-P5 ? ' ^ 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WASON COLLECTION 
 
 THIS BOOK IS THE GIFT OF 
 
 Nixon Griff is 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 810.R65 1922a 
 
 The foundations of Japan :notes made dur 
 
 3 1924 023 222 320 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 ^^ElI 
 
 PRINTEOINU.S.A- 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023222320 
 
THE FOUNDATIONS OF JAPAN 
 
BATH IN AS AGBICULTURAI; SCHOOL 
 
 JUJITSXJ (AXD EIFLES) AT THE SAME SCHOOL, p. 60 
 
 YOUNG JAPAN 
 
 [Frontispiere 
 
THE FOUNDATIONS 
 OF JAPAN 
 
 NOTES MADE DURING JOURNEYS OF 
 
 6,000 MILES IN THE RURAL DISTRICTS AS 
 
 A BASIS FOR A SOUNDER KNOWLEDGE 
 
 OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE 
 
 BY J. W. ROBERTSON SCOTT 
 
 Thome oocntibs") 
 
 WITH 85 ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " In good sooth, my masters, this is no door, jet it is a little window" 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1922 
 
J. 
 
 ^^/o f 
 
TO 
 
 SCOTT SAN NO OKUSAN 
 
 .FOB WHOLESOME CBITiaSM 
 
A concern arose to spend some time with them that I might 
 feel and miderstand their life and the spirit they live in, if 
 haply I might receive some instruction from them, or they 
 might he in any degree helped forward by my following the 
 leadings of truth among them when the troubles of War 
 were increasing and when travelling was more difficult than 
 usual. I looked upon it as a more favourable opportunity to 
 season my mind and to bring me into a nearer sympathy with 
 them. — Journal of John Woolman, 1762. 
 
 I determined to commence my researches at some distance 
 from the capital, being well aware of the erroneous ideas I must 
 form should I judge from what I heard in a city so much 
 subjected to foreign intercoxirse. — Borrow. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The hope with which these pages are written is that their 
 readers may be enabled to see a Uttle deeper into that 
 problem of the relation of the West with Asia which the 
 historian of the future will unquestionably regard as the 
 greatest of our time. 
 
 I lived for four and a half years in Japan. This book 
 is a record of many of the things I saw and experienced 
 and some of the things I was told chiefly during rural 
 journeys — more than half the population is rural — 
 extending to twice the distance across the United States 
 or nearly eight times the distance between the English 
 Channel and John o' Groats. 
 
 These pages deal with a field of investigation in Japan 
 which no other volume has explored. Because they fall 
 short of what was planned, and in happier conditions might 
 have been accomplished, a word or two may be pardoned 
 on the beginnings of the book — one of the many literary 
 victims of the War. 
 
 The first book I ever bought was about the Far East. 
 The first leading article of my journalistic apprenticeship 
 in London was about Korea. When I left daily journalism, 
 at the time of the siege of the Peking Legations, the first 
 thing I published was a book pleading for a better under- 
 standing of the Chinese. 
 
 After that, as a cottager in Essex, I wrote — above a 
 nom de guerre which is better known than I am — a dozen 
 volumes on rural subjects. During a visit to the late 
 David Lubin in Rome I noticed in the big library of his 
 International Institute of Agriculture that there was no 
 book in English dealing with the agriculture of Japan.' 
 
 ' There is a small book by an able American soil specialist, the late 
 Professor King, which describes through rose-tinted glasses the farming 
 
