Japanese girls and women

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JAPANESE GIRLS AND
WOMEN

BY

ALICE MABEL‘S BACON

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
jBrpssr, ^CaniBnDgg
1892

Copyright, 1891,

By ALICE MABEL BACON.

All rights reserved.

FOURTH EDITION.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., V. H. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Oa

To

STEMATZ, THE COUNTESS OYAMA,

IN THE NAME OP OUB GIELHOOD’S FEIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND
UNSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AND SEPAEATIONS OP OUE
MATUBEB YEAES,

Folume

IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

It seems necessary for a new author to
give some excuse for her boldness in offer-
ing to the public another volume upon a
subject already so well written up as Japan.
In afield 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 ac-
cordingly the author must answer.

While Japan as a whole has been closely
studied, and while much and varied infor-
mation has been gathered about the coun-
try and its people, one half of the popu-
lation has been left entirely unnoticed,
passed over with brief mention, or alto-
gether misunderstood. It is of this neg-
lected half that I have written, in the hope
tliat the whole fabric of Japanese social

VI

PBEFACE.

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 impene-
trable reserve in regard to all those per-
sonal 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 hav-
ing enjoyed the privilege of long and inti-
mate friendship with a number of Japanese
ladies, who have spoken with me as freely,
and shown the details of their lives to me

P EFFACE.

Vll

as openly, as if bound by closest ties of kin-
dred. 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 oth-
ers 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, benev-
olent labor, the ideals of literature, popu-
lar 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 in-

Vlll

PBEFACE.

tercliange 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 Uind Tsuda, teacher
of English in the Peeresses’ School in
Toky5, 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 Col-
lege, 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 “Mi-
kado’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 con-

PREFACE.

IX

tained 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.

Hampton, Va., February^ 1891.

A. M. B.

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

Epilogue 327

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 impor-
tance, but many a mother’s heart is made
glad by the addition of a daughter to the
faitiily circle.

As soon as the event takes place, a spe-
cial messenger is dispatched to notify rel-
atives and intimate friends, while formal
letters of announcement are sent to those
less closely related. All persons thus noti-
fied must make an early visit to the new-
comer, in order to welcome it into the

2 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

world, and must either take with them or
send before them some present. Toys,
l>ieces of cotton, silk, or crepe for the baby’s
dress are regarded as suitable ; and these
must be accompanied by dried 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 hun-
dred eggs.’ 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 acknowledg-
ment must be made and return presents
sent. This is usually done when the baby
is thirty days old.

Both baby and mothei- 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

^ All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white
paper, although, except for funerals, this paper must
have some writing on it, and must he 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 col-
ored paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of
every present.

CHILDHOOD.

3

herself out in tlie excitement of seeing her
friends, and the physical exercise of going
through, so far as possible, the ceremo-
nious bows and salutations that etiquette
prescribes.

On the seventh day the baby receives its
name.^ There is no especial ceremony
connected with this, except that the child’s
birth is formally registered, together with
its name, at the district office of registra-
tion, 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 this occasion.

The next important event in the baby’s
life is the miya maeri, a ceremony which

^ 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.

4 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

corresponds roughly with our christen-
ing. On the thirtieth day after birth,
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.

CHILDHOOD. 5

It is usually on this day that the family
send to their friends some ackuowledg’-
meiit of the presents received. This some-
times consists of the red bean rice, such
as is prepared for the seventh day cele-
bration, 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 re-
turned, 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 es-
pecially 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

6 JAPANESE GIPLS AND WOMEN.

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, undis-
turbed life begins for the baby, — a life
which is neither unpleasant nor unhealth-
ful. 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 undress-
ing. 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, straij^ht, silk, cotton,
or flannel garments as the season of the
year may require, — all cut after exactly

CHILDHOOD.

7

the same pattern, and that pattern the
same in shape as the g’rown-np kimono.
These garments are fitted, one inside of
the other, before they are pnt 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 pre-
venting 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 fam-
ily, 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

8 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

weathers. When it is cold, the sister’s
liaori, 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. 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 car-
ried, 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 im-
perial 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

CHILDHOOD.

9

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 pro-
cesses 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 com-
fortable in some ways than that of the ple-
beian child.

The flexibility of the knees, which is re-
quired 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.^

^ That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really
unnatural and unhygienic, is shown by recent measure-
ments taken by the surgeons of the Japanese army.

10 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 usu-
ally heated to a temperature of a hundred
to a hundred and thirteen Fahrenheit, — a
temperature that most foreigners visiting
Japan find almost unbearable. To a baby's
delicate skin, the first bath or two is usu-
ally a severe trial, but it soon becomes ac-
customed to the high temperature, and
takes its bath, as it does everything else,
placidly and in public. Born into a coun-
try where cow’s milk is never used, the
Japanese baby is wholly dependent upon

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 aa
a people.

CHILDHOOD.

11

its mother for milk,i and is not weaned
entirely until it reaches the age of three or
four years, and is able to live upon the ordi-
nary 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.”

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 ba-
bies in Japan are afflicted with disagree-
able skin troubles, especially of the scalp
and face, — troubles which usually disap-
pear as soon as the child becomes accus-
tomed to the regular food of the adult.
Another consequence, as I imagine, of the

1 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 in-
sufficient, but only in those parts of Japan where the
foreign influence is felt.

12 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN,

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 de-
gree, and show that most of the condi-
tions 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 Japa-
nese 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 careless-
ness, 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 exer-
tions to secure a comfortable position, and
it soon learns to ride its bearer with con-
siderable skill, instead of being merely a
bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one

CHILDHOOD.

13

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, per-
haps, 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 child-
hood. 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 walk-
ing are taken under favorable circum-
stances. With feet comfortably shod in the
soft tabi, or mitten - like sock, babies can
tunable about as they like, with no bump
nor bruise, upon the soft matted floors of
the dwelling houses. There is no furni-
ture 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 or g eta, —

a light straw sandal or small wooden clog
attached to the foot by a strap passing be-
tween the toes. At the very beginning the

14 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 dis-
carded, 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 balan-
cing 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, shuf-
fling gait, has certain advantages over our
own, especially for children whose feet are
growing rapidly. The g^ta, even if out-
grown, can never cramp the toes nor com-
press the ankles. If the foot is too long
for the clog the heel laps over behind, but
.the toes do not suflPer, and the use of the
geta strengthens the ankles by afibrding
no artihcial aid or support, and giving to

CHILDHOOD,

15

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 sup-
plementary 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 char-
acterizes 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 lit-
tle 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 dis-
tinguished 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 gar-
ments, and of the same materials — wadded
cotton, silk, or cr^pe — as those worn by
adults of their social grade. As these

16 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

dresses are not as easily washed as oiir own
cambric and flannel baby clothes, there is
a loss among the poorer classes in the mat-
ter of cleanliness; and the gorgeous soiled
gowns are not as attractive as the more
washable white garments in which onr
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 fami-
lies by Japanese ladies educated abroad,
and one in which the objections to the Jap-
anese 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 be-
fore 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. lya expresses discon-
tent or dislike of any kind, and is also used
for ‘‘no”; mamma means food; he he is the
dress ; ta ta is the sock, or house shoe, etc.
We find many of the same sounds as in the

CHILDHOOD.

17

baby language of English, with meanings
totally clitferent. The baby is not troubled
with (lifhcult grammatical changes, for the
Japanese language has few inflections ; and
it is too young to be puzzled with the intri-
cacies 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 baby-
hood 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 depen-
dent alwa}'s 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-con-

18 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

trol which is expected of all Japanese wo-
men to an even greater degree than of the
men. This self-control must consist, not
simply in the concealment of all the out-
ward signs of any disagreeable motion, —
whether of grief, anger, or pain, — hnt 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 polite-
ness, and must he 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 bash-
ful; there is no self-consciousness, neither
is there any lack of savoir faive j a childlike
simi)licity is united with a womanly con-
sideration for the comfort of those around

CHILDHOOD.

19

them. A Japanese child seems to he 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 man-
ners that will help to render it less obnox-
ious 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 diffi-
cult to tell; but my inq)ressiou 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 teach-
ing 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 for-
malities that pass between brothers and
sisters, and the respect paid to age by
every member of the family. The grand-
father and grandmother come first of all in

20 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

everytliiiig*, — 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 tlie room before
her. The wishes and convenience of the
elder, rather than of the younger, are to
be consulted in everything, and this les-
son must be learned early by children.
The diflPerence 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 j)laything
of father and elder brothers, and she is
never saluted by any one in the family, ex-
cept her parents, without the title of re-
spect due to her position. If she is the
eldest daughter, to the servants she is 0
Jo Sama, literally, young lady ; to her own
brothers and sisters, Ane San, elder sister.
Should she be one of the younger ones,
her given name, preceded by the honorific
0 and followed by San, meaning Miss,
will be the name by which she will be
called by younger brothers and sisters, and

CHILDHOOD.

21

by the servants. As she passes from baby-
hood 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 du-
ties 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, often er 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

22 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

to receive from the hands of the young* girl
what she has removed. She must, there-
fore, 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 be-
havior 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 aristo-
cratic 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 he done by women is
considerably diminished, but still there re-
mains enough to take a good deal of time.

CHILDHOOD.

23

Every morning’ there are the beds to be
rolled up and stored away in the closet, the
mosquito nets to be tak*en down, the rooms
to be swept, dusted, and aired before break-
fast. Besides this, there is the washing
and polishing of the engawa, or piazza,
which runs around the outside of a Japa-
nese 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 what-
ever else may suit the taste or necessities
of the housewife. Of sewing there is al-
ways 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 wash-

24 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

iiig, 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 wash-
ing, 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 va-
rious soups which form the staple in the
Japanese bill of fare ; the pre])aration of
moclii, 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 inno-
cent pleasures. First among the annual

CHILDHOOD.

25

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 chil-
dren. For about two weeks 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 pa-
rents to make New Year’s visits to their
friends and to offer them congratulations.

26 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

and much they enjoy this, as, dressed in
their best, they ride from house to house
in jinriJiishas.^

And then, during the long, happy even-
ings, 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 seem-
ing forward or out of place, enter into
the games with zest. One of the favorite
games is Hyalni nin ishu,” 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-
two syllables, and have a natural division
into two parts. The one hundred cards
containing the latter half of the poems are
dealt and laid out in rows, face upward,
before the players. One person is ap-

1 Jinrikisha, or kuruma, a small, light carriage, usually
with a broad top, which is drawn by a man. They inrikisha
is the commonest of all vehicles now in use in Japan.
Jinrikiska-rasLn and kurumaya are terms commonly used
for the runner who draws the carriage.

CHILDHOOD.

27

pointed reader. To him are given the re-
maining 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 be-
fore 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 merri-
ment and jollity among young and old.

Scattered throughout the year are va-

28 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

rious flower festivals, wflieii, 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 aes-
thetic 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 Em-
peror and Empress in antique court cos-
tume, 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. Be-
side 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,

CHILDHOOD.

29

and the array of dolls’ furnishings which
is brought out on these occasions is some-
thing marvelous. It was my privilege to
be present at the Feast of Dolls in the
house of one of the Tokugawa daimios, a
house in which the old forms and cere-
monies 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 wonder-
fully costly and beautiful. Before each
Emperor and Empress were set an elegant
lacquered table service, tray, bowls, cups,
sake pots, rice buckets, etc., all complete,
and in each utensil was placed the appro-
priate variety of food. The sake used on

30 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 intoxica-
tion. 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 ; lac-
quered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged
black bulls, — these were the conve3'ances
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 re-
quired for cooking the finest of Japa-
nese 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 redden-
ing the lips and whitening the face, — all
these things are there to delight the souls
of all the little girls who may have the op-
portunity to behold them. For three days
the imperial effigies are served sumptu-
ously at each meal, and the little girls of

CHILDHOOD.

31

the family take pleasure in serving the im-
perial 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 cele-
brate 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.

Beside the regular feasts at stated sea-
sons, our little girl has a great variety of
toys and games, some belonging to par-
ticular 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-

32 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

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 ad-
miration 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 kvjan-ko-ba, or bazaar,
an endless variety of games, puzzles, pic-
tures to be cut out and glued togethey, 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

CHILD HOOT).

33

quilted cover of the kctatsu,^ 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 om, monsters with
red, distorted faces and fearful horns.
Momotaro, the Peach Boy, with his won-
derful feats in the conquest of the 07ii, is
her hero, until he is supplanted by the
more real ones of Japanese history.

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

^ Kotatsu, a charcoal fire in a brazier or a small fire-
place in the floor, over which a wooden frame is set and
the whole covered hy a quilt. The family sit about it in
cold weather with the quilt drawn up over the feet and
knees.

34 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

teaching, what the spirit was that ani-
mated 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 so-
ciety, of a brief career of flirtation and con-
quest, and at the end as fine a marriage,
either fqr love or money, as her imagina-
tion can picture. She takes no thought
for these things herself, and her inter-
course 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
nothing of men except as higher beings to
be deferred to and waited on, and preserves

CHILDHOOD.

35

the childlike innocence of manner, com-
bined with a serene dignity under all cir-
cumstances, that is so noticeable a trait
in the Japanese woman from childhood to
old age.

The Japanese woman is, under this dis-
cipline, a finished product at the age of
sixteen or eighteen. She is pure, sweet,
and amiable, with great power of self-con-
trol, and a knowledge of what to do upon
all occasions. The higher part of her na-
ture 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, industri-
ous, 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 violat-
ing 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

36 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 play-
thing of the household, though not receiv-
ing the caresses and words of endearment
that children in America expect as a right,
for love in Japan is undemonstrative.^ 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, becomes, in a
few years, the weary, disheartened woman.

^ 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 domes-
tic 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 cer-
tain 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, ex-
cept those of the lower classes, received in-
struction in the ordinary written language,
while some were well versed in the Chinese
classics and the poetic art. These, with
some musical accomplishment, an acquaint-
ance with etiquette and the art of arrang-
ing flowers, of making the ceremonial tea,
and in many cases not only of writing a
beautiful baud, but of flower-painting as
well, in the old days made up the whole of

38 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

ail 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 profes-
sional dancing girls. The art of dancing
is not usually practiced hy women of the
higher classes, hut among the daughters of
the merchants special dances were learned
for exhibition at home, or even at the
matsuri or religious festival, and their per-
formance was for the amusement of spec-
tators, and not especially for the pleasure
of the dancers themselves. These dances
are modest and graceful, hut from the fact
that they are always learned for entertain-
ing an audience, however small and select,
and are most frequently performed by jiro-
fessional dancers of questionable character,
the more refined and higher class Japa-
nese 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 in-
struction in reading, and writing. The
writing and reading at the beginning, are
taught simultaneously, the teacher writing

EDUCATION.

89

a letter upon a sheet of paper and telling
the scholar its name, and the scholar writ-
ing it over and over until, by the time she
has acquired the necessary skill in writing
it, both name and form are indelibly im-
printed 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 child-
hood it gives great deftness in whatever
other art may be subsequently studied.
This is perhaps the reason why the Japa-
nese 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 Japa-
nese 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 culti-
vates the memory and powers of observa-
tion to a remarkable extent, and while it
gives great skill in the use of the fingers.

40 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

it alFords little opportunity for the devel-
opment of the reasoning powers.^ The

^ The Japanese written language is a strange combina-
tion 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 terra 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 clev-
erly planned but most complex method of expressing
thought in writing. The introduction of the Chinese lit-
erature 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 com-
mon people is printed, by the side of the Chinese charac-
ter, the rendering of it, in the letters of the hana, or
Japanese alphabet.

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-writ-
ing, and for the rest she will read by the help of the
Icana.

EDUCATION.

41

years of study that are required for master-
ing 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 origi-
nality of thought. This result comes, I
believe, from the nature of the written
Ian tillage and the difficulties that attend
the mastery of it; as a consequence of
which, an educated man or woman be-
comes simply a student of other men’s
thoughts and sayings about things instead
of being a student of the things themselves.

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 Japa-
nese music, as a rule, is far from agree-
able to the untrained ear of the outside
barbarian. The hoto is the pleasantest of
the Japanese instruments, but probably on
account of its large size, which makes it

42 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

inconvenient to keep in a small Japanese
house, it is used most among the higher
classes, from the samm'ai ^ 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, fore-
finger, and middle finger of each hand, and
gives forth agreeable sounds, not unlike
those of the harp. The player sits before
the instrument on knees and heels, in the
ordinary Japanese attitude, and her mo-
tions 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 sumisen, 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.

