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Japan And Her People, Volume I

by Anna C. Hartshorne

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Product Details

Publisher: BiblioLife
Publishing date: 20080820
Language: English
ISBN-13: 9780554622897
ISBN: 0554622890

Synopsis

This illustrated book was published in 1902 and is volume one of two. The reader will learn of Japanese customs and culture as it was in the early 20th Century.

Excerpts from the book:
Certainly a Japanese house is quite different from all
our ideas of what constitutes a dwelling. Western archi-
tecture thinks of a house as four walls roofed over and
pierced with openings for light and entrance ; in Japan
the conception is simply a roof on supports, filled in with
walls or not, just as you wish, for the walls are a mere
matter of convenience, and not structurally necessary
in the least. One realizes this best after watching
Japanese carpenters building, for they go at it almost
roof first, and apply walls and openings afterward,
according to requirement, very much as Americans
build a modern fireproof sky-scraper.
.....................................................................................
A complete system of national education was sug-
gested by Kido, and fully planned out by Viscount
Arinori Mori on his return from service as Minister
to Washington. The plan is based largely on the
German system, with some American modifications.
It provides a graded course leading to the universi-
ties, which so far are two — Tokyo and the rather
recent Kyoto University. Of course, only men are
admitted to the universities. The highest school for
girls is the Higher Normal, which prepares for ad-
vanced examinations for teachers' certificates, and is
about equal to the men's higher schools, which pre-
pare for the university. In the boys' schools military
training is carried on all the way through, and counts
toward the term of service afterward, which is com-
pulsory, as in Germany.
.................................................................................
For it is necessary to remember that when a young
man marries he does not merely take a wife to suit
himself and her alone ; he brings home a daughter to
his parents. There will be in the household his father
and mother, perhaps a grandfather, very likely young
unmarried brothers and sisters, or a brother's widow,
or perhaps his own widowed sister come back to her
own people. It will be his duty as future head of the
house wisely to direct all its affairs, to look after all
its helpless members, to defer in all things to his
parents, and to decide nothing of general interest with-
out a family conclave. The young wife, on her part,
will have the brunt of the housekeeping, and besides
doing her best to please her husband, she must in all
things be useful to his parents. How many American
girls would get through the first month of such a life?
.................................................................................
The streets of Tokyo are a never-failing source of
amusement. Like all Southerners, the common people
almost live in them, with a naive unconcern about
privacy or its absence, quite unlike the retiring ways
of the upper class. There are no sidewalks; the
road is simply macadamized, and everybody strolls
serenely down the middle, moving out just a foot or
two at the kurumaya's frantic "hai-hai!" as they
dash past. One never quite gets over wondering why
the runners do not kill somebody, but accidents are
really very few ; still, they do not trust horses in the
thick of it without a betto or groom running ahead,
and now and then picking up a baby or turning an
old crone gently out of the way. Even the widest
streets always seem crowded, there are so many old
people, and so many children with babies on their
backs. If the family supply of real babies gives out,
the tiniest girl has a doll tied on her shoulders, so
that she may learn how to hold it and be ready for a
small brother or a neighbor's child. The poor little
baby heads tumble around till one feels sure they
must fall off; but nobody seems to mind, baby least
of all.

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