the floor are the shopkeeper, his family,
+and guests, eating, drinking tea, and smoking,
+as cosily as if all the world and his
+wife were not gazing upon the gay and
+homelike interior. Sometimes companies
+of dancers, or other entertainments furnished
+by the wealthier shopkeepers, will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+attract gaping crowds, who watch and block
+the street until the advance guard of some
+approaching <i>dashi</i> scatters them for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>In Japan, as in other parts of the world,
+the country people are rather looked down
+upon by the dwellers in the city for their
+slowness of intellect, dowdiness of dress,
+and boorishness of manners; while the
+country people make fun of the fads and
+fashions of the city, and rejoice that they
+are not themselves the slaves of novelty,
+and especially of the foreign innovations
+that play so prominent a part in Japanese
+city life to-day. "The frog in the well
+knows not the great ocean," is the snub
+with which the Japanese cockney sets down
+Farmer Rice-Field's expressions of opinion;
+while the conservative countryman laughs
+at the foreign affectations of the Tōkyō man,
+and returns to his village with tales of the
+cookery of the capital: so extravagant is
+it that sugar is used in everything; it is
+even rumored that the Tōkyōites put sugar
+in their tea.</p>
+
+<p>But while the country laughs and wonders
+at the city, nevertheless, in Japan as
+elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+the young life of the country into the livelier
+and more entertaining city. Tōkyō especially
+is the goal of every young countryman's
+ambition, and thither he goes to
+seek his fortune, finding, alas! too often,
+only the hard lot of the <i>jinrikisha</i> man,
+instead of the wealth and power that his
+country dreams had shown him.</p>
+
+<p>The lower class women of the cities are
+in many respects like their sisters of the
+rural districts, except that they have less
+freedom than the country women in what
+the economists call "direct production."
+The wells and water tanks that stand at
+convenient distances along the streets of
+Tōkyō are frequently surrounded by crowds
+of women, drawing water, washing rice,
+and chattering merrily over their occupations.
+They meet and exchange ideas
+freely with each other and with the men,
+but they have not the diversity of labor
+that country life affords, confining themselves
+more closely to indoor and domestic
+work, and leaving the bread-winning more
+entirely to the men.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, occupations in the
+city for women, by which they may support
+themselves or their families. A good hair-dresser
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>may make a handsome living; indeed,
+she does so well that it is proverbial
+among the Japanese that a hair-dresser's
+husband has nothing to do. Though professional
+tailors are mostly men, many women
+earn a small pittance in taking in
+sewing and in giving sewing lessons; and
+as instructors in the ceremonial tea, etiquette,
+music, painting, and flower arrangement,
+many women of the old school
+are able to earn an independence, though
+none of these occupations are confined to
+the women alone.</p>
+
+<p>The business of hotel-keeping we have
+referred to in a previous chapter, and it
+is a well-known fact that unless a hotel-keeper
+has a capable wife, his business will
+not succeed. At present, all over Tōkyō,
+small restaurants, where food is served in
+the foreign style, are springing up, and
+these are usually conducted by a man and
+his wife who have at some time served as
+cook and waitress in a foreign family, and
+who conduct the business cöoperatively and
+on terms of good-fellowship and equality.
+In these little eating-houses, where a well-cooked
+foreign dinner of from three to six
+courses is served for the moderate sum of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+thirty or forty cents, the man usually does
+the cooking, the woman the serving and
+handling of the money, until the time arrives
+when the profits of the business are
+sufficient to justify the hiring of more help.
+When this time comes, the labor is redistributed,
+the woman frequently taking
+upon herself the reception of the guests
+and the keeping of the accounts, while the
+hired help waits on the tables.</p>
+
+<p>One important calling, in the eyes of
+many persons, especially those of the lower
+classes, is that of fortune-telling; and
+these guides in all matters of life, both
+great and small, are to be found in every
+section of the city. They are consulted on
+every important step by believing ones of
+all classes. An impending marriage, an
+illness, the loss of any valuable article, a
+journey about to be taken,&mdash;these are all
+subjects for the fortune-teller. He tells the
+right day of marriage, and says whether
+the fates of the two parties will combine
+well; gives clues to the causes of sudden
+illness, and information as to what has
+become of lost articles, and whether they
+will be recovered or not. Warned thus by
+the fortune-teller against evils that may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+happen, many ingenious expedients are
+resorted to, to avoid the ill foretold.</p>
+
+<p>A man and his family were about to
+move from their residence to another part
+of the city. They sent to know if the
+fates were propitious to the change for all
+the family. The day and year of birth of
+each was told, and then the fortune-teller
+hunted up the various signs, and sent word
+that the direction of the new home was
+excellent for the good luck of the family
+as a whole, and the move a good one for
+each member of it except one of the sons;
+the next year the same move would be bad
+for the father. As the family could not
+wait two years before moving, it was decided
+that the change of residence should
+be made at once, but that the son should
+live with his uncle until the next year.
+The uncle's home was, however, inconveniently
+remote, and so the young man
+stayed as a visitor at his father's house for
+the remaining months of the year, after
+which he became once more a member of
+the household. Thus the inconvenience
+and the evil were both avoided.<a name="APXanchor_282" id="APXanchor_282" href="#APX_282" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Another story comes to my mind now of
+a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sama of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+house of high rank, who late in life came
+to Tōkyō to live with her brother and his
+young and somewhat foreignized wife. The
+brother himself, while not a Christian, had
+little belief in the old superstitions of his
+people; his wife was a professing Christian.
+Soon after the old lady's arrival in
+Tōkyō, her sister-in-law fell ill, and before
+she had recovered her strength the children,
+one after another, came down with
+various diseases, which, though in no case
+fatal, kept the family in a state of anxiety
+for more than a year. The old lady was
+quite sure that there was some witchcraft
+or art-magic at work among her dear ones,
+and, after consulting the servants (for she
+knew that she could expect no sympathy in
+her plans from either her brother or his
+wife), she betook herself to a fortune-teller
+to discover through his means the causes
+of the illness in the family. The fortune-teller
+revealed to her the fact that two
+occult forces were at work bringing evil
+upon the house. One was the evil spirit
+of a spring or well that had been choked
+with stones, or otherwise obstructed in its
+flow, and that chose this way of bringing
+its afflictions to the attention of mortals.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+The other was the spirit of a horse that
+had once belonged in the family, and that
+after death revenged itself upon its former
+masters for the hard service wherewith
+it had been made to serve. The only way
+in which these two powers could be appeased
+would be by finding the well, and
+removing the obstructions that choked it,
+and by erecting an image of the horse and
+offering to it cakes and other meat-offerings.
+The fortune-teller hinted, moreover,
+that for a consideration he might be able
+to afford material aid in the search for the
+well.</p>
+
+<p>At this information Go Inkyo Sama was
+much perturbed, for further aid for her
+afflicted family seemed to require the use
+of money, and of that commodity she had
+very little, being mainly dependent upon
+her brother for support. She returned to
+her home and consulted the servants upon
+the matter; but though they quite agreed
+with her that something should be done,
+they had little capital to invest in the enterprises
+suggested by the fortune-teller.
+At last, the old lady went to her brother,
+but he only laughed at her well-meant attempts
+to help his family, and refused to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+give her money for such a purpose. She
+retired discouraged, but, urged by the servants,
+she decided to make a last appeal,
+this time to her sister-in-law, who must
+surely be moved by the evil that was threatening
+herself and her children. Taking
+some of the head servants with her, she
+went to her sister and presented the case.
+This was her last resort, and she clung to
+her forlorn hope longer than many would
+have done, the servants adding their arguments
+to her impassioned appeals, only to
+find out after all that the steadfast sister
+could not be moved, and that she would
+not propitiate the horse's spirit, or allow
+money to be used for such a purpose. She
+gave it up then, and sat down to await the
+fate of her doomed house, doubtless wondering
+much and sighing often over the
+foolish skepticism of her near relatives,
+and wishing that the rationalistic tendencies
+of the time would take a less dangerous
+form than the neglecting of the plainest
+precautions for life and health. The fate
+has not yet come, and now at last Go Inkyo
+Sama seems to have resigned herself
+to the belief that it has been averted from
+the heads of the dear ones by a power unknown
+to the fortune-teller.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span></p><p>Beside these callings, there are other
+employments which are not regarded as
+wholly respectable by either Japanese or
+foreigners. The <i>géisha ya</i>, or establishments
+where dancing-girls are trained, and
+let out by the day or evening to tea-houses
+or private parties, are usually managed by
+women. At these establishments little
+girls are taken, sometimes by contract with
+their parents, sometimes adopted by the
+proprietors of the house, and from very
+early youth are trained not only in the art
+of dancing, but are taught singing and
+<i>samisen</i>-playing, all the etiquette of serving
+and entertaining guests, and whatever
+else goes to make a girl charming to the
+opposite sex. When thoroughly taught,
+they form a valuable investment, and well
+repay the labor spent upon them, for a
+popular géisha commands a good price
+everywhere, and has her time overcrowded
+with engagements. A Japanese entertainment
+is hardly regarded as complete without
+géishas in attendance, and their dancing,
+music, and graceful service at supper
+form a charming addition to an evening
+of enjoyment at a tea-house. It is these
+géishas, too, who at <i>matsuri</i> are hired to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+march in quaint uniforms in the procession,
+or, borne aloft on great <i>dashi</i>, dance
+for the benefit of the admiring crowds.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese dances are charmingly
+graceful and modest; the swaying of the
+body and limbs, the artistic management
+of the flowing draperies, the variety of
+themes and costumes of the different
+dances, all go to make an entertainment
+by géishas one of the pleasantest of Japanese
+enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet
+and yellow robes, the dainty maidens imitate,
+with their supple bodies, the dance of
+the maple leaves as they are driven hither
+and thither in the autumn wind; sometimes,
+with tucked-up <i>kimonos</i> and jaunty
+red petticoats, they play the part of little
+country girls carrying their eggs to market
+in the neighboring village. Again, clad in
+armor, they simulate the warlike gestures
+and martial stamp of some of the old-time
+heroes; or, with whitened faces and hoary
+locks, they perform with rake and broom
+the dance of the good old man and old
+woman who play so prominent a part in
+Japanese pictures. And then, when the
+dance is over, and all are bewitched with
+their grace and beauty, they descend to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+the supper-room and ply their temporary
+employers with the <i>saké</i> bottle, laughing
+and jesting the while, until there is little
+wonder if the young men at the entertainment
+drink more than is good for them,
+and leave the tea-house at last thoroughly
+tipsy, and enslaved by the bright eyes and
+merry wits of some of the Hebes who have
+beguiled them through the evening.</p>
+
+<p>The géishas unfortunately, though fair,
+are frail. In their system of education,
+manners stand higher than morals, and
+many a géisha gladly leaves the dancing in
+the tea-houses to become the concubine of
+some wealthy Japanese or foreigner, thinking
+none the worse of herself for such a
+business arrangement, and going cheerfully
+back to her regular work, should
+her contract be unexpectedly ended. The
+géisha is not necessarily bad, but there is
+in her life much temptation to evil, and
+little stimulus to do right, so that, where
+one lives blameless, many go wrong, and
+drop below the margin of respectability altogether.
+Yet so fascinating, bright, and
+lively are these géishas that many of them
+have been taken by men of good position
+as wives, and are now the heads of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+the most respectable homes. Without
+true education or morals, but trained
+thoroughly in all the arts and accomplishments
+that please,&mdash;witty, quick at repartee,
+pretty, and always well dressed,&mdash;the
+géisha has proved a formidable rival for
+the demure, quiet maiden of good family,
+who can only give her husband an unsullied
+name, silent obedience, and faithful
+service all her life. The freedom of the
+present age, as shown in the chapter on
+"Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in
+the choice of such wives, has presented
+this great problem to the thinking women
+of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in
+Japan are to come from among such a
+class of women, something must be done,
+and done quickly, for the sake of the future
+of Japan; either to raise the standards of
+the men in regard to women, or to change
+the old system of education for girls. A
+liberal education, and more freedom in
+early life for women, has been suggested,
+and is now being tried, but the problem of
+the géisha and her fascination is a deep
+one in Japan.</p>
+
+<p>Below the géisha in respectability stands
+the jōrō, or licensed prostitute. Every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+city in Japan has its disreputable quarter,
+where the various <i>jōrōya</i>, or licensed houses
+of prostitution, are situated. The supervision
+that the government exercises over
+these places is extremely rigid; the effort
+is made, by licensing and regulating them,
+to minimize the evils that must flow from
+them. The proprietors of the <i>jōrōya</i> do
+everything in their power to make their
+houses, grounds, and employees attractive,
+and, to the unsuspecting foreigner, this
+portion of the city seems often the pleasantest
+and most respectable. A jōrō need
+never be taken for a respectable woman,
+for her dress is distinctive, and a stay of
+a short time in Japan is long enough to
+teach even the most obtuse that the <i>obi</i>, or
+sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one
+of the badges of shame. But though the
+occupation of the jōrō is altogether disreputable,&mdash;though
+the prostitute quarter is
+the spot to which the police turn for information
+in regard to criminals and law-breakers,
+a sort of a trap into which, sooner
+or later, the offender against the law is
+sure to fall,&mdash;Japanese public opinion,
+though recognizing the evil as a great one,
+does not look upon the professional prostitute
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>with the loathing which she inspires
+in Christian countries. The reason for this
+lies, not solely in the lower moral standards
+although it is true that sins of this
+character are regarded much more leniently
+in Japan than in England or America.
+The reason lies very largely in the fact
+that these women are seldom free agents.
+Many of them are virtually slaves, sold in
+childhood to the keepers of the houses in
+which they work, and trained, amid the
+surroundings of the <i>jōrōya</i>, for the life
+which is the only life they have ever known.
+A few may have sacrificed themselves
+freely but reluctantly for those whom they
+love, and by their revolting slavery may be
+earning the means to keep their dear ones
+from starvation or disgrace. Many are the
+Japanese romances that are woven about
+the virtuous jōrō, who is eventually rewarded
+by finding, even in the <i>jōrōya</i>, a
+lover who is willing to raise her again to a
+life of respectability, and make her a happy
+wife and the mother of children. Such
+stories must necessarily lower the standard
+of morals in regard to chastity, but in a
+country in which innocent romance has
+little room for development, the imagination
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>must find its materials where it can.
+These <i>jōrōya</i> give employment to thousands
+of women throughout the country,
+but in few cases do the women seek that
+employment, and more openings in respectable
+directions, together with a change in
+public opinion securing to every woman
+the right to her own person, would tend to
+diminish the number of victims that these
+institutions yearly draw into their devouring
+current.</p>
+
+<p>Innocent and reputable amusements are
+many and varied in the cities. We have
+already mentioned incidentally the theatre
+as one of the favorite diversions of the
+people; and though it has never been regarded
+as a very refined amusement, it has
+done and is doing much for the education
+of the lower classes in the history and
+spirit of former times. Regular plays were
+never performed in the presence of the
+Emperor and his court, or the Shōgun and
+his nobles, but the <i>No</i> dance was the only
+dramatic amusement of the nobility. This
+<i>No</i> is an ancient Japanese theatrical performance,
+more, perhaps, like the Greek
+drama than anything in our modern life.
+All the movements of the actors are measured
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>and conventionalized, speech is a poetical
+recitative, the costumes are stiff and
+antique, masks are much used, and a chorus
+seated upon the stage chants audible comments
+upon the various situations. This
+alone, the most ancient and classical of
+Japanese theatrical performances, is considered
+worthy of the attention of the Emperor
+and the nobility, and takes the place
+with them of the more vulgar and realistic
+plays which delight common people.</p>
+
+<p>The regular theatre preserves in many
+ways the life and costumes of old Japan,
+and the details of dress and scenery are
+most carefully studied. The actors are usually
+men, though there are "women theatres"
+in which all the parts are performed
+by women. In no case are the rôles taken
+by both sexes upon one stage. As the performances
+last all day, from ten or eleven
+in the forenoon until eight or nine in the
+evening, going to the theatre means much
+more than a few hours of entertainment
+after the day's work is over. A lunch and
+dinner, with innumerable light edibles between,
+go to make up the usual bill of fare
+for a day at the play, and tea-houses in the
+neighborhood of the theatre provide the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+necessary meals, a room to take them in, a
+resting-place between the acts, and whatever
+tea, cakes, and other refreshments
+may be ordered. These latter eatables are
+served by the attendants of the tea-house
+in the theatre boxes while the play is in
+progress, and the playgoers eat and smoke
+all day long through roaring farce or goriest
+tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>Similar to the theatre in many ways are
+the public halls, where professional story-tellers,
+the <i>hanashika</i>, night after night,
+relate long stories to crowded audiences, as
+powerfully and vividly as the best trained
+elocutionist. Each gesture, and each modulation
+of the voice, is studied as carefully
+as are those of the actors. Many charming
+tales are told of old Japan, and even
+Western stories have found their way to
+these assemblies. A long story is often
+continued from night to night until finished.
+Unfortunately, the class of people
+who patronize these places is low, and the
+moral tone of some of the stories is pitched
+accordingly; but the best of the story-tellers&mdash;those
+who have talent and reputation&mdash;are
+often invited to come to entertainments
+given at private houses, to amuse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+a large company by their eloquence or mimicry.</p>
+
+<p>This is a very favorite entertainment,
+and the <i>hanashika</i> has so perfected the art
+of imitation that he can change in a moment
+from the tones of a child to those of
+an old woman. Solemn and sad subjects
+are touched upon, as well as merry and
+bright things, and he never fails to make
+his audience weep or laugh, according to
+his theme, and well merits the applause he
+always receives at the end.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>hanami</i>, or picnic to famous places
+to view certain flowers as they bloom in
+their season, though not belonging strictly
+to city life, forms one of the greatest of the
+pleasures of city people. The river Sumida,
+on which Tōkyō is situated, has lining
+its eastern shore for some miles the
+famous cherry-trees of Japan, with their
+large, double pink blossoms, and when, in
+April and May, these flowers are in their
+perfection, great crowds of sightseers flock
+to Mukōjima to enjoy the blossoms under
+the trees. The river is crowded with picnic
+parties in boats. Every tea-house along
+the banks is full of guests, and the little
+stalls and resting-places on the way find a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span>
+quick sale for fruit, confectionery, and light
+lunches. <i>Saké</i> is often too freely imbibed
+by the merrymakers, whose flushed faces
+show, when returning homeward, how their
+day was spent. There is much quiet enjoyment,
+too, of the lovely blossoms, the
+broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed
+crowds. Hundreds and thousands of visitors
+crowd to the suburban places about
+Tōkyō,&mdash;to Uyéno Park for its cherry and
+peach blossoms, Kaméido for the plum and
+wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees,
+and many others, each noted for some special
+beauty. Dango Zaka has its own peculiar
+attraction, the famous chrysanthemum
+dolls. These ingenious figures are
+arranged so as to form tableaux,&mdash;scenes
+from history or fiction well known to all
+the people. They are of life size, and the
+faces, hands, and feet are made of some
+composition, and closely resemble life in
+every detail. But the curious thing in
+these tableaux is that the scenery, whether
+it be the representation of a waterfall, rocks,
+or bushes, the animals, and the dresses of
+the figures are made entirely of chrysanthemum
+twigs, leaves, and flowers, not cut
+and woven in, as at the first glance they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+seem to be,&mdash;so closely are the leaves and
+flowers bound together to make the flat
+surface of different objects,&mdash;but alive and
+growing on the plants. It is impossible
+to tell where the roots and stems are hidden,
+for nothing is visible but (for example)
+the white spray and greenish shadows
+of a waterfall, or the parti-colored figures
+in a young girl's dress. But, should
+it be the visitor's good fortune to watch the
+repairing of one of these lifelike images, he
+will find that the entire body is a frame
+woven of split bamboo, within which the
+plants are placed, their roots packed in
+damp earth and bound about with straw,
+while their leaves and flowers are pulled
+through the basket frame and woven into
+whatsoever pattern the artistic eye and
+skillful fingers of the gardener may select.
+A roof of matting shields each group from
+the sun by day, and a slight sprinkling
+every night serves to keep the plants fresh
+for nearly a month, and the flowers continue
+their blooming during that time, as
+calmly as if in perfectly natural positions.
+Each of the gardeners of the neighborhood
+has his own little show, containing several
+tableaux, the entrance to which is guarded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+by an officious gate-keeper, who shouts out
+the merits of his particular groups of figures,
+and forces his show-bills upon the
+passer-by, in the hope of securing the two
+sen admission fee which is required for
+each exhibit.</p>
+
+<p>And so, amid the shopping, the festivals,
+the amusements of the great cities, the
+women find their lives varied in many ways.
+Their holidays from home duties are spent
+amid these enjoyments; and if they have
+not the out-of-door employments, the long
+walks up the mountains, the days spent in
+tea-picking, in harvesting, in all the varied
+work that comes to the country woman,
+the dwellers in the city have no lack of
+sights and sounds to amuse and interest
+them, and would not often care to exchange
+their lot for the freer and hardier life of
+the rustic.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>O miagé</i> must be given, not only on the return from
+an evening of pleasure, but also on the return from a journey
+or pleasure trip of any kind. As a rule, the longer
+the absence, the finer and more costly must be the presents
+given on returning.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">DOMESTIC SERVICE.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">To</span> the foreigner, upon his arrival in Japan,
+the status of household servants is at
+first a source of much perplexity. There
+is a freedom in their relations with the
+families that they serve, that in this country
+would be regarded as impudence, and
+an independence of action that, in many
+cases, seems to take the form of direct disobedience
+to orders. From the steward of
+your household, who keeps your accounts,
+makes your purchases, and manages your
+affairs, to your <i>jinrikisha</i> man or groom,
+every servant in your establishment does
+what is right in his own eyes, and after the
+manner that he thinks best. Mere blind
+obedience to orders is not regarded as a
+virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do
+his own thinking, and, if he cannot grasp
+the reason for your order, that order will
+not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan
+is frequently the despair of the thrifty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+American housewife, who has been accustomed
+in her own country to be the head
+of every detail of household work, leaving
+to her servants only the mechanical labor
+of the hands. She begins by showing her
+Oriental help the work to be done, and
+just the way in which she is accustomed to
+having it done at home, and the chances
+are about one in a hundred that her servant
+will carry out her instructions. In the
+ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish
+the desired result, but by means totally different
+from those to which the American
+housekeeper is accustomed. If the housewife
+is one of the worrying kind, who cares
+as much about the way in which the thing
+is done as about the accomplished result,
+the chances are that she will wear herself
+out in a fruitless endeavor to make her
+servants do things in her own way, and
+will, when she returns to America, assure
+you that Japanese servants are the most
+idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot
+that it was ever her bad fortune to have
+to do with. But on the other hand, if the
+lady of the house is one who is willing to
+give general orders, and then sit down and
+wait until the work is done before criticising
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>it, she will find that by some means or
+other the work will be accomplished and
+her desire will be carried out, provided only
+that her servants see a reason for getting
+the thing done. And as she finds that
+her domestics will take responsibility upon
+themselves, and will work, not only with
+their hands, but with the will and intellect
+in her service, she soon yields to their protecting
+and thoughtful care for herself and
+her interests, and, when she returns to
+America, is loud in her praises of the competence
+and devotion of her Japanese servants.
+Even in the treaty ports, where
+contact with foreigners has given to the
+Japanese attendants the silent and repressed
+air that we regard as the standard
+manner for a servant, they have not resigned
+their right of private judgment, but,
+if faithful and honest, seek the best good
+of their employer, even if his best good
+involves disobedience of his orders. This
+characteristic of the Japanese servant is
+aggravated when he is in the employment
+of foreigners, for the simple reason that he
+is apt to regard the foreigner as a species
+of imbecile, who must be cared for tenderly
+because he is quite incompetent to care for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+himself, but whose fancies must not be
+too much regarded. Of the relations of
+foreign employers and Japanese servants
+much might be said, but our business is
+with the position of the servants in a Japanese
+household.</p>
+
+<p>Under the old feudal system, the servants
+of every family were its hereditary retainers,
+and from generation to generation desired
+no higher lot than personal service
+in the family to which they belonged. The
+principle of loyalty to the family interests
+was the leading principle in the lives of the
+servants, just as loyalty to the daimiō was
+the highest duty of the samurai. Long
+and intimate knowledge of the family history
+and traits of character rendered it possible
+for the retainer to work intelligently
+for his master, and do independently for
+him many things without orders. The servant
+in many cases knew his master and
+his master's interests as well as the master
+himself, or even better, and must act by
+the light of his own knowledge in cases
+where his master was ignorant or misinformed.
+One can easily see how ties of
+good-fellowship and sympathy would arise
+between masters and servants, how a community
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>of interest would exist, so that the
+good of the master and his family would be
+the condition for the good of the servant
+and his family. In America, where the
+relation between servant and employer is
+usually a simple business arrangement, each
+giving certain specified considerations and
+nothing more, the relation of servant to
+master is shorn of all sentiment and affection;
+the servant's interests are quite
+apart from those of his employer, and his
+main object is to get the specified work
+done and obtain more time for himself, and
+sooner or later to leave the despised occupation
+of domestic service for some higher
+and more independent calling. In Japan,
+where faithful service of a master was regarded
+as a calling worthy of absorbing
+any one's highest abilities through a lifetime,
+the position of a servant was not
+menial or degrading, but might be higher
+than that of the farmer, merchant, or artisan.
+Whether the position was a high or a
+low one depended, not so much on the work
+done, as the person for whom it was done,
+and the servant of a daimiō or high rank
+samurai was worthy of more honor, and
+might be of far better birth, than the independent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>merchant or artisan. As the former
+feudal system is yet within the memory
+of many of the present generation,
+and its feelings still alive in Japan, much
+of the old sentiment remains, even with
+the merely hired domestics in a household
+of the present day. The servant, by his
+own master, is addressed by name, with no
+title of respect, is treated as an inferior,
+and spoken to in the language used toward
+inferiors; but to all others he is a person
+to be treated with respect,&mdash;to be bowed
+to profoundly, addressed by the title San,
+and spoken to in the politest of language.
+You make a call upon a Japanese household,
+and the servant who admits you will
+expect to exchange the formal salutations
+with you. When you are ushered into
+the reception-room, should the lady of the
+house be absent, the head servants will not
+only serve you with tea and refreshments
+and offer you hospitalities in their mistress's
+name, but may, if no one else be there, sit
+with you in the parlor, entertaining you
+with conversation until the return of the
+hostess. The servants of the household are
+by no means ignored socially, as they are
+with us, but are always recognized and saluted
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>by visitors as they pass into and out
+of the room, and are free to join in the conversation
+of their betters, should they see
+any place where it is possible that they may
+shed light on the subject discussed. But
+though given this liberty of speech, treated
+with much consideration, and having sometimes
+much responsibility, servants do not
+forget their places in the household, and
+do not seem to be bold or out of place. Indeed,
+the manners of some of them would
+seem, to any one but a Japanese, to denote
+a lack of proper self-respect,&mdash;an excess of
+humility, or an affectation of it.</p>
+
+<p>In explaining to my scholars, who were
+reading "Little Lord Fauntleroy" in English,
+a passage where a footman is spoken
+of as having nearly disgraced himself by
+laughing at some quaint saying of the young
+lord, my little peeresses were amazed beyond
+measure to learn that in Europe and America
+a servant is expected never to show any
+interest in, or knowledge of, the conversation
+of his betters, never to speak unless
+addressed, and never to smile under any
+circumstances. Doubtless, in their shrewd
+little brains, they formed their opinion of
+a civilization imposing such barbarous restraints
+upon one class of persons.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span></p><p>The women servants in a family are in
+position more like the self-respecting, old-fashioned
+New England "help" than they
+are like the modern "girl." They do not
+work all day while the mistress sits in the
+parlor doing nothing, and then, when their
+day's work is done, go out, anxious to forget,
+in the society of their friends, the
+drudgery which only the necessity for self-support
+and the high wages to be earned
+render tolerable. As has been explained
+in a previous chapter, the mistress of the
+house&mdash;be she princess or peasant&mdash;is
+herself the head servant, and only gives up
+to her helpers the part of the labor which
+she has not the time or strength to perform.
+Certain menial duties toward her
+husband and children, every Japanese wife
+and mother must do herself, and would
+scorn to delegate to any other woman except
+in case of absolute necessity. Thus
+there is not that gap between mistress and
+maid that exists in our days among the
+women of this country. The servants work
+with their mistress, helping her in every
+possible way, and are treated as responsible
+members of the household, if not of the
+family itself.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span></p><p>At evening, when the wooden shutters
+are slid into their places around the porch
+and the lamps are lighted, the family
+gather together in the sitting-room around
+the <i>hibachi</i> to talk, free from interruption,
+for no visitor comes at such an hour to
+disturb the family circle. The mother will
+have her sewing or work, the children will
+study their lessons, and the others will
+talk or amuse themselves in various ways.
+Then, perhaps, the maidservants, having
+finished their tasks about the house, will
+join the circle,&mdash;always at a respectful distance,&mdash;will
+do their sewing and listen
+to the talk, and often join in the conversation,
+but in the most humble manner.
+Perhaps, at times, some one more ambitious
+than the others will bring in a book,
+and ask the meaning of a word or a phrase
+she has met in studying, and little helps of
+this kind are given most willingly.</p>
+
+<p>We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting
+in the houses of the nobles are daughters
+of samurai, who gladly serve in these positions
+for the sake of the honor of such
+service, and the training they receive in
+noble houses. In a somewhat similar way,
+places in the homes of those of distinction<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+or skill in any art or profession are held in
+great demand among the Japanese; and a
+prominent poet, scholar, physician, or professional
+man of any kind is often asked by
+anxious parents to take their sons under
+his own roof, so that they may be under
+his influence, and receive the benefits of
+stay in such an honorable house. The parents
+who thus send their children may
+not be of low rank at all, but are usually
+not sufficiently well-to-do to spend much
+money in the education of their children.
+The position that such boys occupy in
+the household is a curious one. They are
+called <i>Sho-séi</i>, meaning students, and students
+they usually are, spending all their
+leisure moments and their evenings in
+study. They are never treated as inferiors,
+except in age and experience; they
+may or may not eat with the family, and
+are always addressed with respect. On
+the other hand, they always feel themselves
+to be dependents, and must be willing
+without wages to work in any capacity
+about the house, for the sake of picking up
+what crumbs of knowledge may fall to them
+from their master's table. Service is not
+absolutely demanded of them, but they are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+expected to do what will pay for their
+board, and do not regard menial work as
+below them, performing cheerfully all that
+the master may require of them.</p>
+
+<p>In this way, a man of moderate means
+can help along many poor young men in
+whom he may feel interested, and in return
+be saved expense about his household
+work; and the students, while always considerately
+treated, are able without great
+expense to study,&mdash;often even to prepare
+for college, or get a start in one of the
+professions, for they have many leisure
+moments to devote to their books. Many
+prominent men of the present day have
+been students of this class, and are now in
+their turn helping the younger generation.</p>
+
+<p>The boys that one sees in shops, or, with
+workmen of all kinds, helping in many
+little ways, are not hirelings, but apprentices,
+who hope some day to hold just as
+good positions as their masters, and expect
+to know as much, if not a great deal more.
+At the shop or in the home, they not only
+help in the trades or occupations they are
+learning, but are willing to do any kind of
+menial work for their master or his family
+in return for what they receive from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
+him; for they do not pay for their board
+nor for what they are taught. Even when
+the age of education is already past, grown
+men and women are willing to leave quite
+independent positions to shine with reflected
+glory as servants of persons of high
+rank or distinction. "The servant is not
+greater than his master" in Japan; but if
+the master is great, the servant is considerably
+greater than the man without a
+master.</p>
+
+<p>In a country like Japan, where one
+finds but few wealthy people, there may be
+cause for wonder at the large households,
+where there are so many servants. There
+will be often as many as ten or more servants
+in a home where, in other ways, luxury
+and wealth are not displayed. In the
+<i>oku</i>, or the part of the house where the
+lady of the house stays, are found her own
+maid, and women who help in the work
+about the house, sew in their leisure moments,
+and are the higher servants of the
+family; there are also the children's attendants,
+often one for each child, as well
+as the waiting women for the Go Inkyo
+Sama. In the kitchen are the cooks and
+their assistants, the lower servants, and usually
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>one or more <i>jinrikisha</i> men, who belong
+to the house, and, if this be the home
+of an official who keeps horses, a <i>bettō</i> for
+each animal. There are also gardeners,
+errand-boys, and gate-keepers to guard the
+large <i>yashikis</i>. Such a retinue would seem
+a great deal to maintain; but servants'
+wages are so low, and the cost of living is
+so small, that in this matter Japanese can
+afford to be luxurious. Three or four dollars
+will cover the cost of food for a month
+for one person, and women servants expect
+only a few dollars in wages for that
+time. The men receive much higher pay,
+but at the most it is less than what a good
+cook receives in many homes here. The
+wages do not include occasional presents,
+especially those given semi-annually,&mdash;a
+small sum of money, or dress material of
+some kind,&mdash;which servants expect, and
+which, of course, are no small item in the
+family expense.</p>
+
+<p>Homes which maintain a great deal of
+style need many servants, for they expect
+to work less than the American servant,
+and are less able to hurry and rush through
+their work; and they do not desire, if they
+could, to take life so hard, even to earn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+greater pay. The family, too, in many cases
+are used to having plenty of hands to do
+the work; the ladies are much less independent,
+and life has more formalities and
+red tape in Japan than in America. A
+great deal of the shopping is done by servants,
+who are sent out on errands and
+often do important business. Maids accompany
+their mistresses to make visits;
+servants go with parties to the theatre, to
+picnics, or on journeys, and these expeditions
+are as heartily enjoyed by them as by
+their masters. It is expected, especially of
+ladies and persons of high rank, that the
+details of the journey, the bargaining with
+coolies, the hiring of vehicles, and paying
+of bills, be left in charge of some manservant,
+who is entirely responsible, and who
+makes all the bargains, arranges the journey
+for his employer, and takes charge of
+everything,&mdash;even to the amount of fees
+given along the way.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the highest positions of service
+now&mdash;positions honorable anywhere in
+Japan&mdash;are held by those who remain of
+the old retainers of daimiōs, and who
+regulate the households of the nobles.
+Such men must have good education, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+good judgment; for much is left in their
+hands, and they are usually gentlemen,
+who would be known as such anywhere.
+They are the stewards of the household,
+the secretaries of their masters; keep all
+accounts, for which they are responsible,
+and attend to the minor affairs of etiquette,&mdash;the
+latter no trifling duty in a noble's
+home. It is they who accompany the nobles
+on their journeys,&mdash;regulate, advise,
+and attend to the little affairs of life, of
+which the master may be ignorant and
+cares not to learn. They are the last of
+the crowds of feudal retainers, who once
+filled castle and <i>yashiki</i>, and are now scattered
+throughout the length and breadth
+of the kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>The higher servants in the household
+must be always more or less trained in etiquette,
+and are expected to look neat and
+tidy; to serve guests with tea and refreshments,
+without any orders to that effect;
+and to use their judgment in little household
+affairs, and thus help the lady of the
+house. They are usually clever with their
+fingers, and can sew neatly. When their
+mistress goes out they assist her to dress,
+and only a few words from her will be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+necessary for them to have everything in
+readiness, from her sash and dress to all
+the little belongings of a lady's costume.
+Many a bright, quick servant is found who
+will understand and guess her mistress's
+wants without being told each detail, and
+these not only serve with their hands, but
+think for their employers.</p>
+
+<p>Much less is expected of the lower servants,
+who belong to the kitchen, and have
+less to do with the family in general, and
+little or no personal contact with their
+masters. They perform their round of duties
+with little responsibility, and are regarded
+as much lower in the social scale
+of servants, of which we have seen there
+are many degrees.</p>
+
+<p>The little <i>gozen-taki</i>, or rice-cook, who
+works all day in the kitchen, may be a fat,
+red-cheeked, frowsy-haired country girl,&mdash;patient,
+hard-working, and humble-minded,&mdash;willing
+to pother about all day with her
+kettles and pans, and sit up half the night
+over her own sewing, or the study of the
+often unfamiliar art of reading and writing;
+but entirely unacquainted with the
+details of etiquette, a knowledge of which
+is a necessity to the higher servants,&mdash;sometimes
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>even thrown into an agony of
+diffidence should it become necessary to
+appear before master or mistress.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the customs of the household,
+in regard to servants, are quite striking to
+a foreigner. When the master of the house
+starts out each morning, besides the wife
+and children who see him off, all the servants
+who are not especially occupied&mdash;a
+goodly number, sometimes&mdash;come to the
+front door and bow down to bid him good-by.
+On his return, also, when the noise
+of the <i>kuruma</i> is heard, and the shout of
+the men, who call out "<i>O kaeri!</i>" when
+near the house, the servants go out to
+greet him, and bowing low speak the customary
+words of salutation. To a greater
+or less degree, the same is done to every
+member of the family, the younger members,
+however, receiving a smaller share
+of the attention than their elders.</p>
+
+<p>When, as very often happens, a guest
+staying for any length of time in a family,
+or a frequent visitor, gives a servant a present
+of money or any trifle, the servant, after
+thanking the donor, takes the white paper
+bundle to the mistress of the house, and
+shows it to her, expressing his gratitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+to her for the gift, and also asking her to
+thank the giver. This, of course, is always
+done, for a gift to a servant is as
+much of a favor to the mistress as a present
+to a child is to its mother.</p>
+
+<p>When a servant wishes to leave a family,
+she rarely goes to her mistress and states
+that she is dissatisfied with her position,
+and that some better chance has been offered
+her. Such a natural excuse never
+occurs to the Japanese servant, unless he
+be a <i>jinrikisha</i> man or <i>bettō</i>, who may not
+know how to do better; for it is a very
+rude way of leaving service. The high-minded
+maid will proceed very differently.</p>
+
+<p>A few days' leave of absence to visit home
+will be asked and usually granted, for Japanese
+servants never have any settled time
+to take holiday. At the end of the given
+time the mistress will begin to wonder
+what has become of the girl, who has failed
+to return; and the lady will make up her
+mind she will not let her go again so readily.
+Just when she has a sharp reproof
+ready, a messenger or letter will arrive,
+with some good excuse, couched in most
+polite and humble terms. Sometimes it
+will be that she has found herself too weak<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+for service, or that work at home, or the
+illness of some member of the family, detains
+her, so that she is not able to come
+back at present. The excuse is understood
+and accepted as final, and another
+servant is sought for and obtained. After
+several weeks have passed, very likely after
+entering a new place, the old servant will
+turn up some day, express her thanks for
+all past kindnesses and regrets at not returning
+in time, will take her pay and her
+bundles, and disappear forever.</p>
+
+<p>Even when servants come on trial for a
+few days, they often go away nominally to
+fetch their belongings, or make arrangements
+to return, but the lady of the house
+does not know whether the woman is satisfied
+or not. If she is not, her refusal is
+always brought by a third person. If the
+mistress, on her side, does not wish to hire
+the girl, she will not tell her so to her
+face, but will send word at this time to prevent
+her coming. Such is the etiquette in
+these matters of mistress and maid.<a name="APXanchor_317" id="APXanchor_317" href="#APX_317" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>Only by a multiplicity of details is it
+possible to give much idea of the position
+of servants in a Japanese house, and even
+then the result arrived at is that the positions
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>of what we would call domestic servants
+vary so greatly in honor and responsibility
+that it is almost impossible to draw
+any general conclusions upon this subject.
+We have seen that there is no distinct
+servile class in Japan, and that a person's
+social status is not altered by the fact that
+he serves in a menial capacity, provided
+that service be of one above him in rank
+and not below him. This is largely the
+result of the grading of society upon other
+lines than those on which our social distinctions
+are founded, and partly the result
+of the fact that women, of whatever class,
+are servants so far as persons of the opposite
+sex in their own class are concerned.
+The women of Japan to-day form the great
+servile class, and, as they are also the
+wives and mothers of those whom they
+serve, they are treated, of course, with a
+certain consideration and respect never
+given to a mere servant; and through
+them, all domestic service is elevated.<a name="APXanchor_318" id="APXanchor_318" href="#APX_318" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>There are two employments which I
+have mentioned among those of domestic
+servants because they would be so classed
+by us, but which in Japan rank among
+the trades. The <i>jinrikisha</i> man and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+groom belong, as a rule, to a certain class
+at the bottom of the social ladder, and no
+samurai would think of entering either of
+these occupations, except under stress of
+severest poverty. The <i>bettōs</i>, or grooms,
+are a hereditary class and a regular guild,
+and have a reputation, among both Japanese
+and foreigners, as a betting, gambling,
+cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An
+honest <i>bettō</i> is a rare phenomenon. The
+<i>jinrikisha</i> men are, many of them, sons of
+peasants, who come to the cities for the
+sake of earning more money, or leading a
+livelier life than can be found in the little
+thatched cottage among the rice-fields.
+Few of them are married, or have homes
+of their own. Many of them drink and
+gamble, and sow their wild oats in all possible
+ways; but they are a well-meaning,
+fairly honest, happy-go-lucky set, who lead
+hard lives of exhausting labor, and endure
+long hours of exposure to heat and cold,
+rain, snow, and blinding sunshine, not
+only with little complaint or grumbling,
+but with absolute cheerfulness and hilarity.
+A strong, fast <i>jinrikisha</i> man takes
+great pride in his strength and speed. It
+is a point of honor with him to pull his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+passenger up the steepest and most slippery
+of hills, and never to heed him if he
+expresses a desire to walk in order to save
+his man. I have had my <i>kurumaya</i> stoutly
+refuse, again and again, my offers to walk
+up a steep hill, even when the snow was
+so soft and slippery under his bare feet
+that he fell three times in making the
+ascent. "<i>Dai jobu</i>" (safe) would be his
+smiling response to all my protestations;
+and, once in a <i>jinrikisha</i>, the passenger is
+entirely at the mercy of his man in all
+matters of getting into and out of the vehicle.
+But though the <i>jinrikisha</i> man is,
+for the time being, the autocrat and controlling
+power over his passenger, and
+though he will not obey the behests of his
+employer, except so far as they seem reasonable
+and in accordance with the best
+interests of all concerned, he constitutes
+himself the protector and assistant, the
+adviser and counselor, of him whom he
+serves, and gives his best thought and intelligence,
+as well as his speed and strength,
+to the service in which he is engaged. If
+he thinks it safe, he will tear like an unbroken
+colt through the business portions
+of the city, knocking bundles out of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+hands of foot passengers, or even hitting
+the wayfarers themselves in a fierce dash
+through their midst, laughing gayly at
+their protests, and at threats of wrath to
+come from his helpless passenger; but
+should hint of insult or injury against <i>kuruma</i>,
+passenger, or passenger's dog fall
+upon his ears, he will drop the <i>jinrikisha</i>
+shafts, and administer condign punishment
+to the offender, unchecked by thoughts of
+the ever-present police, or by any terrors
+that his employer may hold over his head.
+In no other country in the world, perhaps,
+can a lady place more entire confidence in
+the honor and loyalty of her servant than
+she can in Japan in her <i>kurumaya</i>, whether
+he be her private servant, or one from a
+respectable stand. He may not do what
+she bids him, but that is quite a secondary
+matter. He will study her interests; will
+remember her likes and dislikes; will take
+a mental inventory of the various accessories
+or bundles that she carries with her,
+and will never permit her to lose or forget
+one of them; will run his legs off in her
+service, and defend her and her property
+valiantly in case of need. Of course, as
+in all classes there are different grades,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span>
+so there are <i>jinrikisha</i> men who seem to
+have sunk so low in their calling that they
+have lost all feeling of loyalty to their employer,
+and only care selfishly for the pittance
+they gain. Such men are often
+found in the treaty ports, eagerly seeking
+for the rich foreigner, from whom they
+can get an extra fee, and whom they regard
+as outside of their code of morals,
+and hence as their natural prey. Travelers,
+and even residents of Japan, have
+often complained of such treatment; and
+it is only after long stay in Japan, among
+the Japanese themselves, that one can tell
+what a <i>jinrikisha</i> man is capable of.<a name="APXanchor_322" id="APXanchor_322" href="#APX_322" class="apxanchor">[*]</a></p>
+
+<p>If you employ one <i>kurumaya</i> for any
+length of time, you come to have a real
+affection for him on account of his loyal,
+faithful, cheerful service, such as we seldom
+find in this country except when inspired
+by personal feeling. When you have
+ridden miles and miles, by night and by
+day, through rain and sleet and hottest
+sunshine, behind a man who has used
+every power of body and mind in your service,
+you cannot but have a strong feeling
+of affection toward him, and of pride in
+him as well. It is something the feeling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+that one has for a good saddle-horse, but
+more developed. You rejoice, not only in
+his strength and speed, put forth so willingly
+in your service; in his picturesque,
+dark blue costume with your monogram
+embroidered on the back; in his handsomely
+turned ankles; in his black, wavy
+hair; in his delicate hands and trim waist,&mdash;though
+these are often a source of pride
+to you,&mdash;but his skill in divining your
+wants; his use of his tongue in your service;
+his helping out of your faltering
+Japanese with explanations which, if not
+elegant, have the merit of being easily understood;
+his combats with extortionate
+shopkeepers in your behalf; his interest in
+all your doings and concerns,&mdash;remain as
+a pleasant memory, upon your return to a
+land where no man would so far forget his
+manhood as to give himself so completely
+and without reserve to the service of any
+master save Mammon.</p>
+
+<p>As old Japan, with its quaintness, its
+mediæval flavor, its feudalism, its loyalty,
+its sense of honor, and its transcendental
+contempt for money and luxury, recedes
+into the past, and as the memories of my
+life there grow dim, two figures stand out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span>
+more and more boldly from the fading
+background,&mdash;both, the figures of faithful
+servants. One, Yasaku, the <i>kurumaya</i>, a
+very Hercules, who could keep close to a
+pair of coach horses through miles of city
+streets, and who never suffered mortal <i>jinrikisha</i>
+man to pass him. My champion
+in all times of danger and alarm, but a
+very autocrat in all minor matters,&mdash;his
+cheery face, his broad shoulders with their
+blue draperies, his jolly, boyish voice, and
+his dainty, delicate hands come before me
+as I write, and I wonder to what fortunate
+person he is now giving the intelligent service
+that he once gave so whole-heartedly
+to me. The other, O Kaio, my maid, her
+plain little face, with its upturned eyes,
+growing, as the days went by, absolutely
+beautiful in the light of pure goodness
+that beamed from it. A Japanese Christian,
+with all the Christian virtues well developed,
+she became to me not only a good
+servant, doing her work with conscientious
+fidelity, but a sympathetic friend, to whom
+I turned for help in time of need; and
+whom I left, when I returned to America,
+with a sincere sorrow in my heart at parting
+with one who had grown to fill so large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+a place in my thoughts. Her little, half-shy,
+half-motherly ways toward her big foreign
+mistress had a charm all their own.
+Her pride and delight over my progress in
+the language; her patient efforts to make
+me understand new words, or to understand
+my uncouth foreign idioms; her joy,
+when at last I reached the point where a
+story told by her lips could be comprehended
+and enjoyed,&mdash;gave a continual encouragement
+in a task too often completely
+disheartening.</p>
+
+<p>During the last summer of my stay in
+Japan, cutting loose from all foreigners
+and foreign associations, I traveled alone
+with her through the heart of the country,
+stopping only at Japanese hotels, and carrying
+with me no supplies to eke out the
+simple Japanese fare. Through floods and
+typhoons we journeyed. Long days of
+scorching heat or driving rain in no way
+abated her cheerfulness, or lessened her desire
+to do all that she could for my aid and
+comfort. Not one sad look nor impatient
+word showed a flaw in her perfect temper;
+and if she privately made up her mind
+that I was crazy, she never by word or look
+gave a hint of her thought. <i>Jinrikisha</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+men grumbled and gave out; hotel-keepers
+resented the presence of my dog, or presented
+extortionate bills; but O Kaio's
+good temper and tact never failed her.
+Difficulties were smoothed away; bills were
+compromised and reduced; the dog slept
+securely by my side on a red blanket in the
+best rooms of the best hotels; and O Kaio
+smiled, told her quaint stories, amused me
+and ministered to me, as if I were her one
+object in life, though husband and children
+were far away in distant Tōkyō, and
+her mother's heart yearned for her little
+ones.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XII.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">WITHIN THE HOME.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Into</span> the life of a Japanese home enter
+many customs and observances that
+have not been dwelt upon in the preceding
+pages, but without some understanding
+of which our knowledge of the life of
+Japanese women is by no means complete.
+In Japan the woman's place is so
+entirely in the home that all the ceremonies
+and superstitions that gather
+about the conduct of every-day affairs
+are more to her than they are to the
+freer and broader-minded man. The
+household worship, the yearly round of
+festivals, each with its special food to
+be prepared, the observances connected
+with birth and marriage and death;
+what is to be done in time of illness, of
+earthquake, of fire, or of the frequent
+flittings that render life in Japan one
+succession of packings and unpackings,&mdash;all
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>these are matters of high importance
+to the wife and mother, and their
+proper observance is left largely in her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>Every well-ordered Japanese home of
+the old-fashioned kind has its little
+shrine, which is the centre of the religious
+life of the house. If the household
+is of the Shintō faith, this shrine is
+called the <i>kami-dana</i>, or god shelf, and
+contains the symbols of the gods, <i>gohei</i> in
+vases, receptacles for food and drink,
+and a primitive lamp,&mdash;only a saucer of
+oil in which a bit of pith serves for a
+wick. Daily offerings must be made before
+this shrine, and reverence paid by
+the clapping of hands; while on feast
+days special offerings and invocations
+are required. In Buddhist families, the
+<i>Butsudan</i>, or Buddha shelf, takes the
+place of the <i>kami-dana</i>, and the worship
+is slightly more complicated. Greater
+variety of food is offered, and the simple
+clapping of the hands and bowing of the
+head that is the form of prayer in the
+Shintō religion is replaced by the burning
+of incense and by actual verbal invocation
+of Buddha. These religious ceremonies
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>must be attended to by the
+mother or wife. She it is who sets the
+rice and wine before the ancestral tablets,
+who lights the little lamp each
+night, and who sees that at each feast
+day and anniversary season the proper
+food is prepared and set out for the
+household gods.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the wife, and her attention to
+minute and apparently trifling details,
+depends much of the well-being of the
+family. Each child, as it grows toward
+maturity, gathers from various sources
+a collection of amulets, which, while
+worn always when the child is in full
+dress, are frequently too precious for
+ordinary play times and the risks and
+perils of every-day life. These must be
+kept carefully by the mother as a safeguard
+against the many evils that beset
+child-life. I have spoken of the amulets
+given at the times of the <i>miya mairi</i>,&mdash;both
+the first, when the name is given to
+the baby, and the subsequent visits
+made to the temple by the children as
+they pass certain stated points in their
+progress toward maturity. These amulets
+are simply written papers or slips of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+wood with the seal of the temple from
+which they are issued stamped upon
+them. Visits to noted temples by relatives
+and friends often result in additions
+to the child's collection. One kind
+of charm is good to keep the eyes strong;
+another will help its possessor to that
+much-prized accomplishment, a good
+handwriting; another acts as an assurance
+against accident and saves the child
+from harm in case of a fall. All these
+are put together by the careful mother
+and preserved as jealously as Queen
+Althea kept the charred stick that governed
+the destiny of her son. As the
+children arrive at years of discretion,
+these treasures pass out of the mother's
+faithful keeping into the hands of their
+actual owners, and they are usually kept
+stored away in some little-used drawer
+or cabinet until death removes the necessity
+for any further safeguards over life.
+Perhaps of all the curious things that go
+to make up these intimate personal belongings
+of a Japanese man or woman,
+there is none more curious than the
+small white parcel containing a portion
+of the umbilical cord,&mdash;saved at birth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+and preserved until death that it may be
+buried with its possessor and furnish
+him the means of a new birth. These
+little paper packages, each marked with
+the name of the child to whom it belongs,
+are kept by the mother.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the mother of the family rests
+very largely the determining of lucky
+and unlucky days for the beginning or
+transaction of different kinds of business.
+A fortune-teller is consulted for
+important things, such as removals or
+marriages, but in every-day life one cannot
+be running to a fortune-teller about
+everything; and yet there is bad luck
+lurking in the background that may
+baffle all our plans if we do not observe
+the proper times and seasons for our
+undertakings. Just as the Japanese calendar
+divides time into cycles of twelve
+years, each year named for a different
+animal, so also the days and hours are
+divided into twelves and bear the names
+of the same twelve animals,&mdash;the Chinese
+signs of the zodiac. These animals
+are as follows: the rat, the bull, the
+tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake,
+the horse, the goat, the monkey, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+cock, the dog, and the boar. Each animal
+brings its own kind of good or bad
+luck into the hour, day, or year over
+which it presides, and only a skillful
+balancer of pros and cons can read aright
+the combinations, and understand what
+the luck of any particular hour in any
+particular day of any particular year
+will be. For instance, the rat, which is
+the companion of Daikoku, the money
+god, is a lucky animal so far as money is
+concerned. A person born in the year
+of the rat will never need money, and
+will be economical, possibly miserly; and
+in one born on the day of the rat in the
+year of the rat these chances and qualities
+will be doubled. But the luck of the
+rat may be very seriously interfered
+with by the bad luck of the monkey or
+of the proverbially unlucky dog, when
+their days and hours occur in the rat
+year. On the other hand, their bad luck
+may be counteracted by the good luck
+of the tiger or hare, for as a rule three
+animals of different portent are presiding
+over human prospects every hour.
+This makes prophecy a ticklish business,
+requiring a wise head, but it also leaves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>
+much room for the subsequent explanation
+of failures by the superior and unusual
+influence of one or another of the
+animals, as the case may require. Momentous
+questions of this kind have
+frequently to be settled by the Japanese
+wife and mother, and she gains dignity
+and value in her home and neighborhood
+according to her skill in interpreting the
+portents of the day and hour.</p>
+
+<p>For the greater events of family life
+the home prophecies are felt to be too
+uncertain, and the services of the fortune-teller
+must be called in. No well-managed
+family would think of building
+a new house without finding in what
+direction to face the front door. In an
+American city this necessity would cause
+considerable inconvenience, as the position
+of the front door is usually determined
+by the relation of the building-lot
+to the street; but in a Japanese city,
+where, in all but the business quarters,
+every house is concealed by a high board
+fence, and where the gate that admits
+one within the fence is the only sign by
+which any one in the street can judge of
+the worldly condition of the dwellers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+within, the houses are faced about any
+and every way, and the position of each
+is determined by the good luck that it
+will bring its owner. After this matter
+has been settled and the house is fairly
+begun, there are occasional crises in its
+construction upon which much depends.
+Of these the most important is the day
+when the roof is raised. The roof timbers,
+which are unsquared logs, often
+rather crooked, after being carefully
+fitted and framed in some convenient
+vacant lot, are brought on carts to the
+site of the new building, and when all is
+ready, the head carpenter sends word to
+the house-owner that he is about to set
+the roof in place. The house-owner then
+decides whether the day set by the
+builder is a lucky one for himself and his
+family. If it is not, a delay in the building
+is always preferable to any danger
+of incurring the displeasure of the luck
+gods. This crisis safely passed, and the
+last of the roof beams secured in its
+place, the men take a holiday, and are
+feasted on <i>saké</i> and spaghetti by the
+house-owner. A present of money to
+each workman is also in order, and will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
+conduce to the rapid and faithful execution
+of the job in hand. When, at last,
+the house is finished, and carpenters and
+plasterers are ready to leave it, the local
+firemen, who have assisted all along in
+the building as unskilled laborers, often
+ascend to the roof, and from the ridge-pole
+cast down cakes, for which the children
+of the neighborhood scramble joyfully.</p>
+
+<p>When the builders have left, and the
+house is ready for occupation, even to
+the soft, thick mats on the floor and the
+white paper windows, the family will
+move in on the first day thereafter that
+is both lucky and pleasant. So far as
+possible, everything in the old house will
+be packed and ready the day before, and
+very early in the morning the relatives
+and friends of the mover will begin to
+rally around him. All come who can,
+and those who cannot come send servants
+or provisions. Every tradesman
+or <i>kurumaya</i> who has had or who hopes
+to have the patronage of the moving
+household sends a representative to help
+along the work, so that there is always a
+sufficient force to carry the household<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>
+belongings into the new home and settle
+them in place before the day is over. All
+these visiting helpers must be fed and
+provided with tea and cakes at proper
+intervals, and the presents of cooked
+food that pour in at such times are
+highly acceptable and of great practical
+usefulness. When the long day is ended
+and the visitors return one by one to
+their homes, it is the mistress of the
+house who must see that every servant
+and representative of a business firm
+receives, neatly done up in white paper,
+a present of money properly proportioned
+to his services, and the style and
+circumstances of the family he has been
+aiding. And when all are gone, the
+shutters closed, and the family left alone
+in their new home, the little wife must
+make a list of all who have helped in any
+way during the day, and to all, within a
+short time, make some acknowledgment
+of their kindness by either a call or a
+present. It is upon the wife, too, that
+the duty falls of sending to each of the
+near neighbors <i>soba</i>, a kind of macaroni,
+as an announcement of the family's
+arrival. The number of neighbors to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+whom this gift is sent is determined
+differently according to circumstances.
+If the house is one of several in a compound,
+<i>soba</i> will be sent to all within the
+gate; but if the compound is very large,
+so that the sending to all would be too
+great an expense, the five nearest houses
+will be selected to receive the gift, or all
+who draw water from the same well. A
+very late fashion in Tōkyō, but one that
+is gaining ground because of its convenience,
+is to send, not the macaroni
+itself, but an order on the nearest restaurant
+at which that delicacy is sold.</p>
+
+<p>As I have already said, much of a
+woman's time and thought must be given
+to the proper distribution of presents
+among friends and dependents. The
+subject of what to give, when to give, to
+whom to give, and how to do up the gift
+acceptably, is one the thorough understanding
+of which requires the study of
+years. No foreigner can hope to do more
+than dabble in the shallows of it. Presents
+seem to be used more for the purpose
+of keeping those persons whose
+services you may need, or whose enmity
+you dread, under a sense of obligation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+than they are as expressions of sentiment.
+Every housekeeper, for instance,
+must need the occasional services of a
+carpenter or a gardener, and in a large
+city like Tōkyō the chances are that she
+will some day need, and need very badly,
+the services of a fireman. A wise
+woman&mdash;one who is not penny wise and
+pound foolish&mdash;will by timely presents
+keep herself constantly in the minds of
+such persons, so that when she sends for
+them, they may feel under sufficient obligation
+to her to come at once. So will
+her house be quickly put in repair after
+earthquake or other accident; her garden
+show for only the briefest interval the
+ravages of the typhoon which has gullied
+out her lawn and leveled her choicest
+trees; and when some night "the flower
+of Yedo" blooms suddenly by her side,
+she will have the speedy assistance of
+the firemen, who will seal her storehouse
+securely with clay, wet her roof and
+walls thoroughly with water, and light
+at her gates the great alarm lanterns to
+tell her friends that her house is in
+danger and summon them to her assistance.
+No friend can disregard such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+signal, but all will rally round her once
+more to help in this less orderly and
+cheerful moving,&mdash;will pack and cord
+and carry out her goods, and if at last
+the fire consumes her dwelling, will
+gather her household and belongings
+into their hospitable homes. But the
+foolish woman, who neglects or forgets
+her dependents when she does not need
+them, finds some day that her roof is
+leaking, but all the carpenters are too
+busy to mend it, her garden is destroyed
+because the gardener had an important
+engagement elsewhere just when she
+needed him, and her property is burned
+up or ruined by water and smoke because
+the firemen attended to her house
+last when the fire swept over her compound.</p>
+
+<p>When death enters a house in Japan,
+there are no undertakers to relieve the
+family of the painful duty of caring for
+the dead body and placing it in the coffin.
+There are coffin-makers and funeral managers
+who supply the great white bier
+and lanterns and the bunches of paper
+flowers that adorn every funeral procession,
+but within the house the preparations
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>are all made by the family and
+friends, and the heaviest and most painful
+part of the work falls, as usual, on
+the women of the family. As soon as
+the breath finally leaves the body, it is
+wrapped in a quilt, laid with its head to
+the north, and an inverted screen placed
+around it. On one corner of the screen
+is hung a sword or knife to keep off any
+evil spirit that may wander into the
+room in the shape of a cat and disturb
+the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Etiquette requires that relatives and
+intimate friends of the family call immediately
+on learning of the death. To
+receive these calls the mourners, in full
+ceremonial dress, must sit in the death
+chamber and remove for each guest the
+covering from the face of the dead. The
+visitors then offer the ceremonial bows
+to the corpse, as if it were alive. During
+this time, too, presents to the spirit of
+the dead are pouring in. The proper
+offerings are flowers, cake, vegetables,
+candles, incense, or small gifts of money
+for the purchase of incense. If the deceased
+is a person of rank or distinction,
+the house is flooded with cumbersome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>
+and useless offerings. This custom has
+become so great an addition to the trials
+necessarily incident to a bereavement
+that one occasionally sees in the newspaper
+announcements of deaths a request
+that no offerings to the dead be
+sent.</p>
+
+<p>On the day after the death, often in
+the evening, the body must be placed in
+the cask-shaped coffin that until recently
+was the style commonly in use in Japan.
+Now, among the wealthier classes, the
+long coffin has superseded the small
+square or round one, but the smaller
+expense connected with burial in the old
+way makes the survival of the old type
+a necessity for the majority of Japanese.
+At an appointed time all the relatives
+assemble in the death chamber, and
+preparations are made for the bathing of
+the corpse. Two of the <i>tatami</i>, or floor
+mats, are turned over, and upon them
+are placed a new tub, a new pail, and a
+new dipper. These utensils must have
+no metal of any kind about them. In
+the washing of the body none but members
+of the family must assist, and
+respect for the dead absolutely requires<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+that all the relatives of the deceased who
+are below him in rank must have a hand
+in these final ablutions. In Japan, the
+mourning for the dead is the duty of
+inferiors, never of superiors. There is no
+official, ceremonial mourning of parents
+for their children, nor does custom require
+them to perform any of the last
+rites, or attend the funeral. Upon the
+younger brothers and sisters falls the
+duty of attending to all the last sad
+ministrations. If the wife dies, her husband
+does not mourn for her, though her
+children do; but if the husband dies, the
+wife must mourn the rest of her life,
+cutting off her hair and placing it in the
+coffin as a sign of her perpetual faithfulness.</p>
+
+<p>When the body has been washed, it is
+dressed in white, in silk <i>habutai</i> whenever
+the family can afford it. The dress,
+which must be appropriate to the season,
+in the making of which all the women of
+the family must assist, is the plain,
+straight kimono, but must be folded
+from right to left, instead of from left to
+right as in life. The body, to be placed
+in the coffin, must be folded into a sitting
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>posture, the chin resting upon the
+knees,&mdash;the position of the mummies
+found in many aboriginal American
+tombs. This difficult, to us apparently
+impossible feat, safely accomplished,
+there are placed in the coffin a number of
+small things that the dead takes with
+him to the next world. Some of these
+have been already mentioned, the others
+are little keepsakes, or perhaps tokens of
+the tastes and employments of the dead,&mdash;dice,
+cards, <i>saké</i> bottles, the image of
+a horse, toy weapons,&mdash;anything, provided
+only that it be not of metal, may be
+used for this purpose. The single exception
+to this rule about metal is that
+small copper coins may be put in, to fee
+the old hag who guards the bank of the
+river of death. Last of all, the vacant
+spaces in the coffin are filled in with bags
+of tea. Then the coffin is closed and
+nailed up, wrapped with a white silk
+cloth fastened with a white silk or cotton
+cord, and placed on a high stand, and
+food and incense are placed before it.</p>
+
+<p>So long as the coffin is in the house, it
+must be watched over continually. To
+aid in this protracted vigil, which must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>
+be kept up day and night until the
+burial, the relatives, friends, and retainers
+of the dead assemble at the house in
+large numbers. In the case of a person
+of wealth and influence, there will often
+be a hundred or more of these watchers,
+who must be fed and cared for; and who
+take turns in watching, eating, and sleeping.
+It is their duty to see that the
+incense burning before the coffin is never
+allowed to go out, while the food for the
+dead is renewed at regular intervals by
+the mourners themselves.</p>
+
+<p>This somewhat detailed description of
+the duties to be performed by the members
+of a bereaved family in the house of
+mourning is sufficient to show that the
+presence of death in the home is made as
+terrible as possible by the painful ceremonies,
+the continual bustle and excitement,
+and the strain upon the resources
+and executive ability of the housekeeper
+and her assistants. There are few enlightened
+Japanese who will defend the
+present system of cruelty to the afflicted,
+or who do not long for some change, but
+so great is the force of conservatism in
+this regard, so haunting the fear that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+any change may indicate a lack of respect
+for the dead, that reform advances
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Individual instances occur in which
+some of the worst features of these customs
+are modified. A case in point is
+that of the late Mr. Fukuzawa, a man
+whose life was devoted to the advancement
+of his countrymen in modern ways,
+and who in his death continued his
+teaching. In his will he provided that
+his body was to be buried, without washing,
+in the clothing in which he died.
+This provision would seem in most countries
+to be mere eccentricity, but when
+one has seen or heard of the gruesome
+ceremony that follows immediately after
+death, and the burden of which falls, not
+on the old and hardened, but on the
+young and tender, suffering, in many
+cases, under the weight of a first and
+crushing affliction, one can see that only
+through such means as this can the
+burden ever be lifted from the shoulders
+of those who mourn. There are young
+and enlightened mothers in Japan to-day
+who have felt, in minds awakened to
+thought and action, the horrors of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
+system, and who will not allow their
+children to suffer for them what they
+have suffered in paying respect to their
+dead parents. Through this growing
+feeling and the unselfishness of maternal
+affection may come in time the release
+from these mournful ceremonies.</p>
+
+<p>While the body remains in the house,
+a priest comes from time to time to offer
+prayers, longer or shorter according to
+the wealth of the family employing him;
+and when the funeral cortège sets out on
+its way to the cemetery, the priests in
+their professional robes form an imposing
+part of the spectacle. The day of the
+burial is selected with due respect to the
+calendar, for, though there may be little
+good luck about a funeral, there is a
+chance of extremely bad luck growing
+out of it unless every precaution is
+taken. Just before the procession starts,
+a religious ceremony is held at the
+house, which is attended by the friends
+of the deceased, and which is substantially
+the same as that performed at the
+cemetery. On the day of the burial,
+great bunches of natural flowers are sent
+to the dead, each bunch so large as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span>
+require the services of one man to carry
+it. Sometimes with the gift a man is
+sent to take part in the procession, but
+if the giver feels too poor to hire a man,
+this burden, too, falls upon the bereaved
+household, for etiquette requires that all
+flowers sent be borne to the grave by
+uniformed coolies, who march in the
+funeral train. Another favorite present
+at this time, among Buddhists, is a cage
+of living birds, to be borne to the grave
+and released thereon. This act of mercy
+is counted to the deceased for righteousness,
+and is believed to aid in rendering
+his next incarnation a happy one.</p>
+
+<p>A funeral procession is an imposing
+spectacle, and, to the uninstructed foreigner,
+a cheerful one; for there is nothing
+sad or sombre in the white, or
+bright-colored, robes of the priests, the
+white, tinsel-decorated bier, the red and
+white flags borne aloft, the enormous
+bunches of gay-colored flowers;&mdash;the
+very mourners in white silk, and with
+faces apparently unmoved by grief, bring
+no thought of the object of the procession
+to the Western mind. It seems more
+like a bridal than a burial. But if you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+follow the cortège to the cemetery and
+there listen to the wailing of the wind
+instruments, and the droning of the
+priests as they perform the last rites,
+and watch the silent company that one
+by one go forward to bow before the
+coffin and place upon it a branch of
+<i>sakaki</i> or burn a bit of incense, the trappings
+of woe in Japan will impress themselves
+strongly upon your mind, and the
+gayly appareled funeral processions will
+seem to you ever afterward as mournful
+and hopeless a spectacle as you can find
+in any country.</p>
+
+<p>The house of death remains a place of
+mourning for forty-nine days after the
+funeral. During this period the spirit of
+the deceased is supposed to be still inhabiting
+the house, and a tablet or shrine is
+set up in the death chamber before
+which food and flowers are renewed
+daily. Visitors are expected to make
+obeisance to the dead. At the end of
+this time, some acknowledgment must
+be sent to every friend who has sent anything
+to the house at the funeral. For a
+time after death has come into the family
+the relatives of the dead are regarded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>
+as ceremonially unclean. The period of
+defilement varies with the nearness of
+relationship. In the old days, no one
+thus defiled was allowed to go about his
+regular business or to mingle with other
+men; but busy modern Japan does not
+find it convenient to pause long in its
+work, so that government officials and
+school-children are now sent written
+papers excusing them for coming back
+to their tasks even while ceremonially
+unclean. Thus the old custom is passing
+away. In the first year after death, certain
+days are observed with special honors
+before the memorial tablet, and later,
+certain anniversaries of the death must
+be kept, until, at last, at the end of fifty
+or one hundred years, the personality of
+the spirit seems to become merged with
+that of the other ancestral spirits, and
+no offerings are made to it except at the
+general feasts of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>With the coming in of the last month
+of the year begin the preparations
+for the great New Year's festival, and
+the housekeeper finds herself occupied
+through every moment of the brief days.
+A woman who is at the head of a large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+household has upon her hands in the
+month of December spring house-cleaning
+and preparations for Christmas, New
+Year's, Thanksgiving, and Easter, all at
+once. The work of getting the family
+wardrobe ready for the festival must
+begin very early in the month, for every
+man, woman, and child in the household
+must be provided with new clothes, and
+the thrifty housewife sends no sewing
+out. In the old days, it was ordained
+that the eighth day of the twelfth month
+should be a needle festival,&mdash;a day on
+which all women rest from their sewing
+and amuse themselves by indulging their
+own fancies instead of their husbands',
+as is their duty on other days. This day
+was supposed to mark the dividing line
+between the old year's and the new
+year's sewing, but, as a matter of fact,
+the forehanded woman will finish up the
+old and begin the new even earlier in the
+month, so as to have this part of her
+work well out of the way before the
+house-cleaning, which should be begun
+not later than the fifteenth.</p>
+
+<p>This house-cleaning, even with the
+small amount of furniture found in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+Japanese house, is an elaborate affair.
+Every box and closet and rubbish-hole
+in the house is turned out and put in
+order, the <i>tatami</i> are taken up and
+brushed and beaten, the woodwork from
+ceiling to floor is carefully washed, the
+plaster and paper walls flicked with the
+paper flapper that takes the place in
+Japan of our feather duster. All the
+quilts and clothing must be sunned and
+aired, the kakémonos and curios belonging
+to the family unpacked, carefully
+dusted, and put back into their wrappings
+and boxes, and the house and
+garden put into perfect repair. This
+work, if thoroughly done, takes about a
+week. When all is finished, even to the
+final purification by beating everything
+in the house with a fresh bamboo, games
+and festivities and <i>soba</i> are in order. In
+the old daimiō houses, where great numbers
+of men and women were employed,
+and where the women's quarters were in
+a distinct part of the house, it was considered
+a great joke to catch a man on
+the women's side any time between the
+close of the cleaning and the beginning
+of the new year. The intruder was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+promptly seized and shouldered by the
+women, who carried him about the house
+in triumph, finally returning him to his
+own quarters. If, by any chance, they
+could catch the chief steward, they sang
+as they carried him about:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i00">"This is the great pillar of the house!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">May he be happy till the stone foundations rot!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The week following the house-cleaning
+is devoted to the preparation of food for
+the festival. Of this, the most characteristic
+is <i>mochi</i>, a sort of dumpling made of
+rice steamed and pounded, the preparation
+of which is so difficult and protracted
+a process that it is not lightly
+undertaken. It is so distinctively the festival
+food of Japan that if you find <i>mochi</i>
+in a friend's house at any time except
+the new year, you immediately ask what
+has happened, and are pretty sure to be
+told that it is a present received in celebration
+of a birth or a marriage, or some
+other domestic festival. It is, to Japanese
+children, what turkey and cranberry
+sauce are to American children, not only
+a delight to the palate, but a dish the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
+very smell of which brings back the most
+cheerful occasions in the year.</p>
+
+<p>When the <i>mochi</i> is made and set away
+to await the festal day, the matter of decoration
+must be attended to. At every
+gate is erected some token of the season,
+if it be only a bit of pine stuck into the
+ground, or a wisp of straw rope decorated
+with white paper <i>gohei</i>. The great
+black gates that indicate the homes of
+the wealthier classes are almost concealed
+by structures of pine and bamboo,
+on which oranges, lobsters, straw rope,
+straw fringe, white paper, and images of
+the good luck gods are used as decorations.
+All these things are either efficacious
+in keeping off evil spirits, or are
+symbols of good luck. Within the house,
+in the <i>tokonoma</i>, or place of honor, in the
+best room, great cakes of <i>mochi</i>, two,
+three, five, or seven in number, are set
+one upon another in a dish covered with
+fern leaves, and the structure surrounded
+by seaweed.</p>
+
+<p>Before the new year comes in the capable
+housewife will have sent out presents
+to every one who has during the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+year been of service to her husband, her
+children, or herself in any way. Her
+own servants will be remembered with
+gifts of clothing, something will be sent
+to the servants of friends at whose
+houses any of the family have visited
+often, and every dependent, poor relation,
+employee, and employee's child
+must be given a present, large or small,
+according to the amount of obligation
+felt by the giver. To persons of greater
+wealth and importance, to whom the
+family are grateful for past favors or
+from whom they are hoping for something
+in the future, gifts, often quite out
+of proportion to the resources of the
+givers, are sent,&mdash;a method of investing
+capital that is a little risky, though it
+sometimes yields prompt and bountiful
+returns. On the other hand, all the merchants
+and marketmen who supply the
+house send presents to the mistress and
+frequently to the head servants as well,
+and <i>furushiki</i> (bundle handkerchiefs),
+cooking utensils, packages of sugar,
+boxes of eggs, dried fish, etc., flow in at
+the kitchen; while crêpe, silk, cotton
+cloth, money, toys, curios, and other valuables
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>flow out of the parlor. All this
+present-giving is a severe tax upon the
+strength and resources of the housekeeper,
+and adds heavily to the burden
+that the last month of the year imposes
+upon her.</p>
+
+<p>By the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of
+the month the trades-people begin to
+send in their bills, for every man expects
+to square up all his accounts by the
+last night of the old year, and early payments
+are expected and made, so that all
+may begin the new year out of debt. So
+universal is this custom that the man
+who finds at the eleventh hour that he
+cannot clear off all his debts is likely to
+offer his property at a heavy sacrifice in
+order to secure the necessary cash. For
+any one with ready money extraordinary
+bargains are to be met with in Japanese
+shops during the last week of the year.
+In case this resource fails, suicide is still
+a short and honorable way out of a
+world that has become too difficult to
+live in.</p>
+
+<p>The Japanese housewife must feel,
+when December has been successfully
+passed, like the Yankee who had noticed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+that if he lived through the month of
+March he generally lived through the
+rest of the year. The observances of
+January, for which December has been
+one long preparation, begin with the rising
+of the New Year's sun, and continue
+in one form or another for about two
+weeks. Almost every day has its special
+food and its special festival duty. For
+the first three days the very best clothes
+in the wardrobe are worn by everybody,
+then till the seventh the second best, and
+from the seventh to the end of the month
+new clothes, though not the very best,
+must be worn. Within the first seven
+days every man in Japan is expected to
+call on all his friends and acquaintances,
+but the women, probably out of consideration
+for the many duties that the
+festival season puts upon them, are given
+until March to finish up their New
+Year's calls.</p>
+
+<p>The streets of the cities, and even of
+the small villages, are full of life and
+interest for a week or two. <i>Kurumayas</i>
+in their new winter liveries trundle
+around fathers and mothers and happy
+children. All manner of mummers, musicians,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>and dancers go from house to
+house in search of custom. The <i>manzai</i>,
+who, with dances and songs and strange
+grimaces, undertake to drive out from
+your house for the new year all the devils
+who may have been residing there hitherto,
+are a special feature of this season.
+In every garden and in the public streets
+little girls, their faces freshly covered
+with white paint, their shining black
+hair newly dressed, their wing-sleeved
+kimonos gorgeous with many colors, play
+battledore and shuttlecock, toss small
+bags half filled with rice, or pat balls
+wound with shining silk to the accompaniment
+of a weird little chant. For
+the boys there are kites of many shapes
+and colors, or tops that they spin under
+every one's feet, well knowing that no
+one in Japan is too busy to turn aside for
+a child's pleasure. The very horses&mdash;small,
+shock-headed, evil-tempered
+beasts, who drag tremendous loads with
+many snorts and snaps at their masters&mdash;are
+decked out with gay streamers
+that reach nearly to the ground, at the
+ends of which are tinkling bells. The
+festival season closes on the fifteenth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span>
+and sixteenth with a visit to the temple
+of Yemma, the god of hell, and with a
+holiday for all the apprentices.</p>
+
+<p>Next to the New Year's holiday, perhaps
+the most important festival of the
+Japanese year is <i>O Bon</i>, the Feast of the
+Dead. This is, in its present form, a
+Buddhist institution, but in spirit it
+fitted so exactly into the ancient Japanese
+ideas of the tastes and habits of
+departed spirits that it merely supplanted
+the old Shintō feasts of the dead,
+and it is a little difficult to-day to determine
+whether its observance is more
+Buddhist or Shintō in its character. To
+find the O Bon ceremonies in their most
+perfect form, it is necessary now to go
+into the more remote country villages,
+for though, even in Tōkyō, this feast is
+still one of the most important in the
+whole year, it seems to be more distinctly
+itself in a small village, where all
+the old forms are still kept up.</p>
+
+<p>In Tōkyō, the three days' festival is
+kept by the new calendar, and occurs on
+the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
+of July. At O Bon, as at New Year's
+time, it is customary to square off all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+obligations by a general giving of presents.
+This, while not quite as important
+a matter as at the beginning of the year,
+is still a severe tax upon the time, purse,
+and memory of the wife and mother in
+any large family. At this time, too, as
+at New Year's, <i>mochi</i> or some other festival
+dish must be provided, but at this
+point the resemblance between the two
+occasions ceases. In accordance with its
+character as a feast of departed spirits,
+the observance of O Bon is distinctively
+religious. On the twelfth, the family go
+to the graveyard and clean and put in
+order the graves and tombstones, so that
+the returning spirits may find all properly
+cared for. Fresh water and flowers
+are placed before each stone, and sometimes
+rice and fresh vegetables. At
+home, the ancestral tablets in the <i>Butsudan</i>
+form the centre of the ceremonies.
+Before the shrine are placed, on the thirteenth,
+offerings of food of any kind that
+can be made without fish or meat. Great
+balls of <i>mochi</i>, <i>saké</i>, flowers, and choice
+new varieties of vegetables are appropriate
+offerings. All are tastefully arranged,
+the lamps are carefully lighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+every night, and special services are held
+before the shrine. For the three days of
+the feast, the souls of the dead are believed
+to be visiting their old haunts, and
+to need light and food and all the conveniences
+that their descendants can
+spare them. Each house is decorated
+with lanterns, that the spirits may be
+able to find their way. It is from this
+custom that the feast is often called by
+foreigners the Feast of Lanterns.</p>
+
+<p>As I have already said, in Tōkyō and
+other modernized places, this feast is not
+seen at its best. Only the soft glow of
+the lanterns swinging from every house,
+and the decorations in the graveyards
+and at the household shrines, indicate
+to the traveler that anything unusual is
+going on. But in the country regions it
+is quite another matter, and the welcoming,
+entertainment, and proper dismissal
+of the visiting spirits form the entire
+business of the community for three days.
+Usually the middle of August is the time
+for the country celebration. On the
+twelfth, bands of children carrying red
+lanterns march singing through the village
+on their way to the graveyard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+where the annual cleaning is taking
+place. That night bonfires in the cemetery
+and before the houses light the pathway
+of the wanderers. Then for three
+nights all the young people of the village
+gather in the temple court in grotesque
+disguises and with towels over their
+faces, and dance all night long in the
+moonlight, to primitive music produced
+by a drum and the monotonous chant of
+the dancers themselves. These three
+dance-nights are the great occasion of
+the year to the young peasants, for this
+is the only time when persons of both
+sexes meet together in a social way, and
+it is long looked forward to and enjoyed
+intensely. Of late years, the government,
+fearing the abuses that grow out
+of this exceptional social event, has
+endeavored to suppress the dancing, but
+it continues in full vigor throughout
+most of rural Japan, though conducted
+with more decorum than formerly on
+account of the standing dread of police
+interference. The object of the dance is
+to amuse the spirits of the ancestors,
+who must be imagined as hovering in the
+background, viewing with approval the
+antics of their descendants.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span></p><p>Other amusements are going on in the
+village on the O Bon evenings. At a
+summer resort every hotel-keeper will
+have a professional story-teller, a company
+of musicians, or some other entertainment
+to which the guests of the hotel
+are invited, and at which as many of the
+villagers as can crowd to the open house
+fronts stare until the dance drum in the
+temple court draws their feet in that
+direction. And then, on the last night of
+the feast, bonfires are once more kindled
+at every house, so that the spirits may
+find their way safely back to the land
+whence they came, and not stay to haunt
+their descendants at improper seasons.</p>
+
+<p>No account of life in a Japanese home
+would be complete without a little space
+devoted to the special delights of the
+small boy. Although this book deals
+mainly with feminine concerns, the small
+boy in Japan, as in America, is the life
+and fun of the home, and one cannot fail
+to notice his times of surpassing enjoyment.
+He rules the house and his
+mother and his grandmother and his sisters,
+at all times, and his activity and
+enterprise secure for him a good share in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+any fun that is going on; but there are
+certain seasons that appeal to the boyish
+heart with a special message and of
+which he is the central figure.</p>
+
+<p>As the Feast of Dolls is to the girls, so
+is the Feast of Flags to the boys,&mdash;their
+own special day, set apart for them out of
+the whole year. It comes on the fifth day
+of the fifth month (now May fifth), and
+for long before its arrival the shops are
+gay with all manner of tempting toys,
+while in every yard rises a great bamboo
+pole, from which, when the time comes,
+will float an enormous carp, its body inflated
+by the strong spring wind, its
+great mouth wide open, and its eyes glaring
+hideously, as it fights its way against
+the air currents. Sometimes there will
+be half a dozen such poles in one yard,&mdash;signs
+either that the household is blessed
+with many boys, or that the way to its
+heart is through gifts of toys to its son
+and heir. When the great day at last
+arrives, the feast within the home is conducted
+in much the same way as the
+Feast of Dolls. There are the same red-covered
+shelves, the same offerings of
+food and drink; but instead of the placid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+images of the Emperor and Empress and
+the five court musicians, the household
+furnishings and toilet articles, there are
+effigies of the heroes of history and folklore:
+Jingo, the warrior Empress; Takenouchi,
+her white-haired prime minister,
+holding in his arms her son, the infant
+war-god; Benkei, the giant retainer of
+Yoshitsune; Yoshitsune himself, the marvelous
+fencer and general; Kintaro, the
+fat, hairy, red boy, who was born and
+grew up in the mountains, and even in
+his babyhood fought with bears; Shoki
+Sama, the strong man who could conquer
+<i>oni</i>;&mdash;these are some of the characters
+to be found on the shelves at the
+boys' feast. Behind each figure stands a
+flag with the crest of the hero that it
+represents, and before them are set all
+manner of weapons in miniature. The
+food offered is <i>mochi</i> wrapped in oak
+leaves, because the oak is among trees
+what the carp is among fishes, the emblem
+of strength and endurance. The
+flower of this day is the iris or flag,
+because of its sword-shaped leaves,&mdash;hence
+the name, <i>Shobu Matsuri</i>, feast of
+iris or flag.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p><p>Another feast, which, while not
+founded for the boys, seems to have
+been adopted by them as a great occasion,
+is what is known as Buddha's birthday,
+celebrated on April eighth. On this
+day in every Buddhist temple a temporary
+platform is erected, the roof of
+which is covered with flowers. Upon
+this platform, in a great tub filled with
+licorice tea, is set a small image of the
+infant Buddha. Hither flock the small
+boys with bamboo dippers, and spend
+the day ladling up the tea and pouring it
+over the image, and then ladling it out
+into small bamboo buckets. This licorice
+tea, through contact with the image,
+acquires miraculous healing properties,
+and the devout, after making offerings of
+money twisted up in white paper, carry
+away the little buckets. The tea is good
+for the eyes and the throat, and if some
+of it be used in mixing ink, and then,
+with the ink thus mixed, a charm be
+written and placed about the house, it
+will keep away all vermin. It is not easy
+to see exactly what the fascination of
+this feast is to the boys, but I am told
+that many of them like it even better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+than their own specially appointed day.</p>
+
+<p>But of all the delights that come into
+the year, there is nothing to compare for
+joyous excitement with the great <i>matsuri</i>
+of the parish temple. For at least a
+week beforehand there are enough interesting
+things going on in every house
+and shop along the street to keep every
+small boy in the parish agog from morning
+till night. Here are lanterns being
+made with the <i>mon</i> of the gods on one
+side and the rising sun of the Japanese
+flag on the other. There a dancing platform
+is being erected, and at every stage
+of its development it is swarming with
+active youngsters, who shin up its poles,
+turn somersaults on the platform, and
+sit in rows on its edge, with bare legs
+swinging high over the heads of the
+passers-by; and when it is done, and the
+drums installed, they take turns all day
+and far into the night in keeping them
+going. Then, too, there are the <i>dashi</i>, or
+floats, on one of which each street in the
+parish spends its money and its ingenuity.
