The Empire Of The East Part 8

The discharged prisoner in j.a.pan, as in other countries, finds a difficulty in obtaining employment, and several societies similar to those in existence here have been established with a view of a.s.sisting discharged prisoners. I have not sufficient information to enable me to say what measure of success these societies have achieved. In a country like j.a.pan, which is endeavouring to perfect all her inst.i.tutions, I hope that the discharged prisoner problem will be solved otherwise than by philanthropic societies. The criminal who has completed his sentence ought to be deemed to have purged his offence, and has a right to return to the community and obtain work until, if ever, he again misconducts himself.

I hope my few remarks on the subject of the means taken in j.a.pan to maintain law and order will tend to convince my readers that in every detail of her administration j.a.pan has shown a capacity for adapting what is good in foreign nations and moulding it for her own purposes.

The foreign community in j.a.pan has long since got over its state of panic in regard to the danger of suing and being sued in j.a.panese courts, and the possibility of being an inmate of a j.a.panese gaol. The years that have elapsed since the treaties were revised have demonstrated clearly that, if anything, extra consideration is shown to the foreigner in all the details of the administration of the law in j.a.pan. I remarked at the beginning of this chapter that the supremacy of the law and the maintenance of order are matters of supreme importance in every civilised country. j.a.pan has recognised this fact, and she has acted upon the recognition thereof with most admirable results.

CHAPTER XVI

LITERATURE AND THE DRAMA

The literature of j.a.pan is a somewhat recondite subject, while the j.a.panese drama is at present, like many other things in the country, to a great extent in a state of transition. Still, some remarks on these two matters are, I consider, absolutely essential in order that my readers may form some idea of two important phases of j.a.panese life. The literature of j.a.pan is indeed largely mixed up with the national life through many centuries--a reflection, in fact, of it.

The late Sir Edwin Arnold, whose great authority on everything connected with j.a.pan is generally admitted, has observed in reference to the literature of that country: "The time will come when j.a.pan, safe, famous, and glad with the promise of peaceful years to follow and to reward this present period of life and death conflict, will engage once again the attraction of the Western nations on the side of her artistic and intellectual gifts. Already in this part of the globe persons of culture have become well aware how high and subtle is her artistic genius; and by and by it will be discovered that there are real treasures to be found in her literature. Moreover, England, beyond any other European country, is likely to be attracted to this branch, at present naturally neglected, of what may be called the spiritual side of j.a.panese life."

The drawback to the fulfilment of the somewhat optimistic forecast of Sir Edwin Arnold is the great difficulty experienced by the Western nations in acquiring a sufficient knowledge of the language in which the treasures of j.a.panese literature are embedded if not entombed. No man can ever grasp the beauties of a literature, and especially an Oriental literature, through the medium of a translation, however well done. A translation is like a diamond with the brilliancy removed, if we can imagine such a thing. It may be faultlessly correct in its rendering, and yet absolutely misleading in its interpretation of the original.

j.a.panese literature embraces poetry, history, fiction, books of ceremony and travel, as well as many works of an ethical nature.

Poetry is supposed to have reached its most brilliant period in j.a.pan a long way back--long even before Geoffrey Chaucer took up his pen to write those immortal lines which I fear but comparatively few Englishmen now read. In reference to this poetry of twelve hundred years ago, Mr. Aston--perhaps the greatest authority on the subject--remarks: "While the eighth century has left us little or no prose literature of importance, it was emphatically the golden age of poetry. j.a.pan has now outgrown the artless effusions described in the preceding chapter, and during this period produced a body of verse of an excellence which has never since been surpa.s.sed. The reader who expects to find this poetry of a nation just emerging from the barbaric stage of culture characterised by rude, untutored vigour, will be surprised to learn that, on the contrary, it is distinguished by polish rather than power. It is delicate in sentiment and refined in language, and displays exquisite skill of phrase with a careful adherence to certain canons of composition of its own."

I confess my knowledge of the language is insufficient to enable me to read j.a.pan's literary treasures in the original, and as I have remarked, no man through the medium of a translation can adequately form a correct opinion respecting any description of foreign literature. I fear, however, that modern j.a.pan is as little concerned with its eighth-century poetry as the modern Englishman is with that of Chaucer, not to speak of those great poets, most of whom are now forgotten, who lived long before Chaucer and whose verses were not only read but sung throughout the length and breadth of the land.

