Japanese Girls and Women Part 11

An interesting story which throws some light upon the new influence that is at work among the Buddhists came to me not long ago through a j.a.panese friend. There were two brothers living in a poor little village on the northern coast of j.a.pan, who were joint heirs to a small piece of property. As the land was not enough for the support of two families, the elder brother, a gentle, thoughtful youth, gave up all t.i.tle to his share of the inheritance and entered a Buddhist monastery. In the quiet of this retreat, amid the beautiful surroundings, the daily services, the chanting of priests, and the mellow booming of the great monastery bell, his thoughts went out to the poor and the sinful among his own people. He began to feel that a life which seeks merely spiritual uplift for itself is not the highest life, and that only as spiritual gain is shared with others is it real and lasting. Forthwith he began a life of helpfulness to the poor about him,--of teaching and preaching and good deeds that won him many humble friends. Within the monastery, however, his work was not approved. His ideas and actions were not in harmony with the teachings of the sect. He was first disciplined and then expelled, and found his way back at last, penniless, to his native village.

Now, in northern j.a.pan the winters are long and hard, and the most industrious of farmers and fisher-folk can wring only a bare subsistence from the conditions of their toil. It is from these villages, perhaps, more than from any other sources, that the girls are obtained to supply the _joroya_ of the great cities. At any rate, in this particular village, the only hope that any girl possessed of escaping from the hard home toil was by the sale of her person, and the thought of seeing the great cities, of wearing beautiful dresses, of being admired and petted, and perhaps at last of marrying some rich lover and becoming a great lady, was a tempting bait to these poor peasant girls. To this young man, whose soul had been awakened to a new sensitiveness during his absence, the full horror of the conditions that could so warp and dwarf the souls of women appealed as it had never done before. He must do something to help them, but what to do his previous experience did not help him to know. He sought for aid and sympathy in his native place, among his friends and co-religionists; but the state of affairs was too old and too familiar to excite interest, and at last he worked his way to the capital, feeling that somewhere in that great city he would find light on the question that perplexed him. It was a mere question of ways and means--how to begin a work which he felt driven from within to do.

In Tokyo, as he inquired among his friends, he was told that Christians knew all about the kind of work that he wished to begin, that he must go to them and study their methods, if he would help the people of his native village. So the devout young Buddhist, who had found in his own faith the divine impulse, turned to the study of what Christians had done and were doing for the unfortunate. The story is not finished yet.

We cannot tell whether in the end it will result in another addition to the ranks of the j.a.panese Christians, or whether it will aid in the quickening that has come to Buddhism, but, whatever way it ends, it shows in a concrete example what Christianity is now doing for j.a.pan, and especially for the women of the country.

APPENDIX.

_The following Notes refer to pa.s.sages marked by asterisks in the foregoing pages._

_Page 3._

The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much importance as it is with us. In some families the boys are called by names indicating their position in the family, the words _Taro_, "Big one," _Jiro_, "Second one," _Saburo_, "Third one," _Shiro_, "Fourth one," _Goro_, "Fifth one," etc., being used alone, or placed after adjectives indicating some quality that it is hoped the child may possess. Such combinations are, _Eitaro_, "Glorious big one," _Seijiro_, "Pure second one," _Tomisaburo_, "Rich third one," and so on.

_Page 4._

To speak with greater exactness, the _miya mairi_ of a boy is on the thirty-first day of his life,--of a girl, on the thirty-third.

_Page 8._

Tokyo just now shows a tendency to change this national custom. Gayly painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in large quant.i.ties in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters of the lower cla.s.ses, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon instead of wearing it on the back, as formerly. These carriages are, of course, the exception, and may prove to be but a pa.s.sing Tokyo fashion, but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of j.a.pan, and may prove of value in the physical development of the common people.

_Page 11._

In the Tokyo of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in evidence, as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few foreigners and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a mile or so in the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the princ.i.p.al business streets in a purely j.a.panese section of the city, shows five meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with golf-stockings and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts everywhere through the city, and call at a large proportion of the houses. Condensed milk, too, is to be found on the shelves of every provision store, together with canned and dried meats, and the restaurants where foreign food is served are distributed throughout the entire city, and do a thriving business on j.a.panese patronage. The less extravagant country people declare that Tokyo is "eating itself up," but so far no terrible increase of indebtedness seems to follow the change in the standard of living. It is interesting to note that the scalp troubles referred to on page 11 seem to have greatly lessened in the last ten years, whether because of the change in the food or for other reasons, I cannot determine.

_Page 24._

Twice, after the _miya mairi_ of her babyhood, does our little maid repair to the temple to seek the blessing of her patron G.o.d upon a step forward in her short life: once, when at the age of three, the hair on her small head, which until then has been shaved in fancy patterns, is allowed to begin its growth toward the coiffure of womanhood; and once, when she has attained her seventh year, and exchanges the soft, narrow sash of infancy for the stiff, wide _obi_ which is the pride of every well-dressed j.a.panese woman. Her little brother, too, though now no longer destined to wear the hammer-shaped queue of the old-time j.a.panese warrior, and whose fuzzy black head is now usually left unshaven in his babyhood, still goes to the temple at the age of three to give thanks, and when he comes to be five years old, the little boy again goes up to the temple, this time wearing for the first time the manly _hakama_, or kilt-pleated trousers, and makes offerings to the G.o.d who has protected him thus far.

