JAPANESE GIRLS AND 
 WOMEN 
 
 BY 
 
 ALICE MABEL BACON 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 2ri)e RifaersiDc presf^ef, Canibrtbgt 
 i89i
 
 Copyright, 1891, 
 By ALICE MABEL BACON. 
 
 Ail rights reserved. 
 
 'DIIRD EDITION. 
 
 The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., V. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Oo,
 
 To 
 
 STEMATZ, THE COUNTESS OYAJVIA, 
 
 IH THE NAME OP OIJB QIELHOOD's FEIENDSHIP, UNCHANGED AND 
 
 tmSHAKEN BY THE CHANGES AKD SEPAEATIONS OP ODE 
 
 MATUBEB TEAB8, 
 
 Eitis Folume 
 ZS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. 
 
 ^
 
 urn. 
 
 ttS 
 
 B33 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It seems necessary for a new author to 
 give some excuse for her bokhiess in offer- 
 ing to the public another vohime upon a 
 subject ah'cady so well written up as Japan, 
 In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Greey, 
 Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner 
 can a woman hope to enter? This is the 
 question that will be asked, and that 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 
 that the whole fabric of Japanese social
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 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 Jaj)anese 
 ladies, who have spoken with me as freely, 
 and shown the details of their lives to me
 
 PREFACE. VII 
 
 as openly, as if bound by closest ties of kin- 
 dred. Throuj^h them, and only throug'h 
 them, I have been enabled to stndy life 
 from the point of view of the refined and 
 intelligent Japanese women, and have found 
 the stndy 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. 1 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 snch 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-
 
 • • • 
 
 VlU PREFACE. 
 
 tercluiiige of thoug-ht tliroug'h many and 
 long- conversations with Japanese ladies 
 upon the topics herein treated. It has 
 also been carefully revised and criticised ; 
 and many valuable additions have been 
 made to it by Miss Ume Tsuda, teacher 
 of English in the Peeresses' School in 
 Tokyo, 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 Brvu 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-
 
 P EFFACE. IX 
 
 tained in the " Mikado's Empire," but to 
 
 Mr. Gritlis himself, for his careful reading 
 
 of my manuscrii)t, and for his criticisms and 
 
 suggestions. No greater encouragement 
 
 can be given to an inexperienced author 
 
 than the helpful criticism of one who has 
 
 already distinguished himself in the same 
 
 field of labor ; and for just such friendly 
 
 aid my warmest thanks are due to Mr. 
 
 Griffis. 
 
 A. M. B. 
 
 Hampton, Va., February, 1891.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Childhood . . . , . . .1 
 
 II. Education 37 
 
 III. Makkiage and Divorce . . , .57 
 
 rV. 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 
 
 XL 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 
 family 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 JAVANESE GIItLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 world, and must cither take with them or 
 send before them some i)reseiit. Toys, 
 pieces of cotton, silk, or crepe for the baby's 
 dress are regarded as suitable ; and these 
 must be accompanied by dried fish or egg-s, 
 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 mother have a hard time 
 of it for the first few weeks of its life. The 
 baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed 
 over, and talked to so much by the visitors 
 that come in, that it must thiuk 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 
 nosln, or bit of dried fish daintily folded in a piece of col- 
 ored paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of 
 every present.
 
 CHILDUOOD. 3 
 
 herself out in the excitement of seeing her 
 friends, and the j^hysical 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 
 nanie.i 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 
 
 1 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. 
 
 corresi)on(ls roug-lily with our christen- 
 ing'. On the thirtieth day after birth, 
 the habj 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 
 throuffh 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 tliis 
 time.
 
 CHILDHOOD. 5 
 
 It is usually on this day that the family 
 send to their friends some acknowledg-- 
 ment 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 katsuohushi, 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
 
 G JAPANESE GUiLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 l)ropeily done. As special messeng-ers 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, straight, silk, cotton, 
 or flannel garments as the season of the 
 year may require, — all cut after exactly
 
 CHILDHOOD. 1 
 
 the same pattern, and that pattern the 
 same in shape as the gro\vn-np kimono. 
 These garments are fitted, one inside of 
 the other, before they are pnt on ; then 
 they are hiid 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 amonth 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 
 haori, or coat, serves as an extra covering' 
 for the baby as well ; and when the suu 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 
 ])lay 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.^ 
 
 1 That the position of the Japanese in sitting- is really 
 unnatural and unliygienic, is shown by recent measure- 
 ments taken by the surgeons of the Japanese army.
 
 10 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Ainoiif^ the lower classes, where there 
 arc lew l)athin<^ facilities in the houses, 
 babies ol" a tew weeks old arc 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 visitiuff 
 .Ia|)an tind 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 u])on 
 
 These measurements prove that the small stature of the 
 Japanese is due larg-ely 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 othei-s of sedentary habits, it is most 
 plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, 
 as a necessary adjunct of Japanese home life, would 
 doubtless in time alter the physique of the Japanese as 
 a people.
 
 CHILDHOOD. 11 
 
 its mother for milk,i and is not weaned 
 entirely nntil 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, i)artly, of the lack 
 of proper nourishment after the child is 
 too old to live wholly upon its mother's 
 milk, and partly, p(!rhaps, because of 
 the poor food that the mothers, even of 
 the higher classes, live uf)on, 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 lack of proper foot! 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. AVith 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 Iiaiulled a Japanese baby cau 
 testify to tlie 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 tahi, or mitten - like sock, babies can 
 tumble about as they like, with no bump 
 nor bruise, upon the soft matted floors of 
 the dwelling houses. There is no 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 zori or geta, — 
 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. 
 
 saiulal or clog' is tied to the baby's foot by 
 bits of string fastened aronnd 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 cunibersonTfe 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, jumj), 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 geta, 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 suffer, and the use of the 
 geta strengthens the ankles by affording 
 no artiticial 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 iu her 
 garments, red being the predominant hue. 
 The sex, even of a young baby, may be dis- 
 tinguished by the color of its clothing. 
 Wliite, the garb of mourning in Japan, is 
 never used for children, but the minutest 
 babies are dressed iu bright-colored gar- 
 ments, and of the same materials — wadded 
 cotton, silk, or crepe — as those worn by 
 adults of their social grade. As these
 
 16 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 dresses are not as easily washed as our 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 our 
 babies are dressed. For model clothing 
 for a baby, I would suggest a combination 
 of the Japanese style with the foreign, 
 easily washed materials, — a combination 
 that I have seen used in their own 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 
 hapi)y 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 " ; mam ma 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 different. The baby is not troubled 
 with difficult grammatical changes, for the 
 Japanese language has few inflections ; and 
 it is too young to be puzzled with the 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 always upon either father, husband, 
 or son, and her greatest happiness is to be 
 gained, not by cultivation of the intellect, 
 but by the early acquisition of the self-con-
 
 18 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 trol which is expected of all Japanese vvo- 
 luen 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, — but in 
 the assumption of a cheerful smile and 
 agreeable manner under even the most 
 distressing of circunistances. 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 
 exce[)t such as will be pleasing to those 
 about her : this is the secret of true polite- 
 ness, and must be mastered if the woman 
 wishes to be well thought of and to lead a 
 happy life. The effect of this teaching is 
 seen in the attractive but dignified manners 
 of the Japanese women, and even of the 
 very little girls. They are not forward nor 
 pushing, neither are they awkwardly bash- 
 ful; there is no self-consciousness, neither 
 is there any lack of savoir /aire ; a childlike 
 simplicity 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 savag-erj and harhariau had 
 manners that disting-uish children in this 
 country, and the first ten or fifteen years of 
 its life do not seem to be passed in one long- 
 strugg-le 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 ^f civilized ancestors, it is difii- 
 cult to tell ; but my impression is, that 
 babies are born into the world with a g-ood 
 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 Avith 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 fiimily. The grand- 
 father and grandmother come first of all in
 
 20 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 even tiling, — no one at table must be 
 helped before them in any case ; after them 
 come the father and mother ; and lastly, 
 the children according to their ages. A 
 younger sister must always wait for the 
 elder and pay her due respect, even in the 
 matter of walking into the room before 
 her. The wishes and convenience of the 
 elder, rather than of the younger, are to 
 be consulted in everything, and this les- 
 son must be learned early by children. 
 The difference in years may be slight, but 
 the elder-born has the first right in all 
 cases. 
 
 Our little girl's place in the family is a 
 pleasant one : she is the pet and plaything 
 of father and elder brothers, and she is 
 never saluted by any one in the family, 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 
 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 
 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 nuiy be received by her 
 parents, — in all but the families of highest 
 rank, must serve it herself Indeed, it is 
 quite the custom in families of the higher 
 classes, should a guest, whom it is desired 
 to receive with especial honor, dine at the 
 house, to serve the meal, not with the 
 family, but separately for the father and 
 his visitor; and it is the duty of the wife 
 or daughter, oftener the latter, to wait on 
 them. This is in honor of the guest, not 
 on account of the lack of servants, for there 
 may be any number of them within call, or 
 even in the back part of the room, ready
 
 22 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 to receive from the luiiuls of the young- girl 
 what she has removed. She must, there- 
 fore, know the proper etiquette of the 
 table, hoAv 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 wealtliiest 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 be 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 taken down, the rooms 
 to be swept, dusted, and aired before break- 
 fast. Besides this, there is the washing 
 and polishing- of the enxjawa, or piazza, 
 which runs around the outside of a J:ii)a- 
 nese house between the shojl, 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. Tliere is wash-
 
 24 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ing", 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 soui)s which form the staple in the 
 Japanese bill of fare ; the prei)aration of 
 mochi, a kind of rice dough, which is 
 prepared at the New Year, or to send to 
 friends on various festival occasions: these 
 and many other branches of the culinary 
 art must be mastered before the young girl 
 is prepared to assume the cares of married 
 life. 
 
 But though the little girl's life is not 
 without its duties and responsibilities, it is 
 also not at all lacking in simple and 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 mocM, or cake ma<le 
 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 jinrikishas.^ 
 
 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 
 g-ames is " HyaJcu 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 Jai)anese, 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- 
 
 ^ Jinrikisha, or huruma, a small, light carriage, usually 
 with a broad top, which is drawn by a man. The jinrikisha 
 is the commonest of all vehicles now in use in Japan. 
 Jinrikisha-man and kurumaya are terms commonly used 
 for the runner who draws the carriage.
 
 CHILDHOOD. 27 
 
 pointed I'eader. 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 
 liis own cards, and if he finds there the 
 end of the poem, the beginning of which 
 lias 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, when, often with her 
 whole family, oiir little g-irl 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 hroug'ht 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 daimids, 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 this occasion is a sweet, white liquor, 
 brewed especially for this feast, as dift'erent 
 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 noriinono, or palanquins ; lac- 
 quered bullock carts, drawn by bow-legged 
 black bulls, — these were the conveyances 
 of the great in Old Japan, and these, in 
 minute reproductions, are placed upon the 
 red-covered shelves. Tiny silver and brass 
 Idhachi, 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- 
 sous, 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 niotioii 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 Icwan-lco-ha, or bazaar, 
 an endless variety of games, puzzles, pic- 
 tures to be cut out and glued together, and 
 amusements of all kinds, may be purchased 
 at extremely low rates. There is no dearth 
 of games for our little girl, and many 
 pleasant hours are spent in the household 
 sitting room with games, or conundrums, 
 or stories, or the simple girlish chatter 
 that elicits constant laughter from sheer 
 youthful merriment. 
 
 As for ftiiry 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
 
 CHILDHOOD. 33 
 
 qnilted cover of the lictatsu,^ in tlie cold 
 winter evenings, to the drowsy voice of the 
 old grandmother or nurse, who carries her 
 away on the wings of imagination to the 
 wonderful palace of the sea gods, or to the 
 haunts of the terrible oni, monsters with 
 red, distorted faces and fearful horns. 
 Moniotaro, the Peach Boy, with his won- 
 derful feats in the conquest of the oni, 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 ])arents or husband, and comes 
 away taught, as she could be by no other 
 
 1 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 by a quilt. The family sit about it in 
 cold weather with the quilt di-awn up over the feet and 
 knees.
 
 34 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 tcacliiiig", 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 for love or money, as her inuigina- 
 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 brv-mght 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 
 Avomaii eloses. The disciphne 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 i)et 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 tlie 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 marking the ceremonial tea, 
 and in many cases not only of writing a 
 beautiful hand, but of flower-painting as 
 well, in the old days made np the whole of
 
 38 JAPANESE GIRLS 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 by women of the 
 higher classes, but among the daughters of 
 the merchants special dances were learned 
 for exhibition at home, or even at the 
 matsuri or religious festival, and their 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, but from the fact 
 that they are always learned for entertain- 
 ing an audience, however small and select, 
 and are most frequently performed by pro- 
 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 Avriting. 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 affords little opportunity for the devel- 
 opiueiit 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 ideograjihs, which of course give 
 no clue to the sound, are read by Japanese with the 
 Japanese rendering of the words, and the Japanese order 
 of words in the sentence. When there have not been 
 exact equivalent Japanese words, a Chinese term has 
 come into use, so that much corrupt Chinese is now well 
 engrafted into the Japanese language, both written and 
 spoken. In the forming of new words and technical 
 terms Chinese words are used, as the Greek and Latin 
 are here. There is probiibly 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 kana, 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, siich as are used in letter-writ- 
 ing, and for the rest she will read by the help of the 
 Lana.
 
 EDUCATION. 41 
 
 years of study that are required for master- 
 ing- the written language, so as to he ahle 
 to grasp the thoughts ah-eady 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, hut not much origi- 
 nality of thought. This result comes, I 
 believe, from the nature of the written 
 language and the difficulties that attend 
 the mastery of it; as a consequence of 
 which, an educated man or woman 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 Jcoto 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 samurai ^ 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- 
 fing-er, and middle fing*er 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 i)retty as she 
 touches the strings, often supplementing 
 the strains of the instrument with her 
 voice. The teaching of this instrument 
 and of the samisen, or Japanese guitar, is 
 almost entirely in the hands of blind men, 
 who in Japan support themselves by the 
 two professions of music and massage, — 
 all the blind, who cannot learn the former, 
 becoming adepts in the latter profession. 
 The arrangement of flowers is taught as 
 
 1 The samurai in the feudal times were the hereditary 
 retainers of a daimid, or feudal lord. They formed the 
 military and literary class. For further information, see 
 chap, viii., on Samurai Wo7nen.
 
