Japan and its regeneration

Prefatory Note

This volume is one of a series of text-books primarily intended for mission study classes in institutions of higher learning, but also likely to be largely used by church and young people's mission study circles. This fact will account for its condensed style and for some peculiarities of typography and paragraphing, which have been suggested by five years' experience of the Volunteer Movement's Educational Department.

The subject treated is one of great fascination to every student of history, and especially so to those who are interested in the progress of the Kingdom of God. The reader finds here the story of the most astounding transformation within a few years that can be found in all history, and that, too, in our own generation. While no one can claim that Japan's regeneration, which has scarcely more than begun, is wholly due to the work of Christian Missions, it would be equally untrue to overlook the importance of the missionary factor in these sweeping changes. The aim of this little volume is to exhibit the interworking of the many agencies in this Oriental renaissance and their true relation one to another, as well as to clearly depict the material, social, and religious environment of the Japanese missionary.

The basis of this text-book is the admirable volume entitled " Japan and the Japan Mission," which is published by the Church Missionary Society of London The editor acknowledges most gratefully the kindness of the officers of that Society, who have allowed him to use freely

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PREFATORY NOTE such portions of their book as he chose. While some pages have been transcribed with little if any change, more than half the present volume is wholly new.

As will be seen, the treatment is broad and catholic and the attempt has been made to do equal justice to all leading elements that have entered into Japan's recent wonderful progress. Inasmuch as more than forty Protestant missionary agencies are represented in the Empire, it was manifestly impossible to even summarize the work of each. As was done, however, in the case of the text-book on China, " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang," published in 1898, so it is hoped that missionary boards will issue for use with this text-book special sketches of the work of their own churches in the Island Empire. Such sketches will greatly increase the value of the comprehensive summary found in the present volume.

New York, June 1, 1899.

Contents

PAGE

I. The Land of the Rising Sun, i

II. The People of Japan, ig

II

1. Origin of the Japanese. — i. The difference between two types found among the Japanese people has been described by Dr. Griffis as follows : " Among the upper classes, the fine, long, oval face, with prominent, well-chiselled features, deep-sunken eye-sockets, oblique eyes, long, drooping eyelids, elevated and arched eyebrows, high and narrow forehead, rounded nose, budlike mouth, pointed chin, small hands and feet, contrast strikingly with the round, flattened face, less oblique eyes almost level with the face, and straight noses, expanded and upturned at the roots. The former type prevails among the higher classes — the nobility and gentry; the latter among the agricultural and laboring classes."

2. These types probably represent two streams of immigration. People from Northern Asia may have crossed over from Korea or have entered by way of Saghalien, which is separated from Siberia by a channel only five miles wide that is sometimes left dry by the wind and is frozen over in winter. Some students of the problem' suppose that Southern Japan was peopled by persons who came from the Malay Archipelago. They point to the fact that the Black Stream sometimes brings to Japan shipwrecked sailors who have drifted in their boats from the south. It is thought that these southern immigrants conquered those who had entered from the north, and that in the course of time the races blended so as to form the Japanese people. Other writers oppose the theory of a Malayan immigration. While recognizing that there were two races, they claim that both were Mongolian and probably came by way of Korea or China.

II. The Ainu. — Whatever may be the truth concerning these two sets of immigrants, they probably found the islands already occupied by other people whose origin is unknown. These were the Ainu, or Aino, whom the newcomers gradually forced back into Yezo, where they long maintained independence and their purity of race. A remnant numbering about 17,000 still survives, but they are subject to the Japanese. The Ainu " are the hairiest race in the whole world, their luxuriantly thick black beards and hairy limbs giving them an appearance which contrasts strangely with the smoothness of their Japanese lords and masters. They are of a sturdy build, and distinguished by a flattening of certain bones of the arm and leg — the tibia and humerus — which has been observed nowhere else except in the remains of some of the cave-men of Europe. The women tattoo mustaches on their upper lips and geometrical patterns on their hands. Both sexes are of a mild and amiable disposition, but are terribly addicted to drunkenness. They are filthily dirty, the practice of bathing being altogether unknown. . . . Their religion is a simple nature-worship. The sun, wind, ocean, bear, etc., are deified . . . and whittled sticks are set up in their honor. The bear, though worshipped, is also sacrificed and eaten with solemnities that form the most original and picturesque features of Ainu life." (Chamberlain, " Things Japanese.")