 vii 
 
viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Just before the War the thoughts of forward-looking 
 students of our home affairs ran strongly on the relation 
 of intelligently managed small holdings to skilled capitaUst 
 farming. 1 During the early " business as usual " period of 
 the War, when no tasks had been found for men over 
 mihtary age — Mr. Wells's protest will be remembered — 
 it occurred to me that it might be serviceable if I could have 
 ready, for the period of rural reconstruction and readjust- 
 ment of our international ideas when the War was over, 
 two books of a new sort. One should be a stimulating 
 volume on Japan, based on a study, more sociological than 
 technically agricultural, of its remarkable small-farming 
 system and rural life, and the other a complementary 
 American volume based on a study of the enterprising large 
 farming of the Middle West. I proposed to write the 
 second book in co-operation with a veteran rural reformer 
 who had often invited me to visit him in Iowa, the father 
 of the present American Minister of Agriculture. Early 
 in 1915 I set out for Japan to enter upon the first part of 
 my task. Mr. Wallace died while I was still in Japan, 
 and the Middle West book remains to be undertaken by 
 someone else. 
 
 The Land of the Rising Sim has been fortunate in the 
 quaUty of the books which many foreigners have written.' 
 But for every work at the standard of what might be called 
 the seven " M's " — Mitford, Murdoch, Munro, Morse, 
 Maclaren, " Murray " and McGovern— there are many 
 volumes of fervid " pro- Japanese " or determined " anti- 
 Japanese " romanticism. The pictures of Japan which 
 such easily perused books present are incredible to 
 
 of Japan, and of China and Korea as well, on the basis of a flying trip 
 to countries the population of which is thrice that of Great Britain and 
 the United States together. The author of another book, published last 
 year, delivers himself of this astonishing opinion: "The Japanese is no 
 better fitted to direct his own agriculture than I am to steer a rudderless 
 ship across the Atlantic." 
 
 1 Vide Sir Daniel Hall's Pilgrimage of English Farming and articles of 
 mine in the Nineteenth Century and Times, and my Land Problem. 
 
 ' The Japanese have only lately, however, made some acknowledgment 
 of their debt to Heam, and in an eight-page bibliography of the best 
 books about Japan in the Japan Year Book Murdoch's as yet unrivalled 
 History is not even mentioned. 
 
THE BASIC FACT ix 
 
 readers of ordinary insight or historical imagination, but 
 they have had their part in forming pubhc opinion. 
 
 The basic fact about Japan is that it is an agricultural 
 country. Japanese sestheticism, the victorious Japanese 
 army and navy, the smoking chimneys of Osaka, the pushing 
 mercantile marine, the Parliamentary and administrative 
 developments of Tokyo and a costly worldwide diplomacy 
 are all borne on the bent backs of Ohydkusho no Fufu,^ 
 the Japanese peasant farmer and his wife. The deposi- 
 tories of the authentic Yamato damashii (Japanese spirit) 
 are to be found knee deep in the sludge of their paddy 
 fields. 
 
 One book about Japan may well be written in the 
 perspective of the village and the hamlet. There it is 
 possible to find the way beneath that surface of things 
 visible to the tourist. There it is possible to discover the 
 foundations of the Japan which is intent on cutting such a 
 figure in the East and in the West. There it is possible to 
 learn not only what Japan is but what she may have it in 
 her to become. 
 
 A rural sociologist is not primarily interested in the 
 technique of agriculture. He conceives agriculture and 
 country life as Arthur Young and Cobbett did, as a means 
 to an end, the sound basis, the touchstone of a healthy 
 State. I was helped in Japan not only by my close 
 acquaintance with the rural civilisation of two pre- 
 eminently small-holdings countries, Holland and Denmark, 
 but by what I knew to be precious in the rural life of my 
 own land. 
 
 An interest in rural problems caimot be simulated. As I 
 journeyed about the country the sincerity of my purpose 
 — there are few words in commoner use in the Far 
 East than sincerity — was recognised and appreciated. I 
 enjoyed conversations in which customary barriers had 
 been broken down and those who spoke said what 
 they felt. We inevitably discussed not only agricultural 
 economy but life, religion and morality, and the way 
 Japan was taking. 
 