 EDUCATION. 43 
 
 a fine art, and much time may be spent in 
 learning how, by clipping, bending, and 
 fixing in its place in the vase, each spray 
 and twig may be made to look as if 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 difi'ereut 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ers set in the tolionoma, or raised alcove of 
 the room, under the solitary kakemono ^ 
 that forms the chief ornament of the 
 apartment. As these two thing's, the vase 
 of flowers and the hanging scroll, are the 
 only adornments, it is more necessary that 
 the flowers should be carefully arrang'ed, 
 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 mating, 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 ponred 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 
 
 ^ Kakemono, a hanging' scroll, upon 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 i 
 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 cerciuony. Every mo- 
 tion, from the hriug'ing- in and arranging 
 of the utensils to the final rinsing and 
 wiping* of the tea howl, 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 lessou, and would g-ladly 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 
 house, brings no design as a model, but 
 sits down on the floor before the little 
 desk, and on a sheet of paper paints with 
 great rapidity the design that he wishes 
 the pupil to copy. It may be simply two 
 or three blades of grass upon which the 
 pupil makes a beginning, but she is 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 imdertalie 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 eflFective 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 many of my 
 pleasantest hours in Japan, and she is but 
 cue of the many who bear witness to the
 
 50 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 culture that might be acquired by woineu 
 iu the ohl days. 
 
 But the Japau of old is not the Jai)an 
 of to-day, and in the school system now 
 prevalent throughout the empire girls and 
 boys are equally provided for. First the 
 sciiools 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 — ail education requiring" the best 
 years of a boy's life — is g-iven, and grafted 
 upon this, our common-school and high- 
 school studies of mathematics, geography, 
 history, and natural science. In addition 
 to these, at all higher schools, one foreign 
 language is required, and often two, 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 w^ork, 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
 
 62 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 learn to walk they must leani to be polite 
 and (lig-nifiotl. 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 well fitted as under 
 the old system for the duties and trials 
 of married life, unless under exceptional 
 circumstances, wdiere the husband chosen 
 has advanced ideas. To those teaching the 
 young girls of Japan to-day, the problem of 
 how to educate them aright is a deep one, 
 and with each newly trained girl sent out 
 go many hopes, mingled with anxieties, in 
 regard to the training she has had as a 
 preparation for the new life she is about to 
 enter. The few, the pioneers, will have to 
 suffer for the happiness and good of the 
 many, for the problem of grafting the new 
 on to the old is indeed a difficult one, to be 
 solved only after many experiments.
 
 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 be 
 given up or made little of, is evident to 
 every right-minded student of the matter. 
 That the newer and broader culture, with 
 its higher morality, its greater 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 uTiul nates 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 GIULS 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 chili 
 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 tlian 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 eighteen, and an old woman at 
 thirty. In some cases, the breaking down 
 of a girl's health may be traced to threats 
 on the part of her parents that, if she does 
 not take a certain rank in her studies, she 
 will be taken from school and married off. 
 
 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,
 
 5G JAPANESE GIELS 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 wonum 
 will not be lost by contact with our West- 
 ern shortness and roughness. A happy 
 mean undoubtedly can be reached ; and 
 when it is, the women of new Japan will 
 be able to bear a not unfavorable compari- 
 son with the women of the old regime.
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 
 
 When the Japanese maiden arrives at 
 the age of sixteen, or thereabouts, she is 
 expected as a matter of course to marry. 
 She is usually allowed her choice in regard 
 to whether she will or will not marry a 
 certain man, hut 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- 
 nessiulier 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. 
 
 Tlie courtship is somewhat after the fol- 
 lowing" manner. A young man, who finds 
 himself in a jjositiou to marry, speaks to 
 some married friend, and asks him to he 
 on the lookout for a beautiful ^ and ac- 
 
 ^ 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- 
 travelud 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 sliould be straight and 
 glossy black, and absolutely smooth. Japanese ladies 
 Avho 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 not be out- 
 lined at all, either by the brow, the cheek, or by the 
 nose. It is this flatness of the face about the eyes that 
 gives the mildness of expression to all young people of 
 Mongolian type that is so noticeable a trait always in 
 their physiognomy. The mouth of an aristocratic Japa- 
 nese lady must be small, and the lijjs full and red ; the
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 59 
 
 coinplislied niaiilen, who would be willing 
 to become his wife. The friend, acting" 
 
 iieek, 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 cheelis, must be sacrificed to 
 gain the delicacy that is the sine qua non of the Japanese 
 beauty. The figui-e should be slender, the waist long, 
 but not especially small, and the hip3 narrow, to secure 
 the best effect with the Japanese dress. The head and 
 slioulders 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 stej) should be short and quick, with the 
 toes turned in, and the foot lifted so slightly that either 
 clog or sandal will scufE 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- 
 hip j)ed figures of many foreign beauties, — the rapid, 
 long, clean-stepping walk, and the air of almost masculine 
 strength and independence, which belongs especially to 
 English and American women, — and one can see how tlie 
 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. 
 
 ratlier 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 us say) will be a very good 
 match for his friend. Having arrived at 
 this decision, he goes to Miss Flower's 
 ])arents 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 with the match, presents are ex- 
 changed,! r^ 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. This takes the 
 place of the conventional engagement ring of Europe and 
 America. From the family of the hride, silk, such as is 
 made up into men's dresses, is sent.
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 61 
 
 ble for the success of the iiiarriag^e, and 
 must be concerned in the divorce proceed- 
 ings, should divorce become desirable or 
 necessary. 
 
 The marriag-e 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 the bride is expected to 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 
 cliopsticks; 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 rial, make it possible for a woman, at the 
 time of her marriag-e, 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 
 danghter, 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- 
 ))rance of the occasion ; and even the ser- 
 vants and retainers, down to the jinriJcisha 
 men, and the hctto 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.
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. G3 
 
 111 old times, the wediliiig" 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 cuj), 
 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 dnty it 
 is to present the cup to the lips of the con- 
 tracting" parties. When this is over, the 
 wedding g-uests, 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 the 
 groouv'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 
 daticing, 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 intimation 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
 
 MABEIAGE 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- 
 riasre lejjal 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
 
 GO JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 law and custom to her husband's relatives 
 than to her own. Even this legal recogni- 
 tion of iier marriage is a comparntively 
 new thing in Japan, as is any limitation of 
 the right of divorce on the part of the 
 husband, or extension of that right to the 
 wife.^ 
 
 At present in Japan the marriage rela- 
 tion is by no means a pernument 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 be willing and 
 able to marry well a second or even a third 
 time. Ainong 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 
 wei-e abolished, and two years later the right of suing for 
 a divorce was conceded to the wife. " — Rein's Japan, p. 
 425.
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 67 
 
 divorces aiuoiig- the higher chissc^ are so 
 common uow that one meets wumerous 
 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 he 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 
 mother, make them his children and not 
 hers. Thus we often see children of noble 
 rank on the father's side, but ignoble ou
 
 G8 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 the mother's, inherit the riuik of their 
 father, and not permitted even to recoj^- 
 nize their mother as in any way their 
 eqnal. If she is plebeian, the chiklren 
 are not regarded as tainted by it. 
 
 In the case of divorce, even if the law 
 allowed the mother to keep her children, 
 it wonld be almost an impossibility for her 
 to do so. She has no means of earning 
 her bread and theirs, for few occupations 
 are open to women, and she is forced to 
 become a dependent on her father, or some 
 male relative. Whatever they may be 
 willing to do for her, it is quite likely that 
 they would begrudge aid to the children of 
 another family, with whom custom hardly 
 recognizes any tie. The children are the 
 children of the man whose name they bear. 
 If the woman is a favorite daughter, it may 
 hapi)en that her father will take her and 
 her children under his roof, and support 
 them all ; but this is a rare exception, and 
 only possible when the husband first gives 
 up all claim to the children. 
 
 There comes to my mind now a case 
 illustrating this point, which I think I may 
 cite without betraying confidence. It is 
 that of a most attractive young woman
 
 MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. 69 
 
 who was married to a worthless hushand, 
 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 powerfnl 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 
 man, whom I had hired in the double 
 capacity of jinrihlslia man and hctir} or
 
 70 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 groom, was a strong", faithful, pleasant- 
 faced fellow, recently come to Tokyo from 
 the country, I inquired, when I engag-ed 
 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 jinriJcisha. He 
 replied that he had a wife, but she was now 
 at Utsunomiya, the country town from 
 which he had come, but he would send for 
 her at once, and she would be in 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
 
 MAEEIAGE AND DIVORCE. 71 
 
 not be polite to put my friends to incoiive- 
 iiieuce by taking away their servant. His 
 next effort was by negotiation through a 
 Tokyo friend ; but apparently Yasaku's 
 country manners 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 bettors quarters in the 
 stable showed great preparations for the 
 bride. The mats, new-covered with nice 
 straw matting, were white and clean ; the 
 slwji 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 GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 The (lay clioscu for the marriage was 
 rainy, and, though Yasaku spent all his 
 time in going to trains, no hridal party 
 appeared ; and he came home at night dis- 
 consolate, to smoke his good-night pipe 
 over his solitary hihachi. 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
 
 MAERIAGE AND DIVORCE. 73 
 
 his " pig ill a poke," aiid after a couple of 
 mouths sent her home to her parents, and 
 was all ready to start out again in the hope 
 of better luck next time. 
 
 Here is auother 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 greetiug 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 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 unkiml. No, her liusbaiul 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 
 nnirriage that her proposed mother-in-law 
 was a hard task-mistress, but her husband 
 had promised that his mother should live 
 with his older brother, and they should 
 have their housekeeping quite independent 
 and separate. As the mother was then 
 living with her older son, it seemed 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 wdiere 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.
 
 MARBIAGE AND DIVORCE. 75 
 
 But our readers must not sui)t)Ose, from 
 the various iucideuts 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 GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Among the merclniuts and lower classes 
 there has been, and is, a much lower stand- 
 ard of moralit}', but the few years which 
 have passed since the Revolution of 1868 
 are not a fair sample of what Japan has 
 been. Noblemen, sanmrai, 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 
 late years. 
 
 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. 11 
 
 give her the only opportunity that a Jap- 
 anese woman can have of a home otlier 
 than that of a servant or dependent. Tliat 
 these evils will be remedied in time, there 
 seems little reason to doubt, but just now 
 the various cooks who are engaged in brew- 
 in ij the broth of the new civilization are 
 disaofrced in reg-ard to the condiments I'e- 
 quired for its proper flavoring. The con- 
 servatives wish to flavor strongly with the 
 subjection and dei)endence 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 renuiins in 
 the background, until the time shall come 
 when it can be used in the right way.
 
 78 JAPANESE GIELS AND W03IEN. 
 
 Let us examine the two remedies sug- 
 gested by the reformers, and see wliat 
 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
 
 MARRIAGE 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 
 stndy 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 peld to the prejudices of those above 
 her, under whose authority she is, and it 
 may not be until many years have passed 
 that she will be in a position to influence 
 in any measure the lives of those nearest 
 and dearest to her. Then, too, her life 
 must be passed entirely within the home, 
 with no opportunities to meet or to mingle 
 with the great world of which she has read 
 and studied. Surely her lot is harder than 
 that of the woman of the olden time, whose
 
 80 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 pliiiii 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 malving 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.
 
 MARBIAGE AND DIVORCE. 81 
 
 The second remedy that is suggested is 
 Christianity, a remedy which is eveu uow 
 at work. Wherever one finds in Japan a 
 Christian liome, there one finds the wife 
 and mother occupying tlie 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 GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 nieiit for women, and especially for women 
 of the cultivated classes. To-day marriag-e, 
 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 liouse, with absohite 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 
 gov'erns and directs the household, if it be 
 a larg-e one, and her position is one of much 
 care and responsibility ; but slie is not the 
 intimate friend of her husband, is in no 
 sense his conddante or adviser, except iu 
 trivial affairs of the household. She ap- 
 jiears rarely with him in 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. 
 
 Iu 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 herself, but one of great usefulness to 
 those about her. It lies with her alone to 
 make the home a pleasant one, or to make 
 it unpleasant. Nothing- is expected of the 
 husband in this direction; he may do as he 
 likes with his own, and 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 positiou, especially 
 if she be the mother of children, is often 
 pleasant, and her chief joy and pride lies 
 in the proper condnct 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 
 thoug-h in many cases 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 drudg-ery is 
 expected, who obtains the fewest favors, 
 and wdio is expected to have a]\vays the 
 pleasantest of tempers under circumstnnces 
 not altogether conducive to repose of si)irit. 
 The wife of the oldest sou has, however,
 
 88 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 the ad vantage that, when her niother-in- 
 hiw (lies 01- retires, she becomes the mis- 
 tress of the house and the head hidj of the 
 famik, 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 w'ashing, 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 iu 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 
 andon} which has burued all uiglit, and, 
 quietly opening" one of the sliding" doors, 
 admits euough lig'ht 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. When 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 
 cas3, 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 supijorts 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 le.ss frequently arranged. The process 
 takes two hours at least.
 
 90 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 or with the help of the servants, she slides 
 buck 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 san<hil, clog, or shoe — is at the 
 door ready for him to put on, his umbrella, 
 book, or bundle at hand, and his Jcuruma 
 waiting for him. 
 