The arrangement of flowers is taught as

1 The samurai in the feudal times were the hereditary
retainers of a dahnio, or feudal lord. They formed the
military and literary class. For further information, see
chap, viii., on Samurai Women.

EDUCATION.

43

a fine art, and much time may he 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 actu-
ally growing, for flower arranging is not
merely to show the flower itself, but in-
cludes 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 dif-
ferent 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 flow-

44 JAPANESE GIRLS AND W^OMEN.

ers set in the tolconoma, or raised alcove of
the room, under tlie solitary Jialieniono ^
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, per-
plexed by the multitude of objects which
surround it.

The ceremonial tea must not be con-
founded 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 bam-
boo whisk until it foams, then handed with

1 Kakemono, a hanging scroll, npon which a picture is
painted, or some poem or sentiment written.

EDUCATION,

45

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. I re-
member 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 over-
flowing by three foreigners, whom she re-
ceived 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

46 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

etiquette of the tea ceremony. Every mo-
tion, 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 re-
ligious 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 observa-
tion and imitation of any model that may
present itself, but is taught regularly by
teachers who make a specialty of it. Every-
thing 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 eti-
quette 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

EDUCATION.

47

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 Japa-
nese life. It is, perhaps, because of this
regular teaching in the ways of polite soci-
ety, 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 in-
deed such things under the newly estab-
lished school system are now relegated en-
tirely 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 accomplish-
ments. I have said that the acquisition of
skill in writing the Chinese characters was

48 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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
bouse, 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 ex-
pected 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 satis-
faction. Only then can she go on to a
new copy, and only after many such de-
signs have been committed to memory,
and the free, dashing stroke necessary for
Japanese painting has been acquired, is

EDUCATION . 49

she allowed to undertake any copying* from
nature, or original designing.

I have dwelt thus far only upon the en-
tirely Japanese education that was per-
mitted to women under the old regime.
That it was an effective and refining sys-
tem, all can testify who have made the ac-
quaintance of any of the charming Japa-
nese ladies whose schooling was finished
before Commodore Perry disturbed the re-
pose 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 ac-
quainted during my stay in Tokyo. A
widow, left penniless, with one child to
support, she earned the merest pittance
by teaching sewing at one of the govern-
ment schools in Tokyo ; but in all the cir-
cumstances of her life, narrow and busy
as it needs must be, she proved herself a
lady through and through. Polite, cheer-
ful, an intelligent and cultivated reader,
a thrifty housekeeper, a loving and care-
ful mother, a true and helpful friend, her
memory is associated with man}" of my
pleasantest hours in Japan, and she is but
one of the many who bear witness to the

50 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 mission-
ary 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 clat-
tering 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 re-
quired would be a burden to the quickest
mind. The whole of the old education in
Japanese and Chinese literature and com-

EDUCATION,

51

position — an education requiring the best
years of a boy’s life — is given, and grafted
upon this, our coinmon-scbool and bigb-
scbool studies of matbematics, geography,
liistory, and natural science. In addition
to these, at all higher schools, one foreign
language is required, and often two, Eng-
lish ranking first in the popular estima-
tion. 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, in-
stead 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 chil-
dren, 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

52 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

learn to walk they must learn to be polite
and dignified. At school, the more pro-
gressive feeling of the times predominates
among the authorities, and the children
are encouraged to unbend and enjoy them-
selves 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.

But the young girl, who has finished
this pleasant school life, with all its ad-
vantages, is not as w’ell 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 g’i*afting the new
on to the old is indeed a difficult one, to be
solved only after many experiments.

EDUCATION.

53

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 he
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 develop-
ment of the best powers of the mind, must
play a large part in the Japan of the fu-
ture, 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 pro-
ducts of the thought of two such distinct
civilizations is a question that is as yet un-
answered, and cannot be satisfactorily set-
tled until the effect of the new education
has begun to show itself in a generation or
so of graduates from the new schools. An-
other 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

54 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 cover-
ing, 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 com-
bined 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. In-
stead 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 en-
dure.

EDUCATION.

55

Another difficulty, in fitting" the new
school system into the customs of the peo-
ple, lies in the early age at which mar-
riages are contracted. Before the girl has
finished her school course, her parents be-
gin 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 eigliteen, 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 lier parents that, if she does
not take a certain rank in her studios, she
will be taken from school and married off.

These are difficulties that may be over-
come when a generation has been educated
who can, as parents, avoid the mistakes
that now endanger the health of a Japa-
nese school-girl. In the mean time, board-
ing schools, that can attend to matters of
health and hygiene among the girls, would,

66 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

if they could be conducted with the proper
admixture of Eastern and Western learn-
ing and manners, do a great deal toward
educating that generation. The mission-
ary schools do much in this direction, but
the criticism of the Japanese upon the
manners of the girls educated in mission-
ary 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 distin-
guishing feature of the Japanese woman
will not be lost by contact wdth our West-
ern shortness and roughness. A happy
mean undoubtedly can be reached ; and
wdien it is, the women of new Japan will
be able to bear a not unfavorable compari-
son with the women of the old regime.

CHAPTER IIL

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

When the Japanese maiden arrives at
the ag’e of sixteen, or thereabouts, she is
expected as a matter of course to marry.
Slie 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 consid-
ered, 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 pro-
vide against a great amount of unhappi-
ness in her married life. If she positively
dislikes the man who is submitted to her
for inspection, she is seldom forced to
marry him, but no more cordial feeling
than simple toleration is expected of her
before marriage.

68 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

The courtship is somewhat after the fol-
lowing 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 ^ and ac-

1 The Japanese standard of female beauty differs in
many respects from our own, so that it is almost impos-
sible 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 un-
traveled Japanese to discover the reasons for a foreign-
er’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, slant-
ing 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 liot be out-
lined at all, either by the brow, the cheek, or by the
nose. It is this flatness of tlie 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 Japa-
nese lady must be small, and the lips full and red ; the

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

59

coniplislied maiden, who would be willing*
to become his wife. The friend, acting

neck, a conspicuous feature always when the Japanese
dress is worn, should be long- and slender, and grace-
fully curved. The complexion should be light, — a clear
ivory-white, with little color in the cheeks. The bloom-
ing country girl style of beauty is not admired, and every-
thing, 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 neces-
sary 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
Engli.sh 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, im-
part 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 any-
thing but the wildest fright in their presence. Foreign-

60 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

rather as advance agent, makes a can-
vass of all the young maidens of his ac-
quaintance, inquiring among his friends ;
and finally decides that so-and so (Miss
Flower, let ns 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 be-
fore 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 wdth the match, presents are ex-
changed,! a formal betrothal is entered
into, and the marriage is hastened for-
ward. All arrangements between the con-
tracting parties are made by go-betweens,
or seconds, who hold themselves responsi-

ers 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.

^ The present from the groom is usually a piece of
handsome silk, used for the obi or girdle. Tliis takes the
place of the conventional engagement ring of Europe and
America. From the family of the bride, silk, such as is
made up into men’s dresses, is sent.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

61

ble for the success of the marriage, and
must be concerned in the divorce proceed-
ings, should divorce become desirable or
necessary.

The marriage ceremony, which seems to
be neither religious nor legal in its nature,
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 tlie bride is expected toL bring with
her, are sent before. 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 trous-
seau 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 mate-

62 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

rial, make it possible for a woman, at the
time of her marriage, to enter her hus-
band’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 remem-
brance of' the occasion ; and even the ser-
vants and retainers, down to the jimnkisha
men, and the hettd in the stables, are not
forgotten by the bride’s relatives. Beside
this present-giving, the friends and rela-
tives 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.

MABRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

63

In old times, the wedding took place in
the afternoon, but it is now usually cele-
brated in the evening. The ceremony con-
sists 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 drink-
ing 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 con-
tracting 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.^

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 pa-
rents, either in the afternoon or evening, in
honor of this occasion, to which the friends

^ 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.

64 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

of the bride’s family are invited. The young
couple bring with them presents from tlie
groom’s family to the bride’s, in return for
the presents sent on the wedding day.

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 ap-
pears as hostess with her mother, enter-
taining 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 ex-
pected 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 intimatian that is re-
ceived of the marriage by many of the
acquaintances, though the news of a wed-
ding usually travels quickly. The enter-
tainment may be a dinner party, given at
home, or at some tea-house, similar in

MAREIAGE AND DIVORCE. 65

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 mar-
riage legal is the withdrawal of the bride’s
name from the list of her father’s family as
registered by the government, audits 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

66 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

law and custom to her husband’s relatives
than to her own. Even this legal recogni-
tion of her marriage is a comparatively
new thing in Japan, as is any limitation of
the right of divorce on the part of the
hnsband, or extension of that right to the
wife.^

At present in Japan the marriage rela-
tion 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 succes-
sion ; and for a woman, who has been
divorced once or twice, to he 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,

^ “ As early as 1870 an edict was published by which
official notice and approbation were made necessary pre-
liminaries to every matrimonial contract. In the follow-
ing 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.

MABRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 67

divorces among the higher classed 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 be-
lief that children inherit their qualities
from their father rather than from the
niother, make them his children and not
hers. Thus we often see children of noble
rank on the father’s side, but ignoble on

68 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

the mother’s, inherit the rank of their
father, and not permitted even to recog*-
nize 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 w^ould begrudge aid to the children of
another family, with whom custom hardly
recognizes any tie. The children are the
children of the man w hose name they bear.
If the w oman 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 conies to my mind now a case
illustrating this point, wdiich I think I may
cite without betraying confidence. It is
that of a most attractive young woman

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 69

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 him-
self out of situation after situation pro-
cured 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 di-
vorce 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 matri-
mony ; but her children are lost to her,
and belong wholly to their worthless,
drunken father.

Of the lack of permanence in the mar-
riage relation among the lower classes, the
domestic changes of one of my servants in
Tokyo afford an amusing illustration. The
!iian, whom I had hired in the double
capacity of jinrikisha man and hettd or

70 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

groom, was a strong, faitliful, pleasant-
faced fellow, recently come to Tokyo from
the conntrvo 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 Utsunornija, the country town from
which he had come, but he would send for
her at once, and she would be in Tokyo 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

MABBIAGE AND DIVOBCE.

71

not be polite to put my friends to inconve-
nience by taking' away their servant. His
next effort was by negotiation through a
T5kyo friend ; but apparently Yasaku’s
country maimers were not to the taste of
the Tokyo damsels, for he met with no suc-
cess, and was at last driven to write to his
father in Utsunomiya asking him to select
him a wife and bring her down to Tokyo.

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 hello'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 neighbor-
ing tea house, had had cards printed with
his own name in English and Japanese,
and had altogether been to such great ex-
pense that he had had to put his winter
clothes in pawn to secure the necessary
money.

72 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

The clay 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 dis-
consolate, 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 agree-
ment 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, liter-
ally 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

MABBIAGE AND DIVOBCE. 73

his “ pig ill 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 wo-
man’s side. Upon one occasion, when I
was visiting a Japanese lady of high rank
who kept a retinue of servants, the wo-
man 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 sur-
prised 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 0 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 hap-
pened, — whether she had found her hus-

74 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

band 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 w^as then
living with her older son, it seemed un-
likely that she would care to* move, and
O Kiku San had married on that supposi-
tion. But it seemed that the wife of the
older brother was both lazy and bad-tem-
pered, 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 mar-
riage.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

75

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 noth-
ing 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.

76 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

Among* the merchants and lower classes
there has been, and is, a much lower stand-
ard 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 re-
straints, 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 di-
vorces have been much more frequent of
lateyears.

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, ex-
cept that some man will overlook the dis-
grace of her divorce, and by marrying her

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 77

give her the only opportunity that a Jap-
anese 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 brew-
ing the broth of the new civilization are
disagreed in regard to the condiments re-
quired for its proper flavoring. The con-
servatives wish to flavor strongly with the
subjection and dependence of women, be-
lieving that only by that means can femi-
nine 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 im-
pregnated with practical Christianity, the
desired result will be achieved. All are
agreed on this point, that a strong public
opinion is necessary before improved leg-
islation 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.

78 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

Let US examine the two remedies sug-
gested 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 hav-
ing 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

MAItEIAGE AND DIVORCE.

79

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 per-
haps 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 abov^e
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

80 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

plain duty always lay in the path of im-
plicit 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 ame-
lioration of their lot as wives and mothers,
can but result in making the women dis-
contented 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 re-
garded as one of the sure signs that educa-
tion 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.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE, 81

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 employ-

82 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

nieiit for women, and especially for women
of the cultivated classes. To-day marriage,
no matter how distasteful, is the only open-
ing 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, ex-
cept 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

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 83

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 mo-
thers of their children, any but the less
educated and less intelligent of the women
of their own nation.

CHAPTER IV.

WIFE AND MOTHER.

The young wife, when she enters her
husband’s home, is not, as in our own coun-
try, 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 un-
able 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 com-
fort 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 com-
fort than the mother-in-law.

In Japan the idea of a wife’s duty to her
husband includes no thought of compan-
ionship on terms of equality. The wife is

WIFE AND MOTHER. 85

simply the housekeeper, the head of the
establishment, to be honored by the ser-
vants 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 ap-
pears rarely with him iii public, is ex-
pected always to wait upon him and save
him steps, and must bear all things from
him with smiling face and agreeable man-
ners, 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 incon-
siderate 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

86 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

herself, but oue of ^reat 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 uo 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 hand-
kerchief 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

WIFE AND MOTHER.

87

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 care-
fully 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 manyj^ses the elder lady prefers
freedom from responsibility to the personal
superintendence of the details of house-
keeping, 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.

88 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

the advantage that, when her mother-in-
law dies or retires, she becomes the mis-
tress of the house and the head lady of the
family, a position for which her apprentice-
ship to the old lady has probably exception-
ally 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, sew-
ing, 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

WIFE AND MOTHER.

89

arises, puts out the feeble light of the
andoti} 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.^ Next she goes to arouse
the servants, if they are not already up,
and with them prepares the modest break-
fast. Wlien the little lacquer tables, with
rice bowls, plates, and chopsticks are ar-
ranged in place, she goes softly to see
whether her parents and husband are
awake, and if they have hot water, char-
coal fire, and whatever else they may need
for their toilet. Then with her own hands,

^ 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 pro-
duced by a pith wick floating in a saucer of vegetable
oil.

2 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 pro-
fessional hair-dresser, who comes to the house once in
two or three days. In some parts of Japan, as in Kioto,
where the hair is even more elaborately dressed than in
Tokyo, it is much less frequently arranged. The process
takes two hours at least.

90 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

or with the help of the servants, she slides
hack 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.

When breakfast is over, the husband
starts for his place of business, and the lit-
tle 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 Icurmna
waiting for him.

Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in
having all the little things in his life at-
tended to by his thoughtful wdfe, — a good,
considerate, careful body-servant, ahvays
on hand to bear for him the trifling w^or-
ries and cares. There is no wonder that
there are no bachelors in Japan. To some
degree, 1 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

WIFE AND MOTHER. 91

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 inter-
course with the outer world, for there are
sometimes great dinner parties, given per-
haps 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 omnipres-
ent tea and cake. She may, perhaps, join
in the number and listen to the conver-
sation ; 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

92 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

distance, and nearly always unexpectedly,
wdiose 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 hav-
ing 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, garden-
ers, 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

WIFE AND MOTHER.

93

going on to make a pleasant variety for
the ladies of the household, even although
the variety involves extra work and respon-
sibility. The mistress of such a house-
hold sees and hears a great deal of life;
and her position requires no little wisdom
and tact, even wdiere 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
tbe work, wise advisers and sympathizers
with their husbands in many things far
beyond their ordinary field of action. An
intelligent w'oman, with a strong will, has
often been, unseen and unknown, a mighty
influence in Japan. That her power foi
good or bad, outside of her influence aa
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 re^
venge.

Still the life of the average woman is a

94 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

quiet one, with little to interrupt the mo-
notony 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 oc-
cupation of the wife, outside of her house-
keeping and the little duties of personal
service to husband and parents, is needle-
work. Every Japanese woman (exce[)ting
those of the highest rank) knows how to
sew, and makes not only her own gar-
ments 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, cus-
tom 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 un-
initiated 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
he, or that those stitches are too long or
too short, or carelessly or unevenly set.

WIFE AND MOTHEB.

