The Foundations of Japan Part 35

It is at Christmas at home that we have in the Christmas tree our reminder of the country. It is on New Year's Day that in j.a.pan a pine tree is set up on either side of the front gate, but there are three bamboos with it, and the four trunks are all beautifully bound together with rope. If the ground be too hard for the trees to be stuck in the ground, they are kept upright by having a dozen heavy pieces of wood, not unlike fire logs, neatly bound round them. The pines may be about 10 ft. high, the bamboo about 15 ft. To the trees are affixed the white paper _gohei_. Over the doorway itself is an arrangement of straw, an orange, a lobster, dried cuttlefish and more _gohei_. A less expensive display consists of a sprig of pine and bamboo. Poor people have to be content with a yard-high pine branch with a French nail through it at either side of their doorway. I have been ruralist enough to harbour thoughts of the extent to which the woods are raided for all this New Year forestry. Some prefectures, in the sincerity of their devotion to afforestation, forbid the New Year destruction of pine trees.

I remember the gay and elaborate dressing of the horses during the New Year holidays. I saw one driver of a wagon who was not content with tying streamers on every part of his horse where streamers could be tied: he had also decorated himself, even to the extent of having had his head cropped to a special pattern, tracts of hair and bare scalp alternating.

It was pleasant to learn that a fine chrysanthemum show arranged in an open s.p.a.ce in Tokyo was free to the public. Some plants, by means of grafting, bore flowers of half a dozen different varieties. Several plants had been wondrously trained into the form of _kuruma_, etc. Not a few of the varieties exhibited were, according to our ideas, atrocious in colouring, but many were beautiful and all were marvels of cultivation. Even greater manipulative and horticultural skill was represented in the chrysanthemums I saw at the Imperial garden party.

A chief of a department of the Ministry of Agriculture told me that from a chrysanthemum growing in the ground it was possible to have a thousand blooms.

In a j.a.panese room the timber upright alongside the _tokonoma_ is always a tree trunk in the rough. If it be cherry it has its bark on.

The contrast with the finely finished wood of the rest of the room is arresting. It is said that the use of the unplaned upright is not more than three or four hundred years old and that it had its origin in _Cha-no-yu_ affectations of simplicity.

I was visited one evening by an agricultural official who had returned from a visit to Great Britain. He spoke of the "lonelyism" of our best hotels. In a j.a.panese hotel of the same cla.s.s one's room is so simple and the view of the garden is so refreshing that, with the beautiful flower arrangement indoors, the frequent change of _kakemono_, the serving of one's meals in a different set of lacquer and porcelain each day and the willing and smiling service always within the call of a hand clap, there comes a sense of restfulness and peace. The drawback which the Western man experiences is the lack of any means of resting his back but by lying down and the inability to read for long while resting an elbow on an arm rest which is too low for him.[218] A j.a.panese often reads kneeling before a table.

Here I am reminded to say that the development of the desire for books and newspapers in the rural districts is a noticeable thing, if only because it is new. It is not so long ago that reading was considered to be an occupation for old men and women and for children. The samurai had few books and the farmers fewer still. But the idea of combining cultivation and culture was not unknown. I have heard a rural student humbly quote the old saying, _Sei-ko U-doku_ (literally, "Fine weather--farming--Rainy weather--reading").

I have a rural note of one of my visits to the _No_.[219] One farce brought on an inferior priest of a sect which is now extinct but surely deserves to be remembered for its encouragement of mountain climbing. This "mountain climber," as he was called, was hungry and climbed a farmer's tree in order to steal persimmons. (The actor got on a stool, obligingly steadied by a supposedly invisible attendant, and pretended to clamber up a corner post of the stage.) While he was eating the persimmons he was discovered by their owner. The farmer was a man of humour and said that he thought that "that must be a crow in the tree." So the poor priest tried to caw. "No," said the farmer, "it is surely a monkey." So the priest began to scratch after the manner of monkeys. "But perhaps," the farmer went on, "it is really a kite."

The priest flapped his arms--and fell. The farmer thought that he had the priest at his mercy. But the priest, rubbing his beads together, put a spell on him and escaped. The word _No_ is written with an ideograph which means ability, but _No_ also stands for agriculture.[220]

FOOTNOTES:

[211] The Kwanto plain (73 by 96 miles) includes most of Tokyo and Saitama prefecture, and also the larger part of Kanagawa and Chiba and parts of Ibaraki, Gumma and Tochigi.