 Certainly a Japanese man is lucky in 
 having all the little things in his life at- 
 tended to by his thoughtful wife, — a good, 
 considerate, careful body-servant, always 
 on hand to bear for him the trifling wor- 
 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 thinr^s 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 arc 
 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 gnests. There are, besides, smaller 
 gatherings of friends other 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, 
 whose entertainment devolves on the wife. 
 Owing" to the great distances in many of 
 the cities, and the difficulties that used to 
 attend going from place to place, it has 
 become a custom not to make frequent 
 visits, but long ones at long intervals. A 
 guest often stays several hours, remaining 
 to lunch or dinner, as the case may be, and, 
 should the distance be great, may spend 
 the night. So rigid are the requirements 
 of Japanese hospitality that no guest is 
 ever allowed to leave a house without 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 jlnrikisha, 
 not only the guest, but the jinrih'shii 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 where the housewife has 
 the assistance of good servants, capable, as 
 many are, of sharing not only the work, 
 but the responsibility as well. Clever wives 
 in such homes see and learn much, in 
 an indirect way, of the outside world in 
 which the men live; and may become, if 
 they possess the natural capabilities for 
 the work, wise advisers and sympathizers 
 with their husbands in many thing's far 
 beyond their ordinary field of action. An 
 intelligent woman, with a strong will, has 
 often been, unseen and unknown, a mighty 
 influence in Japan. That her power foi 
 good or bad, outside of her influence as 
 wife and mother, is a recognized fact, is 
 seen in the circumstance that in novels 
 and plays women are frequently brought in 
 as factors in political plots and organized 
 rebellions, as well as in acts of private 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 (excepting 
 those of the highest rank) knows how to 
 sew, and makes uot only her own gar- 
 ments and those of her children, hut her 
 husband's as well. Sewing is one of the 
 essentials in the education of a Japanese 
 girl, and from cliildhood the cutting and 
 putting' together of crepe, silk, and cotton 
 is a familiar occupation to her. Though 
 Jai)anese 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 
 be, or that those stitches are too long or 
 too short, or carelessly or unevenly set.
 
 WIFE AND MOTHER. 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 
 afibrd 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 GIBLS 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 worms must 
 be considered in preparing their food ; as, 
 for the young worms, the leaves should be 
 cut u]), 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 
 
 certiiiu occasions etiquette is rigid in its 
 requirements in this matter, but they may 
 be g-iveu aud 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 ofi', in one way or another. On the
 
 98 JAPANESE GIRLS ANB WOMEN. 
 
 seventh day of the seventh month, there is 
 another general interchange of presents, 
 althoug-li not so nniversal as at the New 
 Year. It can easily be imagined that all 
 this present-giving entails mnch care, es- 
 pecially in families of inflnence ; and it 
 must be attended to personally by the wife, 
 who, in the secret recesses of her store- 
 room, skillfully manages to i-earrange 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 ojfferings and prayers at the 
 graves, to place fresh branches of the 
 salmld ^ before the tombs, and to see that 
 
 ^ Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, a sacred plant em- 
 blematic of purity, and mticli 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 nniny ser- 
 vants there mav be, the mother's influ-
 
 100 JAPANESE GIELS 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 
 " Icaeri," which is the signal of her re- 
 turn, children and servants hasten to the 
 gate to greet her, and do what they can 
 to help her from her conveyance and make 
 her home-coming pleasant and restful. 
 
 The father has little to do with the 
 training of his children, which is left 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 MOTHER. 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 iu 
 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 iu watch- 
 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 aifection, 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 foreign 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 cases of severe or even serious ill- 
 ness are usually sent to hospitals, where the invalids can 
 have the comforts that even the waalthy Japanese homes 
 cannot furnish.
 
 102 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 she devotes her life to their care and ser- 
 vice, deeming the drudg-ery 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 
 bahe 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, hut 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 lieart 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 nuirriage is when a man enters 
 the wife's family, taking her name and 
 becoming entirely one of her family, as
 
 lOi JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 usually the wife becomes of the husbaud's. 
 AVheii there are (laughters but uo sous in 
 u I'aiuily to iuherit the name, one of three 
 thing's 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 I'riends seek for her a 
 yoshii, that is to say, some man (usually a 
 younger son) wIjo 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 yiehls to him obedi- 
 ently iu 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 sous of 
 the nobility, themselves of high birth, but 
 without prospects, who are g'lad enough to 
 become great 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 into other 
 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, and the breaking" down of the old 
 class distinctions, young men care more 
 for independence than for their rank as 
 samurai; and it is now quite difficult to 
 find yosJiii to enter samurai families, unless 
 it be because of the attractiveness and 
 beauty of the young lady herself. Many a 
 young girl who could easily make a good 
 marriage with some suitable husband, could 
 she enter his family, is now obliged to take 
 some inferior man as yoshii, because few 
 men in these days are willing to change 
 their names, give up their independence, 
 and take upon themselves the support of 
 aged parents-in-law ; for this also is ex- 
 pected of the yoshii, 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 depeu-
 
 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 heyond the work of the 
 home, so that their position will not he one 
 of entire dependence upon father, hushand, 
 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, aud lifts him a
 
 108 JAPANESE GIIiLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 little farther above his wife. The peasant 
 and his wife work side by side in the field, 
 pnt their shonlders 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 jinrikislia 
 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 chiims 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 
 
 crealiing 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 pnlling 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 
 neig'hboring village. Here, again, is the 
 recognition of the law that governs the 
 position of wonum 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 GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 they not only work in the rice fiekls, pick 
 the tea crops, gather the harvests, and 
 help draw them to nuuket, but where they 
 have their own productive industries, such 
 as caring for the silkworms, and spin- 
 ning, and weaving both silk and cotton, 
 we tind 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 w'ork harder and grow old earlier, is 
 more free and independent than her city 
 sister; and the wife of the peasant, push- 
 ing her ])roduce to market, is in souie ways 
 happier and more considered than the wife 
 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 MOTHEB.' Ill 
 
 One of the causes which uiust be men- 
 tioned 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 mekal-e, 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 discordant element into the household. 
 Even should he keep mekal-e, 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 unquestioning-ly 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 mekaJce 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-
 
 W^IFE 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 mekake. That 
 these positions are not sought after must be 
 said, to the honor of Japanese womanhood. 
 A nobleman may obtain samurai women 
 for his "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 lieimin. 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
 
 11-i JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 adopted before the promulgation of the 
 hiw ; 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 mekalSy 
 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 mekalcS 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 peojde, 
 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 much 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 iniperial 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 wdiich 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
 
 IIG JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 in her practices in this matter is greatly 
 to her credit; but that she is far beliincl 
 the civih'zed nations of Europe and Amer- 
 ica, not only in practice but in theory, is a 
 fact that is incontestable, and a fact that, 
 unless chang-ed, 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 be 
 abused, but that in fact it is not. Wrongs and injustice 
 are rare, they argue, and kind treatment, afBection, and 
 even respect for the wife is the g-eneral 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. Ill 
 
 can be made, for liunian 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 w ere 
 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 bv 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 Jaj)anese 
 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 hel|) 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 regard to the position of 
 the wife, that will, sooner or later, have 
 its effect upon the laws of the country. 
 Legislation once effected, all the rest will 
 come, and the wife, secure in her home and 
 her children, will be at the point where 
 her new education can be of use to her 
 in the administration of her domestic 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 ag'e 
 can be told with considerable accuracy by 
 the various little things about her cos- 
 tume,^ and no woman cares to api)ear 
 
 ^ 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 numher, 
 size, and variety of ornamental haii'pins, and the tortoise- 
 shell comb worn in front, all vary with the age.
 
 120 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 younger than her real age, or hesitates to 
 tell with entire frankness the number of 
 years that have passed over her head. 
 
 The reason for this lies, at least in part, 
 in the fact that every woman looks forward 
 to the period of old ag-e 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. Should her sight and other bodily 
 powers remain good, she will doubtless 
 perform many light tasks for the general 
 good, will seldom sit idle by herself, but 
 will help about the sewing and mending, 
 the marketing, shopping, housework, and 
 care of the babies, tell stories to her 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 entr}' 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-in-law, manages her 
 husband's household, cares for her babies, 
 the thought that cheers and encourages 
 her in her busy and not too happy life is 
 the thought of the sunny calm of old age, 
 when she can lay her burdens and cares 
 on younger shoulders, and bask in the 
 warmth and sunshine which this Indian 
 Summer of her life will bring to her. 
 
 In the code of morals of the Japanese, 
 obedience to father, husband, or son is 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 woman's career, the obedience expected of 
 her is often only nominal, and in any case 
 is not so absolnte and unquestioning" as 
 that of the early period ; and the consid- 
 eration and respect that a sou 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 cau be ob- 
 tained by any woman earlier in life. She 
 has, besides, reached an ag-e when she is 
 not expected to renuiiu at home, and she 
 Hiay 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 g-one, her eyes have begun to sink a 
 little in their sockets, her youthful round- 
 ness and symmetry of figure have given 
 place to an absolute leanness, her abundant 
 black hair has grown thin, and nuich 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 suflering 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 fiiithfully, 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 sous 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
 
 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 \vomen, 
 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 
 Bd San, or Aunty, is not far removed in 
 the honor and affection of the children 
 from the Bd Sun, 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 roug-h 
 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 husband's family 
 was broken, and, rather than be a burden 
 to them, she made her home for many 
 years with her own younger brother, tak-
 
 OLD AGE. 125 
 
 ing up again the many cares and duties of 
 a mother's life in sliaring with the mother 
 the bringing up of a hirge 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 ou 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 auuty'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 GIBLS 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 eifect 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 ; hut 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 uncemeuted 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 samiscn outside the 
 latticed windows, and singing with cracked 
 voices some wailing melody. As they go
 
 128 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 from house to house, g-aining a miserable 
 pittance by their weird music, they seem 
 the embodiment of all that is hopeless and 
 broken-hearted. What they are or whence 
 they come, I know not, but they always re- 
 mind me of the grasshopper in the fable, 
 who danced and sang- through the brief 
 summer, to come, wailing and wretched, 
 seeking aid from her thriftier neighbor 
 when at last the winter closed in upon her. 
 As one rides about the streets, one often 
 sees a little, white-haired old woman 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 busthng 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 little eddy 
 around the burden she has laid down, but 
 paying no heed to the devout little figure 
 standing there; then in a moment the 
 prayer is finished ; she stoops, picks up her 
 yoke, balances it on her shoulders, and 
 moves on with the crowd, to do her share 
 while her strength lasts, and to be cared 
 for tenderly, I doubt not, by children and 
 children's children when her work is done. 
 Another picture comes to me, too, a 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 wonuin of thorough 
 classical education, her example and teach- 
 ing were to both sons and daughters a con-
 
 130 JAPANESE GIBLS 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 sufferings of all kinds, to her 
 was given at last an old age of prosperity 
 among children of whom she might well 
 be proud. Keeping her physical vigor to 
 the end, and dying at last, after an illness 
 of only two days, her spirit passed out into 
 the great unknown, ready to meet its 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 lack 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 npou my 
 last meeting" with lier, two weeks before 
 her death, she g-ave 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, 
 ou 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 heavv 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 WOMEN. 
 
 bier, then, bowing again, retired to their 
 places. Sh)wly and solemnly, from the tall 
 soldier son, his hair already streaked with 
 gray, to the two-year-old grandchild, all 
 paid this last token of respect to a noble 
 spirit; and after the relatives the guests, 
 each in the order of rank or nearness to 
 the deceased, stepped forward and 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 nie, as I per- 
 formed the act, it only signified the honor 
 in which I held the memory of a heroic 
 woman who had done well her i)art in the 
 world 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 hai)piuess. We 
 often exclaim in impatience at the thought 
 of the weakness and dependence of old
 
 OLD AGE. 133 
 
 age, and pray that we may die in the full- 
 uess 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, bwt 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 i)eace and happiness. When a man 
 reaches the age of fifty or thereabouts, 
 often while ap[)arently 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 he becomes entirely clependeiit for his sup- 
 port.i This support is never begrn(l<^ecl 
 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 
 
 ^ It is this custom of going into early retirement that 
 made it possible for the nobles in old times to keep tlie 
 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, — 'Cven 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. X 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 un<lcr- 
 stand the rush and struggle for riches in 
 America, — a struggle that too often leaves 
 not a pause for rest or quiet plea>ure until 
 sickness or death overtakes the indefatiga-
 
 136 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ble vvorlcer. The go inhjo ^ of Japan is glad 
 cnoug'h to lay down early in life the cares 
 of the world, to have a few years of calm 
 and peace, undisturbed by responsibilities 
 or cares for outside matters. If he be an 
 artist or a poet, he may, uninterrupted, 
 spend his days with his beloved art. If he 
 is fond of the ceremonial tea, he has whole 
 afternoons that he may devote to this 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 hihachi, 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 honrs 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 
 
 1 Go Inkyo Sama is the title belonging to a retired old 
 gentleman or old lady. Inkyo is the name of the house or 
 suite of rooms set apart for such a person, and the title 
 itself is made up of this word with the Chinese honorific 
 go and the title Sama, the same as San, used in adlress- 
 iiig all persons except inferiors.
 
 OLD AGE. 137 
 
 for such ijursuits. 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 qniet 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 tlie 
 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 Jimmu 
 Teuuo,^ seem to have been merely conquer- 
 
 1 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 he 
 divine, and the representative of the gods on the earth.
 
 COURT LIFE. 139 
 
 ing- chieftains, wlio by virtue of their de- 
 scent were regarded as divine, but who 
 lived the simple, hardy life of the savage 
 king, surrounded by wives and concubines, 
 done homage to by armed retainers and 
 subject chiefs, but living in rude huts, and 
 moving in and out among the soldiers, not 
 in the least retired into the mysterious 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 years when the Emperor 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 
 Jimmu Tenno, has never been broken. It must, however, 
 be said in connection with this statement, that the Japa- 
 nese family is a much looser organization than that known 
 to our Western civilization, on account of the customs of 
 concubinage and adoption, and that descent through 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 conveyed to her unbelieving husband 
 a divine command, to take ship and sail 
 westward to the conquest of an unknown 
 land. Her husband questioned the authen- 
 ticity of the message, took the eartlily 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 au 
 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 GIELS 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 tlieir 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 tilbute 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 Coreau 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 son ; the Japanese reason from 
 the other end, and show that all the noble 
 qualities of the mother were produced by 
 the influence of the unborn babe. 
 
