The nightside of Japan

Front matter

........

- ••-'■••<.1 \

■i2ijr'?4Jta j

Preface

Many books have been written on Japan by the Europeans, but as everything was observed with their European eyes, the true features of the country of the Rising Sun” could not be satisfactorily exhibited by them.

This book is written by one of the Japanese, and although the subjects treated in the book are often trifling matters and belong to things not very important, yet it is sure the reader will find neither fallacies nor misunderstandings, into which foreigners are liable often to fall.

THE AUTHOR.

\The Publishers had the thought of giving this manuscript to a literary man to correct^ but on consideration decided that revision ivould have destroyed much of its q^iaint chamn and oriental atmospherel\

Vll

Contents

CHAP. PAGE

I. ASAKUSA AND HIBIYA PARK I

II. THEATRES AND VOSSA (VARIETY HALLS) . . I3

Index

PAGE

X

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

SARUWAKACHO. THE THEATRE STREET NEAR THE ASAKUSA TEMPLE, IN THE AGE OF YEDO ........

• 1

cusA r

THE ASAKUSA TEMPLE

THE CINEMATOGRAPH STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK .......

THE FLOWER GARDEN IN HIBIYA PARK . ]

THE POND AND SUMMER-HOUSE IN HIBIYA V PARK ....... J

THE NIOMON GATE IN ASAKUSA PARK .

THE JUNIKAI (twelve - STORY TOWER) IN

ASAKUSA PARK

GIRLS SINGING IN THE VARIETY HALL {yOSS^) KOSHIRO : ACTOR OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO . THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO (IMPERIAL THEATRE) | THE KABUKIZA THEATRE . ... f

RITSUKO : ACTRESS OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO\ BAIKO : ACTRESS OF THE TEIKOKU GEKIJO} A YOSHIWARA GIRL IN FULL DRESS A FAVOURITE IN HER PROCESSION UNDER CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT YOSHIWARA .

A FRONT WINDOW IN A YOSHIWARA HOUSE . THE NAKAMISl^ STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK ) THE STREET OF GINZA . . . . /

A SUSHI STALL

A TOBACCO PIPE MENDER . . . .

A MENDICANT FRIAR

F7‘ontispiece To face p. 4 jj

XI

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

MARIKO, A STAGE ON THE HIGHWAY OF TOKAIDO, IN THE AGE OF YEDO

A BARRIER ON THE HIGHWAY OF TOKAIDO, IN THE FEUDAL AGE

UMEGATANI, A CHAMPION WRESTLER, WITH HIS TWO DISCIPLE WRESTLERS, AND AN UMPIRE

A KdRIYA-, OR ICE-SHOP

STALLS OF KUMADE AT TORINOMACHI (GOD

eagle’s festival)

THE COAST OF SUSAKI IN THE AGE OF YEDO THE GREAT CONFLAGRATION AT KANDA

THE KAMMAIRI

THE TEMPLE OF FIVE HUNDRED BUDDHA’S DISCIPLES, IN THE AGE OF YEDO .

THE YAKIIMOYA, OR SHOP OF ROAST SWEET

POTATOES

PLAYING OF THE POEM CARDS

THE DRUM BRIDGE AND WISTARIA TRELLISES^

AT KAMEIDO I

LAKE SHINOBAZU, THE LOTUS POND BELOW j THE HILL OF UYENO . ... J

CHERRY BLOSSOMS AT UYENO PARK ; THE IMAGE OF BUDDHA AND THE BELL TOWER

A RIKISHA-M.P>A^

THE OPEN FLOOR ON THE RIVER KAMO,

THE COURT NOBLE’S VEHICLE IN ANCIENT

TIMES

DANCING-GIRLS IN THE EVENING, OSAKA

To face p. 78

)5

7?