[212] The characters on these slabs are beautifully written. They have usually been penned by distinguished men.

[213] The j.a.panese man wears below his kimono or trousers a pair of bathing shorts. Peasants frequently wear in the fields nothing but a little cotton bag and string.

[214] Poor households ordinarily use, instead of movable _hibachi_, a big square box in an opening in the floor and resting on the earth.

[215] When I was in Tokyo, tradesmen's messenger boys received only their food, lodging and clothing and an occasional present, with help no doubt in starting a linked business when they were out of their time. Now such youths, as a development of the labour movement, are on a wage basis and receive 20 yen a month.

[216] The place has since been burnt down. A bigger building has been erected.

[217] See Appendix LXII.

[218] There is also the occasional whiff of the _benjo_; but, as an agricultural expert said, "It is not a bad thing that a people which is increasingly under the influence of industrialism should be compelled to give a thought to agriculture." There are European countries famous for their farming whose sanitary experts are evidently similarly minded.

[219] The fact that Dr. Waley's scholarly book is the third work on the _No_ to be published in England in recent years is evidence that a knowledge of a form of lyrical drama of rare artistry is gradually extending in the West.

[220] Hence the names of the two national agricultural organisations, Teikoku Nokai, that is the Imperial Agricultural Society, and Dai Nippon Nokai, that is the Great j.a.pan Agricultural Society.

CHAPTER x.x.xVI

"THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN"

(GUMMA, KANAGAWA AND CHIBA)

I find the consolation of life in things with which Governments cannot interfere, in the light and beauty the earth puts forth for her children.

If the universe has any meaning, it exists for the purposes of soul.--ae

One December night there walked into my house a professor of agricultural politics, clad in tweeds and an overcoat, and with him a man who wore only a cotton kimono and a single under-garment. The sunburnt forehead of this man showed that he was not in the habit of wearing a hat. There is a smiling j.a.panese face which to many foreigners is merely irritating. It is not less irritating when, as often happens, it displays bad teeth ostentatiously gold-stopped. This man's smile was sincere and he had beautiful teeth. His hands were nervous and thin, his bearing was natural and his voice gentle. Here, evidently, was an altruist, perhaps a zealot, probably a celibate. He was introduced as a rural religionist from Gumma prefecture set on reforming his countrymen. It is important to know the strength of the reforming power which j.a.pan is itself generating: here was a man who for eight years had lived a life of poverty in remote regions and had shaped his life by three heroes, "St. Francis, Tolstoy and Kropotkin."

He believed that the way to influence people was "to work with them."

He lived on his dole as a junior teacher in an elementary school. His food, which he cooked himself, was chiefly rice and _miso_. He had been a vegetarian for ten years. He was twenty-nine.

He said that as far as the people of his village--largely peasant proprietors who hired additional land--were concerned, "It is happy for them if they end the year without debt." I asked how the men in the village who owned land but did not work it spent their time. The reply was: "They are chattering of many things, very trivial things, and they disturb the village. They drink too much and they have concubines or women elsewhere."

"If an ordinary peasant went to the next town to see women there," the speaker continued, "young men of the village would go and give him a good knock. In former times 'waitresses' were highly spoken of in the village, but not now. There are some young men who may go at night to a house where there are young girls in the family and open the door.

Sometimes they bring cuc.u.mbers. Cuc.u.mbers are symbols. Some do this out of fun and some sincerely to express their feelings. If the young men who do such a thing do it out of fun they are given a good knock by members of that house when discovered. If they are sincere the members of the family will smile. There are in our village of 6,000 inhabitants only four illegitimate children."

As to the influences exerted for the betterment of the people the follower of St. Francis was convinced that "when Buddhist influence, Shintoism, Confucianism and the good customs of our race are all mixed together so that you cannot discern one from the other we have some living power." His own religion was "that of St. Francis combined with Buddhism."

Speaking generally of rural people my visitor said: "They are falling into miserable conditions, are in effect spending what was acc.u.mulated by their ancestors. Their houses are not so practical and cost more.

