Japanning

“ He there informs us that “though many Japanese of the highest distinction, and intimately acquainted with matters of government, still consider Japan as the first empire of the world, and care but little for what passes out of it, yet such persons are denominated by the more enlightened I no uchi no Kayeru,—that is, ‘Frogs in a well,’—a metaphorical expression, which signifies that when they look up they can see no more of the sky than what the small circumference of the well allows them to perceive.” ”

“ But the rare charm of Japanese life, so different from that of all other lands, is not to be found in its Europeanized circles. It is to be found among the great common people, who represent in Japan, as in all countries, the national virtues, and who still cling to their delightful old customs, their picturesque dresses, their Buddhist images, their household shrines, their beautiful and touching worship of ancestors. ”

“ It is at once the centre of business, and the scene of uproar, riot, and confusion. In the comparative nakedness of the women, in the noise and violence of the shopkeepers, in the litter of the streets, there is nothing to suggest the delicate culture of Japan. The modesty, cleanliness, and politeness, so characteristic of the Japanese, are conspicuously absent in their settlements in this country. ”

“ He enumerated as vendible in Japan for ready money, raw silk, damask, black taffetas, black and red cloth of the best kinds, lead, etc. To a somewhat exaggerated, and otherwise not very correct account of the extent and the geography of the Japanese dominions, he added the following description of the inhabitants: “The people of this island of Japan are good of nature, courteous above measure, and valiant in war. Their justice is severely executed, and without partiality, upon transgressors. ”

“ Without laying any stress upon the traditional way among the Japanese of ascribing all manner of success and prosperity to the virtues of the Emperor, it is simple matter of historical fact that the patience, wisdom, and benevolence of their present ruler are, either directly or indirectly, responsible for the escaping of much evil and the securing of much good on the nation’s behalf. Japan has been guided out of the old era into the new by a very remarkable body of men ”

“ It will be interesting to watch what the next few years will bring about; whether the236 kimono will triumph over the trousers, the tea over the beer, or whether there will be a gradual mingling into a new type. The whole thing may be but a temporary mania, a passing aberration of a quickly assimilative people; and perhaps in a few years the progressive Japanese will see the folly of his ways, and learn that he can best advance after a manner of his own. ”

“ The Japanese are so incapable of a gaucherie that we do not appreciate their very extensive capacity for folly.
A Japanese woman in the thick of the fight! Her kimono well tucked up from her little dimpled feet. Her obi bulging with cartridges! A knapsack rubbing corns on the sweet, stooped, brown shoulders! Armed cap-à-pie! A plumed helmet crushing down the elaborate shape of her perfumed coiffure! A sword hitting roughly against the warm limb, to which bright-eyed, brown children have been wont to gently cling! ”

“ It is highly probable that in those days the Japanese lived up and down the country, disposed in hordes (as do the Scythian inhabitants of Great Tartary) separated from the rest of the world by a rocky tempestuous sea, being as yet in a state of nature and freedom, without a settled form of government, and destitute of arts and sciences. The neighbouring Empire of China was then already grown very powerful, arts and sciences flourished there and were by the Chinese brought over into Japan. It was owing to this that the Japanese became in time polite and civilised. ”

“ Let us, then, drop all idea of the Chinese, and suppose that that race can be put aside in our consideration of the prehistoric Japanese without glaring unnaturalness. Still the question remains unsettled, whether the bulk of our ancestors from the continent contained within it the ruling class, who gave a unity to the heterogeneous population of this Island Empire. One would say that a certain stock among many, who had their abode in northeastern Asia, might have become predominant over the kindred people of various stocks settled previously in Japan. ”

“ In former ages the Japanese were a barbarous insular people, and as in our own civilization the traditions and habits of rude Aryan ancestors still color our fundamental thoughts so in Japan we find evidences of a culture essentially similar to that of the Pacific Islands of to-day. The ancient ancestor worship of Japan is strangely like that of the tropical Pacific with its gods, the ghosts of long departed chiefs, and its high chief a living god to-day. ”

“ Western young ladies are cautious enough. But, nevertheless, there is a slight danger of the name of Japan being taken advantage of. I heard a story only the other day that in California some Chinese cut off their plaits and dressed in European costumes while they were staying at an hotel, and were passing themselves off as Japanese. They were discovered when a real Japanese addressed them in his language, to which they were unable to reply. I have heard of another incident which took place in a town in the north of England. ”

“ No impartial historian would fail to observe that there is some capacity [Pg 10] not borrowed but inborn in the Japanese people, by force of which they were able to consolidate themselves as a compact nation, possessing striking characteristics quite different from those of China. And it is especially to be noted to the honour of the Japanese, that the more we helped ourselves to Chinese culture, the wider became the divergence between the two countries. Could such a way of introducing an alien civilisation be designated a servile imitation? ”

“ The behavior of the Japanese, from the meanest countryman up to the greatest prince or lord, is such that the whole empire might be called a school of civility and good manners. They have so much sense and innate curiosity, that, if they were not absolutely denied a free and open conversation and correspondence with foreigners, they would receive them with the utmost kindness and pleasure. ”

“ What a youth has been at home in his habits of thought, in his purpose and spirit and in their manifestation in action, will largely determine his after-life. In like manner the mental and moral history of Japan has so stamped certain characteristics on her language, on her thought, and above all on her temperament and character, that, however she may strive to Westernize herself, it is impossible for her to obliterate her Oriental features. She will inevitably and always remain Japanese.
Japan has already produced an Occidento-Oriental civilization. ”