Xll

Chapter I

The Asakusa is the centre of pleasure in Tokyo. People of every rank in the city crowd in the park day and night — old and young, high and low, male and female, rich and poor. It is also a haunt of ruffians, thieves, and pickpockets when the curtain of the dark comes down over the park. All houses and shops along each street in the park are illuminated with the electric and gas lights. The most noisy and crowded part is the site of cinematograph halls. In front of a hall you see many large painted pictures, illustrating kinds of pictures to be shown in the hall, and, at its entrance, three or four men are crying to call visitors : “ Come in, come in ! Our pictures are newest ones, most wonderful pictures ! Most lately imported from Europe ! ” Men of another hall cry out: “Our hall gives the photographs of a play performed by the first - class actors in Tokyo; pictures of the revenge of Forty Seven Rdnine F' Tickets are sold by girls in a booking - box near the entrance of each hall ; they are dressed in beautiful uniforms, their faces painted nicely, receiving guests with charming smiles. Most of the Japanese carry geta (clogs) under their feet, instead of shoes or boots, and specially so are the females. When you come into the door

I A of a hall, tickets are to be handed to the men, who furnish you zori (a pair of straw or grassslippers) in place of your geta^ and you must not forget to receive from them a wood-card marked with numerals or some other signs — the card being the cheque for your clogs. When you step on upstairs you are received by another nice girl in uniform, who guides you to a seat in the hall. Now the hall is full of people; it seems that there is no room for a newcomer, but the guide girl finds out a chair among the crowd and adjusts it to you very kindly. Pictures of cinematograph are shown one after another, each being explained by orators in frock or evening coat. Between the photograph shows performance of comic actors or jugglers is given. After the end of each picture or performance there is an enti^acU of three or five minutes, and in this interval sellers of oranges, milk, cakes, sandwiches, etc., come into the crowds, and are crying out : “ Don’t you want oranges ? Nice cakes ! New boiled milk ! etc., etc.” The show of cinematograph is closed at about 12 P.M., and all people flow out of the hall. Where will they go hence ? Of course most of them go to their home, but a part of them — young fellows among others — runs to the Dark Streets of the park, or Yoshiwara, the licensed prostitution quarter near the park.

Leaving the cinematograph hall at about eleven, you will visit a small restaurant in a street just behind the cinematograph ground, and find many people drinking and eating; glasses of Japanese sake (wine), beer, whisky, and all kinds of liquors are served very cheap. Near the counter of the bar the host or hostess is standing, and some six or seven young waitresses, all sixteen to twenty years old, are attending the guests. People who come to the restaurant are almost all below the middle class, and women come very rare. You can have dishes of European food with very nice taste, which are very cheap — ten to fifteen sen ^ per dish. After satisfying your appetite with these cheap wines and dishes you again go over to another quarter of the park beyond the Asakusa Pond. Both sides of the streets of the quarter — called the Dark Quarter or Streets, for no lamps allowed within shops here, except entrance lanterns — are arranged with rows of small houses almost all equal in size and equipment. The common names of these houses are Meishuya (Drinking - shops), Shinbunjuran-sho (Newspaper Reading Halls), and Kitchaten (Tea-shops), whose open occupations are to sell wine, read papers and serve tea respectively j but their real business is taken by courtesans. In each of these houses there are at least three or four, sometimes six to ten, girls who are said to serve wine or tea ; they are all young, from fourteen to twenty, dressed in silk clothes. If you stroll down a street screams of the girls dash out of the windows of each house : “ Come in, gentlemen, come in ! I

know you, Mr ! Wait a bit, come in, I want

to speak you, sir ! ” At the door of a shop two young fellows in style of workman are whispering with a girl, and after a few minutes go into the shop and disappear into a room behind the shop, or upstairs. Some contracts have been fixed up between them. The hostess is avaricious, and if a provincial is caught into the trap his purse shall be emptied in a few hours. The quarter of the park, together with the compound of cinematographs and other show halls, is generally called the Rokku (Sixth District) of Asakusa.

