Japan; country, court, and people

Front matter

JAPAN REFERENCE

LIBRARY -o-

NEW YORK

Introduction

The writer of this book has taken advantage of the opportunities afforded him, while resident in Japan as missionary and engaged in educational work, to gather material for a comprehensive view of the country, court, and people. The enforced leisure of a couple of years has enabled him to put it in shape and offer it as a contribution to a better understanding of that far Eastern nation. The expedition of Commodore Perry, which in 1854 opened the country to foreign intercourse, awakened interest in the character, conditions, and possible future of the people. This interest has been intensified by the war with China and the entrance of Japan, under the operation of new treaties, into the community of civilized nations. It is impossible as yet to forecast the farreaching results of these events. They have already profoundly affected the life of the nation, and, in the nature of the case, must influence its political and commercial and even its religious relations with the Western world.

It must be borne in mind that it is still substantially a heathen nation. The court and the people adhere to the old faiths, with their attendant superstitions and consequent degradation of character and life. It is true that there are many individual instances of emancipation from this bondage; and it may even be said that there is a widespread, uneasy sense of the inadequacy of the ancient beliefs and worship to satisfy the requirements of the new and broader life of these later years. It may be considered a period of transition. But it is to be expected, it may be reckoned as certain, that strenuous effort will be made to reconcile these larger relations Avith the outside world and the higher forms of thinking and living required by them with the terms of the old religions. The old problems worked out in ancient civilizations to their inevitable issues in disaster and ruin are to be tried again under new conditions. The result cannot be in doubt. Meantime it behooves us especially of this Western world to give

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x jai-an: country, court, people.

close and careful Reed to the movements in this great national drama, to get as true and thorough insight as possible into the characters and conditions involved and to have ourselves in readiness by all honorable and Christian means to aid in the development of Japan and the establishment of its government and social life upon foundations of righteousness and truth, the only foundations which can insure perpetuity. The gospel has done much in this behalf, but far more remains to be done. We need to put in living association with these people the finest forms of Christian life and the best products of Christian thought. The forces of Christian zeal directed and controlled by knowledge are called for; and both zeal and knowledge require a genuine, Christlike sympathy. It is the purpose of this book to help in all these directions. It is not intended to supplant the more elaborate works which deal with the same material. It is designed to bring all that is essential to a right understanding of the country, court, and people of Japan in comparatively small compass within reach of all who take interest in the future of the race and establishment of the. kingdom of God. It is sent forth with the earnest prayer that it may move many to more active and personal participation in this vast work of the Church of God. A. W. Wilson.

Baltimore, Md., November 29, 1899.

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PART I. The Country. page

I. Japan: Where Is It? 1

II. Japan: Its Physiography 5

III. The Flora 17

IV. The Fauna 25

V. Fish in Japanese Waters 33

VI. TheMinerals : 34

Part II Chapter I

Mythical and Prehistoric Period — From an Unknown Beginning to 400 A.D.

I. Origin of the World, Gods, and Men 37

II. Racial Origins of the Japanese 41

III. Primitive Life of the People 42

IV. The Primitive Religion 47

V. Political Ideas and Manner of Rule 54

CHAPTER n.

Civilization from the Continent Brought In. I. Introduction of Buddhism and Confucianism 58

II. The Chinese Learning 69

HI. Influence of New Religion and Learning at Court ... 72

Chapter III

Rise of Military Nobles with Their Clans — Overthrow of the Court Nobles — War of White and Red Roses. I. Foundations of Feudalism Laid 83

II. General Progress of Civilization in This Period 92

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xiv japan: country, court, people.

Chapter IV

Shoguns in Power — Emperors Held Down — Civil Wars of Military Lords (1192-1603). PAGIC

I. The Duarchy Explained 97

II. Yoritorno's Feudal System 98

III. Christianity Enters 104

IV. The Spread of Christianity in This Period 112

V. Hideyoshi the Great — Invasion of Korea — Opposition

to the Christians 114

VI. Progress of Civilization During This Period 122

CHAPTER V. Feudalism Settled under the Tokugawa Shoguns — Yedo

the New Military Capital — The Last of

the Christians (1603-38).

