Japanese girls & women

Preface To Illustrated Edition

In offering a revised edition of a book which has been before the public for more than ten years, there is little to say that has not been said in the original Preface. The work, as published before, was always, to its author’s mind, unfinished ; partly because a chapter on household customs, which was necessary for the completion of the plan, had to be omitted for the reason that it could not be written in America ; and partly because the illustrations desired to fill out the reader’s conceptions of the subjectmatter could not be obtained without a personal visit to Japan.

These two defects have now been remedied. The chapter “ Within the Home ” contains the supplementary matter necessary to complete the picture of a Japanese woman’s life ; and the illustrations by Mr. Takenouchi of Tokyo, one of the foremost illustrators of Japan, add definiteness to the conceptions gained from the letter-press. His pictures show not only beauty, but absolute truth in their minutest detail.

Beside the thorough revision of the whole book and the additions to each subject discussed of whatever was necessary to bring the discussion up to the times after ten years of change in a rapidly changing country, a final chapter has been added, in which the effort has been made to ano/- lyze the present conditions. From its nature, this chapter

Vi PREFACE TO ILLUSTRATED EDITION can be only a rapid survey of the progress of ten years. It is not easy to write with judgment of conditions Obctwally present. A little perspective is needed to make sure that one sees things in their proper proportions. It is therefore with some hesitation that I offer to the public the result of two years' experience of the present state of affairs. If subsequent events show that my observation has been incorrect, I can only say that what I have written has been the “ Thing-as-I-See-It," and does not lay claim to being the “ Thing-as-It-Is."

In closing, I would thank once more the friends whose names appear in the previous Preface, and would add to their number the names of Mr, H. Sakurai and Mr. and Mrs. Seijiro Saito, who have rendered me valuable aid in gathering maternal.

Tokyo, Japan, March, 1902.

Preface To First Edition

It seems necessary for a new author to give some excuse for her boldness in offering to the public another volume upon a subject already so well written up as Japan. In a field occupied by Griffis, Morse, Gi'eey, Lowell, and Rein, what unexplored corner can a woman hope to enter ? This is the guestion that will be asked, and that accordingly the author must answer.

While Japan as a whole has been closely studied, and while much and varied information has been gathered about the country and its people, one half of the population has been left entirely unnoticed, passed over %vith brief mention, or altogether misunderstood. It is of this neglected half that I have written, in the hope that the whole fabric of Japanese social life will be better comprehended when the women of the country, and so the homes that they make, are better known and understood.

The reason why Japanese home-life is so little understood by foreigners, even by those who have lived long in Japan, is that the Japanese, under an appearance of frankness and candor, hides an impenetrable reserve in regard to all those persotud concerns which he believes are not in the remotest degree the concerns of his foreign guest. Only life in the home itself can show what a Japanese home may be ; and only by intimate association — such as no foreign man can ever hope to gain — with the Japanese ladies themselves can

PREFACE viii

much he learned of the thoughts and daily lives of the best Japanese women.

I have been peculiarly fortunate in having enjoyed the privilege of long and intimate friendship with a number of Japanese ladies, who have spoken with me as freely, and shown the details of their lives to me as openly, as if bound by closest ties of kindred. Through them, and only through them, I have been enabled to study life from the point of view of the refined and intelligent Japanese woman, and have found the study so interesting and instructive that I have felt impelled to offer to others some part of what I have received through the aid of these friends. I have, moreover, been encouraged in my work by reading, when it was already more than half completed, the following words from Griffis’s “ Mikado's Empire : ” —

“ The whole question of the position of Japanese women — in history, social life, education, employments, authorship, art, marriage, concubinage, prostitution, benevolenl labor, the ideals of literature, popular superstitions, etc. — discloses such a wide and fascvnating field of inquiry that I wonder no one has as yet entered it.”