 1 Ohyahusho must not be confused with Oo-hyakusho or Oo-byakusho, 
 which means s laorge farmer. O is a polite prefis ; OooiO means large. 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 I spoke and slept in Buddhist temples, I was received 
 at Shinto shrines. I was led before domestic altars. I was 
 taken to gatherings of native Christians. I planted 
 commemorative trees until more persimmons than I can 
 ever gather await my return to Japan. I wrote so many 
 gaku^ for school walls and for my kind hosts that my 
 memory was drained of maxims. I attended guileless 
 horse-races. I was present at agricultural shows, fairs, 
 wrestling matches, Bon dances, village and county councils 
 and the strangest of public meetings. I talked not only 
 with farmers and their families but with all kinds of 
 landlords, with schoolmasters and schoolmistresses, 
 policemen, shopkeepers, priests, co-operative society 
 enthusiasts, village officials, county officials, prefectural 
 officials, a score of Governors and an Ainu chief. I sought 
 wisdom from Ministers of State and nobles of every rank, 
 from the Prince who is the heir of the last of the Shoguns 
 down to democratic Barons who prefer to be called " Mr.", 
 I chatted with farmers' wives and daughters, I interrogated 
 landladies and mill girls, and I paid a memorable visit to a 
 Buddhist nunnery. I walked, talked, rode, ate and bathed 
 with common folk and with dignitaries. I discussed the 
 situation of Japan with the new countryman in college 
 agricultural laboratories and classrooms, and, in a remote 
 region, beheld what is rare nowadays, the old countryman 
 kneeling before his cottage with his head to the ground as 
 the stranger rode past. 
 
 I made notes as I traversed paddy-field paths, by 
 mountain ways, in colleges, schools, houses and inns. It 
 can only have been when crossing water on men's backs that 
 I did not make notes. I jotted things down as I walked, 
 as I sat, as I knelt, as I lay on my futon, as I journeyed 
 in kuruma, on horseback, in jolting basha, in automobiles, 
 in shaking cross-country trains and in boats ; in brilliant 
 sunshine and sweltering heat, in the shade and in dust ; 
 in the early morning with chilled fingers or more or less 
 furtively as I crouched at protracted private or official 
 repasts, or late at night endeavoured to gather crumbs 
 
 ' Horizontal wall writings. 
 
WEARING PATIENCE TO SHREDS xi 
 
 from the wearing conversation of polite callers who, though 
 set on helping me, did not always find it easy to understand 
 the kind of information of which I was in search. One of 
 these asked my travelling companion sotto voce, "Is he 
 after metal mines ? " 
 
 I went on my own trips and on routes planned out for me 
 by agricultural and social zealots, and jfrom time to time 
 I returned physically and mentally fatigued to my little 
 Japanese house near Tokyo to rest and to write out from 
 my memoranda, to seek data for new districts from the 
 obliging Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural 
 College people at the Imperial University, and to eat and 
 drink with rural authorities who chanced to be visiting 
 the capital from distant prefectures. I had many set- 
 backs. I was misinformed, now and then intentionally 
 and often unintentionally. There were many days which 
 were not only harassing but seemingly wasted. I often 
 despaired of achieving results worth all the exertion I was 
 making and the money I was spending. I must have worn 
 to shreds the patience of some English-speaking Japanese 
 friends, but they never owned defeat. In the end I found 
 that I made progress. 
 
 But so did the War, which when I set out from London 
 few believed would last long. I was troubled by continually 
 meeting with incredible ignorance about the War, the issues 
 at stake and the certain end. The Japanese who talked 
 with me were 10,000 miles away from the fighting. Japan 
 had nothing to lose, everything indeed to gain from the 
 abatement of Europe's activities in Asia. Not only 
 Japanese soldiers but many administrative, educational, 
 agricultural and commercial experts had been to school in 
 Germany. There was much in common in the German and 
 Japanese mentalities, much alike in Central European and 
 Farthest East regard for the army and for order, devotion 
 to regulations, habit of subordination and deification of 
 the State. Eventually the well-known anti-Ally campaign 
 broke out in Tokyo, a thing which has never been sufficiently 
 explained. Soon I was pressed to turn aside from my 
 studies and attempt the more immediately useful task : to 
 explain why Western nations, whose manifest interests were 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 peace, were resolutely squandering their blood and wealth 
 in War. 
 