III. Possible Relation between the Japanese and the American Indians. — The Japanese are thought by some to have been the progenitors of the North American Indians and the Mexicans. In some respects the physical characteristics are similar, and it is easy to see that the Black Stream might have borne shipwrecked people across the Pacific. Indeed, it is said that between 1782 and 1876, forty-seven Japanese junks are known to have been cast upon the American coast.

IV. Physical Characteristics of the Japanese. — The average height of Japanese men is about the same as that of European women. The low stature is largely due to shortness of the lower limbs, and, when seated, they do not seem so diminutive as when standing. They are of light weight. With the exception of the professional wrestlers, who look like mountains of fat, very few portly persons are to be seen. The upper and middle classes appear to be physically weak ; but the peasantry have great powers of endurance, even the women carrying heavy burdens upon their heads.

V. Mental Characteristics — i. The Japanese are keenly intelligent. Most of the men and a considerable proportion of the women are able to read books written in a simple style. Even the peasants are interested to know what is going on in the world, their questions and remarks showing much shrewdness and quickness of perception.

2. The people are cheerful and good-natured. They take life in a light-hearted way. With a smile, or sometimes with a laugh, the Japanese will tell of some terrible disaster or bereavement ; yet one who understands the people knows that a heavy heart often lies beneath the cheerful exterior, and that a sympathetic word may lead to a flood of tears. It is often hard to tell whether the laugh that accompanies the narration of bad news comes from nervousness or from the person's feeling that he ought not to let his own sorrow annoy another.

3. It is often said that the Japanese are imitative, but do not have inventive power. The correctness of this assertion may be doubted. It is true that Japan in former times copied what it received from China, and more recently it has adopted or imitated what has come from the West. Yet the copying has not been servile. If an object is placed before a Chinaman and a Japanese with directions to make something like it, the former will produce what can hardly be distinguished from the model. The Japanese, on the other hand, will introduce some ideas of his own. If he understands the use of the article, the change will probably be an improvement. Where there is a chance for variation he does not like to make two things alike. Here we see what is at least allied to a capacity for invention. Tell a country blacksmith or an ordinary mechanic that an instrument is desired for a certain use, and if he once grasps the idea he will show a surprising ability to make something that will serve the desired end.

4. Japanese often lack steadfastness of purpose. They do not like to begin with small things and make them grow to something great. New enterprises must be started with grand opening exercises and great enthusiasm, only to be abandoned when difficulties arise. The Japanese are easily discouraged. The phrase " Shikata ga nai," " There is no help for it," is constantly heard as a reason for discontinuing effort, or even as an excuse for yielding to sin instead of bravely fighting against evil. The people are opportunists, allowing their action to be governed by what will serve the present purpose rather than by great principles. There is little courage in resisting public opinion. " The spirit of the times is unfavorable " is given as a sufficient reason for yielding to evil or failing to uphold what is known to be right.

5. The Japanese are changeable. " There is nothing fixed in Japan except change," was the remark of a keen observer. It may be questioned, however, whether the Japanese are naturally quite so fickle as is generally supposed. It must be remembered that during the last forty years new ideas, theories, sciences, and inventions have poured into the country like a flood. It is no wonder that a people so anxious to receive the benefits of the new civilization have been bewildered, attention being called now in one direction and now in another. The new movements have been largely in the hands of young men, and have lacked the steadying influence that would come from the conservatism natural to age ; for the older people have been disregarded as men hopelessly wedded to the past, or they themselves have recognized their inability to take a leading part in movements that needed the energy and adaptability of youth. When we consider how descendants of the Roman Catholic Christians, though deprived of the outward helps and forms which seem so important an element in their religion, retained their faith through two and a half centuries ; when we see the steady way in which Japanese , statesmen have carried out the programme inaugurated at the time of the Restoration of 1868, we may question whether the Japanese are so fickle as has been alleged, and also whether what was said in the preceding paragraph does not need to be modified by remembrance of many who in the face of great obstacles have persisted in carrying out their purposes.

6. Some one has wittily said that the Japanese are " great in little things, and little in great things." Though such generalizations are likely to be misleading, the currency that this epigram has gained shows that it is not wholly devoid of truth. Japanese artists are skilful in painting flowers, small birds, insects, and tiny bits of scenery; they seldom succeed in their pictures of men, large animals, and broad landscapes. Japanese poetry consists chiefly of diminutive odes of thirty-one syllables that give a mere hint of some poetical thought; nothing has been produced that can be compared with the great epics, dramas, and heroic poems of Europe. In prose literature there is little in which Europeans can find much pleasure, except novels and miscellaneous collections of anecdotes. While the Japanese are ready and pleasing speakers, there have been no great orators.