In closing, I should say that this work is by no means entirely my own. It is, in the first place, largely the result of the interchange of thought through many and long conversations with Japanese ladies upon the topics herein treated. It has also been carefully revised and criticised; and many valuable additions have been made to it by Miss Ume Tsuda, teacher of English in the Peeresses’ School in Tokyo, and an old and intimate friend. Miss Tsuda is at present in this country, on a two years’ leave, for pur-

Preface

IX poses of further study. She has, amid her many duties 05 a student at Bryn Mawr College, given much time and thought to this work ; and a large part of whatever value it may possess is due to her.

I would say, too, that in the verification of dates, names, and historical incidents, I have relied altogether upon Griffis’s ‘■^Mikado’s Empire" and Bein’ s '•‘•Japan,’’ knowing that those two authors represent the best that has been done by foreigners in the field of Japanese history.

This work also owes much, not only to the suggestiom and historical aids contained in the “ Mikado’s Empire," but to Mr. Griffis himself, for his careful reading of my manuscript, and for his criticisms and suggestions. No greater encouragement can be given to an inexperienced author than the helpful criticism of one who has already distinguished himself in the same field of labor; and for just such friendly aid my warmest thanks are due to Mr. Grifffis.

A. M. B.

Hamptok, Va., Febmary, 1891.

COKTE^^TS

CHAFTEB PAGE

I. Childhood 1

II. Education 31

III. Marriage and Divorce 49

IV. Wife and Mother 72

V. Old Age 99

VI. Court Life 113

VII. Life in Castle and Yashiki . . . .141

VIII. Samurai Women 163

IX. Peasant Women 189

X. Life in the Cities 219

XI. Domestic Service 246

XII. Within the Home 267

XIII. Ten Years of Progress 296

Index 331

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

COLORED ILLUSTRATIONS

PAOB

U nder the Cherry-trees 134) Frontispiece

The Miya Mairi 4

A School-girls’ Picnic 44

A Wedding Ceremony 54

The Young Wife’s First Duty 76

An Aged Worshiper 106

Daimio and Train entering Yedo Castle 142

The Insult with the Sandal 174

Pilgrims going up Fuji Yama 202

A Matsuri Procession 228

The Master’s Return 264

The Feast of Flags 292

OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

Inu Harico 1

Clings like a Kitten 10

Serving Tea 16

Doll Effigies of the Emperor and Empress ...... 24

Playing the Koto 36

Arranging Flowers 38

The Marriage Portion 52

Yasaku writing a Letter 62

Opening the Shutters 78

Receiving a Guest 80

Needle-work 82

Taking Produce to Market 92

XIV

ILLUSTEATIOXS

Mowing the Lawn . 104

A Buddhist Funeral Procession . ... 108

Jingo Kogo, Conqueror of Corea 114

In the Bamboo Groves 146

Going to School with Attendant .......... 152

In the Cherryd)lossom Season 160

Physician with Attendant 170

Fencing 176

Averting the Sea^God’s Wrath 178

She would not survive him 186

A rice Farmer 190

A Candy Vendor 200

Tea-pickers 208

A Lonely Tea-house 212

Shopping at Home 222

Jinrikisha Man 224

Washing Rice 232

A Dancing Lesson 236

The No Dance 242

An Apprentice 254

A Picnic Party 256

The Gozen Taki or Rice Cook 258

Mistress and Maid 260

A Groom 262

The Household Shrine 268

Roofing the House 272

Long, Merry Evenings 274

An Intruder caught 284

They charge through the Crowd 294

Visiting the Grandparents 312

In a Buddhist Convent 328

Chapter I

To the Japanese baby the beginning of life is not very different from its beginning to babies in the Westermvorld. Its birth, whether it be girl or boy, is the cause of much rejoicing. As boys alone can carry on the family name and inherit titles and estates, they are considered of more importance, but many parents’ hearts are made glad by the addition of a daughter to the family circle.

