Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customs Part 3

Thundering plaudits greet the hero of the occasion, who presently strolls about among the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude, attended by his 'coegi,'

or 'servant,' who collects the offerings with which they liberally reward his exertions. When money fails, articles of clothing are frequently bestowed--and sometimes too freely, as it is by no means unusual for both s.e.xes to half denude themselves at these exhibitions; and it is a favourite joke with the women to send their male friends to redeem the articles from the wrestler.

Although fencing is a military exercise, it is so commonly practised by the j.a.panese 'yaconinierie,' or 'soldiery,' who comprise a large portion of the population, and is entered into by them in so spirited a manner, that it deserves to be cla.s.sed as an amus.e.m.e.nt.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Yaconins fencing.]

The woodcut is a very faithful representation of yaconins fencing. The masks cover the whole of the head; and the arms, breast, and hips, are protected by cuira.s.s, petticoat, &c. of leather ribbed with bamboo.

The fencing sticks are of the same length as the 'obi-todee-auf-catana,' or 'great fighting-sword.' They are made of split canes, bound tightly together, and are used with both hands.

The j.a.panese fence well, and deliver their points with great precision, especially an awkward downward thrust at the breast.

They deliver their cuts and points with fierce guttural exclamations, which are peculiarly disagreeable to European ears; especially when the listener is located in the vicinity of a guard-house, whose occupants notify their employment at daybreak with such cries as 'Hie-e! Ah-h! Atturah-h!' ('That's at! that's into you!') and continue this information, accompanied by the clashing of their sticks, and occasional chuckles, until late in the afternoon.

The j.a.panese are great frequenters of the theatres, of the interior of one of which the ill.u.s.tration is a very good representation--the exterior is generally very like that of the temples; and in some, the ground-floor is laid out with miniature lakes and bridges, the audience looking down on the performance from lateral and opposite galleries.

The stage is a little smaller than ours, but sometimes has a promenade through the centre of the theatre, which facilitates by-play, to which the j.a.panese attach great importance. The body of the house is divided into boxes, which are generally taken by family parties, who bring their provisions with them and remain all day, as the performances begin about 10 A.M. and last until late in the evening. Their plays are very tedious, although enlivened by a good deal of smart _repartee_ and telling jokes, but the morality even of the most correct is very questionable. Love, of course, is the prevailing feature; and the adventures of the princ.i.p.al heroes contain enough bloodshed and murder to satisfy the most ardent admirer of sensation dramas. In their hand-to-hand encounters they cut and slash at one another with naked swords, which they manage very skilfully, never permitting the blades to come into contact. The female parts are performed by boys and young men, who, with the a.s.sistance of paint and powder, make admirable subst.i.tutes for women, though singing and dancing-girls are frequently introduced as divertiss.e.m.e.nts.

[Ill.u.s.tration: INTERIOR OF A THEATRE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Getting ready to go to the Theatre.]

Kite-flying is also a favourite amus.e.m.e.nt; and old age and childhood may frequently be seen side-by-side, tugging at soaring monsters, in the construction of which great ingenuity is displayed.

The j.a.panese often play with cards, which are about a quarter of the size of ours; and they are much given to gambling, although it is strictly prohibited, and, when detected, severely punished. But the most popular in-door game is & sort of combination of draughts and chess, which frequently engrosses the players for hours at a time.

CHAPTER VIII.

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.

Crimes against property are rare in j.a.pan, which is owing to the high-spirited and honourable feelings that actuate all cla.s.ses of the community; but from the feudal nature of the government, the small value attached to life, and the deadly weapons constantly carried, by the military cla.s.ses, who are notoriously proud and revengeful, crimes against the person are very frequent.

A great check upon criminal offences is the severity of the punishments inflicted, and the disgrace entailed upon the culprit's family.

Although the laws are extremely severe, and in their administration there is neither jury nor counsel, justice is delivered with great impartiality; and the judge, who is generally the governor of the town or district in which the offence has been committed, is entrusted with considerable discretionary power.

When a prisoner is being examined his arms are bound to his sides by a rope, which also pa.s.ses round his neck, the end of which is held by an official, who, if his charge prove unruly, manages him by pulls and jerks.

'Thrashemono,' or 'public exposure,' is a.s.sociated with all j.a.panese punishments, and is said to be in itself a great preventive of crime, as the spirited j.a.panese dread being held up to the reprobation of their acquaintance more than they fear the extreme penalty of the law.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MODE OF CONDUCTING A CRIMINAL TO EXECUTION.]

The ill.u.s.tration, showing the mode of conducting a criminal to execution, is an instance of 'thrashemono.' The culprit is bound on a horse, and is preceded by a placard, borne by his relatives or neighbours, and indicating his crime. In this manner he is conducted through the town to the place of execution, where his sentence is read to him. He is then placed (with his limbs still bound) over a freshly-dug hole, where he is supported by his relatives till the executioner's sword performs its task.

After execution, the heads of malefactors are generally exposed: that of Simono Sedgi (the lonin who was decapitated in the presence of the British garrison of Yokohama, for being the organizer of the a.s.sa.s.sination of Major Baldwin and Lieutenant Bird of Her Majesty's 20th Regiment) was exhibited on the public stand at the guard-house at the entrance of the town.