I. Founding of the Tokugawa Dynasty 128

II. The Tokugawa Era Described 133

1. A Period of Peace : 133

2. An Era of Unification 133

3. Stained with Bloody Persecution of the Chris-

tians (Catholics) 135

IH. Following Portuguese Example, Spaniards, Dutch, and English Seek Trade with Japan; Finally All Are Excluded Except Dutch 142

Chapter VI

A Hermit JJation — Civilization of This Period of National Seclusion (1638-1854).

I. The People — Characteristics 153

II. Modes of Living and Working — Strange Ways 154

III. Ranks and Classes of Society 170

IV. Customs and Manners 177

V. Farming 205

1. Rice Growing 207

2. Tea Raising and Curing 210

3. Tobacco and the Japan ese Pipe 215

4. Silk Culture 216

VI. At a Japanese Inn in the Olden Time 222

VII. A Great Daimyo's Retinue in the Olden Time 225

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter I

Japan in Modern History (1854-1900). Preparations for the Great Change from Old to

New Japan 280

I. The Opening of the Country (1854) by Perry, the

American 281

II. Townsend Harris, Another American in Japan 292

III. Stormy Seas 304

IV. War of Revolution and Restoration (1868) 315

V. Christianity Again Comes In 322

CHAPTER II. The New Japan

I. Laying New Foundations — New State 333

II. Foundation Laying of the Christian Church (1873-89).. 357

CHAPTER III. Later Developments (1889-99.)

The First Parliament (1893) 383

The War with China (1894) 385

XVI JAPAN: COUNTKY, COURT, PEOPLE.

PAGE

The Results of the War: Expansion of Foreign Trade — Internal Improvements — Anti-Christian Feeling under Form of Nationalism, Reenforeed by Scientific Skepticism 389

New Treaties, July 17, 1899 398

Turning Again to the Truth 400

CHAPTER rV.

Intercourse and Friendship between the United States and Japan.

Diplomatic and Commercial Relations 402

Early Educational Influences Chiefly American 405

CHAPTER V. The Future

Will Become a Christian Nation — Creed not Sectarian — Reform in the Orient — Her Future Intercourse and Trade with the United States, and What This Should Mean for Asia 414

JAPAN: COUNTRY, COURT, PEOPLE.

Part I. The Country

I. Japan : Where Is It?

Japan is an island empire. It has more than one thousand islands, large and small. Looking at the map of the Eastern Hemisphere, we see that these islands, in the form of a crescent, lie in the North Pacific Ocean, off the eastern shores of Asia. On the north it is separated from Siberian Russia by the Okhotsk Sea; on the west, from Korea by the Japan Sea, and from China by the Yellow Sea; while on the south and east it. is washed by the Pacific Ocean, which spreads its vast expanse of waters to our American shores.

Looking across the map to the Western Hemisphere, we notice a similarity of position between Great Britain and " Great Nippon,"* with respect to Europe and Asia respectively. Great Britain, lying in the North Atlantic, fronts the coast of Europe; Japan, in the North Pacific, fronts Asia. Both are island empires of small size; both close to the continental mainland, but not of it, and evidently intended to be the great gateways

*The Japanese name of their country, called by foreigners Japan, is Dai Nippon, and means the "Great Nippon."

2 japan: countby, coukt, people.

of commerce from the Atlantic into Europe, and from the Pacific into Asia, respectively.

Without desiring to make too much of this point of geographical situation, Japan's place on the map of the world is greatly to her advantage in the ever- increasing trade and travel between America and the far East.

No other country is so long and narrow as Japan. Stretching like a sea serpent from the Kurile chain of islands in the northeast (see map) to the end of Formosa, south of the Yellow Sea and near Southern China, the distance is about two thousand five hundred miles; "but the average width is only one hundred miles. The whole area, Formosa and the Riukius included, is about one hundred and sixty thousand square miles, being equal to New York, Pennsylvania, and the two Virginias. The Riukius, once under the authority of China, passed many years ago under Japan's dominion; and Formosa, likewise, was ceded to her at the close of the recent Japan-China war.