+How the boys haunt the shops in
+which they are being made! How they
+watch the wondrous changes of paper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+into flowers, and of bamboo and cotton
+cloth into sea waves, or castle walls, or
+monsters of earth or sea or air! How
+they chatter and wriggle and push and
+squirm for front places, when at last the
+great cars are built up in the open street,
+the marvelous edifices erected upon
+them, and at the top of all the heroic
+figures of well-known mythological or
+historical characters rise majestic in
+flowing robes! Then, when the black bullocks,
+resplendent in collars and halters
+of red rope, are yoked to the triumphal
+car, and the structure moves slowly
+down the shouting street, how the boys
+crawl into every joint and cranny of the
+<i>dashi</i>, how they hang from every beam,
+how they yell from before and behind in
+sheer abandon of joy! And at last, when
+the procession forms, and with fantastically
+garbed men marching in front and
+wild-eyed singers yelling just behind
+them, with dancing-girls on moving platforms
+and jugglers and tumblers on the
+<i>dashi</i> themselves, the twenty or more
+festal cars move, with frequent stops,
+down to the temple, to escort the sacred
+symbols on their annual pilgrimage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+through the parish, who so noisy or so
+ubiquitous as these same bullet-headed,
+blue-gowned boys? They bob up at
+every turn, ooze out at every pore of the
+procession, and enjoy, as only boys can
+enjoy, the noise and confusion, the barbaric
+splendor, the dancing and tumbling,
+the mumming and drumming, the excruciating
+howls of the singers, the jingling
+of the marshals' iron-ringed staves, the
+clapping of the great wooden clappers
+that time the movement and the stops of
+the pageant.</p>
+
+<p>Better than all, perhaps, is the evening,
+when the streets, lighted by many
+lanterns, are filled with throngs of holiday-makers,&mdash;now
+stopping to stare in
+at some shop where the devout worshiper
+has established a beautiful shrine,
+has set out <i>mochi</i> and other offerings
+before some image, or has arranged a
+landscape garden in a box, or constructed
+a <i>matsuri</i> procession just entering
+the court of a miniature temple; now
+haggling with the ever-present booth-keepers
+for lanterns or cakes or hairpins
+to take back to the friends left at home.
+Suddenly there is a joyous, rhythmic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+shout of many excited boyish voices,
+there is a gleaming of square red lanterns,
+a whirl and a rush through the
+crowd. Now is the time to get out of the
+way, for the boys move quickly and are
+too excited to turn aside for anything.
+On they come at a sharp trot, each little
+round head bound about with a fillet of
+blue and white toweling, each lithe, active
+body more or less covered by a blue and
+white gown, all shouting in unison and
+bearing on their shoulders a miniature
+<i>dashi</i>, made most often of a <i>saké</i> tub
+mounted on a frame, and decorated with
+lanterns and white paper. They charge
+through the crowd, which makes way
+quickly at their approach, until the pace,
+the weight of their burden, and the frantic
+shouting exhaust their breath. Then
+they plunge down a side street, rest for a
+few moments, gather themselves together,
+and charge once more into the
+crowd. There must be some pretty tired
+little boys in the parish when the fun is
+all over, for these performances are kept
+up far into the night; but for absolute
+and perfect enjoyment there is nothing I
+have yet seen that seems to me to compare
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>with the enjoyment that a Japanese
+boy gets out of a <i>matsuri</i>. It is worth
+being tired for!</p>
+
+<p>There is no space in this work for a
+more detailed picture of life in a Japanese
+home. Enough has been said in
+this chapter to show that it is made up
+of many little things,&mdash;of cares and sorrows
+and pleasures,&mdash;just as is life in
+any American home, and it is the little
+things we care about that make the oneness
+of the family, and the nation, and
+the oneness, too, of humanity, if we can
+only understand one another.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII.<br /><br />
+<span class="sm">TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS.</span></h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> woman question in Japan is at the
+present moment a matter of much consideration.
+There seems to be an uneasy
+feeling in the minds of even the more
+conservative men that some change in
+the status of woman is inevitable, if the
+nation wishes to keep the pace it has set
+for itself. The Japanese women of the
+past and of the present are exactly
+suited to the position accorded them in
+society, and any attempt to alter them
+without changing their status only results
+in making square pegs for round
+holes. If the pegs hereafter are to be cut
+square, the holes must be enlarged and
+squared to fit them. The Japanese
+woman stands in no need of alteration
+unless her place in life is somehow enlarged,
+nor, on the other hand, can she
+fill a larger place without additional<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+training. The men of New Japan, to
+whom the opinions and customs of the
+Western world are becoming daily more
+familiar, while they shrink aghast, in
+many cases, at the thought that their
+women may ever become like the
+forward, self-assertive, half-masculine
+women of the West, show a growing
+tendency to dissatisfaction with the
+smallness and narrowness of the lives of
+their wives and daughters,&mdash;a growing
+belief that better educated women would
+make better homes, and that the ideal
+home of Europe and America is the
+product of a more advanced civilization
+than that of Japan. Reluctantly in many
+cases, but still almost universally, it is admitted
+that in the interest of the homes
+and for the sake of future generations,
+something must be done to carry the
+women forward into a position more in
+harmony with what the nation is reaching
+for in other directions. This desire
+shows itself in individual efforts to
+improve by more advanced education
+daughters of exceptional promise, and in
+general efforts for the improvement of
+the condition of women. Well-to-do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+fathers are willing to spend more money
+on the education of their daughters, to
+send them abroad, if possible, to complete
+their studies, or to postpone the
+time of marriage so that plans for higher
+education may be carried through.
+Where, ten years ago, the number of
+women who had been abroad for study
+might be counted on the fingers of one
+hand, there are now three or four times
+that number in Tōkyō alone. Another
+sign of the times is the fact that husbands
+going abroad on business or for
+pleasure are more inclined to take their
+wives with them, even if it be only for a
+few months. There are now to be found,
+in all the larger cities, women who have
+spent a longer or shorter time in some
+foreign country, whose minds have been
+opened and whose horizons have been
+enlarged by contact with new ideas. All
+this cannot fail to have its effect, sooner
+or later, upon the country at large.</p>
+
+<p>The efforts for the improvement of
+women in general may be grouped into
+four classes: by legislation, by education,
+through the press, and by means of
+societies for mutual improvement.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span></p><p>Of the recent legislation concerning
+marriage and divorce and its effect on
+the family, I have spoken in a preceding
+chapter. The latest statistics show that,
+while before the new laws were enacted
+divorces were one to every three marriages,
+they have now been reduced to
+one in five. It must be said, however, that
+the law is still somewhat in advance of
+public opinion. While the chance of permanence
+in marriage is better now than
+it was before the new code came into
+force, custom is still stronger than the
+law, and marriage is too often a temporary
+arrangement. In many cases the
+wife knows little or nothing of her new
+rights, and even when she does know,
+she has seldom the self-assertion to make
+a stand for them, but meekly submits to
+the dictates of those whom she is bound
+by custom, if not by law, to respect and
+obey without question. But the fact that
+the laws have actually been improved
+means, in a country like Japan, in which
+the government is the moulder of public
+opinion, that the custom will some day
+conform to the law.</p>
+
+<p>In the matter of property owning,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+women, under the new code, are fairly
+independent. As I have already stated,
+every woman in Japan is expected to become
+a wife, and as a matter of fact, the
+number of unmarried women is so small
+that it is hardly necessary to mention
+them. Wives, under Japanese law, are
+divided into two classes: the wife who
+enters her husband's family, and the wife
+whose husband becomes a member of
+her family. In the latter case the wife
+is the head of the family, is responsible
+for the debts of the family, and has the
+right to use and profit by the husband's
+property. In the former case (and as I
+have already stated, the great majority
+of wives enter their husband's families),
+the husband is responsible, and has, consequently,
+the right to use and profit by
+his wife's property. In all cases, unless
+the husband is physically or mentally unfit,
+he has the management of his wife's
+wealth. In case of the husband's disability
+the woman takes care of her own.
+A wife may, by application to a court,
+cause the husband to furnish security
+for the property that she has intrusted
+to him; and she may, with her husband's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+consent, engage in independent business.
+The property that she thus acquires is
+her own and not the husband's. Any
+property in the family, the ownership of
+which is not perfectly established, belongs
+to the head of the family, whether
+male or female. We thus see that the
+law of Japan fully recognizes the right
+of married women to hold property,
+although only in exceptional cases are
+they allowed the management of their
+own holdings. The law also regards the
+wife, in household matters, as her husband's
+agent.</p>
+
+<p>In actual practice, it is not uncommon
+for the wife to manage the entire income
+of the family, receiving it from
+her husband and acting as his treasurer.
+The wife's own earnings are seldom
+given to the husband, and her position
+is one of entire independence in the disposal
+of whatever she adds to the family
+revenue. But should the wife bring into
+the family at marriage property which
+passes into the husband's management,
+the chances are that, unless a divorce
+should occur, she will never lay any
+claim to the principal, or think of it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+again as her own. While her husband
+cannot actually dispose of it
+without her consent, she is pretty certain
+to give her consent should he ask
+it, and he may do very nearly anything
+that he chooses with it. We thus
+see that the tendency is to give the management
+of the income, as a part of the
+management of the household, to the
+woman, and leave the disposal of the
+principal, as a part of the outside business,
+to the care of the man. This system
+of domestic finance seems not unlike
+the common practice in thrifty and well-managed
+homes in America, and shows
+that a spirit of mutual confidence between
+husband and wife belongs to
+Japan as to Western nations. As the
+result of my own observation in a number
+of homes, I should say that the judgment
+of the wife in money matters is
+quite as much trusted in Japan as in
+America, and that, in this one respect
+at least, her place in the home is as responsible
+a one as that of the Western
+housekeeper. One instance may be cited
+of a woman whose business ability is so
+well known as to have a national reputation.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>By birth a member of a family
+which is remarkable for its success
+in all financial undertakings, she has
+inherited a large share of the family
+characteristic, and is credited with the
+personal management of a large bank,
+as well as other successful business
+undertakings. Her husband's name and
+not her own appears on the prospectuses
+and in the newspapers, but unless report
+is very far astray, she is the business
+man of the family, and her sound sense
+and good judgment have built up the
+fortune which is their common possession.</p>
+
+<p>In the educational system of Japan,
+schools for girls are provided by the
+government, but no provision for studies
+more advanced than those of the middle
+schools for boys is included in the
+scheme, with the single exception of the
+Higher Normal School in Tōkyō, in
+which a limited number of young women
+are trained to take positions as teachers
+in the ordinary normal schools for girls.
+To quote from the Annual Report of the
+Minister of Education for the year 1898,
+the latest to which I have access,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>
+"Higher female schools are institutions
+designed to give instruction in such
+higher subjects of general education as
+are necessary for females." This shows
+with considerable completeness the idea
+that dominates all government and much
+private effort for the education of
+women in Japan. The schools are to
+teach simply such subjects as are necessary
+for females; anything more would
+be superfluous, possibly dangerous. The
+thought of women as individuals, with
+minds and souls to be trained and developed
+to their highest possibilities, is
+still somewhat foreign to the mind of the
+average Japanese man. In its stead is
+the idea that females must be instructed
+in such subjects as are necessary for a
+proper understanding of their duties as
+wives and mothers. But if Japan to-day
+is where England and America were
+in the first half of the nineteenth century,
+the country is certainly moving forward,
+as the statistics in regard to education
+for the three successive years
+1896, 1897, and 1898 show. Great efforts
+are being made to increase the attendance
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>of girls at the common schools, and
+with gratifying results.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
+
+<p>As we advance into the higher schools,
+the discrepancy in numbers between the
+two sexes grows greater. In the kindergartens
+the attendance of girls is nearly
+equal to that of boys; in the elementary
+schools there are three boys to two girls;
+in the higher elementary schools, seven
+boys to two girls. The boys' middle
+schools, which are equivalent in grade to
+the girls' high schools, have fourteen
+boys taking their courses to every two
+girls in the high schools. In the apprentice
+and technical schools, there are fifteen
+men to every two women. Even the
+normal schools, which in our own country
+are almost given over to women, in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+Japan have six male students to every
+female. The "special schools," mainly
+professional, have, to 11,069 men, 73
+women, all enrolled in private schools,
+and presumably taking medical courses.
+Beyond this point women have no opportunities
+offered to them. In the higher
+schools, equivalent to the college and
+graduate courses given by universities in
+America, 7,224 young men are given opportunities
+that women must go abroad
+to obtain.</p>
+
+<p>These figures are, as I have said, for
+the year 1898. The year 1901 sees two
+hopeful movements well begun. One of
+these is the opening of an institution
+bearing the title of "Female University,"
+endowed and supported by Japanese,
+through the strenuous efforts of Mr.
+Jinzo Naruse, a prominent Christian who
+has spent some time in America. At its
+opening, five hundred girls were glad to
+enter, but of these very few are ready for
+college work. Mr. Naruse, however, believes
+that in time he will be able to enlarge
+his college department and diminish
+the preparatory, which is now almost
+the whole of the school. He has the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+support and encouragement of many
+wealthy and influential Japanese, among
+them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive
+statesman. On the day of the
+opening of the school, Count Okuma, in
+a speech from the platform, said that
+the nation would be twice as strong if
+its women were well educated. This he
+called "setting up a double standard."
+He pointed out that Turkey, Egypt,
+Persia, and China were countries which
+had tried to get along with a "single
+standard," and which had fallen conspicuously
+behind. He called attention to
+the fact that Japan's primitive religion
+had for its central figure the Goddess of
+Light, but that, unfortunately for the
+well-being of the state, woman had been
+gradually dethroned and thrust down
+into a low place. After speaking of the
+debt that Japan owed to China for the
+civilization and the ethical system that
+had stood her so long in good stead, the
+veteran statesman went on to say that
+society in Japan was disfigured by
+abuses which were beyond any simple
+remedy. The only effective medicine was
+to be found in a radical reform of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+ideals of family life, and this could only
+be effected by an improvement in the
+status of woman,&mdash;an improvement
+which such institutions as the one that
+day opened would greatly aid in bringing
+about.</p>
+
+<p>These words from one of the most honored
+leaders of Japanese thought voice
+the feeling that is prevalent throughout
+Japan in this thirty-fourth year of Méiji.
+That it is actually moving both government
+and people is shown by the words
+of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education, to
+the Council of Provincial Governors held
+in Tōkyō in June, 1901. In speaking of
+the progress of education throughout the
+country, he stated his intention to push
+forward the work of secondary education
+for girls, saying that a prefecture which
+refused to make provision for such education
+by 1903 might be compelled to do
+so by the government.</p>
+
+<p>The other hopeful educational effort to
+which I have alluded is a school started
+on a small scale, but with a high standard,
+by a Japanese woman whose name
+is almost as well known in America as
+in Japan, as an educator of great ability<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
+and earnestness of purpose. After many
+years of work as a teacher in the Peeresses'
+School, a place of great honor from
+the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned
+her position to carry out a long-cherished
+plan. With the pecuniary aid
+of friends in America, she has founded
+a school for the preparation of young
+women who have finished the courses
+heretofore open to them, and who wish
+to become teachers of English in the
+Government schools. The examinations
+for such positions have always been open
+to women, but, because of the difficulty
+in securing proper preparation, there are
+few who pass them. Since its opening
+in September, 1900, the school has been
+crowded with promising pupils, and the
+small accommodations with which it began,
+although already once enlarged, are
+stretched to the uttermost. The girls
+come from the government high schools
+and from the mission schools, and the
+course offered to them of three years of
+study in English literature, composition,
+translation, and methods of teaching has
+proved a strong attraction. In recognition,
+perhaps, of this effort on behalf of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>
+her countrywomen, certainly, of her position
+at the head of her profession, this
+same woman has this year been appointed
+on the examining committee for
+the government English examinations,
+an honor never before given to one of her
+sex,&mdash;in itself a sign of the change in
+thought that the last few years have
+wrought.</p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that the education
+of women is moving forward,
+pushed by the leading men of the country
+and aided by the earnest work of the
+women themselves. It is still far behind
+the education offered to men, and the
+ideal of most of its promoters is limited
+to the purely utilitarian; but as long as
+it moves forward and not backward, and
+as long as the years of work show an
+increased number of women fitted to
+meet the changing conditions of the
+time, we do well to approve rather than
+criticise, remembering that the problem
+is an exceedingly intricate one, and one
+of which even the best-instructed foreigner
+can see only a small part of the
+difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>The year 1901 sees the printing-press<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
+almost as much of a power in Japan as
+in the Western world, and it is interesting
+to notice that among the innumerable
+newspapers and magazines now published
+in the country there are some
+twenty or more devoted exclusively to
+the interests of women. To be sure,
+these women's magazines do not undertake
+to furnish the loftiest intellectual
+pabulum, the best of them covering, perhaps,
+the same range of subjects that is
+included in "Woman's Journals" in the
+United States. They devote themselves
+largely to lectures on morals and manners,
+and instruction as to how best to
+perform the duties of the home. These
+magazines are for the most part written
+and edited by men, many of them very
+young men, and serve to show rather
+what men desire that women should
+think and do, than to give any insight
+into the minds of the women themselves.
+With a combined circulation of perhaps
+40,000, they enter many homes, and do
+something, at least, toward the general
+enlightening and quickening of the feminine
+mind that is so noticeable in the
+Japan of to-day. In regard to the general
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>reading of Japanese women who
+have had the new education, my own
+observation leads me to believe that they
+keep themselves well informed of what
+is going on in their own country, and of
+the outside world so far as it affects their
+own country; but that their interest in
+the world at large is less than that of
+American women, and only in exceptional
+cases do they care much for the
+sayings or doings of foreigners. In this
+respect they differ widely from the men,
+whose minds are reaching continually
+for new things to graft upon the old
+civilization.</p>
+
+<p>In the whole list of publications on the
+woman question, nothing has ever come
+out in Japan that compares for outspokenness
+and radical sentiments with
+a book published within a year or two by
+Mr. Fukuzawa, the most influential
+teacher that Japan has seen in this era
+of enlightenment. It is in two parts, the
+first an attack, conducted with much
+skill and humor, upon Kaibara's "Great
+Learning of Woman," a book which for
+nearly four hundred years has been supposed
+to contain all that a woman should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
+know. The last part of Mr. Fukuzawa's
+work is a constructive essay upon the
+"New Great Learning of Woman." So
+revolutionary are the sentiments expressed
+in the book that many Japanese
+men hesitate about allowing their wives
+and daughters to read it, and in at least
+one modern Christian school it has been
+ruled out from the school library as too
+advanced for the reading of the girls. A
+brief survey of the sentiments and ideas
+thus boldly set forth will show how far
+is the attitude of the Japanese from that
+of the American public on the woman
+question. We find in Mr. Fukuzawa's
+book the lofty ideal that belongs to the
+most advanced modern thought, but its
+promulgation as a practical working
+ideal in Japan was of the nature of a
+thunderclap. Among less tolerant races,
+men have been lynched, or burned at the
+stake, for slighter departures from the
+average code of thought and morals.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Fukuzawa starts out with the
+proposition that women are quite equal
+to men, and should hold equal position
+and influence. Although he allows that
+woman's work in the world is quite distinct
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>from that of man, he holds that it
+is as important, and that she should have
+the same property-holding privileges and
+rights. The greatest stress is laid on the
+point that the same moral obligation for
+purity of life rests on the husband as on
+the wife. He goes into the details of the
+unhappiness resulting from concubinage,
+putting the duty of the husband in this
+respect as equal to that of the wife to
+preserve her chastity, and as this is, next
+to obedience, the virtue of virtues for a
+Japanese wife, his argument is as strong
+as it could well be made. He insists that
+women should demand as a right from
+their husbands and families the same
+privileges and opportunities that men
+have in society.</p>
+
+<p>Such sentiments are a matter of course
+in America, and they have been held by
+a few advanced thinkers in Japan, but no
+one hitherto has dared in so vigorous and
+positive a way, and with arguments that
+come so near home, to try to break the
+chain of custom that holds women down
+as inferior beings. Kaibara says that if
+a woman finds her husband doing wrong,
+she should gently plead with him, choosing
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>a time when he is most inclined to
+listen. If he refuses, she should not
+insist on his hearing her, but wait until
+he is willing to listen, and though she
+may try two or three times, she should
+never anger or irritate him. Fukuzawa
+says that if this applies to the woman,
+it should also to the man,&mdash;that is to
+say, if a man finds his wife unfaithful,
+he is to wait for an opportunity when she
+is in good humor before he remonstrates
+with her. Fukuzawa also throws new
+light on the duty of husbands and fathers
+to their wives and children in another
+respect. He says that no man should let
+the sole responsibility for the happiness
+of the home fall upon his wife; that a
+man is responsible for the peace of the
+home as well as the woman. This view
+of the matter is entirely new in Japan,
+as the responsibility for an unhappy
+home is laid as a matter of course upon
+the wife. The duty of a wife to her
+parents-in-law is also treated after the
+same revolutionary manner. Is it to be
+wondered at that many men fear the influence
+of such a book upon their gentle,
+submissive wives? In this connection it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
+is interesting, however, to note that at a
+recent Shintō wedding, after the religious
+ceremony, which in itself marks a
+great step forward in the Japanese ideal
+of marriage, the priest who united the
+couple presented to the bride a copy each
+of the Kaibara and Fukuzawa books,
+perhaps with a view to letting her take
+her choice between the old style and the
+new, perhaps that she might instruct her
+husband out of the Fukuzawa book while
+she put in practice herself the time-honored
+precepts of Kaibara.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p>One feature of the times in Tōkyō, that
+is perhaps worthy of passing notice, is
+the tendency of women to form themselves
+into societies and clubs for the
+attainment of some common object. Of
+these women's clubs, the greater proportion
+are perhaps educational, the members
+meeting once a month or once a fortnight
+to listen to a lecture upon some
+subject that helps to keep them up with
+the times. There is also a patriotic society,
+that concerns itself with raising
+money for sending supplies to soldiers in
+the field, or for widows and orphans of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>
+soldiers, or to help along some other
+patriotic enterprise. There are societies,
+too, for general benevolence, or to help
+in carrying on the work of some one
+institution. A glance at the membership
+lists of these associations shows that the
+motive power is, in almost all cases, the
+same group of earnest, educated women,
+who are, in this way and in countless
+others, doing their utmost to broaden the
+horizons of their countrywomen, and
+lead them out into a larger life. This is
+probably true in the other cities in which
+a movement of women into clubs and
+societies is noticeable.</p>
+
+<p>It is when the active women of the
+new way of thinking, whose lives and
+thoughts are devoted to work and endeavor
+rather than to the passive submission
+and self-abnegation of the old
+days, find themselves suddenly placed
+among the surroundings of thirty years
+ago, that the change of conditions becomes
+most evident. I cannot think of a
+better way to illustrate this than to tell
+the story of one of my Japanese friends
+and her visit to her husband's relatives
+in a distant provincial city. The lady<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span>
+who told me the story is a stirring, capable
+young matron, educated after the
+modern ways, who has spent most of her
+happy married life of some fifteen or sixteen
+years entirely in Tōkyō, except for
+a visit of a year to America. She bears
+a closer resemblance to many kind-hearted,
+strong, energetic young American
+women than to the old-time Japanese
+lady portrayed in these pages. She rises
+every morning at five, attends to every
+detail of her housekeeping, watches carefully
+and with educated common sense
+over her family of young children, believes
+in good food, fresh air, and exercise,
+for boys and girls alike, and is a
+helpful friend and good neighbor, filling
+to the full the position of work and influence
+in which she is placed. Her husband
+is a successful business man, whom
+frequent journeys across the Pacific have
+made thoroughly cosmopolitan, and their
+children are accustomed to a freedom
+from conventional restraints and a
+healthful diet and regimen such as old
+Japan never knew.</p>
+
+<p>Last year the plan of spending the
+summer with the husband's relatives,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
+which had been long projected, was actually
+carried out, and the whole family
+migrated to the provincial city from
+which the husband had sprung. The
+aged mother, a gentlewoman of the old
+type, was delighted to meet and entertain
+her daughter-in-law and grandchildren,
+and did her best, with all old-fashioned
+courtesy, to make the visit a pleasant
+one. The house was clean and
+spacious, the mats soft and white, the
+bows of the lowest, the voices and speech
+the politest that Japan could furnish, but
+the healthy, restless children found the
+conventional restraints irksome, and the
+old-fashioned diet of rice and pickles,
+with hardly a variation from morning till
+night and from week to week, was quite
+different from the bountiful table to
+which they had been accustomed. The
+younger woman could not criticise her
+mother-in-law's arrangements, neither
+could she bear to see her children growing
+thin and pale before her eyes. She
+consulted her husband, who, in accordance
+with the antique ideas of propriety,
+was served his meals at a different time
+and in a different room from his wife and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+family. To his food his mother had
+always added various delicacies which
+her old-time Spartan spirit would not
+allow her to set before her daughter-in-law
+and grandchildren. It would have
+been quite contrary to her ideas of rank
+and etiquette for her to make any modification
+of her ordinary fare for them.
+As the son was already supplying the
+funds for carrying on his mother's establishment,
+it occurred to him that he
+might increase her allowance on the plea
+that her summer expenses must be heavy
+with so large an addition to her household.
+But the old lady was sure that
+nothing more was necessary, and would
+not think of burdening her son with any
+larger expenses, and could not be induced
+to accept the offered increase.</p>
+
+<p>Another effort was made to get along
+upon the meagre fare, but the youngest
+boy fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital,
+and the mother decided that something
+must be done if all the family did
+not wish to follow him. The happy
+thought occurred to her of buying something
+that would be an addition to their
+scanty menu, and giving it as a present<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>
+to her mother-in-law. Now a present in
+Japan can never be refused, so it seemed
+to the younger woman that she must
+have found a way of escape from her
+difficulties. Of course, the present was
+accepted with many thanks and expressions
+of unworthiness, and when the
+meal-hour arrived, each member of the
+family found an infinitesimal quantity of
+the delicacy in a small plate at his side.
+But as soon as the meal was over, the
+dear old lady, who had by strict economy
+managed to leave the greater part of the
+gift untouched, sent out to all the neighbors
+presents from what had been intended
+to feed the hungry children at
+home. The experiment was tried again
+and again, but always with the same
+result. No present could be kept for
+family use alone. Of everything but the
+barest necessaries, the greater part must
+be sent out in gifts to others.</p>
+
+<p>At last the husband and wife put their
+heads together to decide on some course
+of action that, without hurting the feelings
+of the older lady, would secure sufficient
+nourishment for the children, and
+forthwith began a series of all-day picnics
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>to the noted places in the vicinity,&mdash;picnics
+that included always a good meal
+at some well-kept restaurant before the
+return to the old-fashioned fare of the
+grandmother's house. In this way the
+summer was passed without further illness,
+though the poor mother on her
+return to Tōkyō spent several weeks in
+bed,&mdash;what with starvation and worry
+and the effort to bear heroically, and
+with a smiling face, the hard life and
+scanty fare that were the life and fare of
+most of Japan only a few years ago.</p>
+
+<p>In the changes that the past few years
+have wrought, perhaps nothing is more
+striking than the new openings for work
+that Japan now offers to women. The
+growth of the public school system has
+made a demand for women as teachers
+that is steadily increasing. Although in
+the normal schools the proportion of
+women to men is still only one to six, and
+while teaching, even in the primary
+schools, is not yet mainly in feminine
+hands as it is with us, there is still a
+good showing of women employed as
+teachers. From the figures of the school
+report of 1898, we find over 10,000<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
+women as teachers and assistants in the
+public and private schools. The profession
+of nursing, too, which ten years ago
+was just opening, has already drawn
+many women into its ranks. In the Red
+Cross hospitals alone there are this year
+nearly a thousand nurses taking the
+course, and a thousand graduates scattered
+throughout the country hold themselves
+ready to answer the call of the
+society in the time of need, in the mean
+time practicing their profession wherever
+they may chance to be. The quality
+of the Red Cross graduates has been
+tested now in two wars, and they show
+the soldierly virtues of their nation, as
+well as the more womanly qualities of
+tenderness and gentleness; and a self-respect
+that has kept them pure and free
+from stain in the midst of severe temptation.
+It is impossible for me to gather
+statistics of the work done by other institutions
+for the training of nurses, but
+the figures given above may, I think, be
+doubled with absolute safety in making
+an estimate of the total number of
+nurses trained and in training throughout
+the empire.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span></p><p>The growth of commerce and industry
+has greatly increased the demand for
+feminine labor outside the home. In the
+old days the two most important industries
+of the country, tea and silk, were
+mainly carried on by women in their
+homes, but the use of modern machinery
+is rapidly taking the weaving industries
+out of the homes and making factory
+hands of the women and children.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p>
+
+<p>One of the most noticeable effects of
+this new demand for female labor is the
+extreme scarcity of servants. Although
+wages are nearly double what they were
+ten years ago, it is extremely difficult for
+Japanese housekeepers now to find servants
+to replace the old ones as they
+drop out of the ranks, and the women
+who apply for positions are apt to be far
+inferior to those who came to the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span>
+families to do the same work ten years
+ago.</p>
+
+<p>In other ways, too, women are learning
+to fill new places in the world. The
+telephone, which now connects towns
+and cities and villages in Japan, employs
+girls in large numbers. In the printing-offices
+we find women at work, not as
+compositors, but as compositors' assistants,
+darting from case to case about the
+room and selecting for the compositor
+the ideographs that he needs in his work.
+Inasmuch as a small printing-office cannot
+get along with less than four thousand
+characters, and as larger ones may
+have several times that number, the need
+of quick-witted and quick-footed assistants
+to each compositor may be easily
+recognized. As the schools turn out each
+year more girls fitted by education to do
+this kind of work, and as the number of
+newspapers and other printed matter is
+continually on the increase, the demand
+for and supply of this special variety of
+labor are likely to increase proportionately
+for some time to come.</p>
+
+<p>A few women are now making their
+way as reporters on the daily papers, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+few more are engaged in literary work.
+One of the best of modern Japanese novelists
+was a woman, but she died several
+years ago at so early an age that her
+work was a promise rather than a fulfillment.
+Artists, too, there are, who are
+making names for themselves, as well as
+a living, in a country where art is so
+common that success in that line means
+hard work and special talent. A few
+young women support themselves by
+stenography, a few more as clerks and
+secretaries in business offices. Until a
+writing-machine has been invented that
+will write four thousand characters,
+there will not be much demand for typewriter
+girls in Japan outside of the
+treaty ports, where a few are now employed.
+The Japanese government has
+found, as Uncle Sam discovered some
+time ago, that for the counting of paper
+money women's fingers are more deft
+than those of men, and it consequently
+gives employment to a few women in
+that work. One railroad has recently
+begun to employ women as ticket-sellers,
+and three medical schools have already
+graduated some women physicians,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
+though it is still doubtful whether there
+is any great opening for them in the
+country. These are some of the ways in
+which women now find themselves able
+to gain a little more independence of life.
+The whole matter is so new that no statistics
+are available that will show the
+exact extent of the demand for labor in
+these directions, but from my own observation
+I am inclined to think that there
+is little change in the employments of
+women except in the neighborhood of
+the larger cities, and that the new occupations
+as yet have a very slight effect
+upon the conditions in this country at
+large.</p>
+
+<p>It is not possible to understand the
+actual progress made in Japan in improving
+the condition of women, without
+some consideration of the effect that
+Christian thought and Christian lives
+have had on the thought and lives of the
+modern Japanese. If Japanese women
+are ever to be raised to the measure of
+opportunity accorded to women in Christian
+countries, it can only be through the
+growth of Christianity in their own country,
+and for that reason a study of that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+growth is pertinent to a study of their
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>The past ten years in Japan have been
+discouraging to the missionaries in many
+ways, and it is not unusual to hear from
+the less hopeful of them the statement
+that their work has been at a standstill,
+or even going backward, during that time.
+The statistics of missionary effort show
+a steady, though slight, increase in the
+number of professing Christians, but if
+the sum total of the results of missionary
+effort were the number of converts
+made, it might, perhaps, be doubtful
+whether the money spent on missions in
+Japan might not be better turned to
+other purposes. There are now in Japan,
+of Christians of all sects, Protestant, and
+Roman and Greek Catholic, 121,000, or
+about one half of one per cent. of the
+total population of the country; but the
+influence of these Christians as leaders
+of thought is out of all proportion to
+their number. Christian men are found
+in the Diet, in the army and navy, in the
+universities and colleges, and in the
+newspaper offices, in a proportion far
+beyond their ratio to the total population,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>exerting their influence in many
+ways for the uplifting of the nation to
+loftier moral ideals. The proportion of
+Christian men and women in the government
+schools with which I have been
+connected is rather surprising. In the
+Higher Normal School, training young
+women to go out into the whole country
+as teachers, the proportion of professing
+Christians upon the teaching staff is
+striking; and in the Peeresses' School,
+which is as conservative and anti-foreign
+as any educational institution in Japan,
+there are five professing Christians
+among the thirty-five teachers. While,
+on the one hand, the Japanese Christians
+are not all models of all the virtues,
+while there is with many of them a tendency
+to modify their Christianity so as
+to accommodate a considerable amount
+of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the
+other hand, that the most active workers
+in the cause of philanthropy are men
+who have accepted the Christian faith,
+and who are striving in all earnestness
+to model their lives after the life of Jesus
+of Nazareth. The Christian Church in
+Japan to-day has its heroes and its back-sliders,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>and has between these two extremes
+a rank and file of every-day, commonplace
+men and women, who amidst
+frequent failures and in the midst of
+many temptations are making the name
+of Christian stand for a certain kind of
+life and a certain standard of virtue
+quite above and beyond the lives and
+standards of their countrymen. It is
+largely because of them that a Christian
+public opinion is growing up among non-Christian
+Japanese. Men to-day who
+have no special leanings toward Christianity
+shake their heads over vices and
+sins which a few years ago were not even
+thought of as wrong. There is a great
+deal of talk about the growth of moral
+depravity in the country, but as a matter
+of fact, the standards of virtue have
+never been so high since Japan was
+opened as they are to-day: it is only that
+Christian thought has held up a mirror
+to an un-Christian society, in which it
+views all too clearly its own defects.
+There is, to my mind, no more hopeful
+sign of the times than the growing discouragement
+over the present condition
+of morals. When there is added to this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+a steadily increasing respect for the honesty
+and strength of character of Christian
+men and women, it must mean that
+a great and lasting impression has been
+made. To-day banks, business offices,
+and other places requiring trustworthy
+clerks and employees, prefer, other
+things being equal, Christian young men,
+for it is generally known that they are
+more worthy of confidence than the majority
+of applicants for such places.</p>
+
+<p>One instance of this increased moral
+sensitiveness may be cited in the recent
+successful efforts to limit the power of
+the brothel-keepers over their victims
+and virtual slaves, the <i>jōrō</i> or licensed
+prostitutes. As I have stated in a previous
+chapter, the women who carry on
+this business in Japan are, many of them,
+unwilling victims of a system which
+allows parents to sell their children to a
+life of shame; and they enter upon that
+life so young that they can hardly be
+regarded as morally responsible for their
+condition. Even after the actual sale of
+girls was forbidden by an imperial ordinance
+in 1872, the purchase price was
+called a loan to the parents of the girl,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>
+and subsequent loans for clothing entered
+upon the books of the establishment
+kept the unfortunates so continually
+in debt to their masters that they
+could never escape from the bondage in
+which they were held except through
+death, or by purchase by some infatuated
+admirer. Public opinion, while it
+indulged in some sentimental pity for
+the hard lot of the <i>jōrō</i>, did little or nothing
+to aid any one who desired to help
+them, regarding the profession as a necessary
+one, and caring not at all for the
+injustice to which the girls were subjected.
+Ten or twelve years ago, a movement
+started by some prominent Japanese
+Christians against the <i>jōroya</i> fell flat
+for want of a public opinion behind it.
+Speeches on the subject were hissed
+down by audiences of young men, and
+nothing could be done to help even the
+most innocent and unhappy of the girls
+to a better life. In the new code, perhaps
+as an effect of this movement, a new
+law provided that the <i>jōrō</i> might leave
+her calling by giving notice to the police.
+A police regulation, however, forbade
+any girl to cease her employment, or to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+leave the house in which she was kept,
+unless her official notice of cessation was
+countersigned by the keeper of the
+<i>jōroya</i>, so that by her own effort she
+could not free herself.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1900, one of these girls in
+a provincial city appealed to an American
+missionary for help in getting her
+liberty. Through his aid, and that of his
+Japanese helpers, her case came before
+the court, which decided that the contract
+under which she was held was
+opposed to the public welfare and good
+morals, and that the keeper must affix
+his seal to her notice without regard to
+her debt. Although the local police refused
+to act in the matter, and although
+the missionary and his helpers were subjected
+to personal violence by the employees
+of the <i>jōroya</i>, an appeal to the
+authorities at Tōkyō resulted in an enforcement
+of the court's decision, and the
+girl was freed.</p>
+
+<p>At this juncture the Salvation Army,
+which has a valiant contingent in Tōkyō,
+and which was actually spoiling for a
+good fight with the world, the flesh, and
+the Devil, in any form, took up the cause<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>
+of the oppressed <i>jōrō</i>. A special edition
+of the "War Cry" containing appeals to
+the girls to leave their lives of shame,
+and offering aid to any one who might
+apply to the Army, was published and
+hawked through the Yoshiwara. When
+the keepers and their employees found
+out what the strangely costumed news-venders
+were about, they charged down
+upon them, and after a street fight,
+drove them out of the quarter. Thus the
+war began, but the Tōkyō police took up
+the matter, the Tōkyō press joined hands
+with the Salvationists, and in the end the
+whole country was stirred to aid in the
+attack. In return, the brothel-keepers
+and their employees, feeling that the
+profits of their business were at stake,
+made it extremely warm for any Salvationists
+or newspaper reporters who
+dared set foot in the disreputable quarters,
+and in their zeal sometimes made
+mistakes and drove out their would-be
+patrons. The office of one newspaper
+was wrecked by sympathetic roughs, and
+it took a squad of fifty or sixty police to
+escort Army officers when they had occasion
+to visit any of the houses to secure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>
+the release of a girl. No lives were lost,
+though some hard knocks were received,
+and the work was kept up with unabated
+noise on both sides, until every girl held
+in unwilling bondage knew how she
+might escape and to whom she could go
+for aid.</p>
+
+<p>During the month of September, 1900,
+as a direct result of the attacks of and
+upon the Army, the number of visitors
+to these houses in Tōkyō was decreased
+by about 2,000 a night. On October 2, a
+government ordinance was issued that at
+one stroke removed all obstacles in the
+way of a girl's securing her freedom at
+any moment when she wanted to leave
+the business. The new regulations made
+the descent to Avernus as difficult as possible,
+and the return to the upper world
+a mere step. In Tōkyō alone, in the first
+four months after the promulgation of
+this order, 1,100 out of the 6,335 girls
+who were licensed as prostitutes left the
+houses in which they were employed,
+most of them returning to their homes
+and families, and as many as applied
+being cared for in the Rescue Home of
+the Salvation Army. The places thus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>
+vacated are not easy to fill, because the
+keepers will not advance money to the
+parents of a girl, now that they can no
+longer hold her as security for the debt.
+In consequence, too, of the revelations of
+the evils of the system, the business has
+fallen off alarmingly. Thus many of the
+houses have been obliged to close, owing
+to lack of custom and to inability to pay
+the heavy taxes.</p>
+
+<p>We have here the story of a successful
+attack on a system which has existed in
+Japan for three hundred years, by a
+Christian agency acting with the support
+of so strong a public opinion that police
+and government have felt bound to obey
+its behests. There has been no more
+striking example of the effect of Christian
+thought upon public sentiment in
+any country than this crusade against
+the brothels in Japan. When we remember
+that ten years ago it was not possible
+for a speaker to attack the institution
+before an audience of students without
+being silenced by hisses, it is interesting
+to note that this year, the students of
+that same school greeted with applause
+and respectful attention an address on
+this very subject.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span></p><p>It seems to me rather striking that in
+the year 1900 fifty thousand copies of the
+Bible were sold in Japan&mdash;more than of
+any other book. Although the present
+translation is regarded as far from perfect,
+and much of it is unintelligible to
+the average Japanese without instruction,
+whether directly or indirectly, by
+mission workers, it is still sought after
+and read for the sake of its literature,
+and because of the reputation that has
+been gained for it throughout the country.
+There are few missionaries of any
+experience in Japan who cannot tell
+stories of men coming to them from
+country villages, who, through the reading
+of a copy of the Bible in some way
+fallen into their hands, have been
+brought by the beauty and nobility of
+the parts that they could understand to
+seek additional explanation from some
+teacher or preacher. One case that is
+amusing, but at the same time striking,
+I have heard vouched for from a number
+of sources:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Two thieves, one night, broke into the
+dormitory of a girls' school in search of
+booty, and by chance awakened two of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
+the girls. As they sat up in their beds,
+wondering what was best to do under
+the circumstances, one zealous damsel
+reached for the Bible in which she had
+been reading before she went to sleep,
+and handed it to one of the thieves, saying,
+"If you read this book, you will not
+want to steal any more." The other girl
+followed her companion's example and
+gave her Bible to the other thief. That
+was all, so far as the girls knew, and it
+was some years before the sequel came
+to light.</p>
+
+<p>There is one place in Japan to which
+released convicts who are trying to get
+back to respectability again drift from
+all parts of the empire. It is a prisoners'
+home in Tōkyō, where one man, aided by
+his capable and devoted wife, receives
+into his own family and gives aid and
+succor to hundreds of society's outcasts.
+To this place came one day an ex-convict
+who told a remarkable story of his conversion,
+and of his desire to lead a new
+life. He had received a Bible from a little
+girl one night in a house that he was
+robbing, but was too full of professional
+engagements at the time to follow her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>
+advice and read it. Later, however, as
+he was resting from his labors in the
+enforced seclusion of a prison, he began
+to read, and spelled out enough to make
+up his mind that he did not want to steal
+any more. Accordingly, as soon as his
+term was ended, he made his way to the
+prisoners' refuge, and by the aid of its
+founder and head, and his good wife,
+settled down to steady habits of industry.
+Later, when the prison look had
+worn off from his face and the prison
+gait from his walk, he returned to his
+family and friends, where he is now a
+respectable member of the society upon
+which he formerly preyed.</p>
+
+<p>There are other stories showing as deep
+impressions made on men of culture and
+respectability, not so striking and amusing
+as this one, but meaning as much, or
+even more, for the future of Japan. Such
+things are hardly possible in Christian
+countries to-day, for there is little or no
+novelty in the message that the old book
+brings to us; but to the Japanese mind
+the thoughts are absolutely new in many
+ways, and the reading alone will often
+change the whole life, because it lifts up
+the nature to a higher set of ideals.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span></p><p>As a direct effect of Christian thought
+upon the thought of the Japanese nation,
+it is interesting to notice the change
+in meaning of one word. In the teachings
+of Confucius the highest virtue is
+benevolence, rendered into Japanese by
+the word <i>jin</i>; in the teachings of Buddhism
+the highest virtue is mercy, or
+<i>jishi</i>. When the Christian missionaries
+first came to Japan, there was no term in
+the language that covered the thought of
+love as it is taught by Christ. For lack
+of anything better, the word <i>ai</i>, which
+indicated the love of a superior for an
+inferior, was made to do duty for the
+greater thought; and now the old word
+<i>ai</i>, throughout the length and breadth of
+Japan, is accepted and understood in its
+new meaning, a continual witness to the
+effect of Christianity upon the national
+mind. Is this a little thing in the education
+of a race that has shown in the past
+so great a capacity for living up to its
+ideals?</p>
+
+<p>One more direct effect of Christian
+teaching upon Japanese society is the
+great quickening of philanthropic and
+benevolent effort. Scattered throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>
+the country are benevolent or educational
+societies, orphanages, hospitals,
+free kindergartens, reform schools, and
+other evidences of a desire on the part
+of the more fortunate to help the unfortunate
+by some means or other; and if
+you study into the history of any of these
+efforts, you will usually find that some
+Japanese Christian, or some man who
+has come home impressed with the
+philanthropies of Christian countries,
+has started the scheme, and has created
+a society, and a public opinion behind
+the society, which carries on the work.
+Even in the government institutions
+there is no difficulty in tracing the influence
+of Christians and Christianity. The
+Red Cross Society, with its seven thousand
+members, and its hospitals in every
+prefecture of the empire, bears the sign
+of Christendom upon all its property and
+employees. It seems to me quite safe to
+say that but for the Christian influences
+of the past forty years, there would be
+very little altruistic work done in Japan
+to-day; but by means of the Christians
+and their teachings, the latest and best
+thought of the world is working its way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>
+out in practical service for humanity in
+Japan, and this service is ascribed by
+enlightened Buddhist and Shintō believers
+alike to the spirit of Christianity,
+which will not let the fortunate rest
+while their less fortunate brothers are in
+want or sin.</p>
+
+<p>No one who studies the religious question
+in Japan at all can fail to notice the
+extraordinary revivifying of Buddhism
+for what it feels to be a life and death
+struggle with an alien faith. The disestablishment
+of the Buddhist church by
+the government at the time of the restoration
+must be credited with its share of
+the awakening process; for the priests,
+finding their own support and that of the
+temples dependent upon the voluntary
+contributions of worshipers, were forced
+to bestir themselves as they had not done
+since the old missionary days, when they
+were working for a foothold in the country.
+But without the competition of
+Christianity, it is extremely doubtful
+whether their efforts would have been
+turned so largely along educational and
+philanthropic lines, whether the standard
+of intelligence among the priesthood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
+would have been so quickly raised,
+whether they would have sent young
+men abroad to study Sanskrit and history
+with a view to a better understanding
+of their own scriptures, or whether
+they would not rather have relied on less
+radical methods of quickening the religious
+life within their body. Certain it
+is that Buddhism, which upon its introduction
+into Japan actually lowered the
+status of women, is now making a bid for
+public favor by holding meetings and
+founding societies especially for women,
+and is doing its best to increase their
+self-respect and the respect in which they
+are held by society.</p>
+
+<p>An interesting story which throws
+some light upon the new influence that is
+at work among the Buddhists came to
+me not long ago through a Japanese
+friend. There were two brothers living
+in a poor little village on the northern
+coast of Japan, who were joint heirs to a
+small piece of property. As the land was
+not enough for the support of two families,
+the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful
+youth, gave up all title to his share of
+the inheritance and entered a Buddhist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span>
+monastery. In the quiet of this retreat,
+amid the beautiful surroundings, the
+daily services, the chanting of priests,
+and the mellow booming of the great
+monastery bell, his thoughts went out to
+the poor and the sinful among his own
+people. He began to feel that a life
+which seeks merely spiritual uplift for
+itself is not the highest life, and that only
+as spiritual gain is shared with others
+is it real and lasting. Forthwith he
+began a life of helpfulness to the poor
+about him,&mdash;of teaching and preaching
+and good deeds that won him many
+humble friends. Within the monastery,
+however, his work was not approved.
+His ideas and actions were not in harmony
+with the teachings of the sect. He
+was first disciplined and then expelled,
+and found his way back at last, penniless,
+to his native village.</p>
+
+<p>Now, in northern Japan the winters
+are long and hard, and the most industrious
+of farmers and fisher-folk can wring
+only a bare subsistence from the conditions
+of their toil. It is from these villages,
+perhaps, more than from any other
+sources, that the girls are obtained to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>
+supply the <i>jōroya</i> of the great cities. At
+any rate, in this particular village, the
+only hope that any girl possessed of
+escaping from the hard home toil was by
+the sale of her person, and the thought
+of seeing the great cities, of wearing
+beautiful dresses, of being admired and
+petted, and perhaps at last of marrying
+some rich lover and becoming a great
+lady, was a tempting bait to these poor
+peasant girls. To this young man, whose
+soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness
+during his absence, the full horror
+of the conditions that could so warp
+and dwarf the souls of women appealed
+as it had never done before. He must do
+something to help them, but what to do
+his previous experience did not help him
+to know. He sought for aid and sympathy
+in his native place, among his
+friends and co-religionists; but the state
+of affairs was too old and too familiar to
+excite interest, and at last he worked his
+way to the capital, feeling that somewhere
+in that great city he would find
+light on the question that perplexed him.
+It was a mere question of ways and
+means&mdash;how to begin a work which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>
+felt driven from within to do. In Tōkyō,
+as he inquired among his friends, he was
+told that Christians knew all about the
+kind of work that he wished to begin,
+that he must go to them and study their
+methods, if he would help the people of
+his native village. So the devout young
+Buddhist, who had found in his own
+faith the divine impulse, turned to the
+study of what Christians had done and
+were doing for the unfortunate. The
+story is not finished yet. We cannot tell
+whether in the end it will result in another
+addition to the ranks of the Japanese
+Christians, or whether it will aid
+in the quickening that has come to
+Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends, it
+shows in a concrete example what Christianity
+is now doing for Japan, and especially
+for the women of the country.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> The following in the report for 1898 may be of
+interest:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Percentage of pupils of school age receiving instruction:&mdash;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellspacing="5" summary="">
+<tr><th class="pad-r3">Year.</th>          <th>Girls.</th>  <th>Boys.</th></tr>
+<tr align="center"><td class="pad-r3">1896</td>           <td>47.54</td>   <td>79.00</td></tr>
+<tr align="center"><td class="pad-r3">1897</td>           <td>50.86</td>   <td>80.67</td></tr>
+<tr align="center"><td class="pad-r3">1898</td>           <td>53.73</td>   <td>82.42</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The total number of girls of school age not receiving instruction
+is 1,552,601; of boys, 662,985; while the total
+number of girls of school age is 3,642,263, and of boys,
+4,067,161.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> In the Japan <cite>Mail</cite> of July 8, 1901, the following statistics
+of women employees in factories in Japan were
+given:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellspacing="3" summary="">
+<tr><th>Manufacture.</th>  <th>No. of Women.</th>   <th>No. to 100 Men.</th></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Raw Silk</td>            <td class="pad-r2">107,348</td> <td class="pad-r3">93</td></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Cotton Spinning</td>      <td class="pad-r2">53,053</td> <td class="pad-r3">79</td></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Matches</td>              <td class="pad-r2">11,385</td> <td class="pad-r3">69</td></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Cotton Fabrics</td>       <td class="pad-r2">10,656</td> <td class="pad-r3">86</td></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Tobacco</td>               <td class="pad-r2">7,874</td> <td class="pad-r3">72</td></tr>
+<tr align="right"><td align="left">Matting</td>               <td class="pad-r2">1,641</td> <td class="pad-r3">59</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span></p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423"><br />[423]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>APPENDIX.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>The following Notes refer to passages marked by asterisks
+in the foregoing pages.</i></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_3" name="APX_3" id="APX_3">
+<i>Page</i> 3.</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> father, or the head of the family, usually
+names the children, but some friend or patron
+may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the
+name given a child in infancy was not the one
+that he was expected to bear through life, the
+choice of a name was not a matter of as much
+importance as it is with us. In some families
+the boys are called by names indicating their
+position in the family, the words <i>Taro</i>, "Big
+one," <i>Jiro</i>, "Second one," <i>Saburo</i>, "Third one,"
+<i>Shiro</i>, "Fourth one," <i>Goro</i>, "Fifth one," etc.,
+being used alone, or placed after adjectives indicating
+some quality that it is hoped the child
+may possess. Such combinations are, <i>Eitaro</i>,
+"Glorious big one," <i>Seijiro</i>, "Pure second one,"
+<i>Tomisaburo</i>, "Rich third one," and so on.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_4" name="APX_4" id="APX_4">
+<i>Page</i> 4.</a></h3>
+
+<p>To speak with greater exactness, the <i>miya
+mairi</i> of a boy is on the thirty-first day of his life,&mdash;of
+a girl, on the thirty-third.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_8" name="APX_8" id="APX_8">
+<i>Page</i> 8.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Tōkyō just now shows a tendency to change
+this national custom. Gayly painted wicker
+baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in
+large quantities in the shops, and one meets
+mothers and little sisters of the lower classes,
+propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon
+instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly.
+These carriages are, of course, the exception, and
+may prove to be but a passing Tōkyō fashion,
+but they seem to me to mark another step in the
+modernizing of Japan, and may prove of value
+in the physical development of the common
+people.</p>
+
+<h3><a  href="#APXanchor_11" name="APX_11" id="APX_11">
+<i>Page</i> 11.</a></h3>
+
+<p>In the Tōkyō of 1891 butchers and milkmen
+were very little in evidence, as the demand for
+their wares came mainly from the few foreigners
+and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a
+walk of half a mile or so in the neighborhood of
+Kojimachi, one of the principal business streets
+in a purely Japanese section of the city, shows
+five meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized
+shirts and knickerbockers, with golf-stockings
+and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts
+everywhere through the city, and call at a large
+proportion of the houses. Condensed milk, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>
+is to be found on the shelves of every provision
+store, together with canned and dried meats, and
+the restaurants where foreign food is served are
+distributed throughout the entire city, and do a
+thriving business on Japanese patronage. The
+less extravagant country people declare that Tōkyō
+is "eating itself up," but so far no terrible
+increase of indebtedness seems to follow the
+change in the standard of living. It is interesting
+to note that the scalp troubles referred to on
+page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in the last
+ten years, whether because of the change in the
+food or for other reasons, I cannot determine.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_24" name="APX_24" id="APX_24">
+<i>Page</i> 24.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Twice, after the <i>miya mairi</i> of her babyhood,
+does our little maid repair to the temple to seek
+the blessing of her patron god upon a step forward
+in her short life: once, when at the age
+of three, the hair on her small head, which until
+then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is allowed
+to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood;
+and once, when she has attained her seventh
+year, and exchanges the soft, narrow sash
+of infancy for the stiff, wide <i>obi</i> which is the
+pride of every well-dressed Japanese woman.
+Her little brother, too, though now no longer
+destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of
+the old-time Japanese warrior, and whose fuzzy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span>
+black head is now usually left unshaven in his
+babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of
+three to give thanks, and when he comes to be
+five years old, the little boy again goes up to the
+temple, this time wearing for the first time the
+manly <i>hakama</i>, or kilt-pleated trousers, and
+makes offerings to the god who has protected
+him thus far.</p>
+
+<p>The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th
+of November, and there is no prettier sight in all
+Japan than a popular temple on that day. All the
+streets that converge on the shrine are crowded
+with gayly dressed children hurrying along to
+make their offerings, accompanied by parents
+brimming with pride and pleasure.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i00">"Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>three-year-old tots of both sexes trudging sturdily
+along on their clogs: square little red-cheeked
+boys, their black eyes shining with pride in their
+rustling new silk <i>hakama</i>, feeling that they are
+big boys and no longer to be confused with the
+babies that they were yesterday: here, too, are
+the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their many-colored
+garments and their gorgeous new <i>obi</i>
+setting off to advantage their shining black hair
+and sparkling eyes. The children are so many,
+so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it
+is to be older than they were, that the grown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>
+folks who accompany them seem like shadows;
+the only real thing is the children.</p>
+
+<p>Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers
+and toy-merchants who can find standing-room
+for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags
+are flying, drums are beating, a <i>kagura</i> dance is
+going on in the pavilion, about which stands a
+crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and
+the steps that lead to the temple itself are as
+thronged as Jacob's ladder with little ones ascending
+and descending. Within the shrine the
+white-robed priests are hard at work from morning
+to night. A little company forms in the
+vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room,
+where they bow and make their offerings, and
+wait until there is space for them in the inner
+sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a
+droning chant, which ends at last, and then a
+party that has finished its worship issues forth,
+and those who have been waiting without go in;
+and when the few minutes of worship are over,
+and the amulet that rewards the due observance
+of the day has been received, there are the dances
+to be seen, and the <i>o miyagé</i> to be purchased,
+and at last the happy party returns, feeling that
+one more milestone on the journey of life has
+been passed propitiously.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_30" name="APX_30" id="APX_30">
+<i>Page</i> 30.</a></h3>
+
+<p>The <i>shirōzaké</i> (white <i>saké</i>) used for this occasion
+is a curious drink, thick and white, made
+from pounded rice, and brewed especially for
+this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is
+simply the earliest form of <i>saké</i>, the national
+beverage, which has been preserved in this ancient
+observance as the fly is preserved in
+amber.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_31" name="APX_31" id="APX_31">
+<i>Page</i> 31.</a></h3>
+
+<p>The keeping of a feast on the third day of the
+third month is a custom that has come down
+from very ancient times. At first the day was
+set apart for the purification of the people, and a
+part of the ceremony was the rubbing of the body
+with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
+semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper
+dolls were believed to take away the sins of the
+year. When they had been used for purification,
+they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year
+of the user and thrown into the river. The
+third month was also, in early times, the season
+for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
+among the women. The special name
+by which the dolls of the Doll Feast are called is
+<i>O Hina Sama</i>. Now <i>hina</i> in modern Japanese
+means a chicken or other young bird, and is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>
+never used to mean anything else except the
+dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated
+with the ancient cock-fighting, an amusement
+which has now almost gone out, except in the
+province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.</p>
+
+<p>The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor
+and Empress, but simply a man and a woman,
+and were modeled closely after the old white paper
+dolls of the religious ceremony. When the
+Tokugawa Shōguns had firmly established their
+splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
+designating the five feast days upon which the
+daimiōs were to present themselves at the Shōgun's
+palace and offer their congratulations.
+One of the days thus appointed was the third
+day of the third month. It is believed that the
+giving of the chief place at the feast to effigies
+of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the
+policy of the Shōgunate,&mdash;a policy which aimed
+to keep alive the spirit of loyalty to the throne,
+while at the same time the occupant of the throne
+remained a puppet in the hands of his vice-gerent.</p>
+
+<p>Each girl born into a family has a pair of <i>O
+Hina Sama</i> placed for her upon the red-covered
+shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after
+her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her
+husband's house, she carries the dolls with her,
+and the first feast after her marriage she observes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>
+with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter
+old enough to carry out the observance, she
+must keep up the ceremony. The feast, as it
+exists to-day, is said by the Japanese to serve
+three purposes: it makes the children of both
+sexes loyal to the imperial family, it interests the
+girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial
+etiquette.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_40" name="APX_40" id="APX_40">
+<i>Page</i> 40.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Because of the complexity of the Chinese language
+and the time needed for its mastery, there
+has been a movement to lessen the study of pure
+Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it
+altogether, and with this to simplify the use of
+the ideographs in the Sinico-Japanese. The educational
+department is requiring that text-books
+be limited in their use of ideographs; that those
+used be written in only one way and that the
+simplest, and that the <i>kana</i> (the Japanese syllabary)
+be substituted wherever possible. Several
+plans for reform in this matter are being agitated,
+one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to
+nouns and verbs only.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_41" name="APX_41" id="APX_41">
+<i>Page</i> 41.</a></h3>
+
+<p>No one who has been in Japan can have failed to
+notice the peculiarly strident quality of the Japanese
+voice in singing, a quality that is gained by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
+professional singers through much labor and
+actual physical suffering. That this is not a natural
+characteristic of the Japanese voice is shown by
+the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of children
+and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to
+me to be brought about by the pursuit of a wrong
+musical ideal, or at least, of a musical ideal quite
+distinct from that of the Western world. In Japan
+one seldom finds singing birds kept in cages, but
+instead crickets, grasshoppers, katydids, and other
+noisy members of the insect family may be seen
+exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any
+summer night in the Tōkyō streets. These insects
+delight the ears of the Japanese with their
+melody, and it seems to me that the voices of
+singers throughout the empire are modeled after
+the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect, rather than
+after the fuller notes of the bird's song.</p>
+
+<p>The introduction of European music by the
+schools and churches has already begun to show in
+the songs of the children in the streets, and where
+ten years ago one might live in Tōkyō for a year,
+and never hear a note of music except the semi-musical
+cries of the workmen, when they are
+pulling or striking in concert, now there are few
+days when some strain of song from some passing
+school-child does not come in at the window of
+one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress
+made in catching foreign ideas of time and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>
+tune is quite surprising, but the singing will never
+be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice
+is modulated according to the foreign standards.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_45" name="APX_45" id="APX_45">
+<i>Page</i> 45.</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is said by Japanese versed in the most refined
+ways that a woman who has learned the tea
+ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior
+bearing and manner on all occasions.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_49" name="APX_49" id="APX_49">
+<i>Page</i> 49.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in
+a series of studies,&mdash;leaves, flowers, roots, and
+stalks being shown in every possible position and
+combination,&mdash;until not only the stroke is mastered,
+but the plant is thoroughly known. In the
+book that lies before me as I write, a book used
+as a copy-book by a young lady beginning the
+practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six
+large pages to studies of one small and simple
+flower and the pupil has covered hundreds of
+sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.
+She has now finished that part of the course, and
+can, at a moment's notice, reproduce with just the
+right strokes any of the designs or any part of
+the plant. The next step forward will be a similar
+series of bamboo.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_52" name="APX_52" id="APX_52">
+<i>Page</i> 52.</a></h3>
+
+<p>In the government schools for girls, much attention
+is paid just now to physical culture. The
+gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and
+English and mathematics as important parts of
+the course, and the girls are encouraged to spend
+their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all kinds
+of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war,
+marches, and quadrilles are entered into
+with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in their
+dark red <i>hakama</i> are as well able to move quickly
+and freely as girls of the same age in America.
+If it were not for the queer pigeon-toed gait, acquired
+by years of walking in narrow <i>kimono</i>
+and on high clogs, the Japanese girls would be
+fully abreast of the American in all these sports.
+So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical
+strength seized upon the nation, that a girl
+of delicate physique has less chance of marriage
+than one who is robust and strong.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_55" name="APX_55" id="APX_55">
+<i>Page</i> 55.</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is in the mistakes and failures made in
+adapting the education given in the schools to the
+exact conditions that present themselves in the
+constantly changing Japan of to-day, that the
+opponents of all alteration in the education of
+women find their strongest arguments. The conservatives
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>point with scorn to this girl whose new
+ideas have led her into folly or trouble, or to that
+one whose health has been broken down by the
+adverse conditions surrounding her student life,
+and say, "This will be the case with all our women
+if we continue this insane practice of educating
+them along new lines." Advance in female
+education, as in all other lines of progress in
+Japan, is a series of violent actions and reactions.
+In 1889, partly through ill-advised conduct on
+the part of supporters of the cause, one of the
+most serious reverses that has come in the progress
+of Western education for women began to
+show itself. The reaction was helped along by a
+paper read before some of the most influential
+men of Japan, and subsequently reported and
+discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor
+in the medical department of the imperial
+University in Tōkyō. The paper was a serious
+warning to the men of the country that no women
+could be good wives, mothers, and housekeepers
+and at the same time have undergone a thorough
+literary education. The arguments were reinforced
+by statistics showing that American college
+women either did not marry, or that if they married
+they had very few children. All Japan took
+fright at this alarming showing, and for several
+years the education of girls in anything more
+than the primary studies was not encouraged by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span>
+the government. The lowest depth of this reaction
+was reached during or soon after the Japan-China
+war, when the growth of national vanity
+resulted in a temporary disdain for all foreign
+ideas. The tide has turned again now, girls'
+schools that have been closed for years are being
+reopened, young men who are thinking of marrying
+are looking for educated wives, and among
+the women themselves there is a strong desire
+for self-improvement. Under this impulse a new
+generation of educated women will be added to
+those already exerting an influence in the country,
+and it is to be hoped that the forward movement
+will be more difficult to set back when the next
+reactionary wave strikes the Japanese coast.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_60" name="APX_60" id="APX_60">
+<i>Page</i> 60.</a></h3>
+
+<p>The <i>obi</i> is supposed to express by its length
+the hope that the marriage may be an enduring
+one. Among the more modernized Japanese a
+ring is now often given in place of, or, in the
+wealthier classes, in addition to the <i>obi</i>.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_61a" name="APX_61a" id="APX_61a">
+<i>Page</i> 61, <i>line</i> 6.</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is interesting, however, as a sign of the
+times, to notice that for the wedding of the
+Crown Prince, in May, 1900, the Shinto high
+priest, who is master of ceremonies at the Imperial
+Court, instituted a solemn religious ceremony<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span>
+within the sanctuary of the palace. Following
+the example set in so high a quarter, a number
+of couples, during the winter of 1900-1901, have
+repaired to Shinto temples in various parts of the
+empire, to secure the sanction of the ancient national
+faith upon their union. But still, for the
+great majority of the Japanese, the wedding
+ceremony is what it has always been.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_61b" name="APX_61b" id="APX_61b">
+<i>Page</i> 61, <i>line</i> 15.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Although new methods of transportation have
+come into use now in most of the Japanese cities,
+and wheeled carts drawn by men or horses are
+used for carrying all other kinds of luggage, the
+wedding outfit, wrapped in great cloths on which
+the crest of the bride's family is conspicuous, is
+borne on men's shoulders to the bridegroom's
+home, the length of the baggage train and the
+number and size of the burdens showing the
+wealth and importance of the bride's family.
+The bride who goes to her husband's house well
+provided by her own family, will carry, not only
+a full wardrobe and the house-furnishings already
+mentioned, but will be supplied, so far as
+foresight can manage it, with all the little things
+that she can need for months in advance. Paper,
+pens, ink, postage stamps, needles, thread, and
+sewing materials of all kinds, a store of dress
+materials and other things to be given as presents<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span>
+to any and all who may do her favors, and
+pocket money with which she may make good
+any deficiencies, or meet any unforeseen emergency.
+When she goes from her father's house,
+she should be so thoroughly fitted out that she
+will not have to ask her husband for the smallest
+thing for a number of months. The parents of
+the bride, in giving up their daughter, as they
+do when she marries, show the estimation in
+which they have held her by the beauty and completeness
+of the trousseau with which they provide
+her. The expense of this wedding outfit is
+often very great, persons even in the most moderate
+circumstances spending as much as one thousand
+yen upon the necessary purchases, and among
+the wealthy, four thousand to five thousand yen
+is not extravagant. As material wealth increases
+in Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase
+the style and cost of the trousseau, and the marriage
+of a daughter has come to be, in many
+cases, a severe strain on the family finances.
+But this outfit is of the nature of a dowry, for it
+is her very own; and in the event of a divorce,
+she brings back with her to her father's house the
+clothing and household goods that she carried
+away as a bride.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_64" name="APX_64" id="APX_64">
+<i>Page</i> 64.</a></h3>
+
+<p>For this visit the bride wears for the first time
+a dress made for her by her husband's family and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span>
+bearing its crest, as a sign that she is now a
+member of that family and only a guest in her
+father's house.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_76" name="APX_76" id="APX_76">
+<i>Page</i> 76.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions
+of marriage and of divorce have been altered
+for the better. At present no divorce is
+possible except through the courts or through
+mutual consent; the simple change of registration
+by one party or the other does not constitute
+a legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent
+cannot be arranged without the consent of
+the parents or head of the family of a married
+person who is under twenty-five years of age.
+The grounds upon which judicial divorce may be
+granted seem very trivial measured by European
+standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct
+gain over the former practice. The wife is
+no longer dependent for her position simply upon
+the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure
+her consent to the separation, he must formulate
+charges of immorality or conviction of
+crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on
+the part of the wife or of her relatives, or of
+desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
+three years or more. Only when some such
+charge has been made and proved before a court
+can a husband send away his wife. In the case<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span>
+of a separation by mutual consent, though the
+law still gives the care of the children to the father
+in case no previous agreement has been made,
+if a woman sees her way clear to supporting them,
+she may stipulate for the custody of one or more
+of them as a condition of her consent to the divorce.
+In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in
+the interests of the children, take them away from
+their father and assign them to the care of some
+other person.</p>
+
+<p>In these changes we can see a distinct advance
+toward permanence of the family tie; and we
+can see, too, that the wife has gained a new
+power to hold her own against injustice and
+wrong. That when the people have become used
+to these changes, other and more binding laws
+will be enacted, we can feel pretty sure, for the
+drift of enlightened public opinion seems to be in
+favor of securing better and more firmly established
+homes just as fast as "the hardness of their
+hearts" will permit.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_84" name="APX_84" id="APX_84">
+<i>Page</i> 84.</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is difficult for us in America, who live under
+customs and laws in which the individual is the
+social unit and the family a union of individuals,
+to understand a system of society in which the
+individual is little or nothing and the family the
+social unit recognized both by law and custom.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span>
+In Japan, a man is simply a member of some
+family, and his daily affairs, his marrying and
+giving in marriage, are more or less under the
+control of the head of his family, or of the family
+council. Only in case he is the head of the family
+is he able to marry without securing some one's
+consent, and then his responsibilities in regard to
+the headship may in themselves hamper him. If
+this is the case with the more independent man,
+it may be imagined how completely the woman
+is submerged under family influence. She may,
+under exceptional circumstances, become the
+head of a family, but this is usually only a temporary
+expedient, and even then she must subordinate
+herself more completely to the family
+and its interests than when she occupies a lowlier
+place.</p>
+
+<p>The headship of an unmarried woman lasts
+only until a husband has been selected for her,
+and the headship of a widow lasts during her
+guardianship of the rightful heir to the position.
+By Japanese law a widow is always the guardian
+of her minor children.</p>
+
+<p>The only way in which individuality before
+the law can be obtained by man or woman in
+Japan is through cutting the tie that binds to the
+family, and starting out in life afresh as the head
+of a new family. This new family must always
+be <i>héimin</i>, or plebeian, no matter how high in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span>
+rank may have been the family from which the
+founder has gone out, but there is a continually
+increasing number of young men and women who
+prefer the freedom that comes from the headship
+of a small and new family, even if of low rank,
+to the state of tutelage or of hampering responsibility
+which must accompany connection with a
+larger and older social group. It seems likely
+that through this means an evolution from the
+family to the individual system will be effected,
+as the nation grows more and more modernized
+in its way of looking at things.</p>
+
+<p>For the Japanese woman, as I have already
+said, marriage is in most cases the entrance into
+a new family. She is cut off from the old ways
+and interests, in which she has until now had her
+part, and she has begun life anew as the latest
+addition to and therefore the lowest and most
+ignorant member of another social group. It is
+her duty simply to learn the ways and obey the
+will of those above her, and it is the duty of
+those above her, and especially of her husband's
+mother, to fit her by training and discipline for
+her new surroundings. The physical strength of
+the young wife, her sweetness of temper, her
+manners, her morals, her way of looking at life,
+are all put to the test by this sharp-eyed guardian
+of the family interests, and woe to the
+younger woman if she fail to come up to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span>
+standard set. She may be a good woman and
+a faithful wife, but if, under the training given
+her, she does not adapt herself readily to the
+traditions and customs of the family she enters,
+it is more than likely, even under the new laws,
+that she may be sent back to her father's house
+as <i>persona non grata</i>, and even her husband's
+love cannot save her. It is because of this predominance
+of the family over the individual that
+the young wife, when she enters her husband's
+home, is not, as in our own country, entering
+upon a new life as mistress of a house, with absolute
+control over all of her little domain.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_115" name="APX_115" id="APX_115">
+<i>Page</i> 115.</a></h3>
+
+<p>At the time of the celebration of his silver
+wedding, in 1895, the Emperor came into the
+Audience Room with the Empress on his arm,
+an example which was followed by the Imperial
+Princes.</p>
+
+<p>With the engagement and marriage of the
+Crown Prince, in May, 1900, an entirely new
+precedent was established in the relations of the
+Imperial couple. The Western idea of marriage
+between equals has never existed in the Japanese
+mind in its thought of the union between their
+Emperor and Empress. The Empress, though
+of noble family, was chosen from among the subjects
+of the Emperor, and the marriage was of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span>
+the nature of an appointment by the Emperor
+to the position of Imperial Consort, just as any
+other appointment might have been made of a
+subject to fill an important position in the government.
+In the marriage of the Crown Prince
+a very different course was pursued. While no
+departure was made from the old precedents in
+the selection of a Princess from one of the five
+families that trace their descent from Jimmu
+Tenno, the whole manner of obtaining the bride
+was different from anything that Japan had before
+known. The Prince asked the father of the
+young lady to give her to him just as a common
+man might have done, and everything in the preliminary
+arrangements was carried out with the
+idea that by the marriage she was to be raised to
+his rank and position. Reference has already
+been made to the religious ceremony that was
+devised for the occasion, an act that in itself
+altered the meaning of marriage for the whole
+nation.</p>
+
+<p>Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the
+world outside of the palace gates, of the kindness
+and consideration with which the young wife is
+treated by her husband. To the scandal of some
+of the more old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants,
+the heir to the throne insists on observing
+toward his wife, in private as well as in public,
+all the minutiæ of Western etiquette. She enters
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span>the carriage ahead of him when they drive
+together, they habitually take their meals together,
+and he finds in her a cheerful companion
+and friend, and not simply a devoted and humble
+servant. In this way, by the highest example
+that can be set to them, the Japanese people
+are learning a new lesson.</p>
+
+<p>All these things have a deep significance in
+showing that the sacredness of the marriage tie
+is gradually being recognized.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_137" name="APX_137" id="APX_137">
+<i>Page</i> 137.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Something, indeed, may be said on the other
+side in regard to this system, which I seem to
+have painted as ideal. If in America we find
+the burden of expensive grown-up sons and
+daughters sometimes too heavy upon parents
+whose powers are on the wane, we must remember
+that in Japan a young man is often seriously
+handicapped at the beginning of his active life
+by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting
+labor, and that the young wife entering
+the home of her parents-in-law often finds a
+happy married life rendered impossible by the
+fact that she must please an elderly couple thoroughly
+fixed in their ways,&mdash;the rulers of the
+household and with little to do but rule. With
+this custom, as with all human customs, everything
+in the long run depends upon how it is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span>
+used, and without deep affection between parents
+and children there seems to be as much
+danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
+generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents
+in Japan, as there is in America of the
+wearing out of the older people's lives and
+strength in the service of ungrateful and lazy
+children.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_152" name="APX_152" id="APX_152">
+<i>Page</i> 152.</a></h3>
+
+<p>The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made
+of heavy <i>futons</i>, or quilts, of white <i>habutai</i>
+wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
+consists of as many similar <i>futons</i> as the state
+of the weather may require. Every month new
+<i>futons</i> are provided for Her Majesty, and the discarded
+ones are given to one of her attendants.
+The happy recipient is thus provided with wadding
+enough for all her winter dresses for the rest
+of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress
+material.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_157" name="APX_157" id="APX_157">
+<i>Page</i> 157.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Only those who have seen the inner life of the
+court can realize the difficulties which have attended
+every step of the Empress Haru's way, for
+the court has been the scene of great struggles
+between the conservative and radical elements.
+Mean and petty jealousies have moved those
+surrounding the throne. The slightest word or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[446]</a></span>
+token from the Empress would be used as a
+weapon for private ends. To move among these
+varied and discordant factions, and to move for
+progress, without causing undue friction, has
+been a task more difficult than the conquest of
+armies, and to do so successfully has required
+almost infinite patience, sympathy, and love.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_168" name="APX_168" id="APX_168">
+<i>Page</i> 168.</a></h3>
+
+<p>And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened
+rule of the present Emperor, and of
+the beneficent life and example of the Empress
+Haru, is there any assurance that the progress
+made during their occupation of the throne will
+be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?</p>
+
+<p>Prince Haru, or Yoshihito, is now a man
+twenty-two years of age, with character sufficiently
+developed to be used as the basis for a
+guess at what his qualities as a sovereign may
+prove to be. "As far as the East is from the
+West" have his life and education been from the
+life and education of his illustrious father. Instead
+of the curtained seclusion, the quiet and
+calm of the old palace in the old capital, the present
+Crown Prince has known from babyhood the
+sights and sounds of the stirring city of Tōkyō.
+He has driven in an open carriage or walked
+through its streets; he has been to school with
+boys of his own age, taking the school work and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span>
+the drill and the games with the other boys,
+learning to know men and things and himself
+too, in a way in which none of his ancestors,
+since the days when they were simply savage
+chiefs, have had opportunity of knowing. As he
+grew toward manhood, his delicate health required
+that he leave the school and pursue his
+studies as his strength permitted, under masters;
+but he has retained his love for all athletic exercises,
+for dogs and horses and guns and bicycles,
+and he is as expert in outdoor sports as any youth
+of Western training. His mind is quick and
+eager, interested especially in foreign ways and
+thoughts, and seeking most of all to understand
+how other people think and feel and live. Though
+he has been emancipated to a wonderful degree
+from the state and ceremony that surrounded his
+ancestors, he is nevertheless impatient of what
+remains, and would gladly dispense with many
+forms that his conservative guardians regard as
+necessary; and these same guardians at times
+find their young eaglet difficult to manage. He
+has views and ideas of his own, and acts occasionally
+upon his own initiative in a way that
+fairly scandalizes his advisers. He wishes to
+visit his future subjects upon something like
+equal terms. The rôle of Son of Heaven seems
+to him less interesting at times than some smaller
+and more human part. When he walks, he wants<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span>
+to lead his own dog, not have him led by some
+one else; to stop in the street and watch the common
+people at their work; to drop in on his
+friends in a neighborly way and see how they
+live when they are not expecting a visit from
+royalty. Provided he does not go too fast or too
+far, when his turn comes to ascend the throne, he
+cannot but make a better emperor for the intimate
+personal knowledge that he is seeking and
+gaining of the lives and feelings of his people.</p>
+
+<p>The Crown Princess Sada, who has now been
+for one year in the line of succession to the present
+beloved Empress, shows in her training and
+character the influence of the new impulse that is
+driving Japan forward. The circumstances that
+led to her selection as the bride of the Prince are
+in themselves curious enough to be worth recording.
+The Kujo family is one of the five families
+from which alone can the wife of the Crown
+Prince be chosen, and the present Prince Kujo
+is blessed with many daughters. Of these, the
+oldest is about the age of Prince Haru, and at
+one time it was hoped that she might be selected
+as his consort, but at last that hope was given up,
+and she was married to another prince. The second
+daughter was as bright and charming as the
+first, but she was just enough younger than the
+Prince to make her marriage with him so dangerous
+a matter according to all the rules that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span>
+govern good and bad luck in Japan, that no hope
+was entertained for her, and she was married,
+when her time came, with no reference to the
+greatest match that any Japanese princess can
+make. The third daughter was six years younger
+than the Prince, so much younger that it was
+thought that he would be married long before she
+grew up, so no special care or attention was given
+to her. In her babyhood, like most Japanese
+babies of high rank, she was sent out into the
+country to be nursed. Her foster parents were
+plain farmer folk, who loved her and cared for
+her as their own child. She played bareheaded
+and barefooted in the sun and wind, tumbled
+about, jolly and happy, with the village children,
+and lived and grew like a kitten or a puppy rather
+than like a future empress until she was old
+enough for the kindergarten. Then she came
+back to Tōkyō, to her father's house, and from
+there she attended the Peeresses' School, going
+backward and forward every day with her bundle
+of books, and taking her share of the work
+and play with the other children. In her school-days
+she was noticeable for her great physical
+activity and her hearty enjoyment of the outdoor
+sports which form so important a part of the
+training in Japanese schools for girls at present;
+and for her strength of will and character among
+a class of students upon whom self-repression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span>
+amounting almost to self-abnegation has been inculcated
+from earliest childhood.</p>
+
+<p>When this little princess reached the age of
+fifteen, the Crown Prince's marriage, which had
+been somewhat deferred on account of his ill-health,
+was pressed forward, and to the extreme
+surprise of her own family, and of many others
+as well, the Princess Sada was chosen, largely on
+account of her great physical vigor. Then began
+a great change in her life. From being one of
+the lowest and least considered in her family, she
+was suddenly raised high above all the rest, even
+her father addressing her as a superior. The
+merry, romping school-girl was transformed in a
+few days into the great lady, too grand to associate
+on equal terms with any but the imperial
+family. Small cause was there for wonder if she
+shrank from the change and begged that the
+honor might be bestowed on some one else. The
+old free life was gone forever, and she dreaded
+the heavy responsibility that was to fall upon her
+slender shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>The choice was made in August, 1899, and
+from the moment that the engagement was entered
+into, the Princess Sada became an honored
+guest in her father's house. She could no longer
+play with her brothers and sisters, or take a meal
+with any member of her own family. A new
+and handsome suite of rooms was built for her,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span>
+her old wardrobe was discarded and an entirely
+new one provided for her, all her table service
+was new and distinct from that of the rest of the
+family, and she was addressed by all as if she
+were already Empress. Her studies were not
+given up, but masters were chosen for her who
+came to her and instructed her, with due deference
+to her high station, in the subjects that she
+had been studying at school. So passed the nine
+months of her engagement, and on May 8, 1900,
+she became one of the principals in a state wedding
+such as Japan had never before seen.
+Through all the show and ceremony she acquitted
+herself decorously and bravely, and since her
+marriage no word save of approval of the young
+wife has come out from the palace gates. Her
+little sisters-in-law, the four small daughters of
+the Emperor, enjoy nothing so much as to go and
+spend the day with her, for she is so amusing,
+and her life has been such a busy and happy one,
+that she comes like a breath of fresh air into the
+seclusion of the Court. Her young husband, too,
+finds in her congenial society, and his frail health
+seems to be daily strengthening with the brightness
+that has come into his home.</p>
+
+<p>Great was the joy in the empire when, on
+April 29, 1901, this happy union was rendered
+still happier by the birth of a strong little prince
+to carry on the ancient line. By an auspicious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span>
+coincidence, his birth came just at the time of
+the annual boys' feast, or Feast of Flags, and his
+naming day was appointed for May 5, the great
+day of the feast, when all Japan is decorated with
+giant carp swinging from tall poles outside of
+every house, and swimming vigorously at the
+ends of their tethers in the strong spring wind.
+The carp is to the Japanese mind the emblem
+of courage and perseverance, for he swims up the
+strongest current, leaping the waterfalls that oppose
+his progress. The baby was named by his
+grandfather, and will have the personal name of
+Hirohito, and the title Prince Michi. With this
+new little prince there are no polite fictions to
+maintain, nor conventional relationships to be established.
+He is the son of his father's lawful
+wife, as well as of his father. There is to be no
+breaking off of natural ties, and his own mother
+will nurse and care for him, a fortune that never
+falls to the lot of the imperial son of a <i>mékaké</i>.