95

Fancy work ^ or embroidery is not done
in the house, the gorgeous embroidered
Japanese robes being the product of pro-
fessional 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 silk-
worm. In country homes, and in the great
cities as well, wherever spacious grounds
aftbrd room for the growth of mulberry
trees, silkworms are raised and watched
with care ; an employment giving much
pleasure to those engaged in it.

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 al-
most daily. New leaves for their food

^ The one exception to this statement, so far as I know,
is the species of silk mosaic made by the ladies in the
daimios’ houses. (See chap, vii.)

96 JAPANESE girls AND WOMEN.

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 w^orms 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 him-
self 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

WIFE AND MOTHER.

97

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-giv-
ing 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 appro-
priate. 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 pa-
trons, 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

98 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

seventh clay of the seventh month, there is
another general interchange of presents,
althougli not so universal as at the New
Year. It can easily be imagined that all
this present-giving entails much care, es-
pecially in families of influence ; and it
must be attended to personally by the wife,
who, in the secret recesses of her store-
room, 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 liv-
ing, to make offerings and prayers at the
graves, to place fresh branches of the
sakdki ^ before the tombs, and to see that

^ SakaJci, the Cleyera Japonica, a sacred plant em-
blematic of purity, and much used at funerals and in
the decoration of graves.

WIFE AND MOTHER.

99

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, spend-
ing the day out of doors, in beautiful gar-
dens, 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.

The Japanese mother takes great de-
light and comfort in her children, and
her constant thought and care is the
right direction of their habits and man-
ners. 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 ser-
vants there may be, the mother’s influ-

100 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

ence is always direct and personal. No
thick walls and long passageways separate
the nursery from the grown people’s apart-
ments, but the thin paper partitions make
it possible for the mother to know al-
ways 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 mo-
ther’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
“ 0 kaeri,^* which is the signal of her re-
turn, children and servants hasten to the
gate to greet her, and do w hat 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 al-
most 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

WIFE AND MOTHEB.

101

as the head, and to respect and obey him
as the one to whom all must defer; but
the mother comes next, almost as hig^h 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 w'atch-
ing over them ; and she spares neither
time nor trouble in doing anything for
their comfort and pleasure. In sickness,^
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 Japa-
nese 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

^ Since the introduction of the foreig’n system of medi-
cine and nursing, the Japanese realize so acutely the lack
of conveniences and appliances for nursing the sick in
their own homes, that eases of severe or even serious ill-
ness are usually sent to hospitals, where the invalids can
have the comforts tliat even the wealthy Japanese homes
cannot furnish.

102 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

she devotes her life to their care and ser-
vice, deeming the drudgery that custom
requires of her for them the easiest of
all her duties. Even with plenty of ser-
vants, the mother performs for her chil-
dren 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 dis-
grace 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-per-
vading, bringing out all that is sweetest
and noblest in the feminine character, and
affording the one almost unlimited oppor-
tunity of a Japanese woman’s life. The
lot of a childless wife in Japan is a sad

WIFE AND MOTHER.

103

one. Not only is she denied the hopes
and the pleasures of a mother in her chil-
dren, but she is an object of pity to her
friends, and well does she know that Con-
fucius 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 child-
less 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.

We have hitherto spoken of married life
when the wife is received into her hus-
band’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

104 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

usually the wife becomes of the husbaucrs.
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
yosliii, that is to say, some man (usually a
younger son) who is willing and able to
give up his family name, and, by marry-
ing 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 pa-
rents. 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 ;

WIFE AND MOTHER.

105

and though the woman yields to him obedi-
ently 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 yoshii. 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
daimios without sons, yoshii are very com-
mon, and there are many younger sons of
the nobility, themselves of high birth, but
without prospects, who are glad enough to
become gi'eat lords. In feudal times, the
number of samurai families was limited.
Several sons of one family could not estab-
lish 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 intoother
samurai families as yoshii, where it was de-
sired to secure a succession to a name that
must otherwise die out. Since the Resto-

106 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

ration, ami the breaking clown 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 yoshii 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 go^*d
marriage with some suitable husband, could
she enter his family, is now obliged to take
some inferior man as yoshii^ because few
men in these clays 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 ex-
pected of the ijoshii, unless the family that
he enters is a wealthy one.

From this custom of yoshii, 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 posi-
tion. The men have the right of inheri-
tance, the education, habits of self-reliance,
and are the bread-winners. Wherever the
tables are turned, and the men are depen-

WIFE AND MOTHER.

107

dents 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 mo-
thers; and divorce, the great evil of Japa-
nese 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 hus-
bands, 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

108 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 coun-
try. I remember the case of a jimikkha
man employed by a friend of mine in To-
kyo, 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 recog-
nition of the claims that feminine weak-
ness has upon masculine strength.

A frequent sight in .the morning, in
Tokyo, is a cart heavily laden with wood,
charcoal, or some other country produce,

WIFE AND MOTHER.

109

creaking slowly along the streets, pro-
pelled by a farmer and his family. Some-
times 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 envelop-
ing her head, — only to be distinguished
from the men by her smaller size and the
baby tied to her back. But when even-
ing 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 rela-
tions 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

110 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

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 spin-
ning, and weaving both silk and cotton,
we find the conventional distance between
the sexes much diminished by the impor-
tant 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 so-
ciety, 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, push-
ing her produce to market, is in some ways
happier and more considered than the wile
of the noble, who must spend her life
among her ladies-in-waiting, in the seclu-
sion 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.

WIFE AND MOTHER.

Ill

One of the causes which must ,be meu-
tioued 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 discour-
aged. 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 mekahe, who, while beneath
the wife in position, are frequently more
beloved by the husband than the wife her-
self. 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 disc_prdant element into the household.
Even should he keep mSkakS, 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 samu-
rai and lower classes who have enough
spirit and wit to prevent their husbands

112 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 re-
quiring that the wife treat these women
with all civility. Their children she may
even have to adopt as her own. The lot of
the mehaliS herself is rendered the less en-
durable, 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 in-
stance, suppose a hitherto childless noble is
presented with a son by one of his concu-
bines, 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 Japa-

WIFE AND MOTHER.

113

nese custom has exalted into the one femi-
nine virtue, few women could be found of
respectable families who would take a posi-
tion so devoid of either honor or satisfac-
tion of any kind as that of mSkakS. That
these positions are not sought after must be
said, to the honor of Japanese womanhood.
A nobleman may obtain samurai women
for his “ 0 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 promul-
gated strikes at the root of this evil, and, if
enforced, will in course of time go far to-
ward 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

114 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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^hake,
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. ^

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 put-
ting his nation upon a level with the most
civilized nations of the earth, he at the

^ It is worth while to mention in this connection the
noteworthy efforts made by the Woman’s Christian Tem-
perance 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 discus-
sion has ensued in the newspapers and magazines, lec-
tures have been given, and mucli strong feeling aroused,
which may, before long, produce radical change.

WIFE AND MOTHER,

115

same time, and for the first time, publicly
placed his wife upon his own level. In an
imperial progress made through the streets
of Tokyo, the Emperor and Empress, for
the first time in the history of Japan, rode
together in the imperial coach. 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 im-
proved 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

116 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

in her practices in this matter is greatly
to her credit; bnt that she is far behind
the civilized nations of Europe and Amer-
ica, 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.^ 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 hus-
band is bound to respect, no great advance

1 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 he
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 edu-
cation for girls as making them unwomanly. Between
these two parties, the few who really wish for a change
are utterly unable to act.

WIFE AND MOTHER.

117

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 de-
clares to be their due. In the old slave
times in the South, many of the negroes
were better fed, better cared for, and hap-
pier 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 pre-
vented 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

118 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

public opinion, in reg’ard 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 af-
fairs and the training of her children ;
and where she will finally become the
friend and companion of her husband, in-
stead of his mere waitress, seamstress, and
housekeeper, — the plaything of his leisure
moments, too often the victim of his ca-
prices.

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 pat-
terns, 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 cos-
tume,^ and no woman cares to appear

^ 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 marumagi,
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.

120 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

younger than her real age, or hesitates to
tell with entire frankiiess^the number of
years that have passed over lier head.

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, privi-
leged to amuse herself in various ways, to
speak her own mind on most subjects, and
to be waited upon and cared for by chil-
dren and grandchildren, in return for her
long years of faithful service in the house-
hold. Sliould 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 grand-
children 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

OLD AGE.

121

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 drift-
ing. 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 an-
ticipation 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-iii-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 sou is ex-
alted into the chief womanly virtue, but
the obedience and respect of children, both
male and female, to their parents, also oc-
cupies a prominent position in their ethical
system. Hence, in this latter stage of a

122 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 consid-
eration 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 ob-
tained 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 en-
tirely gone, her eyes have begun to sink a
little in their sockets, her youthful round-
ness and syjnmetry 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 sel-
dom 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 sufiering and dis-

OLD AGE.

123

appointment, 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 disap-
pointed women in this country. But youth
with its hopeful outlook, its plans and its
ambitions, gives way to age with its peace-
ful 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 for-
ward to an old age of privilege and au-
thority, 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' unre-
warded lives of toil among their happier
Z'

124 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 feel-
ing of pleasure that the sorrow is past, and
peace and rest have come to their declin-
ing years. Fulfilling what little house-
hold tasks they can, respected and self-
respecting members of the household, the
0 Bd San, or Aunty, is not far removed in
the honor and afiection of the children
from the 0 Bd 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 in-
fancy, she was at last left childless and a
widow. In her children’s death the last
tie that bound her to her husbaiurs family
was broken, and, rather than be a burden
to them, she made her home for many
years with her own younger brother, tak-

OLD AGE.

125

ing* 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 chil-
dren. 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 en-
joyed in her company, the toys and can-
dies 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.

126 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 shrink-
ing with age that takes place among the
Japanese covers the face with multitudi-
nous 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 Tokyo, when the grass grows long
upon your lawn, and you send to the gar-
dener to come and cut it, no boy with
patent lawn-mower, nor stalwart country-
man 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

OLD AGE.

127

of shears, the old ladies clip and chatter
cheerfully all day long, until the lawn is as
smooth as velvet under their careful cut-
ting. An occasional rest under a tree, for
pipes and tea, is the time for much cheer-
ful 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 cheer-
ful 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 singingwith cracked
voices some wailing melody. As they go

128 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

from bouse to bouse, g’aiuiiig a miserable
pittance by tbeir weird music, they seem
tbe embodiment of all that is hopeless and
broken-bearted. Wbat they are or wlience
tbey come, I know not, but they always re-
mind me of tbe grasshopper in tbe fable,
who danced and sang tbrougb tbe 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 trot-
ting 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 la-
borer, soldier, student, and high official
jostle each other by the way. Suddenly I

OLD AGE.

129

see her pause before the gateway of a tem-
ple. 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 mo-
ment from her busy life to seek a blessing
for herself and her dear ones. The throng
moves busily on, making a iittle 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 pic-
ture 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 prepar-
atory to further progress, she seemed al-
ways to me the model of a mother of the
old school. Herself a woman of thorough
classical education, her example and teach-
ing were to both sons and daughters a con-

130 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

stant 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 her-
self, and always clinging to the old cus-
toms, 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 chil-
dren than anything else could have been.
Tried by war, by siege, by banishment, by
danger and suflPerings 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 dan-
gers 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 Jack of common language, but was a
most admiring and appreciative one on my
side; and I esteem it one of the chief

OLD AGE.

131

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 cus-
toms that she only paid upon special occa-
sions.

Two weeks later, amid such rain as Jap-
anese skies know all too well how to let
fall, I attended her funeral at the ceme-
tery 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 re-
minding one of a Roman Catholic cere-
mony. 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

132 JAPANESE GIRLS AND JVOMEN.

bier, then, bowing again, retired to their
places. Slowly and solemnly, from the tall
soldier soii, 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 per-
formed 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 per-
formed the act, it only signified the honor
in which I held the memory of a heroic
woman who had done w^ell her part in the
w^orld according to the light that God had
given her.

Japanese art loves to picture the old wo-
man 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 de-
sired by all as passionately as by ancient
Hebrew poet and psalmist, and with good
reason, for only by long life can a woman at-
tain the greatest honor and happiness. We
often exclaim in impatience at the thought
of the w^eakness and dependence of old

OLD AGE.

133

age, and pray that we may die in the full-
ness of our powers, before the decay of ad-
vancing 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 un-
grudgingly 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

134 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

he becomes entirely dependent for his sup-
port.^ This support is never begrudged
him, for the care of parents by their chil-
dren 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 irk-
some and a thing to be dreaded, is al-
together 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

1 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.

OLD AGE.

135

their support, and the bread of dependence
is never bitter to the parents’ lips, for it is
given freely. To the time-honored Euro-
pean belief, that a young man must be in-
dependent 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 every-
thing 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 useful-
ness a large family of children. He in-
vests his capital in their support and edu-
cation, secure of bountiful returns in their
gratitude and care for his old age. It is
hard for the men of old Japan to under-
stand 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 indefatiga-

136 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

ble worker. The go inhjo ^ of Japan is glad
enough to lay clown 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 aes-
thetic repast ; and even if he has none of
these higher tastes, he will always have
congenial friends who are ready to share
the sal^e 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 com-
pany of a few kindred souls, to spend the
long hours of a summer’s afternoon at the
ceremonial tea party, sipping tea and con-
versing 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

^ Go Inkyo Sama is the title belong’ing’ 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 address-
ing all persons except inferiors.

OLD AGE,

137

for such pursuits. At these meetings of
friends, artistically or poetically inclined,
the time is spent in making poems and ex-
changing 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 ap-
preciated or even understood by the prac-
tical, rush-ahead American, the product of
the wonderful but material civilization^ of
the West.

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 inhjo, that all Japa-
nese 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.

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 civiliza-
tion. The earliest history of Japan is so
wrapped in the mists of legend and tradi-
tion that only here and there do we get
glimpses of heroic figures, — leaders in
those early days. Demigods they seem, chil-
dren 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 Jim mu
Tenno,^ seem to have been merely conquer-

^ 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.

COURT LIFE.

139

ing chieftains, who by virtue of their de-
scent were regarded as divine, hut 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 sol-
itude 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 val-
iant deeds of these early rulers kept strong
the faith of the people in the divine quali-
ties of the imperial house during the hun-
dreds of yeai’s when the Empei’or was a
mere puppet in the hands of ambitious and
powerful nobles. ,

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, — Jingu Kogo, the conqueror

The dynasty, for about twenty-five hundred years since
Jiramu Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however,
be said in connection with this statement, that the Japa-
nese family is a much looser org^anization than that known
to our Western civilization, on account of the customs of
concubinage and adoption, and that descent through fam-
ily lines is not necessarily actual descent by blood.

140 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 convejed to her unbelieving husband
a divine command, to take ship and sail
westward to the conquest of an unknown
land. Her husband questioned the authen-
ticity 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 rebel-
lion 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

COURT LIFE.

141

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 ad-
dressed her generals : “ The safety or de-
struction 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 won-
der 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 — some-
times, to the impatient woman, it seemed un-
necessarily 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

142 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

favoring* of breezes, the smoothest of seas,
favored the god-sent expedition ; and tradi-
tion 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 na-
tives to believe that their gods had for-
saken them. The expedition returned laden
with vast wealth, not the spoil of battle,
but the peaceful tribute of a bloodless vic-
tory ; and from that time forward Japan,
through Corea, and later by direct contact
with China itself, began to receive and as-
similate the civilization, arts, and religions
of China. Thus through a woman Japan
received the start along the line of prog-
ress which made her what she is to-day,
for the sequel of Jingu Kogo’s Corean ex-
pedition 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

COURT LIFE.

143

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 sou; 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 Emi)eror and the
court nobles munificent patrons by whom
they were supported, and before whom they
laid whatever pearls they were able to pro-
duce. 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 civiliza-
tion, and to soften the warlike qualities of
the people about them, there was a frontier

144 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 militaiT 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 them-
selves 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 wran-
gled for the possession of the power,
schemed and fought and turned the nation
upside down 5 while the heroes of the eouu-

COURT LIFE.