7. The Japanese are very appreciative of beauty. Even the lower classes take great pleasure in flowers and in natural scenery. Ordinary utensils are often decorated with simple but pleasing ornaments. Japanese art, which has been so enthusiastically welcomed in the West, is the outgrowth of an aesthetic taste that is widely diffused among the people.

8. ' The Japanese are hero-worshippers in both a literal and figurative sense. Shrines are erected to the memory of great warriors and statesmen. School-books and other literature for the young record the deeds of noted men. Children whose filial piety found exaggerated methods of expression are held up as models for those who come after them. One unfortunate result of this, as noted by Mr. Yokoi, is that " the quiet, peaceful performance of daily duties, small and unheroic, but so necessary for the highest social welfare, seemed to fall into comparative neglect." The same mental qualities that make the Japanese worship the heroes of the past make them enthusiastic followers of great leaders in the present. " It is difficult," says Professor G. T. Ladd, " to secure from natives friendship and devotion, or even much steadfast interest, for anyone out of whom they cannot make and maintain a hero."

9. A very valuable study of Japanese characteristics is to be found in the article from which the last quotation is taken, and which appeared in Scribner's Magazine for January, 1895. Professor Ladd accounts for peculiarities and seeming contradictions by saying that the Japanese are of the " sentimental temperament." The distinguish-

JAPAIST AND ITS REGENERATION

Japanese ; for, as the feudal lord was the object of loyalty, the province which he governed was the " country " of his subjects. The revolution of 1868 expanded these narrow views, and readiness to make great sacrifices for Emperor and country has aided national progress and given Japan a great advantage over China, where patriotism is still comparatively unknown. Unfortunately, these patriotic sentiments, all the stronger because of recent growth, have led to an exaggerated nationalism that unduly praises whatever is Japanese, dislikes foreigners, and insists that everything coming from abroad must be thoroughly Japanized before it can be accepted by one who loves his country. This may be but a temporary phenomenon of awakening national consciousness, to be compared with what was seen in Russia, as described by Tourgenieff : " Some young people among us have discovered even a Russian arithmetic. Two and two do indeed make four with us as well as elsewhere, but more pompously it would seem. All this is nothing but the stammering of men who are just awaking." It is sometimes hard to be patient with the childish bumptiousness and self-sufficiency, but better that such offences should come than that the nation should not be aroused to its new life.

2. Filial piety, which is the first principle of Confucian ethics, stands next to loyalty in the estimation of the Japanese. Perhaps " fulfilment of duty toward one's family " would more fully express what is inculcated. It is hard for occidentals to understand how the family or " house " is regarded by the Japanese. It is considered a terrible calamity to have a family come to an end ; it is incumbent upon every one of the members to uphold its honor. Formerly, in obedience to the Confucian maxim, " One cannot live under the same heaven with the slayer of one's lord or father," violent death must be avenged by the nearest relatives. The person who brought disgrace upon his house could be called upon to wipe out the stain by suicide. Twenty-five years ago a mother called before her a son who had become interested in Christianity, placed before him the sword of his dead father, and said : " You are disgracing our family. Promise to have nothing more to do with the foreign religion, or else slay yourself with your father's sword." " Moth-

THE PEOPLE OP JAPAN er," he replied, " I cannot cease to study that which seems to me to be true ; neither can I feel that it is right for me to take the life that Heaven has given me.'' " Then but one thing remains possible," she said, grasping the sword. " I will do what little is in my power to preserve the honor of our house," and it was with difficulty that she was restrained from taking her own life.

Anxiety to keep the family from extinction has increased the prevalence of concubinage. Adoption is also common, not from motives of charity, but to preserve the family name. The person who is adopted or comes into a family by marriage — and men often " marry into the wife's house " — is supposed to transfer to it his obedience and affections. A few years since a young man, who had but a week or two before been adopted, nearly lost his life at sea. In telling of his experiences, he said the one thought that filled his soul was sorrow at the grief his new father would feel on account of his death. So far as his words went, there was nothing to show that he remembered the one who a few days before had been his father. Mr. Yokoi says, " The wife obeys her husband because he is the head of the household; the mother [if a widow] obeys her son because he is the head of the household. The father did the same, if he had resigned his place as the head of the household and was living in retirement." It will thus be seen that filial obedience may sometimes be replaced by paternal obedience.