+If he lives, he will be a standing argument in favor
+of monogamy, even in noble families, and his
+birth bodes well for family life throughout the
+country.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_182" name="APX_182" id="APX_182">
+<i>Page</i> 182.</a></h3>
+
+<p>A pretty, but most shocking sight, if seen
+through the eyes of some of these old-fashioned
+attendants, is the semi-annual <i>undo kai</i>, or exercise
+day of the Peeresses' School. The large<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span>
+playground is, for this occasion, surrounded by
+seats divided off to accommodate invited guests of
+various ranks, who spend the day watching the
+entertainment. In the most honorable place, surrounded
+by her ladies-in-waiting, sits the Empress
+herself, for the education of the daughters of the
+nobles is a matter of the liveliest interest to her;
+and the parents and friends and teachers of the
+girls fill up all available seats after the school itself
+has been accommodated.</p>
+
+<p>The programme is usually a long one, occupying
+the greater part of the morning and afternoon,
+with an interval for lunch. Most of the ordinary
+English field games&mdash;tennis, basket-ball, etc.&mdash;are
+played with skill and vigor, and in addition to
+these there are races of various kinds, devised to
+show, not simply fleetness of foot, but quickness
+of hand and wit as well. These races vary from
+year to year, as the ingenuity of the directors of
+the sports may be able to devise new forms of exercise.
+One extremely pretty contest is as follows:
+On the playground between the starting-point and
+the goal are set at equal distances four upright
+sticks for each runner. Four branches of cherry
+blossoms and four bright-colored ribbons for each
+contestant are laid on the ground at the starting-point.
+At the signal, each girl picks up a cherry
+branch and a ribbon, and runs to one of the upright
+sticks, tying the flowers firmly thereto;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>
+then she runs back for a second branch, and so
+on until all four have been fastened in place.
+The race is won by the child who first reaches
+the goal leaving behind her four blooming trees
+where before there were bare poles. This seems
+to be the æsthetic Japanese equivalent for our
+prosaic potato race. Another contest is after
+this manner: Along the course of each runner
+are laid at certain intervals bright-colored balls,&mdash;a
+different color for each contestant. The
+object of the race is, within a certain time, to
+pick up all the balls and throw them into the
+nearly closed mouth of a great net at the far end
+of the grounds. The contest is not decided
+until the balls have been counted, when the girl
+who has succeeded in getting the greatest number
+of balls of her color into the net is declared the
+winner. Another and extremely pretty race,
+calling for great steadiness of hand and body, is
+the running from one end of the ground to the
+other with a ball balanced on a battledore. The
+Japanese battledore is made of light but hard
+wood, and is long and narrow in shape. If one
+had not seen it done, it would be well-nigh impossible
+to believe that any child could carry a
+ball upon it for more than a few slow steps: but
+these children run at a smart trot, keeping the
+ball immovable upon its small and smooth surface.</p>
+
+<p>Beside the games and races, there are calisthenic
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>exhibitions, in which great precision of
+motion and flexibility of body are manifested.
+One of the most graceful and attractive of these
+is the fan drill shown on this occasion, when
+some twenty or thirty girls, with their bright-colored
+dresses, long, waving sleeves, and red
+<i>hakama</i>, posture in perfect rhythm, with fans
+opened or closed, waving above the head, held
+before the face, changed from position to position,
+with the performers' changes of attitude,
+each new figure seemingly more graceful than the
+last.</p>
+
+<p>In these and many other ways the nobility of
+new Japan are being fitted for the new part that
+they have to play in the world. No wonder that
+the education now given, awakening the mind,
+toughening the body, arousing ambition and individuality,
+is regarded by many of the ultra-conservatives
+as a dangerous innovation, and one
+likely to bring the nobility down to the level of
+the common people. Whether this new education
+is better or worse than the old, we can hardly
+tell as yet, but there are no signs of the immediate
+breakdown of the old spirit of the nobility,
+and the better health and stronger characters of
+the young women who have received the modern
+training promise much for the next generation.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_192" name="APX_192" id="APX_192">
+<i>Page</i> 192.</a></h3>
+
+<p>While this was entirely true in 1890, it is interesting
+to observe that after ten years of commercial
+and industrial progress there are signs
+that the embroidered kimono is coming back into
+fashion. With the growth of large fortunes
+and of luxury that has marked the past decade,
+has come the custom of providing wedding garments
+as magnificently embroidered as were the
+robes of the daimiōs' ladies, and even the <i>montsuki</i>
+or ceremonial dress, which was severely
+plain in 1890, now has little delicate embroidery
+about the bottom. It will not be surprising
+if some day, when the present growing commercial
+and industrial enterprise has reaped a more
+abundant harvest, Japan blooms forth again in
+the beautiful garments that went out of fashion
+when the great political upheaval cut off the revenues
+of the old nobility.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_209" name="APX_209" id="APX_209">
+<i>Page</i> 209.</a></h3>
+
+<p>At each encroachment of the enemy those of
+the population who could not find refuge at once
+within the inner defenses were driven to choose
+between surrender and self-inflicted death. The
+unconquerable samurai spirit flamed out in the
+choice of hundreds of women and children as
+well as men, and whole families were wiped out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span>
+of existence at once, the little ones, who were too
+young to understand the proper method of <i>hara-kiri</i>,
+kneeling calmly with bowed heads for the
+death-stroke from father or brother which should
+free them from the disgrace of defeat.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_223" name="APX_223" id="APX_223">
+<i>Page</i> 223.</a></h3>
+
+<p>That the spirit of the samurai women is still
+a living force in Japan, no one can doubt who listens
+to the stories of what the women did and
+bore in the Japan-China war of 1895. The old
+self-sacrifice and devotion showed itself throughout
+the country in deeds of real, if sometimes mistaken,
+heroism. Husbands, sons, and brothers
+were sent out to danger and death with smiles
+and cheerful words, by women dependent upon
+them for everything in a way that can hardly be
+understood by Americans. Even tears of grief
+for the dear ones offered in the country's cause
+were suppressed as disloyal, and women learned
+with unmoved countenances of the death of those
+they loved best, and found the courage to express,
+in the first shock of bereavement, their sense of
+the honor conferred on the family by the death
+of one of its members in the cause of his country.</p>
+
+<p>A few incidents quoted from an article by Miss
+Umé Tsuda that appeared in the New York
+"Independent" in 1895 will give my readers an
+idea of the forms that this devotion assumed:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span></p><p>"One instance comes into my mind of an old
+lady who sent out cheerfully and with a smiling
+face her young and only son, the sole stay of her
+old age. Left a widow while young, she had
+lived a life of much sorrow and trouble, and had
+with almost superhuman efforts managed to give
+her son an education that would start him in life.
+It was only a few years ago that the son had begun
+to help in the family support, and to be able
+to repay to the mother her tender care of him.
+Her pride in her son and his young wife was a
+pleasure to see, and the little home they had together
+seemed a safe haven for the coming years
+of old age. Now, in a moment all this was
+changed,&mdash;the son must start off for the wars.
+Yet not for one instant was a cloud seen on the
+mother's face, as, smilingly and cheerfully, she
+assisted in the preparations for his departure.
+Not in public or in secret did one sigh or regret
+escape her; not even to the son did a word of
+anxiety pass her lips. Her face, beaming with
+joy, looked with pride on the manly strength of
+the young soldier as he started to fight for his
+country and win honor for himself,&mdash;honor
+which would surely come to him whether he
+lived or died.</p>
+
+<p>"Another woman who is well on in years, and
+whose eldest son is a naval officer, furnishes an
+interesting example of mother love. Though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span>
+never showing her anxiety on his account, or
+grief at his danger, she has taken upon herself,
+in spite of her old age and by no means vigorous
+health, to go on foot every morning to one of
+the temples and worship there before daylight, in
+order to propitiate the gods, that they may protect
+her son. She arises at four o'clock in the
+morning on the coldest of cold days, washes and
+purifies herself with ice-cold water, and then
+starts out before daylight for her three-mile walk
+to the temple. Thus through wind and storm
+and cold have the faith and love of this old woman
+upheld her, and one is happy to add that so
+far her prayers have been heard and no harm
+has come to the one she has called on her gods
+to protect.</p>
+
+<p>"A touching story is told of the aged mother
+of Sakamoto, commander of the warship Akagi,
+who was killed in the thickest of the fight during
+the great naval battle of the Yellow Sea. Commander
+Sakamoto left an aged mother, a wife,
+and three children. As soon as his death was
+officially ascertained, a messenger was dispatched
+from the naval department to convey the sad tidings
+to his family. The communication was made
+duly to his wife, and before the messenger had
+left the house it reached the ears of the old mother,
+who, tottering into the room where the officer
+was, saluted and greeted him duly, and then,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>
+with dry eyes and a clear voice, said, 'So it
+seems by your tidings that my son has been of
+some service this time.'</p>
+
+<p>"One reads pathetic stories in the newspapers
+daily in connection with the war. Not long ago
+a sad account was given of a young woman, just
+past her twentieth year, and only recently married
+to an army officer. She had belonged by
+birth to a military family, and, as befitted the
+wife and daughter of a soldier, she resolved, on
+hearing of the death of her husband, that she
+would not survive him, but would follow him to
+the great unknown. Sending away her servant
+on some excuse, she remained alone in her home,
+which she put into perfect order. Then she arranged
+all her papers, wrote a number of letters,
+and made her last preparations for death. She
+dressed herself in full ceremonial dress as she
+had been dressed for her bridal, and seated herself
+before a large portrait of her husband. Then,
+with a short dirk, such as is owned by every samurai
+woman, she stabbed herself. In her last
+letters she gives as the reason for her death that,
+having no ties in the world, she would not survive
+her husband, but wished to remain faithful to
+him in death as she had been in life.</p>
+
+<p>"Many such stories might be cited, but enough
+has been given to show the spirit that exists in
+Japan. With such women and such teachings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>
+in their homes, can it be wondered at that Japan
+is a brave nation, and that her soldiers are winning
+battles? Certainly some of the honor and
+credit must be given to these wives and mothers
+scattered throughout Japan, who are surely, in
+some cases, the inspirers of that courage and
+spirit which is just now surprising the world."</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_239" name="APX_239" id="APX_239">
+<i>Page</i> 239.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Much surprise is evinced by foreigners visiting
+Japan at the lack of taste shown by the Japanese
+in the imitation of foreign styles. And yet, for
+these same foreigners, who condemn so patronizingly
+the Japanese lack of taste in foreign things,
+the Japanese manufacture pottery, fans, scrolls,
+screens, etc., that are most excruciating to their
+sense of beauty, and export them to markets in
+which they find a ready sale, their manufacturers
+wondering, the while, why foreigners want such
+ugly things. The fact is that neither civilization
+has as yet come into any understanding of the
+other's æsthetic side, and the sense of beauty of
+the one is a sealed book to the other. The Japanese
+nation, in its efforts to adopt foreign ways,
+has been, up to the present time, blindly imitating,
+with little or no comprehension of underlying
+principles. As a result there is an absolute
+crudeness in foreign things as attempted in Japan
+that grates on the nerves of travelers fresh from
+the best to be found in Europe or America.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span></p><p>There are signs, however, that the stage of
+imitation is past and that adaptation has begun.
+Here and there in Tōkyō may be seen buildings
+in which the solidity of foreign architecture has
+been grafted upon the Japanese type. Ten years
+ago, Japanese men who adopted foreign dress
+went about in misfitting garments, soiled linen,
+untidy shoes, and hats that had been discarded
+by the civilization for which they were made
+many seasons before they reached Japan. They
+wore Turkish towels about their necks and red
+blankets over their shoulders at the desire of unscrupulous
+importers, who persuaded them that
+towels for neck-cloths and blankets for overcoats
+were the latest styles of London and Paris. To-day
+one sees no such eccentricities of costume in
+the purely Japanese city of Tōkyō. Men who
+wear foreign dress wear it made correctly in
+every particular by Japanese tailors, shoemakers,
+and hatters. The standard has been attained, for
+men at least, and in foreign dress as well as in
+Japanese, the natural good taste of the people has
+begun to assert itself. So it will be in time with
+other new things adopted. As no single element
+of the Chinese civilization secured a permanent
+footing in Japan except such as could be adapted,
+not only to the national life, but to the national
+taste as well, so it will be with European things.
+All things that are adopted will be adapted, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span>
+whatever is adapted is likely in time to be improved
+and made more beautiful by the national
+instinct for beauty. During the transition, enormities
+are omitted and monstrosities are constructed,
+but when the standard is at last attained,
+we may expect that the genius of the race will
+triumph over the difficulties that it is now encountering.
+Individual Japanese who have lived
+long in Europe or America show the same nice
+discrimination in regard to foreign things that
+they do in their Japanese surroundings, and are
+rarely at fault in their taste. What is true of
+the individual now will be true of the nation when
+European standards have become common property.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_242" name="APX_242" id="APX_242">
+<i>Page</i> 242.</a></h3>
+
+<p>In the remote mountain regions, where the
+majesty and uncertainty of the great natural
+forces impress themselves constantly upon the
+minds of the peasantry, one finds a simple nature
+worship, and a desire to propitiate all the unseen
+powers, that is not so evident in the daily life of
+the dwellers in more populous and progressive
+parts of the country. As the mountains close in
+about the road that runs up from the plains below,
+a great stone, on which is deeply carved
+"To the God of the Mountains," calls the attention
+of the traveler to the fact that the supernatural
+is a recognized power among the mountaineers.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>In such regions one finds the stated offerings
+at the shrines which stand near the wayside
+kept constantly renewed. Nearly every house is
+protected by some slip of paper pasted above the
+door, a charm obtained by toilsome pilgrimage to
+some noted temple. Behind or near the village
+temple one may see rude wigwams of straw, each
+sheltering a <i>gohei</i>,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>&mdash;witnesses to the vows of
+devotees who hope, sooner or later, to erect small
+wooden shrines and so win favor from the unknown
+rulers of human destinies. In places where
+pack-horses form a large part of the wealth of the
+people, stones to the horses' spirits are erected,
+and the halters of all the horses that die are left
+upon these stones. Prayers, too, are offered to
+the guardian spirits of the living horses, before
+stones on which are carved sometimes the image
+of a horse bearing a <i>gohei</i> on his back, sometimes
+a rough figure of the horse-headed Kwannon. To
+such stones or shrines are brought horses suffering
+from sickness of any kind, and the hand is rubbed
+first on the stone and then on the part of the animal
+supposed to be affected. In one district, when
+a horse epidemic broke out, its rapid spread was
+attributed by the authorities to this custom, and
+all persons were warned of the danger, with what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span>
+effect in breaking up the ancient habit the newspaper
+reports failed to say. It is in such regions
+as this that the <i>oni</i> and the <i>tengu</i><a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> still live in
+the every-day thought of the people; it is here,
+too, that the old custom of offering flowers and
+fruit to the spirits of the dead at the midsummer
+festival is most conscientiously kept up. All possible
+spirits are included in these offerings, so
+that even by the roadside one finds bunches of
+flowers set up in the clefts of the rock, to the
+spirits of travelers who have died on the way.</p>
+
+<p>In one little mountain resort, far from the railroad
+but in touch with the outside world through
+the hundreds of visitors that seek its hot baths
+during the summer, it was my good fortune to
+spend a few weeks recently. Our walks were
+rather limited in variety, as the village lay in an
+almost inaccessible mountain valley through
+which a carefully engineered road ran along the
+edge of the river gorge. About half a mile out
+of the village, close to the road and overhanging
+the waters of the river at a spot where the rocks
+were so worn and carved by the rushing torrent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span>
+as to have gained the appropriate title of the
+"Screen Rocks," was a little shop and a tea-house.
+It was a pleasant resting-place after a warm and
+dusty walk, and almost daily we would halt there
+for a cup of tea and a slice of <i>yokan</i>, or bean marmalade,
+before returning to our rooms in the
+hotel. The managers of the place were an old
+man and his wife, who divided their labor between
+the shop and the tea-house. The old man
+was an artist in roots. His life was devoted to
+searching out grotesquely shaped roots on the
+forest-covered hills, and whittling, turning, and
+trimming them into the semblance of animal or
+human forms. <i>Tengu</i> and goblins, long-legged
+birds and short-legged beasts, all manner of
+weird products of his imagination and his handiwork,
+peopled the interior of the little shop, and
+he was always ready to welcome us and show us
+his latest work, with the pride of an artist in his
+masterpiece.</p>
+
+<p>His wife, a cheery old woman, attended to the
+tea-house, and as soon as we had seated ourselves,
+bustled about to bring us cool water from the
+spring that bubbled out of the rocks across the
+road, and to set before us the tiny cups of straw-colored
+tea and the delicious slices of <i>yokan</i> which
+we soon learned was the specialty of the place.
+She was glad to have a little gossip as we sipped
+and nibbled, telling us many interesting bits of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span>
+folklore about the immediate locality. It was from
+her that we learned that the pinnacle of rock that
+dominated the village was built by <i>tengu</i> long ago,
+though now they were all gone from the woods,
+for she had looked for them often at night when
+she went out to shut the house, but she had never
+seen one,&mdash;and even the monkeys were becoming
+scarce. She it was, too, who sent us to look for
+the mysterious draught of cold air that crossed
+the road near the base of the great rock, colder
+on hot days than on cool ones, and at all times astonishing,&mdash;the
+"Tengu's Wind Hole." We
+learned through her about the snakes to be found
+in the woods, and of the wonderful tonic virtues
+of the <i>mamushi</i> (the one poisonous snake of
+Japan), if caught and bottled with a sufficient
+quantity of <i>saké</i>. The <i>saké</i> may be renewed
+again and again, and the longer the snake has
+been bottled the more medicinal does it become,
+so that one <i>mamushi</i> may, if used perseveringly,
+medicate several casks of <i>saké</i>. We had opportunity
+later to verify her statements, for we found
+at a small grocery store, where we stopped to add
+a few delicacies to our somewhat scanty bill of
+fare, two snakes, neatly coiled in quart bottles
+and pickled in <i>saké</i>, one of which could be obtained
+for the sum of seventy-five sen, though the
+other, who in his rage at being bottled had buried
+his fangs in his own body, commanded a higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span>
+price because of his courage. We did not feel in
+need of a tonic that day, so left the <i>mamushi</i> on
+the grocery shelves, but it is probable that their
+disintegrating remains are being industriously
+quaffed to-day by some elderly Japanese whose
+failing strength demands an unfailing remedy.</p>
+
+<p>When our little friend had learned of our interest
+in snakes, she was on the lookout for snake
+stories of all kinds. One day she stopped us as
+we came by rather later than usual, hurrying
+home before a threatening shower, to tell us that
+we ought to have come a little sooner, for the
+great black snake who was the messenger of the
+god that lived on the mountain had just been by,
+and we might have been interested to see him.
+She had seen him before, herself, so he was no
+novelty to her, but she was sure that the matter
+would interest us. Poor little old lady, with her
+kindly face and pleasant ways, and her friendly
+cracked voice. Her firm belief in all the uncanny
+and supernatural things that wiser people
+have outgrown brought us face to face with the
+childhood of our race, and drew us into sympathy
+with a phase of culture in which all nature is
+wrapped in inscrutable mystery.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_264" name="APX_264" id="APX_264">
+<i>Page</i> 264.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Each year that passes sees a few more stores
+adopting the habit of fixed prices, not to be altered
+by haggling.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a  href="#APXanchor_282" name="APX_282" id="APX_282">
+<i>Page</i> 282.</a></h3>
+
+<p>On another occasion the good offices of the
+fortune-teller were sought concerning a marriage,
+and the powerful arranger of human destinies
+discovered that though everything else was favorable,
+the bride contracted for was to come
+from a quarter quite opposed to the luck of the
+bridegroom. This was no laughing matter, as
+the bride was of a noble family and the breaking
+of the engagement would be attended with much
+talk and trouble on both sides; but, on the other
+hand, the family of the bridegroom dared not face
+the danger so mysteriously prophesied by the
+fortune-teller. In this predicament, there was
+nothing to do but to pull the wool over the eyes
+of the gods as best they might. For this purpose
+the bride with all her belongings was sent the day
+before the wedding from her father's house to that
+of an uncle living in another part of the city, and
+on the morning of the wedding-day she came to
+her husband from a quarter quite favorable to his
+fortunes. It seems quite probable that the gods
+were taken in by this somewhat transparent subterfuge,
+for no serious evil has befallen the young
+couple in three years of married life.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span></p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_317" name="APX_317" id="APX_317">
+<i>Page</i> 317.</a></h3>
+
+<p>To the American mind this method of terminating
+relations is always irritating and frequently
+embarrassing, but in Japan any discomfort is to
+be endured rather than the slightest suspicion of
+bad manners. If the foreign visitor is trying to
+learn to be a good Japanese, she must submit
+patiently when the servant solemnly engaged
+fails to appear at the appointed hour, sending a
+letter instead to say that she is ill; or when the
+woman upon whom she is depending to travel
+with her the next day to the country receives a
+telegram calling her to the bedside of a mythical
+son, and departs, bag and baggage, at a moment's
+notice, leaving her quondam mistress to
+shift for herself as best she may.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_318" name="APX_318" id="APX_318">
+<i>Page</i> 318.</a></h3>
+
+<p>Among the many changes that have come over
+Japan in the transition from feudalism to the conditions
+of modern life, there is none that Japanese
+ladies regard with greater regret than the change
+in the servant question. As the years go by and
+new employments open to women, it becomes increasingly
+difficult to engage and keep servants
+of the old-time, faithful, intelligent sort. Notwithstanding
+increased pay, and the still existing
+conditions of considerate treatment, comfortable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span>
+homes, and light work, it is hard to fill places
+vacated, even in noble households: and there is
+almost as much shaking of heads and despondent
+talk over the servant question in Japan to-day as
+there is in America.</p>
+
+<h3><a href="#APXanchor_322" name="APX_322" id="APX_322">
+<i>Page</i> 322.</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is interesting to note that it is to the quickness
+and courage of a jinrikisha man who interposed
+between him and his would-be assassin that
+the present Czar of Russia owes his escape from
+death at Otsu, near Kyōtō, in 1891.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3><span class="smcap">Footnotes:</span></h3>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> <i>Gohei</i>, a piece of white paper, cut and folded in a peculiar
+manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shintō
+faith.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> <i>Tengu</i>, a winged, long-nosed or beak-mouthed monster,
+supposed to inhabit the mountain regions of Japan.
+It was from a <i>tengu</i> that Yoshitsune, one of the greatest
+of Japanese heroes, learned to fence, and so became a
+swordsman of almost miraculous expertness. <i>Oni</i>, a demon
+or goblin.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>EPILOGUE.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My</span> task is ended. One half of Japan,
+with its virtues and its frailties, its privileges
+and its wrongs, has been brought,
+so far as my pen can bring it, within the
+knowledge of the American public. If,
+through this work, one person setting forth
+for the Land of the Rising Sun goes better
+prepared to comprehend the thoughts,
+the needs, and the virtues of the noble,
+gentle, self-sacrificing women who make
+up one half the population of the Island
+Empire, my labor will not have been in
+vain.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2>INDEX.</h2>
+
+<div class="decoline" style="width: 45px;">
+<img src="images/short-line.png" width="45" height="2" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Adoption, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Agility of Japanese, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ai, love, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Amado, sliding wooden shutters used to inclose a Japanese house at night, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Amulets, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Andon, a standing lamp inclosed in a paper case, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Ane_San" id="Ane_San"></a>Ané San, or Né San, elder sister (<i>San</i> the honorific), a title used by the younger children in a family in speaking to their eldest sister, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Aoyama, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Apprentices, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Art in common things, <a href="#Page_237">237-239</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Artisans, <a href="#Page_235">235-239</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Babies, <a href="#Page_1">1-17</a>;
+<ul>
+<li>  bathing, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
+<li>  conditions of life, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li>
+<li>  dress, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;</li>
+<li>  food, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li>
+<li>  imperial babies, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
+<li>  learning to talk, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>;</li>
+<li>  learning to walk, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li>
+<li>  of lower classes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>;</li>
+<li>  of middle classes, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li>
+<li>  of nobility, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>;</li>
+<li>  skin troubles, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li>
+<li>  teething, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>;</li>
+<li>  tied to the back, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li>
+</ul></li>
+
+<li>Baby carriages, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Baths, public, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Beauty, Japanese standard of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;
+<ul><li>  early loss of, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Bé bé, a child's word for dress, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bed, the Empress's, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Betrothal, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bettō, a groom or footman who cares for the horse in the stable and runs
+ahead of it on the road, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bible, circulation of, in Japan, <a href="#Page_412">412-414</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Boys, amusements of, <a href="#Page_362">362-370</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Breakfast, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Brothels. <a href="#Joroya"><i>See</i> Jōroya.</a></li>
+
+<li>Buddha's birthday, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buddhism, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;
+<ul><li>  affected by Christianity, <a href="#Page_417">417-421</a>;</li>
+<li>  introduction of, <a href="#Page_143">143-145</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Buddhist funerals, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buddhist nuns, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buddhist priest, story of a, <a href="#Page_418">418-421</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Building, <a href="#Page_333">333-335</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Butsudan, the household shrine used by Buddhists, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Castles, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chadai, literally "tea money," the fee given at an inn, <a href="#Page_251">251-253</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cherry blossoms, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Childhood. <a href="#Girlhood"><i>See</i> Girlhood.</a></li>
+
+<li>Children, intellectual characteristics of Japanese, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>;
+<ul><li>  Japanese compared with American, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Chinese characters, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chinese civilization introduced, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chinese code of morals, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Christian ideas, progress of, <a href="#Page_402">402-421</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Christianity, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Christians, Japanese, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chrysanthemum, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296-298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Civilization, new, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Clubs, women's, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Concubinage, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Confectionery, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Confucius, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Constitution, promulgation of the, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Corea, conquest of, <a href="#Page_139">139-143</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Country and city, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Court, after conquest of Corea, <a href="#Page_143">143-146</a>;
+<ul><li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span>
+      amusements of, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li>
+<li>  costumes, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li>
+<li>  in early times, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>;</li>
+<li>  ladies, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152-154</a>;</li>
+<li>  life, <a href="#Page_138">138-168</a>;</li>
+<li>  of daimiō, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
+<li>  of Shōgun, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;</li>
+<li>  removal to Tōkyō, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Courtship, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Crown Prince's wedding, the, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>-<a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_449">449-453</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Crucifixion, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Daikoku, the money god, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dai jobu, "Safe," "All right," <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Daimiō, a member of the landed nobility under the feudal system, <a href="#Page_169">169-195</a>;
+<ul><li>  his castles, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
+<li>  his courts, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>;</li>
+<li>  his daughters, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>-<a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192-195</a>;</li>
+<li>  his journeys to Yedo, <a href="#Page_171">171-173</a>;</li>
+<li>  his retainers, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177-179</a>, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li>
+<li>  his wife, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192-195</a>;</li>
+<li>  seclusion of, <a href="#Page_172">172-174</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dancing, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dancing girls. <a href="#Geisha"><i>See</i> Géisha.</a></li>
+
+<li>Dango Zaka, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dashi, a float used in festival processions, <a href="#Page_275">275-278</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366-369</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Days, lucky and unlucky, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Decency, Japanese standard of, <a href="#Page_255">255-260</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Deformity, caused by position in sitting, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Diet, changes in, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Divorce, among lower classes, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;
+<ul><li>  among higher classes, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>;</li>
+<li>  effect of recent legislation on, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</li>
+<li>  new laws, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>;</li>
+<li>  right to children in case of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dolls, Feast of, <a href="#Page_28">28-31</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428-430</a>;
+<ul><li>  origin of, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li>
+<li>  present meaning of, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dress, baby, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>;
+<ul><li>  court, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li>
+<li>  in daimiōs' houses, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>;</li>
+<li>  military, of samurai women, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li>
+<li>  of lower classes, <a href="#Page_126">126-128</a>;</li>
+<li>  of pilgrims, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
+<li>  present tendencies, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>;</li>
+<li>  showing age of wearer, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Education, higher, a doubtful help, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;
+<ul><li>  effect on home life, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>;</li>
+<li>  producing repugnance to marriage, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Education of daimiō's daughter, <a href="#Page_177">177-180</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Education of girls, <a href="#Page_37">37-56</a>;
+<ul><li>  action and reaction in, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>;</li>
+<li>  difficulties in new system, <a href="#Page_52">52-56</a>;</li>
+<li>  fault in Japanese system, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>;</li>
+<li>  in old times, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Embroidered robes, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Emperor, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151-153</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155-157</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_164">164-166</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Emperors, after introduction of Chinese civilization, <a href="#Page_143">143-145</a>;
+<ul><li>  children of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>;</li>
+<li>  daughters of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>;</li>
+<li>  early retirement of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li>
+<li>  in early times, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li>
+<li>  seclusion of, <a href="#Page_143">143-145</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Empress, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150-168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Empress, Dowager, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Engawa, the piazza that runs around a Japanese house, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Etiquette, court, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>;
+<ul><li>  in daimiōs' houses, <a href="#Page_177">177-179</a>;</li>
+<li>  in the home, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;</li>
+<li>  instruction in, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>;</li>
+<li>  of leaving service, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</li>
+<li>  towards servants, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Factory workers, women, <a href="#Footnote_44_44">399 <i>note</i></a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fairy tales, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Family, organization of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_439">439-442</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fancy work, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Father's relation to children, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Feast of Flags, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>;
+<ul><li>  of Lanterns, <a href="#Page_358">358-362</a>;</li>
+<li>  of the Dead, <a href="#Page_358">358-362</a>;</li>
+<li>  of Dolls, <a href="#Page_28">28-31</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428-430</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Festivals, of flowers, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295-297</a>;
+<ul><li>  of the New Year, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349-358</a>;</li>
+<li>  temple, <a href="#Page_270">270-278</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364-370</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Feudal system, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Feudal times, pictures of, <a href="#Page_190">190-192</a>;
+<ul><li>  stories of, <a href="#Page_184">184-187</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Firemen, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flirtation, unknown to Japanese girls, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flower arrangement, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flower painting, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flower shows, <a href="#Page_270">270-272</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fortune-telling, <a href="#Page_281">281-285</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331-333</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fuji, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fukuzawa, his book on the woman question, <a href="#Page_387">387-391</a>;
+<ul><li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span>
+his will, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Funeral customs, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339-349</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Furushiki, a square of cloth used for wrapping up a bundle, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Games, battledore and shuttlecock, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>;
+<ul><li>  at court, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li>
+<li>  go, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li>
+<li>  hyaku nin isshu, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>;</li>
+<li>  shogi, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li><a name="Geisha" id="Geisha"></a>Géisha, a professional dancing and singing girl, <a href="#Page_286">286-289</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Géisha ya, an establishment where géishas may be hired, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Géta, a wooden clog, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ginza, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Girlhood" id="Girlhood"></a>Girlhood, <a href="#Page_17">17-34</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gohei, a piece of white paper folded and cut in a peculiar manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shintō faith, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Hakama, the kilt-pleated trousers that formed a part of the dress of
+every Japanese gentleman, also the skirt worn by school-girls over the
+kimono, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or crêpe, worn over the kimono, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in the abdomen, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Haru, Prince, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_442">442-444</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446-452</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Haru, Empress, <a href="#Page_155">155-168</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Héimin, the class of farmers, artisans, and merchants, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>;
+<ul><li>  class characteristics of, <a href="#Page_229">229-240</a>, <a href="#Page_464">464-468</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hibachi, a brazier for burning charcoal, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hidéyoshi. <a href="#Toyotomi"><i>See</i> Toyotomi.</a></li>
+
+<li>Hinin, a class of paupers, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hiyéi Zan, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Holidays, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hotel-keepers, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hotels, <a href="#Page_247">247-250</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Household duties, training for, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Household worship, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hyaku nin isshu, "Poems of a Hundred Poets," the name of a game, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Inkyo, a place of retirement, the home of a person who has retired from
+active life, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Instruction" id="Instruction"></a>Instruction, in etiquette, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;
+<ul><li>  in flower arranging, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;</li>
+<li>  in music, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>;</li>
+<li>  in painting, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>;</li>
+<li>  in reading and writing, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>;</li>
+<li>  in tea ceremony, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Inu, a dog, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Isé, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Iwafuji, <a href="#Page_210">210-213</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Iwakura, Prince, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Iya, a child's word, denoting dislike or negation, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Iyémitsŭ, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Iyéyasŭ, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Japan-China war, <a href="#Page_458">458-462</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Japanese language, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Japanese literature, <a href="#Page_147">147-150</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jimmu Tenno, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jin, benevolence, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jingo Kōgō, <a href="#Page_139">139-143</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Jinrikisha" id="Jinrikisha"></a>Jinrikisha, a light carriage drawn by one or more men, and which will
+hold one or two persons, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Jinrikisha_man" id="Jinrikisha_man"></a>Jinrikisha man, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319-324</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jishi, mercy, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Joro" id="Joro"></a>Jōrō, a prostitute, <a href="#Page_289">289-292</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406-411</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Joroya" id="Joroya"></a>Jōroya, a house of prostitution, <a href="#Page_290">290-292</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406-411</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Kaibara's "Great Learning of Women," <a href="#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kakémono, a hanging scroll, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kaméido, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kami-dana, "god-shelf," the household shrine used by Shintō worshippers, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kana, Japanese phonetic characters, <a href="#Footnote_8_8">40 <i>note</i></a>, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kimono, a long gown with wide sleeves and open in front, worn by Japanese of all classes, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kisses, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Knees, flexibility of, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or small fireplace in the floor, over which a wooden frame is set, and the whole covered by a quilt, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span>
+Koto, a musical instrument, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kugé, the court nobility, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kura, a fire-proof storehouse, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of any kind, used as synonymous with <a href="#Jinrikisha">jinrikisha</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuruma. <a href="#Jinrikisha_man"><i>See</i> Jinrikisha man.</a></li>
+
+<li>Kurushima, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kyōtō, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Ladies, court, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152-154</a>;
+<ul><li>  of daimiōs' families, <a href="#Page_175">175-180</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182-184</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Loyalty, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>-<a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302-304</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Mam ma, a baby's word for rice or food, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mamushi, a poisonous snake, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Manners of children, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Manzai, exorcists who drive devils out of the houses at New Year's time, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Marriage" id="Marriage"></a>Marriage, <a href="#Page_57">57-83</a>;
+<ul><li>  ceremony, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>;</li>
+<li>  feast, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li>
+<li>  festivities after, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;</li>
+<li>  guests, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;</li>
+<li>  presents, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</li>
+<li>  registration, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li>
+<li>  to yōshi, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>;</li>
+<li>  trousseau, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Marumagé, a style of arranging the hair of married ladies, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Matsuri, a festival, usually in honor of some god, <a href="#Page_274">274-278</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366-370</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Matsuri, Shobu, feast of flags, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Méiji (Enlightened Rule), the name of the era that began with the
+accession of the present Emperor in 1868, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mékaké, a concubine, <a href="#Page_111">111-114</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Men, old, dependence of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;
+<ul><li>  amusements of, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Merchants, <a href="#Page_262">262-269</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Military service of women, <a href="#Page_188">188-190</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Missionary schools, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Miya mairi, the presentation of the child at the temple when it is a
+month old. The term is also used to describe the visits to the temple at
+the ages of three, five, and seven, <a href="#Page_3">3-6</a>, <a href="#Page_425">425-427</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mochi, a kind of rice dumpling, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Momotaro, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mon, a family crest, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Montsuki, a kimono bearing the crest of the wearer, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Morality, standards of, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mother, her relation to her children, <a href="#Page_99">99-102</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mother-in-law, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>;
+<ul><li>  O Kiku's, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Moving, <a href="#Page_335">335-337</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mukōjima, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Music, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_430">430-432</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Names, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nara, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Né San. <a href="#Ane_San"><i>See</i> Ané San.</a></li>
+
+<li>New Year, preparation for, <a href="#Page_349">349-356</a>;
+<ul><li>  festival of, <a href="#Page_25">25-27</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-358</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Nikkō, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li>
+
+<li>No, a pantomimic dance, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Norimono, a palanquin, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually folded in colored paper, given with
+a present for good luck, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nurses, trained, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nursing the sick, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>O, an honorific used before many nouns, and before most names of women, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Bā San, grandmother, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Bă San, aunt, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Obi, a girdle or sash, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Bon, the feast of the dead, <a href="#Page_358">358-362</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Occupations, of the blind, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>;
+<ul><li>  of the court, <a href="#Page_143">143-150</a>;</li>
+<li>  of the daimiōs' ladies, <a href="#Page_175">175-180</a>;</li>
+<li>  of the Empress, <a href="#Page_156">156-160</a>;</li>
+<li>  of old people, <a href="#Page_120">120-122</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124-128</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;</li>
+<li>  of samurai women, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>;</li>
+<li>  of servants, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308-315</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>;</li>
+<li>  of women, <a href="#Page_85">85-103</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108-110</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-256</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279-292</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310-318</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397-402</a>;</li>
+<li>  of young girls, <a href="#Page_21">21-34</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38-47</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>O Haru, <a href="#Page_211">211-213</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Oishi, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Oji, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Jō Sama, young lady, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span>
+O kaeri, "Honorable return," a greeting shouted by the attendant upon
+the master's or mistress's return to the house, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Kaio, <a href="#Page_324">324-326</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O Kiku's marriage and divorce, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Okuma, Count, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>;
+<ul><li>  his speech on education, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Old age, privileges of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>;
+<ul><li>  provision for, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Old men, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>O miyagé, a present given on returning from a journey or pleasure excursion, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Oni, a devil or goblin, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Onoyé, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Palace, new, <a href="#Page_151">151-153</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Parents, duties to, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;
+<ul><li>  respect for, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+<li>  disadvantages in Japanese system, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Parents-in-law, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Peasant women, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240-261</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Peasantry, <a href="#Page_228">228-240</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philanthropic efforts, <a href="#Page_415">415-417</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418-421</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Physical culture in schools, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453-456</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Physicians' fees, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pilgrims, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pillow, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pleasure excursions, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+
+<li>"Poems of a hundred poets," <a href="#Page_26">26</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Poetry, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148-150</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Presents, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>;
+<ul><li>  after a wedding, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li>
+<li>  at betrothal, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>;</li>
+<li>  at miya mairi, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>;</li>
+<li>  at New Year's, <a href="#Page_353">353-355</a>;</li>
+<li>  at O Bon, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>;</li>
+<li>  at weddings, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
+<li>  how wrapped, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li>
+<li>  in honor of a birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>;</li>
+<li>  of eggs, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>;</li>
+<li>  of money, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>;</li>
+<li>  on returning from a journey, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>;</li>
+<li>  to servants, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Prisoners' Home in Tōkyō, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Prostitutes. <a href="#Joro"><i>See</i> Jōrō.</a></li>
+
+<li>Prostitution, houses of. <a href="#Joroya"><i>See</i> Jōroya.</a></li>
+
+<li>Purity of Japanese women, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Reading of women, <a href="#Page_385">385-387</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Red Cross Society, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Religion of peasantry, <a href="#Page_464">464-466</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Retirement from business, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Retirement of Emperors, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Revenge, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Revolution of 1868, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rice, red bean, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rin, one tenth of a sen, or about one half mill, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rōnin, a samurai who had lost his master and owed no allegiance to any
+daimiō, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Sada, Princess, <a href="#Page_449">449-453</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Saké, wine made from rice, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;
+<ul><li>  white, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Salvation Army's attack on jōroya, <a href="#Page_408">408-411</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sama, or San, an honorific placed after names, equivalent to Mr., Mrs., or Miss, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Samisen, a musical instrument, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Samurai, the military class, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196-227</a>,
+<a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>;
+<ul><li>  character of, <a href="#Page_197">197-207</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Samurai girls in school, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Samurai women, character of, <a href="#Page_207">207-223</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458-460</a>;
+<ul><li>  present work, <a href="#Page_223">223-327</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Satsuma rebellion, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
+
+<li>School system, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378-381</a>;
+<ul><li>  object of, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>;</li>
+<li>  statistics of, <a href="#Page_380">380</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>School, Girls', for Higher English, <a href="#Page_383">383-385</a>;
+<ul><li>  Mr. Naruse's Female University, <a href="#Page_381">381-383</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Schools, missionary, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Self-possession of Japanese girls, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Self-sacrifice, <a href="#Page_214">214-219</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sen, one hundredth part of a yen, value about five mills, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Servants, characteristics of, <a href="#Page_209">209-302</a>;
+<ul><li>  duties of, <a href="#Page_302">302-315</a>;</li>
+<li>  in employ of foreigners, <a href="#Page_299">299-302</a>;</li>
+<li>  number employed, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>;</li>
+<li>  position of, <a href="#Page_302">302-310</a>;</li>
+<li>  wages, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Sewing, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Shirōzaké, a sweet white saké used at the feast of dolls, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Shogi, Japanese chess, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Shōgun, or Tycoon, the Viceroy or so-called temporal ruler of Japan
+under the feudal system, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>,
+<a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231-234</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>;
+<ul><li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span>
+daughter of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Shōgunate, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Shoji, sliding windows covered with white paper, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Shopping, <a href="#Page_264">264-268</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sho-séi, a student, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Silk mosaic, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Silkworms, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Soba, a kind of macaroni made of buckwheat, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Soroban, an abacus, <a href="#Page_266">266-268</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sumida River, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Tabi, a mitten-like sock, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or tabi, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Taiko Sama. <a href="#Toyotomi"><i>See</i> Toyotomi.</a></li>
+
+<li>Tea, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;
+<ul><li>  ceremonial, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Tea-gardens, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tea-houses, <a href="#Page_250">250-255</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Teachers, pay of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>;
+<ul><li>  women as, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Teaching. <a href="#Instruction"><i>See</i> Instruction.</a></li>
+
+<li>Teeth, blackened after marriage, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Temple, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tengu, a monster in Japanese folklore, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Theatre, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292-294</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Titles used in families, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Toes, prehensile, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Toilet apparatus, <a href="#Page_30">30</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tōkaidō, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tokonoma, the raised alcove in a Japanese room, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tokugawa, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Tokyo" id="Tokyo"></a>Tōkyō, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tōkyō Mail, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tombs, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>.</li>
+
+<li><a name="Toyotomi" id="Toyotomi"></a>Toyotomi Hidéyoshi, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Training-schools for nurses, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_398">398</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Trousseau, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tsuda, Miss Umé, <a href="#Page_viii">viii</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Utsunomiya, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Uyéno Park, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Virtue, Japanese and Western ideas of, <a href="#Page_215">215-219</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Visits, after marriage, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>;
+<ul><li>  in honor of a birth, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>;</li>
+<li>  New Year's, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>;</li>
+<li>  to a house of mourning, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</li>
+<li>  to parents, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li>
+<li>  to tombs, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Voice in singing, <a href="#Page_430">430-432</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Wakamatsu, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wedding. <a href="#Marriage"><i>See</i> Marriage.</a></li>
+
+<li>Widows, childless, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wife, childless, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;
+<ul><li>  duties of, <a href="#Page_85">85-99</a>;</li>
+<li>  in great houses, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+<li>  relation to husband, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li>
+<li>  relation to parents-in-law, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;</li>
+<li>  social relations, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Woman question, new feeling about, <a href="#Page_371">371-373</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Women, general reading of, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>;
+<ul><li>  in the city, <a href="#Page_279">279-298</a>;</li>
+<li>  new openings for, <a href="#Page_397">397-402</a>;</li>
+<li> occupations of, <a href="#Page_85">85-103</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108-110</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-256</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279-292</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310-318</a>,
+<a href="#Page_397">397-402</a>;</li>
+<li> position of, <a href="#Page_17">17-22</a>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65-68</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76-88</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_99">99-118</a>,
+<a href="#Page_120">120-124</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a>,
+<a href="#Page_223">223-227</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-247</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371-378</a>, <a href="#Page_438">438-440</a>;</li>
+<li>property rights of, <a href="#Page_374">374-378</a>;</li>
+<li>  publications for, <a href="#Page_385">385-391</a>;</li>
+<li>  purity of, <a href="#Page_216">216-219</a>;</li>
+<li>  the new woman in old surroundings, <a href="#Page_392">392-397</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Women, old, appearance of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;
+<ul><li>  examples of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126-129</a>, <a href="#Page_467">467-469</a>;</li>
+<li>  in Japanese pictures, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Written language, proposed reforms in, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Yamato Daké, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yasaku, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>;
+<ul><li>  marriage and divorce of, <a href="#Page_69">69-73</a>.</li></ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Yasé, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yashiki, a daimiō's mansion and grounds, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>,
+<a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yedo. <a href="#Tokyo"><i>See</i> Tōkyō.</a></li>
+
+<li>Yōshi, an adopted son, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yoshiwara, a district in Tōkyō given over to disreputable houses, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Zodiac, Chinese signs of the, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Zori, a straw sandal, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<div class="tn">
+<h2>Transcriber's Note:</h2>
+
+<p>Except where index entries and the body of the text did not match,
+irregularities in hyphenation (e.g. kwankoba and kwan-ko-ba), italics,
+and spellings (e.g. vendors and venders) have not been changed. Except
+where noted below, inconsistent accents (e.g. jōroya vs. jōrōya) have
+been retained.</p>
+
+<p>The following corrections and changes were made:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#Page_120">p. 120</a>: marumage to marumagé (The <i>marumagé</i>, the style of headdress of
+married ladies)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_175">p. 175</a>: daimios' to daimiōs' (and daimiōs' houses)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_351">p. 351</a>: kakemonos to kakémonos (the kakémonos and curios)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_383">p. 383</a>: Meiji to Méiji (thirty-fourth year of Méiji)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_427">p. 427</a>: miyage to miyagé (the <i>o miyagé</i> to be purchased)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_428">p. 428</a>: shirozaké to shirōzaké (The <i>shirōzaké</i> (white <i>saké</i>))</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_429">p. 429</a>: accents added to Shōguns, Shōgun's, and Shōgunate</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_437">p. 437</a>: oufit to outfit (But this outfit)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_440">p. 440</a>: heimin to héimin (<i>héimin</i>, or plebeian)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_473">p. 473</a>: Bé-bé to Bé bé (Index entry)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_475">p. 475</a>: Index entry for "Girlhood, 17-34." added (Index entry
+"Childhood. <i>See</i> Girlhood." originally pointed to non-existent entry)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_475">p. 475</a>: Iyemitsŭ to Iyémitsŭ (Index entry)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_475">p. 475</a>: Iyeyasŭ to Iyéyasŭ (Index entry)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_476">p. 476</a>: fireproof to fire-proof (Index: Kura, a fire-proof storehouse)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_476">p. 476</a>: Jo to Jō (Index: O Jō Sama, young lady)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_477">p. 477</a>: Onouyé to Onoyé (Index entry)</li>
+<li><a href="#Page_478">p. 478</a>: folk-lore to folklore (Index: Tengu, a monster in Japanese
+folklore)</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Japanese Girls and Women
+       Revised and Enlarged Edition
+
+Author: Alice Mabel Bacon
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2010 [EBook #32449]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, S.D., and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+For the ASCII version of this e-book, letters with a macron over them
+have been represented as [=o], and letters with a breve as [)u].
+
+Page numbers from the original book have been added to asterisks that
+indicate notes in the Appendix (e.g. [*3]) in order to make it easier to
+match them to their corresponding notes. Page 61 has two notes: [*61a]
+and [*61b]. Footnotes are in the same format, without the asterisks
+(e.g. [1], [2])
+
+Please see the end of this book for more detailed notes on the text.]
+
+
+
+
+By Alice M. Bacon
+
+
+IN THE LAND OF THE GODS. 12mo, $1.50.
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside Library for Young
+People. 16mo, 75 cents.
+
+_Holiday Edition._ With 12 full-page Illustrations in color and 43
+outline drawings by Japanese artists. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $4.00.
+
+A JAPANESE INTERIOR. 16mo, $1.25. In Riverside School Library. 16mo, 60
+cents, _net_.
+
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+  JAPANESE GIRLS AND
+  WOMEN
+
+  BY
+
+  ALICE MABEL BACON
+
+  _REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION_
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  BOSTON AND NEW YORK
+  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
+  The Riverside Press Cambridge
+
+
+  Copyright, 1891, 1902,
+  BY ALICE MABEL BACON.
+
+  _All rights reserved._
+
+
+  To
+
+  STEMATZ, THE MARCHIONESS OYAMA,
+
+  IN THE NAME OF OUR GIRLHOOD'S FRIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND
+  UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPARATIONS OF OUR
+  MATURER YEARS,
+
+  This Volume
+
+  _IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER                              PAGE
+
+     I. CHILDHOOD                         1
+
+    II. EDUCATION                        37
+
+   III. MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE             57
+
+    IV. WIFE AND MOTHER                  84
+
+     V. OLD AGE                         119
+
+    VI. COURT LIFE                      138
+
+   VII. LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI      169
+
+  VIII. SAMURAI WOMEN                   196
+
+    IX. PEASANT WOMEN                   228
+
+     X. LIFE IN THE CITIES              262
+
+    XI. DOMESTIC SERVICE                299
+
+   XII. WITHIN THE HOME                 327
+
+  XIII. TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS           371
+
+        APPENDIX                        423
+
+        INDEX                           473
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION.
+
+
+In offering a revised edition of a book which has been before the public
+for more than ten years, there is little to say that has not been said
+in the original Preface. The work as published before, however, was
+always, to its author's mind, unfinished, for the reason that a chapter
+on household customs, which was necessary for the completion of the
+plan, had to be omitted because it could not be written in America.
+
+This defect has now been remedied, and the chapter "Within the Home"
+contains the supplementary matter necessary to complete the picture of a
+Japanese woman's life. In addition to this a thorough revision has been
+made of the whole book, and the subjects discussed in each chapter have
+been brought up to date by means of notes in an Appendix. The reader
+will find these notes referred to by asterisks in the text.
+
+Finally, a second supplementary chapter has been added, in which an
+effort has been made to analyze present conditions. From its nature,
+this chapter is only a rapid survey of the progress of ten years. It is
+not easy to write with judgment of conditions actually present. A little
+perspective is necessary to make sure that one sees things in their
+proper proportions. It is therefore with some hesitation that I offer to
+the public the result of two years' experience of the present state of
+affairs. If subsequent events show that my observation has been
+incorrect, I can only say that what I have written has been the
+"Thing-as-I-see-It," and does not lay claim to being the
+"Thing-as-It-is."
+
+In closing, I would thank once more the friends whose names appear in
+the previous Preface, and would add to their number the names of Mr. H.
+Sakurai and Mr. and Mrs. Seijiro Saito, who have rendered me valuable
+aid in gathering material.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,
+   _November, 1902_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+It seems necessary for a new author to give some excuse for her boldness
+in offering to the public another volume upon a subject already so well
+written up as Japan. In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey,
+Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner can a woman hope to enter? This
+is the question that will be asked, and that accordingly the author must
+answer.
+
+While Japan as a whole has been closely studied, and while much and
+varied information has been gathered about the country and its people,
+one half of the population has been left entirely unnoticed, passed over
+with brief mention, or altogether misunderstood. It is of this neglected
+half that I have written, in the hope that the whole fabric of Japanese
+social life will be better comprehended when the women of the country,
+and so the homes that they make, are better known and understood.
+
+The reason why Japanese home-life is so little understood by foreigners,
+even by those who have lived long in Japan, is that the Japanese, under
+an appearance of frankness and candor, hides an impenetrable reserve in
+regard to all those personal concerns which he believes are not in the
+remotest degree the concerns of his foreign guest. Only life in the home
+itself can show what a Japanese home may be; and only by intimate
+association--such as no foreign man can ever hope to gain--with the
+Japanese ladies themselves can much be learned of the thoughts and daily
+lives of the best Japanese women.
+
+I have been peculiarly fortunate in having enjoyed the privilege of long
+and intimate friendship with a number of Japanese ladies, who have
+spoken with me as freely, and shown the details of their lives to me as
+openly, as if bound by closest ties of kindred. Through them, and only
+through them, I have been enabled to study life from the point of view
+of the refined and intelligent Japanese women, and have found the study
+so interesting and instructive that I have felt impelled to offer to
+others some part of what I have received through the aid of these
+friends. I have, moreover, been encouraged in my work by reading, when
+it was already more than half completed, the following words from
+Griffis's "Mikado's Empire:"--
+
+"The whole question of the position of Japanese women--in history,
+social life, education, employments, authorship, art, marriage,
+concubinage, prostitution, benevolent labor, the ideals of literature,
+popular superstitions, etc.--discloses such a wide and fascinating field
+of inquiry that I wonder no one has as yet entered it."
+
+In closing, I should say that this work is by no means entirely my own.
+It is, in the first place, largely the result of the interchange of
+thought through many and long conversations with Japanese ladies upon
+the topics herein treated. It has also been carefully revised and
+criticised; and many valuable additions have been made to it by Miss Ume
+Tsuda, teacher of English in the Peeresses' School in T[=o]ky[=o], and
+an old and intimate friend. Miss Tsuda is at present in this country, on
+a two years' leave, for purposes of further study. She has, amid her
+many duties as a student at Bryn Mawr College, given much time and
+thought to this work; and a large part of whatever value it may possess
+is due to her.
+
+I would say, too, that in the verification of dates, names, and
+historical incidents, I have relied altogether upon Griffis's "Mikado's
+Empire" and Rein's "Japan," knowing that those two authors represent the
+best that has been done by foreigners in the field of Japanese history.
+
+This work also owes much, not only to the suggestions and historical
+aids contained in the "Mikado's Empire," but to Mr. Griffis himself,
+for his careful reading of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and
+suggestions. No greater encouragement can be given to an inexperienced
+author than the helpful criticism of one who has already distinguished
+himself in the same field of labor; and for just such friendly aid my
+warmest thanks are due to Mr. Griffis.
+
+                                          A. M. B.
+
+HAMPTON, VA., _February, 1891_.
+
+
+
+
+JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+
+To the Japanese baby the beginning of life is not very different from
+its beginning to babies in the Western world. Its birth, whether it be
+girl or boy, is the cause of much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry on
+the family name and inherit titles and estates, they are considered of
+more importance, but many parents' hearts are made glad by the addition
+of a daughter to the family circle.
+
+As soon as the event takes place, a special messenger is dispatched to
+notify relatives and intimate friends, while formal letters of
+announcement are sent to those less closely related. All persons thus
+notified must make an early visit to the newcomer, in order to welcome
+it into the world, and must either take with them or send before them
+some present. Toys, pieces of cotton, silk, or crepe for the baby's
+dress are regarded as suitable; and everything must be accompanied by
+fish or eggs, for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they are neatly
+arranged in a covered box, which may contain thirty, forty, or even one
+hundred eggs.[1] The baby, especially if it be the first one in a
+family, receives many presents in the first few weeks of its life, and
+at a certain time proper acknowledgment must be made and return presents
+sent. This is done when the baby is about thirty days old.
+
+[1] All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white paper, although,
+except for funerals, this paper must have some writing on it, and must
+be tied with a peculiar red and white paper string, in which is inserted
+the _noshi_, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of colored
+paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of every present.
+
+Both baby and mother have a hard time of it for the first few weeks of
+its life. The baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed over, and talked
+to so much by the visitors that come in, that it must think this world a
+trying place. The mother, too, is denied the rest and quiet she needs,
+and wears herself out in the excitement of seeing her friends, and the
+physical exercise of going through, so far as possible, the ceremonious
+bows and salutations that etiquette prescribes.
+
+Before the seventh day the baby receives its name.[2] There is no
+especial ceremony connected with this, but the child's birth must be
+formally registered, together with its name, at the district office of
+registration, and the household keep holiday in honor of the event. A
+certain kind of rice, cooked with red beans, a festival dish denoting
+good fortune, is usually partaken of by the family on the seventh day.
+
+[2] A child is rarely given the name of a living member of the family,
+or of any friend. The father's name, slightly modified, is frequently
+given to a son, and those of ancestors long ago dead are sometimes used.
+One reason for this is probably the inconvenience of similar names in
+the same family, and middle names, as a way of avoiding this difficulty,
+are unknown. The father usually names the child, but some friend or
+patron of the family may be asked to do it. Names of beautiful objects
+in nature, such as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lotos, Gold, are commonly used
+for girls, while boys of the lower classes often rejoice in such
+appellations as Stone, Bear, Tiger, etc. To call a child after a person
+would not be considered any especial compliment.[*3]
+
+The next important event in the baby's life is the _miya mairi_, a
+ceremony which corresponds roughly with our christening. On the
+thirtieth day after birth,[*4] the baby is taken for its first visit to
+the temple. For this visit great preparations are made, and the baby is
+dressed in finest silk or crepe, gayly figured,--garments made
+especially for the occasion. Upon the dress appears in various places
+the crest of the family, as on all ceremonial dresses, whether for young
+or old, for every Japanese family has its crest. Thus arrayed, and
+accompanied by members of the family, the young baby is carried to one
+of the Shinto temples, and there placed under the protection of the
+patron deity of the temple. This god, chosen from a great number of
+Shinto deities, is supposed to become the special guardian of the child
+through life. Offerings are made to the god and to the priest, and a
+blessing is obtained; and the baby is thus formally placed under the
+care of a special deity. This ceremony over, there is usually an
+entertainment of some kind at the home of the parents, especially if the
+family be one of high rank. Friends are invited, and if there are any
+who have not as yet sent in presents, they may give them at this time.
+
+It is usually on this day that the family send to their friends some
+acknowledgment of the presents received. This sometimes consists of the
+red bean rice, such as is prepared for the seventh day celebration, and
+sometimes of cakes of _mochi_, or rice paste. A letter of thanks usually
+accompanies the return present. If rice is sent, it is put in a handsome
+lacquered box, the box placed on a lacquered tray, and the whole covered
+with a square of crepe or silk, richly decorated. The box, the tray, and
+the cover are of course returned, and, curious to say, the box must be
+returned unwashed, as it would be very unlucky to send it back clean. A
+piece of Japanese paper must be slipped into the box after its contents
+have been removed, and box and tray must be given back, just as they
+are, to the messenger. Sometimes a box of eggs, or a peculiar kind of
+dried fish, called _katsuobushi_, is sent with this present, when it is
+desired to make an especially handsome return. When as many as fifty or
+one hundred return presents of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight
+tax on the mistress of the house to see that no one is forgotten, and
+that all is properly done. As special messengers are sent, a number of
+men are sometimes kept busy for two or three days.
+
+After all these festivities, a quiet, undisturbed life begins for the
+baby,--a life which is neither unpleasant nor unhealthful. It is not
+jolted, rocked, or trotted to sleep; it is allowed to cry if it chooses,
+without anybody's supposing that the world will come to an end because
+of its crying; and its dress is loose and easily put on, so that very
+little time is spent in the tiresome process of dressing and undressing.
+Under these conditions the baby thrives and grows strong and fat; learns
+to take life with some philosophy, even at a very early age; and is not
+subject to fits of hysterical or passionate crying, brought on by much
+jolting or trotting, or by the wearisome process of pinning, buttoning,
+tying of strings, and thrusting of arms into tight sleeves.
+
+The Japanese baby's dress, though not as pretty as that of our babies,
+is in many ways much more sensible. It consists of as many wide-sleeved,
+straight, silk, cotton, or flannel garments as the season of the year
+may require,--all cut after nearly the same pattern, and that pattern
+the same in shape as the grown-up _kimono_. These garments are fitted,
+one inside of the other, before they are put on; then they are laid down
+on the floor and the baby is laid into them; a soft belt, attached to
+the outer garment or dress, is tied around the waist, and the baby is
+dressed without a shriek or a wail, as simply and easily as possible.
+The baby's dresses, like those of our babies, are made long enough to
+cover the little bare feet; and the sleeves cover the hands as well, so
+preventing the unmerciful scratching that most babies give to their
+faces, as well as keeping the hands warm and dry.
+
+Babies of the lower classes, within a few weeks after birth, are carried
+about tied upon the back of some member of the family, frequently an
+older sister or brother, who is sometimes not more than five or six
+years old. The poorer the family, the earlier is the young baby thus put
+on some one's back, and one frequently sees babies not more than a month
+old, with bobbing heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands of cloth
+to the backs of older brothers or sisters, and living in the streets in
+all weathers. When it is cold, the sister's _haori_, or coat, serves as
+an extra covering for the baby as well; and when the sun is hot, the
+sister's parasol keeps off its rays from the bobbing bald head.[*8]
+Living in public, as the Japanese babies do, they soon acquire an
+intelligent, interested look, and seem to enjoy the games of the elder
+children, upon whose backs they are carried, as much as the players
+themselves. Babies of the middle classes do not live in public in this
+way, but ride about upon the backs of their nurses until they are old
+enough to toddle by themselves, and they are not so often seen in the
+streets; as few but the poorest Japanese, even in the large cities, are
+unable to have a pleasant bit of garden in which the children can play
+and take the air. The children of the richest families, the nobility,
+and the imperial family, are never carried about in this way. The young
+child is borne in the arms of an attendant, within doors and without;
+but as this requires the care of some one constantly, and prevents the
+nurse from doing anything but care for the child, only the richest can
+afford this luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a woman is able to
+care for a child, and yet go on with her household labors, and baby
+watches over mother's or nurse's shoulder, between naps taken at all
+hours, the processes of drawing water, washing and cooking rice, and all
+the varied work of the house. Imperial babies are held in the arms of
+some one night and day, from the moment of birth until they have learned
+to walk, a custom which seems to render the lot of the high-born infant
+less comfortable in some ways than that of the plebeian child.
+
+The flexibility of the knees, which is required for comfort in the
+Japanese method of sitting, is gained in very early youth by the habit
+of setting a baby down with its knees bent under it, instead of with its
+legs out straight before it, as seems to us the natural way. To the
+Japanese, the normal way for a baby to sit is with its knees bent under
+it, and so, at a very early age, the muscles and tendons of the knees
+are accustomed to what seems to us a most unnatural and uncomfortable
+posture.[3]
+
+[3] That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really unnatural and
+unhygienic, is shown by recent measurements taken by the surgeons of the
+Japanese army. These measurements prove that the small stature of the
+Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower limbs, which are
+out of proportion to the rest of the body. The sitting from early
+childhood upon the legs bent at the knee, arrests the development of
+that part of the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole
+nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the peasants, who stand
+and walk so much as to secure proper development of the legs; but among
+merchants, literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most
+plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, as a
+necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would doubtless in time alter
+the physique of the Japanese as a people.
+
+Among the lower classes, where there are few bathing facilities in the
+houses, babies of a few weeks old are often taken to the public bath
+house and put into the hot bath. These Japanese baths are usually heated
+to a temperature of a hundred to a hundred and twenty Fahrenheit,--a
+temperature that most foreigners visiting Japan find almost unbearable.
+To a baby's delicate skin, the first bath or two is usually a severe
+trial, but it soon becomes accustomed to the high temperature, and takes
+its bath, as it does everything else, placidly and in public. Born into
+a country where cow's milk is never used, the Japanese baby is wholly
+dependent upon its mother for milk,[4] and is not weaned entirely until
+it reaches the age of three or four years, and is able to live upon the
+ordinary food of the class to which it belongs. There is no intermediate
+stage of bread and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap of some kind;
+for the all-important factor--milk--is absent from the bill of fare, in
+a land where there is neither "milk for babes" nor "strong meat for them
+that are full of age."
+
+[4] Sometimes, in the old days, rice water was given to babies instead
+of milk, but it was nearly impossible to bring up a baby on this alone.
+Now both fresh and condensed milk are used, where the mother's milk is
+insufficient, but only in those parts of Japan where the foreign
+influence is felt.[*11]
+
+In consequence, partly, of the lack of proper nourishment after the
+child is too old to live wholly upon its mother's milk, and partly,
+perhaps, because of the poor food that the mothers, even of the higher
+classes, live upon, many babies in Japan are afflicted with disagreeable
+skin troubles, especially of the scalp and face,--troubles which usually
+disappear as soon as the child becomes accustomed to the regular food of
+the adult. Another consequence, as I imagine, of the lack of proper
+food at the teething period, is the early loss of the child's first
+teeth, which usually turn black and decay some time before the second
+teeth begin to show themselves. With the exception of these two
+troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy, hearty, and happy to an
+extraordinary degree, and show that most of the conditions of their
+lives are wholesome. The constant out-of-door life and the healthful
+dress serve to make up in considerable measure for the poor food, and
+the Japanese baby, though small after the manner of the race, is usually
+plump, and of firm, hard flesh. One striking characteristic of the
+Japanese baby is, that at a very early age it learns to cling like a
+kitten to the back of whoever carries it, so that it is really difficult
+to drop it through carelessness, for the baby looks out for its own
+safety like a young monkey. The straps that tie it to the back are
+sufficient for safety; but the baby, from the age of one month, is
+dependent upon its own exertions to secure a comfortable position, and
+it soon learns to ride its bearer with considerable skill, instead of
+being merely a bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one who has ever
+handled a Japanese baby can testify to the amount of intelligence shown
+in this direction at a very early age; and this clinging with arms and
+legs is, perhaps, a valuable part of the training which gives to the
+whole nation the peculiar quickness of motion and hardness of muscle
+that characterize them from childhood. It is the agility and muscular
+quality that belong to wild animals, that we see something of in the
+Indian, but to a more marked degree in the Japanese, especially of the
+lower classes.
+
+The Japanese baby's first lessons in walking are taken under favorable
+circumstances. With feet comfortably shod in the soft _tabi_, or
+mitten-like sock, babies can tumble about as they like, with no bump nor
+bruise, upon the soft matted floors of the dwelling houses. There is no
+furniture to fall against, and nothing about the room to render falling
+a thing to be feared. After learning the art of walking in the house,
+the baby's first attempts out of doors are hampered by the _zori_ or
+_geta_,--a light straw sandal or small wooden clog attached to the foot
+by a strap passing between the toes. At the very beginning the sandal
+or clog is tied to the baby's foot by bits of string fastened around the
+ankle, but this provision for security is soon discarded, and the baby
+patters along like the grown people, holding on the _geta_ by the strap
+passing between the toes. This somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient foot
+gear must cause many falls at first, but baby's experience in the art of
+balancing upon people's backs now aids in this new art of balancing upon
+the little wooden clogs. Babies of two or three trot about quite
+comfortably in _geta_ that seem to give most insecure footing, and older
+children run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all manner of active games
+upon heavy clogs that would wrench our ankles and toes out of all
+possibility of usefulness. This foot gear, while producing an awkward,
+shuffling gait, has certain advantages over our own, especially for
+children whose feet are growing rapidly. The _geta_, even if outgrown,
+can never cramp the toes nor compress the ankles. If the foot is too
+long for the clog the heel laps over behind, but the toes do not suffer,
+and the use of the _geta_ strengthens the ankles by affording no
+artificial aid or support, and giving to all the muscles of foot and
+leg free play, with the foot in a natural position. The toes of the
+Japanese retain their prehensile qualities to a surprising degree, and
+are used, not only for grasping the foot gear, but among mechanics
+almost like two supplementary hands, to aid in holding the thing worked
+upon. Each toe knows its work and does it, and they are not reduced to
+the dull uniformity of motion that characterizes the toes of a
+leather-shod nation.
+
+The distinction between the dress of the boy and the girl, that one
+notices from childhood, begins in babyhood. A very young baby wears red
+and yellow, but soon the boy is dressed in sober colors,--blues, grays,
+greens, and browns; while the little girl still wears the most gorgeous
+of colors and the largest of patterns in her garments, red being the
+predominant hue. The sex, even of a young baby, may be distinguished by
+the color of its clothing. White, the garb of mourning in Japan, is
+never used for children, but the minutest babies are dressed in
+bright-colored garments, and of the same materials--wadded cotton, silk,
+or crepe--as those worn by adults of their social grade. As these
+dresses are not as easily washed as our own cambric and flannel baby
+clothes, there is a loss among the poorer classes in the matter of
+cleanliness; and the gorgeous soiled gowns are not as attractive as the
+more washable white garments in which our babies are dressed. For model
+clothing for a baby, I would suggest a combination of the Japanese style
+with the foreign, easily washed materials,--a combination that I have
+seen used in their own families by Japanese ladies educated abroad, and
+one in which the objections to the Japanese style of dress are entirely
+obviated.
+
+The Japanese baby begins to practice the accomplishment of talking at a
+very early age, for its native language is singularly happy in easy
+expressions for children; and little babies will be heard chattering
+away in soft, easily spoken words long before they are able to venture
+alone from their perches on their mothers' or nurses' backs. A few
+simple words express much, and cover all wants. _Iya_ expresses
+discontent or dislike of any kind, and is also used for "no"; _mam ma_
+means food; _be be_ is the dress; _ta ta_ is the sock, or house shoe,
+etc. We find many of the same sounds as in the baby language of
+English, with meanings totally different. The baby is not troubled with
+difficult grammatical changes, for the Japanese language has few
+inflections; and it is too young to be puzzled with the intricacies of
+the various expressions denoting different degrees of politeness, which
+are the snare and the despair of the foreigner studying Japanese.
+
+As our little girl emerges from babyhood she finds the life opening
+before her a bright and happy one, but one hedged about closely by the
+proprieties, and one in which, from babyhood to old age, she must expect
+to be always under the control of one of the stronger sex. Her position
+will be an honorable and respected one only as she learns in her youth
+the lesson of cheerful obedience, of pleasing manners, and of personal
+cleanliness and neatness. Her duties must be always either within the
+house, or, if she belongs to the peasant class, on the farm. There is no
+career or vocation open to her: she must be dependent always upon either
+father, husband, or son, and her greatest happiness is to be gained, not
+by cultivation of the intellect, but by the early acquisition of the
+self-control which is expected of all Japanese women to an even greater
+degree than of the men. This self-control must consist, not simply in
+the concealment of all the outward signs of any disagreeable
+emotion,--whether of grief, anger, or pain,--but in the assumption of a
+cheerful smile and agreeable manner under even the most distressing of
+circumstances. The duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls
+of the family from the tenderest years; it is their great moral lesson,
+and is expatiated upon at all times by their elders. The little girl
+must sink herself entirely, must give up always to others, must never
+show emotions except such as will be pleasing to those about her: this
+is the secret of true politeness, and must be mastered if the woman
+wishes to be well thought of and to lead a happy life. The effect of
+this teaching is seen in the attractive but dignified manners of the
+Japanese women, and even of the very little girls. They are not forward
+nor pushing, neither are they awkwardly bashful; there is no
+self-consciousness, neither is there any lack of _savoir faire_; a
+childlike simplicity is united with a womanly consideration for the
+comfort of those around them. A Japanese child seems to be the product
+of a more perfect civilization than our own, for it comes into the world
+with little of the savagery and barbarian bad manners that distinguish
+children in this country, and the first ten or fifteen years of its life
+do not seem to be passed in one long struggle to acquire a coating of
+good manners that will help to render it less obnoxious in polite
+society. How much of the politeness of the Japanese is the result of
+training, and how much is inherited from generations of civilized
+ancestors, it is difficult to tell; but my impression is, that babies
+are born into the world with a good start in the matter of manners, and
+that the uniformly gentle and courteous treatment that they receive from
+those about them, together with the continual verbal teaching of the
+principle of self-restraint and thoughtfulness of others, produce with
+very little difficulty the universally attractive manners of the people.
+One curious thing in a Japanese household is to see the formalities that
+pass between brothers and sisters, and the respect paid to age by every
+member of the family. The grandfather and grandmother come first of all
+in everything,--no one at table must be helped before them in any case;
+after them come the father and mother; and lastly, the children
+according to their ages. A younger sister must always wait for the elder
+and pay her due respect, even in the matter of walking into the room
+before her. The wishes and convenience of the elder, rather than of the
+younger, are to be consulted in everything, and this lesson must be
+learned early by children. The difference in years may be slight, but
+the elder-born has the first right in all cases.
+
+Our little girl's place in the family is a pleasant one: she is the pet
+and plaything of father and elder brothers, and she is never saluted by
+any one in the family, except her parents, without the title of respect
+due to her position. If she is the eldest daughter, to the servants she
+is _O J[=o] Sama_, literally, young lady; to her own brothers and sisters,
+_Ne San_, elder sister. Should she be one of the younger ones, her given
+name, preceded by the honorific _O_ and followed by _San_, meaning Miss,
+will be the name by which she will be called by younger brothers and
+sisters, and by the servants. As she passes from babyhood to girlhood,
+and from girlhood to womanhood, she is the object of much love and care
+and solicitude; but she does not grow up irresponsible or untrained to
+meet the duties which womanhood will surely bring to her. She must learn
+all the duties that fall upon the wife and mother of a Japanese
+household, as well as obtain the instruction in books and mathematics
+that is coming to be more and more a necessity for the women of Japan.
+She must take a certain responsibility in the household; must see that
+tea is made for the guests who may be received by her parents,--in all
+but the families of highest rank, must serve it herself. Indeed, it is
+quite the custom in families of the higher classes, should a guest, whom
+it is desired to receive with especial honor, dine at the house, to
+serve the meal, not with the family, but separately for the father and
+his visitor; and it is the duty of the wife or daughter, oftener the
+latter, to wait on them. This is in honor of the guest, not on account
+of the lack of servants, for there may be any number of them within
+call, or even in the back part of the room, ready to receive from the
+hands of the young girl what she has removed. She must, therefore, know
+the proper etiquette of the table, how to serve carefully and neatly,
+and, above all, have the skill to ply the _sake_ bottle, so that the
+house may keep up its reputation for hospitality. Should guests arrive
+in the absence of her parents, she must receive and entertain them until
+the master or mistress of the house returns. She also feels a certain
+care about the behavior of the younger members of the family, especially
+in the absence of the parents. In these various ways she is trained for
+taking upon herself the cares of a household when the time comes. In all
+but the very wealthiest and most aristocratic families, the daughters of
+the house do a large part of the simple housework. In a house with no
+furniture, no carpets, no bric-a-brac, no mirrors, picture frames or
+glasses to be cared for, no stoves or furnaces, no windows to wash, a
+large part of the cooking to be done outside, and no latest styles to be
+imitated in clothing, the amount of work to be done by women is
+considerably diminished, but still there remains enough to take a good
+deal of time. Every morning there are the beds to be rolled up and
+stored away in the closet, the mosquito nets to be taken down, the rooms
+to be swept, dusted, and aired before breakfast. Besides this, there is
+the washing and polishing of the _engawa_, or piazza, which runs around
+the outside of a Japanese house between the _shoji_, or paper screens
+that serve as windows, and the _amado_, or sliding shutters, that are
+closed only at night, or during heavy, driving rains. Breakfast is to be
+cooked and served, dishes to be washed (in cold water); and then perhaps
+there is marketing to be done, either at shops outside or from the
+vendors of fish and vegetables who bring their huge baskets of
+provisions to the door; but after these duties are performed, it is
+possible to sit down quietly to the day's work of sewing, studying, or
+whatever else may suit the taste or necessities of the housewife. Of
+sewing there is always a good deal to be done, for many Japanese dresses
+must be taken to pieces whenever they are washed, and are turned, dyed,
+and made over again and again, so long as there is a shred of the
+original material left to work upon. There is washing, too, to be done,
+although neither with hot water nor soap; and in the place of ironing,
+the cotton garments, which are usually washed without ripping, must be
+hung up on a bamboo pole passed through the armholes, and pulled smooth
+and straight before they dry; and the silk, always ripped into breadths
+before washing, must be smoothed while wet upon a board which is set in
+the sun until the silk is dry.
+
+Then there are the every day dishes which our Japanese maiden must learn
+to prepare. The proper boiling of rice is in itself a study. The
+construction of the various soups which form the staple in the Japanese
+bill of fare; the preparation of _mochi_, a kind of rice dough, which is
+prepared at the New Year, or to send to friends on various festival
+occasions: these and many other branches of the culinary art must be
+mastered before the young girl is prepared to assume the cares of
+married life.
+
+But though the little girl's life is not without its duties and
+responsibilities, it is also not at all lacking in simple and innocent
+pleasures.[*24] First among the annual festivals, and bringing with it
+much mirth and frolic, comes the Feast of the New Year. At this time
+father, mother, and all older members of the family lay aside their work
+and their dignity, and join in the fun and sports that are
+characteristic of this season. Worries and anxieties are set aside with
+the close of the year, and the first beams of the New Year's sun bring
+in a season of unlimited joy for the children. For about one week the
+festival lasts, and the festal spirit remains through the whole month,
+prompting to fun and amusements of all kinds. From early morning until
+bedtime the children wear their prettiest clothes, in which they play
+without rebuke. Guests come and go, bringing congratulations to the
+family, and often gifts for all. The children's stock of toys is thus
+greatly increased, and the house overflows with the good things of the
+season, of which _mochi_, or cake made from rice dough, prepared always
+especially for this time, is one of the most important articles.
+
+The children are taken with their parents to make New Year's visits to
+their friends and to offer them congratulations, and much they enjoy
+this, as, dressed in their best, they ride from house to house in
+_jinrikishas_.[5]
+
+[5] _Jinrikisha_, or _kuruma_, a small, light carriage, usually with a
+broad top, which is drawn by a man. The _jinrikisha_ is the commonest of
+all vehicles now in use in Japan. _Jinrikisha_-man and _kurumaya_ are
+terms commonly used for the runner who draws the carriage.
+
+And then, during the long, happy evenings, the whole family, including
+even the old grandfather and grandmother, join in merry games; the
+servants, too, are invited to join the family party, and, without
+seeming forward or out of place, enter into the games with zest. One of
+the favorite games is "_Hyaku nin isshu_," literally "The poems of a
+hundred poets." It consists of two hundred cards, on each of which is
+printed either the first or last half of one of the hundred famous
+Japanese poems which give the name to the game. The poems are well known
+to all Japanese, of whatever sort or condition. All Japanese poems are
+short, containing only thirty-one syllables, and have a natural division
+into two parts. The one hundred cards containing the latter halves of
+the poems are dealt and laid out in rows, face upward, before the
+players. One person is appointed reader. To him are given the remaining
+hundred cards, and he reads the beginnings of the poems in whatever
+order they come from the shuffled pack. Skill in the game consists in
+remembering quickly the line following the one read, and rapidly finding
+the card on which it is written. Especially does the player watch his
+own cards, and if he finds there the end of the poem, the beginning of
+which has just been read, he must pick it up before any one sees it and
+lay it aside. If some one else spies the card first, he seizes it and
+gives to the careless player several cards from his own hand. Whoever
+first disposes of all his cards is the winner. The players usually
+arrange themselves in two lines down the middle of the room, and the two
+sides play against each other, the game not being ended until either one
+side or the other has disposed of all its cards. The game requires great
+quickness of thought and of motion, and is invaluable in giving to all
+young people an education in the classical poetry of their own nation,
+as well as being a source of great merriment and jollity among young and
+old.
+
+Scattered throughout the year are various flower festivals, when, often
+with her whole family, our little girl visits the famous gardens where
+the plum, the cherry, the chrysanthemum, the iris, or the azalea attain
+their greatest loveliness, and spends the day out of doors in aesthetic
+enjoyment of the beauties of nature supplemented by art. And then there
+is the feast most loved in the whole year, the Feast of Dolls, when on
+the third day of the third month the great fire-proof storehouse gives
+forth its treasures of dolls,--in an old family, many of them hundreds
+of years old,--and for three days, with all their belongings of tiny
+furnishings in silver, lacquer, and porcelain, they reign supreme,
+arranged on red-covered shelves in the finest room of the house. Most
+prominent among the dolls are the effigies of the Emperor and Empress in
+antique court costume, seated in dignified calm, each on a lacquered
+dais. Near them are the figures of the five court musicians in their
+robes of office, each with his instrument. Beside these dolls, which are
+always present and form the central figures at the feast, numerous
+others, more plebeian, but more lovable, find places on the lower
+shelves, and the array of dolls' furnishings which is brought out on
+these occasions is something marvelous. It was my privilege to be
+present at the Feast of Dolls in the house of one of the _Tokugawa
+daimi[=o]s_, a house in which the old forms and ceremonies were strictly
+observed, and over which the wave of foreign innovation had passed so
+slightly that even the calendar still remained unchanged, and the feast
+took place upon the third day of the third month of the old Japanese
+year, instead of on the third day of March, which is the usual time for
+it now. At this house, where the dolls had been accumulating for
+hundreds of years, five or six broad, red-covered shelves, perhaps
+twenty feet long or more, were completely filled with them and with
+their belongings. The Emperor and Empress appeared again and again, as
+well as the five court musicians, and the tiny furnishings and utensils
+were wonderfully costly and beautiful. Before each Emperor and Empress
+was set an elegant lacquered table service,--tray, bowls, cups, _sake_
+pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete; and in each utensil was placed
+the appropriate variety of food. The _sake_ used on this occasion is a
+sweet, white liquor, brewed especially for this feast, as different from
+the ordinary _sake_ as sweet cider is from the hard cider upon which a
+man may drink himself into a state of intoxication.[*30] Besides the
+table service, everything that an imperial doll can be expected to need
+or desire is placed upon the shelves. Lacquered _norimono_, or
+palanquins; lacquered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged black
+bulls,--these were the conveyances of the great in Old Japan, and these,
+in minute reproductions, are placed upon the red-covered shelves. Tiny
+silver and brass _hibachi_, or fire boxes, are there, with their
+accompanying tongs and charcoal baskets,--whole kitchens, with
+everything required for cooking the finest of Japanese feasts, as finely
+made as if for actual use; all the necessary toilet apparatus,--combs,
+mirrors, utensils for blackening the teeth, for shaving the eyebrows,
+for reddening the lips and whitening the face,--all these things are
+there to delight the souls of all the little girls who may have the
+opportunity to behold them. For three days the imperial effigies are
+served sumptuously at each meal, and the little girls of the family
+take pleasure in serving their imperial majesties; but when the feast
+ends, the dolls and their belongings are packed away in their boxes, and
+lodged in the fire-proof warehouse for another year.
+
+The Tokugawa collection, of which I have spoken, is remarkably full and
+costly, for it has been making for hundreds of years in one of the
+younger branches of a family which for two and a half centuries was
+possessed of almost imperial power, and lived in more than imperial
+luxury; but there are few households so poor that they do not from year
+to year accumulate a little store of toys wherewith to celebrate the
+feast, and, whether the toys are many or few, the feast is the event of
+the year in the lives of the little girls of Japan.[*31]
+
+Beside the regular feasts at stated seasons, our little girl has a great
+variety of toys and games, some belonging to particular seasons, some
+played at any time during the year. At the New Year the popular
+out-of-door games are battledoor and shuttlecock, and ball. There is no
+prettier sight, to my mind, than a group of little girls in their
+many-colored wide-sleeved dresses playing with battledoor or ball. The
+graceful, rhythmic motion of their bodies, the bright upturned eyes, the
+laughing faces, are set off to perfection by the coloring of their
+flowing drapery; and their agility on their high, lacquered clogs is a
+constant source of wonder and admiration to any one who has ever made an
+effort to walk upon the clumsy things. There are dolls, too, that are
+not relegated to the storehouse when the Feast of Dolls is ended, but
+who are the joy and comfort of their little mothers during the whole
+year; and at every _kwan-ko-ba_, or bazaar, an endless variety of games,
+puzzles, pictures to be cut out and glued together, and amusements of
+all kinds, may be purchased at extremely low rates. There is no dearth
+of games for our little girl, and many pleasant hours are spent in the
+household sitting room with games, or conundrums, or stories, or the
+simple girlish chatter that elicits constant laughter from sheer
+youthful merriment.
+
+As for fairy tales, so dear to the hearts of children in every country,
+the Japanese child has her full share. Often she listens, half asleep,
+while cuddling under the warm quilted cover of the _kotatsu_,[6] in the
+cold winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the old grandmother or
+nurse, who carries her away on the wings of imagination to the wonderful
+palace of the sea gods, or to the haunts of the terrible _oni_, monsters
+with red, distorted faces and fearful horns. Momotaro, the Peach Boy,
+with his wonderful feats in the conquest of the _oni_, is her hero,
+until he is supplanted by the more real ones of Japanese history.
+
+[6] _Kotatsu_, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fireplace in the
+floor, over which a wooden frame is set and the whole covered by a
+quilt. The family sit about it in cold weather with the quilt drawn up
+over the feet and knees.
+
+There are occasional all-day visits to the theatre, too, where, seated
+on the floor in a box, railed off from those adjoining, our little girl,
+in company with her mother and sisters, enjoys, though with paroxysms of
+horror and fear, the heroic historical plays which are now almost all
+that is left of the heroic old Japan. Here she catches the spirit of
+passionate loyalty that belonged to those days, forms her ideals of what
+a noble Japanese woman should be willing to do for parents or husband,
+and comes away taught, as she could be by no other teaching, what the
+spirit was that animated her ancestors,--what spirit must animate her,
+should she wish to be a worthy descendant of the women of old.