The day set for these ceremonies is the 15th of November, and there is no prettier sight in all j.a.pan than a popular temple on that day. All the streets that converge on the shrine are crowded with gayly dressed children hurrying along to make their offerings, accompanied by parents br.i.m.m.i.n.g with pride and pleasure.

"Small feet are pattering, wooden shoes clattering, Little hands clapping, and little tongues chattering:"

three-year-old tots of both s.e.xes trudging st.u.r.dily along on their clogs: square little red-cheeked boys, their black eyes shining with pride in their rustling new silk _hakama_, feeling that they are big boys and no longer to be confused with the babies that they were yesterday: here, too, are the graceful seven-year-old maidens, their many-colored garments and their gorgeous new _obi_ setting off to advantage their shining black hair and sparkling eyes. The children are so many, so happy, and so impressed with the fun that it is to be older than they were, that the grown folks who accompany them seem like shadows; the only real thing is the children.

Within the temple precincts all the candy-sellers and toy-merchants who can find standing-room for a stall are doing a brisk trade. Flags are flying, drums are beating, a _kagura_ dance is going on in the pavilion, about which stands a crowd of youngsters twittering like sparrows, and the steps that lead to the temple itself are as thronged as Jacob's ladder with little ones ascending and descending. Within the shrine the white-robed priests are hard at work from morning to night. A little company forms in the vestibule, goes to the priest in the first room, where they bow and make their offerings, and wait until there is s.p.a.ce for them in the inner sanctuary. From within comes the sound of a droning chant, which ends at last, and then a party that has finished its worship issues forth, and those who have been waiting without go in; and when the few minutes of worship are over, and the amulet that rewards the due observance of the day has been received, there are the dances to be seen, and the _o miyage_ to be purchased, and at last the happy party returns, feeling that one more milestone on the journey of life has been pa.s.sed propitiously.

_Page 30._

The _shirozake_ (white _sake_) used for this occasion is a curious drink, thick and white, made from pounded rice, and brewed especially for this feast. Some antiquarians believe that it is simply the earliest form of _sake_, the national beverage, which has been preserved in this ancient observance as the fly is preserved in amber.

_Page 31._

The keeping of a feast on the third day of the third month is a custom that has come down from very ancient times. At first the day was set apart for the purification of the people, and a part of the ceremony was the rubbing of the body with bits of white paper, roughly cut into the semblance of a white-robed priest. These paper dolls were believed to take away the sins of the year. When they had been used for purification, they were inscribed with the s.e.x and birth-year of the user and thrown into the river. The third month was also, in early times, the season for c.o.c.k-fighting among the men, and for doll-playing among the women. The special name by which the dolls of the Doll Feast are called is _O Hina Sama_. Now _hina_ in modern j.a.panese means a chicken or other young bird, and is never used to mean anything else except the dolls; thus the dolls are shown to be a.s.sociated with the ancient c.o.c.k-fighting, an amus.e.m.e.nt which has now almost gone out, except in the province of Tosa on the island of Shikoku.

The oldest dolls did not represent the Emperor and Empress, but simply a man and a woman, and were modeled closely after the old white paper dolls of the religious ceremony. When the Tokugawa Shoguns had firmly established their splendid court at Yedo, a decree was issued designating the five feast days upon which the daimios were to present themselves at the Shogun's palace and offer their congratulations. One of the days thus appointed was the third day of the third month. It is believed that the giving of the chief place at the feast to effigies of the Emperor and Empress was a part of the policy of the Shogunate,--a policy which aimed to keep alive the spirit of loyalty to the throne, while at the same time the occupant of the throne remained a puppet in the hands of his vice-gerent.

Each girl born into a family has a pair of _O Hina Sama_ placed for her upon the red-covered shelf, on the first Feast of Dolls that comes after her birth. When, as a bride, she goes to her husband's house, she carries the dolls with her, and the first feast after her marriage she observes with special ceremonies. Until she has a daughter old enough to carry out the observance, she must keep up the ceremony. The feast, as it exists to-day, is said by the j.a.panese to serve three purposes: it makes the children of both s.e.xes loyal to the imperial family, it interests the girls in housekeeping, and it trains them in ceremonial etiquette.

_Page 40._

Because of the complexity of the Chinese language and the time needed for its mastery, there has been a movement to lessen the study of pure Chinese in the government schools, or abolish it altogether, and with this to simplify the use of the ideographs in the Sinico-j.a.panese. The educational department is requiring that text-books be limited in their use of ideographs; that those used be written in only one way and that the simplest, and that the _kana_ (the j.a.panese syllabary) be subst.i.tuted wherever possible. Several plans for reform in this matter are being agitated, one of which is to limit the use of ideographs to nouns and verbs only.