 If what I published had some measure of success,' it was 
 because by this time, unlike some of the critics who 
 sharply upbraided Japan and made impossible proposals 
 in impossible terms, I had learnt something at first hand 
 about the Japanese, because I wrote of the difficulties as 
 well as the faults of Japan, and because I was now a httle 
 known as her well-wisher. One of the two books I 
 published was translated as a labour of love, as I shall never 
 forget, by a Japanese pubUc man whose leisure was so 
 scant that he sat up two nights to get his manuscript 
 finished. Before long I had involved myself in the arduous 
 task of founding and of editing for two years a monthly 
 review. The New East (Shin Toyo),' with for motto a sen- 
 tence of my own which expresses what wisdom I have 
 gained about the Orient, The real barrier between East and | 
 West is a distrust of each other's morality and the illusion that I 
 the distrust is on one side only. 
 
 The excuse for so personal a digression is that, when this 
 period of literary and journalistic stress began, my rural 
 notebooks and MSS., memoranda of conversations on social 
 problems and a heterogeneous collection of reports and 
 documents had to be stowed into boxes. There they 
 stayed until a year ago. The entries in a dozen of my Uttle 
 hurriedly filled notebooks have lost their flavour or are 
 unintelligible : I have put them all aside. Neither is it 
 possible to utilise notes which were submarined or lost 
 in over-worked post offices. This book — I have had to 
 leave out Kyushu entirely — is not the work I planned, a 
 complete account of rural life and industry in every part 
 of Japan, with an excursus on Korea and Formosa, and 
 certain general conclusions : a standard work, no doubt, in, 
 I am afraid, two volumes, and forgetful at times of the 
 warning that " to spend too much Time in Studies is 
 Sloth." 
 
 What I had transcribed before leaving Japan I have now 
 
 1 About 35,000 copies of my two bilingual books were circulated. 
 
 2 With the backing of a London Committee composed of Lord 
 Bumham, Sir 6. W. Prothero, Mr. J. St. Loe Strachey and Mr. C. V. Sale. 
 
JETTISONING TECHNICS xiii 
 
 been able in the course of a leisiired year in England to 
 overhaul and to supplement by up-to-date statistics in an 
 extensive Appendix. In the changed circumstances in 
 which the book is completed I have also ruthlessly trans- 
 ferred to this Appendix all the technical matter in the text, 
 so that nothing shall obstruct the way of the general reader. 
 At some future date there may be by another hand a book 
 about Japan in terms of soils, manures and crops. That is 
 
 ISMh Karon 
 
 "Byqonb Days in Japan" is the Title op this 
 Cabtoon 
 
 the book the War saved me from writing. In the present 
 work I have the opportunity which so few authors have 
 enjoyed of jettisoning all technics into an Appendix. 
 
 " It is necessary," says a wise modern author, " to 
 meditate over one's impressions at leisure, to start afresh 
 again and again with a clearer vision of the essential facts." 
 And a Japanese companion of my journeys writes, " Never 
 can you be sorry that this book is coming late. This time 
 of delay has been the best time ; we have had enough 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 of first impressions." The justification for this volume 
 is that, in spite of the difficulties attending the composition 
 of it, it may be held to offer a picture of some aspects of 
 modern Japan to be found nowhere else. Politics is not for 
 these pages, nor, because there are so many charming books 
 on aesthetic and scenic Japan, do I write on Art or about 
 Fuji, Kyoto, Nara, Miyanoshita and Nikko. I went 
 to Japan to see the countryman. The Japanese whom 
 most of the world knows are townified, sometimes American- 
 ised or Europeanised, and, as often as not, elaborately 
 educated. They are frequently remarkable men. They 
 stand for a great deal in modern Japan. But their un- 
 townified fellow-countrymen, with the training of tradition 
 and experience, of rural schoolmasters and village elders, 
 and, as frequently, of the carefully shielded army, are more 
 than half of the nation. 
 