145

try rose, lived, fought, aud died, — the Em-
peror, 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 king-
dom 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 cer-
tain 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 quick-
ness of wit, their learning in the classics,

146 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

their skill in repartee, and their quaint
fancies, which they embodied in poetic
form.i

Much attention was given to that har-
mony of art with nature that the Japanese
taste makes the sine qua non of all true
artistic effort. The gorgeously embroid-
ered gowns must change wdth the chan-
ging 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 imita-
tion of flowers and fruits. The chrysan-
themum blooms in sugar no earlier than

1 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 dis-
tinguished writers can be mentioned Murasaki Shikibu,
Seisho Nagou, and Is^no Taiyu, all court ladies in the
time of the Emperor Ichijo (about 1000 A, D.). The court
at that time was the centre of learning, and much encour-
agement was given by the Emperor to literary pursuits,
the cultivation of poetry, and music. The Emperor gath-
ered around him talented men and women, but the great
works that remain are, strange to say, mostly those of

women.

COURT LIFE.

147

on its own stalk ; the little golden orange,
with its dark green leaves, is on the confec-
tioner’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, accord-
ing as their designs seem in harmony with
the mood of Nature. This effort to har-
monize 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 dan-
ger 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 copy-
ing of all that was not Japanese, and lest
the introduction of literature, art, and nu-
merous 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

148 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

almost out of existence by the introduction
of Chinese learning through Chinese let-
ters, the women of Japan, not only in their
homes and conversation, but in the poetry
and lighter literature of the country, pre-
served a strain of pure and graceful Jap-
anese, 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 en-
dowments, 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 appre-
ciate the honmots 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.^ Even

^ The court ladies in immediate contact with the Em-
peror and Empress are selected from the daughters of
the nobles. Only in the present reign have a few samu-
rai women risen to high positions at court on account of
special talents.

COURT LIFE.

149

in this busy era of the Emperor and

his court keep up the old-time customs,
and strive to promote a love of the beauti-
ful poetry of Japan. At each New Year
some subject appropriate to the time is
chosen and publicly announced. Poems
may be w^ritten 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 emol-
uments 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 wo-
men of the country are known as com-
petitors, and that many of the court ladies
join in the contest.

There are also, at the palace, frequent
meetings of the poets and lovers of poetry

1 Meiji (Enlig-htened 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.

150 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

connected with the court. At these meet-
ings poems are composed for the enter-
tainment 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 ground-
ing 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 posi-
tion 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 wu’ote 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

COURT LIFE.

151

the seclusion of the palace and see any-
thing of the life there, except what is
shown to the public in the occasional en-
tertainments given at court, such as for-
mal 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 Em-
peror and Empress. The palace is built in
Japanese style, surrounded by the old cas-
tle moats, but there are many foreign ad-
ditions 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 pal-
aces; 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 ex-

152 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

quisite, there is little in this simplicity
to denote the abode of royalty. It seems
that their majesties, though outwardly con-
forming 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 beds.

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 Emper-
or’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 Em-
press 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 pri-
vate 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

COURT LIFE.

153

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 sepa-
rate 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, en-
tirely 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 distinc-
tion, 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

154 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 ap-
prenticeship 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 for-
malities which they are made to think
indispensable. These details of etiquette
extend not only to all that concerns the
imperial household, but to curious cus-
toms 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

COURT LIFE.

155

one nobler, more accomplished, more beau-
tiful in life and character, than the Era-
press 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 fami-
lies.i Ham Ko, of the noble family of
Ichijo, 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 Sho-
gun ate, ^ and the restoration of the Em-

1 The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any
branch of the imperial family, hut 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 douht 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 Em-
peror could never marry, as all men were far beneath
them in rank. These usually devoted their lives to re-
ligion, and as Shinto priestesses or Buddhist nuns dwelt
in the retirement of temple courts or the seclusion of
cloisters.

2 Tokugawa Shoguns 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 im-

156 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

peror to actual power and the leading part
in the government. Eeared amid the deep
and scholarly seclusion of the old court at
Kyoto, 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 Tokyo, and the reappearance of the Em-
peror, in bodily form, before his people,
there came new opportunities for the Em-
press, 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 them-
selves to play a part in the Japan of the
future, on through twenty years of change

press the foreigners when Commodore Perry was nego-
tiating in regard to treaties. The Shogun held the daimios
in forced subjection, — a subjection that was shaken in
1862, and broken at last in the year 1868, when, by the
fall of the Shogunate, the Emperor was restored to direct
power over his people.

COURT LIFE.

157

and progress, the Empress Haru Ko has
done all that lay within her power to ad-
vance the women of her country. Many
stories are afloat which show the lovable
character of the woman, and which have
given her an abiding place in the affec-
tions of the people.

Some years ago, when the castle in
Tokyo was burned, and the Emperor and
Empress were obliged to take refuge in an
old daimio’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 it mattered little how
she was situated, as long as she was sure
of a home in the hearts of her people.
That home, which fire can never consume,
she has undoubtedly made for herself.

Upon another occasion, when Prince Iwa-
kura, 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

158 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

a giiestj sent her word back that he was
very ill, and unable to make proper prepa-
ration 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
Ichijo, his old friend and colleague, and as
such he could receive her. And then, set-
ting aside imperial state and etiquette, she
visited the dying statesman, and bright-
ened 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
])atronage; 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 Tokyo, having in connec-
tion 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 1‘rom her own
private allowance, and concerning this act

COURT LIFE. 159

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 class-
rooms or in laboratories, or by the beds of
the sick, must soon become quite intoler-
able did she not contrive, out of the good-
ness of her heart, to retain a keen and
kindly interest in everything that concerns
the welfare of her subjects. That her Ma-
jesty does feel this interest, and that it
grows rather than diminishes as the years
go by, every one knows who has been pres-
ent 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

160 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

Majesty’s benevolence is, however, more
than usually striking. Since the founding
of the Tokyo 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 minis-
trations, until the need of more capacious
premises — a need familiar to such under-
takings — began to be strongly felt. The
Empress, knowing this, cast about for some
means of assisting this project. To prac-
tice strict economy in her own personal
expenses, and to devote whatever money
might thus be saved from her yearly in-
come 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 chamber-
lains. There is something picturesque
about these sen and rin. They represent

COURT LIFE.

161

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 elBPort command admiration
and love.”

Not very long ago, on one of her visits to
the hospital, the Empress visited the chil-
dren’s ward, and took with her toys, wdiich
she gave with her own hand to each child
there. When we consider that this hos-
pital is free to the poorest and lowest per-
son in Tokyo, and that tw^enty 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 Ko has done in bridg-
ing the distance between herself and her
people so that the poorest child of a beg-
gar may receive a gift from her hand. In
the country places to this day, there are
peasants who yet believe that no one can

162 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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
coui-t. 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 sj)eeches and ad-
dresses are listened to by her with the pro-
foundest 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

COURT LIFE.

163

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, ask-
ing them questions. Upon one occasion
she observed a young princess, a new-comer
in the school, working somewhat awk-
wardly with needle and thimble. “The
first time, Princess, is it notP” said the
Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed
Princess was obliged to confess that this
was her finst experience with those domes-
tic implements.

Sometimes in her leisure hours — and
they are rare in her busy life — the Em-
press amuses herself by receiving the lit-
tle 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

164 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

always end with some choice toy or gift,
which the child takes home and keeps
among her most valued treasures in re-
membrance of her imperial hostess. In
this way the Empress relieves the loneli-
ness of the great palace, where the sound
of childish voices is seldom heard, for the
Emperor’s children are brought up in sep-
arate establishments, and only pay occa-
sional visits to the palace, until they have
passed early childhood.^

The present life of the Empress is not
very different from that of European roy-
alty. Her carriage and escort are fre-
quently met with in the streets of Tokyo
as she goes or returns on one of her nu-
merous visits of ceremony or beneficence.
Policemen keep back the crowds of peo-
ple wdio always gather to see the imperial
carriage, and stand respectfully, but with-
out demonstration, while the horsemen
carrying the imperial insignia, followed

1 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 es-
tablishment of the guardian, who is supposed to exercise
his judgment and experience in the physical and mental
training of the child.

COURT LIFE.

165

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 Tokyo, at other times
to schools, charitable institutions or exhi-
bitions, 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 Ma-
jesties.

Among the amusements withii^ the pal-
ace 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 ac-
tive exercise, — an amusement forming a
striking contrast to the quiet of former
years.

The grounds about the palaces in Tokyo
are most beautifully laid out and cultivated,
but not in that artificial manner, with reg-
ular fiower beds and trees at certain equal
distances, which is seen so often in the
highly cultivated grounds of the rich in

166 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

this country. Tlie Jaiulscape gardening’ of
Japan keeps unclianged the wildness and
beauty of nature, and imitates it closely.
The famous flowers, however, are, in the
imperial gardens, changed by art and cul-
tivated to their highest perfection, bloom-
ing each season for the enjoyment of the
members of the court. Especially is atten-
tion given to the cultivation of the impe-
rial 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 odd-
est colors and shapes, the results of much
care and cultivation, are exhibited in spa-
cious beds, shaded by temporary roofs of
bamboo twigs and decorated with the im-
perial flags. This is the great chrysanthe-
mum 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

COURT LIFE.

167

must be, from common, every-day life.
Only by glimpses do the people know her,
but those glimpses reveal enough to ex-
cite the warmest admiration, the most ten-
der love. Childless herself, destined to see
a child not her own, although her hus-
band’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 Jingu,i 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.

1 Jingu Kogo, like many of the heroic, half mythical
figures of other nations, has sufEered 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 his-
toric 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.

168 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

Eacli 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 civ-
ilizing, 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 wdiich it has never failed to
give to the wives and mothers of all Chris-
tian nations.

CHAPTER VII,

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI.^

The seclusion of the Emperors and the
gathering of the reins of government into
the hands of Shoguns was a gradual pro-
cess, beginning not long after the intro-
duction of Chinese civilization, and con-
tinuing to grow until lyeyasu, 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

^ Yashiki, or spread-out house, was the name giren to
the palace and grounds of a dairaio’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 dainiio’s yashiki. In the castle towns the daimio’s
palace and gardens stood within the castle inclosure, sur-
rounded by a moat, while the yashikis of the samurai were
placed Avithout 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 tlie life of the daimio, whether in city or country.

170 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

of his house for two hundred and fifty years
of peace.

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 mag-
nificence in which the Tokugawas and the
daimios 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 re-
tainers enough to make Yedo, the Toku-
gawa capital, the centre of a luxury far
surpassing anything ever seen at the Em-
peror’s own court. While the huge, the
old imperial nobility, formerly the govern-
ors of the provinces under the Emperors,
lived in respectable but often extreme pov-

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 171

erty at Kyoto, the landed nobility, or dai-
mios, brought, after many struggles, under
the sway of the Tokugavvas, built for them-
selves palaces and pleasure gardens in the
moated city of Yedo. At Yedo with its cas-
tle, its gardens, its yashikis, and its fortifi-
cations, was established a new court, more
luxurious, but less artistic and cultivated,
than the old court of Kyoto. In the va-
rious provinces, too, at every castle town, a
little court arose about the castle, and the
daimio became not only the feudal chief,
but the patron of literature and art among
his peo[)le, as the years went by filling his
luua with choice works of art, in lacquer,
bronze, silver, and pottery, to be brought
out on special occasions. These nobles,
under u law of ly^mitsu, the third of the
Tokngawa line, were compelled to spend
half of each year at the city of the Sho-
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 daimios and their trains of retainers,
but in the lives of the country people who

172 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

lived along* the roads by which they must
travel. The time and style of each journey
for each daimio were rigidly prescribed in
the laws of lydmitsu, as well as the be-
havior 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
he 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 daimio
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 jour-
neys, attended with so much ceremony and

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 173

inconvenience to the people, were not as
frequent as the trips now taken, at a mo-
ment’s notice, from one city to another,
by these very same men.

One story current in Tokyo 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 disap-
pointed 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 ex-
aggerate, for not a soul was on the bridge
when I passed by.”

The castle of the Shogun 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 daimios 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 daimio’s castle.

It is curious to see that, as the Shogun

174 JAPANESE GIRLS. AND WOMEN.

took away tlie military and temporal power
of the Emperor, making* of him only a
figure-head without real power, so, to a
certain degree, the daimio gave up, little by
little, the personal control of his own prov-
ince, the power falling into the hands of
ambitious samurai, who became the coun-
cilors 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, ef-
feminate, luxury-loving nobles of the pres-
ent 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 mas-
ter’s house.

The life of the ladies in these daimios’
houses is still a living* memory to many of
the older women of Japan ; but it is a mem-
ory only, and has given place to a different
state of things. The Emperor occupies
the castle of the Shogun to-day, and every
daimio’s castle throughout the country is

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 176

in the hands of the imperial g-overnment.
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 conserv-
ative family of nobles still keeping up in
some measure the customs of former times ;
and daimios’ houses there are still in Tokyo,
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 sa-
murai rank, who serve her ladyship — the
daimio’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 housekeep-
ing, that might be obtained by a few years
of apprenticeship in a daimio’s house, and
gladly assumed the most menial positions
for the sake of the education and reputa-
tion to be gained by such training.

The wife and daughters of a daimio led
the quietest of lives, rarely passing beyond
the four great walls that inclose the palace
Avith its grounds. They saw the changes
of the seasons in the flowers that bloomed
in their lovely gardens, when, followed by

176 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

numerous attendants, they slowly walked
through the bamboo groves or under the
bloom-laden houghs of the plum or cherry
trees, forming their views of life, its pleas-
ures, its responsibilities, and its meaning,
within the narrow limits of the daimio’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 cere-
mony, 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 Shogun’s daughters, and the pains
that were taken to gratify their wishes,
however unreasonable. The cherry-trees
of the castle gardens of Tokyo 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

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 177

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 daimio’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 Japa-
nese girl is brought up strictly by her own
mother, and thoroughly drilled in obedi-
ence and in all that is proper as regards
etiquette and the duties of woman, we can
imagine the narrowness of the education
of the daimio’s poor little daughter, sur-
rounded, from early childhood, with nu-
merous attendants of the strictest sort, to

178 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

teach her all that is proper according to
the highest and severest standards. Some-
times, by the whim or the indulgence of
parents, or through exceptional circum-
stances in her surroundings, a samurai’s
daughter became more independent, more
self-reliant, or better educated, than oth-
ers 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 acquir-
ing polite manners and speech. She was
taught etiquette above all things, so that
no rude action or sj)eech would disgrace
her rank; and that she should give due
reverence to her superiors, courtesy to
equals, and polite condescension to inferi-
ors. 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 with-
out her previous knowledge or permission,
and from them she would receive profuse

LIFJ^J hy iJAlSTLE AJS U YAISHIKI.

thanks, — lessons in the delights of be-
neficence which could not fail to make
their impression on the child princess.
Even to inferiors she used the polite lan-
guage,^ and never the rude, brusque speech
of men, or the careless phrases and expres-
sions of the lower classes.

The education of the daimio’s daughter
was conducted entirely at home.^ Instead
of going out to masters for instruction,
she was taught by some one in the house-
hold,— one of her father’s retainers, or
perhaps a member of her own private reti-
nue. 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,

^ Tlie Japanese language is full of expressions showing
diflFerent shades of meaning in the politeness or respect
implied. There are words and expressions which supe-
riors 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 ex-
pressions of the people. Some verbs in this extremely
complex language must he altered in their termination
according to the degree of honor in which the subject of
the action is held in the speaker’s mind.

2 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.

180 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

conversing*, sipping tea, and partaking of
sweetmeats, until their noble pupil was
ready to receive them. Hospitality re-
quired 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.

Pursued in this leisurely way, the edu-
cation 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 daimio’s household

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 181

meant a single life. Many of them re-
mained in the palace all their days, leading
lives of devotion to their mistress ; the
comfort and ease of which hardly compen-
sated for the endless formalities and the
monotonous seclusion.

Even the less responsible and more me-
nial 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 dai-
mid’s lady, she went on her visit to her
home, she was received as a greatly hon-
ored member of her own family. The re-
spect 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 mat-
ters that concerned their mistress and the
household ; just as the male retainers de-
cided for the prince, and in their own
way, many of the affairs of the province.
The few conservative old ladies, the last

182 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 for-
malities, 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 stu-
dent must carry in her own bundle of^books
and arrange them herself, and that the at-
tendants were not allowed in the class-
room. 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.