As soon as the event takes place, a special messenger is dispatched to notify relatives and intimate friends, while formal letters of announcement are sent to those less closely related. All persons thus notified must make an early visit to the newcomer, in order to welcome it into the world, and must either take with them or send before them some present. Toys, pieces of cotton, silk, or crepe for the baby’s dress are regarded as suitable ; and these must be accompanied by fish or eggs, for good luck. Where eggs are sent, they are neatly arranged in a covered box, which may contain thirty, forty, or even one hundred eggs.^ The baby, especially if it be the first one in a family, receives many presents in the first few weeks of its life, and at a certain time proper acknowledgment must be made and return presents sent. This is done when the baby is about thirty days old.

Both baby and mother have a hard time of it in these first weeks. The baby is passed from hand to hand, fussed over, and talked to so much by the visitors that come in, that it must think this world a trying place. The mother, too, is denied the rest and quiet she needs, and wears herself out in the excitement of seeing her friends, and the physical exercise of going through, so far as possible, the ceremonious bows and salutations that etiquette prescribes.

Before the seventh day the baby must receive its name.* There is no especial ceremony connected with

1 All presents in Japan must be wrapped in white paper, although, except for funerals, this paper must have some writing on it, and must be tied with a peculiar red and white paper string, in which is inserted the noshi, or bit of dried fish, daintily folded in a piece of colored paper, which is an indispensable accompaniment of every present.

2 A child is rarely given the name of a living member of the family or the name of any friend. The father’s name, slightly modified, is frequently given to a son, and the names of ancestors long dead are sometimes used. The reason why the use of the names of living persons is avoided seems to be the inconvenience of having more than one of the same name in a family or circle of acquaintance. Middle names, as a way of avoiding this difficulty, are unknown. So strong is the feeling that two of the same name must not live under the same roof, that a servant comthis, but the child’s birth must be formally registered, together -with its name, at the district office of registration, and the household keep holiday in honor of the event. A certain kind of rice, cooked with red beans, a festival dish denoting good fortune, is usually partaken of by the family on the seventh day after birth.

The next important event in the baby’s life is the miya mairi, a ceremony which corresponds roughly with our christening. On the thirty-first day after the birth of a boy, or the thirty-third after the birth of a girl, the baby is taken for its first visit to the temple. For this visit great preparations are made, and the baby is dressed in the finest of silk or crgpe, gayly figured, — garments made especially for the occasion. Upon the dress appears in various places the crest of the family. A favorite gift to a new-born baby is an inu hariko, a papier ing into a family often changes her name temporarily, to suit the convenience of her employers. The father, or the head of the family, usually names the children, but some friend or patron may be asked to do it. As, until recently, the name given a child in infancy was not the one that he was expected to bear through life, the choice of a name was not a matter of as much importance as it is with us.

In some families the boys arc called by names indicating their position in the family, the words Taro, “ Big one,” Jiro, “ Second one,” Saburo, “Third one,” Shiro, “ Fourth one,” Goto, “Fifth one,” etc., being used alone, or placed after adjectives indicating some qualitj’ that it is hoped the child may possess. Such combinations are, Eitaro, “ Glorious big one,” Seijiro, “ Pure second one,” Tomisaburo, “Rich third one,” and so on. For boys, also, names of animals and other objects symbolic of strength are often used. The names of girls are in many cases taken from beautiful objects in nature, as Plum, Snow, Sunshine, Lily. Sometimes as with us, the names are those of virtues, as Chastity, Goodness, etc.

JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOOLEN mache dog, of hideous aspect and strange proportions, spotted black and white like a circus pony, which is supposed to give strength to its owner. The little miya mairi processions, with the resplendent baby, the admiring friends, and the dozen or more of spotty dogs carried by one of the attendants, may be seen daily in any Japanese city. The child is thus placed under the protection of the guardian deity of the place or district in which it is born. Offerings are made, and an amulet is obtained which the baby wears thereafter in a bright-colored crgpe bag fastened to its side. The ceremony ended, a special kind of candy in long, gayly printed paper bags is purchased in the temple court, and the baby on its way home calls on all the friends who have sent inu hariko, offering at each house, as a return present, a bag of candy. At the end of all, an entertainment of some kind is usually held at the home of the parents. Friends are invited, and if there are any who have not as yet sent presents, they may give them at this time.