+
+Among these surroundings, with these duties and amusements, our little
+girl grows to womanhood. The unconscious and beautiful spirit of her
+childhood is not driven away at the dawn of womanhood by thoughts of
+beaux, of coming out in society, of a brief career of flirtation and
+conquest, and at the end as fine a marriage, either for love or money,
+as her imagination can picture. She takes no thought for these things
+herself, and her intercourse with young men, though free and
+unconstrained, has about it no grain of flirtation or romantic interest.
+When the time comes for her to marry, her father will have her meet some
+eligible young man, and both she and the young man will know, when they
+are brought together, what is the end in view, and will make up their
+minds about the matter. But until that time comes, the modest Japanese
+maiden carries on no flirtations, thinks little of men except as higher
+beings to be deferred to and waited on, and preserves the childlike
+innocence of manner, combined with a serene dignity under all
+circumstances, that is so noticeable a trait in the Japanese woman from
+childhood to old age.
+
+The Japanese woman is, under this discipline, a finished product at the
+age of sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet, and amiable, with great
+power of self-control, and a knowledge of what to do upon all occasions.
+The higher part of her nature is little developed; no great religious
+truths have lifted her soul above the world into a clearer and higher
+atmosphere; but as far as she goes, in regard to all the little things
+of daily life, she is bright, industrious, sweet-tempered, and
+attractive, and prepared to do well her duty, when that duty comes to
+her, as wife and mother and mistress of a household. The highest
+principle upon which she is taught to act is obedience, even to the
+point of violating all her finest feminine instincts, at the command of
+father or husband; and acting under that principle, she is capable of an
+entire self-abnegation such as few women of any race can achieve.
+
+With the close of her childhood, the happiest period in the life of a
+Japanese woman closes. The discipline that she has received so far,
+repressive and constant as it has often been, has been from kind and
+loving parents. She has freedom, to a certain degree, such as is unknown
+to any other country in Asia. In the home she is truly loved, often the
+pet and plaything of the household, though not receiving the caresses
+and words of endearment that children in America expect as a right, for
+love in Japan is undemonstrative.[7] But just at the time when her mind
+broadens, and the desire for knowledge and self-improvement develops,
+the restraints and checks upon her become more severe. Her sphere seems
+to grow narrower, difficulties one by one increase, and the young girl,
+who sees life before her as something broad and expansive, who looks to
+the future with expectant joy, may become, in a few years, the weary,
+disheartened woman.
+
+[7] Kisses are unknown, and regarded by conservative Japanese as an
+animal and disgusting way of expressing affection.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+EDUCATION.
+
+
+So far we have spoken only of the domestic training of a Japanese girl.
+That part of her education that she gains through teachers and schools
+must be the subject of a separate chapter. Japan differs from most
+Oriental countries in the fact that her women are considered worthy of a
+certain amount of the culture that comes from the study of books; and
+although, until recently, schools for girls were unknown in the empire,
+nevertheless every woman, except those of the lower classes, received
+instruction in the ordinary written language, while some were well
+versed in the Chinese classics and the poetic art. These, with some
+musical accomplishment, an acquaintance with etiquette and the arts of
+arranging flowers, of making the ceremonial tea, and in many cases not
+only of writing a beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as well, in the
+old days made up the whole of an ordinary woman's education. Among the
+lower classes, especially the merchant class, instruction was sometimes
+given in the various pantomimic dances which one sees most frequently
+presented by professional dancing girls. The art of dancing is not
+usually practiced by women of the higher classes, but among the
+daughters of the merchants special dances were learned for exhibition at
+home, or even at the _matsuri_ or religious festival, and their
+performance was for the amusement of spectators, and not especially for
+the pleasure of the dancers themselves. These dances are modest and
+graceful, but from the fact that they are always learned for
+entertaining an audience, however small and select, and are most
+frequently performed by professional dancers of questionable character,
+the more refined and higher class Japanese do not care especially to
+have their daughters learn them.
+
+In the old days, little girls were not sent to school, but, going to the
+house of a private teacher, received the necessary instruction in
+reading, and writing. The writing and reading at the beginning, are
+taught simultaneously, the teacher writing a letter upon a sheet of
+paper and telling the scholar its name, and the scholar writing it over
+and over until, by the time she has acquired the necessary skill in
+writing it, both name and form are indelibly imprinted upon her memory.
+To write, with a brush dipped in India ink, upon soft paper, the hand
+entirely without support, is an art that seldom can be acquired by a
+grown person, but when learned in childhood it gives great deftness in
+whatever other art may be subsequently studied. This is perhaps the
+reason why the Japanese value a good handwriting more highly than any
+other accomplishment, for it denotes a manual dexterity that is the
+secret of success in all the arts, and one who writes the Chinese
+characters well and rapidly can quickly learn to do anything else with
+the fingers.
+
+The fault that one finds with the Japanese system--a fault that lies
+deeper than the mere methods of teaching, and has its root in the
+ideographic character of the written language--is that, while it
+cultivates the memory and powers of observation to a remarkable extent,
+and while it gives great skill in the use of the fingers, it affords
+little opportunity for the development of the reasoning powers.[8] The
+years of study that are required for mastering the written language, so
+as to be able to grasp the thoughts already given to the world, leave
+comparatively little time for the conducting of any continuous thought
+on one's own account, and so we find in Japanese scholars--whether boys
+or girls--quickness of apprehension, retentive memories, industry and
+method in their study of their lessons, but not much originality of
+thought. This result comes, I believe, from the nature of the written
+language and the difficulties that attend the mastery of it; as a
+consequence of which, an educated man or woman becomes simply a student
+of other men's thoughts and sayings about things instead of being a
+student of the things themselves.
+
+[8] The Japanese written language is a strange combination of Chinese
+and Japanese, to read which a knowledge of the Chinese characters is
+necessary. Chinese literature written in the Chinese ideographs, which
+of course give no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the
+Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order of words in the
+sentence. When there have not been exact equivalent Japanese words, a
+Chinese term has come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well
+engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and spoken. In the
+forming of new words and technical terms Chinese words are used, as the
+Greek and Latin are here. There is probably no similarity in the origin
+of the two languages, but the Japanese borrowed from the Chinese about
+the sixth century A. D. their cleverly planned but most complex method
+of expressing thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese
+literature has done much for Japan, and to master this language is one
+of the essentials in the education of every boy. At least seven or eight
+thousand characters must be learned for daily use, and there are several
+different styles of writing each of them. For a scholar, twice as many,
+or even more, must be mastered in order to read the various works in
+that rich literature.
+
+The Japanese language contains a syllabary of forty-eight letters, and
+in books and newspapers for the common people is printed, by the side of
+the Chinese character, the rendering of it, in the letters of the
+_kana_, or Japanese alphabet.[*40]
+
+A Japanese woman is not expected to do much in the study of Chinese. She
+will, of course, learn a few of the most common characters, such as are
+used in letter-writing, and for the rest she will read by the help of
+the _kana_.
+
+Music in Japan is an accomplishment reserved almost entirely for women,
+for priests, and for blind men. It seems to me quite fortunate that the
+musical art is not more generally practiced, as Japanese music, as a
+rule, is far from agreeable to the untrained ear of the outside
+barbarian.[*41] The _koto_ is the pleasantest of the Japanese
+instruments, but probably on account of its large size, which makes it
+inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese house, it is used most among
+the higher classes, from the _samurai_[9] upwards. The _koto_ is an
+embryo piano, a horizontal sounding-board, some six feet long, upon
+which are stretched strings supported by ivory bridges. It is played by
+means of ivory finger-tips fitted to the thumb, forefinger, and middle
+finger of the right hand, and gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
+those of the harp. The player sits before the _koto_ on knees and heels,
+in the ordinary Japanese attitude, and her motions are very graceful and
+pretty as she touches the strings, often supplementing the strains of
+the instrument with her voice. The teaching of this instrument and of
+the _samisen_, or Japanese guitar, is almost entirely in the hands of
+blind men, who in Japan support themselves by the two professions of
+music and massage,--all the blind, who cannot learn the former, becoming
+adepts in the latter profession.
+
+[9] The _samurai_ in the feudal times were the hereditary retainers of a
+_daimi[=o]_, or feudal lord. They formed the military and literary class.
+For further information, see chap. viii., on _Samurai Women_.
+
+The arrangement of flowers is taught as a fine art, and much time may
+be spent in learning how, by clipping, bending, and fixing in its place
+in the vase, each spray and twig may be made to look as if actually
+growing, for flower arranging is not merely to show the flower itself,
+but includes the proper arrangement of the branches, twigs, and leaves
+of plants. The flower plays only a small part, and is not used in
+decoration, except on the branch and stem as it is in nature, and the
+art consists in the preservation of the natural bend and growth when
+fixed in the vase. In every case, each branch has certain curves, which
+must be in harmony with the whole. Branches of pine, bamboo, and the
+flowering plum are much used.
+
+Teachers spend much time in showing proper and improper combinations of
+different flowers, as well as the arrangement of them. Many different
+styles have come up, originated by the famous teachers who have founded
+various schools of the art,--an art which is unique and exceedingly
+popular, requiring artistic talent and a cultivated eye. One often sees,
+on going into the guest room of a Japanese house, a vase containing
+gracefully arranged flowers set in the _tokonoma_, or raised alcove of
+the room, under the solitary _kakemono_[10] that forms the chief
+ornament of the apartment. As these two things, the vase of flowers and
+the hanging scroll, are the only adornments, it is more necessary that
+the flowers should be carefully arranged, than in our crowded rooms,
+where a vase of flowers may easily escape the eye, perplexed by the
+multitude of objects which surround it.
+
+[10] _Kakemono_, a hanging scroll, upon which a picture is painted, or
+some poem or sentiment written.
+
+The ceremonial tea must not be confounded with the ordinary serving of
+tea for refreshment. The proper making, and serving, and drinking of the
+ceremonial tea is the most formal of social observances, each step in
+which is prescribed by a rigid code of etiquette. The tea, instead of
+being the whole leaf, such as is used for ordinary occasions, is a fine,
+green powder. The infusion is made, not in a small pot, from which it is
+poured out into cups, but in a bowl, into which the hot water is poured
+from a dipper on to the powdered tea. The mixture is stirred with a
+bamboo whisk until it foams, then handed with much ceremony to the
+guest, who takes it with equal ceremony and drinks it from the bowl,
+emptying the receptacle at three gulps. Should there be a number of
+guests, tea is made for each in turn, in the order of their rank, in the
+same bowl. For this ceremonial tea, a special set of utensils is used,
+all of antique and severely simple style. The charcoal used for heating
+the water is of a peculiar variety; and the room in which the tea is
+made and served is built for that special purpose, and kept sacred for
+that use. This art, which is often part of the education of women of the
+higher classes, is taught by regular teachers, often by gentlewomen who
+have fallen into distressed circumstances.[*45] I remember with great
+vividness a visit paid to an old lady living near a provincial city of
+Japan, who had for years supported herself by giving lessons in this
+politest of arts. Her little house, of the daintiest and neatest type,
+seemed filled to overflowing by three foreigners, whom she received with
+the courtliest of welcomes. At the request of my friend, an American
+lady engaged in missionary work in that part of the country, she gave us
+a lesson in the etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every motion, from the
+bringing in and arranging of the utensils to the final rinsing and
+wiping of the tea bowl, was according to rules strictly laid down, and
+the whole ceremony had more the solemnity of a religious ritual than the
+lightness and gayety of a social occasion.
+
+Etiquette of all kinds is not left in Japan to chance, to be learned by
+observation and imitation of any model that may present itself, but is
+taught regularly by teachers who make a specialty of it. Everything in
+the daily life has its rules, and the etiquette teacher has them all at
+her fingers' ends. There have been several famous teachers of etiquette,
+and they have formed systems which differ in minor points, while
+agreeing in the principal rules. The etiquette of bowing, the position
+of the body, the arms, and the head while saluting, the methods of
+shutting and opening the door, rising and sitting down on the floor, the
+manner of serving a meal, or tea, are all, with the minutest details,
+taught to the young girls, who, I imagine, find it rather irksome. I
+know two young girls of new Japan who find nothing so wearisome as
+their etiquette lesson, and would gladly be excused from it. I have
+heard them, after their teacher had left, slyly make fun of her stiff
+and formal manners. Such people as she will, I fear, soon belong only to
+the past, though it still remains to be seen how much of European
+manners will be engrafted on the old formalities of Japanese life. It
+is, perhaps, because of this regular teaching in the ways of polite
+society, that the Japanese girl seems never at a loss, even under
+unusual circumstances, but bears herself with self-possession in places
+where young girls in America would be embarrassed and awkward.
+
+But the Japanese are rapidly finding out that this busy nineteenth
+century gives little time for learning how to shut and open doors in the
+politest manner, and indeed such things under the newly established
+school system are now relegated entirely to the girls' schools, the boys
+having no lessons in etiquette.
+
+The method of teaching flower-painting is so interesting that I must
+speak of it before I leave the subject of accomplishments. I have said
+that the acquisition of skill in writing the Chinese characters was the
+best possible preparation for skill in all other arts. This is
+especially true of the art of painting, which is simply the next step,
+after writing has been learned. The painting master, when he comes to
+the house, brings no design as a model, but sits down on the floor
+before the little desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with great
+rapidity the design that he wishes the pupil to copy. It may be simply
+two or three blades of grass upon which the pupil makes a beginning, but
+she is expected to make her picture with exactly the same number of bold
+strokes that the master puts into his. Again and again she blunders her
+strokes on to a sheet of paper, until at last, when sheet after sheet
+has been spoiled, she begins to see some semblance of the master's copy
+in her own daub. She perseveres, making copy after copy, until she is
+able from memory to put upon the paper at a moment's notice the three
+blades of grass to her master's satisfaction. Only then can she go on to
+a new copy, and only after many such designs have been committed to
+memory, and the free, dashing stroke necessary for Japanese painting has
+been acquired, is she allowed to undertake any copying from nature, or
+original designing.[*49]
+
+I have dwelt thus far only upon the entirely Japanese education that was
+permitted to women under the old regime. That it was an effective and
+refining system, all can testify who have made the acquaintance of any
+of the charming Japanese ladies whose schooling was finished before
+Commodore Perry disturbed the repose of old Japan. As I write, the image
+comes before me of a sweet-faced, bright-eyed little gentlewoman with
+whom it was my good fortune to become intimately acquainted during my
+stay in T[=o]ky[=o]. A widow, left penniless, with one child to support,
+she earned the merest pittance by teaching sewing at one of the
+government schools in T[=o]ky[=o]; but in all the circumstances of her
+life, narrow and busy as it needs must be, she proved herself a lady
+through and through. Polite, cheerful, an intelligent and cultivated
+reader, a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and careful mother, a true and
+helpful friend, her memory is associated with many of my pleasantest
+hours in Japan, and she is but one of the many who bear witness to the
+culture that might be acquired by women in the old days.
+
+But the Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day, and in the school
+system now prevalent throughout the empire girls and boys are equally
+provided for. First the schools established by the various missionary
+societies, and then the government schools, offered to girls a broader
+education than the old instruction in Chinese, in etiquette, and in
+accomplishments. Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and
+villages are alive with boys and girls clattering along, with their
+books and lunch boxes in their hands, to the kindergarten, primary,
+grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in life, every grade in
+learning, may find its proper place in the new school system, and the
+girls eagerly grasp their opportunities, and show themselves apt and
+willing students of the new learning offered to them.
+
+By the new system, at its present stage of development, too much is
+expected of the Japanese boy or girl. The work required would be a
+burden to the quickest mind. The whole of the old education in Japanese
+and Chinese literature and composition--an education requiring the best
+years of a boy's life--is given, and grafted upon this, our
+common-school and high-school studies of mathematics, geography,
+history, and natural science. In addition to these, at all higher
+schools, one foreign language is required, and often two, English
+ranking first in the popular estimation. Many a headache do the poor,
+hard-working students have over the puzzling English language, in which
+they have to begin at the wrong end of the book and read across the page
+from left to right, instead of from top to bottom, and from right to
+left, as is natural to them. But in spite of its hard work, the new
+school life is cheerful and healthful, and the children enjoy it. It
+helps them to be really children, and, while they are young, to be merry
+and playful, not dignified and formal little ladies at all times. Upon
+the young girls, the influence of the schools is to make them more
+independent, self-reliant, and stronger women. In the houses of the
+higher classes, even now, much of the old-time system of repression is
+still in force. Children are indeed "seen but not heard," and from the
+time when they learn to walk they must learn to be polite and
+dignified. At school, the more progressive feeling of the times
+predominates among the authorities, and the children are encouraged to
+unbend and enjoy themselves in games and frolics, as true children
+should do. Much is done for the pleasure of the little ones, who often
+enjoy school better than home, and declare that they do not like
+holidays.[*52]
+
+But the young girl, who has finished this pleasant school life, with all
+its advantages, is not as well fitted as under the old system for the
+duties and trials of married life, unless under exceptional
+circumstances, where the husband chosen has advanced ideas. To those
+teaching the young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of how to educate
+them aright is a deep one, and with each newly trained girl sent out go
+many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in regard to the training she has
+had as a preparation for the new life she is about to enter. The few,
+the pioneers, will have to suffer for the happiness and good of the
+many, for the problem of grafting the new on to the old is indeed a
+difficult one, to be solved only after many experiments.
+
+There are many difficulties which lie in the way of the new schools
+that must be met, studied, and overcome. One of them is the one already
+referred to, the problem of how best to combine the new and the old in
+the school curriculum. That the old learning and literature, the old
+politeness and sweetness of manner, must not be given up or made little
+of, is evident to every right-minded student of the matter. That the
+newer and broader culture, with its higher morality, its greater
+development of the best powers of the mind, must play a large part in
+the Japan of the future, there is not a shadow of doubt, and the women
+must not be left behind in the onward movement of the nation. But how to
+give to the young minds the best products of the thought of two such
+distinct civilizations is a question that is as yet unanswered, and
+cannot be satisfactorily settled until the effect of the new education
+has begun to show itself in a generation or so of graduates from the new
+schools. Another difficulty is in the matter of health. Most of the new
+school-houses are fitted with seats and desks, such as are found in
+American schools. Many of them are heated by stoves or furnaces. The
+scholars in most cases wear the Japanese dress, which in winter is made
+warm enough to be worn in rooms having no artificial heat. Put this warm
+costume into an artificially heated room and the result is an
+over-heating of the body, and a subsequent chill when the pupil goes,
+with no extra covering, into the keen out-of-door air. From this cause
+alone, arise many colds and lung troubles, which can be prevented when
+more experience has shown how the costumes of the East and West can be
+combined to suit the new conditions. Another part of the health problem
+lies in the fact that in many cases the parents do not understand the
+proper care of a growing girl, ambitious to excel in her studies.
+Instead of the regular hours, healthful food, and gentle restraint that
+a girl needs under those circumstances, our little Japanese maiden is
+allowed to sit up to any hour of the night, or arise at any hour in the
+morning, to prepare her lessons, is given food of most indigestible
+quality at all hours of the day between her regular meals, and is
+frequently urged to greater mental exertion than her delicate body can
+endure.
+
+Another difficulty, in fitting the new school system into the customs
+of the people, lies in the early age at which marriages are contracted.
+Before the girl has finished her school course, her parents begin to
+wonder whether there is not danger of her being left on their hands
+altogether, if they do not hand her over to the first eligible young man
+who presents himself. Sometimes the girl makes a brave fight, and
+remains in school until her course is finished; more often she succumbs
+and is married off, bids a weeping farewell to her teachers and
+schoolmates, and leaves the school, to become a wife at sixteen, a
+mother at eighteen, and an old woman at thirty. In some cases, the
+breaking down of a girl's health may be traced to threats on the part of
+her parents that, if she does not take a certain rank in her studies,
+she will be taken from school and married off.[*55]
+
+These are difficulties that may be overcome when a generation has been
+educated who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes that now endanger the
+health of a Japanese school-girl. In the mean time, boarding schools,
+that can attend to matters of health and hygiene among the girls,
+would, if they could be conducted with the proper admixture of Eastern
+and Western learning and manners, do a great deal toward educating that
+generation. The missionary schools do much in this direction, but the
+criticism of the Japanese upon the manners of the girls educated in
+missionary schools is universally severe. To a foreigner who has lived
+almost entirely among Japanese ladies of pure Japanese education, the
+manners of the girls in these schools seem brusque and awkward; and
+though they are many of them noble women and doing noble work, there is
+room for hope that in the future of Japan the charm of manner which is
+the distinguishing feature of the Japanese woman will not be lost by
+contact with our Western shortness and roughness. A happy mean
+undoubtedly can be reached; and when it is, the women of new Japan will
+be able to bear a not unfavorable comparison with the women of the old
+regime.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.
+
+
+When the Japanese maiden arrives at the age of sixteen, or thereabouts,
+she is expected as a matter of course to marry. She is usually allowed
+her choice in regard to whether she will or will not marry a certain
+man, but she is expected to marry some one, and not to take too much
+time in making up her mind. The alternative of perpetual spinsterhood is
+never considered, either by herself or her parents. Marriage is as much
+a matter of course in a woman's life as death, and is no more to be
+avoided. This being the case, our young woman has only as much liberty
+of choice accorded to her as is likely to provide against a great amount
+of unhappiness in her married life. If she positively objects to the man
+who is proposed to her, she is seldom forced to marry him, but no more
+cordial feeling than simple toleration is expected of her before
+marriage.
+
+The courtship is somewhat after the following manner. A young man, who
+finds himself in a position to marry, speaks to some married friend, and
+asks him to be on the lookout for a beautiful[11] and accomplished
+maiden, who would be willing to become his wife. The friend, acting
+rather as advance agent, makes a canvass of all the young maidens of his
+acquaintance, inquiring among his friends; and finally decides that
+so-and-so (Miss Flower, let us say) will be a very good match for his
+friend. Having arrived at this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's
+parents and lays the case of his friend before them. Should they approve
+of the suitor, a party is arranged at the house of some common friend,
+where the young people may have a chance to meet each other and decide
+each upon the other's merits. Should the young folks find no fault with
+the match, presents are exchanged,[12] a formal betrothal is entered
+into, and the marriage is hastened forward. All arrangements between the
+contracting parties are made by go-betweens, or seconds, who hold
+themselves responsible for the success of the marriage, and must be
+concerned in the divorce proceedings, should divorce become desirable or
+necessary.
+
+[11] The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in many respects
+from our own, so that it is almost impossible for a foreigner visiting
+Japan to comprehend the judgments of the Japanese in regard to the
+beauty of their own women, and even more impossible for the untraveled
+Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreigner's judgments upon either
+Japanese or foreign beauties. To the Japanese, the ideal female face
+must be long and narrow; the forehead high and narrow in the middle, but
+widening and lowering at the sides, conforming to the outline of the
+beloved Fuji, the mountain that Japanese art loves to picture. The hair
+should be straight and glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese
+ladies who have the misfortune to have any wave or ripple in their hair,
+as many of them do, are at as much pains to straighten it in the
+dressing as American ladies are to simulate a natural curl, when Nature
+has denied them that charm. The eyes should be long and narrow, slanting
+upward at the outer corners; and the eyebrows should be delicate lines,
+high above the eye itself. The distinctly aquiline nose should be low at
+the bridge, the curve outward beginning much lower down than upon the
+Caucasian face; and the eye-socket should not be outlined at all, either
+by the brow, the cheek, or by the nose. It is this flatness of the face
+about the eyes that gives the mildness of expression to all young people
+of Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in their
+physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japanese lady must be small,
+and the lips full and red; the neck, a conspicuous feature always when
+the Japanese dress is worn, should be long and slender, and gracefully
+curved. The complexion should be light,--a clear ivory-white, with
+little color in the cheeks. The blooming country girl style of beauty is
+not admired, and everything, even to color in the cheeks, must be
+sacrificed to gain the delicacy that is the _sine qua non_ of the
+Japanese beauty. The figure should be slender, the waist long, but not
+especially small, and the hips narrow, to secure the best effect with
+the Japanese dress. The head and shoulders should be carried slightly
+forward, and the body should also be bent forward slightly at the waist,
+to secure the most womanly and aristocratic carriage. In walking, the
+step should be short and quick, with the toes turned in, and the foot
+lifted so slightly that either clog or sandal will scuff with every
+step. This is necessary for modesty, with the narrow skirt of the
+Japanese dress.
+
+Contrast with this type the fair, curling hair, the round blue eyes, the
+rosy cheeks, the erect, slim-waisted, large-hipped figures of many
+foreign beauties,--the rapid, long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of
+almost masculine strength and independence, which belongs especially to
+English and American women,--and one can see how the Japanese find
+little that they recognize as beauty among them. Blue eyes, set into
+deep sockets, and with the bridge of the nose rising as a barrier
+between them, impart a fierce grotesqueness to the face, that the
+untraveled Japanese seldom admire. The very babies will scream with
+horror at first sight of a blue-eyed, light-haired foreigner, and it is
+only after considerable familiarity with such persons that they can be
+induced to show anything but the wildest fright in their presence.
+Foreigners who have lived a great deal among the Japanese find their
+standards unconsciously changing, and see, to their own surprise, that
+their countrywomen look ungainly, fierce, aggressive, and awkward among
+the small, mild, shrinking, and graceful Japanese ladies.
+
+[12] The present from the groom is usually a piece of handsome silk,
+used for the _obi_ or girdle. This takes the place of the conventional
+engagement ring of Europe and America.[*60] From the family of the
+bride, silk, such as is made up into men's dresses, is sent.
+
+The marriage ceremony, which seems to be neither religious nor legal in
+its nature,[*61a] takes place at the house of the groom, to which the
+bride is carried, accompanied by her go-betweens, and, if she be of the
+higher classes, by her own confidential maid, who will serve her as her
+personal attendant in the new life in her husband's house. The trousseau
+and household goods, which the bride is expected to bring with her, are
+sent before.[*61b] The household goods required by custom as a part of
+the outfit of every bride are as follows: A bureau; a low desk or table
+for writing; a work-box; two of the lacquer trays or tables on which
+meals are served, together with everything required for furnishing them,
+even to the chopsticks; and two or more complete sets of handsome bed
+furnishings. The trousseau will contain, if the bride be of a well-to-do
+family, dresses for all seasons, and handsome sashes without number; for
+the unchanging fashions of Japan, together with the durable quality of
+the dress material, make it possible for a woman, at the time of her
+marriage, to enter her husband's house with a supply of clothing that
+may last her through her lifetime. The parents of the bride, in giving
+up their daughter, as they do when she marries, show the estimation in
+which they have held her by the beauty and completeness of the trousseau
+with which they provide her. This is her very own; and in the event of a
+divorce, she brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and
+household goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+With the bride and her trousseau are sent a great number of presents
+from the family of the bride to the members of the groom's household.
+Each member of the family, from the aged grandfather to the youngest
+grandchild, receives some remembrance of the occasion; and even the
+servants and retainers, down to the _jinrikisha_ men, and the _bett[=o]_
+in the stables, are not forgotten by the bride's relatives. Beside this
+present-giving, the friends and relatives of the bride and groom, as in
+this country, send gifts to the young couple, often some article for use
+in the household, or crepe or silk for dresses.
+
+In old times, the wedding took place in the afternoon, but it is now
+usually celebrated in the evening. The ceremony consists merely in a
+formal drinking of the native wine (_sake_) from a two-spouted cup,
+which is presented to the mouths of the bride and groom alternately.
+This drinking from one cup is a symbol of the equal sharing of the joys
+and sorrows of married life. At the ceremony no one is present but the
+bride and bridegroom, their go-betweens, and a young girl, whose duty it
+is to present the cup to the lips of the contracting parties. When this
+is over, the wedding guests, who have been assembled in the next room
+during the ceremony, join the wedding party, a grand feast is spread,
+and much merriment ensues.[13]
+
+[13] Many women still blacken their teeth after marriage, after the
+manner universal in the past; but this custom is, fortunately, rapidly
+going out of fashion.
+
+On the third day after the wedding, the newly married couple are
+expected to make a visit to the bride's family, and for this great
+preparations are made. A large party is usually given by the bride's
+parents, either in the afternoon or evening, in honor of this occasion,
+to which the friends of the bride's family are invited. The young
+couple bring with them presents from the groom's family to the bride's,
+in return for the presents sent on the wedding day.[*64]
+
+The festivities often begin early in the afternoon and keep up until
+late at night. A fine dinner is served, and music and dancing, by
+professional performers, or some other entertainment, serve to make the
+time pass pleasantly. The bride appears as hostess with her mother,
+entertaining the company, and receiving their congratulations, and must
+remain to speed the last departing guest, before leaving the paternal
+roof.
+
+Within the course of two or three months, the newly married couple are
+expected to give an entertainment, or series of entertainments, to their
+friends, as an announcement of the marriage. As the wedding ceremony is
+private, and no notice is given, nor are cards sent out, this is
+sometimes the first intimation that is received of the marriage by many
+of the acquaintances, though the news of a wedding usually travels
+quickly. The entertainment may be a dinner party, given at home, or at
+some tea-house, similar in many ways to the one given at the bride's
+home by her parents. Sometimes it is a garden party, and very lately it
+has become the fashion for officials and people of high rank to give a
+ball in foreign style.
+
+Besides the entertainment, presents of red rice, or _mochi_, are sent as
+a token of thanks to all who have remembered the young couple. These are
+arranged even more elaborately than the ones sent after the birth of an
+heir.
+
+The young people are not, as in this country, expected to set up
+housekeeping by themselves, and establish a new home. Marriages often
+take place early in life, even before the husband has any means of
+supporting a family; and as a matter of course, a son with his wife
+makes his abode with his parents, and forms simply a new branch of the
+household.
+
+The only act required to make the marriage legal is the withdrawal of
+the bride's name from the list of her father's family as registered by
+the government, and its entry upon the register of her husband's family.
+From that time forward she severs all ties with her father's house, save
+those of affection, and is more closely related by law and custom to
+her husband's relatives than to her own. Even this legal recognition of
+her marriage is a comparatively new thing in Japan, as is any limitation
+of the right of divorce on the part of the husband, or extension of that
+right to the wife.[14]
+
+[14] "As early as 1870 an edict was published by which official notice
+and approbation were made necessary preliminaries to every matrimonial
+contract. In the following year the class-limitations upon freedom of
+marriage were abolished, and two years later the right of suing for a
+divorce was conceded to the wife."--Rein's _Japan_, p. 425.
+
+At present in Japan the marriage relation is by no means a permanent
+one, as it is virtually dissoluble at the will of either party, and the
+condition of public opinion is such among the lower classes that it is
+not an unknown occurrence for a man to marry and divorce several wives
+in succession; and for a woman, who has been divorced once or twice, to
+be willing and able to marry well a second or even a third time. Among
+the higher classes, the dread of the scandal and gossip, that must
+attach themselves to troubles between man and wife, serves as a
+restraint upon too free use of the power of divorce; but still,
+divorces among the higher classes are so common now that one meets
+numerous respectable and respected persons who have at some time in
+their lives gone through such an experience.
+
+One provision of the law, which serves to make most mothers endure any
+evil of married life rather than sue for a divorce, is the fact that the
+children belong to the father; and no matter how unfit a person he may
+be to have the care of them, the disposal of them in case of a divorce
+rests absolutely with him. A divorced woman returns childless to her
+father's house; and many women, in consequence of this law or custom,
+will do their best to keep the family together, working the more
+strenuously in this direction, the more brutal and worthless the husband
+proves himself to be.
+
+The ancestor worship, as found in Japan, the tracing of relationship in
+the male line only, and the generally accepted belief that children
+inherit their qualities from their father rather than from the mother,
+make them his children and not hers. Thus we often see children of noble
+rank on the father's side, but ignoble on the mother's, inherit the
+rank of their father, and not permitted even to recognize their mother
+as in any way their equal. If she is plebeian, the children are not
+regarded as tainted by it.
+
+In the case of divorce, even if the law allowed the mother to keep her
+children, it would be almost an impossibility for her to do so. She has
+no means of earning her bread and theirs, for few occupations are open
+to women, and she is forced to become a dependent on her father, or some
+male relative. Whatever they may be willing to do for her, it is quite
+likely that they would begrudge aid to the children of another family,
+with whom custom hardly recognizes any tie. The children are the
+children of the man whose name they bear. If the woman is a favorite
+daughter, it may happen that her father will take her and her children
+under his roof, and support them all; but this is a rare exception, and
+only possible when the husband first gives up all claim to the children.
+
+There comes to my mind now a case illustrating this point, which I think
+I may cite without betraying confidence. It is that of a most attractive
+young woman who was married to a worthless husband, but lived
+faithfully with him for several years, and became the mother of three
+children. The husband, who seemed at first merely good-for-nothing,
+became worse as the years went by, drank himself out of situation after
+situation procured for him by powerful relatives, and at last became so
+violent that he even beat his wife and threatened his children, a
+proceeding most unusual on the part of a Japanese husband and father.
+The poor wife was at last obliged to flee from her husband's house to
+her mother's, taking her children with her. She sued for a divorce and
+obtained it, and is now married again; her youth, good looks, and high
+connections procuring her a very good catch for her second venture in
+matrimony; but her children are lost to her, and belong wholly to their
+worthless, drunken father.
+
+Of the lack of permanence in the marriage relation among the lower
+classes, the domestic changes of one of my servants in T[=o]ky[=o]
+afford an amusing illustration. The man, whom I had hired in the double
+capacity of _jinrikisha_ man and _bett[=o]_ or groom, was a strong,
+faithful, pleasant-faced fellow, recently come to T[=o]ky[=o] from the
+country. I inquired, when I engaged him, whether he had a wife, as I
+wanted some one who could remain in his room in the stable in care of
+the horse when he was pulling me about in the _jinrikisha_. He replied
+that he had a wife, but she was now at Utsunomiya, the country town from
+which he had come, but he would send for her at once, and she would be
+in T[=o]ky[=o] in the course of a week or two. Two or three weeks passed
+and no wife appeared, so I inquired of my cook and head servant what had
+become of Yasaku's wife. He replied, with a twinkle in his eye, that she
+had found work in Utsunomiya and did not wish to come. A week more
+passed, and still no wife, and further inquiries elicited from the cook
+the information that Yasaku had divorced her for disobedience, and was
+on the lookout for a new and more docile helpmate. His first thought was
+of the maidservant of the Japanese family who lived in the same house
+with me, a broad-faced, red-cheeked country girl, of a very low grade of
+intelligence. He gave this up, however, because he thought it would not
+be polite to put my friends to inconvenience by taking away their
+servant. His next effort was by negotiation through a T[=o]ky[=o]
+friend; but apparently Yasaku's country manners were not to the taste of
+the T[=o]ky[=o] damsels, for he met with no success, and was at last
+driven to write to his father in Utsunomiya asking him to select him a
+wife and bring her down to T[=o]ky[=o].
+
+The selection took a week or two, and at last my maid told me that
+Yasaku's wife was coming by the next morning's train. A look into the
+_bett[=o]'s_ quarters in the stable showed great preparations for the
+bride. The mats, new-covered with nice straw matting, were white and
+clean; the _shoji_ were mended with new paper; the walls covered with
+bright-colored pictures; and various new domestic conveniences had
+nearly bankrupted Yasaku, in spite of his large salary of ten dollars a
+month. He had ordered a fine feast at a neighboring tea house, had had
+cards printed with his own name in English and Japanese, and had
+altogether been to such great expense that he had had to put his winter
+clothes in pawn to secure the necessary money.
+
+The day chosen for the marriage was rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all
+his time in going to trains, no bridal party appeared; and he came home
+at night disconsolate, to smoke his good-night pipe over his solitary
+_hibachi_. He was, no doubt, angry as well as disconsolate, for he sat
+down and penned a severe letter to his father, in which he said that, if
+the bride did not appear on the next day counted lucky for a wedding (no
+Japanese would be married on an unlucky day), they could send her back
+to her father's house, for he would none of her. This letter did its
+work, for on the next lucky day, about ten days later, the bride
+appeared, and Yasaku was given two days of holiday on the agreement that
+he should not be married again while he remained in my service. On the
+evening of the second day, the bride came in to pay me her respects,
+and, crouching on her hands and knees before me, literally trembled
+under the excitement of her first introduction to a foreigner. She was a
+girl of rather unattractive exterior, fat and heavy, and rather older
+than Yasaku had bargained for, I imagine; at any rate, from the first,
+he seemed dissatisfied with his "pig in a poke," and after a couple of
+months sent her home to her parents, and was all ready to start out
+again in the hope of better luck next time.
+
+Here is another instance, from the woman's side. Upon one occasion, when
+I was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank who kept a retinue of
+servants, the woman who came in with the tea bowed and smiled upon me as
+if greeting me after a long absence. As I was in and out of the house
+nearly every day, I was a little surprised at this demonstration, which
+was quite different from the formal bow that is given by the servant to
+her mistress's guest upon ordinary occasions. When she went out my
+friend said, "You see O Kiku has come back." As I did not know that the
+woman had been away, the news of her return did not affect me greatly
+until I learned the history of her departure. It seemed that about a
+month before, she had left her mistress's house to be married; and the
+day before my visit she had quietly presented herself, and announced
+that she had come back, if they would take her in. My friend had asked
+her what had happened,--whether she had found her husband unkind. No,
+her husband was very nice, very kind and good, but his mother was simply
+unbearable; she made her work so hard that she actually had no time to
+rest at all. She had known before her marriage that her proposed
+mother-in-law was a hard task-mistress, but her husband had promised
+that his mother should live with his older brother, and they should have
+their housekeeping quite independent and separate. As the mother was
+then living with her older son, it seemed unlikely that she would care
+to move, and O Kiku San had married on that supposition. But it seemed
+that the wife of the older brother was both lazy and bad-tempered, and
+the new wife of the younger brother soon proved herself industrious and
+good-natured. As the mother's main thought was to go where she would get
+the most comfort and waiting upon, she moved from the elder son's house
+to that of her younger son, and began leading her new daughter-in-law
+such a life that she soon gave up the effort to live with her husband,
+sued for a divorce, obtained it, and was back in her old place, all in a
+month's time from the date of her marriage.
+
+But our readers must not suppose, from the various incidents given,
+that few happy marriages take place in Japan, or that, in every rank of
+life, divorce is of every-day occurrence. On the contrary, there seems
+cause for wonder, not that there are so many divorces, but that there
+are so many happy marriages, with wives and husbands devoted and
+faithful. For a nobleman in the olden times to divorce his wife would
+have caused such a scandal and talk that it rarely occurred. If the wife
+were disliked, he need have little or nothing to do with her, their
+rooms, their meals, and their attendance being entirely separate, but he
+rarely took away from her the name of wife, empty as it might be. She
+usually would be from some other noble house, and great trouble would
+arise between the families if he attempted to divorce her. The _samurai_
+also, with the same loyalty which they displayed for their lords, were
+loyal to their wives, and many a novel has been written, or play acted,
+showing the devotion of husband and wife. The quiet, undemonstrative
+love, though very different from the ravings of a lover in the
+nineteenth century novel, is perhaps truer to life.
+
+Among the merchants and lower classes there has been, and is, a much
+lower standard of morality, but the few years which have passed since
+the Revolution of 1868 are not a fair sample of what Japan has been.
+Noblemen, _samurai_, and merchants have had much to undergo in the great
+changes, and, as is the case in all such transition periods, old customs
+and restraints, and old standards of morality, have been broken down and
+have not been replaced. There is no doubt that men have run to excesses
+of all sorts, and divorces have been much more frequent of late
+years.[*76]
+
+Our little Japanese maiden knows, when she blackens her teeth, dons her
+wedding dress, and starts on her bridal journey to her husband's house,
+that upon her good behavior alone depend her chances of a happy life.
+She is to be henceforth the property of a man of whom she probably knows
+little, and who has the power, at any whim, to send her back to her
+father's house in disgrace, deprived of her children, with nothing to
+live for or hope for, except that some man will overlook the disgrace of
+her divorce, and by marrying her give her the only opportunity that a
+Japanese woman can have of a home other than that of a servant or
+dependent. That these evils will be remedied in time, there seems little
+reason to doubt, but just now the various cooks who are engaged in
+brewing the broth of the new civilization are disagreed in regard to the
+condiments required for its proper flavoring. The conservatives wish to
+flavor strongly with the subjection and dependence of women, believing
+that only by that means can feminine virtue be preserved. The younger
+men, of foreign education, would drop into the boiling pot the flavor of
+culture and broader outlook; for by this means they hope to secure
+happier homes for all, and better mothers for their children. The
+missionaries and native Christians believe that, when the whole mixture
+is well impregnated with practical Christianity, the desired result will
+be achieved. All are agreed on this point, that a strong public opinion
+is necessary before improved legislation can produce much effect; and
+so, for the present, legislation remains in the background, until the
+time shall come when it can be used in the right way.
+
+Let us examine the two remedies suggested by the reformers, and see
+what effect has been produced by each so far, and what may be expected
+of them in the future. Taking education first, what are the effects
+produced so far by educating women to a point above the old Japanese
+standard? In many happy homes to-day, we find husbands educated abroad,
+and knowing something of the home life of foreign lands, who have sought
+out wives of broad intellectual culture, and who make them friends and
+confidants, not simply housekeepers and head-servants. In such homes the
+wife has freedom, not such as is enjoyed by American women, perhaps, but
+equal to that of most European women. In such homes love and equality
+rule, and the power of the mother-in-law grows weak. To her is paid due
+respect, but she seldom has the despotic control which often makes the
+beginning of married life hard to the Japanese wife. These homes are
+sending out healthy influences that are daily having their effect, and
+raising the position of women in Japan.
+
+But for the young girl whose mind has been broadened by the new
+education, and who marries, as the majority of Japanese girls must, not
+in accordance with her own wishes, but in obedience to the will of her
+parents, a hard life is in store. A woman's education, under the old
+regime, was one that fitted her well for the position that she was to
+occupy. The higher courses of study only serve to make her kick against
+the pricks, and render herself miserable where she might before have
+been happy. With mind and character developed by education, she may be
+obliged to enter the home of her husband's family, to be perhaps one
+among many members under the same roof. In the training of her own
+children, in the care of her own health and theirs, her wishes and
+judgment must often yield to the prejudices of those above her, under
+whose authority she is, and it may not be until many years have passed
+that she will be in a position to influence in any measure the lives of
+those nearest and dearest to her. Then, too, her life must be passed
+entirely within the home, with no opportunities to meet or to mingle
+with the great world of which she has read and studied. Surely her lot
+is harder than that of the woman of the olden time, whose plain duty
+always lay in the path of implicit obedience to her superiors, and who
+never for one moment considered obedience to the dictates of her own
+reason and conscience as an obligation higher than deference to the
+wishes of husband and parents. Education, without further amelioration
+of their lot as wives and mothers, can but result in making the women
+discontented and unhappy,--in many cases injuring their health by worry
+over the constant petty disappointments and baffled desires of their
+lives.
+
+This to superficial observers would seem a step backward rather than
+forward, and it is to this cause that the present reaction against
+female education may be traced. The first generation or two of educated
+women must endure much for the sake of those who come after, and by many
+this vicarious suffering is misunderstood, and distaste on the part of
+educated girls for marriage, as it now exists in Japan, is regarded as
+one of the sure signs that education is a failure. Without some change
+in the position of wife and mother, this feeling will grow into absolute
+repugnance, if women continue to be educated after the Western fashion.
+
+The second remedy that is suggested is Christianity, a remedy which is
+even now at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a Christian home, there
+one finds the wife and mother occupying the position that she occupies
+all over Christendom. The Christian man, in choosing his wife, feels
+that it is not an ordinary contract, which may be dissolved at any time
+at the will of the contracting parties, but that it is a union for life.
+Consequently, in making his choice he is more careful, takes more time,
+and thinks more of the personal qualities of the woman he is about to
+marry. Thus the chances are better at the beginning for the
+establishment of a happy home, and such homes form centres of influence
+throughout the length and breadth of the land to-day. Christianity in
+the future will do much to mould public sentiment in the right way, and
+can be trusted as a force that is sure to grow in time to be a mighty
+power in the councils of the nation.
+
+One more remedy might be suggested, as a preliminary to proper
+legislation, or a necessary accompaniment of it, and that is, the
+opening of new avenues of employment for women, and especially for
+women of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage, no matter how
+distasteful, is the only opening for a woman; for she can do nothing for
+her own support, and cannot require her father to support her after she
+has reached a marriageable age. As new ways of self-support present
+themselves, and a woman may look forward to making a single life
+tolerable by her own labor, the intelligent girls of the middle class
+will no longer accept marriage as inevitable, but will only marry when
+the suitor can offer a good home, kindness, affection, and security in
+the tenure of these blessings. So far, there is little employment for
+women, except as teachers; but even this change in the condition of
+things is forming a class, as yet small, but increasing yearly, of women
+who enjoy a life of independence, though accompanied by much hard work,
+more than the present life of a Japanese married woman. In this class we
+find some of the most intelligent and respected of the women of new
+Japan; and the growth of this class is one of the surest signs that the
+present state of the laws and customs concerning marriage and divorce
+is so unsatisfactory to the women that it must eventually be remedied,
+if the educated and intelligent of the men care to take for their wives,
+and for the mothers of their children, any but the less educated and
+less intelligent of the women of their own nation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WIFE AND MOTHER.[*84]
+
+
+The young wife, when she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our
+own country, entering upon a new life as mistress of a house, with
+absolute control over all of her little domain. Should her husband's
+parents be living, she becomes almost as their servant, and even her
+husband is unable to defend her from the exactions of her mother-in-law,
+should this new relative be inclined to make full use of the power given
+her by custom. Happy is the girl whose husband has no parents. Her
+comfort in life is materially increased by her husband's loss, for,
+instead of having to serve two masters, she will then have to serve only
+one, and that one more kind and thoughtful of her strength and comfort
+than the mother-in-law.
+
+In Japan the idea of a wife's duty to her husband includes no thought of
+companionship on terms of equality. The wife is simply the housekeeper,
+the head of the establishment, to be honored by the servants because she
+is the one who is nearest to the master, but not for one moment to be
+regarded as the master's equal. She governs and directs the household,
+if it be a large one, and her position is one of much care and
+responsibility; but she is not the intimate friend of her husband, is in
+no sense his confidante or adviser, except in trivial affairs of the
+household. She appears rarely with him in public, is expected always to
+wait upon him and save him steps, and must bear all things from him with
+smiling face and agreeable manners, even to the receiving with open arms
+into the household some other woman, whom she knows to bear the relation
+of concubine to her own husband.
+
+In return for this, she has, if she be of the higher classes, much
+respect and honor from those beneath her. She has, in many cases the
+real though often inconsiderate affection of her husband. If she be the
+mother of children, she is doubly honored, and if she be endowed with a
+good temper, good manners, and tact, she can render her position not
+only agreeable to herself, but one of great usefulness to those about
+her. It lies with her alone to make the home a pleasant one, or to make
+it unpleasant. Nothing is expected of the husband in this direction; he
+may do as he likes with his own, and no one will blame him; but if his
+home is not happy, even through his own folly or bad temper, the blame
+will fall upon his wife, who should by management do whatever is
+necessary to supply the deficiencies caused by her husband's
+shortcomings. In all things the husband goes first, the wife second. If
+the husband drops his fan or his handkerchief the wife picks it up. The
+husband is served first, the wife afterwards, and so on through the
+countless minutiae of daily life. It is not the idea of the strong man
+considering the weak woman, saving her exertion, guarding and deferring
+to her; but it is the less important waiting upon the more important,
+the servant deferring to her master.
+
+But though the present position of a Japanese wife is that of a
+dependent who owes all she has to her protector, and for whom she is
+bound to do all she can in return, the dependence is in many cases a
+happy one. The wife's position, especially if she be the mother of
+children, is often pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies in the
+proper conduct of her house and the training of her children. The
+service of her parents-in-law, however, must remain her first duty
+during their lifetime. She must make it her care to see that they are
+waited upon and served with what they like at meals, that their clothes
+are carefully and nicely made, and that countless little attentions are
+heaped upon them. As long as her mother-in-law lives, the latter is the
+real ruler of the house; and though in many cases the elder lady prefers
+freedom from responsibility to the personal superintendence of the
+details of housekeeping, she will not hesitate to require of her
+daughter-in-law that the house be kept to her satisfaction. If the
+maiden's lot is to be the first daughter-in-law in a large family, she
+becomes simply the one of the family from whom the most drudgery is
+expected, who obtains the fewest favors, and who is expected to have
+always the pleasantest of tempers under circumstances not altogether
+conducive to repose of spirit. The wife of the oldest son has, however,
+the advantage that, when her mother-in-law dies or retires, she becomes
+the mistress of the house and the head lady of the family, a position
+for which her apprenticeship to the old lady has probably exceptionally
+well fitted her.
+
+Next to her parents-in-law, her duty is to her husband. She must herself
+render to him the little services that a European expects of his valet.
+She must not only take care of his clothing, but must bring it to him
+and help him put it on, and must put away with care whatever he has
+taken off; and she often takes pride in doing with her own hands many
+acts of service which might be left to servants, and which are not
+actually demanded of her, unless she has no one under her to do them. In
+the poorer families all the washing, sewing, and mending that is
+required is always done by the wife; and even the Empress herself is not
+exempt from these duties of personal service, but must wait upon her
+husband in various ways.
+
+When the earliest beams of the sun shine in at the cracks of the dark
+wooden shutters which surround the house at night, the young wife in the
+family softly arises, puts out the feeble light of the _andon_,[15]
+which has burned all night, and, quietly opening one of the sliding
+doors, admits enough light to make her own toilet. She dresses hastily,
+only putting a few touches here and there to her elaborate coiffure,
+which she has not taken down for her night's rest.[16] Next she goes to
+arouse the servants, if they are not already up, and with them prepares
+the modest breakfast. When the little lacquer tables, with rice bowls,
+plates, and chopsticks are arranged in place, she goes softly to see
+whether her parents and husband are awake, and if they have hot water,
+charcoal fire, and whatever else they may need for their toilet. Then
+with her own hands, or with the help of the servants, she slides back
+the wooden shutters, opening the whole house to the fresh morning air
+and sunlight. It is she, also, who directs the washing and wiping of the
+polished floors, and the folding and putting away of the bedding, so
+that all is in readiness before the morning meal.
+
+[15] The _andon_ is the standing lamp, inclosed in a paper case, used as
+a night lamp in all Japanese houses. Until the introduction of kerosene
+lamps, the _andon_ was the only light used in Japanese houses. The light
+is produced by a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable oil.
+
+[16] The pillow used by ladies is merely a wooden rest for the head,
+that supports the neck, leaving the elaborate head-dress undisturbed.
+The hair is dressed by a professional hair-dresser, who comes to the
+house once in two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Ki[=o]to,
+where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in T[=o]ky[=o], it is
+much less frequently arranged. The process takes two hours at least.
+
+When breakfast is over, the husband starts for his place of business,
+and the little wife is in waiting to send him off with her sweetest
+smile and her lowest bow, after having seen that his foot-gear--whether
+sandal, clog, or shoe--is at the door ready for him to put on, his
+umbrella, book, or bundle at hand, and his _kuruma_ waiting for him.
+
+Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in having all the little things in his
+life attended to by his thoughtful wife,--a good, considerate, careful
+body-servant, always on hand to bear for him the trifling worries and
+cares. There is no wonder that there are no bachelors in Japan. To some
+degree, I am sure, the men appreciate these attentions; for they often
+become much in love with their sweet, helpful wives, though they do not
+share with them the greater things of life, the ambitions and the hopes
+of men.
+
+The husband started on his daily rounds, the wife settles down to the
+work of the house. Her sphere is within her home, and though, unlike
+other Asiatic women, she goes without restraint alone through the
+streets, she does not concern herself with the great world, nor is she
+occupied with such a round of social duties as fill the lives of society
+women in this country. Yet she is not barred out from all intercourse
+with the outer world, for there are sometimes great dinner parties,
+given perhaps at home, when she must appear as hostess, side by side
+with her husband, and share with him the duty of entertaining the
+guests. There are, besides, smaller gatherings of friends of her
+husband, when she must see that the proper refreshments are served, if
+they be only the omnipresent tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join in the
+number and listen to the conversation; but if there are no ladies, she
+will probably not appear, except to attend to the wants of her guests.
+There are also lady visitors--friends and relatives--who come to make
+calls, oftentimes from a distance, and nearly always unexpectedly,
+whose entertainment devolves on the wife. Owing to the great distances
+in many of the cities, and the difficulties that used to attend going
+from place to place, it has become a custom not to make frequent visits,
+but long ones at long intervals. A guest often stays several hours,
+remaining to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and, should the
+distance be great, may spend the night. So rigid are the requirements of
+Japanese hospitality that no guest is ever allowed to leave a house
+without having been pressed to partake of food, if it be only tea and
+cake. Even tradesmen or messengers who come to the house must be offered
+tea, and if carpenters, gardeners, or workmen of any kind are employed
+about the house, tea must be served in the middle of the afternoon with
+a light lunch, and tea sent out to them often during their day's work.
+If a guest arrives in _jinrikisha_, not only the guest, but the
+_jinrikisha_ men must be supplied with refreshments. All these things
+involve much thought and care on the part of the lady of the house.
+
+In the homes of rich and influential men of wide acquaintance, there is
+a great deal going on to make a pleasant variety for the ladies of the
+household, even although the variety involves extra work and
+responsibility. The mistress of such a household sees and hears a great
+deal of life; and her position requires no little wisdom and tact, even
+where the housewife has the assistance of good servants, capable, as
+many are, of sharing not only the work, but the responsibility as well.
+Clever wives in such homes see and learn much, in an indirect way, of
+the outside world in which the men live; and may become, if they possess
+the natural capabilities for the work, wise advisers and sympathizers
+with their husbands in many things far beyond their ordinary field of
+action. An intelligent woman, with a strong will, has often been, unseen
+and unknown, a mighty influence in Japan. That her power for good or
+bad, outside of her influence as wife and mother, is a recognized fact,
+is seen in the circumstance that in novels and plays women are
+frequently brought in as factors in political plots and organized
+rebellions, as well as in acts of private revenge.
+
+Still the life of the average woman is a quiet one, with little to
+interrupt the monotony of her days with their never-ending round of
+duties; and to the most secluded homes only an occasional guest comes to
+enliven the dull hours. The principal occupation of the wife, outside of
+her housekeeping and the little duties of personal service to husband
+and parents, is needle-work. Every Japanese woman (excepting those of
+the highest rank) knows how to sew, and makes not only her own garments
+and those of her children, but her husband's as well. Sewing is one of
+the essentials in the education of a Japanese girl, and from childhood
+the cutting and putting together of crepe, silk, and cotton is a
+familiar occupation to her. Though Japanese garments seem very simple,
+custom requires that each stitch and seam be placed in just such a way;
+and this way is something of a task to learn. To the uninitiated
+foreigner, the general effect of the loosely worn _kimono_ is the same,
+whether the garment be well or ill made; but the skillful seamstress can
+easily discover that this seam is not turned just as it should be, or
+that those stitches are too long or too short, or carelessly or unevenly
+set.
+
+Fancy work[17] or embroidery is not done in the house, the gorgeous
+embroidered Japanese robes being the product of professional workmen.
+Instead of the endless fancy work with silks, crewels, or worsteds, over
+which so many American ladies spend their leisure hours, many of the
+Japanese ladies, even of the highest rank, devote much time to the
+cultivation of the silkworm. In country homes, and in the great cities
+as well, wherever spacious grounds afford room for the growth of
+mulberry trees, silkworms are raised and watched with care; an
+employment giving much pleasure to those engaged in it.
+
+[17] The one exception to this statement, so far as I know, is the
+species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the _daimi[=o]s'_ houses.
+(See chap. vii.)
+
+It is difficult for any one who has not experimented in this direction
+to realize how tender these little spinners are. If a strong breeze blow
+upon them, they are likely to suffer for it, and the least change in the
+atmosphere must be guarded against. For forty days they must be
+carefully watched, and the great, shallow, bamboo basket trays
+containing them changed almost daily. New leaves for their food must be
+given frequently, and as the least dampness might be fatal, each leaf,
+in case of rainy weather, is carefully wiped. Then, too, the different
+ages of the worms must be considered in preparing their food; as, for
+the young worms, the leaves should be cut up, while for the older ones
+it is better to serve them whole. When, finally, the buzzing noise of
+the crunching leaves has ceased, and the last worm has put himself to
+sleep in his precious white cocoon, the work of the ladies is ended; for
+the cocoons are sent to women especially skilled in the work, by them to
+be spun off, and the thread afterwards woven into the desired fabric.
+When at last the silk, woven and dyed, is returned to the ladies by
+whose care the worms were nourished until their work was done, it is
+shown with great pride as the product of the year's labor, and if given
+as a present will be highly prized by the recipient.
+
+Among the daily tasks of the housewife, one, and by no means the least
+of her duties, is to receive, duly acknowledge, and return in suitable
+manner, the presents received in the family. Presents are not confined
+to special seasons, although upon certain occasions etiquette is rigid
+in its requirements in this matter, but they may be given and received
+at all times, for the Japanese are preeminently a present-giving nation.
+For every present received, sooner or later, a proper return must be
+sent, appropriate to the season and to the rank of the receiver, and
+neatly arranged in the manner that etiquette prescribes. Presents are
+not necessarily elaborate; callers bring fruit of the season, cake, or
+any delicacy, and a visit to a sick person must be accompanied by
+something appropriate. Children visiting in the family are always given
+toys, and for this purpose a stock is kept on hand. The present-giving
+culminates at the close of the year, when all friends and acquaintances
+exchange gifts of more or less value, according to their feelings and
+means. Should there be any one who has been especially kind, and to whom
+return should be made, this is the time to do so.
+
+Tradesmen send presents to their patrons, scholars to teachers, patients
+to their physicians, and, in short, it is the time when all obligations
+and debts are paid off, in one way or another. On the seventh day of
+the seventh month, there is another general interchange of presents,
+although not so universal as at the New Year. It can easily be imagined
+that all this present-giving entails much care, especially in families
+of influence; and it must be attended to personally by the wife, who, in
+the secret recesses of her storeroom, skillfully manages to rearrange
+the gifts received, so that those not needed in the house may be sent,
+not back to their givers, but to some place where a present is due. The
+passing-on of the presents is an economy not of course acknowledged, but
+frequently practiced even in the best families, as it saves much of the
+otherwise ruinous expense of this custom.
+
+As time passes by, occasional visits are paid by the young wife to her
+own parents or to other relatives. At stated times, too, she, and others
+of the family, will visit the tombs of her husband's ancestors, or of
+her own parents, if they are no longer living, to make offerings and
+prayers at the graves, to place fresh branches of the _sakaki_[18]
+before the tombs, and to see that the priests in charge of the cemetery
+have attended to all the little things which the Japanese believe to be
+required by the spirits of the dead. Even these visits are often looked
+forward to as enlivening the monotony of the humdrum home life.
+Sometimes all the members of the family go together on a pleasure
+excursion, spending the day out of doors, in beautiful gardens, when
+some one of the much-loved flowers of the nation is in its glory; and
+the little wife may join in this pleasure with the rest, but more often
+she is the one who remains at home to keep the house in the absence of
+others. The theatre, too, a source of great amusement to Japanese
+ladies, is often a pleasure reserved for a time later in life.
+
+[18] _Sakaki_, the _Cleyera Japonica_, a sacred plant emblematic of
+purity, and much used at funerals and in the decoration of graves.
+
+The Japanese mother takes great delight and comfort in her children, and
+her constant thought and care is the right direction of their habits and
+manners. She seems to govern them entirely by gentle admonition, and the
+severest chiding that is given them is always in a pleasant voice, and
+accompanied by a smiling face. No matter how many servants there may be,
+the mother's influence is always direct and personal. No thick walls
+and long passageways separate the nursery from the grown people's
+apartments, but the thin paper partitions make it possible for the
+mother to know always what her children are doing, and whether they are
+good and gentle with their nurses, or irritable and passionate. The
+children never leave the house, nor return to it, without going to their
+mother's room, and there making the little bows and repeating the
+customary phrases used upon such occasions. In the same way, when the
+mother goes out, all the servants and the children escort her to the
+door; and when her attendant shouts "_O kaeri_," which is the signal of
+her return, children and servants hasten to the gate to greet her, and
+do what they can to help her from her conveyance and make her
+home-coming pleasant and restful.
+
+The father has little to do with the training of his children, which is
+left almost entirely to the mother, and, except for the interference of
+the mother-in-law, she has her own way in their training, until they are
+long past childhood. The children are taught to look to the father as
+the head, and to respect and obey him as the one to whom all must defer;
+but the mother comes next, almost as high in their estimation, and, if
+not so much feared and respected, certainly enjoys a larger share of
+their love.
+
+The Japanese mother's life is one of perfect devotion to her children;
+she is their willing slave. Her days are spent in caring for them, her
+evenings in watching over them; and she spares neither time nor trouble
+in doing anything for their comfort and pleasure. In sickness,[19] in
+health, day and night, the little ones are her one thought; and from the
+home of the noble to the humble cot of the peasant, this tender
+mother-love may be seen in all its different phases. The Japanese woman
+has so few on whom to lavish her affection, so little to live for beside
+her children, and no hopes in the future except through them, that it is
+no wonder that she devotes her life to their care and service, deeming
+the drudgery that custom requires of her for them the easiest of all her
+duties. Even with plenty of servants, the mother performs for her
+children nearly all the duties often delegated to nurses in this
+country. Mother and babe are rarely separated, night or day, during the
+first few years of the baby's life, and the mother denies herself any
+entertainment or journey from home when the baby cannot accompany her.
+To give the husband any share in the baby-work would be an unheard-of
+thing, and a disgrace to the wife; for in public and in private the baby
+is the mother's sole charge, and the husband is never asked to sit up
+all night with a sick baby, or to mind it in any way at all. Nothing in
+all one's study of Japanese life seems more beautiful and admirable than
+the influence of the mother over her children,--an influence that is
+gentle and all-pervading, bringing out all that is sweetest and noblest
+in the feminine character, and affording the one almost unlimited
+opportunity of a Japanese woman's life. The lot of a childless wife in
+Japan is a sad one. Not only is she denied the hopes and the pleasures
+of a mother in her children, but she is an object of pity to her
+friends, and well does she know that Confucius has laid down the law
+that a man is justified in divorcing a childless wife. All feel that
+through her, innocent though she is, the line has ceased; that her duty
+is unfulfilled; and that, though the name be given to adopted sons,
+there is no heir of the blood. A man rarely sends away his wife solely
+with this excuse, but children are the strongest of the ties which bind
+together husband and wife, and the childless wife is far less sure of
+pleasing her husband. In many cases she tries to make good her
+deficiencies by her care of adopted children; in them she often finds
+the love which fills the void in her heart and home, and she receives
+from them in after-life the respect and care which is the crown of old
+age.
+
+[19] Since the introduction of the foreign system of medicine and
+nursing, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack of conveniences and
+appliances for nursing the sick in their own homes, that cases of severe
+or even serious illness are usually sent to hospitals, where the
+invalids can have the comforts that even the wealthy Japanese homes
+cannot furnish.
+
+We have hitherto spoken of married life when the wife is received into
+her husband's home. Another interesting side of Japanese marriage is
+when a man enters the wife's family, taking her name and becoming
+entirely one of her family, as usually the wife becomes of the
+husband's. When there are daughters but no sons in a family to inherit
+the name, one of three things may happen: a son may be adopted early in
+life and grow up as heir; or he may be adopted with the idea of marrying
+one of the daughters; or, again, no one may have been formally adopted,
+but on the eldest daughter's coming to a marriageable age, her family
+and friends seek for her a _y[=o]shi_, that is to say, some man (usually a
+younger son) who is willing and able to give up his family name, and, by
+marrying the daughter, become a member of her family and heir to the
+name. He cuts off all ties from his own family, and becomes a member of
+hers, and the young couple are expected to live with her parents. In
+this case the tables are turned, and it is he who has to dread the
+mother-in-law; it is his turn to have to please his new relatives and to
+do all he can to be agreeable. He, too, may be sent away and divorced by
+the all-powerful parents, if he does not please; and such divorces are
+not uncommon. Of course, in such marriages, the woman has the greater
+power, and the man has to remember what he owes her; and though the
+woman yields to him obediently in all respects, it is an obedience not
+demanded by the husband, as under other circumstances. In such marriages
+the children belong to the family whose name they bear, so that in case
+of divorce they remain in the wife's family, unless some special
+arrangement is made about them.
+
+It may be wondered why young men ever care to enter a family as
+_y[=o]shi_. There is only one answer,--it is the attraction of wealth
+and rank, very rarely that of the daughter herself. In the houses of
+rich _daimi[=o]s_ without sons, _y[=o]shi_ are very common, and there
+are many younger sons of the nobility, themselves of high birth, but
+without prospects, who are glad enough to become great lords. In feudal
+times, the number of _samurai_ families was limited. Several sons of one
+family could not establish different _samurai_ families, but all but the
+eldest son, if they formed separate houses, must enroll themselves among
+the ranks of the common people. Hence the younger sons were often
+adopted into other _samurai_ families as _y[=o]shi_, where it was
+desired to secure a succession to a name that must otherwise die out.
+Since the Restoration, and the breaking down of the old class
+distinctions, young men care more for independence than for their rank
+as _samurai_; and it is now quite difficult to find _y[=o]shi_ to enter
+_samurai_ families, unless it be because of the attractiveness and
+beauty of the young lady herself. Many a young girl who could easily
+make a good marriage with some suitable husband, could she enter his
+family, is now obliged to take some inferior man as _y[=o]shi_, because
+few men in these days are willing to change their names, give up their
+independence, and take upon themselves the support of aged
+parents-in-law; for this also is expected of the _y[=o]shi_, unless the
+family that he enters is a wealthy one.
+
+From this custom of _y[=o]shi_, and its effect upon the wife's position,
+we see that, in certain cases, Japanese women are treated as equal with
+men. It is not because of their sex that they are looked down upon and
+held in subjection, but it is because of their almost universal
+dependence of position. The men have the right of inheritance, the
+education, habits of self-reliance, and are the bread-winners. Wherever
+the tables are turned, and the men are dependents of the women, and
+even where the women are independent of the men,--there we find the
+relations of men to women vastly changed. The women of Japan must know
+how to do some definite work in the world beyond the work of the home,
+so that their position will not be one of entire dependence upon father,
+husband, or son. If fathers divided their estates between sons and
+daughters alike, and women were given, before the law, right to hold
+property in their own names, much would be accomplished towards securing
+them in their positions as wives and mothers; and divorce, the great
+evil of Japanese home life to-day, would become simply a last resort to
+preserve the purity of the home, as it is in most civilized countries
+now.
+
+The difference between the women of the lower and those of the higher
+classes, in the matter of equality with their husbands, is quite
+noticeable. The wife of the peasant or merchant is much nearer to her
+husband's level than is the wife of the Emperor. Apparently, each step
+in the social scale is a little higher for the man than it is for the
+woman, and lifts him a little farther above his wife. The peasant and
+his wife work side by side in the field, put their shoulders to the same
+wheel, eat together in the same room, at the same time, and whichever of
+them happens to be the stronger in character governs the house, without
+regard to sex. There is no great gulf fixed between them, and there is
+frequently a consideration for the wife shown by husbands of the lower
+class, that is not unlike what we see in our own country. I remember the
+case of a _jinrikisha_ man employed by a friend of mine in T[=o]ky[=o],
+who was much laughed at by his friends because he actually used to spend
+some of his leisure moments in drawing the water required for his
+household from a well some distance away, and carrying the heavy buckets
+to the house, in order to save the strength of his little, delicate
+wife. That cases of such devotion are rare is no doubt true, but that
+they occur shows that there is here and there a recognition of the
+claims that feminine weakness has upon masculine strength.
+
+A frequent sight in the morning, in T[=o]ky[=o], is a cart heavily laden
+with wood, charcoal, or some other country produce, creaking slowly
+along the streets, propelled by a farmer and his family. Sometimes one
+will see an old man, his son, and his son's wife with a baby on her
+back, all pushing or pulling with might and main; the woman with
+tucked-up skirts and tight-fitting blue trousers, a blue towel
+enveloping her head,--only to be distinguished from the men by her
+smaller size and the baby tied to her back. But when evening comes, and
+the load of produce has been disposed of, the woman and baby are seen
+seated upon the cart, while the two men pull it back to their home in
+some neighboring village. Here, again, is the recognition of the law
+that governs the position of woman in this country,--the theory, not of
+inferior position, but of inferior strength; and the sight of the women
+riding back in the empty carts at night, drawn by their husbands, is the
+thing that strikes a student of Japanese domestic life as nearest to the
+customs of our own civilization in regard to the relations of husbands
+and wives.
+
+Throughout the country districts, where the women have a large share in
+the labor that is directly productive of wealth, where they not only
+work in the rice fields, pick the tea crops, gather the harvests, and
+help draw them to market, but where they have their own productive
+industries, such as caring for the silkworms, and spinning, and weaving
+both silk and cotton, we find the conventional distance between the
+sexes much diminished by the important character of feminine labor; but
+in the cities, and among the classes who are largely either indirect
+producers or non-producers, the only labor of the women is that personal
+service which we account as menial. It is for this reason, perhaps, that
+the gap widens as we go upward in society, and between the same social
+levels as we go cityward.
+
+The wife of the countryman, though she may work harder and grow old
+earlier, is more free and independent than her city sister; and the wife
+of the peasant, pushing her produce to market, is in some ways happier
+and more considered than the wife of the noble, who must spend her life
+among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclusion of her great house with
+its beautiful garden, the plaything of her husband in his leisure hours,
+but never his equal, or the sharer of his cares or of his thoughts.
+
+One of the causes which must be mentioned as contributing to the
+lowering of the wife's position, among the higher and more wealthy
+classes, lies in the system of concubinage which custom allows, and the
+law until quite recently has not discouraged. From the Emperor, who was,
+by the old Chinese code of morals, allowed twelve supplementary wives,
+to the _samurai_, who are permitted two, the men of the higher classes
+are allowed to introduce into their families these _mekake_, who, while
+beneath the wife in position, are frequently more beloved by the husband
+than the wife herself. It must be said, however, to the credit of many
+husbands, that in spite of this privilege, which custom allows, there
+are many men of the old school who are faithful to one wife, and never
+introduce this discordant element into the household. Even should he
+keep _mekake_, it is often unknown to the wife, and she is placed in a
+separate establishment of her own. And in spite of the code of morals
+requiring submission in any case on the part of the woman, there are
+many wives of the _samurai_ and lower classes who have enough spirit and
+wit to prevent their husbands from ever introducing a rival under the
+same roof. In this way the practice is made better than the theory.
+
+Not so with the more helpless wife of the nobleman, for wealth and
+leisure make temptation greater for the husband. She submits
+unquestioningly to the custom requiring that the wife treat these women
+with all civility. Their children she may even have to adopt as her own.
+The lot of the _mekake_ herself is rendered the less endurable, from the
+American point of view, by the fact that, should the father of her child
+decide to make it his heir, the mother is thenceforth no more to it than
+any other of the servants of the household. For instance, suppose a
+hitherto childless noble is presented with a son by one of his
+concubines, and he decides by legal adoption to make that son his heir:
+the child at its birth, or as soon afterwards as is practicable, is
+taken from its mother and placed in other hands, and the mother never
+sees her own child until, on the thirtieth day after its birth, she goes
+with the other servants of the household to pay her respects to her
+young master. If it were not for the habit of abject obedience to
+parents which Japanese custom has exalted into the one feminine virtue,
+few women could be found of respectable families who would take a
+position so devoid of either honor or satisfaction of any kind as that
+of _mekake_. That these positions are not sought after must be said, to
+the honor of Japanese womanhood. A nobleman may obtain _samurai_ women
+for his "_O mekake_" (literally, honorable concubines), but they are
+never respected by their own class for taking such positions. In the
+same way the _mekake_ of _samurai_ are usually from the _heimin_. No
+woman who has any chance of a better lot will ever take the unenviable
+position of _mekake_.
+
+A law which has recently been promulgated strikes at the root of this
+evil, and, if enforced, will in course of time go far toward extirpating
+it. Henceforth in Japan, no child of a concubine, or of adoption from
+any source, can inherit a noble title. The heir to the throne must
+hereafter be the son, not only of the Emperor, but of the Empress, or
+the succession passes to some collateral branch of the family. This law
+does not apply to Prince Haru, the present heir to the throne, as,
+although he is not the son of the Empress, he was legally adopted
+before the promulgation of the law; but should he die, it will apply to
+all future heirs.
+
+That public opinion is moving in the right direction is shown by the
+fact that the young men of the higher classes do not care to marry the
+daughters of _mekake_, be they ever so legally adopted by their own
+fathers. When the girls born of such unions become a drug in the
+matrimonial market, and the boys are unable to keep up the succession,
+the _mekake_ will go out of fashion, and the real wife will once more
+assume her proper importance.[20]
+
+[20] It is worth while to mention in this connection the noteworthy
+efforts made by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Japan in
+calling the attention of the public to this custom, and in arousing
+public sentiment in favor of legislation against not only this system,
+but against the licensed houses of prostitution. Though there has not
+yet been any practical result, much discussion has ensued in the
+newspapers and magazines, lectures have been given, and much strong
+feeling aroused, which may, before long, produce radical change.
+
+Upon the 11th day of February, 1889, the day on which the Emperor, by
+his own act in giving a constitution to the people, limited his own
+power for the sake of putting his nation upon a level with the most
+civilized nations of the earth, he at the same time, and for the first
+time, publicly placed his wife upon his own level. In an imperial
+progress made through the streets of T[=o]ky[=o], the Emperor and
+Empress, for the first time in the history of Japan, rode together in
+the imperial coach.[*115] Until then, the Emperor, attended by his chief
+gentlemen-in-waiting and his guards, had always headed the procession,
+while the Empress must follow at a distance with her own attendants.
+That this act on the part of the Emperor signifies the beginning of a
+new and better era for the women of Japan, we cannot but hope; for until
+the position of the wife and mother in Japan is improved and made
+secure, little permanence can be expected in the progress of the nation
+toward what is best and highest in the Western civilization. Better
+laws, broader education for the women, a change in public opinion on the
+subject, caused by the study, by the men educated abroad, of the homes
+of Europe and America,--these are the forces which alone can bring the
+women of Japan up to that place in the home which their intellectual and
+moral qualities fit them to fill. That Japan is infinitely ahead of
+other Oriental countries in her practices in this matter is greatly to
+her credit; but that she is far behind the civilized nations of Europe
+and America, not only in practice but in theory, is a fact that is
+incontestable, and a fact that, unless changed, must sooner or later be
+a stumbling-block in the path of her progress toward the highest
+civilization of which she is capable.[21] The European practice cannot
+be grafted upon the Asiatic theory, but the change in the home must be a
+radical one, to secure permanent good results. As long as the wife has
+no rights which the husband is bound to respect, no great advance can
+be made, for human nature is too mean and selfish to give in all cases
+to those who are entirely unprotected by law, and entirely unable to
+protect themselves, those things which the moral nature declares to be
+their due. In the old slave times in the South, many of the negroes were
+better fed, better cared for, and happier than they are to-day; but they
+were nevertheless at the mercy of men who too often thought only of
+themselves, and not of the human bodies and souls over which they had
+unlimited power. It was a condition of things that could not be
+prevented by educating the masters so as to induce them to be kind to
+their slaves; it was a condition that was wrong in theory, and so could
+not be righted in practice. In the same way the position of the Japanese
+wife is wrong in theory, and can never be righted until legislation has
+given to her rights which it still denies. Education will but aggravate
+the trouble to a point beyond endurance. The giving to the wife power to
+obtain a divorce will not help much, but simply tend to weaken still
+further the marriage tie. Nothing can help surely and permanently but
+the growth of a sound public opinion, in regard to the position of the
+wife, that will, sooner or later, have its effect upon the laws of the
+country. Legislation once effected, all the rest will come, and the
+wife, secure in her home and her children, will be at the point where
+her new education can be of use to her in the administration of her
+domestic affairs and the training of her children; and where she will
+finally become the friend and companion of her husband, instead of his
+mere waitress, seamstress, and housekeeper,--the plaything of his
+leisure moments, too often the victim of his caprices.
+
+[21] Many of the thinking men of Japan, though fully recognizing the
+injustice of the present position of woman in society, and the necessity
+of reform in the marriage and divorce laws, refuse to see the importance
+of any movement to change them. Their excuse is, that such power in the
+hands of the husband over his wife might be abused, but that in fact it
+is not. Wrongs and injustice are rare, they argue, and kind treatment,
+affection, and even respect for the wife is the general rule; and that
+the keeping of the power in the hands of the husband is better than
+giving too much freedom to women who are without education. These men
+wish to wait until every woman is educated, before acting in a reform
+movement, while many conservatives oppose the new system of education
+for girls as making them unwomanly. Between these two parties, the few
+who really wish for a change are utterly unable to act.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+OLD AGE.
+
+
+No Japanese woman is ashamed to show that she is getting along in years,
+but all take pains that every detail of the dress and coiffure shall
+show the full age of the wearer. The baby girl is dressed in the
+brightest of colors and the largest of patterns, and looks like a gay
+butterfly or tropical bird. As she grows older, colors become quieter,
+figures smaller, stripes narrower, until in old age she becomes a little
+gray moth or plain-colored sparrow. By the sophisticated eye, a woman's
+age can be told with considerable accuracy by the various little things
+about her costume,[22] and no woman cares to appear younger than her
+real age, or hesitates to tell with entire frankness the number of years
+that have passed over her head.
+
+[22] Children wear their hair on top of their heads while very young,
+and the manner of arranging it is one of the distinctive marks of the
+age of the child. The _marumage_, the style of headdress of married
+ladies, consisting of a large puff of hair on the top of the head,
+diminishes in size with the age of the wearer until, at sixty or
+seventy, it is not more than a few inches in width. The number, size,
+and variety of ornamental hairpins, and the tortoise-shell comb worn in
+front, all vary with the age.
+
+The reason for this lies, at least in part, in the fact that every woman
+looks forward to the period of old age as the time when she will attain
+freedom from her life-long service to those about her,--will be in the
+position of adviser of her sons, and director of her daughters-in-law;
+will be a person of much consideration in the family, privileged to
+amuse herself in various ways, to speak her own mind on most subjects,
+and to be waited upon and cared for by children and grandchildren, in
+return for her long years of faithful service in the household. Should
+her sight and other bodily powers remain good, she will doubtless
+perform many light tasks for the general good, will seldom sit idle by
+herself, but will help about the sewing and mending, the marketing,
+shopping, housework, and care of the babies, tell stories to her
+grandchildren after their lessons are learned, give the benefit of her
+years of experience to the young people who are still bearing the heat
+and burden of the day, and, by her prayers and visits to the temple at
+stated seasons, will secure the favor of the gods for the whole family,
+as well as make her own preparations for entry into the great unknown
+toward which she is rapidly drifting. Is there wonder that the young
+wife, steering her course with difficulty among the many shoals and
+whirlpools of early married life, looks forward with anticipation to the
+period of comparative rest and security that comes at the end of the
+voyage? As she bears all things, endures all things, suffers long, and
+is kind, as she serves her mother-in-law, manages her husband's
+household, cares for her babies, the thought that cheers and encourages
+her in her busy and not too happy life is the thought of the sunny calm
+of old age, when she can lay her burdens and cares on younger shoulders,
+and bask in the warmth and sunshine which this Indian Summer of her life
+will bring to her.
+
+In the code of morals of the Japanese, obedience to father, husband, or
+son is exalted into the chief womanly virtue, but the obedience and
+respect of children, both male and female, to their parents, also
+occupies a prominent position in their ethical system. Hence, in this
+latter stage of a woman's career, the obedience expected of her is
+often only nominal, and in any case is not so absolute and unquestioning
+as that of the early period; and the consideration and respect that a
+son is bound to show to his mother necessitates a care of her comfort,
+and a consultation of her wishes, that renders her position one of much
+greater freedom than can be obtained by any woman earlier in life. She
+has, besides, reached an age when she is not expected to remain at home,
+and she may go out into the streets, to the theatre, or other shows,
+without the least restraint or fear of losing her dignity.
+
+A Japanese woman loses her beauty early. At thirty-five her fresh color
+is usually entirely gone, her eyes have begun to sink a little in their
+sockets, her youthful roundness and symmetry of figure have given place
+to an absolute leanness, her abundant black hair has grown thin, and
+much care and anxiety have given her face a pathetic expression of quiet
+endurance. One seldom sees a face that indicates a soured temper or a
+cross disposition, but the lines that show themselves as the years go by
+are lines that indicate suffering and disappointment, patiently and
+sweetly borne. The lips never forget to smile; the voice remains always
+cheerful and sympathetic, never grows peevish and worried, as is too
+often the case with overworked or disappointed women in this country.
+But youth with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its ambitions, gives
+way to age with its peaceful waiting for the end, with only a brief
+struggle for its place; and the woman of thirty-five is just at the
+point when she has bid good-by to her youth, and, having little to hope
+for in her middle life, is doing her work faithfully, and looking
+forward to an old age of privilege and authority, the mistress of her
+son's house, and the ruler of the little domain of home.
+
+But I have spoken so far only of those happy women whose sons grow to
+maturity, and who manage to evade the dangerous reefs of divorce upon
+which so many lives are shipwrecked. What becomes of the hundreds who
+have no children to rise up and call them blessed, but who have in old
+age to live as dependents upon their brothers or nephews? Even these,
+who in this country often lead hard and unrewarded lives of toil among
+their happier relatives, find in old age a pleasanter lot than that of
+youth. Many such old ladies I have met, whose short hair or shaven heads
+proclaim to all who see them that the sorrow of widowhood has taken from
+them the joy that falls to other women, but whose cheerful, wrinkled
+faces and happy, childlike ways have given one a feeling of pleasure
+that the sorrow is past, and peace and rest have come to their declining
+years. Fulfilling what little household tasks they can, respected and
+self-respecting members of the household, the _O B[)a] San_, or Aunty,
+is not far removed in the honor and affection of the children from the
+_O B[=a] San_, or Grandma, but both alike find a peaceful shelter in the
+homes of those nearest and dearest to them.
+
+One of the happiest old ladies I have ever seen was one who had had a
+rough and stormy life. The mother of many children, most of whom had
+died in infancy, she was at last left childless and a widow. In her
+children's death the last tie that bound her to her husband's family was
+broken, and, rather than be a burden to them, she made her home for many
+years with her own younger brother, taking up again the many cares and
+duties of a mother's life in sharing with the mother the bringing up of
+a large family of children. One by one, from the oldest to the youngest,
+each has learned to love the old aunty, to be lulled asleep on her back,
+and to go to her in trouble when mother's hands were too full of work.
+Many the caress received, the drives and walks enjoyed in her company,
+the toys and candies that came out unexpectedly from the depths of
+mysterious drawers, to comfort many an hour of childish grief. That was
+years ago, and the old aunty's hard times are nearly over. Hale and
+hearty at three-score years and ten, she has seen these children grow up
+one by one, until now some have gone to new homes of their own. Her bent
+form and wrinkled face are ever welcome to her children,--hers by the
+right of years of patient care and toil for them. They now, in their
+turn, enjoy giving her pleasure, and return to her all the love she has
+lavished upon them. It is a joy to see her childlike pride and
+confidence in them all, and to know that they have filled the place left
+vacant by the dead with whom had died all her hopes of earthly
+happiness.
+
+The old women of Japan,--how their withered faces, bent frames, and
+shrunken, yellow hands abide in one's memory! One seldom sees among them
+what we would call beauty, for the almost universal shrinking with age
+that takes place among the Japanese covers the face with multitudinous
+wrinkles, and produces the effect of a withered russet apple; for the
+skin, which in youth is usually brightened by red cheeks and glossy
+black hair, in old age, when color leaves cheek and hair, has a
+curiously yellow and parchment-like look. But with all their wrinkles
+and ugliness, there is a peculiar charm about the old women of Japan.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], when the grass grows long upon your lawn, and you send
+to the gardener to come and cut it, no boy with patent lawn-mower, nor
+stalwart countryman with scythe and sickle, answers your summons, but
+some morning you awake to find your lawn covered with old women. The
+much-washed cotton garments are faded to a light blue, the exact match
+of the light blue cotton towels in which their heads are swathed, and on
+hands and knees, each armed with an enormous pair of shears, the old
+ladies clip and chatter cheerfully all day long, until the lawn is as
+smooth as velvet under their careful cutting. An occasional rest under a
+tree, for pipes and tea, is the time for much cheerful talk and gossip;
+but the work, though done slowly and with due attention to the comfort
+of the worker, is well done, and certainly accomplished as rapidly as
+any one could expect of laborers who earn only from eight to twelve
+cents a day. Another employment for this same class of laborers is the
+picking of moss and grass from the crevices of the great walls that
+inclose the moats and embankments of the capital. Mounted on little
+ladders, they pick and scrape with knives until the wall is clear and
+fresh, with no insidious growth to push the great uncemented stones out
+of their places.