In the daimids’ houses there was little
of the culture or wit that graced the more
aristocratic seclusion of Kyoto, and none
of the duties and responsibilities that be-
longed to the samurai women, so that the

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 183

life of the daimio’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 intellect-
ual 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 instruc-
tion 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

184 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

three centuries of training. They are lack-
ing in force, in ambition, in clearness of
thought, among a, nation abounding in
those qualities ; but the national charac-
teristics 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 gen-
tleness and delicacy possessed by these la-
dies, which make them shrink from rough
contact with the outer world, there are
mingled the stronger qualities of bravery
and physical courage. A daimio’s wife,
as befitted the wife of a warrior and the
daugliter 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 es-
cape from being captured by her enemy.

Two or three little ripples from the past
broke into my life in Tokyo, 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

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 185

a child, witnessed the events narrated. It
illustrates the responsibility felt by the re-
tainers for their lord and his house. A
dainiio fell into disgrace with the Shogun,
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 com-
munication with the outer world allowed.
During this period of disgrace, it happened
that the noble fell ill, and died quite sud-
denly before his punishment was ended.
His death under such circumstances was
the most terrible thing that could befall
either himself or his famil}^, as his funeral
must he without the ordinary tokens of re-
spect ; and his tombstone, instead of bear-
ing 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 Shogun’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 mes-
senger to the Shogun, begging for pardon
on the plea of desperate illness, and ask-

186 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

ing 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 daimio was hopelessly ill. Forty
days passed before the Shogun sent to the
retainers the token that the disgrace was
removed, and during all those forty days,
in castle and barrack and village, the fic-
tion of the daimio’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 re-
tainers, from the least unto the greatest,
were summoned into the room to congratu-
late their master upon his restoration to
favor. One by one they entered the dark-
ened 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 h^ had died
immediately after the return of the mes-
senger with the good tidings of pardon.

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 187

All obstacles being thus removed, the fu-
neral was celebrated with due pomp and
circumstance; and the tombstone of the
daimio 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
yoshii, 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 mourn-
ing begun, and the funeral ceremony per-
formed.

Upon one occasion I was visiting a Japa-

188 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

nese lady, who knew the interest that I
took in seeing and procuring the old-fash-
ioned embroidered Idmonos, which are now
entirely out of style in Japan, and which
can only be obtained at second-hand cloth-
ing stores, or at private sale. My friend
said that she had just been shown an as-
sortment of old garments which were of-
fered at private sale by the heirs of a lady,
recently deceased, who had once been a
maid of honor in a daimio’s house. The
clothes were still in the house, and were
brought in, in a great basket, for my in-
spection. Very beautiful garments they
w ere, 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 fit-
ting occasion came round at the proper
season of the year. As we turned over the
beautiful fabrics, a black broadcloth gar-
ment at the bottom of the basket aroused
my curiosity, and I pulled it out and held
it up for closer inspection. A curious gar-
ment it was, bound wdth white, and wdth a
great white crest applique on the middle of
the back. Curious white stripes gave the

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 189

coat a military look, and it seemed appro-
priate rather to the wardrobe of some two-
s worded warrior than to that of a gentle-
woman 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 ex-
otic growth — explained that the garment
rightfully belonged in the wardrobe of any
lady-in-waiting in a daimio’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. Fur-
ther 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 prop-
erty. 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

190 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 wonder-
fully amused at my interest in these mute
memorials of the past, and could never com-
])rehend 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 bad 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 Toky5 to-day
hundreds of colored prints illustrating the
splendor of the Shognnate ; 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 color-
ing, the daimids, with their trains of uni-
formed retainers, proceeding in stately pa-

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 191

geant to the palace of the Shogun ; the
games, the dances, the reviews held before
the Shogun 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
Shogun with his court sailed up the river
to Mukojima, in the spring, to view the
cherry-trees which bloom along the banks
for miles. One sees, too, the interiors of
the daimios’ houses, the intimate domestic
scenes into which no outsider could ever
penetrate. One picture shows the excite-
ments 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, bring-
ing the gifts with which the great man-
sion is flooded at such a time. Still further
away, across the courtyard, are the doctors,
holding learned consultation around a little

192 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

table, and mixing’ medicines to secure the
health and strength of both mother and
babj.

The fall of the Shogunate, and the abo-
lition of castle and yashiJd, 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, scat-
tered 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 ac-
quaintance, Why have you given up the
beautiful embroideries and gorgeous col-
ors that you used to wear?” the answer
always is, “There are no daimios’ houses
now.” And this is regarded as a suflicient
explanation of the change.

I have in my possession to-day two dainty
bits of the silk mosaic work before men-
tioned, the work of the sixteen-year-old
wife of one of the proudest aud most con-

LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASUIKI. 193

servative of the present generation of no-
bles. 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 pleas-
ant, 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 exclu-
sive house was due largely to the reports
of my dog, carried to its proprietors by one
of the lady servitors who had seen him ))er-
forin upon one occasion. Certain it is that

194 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 evi-
dence that he understood a great deal of
English, — a tongue which the daiuiid him-
self was painfully learning. The dainty
child-wife with both arms buried in the
heavy rutf of the astonished dog is a pic-
ture that conies 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 Kyoto, the silk mosaic box and chop-
stick case, — the work of my lady’s deli-
cate fingers, — are most agreeable remind-
ers 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
])i*oduct of the past, — the daughter of the
last of the Shoguns, — she dwells in her
enchanted house, among the relics of a

LIFE 7JY‘ CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 195

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 si>ell 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 g-iven 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 agri-
culture, 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 offi-
cial business. At the time of the fall of
feudalism, there were, among the thirty-
four millions of Japanese, about two mil-
lion samurai; and in this class, in the
broadest sense of the word, must be in-
cluded the daimios, as well as their two-
sworded retainers. But as the greater
among the samurai were distinguished by
special class names, the word as commonly
usud, and as used throughout this work.

SAMURAI WOMEN.

197

applies to the military class, who served
the Shogun and the daimios, 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 cen-
tury 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 per-
fect Japanese gentleman, so that to live and
die worthy the name of samurai was the
highest ambition of the soldier? The sa-
murai’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

198 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

read the tale of “The Loyal Ronins”i —
a story which has been so well told by Mit-
ford, Dickens, and Greey that many read-
ers must be already familiar with it — will
remember that the head councilor and
retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for re-
venge 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 re-
venge without once seeing his wife, only
letting her know at his death his faithful-
ness to her and the true cause of his seem-
ing cruelty. And the wife, far from feel-
ing 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.

The true samurai is always brave, never
fearing death or sufi'ering in any form.
Life and death are alike to him, if no dis-
grace is attached to his name.

An incident comes into my mind which

1 Ronin was the term applied to a samurai who had
lost his master, and owed no feudal allegiance to any
daimio. 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.

SAMURAI WOMEN.

199

may serve as an example of the samurai
spirit, — a spirit which has filled the his-
tory 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 endur-
ance, though hourly expecting reinforce-
ment. In this state of affairs, the great
question is, whether to wait for the ex-
pected 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 horri-
ble death of crucifixion. He is to go to
the edge of the moat, and, standing on an
elevated place, shout out to the soldiers

200 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

that they must suiTeiicler, for the forces are
too strong for them. He seemingly con-
sents 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 he 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 mas-
ter. 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 Spar-
tan 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 daimio gave

SAMURAI WOMEN.

201

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 be-
tween the two duties, the samurai would
usually do as he thought right for his
country or his lord, disobeying his mas-
ter’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 ene-
mies, and women as well as men knew
how to use the short sword ^ worn always

^ Tlie 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 em-
blem 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.

202 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

at the side of the samurai, his last and
easy escape from shameful death.

The young’ men of this class, as well as
their masters, the daimios, were early in-
structed in the method of this self-stab-
bing, so that it might be cleanly and eas-
ily done, for a bloody and unseemly death
would not redound to the honor of the
suicide. The fatal cut was not instanta-
neous 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-Mri 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 con-
demned to hara-Ji'iri if found guilty of ac-
tions worthy of death. Not to be allowed
to do this, but to be executed in the com-
mon way, was a double disgrace to a samu-
rai. 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

SAMUBAI WOMEN.

203

escape detection. He calmly gives himself
up to justice or takes his own life,^ stating
his motive for the deed ; and, believing
himself justified in the act, is willing that
his life should be the cost.

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 sup-
port from the daimio, often a mere pit-
tance, insured to him more respect and
greater privileges than wealth as a heimin.
To this day even, this feeling exists. Pref-
erence for rank or position, rather than
for mere salary, remains strongly among
the present generation, so that official posi-
tions are more sought after than the more
lucrative occupations of trade. Japan

1 Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma,
the late Minister of Foreign Affairs, as recently as 1889,

V committed suicide immediately after throwing the dyna-
mite 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.

204 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 impor-
tant 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 phy-
sicians, 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 w^ell as to the
amount of service received. Daimios did
not send to ask a teacher how much an
hour his time w^as worth, and then arrange
the lessons accordingly ; the teacher was

SAMUBAI WOMEN.

205

not insulted by being expected to barter
bis 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 Ja-
pan,— 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 foreign-
ers 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 in-
dependence 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 ra[)idly imbib-
ing 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

206 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

long* time before the lo}^al, faithful, hut
proud spirit of the samurai will die out.
The pride of clau 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 re-
tainer.

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 dis-
astrously in 1637 has left the impression
that a Christian is bound to offer alle-
giance 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

SAMURAI WOMEN.

207

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 persecu-
tion against all Christians. Missionaries
at one time dared not acknowledge them-
selves as such, and lived in danger of their
lives ; and the Japanese Christian who re-
mained faithful did so knowing that he
was despised and hated. I know of one
mother who, finding command and en-
treaty 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 he-
reditary positions of responsibility. A wo-

208 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

man’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 sac-
rifice father, husband, or son might be
the better able to fulfill his duty towards
his feudal superior. The women in the
dairaios’ 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 hus-
bands 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 possibil-
ity of martial prowess about them when
the need for it came; and the long edu-
cation 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 haz-
ards. 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 Shogun’s forces made their last

SAMURAI WOMEN.

209

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, 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.
“ Were n’t you afraid ? ” we asked the deli-
cate 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

210 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 hut 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 difficul-
ties 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 fa-
vorite subject of theatrical representation,
is the death and revenge of a lady in a dai-
mio’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
daimio’s wife, — a thing so uncommon that
it has roused the jealousy of the other
ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwa-
fuji, one of the highest and proudest ladies
at the court, takes pains on every occa-
sion to insult and torment the poor, unof-
fending Onoye, whom she cannot bear to

SAMUEAI WOMEN.

211

have as an associate. She constantly re-
minds her of her inferior birth, and at last
challenges her to a trial in fencing, in
which accomplishment Onoye is not pro-
ficient, 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.

Onoy^, overcome by this deep disgrace of-
fered 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 dis-
ordered hair and anxious looks, perceives
some secret trouble, which her mistress
will not disclose, and tries, while perform-
ing her acts of service, to dispel the gloom
by telling gayly all the gossip of the day.
This maid, 0 Harn, 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<^,

212 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 fare-
well to her family, for the deed must not
be delayed, and sends with the letter the
token of her disgrace, — Iwafnji’s sandal,
which she has kept. O Harn 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 pre-
sage of ill-luck, — frightens the observant
O Haru. A little further on, the strap
of her clog breaks, — a still more alarm-
ing sign. Thoroughly frightened, 0 Haru
turns back, and reaches her mistress’ room
in time to find that the fatal deed is done,
and her mistress is dying. 0 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 Iwafnji in public the
malicious blow, and with the same sandal,
which she has kept as a sign of her re-
venge. She then challenges Iwafnji, in

SAMURAI WOMEN.

213

behalf of the dead, to a trial iu 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 daimio, who ad-
mires and appreciates the spirit of 0 Haru,
sends for her, and raises her from her low
position to fill the post of her dead mis-
tress.

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 re-
gard 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 his-
torical dramas, iu 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 Rdnins,” referred to in the be-
ginning of this chapter. The loyal ronins
are plotting to avenge the death of their

214 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

master upon the claiinio 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
daimio’s retainers, displays great caution
in the selection of his fellow-conspirators,
and practices every artifice to secure ab-
solute secrecy for his plans. One young
man, who was in disgrace with his lord at
the time of his death, applies to be ad-
mitted 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 honor-
able 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

SAMURAI WOMEN.

215

husband to escape the dishonor that must
come to him if he fails to fulfill his feu-
dal duty. Negotiations are entered into,
the contract is made, and an advance pay-
ment is given which will furnish money
enough for the pledge required by the con-
spirators. All this is done without the
knowledge of the husband, lest his love
for his wife and his grief for the sacri-
fice 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 dis-
grace 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 Bake when she leaped into the
sea to avert the wrath of the sea-god from

216 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 ap-
pear 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

SAMUBAl WOMEN.

217

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 honor-
able 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 dis-
honor. 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. EHs-
iniss this for a moment, and consider the
moral training of the Japanese maiden.
From earliest youth until she reaches ma-
turity, she is constantly taught that obedi-
ence and loyalty are the supreme virtues,
which must be preserved even at the sacri-
fice of all otlier and lesser virtues. She is
told that for the good of fiither or husband
she must be willing to meet any danger,
endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime,
give up any treasure. She must consider

218 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 al-
tered, 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 mod-
esty 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

SAMUEAI WOMEN.

219

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-mind-
edly, 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 rea-
soning on the subject.

To me, the sense of duty seems to be
strongly developed in the Japanese wo-
men, especially in those of the samurai
class. Conscience seems as active, though
often in a different manner, as the old-fash-
ioned New England conscience, transmitted
through the bluest of Puritan blood. And
when a duty has once been recognized as

220 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 short-
comings of which none of them knew, for
the sake of easing her troubled conscience
and warning her schoolmates against simi-
lar errors. The circumstances were as fol-
lows: The young girl had recently lost her
grandmother, a most loving and affection-
ate 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 re-
called all of her own shortcomings to this
beloved friend; and, too late to make amend-
ment 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 school-
mates, w^arn them against similar mistakes ;
and accordingly she prepared, for the liter-
ary society in wdiich the girls took wdiat
part they chose, a long confession, written

SAMURAI WOMEN.

221

in poetical style, and read it before her
scboolinates and teachers. It was a ter-
rible ordeal, as one could see by the blush-
ing- 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 tliat 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 ex-
piation 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 illus-
trates this sense of duty, and desire of
atoning for past mistakes or sins. At the
time of the overthrow of the feudal sys-
tem, 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 daimios to the field, in de-
fense of the Shogunate, found that they
had been fighting against the Emperor, the

222 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

Son of Heaven himself, who had at last
emerged from the seclusion of centuries to
govern his own empire. Thus the sup-
porters of the Shogunate, while absolutely
loyal to their daimios, had been disloyal to
the higher power of the Emperor; and
had put themselves in the position of trai-
tors 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 loy-
alty 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 re-
bellion broke out in the south which re-
quired a considerable expenditure of blood
and money for its suppression. When the
new war began, these two ladies presented

SAMURAI WOMEN.

223

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 atone-
ment for past disloyalty, by the exercise of
the skill and nerve that they had gained in
their experience of war against the Em-
peror, in the nursing of soldiers wounded
in his defense.

In the old days, the women of the samu-
rai class fulfilled most nobly the duties
that fell to their lot. As wives and mo-
thers 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 dan-
ger 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

224 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

ladies-in-waitiiig at the court of the chii-
mio or the Shognii, they cultivated the arts
and accomplishments required for their
position, and veiled the martial spirit that
dsvelt 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, wher-
ever they are looking about for new^ oppor-
tunities, entering new^ occupations, elevat-
ing the home, opening hospitals, indus-
trial 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

SAMURAI WOMEN.

225

and joined the ranks of the nobility ; and
there the presence of the samurai spirit in-
fuses new life into the aristocracy. So, too,
the chang’es that have raised some have
lowered others, and the samurai is now to
be found in the formerly despised occupa-
tions 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 intelli-
gence 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 sup-
port taken from them, leaving them un-
able 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.

226 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

— even to the humble work of wheeling a
jinrildsha, if other honest occupation could
not be found ; and the women shared pa-
tiently 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 pri-
vate, 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 intel-
ligent, 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

SAMURAI WOMEN.

227

of them in at least one langnag'e 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 mnch 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 arti-
sans, 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 etn
and hinin,^ — outcasts who lived by beg-
ging, slaughtering animals, caring for dead
bodies, tanning skins, and other employ-
ments which rendered them unclean ac-
cording to the old notions. From very
early times the agricultural class has been
sharply divided from the samurai or niili-

^ The laws against the 6ta and hinin, making of them
a distinct, unclean class, and forbidding their intermar-
riage 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. Hdimin and samurai are now indiscriminately
mingled.