Again glancing along the map from the Aleutian Group, possessions of the United States in the North Pacific, the eye passes right along the whole length of the Japanese sea serpent down to far Formosa, north of the Philippines; so that both on the northeastern and the southwestern ends of her island dominions Japan almost touches American possessions. A further look at the geography, and we see that the long, slender archipelago which we name Japan is really only one section of a series of island groups that stretch from the Malay Peninsula, south of India, to Bering Sea. Japan, then, is a portion of the immensely long ladder laid down by the Almighty upon the ocean and connecting Southern India with northern North America. Each island is a round in the gigantic ladder, the like of

JAPAN: WHERE IS IT? 3

which is not found elsewhere in the world's geogrr.phy. When the writer first went to Japan, the time by ship from San Francisco was twenty days. It is now reduced to fifteen; and from Vancouver, B. C, it is only thirteen. When the Nicaragua Canal shall have been cut through, the distance between our Atlantic Gulf Coast and Japan will be shortened. The time from New York via Nicaragua will then be the same as that from Liverpool via the Suez Canal.

SCENE ON THE INLAND SEA.

There are in the Japan Archipelago four principal islands, whose names and position it is important to remember: Honshiu, the main island, and lying in the center; Yezo (Hokkaido), northeast of Honshiu; Shikoku, south, and Kiushiu, southwest, respectively, of the outstretched foot of Honshiu. The last two named are separated from Honshiu by the Inland Sea, far famed for its picturesque beauty. This sea is about six hundred miles long from east to west.

JAPAN: ITS PHYSIOGRAPHY. 5

In American history we locate on the map the early colonies, as Massachusetts, Virginia, and the Carolinas, and we are glad to offer to our readers here a map of Japan. By the aid of the map we not only locate the four principal islands just named, but also the Riukius and Formosa. We note, too, how Japan almost touches Russia in the north, and that Korea, a peninsula of the continent, is just next door to Japan's west coast. These geographical facts all have meaning that will appear later.

The chief cities are Tokyo, formerly Yedo, the present capital, with a population of 1,250,000; Kioto, the old capital, three hundred and twenty-nine miles southwest, with a population of 280,000; Osaka, forty-seven miles farther southwest, with a population of 500,000, and in domestic trade and manufactures the chief city of the empire; besides many others not named here, varying in population from 200,000 down to 25,000 people. Then there are the five treaty ports: Yokohama, on Tokyo Bay, and the port of the capital for foreign commerce; Hakodate, on the Yezo side of the Tsuruga Channel; Niigata, on the west coast, a small place; Kobe, near the eastern mouth of the Inland Sea, next to Yokohama the largest port for foreign ships and trade; and Nagasaki, on the western end of Kiushiu. Nagasaki is the nearest port to Shanghai, Hongkong, and Korea.

Besides the Inland Sea, there is another inland body of water, Lake Biwa, eight miles from Kioto, and famous in Japanese legend, literature, and war.

II. Japan: Its Physiography.

It is a land of mountains. The general direction of the mountain chains is southwest and northeast, with japan: its physiography. Y

short ranges and spurs thrown off abruptly on either side of the long backbone. The mountains gradually increase in height as one comes from Yezo in the north, or Kiushiu in the south, toward the center of the main island, where Mount Fuji, the sacred mountain of the people, and a few other peaks are truly Alpine. The mountains are not so lofty nor so majestic as the great Rockies, nor are they equal to the mountains of Western North Carolina along the French Broad, and yet there is an indescribable charm about the mountain scenery of Japan that must be seen to be appreciated. Unlike the Blue Ridge, the mountains are broken up more frequently into single peaks, making many deep gorges and narrow valleys. One is almost always in sight of mountain and sea. As the mountains rise near the seashore, the plains are not wide, though the plain of Kwanto and one or two others are exceptions. Kwanto (formerly designated Eastern Japan) includes several provinces. Tokyo is in this plain.

Japan has been called the Switzerland of Asia; and while her mountains may not be so majestic, yet, with her seas, bays, and capes, and hundreds of islets sown on every hand, she is much more than Switzerland; for she combines the scenery of the seashore, the island, and the mountain in many striking and picturesque ways. Her coast lines are much indented, giving unexpected turns to the contour of the land and sea lines.