In a much later period of the history of the country, literature was undoubtedly greatly in vogue. There was evolved what I may term a distinct literary cla.s.s, the language and literature of China were diligently studied, and very much of the literature of this time is written in Chinese. That language, indeed, seems to have been at one period regarded in j.a.pan very much as Latin was, and in some quarters is even still, regarded in Europe as the appropriate medium for expressing the most sublime thoughts of the brightest intellects. The fiction of this period, usually termed the Heian--and there is plenty of it still in existence--was for the most part written by women, so that it will be seen the female novelist is not, as some persons appear to imagine, a comparatively modern development. After the twelfth century--and most of the literature I have referred to is anterior to that--petty wars between the feudal princes appear to have been incessant, and the whole country was for a great number of years more concerned with fighting than with literature. History or historical romance seems to have been the favourite literary exercitation during this period. A good deal of the literature thereof is still, I understand, read in j.a.pan, especially by its youth, for whom the stirring episodes embodied in the history and historical romances of these bellicose times seem to have an especial fascination.

The Tokugawa period, covering the 270 years during which the Government of the Tyc.o.o.n was installed in Yeddo, was one during which literature made great progress in j.a.pan. Those years were a time of profound peace; the country was cut off from the rest of the world, thrown in upon itself, and accordingly had ample leisure, and possibly much inclination, to develop its artistic side, especially in literature. The study of books was prevalent everywhere, and quite a band of teachers arose in the land whose mission it was to expound its ancient literature, and exhume for public edification and delectation many of the buried literary treasures of the past. These teachers were not content with mere oral description; they wrote what would now be termed treatises or commentaries, many of which show great depth of learning, by way of expounding and explaining the cla.s.sics of j.a.pan with a view of bringing them within the ken of the great ma.s.s of the people. This period (the Tokugawa) also had its works of fiction; it produced many dramas and, I believe, some, if not much, poetry. The romances of this time are, I am told, written princ.i.p.ally for or down to the level of the common people. The cla.s.sics of j.a.pan were, and probably still are, like the cla.s.sics of Greece and Rome in respect of the ma.s.s of the people of this country, not understood, and most likely were they, would not be appreciated. And hence in the Tokugawa period what I may term the popular writer was evolved, and he turned out, under a _nom-de-plume_ for the most part, books for the lower orders. These works are now regarded as somewhat vulgar, but they are in many respects a mirror of the age in which they were written, and it is doubtful if they are much coa.r.s.er in style than some of the novels published in England in the eighteenth century. Vulgarity, it must be remembered, is largely a matter of opinion, and because either the j.a.panese of to-day or the foreigner who has perused, perhaps in a translation, this fiction of a couple of centuries back, dubs it according to the opinion of to-day vulgar, it by no means follows that it was so considered in j.a.pan two hundred years back.

Since the Revolution of 1868 it is doubtful if j.a.pan has produced any distinctive literature. The whole country and all the national modes of thought have been in a state of transition, a condition of unrest--circ.u.mstances not conducive to the production of cla.s.sical literature; moreover, literary ideas and conceptions have changed and are still changing--changing rapidly. The development of a powerful newspaper press must have a marked and far-reaching effect on j.a.panese literature. So also must the study of Western literature by the educated cla.s.ses--a study which is both extensive and increasing.

j.a.panese literature is now undoubtedly in the melting-pot, so to speak, and what will be the precise result it is impossible to determine. It must be confessed that the modern j.a.panese who has been educated according to Western methods, and is adequately acquainted with the languages and literature of Europe, is infrequently an admirer of the peculiar literature of his own country. Possibly it suffers by comparison. j.a.pan has produced no Dante, or Shakespeare, or Milton. The moods of her people, and probably the limitations and peculiarities of the language, have prevented the possibility of the appearance of such divine geniuses. There is, its critics declare, an absence of sustained power and sublimity in j.a.panese literature generally, while the didactic and philosophical, if not altogether lacking, is extremely rare therein. But it seems to me the height of absurdity to compare the literature of a country like j.a.pan with the literature of some other land where everything is, and always has been, essentially different. To properly comprehend, and probably to be able to appreciate j.a.panese literature, it would be necessary to get, so to speak, into the atmosphere in which it was produced. To judge it by twentieth-century standards and canons of criticism and from European standpoints is not only unfair but must create a totally false impression.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A LABOUR OF LOVE FROM A PRINT BY TOSHIKATA]