 With the introduction of literature, art, 
 and Buddhism, a change took place in 
 the relations of the court to the people. 
 About the Emperor's throne there gathered 
 not only soldiers and governors, but the 
 learned, the accomplished, the witty, the 
 artistic, who found in the Emperor and the 
 court nobles munificent patrons by whom 
 they were supported, and before whom they 
 laid whatever pearls they were able to 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 songht 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 reqnired 
 a strong arm and a qnick hand to gnard 
 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 nohle families. The 
 nohles were not hy any means slow to see 
 the advantage to be gained for themselves 
 by the possession of the military power in 
 an age when might made right, even more 
 than it does to-day, and when force, used 
 judiciously and with proper deference to 
 the prejudices of the people, could be made 
 to give to its possessor power even over 
 the Emperor himself. And so gradually, 
 iu 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 ; while the heroes of the conn-
 
 COURT LIFE. 145 
 
 try rose, lived, fong-lit, ami 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- 
 raonj' of art with nature that the Japanese 
 taste makes the shic qua non of all true 
 artistic effort. The gorgeously embroid- 
 ered gowns must change with 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 Nagon, 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 gre;it 
 works that remain are, strange to say, mostly those of
 
 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 he changed with the 
 changing of the months ; and kciMmono and 
 vase are alternately stored in the Imra and 
 ])rought 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, hut 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 Cliinese 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 bonmots which contain allusions 
 in many cases to old poems, or plays on 
 words ; and are able to write and present 
 to others, at fitting times, those graceful 
 but untranslatable turns of phrase which 
 form the bulk of Japanese poetry.^ 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 Meiji,^ 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 written upon this subject by any 
 one in the whole realm, and may be sent 
 to the palace before a certain date fixed as 
 the time for closing the list of competitors. 
 All the poems thus sent are examined by 
 competent judges, who select the best five 
 and send them to the Emperor, an honor 
 more desired by the writers than the most 
 favorable of reviews or the largest of 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 
 
 ^ Mtiji (Enlightened Rule) is the name of the era that 
 began with the present Emperor's accession to the throne. 
 The year A. d. 1890 is the twenty-third year o£ 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 wrote poems upon her 
 death, which they sent to the bereaved 
 parents. 
 
 It is difficult for any Japanese, much 
 more so for a foreigner, to penetrate into
 
 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 fnrnished after 
 the magnificent manner of European pal- 
 aces; while the lacquer work, carving-s, 
 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 iibode of royalty. It seems 
 that their majesties, thoug-h 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 ou 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 Ham, 
 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 ou 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
 
 COUBT LIFE. 153 
 
 private establish meut, where she stays 
 when she is not on duty in attendance on 
 the Emperor and Empress. Each hidy has 
 her own servants, and sometimes ayoung-er 
 sister or a dependent may be living- there 
 with her, though they are entirely sepa- 
 rate from the court and the lite there, and 
 must never be seen in any of the other 
 parts of the building. In these rooms, 
 which are like little homes iu 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 uo
 
 COURT LIFE. 155 
 
 one nobler, more accomplished, more beau- 
 tiful in life and character, than the Em- 
 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 Haru 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- 
 gunate,^ and the restoration of the Em- 
 
 1 The Empresses of Japan are not chosen from any 
 branch of the imperial family, but from among the 
 daughters of the five of the groat kuge, or court nobles, 
 who are next in rank to the imperial princes. The 
 choice usually rests witli the Emperor or his advisers, and 
 would be naturally given to the most worthy, whether in 
 beauty or accon)plishraents. No doubt one reason why 
 the Empress is regarded as far below the Emperor is, 
 that she is not of royal blood, but one of the subjects of 
 the Empire. In the old times, the daughters of the 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 ira-
 
 156 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 pcror to actual power and the leatliiig- part 
 ill the govcriiiiient. Reared 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. Witii the removal of the court 
 to Tokyo, and the reappearance of the Em- 
 peror, in bodily form, before his people, 
 there came new oi)portunities 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 suhjeetion, — 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 
 
 aud 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 Emi)eror and 
 Empress were oblig'ed to take refnge in an 
 old daimio's house, a place entirely lacking 
 in luxuries aud considerably ont 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 g-uest, sent her word back that he was 
 very ill, and unable to make proper i)repa- 
 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, hut as the daug-hter of 
 Ichijo, his old friend and colleague, and as 
 such he could receive her. And then, set- 
 ting aside imperial state and etiquette, slie 
 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 
 Japau are under the Empress's special 
 patronage ; and this does not mean simply 
 that she allows her name to be used in 
 connection with them, but it means that 
 she thinks of them, studies them, asks 
 questions about them, and even practices 
 little economies that she may have the 
 more money to give to them. There is a 
 charity hospital in 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 from her own 
 private allowance, and concern iug this act
 
 COURT LIFE. 159 
 
 an editorial from the " Japan Mail " speaks 
 as follows : — 
 
 " The life of the Empress of Japan is au 
 unvarying routine of faithful duty-doing 
 and earnest charity. The puhlic, 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 
 iinnerial ladv. The latest evidence of her
 
 160 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Majesty's "benevolence is, l\owever, more 
 tlian nsually striking-. Since the founding- 
 of the Tokyo Cluirity Hospital, where so 
 many poor women and children are treated, 
 the Empress has watched the institution 
 closely, has bestowed on it patronnge of the 
 most active and helpful character, and has 
 contributed handsomely to its funds. Little 
 by little the hospital g-rew., extending- its 
 sphere of action and enlarging- its minis- 
 trations, until the need of more capacious 
 premises -r- 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 
 mig'ht thus be saved from her yearly in- 
 come to the aid of the hospital, appears 
 to have snggested itself to her Mnjesty 
 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 picturesqne 
 about these sen and rin. They represent
 
 COURT LIFE. 161 
 
 an account niiniitely and faithfully kept 
 between her Majesty's unavoidable expenses 
 and the benevolent impulse that constantly 
 urg'ed her to curtail them. Such gracious 
 acts of sterling effort command admiration 
 and love." 
 
 Not very long ago. on one of her visits to 
 the hospital, the Empress visited the chil- 
 dren's ward, and took with her toys, which 
 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 twenty years ago the 
 persons of the Emperor and Empress were 
 so sacred in the eyes of the people that no 
 one but the highest nobles and the near 
 officials of the court could come into their 
 presence, — that even these high nobles 
 were received at court by the Emperor at 
 a distance of many feet, and his face even 
 then could not be seen, — when we think of 
 all this, we can begin to appreciate what 
 the Empress Haru 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 Oil the sacred face of the Emperor 
 and live. 
 
 Tlic 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 vouuir irirls 
 who will so soon be filling places in the 
 court. At the opening of the school the 
 Empress was present, and herself made a 
 speech to the scholars ; and her visits, at 
 intervals of one or two months, show her 
 continued interest in the work that she 
 has begun. Upon all state occasions, the 
 scholars, standing with bowed heads as if 
 in pray(;r, sing a little song written for 
 them by the Empress herself; and at the 
 graduating exercises, the speeches 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 danghters 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 not?" said the 
 Empress, smiling, and the embarrassed 
 Princess was obliged to confess that this 
 was her first 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 vaUied 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 diiferent 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 who 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 cliild. Certain persons are appointed as 
 attendants, and the child with its retinue lives in the es- 
 tablishment of tlie guardian, who is supposed to exercise 
 his judgment and experience in the physical and mental 
 training of the child.
 
 COURT LIFE. 155 
 
 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 imi)erial familj, to diifereut 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 prej)arations are made by those who 
 have the honor of entertaining their Ma- 
 jesties. 
 
 Among the amusements within 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 numner, with reg- 
 ular flower beds and trees at certain equal 
 distances, which is seen so often in the 
 highly cultivated grounds of the rich in
 
 166 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 this country. The landscape gardening of 
 Japan keeps unchanged the wiklness 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 ftivorite 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 g*racious 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. 
 
 ^ Jingu K5go, like many of the heroic, half mythical 
 figures of other nations, lias suffered somewhat under the 
 assaults of the modern historical criticism. Many of the 
 hest Japanese historians deny that she conquered Corea ; 
 some go so far as to doubt whether slie 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 tlie present Empress, Haru Ko, 
 stands upon the border line between the Eastern and the 
 Western modes of thought and life.
 
 168 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Each niiiiks the beg'inning' of a new era, 
 — the first, of the era of civilization and 
 morality founded upon the teachini^s 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 which it has never failed to 
 give to the wives and mothers of all Chris- 
 tian nations.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND TASHIKI.^ 
 
 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 daimio'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 daimio'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 without the moat. They in turn were separated 
 from the business part of the village sometimes by a 
 second or third moat. By life in castle and yashiki we 
 mean the life of the daimio, whether in city or country.
 
 170 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 of liis house for two hundred and fifty )'ears 
 of peace. 
 
 The Emperor's court, with its literary 
 and a)sthetic quiet, its simplicity of life and 
 complexity of etiquette, was the centre of 
 the culture and art of Japan, but never 
 the centre of luxury. After the growth of 
 the Tokug-awa 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 nuig- 
 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 kiiye, 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 YASHIKL 171 
 
 erty at Kyoto, the landed nol3ility, or dai- 
 mios, brought, after many strug-gles, under 
 the sway of the Tokugawas, built for them- 
 selves palaces and pleasure gardens in the 
 moated city of Yedo. At Yedo with its cas- 
 tle, its gardens, its yaskiJcis, 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 
 dainiio became not only the feudal chief, 
 but the patron of literature and art among 
 his people, as the years went by filling his 
 hura with choice works of art, in lacquer, 
 bronze, silver, and pottery, to be brought 
 out on special occasions. These nobles, 
 under a law of Ivemitsu, the third of the 
 Tokugawa line, were compelled to spend 
 half of each year at the city of the Sho- 
 guns ; and each had his yashiJd, 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 coiintry 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 lyemitsu, as well as the be- 
 havior of the country people who might 
 meet the procession moving towards Yedo, 
 or returuin g therefrom . When some noble, 
 or any member of his family, was to pass 
 through a certain section of the country, 
 great preparations were made beforehand. 
 Not only was traffic stopped along the 
 route, but every door and window had to 
 be closed. By no means was any one to 
 show himself, or to IooIj 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 yashiJcis 
 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. 
 
 toolv away the military and temporal power 
 of the Emperor, making of hiai ouly 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 Shdgun to-day, and every 
 daimio's castle throughout the country is
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASUIKI. 175 
 
 in the luiiuls of the imperial government. 
 The okl pleasnre 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 
 with 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. 
 
 ininierous atteiulants, they slowly walked 
 tbroiigli the bamboo groves or under the 
 bloom-laden boughs 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 
 yasliiki. 
 
 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 YASHIEL 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 
 liardly he disting-uished 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 i)arty 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 accoiding to 
 the highest and severest standards. Some- 
 times, hy the whim or the indulgence of 
 parents, or through exceptional circum- 
 stances in her surroundings, a samurai's 
 daughter hecame 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 speech 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 i)rotect 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
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 179 
 
 thanks, — lessons in the delig-hts 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 daug-hter 
 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, 
 
 ^ The Japanese lang'uage is full of expressions showing' 
 different 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 be altered in their termination 
 according to the degree of honor in which the subject of 
 the action is held in the speaker's mind. 
 
 ^ The 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 tlieni. llospitalit}' re- 
 quired that the teacher be offered a meal 
 alter the lesson, and this meal etiquette 
 would not permit him to refuse, so that 
 both teacher and pupil must spend niucli 
 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 YASHIKL 181 
 
 meant a single life. Many of them re- 
 mained in the palace all their clays, 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- 
 mio's lad)% 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 inflnence 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 
 iu attendaiice in the homes now deprived 
 of the grandeur of the olden times, look 
 with horror upon the innovations of the 
 present day, and sig-h 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 daimios' 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
 
 I.IFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKI. 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 
 efiect 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- 
 \ng in force, in amhition, 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 courag-e. A daimio's wife, 
 as befitted the wife of a warrior and the 
 daughter of long generations of brave men, 
 never shrank from facing danger and death 
 when necessary; and considered the taking 
 of her own life an honorable and easy 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, ^\itiiessecl the events narrated. It 
 ilkistrates the responsibility felt by the re- 
 tainers for their lord and his house. A 
 daiuiio fell into disgrace with the Shoguu, 
 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- 
 iiiunicatiou 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 family, as his funeral 
 must be witliout the ordinary tokens of re- 
 'spect; and his tombstone, instead of bear- 
 in «• 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-
 
 18G JAPANESE GIKLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ing the restoration of his favor before the 
 approach of death. The death was not 
 annonnced, 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, tlic 
 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 eono-ratu- 
 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 he had died 
 immediately after the return of the mes- 
 senger with the good tidings of pardon.
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASIIIKL 187 
 
 All obstacles being' tliiis removed, the fu- 
 neral was celebrated with due pomp and 
 circumstance; and the tombstone of the 
 daimio to-day g-ives no hint of the disgrace 
 from which he so narrowly escaped. 
 
 Another instance very similar, throwing 
 some light on the custom of adoption or 
 yosldi, 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 
 he 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 ho 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. 
 
 nesc lady, wlio knew the interest that I 
 took in seeing- and procnring the ohl-fash- 
 ioned embroidered kimonos, 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 
 were, of silk, crepe, and linen, embroidered 
 elaborately, and in extremely good order. 
 Many of them seemed not to have been 
 worn at alt, 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 with white, and with a 
 great white crest applique on the middle of 
 the back. Curious white stripes gave the
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 189 
 
 coat a military look, and it seemed appro- 
 priate rather to the wardrobe of some tvvo- 
 sworded warrior than to that of a geiitle- 
 womau 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 
 broug-ht to lio-ht 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 Jiad 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 life that was so niucli a matter of course to 
 the older Japanese that it uever occurred 
 to them even to mention it to a strang'er. 
 The elder lady of the house was wonder- 
 fully amused at my interest in these muto 
 memorials of the past, and could never com- 
 prehend why I was willing to expend the 
 sum of one dollar for the sake of gaining* 
 possession of a set of garments for which I 
 could have no possible use. The uniform 
 had probably never been worn in actual 
 warfare, but its owner had been trained 
 in the use of the long-handled spear, the 
 cover of which she had kept stored away 
 all these years ; and had regarded herself 
 as liable to be called into action at any 
 time as one of the home guard, when the 
 male retainers of her lord were in the field. 
 There are in the shops of Tokyo to-day 
 hundreds of colored prints illustrating the 
 splendor of the Shogunate ; 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 dainiios, with their trains of uni- 
 formed retainers, proceeding in stately pa-
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 191 
 
 geaut to the palace of the Shogun ; the 
 games, the dances, the reviews hekl 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 
 Shognn 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 uiixing inodiciues to secure the 
 health and strength of both mother and 
 baby. 
 