+
+In contrast with these humble but cheerful toilers may be mentioned
+another class of women, often met with in the great cities. Dressed in
+rags and with covered heads and faces, they wander about the streets
+playing the _samisen_ outside the latticed windows, and singing with
+cracked voices some wailing melody. As they go from house to house,
+gaining a miserable pittance by their weird music, they seem the
+embodiment of all that is hopeless and broken-hearted. What they are or
+whence they come, I know not, but they always remind me of the
+grasshopper in the fable, who danced and sang through the brief summer,
+to come, wailing and wretched, seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor
+when at last the winter closed in upon her.
+
+As one rides about the streets, one often sees a little, white-haired
+old woman trotting about with a yoke over her shoulders from which are
+suspended two swinging baskets, filled with fresh vegetables. The fact
+that her hair is still growing to its natural length shows that she is
+still a wife and not a widow; her worn and patched blue cotton clothes,
+bleached light from much washing, show that extreme poverty is her lot
+in life; and as she hobbles along with the gait peculiar to those who
+carry a yoke, my thoughts are busy with her home, which, though poor and
+small, is doubtless clean and comfortable, but my eye follows her
+through the city's crowd, where laborer, soldier, student, and high
+official jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I see her pause before
+the gateway of a temple. She sets her burden down, and there in the
+midst of the bustling throng, with bowed head, folded hands, and moving
+lips, she invokes her god, snatching this moment from her busy life to
+seek a blessing for herself and her dear ones. The throng moves busily
+on, making a little eddy around the burden she has laid down, but paying
+no heed to the devout little figure standing there; then in a moment the
+prayer is finished; she stoops, picks up her yoke, balances it on her
+shoulders, and moves on with the crowd, to do her share while her
+strength lasts, and to be cared for tenderly, I doubt not, by children
+and children's children when her work is done.
+
+Another picture comes to me, too, a picture of one whose memory is an
+inspiring thought to the many who have the honor to call her "mother." A
+stately old lady, left a widow many years ago, before the recent changes
+had wrought havoc preparatory to further progress, she seemed always to
+me the model of a mother of the old school. Herself a woman of thorough
+classical education, her example and teaching were to both sons and
+daughters a constant inspiration; and in her old age she found herself
+the honored head of a family well known in the arts of war and peace, a
+goodly company of sons and daughters, every one of them heirs of her
+spirit and of her intellect. Though conservative herself, and always
+clinging to the old customs, she put no block in the path of her
+children's progress, and her fine character, heroic spirit, and stanch
+loyalty to what she believed were worth more to her children than
+anything else could have been. Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by
+danger and sufferings of all kinds, to her was given at last an old age
+of prosperity among children of whom she might well be proud. Keeping
+her physical vigor to the end, and dying at last, after an illness of
+only two days, her spirit passed out into the great unknown, ready to
+meet its dangers as bravely as she had met those of earth, or to enjoy
+its rest as sweetly and appreciatively as she had enjoyed that of her
+old age in the house of her oldest son.
+
+My acquaintance with her was limited by our lack of common language, but
+was a most admiring and appreciative one on my side; and I esteem it one
+of the chief honors of my stay in Japan, that upon my last meeting with
+her, two weeks before her death, she gave me her wrinkled but still
+beautiful and delicately shaped hand at parting,--a deference to foreign
+customs that she only paid upon special occasions.
+
+Two weeks later, amid such rain as Japanese skies know all too well how
+to let fall, I attended her funeral at the cemetery of Aoyama. The
+cemetery chapel was crowded, but a place was reserved for me, on account
+of special ties that bound me to the family, just behind the long line
+of white-robed mourners. In the Buddhist faith she had lived, and by the
+Buddhist ceremonial she was buried,--the chanted ritual, the gorgeously
+robed priests, and the heavy smell of incense in the air reminding one
+of a Roman Catholic ceremony. The white wooden coffin was placed upon a
+bier at the entrance to the chapel, and when the priests had done their
+work, and the ecclesiastical ceremony was over, the relatives arose, one
+by one, walked over to the coffin, bowed low before it, and placed a
+grain of incense upon the little censer that stood on a table before
+the bier, then, bowing again, retired to their places. Slowly and
+solemnly, from the tall soldier son, his hair already streaked with
+gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all paid this last token of
+respect to a noble spirit; and after the relatives the guests, each in
+the order of rank or nearness to the deceased, stepped forward and
+performed the same ceremony before leaving the room. What the meaning of
+the rite was, I did not know, whether a worship of strange gods or no;
+but to me, as I performed the act, it only signified the honor in which
+I held the memory of a heroic woman who had done well her part in the
+world according to the light that God had given her.
+
+Japanese art loves to picture the old woman with her kindly, wrinkled
+face, leaving out no wrinkle of them all, but giving with equal
+truthfulness the charm of expression that one finds in them. Long life
+is desired by all as passionately as by ancient Hebrew poet and
+psalmist, and with good reason, for only by long life can a woman attain
+the greatest honor and happiness. We often exclaim in impatience at the
+thought of the weakness and dependence of old age, and pray that we may
+die in the fullness of our powers, before the decay of advancing years
+has made us a burden upon our friends. But in Japan, dependence is the
+lot of woman, and the dependence of old age is that which is most
+respected and considered. An aged parent is never a burden, is treated
+by all with the greatest love and tenderness; and if times are hard, and
+food and other comforts are scarce, the children, as a matter of course,
+deprive themselves and their children to give ungrudgingly to their old
+father and mother. Faults there are many in the Japanese social system,
+but ingratitude to parents, or disrespect to the aged, must not be named
+among them; and Young America may learn a salutary lesson by the study
+of the place that old people occupy in the home.
+
+It is not only for the women of Japan, but for the men as well, that old
+age is a time of peace and happiness. When a man reaches the age of
+fifty or thereabouts, often while apparently in the height of his vigor,
+he gives up his work or business and retires, leaving all the property
+and income to the care of his eldest son, upon whom he becomes entirely
+dependent for his support.[23] This support is never begrudged him, for
+the care of parents by their children is as much a matter of course in
+Japan as the care of children by those who give them birth. A man thus
+rarely makes provision for the future, and looks with scorn on foreign
+customs which seem to betoken a fear lest, in old age, ungrateful
+children may neglect their parents and cast them aside. The feeling, so
+strong in America, that dependence is of itself irksome and a thing to
+be dreaded, is altogether strange to the Japanese mind. The married son
+does not care to take his wife to a new and independent home of his own,
+and to support her and her children by his own labor or on his own
+income, but he takes her to his father's house, and thinks it no shame
+that his family live upon his parents. But in return, when the parents
+wish to retire from active life, the son takes upon himself ungrudgingly
+the burden of their support, and the bread of dependence is never
+bitter to the parents' lips, for it is given freely. To the time-honored
+European belief, that a young man must be independent and enterprising
+in early life in order to lay by for old age, the Japanese will answer
+that children in Japan are taught to love their parents rather than ease
+and luxury, and that care for the future is not the necessity that it is
+in Europe and America, where money is above everything else,--even
+filial love. This habit of thought may account for the utter want of
+provision for the future, and the disregard for things pertaining to the
+accumulation of wealth, which often strikes curiously the foreigner in
+Japan. A Japanese considers his provision for the future made when he
+has brought up and educated for usefulness a large family of children.
+He invests his capital in their support and education, secure of
+bountiful returns in their gratitude and care for his old age. It is
+hard for the men of old Japan to understand the rush and struggle for
+riches in America,--a struggle that too often leaves not a pause for
+rest or quiet pleasure until sickness or death overtakes the
+indefatigable worker. The _go inkyo_[24] of Japan is glad enough to lay
+down early in life the cares of the world, to have a few years of calm
+and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities or cares for outside matters.
+If he be an artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted, spend his days with
+his beloved art. If he is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole
+afternoons that he may devote to this aesthetic repast; and even if he
+has none of these higher tastes, he will always have congenial friends
+who are ready to share the _sake_ bottle, to join in a quiet smoke over
+the _hibachi_, or to play the deep-engrossing game of _go_, or _shogi_,
+the Japanese chess. To the Japanese mind, to be in the company of a few
+kindred souls, to spend the long hours of a summer's afternoon at the
+ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and conversing in a leisurely manner
+on various subjects, is an enjoyment second to none. A cultivated
+Japanese of the old times must receive an education fitting him
+especially for such pursuits. At these meetings of friends,
+artistically or poetically inclined, the time is spent in making poems
+and exchanging wittily turned sentiments, to be read, commented on, and
+responded to; or in the making of drawings, with a few bold strokes of
+the brush, in illustration of some subject given out. Such enjoyments as
+these, the Japanese believe, cannot be appreciated or even understood by
+the practical, rush-ahead American, the product of the wonderful but
+material civilization of the West.
+
+[23] It is this custom of going into early retirement that made it
+possible for the nobles in old times to keep the Emperor always a child.
+The ruling Emperor would be induced to retire from the throne at the age
+of sixteen or twenty; thus making room for some baby, who would be in
+his turn the puppet of his ambitious courtiers.
+
+[24] _Go Inkyo Sama_ is the title belonging to a retired old gentleman
+or old lady. _Inkyo_ is the name of the house or suite of rooms set
+apart for such a person, and the title itself is made up of this word
+with the Chinese honorific _go_ and the title _Sama_, the same as _San_,
+used in addressing all persons except inferiors.
+
+Thus, amid enjoyments and easy labors suited to their closing years, the
+elder couple spend their days with the young people, cared for and
+protected by them. Sometimes there will be a separate suite of rooms
+provided for them; sometimes a little house away from the noises of the
+household, and separated from the main building by a well-kept little
+garden. In any case, as long as they live they will spend their days in
+quiet and peace; and it is to this haven, the _inkyo_, that all Japanese
+look forward, as to the time when they may carry out their own
+inclinations and tastes with an income provided for the rest of their
+days.[*137]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+COURT LIFE.
+
+
+The court of the Emperor was, in the early ages of Japan, the centre of
+whatever culture and refinement the country could boast, and the
+emperors themselves took an active part in the promotion of
+civilization. The earliest history of Japan is so wrapped in the mists
+of legend and tradition that only here and there do we get glimpses of
+heroic figures,--leaders in those early days. Demigods they seem,
+children of Heaven, receiving from Heaven by special revelation the
+wisdom or strength by means of which they conquered their enemies, or
+gave to their subjects new arts and better laws. The traditional
+emperors, the early descendants of the great Jimmu Tenno,[25] seem to
+have been merely conquering chieftains, who by virtue of their descent
+were regarded as divine, but who lived the simple, hardy life of the
+savage king, surrounded by wives and concubines, done homage to by armed
+retainers and subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and moving in and
+out among the soldiers, not in the least retired into the mysterious
+solitude which in later days enveloped the Son of the Gods. The first
+emperors ruled not only by divine right, but by personal force and
+valor; and the stories of the valiant deeds of these early rulers kept
+strong the faith of the people in the divine qualities of the imperial
+house during the hundreds of years when the Emperor was a mere puppet in
+the hands of ambitious and powerful nobles.
+
+[25] The Japanese claim for their present Emperor direct descent from
+Jimmu Tenno, the Son of the Gods; and it is for this reason that the
+Emperor is supposed to be divine, and the representative of the gods on
+the earth. The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since Jimmu
+Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however, be said in connection
+with this statement, that the Japanese family is a much looser
+organization than that known to our Western civilization, on account of
+the customs of concubinage and adoption, and that descent through family
+lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood.
+
+Towards the end of this legendary period, a figure comes into view that
+for heroic qualities cannot be excelled in the annals of any
+nation,--Jingo K[=o]g[=o], the conqueror of Corea, who alone, among the
+nine female rulers of Japan, has made an era in the national history.
+She seems to have been from the beginning, like Jeanne D'Arc, a hearer
+of divine voices; and through her was conveyed to her unbelieving
+husband a divine command, to take ship and sail westward to the conquest
+of an unknown land. Her husband questioned the authenticity of the
+message, took the earthly and practical view that, as there was no land
+to be seen in the westward, there could be no land there, and refused to
+organize any expedition in fulfillment of the command; but for his
+unbelief was sternly told that he should never see the land, but that
+his wife should conquer it for the son whom she should bear after the
+father's death. This message from the gods was fulfilled. The Emperor
+died in battle shortly after, and the Empress, after suppressing the
+rebellion in which her husband had been killed, proceeded to organize an
+expedition for the conquest of the unknown land beyond the western sea.
+By as many signs as those required by Gideon to assure himself of his
+divine mission, the Empress tested the call that had come to her, but at
+last, satisfied that the voices were from Heaven, she gave her orders
+for the collection of troops and the building of a navy. I quote from
+Griffis the inspiring words with which she addressed her generals: "The
+safety or destruction of our country depends upon this enterprise. I
+intrust the details to you. It will be your fault if they are not
+carried out. I am a woman and young. I shall disguise myself as a man,
+and undertake this gallant expedition, trusting to the gods and to my
+troops and captains. We shall acquire a wealthy country. The glory is
+yours, if we succeed; if we fail, the guilt and disgrace shall be mine."
+What wonder that her captains responded to such an appeal, and that the
+work of recruiting and shipbuilding began with a will! It was a long
+preparation that was required--sometimes, to the impatient woman, it
+seemed unnecessarily slow--but by continual prayer and offerings she
+appealed to the gods for aid; and at last all was ready, and the brave
+array of ships set sail for the unknown shore, the Empress feeling
+within her the new inspiration of hope for her babe as yet unborn.
+Heaven smiled upon them from the start. The clearest of skies, the most
+favoring of breezes, the smoothest of seas, favored the god-sent
+expedition; and tradition says that even the fishes swarmed in shoals
+about their keels, and carried them on to their desired haven. The fleet
+ran safely across to southern Corea, but instead of finding battles and
+struggles awaiting them, the king of the country met them on the beach
+to receive and tender allegiance to the invaders, whose unexpected
+appearance from the unexplored East had led the natives to believe that
+their gods had forsaken them. The expedition returned laden with vast
+wealth, not the spoil of battle, but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless
+victory; and from that time forward Japan, through Corea, and later by
+direct contact with China itself, began to receive and assimilate the
+civilization, arts, and religions of China. Thus through a woman Japan
+received the start along the line of progress which made her what she is
+to-day, for the sequel of Jingo K[=o]g[=o]'s Corean expedition was the
+introduction of almost everything which we regard as peculiar to
+civilized countries. With characteristic belittling of the woman and
+exalting of the man, the whole martial career of the Empress is
+ascribed to the influence of her son as yet unborn,--a son who by his
+valor and prowess has secured for his deified spirit the position of God
+of War in the Japanese pantheon. We should say that pre-natal influences
+and heredity produced the heroic son; the Japanese reason from the other
+end, and show that all the noble qualities of the mother were produced
+by the influence of the unborn babe.
+
+With the introduction of literature, art, and Buddhism, a change took
+place in the relations of the court to the people. About the Emperor's
+throne there gathered not only soldiers and governors, but the learned,
+the accomplished, the witty, the artistic, who found in the Emperor and
+the court nobles munificent patrons by whom they were supported, and
+before whom they laid whatever pearls they were able to produce. The new
+culture sought not the clash of arms and the shout of soldiers, but the
+quiet and refinement of palaces and gardens far removed from the noise
+and clamor of the world. And while emperors sought to encourage the new
+learning and civilization, and to soften the warlike qualities of the
+people about them, there was a frontier along which the savages still
+made raids into the territory which the Japanese had wrested from them,
+and which it required a strong arm and a quick hand to guard for the
+defense of the people. But the Emperor gradually gave up the personal
+leadership in war, and passed the duty of defending the nation into the
+hands of one or another of the great noble families. The nobles were not
+by any means slow to see the advantage to be gained for themselves by
+the possession of the military power in an age when might made right,
+even more than it does to-day, and when force, used judiciously and with
+proper deference to the prejudices of the people, could be made to give
+to its possessor power even over the Emperor himself. And so gradually,
+in the pursuit of the new culture and the new religion, the emperors
+withdrew themselves more and more into seclusion, and the court became a
+little world in itself,--a centre of culture and refinement into which
+few excitements of war or politics ever came. While the great nobles
+wrangled for the possession of the power, schemed and fought and turned
+the nation upside down; while the heroes of the country rose, lived,
+fought, and died,--the Emperor, amid his ladies and his courtiers, his
+priests and his literary men, spent his life in a world of his own;
+thinking more of this pair of bright eyes, that new and charming poem,
+the other witty saying of those about him, than of the kingdom that he
+ruled by divine right; and retiring, after ten years or so of puppet
+kinghood, from the seclusion of his court to the deeper seclusion of
+some Buddhist monastery.
+
+Within the sacred precincts of the court, much time was given to such
+games and pastimes as were not too rude or noisy for the refinement that
+the new culture brought with it. Polo, football, hunting with falcons,
+archery, etc., were exercises not unworthy of even the most refined of
+gentlemen, and certain noble families were trained hereditarily in the
+execution of certain stately, antique dances, many of them of Chinese or
+Corean origin. The ladies, in trailing garments and with flowing hair,
+reaching often below the knees, played a not inconspicuous part, not
+only because of their beauty and grace, but for their quickness of wit,
+their learning in the classics, their skill in repartee, and their
+quaint fancies, which they embodied in poetic form.[26]
+
+[26] In ancient times, before the long civil wars of the Middle Ages,
+much attention was given by both men and women to poetry, and many of
+the classics of Japanese literature are the works of women. Among these
+distinguished writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu, Seish[=o] Nagon,
+and Iseno Taiyu, all court ladies in the time of the Emperor Ichij[=o]
+(about 1000 A. D.). The court at that time was the centre of learning,
+and much encouragement was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits,
+the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gathered around him
+talented men and women, but the great works that remain are, strange to
+say, mostly those of women.
+
+Much attention was given to that harmony of art with nature that the
+Japanese taste makes the _sine qua non_ of all true artistic effort. The
+gorgeously embroidered gowns must change with the changing season, so
+that the cherry succeeds the plum, the wistaria the cherry, and so on
+through the whole calendar of flowers, upon the silken robes of the
+court, as regularly as in the garden that graces the palace grounds. And
+so with the confectionery, which in Japan is made in dainty imitation of
+flowers and fruits. The chrysanthemum blooms in sugar no earlier than
+on its own stalk; the little golden orange, with its dark green leaves,
+is on the confectioner's list in winter, when the real orange is yellow
+on its tree. The very decorations of the palace must be changed with the
+changing of the months; and _kakemono_ and vase are alternately stored
+in the _kura_ and brought out to decorate the room, according as their
+designs seem in harmony with the mood of Nature. This effort to
+harmonize Nature and Art is seen to-day, not only in the splendid
+furnishings of the court, but all through the decorative art of Japan.
+In every house the decorations are changed to suit the changing seasons.
+
+Through the years when Japan was adopting the civilization of China, a
+danger threatened the nation,--the same danger that threatens it to-day:
+it was the danger lest the adoption of so much that was foreign should
+result in a servile copying of all that was not Japanese, and lest the
+introduction of literature, art, and numerous hitherto unknown luxuries
+should take from the people their independence, patriotism, and
+manliness. But this result was happily avoided; and at a time when the
+language was in danger of being swept almost out of existence by the
+introduction of Chinese learning through Chinese letters, the women of
+Japan, not only in their homes and conversation, but in the poetry and
+lighter literature of the country, preserved a strain of pure and
+graceful Japanese, and produced some of the standard works of a
+distinctly national literature. Favor at court to-day, as in the olden
+times, is the reward, not of mere rank, beauty, and grace of person, but
+must be obtained through the same intellectual endowments, polished by
+years of education, that made so many women famous in the mediaeval
+history of Japan. Many court ladies have read much of their national
+literature, so that they are able to appreciate the _bonmots_ which
+contain allusions in many cases to old poems, or plays on words; and are
+able to write and present to others, at fitting times, those graceful
+but untranslatable turns of phrase which form the bulk of Japanese
+poetry.[27] Even in this busy era of Meiji,[28] the Emperor and his
+court keep up the old-time customs, and strive to promote a love of the
+beautiful poetry of Japan. At each New Year some subject appropriate to
+the time is chosen and publicly announced. Poems may be written upon
+this subject by any one in the whole realm, and may be sent to the
+palace before a certain date fixed as the time for closing the list of
+competitors. All the poems thus sent are examined by competent judges,
+who select the best five and send them to the Emperor, an honor more
+desired by the writers than the most favorable of reviews or the largest
+of emoluments are desired by American poets. Many of the other poems are
+published in the newspapers. It is interesting to note that many of the
+prominent men and women of the country are known as competitors, and
+that many of the court ladies join in the contest.
+
+[27] The court ladies in immediate contact with the Emperor and Empress
+are selected from the daughters of the nobles. Only in the present reign
+have a few samurai women risen to high positions at court on account of
+special talents.
+
+[28] _Meiji_ (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that began with
+the present Emperor's accession to the throne. The year A. D. 1890 is
+the twenty-third year of Meiji, and would be so designated in all
+Japanese dates.
+
+There are also, at the palace, frequent meetings of the poets and lovers
+of poetry connected with the court. At these meetings poems are
+composed for the entertainment of the Emperor and Empress, as well as
+for the amusement of the poets themselves.
+
+In the school recently established for the daughters of the nobles,
+under the charge of the imperial household, much attention is given to
+the work of thoroughly grounding the scholars in the Japanese language
+and literature, and also to making them skillful in the art of composing
+poetry. At the head of the school, in the highest position held by any
+woman in the employ of the government, is a former court lady, who is
+second to none in the kingdom, not only in her knowledge of all that
+belongs to court etiquette, but in her study of the history and
+literature of her own people, and in her skill in the composition of
+these dainty poems. A year or two ago, when one of the scholars in the
+school died after a brief decline, her schoolmates, teachers, and school
+friends wrote poems upon her death, which they sent to the bereaved
+parents.
+
+It is difficult for any Japanese, much more so for a foreigner, to
+penetrate into the seclusion of the palace and see anything of the life
+there, except what is shown to the public in the occasional
+entertainments given at court, such as formal receptions and dinner
+parties. In 1889, the new palace, built on the site of the old Tokugawa
+Castle, burnt seventeen years ago, was finally completed; and it was my
+privilege to see, before the removal of the court, not only the grand
+reception rooms, throne-room, and dining-room, but also the private
+apartments of the Emperor and Empress. The palace is built in Japanese
+style, surrounded by the old castle moats, but there are many foreign
+additions to the palace and grounds. It is heated and lighted in foreign
+style, and the larger rooms are all furnished after the magnificent
+manner of European palaces; while the lacquer work, carvings, and
+gorgeous paneled ceilings remind one of the finest of Japanese temples.
+The private apartments of the Emperor and Empress are, on the other
+hand, most simple, and in thorough Japanese style; and though the
+woodwork and polished floors of the corridors are very beautiful, the
+paintings and lacquer work most exquisite, there is little in this
+simplicity to denote the abode of royalty. It seems that their
+majesties, though outwardly conforming to many European customs, and to
+the European manner of dress, prefer to live in Japanese ways, on
+matted, not carpeted floors, reposing on them rather than on chairs and
+bedsteads.[*152]
+
+Their apartments are not large; each suite consisting of three rooms
+opening out of each other, the Empress's rooms being slightly smaller
+than the Emperor's, and those of the young Prince Haru, the heir
+apparent, again a little smaller. The young prince has a residence of
+his own, and it is only on his visits that he occupies his apartments in
+his father's palace. There are also rooms for the Empress dowager to
+occupy on her occasional visits. All of these apartments are quite close
+together in one part of the palace, and are connected by halls; but the
+private rooms of the court ladies are in an entirely separate place,
+quite removed, and only connected with the main building by a long,
+narrow passageway, running through the garden. There, in the rooms
+assigned to them, each one has her own private establishment, where she
+stays when she is not on duty in attendance on the Emperor and Empress.
+Each lady has her own servants, and sometimes a younger sister or a
+dependent may be living there with her, though they are entirely
+separate from the court and the life there, and must never be seen in
+any of the other parts of the building. In these rooms, which are like
+little homes in themselves, cooking and housekeeping are done, entirely
+independent of the other parts of the great palace; and the tradesmen
+find their way through some back gate to these little establishments,
+supplying them with all the necessaries of life, as well as the
+luxuries.
+
+A court lady is a personage of distinction, and lives in comparative
+ease and luxury, with plenty of servants to do all the necessary work.
+Besides her salary, which of course varies with the rank and the duties
+performed, but is always liberal enough to cover the necessary expenses
+of dress, the court lady receives many presents from the Emperor and
+Empress, which make her position one of much luxury.
+
+The etiquette of the imperial household is very complicated and very
+strict, though many of the formalities of the olden times have been
+given up. The court ladies are models of conservatism. In order to be
+trained for the life there and its duties, they usually enter the court
+while mere children of ten or eleven, and serve apprenticeship to the
+older members. In the rigid seclusion of the palace they are strictly,
+almost severely, brought up, and trained in all the details of court
+etiquette. Cut off from all outside influences while young, the little
+court maidens are taught to go through an endless round of formalities
+which they are made to think indispensable. These details of etiquette
+extend not only to all that concerns the imperial household, but to
+curious customs among themselves, and in regard to their own habits.
+Many of these ideas have come down from one generation to another,
+within the narrow limits of the court, so that the life there is a
+curious world in itself, and very unlike that in ordinary Japanese
+homes.
+
+But among all the ladies of Japan to-day,--charming, intellectual,
+refined, and lovely as many of them are,--there is no one nobler, more
+accomplished, more beautiful in life and character, than the Empress
+herself. The Emperor of Japan, though he may have many concubines, may
+have but one wife, and she must be chosen out of one of the five highest
+noble families.[29] Haru Ko, of the noble family of Ichij[=o], became
+Empress in the year 1868, one year after her husband, then a boy of
+seventeen, had ascended the throne, and the very year of the overthrow
+of the Sh[=o]gunate,[30] and the restoration of the Emperor to actual
+power and the leading part in the government. Reared amid the deep and
+scholarly seclusion of the old court at Ky[=o]to, the young Empress
+found herself occupying a position very different from that for which
+she had been educated,--a position the duties and responsibilities of
+which grow more multifarious as the years go by. Instead of a life of
+rigid seclusion, unseeing and unseen, the Empress has had to go forth
+into the world, finding there the pleasures as well as the duties of
+actual leadership. With the removal of the court to T[=o]ky[=o], and the
+reappearance of the Emperor, in bodily form, before his people, there
+came new opportunities for the Empress, and nobly has she used them.
+From the time when, in 1871, she gave audience to the five little girls
+of the samurai class who were just setting forth on a journey to
+America, there to study and fit themselves to play a part in the Japan
+of the future, on through twenty years of change and progress, the
+Empress Haru Ko has done all that lay within her power to advance the
+women of her country.[*157] Many stories are afloat which show the
+lovable character of the woman, and which have given her an abiding
+place in the affections of the people.
+
+[29] The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any branch of the
+imperial family, but from among the daughters of the five of the great
+_kuge_, or court nobles, who are next in rank to the imperial princes.
+The choice usually rests with the Emperor or his advisers, and would be
+naturally given to the most worthy, whether in beauty or accomplishments.
+No doubt one reason why the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor
+is, that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of the
+Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the Emperor could never
+marry, as all men were far beneath them in rank. These usually devoted
+their lives to religion, and as Shint[=o] priestesses or Buddhist nuns
+dwelt in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of cloisters.
+
+[30] Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns were the military rulers of the Tokugawa
+family, who held the power in Japan for a period of two hundred and
+fifty years. They are better known to Americans, perhaps, under the
+title of _Tycoon_ (Great Prince), a name assumed, or rather revived, to
+impress the foreigners when Commodore Perry was negotiating in regard to
+treaties. The Sh[=o]gun held the daimi[=o]s in forced subjection,--a
+subjection that was shaken in 1862, and broken at last in the year 1868,
+when, by the fall of the Sh[=o]gunate, the Emperor was restored to
+direct power over his people.
+
+Some years ago, when the castle in T[=o]ky[=o] was burned, and the
+Emperor and Empress were obliged to take refuge in an old daimi[=o]'s
+house, a place entirely lacking in luxuries and considerably out of
+repair, some one expressed to her the grief that all her people felt,
+that she should have to put up with so many inconveniences. Her response
+was a graceful little poem, in which she said that the narrowness of her
+abode would not limit her love for her people, and that for them she
+would endeavor to explore wisely the unlimited fields of knowledge.
+
+Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwakura, one of the leaders of Japan
+in the early days of the crisis through which the country is still
+passing, lay dying at his home, the Empress sent him word that she was
+coming to visit him. The prince, afraid that he could not do honor to
+such a guest, sent her word back that he was very ill, and unable to
+make proper preparation to entertain an Empress. To this the Empress
+replied that he need make no preparations for her, for she was coming,
+not as an Empress, but as the daughter of Ichij[=o], his old friend and
+colleague, and as such he could receive her. And then, setting aside
+imperial state and etiquette, she visited the dying statesman, and
+brightened his last hours with the thought of how lovely a woman stood
+as an example before the women of his beloved country.
+
+Many of the charities and schools of new Japan are under the Empress's
+special patronage; and this does not mean simply that she allows her
+name to be used in connection with them, but it means that she thinks of
+them, studies them, asks questions about them, and even practices little
+economies that she may have the more money to give to them. There is a
+charity hospital in T[=o]ky[=o], having in connection with it a training
+school for nurses, that is one of the special objects of her care. Last
+year she gave to it, at the end of the year, the savings from her own
+private allowance, and concerning this act an editorial from the "Japan
+Mail" speaks as follows:--
+
+"The life of the Empress of Japan is an unvarying routine of faithful
+duty-doing and earnest charity. The public, indeed, hears with a certain
+listless indifference, engendered by habit, that her Majesty has visited
+this school, or gone round the wards at that hospital. Such incidents
+all seem to fall naturally into the routine of the imperial day's work.
+Yet to the Empress the weariness of long hours spent in classrooms or in
+laboratories, or by the beds of the sick, must soon become quite
+intolerable did she not contrive, out of the goodness of her heart, to
+retain a keen and kindly interest in everything that concerns the
+welfare of her subjects. That her Majesty does feel this interest, and
+that it grows rather than diminishes as the years go by, every one knows
+who has been present on any of the innumerable occasions when the
+promoters of some charity or the directors of some educational
+institution have presented, with merciless precision, all the petty
+details of their projects or organizations for the examination of the
+imperial lady. The latest evidence of her Majesty's benevolence is,
+however, more than usually striking. Since the founding of the T[=o]ky[=o]
+Charity Hospital, where so many poor women and children are treated, the
+Empress has watched the institution closely, has bestowed on it
+patronage of the most active and helpful character, and has contributed
+handsomely to its funds. Little by little the hospital grew, extending
+its sphere of action and enlarging its ministrations, until the need of
+more capacious premises--a need familiar to such undertakings--began to
+be strongly felt. The Empress, knowing this, cast about for some means
+of assisting this project. To practice strict economy in her own
+personal expenses, and to devote whatever money might thus be saved from
+her yearly income to the aid of the hospital, appears to have suggested
+itself to her Majesty as the most feasible method of procedure. The
+result is, that a sum of 8,446 yen, 90 sen, and 8 rin has just been
+handed over to Dr. Takagi, the chief promoter and mainstay of the
+hospital, by Viscount Kagawa, one of her Majesty's chamberlains. There
+is something picturesque about these sen and rin. They represent an
+account minutely and faithfully kept between her Majesty's unavoidable
+expenses and the benevolent impulse that constantly urged her to curtail
+them. Such gracious acts of sterling effort command admiration and
+love."
+
+Not very long ago, on one of her visits to the hospital, the Empress
+visited the children's ward, and took with her toys, which she gave with
+her own hand to each child there. When we consider that this hospital is
+free to the poorest and lowest person in T[=o]ky[=o], and that twenty
+years ago the persons of the Emperor and Empress were so sacred in the
+eyes of the people that no one but the highest nobles and the near
+officials of the court could come into their presence,--that even these
+high nobles were received at court by the Emperor at a distance of many
+feet, and his face even then could not be seen,--when we think of all
+this, we can begin to appreciate what the Empress Haru has done in
+bridging the distance between herself and her people so that the poorest
+child of a beggar may receive a gift from her hand. In the country
+places to this day, there are peasants who yet believe that no one can
+look on the sacred face of the Emperor and live.
+
+The school for the daughters of the nobles, to which I have before
+referred, is an institution whose welfare the Empress has very closely
+at heart, for she sees the need of rightly combining the new and the old
+in the education of the young girls who will so soon be filling places
+in the court. At the opening of the school the Empress was present, and
+herself made a speech to the scholars; and her visits, at intervals of
+one or two months, show her continued interest in the work that she has
+begun. Upon all state occasions, the scholars, standing with bowed heads
+as if in prayer, sing a little song written for them by the Empress
+herself; and at the graduating exercises, the speeches and addresses are
+listened to by her with the profoundest interest. The best specimens of
+poetry, painting, and composition done by the scholars are sent to the
+palace for her inspection, and some of these are kept by her in her own
+private rooms. When she visits the class-rooms, she does not simply pass
+in and pass out again, as if doing a formal duty, but sits for half an
+hour or so listening intently, and watching the faces of the scholars
+as they recite. In sewing and cooking classes (for the daughters of the
+nobles are taught to sew and cook), she sometimes speaks to the
+scholars, asking them questions. Upon one occasion she observed a young
+princess, a newcomer in the school, working somewhat awkwardly with
+needle and thimble. "The first time, Princess, is it not?" said the
+Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed Princess was obliged to confess
+that this was her first experience with those domestic implements.
+
+Sometimes in her leisure hours--and they are rare in her busy life--the
+Empress amuses herself by receiving the little daughters of some
+imperial prince or nobleman, or even the children of some of the high
+officials. In the kindness of her heart, she takes great pleasure in
+seeing and talking to these little ones, some of whom are intensely awed
+by being in the presence of the Empress, while others, in their
+innocence, ignorant of all etiquette, prattle away unrestrainedly, to
+the great entertainment of the court ladies as well as of the Empress
+herself. These visits always end with some choice toy or gift, which
+the child takes home and keeps among her most valued treasures in
+remembrance of her imperial hostess. In this way the Empress relieves
+the loneliness of the great palace, where the sound of childish voices
+is seldom heard, for the Emperor's children are brought up in separate
+establishments, and only pay occasional visits to the palace, until they
+have passed early childhood.[31]
+
+[31] The Emperor's children are placed, from birth, in the care of some
+noble or high official, who becomes the guardian of the child. Certain
+persons are appointed as attendants, and the child with its retinue
+lives in the establishment of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise
+his judgment and experience in the physical and mental training of the
+child.
+
+The present life of the Empress is not very different from that of
+European royalty. Her carriage and escort are frequently met with in the
+streets of T[=o]ky[=o] as she goes or returns on one of her numerous
+visits of ceremony or beneficence. Policemen keep back the crowds of
+people who always gather to see the imperial carriage, and stand
+respectfully, but without demonstration, while the horsemen carrying the
+imperial insignia, followed closely by the carriages of the Empress and
+her attendants, pass by. The official Gazette announces almost daily
+visits by the Emperor, Empress, or other members of the imperial family,
+to different places of interest,--sometimes to various palaces in
+different parts of T[=o]ky[=o], at other times to schools, charitable
+institutions or exhibitions, as well as occasional visits to the homes
+of high officials or nobles, for which great preparations are made by
+those who have the honor of entertaining their Majesties.
+
+Among the amusements within the palace grounds, one lately introduced,
+and at present in high favor, is that of horseback-riding, an exercise
+hitherto unknown to the ladies of Japan. The Empress and her ladies are
+said to be very fond of this active exercise,--an amusement forming a
+striking contrast to the quiet of former years.
+
+The grounds about the palaces in T[=o]ky[=o] are most beautifully laid
+out and cultivated, but not in that artificial manner, with regular
+flower beds and trees at certain equal distances, which is seen so often
+in the highly cultivated grounds of the rich in this country. The
+landscape gardening of Japan keeps unchanged the wildness and beauty of
+nature, and imitates it closely. The famous flowers, however, are, in
+the imperial gardens, changed by art and cultivated to their highest
+perfection, blooming each season for the enjoyment of the members of the
+court. Especially is attention given to the cultivation of the imperial
+flower of Japan, the chrysanthemum; and some day in November, when this
+flower is in its perfection, the gates of the Akasaka palace are thrown
+open to invited guests, who are received in person by the Emperor and
+Empress. Here the rarest species of this favorite flower, and the oddest
+colors and shapes, the results of much care and cultivation, are
+exhibited in spacious beds, shaded by temporary roofs of bamboo twigs
+and decorated with the imperial flags. This is the great chrysanthemum
+party of the Emperor, and another of similar character is given in the
+spring under the flower-laden boughs of the cherry trees.
+
+In these various ways the Empress shows herself to her people,--a
+gracious and lovely figure, though distant, as she needs must be, from
+common, every-day life. Only by glimpses do the people know her, but
+those glimpses reveal enough to excite the warmest admiration, the most
+tender love. Childless herself, destined to see a child not her own,
+although her husband's, heir to the throne, the Empress devotes her
+lonely and not too happy life to the actual, personal study of the wants
+of daughters of her people, and side by side with Jingo,[32] the
+majestic but shadowy Empress of the past, should be enshrined in the
+hearts of the women of Japan the memory of Haru Ko, the leader of her
+countrywomen into that freer and happier life that is opening to them.
+
+[32] Jingo K[=o]g[=o], like many of the heroic, half mythical figures of
+other nations, has suffered somewhat under the assaults of the modern
+historical criticism. Many of the best Japanese historians deny that she
+conquered Corea; some go so far as to doubt whether she had right to the
+title of Empress; all are sure that much of romance has gathered about
+the figure of this brave woman; but to the mass of the Japanese to-day,
+she is still an actual historic reality, and she represents to them in
+feminine form the Spirit of Japan. Whether she conquered Corea or no,
+she remains the prominent female figure upon the border line where the
+old barbaric life merges into the newer civilization, just as the
+present Empress, Haru Ko, stands upon the border line between the
+Eastern and the Western modes of thought and life.
+
+Each marks the beginning of a new era,--the first, of the era of
+civilization and morality founded upon the teachings of Buddha and
+Confucius; the second, of the civilization and morality that have sprung
+from the teachings of Christ. Buddhism and Confucianism were elevating
+and civilizing, but failed to place the women of Japan upon even as high
+a plane as they had occupied in the old barbaric times. To Christianity
+they must look for the security and happiness which it has never failed
+to give to the wives and mothers of all Christian nations.[*168]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI.[33]
+
+
+The seclusion of the Emperors and the gathering of the reins of
+government into the hands of Sh[=o]guns was a gradual process, beginning
+not long after the introduction of Chinese civilization, and continuing
+to grow until Iyeyas[)u], the founder of the Tokugawa dynasty, through his
+code of laws, took from the Emperor the last vestige of real power, and
+perfected the feudal system which maintained the sway of his house for
+two hundred and fifty years of peace.
+
+[33] _Yashiki_, or spread-out house, was the name given to the palace
+and grounds of a daimi[=o]'s city residence, and also to the barracks
+occupied by his retainers, both in city and country. In the city the
+barracks of the samurai were built as a hollow square, in the centre of
+which stood the palace and grounds of their lord, and this whole place
+was the daimi[=o]'s _yashiki_. In the castle towns the daimi[=o]'s
+palace and gardens stood within the castle inclosure, surrounded by a
+moat, while the _yashikis_ of the samurai were placed without the moat.
+They in turn were separated from the business part of the village
+sometimes by a second or third moat. By life in castle and _yashiki_ we
+mean the life of the daimi[=o], whether in city or country.
+
+The Emperor's court, with its literary and aesthetic quiet, its
+simplicity of life and complexity of etiquette, was the centre of the
+culture and art of Japan, but never the centre of luxury. After the
+growth of the Tokugawa power had secured for that house and its
+retainers great hereditary possessions, the Emperor's court was a mere
+shadow in the presence of the magnificence in which the Tokugawas and
+the daimi[=o]s chose to live. The wealth of the country was in the hands
+of those who held the real power, and the Emperor was dependent for his
+support upon his great vassal, who held the land, collected the taxes,
+made the laws, and gave to his master whatever seemed necessary for his
+maintenance in the simple style of the old days, keeping for himself and
+for his retainers enough to make Yedo, the Tokugawa capital, the centre
+of a luxury far surpassing anything ever seen at the Emperor's own
+court. While the _kuge_, the old imperial nobility, formerly the
+governors of the provinces under the Emperors, lived in respectable but
+often extreme poverty at Ky[=o]to, the landed nobility, or daimi[=o]s,
+brought, after many struggles, under the sway of the Tokugawas, built
+for themselves palaces and pleasure gardens in the moated city of Yedo.
+At Yedo with its castle, its gardens, its _yashikis_, and its
+fortifications, was established a new court, more luxurious, but less
+artistic and cultivated, than the old court of Ky[=o]to. In the various
+provinces, too, at every castle town, a little court arose about the
+castle, and the daimi[=o] became not only the feudal chief, but the
+patron of literature and art among his people, as the years went by
+filling his _kura_ with choice works of art, in lacquer, bronze, silver,
+and pottery, to be brought out on special occasions. These nobles, under
+a law of Iyemits[)u], the third of the Tokugawa line, were compelled to
+spend half of each year at the city of the Sh[=o]guns; and each had his
+_yashiki_, or large house and garden, in the city. At this house, his
+family must reside permanently, as hostages for the loyalty of their
+lord while away. The annual journeys to and from Yedo were events not
+only in the lives of the daimi[=o]s and their trains of retainers, but
+in the lives of the country people who lived along the roads by which
+they must travel. The time and style of each journey for each daimi[=o]
+were rigidly prescribed in the laws of Iyemits[)u], as well as the
+behavior of the country people who might meet the procession moving
+towards Yedo, or returning therefrom. When some noble, or any member of
+his family, was to pass through a certain section of the country, great
+preparations were made beforehand. Not only was traffic stopped along
+the route, but every door and window had to be closed. By no means was
+any one to show himself, or to look in any way upon the passing
+procession. To do so was to commit a profane deed, punishable by a fine.
+Among other things, no cooking was allowed on that day. All the food
+must be prepared the day before, as the air was supposed to become
+polluted by the smoke from the fires. Thus through crowded cities, full
+and busy with life, the daimi[=o] in his curtained palanquin, with
+numerous retinue, would pass by; but wherever he approached, the place
+would be as deserted and silent as if plague-stricken. It is hardly
+necessary to add that these journeys, attended with so much ceremony
+and inconvenience to the people, were not as frequent as the trips now
+taken, at a moment's notice, from one city to another, by these very
+same men.
+
+One story current in T[=o]ky[=o] shows the narrowing effect of such
+seclusion. A noble who had traveled into Yedo, across one of the large
+bridges built over the Sumida River, remarked one day to his companions
+that he was greatly disappointed on seeing that bridge. "From the
+pictures," he said, "which I have seen, the bridge seemed alive with
+people, the centre of life and activity, but the artists must
+exaggerate, for not a soul was on the bridge when I passed by."
+
+The castle of the Sh[=o]gun in Yedo, with its moats and fortifications,
+and its fine house and great _kura_, was reproduced on a small scale in
+the castles scattered through the country; and as in Yedo the _yashikis_
+of the daimi[=o]s stood next to the inner moat of the castle, that the
+retainers might be ready to defend their lord at his earliest call, so
+in the provinces the _yashikis_ of the samurai occupied a similar
+position about the daimi[=o]'s castle.
+
+It is curious to see that, as the Sh[=o]gun took away the military and
+temporal power of the Emperor, making of him only a figure-head without
+real power, so, to a certain degree, the daimi[=o] gave up, little by
+little, the personal control of his own province, the power falling into
+the hands of ambitious samurai, who became the councilors of their lord.
+The samurai were the learned class and the military class; they were and
+are the life of Japan; and it is no wonder that the nobles, protected
+and shielded from the world, and growing up without much education,
+should have changed in the course of centuries from strong, brave
+warriors into the delicate, effeminate, luxury-loving nobles of the
+present day. Upon the loyalty and wisdom of the samurai, often upon some
+one man of undoubted ability, rested the greatness of the province and
+the prosperity of the master's house.
+
+The life of the ladies in these daimi[=o]s' houses is still a living
+memory to many of the older women of Japan; but it is a memory only, and
+has given place to a different state of things. The Emperor occupies the
+castle of the Sh[=o]gun to-day, and every daimi[=o]'s castle throughout
+the country is in the hands of the imperial government. The old
+pleasure gardens of the nobles are turned into arsenals, schools, public
+parks, and other improvements of the new era. But here and there one
+finds some conservative family of nobles still keeping up in some
+measure the customs of former times; and daimi[=o]s' houses there are
+still in T[=o]ky[=o], though stripped of power and of retainers, where
+life goes on in many ways much as it did in the old days. In such a
+house as this, one finds ladies-in-waiting, of the samurai rank, who
+serve her ladyship--the daimi[=o]'s wife--in all personal service. In
+the old days, the daughters of the samurai were eager for the training
+in etiquette, and in all that belongs to nice housekeeping, that might
+be obtained by a few years of apprenticeship in a daimi[=o]'s house, and
+gladly assumed the most menial positions for the sake of the education
+and reputation to be gained by such training.
+
+The wife and daughters of a daimi[=o] led the quietest of lives, rarely
+passing beyond the four great walls that inclose the palace with its
+grounds. They saw the changes of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed
+in their lovely gardens, when, followed by numerous attendants, they
+slowly walked through the bamboo groves or under the bloom-laden boughs
+of the plum or cherry trees, forming their views of life, its pleasures,
+its responsibilities, and its meaning, within the narrow limits of the
+daimi[=o]'s _yashiki_.
+
+Their mornings were passed in the adorning of their own persons, and in
+the elaborate dressing of their luxuriant hair; the afternoons were
+spent in the tea ceremony, in writing poetry, or the execution of a sort
+of silk mosaic that is a favorite variety of fancy work still among the
+ladies of Japan.
+
+A story is told of one of the Tokugawa princesses that illustrates the
+amusements of the Sh[=o]gun's daughters, and the pains that were taken
+to gratify their wishes, however unreasonable. The cherry-trees of the
+castle gardens of T[=o]ky[=o] are noted for their beauty when in bloom
+during the month of April. It is said that once a daughter of the
+Tokugawa house expressed a wish to give a garden party amid the
+blossoming cherry-trees in the month of December, and nothing would do
+but that her wishes must be carried out. Her retainers accordingly
+summoned to their aid skillful artificers, who from pink and white
+tissue paper produced myriads of cherry blossoms, so natural that they
+could hardly be distinguished from the real ones. These they fastened
+upon the trees in just such places as the real flowers would have chosen
+to occupy, and the happy princess gave her garden party in December
+under the pink mist of cherry blooms.
+
+The children of a daimi[=o]'s wife occupied her attention but little.
+They were placed in the charge of careful attendants, and the mother,
+though allowed to see them when she wished, was deprived of the pleasure
+of constant intercourse with them, and had none of the mother's cares
+which form so large a part of life to an ordinary Japanese woman.
+
+When we know that the average Japanese girl is brought up strictly by
+her own mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedience and in all that is
+proper as regards etiquette and the duties of woman, we can imagine the
+narrowness of the education of the daimi[=o]'s poor little daughter,
+surrounded, from early childhood, with numerous attendants of the
+strictest sort, to teach her all that is proper according to the
+highest and severest standards. Sometimes, by the whim or the indulgence
+of parents, or through exceptional circumstances in her surroundings, a
+samurai's daughter became more independent, more self-reliant, or better
+educated, than others of her rank; but such opportunities never came to
+the more carefully reared noble's daughter.
+
+From her earliest childhood, she was addressed in the politest and most
+formal way, so that she could not help acquiring polite manners and
+speech. She was taught etiquette above all things, so that no rude
+action or speech would disgrace her rank; and that she should give due
+reverence to her superiors, courtesy to equals, and polite condescension
+to inferiors. She was taught especially to show kindness to the families
+under the rule of her father, and was early told of the noble's duty to
+protect and love his retainers, as a father loves and protects his
+children. From childhood, presents were made in her name to those around
+her, often without her previous knowledge or permission, and from them
+she would receive profuse thanks,--lessons in the delights of
+beneficence which could not fail to make their impression on the child
+princess. Even to inferiors she used the polite language,[34] and never
+the rude, brusque speech of men, or the careless phrases and expressions
+of the lower classes.
+
+[34] The Japanese language is full of expressions showing different
+shades of meaning in the politeness or respect implied. There are words
+and expressions which superiors in rank use to inferiors, or _vice
+versa_, and others used among equals. Some phrases belong especially to
+the language of the high-born, just as there are common expressions of
+the people. Some verbs in this extremely complex language must be
+altered in their termination according to the degree of honor in which
+the subject of the action is held in the speaker's mind.
+
+The education of the daimi[=o]'s daughter was conducted entirely at
+home.[35] Instead of going out to masters for instruction, she was
+taught by some one in the household,--one of her father's retainers, or
+perhaps a member of her own private retinue. Teachers for certain
+branches came from outside, and these were not expected to give the
+lesson within a certain time and hurry away, but they would remain,
+conversing, sipping tea, and partaking of sweetmeats, until their noble
+pupil was ready to receive them. Hospitality required that the teacher
+be offered a meal after the lesson, and this meal etiquette would not
+permit him to refuse, so that both teacher and pupil must spend much
+time waiting for each other and for the lesson.
+
+[35] The establishment of the peeress' school, mentioned in the last
+chapter, is a great innovation upon the old-time ways of many of the
+aristocratic families.
+
+Pursued in this leisurely way, the education of the noble's daughter
+could not advance very rapidly, and it usually ended with an extremely
+early marriage; and the girl wife would sometimes play with her doll in
+the new home until the living baby took its place to the young mother.
+
+The samurai women, who in one position or another were close attendants
+on these noble ladies, performing for them every act of service, were
+often women of more than average intelligence and education. From
+childhood to old age, the noble ladies were never without one or more of
+these maids of honor, close at hand to help or advise. Some entered the
+service in the lower positions for only a short period, leaving sooner
+or later to be married; for continued service in a daimi[=o]'s household
+meant a single life. Many of them remained in the palace all their days,
+leading lives of devotion to their mistress; the comfort and ease of
+which hardly compensated for the endless formalities and the monotonous
+seclusion.
+
+Even the less responsible and more menial positions were not looked down
+upon, and the higher offices in the household were exceedingly
+honorable. When, once in a long while, a day's leave of absence was
+granted to one of these gentlewomen, and, loaded with presents sent by
+the daimi[=o]'s lady, she went on her visit to her home, she was received
+as a greatly honored member of her own family. The respect which was
+paid to her knowledge of etiquette and dress was never lessened because
+of the menial services she might have performed for those of noble
+blood.
+
+The lady who was the head attendant, and those in the higher positions,
+had a great deal of power and influence in matters that concerned their
+mistress and the household; just as the male retainers decided for the
+prince, and in their own way, many of the affairs of the province. The
+few conservative old ladies, the last relics of the numerous retainers
+that once filled the castle, who still remain faithful in attendance in
+the homes now deprived of the grandeur of the olden times, look with
+horror upon the innovations of the present day, and sigh for the glory
+of old Japan. It is only upon compulsion that they give up many of the
+now useless formalities, and resign themselves to seeing their once so
+honored lords jostle elbow to elbow with the common citizen.
+
+I shall never forget the horror of one old lady, attendant on a noble's
+daughter of high rank, just entering the peeress' school, when it was
+told her that each student must carry in her own bundle of books and
+arrange them herself, and that the attendants were not allowed in the
+classroom. The poor old lady was doubtless indignant at the thought that
+her noble-born mistress should have to perform even so slight a task as
+the arranging of her own desk unaided.[*182]
+
+In the daimi[=o]s' houses there was little of the culture or wit that
+graced the more aristocratic seclusion of Ky[=o]to, and none of the
+duties and responsibilities that belonged to the samurai women, so that
+the life of the daimi[=o]'s lady was perhaps more purposeless, and less
+stimulating to the noble qualities, than the lives of any other of the
+women of Japan. Surrounded by endless restrictions of etiquette, lacking
+both the stimulus that comes from physical toil and that to be derived
+from intellectual exertion, the ladies of this class of the nobility
+simply vegetated. There is little wonder that the nobles degenerated
+both mentally and physically during the years when the Tokugawas held
+sway; for there was absolutely nothing in the lives of the women to fit
+them to be the wives and mothers of strong men. Delicate, dainty,
+refined, dexterous in all manner of little things but helpless to act
+for themselves,--ladies to the inmost core of their beings, with
+instincts of honor and of _noblesse oblige_ appearing in them from
+earliest childhood,--the years of seclusion, of deference from hundreds
+of retainers, of constant instruction in the duties as well as the
+dignities of their position, have produced an abiding effect upon the
+minds of the women of this aristocracy, and to-day even the youngest and
+smallest of them have the virtues as well as the failings produced by
+nearly three centuries of training. They are lacking in force, in
+ambition, in clearness of thought, among a nation abounding in those
+qualities; but the national characteristics of dignity, charming
+manners, a quick sense of honor, and indomitable pride of race and
+nation, combined with a personal modesty almost deprecating in its
+humility,--these are found among the daughters of the nobles developed
+to their highest extent. With the qualities of gentleness and delicacy
+possessed by these ladies, which make them shrink from rough contact
+with the outer world, there are mingled the stronger qualities of moral
+and physical courage. A daimi[=o]'s wife, as befitted the wife of a
+warrior and the daughter of long generations of brave men, never shrank
+from facing danger and death when necessary; and considered the taking
+of her own life an honorable and easy escape from being captured by her
+enemy.
+
+Two or three little ripples from the past broke into my life in
+T[=o]ky[=o], giving a little insight into those old feudal times, and
+the customs that were common then, but that are now gone forever. A
+story was told me in Japan by a lady who had herself, as a child,
+witnessed the events narrated. It illustrates the responsibility felt by
+the retainers for their lord and his house. A daimi[=o] fell into
+disgrace with the Sh[=o]gun, and was banished to his own capital,--a
+castle town several days' journey from Yedo,--as a punishment for some
+offense. The castle gates were closed, and no communication with the
+outer world allowed. During this period of disgrace, it happened that
+the noble fell ill, and died quite suddenly before his punishment was
+ended. His death under such circumstances was the most terrible thing
+that could befall either himself or his family, as his funeral must be
+without the ordinary tokens of respect; and his tombstone, instead of
+bearing tribute to his virtues, and the favor in which he had been held
+by his lord, must be simply the monument of his disgrace. This being the
+case, the retainers felt that these evils must be averted at any cost.
+Knowing that the Sh[=o]gun's anger was probably not so great as to make
+him wish to bring eternal disgrace to their dead lord, they at once
+decided to send a messenger to the Sh[=o]gun, begging for pardon on the
+plea of desperate illness, and asking the restoration of his favor
+before the approach of death. The death was not announced, but the floor
+of the room in which the man had died was lifted up, and the body let
+down to the ground beneath; and through all the town it was announced
+that the daimi[=o] was hopelessly ill. Forty days passed before the
+Sh[=o]gun sent to the retainers the token that the disgrace was removed,
+and during all those forty days, in castle and barrack and village, the
+fiction of the daimi[=o]'s illness was kept up. As soon as the
+messengers returned, the body was drawn up again through the floor and
+placed on the bed; and all the retainers, from the least unto the
+greatest, were summoned into the room to congratulate their master upon
+his restoration to favor. One by one they entered the darkened room,
+prostrated themselves before the corpse, and uttered the formal words of
+congratulation. Then when all, even to the little girl who, grown to
+womanhood, told me the story, had been through the horrible ceremony, it
+was announced that the master was dead,--that he had died immediately
+after the return of the messenger with the good tidings of pardon. All
+obstacles being thus removed, the funeral was celebrated with due pomp
+and circumstance; and the tombstone of the daimi[=o] to-day gives no
+hint of the disgrace from which he so narrowly escaped.
+
+Another instance very similar, throwing some light on the custom of
+adoption or _y[=o]shi_, referred to in a previous chapter, was the case of
+a nobleman who died without children, and without an heir appointed to
+inherit his title. It would never have done, in sending in the official
+notice of death, to be unable to name the legal head of the house and
+the successor to the title. There was also no male relative to perform
+the office of chief mourner at the funeral; and so the death of the
+nobleman was kept secret, and his house showed no signs of mourning
+during a long period, until a son satisfactory to all the members of the
+household had been adopted. When the legal notice of the adoption had
+been sent in, and the son received into the family as heir, then, and
+only then, was the death of the lord announced, the period of mourning
+begun, and the funeral ceremony performed.
+
+Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japanese lady, who knew the interest
+that I took in seeing and procuring the old-fashioned embroidered
+_kimonos_, which are now entirely out of style in Japan, and which can
+only be obtained at second-hand clothing stores, or at private sale. My
+friend said that she had just been shown an assortment of old garments
+which were offered at private sale by the heirs of a lady, recently
+deceased, who had once been a maid of honor in a daimi[=o]'s house. The
+clothes were still in the house, and were brought in, in a great basket,
+for my inspection. Very beautiful garments they were, of silk, crepe,
+and linen, embroidered elaborately, and in extremely good order. Many of
+them seemed not to have been worn at all, but had been kept folded away
+for years, and only brought out when a fitting occasion came round at
+the proper season of the year. As we turned over the beautiful fabrics,
+a black broadcloth garment at the bottom of the basket aroused my
+curiosity, and I pulled it out and held it up for closer inspection. A
+curious garment it was, bound with white, and with a great white crest
+_applique_ on the middle of the back. Curious white stripes gave the
+coat a military look, and it seemed appropriate rather to the wardrobe
+of some two-sworded warrior than to that of a gentlewoman of the old
+type. To the question, How did such a coat come to be in such a place?
+the older lady of the company--one to whom the old days were still the
+natural order and the new customs an exotic growth--explained that the
+garment rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any lady-in-waiting in a
+daimi[=o]'s house, for it was made to wear in case of fire or attack when
+the men were away, and the women were expected to guard the premises.
+Further search among the relics of the past brought to light the rest of
+the costume: silk _hakama_, or full kilted trousers; a stiff, manlike
+black silk cap bound with a white band; and a spear cover of broadcloth,
+with a great white crest upon it, like the one on the broadcloth coat.
+These made up the uniform which must be donned in time of need by the
+ladies of the palace or the castle, for the defense of their lord's
+property. They had been folded away for twenty years among the
+embroidered robes, to come to light at last for the purpose of showing
+to a foreigner a phase of the old life that was so much a matter of
+course to the older Japanese that it never occurred to them even to
+mention it to a stranger. The elder lady of the house was wonderfully
+amused at my interest in these mute memorials of the past, and could
+never comprehend why I was willing to expend the sum of one dollar for
+the sake of gaining possession of a set of garments for which I could
+have no possible use. The uniform had probably never been worn in actual
+warfare, but its owner had been trained in the use of the long-handled
+spear, the cover of which she had kept stored away all these years; and
+had regarded herself as liable to be called into action at any time as
+one of the home guard, when the male retainers of her lord were in the
+field.
+
+There are in the shops of T[=o]ky[=o] to-day hundreds of colored prints
+illustrating the splendor of the Sh[=o]gunate; for the fine clothes, the
+pageants, the show and display that ended with the fall of the house of
+Tokugawa, are still dear to the popular mind. In these one sees
+reproduced, in more than their original brilliancy of coloring, the
+daimi[=o]s, with their trains of uniformed retainers, proceeding in
+stately pageant to the palace of the Sh[=o]gun; the games, the dances,
+the reviews held before the Sh[=o]gun himself; the princess, with her
+train of ladies and attendants, visiting the cherry blossoms at Uyeno,
+or crossing some swift but shallow river on her journey to Yedo. There
+one sees the fleet of red-lacquered pleasure barges in which the
+Sh[=o]gun with his court sailed up the river to Muk[=o]jima, in the
+spring, to view the cherry-trees which bloom along the banks for miles.
+One sees, too, the interiors of the daimi[=o]s' houses, the intimate
+domestic scenes into which no outsider could ever penetrate. One picture
+shows the excitements consequent upon the advent of an heir to a noble
+house,--the happy mother on her couch, surrounded by brightly dressed
+ladies-in-waiting; the baby in the room adjoining; another group of
+brilliant beings preparing his bath; while down the long piazza, which
+opens upon the little courtyard in the centre of the house, one sees
+still other groups of servants, bringing the gifts with which the great
+mansion is flooded at such a time. Still further away, across the
+courtyard, are the doctors, holding learned consultation around a
+little table, and mixing medicines to secure the health and strength of
+both mother and baby.
+
+The fall of the Sh[=o]gunate, and the abolition of castle and _yashiki_,
+have made a radical change in the fashions of dress in Japan. One sees
+no longer the beautiful embroidered robes, except upon the stage, for
+the abolition of the great leisure class has put the flowered _kimono_
+out of fashion. There are no courts, small and great, scattered all
+through the country, where the ladies must be dressed in changing styles
+for the changing seasons, and where the embroideries that imitate most
+closely the natural flowers are sure of a market. When one asks, as
+every foreigner is likely to ask, the Japanese ladies of one's
+acquaintance, "Why have you given up the beautiful embroideries and
+gorgeous colors that you used to wear?" the answer always is, "There are
+no daimi[=o]s' houses now." And this is regarded as a sufficient
+explanation of the change.[*192]
+
+I have in my possession to-day two dainty bits of the silk mosaic work
+before mentioned, the work of the sixteen-year-old wife of one of the
+proudest and most conservative of the present generation of nobles. A
+dainty little creature she was, with a face upon which her two years of
+wifehood and one year of motherhood had left no trace of care. Living
+amid her host of ladies and women servants, most of them older and wiser
+than herself; having no care and no amusements save the easy task of
+keeping herself pretty and well-dressed, and the amusement of watching
+her baby grow, and hearing the chance rumors that might come to her from
+the great new world into which her husband daily went, but with which
+she herself never mingled,--her days were one pleasant, monotonous
+round, unawakening alike either to soul or intellect. Into this life of
+remoteness from all that belongs to the new era, imagine the excitement
+produced by the advent of a foreign lady, with an educated dog, whose
+wonderful intelligence had been already related to her by one of her own
+ladies-in-waiting. I shall always believe that my invitation into that
+exclusive house was due largely to the reports of my dog, carried to its
+proprietors by one of the lady servitors who had seen him perform upon
+one occasion. Certain it is that the first words of the little lady of
+the house to me were a question about the dog; and her last act of
+politeness to our party was a warm embrace of the handsome collie, who
+had given unimpeachable evidence that he understood a great deal of
+English,--a tongue which the daimi[=o] himself was painfully learning. The
+dainty child-wife with both arms buried in the heavy ruff of the
+astonished dog is a picture that comes to me often, and that brings up
+most pathetically the monotony of an existence into which so small a
+thing can bring so much. The lifelike black and white silk puppy, the
+creeping baby doll from Ky[=o]to, the silk mosaic box and chopstick
+case,--the work of my lady's delicate fingers,--are most agreeable
+reminders of the kindness and sweetness of the little wife, whose
+sixteen summers have been spent among the surroundings of thirty years
+ago, and who lives, like the enchanted princess of the fairy tales,
+wrapped about by a spell which separates her from the bustling world of
+to-day. The product of the past,--the daughter of the last of the
+Sh[=o]guns,--she dwells in her enchanted house, among the relics of a past
+which is still the present to her and to her household. So lovely, so
+aesthetic, so dainty and charming seems the world into which one enters
+there, that one would not care to break the spell that holds it as it
+is, and let the girl-wife, with her gentlewomen and her kneeling
+servants, hurry forward into the busy, perplexing life of to-day. May
+time deal gently with her and hers, nor rudely break the enchantment
+that surrounds her!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SAMURAI WOMEN.
+
+
+Samurai was the name given to the military class among the Japanese,--a
+class intermediate between the Emperor and his nobles and the great mass
+of the common people who were engaged in agriculture, mechanical arts,
+or trade. Upon the samurai rested the defense of the country from
+enemies at home or abroad, as well as the preservation of literature and
+learning, and the conduct of all official business. At the time of the
+fall of feudalism, there were, among the thirty-four millions of
+Japanese, about two million samurai; and in this class, in the broadest
+sense of the word, must be included the daimi[=o]s, as well as their
+two-sworded retainers. But as the greater among the samurai were
+distinguished by special class names, the word as commonly used, and as
+used throughout this work, applies to the military class, who served
+the Sh[=o]gun and the daimi[=o]s, and who were supported by yearly
+allowances from the treasuries of their lords. These form a distinct
+class, actuated by motives quite different from those of the lower
+classes, and filling a great place in the history of the country. As the
+nobility, through long inheritance of power and wealth, became weak in
+body and mind, the samurai grew to be, more and more, not only the
+sword, but the brain of Japan; and to-day the great work of bringing the
+country out of the middle ages into the nineteenth century is being
+performed by the samurai more than by any other class.
+
+What, it may be asked, are the traits of the samurai which distinguish
+them, and make them such honored types of the perfect Japanese
+gentleman, so that to live and die worthy the name of samurai was the
+highest ambition of the soldier? The samurai's duty may be expressed in
+one word, loyalty,--loyalty to his lord and master, and loyalty to his
+country,--loyalty so true and deep that for it all human ties, hopes,
+and affections, wife, children, and home, must be sacrificed if
+necessary. Those who have read the tale of "The Loyal R[=o]nins"[36]--a
+story which has been so well told by Mitford, Dickins, and Greey that
+many readers must be already familiar with it--will remember that the
+head councilor and retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for revenge for
+his lord's unjust death, divorces his wife and sends off his children,
+that they may not distract his thoughts from his plans; and performs his
+famous act of revenge without once seeing his wife, only letting her
+know at his death his faithfulness to her and the true cause of his
+seeming cruelty. And the wife, far from feeling wronged by such an act,
+only glories in the loyalty of her husband, who threw aside everything
+to fulfill his one great duty, even though she herself was his unhappy
+victim.
+
+[36] _R[=o]nin_ was the term applied to a samurai who had lost his master,
+and owed no feudal allegiance to any daimi[=o]. The exact meaning of the
+word is _wave-man_, signifying one who wanders to and fro without
+purpose, like a wave driven by the wind.
+
+The true samurai is always brave, never fearing death or suffering in
+any form. Life and death are alike to him, if no disgrace is attached to
+his name.
+
+An incident comes into my mind which may serve as an example of the
+samurai spirit,--a spirit which has filled the history of Japan with
+heroic deeds. It is the story of a long siege, at the end of which the
+little garrison in the besieged castle was reduced to the last stages of
+endurance, though hourly expecting reinforcement. In this state of
+affairs, the great question is, whether to wait for the expected aid, or
+to surrender immediately, and the answer to the question can only be
+obtained through a knowledge of the enemy's strength. At this juncture,
+one of the samurai volunteers to steal into the camp of the besiegers,
+inspect their forces, and report their strength before the final
+decision is made. He disguises himself, and through various chances is
+able to penetrate, unsuspected, into the midst of the enemy's camp. He
+discovers that the besiegers are so weak that they cannot maintain the
+siege much longer, but while returning to the castle he is recognized
+and taken by the enemy. His captors give him one chance for escape from
+the horrible death of crucifixion. He is to go to the edge of the moat,
+and, standing on an elevated place, shout out to the soldiers that they
+must surrender, for the forces are too strong for them. He seemingly
+consents to this, and, led down to the water's edge, he sees across the
+moat his wife and child, who greet him with demonstrations of joy. To
+her he waves his hand; then, bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard
+by friend and foe, he shouts out the true tidings, "Wait for
+reinforcement at any cost, for the besiegers are weak and will soon have
+to give up." At these words his enraged enemies seize him and put him to
+a death of horrible torture, but he smiles in their faces as he tells
+them the sweetness of such a sacrifice for his master. Japanese history
+abounds with heroic deeds of blood displaying the indomitable courage of
+the samurai. In the reading of them, we are often reminded of the
+Spartan spirit of warfare, and samurai women are in some ways very like
+those Spartan mothers who would rather die than see their sons branded
+as cowards.
+
+The implicit obedience which samurai gave their lords, when conflicting
+with feelings of loyalty to their country, often produced two opposing
+forces which had to be overcome. When the daimi[=o] gave orders that the
+keener-sighted retainer felt would not be for the good of the house, he
+had either to disobey his lord, or act against his feeling of loyalty.
+Divided between the two duties, the samurai would usually do as he
+thought right for his country or his lord, disobeying his master's
+orders; write a confession of his real motives; and save his name from
+disgrace by committing suicide. By this act he would atone for his
+disobedience, and his loyalty would never be questioned.
+
+The now abolished custom of _hara-kiri_, or the voluntary taking of
+one's life to avoid disgrace, and blot out entirely or partially the
+stain on an honorable name, is a curious custom which has come down from
+old times. The ancient heroes stabbed themselves as calmly as they did
+their enemies, and women as well as men knew how to use the short
+sword[37] worn always at the side of the samurai, his last and easy
+escape from shame.
+
+[37] The samurai always wore two swords, a long one for fighting only,
+and a short one for defense when possible, but, as a last resort, for
+_hara-kiri_. The sword is the emblem of the samurai spirit, and as such
+is respected and honored. A samurai took pride in keeping his swords as
+sharp and shining as was possible. He was never seen without the two
+swords, but the longer one he removed and left at the front door when he
+entered the house of a friend. To use a sword badly, to harm or injure
+it, or to step over it, was considered an insult to the owner.
+
+The young men of this class, as well as their masters, the daimi[=o]s,
+were early instructed in the method of this self-stabbing, so that it
+might be cleanly and easily done, for a bloody and unseemly death would
+not redound to the honor of the suicide. The fatal cut was not
+instantaneous in its effect, and there was always opportunity for that
+display of courage--that show of disregard for death or pain--which was
+expected of the brave man.
+
+The _hara-kiri_ was of course a last resort, but it was an honorable
+death. The vulgar criminal must be put to death by the hands of others,
+but the nobler samurai, who never cares to survive disgrace, was
+condemned to _hara-kiri_ if found guilty of actions worthy of death. Not
+to be allowed to do this, but to be executed in the common way, was a
+double disgrace to a samurai. Even to this day, when crimes such as the
+assassination of a minister of state are committed, in the mistaken
+belief that the act is for the good of the country, the idea on the part
+of the assassin is never to escape detection. He calmly gives himself
+up to justice or takes his own life,[38] stating his motive for the
+deed; and, believing himself justified in the act, is willing that his
+life should be the cost.
+
+[38] Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma, the late
+Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889, committed suicide
+immediately after throwing the dynamite bomb which caused the minister
+the loss of his leg. This was the more remarkable in that, at the time
+of his death, the assassin supposed that his victim had escaped all
+injury.
+
+The old samurai was proud of his rank, his honorable vocation, his
+responsibility; proud of his ignorance of trade and barter and of his
+disregard for the sordid cares of the world, regarding as far beneath
+him all occupations but those of arms. Wealth, as artisan or farmer,
+rarely tempted him to sink into the lower ranks; and his support from
+the daimi[=o], often a mere pittance, insured to him more respect and
+greater privileges than wealth as a heimin. To this day even, this
+feeling exists. Preference for rank or position, rather than for mere
+salary, remains strongly among the present generation, so that official
+positions are more sought after than the more lucrative occupations of
+trade. Japan is flooded with small officials, and yet the samurai now
+is obliged to lay down his sword and devote his time to the once
+despised trades, and to learn how important are the arts of peace
+compared with those of war.
+
+The dislike of anything suggestive of trade or barter--of services and
+actions springing, not from duty and from the heart, but from the desire
+of gain--has strongly tinted many little customs of the day, often
+misunderstood and misconstrued by foreigners. In old Japan, experience
+and knowledge could not be bought and sold. Physicians did not charge
+for their services, but on the contrary would decline to name or even
+receive a compensation from those in their own clan. Patients, on their
+side, were too proud to accept services free, and would send to the
+physicians, not as pay exactly, but more as a gift or a token of
+gratitude, a sum of money which varied according to the means of the
+giver, as well as to the amount of service received. Daimi[=o]s did not
+send to ask a teacher how much an hour his time was worth, and then
+arrange the lessons accordingly; the teacher was not insulted by being
+expected to barter his knowledge for so much filthy lucre, but was
+merely asked whether his time and convenience would allow of his taking
+extra teaching. The request was made, not as a matter of give and take,
+but a favor to be granted. Due compensation, however, would never fail
+to be made,--of this the teacher could be sure,--but no agreement was
+ever considered necessary.
+
+With this feeling yet remaining in Japan,--this dislike of contracts,
+and exact charges for professional services,--we can imagine the inward
+disgust of the samurai at the business-like habits of the foreigners
+with whom he has to deal. On the other hand, his feelings are not
+appreciated by the foreigner, and his actions clash with the European
+and American ideas of independence and self-respect. In Japan a present
+of money is more honorable than pay, whereas in America pay is much more
+honorable than a present.
+
+The samurai of to-day is rapidly imbibing new ideas, and is learning to
+see the world from a Western point of view; but his thoughts and actions
+are still moulded on the ideas of old Japan, and it will be a long time
+before the loyal, faithful, but proud spirit of the samurai will die
+out. The pride of clan is now changed to pride of race; loyalty to
+feudal chief has become loyalty to the Emperor as sovereign; and the old
+traits of character exist under the European costumes of to-day, as
+under the flowing robes of the two-sworded retainer.
+
+It is this same spirit of loyalty that has made it hard for Christianity
+to get a foothold in Japan. The Emperor was the representative of the
+gods of Japan. To embrace a new religion seemed a desertion of him, and
+the following of the strange gods of the foreigner. The work of the
+Catholic missionaries which ended so disastrously in 1637 has left the
+impression that a Christian is bound to offer allegiance to the Pope in
+much the same way as the Emperor now receives it from his people; and
+the bitterness of such a thought has made many refuse to hear what
+Christianity really is. Such words as "King" and "Lord" they have
+understood as referring to temporal things, and it has taken years to
+undo this prejudice; a feeling in no way surprising when we consider
+how the Jesuit missionaries once interfered with political movements in
+Japan.
+
+So bitter was this feeling, when Japan was first opened, that a native
+Christian was at once branded as a traitor to his country, and very
+severe was the persecution against all Christians. Missionaries at one
+time dared not acknowledge themselves as such, and lived in danger of
+their lives; and the Japanese Christian who remained faithful did so
+knowing that he was despised and hated. I know of one mother who,
+finding command and entreaty alike unavailing to move her son, a convert
+to the new religion, threatened to commit suicide, feeling that the
+disgrace which had fallen on the family could only be wiped out with her
+death. Happily, all this is of the past, and to-day the samurai has
+found that he can reconcile the new religion with his loyalty to Japan,
+and that in receiving the one he is not led to betray the other.
+
+The women of the samurai have shared with the men the responsibilities
+of their rank, and the pride that comes from hereditary positions of
+responsibility. A woman's first duty in all ranks of society is
+obedience; but sacrifice of self, in however horrible a way, was a duty
+most cheerfully and willingly performed, when by such sacrifice father,
+husband, or son might be the better able to fulfill his duty towards his
+feudal superior. The women in the daimi[=o]s' castles who were taught
+fencing, drilled and uniformed, and relied upon to defend the castle in
+case of need, were women of this class,--women whose husbands and
+fathers were soldiers, and in whose veins ran the blood of generations
+of fighting ancestors. Gentle, feminine, delicate as they were, there
+was a possibility of martial prowess about them when the need for it
+came; and the long education in obedience and loyalty did not fail to
+produce the desired results. Death, and ignominy worse than death, could
+be met bravely, but disgrace involving loss of honor to husband or
+feudal lord was the one thing that must be avoided at all hazards. It
+was my good fortune, many years ago, to make the acquaintance of a
+little Japanese girl who had lived in the midst of the siege of
+Wakamatsu, the city in which the Sh[=o]gun's forces made their last stand
+for their lord and the system that he represented. As the Emperor's
+forces marched upon the castle town, moat after moat was taken,[*209]
+until at last men, women, and children took refuge within the citadel
+itself to defend it until the last gasp. The bombs of the besiegers fell
+crashing into the castle precincts, killing the women as they worked at
+whatever they could do in aid of the defenders; and even the little
+girls ran back and forth, amid the rain of bullets and balls, carrying
+cartridges, which the women were making within the castle, to the men
+who were defending the walls. "Weren't you afraid?" we asked the
+delicate child, when she told us of her own share in the defense. "No,"
+was the answer. A small but dangerous sword, of the finest Japanese
+steel, was shown us as the sword that she wore in her belt during all
+those days of war and tumult. "Why did you wear the sword?" we asked.
+"So that I would have it if I was taken prisoner." "What would you have
+done with it?" was the next question, for we could not believe that a
+child of eight would undertake to defend herself against armed soldiers
+with that little sword. "I would have killed myself," was the answer,
+with a flash of the eye that showed her quite capable of committing the
+act in case of need.
+
+In the olden times, when the spirit of warfare was strong and justice
+but scantily administered, revenge for personal insult, or for the death
+of father or lord, fell upon the children, or the retainers. Sometimes
+the bloody deed has fallen to the lot of a woman, to some weak and
+feeble girl, who, in many a tale, has braved all the difficulties that
+beset a woman's path, devoted her life to an act of vengeance, and, with
+the courage of a man, has often successfully consummated her revenge.
+
+One of the tales of old Japan, and a favorite subject of theatrical
+representation, is the death and revenge of a lady in a daimi[=o]'s
+palace. Onoye, a daughter of the people, child of a merchant, has by
+chance risen to the position of lady-in-waiting to a daimi[=o]'s
+wife,--a thing so uncommon that it has roused the jealousy of the other
+ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwafuji, one of the highest and
+proudest ladies at the court, takes pains on every occasion to insult
+and torment the poor, unoffending Onoye, whom she cannot bear to have
+as an associate. She constantly reminds her of her inferior birth, and
+at last challenges her to a trial in fencing, in which accomplishment
+Onoye is not proficient, having lacked the proper training in her early
+life. At last the hatred and anger of Iwafuji culminate in a frenzy of
+rage; she forgets herself, and strikes the meek and gentle Onoye with
+her sandal,--the worst insult that could be offered to any one.
+
+Onoye, overcome by this deep disgrace offered her in public, returns
+from the main palace to her own apartments, and ponders long and deeply,
+in the bitterness of her soul, how to wipe out the disgrace of an insult
+by such an enemy.
+
+Her own faithful maid, seeing her disordered hair and anxious looks,
+perceives some secret trouble, which her mistress will not disclose, and
+tries, while performing her acts of service, to dispel the gloom by
+telling gayly all the gossip of the day. This maid, O Haru, is a type of
+the clever faithful servant. She is really of higher birth than her
+mistress, for, though she has been obliged to go out to service, she was
+born of a samurai family. Onoye, while listening to the talk of her
+servant, has made up her mind that only one thing can blot out her
+disgrace, and that is to commit suicide. She hastily pens a farewell to
+her family, for the deed must not be delayed, and sends with the letter
+the token of her disgrace,--Iwafuji's sandal, which she has kept. O Haru
+is sent on this errand, and, unconscious of the ill-news she is bearing,
+she starts out. On the way, the ominous croak of the ravens, who are
+making a dismal noise,--a presage of ill-luck,--frightens the observant
+O Haru. A little further on, the strap of her clog breaks,--a still more
+alarming sign. Thoroughly frightened, O Haru turns back, and reaches her
+mistress' room in time to find that the fatal deed is done, and her
+mistress is dying. O Haru is heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and
+vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved mistress.
+
+O Haru, unlike Onoye, is thoroughly trained in fencing. An occasion
+arises when she returns to Iwafuji in public the malicious blow, and
+with the same sandal, which she has kept as a sign of her revenge. She
+then challenges Iwafuji, in behalf of the dead, to a trial in fencing.
+The haughty Iwafuji is forced to accept, and is thoroughly defeated and
+shamed before the spectators. The whole truth is now made known, and the
+daimi[=o], who admires and appreciates the spirit of O Haru, sends for
+her, and raises her from her low position to fill the post of her dead
+mistress.
+
+These stories show the spirit of the samurai women; they can suffer
+death bravely, even joyfully, at their own hands or the hands of husband
+or father, to avoid or wipe out any disgrace which they regard as a loss
+of honor; but they will as bravely and patiently subject themselves to a
+life of shame and ignominy, worse than death, for the sake of gaining
+for husband or father the means of carrying out a feudal obligation.
+There is a pathetic scene, in one of the most famous of the Japanese
+historical dramas, in which one seems to get the moral perspective of
+the ideal Japanese woman, as one cannot get it in any other way. The
+play is founded on the story of "The Loyal R[=o]nins," referred to in the
+beginning of this chapter. The loyal r[=o]nins are plotting to avenge the
+death of their master upon the daimi[=o] whose cupidity and injustice have
+brought it about. As there is danger of disloyalty even in their own
+ranks, Oishi, the leader of the dead daimi[=o]'s retainers, displays great
+caution in the selection of his fellow-conspirators, and practices every
+artifice to secure absolute secrecy for his plans. One young man, who
+was in disgrace with his lord at the time of his death, applies to be
+admitted within the circle of conspirators; but as it is suspected that
+he may not be true to the cause, a payment in money is exacted from him
+as a pledge of his honorable intentions. It is thus made his first duty
+to redeem his honor from all suspicion by the payment of the money, in
+order that he may perform his feudal obligation of avenging the death of
+his lord. But the young man is poor; he has married a poor girl, and has
+agreed to support not only his wife, but her old parents as well, and
+the payment is impossible for him. In this emergency, his wife, at the
+suggestion of her parents, proposes, as the only way, to sell herself,
+for a term of two years, to the proprietor of a house of pleasure, that
+she may by this vile servitude enable her husband to escape the
+dishonor that must come to him if he fails to fulfill his feudal duty.
+Negotiations are entered into, the contract is made, and an advance
+payment is given which will furnish money enough for the pledge required
+by the conspirators. All this is done without the knowledge of the
+husband, lest his love for his wife and his grief for the sacrifice
+prevent him from accepting the only means left to prove his loyalty. The
+noble wife even plans to leave her home while he is away on a hunting
+expedition, and so spare him the pain of parting. His emotion upon
+learning of this venture in business is not of wrath at the disgrace
+that has overtaken his family, but simply of grief that his wife and her
+parents must make so great a sacrifice to save his honor. It is a
+terrible affliction, but it is not a disgrace in any way parallel to the
+disgrace of disloyalty to his lord. And the heroic wife, when the men
+come to carry her away, is upheld through all the trying farewells by
+the consciousness that she is making as noble a sacrifice of herself as
+did the wife of Yamato Dake when she leaped into the sea to avert the
+wrath of the sea-god from her husband. The Japanese, both men and
+women, knowing this story and many others similar in character, can see,
+as we cannot from our point of view, that, even if the body be defiled,
+there is no defilement of the soul, for the woman is fulfilling her
+highest duty in sacrificing all, even her dearest possession, for the
+honor of her husband. It is a climax of self-abnegation that brings
+nothing but honor to the soul of her who reaches it. Japanese women who
+read this story feel profound pity for the poor wife, and a horror of a
+sacrifice that binds her to a life which outwardly, to the Japanese mind
+even, is the lowest depth a woman ever reaches. But they do not despise
+her for the act; nor would they refuse to receive her even were she to
+appear in living form to-day in any Japanese home, where, thanks to
+happier fortunes, such sacrifices are not demanded. Just at this point
+is the difference of moral perspective that foreigners visiting Japan
+find so hard to understand, and that leads many, who have lived in the
+country the longest, to believe that there is no modesty and purity
+among Japanese women. It is this that makes it possible for the vilest
+of stories, and those that have the least foundation in fact, to find
+easy belief among foreigners, even if they be told about the purest,
+most high-minded, and most honorable of Japanese women. Our maidens, as
+they grow to womanhood, are taught that anything is better than personal
+dishonor, and their maidenly instincts side with the teaching. With us,
+a virtuous woman does not mean a brave, a heroic, an unselfish, or
+self-sacrificing woman, but means simply one who keeps herself from
+personal dishonor. Chastity is the supreme virtue for a woman; all other
+virtues are secondary compared with it. This is our point of view, and
+the whole perspective is arranged with that virtue in the foreground.
