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