The Critic in the Orient Part 3

The j.a.panese sampan, as well as other boats, is never painted, but it is always scrubbed clean. The sampan has a sharp bow and a wide, square stern, and navigators say it will live in a sea which would swamp the ordinary Whitehall boat of our water-front. The j.a.panese oar is long and looks unwieldy, being spliced together in the middle. It is balanced on a short wooden peg on the gunwale and the oarsman works it like a sweep, standing up and bending over it at each stroke. The result is a sculling motion, which carries the boat forward very rapidly. In no j.a.panese harbor do the big steamships come up to the wharf. They drop anchor in the harbor, and they are always surrounded by small sampans, the owners of which are eager to take pa.s.sengers ash.o.r.e for about twenty-five cents each. All cargo is taken aboard by lighters or unloaded in the same way.

These lighters hold as much as a railroad freight car.

The fishing boats of j.a.pan add much to the picturesqueness of all the harbors, as they have sails arranged in narrow strips laced to bamboo poles, and they may be drawn up and lowered like the curtains in an American shop window. Whether square or triangular, these sails have a graceful appearance and they are handled far more easily than ours.

The j.a.panese carpenter, who draws his plane as well as his saw toward himself, appears to work in an awkward and ungainly way, but he does as fine work as the American cabinet-maker. The beauty of the interior woodwork of even the houses of the poorer cla.s.ses is a constant marvel to the tourist. Nothing is ever painted about the j.a.panese house, so the fineness of the grain of the wood is revealed as well as the exquisite polish. A specialty of the j.a.panese carpenter is lattice-work for the windows and grill-work for doors. These add very much to the beauty of unpretentious houses.

In conclusion it may be said that j.a.pan offers the lover of the beautiful an unlimited opportunity to gratify his aesthetic senses. In city or country he cannot fail to find on every hand artistic things that appeal powerfully to his sense of beauty. Whether in an ancient temple or a new home for a poor village artisan, he will see the results of the same instinctive sense of the beautiful and the harmonious. The lines are always lines of grace, and the colors are always those which blend and gratify the eye.

WILL THE j.a.pANESE RETAIN THEIR GOOD TRAITS?

Any thoughtful visitor to j.a.pan must be impressed with the problems that confront j.a.pan to-day, owing to the influence of foreign thought and customs. This influence is the more to be dreaded because the j.a.panese are so impressionable and so p.r.o.ne to accept anything which they are convinced is superior to their own. They have very little of the Chinese pa.s.sion for what has been made sacred by long usage. They have high regard for their ancestors, but very little reverence for their customs and opinions. This lack of veneration is shown in striking fashion by those j.a.panese students who come to this country to gain an education.

These young men are as eager as the ancient Athenians for any new thing, and when they return to their old homes each is a center of Occidental influence. This is frequently not for the best interests of their countrymen, who have not had their own opportunities of observation and comparison.

The qualities in which the j.a.panese excel are the very qualities in which so many Americans are deficient. Personal courage and loyalty are the traits which Professor Scherer, a distinguished expert, regards as the fundamental traits of the j.a.panese character. That these qualities have not been weakened materially was shown in the recent war with Russia. In that tremendous struggle was demonstrated the power of a small nation, in which everyone--men, women and children--were united in a pa.s.sionate devotion to their country. No similar spectacle was ever shown in modern history. The men who went cheerfully to certain death before Port Arthur revealed no higher loyalty than the wives at home who committed suicide that their husbands might not be called upon to choose between personal devotion to their family and absolute loyalty to the nation. The foreign correspondents, who were on two-hundred-and-three-metre hill before Port Arthur, have told of the j.a.panese soldiers in the ranks who tied ropes to their feet in order that their comrades might pull their bodies back into the trenches. All those who were drafted to make the a.s.saults on the Russian works in that awful series of encounters (which make the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava seem cheap and theatrical) knew they were going to certain death. Yet these foreign observers have left on record that the only sentiment among those who remained in the trenches was envy that they had not been so fortunate as to be selected to show this supreme loyalty to their country. General Nogi, who recently committed suicide with his wife on the day of the funeral of the late Emperor, had two sons dash to this certain death on the bloodstained hill before Port Arthur. As commander, he could have a.s.signed them to less dangerous positions, but it probably never entered his head to shield his own flesh and blood. And the same loyalty that is shown to country is also proved in the relation of servant to master. The story of the Forty-seven Ronins is too well known to need repet.i.tion, but the loyalty of these retainers (who slew the man that caused their lord's death, although they knew that this deed called for their immediate end by their own hands) impresses one with new force when he stands before the tombs of these men in the j.a.panese capital and sees the profound reverence in which they are still held by the people of j.a.pan.

What puzzles the foreign observer is: Will this pa.s.sionate loyalty of servant to master survive the spectacle of the ingrat.i.tude and self-interest which the j.a.panese see in the relation of master and servant in most Christian countries? The whole tendency of life in other countries than his own is against this loyalty, which has been bred in his very marrow. How long, without the mainstay of religion, will the j.a.panese cling to this outworn but beautiful relic of his old life? And it must be confessed that religion is rapidly losing its hold on the men of j.a.pan. Those who have been abroad are apt to return home freethinkers, because the spectacle of the practical working of Christianity is not conducive to faith among so shrewd a people as the j.a.panese. Even the example of the foreigners in j.a.pan is an influence that the missionaries regard as prejudicial to Christianity.