 What is their health of mind and body ? By what social 
 and moral principles and prejudices are they swayed ? 
 To what extent are they adequate to the demand that is 
 made and is likely to be made upon them ? In what 
 respects are they the masters of their lives or are mastered ? 
 In what ways are they still open to Western influences ? 
 And in what directions are they now inclined to trust to 
 " themselves alone " ? 
 
 If the masters of the rural journal were sometimes mis- 
 taken in the observations they made from horseback, I 
 cannot have escaped blundering in passing through more 
 dimly lit scenes than they visited. " If there appears 
 here and there any uncorrectness, I do not hold myself 
 obliged to answer for what I could not perfectly govern." ' 
 But I have laboriously taken all the precautions I could and 
 I have obeyed as far as possible a recent request that 
 " visitors to the Far East should confine themselves to what 
 they have seen with their own eyes." As Huxley wrote, 
 " all that I have proposed to myself is to say. This and this 
 have I learned." 
 
 I take pleasTire in recalling that some years ago I was 
 approached with a view to undertaking for the United 
 States Government a socio-agricultural investigation in a 
 
 1 Tenison, 1684. 
 
BRITAIN. AMERICA AND JAPAN xv 
 
 foreign country. Reared as I have been in the whole 
 faith of a citizen of the EngUsh-speaking world, I am glad 
 to think that the present volume may be of some service 
 to American readers. The United States is within ten 
 days — Canada is within nine — of Japan against Great 
 Britain's month by the Atlantic-C.P.R.-Pacific route and 
 eight weeks by Suez. There are more American visitors 
 than British to Japan. It was America that first opened 
 Japan to the West, and the debt of Japan to American 
 training and stimulus is immense. But British services to 
 Japan have also been substantial. Great Britain was the 
 first to welcome her within the circle of the Great Powers, 
 and the Anglo- Japanese Alliance did more for Japan 
 than some Japanese have been willing to admit. The 
 problem of Japan is the problem of the whole English- 
 speaking world. Rightly conceived, the interests of the/ 
 British Empire and the United States in the Far East arel 
 one and indivisible. 
 
 The Japanese version of the title of this book (kindly 
 suggested by Mr. Seichi Narus^) is Nihon no Shinzui, 
 literally, " The Marrow " or " The Core of Japan." His 
 Excellency the Japanese Ambassador, the beauty of whose 
 calligraphy is well known, was so very kind as to allow 
 me to requisition his clever brush for the script for the 
 engraver ; but it must be understood that Baron Hayashi 
 has seen nothing of the volume but the cover. 
 
 I greatly regret that the present conditions of book 
 production make it impossible to reproduce more than 
 one in thirty of my photographs. 
 
 It is in no spirit of ingratitude to my hosts and many 
 other kind people in Japan that I have taken the decision 
 resolutely to strike out of the text all those names of places 
 and persons which give such a forbidding air to a traveller's 
 page. I have pleasure in acknowledging here the particular 
 obligations I am under to Kunio Yanaghita, formerly 
 Secretary of the Japanese House of Peers and a dis- 
 tinguished and disinterested student of rural conditions. 
 Dr. Nitobe, assistant secretary of the League of Nations, 
 aninSs wife. Professor Nasu, Imperial University, Mr. 
 Yamasaki, Mr. M. Yanagi, Mr. Kanzo Uchimiu:a, Mr. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 Bernard Leach, Mr. M. Tajima, Mr. Ono and two young 
 officials in Hokkaido, who each in turn found time to join 
 me on my journeys and showed me innumerable kindnesses. 
 It was a piece of good fortune that while these pages were 
 in preparation Mr. Yanaghita, Professor Nasu and other 
 fellow-travellers were in Europe and available for con- 
 sultation. Professor Nasu unweariedly furnished pains- 
 taking answers to many questions, and was kind enough 
 to read all of the book in proof ; but he has no responsi- 
 bility, of course, for the views which I express. I am also 
 specially indebted to Dr. Kozai, President of the Imperial 
 University, to Mr. Ito and other officials of the Ministry of 
 Agriculture, to Mr.^uii33pi, one of the most understanding 
 of travelled Japanese, to Mr. IwgJ^ga, formerly of the 
 Imperial Railway Board, to Dr. Sato, President of Hokkaido 
 University, and his obliging colleagues, to the Imperial 
 Agricultural Society, to Professors Yahagi and Yokoi, and 
 to Viscount Kano, Dr. Kuwada, Mr. I. Yoshida, Mr. 
 K. Ohta, Mr. H. Saito, Mr. S. Hoshijima, and many 
 provincial agricultural and sociological experts. 
 