 The fall of the Shogunate, and the abo- 
 lition of castle and yashUci, have made a 
 radical chang-e in the fashions of dress in 
 Jai)an. One sees no longer the beautiful 
 embroidered robes, except upon the stage, 
 for the abolition of the great leisure class 
 has put the flowered Jcimono 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 sufiicieut 
 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 and most con-
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIEL 193 
 
 servative of the present generation of no- 
 bles. A dainty little creature she was, 
 with a face npon 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, nnavvakening 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 alwavs 
 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 per- 
 form 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 daimio him- 
 self was painfully learning. The dainty 
 child-wife with both arms buried in the 
 heavy ruif 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 liaA^e 
 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 
 })roduct of the past, — the daughter of the 
 last of the Shoguns, — she dwells in her 
 enchanted house, among the relics of a
 
 LIFE IN CASTLE AND YASHIKL 195 
 
 past which is still the present to her and 
 to her household. 80 lovely, so sesthetic, 
 so dainty and charming seems the world 
 into which one enters there, that one 
 would not care to break the spell that 
 holds it as it is, and let the g-irl-wife, 
 with her gentlewomen and her kneeling 
 servants, hurry forward into the busy, 
 perplexing life of to-day. May time deal 
 gently with her and hers, nor rudely break 
 the enchantment that surrounds her !
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 
 
 Samurai was the name given to the 
 military class among the Japanese, — a 
 class intermediate between the Emperor 
 and his nobles and the great mass of the 
 common people who were engaged in agri- 
 cnlture, mechanical arts, or trade. Upon 
 the samnrai 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 tlie time of the fall of 
 feudalism, there were, among- the thirty- 
 four millions of Japauese, 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 
 used, and as used throughout this work,
 
 SAMUB^n WOMEN. 197 
 
 applies to the military class, who served 
 the Shog-uii and the daiinios, and who 
 were supported by yearly allowances from 
 the treasuries of their lords. These form 
 a distinct class, actuated by motives quite 
 diiferent 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 th<; country out of 
 the middle ages into the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is being i)errormed 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 ])er- 
 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 maybe 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, aud home, must 
 be sacrificed if necessary. Those who have
 
 198 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 read the talc of "The Loyal Roiiins"i — 
 a story which has been so well told by Mit- 
 ford, Dickens, aud Greey that many read- 
 ers must be already familiar with it — will 
 remember that the head councilor aud 
 retainer, Oishi, in his deep desire for re- 
 veng'e for his lord's uujust death, divorces 
 his wife and sends off his children, that they 
 may not distract liis thoughts from his 
 plans ; aud performs his famous act of re- 
 venge without once seeing his wife, only 
 letting her know at his death his faithful- 
 ness to her aud the true cause of his seem- 
 ing cruelty. Aud the wife, far from feel- 
 ing wronged hy 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 sufferiug in auy 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 Jtonin was the term applied to a sanaurai 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.
 
 SAifUEAI 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 
 nuiintain 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. 
 
 tluit tlicy must surrender, for the forces are 
 too strong- for them. He seeminoly con- 
 sents to this, luul, led down to the water's 
 edge, he sees across the moat his wife and 
 child, who greet him with demonstrations 
 of joy. To her he waves his hand ; then, 
 bravely and loudly, so that it may be heard 
 by friend and foe, he shouts out the true 
 tidings, " Wait for reinforcement at any 
 cost, for the besiegers are weak and will 
 soon have to give up." At these words 
 his enraged enemies seize him and put 
 him to a death of horrible torture, but he 
 smiles in their faces as he tells them the 
 sweetness of such a sacrifice for his mas- 
 ter. Japanese history aljounds 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
 
 SAMUEAI 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-Mn, 
 or the voluntarv 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 
 
 ^ The samurai always wore two swords, a long one for 
 fighting only, and a short one for defense when possible, 
 but, as a last resort, for hara-kiri. The sword is the 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- 
 hing-, so that it might be cleanly and eas- 
 ily done, for a hloody 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 Juira-lciri 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 liara-ldri 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
 
 SAMURAI 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 dainiio, 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 
 
 ^ Kurushima, who attempted to take the life of Okuma, 
 the late Minister of Foreign AfPairs, as recently as 1889, 
 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 oblig-ed 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 well as to the 
 amount of service received. Daimios did 
 not send to ask a teacher how much an 
 hour his time was worth, and then arrange 
 the lessons accordingly ; the teacher was
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 205 
 
 not insulted by being expected to barter 
 his knowledge for so much filthy lucre, 
 but was merely asked whether his time 
 and convenience would allow of his taking 
 extra teaching. The request was made, 
 not as a matter of give and take, but a 
 favor to be granted. Due compensation, 
 however, would never fail to be made, — of 
 this the teacher could be sure, — but no 
 agreement was ever considered necessary. 
 
 With this feeling yet remaining in 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 band, his feelings are not appreciated 
 by the foreigner, and his actions clash with 
 tbe 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 rapidly 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
 
 20G JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 long' time before the loyal, faithful, but 
 proud spirit of the samurai will die out. 
 The pride of clau is now chaug-ed 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
 
 SAMUBAI 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. 
 
 mail's first duty in all ranks of society is 
 obedience; l)ut 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 
 liis feudal superior. The women in the 
 daimios' castles who were taug-ht 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 tlie 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, reveng-e 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. Onoye, 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 tliat 
 it has roused tbe jealousy of the other 
 ladies, who are of the samurai class. Iwa- 
 fuji, one of the highest and proudest ladies 
 at the court, takes [)ains on every occa- 
 sion to insult and toi-ment the poor, unof- 
 fending Onoye, whom she cannot bear to
 
 SAMURAI 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 Iwafnji cnlminate in a frenzy of 
 rage; she forgets herself, and strikes the 
 meek and gentle Onoyo with her sandal, 
 — the worst insult that could be offered to 
 any one. 
 
 Onoye, 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, Haru, is a type of the clever 
 faithful servant. She is really of higher 
 birth than her mistress, for, though she 
 has been obliged to go out to service, she 
 was born of a samurai family. Onoye,
 
 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, — Iwafuji's sandal, 
 which she has kept. O Haru is sent on 
 this errand, and, unconscious of the ill- 
 iiews 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, O Haru 
 turns back, and reaches her mistress' room 
 in time to find that the fatal deed is done, 
 and her mistress is dying. O Haru is 
 heart-broken, learns the whole truth, and 
 vows vengeance on the enemy of her loved 
 mistress. 
 
 O Haru, unlike Onoye, is thoroughly 
 trained in fencing. An occasion arises 
 when she returns to Iwafuji in public the 
 malicious blow, and with the same sandal, 
 which she has kept as a sign of her re- 
 venge. She then challenges Iwafnji, in
 
 SAMURAI ^VOMEN. 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 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 suft'er 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 tlian 
 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 persi)ective of the ideal Japanese 
 woman, as one canuot get it in any other 
 way. The play is founded on the story of 
 " The Loyal Runins," referred to iu the be- 
 ginning of this chapter. The loyal renins 
 are plotting to avenge the death of their
 
 214 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 master ui)on the daimio 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 
 dainiio's retainers, dis[)lays 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 cou- 
 spirators. All this is doue 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, wlien the men come to carry her away, 
 is upheld through all the trying farewells 
 by the consciousness that she is making as 
 noble a sacrifice of herself as did the wife 
 of Yamato Dake when she leaped into the 
 sea to avert the wrath of the sea-god from
 
 216 JAPANESE GIHLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 her husband. The Japanese, both men 
 and women, knowing this story and many 
 others simihxr 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. Bat 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 difi'erence of moral 
 perspective tluit 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
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 217 
 
 of stories, aud those that have the least 
 fouudatiou iii fact, to fiud 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 womaubood, 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 tbe whole perspective is arranged 
 with that virtue in the foreground. Dis- 
 miss this for a moment, and consider the 
 moral traiuiug 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 fi)r the good of father or husband 
 she must be willing to meet any danger, 
 endure any dishonor, perpetrate any crime, 
 give up any treasure. She must consider
 
 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 w^ould 
 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 g'irls, 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 diflercnce into 
 our thought in forming our judg-ment, and 
 let us rather seek the causes that underlie
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 219 
 
 the actions than pass judg-ment 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 sing-le-miud- 
 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 thoug-ht 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 
 throufjh the bluest of Puritan blood. And 
 when a duty has once been recognized as
 
 220 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 sncli, no timidity, or mortification, or fear 
 of ridicule will i)revent 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 nnhapj)y 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 shortcoming's to this 
 beloved friend ; and, too late to make amend- 
 ment to the old lady herself, she dwelt 
 on her own nndutifulness, 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, warn them against similar mistakes ; 
 and accordingly she prepared, for the liter- 
 ary society in which the girls took what 
 part they chose, a long confession, written
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 221 
 
 in poetical style, and read it before her 
 schoolmates 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 that they need never 
 suffer what she had had to endure since 
 her grandmother's death, there was not a 
 dry eye in the room, and many of the girls 
 were sobbing aloud. It was a curious 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 diiferent 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 GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Son of Heaven himself, who had at last 
 enierg^ed from the sechision of centuries to 
 govern his own empire. Thus the sup- 
 porters of the Shogunate, wliile 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 
 Waliamatsu 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. 22 B 
 
 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 nnrses. 
 At that time, no lady in Japan had ever 
 ffone 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ladics-in-vvaiting" at the court of the dai- 
 niio or the Shogun, they cultivated the arts 
 and accomplishments required for their 
 position, and veiled the martial spirit that 
 dwelt within them under an exterior as 
 feminine, as gracious, as cultivated and 
 charming, as that of any ladies of Europe 
 or America. To-day in the new Japan, 
 where the samurai have no longer their 
 yearly allowance from their lords and their 
 feudal duties, but, scattered through the 
 whole nation, are engaged in all the arts 
 and trades, and are infusing the old spirit 
 into the new life, what are the women 
 doing ? As the government of the land 
 to-day lies in the hands of the samurai 
 men under the Emi)eror, 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
 
 SAMUEAI WOMEN. 225 
 
 aud joined the ranks of the nobility ; and 
 there the presence of the samurai spirit in- 
 fuses new life into the aristocracy. So, too, 
 the changes that have raised some have 
 lowered others, and the samurai is now to 
 be found in the formerly despised 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, ut service,
 
 22G JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 — even to the humble work of wheeling" a 
 jinrncLsho; 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 dav, some
 
 SAMURAI WOMEN. 227 
 
 of them ill at least one laiigiuig-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 much of the unconquerable 
 spirit of the samurai to-day in the women 
 as in the men ; and it will not be very long 
 before that spirit will begin to show itself 
 in working for the establishment of their 
 homes and families upon some stronger 
 basis than the will of the husband and 
 father.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 
 
 The great heimin class includes not 
 only the peasants of Jai)an, 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 altog-ether 
 below the level of respectability, the eta 
 and Jiinin,^ — outcasts w ho 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 mili- 
 
 ^ The laws against the ^ta 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. Heimin and samurai are now indiscriminately 
 mingled.
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 229 
 
 tary. Here and there oue from the peas- 
 antry uiouuts by force of his personal quali- 
 ties into the higher ranks, for there is no 
 caste system that prevents the passing- 
 from oue class into another, — only a class 
 prejudice that serves very nearly the same 
 purpose, in keeping samurai and heimiu iu 
 their places, that the race prejudice iu this 
 country serves in confining the negroes, 
 North and South, to certain positions and 
 occni)ations. The first division of the mili- 
 tary from the peasantry occurred iu the 
 eighth century, and since then the peculiar 
 circumstances of each class have tended to 
 produce quite different characteristics iu 
 persons originally of the same stock. To 
 the soldier class have fallen learning, skill 
 iu arms and horsemanship, opportunities 
 to rise to places of honor and power, lives 
 free from sordid care in regard to the 
 daily rice, and iu which noble ideas of duty 
 and loyalty can spring up and bear fruit iu 
 lieroic deeds. To the peasant, tilling his 
 little rice-field year after year, have come 
 the heavy burdens of taxation ; the griud- 
 iug toil for a mere pittance of food for 
 himself and his family ; the patient bearing 
 of all tilings imposed by his superiors, with
 
 230 JAP^iNESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 little hope of gain for himself, whatever 
 cluing-e the fortunes of war may bring to 
 those above him in the social scale. Is 
 there wonder that, as the years have gone 
 by, his wits have grown heavy under his 
 daily drudgery ; that he knows little and 
 understands less of the changes that are 
 taking place in his native land ; that he is 
 easily moved by only one thing, and that 
 the failure of his crops, or the shortening 
 of his returns from his land by heavier 
 taxation ? This is true of the heimin as a 
 class : they are conservative, fearing that 
 change will but tend to nuike harder a lot 
 that is none too easy ; and though jjeace- 
 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 
 
 spoiisibilit}' 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 passages which show the 
 thoughts of one of the heimin npon 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 
 Ognshi. 
 