+Dismiss this for a moment, and consider the moral training of the
+Japanese maiden. From earliest youth until she reaches maturity, she is
+constantly taught that obedience and loyalty are the supreme virtues,
+which must be preserved even at the sacrifice of all other and lesser
+virtues. She is told that for the good of father or husband she must be
+willing to meet any danger, endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime,
+give up any treasure. She must consider that nothing belonging solely
+to herself is of any importance compared with the good of her master,
+her family, or her country. Place this thought of obedience and loyalty,
+to the point of absolute self-abnegation, in the foreground, and your
+perspective is altered, the other virtues occupying places of varying
+importance. Because a Japanese woman will sometimes sacrifice her
+personal virtue for the sake of father or husband, does it follow that
+all Japanese women are unchaste and impure? In many cases this sacrifice
+is the noblest that she believes possible, and she goes to it, as she
+would go to death in any dreadful form, for those whom she loves, and to
+whom she owes the duty of obedience. The Japanese maiden grows to
+womanhood no less pure and modest than our own girls, but our girls are
+never called upon to sacrifice their modesty for the sake of those whom
+they love best; nor is it expected of any woman in this country that she
+exist solely for the good of some one else, in whatever way he chooses
+to use her, during all the years of her life. Let us take this
+difference into our thought in forming our judgment, and let us rather
+seek the causes that underlie the actions than pass judgment upon the
+actions themselves. From a close study of the characters of many
+Japanese women and girls, I am quite convinced that few women in any
+country do their duty, as they see it, more nobly, more single-mindedly,
+and more satisfactorily to those about them, than the women of Japan.
+
+Many argue that the purity of Japanese women, as compared with the men,
+the ready obedience which they yield, their sweet characters and
+unselfish devotion as wives and mothers, are merely the results of the
+restraint under which they live, and that they are too weak to be
+allowed to enjoy freedom of thought and action. Whether this be true or
+no is a point which we leave for others to take up, as time shall have
+provided new data for reasoning on the subject.
+
+To me, the sense of duty seems to be strongly developed in the Japanese
+women, especially in those of the samurai class. Conscience seems as
+active, though often in a different manner, as the old-fashioned New
+England conscience, transmitted through the bluest of Puritan blood. And
+when a duty has once been recognized as such, no timidity, or
+mortification, or fear of ridicule will prevent the performance of it. A
+case comes to my mind now of a young girl of sixteen, who made public
+confession before her schoolmates of shortcomings of which none of them
+knew, for the sake of easing her troubled conscience and warning her
+schoolmates against similar errors. The circumstances were as follows:
+The young girl had recently lost her grandmother, a most loving and
+affectionate old lady, who had taken the place of a mother to the child
+from her earliest infancy. In a somewhat unhappy home, the love of the
+old grandmother was the one bright spot; and when she was taken away,
+the poor, lonely child's memory recalled all of her own shortcomings to
+this beloved friend; and, too late to make amendment to the old lady
+herself, she dwelt on her own undutifulness, and decided that she must
+by some means do penance, or make atonement for her fault. She might, if
+she made a confession before her schoolmates, warn them against similar
+mistakes; and accordingly she prepared, for the literary society in
+which the girls took what part they chose, a long confession, written
+in poetical style, and read it before her schoolmates and teachers. It
+was a terrible ordeal, as one could see by the blushing face and
+breaking voice, often choked with sobs; and when at the conclusion she
+urged her friends to behave in such a way to their dear ones that they
+need never suffer what she had had to endure since her grandmother's
+death, there was not a dry eye in the room, and many of the girls were
+sobbing aloud. It was a curious expiation and a touching one, but one
+not in the least exceptional or uncharacteristic of the spirit of duty
+that actuates the best women of the samurai class.
+
+Here is another instance which illustrates this sense of duty, and
+desire of atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the time of the
+overthrow of the feudal system, the samurai, bred to loyalty to their
+own feudal superiors as their highest duty, found themselves ranged on
+different sides in the struggle, according to the positions in which
+their lords placed themselves. At the end of the struggle, those who had
+followed their daimi[=o]s to the field, in defense of the Sh[=o]gunate,
+found that they had been fighting against the Emperor, the Son of
+Heaven himself, who had at last emerged from the seclusion of centuries
+to govern his own empire. Thus the supporters of the Sh[=o]gunate, while
+absolutely loyal to their daimi[=o]s, had been disloyal to the higher
+power of the Emperor; and had put themselves in the position of traitors
+to their country. There was a conflict of principles there somewhat
+similar to that which took place in our Civil War, when, in the South,
+he who was true to his State became a traitor to his country, and he who
+was true to his country became a traitor to his State. Two ladies of the
+finest samurai type had, with absolute loyalty to a lost cause, aided by
+every means in their power in the defense of the city of Wakamatsu
+against the victorious forces of the Emperor. They had held on to the
+bitter end, and had been banished, with others of their family and clan,
+to a remote province, for some years after the end of the war. In 1877,
+eleven years after the close of the War of the Restoration, a rebellion
+broke out in the south which required a considerable expenditure of
+blood and money for its suppression. When the new war began, these two
+ladies presented a petition to the government, in which they begged
+that they might be allowed to make amends for their former position of
+opposition to the Emperor, by going with the army to the field as
+hospital nurses. At that time, no lady in Japan had ever gone to the
+front to nurse the wounded soldiers; but to those two brave women was
+granted the privilege of making atonement for past disloyalty, by the
+exercise of the skill and nerve that they had gained in their experience
+of war against the Emperor, in the nursing of soldiers wounded in his
+defense.[*223]
+
+In the old days, the women of the samurai class fulfilled most nobly the
+duties that fell to their lot. As wives and mothers in time of peace,
+they performed their work faithfully in the quiet of their homes; and,
+their time filled with household cares, they busied themselves with the
+smaller duties of life. As the wives and mothers of soldiers, they
+cultivated the heroic spirit befitting their position, fearing no danger
+save such as involved disgrace. As the home-guard in time of need, they
+stood ready to defend their master's possessions with their own lives;
+as gentlewomen and ladies-in-waiting at the court of the daimi[=o] or the
+Sh[=o]gun, they cultivated the arts and accomplishments required for their
+position, and veiled the martial spirit that dwelt within them under an
+exterior as feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and charming, as that
+of any ladies of Europe or America. To-day in the new Japan, where the
+samurai have no longer their yearly allowance from their lords and their
+feudal duties, but, scattered through the whole nation, are engaged in
+all the arts and trades, and are infusing the old spirit into the new
+life, what are the women doing? As the government of the land to-day
+lies in the hands of the samurai men under the Emperor, so the progress
+of the women, the new ideas of work for women, are in the hands of the
+samurai women, led by the Empress. Wherever there is progress among the
+women, wherever they are looking about for new opportunities, entering
+new occupations, elevating the home, opening hospitals, industrial
+schools, asylums, there you will find the leading spirits always of the
+samurai class. In the recent changes, some of this class have risen
+above their former state and joined the ranks of the nobility; and
+there the presence of the samurai spirit infuses new life into the
+aristocracy. So, too, the changes that have raised some have lowered
+others, and the samurai is now to be found in the formerly despised
+occupations of trade and industry, among the merchants, the farmers, the
+fishermen, the artisans, and the domestic servants. But wherever his lot
+is cast, the old training, the old ideals, the old pride of family,
+still keep him separate from his present rank, and, instead of pulling
+him down to the level of those about him, tend to raise that level by
+the example of honor and intelligence that he sets. The changed fortunes
+were not met without a murmur. Most of the outrages, the reactionary
+movements, the riots and inflammatory speeches and writings, that
+characterized the long period of disquiet following the Restoration,
+came from men of this class, who saw their support taken from them,
+leaving them unable to dig and ashamed to beg. But the greater part of
+them went sturdily to work, in government positions if they could get
+them, in the army, on the police force, on the farm, in the shop, at
+trades, at service,--even to the humble work of wheeling a
+_jinrikisha_, if other honest occupation could not be found; and the
+women shared patiently and bravely the changed fortunes of the men,
+doing whatever they could toward bettering them. The samurai women
+to-day are eagerly working into the positions of teachers, interpreters,
+trained nurses, and whatever other places there are which may be
+honorably occupied by women. The girls' schools, both government and
+private, find many of their pupils among the samurai class; and their
+deference and obedience to their teachers and superiors, their ambition
+and keen sense of honor in the school-room, show the influence of the
+samurai feeling over new Japan. To the samurai women belongs the
+task--and they have already begun to perform it--of establishing upon a
+broader and surer foundation the position of women in their own country.
+They, as the most intelligent, will be the first to perceive the remedy
+for present evils, and will, if I mistake not, move heaven and earth, at
+some time in the near future, to have that remedy applied to their own
+case. Most of them read the literature of the day, some of them in at
+least one language beside their own; a few have had the benefit of
+travel abroad, and have seen what the home and the family are in
+Christian lands. There is as much of the unconquerable spirit of the
+samurai to-day in the women as in the men; and it will not be very long
+before that spirit will begin to show itself in working for the
+establishment of their homes and families upon some stronger basis than
+the will of the husband and father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+PEASANT WOMEN.
+
+
+The great heimin class includes not only the peasants of Japan, but also
+the artisans and merchants; artisans ranking below farmers, and
+merchants below artisans, in the social structure. It includes the whole
+of the common people, except such as were in former times altogether
+below the level of respectability, the _eta_ and _hinin_,[39]--outcasts
+who lived by begging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead bodies,
+tanning skins, and other employments which rendered them unclean
+according to the old notions. From very early times the agricultural
+class has been sharply divided from the samurai or military. Here and
+there one from the peasantry mounts by force of his personal qualities
+into the higher ranks, for there is no caste system that prevents the
+passing from one class into another,--only a class prejudice that serves
+very nearly the same purpose, in keeping samurai and heimin in their
+places, that the race prejudice in this country serves in confining the
+negroes, North and South, to certain positions and occupations. The
+first division of the military from the peasantry occurred in the eighth
+century, and since then the peculiar circumstances of each class have
+tended to produce quite different characteristics in persons originally
+of the same stock. To the soldier class have fallen learning, skill in
+arms and horsemanship, opportunities to rise to places of honor and
+power, lives free from sordid care in regard to the daily rice, and in
+which noble ideas of duty and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit in
+heroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his little rice-field year after
+year, have come the heavy burdens of taxation; the grinding toil for a
+mere pittance of food for himself and his family; the patient bearing of
+all things imposed by his superiors, with little hope of gain for
+himself, whatever change the fortunes of war may bring to those above
+him in the social scale. Is there wonder that, as the years have gone
+by, his wits have grown heavy under his daily drudgery; that he knows
+little and understands less of the changes that are taking place in his
+native land; that he is easily moved by only one thing, and that the
+failure of his crops, or the shortening of his returns from his land by
+heavier taxation? This is true of the heimin as a class: they are
+conservative, fearing that change will but tend to make harder a lot
+that is none too easy; and though peaceable and gentle usually, they may
+be moved to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any political change
+that seems likely to produce heavier taxation, or even by a failure of
+their crops, when they see themselves and their families starving while
+the military and official classes have enough and to spare. But though,
+as a class, the farmers are ignorant and heavy, they are seldom entirely
+illiterate; and everywhere, throughout the country, one finds men
+belonging to this class who are well educated and have risen to
+positions of much responsibility and power, and are able to hold their
+own, and think for themselves and for their brethren. From an article in
+the "T[=o]ky[=o] Mail," entitled "A Memorialist of the Latter Days of the
+Tokugawa Government," I quote passages which show the thoughts of one of
+the heimin upon the condition of his own class about the year 1850. It
+is from a petition sent to the Sh[=o]gun by the head-man of the village of
+Ogushi.
+
+[39] The laws against the _eta_ and _hinin_, making of them a distinct,
+unclean class, and forbidding their intermarriage with any of the higher
+classes, have recently been abolished. There is now no rank distinction
+of any practical value, except that between noble and common people.
+Heimin and samurai are now indiscriminately mingled.
+
+The first point in the petition is, that there is a growing tendency to
+luxury among the military and official classes. "It is useless to issue
+orders commanding peasants and others to be frugal and industrious, when
+those in power, whose duty it is to show a good example to the people,
+are themselves steeped in luxury and idleness." He ventures to reproach
+the Sh[=o]guns themselves by pointing to the extravagance with which they
+have decorated the mausoleums at Nikk[=o] and elsewhere. "Is this," he
+asks, "in keeping with the intentions of the glorious founder of your
+dynasty? Look at the shrines in Ise and elsewhere, and at the sepulchres
+of the Emperors of successive ages. Is gold or silver used in decorating
+them?" He then turns to the vassals of the Sh[=o]gun, and charges them
+with being tyrannical, rapacious, and low-minded. "Samurai," he
+continues,--"samurai are finely attired, but how contemptible they look
+in the eyes of those peasants who know how to be contented with what
+they have!"
+
+Further on in the same memorial, he points out what he regards as a
+grave mistake in the policy of the Sh[=o]gun. A decree had just been
+issued prohibiting the peasantry from exercising themselves with
+sword-play, and from wearing swords. Of this he says: "Perhaps this
+decree may have been issued on the supposition that Japan is naturally
+impregnable and defended on all sides. But when she receives insult from
+a foreign country, it may become necessary to call on the militia. And
+who knows that men of extraordinary military genius, like Toyotomi,[40]
+will not again appear among the lower classes?"
+
+[40] Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the position of a
+groom to be the actual ruler of Japan during the Middle Ages. He it was
+who in 1587 issued a decree of banishment against the Christian
+missionaries in Japan. He is called Faxiba in the writings of these
+missionaries, and in Japan he is frequently spoken of as Taiko Sama, a
+title, not a name; but a title that, used alone, refers always to him.
+For further account of his life, see Griffis, _Mikado's Empire_, book
+i., chap. xxiv.
+
+He ends his memorial with this warning: "Should the Sh[=o]gun's court, and
+the military class in general, persist in the present oppressive way of
+government, Heaven will visit this land with still greater calamities.
+If this circumstance is not clearly kept in view, the consequence may be
+civil disturbance. I, therefore, beseech that the instructions of the
+glorious founder of the dynasty be acted upon; that simplicity and
+frugality be made the guiding principle of administration; and that a
+general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby complying with the will of Heaven
+and placating the people. Should these humble suggestions of mine be
+acted upon, prospective calamities will fly before the light of virtue.
+Whether the country is to be safe or not depends upon whether the
+administration is carried on with mercy or not. What I pray for is, that
+the country may enjoy peace and tranquillity, that the harvest may be
+plentiful, and that the people may be happy and prosperous."
+
+One is able to see, by this rather remarkable document, that the
+peasants of Japan, though frequently almost crushed by the heavy burdens
+of taxation, do not, even in the most grinding poverty, lose entirely
+that independence of thought and of action which is characteristic of
+their nation. They do not consider themselves as a servile class, nor
+their military rulers as beyond criticism or reproach, but are ready to
+speak boldly for their rights whenever an opportunity occurs. There is a
+pathetic story, told in Mitford's "Tales of Old Japan," of a peasant,
+the head-man of his village, who goes to Yedo to present to the
+Sh[=o]gun a complaint, on behalf of his fellow-villagers, of the
+extortions and exactions of his daimi[=o]. He is unable to get any one
+to present his memorial to the Sh[=o]gun, so at last he stops the great
+lord's palanquin in the street,--an act in itself punishable with
+death,--and thrusts the paper forcibly into his hand. The petition is
+read, and his fellow-villagers saved from further oppression, but the
+head-man, for his daring, is condemned by his own daimi[=o] to suffer
+death by crucifixion,--a fate which he meets with the same heroism with
+which he dared everything to save his fellows from suffering.
+
+The peasant, though ignorant and oppressed, has not lost his manhood;
+has not become a slave or a serf, but clings to his rights, so far as
+he knows what they are; and is ready to hold his own against all comers,
+when the question in debate is one that appeals to his mind. The rulers
+of Japan have always the peasantry to reckon with when their ruling
+becomes unjust or oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though they may be
+misled for a time, and they form a conservative element that serves to
+hold in check too hasty rulers who would introduce new measures too
+quickly, and would be likely to find the new wine bursting the old
+bottles, as well as to prevent any rash extravagance in the way of
+personal expenditure on the part of government officials. The influence
+of this great class will be more and more felt as the new parliamentary
+institutions gain in power, and a more close connection is established
+between the throne and public opinion.
+
+In considering this great heimin class, it is well to remember that the
+artisans, who form so large a part of it, are also the artists who have
+made the reputation of Japan, in Europe and America, as one of the
+countries where art and the love of beauty in form and color are still
+instinct with life. The Japanese artisan works with patient toil, and
+with the skill and originality of the artist, to produce something that
+shall be individual and his own; not simply to make, after a pattern,
+some utensil or ornament for which he cares nothing, so long as a
+purchaser can be found for it, or an employer can be induced to pay him
+money for making it. It seems as easy for the Japanese to make things
+pretty and in good taste, even when they are cheap and only used by the
+poorer people, as it is for American mills and workers to turn out
+endless varieties of attempts at decoration,--all so hideous that a poor
+person must be content, either to be surrounded by the worst possible
+taste, or to purchase only such furnishings and utensils as are entirely
+without decoration of any kind. "Cheap" and "nasty" have come to be
+almost synonymous words with us, for the reason that taste in decoration
+is so rare that it commands a monopoly price, and can only be procured
+by the wealthy. In Japan this is not the case, for the cheapest of
+things may be found in graceful and artistic designs,--indeed can
+hardly be found in any designs that are not graceful and artistic; and
+the poorest and commonest of the people may have about them the little
+things that go to cultivate the aesthetic part of human nature. It was
+not the costly art of Japan that interested me the most, although that
+is, of course, the most wonderful proof of the capacity and patience of
+individuals among this heimin class: but it was the common, cheap,
+every-day art that meets one at every turn; the love for the beautiful,
+in both nature and art, that belongs to the common coolie as well as to
+the nobleman. The cheap prints, the blue and white towels, the common
+teacups and pots, the great iron kettles in use over the fire in the
+farmhouse kitchen,--all these are things as pretty and tasteful in their
+way as the rich crepes, the silver incense burners, the delicate
+porcelain, and the elegant lacquer that fill the storehouse of the
+daimi[=o]; and they show, much more conclusively than these costlier
+things, the universal sense of beauty among the people.
+
+The artisan works at his home, helped less often by hired laborers than
+by his own children, who learn the trade of their father; and his
+house, though small, is clean and tasteful, with its soft mats, its
+dainty tea service, its little hanging scroll upon the walls, and its
+vase of gracefully arranged flowers in the corner; for flowers, even in
+winter and in the great city of T[=o]ky[=o], are so cheap that they are
+never beyond the reach of the poorest. In homes that seem to the foreign
+mind utterly lacking in the comforts and even the necessities of life,
+one finds the few furnishings and utensils beautiful in shape and
+decoration; and the money that in this country must be spent in beds,
+tables, and chairs can be used for the purchase of _kakemonos_, flowers,
+and vases, and for various gratifications of the aesthetic taste. Hence
+it is that the Japanese laborer, who lives on a daily wage which would
+reduce an American or European to the verge of starvation, finds both
+time and money for the cultivation of that sense of beauty which is too
+often crushed completely out of the lower classes by the burdens of this
+nineteenth century civilization which they bear upon their shoulders. To
+the Japanese, the "life is more than meat," it is beauty as well; and
+this love of beauty has upon him a civilizing and refining effect, and
+makes him in many ways the superior of the American day-laborer.[*239]
+
+The peasants and farmers of Japan, thrifty and hard-working as they are,
+are not by any means a prosperous class. As one passes into the country
+districts from the large cities, there seems to be a conspicuous dearth
+of neat, pleasant homes,--a lack of the comforts and necessities of life
+such as are enjoyed by city people. The rich farmers are scarce, and the
+laborers in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days of hardest toil with
+the rudest implements, the little that will provide for their families.
+In the face of heavy taxes, the incessant toil, the frequent floods of
+late years, and the threatening famine, one would expect the poor
+peasants to be a most discouraged and unhappy class. That all this toil
+and anxiety does wear on them is no doubt true, but the laborers are
+always ready to bear submissively whatever comes, and are always hopeful
+and prepared to enjoy life again in happier times. The charms of the
+city tempt them sometimes to exchange their daily labor for the
+excitement of life as _jinrikisha_ men; but in any case they will be
+perfectly independent, and ask no man for their daily rations.
+
+Although there is much poverty, there are few or no beggars in Japan,
+for both strong and weak find each some occupation that brings the
+little pittance required to keep soul and body together, and gives to
+all enough to make them light-hearted, cheerful, and even happy. From
+the rich farmer, whose many acres yield enough to provide for a home of
+luxury quite as fine as the city homes, to the poor little vender of
+sticks of candy, around whose store the children flock like bees with
+their rin and sen, all seem independent, contented, and satisfied with
+their lot in life.
+
+The religious beliefs of old Japan are stronger to-day among the country
+people than among the dwellers in cities. And they are still willing to
+give of their substance for the aid of the dying faiths to which they
+cling, and to undertake toilsome pilgrimages to obtain some longed-for
+blessing from the gods whom they serve. A great Buddhist temple is being
+built in Ky[=o]t[=o] to-day, from the lofty ceiling of which hangs a
+striking proof of the devotion of some of the peasant women to the
+Buddhist faith. The whole temple, with its immense curved roof, its vast
+proportions, and its marvelous wood carvings, has been built by
+offerings of labor, money, and materials made by the faithful. The great
+timbers were given and brought to the spot by the countrymen; and the
+women, wishing to have some part in the sacred work, cut off their
+abundant hair, a beauty perhaps more prized by the Japanese women than
+by those of other countries, and from the material thus obtained they
+twisted immense cables, to be used in drawing the timbers from the
+mountains to the site of the temple. The great black cables hang in the
+unfinished temple to-day, a sign of the devotion of the women who spared
+not their chief ornament in the service of the gods in whom they still
+believe. And a close scrutiny of these touching offerings shows that the
+glossy black locks of the young women are mingled with the white hairs
+of those who, by this sacrifice, hope to make sure of a quick and easy
+departure from a life already near its close.
+
+All along the T[=o]kaid[=o], the great road from T[=o]ky[=o] to
+Ky[=o]to, in the neighborhood of some holy place, or in the district
+around the great and sacred Fuji, the mountain so much beloved and
+honored in Japanese art, will be seen bands of pilgrims slowly walking
+along the road, their worn and soiled white garments telling of many
+days' weary march. Their large hats shield them from the sun and the
+rain, and the pieces of matting slung over their backs serve them for
+beds to sleep on, when they take shelter for the night in rude huts. The
+way up the great mountain of Fuji is lined with these pilgrims; for to
+attain its summit, and worship there the rising sun, is believed to be
+the means of obtaining some special blessing. Among these religious
+devotees, in costumes not unlike those of the men, under the same large
+hat and coarse matting, old women often are seen, their aged faces
+belying their apparent vigor of body, as they walk along through miles
+and miles of country, jingling their bells and holding their rosaries
+until they reach the shrine, where they may ask some special blessing
+for their homes, or fulfill some vow already made.[*242]
+
+Journeying through rural Japan, one is impressed by the important part
+played by women in the various bread-winning industries. In the village
+homes, under the heavily thatched roofs, the constant struggle against
+poverty and famine will not permit the women to hold back, but they
+enter bravely into all the work of the men. In the rice-field the woman
+works side by side with the man, standing all day up to her knees in
+mud, her dress tucked up and her lower limbs encased in tight-fitting,
+blue cotton trousers, planting, transplanting, weeding, and turning over
+the evil-smelling mire, only to be distinguished from her husband by her
+broader belt tied in a bow behind. In mountain regions we meet the women
+climbing the steep mountain roads, pruning-hook in hand, after wood for
+winter fires; or descending, towards night, carrying a load that a
+donkey need not be ashamed of, packed on a frame attached to the
+shoulders, or poised lightly upon a straw mat upon the head. There is
+one village near Ky[=o]to, Yase by name, at the base of Hiyei Zan, the
+historic Buddhist stronghold, where the women attain a stature and
+muscular development quite unique among the pigmy population of the
+island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked women they are, showing no
+evidence of the shrinking away with the advance of old age that is
+characteristic of most of their countrywomen. With their tucked-up
+_kimonos_ and blue cotton trousers, they stride up and down the
+mountain, carrying the heaviest and most unwieldy of burdens as lightly
+and easily as the ordinary woman carries her baby. My first acquaintance
+with them was during a camping expedition upon the sacred mountain. I
+myself was carried up the ascent by two small, nearly naked, finely
+tattooed and moxa-scarred men; but my baggage, consisting of two closely
+packed hampers as large as ordinary steamer trunks, was lifted lightly
+to the heads of these feminine porters, and, poised on little straw
+pads, carried easily up the narrow trail, made doubly difficult by
+low-hanging branches, to the camp, a distance of three or four miles.
+From among these women of Yase, on account of their remarkable physical
+development, have been chosen frequently the nurses for the imperial
+infants; an honor which the Yase villagers duly appreciate, and which
+makes them bear themselves proudly among their less favored neighbors.
+
+In other parts of the country, in the neighborhood of Nikk[=o], for
+instance, the care of the horses, mild little pack-mares that do much of
+the burden-bearing in those mountains, is mainly in the hands of the
+women. At Nikk[=o], when we would hire ponies for a two days' expedition
+to Yumoto, a little, elderly woman was the person with whom our bargains
+were made; and a close bargainer she proved to be, taking every
+advantage that lay in her power. When the caravan was ready to start, we
+found that, though each saddle-horse had a male groom in attendance, the
+pack-ponies on which our baggage was carried were led by pretty little
+country girls of twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes and red
+cheeks contrasting pleasantly with the blue handkerchiefs that adorned
+their heads; their slender limbs encased in blue cotton, and only their
+red sashes giving any hint of the fact that they belonged to the weaker
+sex. As we journeyed up the rough mountain roads, the little girls kept
+along easily with the rest of the party; leading their meek,
+shock-headed beasts up the slippery log steps, and passing an occasional
+greeting with some returning pack-train, in which the soft black eyes
+and bits of red about the costume of the little grooms showed that they,
+too, were mountain maidens, returning fresh and happy after a two days'
+tramp through the rocky passes.
+
+In the districts where the silkworm is raised, and the silk spun and
+woven, the women play a most important part in this productive industry.
+The care of the worms and of the cocoons falls entirely upon the women,
+as well as the spinning of the silk and the weaving of the cloth. It is
+almost safe to say that this largest and most productive industry of
+Japan is in the hands of the women; and it is to their care and skill
+that the silk product of the islands is due. In the silk districts one
+finds the woman on terms of equality with the man, for she is an
+important factor in the wealth-producing power of the family, and is
+thus able to make herself felt as she cannot when her work is inferior
+to that of the men. As a farmer, as a groom, or as a porter, a woman is
+and must remain an inferior, but in the care of the silkworms, and all
+the tasks that belong to silk culture, she is the equal of the stronger
+sex.
+
+Then, again, in the tea districts, the tea plantations are filled with
+young girls and old women, their long sleeves held back by a band over
+the shoulder, and a blue towel gracefully fastened over their heads to
+keep off the sun and the dust. They pick busily away at the green,
+tender leaves, which will soon be heated and rolled by strong men over
+the charcoal fire. The occupation is an easy one, only requiring care in
+the selection of leaves to be picked, and can be performed by young
+girls and old women, who gather the glossy leaves in their big baskets,
+while chatting to each other over the gossip and news of the day.
+
+In the hotels, both in the country and the city, women play an important
+part. The attendants are usually sweet-faced, prettily dressed girls,
+and frequently the proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My first
+experience of a Japanese hotel was at Nara, anciently the capital of
+Japan, and now a place of resort because of its fine old temples, its
+Dai Butsu, and its beautiful deer park. The day's ride in _jinrikisha_
+from [=O]saka had brought our party in very tired, only to find that the
+hotel to which we had telegraphed for rooms was already filled to
+overflowing by a daimi[=o] and his suite. Not a room could be obtained,
+and we were at last obliged to walk some distance, for we had dismissed
+our tired _jinrikisha_ men, to a hotel in the village, of which we knew
+nothing. What with fatigue and disappointment, we were not prepared to
+view the unknown hotel in a very rosy light; and when our guide pointed
+to a small gate leading into a minute, damp courtyard, we were quite
+convinced that the hardships of travel in Japan were now about to begin;
+but disappointment gave way to hope, when we were met at the door by a
+buxom landlady, whose smile was in itself a refreshment. Although we had
+little in the way of language in common, she made us feel at home at
+once, took us to her best room, sent her blooming and prettily dressed
+daughters to bring us tea and whatever other refreshments the mysterious
+appetite of a foreigner might require, and altogether behaved toward us
+in such motherly fashion that fatigue and gloom departed forthwith,
+leaving us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we began to feel rested, and our
+kind friend, seeing this, took us upon a tour around the house, in
+which room after room, spotless, empty, with shining woodwork and
+softest of mats, showed the good housekeeping of our hostess. A little
+garden in the centre of the house, with dwarf trees, moss-covered
+stones, and running water, gave it an air of coolness on the hot July
+day that was almost deceptive; and the spotless wash-room, with its
+great stone sink, its polished brass basins, its stone well-curb, half
+in and half out of the house, was cool and clean and refreshing merely
+to look at. A two days' stay in this hotel showed that the landlady was
+the master of the house. Her husband was about the house constantly, as
+were one or two other men, but they all worked under the direction of
+the energetic head of affairs. She it was who managed everything, from
+the cooking of the meals in the kitchen to the filling and heating of
+the great bath-tub into which the guests were invited to enter every
+afternoon, one after the other, in the order of their rank. On the
+second night of my stay, at a late hour, when I supposed that the whole
+house had retired to rest, I crept softly out of my room to try to
+soothe the plaintive wails of my dog, who was complaining bitterly that
+he was made to sleep in the wood-cellar instead of in his mistress's
+room, as his habit had always been. As I stole quietly along, fearing
+lest I should arouse the sleeping house, I heard the inquiring voice of
+my landlady sound from the bath-room, the door of which stood wide open.
+Afraid that she would think me in mischief if I did not show myself, I
+went to the door, to find her, after her family was safely stowed away
+for the night, taking her ease in the great tub of hot water, and so
+preparing herself for a sound, if short, night's sleep. She accepted my
+murmured _Inu_ (dog) as an excuse, and graciously dismissed me with a
+smile, and I returned to my room feeling safe under the vigilant care
+that seemed to guard the house by night as well as by day. I have seen
+many Japanese hotels and many careful landladies since, but no one among
+them all has made such an impression as my pleasant hostess at Nara.
+
+Not only hotels, but little tea-houses all through Japan, form openings
+for the business abilities of women, both in country and city. Wherever
+you go, no matter how remote the district or how rough the road, at
+every halting point you find a tea-house. Sometimes it is quite an
+extensive restaurant, with several rooms for the entertainment of
+guests, and a regular kitchen where fairly elaborate cooking can be
+done; sometimes it is only a rough shelter, at one end of which water is
+kept boiling over a charcoal brazier, while at the other end a couple of
+seats, covered with mats or a scarlet blanket or two, serve as
+resting-places for the patrons of the establishment. But whatever the
+place is, there will be one woman or more in attendance; and if you sit
+down upon the mats, you will be served at once with tea, and later,
+should you require more, with whatever the establishment can afford,--it
+may be only a slice of watermelon, or a hard pear; it may be eels on
+rice, vermicelli, egg soup, or a regular dinner, should the tea-house be
+one of the larger and more elaborately appointed ones. When the feast is
+over, the refreshments you have especially ordered are paid for in the
+regular way; but for the tea and sweetmeats offered, for which no
+especial charge is made, you are expected to leave a small sum as a
+present. In the less aristocratic resting-places, a few cents for each
+person is sufficient to leave on the waiter with the empty cups of tea,
+for which loud and grateful thanks will be shouted out to the retiring
+party.
+
+In the regular inn, the _chadai_[41] amounts to several dollars, for a
+party remaining any time, and it is supposed to pay for all the extra
+services and attention bestowed on guests by the polite host and hostess
+and the servants in attendance. The _chadai_, done up neatly in paper,
+with the words _On chadai_ written on it, is given with as much
+formality as any present in Japan. The guest claps his hands to summon
+the maid. When it is heard, for the thin paper walls of a Japanese house
+let through every noise, voices from all sides will shout out
+_H[=e]'-h[=e]'_, or _Hai_, which means that you have been heard, and
+understood. Presently a maid will softly open your door, and with head
+low down will ask what you wish. You tell her to summon the landlord.
+In a few moments he appears, and you push the _chadai_ to him, making
+some conventional self-depreciating speech, as, "You have done a great
+deal for our comfort, and we wish to give you this _chadai_, though it
+is only a trifle." The landlord, with every expression of surprise, will
+bow down to the ground with thanks, raising the small package to his
+head in token of acceptance and gratitude, and will murmur in low tones
+how little he has done for the comfort of his guests; and then, the
+self-depreciation and formal words of thanks on his side being ended, he
+will finally go down stairs to see how much he has gotten. But, whether
+more or less than he had expected, nothing but extreme gratitude and
+politeness appears on his face as he presents a fan, confectionery, or
+some trifle, as a return for the _chadai_, and speeds the parting guests
+with his lowest bow and kindliest smile, after having seen to every want
+that could be attended to.
+
+[41] _Chadai_ is, literally, "money for tea," and is equivalent to our
+tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The _chadai_ varies with the
+wealth and rank of the guests, the duration of the stay, and the
+attention which has been bestowed. _On_ is the honorific placed before
+the word in writing.
+
+Once, at Nikk[=o], I started with a friend for a morning walk to a place
+described in the guide-book. The day was hot and the guide-book hazy,
+and we lost the road to the place for which we had set out, but found
+ourselves at last in a beautiful garden, with a pretty lake in its
+centre, a little red-lacquered shrine reflected in the lake, and a
+tea-house hospitably open at one side. The teakettle was boiling over
+the little charcoal fire; melons, eggs, and various unknown comestibles
+were on the little counter; but no voice bade us welcome as we
+approached, and when we sat down on the edge of the piazza, we could see
+no one within the house. We waited, however, for the day was hot, and
+time is not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty soon a small, wizened
+figure made its appearance in the distance, hurrying and talking
+excitedly as it came near enough to see two foreign ladies seated upon
+the piazza. Many bows and profuse apologies were made by the little old
+woman, who seemed to be the solitary occupant of the pretty garden, and
+who had for the moment deserted her post to do the day's marketing in
+the neighboring village. The apologies having been smilingly received,
+the old lady set herself to the task of making her guests comfortable.
+First she brought two tumblers of water, cold as ice, from the spring
+that gushed out of a great rock in the middle of the little lake. Then
+she retired behind a screen and changed her dress, returning speedily to
+bring us tea. Then she retreated to her diminutive kitchen, and
+presently came back smiling, bearing eight large raw potatoes on a tray.
+These she presented to us with a deep bow, apparently satisfied that she
+had at last brought us something we would be sure to like. We left the
+potatoes behind us when we went away, and undoubtedly the old lady is
+wondering still over the mysterious ways of the foreigners, as we are
+over those of the Japanese tea-house keepers.
+
+One summer, when I was spending a week at a Japanese hotel at quite a
+fashionable seaside resort, I became interested in a little old woman
+who visited the hotel daily, carrying, suspended by a yoke from her
+shoulders, two baskets of fruit, which she sold to the guests of the
+hotel. As I was on the ground floor, and my room was, in the daytime,
+absolutely without walls on two sides, she was my frequent visitor, and,
+for the sake of her pleasant ways and cheerful smiles, I bought enough
+hard pears of her to have given the colic to an elephant. One day,
+after her visit to me, as I was sitting upon the matted and roofed
+square that served me for a room, my eye wandered idly toward the
+bathing beach, and, under the slight shelter where the bathers were in
+the habit of depositing their sandals and towels, I spied the well-known
+yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a small heap of blue cotton garments
+that I knew to be the clothing of the little fruit-vender. She had
+evidently taken a moment when trade was slack to enjoy a dip in the
+soft, blue, summer sea. Hardly had I made up my mind as to the meaning
+of the fruit baskets and the clothing, when our little friend herself
+emerged from the sea and, sitting down on a bench, proceeded to rub
+herself off with the small but artistically decorated blue towel that
+every peasant in Japan has always with him, however lacking he may be in
+all other appurtenances of the toilet. As she sat there, placidly
+rubbing away, a friend of the opposite sex made his appearance on the
+scene. I watched to see what she would do, for the Japanese code of
+etiquette is quite different from ours in such a predicament. She
+continued her employment until he was quite close, showing no unseemly
+haste, but continuing her polishing off in the same leisurely manner in
+which she had begun it; then at the proper moment she rose from her
+seat, bowed profoundly, and smilingly exchanged the greetings proper for
+the occasion, both parties apparently unconscious of any lack in the
+toilet of the lady. The male friend then passed on about his business;
+the little woman completed her toilet without further interruptions,
+shouldered her yoke, and jogged cheerfully on to her home in the little
+village, a couple of miles away.
+
+As one travels through rural Japan in summer and sees the half-naked
+men, women, and children that pour out from every village on one's route
+and surround the _kuruma_ at every stopping place, one sometimes wonders
+whether there is in the country any real civilization, whether these
+half-naked people are not more savage than civilized; but when one finds
+everywhere good hotels, scrupulous cleanliness in all the appointments
+of toilet and table, polite and careful service, honest and willing
+performance of labor bargained for, together with the gentlest and
+pleasantest of manners, even on the part of the gaping crowd that shut
+out light and air from the traveling foreigner who rests for a moment at
+the village inn, one is forced to reconsider a judgment formed only upon
+one peculiarity of the national life, and to conclude that there is
+certainly a high type of civilization in Japan, though differing in many
+important particulars from our own. A careful study of the Japanese
+ideas of decency, and frequent conversation with refined and intelligent
+Japanese ladies upon this subject, has led me to the following
+conclusion. According to the Japanese standard, any exposure of the
+person that is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, or convenience
+in doing necessary work, is perfectly modest and allowable; but an
+exposure, no matter how slight, that is simply for show, is in the
+highest degree indelicate. In illustration of the first part of this
+conclusion, I would refer to the open bath-houses, the naked laborers,
+the exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather by the turning up of the
+_kimono_, the entirely nude condition of the country children in summer,
+and the very slight clothing that even adults regard as necessary about
+the house or in the country during the hot season. In illustration of
+the last part, I would mention the horror with which many Japanese
+ladies regard that style of foreign dress which, while covering the
+figure completely, reveals every detail of the form above the waist,
+and, as we say, shows off to advantage a pretty figure. To the Japanese
+mind it is immodest to want to show off a pretty figure. As for the
+ball-room costumes, where neck and arms are freely exposed to the gaze
+of multitudes, the Japanese woman, who would with entire composure take
+her bath in the presence of others, would be in an agony of shame at the
+thought of appearing in public in a costume so indecent as that worn by
+many respectable American and European women. Our judgment would indeed
+be a hasty one, should we conclude that the sense of decency is wanting
+in the Japanese as a race, or that the women are at all lacking in the
+womanly instinct of modesty. When the point of view from which they
+regard these matters is once obtained, the apparent inconsistencies and
+incongruities are fully explained, and we can do justice to our
+Japanese sister in a matter in regard to which she is too often cruelly
+misjudged.
+
+There seems no doubt at all that among the peasantry of Japan one finds
+the women who have the most freedom and independence. Among this class,
+all through the country, the women, though hard-worked and possessing
+few comforts, lead lives of intelligent, independent labor, and have in
+the family positions as respected and honored as those held by women in
+America. Their lives are fuller and happier than those of the women of
+the higher classes, for they are themselves bread-winners, contributing
+an important part of the family revenue, and they are obeyed and
+respected accordingly. The Japanese lady, at her marriage, lays aside
+her independent existence to become the subordinate and servant of her
+husband and parents-in-law, and her face, as the years go by, shows how
+much she has given up, how completely she has sacrificed herself to
+those about her. The Japanese peasant woman, when she marries, works
+side by side with her husband, finds life full of interest outside of
+the simple household work, and, as the years go by, her face shows more
+individuality, more pleasure in life, less suffering and disappointment,
+than that of her wealthier and less hard-working sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+LIFE IN THE CITIES.
+
+
+The great cities of Japan afford remarkable opportunities for seeing the
+life of the common people, for the little houses and shops, with their
+open fronts, reveal the _penetralia_ in a way not known in our more
+secluded homes. The employment of the merchant being formerly the lowest
+of respectable callings, one does not find even yet in Japan many great
+stores or a very high standard of business morality, for the business of
+the country was left in the hands of those who were too stupid or too
+unambitious to raise themselves above that social class. Hence English
+and American merchants, who only see Japan from the business side,
+continually speak of the Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and altogether
+unreliable, and greatly prefer to deal with the Chinese, who have much
+of the business virtue that is characteristic of the English as a
+nation. Only within a few years have the samurai, or indeed any one who
+was capable of figuring in any higher occupation in life, been willing
+to adopt the calling of the merchant; but many of the abler Japanese of
+to-day have begun to see that trade is one of the most important factors
+of a nation's well-being, and that the business of buying and selling,
+if wisely and honestly done, is an employment that nobody need be
+ashamed to enter. There are in Japan a few great merchants whose word
+may be trusted, and whose obligations will be fulfilled with absolute
+honesty; but a large part of the buying and selling is still in the
+hands of mercantile freebooters, who will take an advantage wherever it
+is possible to get one, in whose morality honesty has no place, and who
+have not yet discovered the efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter
+of policy. Their trade, conducted in a small way upon small means, is
+more of the nature of a game, in which one person is the winner and the
+other the loser, than a fair exchange, in which both parties obtain what
+they want. It is the mediaeval, not the modern idea of business, that is
+still held among Japanese merchants. With them, trade is a warfare
+between buyer and seller, in which every man must take all possible
+advantage for himself, and it is the lookout of the other party if he is
+cheated.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], the greatest and most modernized of the cities of the
+empire, the shops are not the large city stores that one sees in
+European and American cities, but little open-fronted rooms, on the edge
+of which one sits to make one's purchases, while the proprietor smiles
+and bows and dickers; setting his price by the style of his customer's
+dress, or her apparent ignorance of the value of the desired article.
+Some few large dry-goods stores there are, where prices are set and
+dickering is unnecessary;[*264] and in the _kwankoba_, or bazaars, one
+may buy almost anything needed by Japanese of all classes, from house
+furnishings to foreign hats, at prices plainly marked upon them, and
+from which there is no variation. But one's impression of the state of
+trade in Japan is, that it is still in a very primitive and undeveloped
+condition, and is surprisingly behind the other parts of Japanese
+civilization.
+
+The shopping of the ladies of the large _yashikis_ and of wealthy
+families is done mostly in the home; for all the stores are willing at
+any time, on receiving an order, to send up a clerk with a bale of
+crepes, silks, and cottons tied to his back, and frequently towering
+high above his head as he walks, making him look like the proverbial ant
+with a grain of wheat. He sets his great bundle carefully down on the
+floor, opens the enormous _furushiki_, or bundle handkerchief, in which
+it is enveloped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or chintz, neatly
+done up in paper or yellow cotton. With infinite patience, he waits
+while the merits of each piece are examined and discussed, and if none
+of his stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to come again with a new
+set of wares, knowing that in the end purchases will be made sufficient
+to cover all his trouble.
+
+The less aristocratic people are content to go to the stores themselves;
+and the business streets of a Japanese city, such as the Ginza in
+T[=o]ky[=o], are full of women, young and old, as well as merry
+children, who enjoy the life and bustle of the stores. Like all things
+else in Japan, shopping takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the largest
+silk store in T[=o]ky[=o], one will see crowds of clerks sitting upon
+the matted floors, each with his _soroban_, or adding machine, by his
+side; and innumerable small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying armfuls
+of fabrics to the different clerks, or picking up the same fabrics after
+the customer who has called for them has departed. The store appears, to
+the foreign eye, to be simply a roofed and matted platform upon which
+both clerks and customers sit. This platform is screened from the street
+by dark blue cotton curtains or awnings hung from the low projecting
+eaves of the heavy roof. As the customers take their seats, either on
+the edge of the platform, or, if they have come on an extended shopping
+bout, upon the straw mat of the platform itself, a small boy appears
+with tea for the party; an obsequious clerk greets them with the
+customary salutations of welcome, pushes the charcoal brazier toward
+them, that they may smoke, or warm their hands, before proceeding to
+business, and then waits expectantly for the name of the goods that his
+customers desire to see. When this is given, the work begins; the little
+boys are summoned, and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof
+warehouse, which stands with heavy doors thrown open, on the other side
+of the platform, away from the street. Through the doorway one can see
+endless piles of costly stuffs stored safely away, and from these piles
+the boys select the required fabric, loading themselves down with them
+so that they can barely stagger under the weights that they carry. As
+the right goods are not always brought the first time, and as, moreover,
+there is an endless variety in the colors and patterns in even one kind
+of silk, there is always plenty of time for watching the busy
+scene,--for sipping tea, or smoking a few whiffs from the tiny pipes
+that so many Japanese, both men and women, carry always with them. When
+the purchase is at last made, there is still some time to be spent by
+the customer in waiting until the clerk has made an abstruse calculation
+upon his _soroban_, the transaction has been entered in the books of the
+firm, and a long bill has been written and stamped, and handed to her
+with the bundle. During her stay in the store, the foreign customer,
+making her first visit to the place, is frequently startled by loud
+shouts from the whole staff of clerks and small boys,--outcries so
+sudden, so simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she cannot rid herself
+of the idea that something terrible is happening every time that they
+occur. She soon learns, however, that these manifestations of energy are
+but the way in which the Japanese merchant speeds the departing
+purchaser, and that the apparently inarticulate shouts are but the
+formal phrase, "Thanks for your continued favors," which is repeated in
+a loud tone by every employee in the store whenever a customer departs.
+When she herself is at last ready to leave, a chorus of yells arises,
+this time for her benefit; and as she skips into the _jinrikisha_ and is
+whirled away, she hears continued the busy hum of voices, the clattering
+of _sorobans_, the thumping of the bare feet of the heavily laden boys,
+and the loud shouts of thanks with which departing guests are honored.
+
+There is less pomp and circumstance about the smaller stores, for all
+the goods are within easy reach, and the shops for household utensils
+and chinaware seem to have nearly the whole stock in trade piled up in
+front, or even in the street itself. Many such little places are the
+homes of the people who keep them. And at the back are rooms, which
+serve for dwelling rooms, opening upon well-kept gardens. The whole work
+of the store is often attended to by the proprietor, assisted by his
+wife and family, and perhaps one or two apprentices. Each of the
+workers, in turn, takes an occasional holiday, for there is no day in
+the Japanese calendar when the shops are all closed; and even New Year's
+Day, the great festival of the year, finds most of the stores open. Yet
+the dwellers in these little homes, living almost in the street, and in
+the midst of the bustle and crowd and dust of T[=o]ky[=o], have still
+time to enjoy their holidays and their little gardens, and have more
+pleasure and less hard work than those under similar circumstances in
+our own country.
+
+The stranger visiting any of the great Japanese cities is surprised by
+the lack of large stores and manufactories, and often wonders where the
+beautiful lacquer work and porcelains are made, and where the gay silks
+and crepes are woven. There are no large establishments where such
+things are turned out by wholesale. The delicate vases, the bronzes,
+and the silks are often made in humblest homes, the work of one or two
+laborers with rudest tools. There are no great manufactories to be seen,
+and the bane of so many cities, the polluting factory smoke, never rises
+over the cities of Japan. The hard, confining factory life, with its
+never-ceasing roar of machinery, bewildering the minds and intellects of
+the men who come under its deadening influences, until they become
+scarcely more than machines themselves, is a thing as yet almost unknown
+in Japan. The life of the _jinrikisha_ man even, hard and comfortless as
+it may seem to run all day like a horse through the crowded city
+streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh air, under the open sky, and
+quickens his powers both of body and mind. To the poor in Japanese
+cities is never denied the fresh air and sunshine, green trees and
+grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens are found everywhere, for the
+enjoyment of even the meanest and lowest.
+
+On certain days in the month, in different sections of the city, are
+held night festivals near temples, and many shopkeepers take the
+opportunity to erect temporary booths, in which they so arrange their
+wares as to tempt the passers-by as they go to and fro. Very often there
+is a magnificent display of young trees, potted plants, and flowers,
+brought in from the country and ranged on both sides of the street. Here
+the gardeners make lively sales, as the displays are often fine in
+themselves, and show to a special advantage in the flaring torchlight.
+The eager venders, who do all they can to call the attention of the
+crowd to their wares, make many good bargains. The purchase requires
+skill on both sides, for flower men are proverbial in their high
+charges, asking often five and ten times the real value of a plant, but
+coming down in price almost immediately on remonstrance. You ask the
+price of a dwarf wistaria growing in a pot. The man answers at once,
+"Two dollars." "Two dollars!" you answer in surprise, "it is not worth
+more than thirty or forty cents." "Seventy-five, then," he will respond;
+and thus the buyer and seller approach nearer in price, until the
+bargain is struck somewhere near the first price offered. Price another
+plant and there would be the same process to go over again; but as the
+evening passes, prices go lower and lower, for the distances that the
+plants have been brought are great, and the labor of loading up and
+carrying back the heavy pots is a weary one, and when the last customer
+has departed the merchants must work late into the night to get their
+wares safely home again.
+
+But beside the flower shows, there are long rows of booths, which, with
+the many visitors who throng the streets, make a gay and lively scene.
+So dense is the crowd that it is with difficulty one can push through on
+foot or in _jinrikisha_. The darkness is illuminated by torches, whose
+weird flames flare and smoke in the wind, and shine down upon the little
+sheds which line both sides of the road, and contain so tempting a
+display of cheap toys and trinkets that not only the children, but their
+elders, are attracted by them. Some of the booths are devoted to dolls;
+others to toys of various kinds; still others to birds in cages,
+goldfish in globes, queer chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty
+ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and cakes of all sorts, roasted
+beans and peanuts, and other things too numerous to mention. The long
+line of stalls ends with booths, or tents, in which shows of dancing,
+jugglery, educated animals, and monstrosities, natural or artificial,
+may be seen for the moderate admission fee of two sen. Each of these
+shows is well advertised by the beating of drums, by the shouting of
+doorkeepers, by wonderful pictures on the outside to entice the
+passer-by, or even by an occasional brief lifting of the curtains which
+veil the scene from the crowd without, just long enough to afford a
+tantalizing glimpse of the wonders within. Great is the fascination to
+the children in all these things, and the little feet are never weary
+until the last booth is passed, and the quiet of neighboring streets,
+lighted only by wandering lanterns, strikes the home-returning party by
+its contrast with the light and noise of the festival. The supposed
+object of the expedition, the visit to the temple, has occupied but a
+small share of time and attention, and the little hands are filled with
+the amusing toys and trifles bought, and the little minds with the merry
+sights seen. Nor are those who remain at home forgotten, but the
+pleasure-seekers who visit the fair carry away with them little gifts
+for each member of the family, and the _O miage_, or present given on
+the return, is a regular institution of Japanese home life.[42]
+
+[42] _O miage_ must be given, not only on the return from an evening of
+pleasure, but also on the return from a journey or pleasure trip of any
+kind. As a rule, the longer the absence, the finer and more costly must
+be the presents given on returning.
+
+By ten o'clock, when the crowds have dispersed and the purchasers have
+all gone home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keepers take down their
+stalls, pack up their wares, and disappear, leaving no trace of the
+night's gayeties to greet the morning sun.
+
+Beside these evening shows, which occur monthly or oftener, there are
+also great festivals of the various gods, some celebrated annually,
+others at intervals of some years. These _matsuri_ last for several
+days, and during that time the quarter of the city in which they occur
+seems entirely given over to festivity. The streets are gayly decorated
+with flags, and bright lanterns--all alike in design and color--are hung
+in rows from the low eaves of the houses. Young bamboo-trees set along
+the street, and decorated with bits of bright-colored tissue paper, are
+a frequent and effective accompaniment of these festivals, and here and
+there throughout the district are set up high stands, on the tops of
+which musicians with squeaky flutes, and drums of varying calibre, keep
+up a din more festive than harmonious. It takes a day or two for the
+rejoicings to get fully under way, but by the second or third day the
+fun is at its height, and the streets are thronged with merrymakers. A
+great deal of labor and strength, as well as ingenuity, is spent in the
+construction of enormous floats, or _dashi_, lofty platforms of two
+stories, either set on wheels and drawn by black bullocks or crowds of
+shouting men, or carried by poles on men's shoulders. Upon the first
+floor of these great floats is usually a company of dancers, or mummers,
+who dance, attitudinize, or make faces for the amusement of the crowds
+that gather along their route; while up above, an effigy of some hero in
+Japanese history, or the figure of some animal or monster, looks down
+unmoved upon the absurdities below. Each _dashi_ is attended, not only
+by the men who draw it, but by companies of others in some uniform
+costume; and sometimes graceful professional dancing-girls are hired to
+march in the _matsuri_ procession, or to dance upon the lofty _dashi_.
+At the time of the festivities which accompanied the promulgation of the
+Constitution, three days of jollification were held in T[=o]ky[=o], days
+of such universal fun and frolic that it will be known among the common
+people, to all succeeding generations, as the "Emperor's big _matsuri_."
+Every quarter of the city vied with every other in the production of
+gorgeous _dashi_, and the streets were gay with every conceivable
+variety of decoration, from the little red-and-white paper lanterns,
+that even the poorest hung before their houses, to the great evergreen
+arches, set with electric lights, with which the great business streets
+were spanned thickly from end to end. An evening walk through one of
+these thoroughfares was a sight to be remembered for a lifetime. The
+magnificent _dashi_ represented all manner of quaint conceits. A great
+bivalve drawn by yelling crowds--which halted occasionally--opened and
+displayed between its shells a group of beautifully dressed girls, who
+danced one of the pantomimic dances of the country, accompanied by the
+twanging melodies of the _samisen_. Then slowly the great shell closed,
+once more the shouting crowds seized hold of the straining ropes, and
+the great bivalve with its fair freight was drawn slowly along through
+the gayly illuminated streets. Jimmu Tenno and other heroes of Japanese
+legend or history, each upon its lofty platform, a white elephant, and
+countless other subjects were represented in the festival cars sent
+forth by all the districts of the city to celebrate the great event.
+
+Upon such festival occasions the shopkeeper does not put up his shutters
+and leave his place of business, but the open shop-fronts add much to
+the gay appearance of the street. There are no signs of business about,
+but the floor of the shop is covered with bright-red blankets;
+magnificent gilded screens form an imposing background to the little
+room; and seated on the floor are the shopkeeper, his family, and
+guests, eating, drinking tea, and smoking, as cosily as if all the world
+and his wife were not gazing upon the gay and homelike interior.
+Sometimes companies of dancers, or other entertainments furnished by the
+wealthier shopkeepers, will attract gaping crowds, who watch and block
+the street until the advance guard of some approaching _dashi_ scatters
+them for a moment.
+
+In Japan, as in other parts of the world, the country people are rather
+looked down upon by the dwellers in the city for their slowness of
+intellect, dowdiness of dress, and boorishness of manners; while the
+country people make fun of the fads and fashions of the city, and
+rejoice that they are not themselves the slaves of novelty, and
+especially of the foreign innovations that play so prominent a part in
+Japanese city life to-day. "The frog in the well knows not the great
+ocean," is the snub with which the Japanese cockney sets down Farmer
+Rice-Field's expressions of opinion; while the conservative countryman
+laughs at the foreign affectations of the T[=o]ky[=o] man, and returns
+to his village with tales of the cookery of the capital: so extravagant
+is it that sugar is used in everything; it is even rumored that the
+T[=o]ky[=o]ites put sugar in their tea.
+
+But while the country laughs and wonders at the city, nevertheless, in
+Japan as elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of the young life of
+the country into the livelier and more entertaining city. T[=o]ky[=o]
+especially is the goal of every young countryman's ambition, and thither
+he goes to seek his fortune, finding, alas! too often, only the hard lot
+of the _jinrikisha_ man, instead of the wealth and power that his
+country dreams had shown him.
+
+The lower class women of the cities are in many respects like their
+sisters of the rural districts, except that they have less freedom than
+the country women in what the economists call "direct production." The
+wells and water tanks that stand at convenient distances along the
+streets of T[=o]ky[=o] are frequently surrounded by crowds of women,
+drawing water, washing rice, and chattering merrily over their
+occupations. They meet and exchange ideas freely with each other and
+with the men, but they have not the diversity of labor that country life
+affords, confining themselves more closely to indoor and domestic work,
+and leaving the bread-winning more entirely to the men.
+
+There are, however, occupations in the city for women, by which they may
+support themselves or their families. A good hair-dresser may make a
+handsome living; indeed, she does so well that it is proverbial among
+the Japanese that a hair-dresser's husband has nothing to do. Though
+professional tailors are mostly men, many women earn a small pittance in
+taking in sewing and in giving sewing lessons; and as instructors in the
+ceremonial tea, etiquette, music, painting, and flower arrangement, many
+women of the old school are able to earn an independence, though none of
+these occupations are confined to the women alone.
+
+The business of hotel-keeping we have referred to in a previous chapter,
+and it is a well-known fact that unless a hotel-keeper has a capable
+wife, his business will not succeed. At present, all over T[=o]ky[=o],
+small restaurants, where food is served in the foreign style, are
+springing up, and these are usually conducted by a man and his wife who
+have at some time served as cook and waitress in a foreign family, and
+who conduct the business cooperatively and on terms of good-fellowship
+and equality. In these little eating-houses, where a well-cooked foreign
+dinner of from three to six courses is served for the moderate sum of
+thirty or forty cents, the man usually does the cooking, the woman the
+serving and handling of the money, until the time arrives when the
+profits of the business are sufficient to justify the hiring of more
+help. When this time comes, the labor is redistributed, the woman
+frequently taking upon herself the reception of the guests and the
+keeping of the accounts, while the hired help waits on the tables.
+
+One important calling, in the eyes of many persons, especially those of
+the lower classes, is that of fortune-telling; and these guides in all
+matters of life, both great and small, are to be found in every section
+of the city. They are consulted on every important step by believing
+ones of all classes. An impending marriage, an illness, the loss of any
+valuable article, a journey about to be taken,--these are all subjects
+for the fortune-teller. He tells the right day of marriage, and says
+whether the fates of the two parties will combine well; gives clues to
+the causes of sudden illness, and information as to what has become of
+lost articles, and whether they will be recovered or not. Warned thus by
+the fortune-teller against evils that may happen, many ingenious
+expedients are resorted to, to avoid the ill foretold.
+
+A man and his family were about to move from their residence to another
+part of the city. They sent to know if the fates were propitious to the
+change for all the family. The day and year of birth of each was told,
+and then the fortune-teller hunted up the various signs, and sent word
+that the direction of the new home was excellent for the good luck of
+the family as a whole, and the move a good one for each member of it
+except one of the sons; the next year the same move would be bad for the
+father. As the family could not wait two years before moving, it was
+decided that the change of residence should be made at once, but that
+the son should live with his uncle until the next year. The uncle's home
+was, however, inconveniently remote, and so the young man stayed as a
+visitor at his father's house for the remaining months of the year,
+after which he became once more a member of the household. Thus the
+inconvenience and the evil were both avoided.[*282]
+
+Another story comes to my mind now of a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sama
+of a house of high rank, who late in life came to T[=o]ky[=o] to live
+with her brother and his young and somewhat foreignized wife. The
+brother himself, while not a Christian, had little belief in the old
+superstitions of his people; his wife was a professing Christian. Soon
+after the old lady's arrival in T[=o]ky[=o], her sister-in-law fell ill,
+and before she had recovered her strength the children, one after
+another, came down with various diseases, which, though in no case
+fatal, kept the family in a state of anxiety for more than a year. The
+old lady was quite sure that there was some witchcraft or art-magic at
+work among her dear ones, and, after consulting the servants (for she
+knew that she could expect no sympathy in her plans from either her
+brother or his wife), she betook herself to a fortune-teller to discover
+through his means the causes of the illness in the family. The
+fortune-teller revealed to her the fact that two occult forces were at
+work bringing evil upon the house. One was the evil spirit of a spring
+or well that had been choked with stones, or otherwise obstructed in its
+flow, and that chose this way of bringing its afflictions to the
+attention of mortals. The other was the spirit of a horse that had once
+belonged in the family, and that after death revenged itself upon its
+former masters for the hard service wherewith it had been made to serve.
+The only way in which these two powers could be appeased would be by
+finding the well, and removing the obstructions that choked it, and by
+erecting an image of the horse and offering to it cakes and other
+meat-offerings. The fortune-teller hinted, moreover, that for a
+consideration he might be able to afford material aid in the search for
+the well.
+
+At this information Go Inkyo Sama was much perturbed, for further aid
+for her afflicted family seemed to require the use of money, and of that
+commodity she had very little, being mainly dependent upon her brother
+for support. She returned to her home and consulted the servants upon
+the matter; but though they quite agreed with her that something should
+be done, they had little capital to invest in the enterprises suggested
+by the fortune-teller. At last, the old lady went to her brother, but he
+only laughed at her well-meant attempts to help his family, and refused
+to give her money for such a purpose. She retired discouraged, but,
+urged by the servants, she decided to make a last appeal, this time to
+her sister-in-law, who must surely be moved by the evil that was
+threatening herself and her children. Taking some of the head servants
+with her, she went to her sister and presented the case. This was her
+last resort, and she clung to her forlorn hope longer than many would
+have done, the servants adding their arguments to her impassioned
+appeals, only to find out after all that the steadfast sister could not
+be moved, and that she would not propitiate the horse's spirit, or allow
+money to be used for such a purpose. She gave it up then, and sat down
+to await the fate of her doomed house, doubtless wondering much and
+sighing often over the foolish skepticism of her near relatives, and
+wishing that the rationalistic tendencies of the time would take a less
+dangerous form than the neglecting of the plainest precautions for life
+and health. The fate has not yet come, and now at last Go Inkyo Sama
+seems to have resigned herself to the belief that it has been averted
+from the heads of the dear ones by a power unknown to the
+fortune-teller.
+
+Beside these callings, there are other employments which are not
+regarded as wholly respectable by either Japanese or foreigners. The
+_geisha ya_, or establishments where dancing-girls are trained, and let
+out by the day or evening to tea-houses or private parties, are usually
+managed by women. At these establishments little girls are taken,
+sometimes by contract with their parents, sometimes adopted by the
+proprietors of the house, and from very early youth are trained not only
+in the art of dancing, but are taught singing and _samisen_-playing, all
+the etiquette of serving and entertaining guests, and whatever else goes
+to make a girl charming to the opposite sex. When thoroughly taught,
+they form a valuable investment, and well repay the labor spent upon
+them, for a popular geisha commands a good price everywhere, and has her
+time overcrowded with engagements. A Japanese entertainment is hardly
+regarded as complete without geishas in attendance, and their dancing,
+music, and graceful service at supper form a charming addition to an
+evening of enjoyment at a tea-house. It is these geishas, too, who at
+_matsuri_ are hired to march in quaint uniforms in the procession, or,
+borne aloft on great _dashi_, dance for the benefit of the admiring
+crowds.
+
+The Japanese dances are charmingly graceful and modest; the swaying of
+the body and limbs, the artistic management of the flowing draperies,
+the variety of themes and costumes of the different dances, all go to
+make an entertainment by geishas one of the pleasantest of Japanese
+enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet and yellow robes, the dainty maidens
+imitate, with their supple bodies, the dance of the maple leaves as they
+are driven hither and thither in the autumn wind; sometimes, with
+tucked-up _kimonos_ and jaunty red petticoats, they play the part of
+little country girls carrying their eggs to market in the neighboring
+village. Again, clad in armor, they simulate the warlike gestures and
+martial stamp of some of the old-time heroes; or, with whitened faces
+and hoary locks, they perform with rake and broom the dance of the good
+old man and old woman who play so prominent a part in Japanese pictures.
+And then, when the dance is over, and all are bewitched with their grace
+and beauty, they descend to the supper-room and ply their temporary
+employers with the _sake_ bottle, laughing and jesting the while, until
+there is little wonder if the young men at the entertainment drink more
+than is good for them, and leave the tea-house at last thoroughly tipsy,
+and enslaved by the bright eyes and merry wits of some of the Hebes who
+have beguiled them through the evening.
+
+The geishas unfortunately, though fair, are frail. In their system of
+education, manners stand higher than morals, and many a geisha gladly
+leaves the dancing in the tea-houses to become the concubine of some
+wealthy Japanese or foreigner, thinking none the worse of herself for
+such a business arrangement, and going cheerfully back to her regular
+work, should her contract be unexpectedly ended. The geisha is not
+necessarily bad, but there is in her life much temptation to evil, and
+little stimulus to do right, so that, where one lives blameless, many go
+wrong, and drop below the margin of respectability altogether. Yet so
+fascinating, bright, and lively are these geishas that many of them have
+been taken by men of good position as wives, and are now the heads of
+the most respectable homes. Without true education or morals, but
+trained thoroughly in all the arts and accomplishments that
+please,--witty, quick at repartee, pretty, and always well dressed,--the
+geisha has proved a formidable rival for the demure, quiet maiden of
+good family, who can only give her husband an unsullied name, silent
+obedience, and faithful service all her life. The freedom of the present
+age, as shown in the chapter on "Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in
+the choice of such wives, has presented this great problem to the
+thinking women of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in Japan are to
+come from among such a class of women, something must be done, and done
+quickly, for the sake of the future of Japan; either to raise the
+standards of the men in regard to women, or to change the old system of
+education for girls. A liberal education, and more freedom in early life
+for women, has been suggested, and is now being tried, but the problem
+of the geisha and her fascination is a deep one in Japan.
+
+Below the geisha in respectability stands the j[=o]r[=o], or licensed
+prostitute. Every city in Japan has its disreputable quarter, where the
+various _j[=o]r[=o]ya_, or licensed houses of prostitution, are
+situated. The supervision that the government exercises over these
+places is extremely rigid; the effort is made, by licensing and
+regulating them, to minimize the evils that must flow from them. The
+proprietors of the _j[=o]r[=o]ya_ do everything in their power to make
+their houses, grounds, and employees attractive, and, to the
+unsuspecting foreigner, this portion of the city seems often the
+pleasantest and most respectable. A j[=o]r[=o] need never be taken for a
+respectable woman, for her dress is distinctive, and a stay of a short
+time in Japan is long enough to teach even the most obtuse that the
+_obi_, or sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one of the badges of
+shame. But though the occupation of the j[=o]r[=o] is altogether
+disreputable,--though the prostitute quarter is the spot to which the
+police turn for information in regard to criminals and law-breakers, a
+sort of a trap into which, sooner or later, the offender against the law
+is sure to fall,--Japanese public opinion, though recognizing the evil
+as a great one, does not look upon the professional prostitute with the
+loathing which she inspires in Christian countries. The reason for this
+lies, not solely in the lower moral standards although it is true that
+sins of this character are regarded much more leniently in Japan than in
+England or America. The reason lies very largely in the fact that these
+women are seldom free agents. Many of them are virtually slaves, sold in
+childhood to the keepers of the houses in which they work, and trained,
+amid the surroundings of the _j[=o]r[=o]ya_, for the life which is the
+only life they have ever known. A few may have sacrificed themselves
+freely but reluctantly for those whom they love, and by their revolting
+slavery may be earning the means to keep their dear ones from starvation
+or disgrace. Many are the Japanese romances that are woven about the
+virtuous j[=o]r[=o], who is eventually rewarded by finding, even in the
+_j[=o]r[=o]ya_, a lover who is willing to raise her again to a life of
+respectability, and make her a happy wife and the mother of children.
+Such stories must necessarily lower the standard of morals in regard to
+chastity, but in a country in which innocent romance has little room for
+development, the imagination must find its materials where it can.
+These _j[=o]r[=o]ya_ give employment to thousands of women throughout
+the country, but in few cases do the women seek that employment, and
+more openings in respectable directions, together with a change in
+public opinion securing to every woman the right to her own person,
+would tend to diminish the number of victims that these institutions
+yearly draw into their devouring current.
+
+Innocent and reputable amusements are many and varied in the cities. We
+have already mentioned incidentally the theatre as one of the favorite
+diversions of the people; and though it has never been regarded as a
+very refined amusement, it has done and is doing much for the education
+of the lower classes in the history and spirit of former times. Regular
+plays were never performed in the presence of the Emperor and his court,
+or the Sh[=o]gun and his nobles, but the _No_ dance was the only
+dramatic amusement of the nobility. This _No_ is an ancient Japanese
+theatrical performance, more, perhaps, like the Greek drama than
+anything in our modern life. All the movements of the actors are
+measured and conventionalized, speech is a poetical recitative, the
+costumes are stiff and antique, masks are much used, and a chorus seated
+upon the stage chants audible comments upon the various situations. This
+alone, the most ancient and classical of Japanese theatrical
+performances, is considered worthy of the attention of the Emperor and
+the nobility, and takes the place with them of the more vulgar and
+realistic plays which delight common people.
+
+The regular theatre preserves in many ways the life and costumes of old
+Japan, and the details of dress and scenery are most carefully studied.
+The actors are usually men, though there are "women theatres" in which
+all the parts are performed by women. In no case are the roles taken by
+both sexes upon one stage. As the performances last all day, from ten or
+eleven in the forenoon until eight or nine in the evening, going to the
+theatre means much more than a few hours of entertainment after the
+day's work is over. A lunch and dinner, with innumerable light edibles
+between, go to make up the usual bill of fare for a day at the play, and
+tea-houses in the neighborhood of the theatre provide the necessary
+meals, a room to take them in, a resting-place between the acts, and
+whatever tea, cakes, and other refreshments may be ordered. These latter
+eatables are served by the attendants of the tea-house in the theatre
+boxes while the play is in progress, and the playgoers eat and smoke all
+day long through roaring farce or goriest tragedy.
+
+Similar to the theatre in many ways are the public halls, where
+professional story-tellers, the _hanashika_, night after night, relate
+long stories to crowded audiences, as powerfully and vividly as the best
+trained elocutionist. Each gesture, and each modulation of the voice, is
+studied as carefully as are those of the actors. Many charming tales are
+told of old Japan, and even Western stories have found their way to
+these assemblies. A long story is often continued from night to night
+until finished. Unfortunately, the class of people who patronize these
+places is low, and the moral tone of some of the stories is pitched
+accordingly; but the best of the story-tellers--those who have talent
+and reputation--are often invited to come to entertainments given at
+private houses, to amuse a large company by their eloquence or mimicry.
+
+This is a very favorite entertainment, and the _hanashika_ has so
+perfected the art of imitation that he can change in a moment from the
+tones of a child to those of an old woman. Solemn and sad subjects are
+touched upon, as well as merry and bright things, and he never fails to
+make his audience weep or laugh, according to his theme, and well merits
+the applause he always receives at the end.
+
+The _hanami_, or picnic to famous places to view certain flowers as they
+bloom in their season, though not belonging strictly to city life, forms
+one of the greatest of the pleasures of city people. The river Sumida,
+on which T[=o]ky[=o] is situated, has lining its eastern shore for some
+miles the famous cherry-trees of Japan, with their large, double pink
+blossoms, and when, in April and May, these flowers are in their
+perfection, great crowds of sightseers flock to Muk[=o]jima to enjoy the
+blossoms under the trees. The river is crowded with picnic parties in
+boats. Every tea-house along the banks is full of guests, and the little
+stalls and resting-places on the way find a quick sale for fruit,
+confectionery, and light lunches. _Sake_ is often too freely imbibed by
+the merrymakers, whose flushed faces show, when returning homeward, how
+their day was spent. There is much quiet enjoyment, too, of the lovely
+blossoms, the broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed crowds. Hundreds
+and thousands of visitors crowd to the suburban places about
+T[=o]ky[=o],--to Uyeno Park for its cherry and peach blossoms, Kameido
+for the plum and wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees, and many
+others, each noted for some special beauty. Dango Zaka has its own
+peculiar attraction, the famous chrysanthemum dolls. These ingenious
+figures are arranged so as to form tableaux,--scenes from history or
+fiction well known to all the people. They are of life size, and the
+faces, hands, and feet are made of some composition, and closely
+resemble life in every detail. But the curious thing in these tableaux
+is that the scenery, whether it be the representation of a waterfall,
+rocks, or bushes, the animals, and the dresses of the figures are made
+entirely of chrysanthemum twigs, leaves, and flowers, not cut and woven
+in, as at the first glance they seem to be,--so closely are the leaves
+and flowers bound together to make the flat surface of different
+objects,--but alive and growing on the plants. It is impossible to tell
+where the roots and stems are hidden, for nothing is visible but (for
+example) the white spray and greenish shadows of a waterfall, or the
+parti-colored figures in a young girl's dress. But, should it be the
+visitor's good fortune to watch the repairing of one of these lifelike
+images, he will find that the entire body is a frame woven of split
+bamboo, within which the plants are placed, their roots packed in damp
+earth and bound about with straw, while their leaves and flowers are
+pulled through the basket frame and woven into whatsoever pattern the
+artistic eye and skillful fingers of the gardener may select. A roof of
+matting shields each group from the sun by day, and a slight sprinkling
+every night serves to keep the plants fresh for nearly a month, and the
+flowers continue their blooming during that time, as calmly as if in
+perfectly natural positions. Each of the gardeners of the neighborhood
+has his own little show, containing several tableaux, the entrance to
+which is guarded by an officious gate-keeper, who shouts out the merits
+of his particular groups of figures, and forces his show-bills upon the
+passer-by, in the hope of securing the two sen admission fee which is
+required for each exhibit.
+
+And so, amid the shopping, the festivals, the amusements of the great
+cities, the women find their lives varied in many ways. Their holidays
+from home duties are spent amid these enjoyments; and if they have not
+the out-of-door employments, the long walks up the mountains, the days
+spent in tea-picking, in harvesting, in all the varied work that comes
+to the country woman, the dwellers in the city have no lack of sights
+and sounds to amuse and interest them, and would not often care to
+exchange their lot for the freer and hardier life of the rustic.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DOMESTIC SERVICE.
+
+
+To the foreigner, upon his arrival in Japan, the status of household
+servants is at first a source of much perplexity. There is a freedom in
+their relations with the families that they serve, that in this country
+would be regarded as impudence, and an independence of action that, in
+many cases, seems to take the form of direct disobedience to orders.
+From the steward of your household, who keeps your accounts, makes your
+purchases, and manages your affairs, to your _jinrikisha_ man or groom,
+every servant in your establishment does what is right in his own eyes,
+and after the manner that he thinks best. Mere blind obedience to orders
+is not regarded as a virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do his own
+thinking, and, if he cannot grasp the reason for your order, that order
+will not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan is frequently the despair
+of the thrifty American housewife, who has been accustomed in her own
+country to be the head of every detail of household work, leaving to her
+servants only the mechanical labor of the hands. She begins by showing
+her Oriental help the work to be done, and just the way in which she is
+accustomed to having it done at home, and the chances are about one in a
+hundred that her servant will carry out her instructions. In the
+ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish the desired result, but by
+means totally different from those to which the American housekeeper is
+accustomed. If the housewife is one of the worrying kind, who cares as
+much about the way in which the thing is done as about the accomplished
+result, the chances are that she will wear herself out in a fruitless
+endeavor to make her servants do things in her own way, and will, when
+she returns to America, assure you that Japanese servants are the most
+idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot that it was ever her bad
+fortune to have to do with. But on the other hand, if the lady of the
+house is one who is willing to give general orders, and then sit down
+and wait until the work is done before criticising it, she will find
+that by some means or other the work will be accomplished and her desire
+will be carried out, provided only that her servants see a reason for
+getting the thing done. And as she finds that her domestics will take
+responsibility upon themselves, and will work, not only with their
+hands, but with the will and intellect in her service, she soon yields
+to their protecting and thoughtful care for herself and her interests,
+and, when she returns to America, is loud in her praises of the
+competence and devotion of her Japanese servants. Even in the treaty
+ports, where contact with foreigners has given to the Japanese
+attendants the silent and repressed air that we regard as the standard
+manner for a servant, they have not resigned their right of private
+judgment, but, if faithful and honest, seek the best good of their
+employer, even if his best good involves disobedience of his orders.
+This characteristic of the Japanese servant is aggravated when he is in
+the employment of foreigners, for the simple reason that he is apt to
+regard the foreigner as a species of imbecile, who must be cared for
+tenderly because he is quite incompetent to care for himself, but whose
+fancies must not be too much regarded. Of the relations of foreign
+employers and Japanese servants much might be said, but our business is
+with the position of the servants in a Japanese household.
+
+Under the old feudal system, the servants of every family were its
+hereditary retainers, and from generation to generation desired no
+higher lot than personal service in the family to which they belonged.
+The principle of loyalty to the family interests was the leading
+principle in the lives of the servants, just as loyalty to the daimi[=o]
+was the highest duty of the samurai. Long and intimate knowledge of the
+family history and traits of character rendered it possible for the
+retainer to work intelligently for his master, and do independently for
+him many things without orders. The servant in many cases knew his
+master and his master's interests as well as the master himself, or even
+better, and must act by the light of his own knowledge in cases where
+his master was ignorant or misinformed. One can easily see how ties of
+good-fellowship and sympathy would arise between masters and servants,
+how a community of interest would exist, so that the good of the master
+and his family would be the condition for the good of the servant and
+his family. In America, where the relation between servant and employer
+is usually a simple business arrangement, each giving certain specified
+considerations and nothing more, the relation of servant to master is
+shorn of all sentiment and affection; the servant's interests are quite
+apart from those of his employer, and his main object is to get the
+specified work done and obtain more time for himself, and sooner or
+later to leave the despised occupation of domestic service for some
+higher and more independent calling. In Japan, where faithful service of
+a master was regarded as a calling worthy of absorbing any one's highest
+abilities through a lifetime, the position of a servant was not menial
+or degrading, but might be higher than that of the farmer, merchant, or
+artisan. Whether the position was a high or a low one depended, not so
+much on the work done, as the person for whom it was done, and the
+servant of a daimi[=o] or high rank samurai was worthy of more honor, and
+might be of far better birth, than the independent merchant or artisan.
+As the former feudal system is yet within the memory of many of the
+present generation, and its feelings still alive in Japan, much of the
+old sentiment remains, even with the merely hired domestics in a
+household of the present day. The servant, by his own master, is
+addressed by name, with no title of respect, is treated as an inferior,
+and spoken to in the language used toward inferiors; but to all others
+he is a person to be treated with respect,--to be bowed to profoundly,
+addressed by the title San, and spoken to in the politest of language.
+You make a call upon a Japanese household, and the servant who admits
+you will expect to exchange the formal salutations with you. When you
+are ushered into the reception-room, should the lady of the house be
+absent, the head servants will not only serve you with tea and
+refreshments and offer you hospitalities in their mistress's name, but
+may, if no one else be there, sit with you in the parlor, entertaining
+you with conversation until the return of the hostess. The servants of
+the household are by no means ignored socially, as they are with us, but
+are always recognized and saluted by visitors as they pass into and out
+of the room, and are free to join in the conversation of their betters,
+should they see any place where it is possible that they may shed light
+on the subject discussed. But though given this liberty of speech,
+treated with much consideration, and having sometimes much
+responsibility, servants do not forget their places in the household,
+and do not seem to be bold or out of place. Indeed, the manners of some
+of them would seem, to any one but a Japanese, to denote a lack of
+proper self-respect,--an excess of humility, or an affectation of it.
+
+In explaining to my scholars, who were reading "Little Lord Fauntleroy"
+in English, a passage where a footman is spoken of as having nearly
+disgraced himself by laughing at some quaint saying of the young lord,
+my little peeresses were amazed beyond measure to learn that in Europe
+and America a servant is expected never to show any interest in, or
+knowledge of, the conversation of his betters, never to speak unless
+addressed, and never to smile under any circumstances. Doubtless, in
+their shrewd little brains, they formed their opinion of a civilization
+imposing such barbarous restraints upon one class of persons.
+
+The women servants in a family are in position more like the
+self-respecting, old-fashioned New England "help" than they are like the
+modern "girl." They do not work all day while the mistress sits in the
+parlor doing nothing, and then, when their day's work is done, go out,
+anxious to forget, in the society of their friends, the drudgery which
+only the necessity for self-support and the high wages to be earned
+render tolerable. As has been explained in a previous chapter, the
+mistress of the house--be she princess or peasant--is herself the head
+servant, and only gives up to her helpers the part of the labor which
+she has not the time or strength to perform. Certain menial duties
+toward her husband and children, every Japanese wife and mother must do
+herself, and would scorn to delegate to any other woman except in case
+of absolute necessity. Thus there is not that gap between mistress and
+maid that exists in our days among the women of this country. The
+servants work with their mistress, helping her in every possible way,
+and are treated as responsible members of the household, if not of the
+family itself.
+
+At evening, when the wooden shutters are slid into their places around
+the porch and the lamps are lighted, the family gather together in the
+sitting-room around the _hibachi_ to talk, free from interruption, for
+no visitor comes at such an hour to disturb the family circle. The
+mother will have her sewing or work, the children will study their
+lessons, and the others will talk or amuse themselves in various ways.
+Then, perhaps, the maidservants, having finished their tasks about the
+house, will join the circle,--always at a respectful distance,--will do
+their sewing and listen to the talk, and often join in the conversation,
+but in the most humble manner. Perhaps, at times, some one more
+ambitious than the others will bring in a book, and ask the meaning of a
+word or a phrase she has met in studying, and little helps of this kind
+are given most willingly.
+
+We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting in the houses of the nobles are
+daughters of samurai, who gladly serve in these positions for the sake
+of the honor of such service, and the training they receive in noble
+houses. In a somewhat similar way, places in the homes of those of
+distinction or skill in any art or profession are held in great demand
+among the Japanese; and a prominent poet, scholar, physician, or
+professional man of any kind is often asked by anxious parents to take
+their sons under his own roof, so that they may be under his influence,
+and receive the benefits of stay in such an honorable house. The parents
+who thus send their children may not be of low rank at all, but are
+usually not sufficiently well-to-do to spend much money in the education
+of their children. The position that such boys occupy in the household
+is a curious one. They are called _Sho-sei_, meaning students, and
+students they usually are, spending all their leisure moments and their
+evenings in study. They are never treated as inferiors, except in age
+and experience; they may or may not eat with the family, and are always
+addressed with respect. On the other hand, they always feel themselves
+to be dependents, and must be willing without wages to work in any
+capacity about the house, for the sake of picking up what crumbs of
+knowledge may fall to them from their master's table. Service is not
+absolutely demanded of them, but they are expected to do what will pay
+for their board, and do not regard menial work as below them, performing
+cheerfully all that the master may require of them.
+
+In this way, a man of moderate means can help along many poor young men
+in whom he may feel interested, and in return be saved expense about his
+household work; and the students, while always considerately treated,
+are able without great expense to study,--often even to prepare for
+college, or get a start in one of the professions, for they have many
+leisure moments to devote to their books. Many prominent men of the
+present day have been students of this class, and are now in their turn
+helping the younger generation.
+
+The boys that one sees in shops, or, with workmen of all kinds, helping
+in many little ways, are not hirelings, but apprentices, who hope some
+day to hold just as good positions as their masters, and expect to know
+as much, if not a great deal more. At the shop or in the home, they not
+only help in the trades or occupations they are learning, but are
+willing to do any kind of menial work for their master or his family in
+return for what they receive from him; for they do not pay for their
+board nor for what they are taught. Even when the age of education is
+already past, grown men and women are willing to leave quite independent
+positions to shine with reflected glory as servants of persons of high
+rank or distinction. "The servant is not greater than his master" in
+Japan; but if the master is great, the servant is considerably greater
+than the man without a master.