Her coast ranges and island summits, even when almost bare of forest, are clothed with peculiar beauty and freshness under the ever-varying tint of sunshine, sky, and water, and seem a picture larger drawn than any human artist can paint.

"The landscape of modern Japan is one of minute prettiness. It is one continuous succession of mountains

8 JAPAN: COUNTKY, COUKT, PEOPLE.

and valleys. The irregularities of the surface render it picturesque, and the labors of centuries have brought almost every inch of the cultivable soil in the populous districts into a state of high agricultural finish. The face of nature has been smoothed; the unkempt luxuriance of forest and undergrowth has been sobered." (Griffis's "Mikado's Empire," p. 90.)

The rivers are all short and rapid, no stream being navigable for five hundred miles. This lack of long and navigable streams would be a calamity but for the numerous inlets and windings of the seacoast — bays, capes, peninsulas, promontories affording good harbors for all kinds of shipping, from the little fishing boats to be counted by the hundreds, to the great ocean steamers that sail from San Francisco to Kobe and Shanghai. Japan is evidently marked out for a great home trade as well as foreign trade. The fact that only one-eighth of the area is tillable proves what was said above: that it is a country of steep mountains and narrow plains.

No one living in the country for a while needs to be told that it is a land of volcanoes and earthquakes. There are hundreds of extinct volcanoes, and eighteen are now active. In fact, Japan is a slender volcanic rim of land, the volcanoes being huge funnels turned upside down, the craters being the vents whence at any time may burst forth the pent-up fires below. At intervals during the centuries streams of lava have flamed out from those gigantic funnels, flowing down the heights and into the neighboring valleys, while great volumes of steam were driving clouds of ashes upward or shooting masses of hot stone high into the air, obscuring the sun by day or the moon by night and darkening the heavens, or else ever and anon lighting them with billowy flames of awful portent. Sometimes the ashes

JAPAN: ITS PHYSIOGRAPHY. 9

and stones are seized by the winds and driven to a great distance. No one can tell when a volcano is going to hurst forth or an earthquake make the earth to tremble. Whether entirely dead apparently, or whether at the bottom of the crater the water is scarcely boiling, and sulphurous fumes slowly rising, in either case there may be a sudden breaking forth of fiery forces that will spread death all around and strike terror to the hearts of the few men or beasts who may have escaped with their lives. One thing we know: there is some kind of connection between the earthquakes and the volcanoes. That is, when there has been a period of frequent earthquakes, if the fires locked up under the ground can find vent through some volcanic eruption, then the earthquakes cease. When the writer resided in Tokyo, ten years ago, there was a period of unusual earthquake activity by day and by night. Before breakfast and between meals, and in the night we were often suddenly aroused by the shaking of the bed and other disturbances of the house; but suddenly they ceased. The reason, as we learned, was that a volcano had broken forth in that region of Japan.

Fuji Yama (yama, "mountain"), rising majestically from the plain of Quanto, sixty miles south of Tokyo, is over twelve thousand feet high. This snow-headed giant, like a proud monarch unconquered, lifting its head far above all the surrounding plain and away up into the clouds, and looking so solid, massive, and restful, has more than once been the scene of terrible fires and smoke bursting out from its hidden depths. The last eruption occurred in 1707. We are told how at that time the floating clouds of ashes turned day into night, how the red-hot stones flew hissing through the air, and of fields, temples, and villages that were covered with debris.

JAPAN: ITS PHYSIOGRAPHY. 11

Mount Fuji is visible from Tokyo, and is truly magnificent, looming up across the distant spaces in solitary grandeur. From the decks of ships entering the Bay of Tokyo, or sailing southward along the coast from Yokohama to Kobe, passengers are always eager to get a glimpse of the celebrated mountain. If the sky is clear, no one is disappointed. To the Japanese it is a sacred mount, and hundreds of pious pilgrims visit yearly the temple built upon it, thinking it the privilege of a lifetime to worship the rising sun from that sacred place so high above the sordid world beneath. Standing guard over all the provinces of the Kwanto plain, and covered with perpetual snow, it has been the frequent subject of poems and romances, and draws to itself the admiration of the whole nation. It is the embodiment of their idea of grace, simplicity, peace, and grandeur, as the following lines show:

There on the border, where land of Kahi

Doth touch the frontier of Suruga's land,

A beauteous province stretching on either hand;

The clouds of heaven in reverent wonder pause,

Nor may the birds those giddy heights essay,

Or thy fierce fires be quenched beneath the snow;

What name might fitly tell, what accents sing,

Thine awful, godlike grandeur?