One unfortunate result of the Japanese view is that when poverty overtakes her family a girl is expected to be willing to give herself to a life of shame in order to provide funds to support her parents. The government requires that the girl shall give her consent; but few would long resist the command of the parent or elder brother, and the transaction practically amounts to her sale to the keeper of a brothel. Japanese literature abounds with tales of daughters who have shown praiseworthy devotion to their parents by voluntarily offering themselves, while other stories tell of men who have sold their wives in order to get means to help aged parents or even impoverished masters. A great difference between Japanese ideas of filial piety and our own is that the former insist upon obedience for the benefit of the parents or the family, while we desire children to be obedient because we believe it will be for their own good.

3. Propriety in conduct is reckoned among the leading virtues. Hence has come much of the courtesy that makes so favorable an impression on travellers, who are, however, somewhat misled by what appears upon the surface. The peasantry are naturally polite. This could hardly be the case without the same being to some extent true of other classes. Yet the emphasis laid upon propriety, whose rules are largely determined by the comparative ranks of the persons concerned, has tended to make etiquette replace real politeness. The inferior is careful to show due respect to his superior and to the one from whom he expects some favor; but a superior is apt to have little regard for those beneath him. He addresses them in contemptuous language and treats them in a way he would not think of using toward those whom he considers his equals. The very words and the terminations of his verbs show how he regards them. The traveller from foreign lands is usually received as a man to be ranked among the upper classes, and he is treated accordingly. Many tourists see only merchants, hotelkeepers, and others who seek their patronage and are therefore very low in their bows. Hence more courtesy is often attributed to the people than they really possess. If the best test of politeness is to be found in the treatment accorded to a person of lower rank than one's own, the Japanese of the upper classes do not deserve all the praise that has been accorded to them.

4. Truthfulness is not a prominent characteristic of the Japanese. Townsend Harris, the first American Minister to Japan, may have gone too far when, after several trying experiences, he pronounced them " the greatest liars upon the face of the earth ; " yet it must be confessed that, while the Japanese have much to say about sincerity as the great duty of one friend to another, they have not emphasized the necessity of what we understand by truthfulness. In books for western children and in the stories that we tell them, this is one of the first virtues inculcated ; but the juvenile and ethical literature of Japan is nearly silent upon the subject. Truth for truth's sake is little valued. Few persons seem abashed if caught in falsehood. Buddhist priests, when talking with educated people, do not hesitate to say that much of what they teach to the masses is only a tissue of pious devices by which they seek to influence men too ignorant to understand the truth.

5. The inculcation of financial honesty by the ethical teachers of Japan has been lessened by the fact that in feudal times the military gentry were taught to despise money and moneymaking. The merchant was considered to belong to the lowest of the recognized classes of society, being inferior to the farmer and the artisan. Since tradesmen were despised and hampered by many restrictions, it is not strange that the code of business ethics was very lax. Within the last few years business methods have been transformed. Many of the gentry and some of the nobility are engaging in trade ; but the influence of old ideas and customs still remains, and it will be long ere a high standard of business morality is established. Foreigners trading in Japan are loud in their complaints against the native merchants, who do not deliver goods equal to the sample nor fulfil contracts that involve them in any loss. The peasantry is, in the main, honest. Domestic servants and other employees are in the habit of taking " squeezes " from what passes through their hands. They also make arrangements with grocers and others for receiving a percentage from all sales. If refused, they will complain to their employers of the quality of goods furnished, or in other ways will cause the patronage to be transferred to some other merchant more ready to divide the profits. While charges of bribery are frequently brought against legislators and others, there appears to be but little of the official peculation that abounds in many oriental lands. The emphasis laid upon loyalty has done much to prevent cheating the government.

6. Outside of Christian circles not much has been done to promote temperance. One of the Buddhist commandments, indeed, forbids the use of intoxicating liquor, and writers on ethics have not wholly overlooked the evils of intemperance; still, public opinion does not frown upon occasional intoxication, and there are few people who do not at times drink to excess. Fortunately, however, except on public holidays and religious festivals, there is but little drunkenness seen on the streets. Most of the drinking takes place in the evening, either at home or in " tea-houses " and other places where companies gather for merry-making. The Japanese, when intoxicated, are seldom quarrelsome. They sing, dance, and are jolly rather than ugly. This may be partly owing to the characteristics of the people and partly to the qualities of the liquor commonly used. This is brewed from rice and is called sake. Some observers think that a change in the actions of intoxicated people can be seen as new kinds of drink are being used. Foreign liquors of various kinds have been introduced ; but most of them are too costly to be purchased by any except the wealthy. Large quantities of cheap alcohol are therefore imported from America and Europe. This is mixed with water, saccharine, and some flavoring substance. It is thought that these artificial drinks produce a more riotous form of intoxication, and they are vastly increasing the evils of intemperance.