In every country which has attained any degree of civilisation, and even in some countries whose civilisation is still imperfect, the drama has played an important part, and j.a.pan has been no exception to the rule. Its dramatic literature is, I believe, of considerable extent, and to understand, much less appreciate it properly would require very profound study. Many of the more or less ancient dramas are works not only containing the dialogue of the play but much descriptive matter. They were, as a matter of fact, written for theatres in which there were to be not actors but marionettes, singers being engaged to sing the lines out of sight while the puppets depicted the characters. Some of these dramas have, since they were written, been adapted for the ordinary stage and the characters portrayed by j.a.pan's most famous actors. The theatre was long looked down upon and it is only of comparatively recent years that it has been looking up. A large number of persons in this country still appear to be under the impression that there are no actresses on the j.a.panese stage. This is, of course, a mistake, caused no doubt by the fact that in j.a.panese theatres the female characters in a play are so often impersonated by men. Some two or three centuries back actors and actresses used, as in Europe, to play in the same piece, but this was for some reason or other interdicted, and ever since there have been companies composed of men and women respectively. In the male companies some of the female parts naturally fell to men and in the female companies the male parts were of necessity depicted by women.

Of recent years the tendency is to revert to the ancient practice and to come into line with the custom of European countries in this matter, and ere long, no doubt in j.a.panese theatres the female characters will be taken by women and the male characters by men.

The theatre has always been a popular inst.i.tution in j.a.pan, and the pieces usually played have very much the same _motif_ as the dramas formerly so popular in this country--the discomfiture of the villain and the triumph of virtue. The j.a.panese theatre does not appeal to the ordinary European visitor, or indeed to many Europeans living in the country. In the first place, the performance is too long for the European taste, and in the next, most j.a.panese plays are of one kind, and concerned with one period--the feudal. There is, moreover, a plethora of by-play--sword exercise and acrobatic performances--which have nothing whatever to do with the plot of the piece. In fact, irrelevancy appears to the European the chief characteristic of what he sees on the stage of a j.a.panese theatre. Nor does the play, as is usual in serious dramas in this country, revolve round one character, the hero or heroine. Indeed it is not always easy to earmark, so to speak, the leading character, and it is occasionally doubtful in many j.a.panese plays whether there is any hero or heroine. But the same remark may be made here as in reference to the literature of the country. It is probably essential to get into the j.a.panese atmosphere in order to properly appreciate a j.a.panese play. The drama in j.a.pan at any rate serves, and so far as I have had an opportunity of forming an opinion in the matter, serves well, its purpose to interest and amuse the frequenters of the theatres, besides which the lessons it inculcates are for the most part of a moral nature.

The high art of the j.a.panese theatre is represented by the "No," which I suppose fills much the same position as does the Italian opera in this country. The "No" is, I believe, very ancient. The written text is sung; there is a princ.i.p.al and a secondary character and a chorus.

The dialogue is as ancient, some critics say as archaic, as the time in which the play was written, and I understand it requires being educated up to it in order to fully appreciate the "No." The ordinary j.a.panese would probably just as much fail to comprehend or like it as would the Englishman from Mile End, were he taken to Covent Garden, and invited to go into raptures over one of Mozart's or Meyerbeer's masterpieces. A performance of the "No" would probably interest those who find excitement in a representation of "Oedipus Tyrannus," or some Greek play. Still, the "No" is appreciated by a large number of the intellectual cla.s.ses in j.a.pan, who find an interest in the representation of this j.a.panese opera, as I suppose it may be termed.

As I have already said, very much the same remarks made in reference to the literature of j.a.pan apply to its drama. That country is still in the transition stage, and both its drama and its literature will undoubtedly be profoundly modified in future years. Western literature and Western dramatic art have already exercised considerable influence, and there are movements on foot whose object is to replace the old ideas and methods, especially in the matter of the representation of dramatic works by those which obtain in Europe and America. Whether these movements will be successful or not remains to be seen. There is certainly a large body of public opinion not only opposed but antagonistic to them. In spite of the rapid development of j.a.pan in recent years, there is a very strong conservative party in the country--a party which, though it recognises or acquiesces in the desirability of change in many directions, is not prepared to throw overboard everything because it is old. I sincerely hope that the distinctive literature and dramatic art of the country will not be allowed to die out. j.a.pan cannot afford to forget the past with its influences on the national life and character, influences at work for many ages which have a.s.suredly had a material effect in elevating her to the position she at present occupies.