PEASANT WOMEN.

229

tarv. Here and there one from the peas-
antry mounts by force of his personal quali-
ties 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 mili-
tary from the peasantry occurred in the
eiglith century, and since then the peculiar
circumstances of each class have tended to
produce quite diflPereut 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 hear fruit in
heroic deeds.' To the peasant, tilling his
little rice-field year after year, have come
the heavy burdens of taxation ; the grind-
ing toil for a mere pittance of food for
himself and his family ; the patient bearing
of all things imposed by his superiors, with

230 JAPAI^ESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 heimiu as a
class : they are conservative, fearing that
change will but tend to make harder a lot
that is none too easy ; and though peace-
able and gentle usually, they may be moved
to blind acts of riot and bloodshed by any
political change that seems likely to pro-
duce heavier taxation, or even by a failure
of their crops, when they see themselves
and their families starving while the mili-
tary and official classes have enough and
to spare. But though, as a class, the farm-
ers are ignorant and heavy, they are sel-
dom entirely illiterate ; and everywhere,
throughout the country, one finds men be-
longing to this class who are well educated
and have risen to positions of much re-

PEASANT WOMEN.

231

spoiisibilifcy and power, and are able to bold
their own, and think for themselves and
for their brethren. From an article in the
“ Tokyo Mail,” entitled A Memorialist of
the Latter Days of the Tokugawa Govern-
ment,” I quote passag'es 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
Shogun by the head-man of the village of
Ogushi.

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 in-
dustrious, 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 Shoguns themselves by pointing to the
extravagance with which they have deco-
rated the mausoleums at Nikko and else-
where. 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

232 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

then turns to the vassals of the Shoofiin,
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 con-
tented with what they have ! ”

Further on in the same memorial, he
points out what he regards as a grave mis-
take in the policy of the Shogun. A de-
cree 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 de-
fended on all sides. But when she receives
insult from a foreign country, it may be-
come necessary to call on the militia. And
who knows that men of extraordinary mili-
tary genius, like Toyotonii,^ will not again
appear among the lower classes ? ”

^ Toyotomi Hid^yoslii, a peasant boy, rose from the
position of a groom to be the actual ruler of Japan dur-
ing 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. rxiv.

PEASANT WOMEN.

233

He ends his memorial with this warn-
ing*: Should the Shogun’s court, and the

military class in general, persist in the
present oppressive w^ay of government. Hea-
ven 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 foun-
der of the dynasty be acted upon ; that
simplicity and frugality be made the guid-
ing principle of administration ; and that
a general amnesty be proclaimed, thereby
complying with the will of Heaven and pla-
cating the people. Should these humble
suggestions of mine be acted upon, pro-
spective calamities will fly before the light
of virtue. Whether the country is to be
safe or not depends upon whether the ad-
ministration 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 peo-
ple may be happy and prosperous.”

One is able to see, by this rather re-
markable document, that the peasants of
Japan, though frequently almost crushed
by the heavy burdens of taxation, do not.

234 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 when-
ever 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 Shogun a complaint, on. behalf of
his fellow-villagers, of the extortions and
exactions of his daimio. He is unable to
get any one to present his memorial to the
Shogun, 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 dai-
mio 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 op-
pressed, has not lost his manhood ; has not

PEASANT WOMEN.

235

become a slave or a serf, but clings to bis
rights, so far as be knows what they are ;
and is ready to bold 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 burst-
ing the old bottles, as well as to prevent
any rash extravagance in the way of per-
sonal expenditure on the part of govern-
ment 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 es-
tablished between the throne and public
oinnion.

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

236 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 some-
thing 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 he 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 at-
tempts 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

PEASANT WOMEN.

237

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 esthetic part of human nature. It
was not the costly art of Japan that inter-
ested me the most, although that is, of
course, the most wonderful proof of the
capacity aud 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 tow-
els, the common teacups and pots, the
great iron kettles in use over the tire in
the farmhouse kitchen, — all these are
things as pretty and tasteful in their way
as the rich crepes, the silver incense burn-
ers, the delicate porcelain, and the elegant
lacquer that till the storehouse of the dai-
mio ; and they show, much more conclu-
sively than these costlier things, the uni-
versal 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

238 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 flow-
ers, even in winter and in the great city of
Tokyo, 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 ne-
cessities of life, one finds the few furnish-
ings 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
Jcake monos, flowers, and vases, and for va-
rious 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
wdiich 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 Jap-
anese, the “ life is more than meat,” it is
beauty as well ; and this love of beauty has

PEASANT WOMEN.

239

upon him a civilizing and refining effect,
and makes him in many ways the superior
of the American day-laborer.

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 cou-
spicuons 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 labor-
ers in the rice-fields hardly earn, from days
of hardest toil with the rudest imple-
ments, 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 en-
joy life again in happier times. The charms
of the city tempt tliem sometimes to ex-
change their daily labor for the excitement
of life SLS jinriJdsh a men; but in any case

240 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

they will he 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 occupa-
tion 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 sub-
stance for the aid of the dying faiths to
which they cling, and to undertake toil-
some pilgrimages to obtain some longed-
for blessing from the gods whom they
serve. A great Buddhist temple is being
built in Kyoto to-day, from the lofty ceil-
ing of which hangs a striking proof of the
devotion of some of the peasant women

PEASANT WOMEN.

241

to the Buddhist faith. The whole tem-
ple, with its immense curved roof, its vast
proportions, and its marvelous wood carv-
ings, 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 Jap-
anese women than by those of other coun-
tries, 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 be-
lieve. And a close scrutiny of these touch-
ing 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 Tokaido, the great road
from Tokyo to Kyoto, in the neighborhood

242 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 walk-
ing along the road, their worn and soiled
white garments telling of many days’ Aveary
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 Avay 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 mat-
ting, 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.

Journeying through rural Japan, one is
impressed by the important part played by

PEASANT WOMEN.

243

women in the various bread-winning’ indus-
tries. In the village homes, under the
heavily thatched roofs, the constant strug-
gle 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, transplant-
ing, 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 Kyoto, Yase 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

244 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

women tliey 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 expedi-
tion upon the sacred mountain. I myself
was carried up the ascent by two small,
nearly naked, finely tattooed and nioxa-
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
Yase villagers duly appreciate, and which
makes them bear themselves proudly among
their less favored neighbors.

PEASANT WOMEN.

245

In other parts of the country, in tlie
neighborhood of Nikko, for instance, the
care of the horses, mild little pack-iuares
that do much of the burden-bearing in
those mountains, is mainly in the hands of
the women. At Nikko, when we would hire
ponies for a two days’ expedition to Yu-
moto, a little, elderly woman was the per-
son with whom our bargains were made ;
and a close bargainer she proved to be, tak-
ing 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-
[)onies on which our baggage was carried
were led by pretty little country girls of
twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes
iind 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 slip-
pery log steps, and passing an occasional
greeting with some returning pack train.

246 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

in which the soft black eyes and bits of
red about the costume of the little grooms
showed that they, too, were mountain maid-
ens, 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 i)roduct
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 fam-
ily, 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 silk-
worms, and all the tasks that belong to silk
culture, she is the equal of the stronger

sex.

PEASANT WOMEN.

247

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, wmmen 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 Osaka had brought our party in very
tired, only to find that the hotel to which

248 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

we bad telegraphed for rooms was already
filled to overflowing by a daimio and bis
suite. Not a room could be obtained, and
we were at last obliged to walk some dis-
tance, for we bad dismissed onr tired jin-
rikisha men, to a hotel in the village, of
which we knew nothing. What with fa-
tigue and disappointment, we were not pre-
pared to view the unknown hotel in a very
rosy light; and when onr 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 com-
mon, she made us feel at home at once,
took us to her best room, sent her bloom-
ing and prettily dressed daughters to bring
us tea and whatever other refreshments
the mysterious appetite of a foreigner
might require, and altogether behaved to-
ward us in such motherly fashion that fa-
tigue and gloom departed forthwith, leav-
ing us refreshed and cheerful. Soon we
began to feel rested, and our kind friend,

PEASANT WOMEN.

249

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-cov-
ered 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

250 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

wails of my dog, who was complaining bit-
terly 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 in-
quiring 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 Tnu (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 busi-
ness abilities of w^omen, both in country
and city. Wherever you go, no matter how

PEASANT WOMEN.

251

remote the district or how rough the road,
at every halting point you find a tea-house.
Sometimes it is quite an extensive restau-
rant, with several rooms for the entertain-
ment 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 scar-
let 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 re-
quire more, with whatever the establish-
ment 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 sweet-
meats offered, for which no especial charge
is made, you are expected to leave a small
sum as a present. In the less aristocratic

252 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

resting’-places, a few cents for each person
is sufficient to leave on tlie waiter with the
empty cups of tea, for which loud and grate-
ful thanks will be shouted out to the re-
tiring party.

In the regular inn, the chadai ^ 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 cha-
dai, 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 pa-
per walls of a Japanese house let through
every noise, voices from all sides will shout
out He'-he', or Hai, which means that you
have been heard, and understood. Pres-
ently a maid will softly open your door,
and with head low down will ask what
you wish. You tell her to summon the

^ Chadai is, literally, “money for tea,” and is equiva-
lent to our tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. Tlie
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.

WOMEN.

253

landlord. In a few moments he appears,
and you push the chadai to him, mak-
ing 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 sur-
prise, 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, confec-
tionery, 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.

Once, at Nikko, 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

254 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

the place for which we had set out, but
found ourselves at last in a beautiful gar-
den, with a pretty lake iu its centre, a lit-
tle 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 ; hut no voice bade us wel-
come as we approached, and when we sat
down on the edge of the piazza, we could
see no one wdthin the house. We w^aited,
how^ever, for the day was hot, and time is
not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty
soon a small, wdzened figure made its ap-
pearance 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
w^ere made by the little old woman, who
seemed to be the solitary occupant of the
pretty garden, and who had for the mo-
ment deserted her post to do the day’s mar-
keting 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.

PEASANT WOMEN.

255

from the spring* that gushed out of a g*reat
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 mys-
terious ways of the foreigners, as we are
over those of the Japanese tea-house keep-
ers.

One summer, when I was spending a
week at a .Japanese hotel at quite a fash-
ionable 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

256 JAPANESE GIBES AND WOMEN.

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 bine cotton garments that I
knew to be the clothing of the little fruit-
vender. She had evidently taken a mo-
ment 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, pro-
ceeded 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 eti-
quette is quite different from ours in such

PEASANT WOMEN:

257

a predicament. She continued her em-
ployment until he was quite close, showing
no unseemly haste, hut continuing her pol-
ishing 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 lit-
tle 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, wo-
men, and children that pour out from every
village on one’s route and surround the
karunia at every stopping place, one some-
times 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 per-
formance of labor bargained for, together

258 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

with the gentlest and .pleasantest of man-
ners, even on the part of the gaping crowd
that shut out light and air from the trav-
eling foreigner who rests for a moment at
the village inn, one is forced to reconsider
a judgment formed only upon one peculi-
arity of the national life, and to conclude
that there is certainly a high type of civili-
zation in Japan, though differing in many
important particulars from our own. A
careful study of the Japanese ideas of de-
cency, and frequent conversation with re-
fined and intelligent Japanese ladies upon
this subject, has led me to the following
conclusion. According to the Japanese
standard, any expOvSure 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 en-
tirely nude condition of the country chil-
dren in summer, and the very slight cloth-

PEASANT WOMEN.

259

ing 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 multi-
tudes, 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 appear-
ing 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 want-
ing 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 mat-
ters is once obtained, the apparent incon-
sistencies and incongruities are fully ex-

260 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

plained, and we can do justice to our Jap-
anese 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 wo-
men who have the most freedom and inde-
pendence. Among this class, all through
the country, the women, though hard-
worked and possessing few comforts, lead
lives of intelligent, inde|)endent labor, and
have in the family positions as respected
and honored as those held by women in
America. Their lives are fuller and hap-
pier than those of the women of the higher
classes, for they are themselves bread-win-
ners, contributing an important part of
the family revenue, and they are obeyed
and respected accordingly. The Japanese
lady, at her marriage, lays aside her in-
dependent existence to become the subor-
dinate 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

PEASANT WOMEN.

261

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 remark-
able 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 re-
spectable 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 Ameri-
can merchants, who only see Jai)an from
the business side, continually speak of the
Japanese as dishonest, tricky, and alto-
gether 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

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

263

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 sell-
ing, if wisely and honestly done, is an em-
ployment 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 ab-
solute 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 ob-
tain what they want. It is the mediaeval,
not the modern idea of business, that is
still held among Japanese merchants. With

264 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 Tokyo, the greatest and most modern-
ized 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 cus-
tomer’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 unneces-
sary ; and in the I'wanJtoha, or bazaars, one
may buy almost anything needed by Japa-
nese 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 condi-
tion, and is surprisingly behind the other
parts of Japanese civilization.

The shopping of the ladies of the large

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

265

yashilds and of wealthy families is clone
mostly in tlie 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 fre-
quently towering high above his head as
he walks, making him look like the pro-
verbial ant with a grain of wheat. He
sets his great bundle carefully down on
the floor, opens the enormous funishild, or
bundle handkerchief, in which it is envel-
oped, 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 ex-
amined and discussed, and if none of his
stock proves satisfactory, he is willing to
come again with a new set of wares, know-
ing 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 Tokyo, are full of women,
young and old, as well as merry children,
who enjoy the life and bustle of the stoi’es.
Like all things else in Japan, shopping
takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the

266 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

largest silk store in Tokyo, one will see
crowds of clerks sitting upon the matted
floors, each with his sorohan, or adding
machine, by his side ; and innumerable
small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying
armfuls of fabrics to the difiPerent clerks,
or picking up the same fabrics after the
customer who has called for them has de-
parted. The store appears, to the foreign
eye, to be simply a roofed and matted plat-
form upon which both clerks and customers
sit. This platform is screened from the
street by dark blue cotton curtains or awn-
ings 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 ex-
tended 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 saluta-
tions of welcome, pushes the charcoal bra-
zier 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.

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

267

and are soon sent off to the great fire-proof
warehouse, which stands with heavy doors
thrown open, on the other side of the plat-
form, 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 ab-
struse calculation upon his soroban, the
transaction has been entered in the books
of the firm, and a long bill has been writ-
ten 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

268 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

loud shouts from the whole staff of clerks
ami small boys, — outcries so sudden, so
simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she
cannot rid herself of the idea that some-
thing 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 con-
tinued favors,” winch is repeated in aloud
tone by every employee in the store when-
ever a customer departs. When she her-
self is at laist ready to leave, a chorus of
yells arises, this time for her benefit ; and as
she skips into the jinriMsha and is whirled
away, she hears continued the- busy hum
of voices, the clattering of sorohans, the
thumping of the bare feet of the heavily
la’den 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 ti*ade piled
up in front, or even in the street itself.

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

269

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 at-
tended 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 Tokyo, have still time
to enjoy their holidays and their little gar-
dens, and have more pleasure and less hard
work than those under similar circum-
stances 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

270 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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, con-
fining factory life, with its never-ceasing
roar of machinery, bewildering the minds
and intellects of the men who come under
its deadening infiuences, 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 lo\^est.

On certain days in the month, in differ-
ent sections of the city, are held night fes-
tivals near temples, and many shopkeepers
take the opportunity to erect temporary

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

271

booths, in which tliey so arraiig’c their
wares as to tempt the passers-by as they
go to and fro. Very often there is a mag-
nificent 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 flue in
themselves, and show to a special advan-
tage 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 re-
quires skill on both sides, for flower men
are proverbial in their high charges, ask-
ing often flve and ten times the real value
of a plant, but coming down in price al-
most immediately on remonstrance. Yon
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-flve, then,” he
wdll 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

272 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 mer-
chants must work late into the night to
get their w^ares 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, \vhose
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, hut
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 pea-
nuts, and other things too numerous to

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

273

mention. The long line of stalls ends with
booths, or tents, in which shows of dan-
cing, jugglery, educated animals, and mon-
strosities, natural or artificial, may he seen
for the moderate admission fee of two
sen. Each of these shows is well adver-
tised by the beating of drums, by the shout-
ing 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 af-
ford 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 laTst booth
is passed, and the quiet of neighboring
streets, lighted only by wandering lan-
terns, strikes the ho me- returning party by
its contrast with the light and noise of the
festival. The supposed object of the expe-
dition, 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 trifies bought, and the
little minds with the merry sights seen.
Nor are those who remain at home forgot-
ten, but the pleasure seekers who visit the

274 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

fair carry away witli them little gifts for
each member of the family, and the 0 mi-
age, or present given on the return, is a
regular institution of Japanese home lifeJ

By ten o’clock, when the crowds have
dispersed and the purchasers have all gone
home and gone to bed, the busy booth-keep-
ers. 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 oc-
cur monthly or oftener, there are also great
festivals of the various gods, some cele-
brated 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 lan-
terns— 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 bri gilt-
colored tissue paper, are a frequent and ef-

1 O miag^ must be given, not only on the return from
an evening of pleasure, but also on the return from a jour-
ney or pleasure trip of any kind. As a rule, the longer
the absence, the finer and more costly must be the pre-
sents given on returning.