Tobacco is not chewed nor used as snuff, but both men and women smoke. Children commence the habit at a very early age. Cigarettes imported from America or manufactured in the country are taking the place of the diminutive Japanese pipes, and their almost universal use by young people works great harm.

7. Chastity is a virtue that public opinion in Japan does not demand in men, nor in unmarried women with any such insistence as prevails in western lands. Licentiousness is the vice that has given the country its most unsavory reputation. There is no strong public sentiment against it. The government licenses houses of illfame and puts its seal on the documents by which girls are delivered over to a life of shame. Concubinage is common among officials and men of wealth. Men and even boys are not ashamed to speak of their immoral deeds. In mixed companies there is a freedom in conversation and story-telling that helps to lower the moral tone of society. Many customs, though not to be judged by our standards, tend to decrease modesty of thought, word, and deed.

Earnest Japanese are recognizing the evil reputation that their country has gained, and are anxious that it may not merit the title, " Land of Licentiousness." The influence of foreign opinion has caused the removal from public gaze of many things that were common at the time of which Professor Chamberlain has written : " Not the loosest of European viveurs, not the lewdest grogshophaunting English Jack-ashore but would have blushed at the really unimaginable indecency which preceded our advent in this country. Why ! until we, the Yokohama, Tokyo, and other foreign residents, came here and had been here long enough for our influence to be generally felt, the very sweetmeats were indecent, the very toys of the children were indecent, the very temples of religion were indecent."

VII. The Position of Woman. — 1. In Japan the position of woman is much higher than in other Asiatic countries. This is the more creditable to the people because Buddhism accords her a very low place, saying that her only hope of salvation is through being re-born as a man. In the history and literature of Japan women have gained great honor. Still, it must be said that from a western standpoint the Japanese woman is not to be envied. Her lot is summarized in " the three obediences " — while unmarried, obedience to her father; when married, obedience to her husband ; when widowed, obedience to her son.

2. " The Great Learning for Woman," a treatise composed by the celebrated moralist, Kaibara, gives the ideas that have prevailed in Japan. A few extracts from Professor Chamberlain's translation will show their general spirit :

" The only qualities that befit a woman are gentle obedience, chastity, mercy, and quietness.

" It is the chief duty of a girl living in the parental house to practise filial piety toward her father and mother. But after marriage her chief duty is to honor her fatherin-law and mother-in-law — to honor them beyond her own father and mother — to love and reverence them with all ardor, and to tend them with every practice of filial piety.

" A woman has no particular lord. She must look to her husband as her lord, and must serve him with all worship and reverence, not despising or thinking lightly of him. The great life-long duty of woman is obedience.

" The five worst maladies that afflict the female mind are indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy, and silliness. Without any doubt, these five maladies infest seven or eight out of every ten women, and it is from these that arises the inferiority of women to men. A woman should cure them by self-inspection and self-reproach.

" We are told that it was the custom of the ancients, on the birth of a female child, to let it lie on the floor for the space of three days. Even in this may be seen the likening of the man to Heaven and of the woman to Earth ; and the custom should teach a woman how necessary it is for her in everything to yield to her husband the first, and to be herself content with the second, place."

3. The book enumerates the faults that are termed the " Seven Reasons for Divorce." They are disobedience to parents-in-law, barrenness, lewdness, jealousy, leprosy, garrulity, and theft. Though divorce is not so common as formerly, there were, in 1894, 114,436 divorces to 361,- 319 marriages. The marriage customs doubtless have much to do with the frequency of divorce, matches being usually arranged by a " go-between," who is requested by a young man's parents to find a wife for their son. There is little opportunity for the young people to become acquainted before marriage, and sometimes they do not see each other until the wedding-day. It is not strange that divorces often follow marriages arranged in such a way. Very often incompatibility between the bride and her mother-in-law causes separation between a husband and wife who are well satisfied with each other.

4. Western ideas are doing much to make the lot of Japanese women easier. They are not shut up so closely in their homes, and a larger proportion of them is being educated, though outside of Christian schools there are but few educational institutions of the higher grades that are open to them. A gratifying advance in connection with the ordinary public schools is shown by the statistics which tell us that whereas, in 1873, only forty per cent, of the boys and fifteen per cent, of the girls were in school, in 1896 the attendance had risen to seventy-nine and forty-eight per cent., respectively.