It is usually on this day that the family send to their friends some acknowledgment of the presents received. This sometimes consists of the red bean rice, such as is prepared for the seventh day celebration, and sometimes of cakes of mochi, or rice paste. A letter of thanks may accompany the return present. If rice is sent, it is put in a handsome lacquered box, the box placed on a lacquered tray, and the whole covered with a square of crepe or silk, decorated with the family crest. The box, the tray, and the cover are of course returned, and, curious to say, the box must be returned unwashed, as it would be very unlucky to send it back clean. A piece of paper must be slipped into the box after its contents have been removed, for it is also bad luck to send anything back empty, and box and tray must be given back, just as they are, to the messenger. Sometimes a peculiar kind of dried fish, called katsuobushi, is sent with this present, when it is desired to make an especially handsome return. When as many as fifty or one hundred return presents of this kind are to be sent, it is no slight tax on the mistress of the house to see that no one is forgotten, and that all is properly done. As special messengers are sent, a number of men are sometimes kept busy for two or three days.

After all these festivities, a quiet, undisturbed life begins for the baby, — a life which is neither unpleasant nor unhealthful. It is not jolted, rocked, or trotted to sleep ; it is allowed to cry if it chooses, without anybody’s supposing that the world will come to an end because of its crying; and its dress is loose and easily put on, so that very little time is spent in the tiresome process of dressing and undressing. Under these conditions the baby thrives and grows strong and fat ; learns to take life with some philosophy, even at a very early age ; and is not subject to fits of hysterical or passionate crying, brought on by much jolting or trotting, or by the wearisome process of pinning, buttoning, tying of strings, and thrusting of arms into tight sleeves.

The Japanese baby’s dress, though not as pretty as that of our babies, is in many ways much more sensible. It consists of as many wide-sleeved, straight, silk, cotton.

JAPANESE GIRLS Ai^D WOMEN or flannel garments as the season of the year may require, — all cut after substantially the same pattern, and that pattern the same in shape as the grown-up kimono. These garments are fitted, one inside of the other, before they are put on ; then they are laid down on the floor and the baby is laid into them ; a soft belt, attached to the outer garment or dress, is tied around the waist, and the baby is dressed without a shriek or a wail, as simply and easily as possible. The baby’s dresses, like those of our babies, are made long enough to cover the little bare feet ; and the sleeves cover the hands as well, so preventing the unmerciful scratching that most babies give to their faces, as well as keeping the hands warm and dry.

Babies of the lower classes, within a few weeks after birth, are carried about tied upon the back of some member of the family, frequently an older sister or brother, who is sometimes not more than five or six years old. The poorer the family, the earlier is the young baby thus put on some one’s back, and one frequently sees babies not more than a month old, with bobbing heads and blinking eyes, tied by long bands of cloth to the backs of older brothers or sisters, and living in the streets in all weathers. When it is cold, the sister’s haori, or coat, serves as an extra covering for the baby as well ; and when the sun is hot, her parasol keeps off its rays from the bobbing bald head. Living in public, as the Japanese babies do, they soon acquire an intelligent, interested look, and seem to enjoy the games of the elder children, upon whose backs they are carried, as much as the players themselves. Tokyo just now (1901) shows a tendency to change this national custom. Gayly painted wicker baby carriages with cotton awnings are seen in large quantities in the shops, and one meets mothers and little sisters of the lower classes, propelling the baby in a little four-wheeled wagon instead of wearing it on the back as formerly. These carriages are, of course, the exception, and may prove to be but a passing Tokyo fashion, but they seem to me to mark another step in the modernizing of Japan, and may prove of value in the physical development of the common people.