_Page 41._

No one who has been in j.a.pan can have failed to notice the peculiarly strident quality of the j.a.panese voice in singing, a quality that is gained by professional singers through much labor and actual physical suffering. That this is not a natural characteristic of the j.a.panese voice is shown by the fact that in speaking, the voices, both of children and adults, are low and sweet. It seems to me to be brought about by the pursuit of a wrong musical ideal, or at least, of a musical ideal quite distinct from that of the Western world. In j.a.pan one seldom finds singing birds kept in cages, but instead crickets, gra.s.shoppers, katydids, and other noisy members of the insect family may be seen exposed for sale in the daintiest of cages any summer night in the Tokyo streets. These insects delight the ears of the j.a.panese with their melody, and it seems to me that the voices of singers throughout the empire are modeled after the shrill, rattling chirp of the insect, rather than after the fuller notes of the bird's song.

The introduction of European music by the schools and churches has already begun to show in the songs of the children in the streets, and where ten years ago one might live in Tokyo for a year, and never hear a note of music except the semi-musical cries of the workmen, when they are pulling or striking in concert, now there are few days when some strain of song from some pa.s.sing school-child does not come in at the window of one's house in any quarter of the city. The progress made in catching foreign ideas of time and tune is quite surprising, but the singing will never be acceptable to the foreign ear until the voice is modulated according to the foreign standards.

_Page 45._

It is said by j.a.panese versed in the most refined ways that a woman who has learned the tea ceremony thoroughly is easily known by her superior bearing and manner on all occasions.

_Page 49._

Whatever plant she begins with is taken up in a series of studies,--leaves, flowers, roots, and stalks being shown in every possible position and combination,--until not only the stroke is mastered, but the plant is thoroughly known. In the book that lies before me as I write, a book used as a copy-book by a young lady beginning the practice of the art, the teacher has devoted six large pages to studies of one small and simple flower and the pupil has covered hundreds of sheets of paper with efforts to imitate the designs.

She has now finished that part of the course, and can, at a moment's notice, reproduce with just the right strokes any of the designs or any part of the plant. The next step forward will be a similar series of bamboo.

_Page 52._

In the government schools for girls, much attention is paid just now to physical culture. The gymnastic exercises rank with the Chinese and English and mathematics as important parts of the course, and the girls are encouraged to spend their recesses out-of-doors, engaging in all kinds of athletic sports. Races, ball games, tugs-of-war, marches, and quadrilles are entered into with zest and enjoyment, and the girls in their dark red _hakama_ are as well able to move quickly and freely as girls of the same age in America. If it were not for the queer pigeon-toed gait, acquired by years of walking in narrow _kimono_ and on high clogs, the j.a.panese girls would be fully abreast of the American in all these sports. So strongly has the idea of the necessity for physical strength seized upon the nation, that a girl of delicate physique has less chance of marriage than one who is robust and strong.

_Page 55._

It is in the mistakes and failures made in adapting the education given in the schools to the exact conditions that present themselves in the constantly changing j.a.pan of to-day, that the opponents of all alteration in the education of women find their strongest arguments. The conservatives point with scorn to this girl whose new ideas have led her into folly or trouble, or to that one whose health has been broken down by the adverse conditions surrounding her student life, and say, "This will be the case with all our women if we continue this insane practice of educating them along new lines." Advance in female education, as in all other lines of progress in j.a.pan, is a series of violent actions and reactions. In 1889, partly through ill-advised conduct on the part of supporters of the cause, one of the most serious reverses that has come in the progress of Western education for women began to show itself. The reaction was helped along by a paper read before some of the most influential men of j.a.pan, and subsequently reported and discussed in the newspapers, by a German professor in the medical department of the imperial University in Tokyo. The paper was a serious warning to the men of the country that no women could be good wives, mothers, and housekeepers and at the same time have undergone a thorough literary education. The arguments were reinforced by statistics showing that American college women either did not marry, or that if they married they had very few children. All j.a.pan took fright at this alarming showing, and for several years the education of girls in anything more than the primary studies was not encouraged by the government. The lowest depth of this reaction was reached during or soon after the j.a.pan-China war, when the growth of national vanity resulted in a temporary disdain for all foreign ideas. The tide has turned again now, girls' schools that have been closed for years are being reopened, young men who are thinking of marrying are looking for educated wives, and among the women themselves there is a strong desire for self-improvement. Under this impulse a new generation of educated women will be added to those already exerting an influence in the country, and it is to be hoped that the forward movement will be more difficult to set back when the next reactionary wave strikes the j.a.panese coast.

_Page 60._

The _obi_ is supposed to express by its length the hope that the marriage may be an enduring one. Among the more modernized j.a.panese a ring is now often given in place of, or, in the wealthier cla.s.ses, in addition to the _obi_.