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

275

fective accompaniment of these festivals,
and here and there throughout the dis-
trict 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 inge-
nuity, is spent in the construction of enor-
mous floats, or dashi, lolty 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 shoul-
ders. 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 ab-
surdities below. Each dashi is attended,
not only by the men who draw it, but by
companies of others in some uniform cos-
tume; and sometimes graceful professional

276 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

dancing-girls are hired to inarch 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 Tokyo, days of such universal
fun and frolic that it will be known among
the common people, to all succeeding gen-
erations, 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 con-
ceivable variety of decoration, from the lit-
tle red-and-white paper lanterns, that even
the poorest hung before their houses, to
the great evergreen arches, set with elec-
tric 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 re-
membered for a lifetime. The magnificent
dashi represented all manner of quaint
conceits. A great bivalve drawn by yell-
ing 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

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

277

melodies of the samisen. Then slowly the
great shell closed, once more the sliout-
ing 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 his-
tory, 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 shop-
keeper does not put up his shutters and
leave his place of business, but the open
shop-fronts add much to the gay appear-
ance of the street. There are no signs of
business about, but the floor of the shop is
covered with bright-red blankets ; magnifi-
cent gilded screens form an imposing back-
ground to the little room ; and seated on
the floor are the shopkeeper, his family,
and guests, eating, drinking tea, and smok-
ing, 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 fur-
nished by the wealthier shopkeepers, will

278 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN.

attract gaping crowds, who watch and block
the street until the advance guard of some
approaching dashi scatters them for a mo-
ment.

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 boorish ness 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 Tokyo 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 Tokyoites put sugar
in their tea.

But while the country laughs and w’on-
ders at the city, nevertheless, in Japan as
elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of

LIFE IN THE CITIES

279

the j^ouiig* life of the country into the live-
lier and more entertaining city. Tokyo es-
pecially is the goal of every young coun-
tryman’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
Tokyo are frequently surrounded by crowds
of women, drawing water, washing rice,
and chattering merrily over their occupa-
tions. They meet and exchange ideas
freely with each other and with the men,
but they have not the diversity of labor
that country life afiPords, confining them-
selves 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-

280 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

dresser may make a liaiulsome living; in-
deed, she does so well that it is proverbial
among the Japanese that a hair-dresser’s
husband has nothing to do. Though pro-
fessional tailors are mostly men, many wo-
men earn a small pittance in taking in
sewing and in giving sewing lessons ; and
as instructors in the ceremonial tea, eti-
quette, music, painting, and flower ar-
rangement, 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 Tokyo,
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

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

281

thirty or forty cents, the man usually does
the cooking, the woman the serving and
handling of the money, until the time ar-
rives when the profits of the business are
sufficient to justify the hiring of more help.
When this time comes, the labor is re-
distributed, 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

282 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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
^^^ait two years before moving, it was de-
cided 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, incon-
veniently remote, and so the yonng 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.

Another story comes to my mind now of
a dear old lady, the Go Inkyo Sam a of a

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

283

house of high rank, who late in life came
to Tokyo 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 Chris-
tian. Soon after the old lady’s arrival in
Tokyo, her sister-in-law fell ill, and before
she had recovered her strength the chil-
dren, 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.

284 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 ap-
peased would be by finding the well, and
removing the obstructions that choked it,
and by erecting an image of the horse and
ofiering to it cakes and other meat-offer-
ijigs. The fortune-teller hinted, moreover,
that for a consideration he might be able
to afibrd material aid in the search for the
w^ell.

At this information Go Inkyo Sama was
much perturbed, for further aid for her
afilicted 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 en-
terprises suggested by the fortune-teller.
At last, the old lady went to her brother,
but he only laughed at her well-meant at-
tempts to help his family, and refused to

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

285

give her money for such a purpose. She
retired discouraged, but, urged by the ser-
vants, she decided to make a last appeal,
this time to her sister-in-law, who must
surely be moved by the evil that was threat-
ening 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 argu-
ments 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 won-
dering much and sighing often over the
foolish skepticism of her near relatives,
and wishing that the rationalistic tenden-
cies of the time would take a less danger-
ous form than the neglecting of the plainest
precautions for life and health. The fate
has not yet come, and now at last Go In-
kyo Sama seems to have resigned herself
to the belief that it has been averted from
the heads of the dear ones by a power un-
known to the fortune-teller.

286 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

Beside these callings, there are other
employments which are not regarded as
wholly respectable by either Japanese or
foreigners. The geisha ya, or establish-
ments 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
playing, all the etiquette of serv-
ing 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 entertain-
ment is hardly regarded as complete with-
out geishas in attendance, and their dan-
cing, 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

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

287

march in quaint uniforms in the proces-
sion, 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^dshas one of the pleasantest of Jap-
anese enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet
and yellow robes, the dainty maidens imi-
tate, with their supple bodies, the dance of
the maple leaves as they are driven hither
and thither in the autumn wind ; some-
times, 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

288 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN,

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 entertain-
ment 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, think-
ing none the worse of herself for such a
business arrangement, and going cheer-
fully 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
oue lives blameless, many go wrong, and
drop below the margin of respectability al-
together. Yet so fascinating, bright, and
lively are these geishas that many of them
have been taken by men of good posi-
tion as wives, and are now the heads of

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

289

the most respectable homes. Without
true education or morals, but trained
thoroughly in all the arts and accomplish-
ments that please, — witty, quick at repar-
tee, 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 unsul-
lied name, silent obedience, and faithful
service all her life. The freedom of the
j)resent 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 joro, or licensed prostitute. Every

290 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

city in Japan lias its disreputable quarter,
where the various j dr or licensed houses
of prostitution, are situated. The supervi-
sion that the government exercises over
these places is extremely rigid ; the effort
is made, hy licensing and regulating them,
to minimize the evils that must flow from
them. The proprietors of the jordya 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 pleas-
antest and most respectable. A joro need
never he 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 ohi, or
sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one
of the badges of shame. But though the
occupation of the joro is altogether disrep-
utable,— though the prostitute quarter is
the spot to which the police turn for in-
formation 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 prosti-

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

291

tnte with the loathing which she inspires
in Christian countries. The reason for this
lies, not solely in the lower moral stand-
ards although it is true that sins of this
character are regarded much more leni-
ently 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 joroya, 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 joro, who is eventually re-
warded by finding, even in the joroya, 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 imagina-

292 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

tioii must find its materials where it can.
These joroya give employment to thou-
sands of women throughout the country,
but in few^ cases do the women seek that
employment, and more openings in respec-
table 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 devour-
ing current.

Innocent and reputable amusements are
many and varied in the cities. We have
already mentioned incidentally the thea-
tre as one of the favorite diversions of the
people ; and though it has never been re-
garded as a very refined amusement, it has
done and is doing much for the educa-
tion 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 Shogun and
his nobles, but the No dance was the only
dramatic amusement of the nobility. This
No is an ancient Japanese theatrical per-
formance, more, perhaps, like the Greek
drama than anything in our modern life.
All the movements of the actors are meas-

LIFE IN THE CITIES.

293

ured and conventionalized, speech is a poet-
ical recitative, the costumes are stiff and
antique, masks are much used, and a chorus
seated upon tlie stage chants audible com-
ments upon the various situations. This
alone, the most ancient and classical of
Japanese theatrical performances, is con-
sidered worthy of the attention of the Em-
peror 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 usu-
ally men, though there are ‘‘women thea-
tres ” in which all the parts are performed
by women. In no case are the rdles taken
by both sexes upon one stage. As the per-
formances 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 be-
tween, 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

294 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

necessary meals, a room to take them in, a
resting-place between the acts, and what-
ever 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 gori-
est 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 mod-
ulation of the voice, is studied as care-
fully as are those of the actors. Many charm-
ing 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 fin-
ished. 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-tell-
ers — those who have talent and reputa-
tion — are often invited to come to enter-
tainments given at private houses, to amuse

LIFE IN THE CITIES. 295

a large company by their eloquence or mim-
icry.

This is a very favorite entertainment,
and the lianashiha has so perfected the art
of imitation that he can change in a mo-
ment 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 lianami, 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 Su-
mida, on which Tokyo is situated, has lin-
ing 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 Mukojima to enjoy the blossoms under
the trees. The river is crowded with pic-
nic 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

296 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

quick sale for fruit, coiifectiouery, aud 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 en-
joyment, too, of the lovely blossoms, the
broad, calm river, and the gayly dressed
crowds. Hundreds and thousands of visit-
ors crowd to the suburban places about
Tokyo, — to Uyeno 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 spe-
cial beauty. Dango Zaka has its own pe-
culiar attraction, the famous chrysanthe-
mum 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 chrysan-
themum twigs, leaves, and flowers, not cut
and woven in, as at the first glance they

LIFE IN THE CITIES,

297

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 hid-
den, for nothing is visible but (for ex-
ample) the white spray and greenish shad-
ows of a waterfall, or the parti- colored fig-
ures 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 con-
tinue 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

298 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

by an officious gate-keeper, who shouts out
the merits of his particular groups of fig-
ures, 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 Ja-
pan, 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 coun-
try would be regarded as impudence, and
an independence of action that, in many
cases, seems to take the form of direct dis-
obedience to orders. From the steward of
your household, who keeps your accounts,
makes your purchases, and manages your
affairs, to your jmrikisha 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

300 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

American housewife, who has been accus-
tomed 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 w^ork 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 dif-
ferent from those to which the American
housekeeper is accustomed. If the house-
wife 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 herscdf
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 criticise

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

301

ing 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 pro-
tectinofand thoughtful care for herself and
her interests, and, when she returns to
America, is loud in her praises of the com-
petence and devotion of her Japanese ser-
vants. Even in the treaty ports, where
contact with foreigners lias given to the
Japanese attendants the silent and re-
pressed air that we regard as the standard
manner for a servant, they have not re-
signed 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 be 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

302 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 Jap-
anese household.

Under the old feudal system, the servants
of every family w^ere its hereditary retain-
ers, and from generation to generation de-
sired 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 daimio was
the highest duty of the samurai. Long
and intimate knowledge of the family his-
tory and traits of character rendered it pos-
sible for the retainer to work intelligently
for his master, and do independently for
him many things without orders. The ser-
vant 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 misin-
formed. One can easily see how ties of
good-fellowship and sympathy would arise
between masters and servants, how a com-

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

303

niiulity 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 af-
fection ; 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 occu-
pation of domestic service for some higher
and more independent calling. In Japan,
where faithful service of a master was re-
garded as a calling worthy of absorbing
any one’s highest abilities through a life-
time, the position of a servant was not
menial or degrading, but might be higher
than that of the farmer, merchant, or arti-
san. 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 daimio or high rank
samurai was worthy of more honor, and
might be of far better birth, than the inde-

304 JAPANEl^E GIRLS AND WOMEN.

pendent merchant or artisan. As the for-
mer feudal system is yet within the mem-
ory 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 house-
hold, 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 sa-

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

305

luted by visitors as they pass into and out
of the room, and are free to join in the con-
versation 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 some-
times much responsibility, servants do not
forget their places in the household, and
do not seem to be bold or out of place. In-
deed, 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 Eng-
lish, a passage where a footman is spoken
of as having nearly disgraced himself by
laughing at some quaint saying of theyoung
lord, my little peeresses were amazed beyond
measure to learn that in Europe and Amer-
ica a servant is expected never to show any
interest in, or knowledge of, the conversa-
tion 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 re-
straints upon one class of persons.

306 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 for-
get, 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 np
to her helpers the part of the labor which
she has not the time or strength to per-
form. 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 ex-
cept 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.

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

307

At e veiling*, 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 dis-
tance, — will do their sewing and listen
to the talk, and often join in the conver-
sation, but in the most humble manner.
Perhaps, at times, some one more ambi-
tious than the others will bring in a book,
and ask the meaning of a word ora 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 posi-
tions 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

308 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

or skill in any art or profession are held in
great demand among the Japanese ; and a
prominent poet, scholar, physician, or pro-
fessional 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 pa-
rents 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 hoys occupy in
the household is a curious one. They are
called Sho-sei, meaning students, and stu-
dents they usually are, spending all their
leisure moments and their evenings in
study. They are never treated as infe-
riors, 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 them-
selves to be dependents, and must be will-
ing 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

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

309

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 re-
turn be saved expense about his household
work ; and the students, while always con-
siderately 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 nowin
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 appren-
tices, 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 fam-
ily in return for what they receive from

310 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 re-
flected 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 consid-
erably 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 ser-
vants in a home where, in other ways, lux-
ury and wealth are not displayed. * In the
ohi, 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 mo-
ments, and are the higher servants of the
family; there are also the children’s at-
tendants, 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 usu-

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

311

ally one or more jmriMsha men, who be-
long to the house, and, if this be the home
of an official who keeps horses, a hetto 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 dol-
lars will cover the cost of food for a month
for one person, and women servants ex-
pect 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

312 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

greater pay. The family, too, in many cases
are used to having plenty of hands to do
the work; the ladies are much less inde-
pendent, and life has more formalities and
red tape in Japan than in America. A
great deal of the shopping is done by ser-
vants, who are sent out on errands and
often do important business. Maids ac-
company their mistresses to make visits ;
servants go with parties to the theatre, to
picnics, or on journeys, and these expedi-
tions 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 manser-
vant, who is entirely responsible, and who
makes all the bargains, arranges the jour-
ney 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 daimios, and who
regulate the households of the nobles.
Such men must have good education, and

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

313

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 wdio accompany the no-
bles 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 scat-
tered throughout the length and breadth
of the kingdom.

The higher servants in the household
must be always more or less trained in eti-
quette, and are expected to look neat and
tidy ; to serve guests with tea and refresh-
ments, without any orders to that effect ;
and to use their judgment in little house-
hold 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

314 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

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 ser-
vants, 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 du-
ties with little responsibility, and are re-
garded 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 writ-
ing; but entirely unacquainted with the
details of etiquette, a knowledge of which
is a necessity to the higher servants, —

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

315

sometimes even thrown into an ag’ony of
diffidence should it become necessary to
appear before master or mistress.

Some of the customs of the household,
in reg-ard 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 ser-
vants 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 Jcuruma is heard, and the shout of
the men, who call out “ 0 kaeri! ” when
near the house, the servants go out to
greet him, and bowing low speak the cus-
tomary words of salutation. To a greater
or less degree, the same is done to every
member of the family, the younger metn-
bers, 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 pres-
ent 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

316 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

to her for the gift, and also ashing her to
thank the giver. This, of course, is al-
ways done, for a gift to a servant is as
much of a favor to the mistress as a pres-
ent 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 of-
fered her. Such a natural excuse never
occurs to the Japanese servant, unless he
be SijinmkisJia man or hetto, 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 ditferently.
A few days’ leave of absence to visit home
will be asked and usually granted, for Jap-
anese 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 read-
ily. 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

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

317

for service, or that work at home, or the
illness of some member of the family, de-
tains her, so that she is not able to come
back at present. The excuse is under-
stood 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 re-
turning 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 arrange-
ments to return, but the lady of the house
does not know whether the woman is sat-
isfied 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 pre-
vent her coming. Such is the etiquette in
these matters of mistress and maid.

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 posi-

318 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

tioiis of what we would call domestic ser-
vants vary so greatly in honor and respon-
sibility 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 dis-
tinctions are founded, and partly the result
of the fact that women, of whatever class,
are servants so far as persons of the oppo-
site 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.