 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 comnuuiding 
 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 tliis," 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 iii decorating them ? " He
 
 232 JAPANESE GIIiLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 then turns to the vassals of the Sh<")<j;nn, 
 and charges thcni with hcing tyrannical, 
 rapacious, and low-minded. " Samurai," 
 he continues, — "samurai are finely attired, 
 hut how contemptihle the}' look in the eyes 
 of those peasants who know how to he 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 heen 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 Toyotomi,^ will not again 
 appear among the lower classes ? " 
 
 ^ Toyotomi Hid^yoshi, a peasant boy, rose from the 
 position of a groom to be the actual ruler of Jajjau dur- 
 ing tlie 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, Mikaflo's Empire, book i., chap. xxiv.
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 233 
 
 He ends his memorial with this wiiru- 
 iiig: " Should the Shogun's court, and the 
 military class in g'eneral, persist in the 
 present oppressive way 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 heyond criticism or reproach, but are 
 ready to speak boldly for their rig"hts when- 
 ever an opportunity occurs. There is a 
 pathetic story, told in Mitford's " Tales of 
 Old Japan," of a peasant, the head-nnin 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 igjiorant and op- 
 pressed, has not lost his manhood ; has not
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 235 
 
 become a slave or a serf, but clings to his 
 rights, so far as he knows what they are ; 
 and is ready to hold his own against all 
 comers, when the question in debate is one 
 that appeals to his mind. The rulers of 
 Japan have always the peasantry to reckon 
 with when their ruling becomes unjust or 
 oppressive. They cannot be cowed, though 
 they may be misled for a time, and they 
 form a conservative element that serves to 
 hold in check too hasty rulers who would 
 introduce new measures too quickly, and 
 would be likely to find the new wine 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 
 opinion. 
 
 In considering this great heimin class, 
 it is well to remember that the artisans, 
 who form so large a part of it, are also the 
 artists who have made the reputation of 
 Japan, in Europe and America, as one of 
 the countries where art and the love of
 
 23G JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 beauty in form and color are still instinct 
 with life. The Japanese artisan works 
 with patient toil, and with the skill and 
 orig-inality 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 be induced 
 to pay him money for making it. It seems 
 as easy for the Japanese to make things 
 pretty and in good taste, even when they 
 are cheap and only used by the poorer 
 people, as it is for American mills and 
 workers to turn out endless varieties of at- 
 teu)pts at decoration, — all so hideous that 
 a poor person must be content, either to bo 
 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 aesthetic 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 and patience of individuals among 
 this heimin class: but it was the common, 
 cheap, every-day art that meets one at 
 every turn ; the love for the beautiful, in 
 both nature and art, that belongs to the 
 common coolie as well as to the nobleman. 
 The cheap prints, the blue and white tow- 
 els, the common teacups and pots, the 
 great iron kettles in use over the fire in 
 the farmhouse kitchen, — all these are 
 things as pretty and tasteful in their way 
 as the rich crepes, the silver incense burn- 
 ers, the delicate porcelain, and the elegant 
 lacquer that fill 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 peoi)le. 
 
 The artisan works at his home, helped 
 less often by hired laborers tluin by his 
 own children, who learn the trade of their
 
 238 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOAfEN. 
 
 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 
 Miceiiionos, flowers, and vases, and for va- 
 rious gratifications of the eesthetic taste. 
 Hence it is that the Japanese laborer, who 
 lives on a daily wage which would reduce 
 an American or European to the verge of 
 starvation, finds both time and money for 
 the cultivation of that sense of beauty 
 which is too often crushed completely out 
 of the lower classes by the burdens of this 
 nineteenth century civilization which they 
 bear upon their shoulders. To the 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 con- 
 spicuous 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. Tbe charms 
 of the city tempt them sometimes to ex- 
 clianofe their daily labor for the excitement 
 of life as jmn7^/.s7/rt men; but in any case
 
 240 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 they will be perfectly independent, and ask 
 no man for their daily rations. 
 
 Although there is much poverty, there 
 are few or no beggars in Japan, for both 
 strong and weak find each some 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 wbom they 
 serve. A great Buddhist temple is being 
 built in Kyot5 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 Buddliist faith. The whole tem- 
 ple, with its iniiueuse curved roof, its vast 
 proportions, and its marvelous wood carv- 
 ing's, has been built by offerings of labor, 
 mone)', 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 aroiuul 
 the g-reat 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 garmeuts telling of many days' weary 
 march. Their large hats shield them from 
 the sun and the rain, and the pieces of 
 matting slung over their backs serve them 
 for beds to sleep on, when they take shelter 
 for the night in rude huts. The way up the 
 great mountain of Fuji is lined with these 
 pilgrims ; for to attain its summit, and 
 worship there the rising sun, is believed 
 to be the means of obtaining some special 
 blessing. Among these religious devotees, 
 in costumes not unlike those of the men, 
 under the same large hat and coarse 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 rnral .Japan, one is 
 im])ressed by the important part played by
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 243 
 
 women in the various bread-winning- indns- 
 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 Hiyei Zan, the historic Buddhist 
 stronghold, where the women attain a 
 stature and muscular development (piite 
 unique among the pigmy population of the 
 island empire. Strong, jolly, red-cheeked
 
 244 JAPANESE GTRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 women tlic)^ arc, showing' no evidence of 
 the shrinlving- away with the advance of 
 old age that is characteristic of most of 
 their countrywomen. With their tucked- 
 up kimonos and bhie 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 Yase, on account 
 of their remarkable physical development, 
 have been chosen frequently the nurses for 
 the imperial infants ; an honor which the 
 Yas^ villagers duly appreciate, and which 
 makes them bear themselves proudly among 
 their less favored neighbors.
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 245 
 
 111 other parts of the country, in the 
 neighborhood of Nikko, for instance, the 
 care of tlie horses, mild little j)ack-mares 
 that do much of the hurden-bearino- 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- 
 ponies on which our baggage was carried 
 were led by pretty little country girls of 
 twelve or fourteen, their bright black eyes 
 and red cheeks contrasting pleasantly vvith 
 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 
 niouutaiu 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 vvith some returning pack train,
 
 246 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 ill which the soft black eyes ami bits of 
 red about the costume of the little grooms 
 showed that they, too, were mouutain 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 si)inning' 
 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 [)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 Avomen, their long sleeves held back by 
 a band over the shoulder, and a blue towel 
 gracefully fastened over their heads to 
 keep off the sun and the dust. They pick 
 busily away at the green, tender leaves, 
 which will soon be heated and rolled by 
 strong men over the charcoal fire. The 
 occupation is an easy one, only requiring 
 care in the selection of leaves to be picked, 
 and can be performed by young girls and 
 old women, who gather the glossy leaves 
 in their big baskets, while chatting to 
 each other over the gossip and news of the 
 day. 
 
 In the hotels, both in the country and 
 the city, women play an important part. 
 The attendants are usually sweet-faced, 
 prettily dressed girls, and frequently the 
 proprietor of the hotel is a woman. My 
 first experience of a Japanese hotel was at 
 Nara, anciently the capital of Japan, and 
 now a place of resort because of its fine old 
 temples, its Dai Butsu, and its beautiful 
 deer park. The day's ride in jinrikisha 
 from Osaka had brought our party in very 
 tired, only to find that the hotel to which
 
 248 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 we had telegraphed for rooms was already 
 filled to overflowing by a daimio and his 
 suite. Not a room could be obtained, and 
 we were at last obliged to walk some dis- 
 tance, for we had dismissed our tired jin- 
 I'iMslia 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 our guide pointed to 
 a small gate leading into a minute, damp 
 courtyard, we were quite convinced that 
 the hardships of travel in Japan were now 
 about to begin ; but disappointment gave 
 way to hope, when we were met at the 
 door by a buxom landlady, whose smile 
 was in itself a refreshment. Although we 
 had little in the way of language in 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 energ-ctic 
 head of affairs. She it was who manag-ed 
 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 cre})t softly out 
 of my room to try to soothe the plaintive
 
 250 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 It- 
 wails of my dog", who was coniplaiiiing bit- 
 terly that be 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, 
 taliing 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 l7m (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 women, 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 reguUif kitchen 
 where fairly elaborate cooking can be doue; 
 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, aud 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 oues. 
 Wheu the feast is over, the refreshments 
 you have especially ordered are paid for in 
 the regular way ; but for the tea and sweet- 
 meats oftered, for which no especial charge 
 is made, you arc expected to leave a small 
 sura as a present. In the less aristocratic
 
 252 JAPANESE GIRLS 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 he 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 hestowed 
 on guests by the polite host and hostess 
 and the servants in attendance. The cha- 
 dai, done np 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 
 
 1 Chadai is, literally, "money for tea," and is equiva- 
 lent to our tips to the waiters and porters at hotels. The 
 chadai varies with the wealth and rank of the guests, the 
 duration of the stay, and the attention which has been 
 bestowed. On is the honorific placed before the word in 
 writing.
 
 PEASANT 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 chmlai, though it is only a trifle." 
 The landlord, with every expression of sur- 
 prise, will how 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 heing 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 JAPANJSSE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 the place for wljicli we had set out, hut 
 found ourselves at last in a heautilul aar- 
 den, with a pretty lake in its centre, a lit- 
 tle red-lacquered shrine reflected in the 
 lake, and a tea-house hospitahly open at 
 one side. The teakettle was boiling over 
 the little charcoal fire ; melons, egg-s, and 
 various unknown comestibles were on the 
 little counter ; but no voice bade us wel- 
 come as we approached, and when w^e sat 
 down on the edge of the piazza, we could 
 see no one within the house. We waited, 
 however, for the day was hot, and time is 
 not worth much in rural Japan. Pretty 
 soon a small, wizened figure made its 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 
 were 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 great 
 rock in the middle of the Httle hike. 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 
 wdien we went away, and undoubtedly the 
 old lady is wondering still over the niys- 
 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 GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 pears of her to have given the colic to an 
 elephant. One clay, after her visit to me, 
 as I was sitting- upon the matted and roofed 
 sqnare that served me for a room, my eye 
 wandered idly toward the hathing beach, 
 and, under the slight shelter where the 
 bathers were in the habit of depositing 
 their sandals and towels, I spied the well- 
 known yoke and fruit baskets, as well as a 
 small heap of blue cotton garments that I 
 knew to be the clothing of the little frnit- 
 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 frnit 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, but continuing her pol- 
 ishing off in the same leisurely manner in 
 which she had begun it ; then at the ^n-oper 
 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 
 kuruina 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 ail 
 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 pleasautest 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 difiering in many 
 iujportant 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 exposure of the person that 
 is merely incidental to health, cleanliness, 
 or convenience in doing necessary work, 
 is perfectly modest and allowable ; but an 
 exposure, no matter how slight, that is 
 simply for show, is in the highest degree 
 indelicate. In illustration of the first part 
 of this conclusion, I would refer to the 
 open bath-houses, the naked laborers, the 
 exposure of the lower limbs in wet weather 
 by the turning up of the kimono, the en- 
 tirely nude condition of the country chil- 
 dren in sunmier, and the very slight cloth-
 
 PEASANT WOMEN. 259 
 
 iug that even adults regard as necessary 
 about the house or in the country during 
 the hot season. In ilkistration 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 neQk and arms 
 are freely exposed to the gaze of multi- 
 tudes, the Japanese woman, who would 
 with entire composure take her bath iu 
 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 iu 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-
 
 2G0 JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 plaiiuHl, and we can do justice to our Jap- 
 anese sister in a matter in regard to which 
 slie is too often cruelly niisjudg-ed. 
 
 There seems no doubt at all that amonjr 
 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, independent 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 
 womnn, 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 remarlt- 
 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 Jai)an 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 Japan 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 tbat 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 fig'niing 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 hold among. Japanese merchants. With
 
 264 JAPANESE GIBLS 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 kwanJcoha, 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
 
 LIFJE IN THE CITIES. 265 
 
 yasJiiJcis and of wealthy families is doue 
 mostly ill tiie home ; for all the stores are 
 willing at any time, ou receiving- an order, 
 to send up a clerk with a hale of crepes, 
 silks, and cottons tied to his hack, and fre- 
 quently towering- hig-h ahove 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 ou 
 the floor, opens the enormous furaskUci, or 
 bundle handkerchief, in which it is envel- 
 oped, and takes out roll after roll of silk or 
 chintz, ueatly 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 stores. 
 Like all things else in Japan, shopping 
 takes plenty of time. At Mitsui's, the
 
 26G JAPANESE GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 largest silk store in Tokyo, one will see 
 crowds of clerks sitting- upon the matted 
 floors, each with his sofohim, or adding 
 machine, by his side ; and innumerable 
 small boys, who rush to and fro, carrying 
 armfuls of fabrics to the different clerks, 
 or picking up the same fabrics after the 
 customer who has called for them has de- 
 parted. The store appears, to the foreign 
 eye, to be simply a roofed and matted plat- 
 form upon which botb 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 customarj' 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 tlie great fire-proof 
 warehouse, which stands with heavy doors 
 thrown open, on the other side of the phit- 
 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 sorohan, 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 
 and small boys, — outcries so sudden, so 
 simultaneous, and so stentorian, that she 
 cannot rid lierself 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 fornral phrase, " Thanks for your con- 
 tinued favors," which is repeated in aloud 
 tone by every emi)loyee in the store when- 
 ever a customer departs. When she her- 
 self is at last ready to leave, a chorus of 
 yells arises, this time for her benefit ; and as 
 she skips into the jinriMslia 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 circumstauce 
 about the smaller stores, for all the goods 
 are within easy reach, and the shops for 
 household utensils and chinavvare seem to 
 have nearly the whole stock in trade 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 iVOMEN. 
 
 delicate vases, the bronzes, and the silks 
 are often made in lumiblest 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 influences, until they become 
 scarcely more than machines themselves, 
 is a thing as yet almost unknown in Japan. 
 The life of the jinrikisha man even, hard 
 and comfortless as it may seem to run all 
 day like a horse through the crowded city 
 streets, is one that keeps him in the fresh 
 air, under the open sky, and quickens his 
 powers both of body and mind. To the 
 poor in Japanese cities is never denied the 
 fresh air and sunshine, green trees and 
 grass; and the beautiful parks and gardens 
 are found everywhere, for the enjoyment of 
 even the meanest and lowest. 
 