They think they live better but their physical condition is not better. The number who cannot earn much is increasing." I was told of a growing habit among village boys of running off to Tokyo without their parents' permission. And bands of girls came to the district to help in the silk-worm season "often without their parents' approval."

Many villagers consulted my visitor on all sorts of subjects until he had almost no leisure. Some wanted counsel about the future of their children, some desired advice about the family debt, some wanted to know how to put an end to quarrels and some asked "how a man will be able to be easy-minded." The ordinary result of the primary school system was "a ma.s.s of many informations in young brains and they cannot tell wisdom from knowledge. The result is that they are discontented with their hard lot. They grow up wishing to rob each other within the bounds of the law. They want to live comfortably without hard work. Good customs which were the crystallisation of the experience of our race are dying away."

My visitor had met an old woman on the road clad miserably. She earned as a labourer on a farm, beside her board and lodging, 25 sen daily.

Of this sum she handed to a fellow-villager whom she trusted 20 sen.

He gave away many clothes to the poor and her contribution was used with the money he expended. "If," said she, "one shall give to G.o.d a small thing in darkness then it is accepted to its full value, but, if it be known, it is accepted only at a small value." She was "content and quite happy."

This woman and many others in the district had a primitive kind of religion. They observed the days called "waiting for the sun" and "waiting for the moon." "The same-minded people gather. The one most deeply experienced tells something to those a.s.sembled and they begin to be imbued with the same spirit. It is some kind of transformed worship of the sun G.o.d. They feel the mercy of the sun. They do not worship the heavenly bodies but as the symbol of the merciful universe. These people take meals together several times in a year.

They talk not only on spiritual but on common things and about the news in the papers. It may seem to a stranger that what they talk is foolish, but they have a wonderful power to attract the essential out of those trifles."

"The fundamental power which made j.a.pan what it is," the speaker went on with animation, "is not inst.i.tutions and statesmen, but those primitive religious acts. The people strongly resembling the old woman I spoke of may be only 1 per cent., but almost all villagers are imbued with such religious notions and feel thankfulness, and on rare occasions a latent sentiment springs from their hearts. Their religion may be connected with Buddhism or Shintoism; it is not Buddhism or Shintoism, however, but a primitive belief which in its manifestation varies much in different villages. For example, in one village the good deeds of an ancient sage are told. The time when that priest lived and particulars about him are getting dimmer and dimmer, but his influence is still considerable. Though many people are worshipped in national and prefectural shrines the influence of those enshrined is small compared with the influence of a man or woman of the past who was not much celebrated but was thought to be good by the rustic people.

"Think of the way in which the memory of the maid-servant Otake is worshipped by the peasants through one-half of j.a.pan. That was a pious and illuminated person who worked very hard. As her _uta_ (poem) says, 'Though hands and feet are very busy at work, still I can praise and follow G.o.d always because my mind and heart are not occupied by worldly things.' She ate poor food and gave her own food to beggars.

So when a countryman wastes the bounty of nature he is still reprimanded by the example of that maid-servant. She is more respected than many great men."

My visitor thought a religious revival might happen under the leadership of a Christian or of a Buddhist, or of a man who "united Buddhism and Christianity" or "developed the primitive form of faith among the lower people." He thought there were "already men in the country who might be these leaders." He said that much might happen in ten years. "Materialism is prevalent everywhere, but people will begin to feel difficulties in following their materialism. When they cannot go any further with it they will begin to be awakened."

And then this young man who sincerely desires to do something with his life and has at any rate made a beginning went his way. Up and down j.a.pan I met several single-hearted men not unlike him.

One day I made an excursion from Tokyo and came on an extraordinary avenue of small wooden red painted _torii_, gimcracky things made out of what a carpenter would call "two by two stuff." By the time I got to the shrine to which the _torii_ led I must have pa.s.sed a thousand of these erections. In one spot there was a stack of _torii_ lying on their sides. The shrine was in honour of the fox G.o.d and there was a curious story behind it. Twenty years before a man interested in the "development" of the district had caused it to be given out that foxes, the messengers of the G.o.d Inari, had been seen on this spot in the vicinity of a humble shrine to that divinity. The farmers were continually questioned about the matter. It was suggested that the G.o.d was manifesting his presence. In the end more and more worshippers came, and, with the liberal a.s.sistance of the speculator, a fine new shrine was erected in place of the shabby one. His hand was also seen in the building of a big burrow--of concrete--for the comfort of the G.o.d's messenger. The top of the burrow also furnished an excellent view of the surrounding district, and teahouses were built in the vicinity. Indeed in a year or two quite a village of teahouses came into existence. The place, which was on the sea-coast, had become a kind of Southend or Coney Island, and attracted thousands of visitors.