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 jiuriMsha man and the

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

319

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 hettos, or grooms,
are a hereditary class and a regular guild,
and have a reputation, among both Jap-
anese and foreigners, as a betting, gam-
bling, cheating, good-for-nothing lot. An
honest hetto is a rare phenomenon. The
jmrildsha 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 lit-
tle 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 pos-
sible 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 hilar-
ity. A strong, fast jinrikisha man takes
great pride in his strength and speed. It
is a point of honor with him to pull his

320 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

passenger up the steepest and most slip-
pery 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 johu ” (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 ve-
hicle. But though the jinrikisha man is,
for the time being, the autocrat and con-
* trolling power over his passenger, and
though he will not obey the behests of his
employer, except so far as they seem rea-
sonable 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 in-
telligence, 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 un-
broken colt through the business portions
of the city, knocking bundles out of the

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

321

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 ku-
ruma, 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 accesso-
ries 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 tliere are different grades,

322 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

SO there are jinrikisJia men who seem x j
have sunk so low in their calling that they
have lost all feeling of loyalty to their em-
ployer, and only care selfishly for the pit-
tance 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 re-
gard as outside of their code of morals,
and hence as their natural prey. Trav-
elers, 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 n jinriMsha man is capable of.

If yon 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 sel-
dom find in this country except when in-
spired by personal feeling. When yon have
ridden miles and miles, by night and
day, through rain and sleet and hottest
sunshine, behind a man who has used
every power of body and mind in your ser-
vice, yon cannot but have a strong feeling
of afiection tow^ard him, and of pride in
him as well. It is something the feeling

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

323

that one has for a g’ood saddle-horse, but
more developed. You rejoice, not only in
his strength and speed, put forth so will-
ingly in your service ; in his picturesque,
dark blue costume with your monogram
embroidered on the back ; in his hand-
somely 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 ser-
vice; his helping out of your faltering
Japanese with explanations which, if not
elegant, have the merit of being easily un-
derstood ; 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

324 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

more and more boldly from the fading
background, — both, the figures of faithful
servants. One, Yasaku, the kurumaya, a
very Hercules, who conld keep close to a
pair of coach horses through miles of city
streets, and who never suffered mortal j’m-
rikisha 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 ser-
vice that he once gave so whole-heartedly
to me. The other, 0 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 Chris-
tian, with all the Christian virtues well de-
veloped, 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 part-
ing with one who had grown to fill so large

DOMESTIC SERVICE.

325

a place in niy thoughts. Her little, half-
shj^, half-motherly ways toward her big for-
eign 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 under-
stand my uncouth foreign idioms ; her joy,
when at last I reached the point where a
story told by her lips could be compre-
hended and enjoyed, — gave a continual en-
couragement in a task too often completely
disheartening.

During the last summer of my stay in
Japan, cutting loose from all foreigners
and foreign associations, 1 traveled alone
with her through the heart of the country,
stopping only at Japanese hotels, and car-
rying 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 de-
sire 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 hiut of her thought. Jinrikisha

826 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN.

men grumbled and gave out ; hotel-keepers
resented the presence of my dog, or pre-
sented extortionate bills ; but 0 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 0 Kaio
smiled, told her quaint stories, amused me
and ministered to me, as if I were her one
object in life, though husband and chil-
dren were far away in distant Tokyo, and
her mother’s heart yearned for her little
ones.

EPILOGUE.

My task is ended. One half of Japan,
with its virtues and its frailties, its priv-
ileges 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 bet-
ter 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, 113, 187.

Agility of Japanese, 13.

Amado, sliding wooden shutters,
used to inclose a Japanese
house at night, 23.

Andon, a standing lamp inclosed
in a paper case, 89.

Ant§ Sin, elder sister (San, the
honorific), a title used by the
the younger children in a fam-
ily in speaking to their eldest
sister, 20.

Aoyama, 131.

Apprentices, 309, 310.

Art in common things, 237-239.

Artisans, 235-239, 270.

Babyhood, 1-17 ; bathing, 10 ;
conditions of life, 6, 7 ; dress,
6, 15 ; food, 10, 11 ; imperial
babies, 8, 9 ; learning to talk,
IG ; 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.

Baths, public, 10.

Beauty, Japanese standard of,
58 ; early loss of, 122.

Be-be, a child’s word for dress,
IG.

Betrothal, GO.

Betto, a groom or footman who
cares for the horse in the sta-
ble and runs ahead of it in the
road, G2, 71, 311, 31G, 319.

Birth, 1.

Breakfast, 89.

Buddhism, 1G8, 240 ; introduc-
tion of, 143-145.

Buddhist funeral, 131, 132.

Buddhist nuns, 155.

Castles, 151, 157, 1G9, 171, 173,
174, 185, 18G, 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 Girliiood.

Cliildreu, Japanese compared
with American, 19; intellec-
tual characteristics of Japa-
nese, 41.

Chinese characters, 40.

Chinese civilization introduced,
142.

Chinese code of morals, 103, 111.

Christianity, 77, 81, 168, 206, 207.

Chrysanthemum, 166, 296-298.

Civilization, new, 77.

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, 145 ;
costumes, 146 ; in early times,
138, 139 ; ladies, 145, 148, 152-
154 ; life, 138-168 ; of daimio,
171 ; of Shogun, 170, 171 ; re-
moval to Tokyo, 156.

Courtship, 58.

Crucifixion, 199, 234.

Dai jobu, “Safe,” “All right,”
320.

Daimio, a member of the landed
nobility under the feudal sys-
tem, 169-195 ; his castles, 169,
173 ; his courts, 171 ; his daugh-
ters, 175, 177, 180, 182-184, 1'Ol,
192-195 ; his journeys to Ye-
do, 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.

330

INDEX.

Dancing, 38, 287, 288.

Dancing girls. See Geisha.

D.uigo Z ika, 296.

Dashi, a float used in festival
processions, 275-278.

Decency, Japanese standard of,
255-2G0.

Deformity, caused by position in
sitting, 9.

Divorce, among lower classes, 66,
69, 73; among higher classes,
66, 68 ; right of, granted to
women, 66; right to children
in case of, 67, 105.

Dolls, feast of, 28-31.

Dress, baby, 6, 15 ; court, 145,
146 ; girl’s, 15 ; in daimios’
houses, 187, 192 ; military, of
samurai women, 188 ; of lower
classes, 126, 127, 128 ; of pil-
grims, 243 ; showing age of
wearer, 119.

Education of girls, 37-56 ; diffi-
culties in new system, 52-56 ; j
fault in Japanese system, 39;
in old times, 37.

Education, higher, a doubtful |
help, 79 ; effect on home life,
77 ; producing repugnance to
marriage, 80. j

Education of daimio’s daughter, i
177-180.

Embroidered robes, 95, 146, 188,
192.

Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153,
155-157, 161,164-166, 292.

Emperors, after introduction of
Chinese civilization, 143-145 ;
children of, 1G4 ; daughters
of, 155 ; early retirement of,
134 ; in early times, 138 ; se-
clusion of, 143-145, 155, 156,
161, 169.

Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-168.

Empress dowager, 152.

Engawa, the piazza that runs
about a Japanese house, 23.

Etiquette, court, 153 ; in daimios’
houses, 177-179 ; in the home,
19, 20 ; instruction in, 46, 47 ;
of leaving service, 316, 317 ;
towards servants, 304, 305.

Fairy tales, 32.

Family, organization of, 139.

Fancy work, 95.

Father’s relation to children,
100.

Festivals : of dolls, 28 ; of flow-
ers, 27, 99, 295-297; of the
new year, 25 ; temple, 270-
278.

Feudal system, 1G9.

Feudal times, pictures of, 190-
192; stories of, 184-187.

Flirtation, unknown to Japanese
girls, 34.

Flower arrangement, 42.

Flower painting, 47.

Flower shows, 270-272.

Fortune-telling, 281-285.

Fuji, 58, 242.

Funeral service, 131, 132.

Games : battledore and shuttle-
cock, 31 ; at court, 145 ; Go,
136 ; hyaku nin ishu, 26 ;
shogi, 136.

Geisha, a professional dancing
and singing girl, 286-289.

Geisha ya, an establishment
where geishas may be hired,
286.

G^ta, a wooden clog, 13, 14.

Ginza, 265.

Haori, a coat of cotton, silk, or
crape, worn over the kimono,

8.

Hara-kiri, suicide by stabbing in
the abdomen, 201, 202.

Haru Ko, 155-168.

Haru, Prince, 113, 152.

Heimin, the class of farmers,
artisans, and merchants, 203,
228, 229.

Heimin, class characteristics of,
229-240.

Hibachi, a brazier for burning
charcoal, 30, 72, 136, 307.

Hideyoshi. See Toyotomi.

Hinin, a class of paupers, 228.

Hiy6i Zan, 243.

Holidays, 269.

Hotels, 247-250.

Hotel-keepers, 280, 281.

Household duties, training for,
21.

Hyaku nin ishu, “Poems of a
hundred poets,” the name of a
game, 26.

INDEX.

331

Instruction in etiquette, 46 ; in
flower arranging, 42 ; in flower
painting, 47 ; in music, 41 ; in
reading and writing, 38 ; in tea
ceremony, 44.

Inkyo, a place of retirement,
the home of a person wlio has
retired from active life, 136.

Inu, a dog, 250.

Ise, 231.

Iwafuji, 210-213.

Iwakura, Prince, 157.

lya, a child’s word, denoting dis*
like or negation, 16.

Iy«5rait5u,17l, 172.

lyeyaou, 169.

Japan Mail,” 159.

Japanese language, 16, 40, 179.

Japanose literature, 147-150.

Jimmii Tenno, 138.

Jingu Kogo, 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.

Joro, a prostitute, 289-292.

Joroya, a house of prostitution,
290-292.

Kam(iido, 296.

Kakiimono, a hanging scroll, 44,
147, 238.

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 bra-
zier or a 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.

Kiier6, the court nobility, 155,

170.

Kura, a flreproof storehouse, 147,

171, 173.

, Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of

any kind, used as synon3maou3
with jinrikisha, which see.

Kurumaya, one who pulls a kuru-
ma. See Jinrikisha man.

Kurushima, 203.

Kyoto, 156, 171, 240, 241.

Ladies, court, 145, 148, 152-154 ;
of daimios’ families, 175-180,
182-184.

Ladies-in-waiting, 180-182 224.

Loyalty, 33, 75, 197, 206-208,217,
302-304.

Mam ma, a baby’s word for rice
or food, 16.

Manners of children, 18.

Marriage, 57-83; ceremony, 61,
63 ; feast, 63 ; festivities after,
63, 64 ; guests, 63 ; presents,
62 ; registration, 65 ; to yoshii,
104 ; trousseau, 61.

Marumagi, a style of arranging
the hair of married ladies, 119.

Matsuri, a festival, usuallv in
honor of some god, 274-278.

Meiji (Enlightened Rale), the
name of the era that began
with the accession of the pres-
ent Emperor in 1868, 149.

Mekake, a concubine, 111-114.

Men, old, dependence of, 133 ;
amusements of, 136.

Merchants, 262-269.

Military service of women, 188-
190, 208, 223.

Missionary schools, 56.

Miya maeri, the presentation of
a child at the temple on the
thirtieth day after birth, 3-6.

Mochi, a kind of rice cake, 5, 24,
25, 65.

Momotaro, 33.

Morality, standards of, 76.

Mother, her relation to children,
99-102.

Mother-in-law, 84, 87 ; 0 Kiku’s,
74.

Miikojima, 191, 295.

Musical instruments, 41, 42.

Names, 3.

Nara, 247.

Nikko, 231, 245.

I No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293k

I Norimono, a palanquin, 30.

332

INDEX.

Noshi, a bit of dried fish, usually
folded in colored paper, given
with a present for good luck,
2.

Nursing the sick, 101.

O, an honorific used before many
nouns, and before most names
of women, 20.

0 Ba San, grandmother, 124.

O Ba San, aunt, 124.

Obi, a girdle or sash, GO.

Occupations of the blind, 42 ; of
the court, 143-150, 1G5, IGG;
of the daimios’ ladies, 175-
180 ; of the Empress, 156-lGG ;
of old people, 13G, 120-122,
124-128 ; of old samurai wo-
men, 223, 224 ; of servants,
299, 304, 30G, 308-315, 318 ; of
women, 108-110, 85-103, 242-
256, 279-292, 30G, 318; of
young girls, 21-34, 38-47.

O Haru, 211-213.

Oishi, 198, 214.

Oji, 296.

O Jo Sama, young lady, 20.

O kaeri, “ Honorable return,” a
greeting shouted by the atten-
dant, 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.

Old age, privileges of, 120, 122,
123 ; provision for, 134.

Old men, 133, 136.

O miage, a present given on re-
turning from a journey or
pleasure excursion, 274.

Oni, a devil or goblin, 33.

Onoye, 210-213.

Palace, new, 151-153.

Parents , duties to, 134 ; respect
for, 133.

Parents-in-law, 84, 87.

Peasant women, 108, 240-261.

Peasantry, 228-240.

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 ; at miya
maeri, 4 ; 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 ; on the
thirtieth day alter birth, 5 ; to
servants, 311, 315.

Prostitutes. See Joro.

Prostitution, houses of, 114, 214,
290.

Purity of Japanese women, 216-
219.

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 mill, 240.

Ronin, a samurai who has lost
his master and owes no alle-
giance to any daimio, 198, 213.

Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica,
98.

Sak(5, wine made from rice, 22,
C3, 136, 296 ; white, 29.

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 niilitary class, 42,
75, 76, 105, 1G9, 174, 175, 180,
196-227,232, 263, 302, 303, 307,
319 ; character of, 197-207 ;
spirit of, 199, 205.

Samurai girls in school, 226.

Samurai women, character of,
207-223 ; present work of, 223-
327.

Satsuma rebellion, the, 222.

School system, the, 50.

School, the Peeress’s, 150, 162,
163, 182.

Schools, missionary, 56.

Self-possession of Japanese girls,
47.

Self-sacrifice, 214-219.

Sen, one hundredth part of a
yen, value about one cent, 240,
273, 298.

INDEX.

333

Servants, characteristics of, 299-
302 ; duties of, 302-315 ; in
employ of foreigners, 299-302 ;
number employed, 310, 311 ;
position of, 302-310 ; wages of,
311.

Sewing, 23, 94.

Shinto, 4, 155.

Shogi, Japanese chess, 136.

Shogun, the Tycoon, the Vice-
roy, or so-called temporal ruler
of Japan under the feudal sys-
tem, 155, 1G9, 171, 173, 176,
185, 186, 191, 194, 197, 208, 224,
231 - 234, 292 ; daughter of,
176, 194.

Shogunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222.

Shoji, sliding windows covered
with paper, 23, 71.

Shopping, 264-268.

Sho-sei, a stud^^nt, 308.

Silk-mosaic, 95, 192.

Silkworms, 95, 246.

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.

Tea-gardens, 247.

Tea-houses, 250-255.

Teachers’ pay, 204.

Teaching. See Instruction.

Teeth, blackened after marriage,
63.

Temple, 4, 120, 129, 240.

Theatre, 33, 99, 292-294.

Titles used in families, 20.

Toes, prehensile, 15.

Toilet apparatus, 30.

Tokaido, 241.

Tokonoma, the raised alcove in
a Japanese room, 44.

Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231.

Tokyo, 49, 69-71, 108, 115.

“ Tokyo Mail,” 231.

Tombs, visits to, 98.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 232.

Training-school for nurses, 158.

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 parents, 98 ; to
tombs of ancestors, 98.

Wakamatsu, 208, 222.

Wedding. See Marriage.

Widows, childless, 123.

Wife, childless, 102 ; duties of,
85-99 ; in great liouses, 92 ;
relation to husband, 84; re-
lation to parents-in-law, 84 ;
social relations, 91.

Woman’s Christian Temperance
Union, 114.

Women, in the city, 279-298 ;
occupations of, 85-103, 108-
110, 242-256, 306, 318 ; 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, 2C0, 261, 279, 292,
298, 306, 318 ; purity of, 216-
219.

Women, old, appearance of, 119,
122, 124, 126 ; examples of,
124, 126-129 ; in Japanese pic-
tures, 132.

Yamato Dak6, 215.

Yasaku, 324 ; marriage and di-
vorce of, 69.

Yase, 243, 244.

Yashiki, a daimio’s mansion and
grounds, 169, 171, 173, 311,
313.

Yedo. See Tokyo.

Yoshii, an adopted son, 104.

Yumoto, 245.

Zori, a straw sandal, 13.

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