“ Besides, any one who pays even but cursory attention to the physical features of the Japanese can easily discern that, besides those who might be regarded as of a genuine Korean or Chinese type, there are many among them who have a physiognomy quite different from either the Korean or the Chinese, though one might be at a loss to tell exactly whether the tincture of the Malayan, Polynesian, or Melanesian blood is predominant. In face of such diversity, too clear to be neglected, none would be bold enough to assert that the Japanese has been a homogeneous race from the beginning. ”

“ Then began such a story of Japan and of Tokio that the past lived and the present blossomed for them. The Japanese, he said, had never been a roving people. They did not live by conquest. Japan’s rulers are well beloved, guiding their industrious subjects with kindly wisdom, as they forge ahead in agriculture and the arts on a high plane of civilization. Centuries ago, while all the rest of the world was new and racked by conflict, civil and foreign, the Japanese were taught to read and write. ”

“ On the other hand, all our materially useful inventions are already shared by his countrymen, who work them—if not quite as well—at any rate more cheaply than we do, and in ways more suitable to their peculiar needs. For all these and yet other reasons, Europe and America make a far less favourable impression on the Japanese visitor than seems to be generally expected. Be he statesman or be he valet, he is apt to return to his native land more patriotic than he left it. ”

“ On a memorable occasion twelve years ago, when Marquis Ito was entertained at a banquet in Peking by the governor of the city and the chancellor of the Imperial University, I congratulated him on the fact that "Japan exerts a stronger influence on China than any Western power—just as the moon raises a higher tide than the more distant sun"—implying, what the Japanese are ready enough to admit, that their country shines by borrowed light. ”

“ The Japanese are a nation of wonderful natural gifts. Honor, enterprise, submission, accessibility to new ideas, powers of imitation and invention, make them the leaders of the Orient. Steamships of twenty-two thousand tons, and equal to any Atlantic Cunarders, yet built in their own dockyards by shipwrights who twenty years ago knew nothing of their trade, are a proof of extraordinary plasticity and ability. Civilization and Christianity may find new expression, if the Japanese are subdued by the Cross of Christ. ”

“ The thoroughness of the Japanese is well known. Their intelligence, enterprise, and up-to-dateness have been illustrated many times in the arts of peace and in the science of war. In this one particular principle of concentration in study, and single mindedness in the enjoyment of beautiful things, the Japanese may well be taken as a model for the rest of mankind. ”

“ Were we to admit for the sake of argument that the Japanese people were far superior in intelligence to the other people of Asia, or that they possessed a peculiar characteristic which impelled them to the adoption of the Western civilization, or even both, our position will not be altered, for the progressive idea of Japan has already reached across the sea to the continent of Asia, giving rise to an event in Korea. ”

“ The deepest impression made upon me by the Japanese was that they are all so active, healthy, and strong; always good-tempered, their manners are exquisite, even the plain people bowing to each other, and many young people saluted me on the street. The infinite variety in their shops is noticeable. ”

“ The reception of foreign learning by the Chinese people differs from its reception by the Japanese. Japan is a small country, and moreover possesses no learning which is really its own. Therefore, if such learning arrives from without, the Japanese rush to it as though on galloping horses, change as rapidly as echo follows sound, and in the twinkling of an eye the whole nation is transformed. ”

“ How shallow, after all, the tiny paths are, no man may know; for who can penetrate the [pg 17] mystery of Japanese life and character—a mystery that has been deepening for a thousand years. Here is the chief lodge of the Order of Sealed Lips the world over, and every man, woman, and child in the empire seems born a life-member. It may be Japan who will clasp the hands of the Saxon across this Far East. ”

“ On a cold day one would imagine the Japanese were a nation of armless people. They fold their arms up in their long, loose sleeves. A Japanese woman's sleeves are to her what a boy's pockets are to him. Her cards, money, combs, hair pins, ornaments and rice paper are carried in her sleeves. Her rice paper is her handkerchief, and she notes with horror and disgust that after using we return our handkerchiefs to our pockets. I think the Japanese women carry everything in their sleeves, even their hearts. ”

“ The character of the Japanese underwent very marked modification during the first sixteen centuries of their history. At the time of their arrival as invaders they were hardy, fierce people, fond of fighting and ready to reduce to slavery every one that they overcame by force of arms. But by degrees the comparatively genial climate of their new home, its soft scenery, the introduction of Chinese civilisation with its endless codes of ceremony and etiquette, and the spread of a literature which occupied itself chiefly with tender sentiments and scenic charms, produced enervating effects. ”

“ The Japanese are very romantic; they are sensational; they are emotional to a degree. They reminded me in many ways of the French. They have more self-control than the French, but are not without a French touch of hysteria. The spirit of mad romance, of almost affected chivalry which led the rônins of old Japan to deeds of extreme, elaborate, and artistic valour, is still rife in Japan, and spurs her jeunesse dorée to strike strange attitudes in strange places. The Japanese would sometimes be ridiculous were they not so invariably graceful. As a matter of fact, they are never ridiculous ”

“ Borrowers from the beginning of time, it mattered little to the Japanese whether they borrowed once more or once less, and so when they saw that if they wished to hold a place among the nations their only chance was to get rid of ancient Chinese forms and adopt the civilisation of the West, they did not hesitate—they took a leap into the light and left the thirteenth for the nineteenth century. To hear some enthusiasts talk one would almost be led to believe that the Japanese invented the nineteenth century. ”

“ On the other hand it is noticeable that the Japanese have little which is original in the way of religion, literature or philosophy. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, they have hitherto not had the smallest influence on the intellectual development of Asia, and though they have in the past sometimes shown themselves intensely nationalist and conservative, they have, compared with India and China, so little which is really their own that their assimilation of foreign ideas is explicable. ”