CHAPTER XVII

NEWSPAPERS IN j.a.pAN

j.a.pan having taken on most of the characteristics and some of the idiosyncracies of Western civilisation, has naturally developed a newspaper press of its own. Of course newspapers in j.a.pan are no new thing. Mr. k.u.moto, editor of the _j.a.pan Times_, claims for j.a.panese journalism an origin as far back as the early part of the seventeenth century. "Long before," he remarks, "our doors of seclusion were forced open by the impatient nations of the West, our ancestors had found a device by which they kept themselves in touch with current events and news. The news-sheets of those days were roughly got up, being printed from wooden blocks hastily purchased for each issue.

They were meagre in news, uncouth in form, and quite irregular in appearance, there being no fixed date for publication. Neither were they issued by any particular and fixed publisher. Anybody could issue them, and at any time they pleased. These sheets were called Yomuri, which, being translated, means 'sold by hawking.'" These ancient newspapers had, however, palpably nothing in common with modern journalism, and anything in the shape of criticism or comment, or any attempt to guide or mould public opinion was, of course, not to be found therein. He would have been a bold man at the beginning of the seventeenth century, or indeed very much later, who would have ventured to print and publish anything tending to influence public opinion, or having the appearance of being a criticism on those in authority.

We may take it that for all practical purposes the rise of the native newspaper press of j.a.pan did not take place till some time after the Revolution of 1868. If its rise has been recent its progress has certainly been rapid. There can be no question that both the rise and development of the vernacular press has been largely influenced by English journalism. There have always, since the opening of the country, been English newspapers in j.a.pan, and very admirable newspapers too. One or more Englishmen have started papers printed in j.a.panese, and although these ventures were not commercially successful, they, at any rate, showed the way for j.a.panese journalism.

Mr. k.u.moto in his very interesting remarks published in Stead's "j.a.pan and the j.a.panese," gives an amusing ill.u.s.tration of the somewhat amateur business lines on which the native j.a.panese newspapers were at first produced. He quotes the following notice which appeared in one of them: "The editors note with satisfaction the growing prosperity of their venture, and notify their subscribers that in view of the increased labour and trouble entailed on them by their increasing circulation, the gracious subscribers will kindly spare them the trouble by sending for their copies instead of having them delivered to them as before." There has certainly been a remarkable development in the j.a.panese newspaper press since this somewhat jejune announcement was published. Tokio at the present time possesses about forty daily newspapers, and there is hardly a town in the country of any importance that has not one or two papers of its own. There are now more than a thousand magazines and newspapers of various kinds published in the country--a number which yearly increases, and is certain to increase in the near future to a very much greater extent.

But besides newspapers, j.a.pan possesses news agencies on somewhat similar lines to those that exist in this country, whose function it is to supply the press with the latest news on every matter of public and, I am afraid, sometimes of merely private importance. Whether these news agencies perform useful functions either in this country or in j.a.pan, is a matter upon which I shall express no opinion. News acquired in a hurry in compet.i.tion with other agencies which exist for a similar purpose, and purveyed to journals printed in a hurry and read in a hurry, does not often allow of discrimination being exercised in regard to its circulation. The sensational element in the native press in j.a.pan is quite as much in evidence as in that of this country. In regard to this kind of literary fare, the appet.i.te increases with feeding, if I may vary an old French proverb, and the sensational journals of the j.a.panese capital are increasing in demand from every part of the country.

As to the part which the press of j.a.pan exercises in moulding public opinion, I confess I have not formed any clear idea; indeed, it is one upon which it is difficult to come to any conclusion. How far the press there moulds, and how far it follows public opinion is somewhat problematical. Be that as it may, many of the native papers are vigorously and effectively written, and indeed many eminent men in j.a.pan have been either directly or indirectly connected with the press. The newspapers of j.a.pan differ in this respect from those of this country--that there is a press law there, and newspapers are in theory, at any rate, somewhat more hampered in their criticisms and the publication of news than is the case here. This press law seems to have irritated the English more than the vernacular press of j.a.pan, especially during the late war. Under the provisions of the law, a warning is always given to an offending newspaper before any official action is taken. The English journals in j.a.pan have, perhaps not unnaturally, not so far been able to divest themselves of the idea that they have still extra-territorial rights, and are consequently justified in publishing any criticisms or news irrespective of the provisions of the press law.