Another trait of the j.a.panese which will not be improved by contact with foreigners, and especially with Americans, is thoroughness. This trait is seen on every hand in j.a.pan. Nothing is built in a slovenly way, whether for private use or for the government. The artisan never scamps his work. He seems to have retained the old mechanic's pride in doing everything well which he sets his hand to do. This is seen in the carving of many works of art, as well as in the building of the ornamental gateways throughout the empire, that stand as monuments to the aesthetic sense of the people. Yet the whole influence of foreign teaching and example is against this thoroughness that is ingrained in the j.a.panese character. The young people cannot fail to see that it does not pay their elders to expend so much time and effort to gain perfection, when their foreign rivals secure apparently equal if not superior results by quick and careless work. It is upon these j.a.panese children that the future of the empire depends. They are sure to be infected by these object lessons in the gospel of selfish and careless work, which the labor union leaders in our country have preached until it has been accepted by the great ma.s.s of mechanics.

Another racial quality of the j.a.panese, which is likely to suffer from contact with foreigners, is his politeness. This is innate and not acquired; it does not owe any of its force to selfish considerations.

The traveler in j.a.pan is amazed to see this politeness among all cla.s.ses, just as he sees the artistic impulse flowering among the children of rough toilers in the fields. And again the question arises: Will the j.a.panese retain this attractive trait when they come into more intimate contact with the foreigner, who believes in courtesy mainly as a business a.s.set rather than as a social virtue?

So, in summing up one's impressions of j.a.pan, there comes this inevitable doubt of the permanence of the fine qualities which make the j.a.panese nation to-day so distinct from any other. The j.a.panese may differ from all other races in their power of resisting the corrupting influences of foreign a.s.sociation, but it is to be feared that the visitor to the Mikado's land fifty years from now may not only find no Mikado, but none of the peculiarly gracious qualities in the j.a.panese people which to-day set them apart from all other nations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE I

Street Scene, Asakusa Park, Tokyo. This Picture Gives a Good Idea of j.a.panese Street Dress of Men and Women. The Park Contains a Twelve-Story Tower, Two Hundred and Twenty Feet in Height]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE II

Entrance Hall and Stairway of Modern Home of a Tokyo Millionaire.

Note the Priceless Screens With Cherry-Blossom Decoration, the Bronze Stair Railings and the Inlaid Floor]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE III

Bronze Lanterns and Sacred Fountain, Shiba Temple, Tokyo. These Temples in Shiba Park Are Among the Marvels of j.a.panese Art]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IV

Sacred Red Bridge at Nikko. Legend Says It Was Built for the Saint Shodo Shonin. No One Crossed It Except the Shoguns and in Modern Times the Mikado. General Grant Was Given a Permit to Cross This Bridge, but Sensibly Refused to Use It]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE V

Avenue of Cryptomeria to Futaaru Temple, Nikko.

This Picture Gives a Good Idea of the Effectiveness of the Tori or Gate, of Black or Red Lacquer or Natural Wood, Which Stands at the Entrance to Most Parks and Temples]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VI

Avenue of Cryptomeria Trees, near Nikko.

This Splendid Avenue, Lined with Huge Cedar Trees from One Hundred and Fifty to Two Hundred Feet in Height, Extends for Five Miles from Nikko to Imaichi]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VII

Great Bronze Torii, Nikko.

These Torii or Gates Form the Most Characteristic Feature of j.a.panese Landscapes. They Are Always of the Same Pattern But Infinite in Variety of Decoration]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE VIII

Stone Lanterns, Kasuga Temple Park, Nara.

A Remarkable Collection of Lanterns Which Line the Avenue Leading to the Temple. In This Park Many Tame Deer Wander, Their Horns Being Cut Once a Year in October]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE IX

Religious Procession, Kyoto.

This Gives a Good Idea of a Familiar Sight in all j.a.panese Cities. Many of the Standards Carried in These Processions are Very Beautiful, With Silk Streamers of Many Colors]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE X

Scene on Ca.n.a.l, Kyoto.

None of the Houses That Line This Ca.n.a.l Are Elaborate, But All Have Balconies Adorned With Dwarf Trees and Plants in Pots of Many Colors. This Is One of the Most Picturesque Scenes in All j.a.pan]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XI

Street Scene in Kobe.

This View Shows the Low Two-Story Houses, With Overhanging Balconies, the Enormous Gilded Signs and the Absence of All Horses in the Street.

This Street Scene Is Typical of All j.a.panese Cities]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XII

A Group of j.a.panese Schoolboys. These Faces, Full of Life and Mischief, Are Typical of Young j.a.pan. About the Only Faces in j.a.pan Free From Lines of Care Are Those of School Children. When Over Sixteen the Face of the j.a.panese Becomes a Mask Which Conceals All Emotions]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XIII

j.a.panese Peasant Group by the Roadside.

These Country People Show Keen Curiosity in Regard to the Foreign Tourist but They Are Always Courteous]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XIV

Scene in Large Private Garden, Kyoto. This Old Capital of j.a.pan Is Noted for Its Many Beautiful Gardens, With Ponds Well Stocked With Goldfish and Crossed by Miniature Bridges]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XV

Iris Bed at Horikiri, near Tokyo. This Flower Resort is the Scene of Many Pilgrimages in June When the Irises Are in Full Bloom]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLATE XVI

Private Garden, Kamakura.

This Gives a Good Idea of the Arrangement of a j.a.panese Garden. To the Influence of the Garden is Ascribed the j.a.panese Love of the Beautiful in Nature and Art]