This man was a fair specimen of the lonin type, and was a most determined ruffian, whose whole life had been a career of crime.

When exposed in the streets of Yokohama the day preceding his execution, he conducted himself with great bravado, remarking on the improvements in the town since he last visited it, and expressing his regret that he had not killed a consul.

At the place of execution he made an impa.s.sioned speech, in which he declared that he was a gentleman by birth, and had studied the arts and sciences, and never believed the government would sacrifice a j.a.panese for the death of a foreigner. He said that the days would come when they would repent the encouragement they were now giving to strangers; and ended by complimenting the executioner on his well-known skill.

The lonin differs from the ordinary criminal, and is thus ably described by the highest authority on j.a.panese matters:[4]--

'As a n.o.ble or head of a house is responsible for all who are of his family, or claim his protection, when any of his people are resolved upon a desperate enterprise they formally renounce the protection and declare themselves "lonins;"--in other words, outlaws, or friendless men: after which no one is responsible for their acts, and this is considered a highly honourable and proper thing to do.

[Footnote 4: Sir Rutherford Alc.o.c.k. See 'Capital of the Tyc.o.o.n.']

The worst of this system is, that any one harbouring or a.s.sisting a lonin endangers his head; and such men are, therefore, compelled to resort to robbery and extortion as means of supporting themselves. It generally happens that this legalised method of taking the law into their own hands drives those who avail themselves of it into a series of crimes, and frequently they become the a.s.sociates of common thieves.

Of the gang represented in the ill.u.s.tration as robbing a rich merchant's house, one or two probably are lonins, the rest being thieves in disguise.

The servants, kowtowing before two men, whose naked swords plainly intimate the consequences of any attempt to give alarm, or to offer resistance to their demands, have apparently been collecting all the money in the house and are laying it before the thieves. The oblong boxes are iron safes, in which the j.a.panese keep their money.

From the position of the other members of the gang, it is evident that they have not got all they require, and are watching something going on in the interior of the house. They have probably learnt that the merchant has to forward some money for the purchase of goods by a certain date, and know exactly how much to expect.

In the spring of 1865 the Tyc.o.o.n, in levying a tax on the Yeddo merchants, congratulated them on the fact that the portion of the country under his immediate control was exempt from the depredations of lonins; but notwithstanding this statement, a robbery of the nature described took place in the capital immediately after the issue of the Tyc.o.o.n's manifesto, and a lonin concerned in it gave as an excuse for his conduct, that he had learnt that the money was intended for foreigners, who were settled in the country in opposition to the laws of Gongen Sama, which had never been revoked.

With such dread are these men regarded by the non-combatant cla.s.ses, that it frequently happens that one or two will go into a village and extort what they require without the slightest resistance being offered.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONINS, OR OUTLAWS, ROBBING A RICH MERCHANT'S HOUSE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXPOSURE FOR INFIDELITY.]

As a rule, j.a.panese punishments resemble those inflicted by the Chinese, and seem to be based on the Mosaic principle of 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Arson, for instance, is punished at the stake; and a thief who endeavours to conceal the results of his robberies by burying them, has the disadvantages of that mode of concealment impressed upon him, by being himself embedded for a day or two in the ground, with only his head out--a mode of instruction that rarely requires a repet.i.tion of the lesson.

_Apropos_ of this punishment is the testimony of an eye-witness, who, in pa.s.sing the public execution place at Yeddo, noticed a head on the ground, which he supposed to have been recently struck off. He had turned away with a shudder, when a laugh from the bystanders caused him to look again, when, to his great astonishment, the head was vigorously puffing at a pipe which the facetious executioner had a few moments before been smoking himself.

The last ill.u.s.tration shows a man and woman undergoing public exposure for adultery--a crime which is rare in j.a.pan and which is punished with great severity.

With such detestation is it regarded, that, in addition to all legal cognizance, the husband is permitted, in certain instances, to avenge himself by taking the lives of the offenders upon the spot.

The board on the right contains the official intimation of the crime.

The curious instruments depicted in the woodcut are j.a.panese emblems of justice and are to be seen at all the guard-houses; they are used to catch runaway offenders or to pin a drunken yaconin against a wall or house, and so facilitate the task of disarming him without danger to the captors.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sodingarami, Satsumata, and Squobo.]

Although the j.a.panese use torture to extract information from obstinate criminals, they employ all necessary caution to preserve life; and a doctor and responsible officer are always present when it is employed, as representatives of the respective claims of humanity and justice. A singular punishment, to which only the n.o.bles of the country are liable, is secret banishment to the island of Fatzisiu, which is situated on the northern coast of the empire. It is small and barren, rising perpendicularly from the sea. The only communication with it is by means of a basket, which is lowered from an overhanging tree to the water, a distance of about fifty feet.[5] From this island there is no return, and the unhappy, incarcerated n.o.bles, are compelled to support themselves by weaving silks, which are the most beautiful the country produces. A junk visits the island once a-year, when the silks are exchanged for provisions.

[Footnote 5: In 1853 an English man-of-war visited this island, and two of the officers were hoisted up in the basket for the purpose of taking sights. One of them, who was my informant, describes it as a walled-in barren island, with no other mode of ingress or egress than that described.]