Newspapers in j.a.pan do not of course attain such large circulations as some of those in England. I do not think there is any paper in the country with a circulation exceeding 100,000, and there are only one or two which reach anything like that figure. Advertising in j.a.pan in papers has not attained the same importance as in this country. Of course all the journals, whether daily or weekly, have a large number of advertis.e.m.e.nts, but the non-advertis.e.m.e.nt portion of the paper forms a greater portion of the whole than is the case here. It may interest some of my readers to know that poetry which has long been tabooed by the press of this country is still a feature in that of j.a.pan, and that the novel "to be continued in our next," is also served up for the delectation of j.a.panese readers.

A free press in a free country is no doubt an admirable inst.i.tution, but it has its disadvantages. I need not enumerate them, as my readers probably know them as well as I do myself. Indeed, both in England and America of late years we have had plenty of object-lessons, were any needed, in regard to these disadvantages. "The yellow press" is a phrase which has now come into general use to denote the certain kind of journalism which lives and thrives by pandering to the desire that so many persons in this world have for morbid sensationalism and the publication of nauseating and shocking details. People who have appet.i.tes of this kind are in need of having them perennially gratified, and accordingly it naturally comes about that the conductors of journals such as I have referred to, if they cannot provide a sufficient quant.i.ty of sensationalism true or partly true, have either to invent it or exaggerate some perhaps innocent or innocuous incident. I am sorry to say that yellow journalism is not only not unknown in j.a.pan, but is apparently in a very flourishing condition there. I regret the fact all the more because the people of j.a.pan are not yet sufficiently educated or enlightened to receive what they read in the newspaper in a sceptical spirit. That educational and enlightening process is only effected by a long course of newspaper reading. Even in this country we can remember the time when any statement was implicitly believed because it was "in the papers." Now some other and better evidence of the truth of any report is needed than the publication thereof in a newspaper. Young j.a.pan will no doubt ere long a.s.similate this fact, and when it does the yellow press of j.a.pan will probably find its _clientele_ a diminishing quant.i.ty. I hope my readers will not deduce from these remarks that I entertain, on the whole, a poor opinion of the native press of j.a.pan. Considering the difficulties it has had to contend with, I consider that the progress it has made during the comparatively few years it has been in existence is as wonderful as anything in the country. And I am furthermore of opinion that the influence it exercises is, on the whole, a healthy one. It has done a great work in the education of the ma.s.s of the j.a.panese people in the direction of taking a broader view of life and teaching them that there is a world outside their own particular locality and beyond their own country. And while referring to the newspaper press I may also give a meed of praise to the large number of journals and magazines of a literary, scientific, and religious nature. The effect of these ably conducted periodicals as an educational influence must be immense. The number of them is gradually growing, and the support rendered to them serves to show, were any proof needed, how profoundly interested the j.a.pan of to-day is in all those questions, whether political, scientific, religious, or literary, which are not the possession of or the subject of discussion among any particular nation but are exercising the minds and consciences of the civilised world.

One pleasing feature of the native press of j.a.pan I cannot help referring to, and that is the friendly sentiments which it almost invariably expresses in regard to Great Britain. As I have before remarked, it was this country which in some degree influenced at first the j.a.panese press. I am pleased that of late at any rate, since the somewhat heated agitation in reference to the revision of the treaties has come to an end, its tone has been almost universally friendly to this country, and its approval of the alliance between j.a.pan and Great Britain was not only unanimous but enthusiastic.

The English newspapers in j.a.pan are still, as they have always been, ably conducted journals. Captain Brinkley, the editor of one of them, is a great authority on everything connected with j.a.pan, and the paper he edits is worthy of all that is best in English journalism. At the same time it is hardly necessary to remark that the English press in j.a.pan exercises little or no influence outside the immediate circle it represents. It very naturally looks at everything, or almost everything, not from the point of view of the j.a.panese but from that of the foreigner in j.a.pan. It may be truthfully averred of the foreign press that, considered as a whole, it has never done anything or attempted to do anything to break down the barriers caused by racial differences. The European press in j.a.pan has in tone always been distinctly anti-j.a.panese, and the sentiments which it has expressed and the vigorous, not to say violent, language in which those sentiments have been expressed has undoubtedly in the past occasioned much bitterness of feeling among the j.a.panese people or that portion of it which either read or heard of those sentiments. The characteristics or idiosyncracies of the people of j.a.pan were either exaggerated or misrepresented, and there were not unnaturally reprisals quite as vigorous in the native newspapers. During the war with China, for example, the att.i.tude of the European press was exasperating to a degree--that is, exasperating to the j.a.panese people. There were journals which avowedly took the part of China and expressed a desire for China's success. The victories of j.a.pan in the course of the war were sneered at and at first belittled.