+
+In a country like Japan, where one finds but few wealthy people, there
+may be cause for wonder at the large households, where there are so many
+servants. There will be often as many as ten or more servants in a home
+where, in other ways, luxury and wealth are not displayed. In the _oku_,
+or the part of the house where the lady of the house stays, are found
+her own maid, and women who help in the work about the house, sew in
+their leisure moments, and are the higher servants of the family; there
+are also the children's attendants, often one for each child, as well as
+the waiting women for the Go Inkyo Sama. In the kitchen are the cooks
+and their assistants, the lower servants, and usually one or more
+_jinrikisha_ men, who belong to the house, and, if this be the home of
+an official who keeps horses, a _bett[=o]_ for each animal. There are also
+gardeners, errand-boys, and gate-keepers to guard the large _yashikis_.
+Such a retinue would seem a great deal to maintain; but servants' wages
+are so low, and the cost of living is so small, that in this matter
+Japanese can afford to be luxurious. Three or four dollars will cover
+the cost of food for a month for one person, and women servants expect
+only a few dollars in wages for that time. The men receive much higher
+pay, but at the most it is less than what a good cook receives in many
+homes here. The wages do not include occasional presents, especially
+those given semi-annually,--a small sum of money, or dress material of
+some kind,--which servants expect, and which, of course, are no small
+item in the family expense.
+
+Homes which maintain a great deal of style need many servants, for they
+expect to work less than the American servant, and are less able to
+hurry and rush through their work; and they do not desire, if they
+could, to take life so hard, even to earn greater pay. The family, too,
+in many cases are used to having plenty of hands to do the work; the
+ladies are much less independent, and life has more formalities and red
+tape in Japan than in America. A great deal of the shopping is done by
+servants, who are sent out on errands and often do important business.
+Maids accompany their mistresses to make visits; servants go with
+parties to the theatre, to picnics, or on journeys, and these
+expeditions are as heartily enjoyed by them as by their masters. It is
+expected, especially of ladies and persons of high rank, that the
+details of the journey, the bargaining with coolies, the hiring of
+vehicles, and paying of bills, be left in charge of some manservant, who
+is entirely responsible, and who makes all the bargains, arranges the
+journey for his employer, and takes charge of everything,--even to the
+amount of fees given along the way.
+
+Perhaps the highest positions of service now--positions honorable
+anywhere in Japan--are held by those who remain of the old retainers of
+daimi[=o]s, and who regulate the households of the nobles. Such men must
+have good education, and good judgment; for much is left in their
+hands, and they are usually gentlemen, who would be known as such
+anywhere. They are the stewards of the household, the secretaries of
+their masters; keep all accounts, for which they are responsible, and
+attend to the minor affairs of etiquette,--the latter no trifling duty
+in a noble's home. It is they who accompany the nobles on their
+journeys,--regulate, advise, and attend to the little affairs of life,
+of which the master may be ignorant and cares not to learn. They are the
+last of the crowds of feudal retainers, who once filled castle and
+_yashiki_, and are now scattered throughout the length and breadth of
+the kingdom.
+
+The higher servants in the household must be always more or less trained
+in etiquette, and are expected to look neat and tidy; to serve guests
+with tea and refreshments, without any orders to that effect; and to use
+their judgment in little household affairs, and thus help the lady of
+the house. They are usually clever with their fingers, and can sew
+neatly. When their mistress goes out they assist her to dress, and only
+a few words from her will be necessary for them to have everything in
+readiness, from her sash and dress to all the little belongings of a
+lady's costume. Many a bright, quick servant is found who will
+understand and guess her mistress's wants without being told each
+detail, and these not only serve with their hands, but think for their
+employers.
+
+Much less is expected of the lower servants, who belong to the kitchen,
+and have less to do with the family in general, and little or no
+personal contact with their masters. They perform their round of duties
+with little responsibility, and are regarded as much lower in the social
+scale of servants, of which we have seen there are many degrees.
+
+The little _gozen-taki_, or rice-cook, who works all day in the kitchen,
+may be a fat, red-cheeked, frowsy-haired country girl,--patient,
+hard-working, and humble-minded,--willing to pother about all day with
+her kettles and pans, and sit up half the night over her own sewing, or
+the study of the often unfamiliar art of reading and writing; but
+entirely unacquainted with the details of etiquette, a knowledge of
+which is a necessity to the higher servants,--sometimes even thrown
+into an agony of diffidence should it become necessary to appear before
+master or mistress.
+
+Some of the customs of the household, in regard to servants, are quite
+striking to a foreigner. When the master of the house starts out each
+morning, besides the wife and children who see him off, all the servants
+who are not especially occupied--a goodly number, sometimes--come to the
+front door and bow down to bid him good-by. On his return, also, when
+the noise of the _kuruma_ is heard, and the shout of the men, who call
+out "_O kaeri!_" when near the house, the servants go out to greet him,
+and bowing low speak the customary words of salutation. To a greater or
+less degree, the same is done to every member of the family, the younger
+members, however, receiving a smaller share of the attention than their
+elders.
+
+When, as very often happens, a guest staying for any length of time in a
+family, or a frequent visitor, gives a servant a present of money or any
+trifle, the servant, after thanking the donor, takes the white paper
+bundle to the mistress of the house, and shows it to her, expressing his
+gratitude to her for the gift, and also asking her to thank the giver.
+This, of course, is always done, for a gift to a servant is as much of a
+favor to the mistress as a present to a child is to its mother.
+
+When a servant wishes to leave a family, she rarely goes to her mistress
+and states that she is dissatisfied with her position, and that some
+better chance has been offered her. Such a natural excuse never occurs
+to the Japanese servant, unless he be a _jinrikisha_ man or _bett[=o]_,
+who may not know how to do better; for it is a very rude way of leaving
+service. The high-minded maid will proceed very differently.
+
+A few days' leave of absence to visit home will be asked and usually
+granted, for Japanese servants never have any settled time to take
+holiday. At the end of the given time the mistress will begin to wonder
+what has become of the girl, who has failed to return; and the lady will
+make up her mind she will not let her go again so readily. Just when she
+has a sharp reproof ready, a messenger or letter will arrive, with some
+good excuse, couched in most polite and humble terms. Sometimes it will
+be that she has found herself too weak for service, or that work at
+home, or the illness of some member of the family, detains her, so that
+she is not able to come back at present. The excuse is understood and
+accepted as final, and another servant is sought for and obtained. After
+several weeks have passed, very likely after entering a new place, the
+old servant will turn up some day, express her thanks for all past
+kindnesses and regrets at not returning in time, will take her pay and
+her bundles, and disappear forever.
+
+Even when servants come on trial for a few days, they often go away
+nominally to fetch their belongings, or make arrangements to return, but
+the lady of the house does not know whether the woman is satisfied or
+not. If she is not, her refusal is always brought by a third person. If
+the mistress, on her side, does not wish to hire the girl, she will not
+tell her so to her face, but will send word at this time to prevent her
+coming. Such is the etiquette in these matters of mistress and
+maid.[*317]
+
+Only by a multiplicity of details is it possible to give much idea of
+the position of servants in a Japanese house, and even then the result
+arrived at is that the positions of what we would call domestic
+servants vary so greatly in honor and responsibility that it is almost
+impossible to draw any general conclusions upon this subject. We have
+seen that there is no distinct servile class in Japan, and that a
+person's social status is not altered by the fact that he serves in a
+menial capacity, provided that service be of one above him in rank and
+not below him. This is largely the result of the grading of society upon
+other lines than those on which our social distinctions are founded, and
+partly the result of the fact that women, of whatever class, are
+servants so far as persons of the opposite sex in their own class are
+concerned. The women of Japan to-day form the great servile class, and,
+as they are also the wives and mothers of those whom they serve, they
+are treated, of course, with a certain consideration and respect never
+given to a mere servant; and through them, all domestic service is
+elevated.[*318]
+
+There are two employments which I have mentioned among those of domestic
+servants because they would be so classed by us, but which in Japan rank
+among the trades. The _jinrikisha_ man and the groom belong, as a rule,
+to a certain class at the bottom of the social ladder, and no samurai
+would think of entering either of these occupations, except under stress
+of severest poverty. The _bett[=o]s_, or grooms, are a hereditary class
+and a regular guild, and have a reputation, among both Japanese and
+foreigners, as a betting, gambling, cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An
+honest _bett[=o]_ is a rare phenomenon. The _jinrikisha_ men are, many
+of them, sons of peasants, who come to the cities for the sake of
+earning more money, or leading a livelier life than can be found in the
+little thatched cottage among the rice-fields. Few of them are married,
+or have homes of their own. Many of them drink and gamble, and sow their
+wild oats in all possible ways; but they are a well-meaning, fairly
+honest, happy-go-lucky set, who lead hard lives of exhausting labor, and
+endure long hours of exposure to heat and cold, rain, snow, and blinding
+sunshine, not only with little complaint or grumbling, but with absolute
+cheerfulness and hilarity. A strong, fast _jinrikisha_ man takes great
+pride in his strength and speed. It is a point of honor with him to pull
+his passenger up the steepest and most slippery of hills, and never to
+heed him if he expresses a desire to walk in order to save his man. I
+have had my _kurumaya_ stoutly refuse, again and again, my offers to
+walk up a steep hill, even when the snow was so soft and slippery under
+his bare feet that he fell three times in making the ascent. "_Dai
+jobu_" (safe) would be his smiling response to all my protestations;
+and, once in a _jinrikisha_, the passenger is entirely at the mercy of
+his man in all matters of getting into and out of the vehicle. But
+though the _jinrikisha_ man is, for the time being, the autocrat and
+controlling power over his passenger, and though he will not obey the
+behests of his employer, except so far as they seem reasonable and in
+accordance with the best interests of all concerned, he constitutes
+himself the protector and assistant, the adviser and counselor, of him
+whom he serves, and gives his best thought and intelligence, as well as
+his speed and strength, to the service in which he is engaged. If he
+thinks it safe, he will tear like an unbroken colt through the business
+portions of the city, knocking bundles out of the hands of foot
+passengers, or even hitting the wayfarers themselves in a fierce dash
+through their midst, laughing gayly at their protests, and at threats of
+wrath to come from his helpless passenger; but should hint of insult or
+injury against _kuruma_, passenger, or passenger's dog fall upon his
+ears, he will drop the _jinrikisha_ shafts, and administer condign
+punishment to the offender, unchecked by thoughts of the ever-present
+police, or by any terrors that his employer may hold over his head. In
+no other country in the world, perhaps, can a lady place more entire
+confidence in the honor and loyalty of her servant than she can in Japan
+in her _kurumaya_, whether he be her private servant, or one from a
+respectable stand. He may not do what she bids him, but that is quite a
+secondary matter. He will study her interests; will remember her likes
+and dislikes; will take a mental inventory of the various accessories or
+bundles that she carries with her, and will never permit her to lose or
+forget one of them; will run his legs off in her service, and defend her
+and her property valiantly in case of need. Of course, as in all classes
+there are different grades, so there are _jinrikisha_ men who seem to
+have sunk so low in their calling that they have lost all feeling of
+loyalty to their employer, and only care selfishly for the pittance they
+gain. Such men are often found in the treaty ports, eagerly seeking for
+the rich foreigner, from whom they can get an extra fee, and whom they
+regard as outside of their code of morals, and hence as their natural
+prey. Travelers, and even residents of Japan, have often complained of
+such treatment; and it is only after long stay in Japan, among the
+Japanese themselves, that one can tell what a _jinrikisha_ man is
+capable of.[*322]
+
+If you employ one _kurumaya_ for any length of time, you come to have a
+real affection for him on account of his loyal, faithful, cheerful
+service, such as we seldom find in this country except when inspired by
+personal feeling. When you have ridden miles and miles, by night and by
+day, through rain and sleet and hottest sunshine, behind a man who has
+used every power of body and mind in your service, you cannot but have a
+strong feeling of affection toward him, and of pride in him as well. It
+is something the feeling that one has for a good saddle-horse, but more
+developed. You rejoice, not only in his strength and speed, put forth so
+willingly in your service; in his picturesque, dark blue costume with
+your monogram embroidered on the back; in his handsomely turned ankles;
+in his black, wavy hair; in his delicate hands and trim waist,--though
+these are often a source of pride to you,--but his skill in divining
+your wants; his use of his tongue in your service; his helping out of
+your faltering Japanese with explanations which, if not elegant, have
+the merit of being easily understood; his combats with extortionate
+shopkeepers in your behalf; his interest in all your doings and
+concerns,--remain as a pleasant memory, upon your return to a land where
+no man would so far forget his manhood as to give himself so completely
+and without reserve to the service of any master save Mammon.
+
+As old Japan, with its quaintness, its mediaeval flavor, its feudalism,
+its loyalty, its sense of honor, and its transcendental contempt for
+money and luxury, recedes into the past, and as the memories of my life
+there grow dim, two figures stand out more and more boldly from the
+fading background,--both, the figures of faithful servants. One, Yasaku,
+the _kurumaya_, a very Hercules, who could keep close to a pair of coach
+horses through miles of city streets, and who never suffered mortal
+_jinrikisha_ man to pass him. My champion in all times of danger and
+alarm, but a very autocrat in all minor matters,--his cheery face, his
+broad shoulders with their blue draperies, his jolly, boyish voice, and
+his dainty, delicate hands come before me as I write, and I wonder to
+what fortunate person he is now giving the intelligent service that he
+once gave so whole-heartedly to me. The other, O Kaio, my maid, her
+plain little face, with its upturned eyes, growing, as the days went by,
+absolutely beautiful in the light of pure goodness that beamed from it.
+A Japanese Christian, with all the Christian virtues well developed, she
+became to me not only a good servant, doing her work with conscientious
+fidelity, but a sympathetic friend, to whom I turned for help in time of
+need; and whom I left, when I returned to America, with a sincere sorrow
+in my heart at parting with one who had grown to fill so large a place
+in my thoughts. Her little, half-shy, half-motherly ways toward her big
+foreign mistress had a charm all their own. Her pride and delight over
+my progress in the language; her patient efforts to make me understand
+new words, or to understand my uncouth foreign idioms; her joy, when at
+last I reached the point where a story told by her lips could be
+comprehended and enjoyed,--gave a continual encouragement in a task too
+often completely disheartening.
+
+During the last summer of my stay in Japan, cutting loose from all
+foreigners and foreign associations, I traveled alone with her through
+the heart of the country, stopping only at Japanese hotels, and carrying
+with me no supplies to eke out the simple Japanese fare. Through floods
+and typhoons we journeyed. Long days of scorching heat or driving rain
+in no way abated her cheerfulness, or lessened her desire to do all that
+she could for my aid and comfort. Not one sad look nor impatient word
+showed a flaw in her perfect temper; and if she privately made up her
+mind that I was crazy, she never by word or look gave a hint of her
+thought. _Jinrikisha_ men grumbled and gave out; hotel-keepers resented
+the presence of my dog, or presented extortionate bills; but O Kaio's
+good temper and tact never failed her. Difficulties were smoothed away;
+bills were compromised and reduced; the dog slept securely by my side on
+a red blanket in the best rooms of the best hotels; and O Kaio smiled,
+told her quaint stories, amused me and ministered to me, as if I were
+her one object in life, though husband and children were far away in
+distant T[=o]ky[=o], and her mother's heart yearned for her little ones.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WITHIN THE HOME.
+
+
+Into the life of a Japanese home enter many customs and observances that
+have not been dwelt upon in the preceding pages, but without some
+understanding of which our knowledge of the life of Japanese women is by
+no means complete. In Japan the woman's place is so entirely in the home
+that all the ceremonies and superstitions that gather about the conduct
+of every-day affairs are more to her than they are to the freer and
+broader-minded man. The household worship, the yearly round of
+festivals, each with its special food to be prepared, the observances
+connected with birth and marriage and death; what is to be done in time
+of illness, of earthquake, of fire, or of the frequent flittings that
+render life in Japan one succession of packings and unpackings,--all
+these are matters of high importance to the wife and mother, and their
+proper observance is left largely in her hands.
+
+Every well-ordered Japanese home of the old-fashioned kind has its
+little shrine, which is the centre of the religious life of the house.
+If the household is of the Shint[=o] faith, this shrine is called the
+_kami-dana_, or god shelf, and contains the symbols of the gods, _gohei_
+in vases, receptacles for food and drink, and a primitive lamp,--only a
+saucer of oil in which a bit of pith serves for a wick. Daily offerings
+must be made before this shrine, and reverence paid by the clapping of
+hands; while on feast days special offerings and invocations are
+required. In Buddhist families, the _Butsudan_, or Buddha shelf, takes
+the place of the _kami-dana_, and the worship is slightly more
+complicated. Greater variety of food is offered, and the simple clapping
+of the hands and bowing of the head that is the form of prayer in the
+Shint[=o] religion is replaced by the burning of incense and by actual
+verbal invocation of Buddha. These religious ceremonies must be
+attended to by the mother or wife. She it is who sets the rice and wine
+before the ancestral tablets, who lights the little lamp each night, and
+who sees that at each feast day and anniversary season the proper food
+is prepared and set out for the household gods.
+
+Upon the wife, and her attention to minute and apparently trifling
+details, depends much of the well-being of the family. Each child, as it
+grows toward maturity, gathers from various sources a collection of
+amulets, which, while worn always when the child is in full dress, are
+frequently too precious for ordinary play times and the risks and perils
+of every-day life. These must be kept carefully by the mother as a
+safeguard against the many evils that beset child-life. I have spoken of
+the amulets given at the times of the _miya mairi_,--both the first,
+when the name is given to the baby, and the subsequent visits made to
+the temple by the children as they pass certain stated points in their
+progress toward maturity. These amulets are simply written papers or
+slips of wood with the seal of the temple from which they are issued
+stamped upon them. Visits to noted temples by relatives and friends
+often result in additions to the child's collection. One kind of charm
+is good to keep the eyes strong; another will help its possessor to that
+much-prized accomplishment, a good handwriting; another acts as an
+assurance against accident and saves the child from harm in case of a
+fall. All these are put together by the careful mother and preserved as
+jealously as Queen Althea kept the charred stick that governed the
+destiny of her son. As the children arrive at years of discretion, these
+treasures pass out of the mother's faithful keeping into the hands of
+their actual owners, and they are usually kept stored away in some
+little-used drawer or cabinet until death removes the necessity for any
+further safeguards over life. Perhaps of all the curious things that go
+to make up these intimate personal belongings of a Japanese man or
+woman, there is none more curious than the small white parcel containing
+a portion of the umbilical cord,--saved at birth and preserved until
+death that it may be buried with its possessor and furnish him the means
+of a new birth. These little paper packages, each marked with the name
+of the child to whom it belongs, are kept by the mother.
+
+Upon the mother of the family rests very largely the determining of
+lucky and unlucky days for the beginning or transaction of different
+kinds of business. A fortune-teller is consulted for important things,
+such as removals or marriages, but in every-day life one cannot be
+running to a fortune-teller about everything; and yet there is bad luck
+lurking in the background that may baffle all our plans if we do not
+observe the proper times and seasons for our undertakings. Just as the
+Japanese calendar divides time into cycles of twelve years, each year
+named for a different animal, so also the days and hours are divided
+into twelves and bear the names of the same twelve animals,--the Chinese
+signs of the zodiac. These animals are as follows: the rat, the bull,
+the tiger, the hare, the dragon, the snake, the horse, the goat, the
+monkey, the cock, the dog, and the boar. Each animal brings its own
+kind of good or bad luck into the hour, day, or year over which it
+presides, and only a skillful balancer of pros and cons can read aright
+the combinations, and understand what the luck of any particular hour in
+any particular day of any particular year will be. For instance, the
+rat, which is the companion of Daikoku, the money god, is a lucky animal
+so far as money is concerned. A person born in the year of the rat will
+never need money, and will be economical, possibly miserly; and in one
+born on the day of the rat in the year of the rat these chances and
+qualities will be doubled. But the luck of the rat may be very seriously
+interfered with by the bad luck of the monkey or of the proverbially
+unlucky dog, when their days and hours occur in the rat year. On the
+other hand, their bad luck may be counteracted by the good luck of the
+tiger or hare, for as a rule three animals of different portent are
+presiding over human prospects every hour. This makes prophecy a
+ticklish business, requiring a wise head, but it also leaves much room
+for the subsequent explanation of failures by the superior and unusual
+influence of one or another of the animals, as the case may require.
+Momentous questions of this kind have frequently to be settled by the
+Japanese wife and mother, and she gains dignity and value in her home
+and neighborhood according to her skill in interpreting the portents of
+the day and hour.
+
+For the greater events of family life the home prophecies are felt to be
+too uncertain, and the services of the fortune-teller must be called in.
+No well-managed family would think of building a new house without
+finding in what direction to face the front door. In an American city
+this necessity would cause considerable inconvenience, as the position
+of the front door is usually determined by the relation of the
+building-lot to the street; but in a Japanese city, where, in all but
+the business quarters, every house is concealed by a high board fence,
+and where the gate that admits one within the fence is the only sign by
+which any one in the street can judge of the worldly condition of the
+dwellers within, the houses are faced about any and every way, and the
+position of each is determined by the good luck that it will bring its
+owner. After this matter has been settled and the house is fairly begun,
+there are occasional crises in its construction upon which much depends.
+Of these the most important is the day when the roof is raised. The roof
+timbers, which are unsquared logs, often rather crooked, after being
+carefully fitted and framed in some convenient vacant lot, are brought
+on carts to the site of the new building, and when all is ready, the
+head carpenter sends word to the house-owner that he is about to set the
+roof in place. The house-owner then decides whether the day set by the
+builder is a lucky one for himself and his family. If it is not, a delay
+in the building is always preferable to any danger of incurring the
+displeasure of the luck gods. This crisis safely passed, and the last of
+the roof beams secured in its place, the men take a holiday, and are
+feasted on _sake_ and spaghetti by the house-owner. A present of money
+to each workman is also in order, and will conduce to the rapid and
+faithful execution of the job in hand. When, at last, the house is
+finished, and carpenters and plasterers are ready to leave it, the local
+firemen, who have assisted all along in the building as unskilled
+laborers, often ascend to the roof, and from the ridge-pole cast down
+cakes, for which the children of the neighborhood scramble joyfully.
+
+When the builders have left, and the house is ready for occupation, even
+to the soft, thick mats on the floor and the white paper windows, the
+family will move in on the first day thereafter that is both lucky and
+pleasant. So far as possible, everything in the old house will be packed
+and ready the day before, and very early in the morning the relatives
+and friends of the mover will begin to rally around him. All come who
+can, and those who cannot come send servants or provisions. Every
+tradesman or _kurumaya_ who has had or who hopes to have the patronage
+of the moving household sends a representative to help along the work,
+so that there is always a sufficient force to carry the household
+belongings into the new home and settle them in place before the day is
+over. All these visiting helpers must be fed and provided with tea and
+cakes at proper intervals, and the presents of cooked food that pour in
+at such times are highly acceptable and of great practical usefulness.
+When the long day is ended and the visitors return one by one to their
+homes, it is the mistress of the house who must see that every servant
+and representative of a business firm receives, neatly done up in white
+paper, a present of money properly proportioned to his services, and the
+style and circumstances of the family he has been aiding. And when all
+are gone, the shutters closed, and the family left alone in their new
+home, the little wife must make a list of all who have helped in any way
+during the day, and to all, within a short time, make some
+acknowledgment of their kindness by either a call or a present. It is
+upon the wife, too, that the duty falls of sending to each of the near
+neighbors _soba_, a kind of macaroni, as an announcement of the family's
+arrival. The number of neighbors to whom this gift is sent is
+determined differently according to circumstances. If the house is one
+of several in a compound, _soba_ will be sent to all within the gate;
+but if the compound is very large, so that the sending to all would be
+too great an expense, the five nearest houses will be selected to
+receive the gift, or all who draw water from the same well. A very late
+fashion in T[=o]ky[=o], but one that is gaining ground because of its
+convenience, is to send, not the macaroni itself, but an order on the
+nearest restaurant at which that delicacy is sold.
+
+As I have already said, much of a woman's time and thought must be given
+to the proper distribution of presents among friends and dependents. The
+subject of what to give, when to give, to whom to give, and how to do up
+the gift acceptably, is one the thorough understanding of which requires
+the study of years. No foreigner can hope to do more than dabble in the
+shallows of it. Presents seem to be used more for the purpose of keeping
+those persons whose services you may need, or whose enmity you dread,
+under a sense of obligation, than they are as expressions of sentiment.
+Every housekeeper, for instance, must need the occasional services of a
+carpenter or a gardener, and in a large city like T[=o]ky[=o] the
+chances are that she will some day need, and need very badly, the
+services of a fireman. A wise woman--one who is not penny wise and pound
+foolish--will by timely presents keep herself constantly in the minds of
+such persons, so that when she sends for them, they may feel under
+sufficient obligation to her to come at once. So will her house be
+quickly put in repair after earthquake or other accident; her garden
+show for only the briefest interval the ravages of the typhoon which has
+gullied out her lawn and leveled her choicest trees; and when some night
+"the flower of Yedo" blooms suddenly by her side, she will have the
+speedy assistance of the firemen, who will seal her storehouse securely
+with clay, wet her roof and walls thoroughly with water, and light at
+her gates the great alarm lanterns to tell her friends that her house is
+in danger and summon them to her assistance. No friend can disregard
+such a signal, but all will rally round her once more to help in this
+less orderly and cheerful moving,--will pack and cord and carry out her
+goods, and if at last the fire consumes her dwelling, will gather her
+household and belongings into their hospitable homes. But the foolish
+woman, who neglects or forgets her dependents when she does not need
+them, finds some day that her roof is leaking, but all the carpenters
+are too busy to mend it, her garden is destroyed because the gardener
+had an important engagement elsewhere just when she needed him, and her
+property is burned up or ruined by water and smoke because the firemen
+attended to her house last when the fire swept over her compound.
+
+When death enters a house in Japan, there are no undertakers to relieve
+the family of the painful duty of caring for the dead body and placing
+it in the coffin. There are coffin-makers and funeral managers who
+supply the great white bier and lanterns and the bunches of paper
+flowers that adorn every funeral procession, but within the house the
+preparations are all made by the family and friends, and the heaviest
+and most painful part of the work falls, as usual, on the women of the
+family. As soon as the breath finally leaves the body, it is wrapped in
+a quilt, laid with its head to the north, and an inverted screen placed
+around it. On one corner of the screen is hung a sword or knife to keep
+off any evil spirit that may wander into the room in the shape of a cat
+and disturb the dead.
+
+Etiquette requires that relatives and intimate friends of the family
+call immediately on learning of the death. To receive these calls the
+mourners, in full ceremonial dress, must sit in the death chamber and
+remove for each guest the covering from the face of the dead. The
+visitors then offer the ceremonial bows to the corpse, as if it were
+alive. During this time, too, presents to the spirit of the dead are
+pouring in. The proper offerings are flowers, cake, vegetables, candles,
+incense, or small gifts of money for the purchase of incense. If the
+deceased is a person of rank or distinction, the house is flooded with
+cumbersome and useless offerings. This custom has become so great an
+addition to the trials necessarily incident to a bereavement that one
+occasionally sees in the newspaper announcements of deaths a request
+that no offerings to the dead be sent.
+
+On the day after the death, often in the evening, the body must be
+placed in the cask-shaped coffin that until recently was the style
+commonly in use in Japan. Now, among the wealthier classes, the long
+coffin has superseded the small square or round one, but the smaller
+expense connected with burial in the old way makes the survival of the
+old type a necessity for the majority of Japanese. At an appointed time
+all the relatives assemble in the death chamber, and preparations are
+made for the bathing of the corpse. Two of the _tatami_, or floor mats,
+are turned over, and upon them are placed a new tub, a new pail, and a
+new dipper. These utensils must have no metal of any kind about them. In
+the washing of the body none but members of the family must assist, and
+respect for the dead absolutely requires that all the relatives of the
+deceased who are below him in rank must have a hand in these final
+ablutions. In Japan, the mourning for the dead is the duty of inferiors,
+never of superiors. There is no official, ceremonial mourning of parents
+for their children, nor does custom require them to perform any of the
+last rites, or attend the funeral. Upon the younger brothers and sisters
+falls the duty of attending to all the last sad ministrations. If the
+wife dies, her husband does not mourn for her, though her children do;
+but if the husband dies, the wife must mourn the rest of her life,
+cutting off her hair and placing it in the coffin as a sign of her
+perpetual faithfulness.
+
+When the body has been washed, it is dressed in white, in silk _habutai_
+whenever the family can afford it. The dress, which must be appropriate
+to the season, in the making of which all the women of the family must
+assist, is the plain, straight kimono, but must be folded from right to
+left, instead of from left to right as in life. The body, to be placed
+in the coffin, must be folded into a sitting posture, the chin resting
+upon the knees,--the position of the mummies found in many aboriginal
+American tombs. This difficult, to us apparently impossible feat, safely
+accomplished, there are placed in the coffin a number of small things
+that the dead takes with him to the next world. Some of these have been
+already mentioned, the others are little keepsakes, or perhaps tokens of
+the tastes and employments of the dead,--dice, cards, _sake_ bottles,
+the image of a horse, toy weapons,--anything, provided only that it be
+not of metal, may be used for this purpose. The single exception to this
+rule about metal is that small copper coins may be put in, to fee the
+old hag who guards the bank of the river of death. Last of all, the
+vacant spaces in the coffin are filled in with bags of tea. Then the
+coffin is closed and nailed up, wrapped with a white silk cloth fastened
+with a white silk or cotton cord, and placed on a high stand, and food
+and incense are placed before it.
+
+So long as the coffin is in the house, it must be watched over
+continually. To aid in this protracted vigil, which must be kept up day
+and night until the burial, the relatives, friends, and retainers of the
+dead assemble at the house in large numbers. In the case of a person of
+wealth and influence, there will often be a hundred or more of these
+watchers, who must be fed and cared for; and who take turns in watching,
+eating, and sleeping. It is their duty to see that the incense burning
+before the coffin is never allowed to go out, while the food for the
+dead is renewed at regular intervals by the mourners themselves.
+
+This somewhat detailed description of the duties to be performed by the
+members of a bereaved family in the house of mourning is sufficient to
+show that the presence of death in the home is made as terrible as
+possible by the painful ceremonies, the continual bustle and excitement,
+and the strain upon the resources and executive ability of the
+housekeeper and her assistants. There are few enlightened Japanese who
+will defend the present system of cruelty to the afflicted, or who do
+not long for some change, but so great is the force of conservatism in
+this regard, so haunting the fear that any change may indicate a lack
+of respect for the dead, that reform advances slowly.
+
+Individual instances occur in which some of the worst features of these
+customs are modified. A case in point is that of the late Mr. Fukuzawa,
+a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of his countrymen in
+modern ways, and who in his death continued his teaching. In his will he
+provided that his body was to be buried, without washing, in the
+clothing in which he died. This provision would seem in most countries
+to be mere eccentricity, but when one has seen or heard of the gruesome
+ceremony that follows immediately after death, and the burden of which
+falls, not on the old and hardened, but on the young and tender,
+suffering, in many cases, under the weight of a first and crushing
+affliction, one can see that only through such means as this can the
+burden ever be lifted from the shoulders of those who mourn. There are
+young and enlightened mothers in Japan to-day who have felt, in minds
+awakened to thought and action, the horrors of the system, and who will
+not allow their children to suffer for them what they have suffered in
+paying respect to their dead parents. Through this growing feeling and
+the unselfishness of maternal affection may come in time the release
+from these mournful ceremonies.
+
+While the body remains in the house, a priest comes from time to time to
+offer prayers, longer or shorter according to the wealth of the family
+employing him; and when the funeral cortege sets out on its way to the
+cemetery, the priests in their professional robes form an imposing part
+of the spectacle. The day of the burial is selected with due respect to
+the calendar, for, though there may be little good luck about a funeral,
+there is a chance of extremely bad luck growing out of it unless every
+precaution is taken. Just before the procession starts, a religious
+ceremony is held at the house, which is attended by the friends of the
+deceased, and which is substantially the same as that performed at the
+cemetery. On the day of the burial, great bunches of natural flowers are
+sent to the dead, each bunch so large as to require the services of one
+man to carry it. Sometimes with the gift a man is sent to take part in
+the procession, but if the giver feels too poor to hire a man, this
+burden, too, falls upon the bereaved household, for etiquette requires
+that all flowers sent be borne to the grave by uniformed coolies, who
+march in the funeral train. Another favorite present at this time, among
+Buddhists, is a cage of living birds, to be borne to the grave and
+released thereon. This act of mercy is counted to the deceased for
+righteousness, and is believed to aid in rendering his next incarnation
+a happy one.
+
+A funeral procession is an imposing spectacle, and, to the uninstructed
+foreigner, a cheerful one; for there is nothing sad or sombre in the
+white, or bright-colored, robes of the priests, the white,
+tinsel-decorated bier, the red and white flags borne aloft, the enormous
+bunches of gay-colored flowers;--the very mourners in white silk, and
+with faces apparently unmoved by grief, bring no thought of the object
+of the procession to the Western mind. It seems more like a bridal than
+a burial. But if you follow the cortege to the cemetery and there
+listen to the wailing of the wind instruments, and the droning of the
+priests as they perform the last rites, and watch the silent company
+that one by one go forward to bow before the coffin and place upon it a
+branch of _sakaki_ or burn a bit of incense, the trappings of woe in
+Japan will impress themselves strongly upon your mind, and the gayly
+appareled funeral processions will seem to you ever afterward as
+mournful and hopeless a spectacle as you can find in any country.
+
+The house of death remains a place of mourning for forty-nine days after
+the funeral. During this period the spirit of the deceased is supposed
+to be still inhabiting the house, and a tablet or shrine is set up in
+the death chamber before which food and flowers are renewed daily.
+Visitors are expected to make obeisance to the dead. At the end of this
+time, some acknowledgment must be sent to every friend who has sent
+anything to the house at the funeral. For a time after death has come
+into the family the relatives of the dead are regarded as ceremonially
+unclean. The period of defilement varies with the nearness of
+relationship. In the old days, no one thus defiled was allowed to go
+about his regular business or to mingle with other men; but busy modern
+Japan does not find it convenient to pause long in its work, so that
+government officials and school-children are now sent written papers
+excusing them for coming back to their tasks even while ceremonially
+unclean. Thus the old custom is passing away. In the first year after
+death, certain days are observed with special honors before the memorial
+tablet, and later, certain anniversaries of the death must be kept,
+until, at last, at the end of fifty or one hundred years, the
+personality of the spirit seems to become merged with that of the other
+ancestral spirits, and no offerings are made to it except at the general
+feasts of the dead.
+
+With the coming in of the last month of the year begin the preparations
+for the great New Year's festival, and the housekeeper finds herself
+occupied through every moment of the brief days. A woman who is at the
+head of a large household has upon her hands in the month of December
+spring house-cleaning and preparations for Christmas, New Year's,
+Thanksgiving, and Easter, all at once. The work of getting the family
+wardrobe ready for the festival must begin very early in the month, for
+every man, woman, and child in the household must be provided with new
+clothes, and the thrifty housewife sends no sewing out. In the old days,
+it was ordained that the eighth day of the twelfth month should be a
+needle festival,--a day on which all women rest from their sewing and
+amuse themselves by indulging their own fancies instead of their
+husbands', as is their duty on other days. This day was supposed to mark
+the dividing line between the old year's and the new year's sewing, but,
+as a matter of fact, the forehanded woman will finish up the old and
+begin the new even earlier in the month, so as to have this part of her
+work well out of the way before the house-cleaning, which should be
+begun not later than the fifteenth.
+
+This house-cleaning, even with the small amount of furniture found in a
+Japanese house, is an elaborate affair. Every box and closet and
+rubbish-hole in the house is turned out and put in order, the _tatami_
+are taken up and brushed and beaten, the woodwork from ceiling to floor
+is carefully washed, the plaster and paper walls flicked with the paper
+flapper that takes the place in Japan of our feather duster. All the
+quilts and clothing must be sunned and aired, the kakemonos and curios
+belonging to the family unpacked, carefully dusted, and put back into
+their wrappings and boxes, and the house and garden put into perfect
+repair. This work, if thoroughly done, takes about a week. When all is
+finished, even to the final purification by beating everything in the
+house with a fresh bamboo, games and festivities and _soba_ are in
+order. In the old daimi[=o] houses, where great numbers of men and women
+were employed, and where the women's quarters were in a distinct part of
+the house, it was considered a great joke to catch a man on the women's
+side any time between the close of the cleaning and the beginning of the
+new year. The intruder was promptly seized and shouldered by the women,
+who carried him about the house in triumph, finally returning him to his
+own quarters. If, by any chance, they could catch the chief steward,
+they sang as they carried him about:--
+
+    "This is the great pillar of the house!
+     May he be happy till the stone foundations rot!"
+
+The week following the house-cleaning is devoted to the preparation of
+food for the festival. Of this, the most characteristic is _mochi_, a
+sort of dumpling made of rice steamed and pounded, the preparation of
+which is so difficult and protracted a process that it is not lightly
+undertaken. It is so distinctively the festival food of Japan that if
+you find _mochi_ in a friend's house at any time except the new year,
+you immediately ask what has happened, and are pretty sure to be told
+that it is a present received in celebration of a birth or a marriage,
+or some other domestic festival. It is, to Japanese children, what
+turkey and cranberry sauce are to American children, not only a delight
+to the palate, but a dish the very smell of which brings back the most
+cheerful occasions in the year.
+
+When the _mochi_ is made and set away to await the festal day, the
+matter of decoration must be attended to. At every gate is erected some
+token of the season, if it be only a bit of pine stuck into the ground,
+or a wisp of straw rope decorated with white paper _gohei_. The great
+black gates that indicate the homes of the wealthier classes are almost
+concealed by structures of pine and bamboo, on which oranges, lobsters,
+straw rope, straw fringe, white paper, and images of the good luck gods
+are used as decorations. All these things are either efficacious in
+keeping off evil spirits, or are symbols of good luck. Within the house,
+in the _tokonoma_, or place of honor, in the best room, great cakes of
+_mochi_, two, three, five, or seven in number, are set one upon another
+in a dish covered with fern leaves, and the structure surrounded by
+seaweed.
+
+Before the new year comes in the capable housewife will have sent out
+presents to every one who has during the year been of service to her
+husband, her children, or herself in any way. Her own servants will be
+remembered with gifts of clothing, something will be sent to the
+servants of friends at whose houses any of the family have visited
+often, and every dependent, poor relation, employee, and employee's
+child must be given a present, large or small, according to the amount
+of obligation felt by the giver. To persons of greater wealth and
+importance, to whom the family are grateful for past favors or from whom
+they are hoping for something in the future, gifts, often quite out of
+proportion to the resources of the givers, are sent,--a method of
+investing capital that is a little risky, though it sometimes yields
+prompt and bountiful returns. On the other hand, all the merchants and
+marketmen who supply the house send presents to the mistress and
+frequently to the head servants as well, and _furushiki_ (bundle
+handkerchiefs), cooking utensils, packages of sugar, boxes of eggs,
+dried fish, etc., flow in at the kitchen; while crepe, silk, cotton
+cloth, money, toys, curios, and other valuables flow out of the parlor.
+All this present-giving is a severe tax upon the strength and resources
+of the housekeeper, and adds heavily to the burden that the last month
+of the year imposes upon her.
+
+By the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth of the month the trades-people begin
+to send in their bills, for every man expects to square up all his
+accounts by the last night of the old year, and early payments are
+expected and made, so that all may begin the new year out of debt. So
+universal is this custom that the man who finds at the eleventh hour
+that he cannot clear off all his debts is likely to offer his property
+at a heavy sacrifice in order to secure the necessary cash. For any one
+with ready money extraordinary bargains are to be met with in Japanese
+shops during the last week of the year. In case this resource fails,
+suicide is still a short and honorable way out of a world that has
+become too difficult to live in.
+
+The Japanese housewife must feel, when December has been successfully
+passed, like the Yankee who had noticed that if he lived through the
+month of March he generally lived through the rest of the year. The
+observances of January, for which December has been one long
+preparation, begin with the rising of the New Year's sun, and continue
+in one form or another for about two weeks. Almost every day has its
+special food and its special festival duty. For the first three days the
+very best clothes in the wardrobe are worn by everybody, then till the
+seventh the second best, and from the seventh to the end of the month
+new clothes, though not the very best, must be worn. Within the first
+seven days every man in Japan is expected to call on all his friends and
+acquaintances, but the women, probably out of consideration for the many
+duties that the festival season puts upon them, are given until March to
+finish up their New Year's calls.
+
+The streets of the cities, and even of the small villages, are full of
+life and interest for a week or two. _Kurumayas_ in their new winter
+liveries trundle around fathers and mothers and happy children. All
+manner of mummers, musicians, and dancers go from house to house in
+search of custom. The _manzai_, who, with dances and songs and strange
+grimaces, undertake to drive out from your house for the new year all
+the devils who may have been residing there hitherto, are a special
+feature of this season. In every garden and in the public streets little
+girls, their faces freshly covered with white paint, their shining black
+hair newly dressed, their wing-sleeved kimonos gorgeous with many
+colors, play battledore and shuttlecock, toss small bags half filled
+with rice, or pat balls wound with shining silk to the accompaniment of
+a weird little chant. For the boys there are kites of many shapes and
+colors, or tops that they spin under every one's feet, well knowing that
+no one in Japan is too busy to turn aside for a child's pleasure. The
+very horses--small, shock-headed, evil-tempered beasts, who drag
+tremendous loads with many snorts and snaps at their masters--are decked
+out with gay streamers that reach nearly to the ground, at the ends of
+which are tinkling bells. The festival season closes on the fifteenth
+and sixteenth with a visit to the temple of Yemma, the god of hell, and
+with a holiday for all the apprentices.
+
+Next to the New Year's holiday, perhaps the most important festival of
+the Japanese year is _O Bon_, the Feast of the Dead. This is, in its
+present form, a Buddhist institution, but in spirit it fitted so exactly
+into the ancient Japanese ideas of the tastes and habits of departed
+spirits that it merely supplanted the old Shint[=o] feasts of the dead,
+and it is a little difficult to-day to determine whether its observance
+is more Buddhist or Shint[=o] in its character. To find the O Bon
+ceremonies in their most perfect form, it is necessary now to go into
+the more remote country villages, for though, even in T[=o]ky[=o], this
+feast is still one of the most important in the whole year, it seems to
+be more distinctly itself in a small village, where all the old forms
+are still kept up.
+
+In T[=o]ky[=o], the three days' festival is kept by the new calendar, and
+occurs on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth of July. At O Bon, as
+at New Year's time, it is customary to square off all obligations by a
+general giving of presents. This, while not quite as important a matter
+as at the beginning of the year, is still a severe tax upon the time,
+purse, and memory of the wife and mother in any large family. At this
+time, too, as at New Year's, _mochi_ or some other festival dish must be
+provided, but at this point the resemblance between the two occasions
+ceases. In accordance with its character as a feast of departed spirits,
+the observance of O Bon is distinctively religious. On the twelfth, the
+family go to the graveyard and clean and put in order the graves and
+tombstones, so that the returning spirits may find all properly cared
+for. Fresh water and flowers are placed before each stone, and sometimes
+rice and fresh vegetables. At home, the ancestral tablets in the
+_Butsudan_ form the centre of the ceremonies. Before the shrine are
+placed, on the thirteenth, offerings of food of any kind that can be
+made without fish or meat. Great balls of _mochi_, _sake_, flowers, and
+choice new varieties of vegetables are appropriate offerings. All are
+tastefully arranged, the lamps are carefully lighted every night, and
+special services are held before the shrine. For the three days of the
+feast, the souls of the dead are believed to be visiting their old
+haunts, and to need light and food and all the conveniences that their
+descendants can spare them. Each house is decorated with lanterns, that
+the spirits may be able to find their way. It is from this custom that
+the feast is often called by foreigners the Feast of Lanterns.
+
+As I have already said, in T[=o]ky[=o] and other modernized places, this
+feast is not seen at its best. Only the soft glow of the lanterns
+swinging from every house, and the decorations in the graveyards and at
+the household shrines, indicate to the traveler that anything unusual is
+going on. But in the country regions it is quite another matter, and the
+welcoming, entertainment, and proper dismissal of the visiting spirits
+form the entire business of the community for three days. Usually the
+middle of August is the time for the country celebration. On the
+twelfth, bands of children carrying red lanterns march singing through
+the village on their way to the graveyard, where the annual cleaning is
+taking place. That night bonfires in the cemetery and before the houses
+light the pathway of the wanderers. Then for three nights all the young
+people of the village gather in the temple court in grotesque disguises
+and with towels over their faces, and dance all night long in the
+moonlight, to primitive music produced by a drum and the monotonous
+chant of the dancers themselves. These three dance-nights are the great
+occasion of the year to the young peasants, for this is the only time
+when persons of both sexes meet together in a social way, and it is long
+looked forward to and enjoyed intensely. Of late years, the government,
+fearing the abuses that grow out of this exceptional social event, has
+endeavored to suppress the dancing, but it continues in full vigor
+throughout most of rural Japan, though conducted with more decorum than
+formerly on account of the standing dread of police interference. The
+object of the dance is to amuse the spirits of the ancestors, who must
+be imagined as hovering in the background, viewing with approval the
+antics of their descendants.
+
+Other amusements are going on in the village on the O Bon evenings. At
+a summer resort every hotel-keeper will have a professional
+story-teller, a company of musicians, or some other entertainment to
+which the guests of the hotel are invited, and at which as many of the
+villagers as can crowd to the open house fronts stare until the dance
+drum in the temple court draws their feet in that direction. And then,
+on the last night of the feast, bonfires are once more kindled at every
+house, so that the spirits may find their way safely back to the land
+whence they came, and not stay to haunt their descendants at improper
+seasons.
+
+No account of life in a Japanese home would be complete without a little
+space devoted to the special delights of the small boy. Although this
+book deals mainly with feminine concerns, the small boy in Japan, as in
+America, is the life and fun of the home, and one cannot fail to notice
+his times of surpassing enjoyment. He rules the house and his mother and
+his grandmother and his sisters, at all times, and his activity and
+enterprise secure for him a good share in any fun that is going on; but
+there are certain seasons that appeal to the boyish heart with a special
+message and of which he is the central figure.
+
+As the Feast of Dolls is to the girls, so is the Feast of Flags to the
+boys,--their own special day, set apart for them out of the whole year.
+It comes on the fifth day of the fifth month (now May fifth), and for
+long before its arrival the shops are gay with all manner of tempting
+toys, while in every yard rises a great bamboo pole, from which, when
+the time comes, will float an enormous carp, its body inflated by the
+strong spring wind, its great mouth wide open, and its eyes glaring
+hideously, as it fights its way against the air currents. Sometimes
+there will be half a dozen such poles in one yard,--signs either that
+the household is blessed with many boys, or that the way to its heart is
+through gifts of toys to its son and heir. When the great day at last
+arrives, the feast within the home is conducted in much the same way as
+the Feast of Dolls. There are the same red-covered shelves, the same
+offerings of food and drink; but instead of the placid images of the
+Emperor and Empress and the five court musicians, the household
+furnishings and toilet articles, there are effigies of the heroes of
+history and folklore: Jingo, the warrior Empress; Takenouchi, her
+white-haired prime minister, holding in his arms her son, the infant
+war-god; Benkei, the giant retainer of Yoshitsune; Yoshitsune himself,
+the marvelous fencer and general; Kintaro, the fat, hairy, red boy, who
+was born and grew up in the mountains, and even in his babyhood fought
+with bears; Shoki Sama, the strong man who could conquer _oni_;--these
+are some of the characters to be found on the shelves at the boys'
+feast. Behind each figure stands a flag with the crest of the hero that
+it represents, and before them are set all manner of weapons in
+miniature. The food offered is _mochi_ wrapped in oak leaves, because
+the oak is among trees what the carp is among fishes, the emblem of
+strength and endurance. The flower of this day is the iris or flag,
+because of its sword-shaped leaves,--hence the name, _Shobu Matsuri_,
+feast of iris or flag.
+
+Another feast, which, while not founded for the boys, seems to have
+been adopted by them as a great occasion, is what is known as Buddha's
+birthday, celebrated on April eighth. On this day in every Buddhist
+temple a temporary platform is erected, the roof of which is covered
+with flowers. Upon this platform, in a great tub filled with licorice
+tea, is set a small image of the infant Buddha. Hither flock the small
+boys with bamboo dippers, and spend the day ladling up the tea and
+pouring it over the image, and then ladling it out into small bamboo
+buckets. This licorice tea, through contact with the image, acquires
+miraculous healing properties, and the devout, after making offerings of
+money twisted up in white paper, carry away the little buckets. The tea
+is good for the eyes and the throat, and if some of it be used in mixing
+ink, and then, with the ink thus mixed, a charm be written and placed
+about the house, it will keep away all vermin. It is not easy to see
+exactly what the fascination of this feast is to the boys, but I am told
+that many of them like it even better than their own specially
+appointed day.
+
+But of all the delights that come into the year, there is nothing to
+compare for joyous excitement with the great _matsuri_ of the parish
+temple. For at least a week beforehand there are enough interesting
+things going on in every house and shop along the street to keep every
+small boy in the parish agog from morning till night. Here are lanterns
+being made with the _mon_ of the gods on one side and the rising sun of
+the Japanese flag on the other. There a dancing platform is being
+erected, and at every stage of its development it is swarming with
+active youngsters, who shin up its poles, turn somersaults on the
+platform, and sit in rows on its edge, with bare legs swinging high over
+the heads of the passers-by; and when it is done, and the drums
+installed, they take turns all day and far into the night in keeping
+them going. Then, too, there are the _dashi_, or floats, on one of which
+each street in the parish spends its money and its ingenuity. How the
+boys haunt the shops in which they are being made! How they watch the
+wondrous changes of paper into flowers, and of bamboo and cotton cloth
+into sea waves, or castle walls, or monsters of earth or sea or air! How
+they chatter and wriggle and push and squirm for front places, when at
+last the great cars are built up in the open street, the marvelous
+edifices erected upon them, and at the top of all the heroic figures of
+well-known mythological or historical characters rise majestic in
+flowing robes! Then, when the black bullocks, resplendent in collars and
+halters of red rope, are yoked to the triumphal car, and the structure
+moves slowly down the shouting street, how the boys crawl into every
+joint and cranny of the _dashi_, how they hang from every beam, how they
+yell from before and behind in sheer abandon of joy! And at last, when
+the procession forms, and with fantastically garbed men marching in
+front and wild-eyed singers yelling just behind them, with dancing-girls
+on moving platforms and jugglers and tumblers on the _dashi_ themselves,
+the twenty or more festal cars move, with frequent stops, down to the
+temple, to escort the sacred symbols on their annual pilgrimage through
+the parish, who so noisy or so ubiquitous as these same bullet-headed,
+blue-gowned boys? They bob up at every turn, ooze out at every pore of
+the procession, and enjoy, as only boys can enjoy, the noise and
+confusion, the barbaric splendor, the dancing and tumbling, the mumming
+and drumming, the excruciating howls of the singers, the jingling of the
+marshals' iron-ringed staves, the clapping of the great wooden clappers
+that time the movement and the stops of the pageant.
+
+Better than all, perhaps, is the evening, when the streets, lighted by
+many lanterns, are filled with throngs of holiday-makers,--now stopping
+to stare in at some shop where the devout worshiper has established a
+beautiful shrine, has set out _mochi_ and other offerings before some
+image, or has arranged a landscape garden in a box, or constructed a
+_matsuri_ procession just entering the court of a miniature temple; now
+haggling with the ever-present booth-keepers for lanterns or cakes or
+hairpins to take back to the friends left at home. Suddenly there is a
+joyous, rhythmic shout of many excited boyish voices, there is a
+gleaming of square red lanterns, a whirl and a rush through the crowd.
+Now is the time to get out of the way, for the boys move quickly and are
+too excited to turn aside for anything. On they come at a sharp trot,
+each little round head bound about with a fillet of blue and white
+toweling, each lithe, active body more or less covered by a blue and
+white gown, all shouting in unison and bearing on their shoulders a
+miniature _dashi_, made most often of a _sake_ tub mounted on a frame,
+and decorated with lanterns and white paper. They charge through the
+crowd, which makes way quickly at their approach, until the pace, the
+weight of their burden, and the frantic shouting exhaust their breath.
+Then they plunge down a side street, rest for a few moments, gather
+themselves together, and charge once more into the crowd. There must be
+some pretty tired little boys in the parish when the fun is all over,
+for these performances are kept up far into the night; but for absolute
+and perfect enjoyment there is nothing I have yet seen that seems to me
+to compare with the enjoyment that a Japanese boy gets out of a
+_matsuri_. It is worth being tired for!
+
+There is no space in this work for a more detailed picture of life in a
+Japanese home. Enough has been said in this chapter to show that it is
+made up of many little things,--of cares and sorrows and
+pleasures,--just as is life in any American home, and it is the little
+things we care about that make the oneness of the family, and the
+nation, and the oneness, too, of humanity, if we can only understand one
+another.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TEN YEARS OF PROGRESS.
+
+
+The woman question in Japan is at the present moment a matter of much
+consideration. There seems to be an uneasy feeling in the minds of even
+the more conservative men that some change in the status of woman is
+inevitable, if the nation wishes to keep the pace it has set for itself.
+The Japanese women of the past and of the present are exactly suited to
+the position accorded them in society, and any attempt to alter them
+without changing their status only results in making square pegs for
+round holes. If the pegs hereafter are to be cut square, the holes must
+be enlarged and squared to fit them. The Japanese woman stands in no
+need of alteration unless her place in life is somehow enlarged, nor, on
+the other hand, can she fill a larger place without additional
+training. The men of New Japan, to whom the opinions and customs of the
+Western world are becoming daily more familiar, while they shrink
+aghast, in many cases, at the thought that their women may ever become
+like the forward, self-assertive, half-masculine women of the West, show
+a growing tendency to dissatisfaction with the smallness and narrowness
+of the lives of their wives and daughters,--a growing belief that better
+educated women would make better homes, and that the ideal home of
+Europe and America is the product of a more advanced civilization than
+that of Japan. Reluctantly in many cases, but still almost universally,
+it is admitted that in the interest of the homes and for the sake of
+future generations, something must be done to carry the women forward
+into a position more in harmony with what the nation is reaching for in
+other directions. This desire shows itself in individual efforts to
+improve by more advanced education daughters of exceptional promise, and
+in general efforts for the improvement of the condition of women.
+Well-to-do fathers are willing to spend more money on the education of
+their daughters, to send them abroad, if possible, to complete their
+studies, or to postpone the time of marriage so that plans for higher
+education may be carried through. Where, ten years ago, the number of
+women who had been abroad for study might be counted on the fingers of
+one hand, there are now three or four times that number in T[=o]ky[=o]
+alone. Another sign of the times is the fact that husbands going abroad
+on business or for pleasure are more inclined to take their wives with
+them, even if it be only for a few months. There are now to be found, in
+all the larger cities, women who have spent a longer or shorter time in
+some foreign country, whose minds have been opened and whose horizons
+have been enlarged by contact with new ideas. All this cannot fail to
+have its effect, sooner or later, upon the country at large.
+
+The efforts for the improvement of women in general may be grouped into
+four classes: by legislation, by education, through the press, and by
+means of societies for mutual improvement.
+
+Of the recent legislation concerning marriage and divorce and its
+effect on the family, I have spoken in a preceding chapter. The latest
+statistics show that, while before the new laws were enacted divorces
+were one to every three marriages, they have now been reduced to one in
+five. It must be said, however, that the law is still somewhat in
+advance of public opinion. While the chance of permanence in marriage is
+better now than it was before the new code came into force, custom is
+still stronger than the law, and marriage is too often a temporary
+arrangement. In many cases the wife knows little or nothing of her new
+rights, and even when she does know, she has seldom the self-assertion
+to make a stand for them, but meekly submits to the dictates of those
+whom she is bound by custom, if not by law, to respect and obey without
+question. But the fact that the laws have actually been improved means,
+in a country like Japan, in which the government is the moulder of
+public opinion, that the custom will some day conform to the law.
+
+In the matter of property owning, women, under the new code, are fairly
+independent. As I have already stated, every woman in Japan is expected
+to become a wife, and as a matter of fact, the number of unmarried women
+is so small that it is hardly necessary to mention them. Wives, under
+Japanese law, are divided into two classes: the wife who enters her
+husband's family, and the wife whose husband becomes a member of her
+family. In the latter case the wife is the head of the family, is
+responsible for the debts of the family, and has the right to use and
+profit by the husband's property. In the former case (and as I have
+already stated, the great majority of wives enter their husband's
+families), the husband is responsible, and has, consequently, the right
+to use and profit by his wife's property. In all cases, unless the
+husband is physically or mentally unfit, he has the management of his
+wife's wealth. In case of the husband's disability the woman takes care
+of her own. A wife may, by application to a court, cause the husband to
+furnish security for the property that she has intrusted to him; and she
+may, with her husband's consent, engage in independent business. The
+property that she thus acquires is her own and not the husband's. Any
+property in the family, the ownership of which is not perfectly
+established, belongs to the head of the family, whether male or female.
+We thus see that the law of Japan fully recognizes the right of married
+women to hold property, although only in exceptional cases are they
+allowed the management of their own holdings. The law also regards the
+wife, in household matters, as her husband's agent.
+
+In actual practice, it is not uncommon for the wife to manage the entire
+income of the family, receiving it from her husband and acting as his
+treasurer. The wife's own earnings are seldom given to the husband, and
+her position is one of entire independence in the disposal of whatever
+she adds to the family revenue. But should the wife bring into the
+family at marriage property which passes into the husband's management,
+the chances are that, unless a divorce should occur, she will never lay
+any claim to the principal, or think of it again as her own. While her
+husband cannot actually dispose of it without her consent, she is pretty
+certain to give her consent should he ask it, and he may do very nearly
+anything that he chooses with it. We thus see that the tendency is to
+give the management of the income, as a part of the management of the
+household, to the woman, and leave the disposal of the principal, as a
+part of the outside business, to the care of the man. This system of
+domestic finance seems not unlike the common practice in thrifty and
+well-managed homes in America, and shows that a spirit of mutual
+confidence between husband and wife belongs to Japan as to Western
+nations. As the result of my own observation in a number of homes, I
+should say that the judgment of the wife in money matters is quite as
+much trusted in Japan as in America, and that, in this one respect at
+least, her place in the home is as responsible a one as that of the
+Western housekeeper. One instance may be cited of a woman whose business
+ability is so well known as to have a national reputation. By birth a
+member of a family which is remarkable for its success in all financial
+undertakings, she has inherited a large share of the family
+characteristic, and is credited with the personal management of a large
+bank, as well as other successful business undertakings. Her husband's
+name and not her own appears on the prospectuses and in the newspapers,
+but unless report is very far astray, she is the business man of the
+family, and her sound sense and good judgment have built up the fortune
+which is their common possession.
+
+In the educational system of Japan, schools for girls are provided by
+the government, but no provision for studies more advanced than those of
+the middle schools for boys is included in the scheme, with the single
+exception of the Higher Normal School in T[=o]ky[=o], in which a limited
+number of young women are trained to take positions as teachers in the
+ordinary normal schools for girls. To quote from the Annual Report of
+the Minister of Education for the year 1898, the latest to which I have
+access, "Higher female schools are institutions designed to give
+instruction in such higher subjects of general education as are
+necessary for females." This shows with considerable completeness the
+idea that dominates all government and much private effort for the
+education of women in Japan. The schools are to teach simply such
+subjects as are necessary for females; anything more would be
+superfluous, possibly dangerous. The thought of women as individuals,
+with minds and souls to be trained and developed to their highest
+possibilities, is still somewhat foreign to the mind of the average
+Japanese man. In its stead is the idea that females must be instructed
+in such subjects as are necessary for a proper understanding of their
+duties as wives and mothers. But if Japan to-day is where England and
+America were in the first half of the nineteenth century, the country is
+certainly moving forward, as the statistics in regard to education for
+the three successive years 1896, 1897, and 1898 show. Great efforts are
+being made to increase the attendance of girls at the common schools,
+and with gratifying results.[43]
+
+[43] The following in the report for 1898 may be of interest:--
+
+Percentage of pupils of school age receiving instruction:--
+
+  Year.          Girls.   Boys.
+  1896           47.54    79.00
+  1897           50.86    80.67
+  1898           53.73    82.42
+
+The total number of girls of school age not receiving instruction is
+1,552,601; of boys, 662,985; while the total number of girls of school
+age is 3,642,263, and of boys, 4,067,161.
+
+As we advance into the higher schools, the discrepancy in numbers
+between the two sexes grows greater. In the kindergartens the attendance
+of girls is nearly equal to that of boys; in the elementary schools
+there are three boys to two girls; in the higher elementary schools,
+seven boys to two girls. The boys' middle schools, which are equivalent
+in grade to the girls' high schools, have fourteen boys taking their
+courses to every two girls in the high schools. In the apprentice and
+technical schools, there are fifteen men to every two women. Even the
+normal schools, which in our own country are almost given over to women,
+in Japan have six male students to every female. The "special schools,"
+mainly professional, have, to 11,069 men, 73 women, all enrolled in
+private schools, and presumably taking medical courses. Beyond this
+point women have no opportunities offered to them. In the higher
+schools, equivalent to the college and graduate courses given by
+universities in America, 7,224 young men are given opportunities that
+women must go abroad to obtain.
+
+These figures are, as I have said, for the year 1898. The year 1901 sees
+two hopeful movements well begun. One of these is the opening of an
+institution bearing the title of "Female University," endowed and
+supported by Japanese, through the strenuous efforts of Mr. Jinzo
+Naruse, a prominent Christian who has spent some time in America. At its
+opening, five hundred girls were glad to enter, but of these very few
+are ready for college work. Mr. Naruse, however, believes that in time
+he will be able to enlarge his college department and diminish the
+preparatory, which is now almost the whole of the school. He has the
+support and encouragement of many wealthy and influential Japanese,
+among them Count Okuma, the well-known progressive statesman. On the day
+of the opening of the school, Count Okuma, in a speech from the
+platform, said that the nation would be twice as strong if its women
+were well educated. This he called "setting up a double standard." He
+pointed out that Turkey, Egypt, Persia, and China were countries which
+had tried to get along with a "single standard," and which had fallen
+conspicuously behind. He called attention to the fact that Japan's
+primitive religion had for its central figure the Goddess of Light, but
+that, unfortunately for the well-being of the state, woman had been
+gradually dethroned and thrust down into a low place. After speaking of
+the debt that Japan owed to China for the civilization and the ethical
+system that had stood her so long in good stead, the veteran statesman
+went on to say that society in Japan was disfigured by abuses which were
+beyond any simple remedy. The only effective medicine was to be found in
+a radical reform of the ideals of family life, and this could only be
+effected by an improvement in the status of woman,--an improvement which
+such institutions as the one that day opened would greatly aid in
+bringing about.
+
+These words from one of the most honored leaders of Japanese thought
+voice the feeling that is prevalent throughout Japan in this
+thirty-fourth year of Meiji. That it is actually moving both government
+and people is shown by the words of Mr. Kikuchi, Minister of Education,
+to the Council of Provincial Governors held in T[=o]ky[=o] in June,
+1901. In speaking of the progress of education throughout the country,
+he stated his intention to push forward the work of secondary education
+for girls, saying that a prefecture which refused to make provision for
+such education by 1903 might be compelled to do so by the government.
+
+The other hopeful educational effort to which I have alluded is a school
+started on a small scale, but with a high standard, by a Japanese woman
+whose name is almost as well known in America as in Japan, as an
+educator of great ability and earnestness of purpose. After many years
+of work as a teacher in the Peeresses' School, a place of great honor
+from the Japanese standpoint, she has resigned her position to carry out
+a long-cherished plan. With the pecuniary aid of friends in America, she
+has founded a school for the preparation of young women who have
+finished the courses heretofore open to them, and who wish to become
+teachers of English in the Government schools. The examinations for such
+positions have always been open to women, but, because of the difficulty
+in securing proper preparation, there are few who pass them. Since its
+opening in September, 1900, the school has been crowded with promising
+pupils, and the small accommodations with which it began, although
+already once enlarged, are stretched to the uttermost. The girls come
+from the government high schools and from the mission schools, and the
+course offered to them of three years of study in English literature,
+composition, translation, and methods of teaching has proved a strong
+attraction. In recognition, perhaps, of this effort on behalf of her
+countrywomen, certainly, of her position at the head of her profession,
+this same woman has this year been appointed on the examining committee
+for the government English examinations, an honor never before given to
+one of her sex,--in itself a sign of the change in thought that the last
+few years have wrought.
+
+There can be no doubt that the education of women is moving forward,
+pushed by the leading men of the country and aided by the earnest work
+of the women themselves. It is still far behind the education offered to
+men, and the ideal of most of its promoters is limited to the purely
+utilitarian; but as long as it moves forward and not backward, and as
+long as the years of work show an increased number of women fitted to
+meet the changing conditions of the time, we do well to approve rather
+than criticise, remembering that the problem is an exceedingly intricate
+one, and one of which even the best-instructed foreigner can see only a
+small part of the difficulty.
+
+The year 1901 sees the printing-press almost as much of a power in
+Japan as in the Western world, and it is interesting to notice that
+among the innumerable newspapers and magazines now published in the
+country there are some twenty or more devoted exclusively to the
+interests of women. To be sure, these women's magazines do not undertake
+to furnish the loftiest intellectual pabulum, the best of them covering,
+perhaps, the same range of subjects that is included in "Woman's
+Journals" in the United States. They devote themselves largely to
+lectures on morals and manners, and instruction as to how best to
+perform the duties of the home. These magazines are for the most part
+written and edited by men, many of them very young men, and serve to
+show rather what men desire that women should think and do, than to give
+any insight into the minds of the women themselves. With a combined
+circulation of perhaps 40,000, they enter many homes, and do something,
+at least, toward the general enlightening and quickening of the feminine
+mind that is so noticeable in the Japan of to-day. In regard to the
+general reading of Japanese women who have had the new education, my
+own observation leads me to believe that they keep themselves well
+informed of what is going on in their own country, and of the outside
+world so far as it affects their own country; but that their interest in
+the world at large is less than that of American women, and only in
+exceptional cases do they care much for the sayings or doings of
+foreigners. In this respect they differ widely from the men, whose minds
+are reaching continually for new things to graft upon the old
+civilization.
+
+In the whole list of publications on the woman question, nothing has
+ever come out in Japan that compares for outspokenness and radical
+sentiments with a book published within a year or two by Mr. Fukuzawa,
+the most influential teacher that Japan has seen in this era of
+enlightenment. It is in two parts, the first an attack, conducted with
+much skill and humor, upon Kaibara's "Great Learning of Woman," a book
+which for nearly four hundred years has been supposed to contain all
+that a woman should know. The last part of Mr. Fukuzawa's work is a
+constructive essay upon the "New Great Learning of Woman." So
+revolutionary are the sentiments expressed in the book that many
+Japanese men hesitate about allowing their wives and daughters to read
+it, and in at least one modern Christian school it has been ruled out
+from the school library as too advanced for the reading of the girls. A
+brief survey of the sentiments and ideas thus boldly set forth will show
+how far is the attitude of the Japanese from that of the American public
+on the woman question. We find in Mr. Fukuzawa's book the lofty ideal
+that belongs to the most advanced modern thought, but its promulgation
+as a practical working ideal in Japan was of the nature of a
+thunderclap. Among less tolerant races, men have been lynched, or burned
+at the stake, for slighter departures from the average code of thought
+and morals.
+
+Mr. Fukuzawa starts out with the proposition that women are quite equal
+to men, and should hold equal position and influence. Although he allows
+that woman's work in the world is quite distinct from that of man, he
+holds that it is as important, and that she should have the same
+property-holding privileges and rights. The greatest stress is laid on
+the point that the same moral obligation for purity of life rests on the
+husband as on the wife. He goes into the details of the unhappiness
+resulting from concubinage, putting the duty of the husband in this
+respect as equal to that of the wife to preserve her chastity, and as
+this is, next to obedience, the virtue of virtues for a Japanese wife,
+his argument is as strong as it could well be made. He insists that
+women should demand as a right from their husbands and families the same
+privileges and opportunities that men have in society.
+
+Such sentiments are a matter of course in America, and they have been
+held by a few advanced thinkers in Japan, but no one hitherto has dared
+in so vigorous and positive a way, and with arguments that come so near
+home, to try to break the chain of custom that holds women down as
+inferior beings. Kaibara says that if a woman finds her husband doing
+wrong, she should gently plead with him, choosing a time when he is
+most inclined to listen. If he refuses, she should not insist on his
+hearing her, but wait until he is willing to listen, and though she may
+try two or three times, she should never anger or irritate him. Fukuzawa
+says that if this applies to the woman, it should also to the man,--that
+is to say, if a man finds his wife unfaithful, he is to wait for an
+opportunity when she is in good humor before he remonstrates with her.
+Fukuzawa also throws new light on the duty of husbands and fathers to
+their wives and children in another respect. He says that no man should
+let the sole responsibility for the happiness of the home fall upon his
+wife; that a man is responsible for the peace of the home as well as the
+woman. This view of the matter is entirely new in Japan, as the
+responsibility for an unhappy home is laid as a matter of course upon
+the wife. The duty of a wife to her parents-in-law is also treated after
+the same revolutionary manner. Is it to be wondered at that many men
+fear the influence of such a book upon their gentle, submissive wives?
+In this connection it is interesting, however, to note that at a recent
+Shint[=o] wedding, after the religious ceremony, which in itself marks a
+great step forward in the Japanese ideal of marriage, the priest who
+united the couple presented to the bride a copy each of the Kaibara and
+Fukuzawa books, perhaps with a view to letting her take her choice
+between the old style and the new, perhaps that she might instruct her
+husband out of the Fukuzawa book while she put in practice herself the
+time-honored precepts of Kaibara.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+One feature of the times in T[=o]ky[=o], that is perhaps worthy of passing
+notice, is the tendency of women to form themselves into societies and
+clubs for the attainment of some common object. Of these women's clubs,
+the greater proportion are perhaps educational, the members meeting once
+a month or once a fortnight to listen to a lecture upon some subject
+that helps to keep them up with the times. There is also a patriotic
+society, that concerns itself with raising money for sending supplies to
+soldiers in the field, or for widows and orphans of soldiers, or to
+help along some other patriotic enterprise. There are societies, too,
+for general benevolence, or to help in carrying on the work of some one
+institution. A glance at the membership lists of these associations
+shows that the motive power is, in almost all cases, the same group of
+earnest, educated women, who are, in this way and in countless others,
+doing their utmost to broaden the horizons of their countrywomen, and
+lead them out into a larger life. This is probably true in the other
+cities in which a movement of women into clubs and societies is
+noticeable.
+
+It is when the active women of the new way of thinking, whose lives and
+thoughts are devoted to work and endeavor rather than to the passive
+submission and self-abnegation of the old days, find themselves suddenly
+placed among the surroundings of thirty years ago, that the change of
+conditions becomes most evident. I cannot think of a better way to
+illustrate this than to tell the story of one of my Japanese friends and
+her visit to her husband's relatives in a distant provincial city. The
+lady who told me the story is a stirring, capable young matron,
+educated after the modern ways, who has spent most of her happy married
+life of some fifteen or sixteen years entirely in T[=o]ky[=o], except
+for a visit of a year to America. She bears a closer resemblance to many
+kind-hearted, strong, energetic young American women than to the
+old-time Japanese lady portrayed in these pages. She rises every morning
+at five, attends to every detail of her housekeeping, watches carefully
+and with educated common sense over her family of young children,
+believes in good food, fresh air, and exercise, for boys and girls
+alike, and is a helpful friend and good neighbor, filling to the full
+the position of work and influence in which she is placed. Her husband
+is a successful business man, whom frequent journeys across the Pacific
+have made thoroughly cosmopolitan, and their children are accustomed to
+a freedom from conventional restraints and a healthful diet and regimen
+such as old Japan never knew.
+
+Last year the plan of spending the summer with the husband's relatives,
+which had been long projected, was actually carried out, and the whole
+family migrated to the provincial city from which the husband had
+sprung. The aged mother, a gentlewoman of the old type, was delighted to
+meet and entertain her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, and did her
+best, with all old-fashioned courtesy, to make the visit a pleasant one.
+The house was clean and spacious, the mats soft and white, the bows of
+the lowest, the voices and speech the politest that Japan could furnish,
+but the healthy, restless children found the conventional restraints
+irksome, and the old-fashioned diet of rice and pickles, with hardly a
+variation from morning till night and from week to week, was quite
+different from the bountiful table to which they had been accustomed.
+The younger woman could not criticise her mother-in-law's arrangements,
+neither could she bear to see her children growing thin and pale before
+her eyes. She consulted her husband, who, in accordance with the antique
+ideas of propriety, was served his meals at a different time and in a
+different room from his wife and family. To his food his mother had
+always added various delicacies which her old-time Spartan spirit would
+not allow her to set before her daughter-in-law and grandchildren. It
+would have been quite contrary to her ideas of rank and etiquette for
+her to make any modification of her ordinary fare for them. As the son
+was already supplying the funds for carrying on his mother's
+establishment, it occurred to him that he might increase her allowance
+on the plea that her summer expenses must be heavy with so large an
+addition to her household. But the old lady was sure that nothing more
+was necessary, and would not think of burdening her son with any larger
+expenses, and could not be induced to accept the offered increase.
+
+Another effort was made to get along upon the meagre fare, but the
+youngest boy fell ill and had to be taken to a hospital, and the mother
+decided that something must be done if all the family did not wish to
+follow him. The happy thought occurred to her of buying something that
+would be an addition to their scanty menu, and giving it as a present
+to her mother-in-law. Now a present in Japan can never be refused, so it
+seemed to the younger woman that she must have found a way of escape
+from her difficulties. Of course, the present was accepted with many
+thanks and expressions of unworthiness, and when the meal-hour arrived,
+each member of the family found an infinitesimal quantity of the
+delicacy in a small plate at his side. But as soon as the meal was over,
+the dear old lady, who had by strict economy managed to leave the
+greater part of the gift untouched, sent out to all the neighbors
+presents from what had been intended to feed the hungry children at
+home. The experiment was tried again and again, but always with the same
+result. No present could be kept for family use alone. Of everything but
+the barest necessaries, the greater part must be sent out in gifts to
+others.
+
+At last the husband and wife put their heads together to decide on some
+course of action that, without hurting the feelings of the older lady,
+would secure sufficient nourishment for the children, and forthwith
+began a series of all-day picnics to the noted places in the
+vicinity,--picnics that included always a good meal at some well-kept
+restaurant before the return to the old-fashioned fare of the
+grandmother's house. In this way the summer was passed without further
+illness, though the poor mother on her return to T[=o]ky[=o] spent several
+weeks in bed,--what with starvation and worry and the effort to bear
+heroically, and with a smiling face, the hard life and scanty fare that
+were the life and fare of most of Japan only a few years ago.
+
+In the changes that the past few years have wrought, perhaps nothing is
+more striking than the new openings for work that Japan now offers to
+women. The growth of the public school system has made a demand for
+women as teachers that is steadily increasing. Although in the normal
+schools the proportion of women to men is still only one to six, and
+while teaching, even in the primary schools, is not yet mainly in
+feminine hands as it is with us, there is still a good showing of women
+employed as teachers. From the figures of the school report of 1898, we
+find over 10,000 women as teachers and assistants in the public and
+private schools. The profession of nursing, too, which ten years ago was
+just opening, has already drawn many women into its ranks. In the Red
+Cross hospitals alone there are this year nearly a thousand nurses
+taking the course, and a thousand graduates scattered throughout the
+country hold themselves ready to answer the call of the society in the
+time of need, in the mean time practicing their profession wherever they
+may chance to be. The quality of the Red Cross graduates has been tested
+now in two wars, and they show the soldierly virtues of their nation, as
+well as the more womanly qualities of tenderness and gentleness; and a
+self-respect that has kept them pure and free from stain in the midst of
+severe temptation. It is impossible for me to gather statistics of the
+work done by other institutions for the training of nurses, but the
+figures given above may, I think, be doubled with absolute safety in
+making an estimate of the total number of nurses trained and in training
+throughout the empire.
+
+The growth of commerce and industry has greatly increased the demand
+for feminine labor outside the home. In the old days the two most
+important industries of the country, tea and silk, were mainly carried
+on by women in their homes, but the use of modern machinery is rapidly
+taking the weaving industries out of the homes and making factory hands
+of the women and children.[44]
+
+[44] In the Japan _Mail_ of July 8, 1901, the following statistics of
+women employees in factories in Japan were given:--
+
+  Manufacture.      No. of Women.   No. to 100 Men.
+  Raw Silk            107,348            93
+  Cotton Spinning      53,053            79
+  Matches              11,385            69
+  Cotton Fabrics       10,656            86
+  Tobacco               7,874            72
+  Matting               1,641            59
+
+One of the most noticeable effects of this new demand for female labor
+is the extreme scarcity of servants. Although wages are nearly double
+what they were ten years ago, it is extremely difficult for Japanese
+housekeepers now to find servants to replace the old ones as they drop
+out of the ranks, and the women who apply for positions are apt to be
+far inferior to those who came to the same families to do the same work
+ten years ago.
+
+In other ways, too, women are learning to fill new places in the world.
+The telephone, which now connects towns and cities and villages in
+Japan, employs girls in large numbers. In the printing-offices we find
+women at work, not as compositors, but as compositors' assistants,
+darting from case to case about the room and selecting for the
+compositor the ideographs that he needs in his work. Inasmuch as a small
+printing-office cannot get along with less than four thousand
+characters, and as larger ones may have several times that number, the
+need of quick-witted and quick-footed assistants to each compositor may
+be easily recognized. As the schools turn out each year more girls
+fitted by education to do this kind of work, and as the number of
+newspapers and other printed matter is continually on the increase, the
+demand for and supply of this special variety of labor are likely to
+increase proportionately for some time to come.
+
+A few women are now making their way as reporters on the daily papers,
+a few more are engaged in literary work. One of the best of modern
+Japanese novelists was a woman, but she died several years ago at so
+early an age that her work was a promise rather than a fulfillment.
+Artists, too, there are, who are making names for themselves, as well as
+a living, in a country where art is so common that success in that line
+means hard work and special talent. A few young women support themselves
+by stenography, a few more as clerks and secretaries in business
+offices. Until a writing-machine has been invented that will write four
+thousand characters, there will not be much demand for typewriter girls
+in Japan outside of the treaty ports, where a few are now employed. The
+Japanese government has found, as Uncle Sam discovered some time ago,
+that for the counting of paper money women's fingers are more deft than
+those of men, and it consequently gives employment to a few women in
+that work. One railroad has recently begun to employ women as
+ticket-sellers, and three medical schools have already graduated some
+women physicians, though it is still doubtful whether there is any
+great opening for them in the country. These are some of the ways in
+which women now find themselves able to gain a little more independence
+of life. The whole matter is so new that no statistics are available
+that will show the exact extent of the demand for labor in these
+directions, but from my own observation I am inclined to think that
+there is little change in the employments of women except in the
+neighborhood of the larger cities, and that the new occupations as yet
+have a very slight effect upon the conditions in this country at large.
+
+It is not possible to understand the actual progress made in Japan in
+improving the condition of women, without some consideration of the
+effect that Christian thought and Christian lives have had on the
+thought and lives of the modern Japanese. If Japanese women are ever to
+be raised to the measure of opportunity accorded to women in Christian
+countries, it can only be through the growth of Christianity in their
+own country, and for that reason a study of that growth is pertinent to
+a study of their condition.
+
+The past ten years in Japan have been discouraging to the missionaries
+in many ways, and it is not unusual to hear from the less hopeful of
+them the statement that their work has been at a standstill, or even
+going backward, during that time. The statistics of missionary effort
+show a steady, though slight, increase in the number of professing
+Christians, but if the sum total of the results of missionary effort
+were the number of converts made, it might, perhaps, be doubtful whether
+the money spent on missions in Japan might not be better turned to other
+purposes. There are now in Japan, of Christians of all sects,
+Protestant, and Roman and Greek Catholic, 121,000, or about one half of
+one per cent. of the total population of the country; but the influence
+of these Christians as leaders of thought is out of all proportion to
+their number. Christian men are found in the Diet, in the army and navy,
+in the universities and colleges, and in the newspaper offices, in a
+proportion far beyond their ratio to the total population, exerting
+their influence in many ways for the uplifting of the nation to loftier
+moral ideals. The proportion of Christian men and women in the
+government schools with which I have been connected is rather
+surprising. In the Higher Normal School, training young women to go out
+into the whole country as teachers, the proportion of professing
+Christians upon the teaching staff is striking; and in the Peeresses'
+School, which is as conservative and anti-foreign as any educational
+institution in Japan, there are five professing Christians among the
+thirty-five teachers. While, on the one hand, the Japanese Christians
+are not all models of all the virtues, while there is with many of them
+a tendency to modify their Christianity so as to accommodate a
+considerable amount of worldly wisdom, it is true, on the other hand,
+that the most active workers in the cause of philanthropy are men who
+have accepted the Christian faith, and who are striving in all
+earnestness to model their lives after the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
+The Christian Church in Japan to-day has its heroes and its
+back-sliders, and has between these two extremes a rank and file of
+every-day, commonplace men and women, who amidst frequent failures and
+in the midst of many temptations are making the name of Christian stand
+for a certain kind of life and a certain standard of virtue quite above
+and beyond the lives and standards of their countrymen. It is largely
+because of them that a Christian public opinion is growing up among
+non-Christian Japanese. Men to-day who have no special leanings toward
+Christianity shake their heads over vices and sins which a few years ago
+were not even thought of as wrong. There is a great deal of talk about
+the growth of moral depravity in the country, but as a matter of fact,
+the standards of virtue have never been so high since Japan was opened
+as they are to-day: it is only that Christian thought has held up a
+mirror to an un-Christian society, in which it views all too clearly its
+own defects. There is, to my mind, no more hopeful sign of the times
+than the growing discouragement over the present condition of morals.
+When there is added to this a steadily increasing respect for the
+honesty and strength of character of Christian men and women, it must
+mean that a great and lasting impression has been made. To-day banks,
+business offices, and other places requiring trustworthy clerks and
+employees, prefer, other things being equal, Christian young men, for it
+is generally known that they are more worthy of confidence than the
+majority of applicants for such places.
+
+One instance of this increased moral sensitiveness may be cited in the
+recent successful efforts to limit the power of the brothel-keepers over
+their victims and virtual slaves, the _j[=o]r[=o]_ or licensed
+prostitutes. As I have stated in a previous chapter, the women who carry
+on this business in Japan are, many of them, unwilling victims of a
+system which allows parents to sell their children to a life of shame;
+and they enter upon that life so young that they can hardly be regarded
+as morally responsible for their condition. Even after the actual sale
+of girls was forbidden by an imperial ordinance in 1872, the purchase
+price was called a loan to the parents of the girl, and subsequent
+loans for clothing entered upon the books of the establishment kept the
+unfortunates so continually in debt to their masters that they could
+never escape from the bondage in which they were held except through
+death, or by purchase by some infatuated admirer. Public opinion, while
+it indulged in some sentimental pity for the hard lot of the
+_j[=o]r[=o]_, did little or nothing to aid any one who desired to help
+them, regarding the profession as a necessary one, and caring not at all
+for the injustice to which the girls were subjected. Ten or twelve years
+ago, a movement started by some prominent Japanese Christians against
+the _j[=o]roya_ fell flat for want of a public opinion behind it.
+Speeches on the subject were hissed down by audiences of young men, and
+nothing could be done to help even the most innocent and unhappy of the
+girls to a better life. In the new code, perhaps as an effect of this
+movement, a new law provided that the _j[=o]r[=o]_ might leave her
+calling by giving notice to the police. A police regulation, however,
+forbade any girl to cease her employment, or to leave the house in
+which she was kept, unless her official notice of cessation was
+countersigned by the keeper of the _j[=o]roya_, so that by her own
+effort she could not free herself.