Babies of the middle classes do not live in public, but ride about upon the backs of their nurses until they are old enough to toddle by themselves ; and they are not so often seen in the streets, as few but the poorest Japanese, even in the large cities, are unable to have a pleasant bit of garden in which the children can play and take the air. The children of the richest families, the nobility, and the imperial family are never carried about in this way. The young child is borne in the arms of an attendant, within doors and without ; but as this requires the care of some one constantly, and prevents the nurse from doing anything but care for the child, only the richest can afford this luxury. With the baby tied to her back, a woman is able to care for a child, and yet go on with her household labors, and baby watches over mother’s or nurse’s shoulder, between naps taken at all hours, the processes of drawing water, washing and cooking rice, and all the varied work of the house. Imperial babies are held in the arms of some one night and day, from the moment of birth until they have learned to

JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOIVCEN walk, a custom which seems to render the lot of the high-born infant less comfortable in some ways than that of the plebeian child.

The flexibility of the knees, which is required for comfort in the Japanese method of sitting, is gained in very early youth by the habit of setting a baby down with its knees bent under it, instead of with its legs out straight before it, as seems to us the natural way. To the Japanese, the normal way for a baby to sit is with its knees bent under it, and so, at a very early age, the muscles and tendons of the knees are accustomed to what seems to us a most unnatural and uncomfortable posture.*

Among the lower classes, where there are few bathing facilities in the houses, babies of a few weeks old are often taken to the public bath house and put into the hot bath. These Japanese baths are usually heated to a temperature of a hundred and ten to a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, — a temperature that most

1 That the position of the Japanese in sitting is really unnatural and unhygienic is shown by recent measurements taken by the surgeons of the Japanese army. These measurements prove that the small stature of the Japanese is due largely to the shortness of the lower limbs, which are out of proportion to the rest of the body. The sitting from early childhood upon the legs bent at the knee arrests the development of that part of the body, and produces an actual deformity in the whole nation. This deformity is less noticeable among the peasants, who stand and walk so much as to secure proper development of the legs; but among merchants, literary men, and others of sedentary habits, it is most plainly to be seen. The introduction of chairs and tables, as a necessarj' adjunct of Japanese home life, would doubtless in time alter the physique of the Japanese as a people.

foreigners visiting Japan find unbearable. To a baby’s delicate skin, the first bath or two is usually a severe trial, but it soon becomes accustomed to the high temperature, and takes its bath, as it does everything else, placidly and in public. Born into a country where cow’s milk is never used, the Japanese baby is wholly dependent upon its mother,' and is not weaned entirely until it reaches the age of three or four years, and is able to live upon the ordinary food of the class to which it belongs. There is no intermediate stage of bread and milk, oatmeal and milk, gruel, or pap of some kind ; for the allimportant factor — milk — is absent from the bill of fare, in a land where there is neither “ milk for babes ” nor “ strong meat for them that are of full age.”

1 Sometimes, in the old days, rice water was given to babies instead of milk, but it was nearly impossible to bring up a baby on this alone. In the Tokyo of 1891 butchers and milkmen were very little in evidence, as the demand for their wares came mainly from the few foreigners and foreign restaurants in the city. In 1901 a walk of half a mile or so in the neighborhood of Kojimachi, one of the principal business streets in a purely Japanese section of the city, shows five meat shops; and milkmen, in westernized shirts and knickerbockers, with golf-stockings and straw sandals, draw their gay-colored carts everywhere through the city, and call at a large proportion of the houses. Condensed milk, too, is to be found on the shelves of every provision store, together with canned and dried meats, and the restaurants where foreign food is served are distributed throughout the entire cit}', and do a thriving business on Japanese patronage. The less extravagant country people declare that Tokyo is “eating itself up,” but so far no terrible increase of indebtedness seems to follow the change in the standard of living. It is interesting to note that the scalp troubles referred to on page 10 seem to have greatly lessened in the last ten years, whether because of the change in the food or for other reasons, I cannot determine.