Subsequently, when the success of j.a.pan was self-evident, it was suggested by some of these newspapers that she was suffering from swelled head and was in need of being put in her place and kept there.

And, accordingly, when certain of the European Powers stepped in and deprived j.a.pan of the fruits of her victories, the action of those Powers was applauded, and the undoubted sympathy of the English people in England with j.a.pan in the matter was derided by English editors in j.a.pan as mere maudlin sentimentality. Language of this kind occasioned deep resentment among the people of the country. The foreign press is now, I am glad to say, saner, inasmuch as it to some extent recognises facts and the trend of events, but I fear it even still is for the most part representative of a community which regards the j.a.panese from the standpoint that most Europeans in the Far East regard the Eastern races with whom they are brought in contact. The position of the English papers in j.a.pan has, I should say, been considerably affected of recent years by the development of the vernacular press.

Twenty-five years or so ago they were practically the only organs that voiced public opinion of any kind in the country. Now they only voice the opinion of a section of the foreign community. A reference to a quarter of a century ago brings up memories of a gentleman connected to some extent with the newspaper press in j.a.pan of those days. I refer to the late Mr. Wergman, who owned and edited and filled--I am not quite certain he did not print--that somewhat extraordinary journal, the Yokohama _Punch_. It appeared at uncertain intervals, and it dealt both in print and ill.u.s.tration with various members of the foreign community in Yokohama and its neighbourhood with a vigour and freedom, not to say licence, which would now hardly be tolerated. Its proprietor is long since dead, and so I believe is the journal which he owned and whose fitful appearances used to create such a mild excitement among the foreign community in Yokohama.

The functions of the press as a mirror of the times, as a censor of men and things, and as a guide and a leader of public opinion are of considerable importance. As I have before remarked the press of j.a.pan is at present if not in its infancy at any rate in its youth. It is accordingly ebullient, energetic, optimistic. Time will no doubt correct many of its failings. Be that as it may, I certainly am of opinion that, considering everything, it has attained a wonderful degree of development, that it has reached a position of great importance in the country as an educational and enlightening influence, and that all who wish well to j.a.pan may look upon its future with hope. It will no doubt play an important part as the years roll by in the development of the country and in the holding up before the people of worthy ideals in reference to economic conditions, material progress, and the conservation of the prestige and security of the j.a.panese Empire.

CHAPTER XVIII

j.a.pANESE MORALITY

In the Preface I remarked that j.a.panese morality was a th.o.r.n.y subject.

I use the word morality in its now generally accepted rather than in its absolutely correct meaning. Morality, strictly speaking, is the practice of moral duties apart from religion or doctrine; it treats of actions as being right or wrong--is, in brief, ethics. The old "morality" play, for example, was not, as some people seem to suppose, especially concerned with the relations of the s.e.xes; it was a drama in which allegorical representations of all the virtues and vices were introduced as _dramatis personae_. However, words, like everything else in this world, change their meaning, and, though the dictionary interpretation of morality is, as I have stated it, colloquially at any rate, the word has now come for the most part to signify s.e.xual conduct, and it is in that sense, as I have said, I use it.

The subject of the morality of the j.a.panese is one that has been much discussed for many years past, and accordingly is one in regard to which it may be urged that there is little or nothing more to be said.