'Tis thy breast

That holdeth Narusha's flood at rest,

Thy side, whence Tusikawa's waters spring;

Great Fujiyama, towering to mortal men,

A god — protector watching o'er all Japan,

On thee forever let me feast mine eyes.

("Manyoshu," translated by Prof. Chamberlain.)

The south side of Mt. Fuji slopes right down to the sea, and is not accessible. The circumference of the base is sixty-five miles, and scattered around it are five lakes. Toward the summit there is a series of crests till you reach the highest one, which is an enormous rim surrounding the crater. Being an extinct volcano, there is inside the crater a level space of about two and one-half square miles, with a sink in the center, from the bottom of which slowly escapes green vapor or steam. According to legend, Fuji rose up in a single night, while according to the same legend, Lake Biwa, near Kioto, was formed the same night by a great sinking of the ground. Probably false, it is to them a beautiful legend that their grandest mountain and most beautiful lake were both born in a night. Fujiyama, once seen, is never forgotten. The impression always made upon the writer whenever he has gazed upon it is that of calm majesty. Surrounded by the struggling world, in sight of the foaming, beating waves of the sea, Mount Fuji seems ever peaceful, strong, sublime.

The earthquake is sometimes only less awful and destructive than the volcanic eruption. ' ' They are events, " says Rein, "against which man can in no way prepare himself. They are of all grades as to movement and force, from the slight tremor scarcely perceived by a busy person to the violent shock that shatters rocks, upheaves the earth or suddenly sinks the ground, and lays villages and towns in ruins." According to a mythical story believed in by the lower classes, there is in the great deep a giant fish which in its anger strikes against the coast, making the land to tremble. According to another belief, a great monster is under Japan, whose gyrations shake the land.

The story of the earthquakes and the havoc wrought by them from 685 A.D. to the last one in 1892 is a terrible chapter. The traditions teem with them. In 1703 an earthquake, followed by a great fire, destroyed nearly japan: its physiography. 13

all of Tedo (Tokyo); and in 1830 Kioto was visited by an earthquake that roared like thunder, overturning most of the houses and killing thousands of people. Again, in 1855, Yedo was destroyed by earthquakes, the horrors of which still live in the minds of the oldest people. It is said that over one hundred thousand people perished and the city was turned into ruins.

The last destructive earthquake, in 1892, was in the region of Grifu, Osaka, and other cities on the Imperial railway from Tokyo to Kobe. This earthquake caused all sorts of strange and terrible things, rumbling noises underground, openings in the earth, upheavals in one place and sinkings in another, breaking of river embankments, twisting of railroad bridges, the scattering of sand and mud over the rice fields, the overturning of houses, followed by a fire that consumed them, many people being caught by falling timbers. Houses demolished, 62,091; people killed or wounded, 9,330. A fire usually follows such violent earthquakes, for the reason that when the house is overturned the fire box, or brasier, nearly always ignites the light, combustible material inside Japanese dwellings. The result is that many who are caught or stunned by the falling debris are burned to death.

The writer remembers distinctly the earthquake just mentioned. It extended south as far as Kobe, but with less violence. It was in the early morning, and he was saying his prayers. Having experienced many such a few years before in Tokyo, he was at first not inclined to be disturbed, but in an instant the shaking became too violent for edifying devotions — a rush was made into the open. The teees were shaking and the ground was undulating like a field of waving wheat under the blowing of the wind. It was a frightful time, but was soon over.

Japan is also subject to inundations. In 1895 the

14 japan: countky, court, people.

coast northward of Sendai was visited by an awful flooding from the sea that swept away scores of fishermen's villages and destroyed about thirty thousand people ! Off that coast, under the sea, was a mighty upheaval that threw the waves mountain high upon the land with force strong enough to sweep away every village. Repeated two or three times, as the tidal waves receded they carried out into the sea people and houses. It is a fact not generally known in this country that the violent earthquakes and upheavals send a tremor half around the globe, and that Prof. Millne's earthquake instruments in England registered a slight movement. This shows that the whole earth is connected inside by electric or other equally mysterious currents. These awful natural evils, as earthquakes, volcanoes, and inundations, like many other things that afflict ?nd destroy t\sn, are hard to be understood.