After going round the dark streets, in spite of showers of girls’ screams, you come to another road north to the Rokku^ and here many smaller Japanese restaurants or eating - houses are to be found ; tempura-ya (fry), soba-ya (buckwheat or maccaroni), sushiya (boiled and vinegared rice mixed with

^ A sen is equal to an English farthing.

fish, eggs and vegetables), gyu-ya (beef and pork), etc. At the east end of the street there stands a tall hexagonal brick building in twelve stories ; its name is the Rydunkaku (Tower piercing through clouds), and popularly called Junikai (Twelve Story Tower). When the tower was first built the elevator was furnished for visitors ; but shortly afterwards as there happened an unfortunate event, owing to incomplete adjustments of the machine, it was abolished by order. You step up to the top of the tower by the spiral steppings and, in rooms of each story, various kinds of toys and other articles are sold, or fine pictures and photographs are hung against walls. In 1911, one winter night at about eleven, a young man jumped down over the balcony of the eleventh story of the tower and killed himself, crushing his body upon the ground. After this event the windows and balconies above ten story are entirely covered with wire-nets.

Stepping down the tower you enter a beef shop (gyu-ya) just below the tower ; it is now one o’clock A.M. and there some twenty or thirty labourers or workmen of the lowest class are drinking sake^ and devouring beef, pork, or even horseflesh from the boiling pans on square tables arranged in a broad, dusky room. When you enter the room your nose is attacked by the stinging smell of bad sake and boiling flesh, mixed with the odour of cheap tobacco smoke, which fills the room and whirls like dense clouds. Maid-servants of ugly face and on rusty garment carry bottles of sake and plates of flesh, and their chattering and laughing with customers are noisy and disgusting. Among these customers there may be thieves, pickpockets, and gamblers, who have come in this house in triumph for their victories. They drink and drink till morning, and it is not seldom that they make quarrels at last, throwing bottles and breaking porcelains.

thp: asakusa temple.

THE CINEMA I'OGRAPH STREET IN ASAKUSA PARK

Getting out of the gyu-ya you pass the bridge over the pond and come to a quiet quarter. The quarter is dark, the sky concealed by dense leaves of trees and two or three lamp lights seen in the distance. In this part of mimic wood a few benches are set down, and old men and boys are sleeping upon them. To the north of the wood a large building of the Kwannon Temple, the patron of Asakusa people, or rather of the whole Tokyo, stands like a giant. It is wonderful that if you approach the temple, and look in under the floor of its broad veranda, you would find some four or five dozen of men, women, and children are in sound sleep, with no covers over their bodies, and embracing one another — if they can get any cover it is old straw mat ! Where have they come from, and why are they lying in such a place ? They are beggars and outcasts ; it is not rare that boys are picked up by pickpockets and cultured to their honourable profession.

In another quiet quarter, just behind the temple, there is the nest of so-called Asakusa geisha (singingand dancing-girls) and, around the quarter, you can find a number of rather bigger restaurants, where these girls of singing and dancing are seen going in and out night and day.

In the same quarter, to the back of the temple and in neighbourhood of the geisha nest, you see a group of small photographers’ studios. At the entrance of each shop a number of various photos are shown in a large frame hanging against the wall, and a man is standing near the door. If you approach and look at these photos at once he comes to you and persuades to try a piece, priding that you can have one in an instant, as they are prepared with the latest camera, and that the price is very cheap, only fifty sen per set of cabinet (three pieces per set). When you are led by him into a room of the photographer’s house he shows you two or three albums on the table as specimens, and you find all photos in these books are nicely taken. Being led into another room to take photo, you would be surprised to find that everything in the room is of old fashion, the apparatus itself appearing to be one of half a century ago. When you get out of the room and look on your watch it took twenty minutes in the room ! Further you are compelled to wait thirty minutes more in a gloomy room, served with only a cup of cold tea, and wearied by the long time, and angry with the cold treatment, you are about to leave the shop paying money and without photo, when the photographer appears with photos in his hand, apologising for the unsatisfactory result owing to bad adjustment of rays, and excusing himself for having taken so long time. When you take the photos and look on them, you cannot help to burst out laughing. What a queer and funny face, like a monkey! You run out of the house, casting out fifty sen silver on the table. No wonder, the so-called specimen photos in their albums and show frame have been brought from some other studio I

You come round to the front of the Asakusa Temple. The entrance street or royal road to the temple is famous under the name of Nakamise (arcade within the limits of the temple domain), which is a long straight road paved with stones, and on each side a row of small brick buildings all in two stories are in a very regular line. Shops of toys, cakes, and haberdashers occupy the red matchboxlike establishments, which attract girls and children assembling here night and day. The north end of the street leads to Nidmon (Gate of Devas), the red great gate of the temple. The merchants of the arcade shut up their shops at 12 P.M. ; after the hour the street is dark and lonely, just in contrast to deafening noise of the daytime throng.