 Portions of drafts for this book have appeared in 
 the Daily Telegraph, World's Work, Manchester Guardian, 
 New East, Asia, Japan Chronicle and Christian World. 
 I am indebted to the World's Work and Asia for some 
 additional illustrations from blocks made from my photo- 
 graphs, and to the New East for some sketches by Miss 
 Elizabeth Keith. 
 
CONTENTS 
 STUDIES IN A SINGLE PREFECTURE (AICHI) 
 
 CHAPTER PiOE 
 
 I. The Mercy of Buddha .... 1 
 
 II. " Good People are not Sufficiently 
 
 Precautious" 8 
 
 III. Early-Rising Societies and Other 
 
 Ingenuous Activities .... 14 
 
 IV. " The Sight of a Good Man is Enough " 24 
 
 V. CoUNTRY-HOUSE LiFE .... 34 
 
 VI. Before Okunitama-No-Miko-Kami . . 45 
 
 VII. Of " Devil-gon " and Yosogi ... 56 
 
 THE MOST EXACTING CROP IN THE WORLD 
 
 VIII. The Harvest from the Mud ... 68 
 IX. The Rice Bowl, the Gods and the Nation 80 
 
 BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES: THE APOSTLE 
 AND THE ARTIST 
 
 X. A Troubler of Israel .... 90 
 XI. The Idea of a Gap .... 98 
 
 2 xvii 
 
xviii CONTENTS 
 
 ACROSS JAPAN (TOKYO TO NIIGATA AND BACK) 
 