+
+In the year 1900, one of these girls in a provincial city appealed to an
+American missionary for help in getting her liberty. Through his aid,
+and that of his Japanese helpers, her case came before the court, which
+decided that the contract under which she was held was opposed to the
+public welfare and good morals, and that the keeper must affix his seal
+to her notice without regard to her debt. Although the local police
+refused to act in the matter, and although the missionary and his
+helpers were subjected to personal violence by the employees of the
+_j[=o]roya_, an appeal to the authorities at T[=o]ky[=o] resulted in an
+enforcement of the court's decision, and the girl was freed.
+
+At this juncture the Salvation Army, which has a valiant contingent in
+T[=o]ky[=o], and which was actually spoiling for a good fight with the
+world, the flesh, and the Devil, in any form, took up the cause of the
+oppressed _j[=o]r[=o]_. A special edition of the "War Cry" containing
+appeals to the girls to leave their lives of shame, and offering aid to
+any one who might apply to the Army, was published and hawked through
+the Yoshiwara. When the keepers and their employees found out what the
+strangely costumed news-venders were about, they charged down upon them,
+and after a street fight, drove them out of the quarter. Thus the war
+began, but the T[=o]ky[=o] police took up the matter, the T[=o]ky[=o]
+press joined hands with the Salvationists, and in the end the whole
+country was stirred to aid in the attack. In return, the brothel-keepers
+and their employees, feeling that the profits of their business were at
+stake, made it extremely warm for any Salvationists or newspaper
+reporters who dared set foot in the disreputable quarters, and in their
+zeal sometimes made mistakes and drove out their would-be patrons. The
+office of one newspaper was wrecked by sympathetic roughs, and it took a
+squad of fifty or sixty police to escort Army officers when they had
+occasion to visit any of the houses to secure the release of a girl. No
+lives were lost, though some hard knocks were received, and the work was
+kept up with unabated noise on both sides, until every girl held in
+unwilling bondage knew how she might escape and to whom she could go for
+aid.
+
+During the month of September, 1900, as a direct result of the attacks
+of and upon the Army, the number of visitors to these houses in
+T[=o]ky[=o] was decreased by about 2,000 a night. On October 2, a
+government ordinance was issued that at one stroke removed all obstacles
+in the way of a girl's securing her freedom at any moment when she
+wanted to leave the business. The new regulations made the descent to
+Avernus as difficult as possible, and the return to the upper world a
+mere step. In T[=o]ky[=o] alone, in the first four months after the
+promulgation of this order, 1,100 out of the 6,335 girls who were
+licensed as prostitutes left the houses in which they were employed,
+most of them returning to their homes and families, and as many as
+applied being cared for in the Rescue Home of the Salvation Army. The
+places thus vacated are not easy to fill, because the keepers will not
+advance money to the parents of a girl, now that they can no longer hold
+her as security for the debt. In consequence, too, of the revelations of
+the evils of the system, the business has fallen off alarmingly. Thus
+many of the houses have been obliged to close, owing to lack of custom
+and to inability to pay the heavy taxes.
+
+We have here the story of a successful attack on a system which has
+existed in Japan for three hundred years, by a Christian agency acting
+with the support of so strong a public opinion that police and
+government have felt bound to obey its behests. There has been no more
+striking example of the effect of Christian thought upon public
+sentiment in any country than this crusade against the brothels in
+Japan. When we remember that ten years ago it was not possible for a
+speaker to attack the institution before an audience of students without
+being silenced by hisses, it is interesting to note that this year, the
+students of that same school greeted with applause and respectful
+attention an address on this very subject.
+
+It seems to me rather striking that in the year 1900 fifty thousand
+copies of the Bible were sold in Japan--more than of any other book.
+Although the present translation is regarded as far from perfect, and
+much of it is unintelligible to the average Japanese without
+instruction, whether directly or indirectly, by mission workers, it is
+still sought after and read for the sake of its literature, and because
+of the reputation that has been gained for it throughout the country.
+There are few missionaries of any experience in Japan who cannot tell
+stories of men coming to them from country villages, who, through the
+reading of a copy of the Bible in some way fallen into their hands, have
+been brought by the beauty and nobility of the parts that they could
+understand to seek additional explanation from some teacher or preacher.
+One case that is amusing, but at the same time striking, I have heard
+vouched for from a number of sources:--
+
+Two thieves, one night, broke into the dormitory of a girls' school in
+search of booty, and by chance awakened two of the girls. As they sat
+up in their beds, wondering what was best to do under the circumstances,
+one zealous damsel reached for the Bible in which she had been reading
+before she went to sleep, and handed it to one of the thieves, saying,
+"If you read this book, you will not want to steal any more." The other
+girl followed her companion's example and gave her Bible to the other
+thief. That was all, so far as the girls knew, and it was some years
+before the sequel came to light.
+
+There is one place in Japan to which released convicts who are trying to
+get back to respectability again drift from all parts of the empire. It
+is a prisoners' home in T[=o]ky[=o], where one man, aided by his capable
+and devoted wife, receives into his own family and gives aid and succor
+to hundreds of society's outcasts. To this place came one day an
+ex-convict who told a remarkable story of his conversion, and of his
+desire to lead a new life. He had received a Bible from a little girl
+one night in a house that he was robbing, but was too full of
+professional engagements at the time to follow her advice and read it.
+Later, however, as he was resting from his labors in the enforced
+seclusion of a prison, he began to read, and spelled out enough to make
+up his mind that he did not want to steal any more. Accordingly, as soon
+as his term was ended, he made his way to the prisoners' refuge, and by
+the aid of its founder and head, and his good wife, settled down to
+steady habits of industry. Later, when the prison look had worn off from
+his face and the prison gait from his walk, he returned to his family
+and friends, where he is now a respectable member of the society upon
+which he formerly preyed.
+
+There are other stories showing as deep impressions made on men of
+culture and respectability, not so striking and amusing as this one, but
+meaning as much, or even more, for the future of Japan. Such things are
+hardly possible in Christian countries to-day, for there is little or no
+novelty in the message that the old book brings to us; but to the
+Japanese mind the thoughts are absolutely new in many ways, and the
+reading alone will often change the whole life, because it lifts up the
+nature to a higher set of ideals.
+
+As a direct effect of Christian thought upon the thought of the
+Japanese nation, it is interesting to notice the change in meaning of
+one word. In the teachings of Confucius the highest virtue is
+benevolence, rendered into Japanese by the word _jin_; in the teachings
+of Buddhism the highest virtue is mercy, or _jishi_. When the Christian
+missionaries first came to Japan, there was no term in the language that
+covered the thought of love as it is taught by Christ. For lack of
+anything better, the word _ai_, which indicated the love of a superior
+for an inferior, was made to do duty for the greater thought; and now
+the old word _ai_, throughout the length and breadth of Japan, is
+accepted and understood in its new meaning, a continual witness to the
+effect of Christianity upon the national mind. Is this a little thing in
+the education of a race that has shown in the past so great a capacity
+for living up to its ideals?
+
+One more direct effect of Christian teaching upon Japanese society is
+the great quickening of philanthropic and benevolent effort. Scattered
+throughout the country are benevolent or educational societies,
+orphanages, hospitals, free kindergartens, reform schools, and other
+evidences of a desire on the part of the more fortunate to help the
+unfortunate by some means or other; and if you study into the history of
+any of these efforts, you will usually find that some Japanese
+Christian, or some man who has come home impressed with the
+philanthropies of Christian countries, has started the scheme, and has
+created a society, and a public opinion behind the society, which
+carries on the work. Even in the government institutions there is no
+difficulty in tracing the influence of Christians and Christianity. The
+Red Cross Society, with its seven thousand members, and its hospitals in
+every prefecture of the empire, bears the sign of Christendom upon all
+its property and employees. It seems to me quite safe to say that but
+for the Christian influences of the past forty years, there would be
+very little altruistic work done in Japan to-day; but by means of the
+Christians and their teachings, the latest and best thought of the world
+is working its way out in practical service for humanity in Japan, and
+this service is ascribed by enlightened Buddhist and Shint[=o] believers
+alike to the spirit of Christianity, which will not let the fortunate
+rest while their less fortunate brothers are in want or sin.
+
+No one who studies the religious question in Japan at all can fail to
+notice the extraordinary revivifying of Buddhism for what it feels to be
+a life and death struggle with an alien faith. The disestablishment of
+the Buddhist church by the government at the time of the restoration
+must be credited with its share of the awakening process; for the
+priests, finding their own support and that of the temples dependent
+upon the voluntary contributions of worshipers, were forced to bestir
+themselves as they had not done since the old missionary days, when they
+were working for a foothold in the country. But without the competition
+of Christianity, it is extremely doubtful whether their efforts would
+have been turned so largely along educational and philanthropic lines,
+whether the standard of intelligence among the priesthood would have
+been so quickly raised, whether they would have sent young men abroad to
+study Sanskrit and history with a view to a better understanding of
+their own scriptures, or whether they would not rather have relied on
+less radical methods of quickening the religious life within their body.
+Certain it is that Buddhism, which upon its introduction into Japan
+actually lowered the status of women, is now making a bid for public
+favor by holding meetings and founding societies especially for women,
+and is doing its best to increase their self-respect and the respect in
+which they are held by society.
+
+An interesting story which throws some light upon the new influence that
+is at work among the Buddhists came to me not long ago through a
+Japanese friend. There were two brothers living in a poor little village
+on the northern coast of Japan, who were joint heirs to a small piece of
+property. As the land was not enough for the support of two families,
+the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful youth, gave up all title to his
+share of the inheritance and entered a Buddhist monastery. In the quiet
+of this retreat, amid the beautiful surroundings, the daily services,
+the chanting of priests, and the mellow booming of the great monastery
+bell, his thoughts went out to the poor and the sinful among his own
+people. He began to feel that a life which seeks merely spiritual uplift
+for itself is not the highest life, and that only as spiritual gain is
+shared with others is it real and lasting. Forthwith he began a life of
+helpfulness to the poor about him,--of teaching and preaching and good
+deeds that won him many humble friends. Within the monastery, however,
+his work was not approved. His ideas and actions were not in harmony
+with the teachings of the sect. He was first disciplined and then
+expelled, and found his way back at last, penniless, to his native
+village.
+
+Now, in northern Japan the winters are long and hard, and the most
+industrious of farmers and fisher-folk can wring only a bare subsistence
+from the conditions of their toil. It is from these villages, perhaps,
+more than from any other sources, that the girls are obtained to supply
+the _j[=o]roya_ of the great cities. At any rate, in this particular
+village, the only hope that any girl possessed of escaping from the hard
+home toil was by the sale of her person, and the thought of seeing the
+great cities, of wearing beautiful dresses, of being admired and petted,
+and perhaps at last of marrying some rich lover and becoming a great
+lady, was a tempting bait to these poor peasant girls. To this young
+man, whose soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness during his
+absence, the full horror of the conditions that could so warp and dwarf
+the souls of women appealed as it had never done before. He must do
+something to help them, but what to do his previous experience did not
+help him to know. He sought for aid and sympathy in his native place,
+among his friends and co-religionists; but the state of affairs was too
+old and too familiar to excite interest, and at last he worked his way
+to the capital, feeling that somewhere in that great city he would find
+light on the question that perplexed him. It was a mere question of ways
+and means--how to begin a work which he felt driven from within to do.
+In T[=o]ky[=o], as he inquired among his friends, he was told that
+Christians knew all about the kind of work that he wished to begin, that
+he must go to them and study their methods, if he would help the people
+of his native village. So the devout young Buddhist, who had found in
+his own faith the divine impulse, turned to the study of what Christians
+had done and were doing for the unfortunate. The story is not finished
+yet. We cannot tell whether in the end it will result in another
+addition to the ranks of the Japanese Christians, or whether it will aid
+in the quickening that has come to Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends,
+it shows in a concrete example what Christianity is now doing for Japan,
+and especially for the women of the country.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX.
+
+_The following Notes refer to passages marked by asterisks in the
+foregoing pages._
+
+
+_Page 3._
+
+The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but
+some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the
+name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to
+bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much
+importance as it is with us. In some families the boys are called by
+names indicating their position in the family, the words _Taro_, "Big
+one," _Jiro_, "Second one," _Saburo_, "Third one," _Shiro_, "Fourth
+one," _Goro_, "Fifth one," etc., being used alone, or placed after
+adjectives indicating some quality that it is hoped the child may
+possess. Such combinations are, _Eitaro_, "Glorious big one," _Seijiro_,
+"Pure second one," _Tomisaburo_, "Rich third one," and so on.
+
+
+_Page 4._
+
+To speak with greater exactness, the _miya mairi_ of a boy is on the
+thirty-first day of his life,--of a girl, on the thirty-third.
+
+
+_Page 8._
+
+T[=o]ky[=o] just now shows a tendency to change this national custom.
+Gayly painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in
+large quantities in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters
+of the lower classes, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon
+instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly. These carriages are, of
+course, the exception, and may prove to be but a passing T[=o]ky[=o]
+fashion, but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of
+Japan, and may prove of value in the physical development of the common
+people.
+
+
+_Page 11._
+
+In the T[=o]ky[=o] of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in
+evidence, as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few
+foreigners and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a
+mile or so in the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the principal
+business streets in a purely Japanese section of the city, shows five
+meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with
+golf-stockings and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts
+everywhere through the city, and call at a large proportion of the
+houses. Condensed milk, too, is to be found on the shelves of every
+provision store, together with canned and dried meats, and the
+restaurants where foreign food is served are distributed throughout the
+entire city, and do a thriving business on Japanese patronage. The less
+extravagant country people declare that T[=o]ky[=o] is "eating itself
+up," but so far no terrible increase of indebtedness seems to follow the
+change in the standard of living. It is interesting to note that the
+scalp troubles referred to on page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in
+the last ten years, whether because of the change in the food or for
+other reasons, I cannot determine.
+
+
+_Page 24._
+
+Twice, after the _miya mairi_ of her babyhood, does our little maid
+repair to the temple to seek the blessing of her patron god upon a step
+forward in her short life: once, when at the age of three, the hair on
+her small head, which until then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is
+allowed to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood; and once,
+when she has attained her seventh year, and exchanges the soft, narrow
+sash of infancy for the stiff, wide _obi_ which is the pride of every
+well-dressed Japanese woman. Her little brother, too, though now no
+longer destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of the old-time Japanese
+warrior, and whose fuzzy black head is now usually left unshaven in his
+babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of three to give thanks,
+and when he comes to be five years old, the little boy again goes up to
+the temple, this time wearing for the first time the manly _hakama_, or
+kilt-pleated trousers, and makes offerings to the god who has protected
+him thus far.
+
+The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th of November, and there is
+no prettier sight in all Japan than a popular temple on that day. All
+the streets that converge on the shrine are crowded with gayly dressed
+children hurrying along to make their offerings, accompanied by parents
+brimming with pride and pleasure.
+
+    "Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering,
+     Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"
+
+three-year-old tots of both sexes trudging sturdily along on their
+clogs: square little red-cheeked boys, their black eyes shining with
+pride in their rustling new silk _hakama_, feeling that they are big
+boys and no longer to be confused with the babies that they were
+yesterday: here, too, are the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their
+many-colored garments and their gorgeous new _obi_ setting off to
+advantage their shining black hair and sparkling eyes. The children are
+so many, so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it is to be older
+than they were, that the grown folks who accompany them seem like
+shadows; the only real thing is the children.
+
+Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers and toy-merchants who
+can find standing-room for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags are
+flying, drums are beating, a _kagura_ dance is going on in the pavilion,
+about which stands a crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and
+the steps that lead to the temple itself are as thronged as Jacob's
+ladder with little ones ascending and descending. Within the shrine the
+white-robed priests are hard at work from morning to night. A little
+company forms in the vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room,
+where they bow and make their offerings, and wait until there is space
+for them in the inner sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a
+droning chant, which ends at last, and then a party that has finished
+its worship issues forth, and those who have been waiting without go in;
+and when the few minutes of worship are over, and the amulet that
+rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the
+dances to be seen, and the _o miyage_ to be purchased, and at last the
+happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of
+life has been passed propitiously.
+
+
+_Page 30._
+
+The _shir[=o]zake_ (white _sake_) used for this occasion is a curious
+drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially
+for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest
+form of _sake_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this
+ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.
+
+
+_Page 31._
+
+The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom
+that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set
+apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was
+the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the
+semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to
+take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for
+purification, they were inscribed with the sex and birth-year of the
+user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early
+times, the season for cock-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing
+among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast
+are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern Japanese means a
+chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else
+except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be associated with the
+ancient cock-fighting, an amusement which has now almost gone out,
+except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.
+
+The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a
+man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper
+dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Sh[=o]guns had firmly
+established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued
+designating the five feast days upon which the daimi[=o]s were to
+present themselves at the Sh[=o]gun's palace and offer their
+congratulations. One of the days thus appointed was the third day of the
+third month. It is believed that the giving of the chief place at the
+feast to effigies of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of
+the Sh[=o]gunate,--a policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of
+loyalty to the throne, while at the same time the occupant of the throne
+remained a puppet in the hands of his vice-gerent.
+
+Each girl born into a family has a pair of _O Hina Sama_ placed for her
+upon the red-covered shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after
+her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her husband's house, she
+carries the dolls with her, and the first feast after her marriage she
+observes with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter old enough
+to carry out the observance, she must keep up the ceremony. The feast,
+as it exists to-day, is said by the Japanese to serve three purposes: it
+makes the children of both sexes loyal to the imperial family, it
+interests the girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial
+etiquette.
+
+
+_Page 40._
+
+Because of the complexity of the Chinese language and the time needed
+for its mastery, there has been a movement to lessen the study of pure
+Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it altogether, and with
+this to simplify the use of the ideographs in the Sinico-Japanese. The
+educational department is requiring that text-books be limited in their
+use of ideographs; that those used be written in only one way and that
+the simplest, and that the _kana_ (the Japanese syllabary) be
+substituted wherever possible. Several plans for reform in this matter
+are being agitated, one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to
+nouns and verbs only.
+
+
+_Page 41._
+
+No one who has been in Japan can have failed to notice the peculiarly
+strident quality of the Japanese voice in singing, a quality that is
+gained by professional singers through much labor and actual physical
+suffering. That this is not a natural characteristic of the Japanese
+voice is shown by the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of
+children and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to me to be brought
+about by the pursuit of a wrong musical ideal, or at least, of a musical
+ideal quite distinct from that of the Western world. In Japan one seldom
+finds singing birds kept in cages, but instead crickets, grasshoppers,
+katydids, and other noisy members of the insect family may be seen
+exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any summer night in the
+T[=o]ky[=o] streets. These insects delight the ears of the Japanese with
+their melody, and it seems to me that the voices of singers throughout
+the empire are modeled after the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect,
+rather than after the fuller notes of the bird's song.
+
+The introduction of European music by the schools and churches has
+already begun to show in the songs of the children in the streets, and
+where ten years ago one might live in T[=o]ky[=o] for a year, and never
+hear a note of music except the semi-musical cries of the workmen, when
+they are pulling or striking in concert, now there are few days when
+some strain of song from some passing school-child does not come in at
+the window of one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress made
+in catching foreign ideas of time and tune is quite surprising, but the
+singing will never be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice is
+modulated according to the foreign standards.
+
+
+_Page 45._
+
+It is said by Japanese versed in the most refined ways that a woman who
+has learned the tea ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior
+bearing and manner on all occasions.
+
+
+_Page 49._
+
+Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in a series of
+studies,--leaves, flowers, roots, and stalks being shown in every
+possible position and combination,--until not only the stroke is
+mastered, but the plant is thoroughly known. In the book that lies
+before me as I write, a book used as a copy-book by a young lady
+beginning the practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six large
+pages to studies of one small and simple flower and the pupil has
+covered hundreds of sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.
+She has now finished that part of the course, and can, at a moment's
+notice, reproduce with just the right strokes any of the designs or any
+part of the plant. The next step forward will be a similar series of
+bamboo.
+
+
+_Page 52._
+
+In the government schools for girls, much attention is paid just now to
+physical culture. The gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and
+English and mathematics as important parts of the course, and the girls
+are encouraged to spend their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all
+kinds of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war, marches, and
+quadrilles are entered into with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in
+their dark red _hakama_ are as well able to move quickly and freely as
+girls of the same age in America. If it were not for the queer
+pigeon-toed gait, acquired by years of walking in narrow _kimono_ and on
+high clogs, the Japanese girls would be fully abreast of the American in
+all these sports. So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical
+strength seized upon the nation, that a girl of delicate physique has
+less chance of marriage than one who is robust and strong.
+
+
+_Page 55._
+
+It is in the mistakes and failures made in adapting the education given
+in the schools to the exact conditions that present themselves in the
+constantly changing Japan of to-day, that the opponents of all
+alteration in the education of women find their strongest arguments. The
+conservatives point with scorn to this girl whose new ideas have led
+her into folly or trouble, or to that one whose health has been broken
+down by the adverse conditions surrounding her student life, and say,
+"This will be the case with all our women if we continue this insane
+practice of educating them along new lines." Advance in female
+education, as in all other lines of progress in Japan, is a series of
+violent actions and reactions. In 1889, partly through ill-advised
+conduct on the part of supporters of the cause, one of the most serious
+reverses that has come in the progress of Western education for women
+began to show itself. The reaction was helped along by a paper read
+before some of the most influential men of Japan, and subsequently
+reported and discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor in the
+medical department of the imperial University in T[=o]ky[=o]. The paper
+was a serious warning to the men of the country that no women could be
+good wives, mothers, and housekeepers and at the same time have
+undergone a thorough literary education. The arguments were reinforced
+by statistics showing that American college women either did not marry,
+or that if they married they had very few children. All Japan took
+fright at this alarming showing, and for several years the education of
+girls in anything more than the primary studies was not encouraged by
+the government. The lowest depth of this reaction was reached during or
+soon after the Japan-China war, when the growth of national vanity
+resulted in a temporary disdain for all foreign ideas. The tide has
+turned again now, girls' schools that have been closed for years are
+being reopened, young men who are thinking of marrying are looking for
+educated wives, and among the women themselves there is a strong desire
+for self-improvement. Under this impulse a new generation of educated
+women will be added to those already exerting an influence in the
+country, and it is to be hoped that the forward movement will be more
+difficult to set back when the next reactionary wave strikes the
+Japanese coast.
+
+
+_Page 60._
+
+The _obi_ is supposed to express by its length the hope that the
+marriage may be an enduring one. Among the more modernized Japanese a
+ring is now often given in place of, or, in the wealthier classes, in
+addition to the _obi_.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 6._
+
+It is interesting, however, as a sign of the times, to notice that for
+the wedding of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, the Shinto high priest,
+who is master of ceremonies at the Imperial Court, instituted a solemn
+religious ceremony within the sanctuary of the palace. Following the
+example set in so high a quarter, a number of couples, during the winter
+of 1900-1901, have repaired to Shinto temples in various parts of the
+empire, to secure the sanction of the ancient national faith upon their
+union. But still, for the great majority of the Japanese, the wedding
+ceremony is what it has always been.
+
+
+_Page 61, line 15._
+
+Although new methods of transportation have come into use now in most of
+the Japanese cities, and wheeled carts drawn by men or horses are used
+for carrying all other kinds of luggage, the wedding outfit, wrapped in
+great cloths on which the crest of the bride's family is conspicuous, is
+borne on men's shoulders to the bridegroom's home, the length of the
+baggage train and the number and size of the burdens showing the wealth
+and importance of the bride's family. The bride who goes to her
+husband's house well provided by her own family, will carry, not only a
+full wardrobe and the house-furnishings already mentioned, but will be
+supplied, so far as foresight can manage it, with all the little things
+that she can need for months in advance. Paper, pens, ink, postage
+stamps, needles, thread, and sewing materials of all kinds, a store of
+dress materials and other things to be given as presents to any and all
+who may do her favors, and pocket money with which she may make good any
+deficiencies, or meet any unforeseen emergency. When she goes from her
+father's house, she should be so thoroughly fitted out that she will not
+have to ask her husband for the smallest thing for a number of months.
+The parents of the bride, in giving up their daughter, as they do when
+she marries, show the estimation in which they have held her by the
+beauty and completeness of the trousseau with which they provide her.
+The expense of this wedding outfit is often very great, persons even in
+the most moderate circumstances spending as much as one thousand yen
+upon the necessary purchases, and among the wealthy, four thousand to
+five thousand yen is not extravagant. As material wealth increases in
+Japan, there is a marked tendency to increase the style and cost of the
+trousseau, and the marriage of a daughter has come to be, in many cases,
+a severe strain on the family finances. But this outfit is of the nature
+of a dowry, for it is her very own; and in the event of a divorce, she
+brings back with her to her father's house the clothing and household
+goods that she carried away as a bride.
+
+
+_Page 64._
+
+For this visit the bride wears for the first time a dress made for her
+by her husband's family and bearing its crest, as a sign that she is
+now a member of that family and only a guest in her father's house.
+
+
+_Page 76._
+
+Since the adoption of the new code, the conditions of marriage and of
+divorce have been altered for the better. At present no divorce is
+possible except through the courts or through mutual consent; the simple
+change of registration by one party or the other does not constitute a
+legal divorce. Even a divorce by mutual consent cannot be arranged
+without the consent of the parents or head of the family of a married
+person who is under twenty-five years of age. The grounds upon which
+judicial divorce may be granted seem very trivial measured by European
+standards, but, on the other hand, they are a distinct gain over the
+former practice. The wife is no longer dependent for her position simply
+upon the whim of her husband, but, unless he can secure her consent to
+the separation, he must formulate charges of immorality or conviction of
+crime, or of cruel treatment or grave insult on the part of the wife or
+of her relatives, or of desertion, or of disappearance for a period of
+three years or more. Only when some such charge has been made and proved
+before a court can a husband send away his wife. In the case of a
+separation by mutual consent, though the law still gives the care of the
+children to the father in case no previous agreement has been made, if a
+woman sees her way clear to supporting them, she may stipulate for the
+custody of one or more of them as a condition of her consent to the
+divorce. In a judicial divorce, the judge may, in the interests of the
+children, take them away from their father and assign them to the care
+of some other person.
+
+In these changes we can see a distinct advance toward permanence of the
+family tie; and we can see, too, that the wife has gained a new power to
+hold her own against injustice and wrong. That when the people have
+become used to these changes, other and more binding laws will be
+enacted, we can feel pretty sure, for the drift of enlightened public
+opinion seems to be in favor of securing better and more firmly
+established homes just as fast as "the hardness of their hearts" will
+permit.
+
+
+_Page 84._
+
+It is difficult for us in America, who live under customs and laws in
+which the individual is the social unit and the family a union of
+individuals, to understand a system of society in which the individual
+is little or nothing and the family the social unit recognized both by
+law and custom. In Japan, a man is simply a member of some family, and
+his daily affairs, his marrying and giving in marriage, are more or less
+under the control of the head of his family, or of the family council.
+Only in case he is the head of the family is he able to marry without
+securing some one's consent, and then his responsibilities in regard to
+the headship may in themselves hamper him. If this is the case with the
+more independent man, it may be imagined how completely the woman is
+submerged under family influence. She may, under exceptional
+circumstances, become the head of a family, but this is usually only a
+temporary expedient, and even then she must subordinate herself more
+completely to the family and its interests than when she occupies a
+lowlier place.
+
+The headship of an unmarried woman lasts only until a husband has been
+selected for her, and the headship of a widow lasts during her
+guardianship of the rightful heir to the position. By Japanese law a
+widow is always the guardian of her minor children.
+
+The only way in which individuality before the law can be obtained by
+man or woman in Japan is through cutting the tie that binds to the
+family, and starting out in life afresh as the head of a new family.
+This new family must always be _heimin_, or plebeian, no matter how high
+in rank may have been the family from which the founder has gone out,
+but there is a continually increasing number of young men and women who
+prefer the freedom that comes from the headship of a small and new
+family, even if of low rank, to the state of tutelage or of hampering
+responsibility which must accompany connection with a larger and older
+social group. It seems likely that through this means an evolution from
+the family to the individual system will be effected, as the nation
+grows more and more modernized in its way of looking at things.
+
+For the Japanese woman, as I have already said, marriage is in most
+cases the entrance into a new family. She is cut off from the old ways
+and interests, in which she has until now had her part, and she has
+begun life anew as the latest addition to and therefore the lowest and
+most ignorant member of another social group. It is her duty simply to
+learn the ways and obey the will of those above her, and it is the duty
+of those above her, and especially of her husband's mother, to fit her
+by training and discipline for her new surroundings. The physical
+strength of the young wife, her sweetness of temper, her manners, her
+morals, her way of looking at life, are all put to the test by this
+sharp-eyed guardian of the family interests, and woe to the younger
+woman if she fail to come up to the standard set. She may be a good
+woman and a faithful wife, but if, under the training given her, she
+does not adapt herself readily to the traditions and customs of the
+family she enters, it is more than likely, even under the new laws, that
+she may be sent back to her father's house as _persona non grata_, and
+even her husband's love cannot save her. It is because of this
+predominance of the family over the individual that the young wife, when
+she enters her husband's home, is not, as in our own country, entering
+upon a new life as mistress of a house, with absolute control over all
+of her little domain.
+
+
+_Page 115._
+
+At the time of the celebration of his silver wedding, in 1895, the
+Emperor came into the Audience Room with the Empress on his arm, an
+example which was followed by the Imperial Princes.
+
+With the engagement and marriage of the Crown Prince, in May, 1900, an
+entirely new precedent was established in the relations of the Imperial
+couple. The Western idea of marriage between equals has never existed in
+the Japanese mind in its thought of the union between their Emperor and
+Empress. The Empress, though of noble family, was chosen from among the
+subjects of the Emperor, and the marriage was of the nature of an
+appointment by the Emperor to the position of Imperial Consort, just as
+any other appointment might have been made of a subject to fill an
+important position in the government. In the marriage of the Crown
+Prince a very different course was pursued. While no departure was made
+from the old precedents in the selection of a Princess from one of the
+five families that trace their descent from Jimmu Tenno, the whole
+manner of obtaining the bride was different from anything that Japan had
+before known. The Prince asked the father of the young lady to give her
+to him just as a common man might have done, and everything in the
+preliminary arrangements was carried out with the idea that by the
+marriage she was to be raised to his rank and position. Reference has
+already been made to the religious ceremony that was devised for the
+occasion, an act that in itself altered the meaning of marriage for the
+whole nation.
+
+Since the wedding, rumors have floated to the world outside of the
+palace gates, of the kindness and consideration with which the young
+wife is treated by her husband. To the scandal of some of the more
+old-fashioned of the Prince's attendants, the heir to the throne insists
+on observing toward his wife, in private as well as in public, all the
+minutiae of Western etiquette. She enters the carriage ahead of him when
+they drive together, they habitually take their meals together, and he
+finds in her a cheerful companion and friend, and not simply a devoted
+and humble servant. In this way, by the highest example that can be set
+to them, the Japanese people are learning a new lesson.
+
+All these things have a deep significance in showing that the sacredness
+of the marriage tie is gradually being recognized.
+
+
+_Page 137._
+
+Something, indeed, may be said on the other side in regard to this
+system, which I seem to have painted as ideal. If in America we find the
+burden of expensive grown-up sons and daughters sometimes too heavy upon
+parents whose powers are on the wane, we must remember that in Japan a
+young man is often seriously handicapped at the beginning of his active
+life by the early retirement of his father from self-supporting labor,
+and that the young wife entering the home of her parents-in-law often
+finds a happy married life rendered impossible by the fact that she must
+please an elderly couple thoroughly fixed in their ways,--the rulers of
+the household and with little to do but rule. With this custom, as with
+all human customs, everything in the long run depends upon how it is
+used, and without deep affection between parents and children there
+seems to be as much danger from the serious handicapping of the rising
+generation by selfish and inconsiderate parents in Japan, as there is in
+America of the wearing out of the older people's lives and strength in
+the service of ungrateful and lazy children.
+
+
+_Page 152._
+
+The bed on which the Empress sleeps is made of heavy _futons_, or
+quilts, of white _habutai_ wadded with silk wadding. The bedclothing
+consists of as many similar _futons_ as the state of the weather may
+require. Every month new _futons_ are provided for Her Majesty, and the
+discarded ones are given to one of her attendants. The happy recipient
+is thus provided with wadding enough for all her winter dresses for the
+rest of her life, as well as with a good supply of dress material.
+
+
+_Page 157._
+
+Only those who have seen the inner life of the court can realize the
+difficulties which have attended every step of the Empress Haru's way,
+for the court has been the scene of great struggles between the
+conservative and radical elements. Mean and petty jealousies have moved
+those surrounding the throne. The slightest word or token from the
+Empress would be used as a weapon for private ends. To move among these
+varied and discordant factions, and to move for progress, without
+causing undue friction, has been a task more difficult than the conquest
+of armies, and to do so successfully has required almost infinite
+patience, sympathy, and love.
+
+
+_Page 168._
+
+And now, after thirty-three years of the enlightened rule of the present
+Emperor, and of the beneficent life and example of the Empress Haru, is
+there any assurance that the progress made during their occupation of
+the throne will be continued in the lives of Japan's future rulers?
+
+Prince Haru, or Yoshihito, is now a man twenty-two years of age, with
+character sufficiently developed to be used as the basis for a guess at
+what his qualities as a sovereign may prove to be. "As far as the East
+is from the West" have his life and education been from the life and
+education of his illustrious father. Instead of the curtained seclusion,
+the quiet and calm of the old palace in the old capital, the present
+Crown Prince has known from babyhood the sights and sounds of the
+stirring city of T[=o]ky[=o]. He has driven in an open carriage or walked
+through its streets; he has been to school with boys of his own age,
+taking the school work and the drill and the games with the other boys,
+learning to know men and things and himself too, in a way in which none
+of his ancestors, since the days when they were simply savage chiefs,
+have had opportunity of knowing. As he grew toward manhood, his delicate
+health required that he leave the school and pursue his studies as his
+strength permitted, under masters; but he has retained his love for all
+athletic exercises, for dogs and horses and guns and bicycles, and he is
+as expert in outdoor sports as any youth of Western training. His mind
+is quick and eager, interested especially in foreign ways and thoughts,
+and seeking most of all to understand how other people think and feel
+and live. Though he has been emancipated to a wonderful degree from the
+state and ceremony that surrounded his ancestors, he is nevertheless
+impatient of what remains, and would gladly dispense with many forms
+that his conservative guardians regard as necessary; and these same
+guardians at times find their young eaglet difficult to manage. He has
+views and ideas of his own, and acts occasionally upon his own
+initiative in a way that fairly scandalizes his advisers. He wishes to
+visit his future subjects upon something like equal terms. The role of
+Son of Heaven seems to him less interesting at times than some smaller
+and more human part. When he walks, he wants to lead his own dog, not
+have him led by some one else; to stop in the street and watch the
+common people at their work; to drop in on his friends in a neighborly
+way and see how they live when they are not expecting a visit from
+royalty. Provided he does not go too fast or too far, when his turn
+comes to ascend the throne, he cannot but make a better emperor for the
+intimate personal knowledge that he is seeking and gaining of the lives
+and feelings of his people.
+
+The Crown Princess Sada, who has now been for one year in the line of
+succession to the present beloved Empress, shows in her training and
+character the influence of the new impulse that is driving Japan
+forward. The circumstances that led to her selection as the bride of the
+Prince are in themselves curious enough to be worth recording. The Kujo
+family is one of the five families from which alone can the wife of the
+Crown Prince be chosen, and the present Prince Kujo is blessed with many
+daughters. Of these, the oldest is about the age of Prince Haru, and at
+one time it was hoped that she might be selected as his consort, but at
+last that hope was given up, and she was married to another prince. The
+second daughter was as bright and charming as the first, but she was
+just enough younger than the Prince to make her marriage with him so
+dangerous a matter according to all the rules that govern good and bad
+luck in Japan, that no hope was entertained for her, and she was
+married, when her time came, with no reference to the greatest match
+that any Japanese princess can make. The third daughter was six years
+younger than the Prince, so much younger that it was thought that he
+would be married long before she grew up, so no special care or
+attention was given to her. In her babyhood, like most Japanese babies
+of high rank, she was sent out into the country to be nursed. Her foster
+parents were plain farmer folk, who loved her and cared for her as their
+own child. She played bareheaded and barefooted in the sun and wind,
+tumbled about, jolly and happy, with the village children, and lived and
+grew like a kitten or a puppy rather than like a future empress until
+she was old enough for the kindergarten. Then she came back to
+T[=o]ky[=o], to her father's house, and from there she attended the
+Peeresses' School, going backward and forward every day with her bundle
+of books, and taking her share of the work and play with the other
+children. In her school-days she was noticeable for her great physical
+activity and her hearty enjoyment of the outdoor sports which form so
+important a part of the training in Japanese schools for girls at
+present; and for her strength of will and character among a class of
+students upon whom self-repression amounting almost to self-abnegation
+has been inculcated from earliest childhood.
+
+When this little princess reached the age of fifteen, the Crown Prince's
+marriage, which had been somewhat deferred on account of his ill-health,
+was pressed forward, and to the extreme surprise of her own family, and
+of many others as well, the Princess Sada was chosen, largely on account
+of her great physical vigor. Then began a great change in her life. From
+being one of the lowest and least considered in her family, she was
+suddenly raised high above all the rest, even her father addressing her
+as a superior. The merry, romping school-girl was transformed in a few
+days into the great lady, too grand to associate on equal terms with any
+but the imperial family. Small cause was there for wonder if she shrank
+from the change and begged that the honor might be bestowed on some one
+else. The old free life was gone forever, and she dreaded the heavy
+responsibility that was to fall upon her slender shoulders.
+
+The choice was made in August, 1899, and from the moment that the
+engagement was entered into, the Princess Sada became an honored guest
+in her father's house. She could no longer play with her brothers and
+sisters, or take a meal with any member of her own family. A new and
+handsome suite of rooms was built for her, her old wardrobe was
+discarded and an entirely new one provided for her, all her table
+service was new and distinct from that of the rest of the family, and
+she was addressed by all as if she were already Empress. Her studies
+were not given up, but masters were chosen for her who came to her and
+instructed her, with due deference to her high station, in the subjects
+that she had been studying at school. So passed the nine months of her
+engagement, and on May 8, 1900, she became one of the principals in a
+state wedding such as Japan had never before seen. Through all the show
+and ceremony she acquitted herself decorously and bravely, and since her
+marriage no word save of approval of the young wife has come out from
+the palace gates. Her little sisters-in-law, the four small daughters of
+the Emperor, enjoy nothing so much as to go and spend the day with her,
+for she is so amusing, and her life has been such a busy and happy one,
+that she comes like a breath of fresh air into the seclusion of the
+Court. Her young husband, too, finds in her congenial society, and his
+frail health seems to be daily strengthening with the brightness that
+has come into his home.
+
+Great was the joy in the empire when, on April 29, 1901, this happy
+union was rendered still happier by the birth of a strong little prince
+to carry on the ancient line. By an auspicious coincidence, his birth
+came just at the time of the annual boys' feast, or Feast of Flags, and
+his naming day was appointed for May 5, the great day of the feast, when
+all Japan is decorated with giant carp swinging from tall poles outside
+of every house, and swimming vigorously at the ends of their tethers in
+the strong spring wind. The carp is to the Japanese mind the emblem of
+courage and perseverance, for he swims up the strongest current, leaping
+the waterfalls that oppose his progress. The baby was named by his
+grandfather, and will have the personal name of Hirohito, and the title
+Prince Michi. With this new little prince there are no polite fictions
+to maintain, nor conventional relationships to be established. He is the
+son of his father's lawful wife, as well as of his father. There is to
+be no breaking off of natural ties, and his own mother will nurse and
+care for him, a fortune that never falls to the lot of the imperial son
+of a _mekake_. If he lives, he will be a standing argument in favor of
+monogamy, even in noble families, and his birth bodes well for family
+life throughout the country.
+
+
+_Page 182._
+
+A pretty, but most shocking sight, if seen through the eyes of some of
+these old-fashioned attendants, is the semi-annual _undo kai_, or
+exercise day of the Peeresses' School. The large playground is, for
+this occasion, surrounded by seats divided off to accommodate invited
+guests of various ranks, who spend the day watching the entertainment.
+In the most honorable place, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, sits
+the Empress herself, for the education of the daughters of the nobles is
+a matter of the liveliest interest to her; and the parents and friends
+and teachers of the girls fill up all available seats after the school
+itself has been accommodated.
+
+The programme is usually a long one, occupying the greater part of the
+morning and afternoon, with an interval for lunch. Most of the ordinary
+English field games--tennis, basket-ball, etc.--are played with skill
+and vigor, and in addition to these there are races of various kinds,
+devised to show, not simply fleetness of foot, but quickness of hand and
+wit as well. These races vary from year to year, as the ingenuity of the
+directors of the sports may be able to devise new forms of exercise. One
+extremely pretty contest is as follows: On the playground between the
+starting-point and the goal are set at equal distances four upright
+sticks for each runner. Four branches of cherry blossoms and four
+bright-colored ribbons for each contestant are laid on the ground at the
+starting-point. At the signal, each girl picks up a cherry branch and a
+ribbon, and runs to one of the upright sticks, tying the flowers firmly
+thereto; then she runs back for a second branch, and so on until all
+four have been fastened in place. The race is won by the child who first
+reaches the goal leaving behind her four blooming trees where before
+there were bare poles. This seems to be the aesthetic Japanese
+equivalent for our prosaic potato race. Another contest is after this
+manner: Along the course of each runner are laid at certain intervals
+bright-colored balls,--a different color for each contestant. The object
+of the race is, within a certain time, to pick up all the balls and
+throw them into the nearly closed mouth of a great net at the far end of
+the grounds. The contest is not decided until the balls have been
+counted, when the girl who has succeeded in getting the greatest number
+of balls of her color into the net is declared the winner. Another and
+extremely pretty race, calling for great steadiness of hand and body, is
+the running from one end of the ground to the other with a ball balanced
+on a battledore. The Japanese battledore is made of light but hard wood,
+and is long and narrow in shape. If one had not seen it done, it would
+be well-nigh impossible to believe that any child could carry a ball
+upon it for more than a few slow steps: but these children run at a
+smart trot, keeping the ball immovable upon its small and smooth
+surface.
+
+Beside the games and races, there are calisthenic exhibitions, in which
+great precision of motion and flexibility of body are manifested. One of
+the most graceful and attractive of these is the fan drill shown on this
+occasion, when some twenty or thirty girls, with their bright-colored
+dresses, long, waving sleeves, and red _hakama_, posture in perfect
+rhythm, with fans opened or closed, waving above the head, held before
+the face, changed from position to position, with the performers'
+changes of attitude, each new figure seemingly more graceful than the
+last.
+
+In these and many other ways the nobility of new Japan are being fitted
+for the new part that they have to play in the world. No wonder that the
+education now given, awakening the mind, toughening the body, arousing
+ambition and individuality, is regarded by many of the ultra-conservatives
+as a dangerous innovation, and one likely to bring the nobility down to
+the level of the common people. Whether this new education is better or
+worse than the old, we can hardly tell as yet, but there are no signs of
+the immediate breakdown of the old spirit of the nobility, and the
+better health and stronger characters of the young women who have
+received the modern training promise much for the next generation.
+
+
+_Page 192._
+
+While this was entirely true in 1890, it is interesting to observe that
+after ten years of commercial and industrial progress there are signs
+that the embroidered kimono is coming back into fashion. With the growth
+of large fortunes and of luxury that has marked the past decade, has
+come the custom of providing wedding garments as magnificently
+embroidered as were the robes of the daimi[=o]s' ladies, and even the
+_montsuki_ or ceremonial dress, which was severely plain in 1890, now
+has little delicate embroidery about the bottom. It will not be
+surprising if some day, when the present growing commercial and
+industrial enterprise has reaped a more abundant harvest, Japan blooms
+forth again in the beautiful garments that went out of fashion when the
+great political upheaval cut off the revenues of the old nobility.
+
+
+_Page 209._
+
+At each encroachment of the enemy those of the population who could not
+find refuge at once within the inner defenses were driven to choose
+between surrender and self-inflicted death. The unconquerable samurai
+spirit flamed out in the choice of hundreds of women and children as
+well as men, and whole families were wiped out of existence at once,
+the little ones, who were too young to understand the proper method of
+_hara-kiri_, kneeling calmly with bowed heads for the death-stroke from
+father or brother which should free them from the disgrace of defeat.
+
+
+_Page 223._
+
+That the spirit of the samurai women is still a living force in Japan,
+no one can doubt who listens to the stories of what the women did and
+bore in the Japan-China war of 1895. The old self-sacrifice and devotion
+showed itself throughout the country in deeds of real, if sometimes
+mistaken, heroism. Husbands, sons, and brothers were sent out to danger
+and death with smiles and cheerful words, by women dependent upon them
+for everything in a way that can hardly be understood by Americans. Even
+tears of grief for the dear ones offered in the country's cause were
+suppressed as disloyal, and women learned with unmoved countenances of
+the death of those they loved best, and found the courage to express, in
+the first shock of bereavement, their sense of the honor conferred on
+the family by the death of one of its members in the cause of his
+country.
+
+A few incidents quoted from an article by Miss Ume Tsuda that appeared
+in the New York "Independent" in 1895 will give my readers an idea of
+the forms that this devotion assumed:--
+
+"One instance comes into my mind of an old lady who sent out cheerfully
+and with a smiling face her young and only son, the sole stay of her old
+age. Left a widow while young, she had lived a life of much sorrow and
+trouble, and had with almost superhuman efforts managed to give her son
+an education that would start him in life. It was only a few years ago
+that the son had begun to help in the family support, and to be able to
+repay to the mother her tender care of him. Her pride in her son and his
+young wife was a pleasure to see, and the little home they had together
+seemed a safe haven for the coming years of old age. Now, in a moment
+all this was changed,--the son must start off for the wars. Yet not for
+one instant was a cloud seen on the mother's face, as, smilingly and
+cheerfully, she assisted in the preparations for his departure. Not in
+public or in secret did one sigh or regret escape her; not even to the
+son did a word of anxiety pass her lips. Her face, beaming with joy,
+looked with pride on the manly strength of the young soldier as he
+started to fight for his country and win honor for himself,--honor which
+would surely come to him whether he lived or died.
+
+"Another woman who is well on in years, and whose eldest son is a naval
+officer, furnishes an interesting example of mother love. Though never
+showing her anxiety on his account, or grief at his danger, she has
+taken upon herself, in spite of her old age and by no means vigorous
+health, to go on foot every morning to one of the temples and worship
+there before daylight, in order to propitiate the gods, that they may
+protect her son. She arises at four o'clock in the morning on the
+coldest of cold days, washes and purifies herself with ice-cold water,
+and then starts out before daylight for her three-mile walk to the
+temple. Thus through wind and storm and cold have the faith and love of
+this old woman upheld her, and one is happy to add that so far her
+prayers have been heard and no harm has come to the one she has called
+on her gods to protect.
+
+"A touching story is told of the aged mother of Sakamoto, commander of
+the warship Akagi, who was killed in the thickest of the fight during
+the great naval battle of the Yellow Sea. Commander Sakamoto left an
+aged mother, a wife, and three children. As soon as his death was
+officially ascertained, a messenger was dispatched from the naval
+department to convey the sad tidings to his family. The communication
+was made duly to his wife, and before the messenger had left the house
+it reached the ears of the old mother, who, tottering into the room
+where the officer was, saluted and greeted him duly, and then, with dry
+eyes and a clear voice, said, 'So it seems by your tidings that my son
+has been of some service this time.'
+
+"One reads pathetic stories in the newspapers daily in connection with
+the war. Not long ago a sad account was given of a young woman, just
+past her twentieth year, and only recently married to an army officer.
+She had belonged by birth to a military family, and, as befitted the
+wife and daughter of a soldier, she resolved, on hearing of the death of
+her husband, that she would not survive him, but would follow him to the
+great unknown. Sending away her servant on some excuse, she remained
+alone in her home, which she put into perfect order. Then she arranged
+all her papers, wrote a number of letters, and made her last
+preparations for death. She dressed herself in full ceremonial dress as
+she had been dressed for her bridal, and seated herself before a large
+portrait of her husband. Then, with a short dirk, such as is owned by
+every samurai woman, she stabbed herself. In her last letters she gives
+as the reason for her death that, having no ties in the world, she would
+not survive her husband, but wished to remain faithful to him in death
+as she had been in life.
+
+"Many such stories might be cited, but enough has been given to show the
+spirit that exists in Japan. With such women and such teachings in
+their homes, can it be wondered at that Japan is a brave nation, and
+that her soldiers are winning battles? Certainly some of the honor and
+credit must be given to these wives and mothers scattered throughout
+Japan, who are surely, in some cases, the inspirers of that courage and
+spirit which is just now surprising the world."
+
+
+_Page 239._
+
+Much surprise is evinced by foreigners visiting Japan at the lack of
+taste shown by the Japanese in the imitation of foreign styles. And yet,
+for these same foreigners, who condemn so patronizingly the Japanese
+lack of taste in foreign things, the Japanese manufacture pottery, fans,
+scrolls, screens, etc., that are most excruciating to their sense of
+beauty, and export them to markets in which they find a ready sale,
+their manufacturers wondering, the while, why foreigners want such ugly
+things. The fact is that neither civilization has as yet come into any
+understanding of the other's aesthetic side, and the sense of beauty of
+the one is a sealed book to the other. The Japanese nation, in its
+efforts to adopt foreign ways, has been, up to the present time, blindly
+imitating, with little or no comprehension of underlying principles. As
+a result there is an absolute crudeness in foreign things as attempted
+in Japan that grates on the nerves of travelers fresh from the best to
+be found in Europe or America.
+
+There are signs, however, that the stage of imitation is past and that
+adaptation has begun. Here and there in T[=o]ky[=o] may be seen
+buildings in which the solidity of foreign architecture has been grafted
+upon the Japanese type. Ten years ago, Japanese men who adopted foreign
+dress went about in misfitting garments, soiled linen, untidy shoes, and
+hats that had been discarded by the civilization for which they were
+made many seasons before they reached Japan. They wore Turkish towels
+about their necks and red blankets over their shoulders at the desire of
+unscrupulous importers, who persuaded them that towels for neck-cloths
+and blankets for overcoats were the latest styles of London and Paris.
+To-day one sees no such eccentricities of costume in the purely Japanese
+city of T[=o]ky[=o]. Men who wear foreign dress wear it made correctly
+in every particular by Japanese tailors, shoemakers, and hatters. The
+standard has been attained, for men at least, and in foreign dress as
+well as in Japanese, the natural good taste of the people has begun to
+assert itself. So it will be in time with other new things adopted. As
+no single element of the Chinese civilization secured a permanent
+footing in Japan except such as could be adapted, not only to the
+national life, but to the national taste as well, so it will be with
+European things. All things that are adopted will be adapted, and
+whatever is adapted is likely in time to be improved and made more
+beautiful by the national instinct for beauty. During the transition,
+enormities are omitted and monstrosities are constructed, but when the
+standard is at last attained, we may expect that the genius of the race
+will triumph over the difficulties that it is now encountering.
+Individual Japanese who have lived long in Europe or America show the
+same nice discrimination in regard to foreign things that they do in
+their Japanese surroundings, and are rarely at fault in their taste.
+What is true of the individual now will be true of the nation when
+European standards have become common property.
+
+
+_Page 242._
+
+In the remote mountain regions, where the majesty and uncertainty of the
+great natural forces impress themselves constantly upon the minds of the
+peasantry, one finds a simple nature worship, and a desire to propitiate
+all the unseen powers, that is not so evident in the daily life of the
+dwellers in more populous and progressive parts of the country. As the
+mountains close in about the road that runs up from the plains below, a
+great stone, on which is deeply carved "To the God of the Mountains,"
+calls the attention of the traveler to the fact that the supernatural is
+a recognized power among the mountaineers. In such regions one finds
+the stated offerings at the shrines which stand near the wayside kept
+constantly renewed. Nearly every house is protected by some slip of
+paper pasted above the door, a charm obtained by toilsome pilgrimage to
+some noted temple. Behind or near the village temple one may see rude
+wigwams of straw, each sheltering a _gohei_,[45]--witnesses to the vows
+of devotees who hope, sooner or later, to erect small wooden shrines and
+so win favor from the unknown rulers of human destinies. In places where
+pack-horses form a large part of the wealth of the people, stones to the
+horses' spirits are erected, and the halters of all the horses that die
+are left upon these stones. Prayers, too, are offered to the guardian
+spirits of the living horses, before stones on which are carved
+sometimes the image of a horse bearing a _gohei_ on his back, sometimes
+a rough figure of the horse-headed Kwannon. To such stones or shrines
+are brought horses suffering from sickness of any kind, and the hand is
+rubbed first on the stone and then on the part of the animal supposed to
+be affected. In one district, when a horse epidemic broke out, its rapid
+spread was attributed by the authorities to this custom, and all persons
+were warned of the danger, with what effect in breaking up the ancient
+habit the newspaper reports failed to say. It is in such regions as this
+that the _oni_ and the _tengu_[46] still live in the every-day thought
+of the people; it is here, too, that the old custom of offering flowers
+and fruit to the spirits of the dead at the midsummer festival is most
+conscientiously kept up. All possible spirits are included in these
+offerings, so that even by the roadside one finds bunches of flowers set
+up in the clefts of the rock, to the spirits of travelers who have died
+on the way.
+
+[45] _Gohei_, a piece of white paper, cut and folded in a peculiar
+manner, one of the sacred symbols of the Shint[=o] faith.
+
+[46] _Tengu_, a winged, long-nosed or beak-mouthed monster, supposed to
+inhabit the mountain regions of Japan. It was from a _tengu_ that
+Yoshitsune, one of the greatest of Japanese heroes, learned to fence,
+and so became a swordsman of almost miraculous expertness. _Oni_, a
+demon or goblin.
+
+In one little mountain resort, far from the railroad but in touch with
+the outside world through the hundreds of visitors that seek its hot
+baths during the summer, it was my good fortune to spend a few weeks
+recently. Our walks were rather limited in variety, as the village lay
+in an almost inaccessible mountain valley through which a carefully
+engineered road ran along the edge of the river gorge. About half a mile
+out of the village, close to the road and overhanging the waters of the
+river at a spot where the rocks were so worn and carved by the rushing
+torrent as to have gained the appropriate title of the "Screen Rocks,"
+was a little shop and a tea-house. It was a pleasant resting-place after
+a warm and dusty walk, and almost daily we would halt there for a cup of
+tea and a slice of _yokan_, or bean marmalade, before returning to our
+rooms in the hotel. The managers of the place were an old man and his
+wife, who divided their labor between the shop and the tea-house. The
+old man was an artist in roots. His life was devoted to searching out
+grotesquely shaped roots on the forest-covered hills, and whittling,
+turning, and trimming them into the semblance of animal or human forms.
+_Tengu_ and goblins, long-legged birds and short-legged beasts, all
+manner of weird products of his imagination and his handiwork, peopled
+the interior of the little shop, and he was always ready to welcome us
+and show us his latest work, with the pride of an artist in his
+masterpiece.
+
+His wife, a cheery old woman, attended to the tea-house, and as soon as
+we had seated ourselves, bustled about to bring us cool water from the
+spring that bubbled out of the rocks across the road, and to set before
+us the tiny cups of straw-colored tea and the delicious slices of
+_yokan_ which we soon learned was the specialty of the place. She was
+glad to have a little gossip as we sipped and nibbled, telling us many
+interesting bits of folklore about the immediate locality. It was from
+her that we learned that the pinnacle of rock that dominated the village
+was built by _tengu_ long ago, though now they were all gone from the
+woods, for she had looked for them often at night when she went out to
+shut the house, but she had never seen one,--and even the monkeys were
+becoming scarce. She it was, too, who sent us to look for the mysterious
+draught of cold air that crossed the road near the base of the great
+rock, colder on hot days than on cool ones, and at all times
+astonishing,--the "Tengu's Wind Hole." We learned through her about the
+snakes to be found in the woods, and of the wonderful tonic virtues of
+the _mamushi_ (the one poisonous snake of Japan), if caught and bottled
+with a sufficient quantity of _sake_. The _sake_ may be renewed again
+and again, and the longer the snake has been bottled the more medicinal
+does it become, so that one _mamushi_ may, if used perseveringly,
+medicate several casks of _sake_. We had opportunity later to verify her
+statements, for we found at a small grocery store, where we stopped to
+add a few delicacies to our somewhat scanty bill of fare, two snakes,
+neatly coiled in quart bottles and pickled in _sake_, one of which could
+be obtained for the sum of seventy-five sen, though the other, who in
+his rage at being bottled had buried his fangs in his own body,
+commanded a higher price because of his courage. We did not feel in
+need of a tonic that day, so left the _mamushi_ on the grocery shelves,
+but it is probable that their disintegrating remains are being
+industriously quaffed to-day by some elderly Japanese whose failing
+strength demands an unfailing remedy.
+
+When our little friend had learned of our interest in snakes, she was on
+the lookout for snake stories of all kinds. One day she stopped us as we
+came by rather later than usual, hurrying home before a threatening
+shower, to tell us that we ought to have come a little sooner, for the
+great black snake who was the messenger of the god that lived on the
+mountain had just been by, and we might have been interested to see him.
+She had seen him before, herself, so he was no novelty to her, but she
+was sure that the matter would interest us. Poor little old lady, with
+her kindly face and pleasant ways, and her friendly cracked voice. Her
+firm belief in all the uncanny and supernatural things that wiser people
+have outgrown brought us face to face with the childhood of our race,
+and drew us into sympathy with a phase of culture in which all nature is
+wrapped in inscrutable mystery.
+
+
+_Page 264._
+
+Each year that passes sees a few more stores adopting the habit of fixed
+prices, not to be altered by haggling.
+
+
+_Page 282._
+
+On another occasion the good offices of the fortune-teller were sought
+concerning a marriage, and the powerful arranger of human destinies
+discovered that though everything else was favorable, the bride
+contracted for was to come from a quarter quite opposed to the luck of
+the bridegroom. This was no laughing matter, as the bride was of a noble
+family and the breaking of the engagement would be attended with much
+talk and trouble on both sides; but, on the other hand, the family of
+the bridegroom dared not face the danger so mysteriously prophesied by
+the fortune-teller. In this predicament, there was nothing to do but to
+pull the wool over the eyes of the gods as best they might. For this
+purpose the bride with all her belongings was sent the day before the
+wedding from her father's house to that of an uncle living in another
+part of the city, and on the morning of the wedding-day she came to her
+husband from a quarter quite favorable to his fortunes. It seems quite
+probable that the gods were taken in by this somewhat transparent
+subterfuge, for no serious evil has befallen the young couple in three
+years of married life.
+
+
+_Page 317._
+
+To the American mind this method of terminating relations is always
+irritating and frequently embarrassing, but in Japan any discomfort is
+to be endured rather than the slightest suspicion of bad manners. If the
+foreign visitor is trying to learn to be a good Japanese, she must
+submit patiently when the servant solemnly engaged fails to appear at
+the appointed hour, sending a letter instead to say that she is ill; or
+when the woman upon whom she is depending to travel with her the next
+day to the country receives a telegram calling her to the bedside of a
+mythical son, and departs, bag and baggage, at a moment's notice,
+leaving her quondam mistress to shift for herself as best she may.
+
+
+_Page 318._
+
+Among the many changes that have come over Japan in the transition from
+feudalism to the conditions of modern life, there is none that Japanese
+ladies regard with greater regret than the change in the servant
+question. As the years go by and new employments open to women, it
+becomes increasingly difficult to engage and keep servants of the
+old-time, faithful, intelligent sort. Notwithstanding increased pay, and
+the still existing conditions of considerate treatment, comfortable
+homes, and light work, it is hard to fill places vacated, even in noble
+households: and there is almost as much shaking of heads and despondent
+talk over the servant question in Japan to-day as there is in America.
+
+
+_Page 322._
+
+It is interesting to note that it is to the quickness and courage of a
+jinrikisha man who interposed between him and his would-be assassin that
+the present Czar of Russia owes his escape from death at Otsu, near
+Ky[=o]t[=o], in 1891.
+
+
+
+
+EPILOGUE.
+
+
+My task is ended. One half of Japan, with its virtues and its frailties,
+its privileges and its wrongs, has been brought, so far as my pen can
+bring it, within the knowledge of the American public. If, through this
+work, one person setting forth for the Land of the Rising Sun goes
+better prepared to comprehend the thoughts, the needs, and the virtues
+of the noble, gentle, self-sacrificing women who make up one half the
+population of the Island Empire, my labor will not have been in vain.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+Adoption, 103, 112, 187.
+
+Agility of Japanese, 13.
+
+Ai, love, 415.
+
+Amado, sliding wooden shutters used to inclose a Japanese house at
+night, 23.
+
+Amulets, 329.
+
+Andon, a standing lamp inclosed in a paper case, 89.
+
+Ane San, or Ne San, elder sister (_San_ the honorific), a title used by
+the younger children in a family in speaking to their eldest sister, 20.
+
+Aoyama, 131.
+
+Apprentices, 309, 310.
+
+Art in common things, 237-239, 462, 463.
+
+Artisans, 235-239, 270.
+
+
+Babies, 1-17;
+  bathing, 10;
+  conditions of life, 6, 7;
+  dress, 6, 15;
+  food, 10, 11;
+  imperial babies, 8, 9;
+  learning to talk, 16;
+  learning to walk, 13, 14;
+  of lower classes, 7;
+  of middle classes, 8;
+  of nobility, 8;
+  skin troubles, 11;
+  teething, 12;
+  tied to the back, 7, 8, 12.
+
+Baby carriages, 424.
+
+Baths, public, 10.
+
+Beauty, Japanese standard of, 58; early loss of, 122.
+
+Be be, a child's word for dress, 16.
+
+Bed, the Empress's, 446.
+
+Betrothal, 60.
+
+Bett[=o], a groom or footman who cares for the horse in the stable and
+runs ahead of it on the road, 62, 71, 311, 316, 319.
+
+Bible, circulation of, in Japan, 412-414.
+
+Birth, 1.
+
+Boys, amusements of, 362-370.
+
+Breakfast, 89.
+
+Brothels. _See_ J[=o]roya.
+
+Buddha's birthday, 365.
+
+Buddhism, 168, 240;
+  affected by Christianity, 417-421;
+  introduction of, 143-145.
+
+Buddhist funerals, 131, 132, 347.
+
+Buddhist nuns, 155.
+
+Buddhist priest, story of a, 418-421.
+
+Building, 333-335.
+
+Butsudan, the household shrine
+used by Buddhists, 323.
+
+
+Castles, 151, 157, 169, 171, 173, 174, 185, 186, 192.
+
+Chadai, literally "tea money," the fee given at an inn, 251-253.
+
+Cherry blossoms, 28, 146, 166, 176, 177, 191, 295, 296.
+
+Childhood. _See_ Girlhood.
+
+Children, intellectual characteristics of Japanese, 41;
+  Japanese compared with American, 19.
+
+Chinese characters, 40.
+
+Chinese civilization introduced, 142.
+
+Chinese code of morals, 103, 111.
+
+Christian ideas, progress of, 402-421.
+
+Christianity, 77, 81, 168, 206, 207.
+
+Christians, Japanese, 404.
+
+Chrysanthemum, 166, 296-298.
+
+Civilization, new, 77.
+
+Clubs, women's, 391.
+
+Concubinage, 85, 111.
+
+Confectionery, 146.
+
+Confucius, 103, 168.
+
+Constitution, promulgation of the, 114, 276.
+
+Corea, conquest of, 139-143.
+
+Country and city, 278, 279.
+
+Court, after conquest of Corea, 143-146;
+  amusements of, 145;
+  costumes, 146;
+  in early times, 138, 139;
+  ladies, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  life, 138-168;
+  of daimi[=o], 171;
+  of Sh[=o]gun, 170, 171;
+  removal to T[=o]ky[=o], 156.
+
+Courtship, 58.
+
+Crown Prince's wedding, the, 434, 442-445, 449-453.
+
+Crucifixion, 199, 234.
+
+
+Daikoku, the money god, 332.
+
+Dai jobu, "Safe," "All right," 320.
+
+Daimi[=o], a member of the landed nobility under the feudal system,
+169-195;
+  his castles, 169;
+  his courts, 17;
+  his daughters, 175, 177, 180, 182-184, 191, 192-195;
+  his journeys to Yedo, 171-173;
+  his retainers, 169, 171, 173, 175, 177-179, 181, 183, 185, 186;
+  his wife, 175, 177, 182, 192-195;
+  seclusion of, 172-174.
+
+Dancing, 38, 287, 288.
+
+Dancing girls. _See_ Geisha.
+
+Dango Zaka, 296.
+
+Dashi, a float used in festival processions, 275-278, 366-369.
+
+Days, lucky and unlucky, 331.
+
+Decency, Japanese standard of, 255-260.
+
+Deformity, caused by position in sitting, 9.
+
+Diet, changes in, 424.
+
+Divorce, among lower classes, 66, 69, 73;
+  among higher classes, 66, 68;
+  effect of recent legislation on, 374, 439;
+  new laws, 438, 439;
+  right to children in case of, 67, 105, 439.
+
+Dolls, Feast of, 28-31, 428-430;
+  origin of, 428;
+  present meaning of, 430.
+
+Dress, baby, 6, 15;
+  court, 145, 146;
+  in daimi[=o]s' houses, 187, 192;
+  military, of samurai women, 188;
+  of lower classes, 126-128;
+  of pilgrims, 243;
+  present tendencies, 457;
+  showing age of wearer, 119.
+
+
+Education, higher, a doubtful help, 79;
+  effect on home life, 77;
+  producing repugnance to marriage, 80.
+
+Education of daimi[=o]'s daughter, 177-180.
+
+Education of girls, 37-56;
+  action and reaction in, 433, 434;
+  difficulties in new system, 52-56;
+  fault in Japanese system, 39;
+  in old times, 37.
+
+Embroidered robes, 95, 146, 188, 192, 456.
+
+Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153, 155-157, 161, 164-166, 292.
+
+Emperors, after introduction of Chinese civilization, 143-145;
+  children of, 164;
+  daughters of, 155;
+  early retirement of, 134;
+  in early times, 138;
+  seclusion of, 143-145, 155, 156, 161, 169.
+
+Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-168.
+
+Empress, Dowager, 152.
+
+Engawa, the piazza that runs around a Japanese house, 23.
+
+Etiquette, court, 153;
+  in daimi[=o]s' houses, 177-179;
+  in the home, 19, 20;
+  instruction in, 46, 47;
+  of leaving service, 316, 317;
+  towards servants, 304, 305.
+
+
+Factory workers, women, 399 _note_.
+
+Fairy tales, 32.
+
+Family, organization of, 139, 439-442.
+
+Fancy work, 95.
+
+Father's relation to children, 100.
+
+Feast of Flags, 363, 364;
+  of Lanterns, 358-362;
+  of the Dead, 358-362;
+  of Dolls, 28-31, 428-430.
+
+Festivals, of flowers, 27, 99, 295-297;
+  of the New Year, 25, 349-358;
+  temple, 270-278, 364-370.
+
+Feudal system, 169.
+
+Feudal times, pictures of, 190-192;
+  stories of, 184-187.
+
+Firemen, 335, 338, 339.
+
+Flirtation, unknown to Japanese girls, 34.
+
+Flower arrangement, 42.
+
+Flower painting, 47, 432.
+
+Flower shows, 270-272.
+
+Fortune-telling, 281-285, 331-333, 470.
+
+Fuji, 58, 242.
+
+Fukuzawa, his book on the woman question, 387-391;
+  his will, 345.
+
+Funeral customs, 131, 132, 339-349.
+
+Furushiki, a square of cloth used for wrapping up a bundle, 354.
+
+
+Games, battledore and shuttlecock, 31, 32;
+  at court, 145;
+  go, 136;
+  hyaku nin isshu, 26, 27;
+  shogi, 136.
+
+Geisha, a professional dancing and singing girl, 286-289.
+
+Geisha ya, an establishment where geishas may be hired, 286.
+
+Geta, a wooden clog, 13, 14.
+
+Ginza, 265.
+
+Girlhood, 17-34.
+
+Gohei, a piece of white paper folded and cut in a peculiar manner, one
+of the sacred symbols of the Shint[=o] faith, 464.
+
+
+Hakama, the kilt-pleated trousers that formed a part of the dress of
+every Japanese gentleman, also the skirt worn by school-girls over the
+kimono, 433, 456.
+
+Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or crepe, worn over the kimono, 8.
+
+Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in the abdomen, 201, 202.
+
+Haru, Prince, 113, 152, 442-444, 446-452.
+
+Haru, Empress, 155-168.
+
+Heimin, the class of farmers, artisans, and merchants, 203, 228, 229;
+  class characteristics of, 229-240, 464-468.
+
+Hibachi, a brazier for burning charcoal, 30, 72, 136, 307.
+
+Hideyoshi. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Hinin, a class of paupers, 228.
+
+Hiyei Zan, 243.
+
+Holidays, 269.
+
+Hotel-keepers, 280, 281.
+
+Hotels, 247-250.
+
+Household duties, training for, 21.
+
+Household worship, 328.
+
+Hyaku nin isshu, "Poems of a Hundred Poets," the name of a game, 26.
+
+
+Inkyo, a place of retirement, the home of a person who has retired from
+active life, 136.
+
+Instruction, in etiquette, 46;
+  in flower arranging, 42;
+  in music, 41, 431;
+  in painting, 47, 432;
+  in reading and writing, 38;
+  in tea ceremony, 44.
+
+Inu, a dog, 250.
+
+Ise, 231.
+
+Iwafuji, 210-213.
+
+Iwakura, Prince, 157.
+
+Iya, a child's word, denoting dislike or negation, 16.
+
+Iyemits[)u], 171, 172.
+
+Iyeyas[)u], 169.
+
+
+Japan-China war, 458-462.
+
+Japanese language, 16, 40, 179.
+
+Japanese literature, 147-150.
+
+Jimmu Tenno, 138.
+
+Jin, benevolence, 415.
+
+Jingo K[=o]g[=o], 139-143, 147.
+
+Jinrikisha, a light carriage drawn by one or more men, and which will
+hold one or two persons, 26, 70, 92, 268, 272, 320, 321.
+
+Jinrikisha man, 26, 62, 69, 92, 108, 270, 279, 299, 316, 319-324, 473.
+
+Jishi, mercy, 415.
+
+J[=o]r[=o], a prostitute, 289-292, 406-411.
+
+J[=o]roya, a house of prostitution, 290-292, 406-411.
+
+
+Kaibara's "Great Learning of Women," 387, 389, 391.
+
+Kakemono, a hanging scroll, 44, 147, 238.
+
+Kameido, 296.
+
+Kami-dana, "god-shelf," the household shrine used by Shint[=o]
+worshippers, 328.
+
+Kana, Japanese phonetic characters, 40 _note_, 430.
+
+Katsuobushi, a kind of dried fish, 5.
+
+Kimono, a long gown with wide sleeves and open in front, worn by
+Japanese of all classes, 7, 94, 188, 192, 287.
+
+Kisses, 36.
+
+Knees, flexibility of, 9.
+
+Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or small fireplace in the floor,
+over which a wooden frame is set, and the whole covered by a quilt, 33.
+
+Koto, a musical instrument, 42.
+
+Kuge, the court nobility, 155, 170.
+
+Kura, a fire-proof storehouse, 147, 171, 173.
+
+Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of any kind, used as synonymous with
+jinrikisha.
+
+Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuruma. _See_ Jinrikisha man.
+
+Kurushima, 203.
+
+Ky[=o]t[=o], 156, 171, 240, 241.
+
+
+Ladies, court, 145, 148, 152-154;
+  of daimi[=o]s' families, 175-180, 182-184.
+
+Loyalty, 33, 75, 197, 206-208, 217, 302-304.
+
+
+Mam ma, a baby's word for rice or food, 16.
+
+Mamushi, a poisonous snake, 467, 468.
+
+Manners of children, 18.
+
+Manzai, exorcists who drive devils out of the houses at New Year's time,
+357.
+
+Marriage, 57-83;
+  ceremony, 61, 63, 435, 436;
+  feast, 63;
+  festivities after, 63, 64, 437;
+  guests, 63;
+  presents, 62, 435;
+  registration, 65;
+  to y[=o]shi, 104;
+  trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Marumage, a style of arranging the hair of married ladies, 119.
+
+Matsuri, a festival, usually in honor of some god, 274-278, 366-370.
+
+Matsuri, Shobu, feast of flags, 363, 364.
+
+Meiji (Enlightened Rule), the name of the era that began with the
+accession of the present Emperor in 1868, 149.
+
+Mekake, a concubine, 111-114.
+
+Men, old, dependence of, 133;
+  amusements of, 136.
+
+Merchants, 262-269, 469.
+
+Military service of women, 188-190, 208, 223.
+
+Missionary schools, 56.
+
+Miya mairi, the presentation of the child at the temple when it is a
+month old. The term is also used to describe the visits to the temple at
+the ages of three, five, and seven, 3-6, 425-427.
+
+Mochi, a kind of rice dumpling, 4, 24, 25, 65, 352, 353.
+
+Momotaro, 33.
+
+Mon, a family crest, 366.
+
+Montsuki, a kimono bearing the crest of the wearer, 457.
+
+Morality, standards of, 76.
+
+Mother, her relation to her children, 99-102.
+
+Mother-in-law, 84, 87;
+  O Kiku's, 74.
+
+Moving, 335-337.
+
+Muk[=o]jima, 191, 295.
+
+Music, 41, 42, 430-432.
+
+
+Names, 3, 423.
+
+Nara, 247.
+
+Ne San. _See_ Ane San.
+
+New Year, preparation for, 349-356;
+  festival of, 25-27, 356-358.
+
+Nikk[=o], 231, 245.
+
+No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293.
+
+Norimono, a palanquin, 30.
+
+Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually folded in colored paper, given with
+a present for good luck, 2.
+
+Nurses, trained, 398.
+
+Nursing the sick, 101.
+
+
+O, an honorific used before many nouns, and before most names of women,
+20.
+
+O B[=a] San, grandmother, 124.
+
+O B[)a] San, aunt, 124.
+
+Obi, a girdle or sash, 60, 435.
+
+O Bon, the feast of the dead, 358-362.
+
+Occupations, of the blind, 42;
+  of the court, 143-150;
+  of the daimi[=o]s' ladies, 175-180;
+  of the Empress, 156-160;
+  of old people, 120-122, 124-128, 136;
+  of samurai women, 223, 224;
+  of servants, 299, 304, 306, 308-315, 318;
+  of women, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  of young girls, 21-34, 38-47.
+
+O Haru, 211-213.
+
+Oishi, 198, 214.
+
+Oji, 296.
+
+O J[=o] Sama, young lady, 20.
+
+O kaeri, "Honorable return," a greeting shouted by the attendant upon
+the master's or mistress's return to the house, 100, 315.
+
+O Kaio, 324-326.
+
+O Kiku's marriage and divorce, 73, 74.
+
+Okuma, Count, 203;
+  his speech on education, 382.
+
+Old age, privileges of, 120, 122, 123;
+  provision for, 134.
+
+Old men, 133, 136.
+
+O miyage, a present given on returning from a journey or pleasure
+excursion, 274.
+
+Oni, a devil or goblin, 33, 466.
+
+Onoye, 210, 213.
+
+
+Palace, new, 151-153.
+
+Parents, duties to, 134;
+  respect for, 133;
+  disadvantages in Japanese system, 445.
+
+Parents-in-law, 84, 87.
+
+Peasant women, 108, 240-261.
+
+Peasantry, 228-240.
+
+Philanthropic efforts, 415-417, 418-421.
+
+Physical culture in schools, 433, 453-456.
+
+Physicians' fees, 204.
+
+Pilgrims, 241, 242.
+
+Pillow, 89.
+
+Pleasure excursions, 99.
+
+"Poems of a hundred poets," 26.
+
+Poetry, 26, 148-150.
+
+Presents, 96;
+  after a wedding, 65;
+  at betrothal, 60, 435;
+  at miya mairi, 4;
+  at New Year's, 353-355;
+  at O Bon, 358;
+  at weddings, 62;
+  how wrapped, 2;
+  in honor of a birth, 1;
+  of eggs, 2, 5;
+  of money, 204, 205;
+  on returning from a journey, 274;
+  to servants, 311, 315.
+
+Prisoners' Home in T[=o]ky[=o], 413.
+
+Prostitutes. _See_ J[=o]r[=o].
+
+Prostitution, houses of. _See_ J[=o]roya.
+
+Purity of Japanese women, 216-219.
+
+
+Reading of women, 385-387.
+
+Red Cross Society, 398, 416.
+
+Religion of peasantry, 464-466.
+
+Retirement from business, 133.
+
+Retirement of Emperors, 134.
+
+Revenge, 198, 210-214.
+
+Revolution of 1868, 76, 221.
+
+Rice, red bean, 3, 5, 65.
+
+Rin, one tenth of a sen, or about one half mill, 240.
+
+R[=o]nin, a samurai who had lost his master and owed no allegiance to any
+daimi[=o], 198, 213.
+
+
+Sada, Princess, 449-453.
+
+Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, 98.
+
+Sake, wine made from rice, 22, 63, 136, 296;
+  white, 29.
+
+Salvation Army's attack on j[=o]roya, 408-411.
+
+Sama, or San, an honorific placed after names, equivalent to Mr., Mrs.,
+or Miss, 20, 73, 124, 136, 232, 283, 284, 304.
+
+Samisen, a musical instrument, 42, 127, 277, 286.
+
+Samurai, the military class, 42, 75, 76, 105, 169, 174, 175, 180,
+196-227, 232, 263, 302, 303, 307, 319;
+  character of, 197-207.
+
+Samurai girls in school, 226.
+
+Samurai women, character of, 207-223, 458-460;
+  present work, 223-327.
+
+Satsuma rebellion, 222.
+
+School system, 50, 378-381;
+  object of, 379;
+  statistics of, 380.
+
+School, Girls', for Higher English, 383-385;
+  Mr. Naruse's Female University, 381-383.
+
+Schools, missionary, 56.
+
+Self-possession of Japanese girls, 47.
+
+Self-sacrifice, 214-219.
+
+Sen, one hundredth part of a yen, value about five mills, 240, 273, 298.
+
+Servants, characteristics of, 209-302;
+  duties of, 302-315;
+  in employ of foreigners, 299-302;
+  number employed, 310, 311;
+  position of, 302-310;
+  wages, 311.
+
+Sewing, 23, 94.
+
+Shir[=o]zake, a sweet white sake used at the feast of dolls, 427.
+
+Shogi, Japanese chess, 136.
+
+Sh[=o]gun, or Tycoon, the Viceroy or so-called temporal ruler of Japan
+under the feudal system, 155, 169, 171, 173, 176, 185, 186, 191, 194,
+197, 208, 224, 231-234, 292;
+  daughter of, 176, 194.
+
+Sh[=o]gunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222.
+
+Shoji, sliding windows covered with white paper, 23, 71.
+
+Shopping, 264-268.
+
+Sho-sei, a student, 308.
+
+Silk mosaic, 95, 192.
+
+Silkworms, 95, 246.
+
+Soba, a kind of macaroni made of buckwheat, 336.
+
+Soroban, an abacus, 266-268.
+
+Sumida River, 173, 295.
+
+
+Tabi, a mitten-like sock, 13.
+
+Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or tabi, 16.
+
+Taiko Sama. _See_ Toyotomi.
+
+Tea, 91, 92;
+  ceremonial, 44, 136, 176, 432.
+
+Tea-gardens, 247.
+
+Tea-houses, 250-255.
+
+Teachers, pay of, 204;
+  women as, 398.
+
+Teaching. _See_ Instruction.
+
+Teeth, blackened after marriage, 63.
+
+Temple, 4, 120, 129, 240.
+
+Tengu, a monster in Japanese folklore, 466, 468.
+
+Theatre, 33, 99, 292-294.
+
+Titles used in families, 20.
+
+Toes, prehensile, 15.
+
+Toilet apparatus, 30.
+
+T[=o]kaid[=o], 241.
+
+Tokonoma, the raised alcove in a Japanese room, 44.
+
+Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231.
+
+T[=o]ky[=o], 49, 69-71, 108, 115.
+
+T[=o]ky[=o] Mail, 231.
+
+Tombs, 98.
+
+Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 232.
+
+Training-schools for nurses, 158, 398.
+
+Trousseau, 61, 436.
+
+Tsuda, Miss Ume, viii, 458.
+
+
+Utsunomiya, 70, 71.
+
+Uyeno Park, 296.
+
+
+Virtue, Japanese and Western ideas of, 215-219.
+
+Visits, after marriage, 63;
+  in honor of a birth, 1, 2;
+  New Year's, 25;
+  to a house of mourning, 340;
+  to parents, 98;
+  to tombs, 98, 359.
+
+Voice in singing, 430-432.
+
+
+Wakamatsu, 208, 222, 457.
+
+Wedding. _See_ Marriage.
+
+Widows, childless, 123.
+
+Wife, childless, 102;
+  duties of, 85-99;
+  in great houses, 92;
+  relation to husband, 84;
+  relation to parents-in-law, 84;
+  social relations, 91.
+
+Woman question, new feeling about, 371-373.
+
+Women, general reading of, 386;
+  in the city, 279-298;
+  new openings for, 397-402;
+  occupations of, 85-103, 108-110, 242-256, 279-292, 306, 307, 310-318,
+  397-402;
+  position of, 17-22, 35, 36, 57, 65-68, 76-88, 90, 91, 93, 99-118,
+  120-124, 132, 133, 139, 143, 145, 146, 148, 168, 189, 190, 208,
+  216-219, 223-227, 242-247, 260, 261, 279, 292, 298, 306, 318, 371-378,
+  438-440;
+  property rights of, 374-378;
+  publications for, 385-391;
+  purity of, 216-219;
+  the new woman in old surroundings, 392-397.
+
+Women, old, appearance of, 119;
+  examples of, 124, 126-129, 467-469;
+  in Japanese pictures, 132.
+
+Written language, proposed reforms in, 430.
+
+
+Yamato Dake, 215.
+
+Yasaku, 324;
+  marriage and divorce of, 69-73.
+
+Yase, 243, 244.
+
+Yashiki, a daimi[=o]'s mansion and grounds, 169, 171, 173, 311, 313.
+
+Yedo. _See_ T[=o]ky[=o].
+
+Y[=o]shi, an adopted son, 104.
+
+Yoshiwara, a district in T[=o]ky[=o] given over to disreputable houses,
+409.
+
+
+Zodiac, Chinese signs of the, 331.
+
+Zori, a straw sandal, 13.
+
+
+
+
+[Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Except where index entries and the body of the text did not match,
+irregularities in hyphenation (e.g. kwankoba and kwan-ko-ba), italics,
+and spellings (e.g. vendors and venders) have not been changed. Except
+where noted below, inconsistent accents (e.g. j[=o]roya vs.
+j[=o]r[=o]ya) have been retained.
+
+Acute accents in the word "_H[=e]'-h[=e]'_" have been changed to
+apostrophes. All other accents have been removed.
+
+The following corrections and changes were also made:
+
+p. 175: daimios' to daimi[=o]s' (and daimi[=o]s' houses)
+
+p. 429: accents added to Sh[=o]guns, Sh[=o]gun's, and Sh[=o]gunate
+
+p. 428: shirozake to shir[=o]zake (The _shir[=o]zake_ (white _sake_))
+
+p. 437: oufit to outfit (But this outfit)
+
+p. 473: Be-be to Be be (Index entry)
+
+p. 475: Index entry for "Girlhood, 17-34." added (Index entry
+"Childhood. _See_ Girlhood." originally pointed to non-existent entry)
+
+p. 476: fireproof to fire-proof (Index: Kura, a fire-proof storehouse)
+
+p. 476: Jo to J[=o] (Index: O J[=o] Sama, young lady)
+
+p. 477: Onouye to Onoye (Index entry)
+
+p. 478: folk-lore to folklore (Index: Tengu, a monster in Japanese
+folklore)]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Japanese Girls and Women, by Alice Mabel Bacon
+
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