 On certain days in the month, in 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, ill which they so arrange their 
 wares as to tempt the passers-by as they 
 go to and fro. Very often there is a mag- 
 nificent clisphiy of young trees, potted 
 plants, and flowers, brought in from the 
 country and ranged on both sides of the 
 street. Here tlie gardeners make lively 
 sales, as the displays are often fine in 
 themselves, and show to a special advan- 
 tage in the flaring torchlight. The eager 
 venders, wdio 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 five and ten times the real value 
 of a plant, but coming down in price al- 
 most immediately on remonstrance. You 
 ask the price of a dwarf wistaria growing 
 in a pot. The man answers at once, " Two 
 dollars." " Two dollars ! " you answer in 
 surprise, " it is not worth more than thirty 
 or forty cents." " Seventy-five, then," he 
 will respond ; and thus the buyer and 
 seller approach nearer in price, until the 
 bargain is struck somewhere near the first 
 price offered. Price another plant and 
 there would be the same process to go over
 
 272 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 agiiiii ; but as the evening' passes, prices go 
 lower and lower, for the distances that the 
 phints 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 wares safely home again. 
 
 But beside the flower shows, there are 
 long rows of booths, which, with the many 
 visitors who throng the streets, make a gay 
 and lively scene. So dense is the crowd 
 that it is with difficulty one can push 
 through on foot or in jinriMsha. The 
 darkness is illuminated by torches, whose 
 weird flames flare and smoke in the wind, 
 and shine down upon the little sheds which 
 line both sides of the road, and contain 
 so tempting a display of cheap toys and 
 trinkets that not only the children, but 
 their elders, are attracted by them. Some 
 of the booths are devoted to dolls ; others 
 to toys of various kinds ; still others to 
 birds in cages, goldfish in globes, queer 
 chirping insects in wicker baskets, pretty 
 ornaments for the hair, fans, candies, and 
 cakes of all sorts, roasted beans and 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", jug-g-lery, edncated 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 last booth 
 is passed, and the quiet of neighboring 
 streets, lighted only by wandering lan- 
 terns, strikes the home-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 trifles bought, and the 
 little minds with the merry sights seen. 
 Nor arc those who remain at home forgot- 
 ten, but the pleasure seekers who visit the
 
 274 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 fair carry away with them little gifts for 
 each member of the family, and the mi- 
 age, or present given on the return, is a 
 regular institution of Japanese home life.^ 
 
 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 tnatsuri 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 bright- 
 colored tissue paper, are a frequent and ef- 
 
 1 O miage 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 accompiiniinent of these festivals, 
 aud 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, lofty platforms of 
 two stories, either set on wheels and drawn 
 by black bullocks or crowds of shouting 
 men, or carried by poles on men's shoul- 
 ders. Upon the fir^t 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 tlie men who draw it, but by 
 companies of others in some uniform cos- 
 tume; aud sometimes graceful professional
 
 27G JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 danciiig'-g'irls are hired to march in the 
 matsuri procession, or to dance upon the 
 lofty dashi. At the time of the festivities 
 which accompanied the promulgation of 
 the Constitution, three days of jollification 
 were held in Tokyo, days of such universal 
 fun and frolic that it will he known among 
 the common people, to all succeeding gen- 
 erations, as the " Emi)eror'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 shout- 
 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 ta 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 
 shojJ-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 JAFANJiSE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 attract gaping crowds, who watch and block 
 the street until the advance guard of some 
 approaching daalii 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 boorishness of manners ; while the 
 country people make fun of the fads and 
 fashions of the city, and rejoice that they 
 are not themselves the slaves of novelty, 
 and especially of the foreign innovations 
 that play so prominent a part in Japanese 
 city life to-day. " The frog in the well 
 knows not the great ocean," is the snub 
 with which the Japanese cockney sets down 
 Farmer Rice-Field's expressions of opinion ; 
 while the conservative countryman laughs 
 at the foreign affectations of the 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 won- 
 ders at the city, nevertheless, in Japan as 
 elsewhere, there is a constant crowding of
 
 LIFE IN THE CITIES 279 
 
 the young" 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 jwriMsha 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 affords, 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 u>ay support 
 themselves or their families. A good hair-
 
 280 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 dresser may make a handsome 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 tlie 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 proi)itious to the chang-e 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 hick of the family 
 as a whole, and the move a good one for 
 each member of it except one of the sons ; 
 the next year the same move would be bad 
 for the father. As the family could not 
 wait two years before moving, it was 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 young man 
 stayed as a visitor at his father's house lor 
 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 Sama of a
 
 LIFE IN THE CITIES. 283 
 
 house of high rank, who late in Hfe came 
 to Tokyo to live with her brother and his 
 young and somewhat foreignized wife. The 
 brother himself, while uot a Christian, had 
 little belief in tbe old superstitious of his 
 people ; his wife was a professing Chris- 
 tian. Soon after the old lady's arrival in 
 Tokyo, her sister- iu-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 throngh his means the causes 
 of the illness in the family. The fortune- 
 teller revealed to her the fact that two 
 occnlt 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 
 offering to it cakes and other meat-offer- 
 ings. The fortune-teller hinted, moreover, 
 that for a consideration he might be able 
 to afford material aid in the search for the 
 well. 
 
 At this information Go Inkyo 8ama was 
 much perturbed, for further aid for her 
 afflicted family seemed to require the use 
 of money, and of that commodity she had 
 very little, being mainly dependent upon 
 her brother for support. She returned to 
 her home and consulted the servants upon 
 the matter; but though they quite agreed 
 with her that something should be done, 
 they had little capital to invest in the 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 lu- 
 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Beside these caJlings, there are other 
 employinents 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 
 sa»Hisen-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 geishas one of the pleasantest of Jap- 
 anese enjoyments. Sometimes, in scarlet 
 and yellonv robes, the dainty maidens imi- 
 tate, with tbeir supple bodies, the dance of 
 the maple leaves as they are driven hither 
 and thither in the autumn wind ; some- 
 times, with tucked-up Icimonos and jannty 
 red petticoats, they play the part of little 
 country girls carrying tbeir 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 bewitcbed with 
 their grace and beauty, they descend to
 
 288 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 the supper-room and ply their temporary 
 employers with the saJce 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 mtfrals, 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 
 one 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 
 gdisha 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 
 present age, as shown in the chapter on 
 " Marriage and Divorce," and as seen in 
 the choice of such wives, has presented 
 this great problem to the thinking women 
 of Japan. If the wives of the leaders in 
 Japan are to come from among such a 
 class of women, something must be done, 
 and done quickly, for the sake of the future 
 of Japan ; either to raise the standards of 
 the men in regard to women, or to change 
 the old system of education for girls. A 
 liberal education, and more freedom in 
 early life for women, has been suggested, 
 and is now being tried, but the problem of 
 the geisha and her fascination is a deep 
 one in Japan. 
 
 Below the g(3isha in respectability stands 
 the joro, or licensed prostitute. Every
 
 290 JAPANESE GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 city in Japan has its disreputable quarter, 
 where the various j or oj/a, or licensed houses 
 of prostitution, are situated. The supervi- 
 sion that the government exercises over 
 these places is extremely rigid ; the effort 
 is made, by licensing and regulating them, 
 to minimize the evils that must flow from 
 them. The proprietors of the jon'ya do 
 everything in their power to make their 
 houses, grounds, and employees attractive, 
 and, to the unsuspecting foreigner, this 
 portion of the city seems often the pleas- 
 antest and most respectable. A joro need 
 never be taken for a respectable woman, 
 for her dress is distinctive, and a stay of 
 a short time in Japan is long enough to 
 teach even the most obtuse that the obi, or 
 sash, tied in front instead of behind, is one 
 of the badges of shame. But though the 
 occupation of the 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 
 
 tute with the loathing which she inspires 
 ill 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 agrents. 
 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 reg-ard to chastitv, but in a 
 country in which innocent romance has 
 little room for development, the imagina-
 
 292 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 tion must find its materials where it can. 
 These jordya 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 rules 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 GIELS 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 hanasliilca, 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 lianashiUa 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 boiits. Every tea-house along 
 the banks is full of guests, and the little 
 stalls and resting-places on the way find a
 
 29G JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 quick sale for fruit, confectionery, and liglit 
 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 Uydno Park for its cherry and 
 peach blossoms, Kameido for the plum and 
 wistaria, Oji for its famous maple-trees, 
 and many others, each noted for some spe- 
 cial beauty. Dango Zaka has its own pe- 
 culiar attraction, the famous chrysanthe- 
 mum dolls. These ing-enious fig'ures 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 fig-ures 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 ami 
 flowers bound together to make the flat 
 surface of differeut 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 fortuue 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 by an olKcioiis g-ate-keeper, who shouts out 
 the merits of his particuhir 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 liis arrival in Ja- 
 pan, the status of househokl servants is at 
 first a source of much perplexity. There 
 is a freedom in their relations with the 
 families that they serve, tliat 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 jinrikisha man or groom, 
 every servant in your establishment does 
 what is right in his own eyes, and after the 
 manner that he thinks best. Mere blind 
 obedience to orders is not regarded as a 
 virtue in a Japanese servant; he must do 
 his own thinking, and, if he cannot grasp 
 the reason for your order, that order will 
 not be carried out. Housekeeping in Japan 
 is frequently the despair of the thrifty
 
 300 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 Aniericiin 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 laboi; 
 of the hands. She begins by showing her 
 Oriental help the work to be done, and 
 just the way in which she is accustomed to 
 having it done at home, and the chances 
 are about one in a hundred that her servant 
 will carry out her instructions. In the 
 ninety-nine other cases, he will accomplish 
 the desired result, but by means totally 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 herself 
 out in a fruitless endeavor to make her 
 servants do things in her own way, and 
 will, when she returns to America, assure 
 you that Japanese servants are the most 
 idle, stupid, and altogether worthless lot 
 that it was ever her bad fortune to have 
 to do with. But on the other hand, if the 
 lady of the house is one who is willing to 
 give general orders, and then sit down and 
 wait until the work is done before criticis-
 
 DOMESTIC SERVICE. 301 
 
 ing it, she will fiutl tliut 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 g-ettins: 
 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- 
 tecting and 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 has 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 he is in the employment 
 of foreigners, for the simple reason that he 
 is apt to regard the foreigner as a species 
 of imbecile, who must be cared for tenderly 
 because he is quite incompetent to care for
 
 302 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 himself, but whose fancies must not he 
 too much regai'detl. Of the rehitions of 
 foreij^n 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 were 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 indeitendeutly 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 tics of 
 good-fellowship and sympathy would arise 
 between masters and servants, how a com-
 
 DOMESTIC SERVICE. 803 
 
 munity of interest would exist, so that the 
 good of the master and his family would be 
 the condition for the g-ood 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 
 migiit be of far better birth, than the iude-
 
 304 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 pendent uieicluint 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, sliould they see 
 any place where it is possible that they may 
 shed lig-ht on the subject discussed. But 
 though given this liberty of speech, treated 
 with much consideration, and having some- 
 times much respousibility, 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. 
 
 Ill explaining to my scholars, who were 
 reading "Little Lord Fauutleroy " in Eng- 
 lish, a passage where a footman is si)oken 
 of as having nearly disgraced himself by 
 laughing at some quaint saying of the young 
 lord, my little peeresses were amazed beyond 
 measure to learn that in Euro[)e 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 " g'irl." 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 he earned 
 render tolerahle. As has heen explained 
 in a previous chapter, the mistress of the 
 house — be she princess or peasant — is 
 herself the head servant, and only gives up 
 to her helpers the part of the labor which 
 she has not the time or strength to 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. 807 
 
 At evening, when the wooden shutters 
 are slid into their places around the porch 
 and the lamps are lighted, the family 
 gather together in the sitting-room around 
 the hibachi to talk, free from interruption, 
 for no visitor conies 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 anjuse 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 or a phrase 
 she has met in studying, and little helps of 
 this kind are given most willingly. 
 
 We have seen that the ladies-in-waiting 
 in the houses of the nobles are daughters 
 of samurai, who gladly serve in these posi- 
 tions for the sake of the honor of such 
 service, and the training they receive in 
 noble houses. In a somewhat similar way, 
 jdaces in the homes of those of distinction
 
 308 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 01* 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 hy 
 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 sufiiciently well-to-do to spend much 
 money in the education of their children. 
 The position that such boys occupy in 
 the household is a curious one. They are 
 called 8ho-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, aud 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 now in 
 their turn helping the younger generation. 
 
 The boys that one sees in shops, or, with 
 workmen of all kinds, helping in nuiiiy 
 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 him; for tlicy do not pay for their board 
 nor for what they are taught. Even when 
 the age of education is ah-eady past, g-rown 
 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 mauy as ten or more ser- 
 vants in a home where, in other ways, lux- 
 ury and wealth are not displayed. In the 
 olm, 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 jinriJiisha men, who be- 
 long to the house, and, if this be the home 
 of an official who keejjs 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 jjood 
 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 liavinj^ 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 hy 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 barg-aining" 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, aud
 
 DOMESTIC SERVICE. 313 
 
 good judgment ; for much is left in their 
 hands, and they are usually gentlemen, 
 who would be knowu as such anywhere. 
 They are the stewards of the household, 
 the secretaries of their masters ; keep all 
 accounts, for which they are responsible, 
 and attend to the minor affairs of etiquette, 
 — the latter no trifling duty in a noble's 
 home. It is they who accompany the 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 tjasliiki, 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 belon<;^ings 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 
 uuisters. They perform their round of du- 
 ties with little responsibility, and are re- 
 irarded as much lower in the social scale 
 of servants, of which we have seen there 
 are many degrees. 
 
 The little gozen-taJci, or rice-cook, who 
 w^orks 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 agony of 
 diffidence shonld it become necessary to 
 appear before master or mistress. 
 