The hot springs of Japan are unrivaled by thos of any other] country. They are distributed in every section from north to south, the sulphur springs being more numerous in the districts of volcanoes. Some of them are very hot, and in a few of them there is a hissing sound and sulphur vapors, reminders of once-active volcanoes. In some instances there are cracks in the earth from which issue hot fumes where Japanese invalids sit for hours, hoping for cures. To the superstitious these openings in the earth are connected with the ' ' bad place " down below and are so named; for example, atBeppu, in Kiushiu, one is named o-jigohc (" great hell "); another, Jco-jigoku (" little hell "). The most frequented are at Arima, in the mountains back of Kobe. Thither many invalids flock every season, either to drink the cold mineral waters or bathe in the hot, and both are good for divers ailments.

japan: its physiogeaphy. 15

The climate of Japan, as in every other country, is an important factor in the life of its people. It affects vegetation more than any other one thing. As compared with the United States, the atmosphere is very damp, a result due to the existence of so many islands immediately surrounded by seas. In consequence the summer heat is sultry, oppressive; the winter cold is raw and pierces into the bones. Thus the extremes of heat and cold, though not so marked by the thermometer, are keenly felt by the body. There is a lack of thunder and thunderstorms, due, it is said, to the lack of electricity in the atmosphere. Whether this be true or not, there is a lack of something which the student is accustomed to in America, and which he finds needful to sustain his nervous energies in hard study. Not only do foreigners, but Japanese students as well, have much trouble from the " sick head."

There are also wide extremes of climate between sections not two hundred and fifty miles apart. For instance, the southern coasts are almost tropical, while the northwest coast is in winter piled with snow ten to twelve feet deep. The northwest coast is swept by currents from the Okhotsk Sea and by winds from Siberia (messengers of the frigid zone), chilling the moisture into snow; whereas the south and southeast coasts are warmed by the Black Current (Kuroshio), that rises in the hot, equatorial regions. This warm current, so similar to the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic both as to its origin and characteristics, flows northward by the island of Formosa, strikes the southern shores of Kiushiu, where its main stream bends eastward, flows along the eastern coast of Japan till it turns again in a more easterly direction, passing along south of the Aleutian Islands and on toward the coasts of North America.

The Black Current is so named "because in the sunshine its waters are blue, which the Japanese sailors do not distinguish from black. Its temperature, speed, and volume all decrease as it flows northward. Originating, like our Gulf Stream, in .equatorial regions, and taking direction from the earth's turning on its axis and certain projecting coasts, influenced, too, by the monsoons, this warm, black current is worth millions to Japan, just as the Gulf Stream is to England. It helps to make a semitropical climate and productions along the southeast coast.

Winds also have much to do with climate. The northeast winds from Siberia and the northeastern from the Kuriles are freighted with cold, whereas the south and southeastern winds are heat bringers. There is a wind, called the typhoon, dreaded of all sailors. It originates somewhere in the region of the Philippines (see map), and prevails in August and September. It has a circular movement around a moving center, and if a ship is caught too near that center, woe is unto it. At Kobe, where it is less severe, the writer has known it to blow at intervals for several days in one direction. Occasionally whole fleets of fishing boats are wrecked in these cyclones of the sea, and great ocean steamers do not always escape unhurt.

The one delightful season in Japan is the autumn, say from September 15 to December 15. During this period the weather is simply unsurpassed. It would be difficult to imagine how it could in any way be improved. The sky is usually perfectly clear, atmosphere bracing; and the glorious sunshine, reflected from the sea, or touching the neighboring mountains with empyreal splendor, baptizes the whole landscape with a wealth of varying tints and shadows of yellow brown

THE FLORA. 17

grass, reddened leaf, overarching sky, and changing tides. The scene is varied yet again by temple groves of pines, clumps of waving bamboo, and evergreen camellias and palms that dot the landscape.