South end and threshold of the Nakamise street has a popular name of the Kaminari-nion (Gate of Thunder God) ; at present there is no trace of the gate, but people call the point by the old name of the gate, which was burnt down by a fire some fifty years ago. About twenty yards east to the so-called Thunder Gate there is a famous cabaret called the Kamiya Bar. It is a new bar established by Mr Kamiya, a brewer, three years ago, and gives satisfaction to drinkers by supplying very cheap liquors brewed at his own brewery ; the drinks most popular and peculiar to the bar are electric brandy, Keiranshochu (a kind of egg-nog), and whisky. If you visit the bar about the time the electric lamps in streets are lighted, you find the seats in the bar are fully occupied, mostly by the lower middle-class people, who have just dropped in here on their way home from their day-work. It is funny to read a notice on the wall of the saloon : “ Up to 3 glasses of Electric Brandy, Keiran-shdchu or Whisky can be served, and Never More.”

The back side of the long bar is entirely glazed with big glasses, and long tables covered with white porcelain slates are disposed in four lines below the bar. Drinks are served by bar boys, but no waitresses ; as for relishes, sausage, kon-nyaku, boiled beans, or beancurd can be preferred. At the middle part of the first table there is a group of three navvies, one of whom already emptied up his three glasses of brandy and two plates of beans and two of bean-curd. His stomach being not yet satisfied, he orders more relishes and more drinks, but a boy politely tells him that he can take more food, but that the drink over three glasses cannot be served according to the regulation of the shop. The drunkard seems to be unpleasant by the refusal, and is grumbling against the boy. After a few minutes his eyes gleam and, suddenly calling one of his two comrades, he groans out : “ I say,

Kuma, you are always weak to drinks, and this evening you took two glasses already. That’s queer ! I think you want no more. Let me have your spare glass ! ” Mr Kuma consents at once and orders his glass. One glass full of purple brandy is instantly brought by a boy before Kuma, and the drunkard takes it in exchange with his empty glass. The latter is very proud of the success of his stratagem.

A girl about ten years old is peeping into the hall from the entrance, and a bar boy having perceived her beckons her to enter. She comes in, and the boy asks her what she wants. The little girl, dressed in dirty clothes and with tousled hair, is shy by the brightness of light in the saloon, and hardly speaks to the kind boy. “ I’ve come to find out my papa. Mamma told me he is in this bar.” She is looking round the crowd, but could not find out her father. The boy brings a stool to one end of the hall and let the girl stand upon it easily to see faces of people in the room. Having found out her father at last, she jumps down the stool and, running up to a man sitting by a table and drinking whisky, plucks him by the sleeve. Alarmed by the sudden attack, the man of some forty years old, and in costume of fishmonger, looks back and, finding his daughter standing by him, he stands up and comes to a vacant space at a corner of the hall. Being somewhat intoxicated, he asks her : “ What’s the matter ? Why have you come here?” “Mamma and I,” whispers the daughter, with tears in her eyes, “ have been waiting for you come back. We don’t take supper yet. Mamma told me you must be in this bar again, and to find and take you home. Come home with me at once, papa.” The father awakes from his dream and, after paying accounts, he drops out of the bar, accompanied by his obedient daughter.