JAPANESE GIELS AND WOATEN

In consequence, partly, of tlie lack of proper nourishment after the child is too old to live wholly upon its mother’s milk, and partly, perhaps, because of the poor food that the mothers, even of the higher classes, live upon, many babies in Japan are afdicted with disagreeable skin troubles, especially of the scalp and face, — troubles which usually disappear as soon as the child becomes accustomed to the regular food of the adult. Another consequence, as I imagine, of the lack of proper food at the teething period, is the early loss of the child’s first teeth, which usually turn black and decay some time before the second teeth begin to show themselves. With the exception of these two troubles, Japanese babies seem healthy, hearty, and happy to an extraordinary degree, and show that most of the conditions of their lives are wholesome. The constant out-of-door life and the healthful dress serve to make up in considerable measure for the poor food, and the Japanese baby, though small after the manner of the race, is usually plump, and of firm, hard flesh. One striking characteristic of the Japanese baby is, that at a very early age it learns to cling like a kitten to the back of whoever carries it, so that it is really difidcult to drop it through carelessness ; for the baby looks out for its own safety like a young monkey. The straps that tie it to the back are sufficient for safety ; but the baby, from the age of one month, is dependent upon its own exertions to secure a comfortable position, and it soon learns to ride its bearer with considerable skill, instead of being merely a bundle tied to the shoulders. Any one who

H il.jn ^

CLINGS LIKE A KITTEN has ever handled a Japanese baby can testify to the amount of intelligence shown in this direction at a very early age ; and this clinging with arms and legs is, perhaps, a valuable part of the training which gives to the whole nation the peculiar quickness of motion and hardness of muscle that characterize them from childhood. It is the agility and muscular quality that belong to wild animals, that we see something of in the Indian, but to a more marked degree in the Japanese, especially of the lower classes.

The Japanese baby’s first lessons in walking are taken under favorable circumstances. With feet comfortably shod in the soft tahi, or mitten-like sock, babies can tumble about as they like, with no bump nor bruise, upon the soft matted floors of the dwelling-houses. There is no furniture to fall against, and nothing about the room to render falling a thing to be feared. After learning the art of walking in the house, the baby’s first attempts out of doors are hampered by the zori or g&ta, — a light straw sandal or small wooden clog attached to the foot by a strap passing between the toes. At the very beginning the sandal or clog is tied to the baby’s foot by bits of string fastened around the ankle, but this provision for security is soon discarded, and the baby patters along like the grown people, holding the getahy the strap passing between the toes. This somewhat cumbersome and inconvenient foot-gear must cause many falls at first, but baby’s experience in the art of balancing upon people’s backs now aids in this new art of balancing upon the little wooden clogs. Babies of two or three trot about quite

JAPANESE GIRLS AND WOJklEN comfortably in geta that seem to give most insecure footing, and older children run, jump, hop on one foot, and play all manner of active games upon heavy clogs that would wrench our ankles and toes out of all possibility of usefulness. This foot-gear, while producing an awkward, shuffling gait, has certain advantages over our own, especially for children whose feet are growing rapidly. The geta, even if outgrown, can never cramp the toes nor compress the ankles. If the foot is too long for the clog the heel laps over behind, but the toes do not suffer, and the use of the geta strengthens the ankles by affording no artificial aid or support, and giving to all the muscles of foot and leg free play, with the foot in a natural position. The toes of the Japanese retain their prehensile qualities to a surprising degree, and are used, not only for grasping the foot-gear, but among mechanics almost like two supplementary hands, to aid in holding the thing worked upon. Each toe knows its work and does it, and they are not reduced to the dull uniformity of motion that characterizes the toes of a leather-shod nation.