I am not of that opinion. In the first place, much of the discussion has been simply the mere a.s.sertions of men, or sometimes of women, who either did not have the opportunity, or else had not the inclination, to investigate matters for themselves, and were therefore largely dependent on the hearsay evidence of not always unprejudiced persons. Or they sometimes jumped to very p.r.o.nounced and erroneous conclusions from extremely imperfect observation or information. Let me take as an example in point, a lady, now dead, who wrote many charming books of travel--the late Mrs. Bishop, better known as Miss Bird. In her journeyings through the country Miss Bird relates in "Unbeaten Tracks in j.a.pan," that she pa.s.sed through a wide street in which the houses were large and handsome and open in front. Their highly polished floors and pa.s.sages, she remarks, looked like still water, the kakemonos, or wall pictures, on their side-walls were extremely beautiful, and their mats were very fine and white. There were large gardens at the back with fountains and flowers, and streams, crossed by light stone bridges, sometimes flowed through the houses. The lady, who was on the look-out for a resting-place, not unnaturally expressed a desire to put up at one of these delightful sylvan retreats, but her native attendant informed her that was impossible, as they were kas.h.i.tsukeyas, or tea-houses of a disreputable character. Miss Bird, on the strength of this information, thought it inc.u.mbent upon herself to p.r.o.nounce the somewhat sweeping judgment that "there is much even on the surface to indicate vices which degrade and enslave the manhood of j.a.pan." Such a statement is, of course, the merest clap-trap, but even were it true, it might be permissible to remark that if vice exists it is surely better for it to be on than beneath the surface. Such vice as does exist in j.a.pan is, in my opinion, distinctly on the surface, and I have no hesitation in describing the morals of the j.a.panese people to be, on the whole, greatly superior to those of Western nations.

There can, I think, be no question that a large number of European people have formed their estimate of j.a.panese women either from a visit to a comic opera such as "The Geisha," or from a perusal of a book like Pierre Loti's fascinating work, "Madame Chrysantheme." This is in effect the story of a _liaison_ between a man and a j.a.panese girl of the lower cla.s.ses, with, of course, a large amount of local colouring, and rendered generally charming by the writer's brilliant literary style. Unfortunately, that large number of Europeans who have never visited j.a.pan have taken the French academician's study of a girl of a certain cla.s.s as a life picture of the typical j.a.panese woman who is, accordingly, deemed to be more or less, to use an accepted euphemism, a person of easy virtue. Nothing could, of course, be more erroneous, no conclusion further from the truth. The remarks of Mr. Arthur Diosy in his book, "The New Far East," on this head are so much to the point in reference to the utter misconception of even many visitors to j.a.pan in the matter of the chast.i.ty of the average j.a.panese women that I venture to transcribe them: "Has it not been repeated to him (the globe-trotter) that these people have no conception of virtue or of modesty? So he frequently treats the maids at the inn, the charming human humming-birds who wait upon him at the tea-house, and the Geisha summoned to entertain him, with a cavalier familiarity that would infallibly lead to his summary expulsion from any well-regulated hotel or public-house, or other places of public entertainment at home, did he dare to show such want of respect to a chambermaid or to one of the haughty fair ones serving at a bar. He means no harm in nine cases out of ten; he has been told that j.a.panese girls don't mind what you say to them, and as to the tea-house girls, well, they are no better than they should be ... but they are good little women, as capable of guarding their virtue as any in the world, and it saddens one to think how often they endure, from a feeling of consideration for the foreigner who does not know any better, they pityingly think, cavalier treatment they would not submit to from a j.a.panese."

Having said so much I feel I am free to admit that a somewhat different standard of morality does obtain in j.a.pan to that which exists, or is supposed to exist, among Occidental nations. After all, morality is to some extent a matter of convention, and a people must, I suggest, be judged rather by the way in which it lives up to its standard than by the standard itself, which among some Western nations is not always strictly observed. The whole subject of morality between the s.e.xes is one upon which a portly volume might be written. The s.e.xual relations have been affected by many circ.u.mstances, some of them entirely conventional and having little or nothing to do with morality as such, while poetry and romance and sentiment have been allowed to complicate, and still render difficult a dispa.s.sionate consideration of the whole matter. Macaulay in one of his essays has observed that "the moral principle of a woman is frequently more impaired by a single lapse from virtue than that of a man by twenty years of intrigue." He explains this seeming paradox by a.s.serting that "a vice sanctioned by the general opinion is merely a vice, while a vice condemned by the general opinion produces a pernicious effect on the whole character." "One," says Macaulay, "is a local malady, the other is a const.i.tutional taint." I have quoted the famous historian in this connection because his observations are, I think, ill.u.s.trative of my contention, viz., that morality is largely a matter of convention, sanctioned or condemned by what Macaulay terms "the general opinion."