 Some of the customs of the household, 
 in regard to servants, are quite striking to 
 a foreigner. When the master of the house 
 starts out each morning, besides the wife 
 and children who see him off, all the 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 kuruma is heard, and the shout of 
 the men, who call out " 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 mem- 
 bers, however, receiving a smaller share 
 of the attention than their ciders. 
 
 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 GIBLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 to her for the gift, and also asking her to 
 thank the giver. This, of course, is al- 
 ways (lone, for a gift to a servant is as 
 much of a favor to the mistress as a j^res- 
 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 a jinrilisha man or hetto, who may not 
 know how to do better ; for it is a veiy 
 rude way of leaving service. The high- 
 minded maid will proceed very differently. 
 A few days' leave of absence to visit home 
 will be asked and usually granted, for 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 ill 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 GIELS AND WOMEN. 
 
 tions 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 he so classed 
 by us, but which in Japan rank among 
 the trades. The jinrikisha 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 bettds, 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 betto is a rare phenomenon. The 
 jinnkisha men are, many of them, sons of 
 j>easants, 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 jinrUdsha man takes 
 great pride in his strength and speed. It 
 is' a point of honor with him to pull his
 
 320 JAPANESE GIBLS 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 Jcurumaya 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 jinriMsha, 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 jinriMsha 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 wayfiirers themselves in a fierce dash 
 throngh 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 hi- 
 ruma, passenger, or passenger's dog fall 
 upon his ears, he will drop the jinrikislia 
 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. Fie 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 there are different grades,
 
 322 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 SO there are jinrikisha men who seem i^* 
 have sunk so low in their calling that they 
 have lost all feeliuf^ of loyalty to their em- 
 ployer, and only care selfishly for the [)it- 
 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 sijinriMsha man is capable of. 
 
 If you employ one kurummja 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 you have 
 ridden miles and miles, by night and b^ 
 day, through rain and sleet and hottest 
 sunshine, behind a man who has used 
 every power of body and mind in your ser- 
 vice, you cannot but have a strong feeling 
 of affection toward him, and of pride in 
 him as well. It is something the feeling
 
 DOMESTIC SERVICE. 323 
 
 that one has for a good saddle-horse, hut 
 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 vour monosrrani 
 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 i)ast, and as the memories of my 
 life there grow dim, two figures stand out
 
 824 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 more and more boldly from the fading- 
 backg-round, — both, the figures of faithful 
 servants. One, YasaUn, the kurumaya, a 
 very Hercules, who could keep close to a 
 pair of coach horses through miles of city 
 streets, and who never suffered mortal jin- 
 riUsha 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, 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- 
 veloi)ed, 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 my thoughts. Her little, half- 
 shy, half-motherly ways toward her hig 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, — g-ave 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 hint of her thought. Jinrikisha
 
 326 JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOMEN. 
 
 men grumbled and gave out ; hotel-keepers 
 resented the presence of my dog, or pre- 
 sented extortionate bills ; but O Kaio's 
 good temper and tact never failed her. 
 Difficulties were smoothed away ; bills were 
 compromised and reduced; the dog slept 
 securely by my side on a red blanket in the 
 best rooms of the best hotels ; and 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 endeil. 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 Japauese, 13. 
 
 Amado, sliding wooden shutters, 
 used to inclose a Japanese 
 house at night, 123. 
 
 Audon, a standing lamp inclosed 
 in a paper case, 89. 
 
 An(5 San, 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. 
 
 Apjirentices, 309, 310. 
 
 Art in common things, 237-239. 
 
 Artisans, 235-239, 270. 
 
 Babyhood, 1-17 ; bathing, 10 ; 
 conditions of life, G, 7 ; dress, 
 6, 15 ; food, 10, 11 ; imperial 
 babies, 8, 9 ; learning to talk, 
 16 ; learning to walk, 13, 14 ; 
 of lower classes, 7 ; of middle 
 classes, 8 ; of nobility, 8 ; .skin 
 troubles, 11 ; teething, 12 ; tied 
 to the back, 7, 8, 12. 
 
 Baths, public, 10. 
 
 Beauty, Japanese standard of, 
 58 ; early loss of, 122. 
 
 Bu-be, a child's word for dress, 
 IG. 
 
 Betrothal, 60. 
 
 Betto, a groom or footman who 
 cares for the hor.se in the sta- 
 ble and runs alxiad of it in the 
 road, 02,71,311,310,319. 
 
 Birth, 1. 
 
 Breakfast, 89. 
 
 Buddhism, 108, 240; introduc- 
 tion of, 143-145. 
 
 Buddhist funeral, 131, 132. 
 
 Buddhist nuns, 155. 
 
 Castles, 151, 157, 169, 171, 173, 
 
 174, 185, 18(;, 192. 
 Chadai, literally "tea money," 
 
 the fee given at an inn, 251- 
 253. 
 
 Cherry blossoms, 28, 140, lOG, 
 176, 177, 191,295,290. 
 
 Childhood. See Girlhood. 
 
 Children, 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, lOS, 200, 207. 
 
 Chrysanthemum, l()(i, 29G-29S. 
 
 Civilization, new, 77. 
 
 Concubinage, 85, 111. 
 
 Confectionery, 140. 
 
 Confucius, 103, 108. 
 
 Constitution, promulgation of 
 the, 114, 270. 
 
 Corea, conquest of, 139-143. 
 
 Country and city, 278, 279. 
 
 Court, after conquest of Corea, 
 143 - 146 ; amusements, 145 ; 
 costumes, 140 ; in early tiraos, 
 138,139; ladies, 145, 148, 152- 
 154 ; life, 138-108 ; of dalmio, 
 171; of Shogmi, 170, 171; re- 
 moval to Tokyo, 150. 
 
 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, 109, 
 173 ; liis courts, 171 ; his daugh- 
 ters, 17.5, 177, 180, 182-184, 191, 
 192-195 ; his journeys to Ye- 
 do, 171-173 ; his retainers, 109, 
 171, 173, 175, 177-179,181, 1S3, 
 18,5, 180; his wife, 175, 177, 
 182, 192-195 ; seclusion of, 172- 
 174.
 
 330 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 DauciiiR, 3S, 287, 288. 
 
 Uiinciii!; girls. See Geisha. 
 
 Daiigo Zaka, 29G. 
 
 Dashi, a float used in festival 
 proces.sioiis, 275-278. 
 
 Decency, Japanese standard of, 
 255-2G0. 
 
 Deformity, caused by position in 
 sitting, 9. 
 
 Divorce, among lower classes, CG, 
 G9, 73 ; among higher classes, 
 6G, G8 ; right of, granted to 
 women, GG; right to children 
 in case of, 67, 105. 
 
 Dolls, feast of, 28-31. 
 
 Dress, baby, 0, 15 ; court, 145, 
 14G ; girl's, 15 ; in daimios' 
 houses, 187, 192 ; military, of 
 samurai women, 188 ; of lower 
 classes, 12G, 127, 128 ; of pil- 
 grims, 243 ; showmg age of 
 wearer, 119. 
 
 Education of girls, 37-56 ; diffi- 
 culties in new system, 52-5G ; 
 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. 
 
 Education of daimio's daughter, 
 177-180. 
 
 Embroidered robes, 95, 140, 188, 
 192. 
 
 Emperor, 111, 114, 134, 151-153, 
 155-157, 1G1,1G4-1GG, 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, 15G, 
 IGl, 1G9. 
 
 Empress, 88, 115, 140, 150-1G8. 
 
 Empress dowager, 152. 
 
 Engawa, the piazza that runs 
 about a Japanese house, 23. 
 
 Etiquette, cojrrt, 153; in daimios' 
 houses, 177-179 ; in the home, 
 19, 20 ; mstruction in, 4G, 47 ; 
 of leaving service, 31G, 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, 169. 
 
 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, 
 130 ; 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<5ta, 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, 155-1 G8. 
 Haru, Prince, 113, 152. 
 H(5imin, the class of farmers, 
 
 artisans, and merchants, 203, 
 
 228, 229. 
 Heimin, class characteristics of, 
 
 229-240. 
 Hibachi, a brazier for burning 
 
 charcoal, 30, 72, 13G, 307. 
 Hideyoshi. See Toyotomi. 
 Hmin, a class of paupers, 228. 
 Hiyei 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 who 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. 
 
 lyeniitsu, 171, 172. 
 
 lyiSyasu, 169. 
 
 "Japan Mail," 159. 
 Japanese language, 16, 40, 179. 
 Japanese literature, 147-150. 
 Jimmu Tenno, 138. 
 Juigu 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. 
 
 Kameido, 296. 
 
 Kakt-mono, a hanging scroU, 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. 
 
 Boiees, 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. 
 
 Kug<^, the court nobility, 155, 
 170. 
 
 Kura, a fireproof storehouse, 147, 
 171, 173. 
 
 Kuruma, a wheeled vehicle of 
 
 any kind, used as synonjrmoua 
 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, 
 02 ; registration, 65 ; to yoshii, 
 104 ; trousseau, 61. 
 
 Maruraagi, a style of arranging 
 the hair of married ladies, 119. 
 
 Matsuri, a festival, usually in 
 honor of some god, 274-278. 
 
 Meiji (Enlightened Rule), 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 maiiri, the presentation of 
 a child at the temple on the 
 thirtieth day after birth, 3-6. 
 
 Mochi, a kind of rice cake, 6, 24, 
 25,65. 
 
 Momotaro, 33. 
 
 Morality, standards of, 76. 
 
 Mother, her relation to children, 
 99-102. 
 
 Mother-in-law, 84, 87 ; O Kiku's, 
 74. 
 
 Mukojima, 191, 295. 
 
 Musical instruments, 41, 42. 
 
 Names, 3. 
 
 Nara, 247. 
 
 Nikko, 231, 245. 
 
 No, a pantomimic dance, 292, 293. 
 
 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. 
 
 O Ba San, grandmother, 124. 
 
 O Ba San, aunt, 124. 
 
 Obi, a girdle or sasli, GO. 
 
 Occupations of the blind, 42 ; of 
 the court, 143-150, 105, IGG; 
 of the daimios' ladies, ITS- 
 ISO ; of the Empress, 15G-1GG ; 
 of old people, 13(;, 120-122, 
 124-128 ; of old samurai wo- 
 men, 223, 224; of servants, 
 299, 304, 30C., 308-315, 318 ; of 
 women, 108-110, 85-103, 242- 
 25G, 279-292, 306, 318; of 
 young girls, 21-34, 38-47. 
 
 O Haru, 211-213. 
 
 Oislii, 198, 214. 
 
 Oji, 29G. 
 
 O Jo Sama, young lady, 20. 
 
 O kaeri, " Honorable return," a 
 greeting shouted by the atten- 
 diint, upon tlie 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, 240-201. 
 • 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', 
 G5 ; at betrothal, 60 ; at niiya 
 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 
 tliirtieth day after 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 18G8, 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 
 ]iis master and owes no alle- 
 giance to any daimio, 198, 213. 
 
 Sakaki, the Cleyera Japonica, 
 
 98. 
 Saki', wine made from rice, 22, 
 
 C3, 136, 290 ; vvliite, 29. 
 Sama, or San, an lionorific placed 
 
 after names, equivalent to 
 
 Mr., Mrs., or Miss, 20, 73, 124, 
 
 136, 232, 283, 284, 304. 
 Samisen, a musical instrument, 
 
 42, 127, 277, 286. 
 Samurai, the military class, 42, 
 
 75, 7G, 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, 
 
 103, 182. 
 Scliools, missionary, 56. 
 Self-possession of Japanese girls, 
 
 47. 
 Self-sacrifice, 214-219. 
 Sen, one hundredtli 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, tlie Vice- 
 roy, or so-called temporal ruler 
 of Japan under the feudal sys- 
 tem, 155, 109, 171, 173, 170, 
 185, ISO, 191, 194, 197, 208, 224, 
 231 - 234, 292 ; daughter of, 
 170, 194. 
 
 Shogunate, 155, 190, 192, 221, 222. 
 
 Shoji, sliding windows covered 
 with paper, 23, 71. 
 
 Shopping, 204-208. 
 
 Sho-sei, a student, 308. 
 
 Sillt-mosaic, 95, 19'2. 
 
 Silkworms, 95, 240. 
 
 Soroban, an abacus, 200-208. 
 
 Sumida River, 173, 295. 
 
 Tabi, a mitten-like sock, 13. 
 
 Ta ta, a baby's word for sock or 
 
 tabi, 10. 
 Taiko Sama. See Toyotomi. 
 Tea, 91, 92 ; ceremonial, 44, 136, 
 
 170. 
 Tea-gardens, 247. 
 Tea-houses, 250-255. 
 Teacliers' 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, preliensile, 15. 
 Toilet apparatus, 30. 
 Tokaido, 241. 
 Tokonoma, the raised alcove in 
 
 a Japanese room, 44. 
 Tokugawa, 29, 151, 155, 231. 
 Tokyo, 40, 09-71, 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 
 
 lionor 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 pareiits-iu-law, 84 ; 
 social relations, 91. 
 
 Woman's Cliristian Temperance 
 Union, 114. 
 
 Women, in the city, 279-298 ; 
 occupations of, 85-103, 108- 
 110, 242-250, 300, 318 ; position 
 of, 17-22, 35, 30, 57, 05-08, 7C>- 
 88, 90, 91,93,99-118,120-124, 
 132, 133, 139, 143, 145, 140, 148, 
 108, 189, 190,208,21(5-219,223- 
 227, 242-247,200, 201, 279, 292, 
 298, 300, 318 ; purity of, 210- 
 219. 
 Women, old, appearance of, 119, 
 122, 124, 120 ; examples of, 
 124, 12C)-129 ; in Japanese pic- 
 tures, 132. 
 
 Yamato Dak^, 215. 
 
 Yasaku, 324 ; marriage and di- 
 vorce of, 69. 
 
 Yase, 243, 244. 
 
 Yashiki, a dainiio's mansion and 
 grounds, 109, 171, 173, 311, 
 313. 
 
 Yedo. See Tokyo. 
 
 Yoshii, an adopted son, 104. 
 
 Yumoto, 245. 
 
 Zori, a straw sandal, 13.
 
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