• ••••••• ••

Next evening you will visit the Hibiya Park. The park is situated just in the central part of the capital, and entirely different from Asakusa in its aspects. Leave tram near the east gate of the park, and stepping in the entrance you get upon the mound near by. It is nine o’clock in the evening, and the

THE FLOWER GARDEN EN HIBIVA PARK.

niE POND AND SUMiMERHOHSE IN IIIHIYA PARK i broad streets along iron fences on the east and north sides being bright with electric and gas lamps standing high on the road, trams, autos, carriages, and rikisha are running with noises of thunder. On the contrary, inside of the park is so dark and quiet that even no sound of footsteps can be heard. Towards north of the mound, and through the leaves of trees, twinkling lights far distant can be recognised ; the lights come from a restaurant named Matsumato-ro. Just below the mound there is a pond, in which an artificial fountain is spouting water among a cluster of massive rocks at the centre. Stepping down the mound, you come to the bank of the pond, and by the twilight of stars find a summer - house near the margin. Approaching the summer-house, you observe two black shades sitting close on a bench under the roof. They are talking so secretly that you cannot hear what they speak. When they noticed somebody coming near them they seem much surprised, and suddenly leave the house and disappear into the dark. You can judge by their figures that one is a young gentleman and the other a damsel.

Turning round a corner along the pond you come to the quarter of flower gardens. You go on the walk, enjoying the strong perfume of flowers, but find nobody there. A policeman come round and, lifting up his lantern and after giving his keen looks upon your face, he steps on his duty. Passing out the garden quarter you arrive at an open space which is limited for the play-ground for football, baseball, cycling, etc. On the north side of the ground there stands a music hall; in summer evening concerts of military and amateur bands are held here every Saturday and Sunday. To the west of the ground rows of benches are regularly set. When you approach these benches, again you would find some four or six groups of men and women seated on them, and a pair on each bench talking and embracing each other. If they see flash of policeman’s lantern, or hear his footsteps, they run away or take refuge into the bushes of azaleas behind the benches. What kind of people are they that visit the park at night and dare tete-d-tete in such a dishonourable place ? A policeman told that some of them do not only belong to higher middle class, but he had once caught a lady of some notable family.

Pass a curving lane in the azalea bushes and there appears a large entrance to the restaurant Matsumatoro. It is limited from the outside with hedges of evergreen trees. In the yard around the building a number of tables and chairs are arranged — in each table name of a waitress is mentioned, such as Hana Ume, Take, Kiyo, etc. It is a rule of the restaurant that when a visitor takes a seat at any of these tables, the girl of the name mentioned is to attend him. Now it is about eleven o’clock in night. All tables in the yard are occupied by customers ; near each table the appointed waitress is attending, smiling and chattering in response to chaffing and bantering of her habitue. Most of visitors take beer and sake ; whisky and cognac are the liquors for young swells, and those mixed with soda water are often welcomed by them.

A graphophone put on a large table is performing in its highest tone a piece of joruri song (a kind of opera song) ; but none of people seem to listen to it. At one corner of the yard you find a young lady and an old gentleman sitting by a small round table between them. The lady is on her Japanese dress d la mode and the man on European clothes. On the table four or five dishes emptied and plates of oranges and cakes can be seen ; an emptied bottle of soda water and a cup full of coffee stand before the lady, and the man, who keeps a glass of beer in his hand and is very red on his face, is secretly appeasing her : “ All right, you are quite right. Then what you want for me to do? eh?” The lady’s face is very pale and her answer escapes,

THE XIO.MOX GATE IX ASAKUSA PARK.

'I'lII- JEXIKAI (twelve story TOWER) IX ASAKUSA PARK.

V.

.

■v

■ J

•N p«

I r

4 ■

I s.

j

'i

4'

I

‘tv

Irv.

. N

.1*

'V t faintly from her hard-tied lips: “Take me to O by the last train, and I shall come back to-

morrow evening.” “ All right,” agrees the old fellow, “ I shall send telephone to my house and tell

my family that I have some business at O early

to-morrow morning.” He then claps his hands (this is the Japanese habit to call maid-servant) and, enquiring the place of telephone to the maid, he goes for it. The lady left alone looks after him and, with some derisive smiles on her face, takes up her cup of coffee and empties it up at one draught. A few minutes after the man comes back ; his face is bright with satisfaction for his success, and he speaks proudly, taking seat on his chair : “ Everything is right. Now let us start.” He pays the bill, gives a tip to the waitress, and the couple hurries for the Shimbashi Station. The waitress, with fifty sen silver in her hand, whispers to her comrades in the bar, and all their eyes are turned on the backs of the two now getting out of the restaurant gate. What are they ? — the drunkard and the belle ! A big old rat has been caught by a small mild cat !