A large proportion of these teahouses would have great difficulty in establishing a claim to respectability. Numbers of lamps which crowded the s.p.a.ce before the shrine were the gifts of women of bad character and the inscriptions on these gifts bore the _addresses and profession_ of the donors. The final irony was the provision of a tram service for the convenience of those who wished to worship at another altar than that of the fox G.o.d. Although most of the visitors found the chief attraction of the place in the teahouses,[221] they were none the less devout. Every visitor to the teahouses worshipped at the shrine.

What do those who bow their heads and throw their Coppers in the treasury pray for? "Well-being to my family and prosperity to my business" was, I was told, a common form of invocation. Even among not a few reasonably well educated people there is a conviction that prayers made at the altar of the fox G.o.d are peculiarly efficacious.

Kanzo Uchimura, who accompanied me on this trip, improved the occasion by saying in his vigorous English: "You in the West have some difficulty, no doubt, in understanding the fierceness of the indignation with which Old Testament prophets denounce heathen G.o.ds.

When you behold such an exhibition as this you may be helped to understand. Here is impurity under divine protection, and this place may fairly be called a fashionable shrine. The visitor to j.a.pan often vaunts himself on being broadminded. He regards heathendom as only another sect and he desires to be respectful to it. But I want to show you that it is not a case of only another sect but often a case of gross and demoralising superst.i.tion and priestly countenancing of immorality. Heaven forbid that I should deny the beauty of the idea of the foxes being the messengers of divinity or that I should suggest that some religious feelings may not inspire and some religious feeling may not reward the sincere devotion of the countryman to his fox G.o.d, but how much does it amount to in sum?"

I thought of what Uchimura had said when one day, in the course of a walk with his critic, Yanagi (Chapter XI), I was shown a shrine pitifully bedizened by the _waraji_ (straw sandals) and _ema_[222] of a thousand or more pilgrims who were suffering or had recovered from syphilis.[223]

During our conversation Yanagi said: "Shintoism is not of course a religion at all. It draws great strength from the national instinct for cleanliness manifested by people living in a hot climate. The religion of poor people is largely custom; I complain of educated people not that they are sceptical but that they are not sceptical enough. They simply don't care. According to Mr. Uchimura, there is only one way to G.o.d and that is through Christianity. But there are many ways. A personal religion like Christianity is more effective than Buddhism, but it does not follow that Christianity is better than Buddhism. I find I get to like Mr. Uchimura more and more and his views less and less. It is not his theoretical Christianity but his courageous spirit which attracts. He is a courageous man and we have very great need of morally courageous men. Although Christianity is impossible without Christ, Buddhism is possible without Buddha. A variety of religions is not harmful, and we have to take note of the Christian temperament and the Buddhistic temperament. Orientals can only be appealed to by an Oriental religion. Christianity is an Oriental religion no doubt, but it has been Westernised. It must always be borne in mind that Buddhistic literature is in a special language and that it is difficult for most people to get a general view of Buddhism."

In further talk the speaker said that in j.a.pan the individual had not been separated from the ma.s.s. But it was difficult to exaggerate the swiftness of the national development. The newer Russian writers were "certainly as well known in England, possibly better known." As to Tolstoy alone, there were at least fifty books about him. But it had to be admitted that, generally speaking, the j.a.panese development though rapid had not gone deep. In painting there was dexterity and technique but few men knew where they were going. Their work was "surface beautiful." They had not pa.s.sed the stage of Zorn.

We spoke of conscription and I said that it had not escaped my attention that many young men showed an increasing desire to avoid military service. From a single person I had heard of youths who had escaped by looking ill--through a week's fasting--by impairing their eyesight by wearing strong gla.s.ses for a few weeks, by contriving to be examined in a fishing village where the standard of physique was high, or by shamming Socialist.[224] Many j.a.panese bear uncomplainingly the heavy burden of the military system. But the others are to be reckoned with.