I frankly admit that prost.i.tution has never been regarded in j.a.pan as it is, or is affected to be, in this and other European countries. In ancient days the public women of the capital and the large towns were as famous as in Athens of old, and were regarded as amongst the best educated and best mannered of their s.e.x. The j.a.panese have ever looked upon prost.i.tution as what is termed a necessary evil, and they have always sought to regulate and supervise it with a view of obviating those evils, terrible in their consequences, which are frequently the result of permitting it to go unchecked. And accordingly the Yoshiwara has long been a recognised inst.i.tution in every considerable town in the country, the Yoshiwara being that particular portion of the town in which prost.i.tutes are alone permitted to reside. There is, so far as I know, no prost.i.tution outside the Yoshiwara, and the inmates thereof are subject to a rigorous supervision and inspection, medical and otherwise, which has produced excellent results. The inmates of the Yoshiwara are not recruited as are the similar cla.s.s in the West.

Here the "unfortunate" usually plies her trade as a _dernier ressort_.

In a moment of temptation she has "gone wrong," as the phrase goes, the fact becomes public, she is too often cold-shouldered and hustled even by her immediate relations, and her downward progress is swift and certain. Nor is there for her, except in rare cases, any chance of rehabilitation. She is too hopeless to exclaim "Resurgam!" and if in an optimistic frame of mind she did so purpose she would find the consummation difficult if not impossible. She is, in a word, on the way to irretrievable ruin and a shameful end, and she knows it.

Such is, as I have said, not the case in j.a.pan. The lot of the prost.i.tute there has never been regarded with the loathing which it excites in this country. Houses of ill-fame were, and are still, recruited not from those whose previous lapse from virtue has rendered no other mode of livelihood possible than that from immorality, but by those whom stern necessity has driven to the step as a means either of supporting themselves or of a.s.sisting parents or their near relatives.

Such a sacrifice--a terrible sacrifice, I admit--has in j.a.pan never been regarded with horror, but as in a sense laudable. The finger of scorn must not be pointed at a woman who has voluntarily sacrificed what women hold most dear, not from l.u.s.t or from the desire of leading a gay life or pampering or adorning the body, but perhaps to save father or kin from ruin or starvation. The Yoshiwara has, of course, other recruits, but in the main its inmates are not the victims of l.u.s.t but of self-sacrifice. There is too often a whole tragedy in the story of a j.a.panese girl of this kind, and it is deplorable when the self-righteous European comes along and points the finger of scorn at her. I am aware that though not despised, as in this country, the lot of the inmate of the Yoshiwara is often, if not always, a horrible one. She is, as a rule, sold, or sells herself, for a lump sum of money to which amount is added the cost of her outfit, usually as much as the price paid to the woman or her relatives. Until this amount was worked off--and the accounts were, of course, not over accurately kept--the woman was to all intents the chattel of her master. This has, undoubtedly, for many centuries been the custom of the country. I am glad, however, to be able to state that quite recently the highest court in j.a.pan has decided that, whatever custom may have decreed, the law gives, and will give, no sanction to any such custom. A girl confined in the Yoshiwara was forcibly taken away therefrom. The owner of the house in which she resided, as her debt had not been liquidated, considered he had a lien upon her, and he invoked the aid of the law to a.s.sist him to a.s.sert what he considered to be his rights and retake possession of the girl. The case was strenuously fought and taken to several courts, with the result I have stated. This decision will probably have far-reaching effects and declaring, as it does, that the inmates of the Yoshiwara are not slaves or chattels, it is to be cordially welcomed.

The a.s.sertion of Miss Bird, already referred to, that the manhood of j.a.pan is enslaved and degraded by vice is one which I have no hesitation in describing as gross exaggeration. Vice, of course, there is in j.a.pan, vice of various kinds and degrees, but the ordinary j.a.panese man is not, in my opinion, nearly so immoral as the average European. The chast.i.ty of the j.a.panese woman I place still higher. The fact, already stated, that the inmates of the Yoshiwara are not generally recruited from those who have lapsed from virtue might be urged in proof of this. Nor is the fact that prost.i.tution is not in j.a.pan regarded with the same loathing as in this country, in my opinion, to be taken as any evidence of an immoral tone. The ideas that obtain on the matter, in j.a.pan at any rate, hold out the possibility of moral redemption for the inmates of the Yoshiwara, and as a matter of fact many women in j.a.pan who, through the force of compulsion, have entered this place, frequently marry, and marry well, and subsequently live absolutely chaste lives. The standard of morality among the married women of j.a.pan is, I may remark, high, and is rarely lowered.