The downstairs saloon is a large room of Japanese style, with the floor covered with mattings, on which some six or eight low square tables are adjusted, with a certain distance from one another. The alcove and walls are decorated in pure Japanese fashion ; a picture of rural scenery is hung against the wall of alcove, on whose elevated floor flowers of the season are thrown in a pot, and a large advertisement picture of belle's portrait is hung on the wall of opposite side. All tables are occupied by men and women ; at a table near the alcove three provincials are taking supper, and at another table, next to them, a young American, who sits down on the matting like others (no chairs prepared in the room), speaks fluent Japanese and drinks Japanese wine {sakt) in company with three Japanese gentlemen and two ladies. The country folks are much surprised to see the Yankee very well trained in handling Japanese chop-sticks. He seems to be very fond of sashimi^ among other dishes, and as often as he takes it he is taking sake. Sashimi is pieces of raw fish flesh, which is eaten after soaking in soy^ and it is so much admired by the Japanese, and so important dish among others that it can never be lacked in dishes prepared for any feast ; consequently there is no Japanese banquet which is served without sashimi. All foreigners, however, cannot eat sashimi when they come to Japan, and are served with the dish first.

The upstairs of the restaurant is divided into several small rooms, all in European style. In the centre of each room a table and chairs are put in good arrangement and, in daytime, you can look the greens of wood of the Emperor’s Palace through the windows of these rooms. People who come to these separate rooms are mostly of rather higher rank, and visit here for refreshment on their way of taking walk together with their family. Thirsty boys are satisfied by cups of coffee or tea ; small daughters, tired up by walking, lean their back against the chairs.

Besides Matsumato-ro, in the park there is another restaurant Mihashi-tei, which is of pure Japanese system in its construction and treatment, and moreover you can find two or three smaller tea-houses at different parts. All these restaurants and tea-houses are shut up after 12 P.M.

GIRLS SINGING IN I'lIK VARIE'I’V HALL (voSSl).

V

Chapter II Theatres And Yosse (variety Halls)

Thirty minutes before 5 p.m. men and women crowd in front of the booking offices of the Teikoku Gdekijd (Imperial Theatre). The theatre is situated thirty yards north to the Hibiya Park, and built in three stories with white bricks. It is the largest theatre in Tokyo most lately established in European style. Besides over thirty actors belonging to the old school of the Japanese drama, there are more than fifty actresses solely dependent to the theatre. The theatrical circles of Japan are classified into two schools — the old and the new. Actors hereditary since ancient times are called of the old school, while those sprung up out of young men, who received new education, associate in a new school of so-called new actors. In Tokyo there are more than thirty theatres, and it is in the Imperial Theatre only that the opera is performed, mingled with the dramatic performances of comedy and tragedy. The most eminent of the actors of the theatre are Koshird, Sojuro, Baiko, and Matsusuke, and those of the actresses Ritsuko, Namiko, Kakuko, and Kikuye, The theatre is opened at 5 P-M. every evening throughout the year. The tickets are divided into five classes : — ist to 4th class, and the special. First to 3rd and special class tickets can be purchased any time since ten days before, and the 4th class only is sold on the day. You get a ist class ticket, paying yen"^ i.8o for it, and are conducted by a guide-girl to a chair in a box in front of the stage. A programme is given by the girl. It is still ten minutes before the play begins, and you come out to the corridor to have interior sights of the theatre. On the left side of downstairs there is a large European restaurant room called Toyoken^ and tables in the saloon are decorated with beautiful flowers. Waiters on snow-white jackets are very busy in preparation for reception of customers. On the opposite side a Japanese restaurant Kagetsu opens its shop ; the hall of the restaurant is in pure Japanese fashion, and most of ladies come here for tiffin. Along the long curved corridor on upstairs various kinds of shops are opened : cafes, bars, sushi^ tiffin, shiruko, toys, pictures, and photographs. Third story is occupied by 4th class people. In each story, three or four smoking-rooms are arranged in situations of good prospects ; through the windows of rooms facing to west and south you can appreciate the views of the Hibiya Park, as well as of the Emperor’s Palace Entrance Gate.