 CHAPTER '^™ 
 
 XII. To THE Hills (Tokyo, Saitama, Tochigi 
 
 AND Fukushima) . • • .107 
 
 XIII. The Dwellers in the Hills (Fukushima) 119 
 
 XIV. Shrines and Poetey (Niigata and 
 
 TOYAMA) 132 
 
 XV. The Nun's Cell (Nagano) . . .140 
 
 IN AND OUT OF THE SILK PREFECTURE 
 
 XVI. Problems behind the Picturesque 
 (Saitama, Gumma, Nagano and Yaman- 
 ashi) . 146 
 
 XVII. The Birth, Bridal and Death of the 
 
 Silk-worm (Nagano) .... 153 
 
 XVIII. " Girl Collectors " and Factories 
 
 (Nagano and Yamanashi) . . .161 
 
 XIX. " Friend-Love-Society's " Grim Tale . 167 
 
 FROM TOKYO TO THE NORTH BY THE WEST 
 
 COAST 
 
 XX. " The Garden where Virtues are 
 Cultivated " (Fukushima and Yama- 
 gata) 175 
 
 XXI. The " Tanomoshi " (Yamagata) , . 182 
 
 BACK AGAIN BY THE EAST COAST 
 
 XXII. " Bon " Songs and the Silent Priest 
 (Yamagata, Akita, Aomori, Iwate, 
 MiYAGi, Fukushima and Ibaraih) . 189 
 
 XXIII. A Midnight Talk .... 200 
 
CONTENTS xix 
 
 THE ISLAND OF SHIKOKU 
 
 OHAPIBR PAQB 
 
 XXIV. Landlords, Priests and " Basha " 
 
 (TOKUSHIMA, KOCHI AND KaGAWA) . 207 
 
 XXV. " Special Tribes " (Ehime) . . 219 
 
 XXVI. The Story of the Blind Headman 
 
 (Ehime) 226 
 
 THE SOUTH-WEST OF JAPAN 
 
 XXVII. Up-Country Oratory (Yamaguchi) . 285 
 
 XXVIII. Men, Dogs and Sweet Potatoes 
 
 (Shimane) 248 
 
 XXIX. Friends of Lafcadio Hearn (Shimane, 
 
 ToTTORi and Hyogo) . . . 258 
 
 TWO MONTHS IN TEMPLE (NAGANO) 
 
 XXX. The Life of the Peasants and their 
 
 Priests ...... 262 
 
 XXXI. " Bon " Season Scenes . . .272 
 
 IN AND OUT OF THE TEA PREFECTURE 
 
 XXXII. Progress of Sorts (Shidzuoka and 
 
 Kanagawa) ..... 288 
 
 XXXIII. Green Tea and Black (Shidzuoka) . 292 
 
 EXCURSIONS FROM TOKYO 
 
 XXXIV. A Country Doctor and his Neigh- 
 
 bours (Chiba) ..... 297 
 
 XXXV. The Husbandman, the Wrestler and 
 the Carpenter (Saitama, Gumma and 
 Tokyo) 809 
 
 XXXVI. " They feel the Mercy of the Sun " 
 
 (Gumma, Kanagawa and Chiba) . 321 
 
XX CONTENTS 
 
 REFLECTIONS IN HOKKAIDO 
 
 CHAFTEB PAQB 
 
 XXXVII. Colonial Japan and its Un-Japanese 
 
 Ways 384 
 
 XXXVIII. Shall the Japanese eat Bbead and 
 
 Meat ? 348 
 
 XXXIX. Must the Japanese make theik own 
 
 " YoFUKU " ? . . . .352 
 
 XL. The Problems of Japan . . 358 
 
 Appendices ....... 373 
 
 Index ........ 415 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 facing 
 
 xxvi 
 
 39 
 
 1 
 
 
 7 
 
 . 
 
 12 
 
 facing 
 
 22 
 
 5S 
 
 23 
 
 5> 
 
 30 
 
 J) 
 
 30 
 
 Bath in an Agricultukal School . facing title-page 
 JOjitsu (and Rifles) at the same School „ „ „ 
 Bygone Days in Japan ..... . xiii 
 
 The Room in which this Book was written 
 
 The Mercy of Buddha 
 
 " to rouse the village you must first rouse 
 
 THE Priest "..... 
 Plan of the Farmer's Symbolic Trees . 
 Adjusted Rice-fields .... 
 Library and Workshed of a Y.M.A. 
 Landowner's Son and Daughter . 
 Shrine in a Landowner's House . 
 Mr. Yamasaki, Dr. Nitobe, Author and Prof 
 
 Nasu ...... 
 
 The House in which the Tea Ceremony took 
 
 Place ...... 
 
 Author questioning Officials 
 
 Author planting Commemorative Trees 
 
 Rice Polishing by Foot Power 
 
 " Hibachi," a Flower Arrangement and 
 
 " Kakemono " . 
 School Shrine containing Emperor's Portrait 
 Fencing at an Agricultural School 
 War Mementoes — All Schools have some 
 A 200-Years-old Drawing of the Rice Plant 
 Scattering Artificial Manure in Adjusted 
 
 Paddies ...... 
 
 Planting out Rice Seedlings 
 
 facing 
 
 31 
 
 31 
 
 46 
 46 
 
 47 
 
 62 
 62 
 63 
 63 
 69 
 
 78 
 79 
 
XXll 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Push-cart for Collection of Fertiliser 
 Minister of Agriculture's Efforts to keep 
 
 Price of Rice Down .... 
 
 Muzzled Editors ...... 
 
 " The Japanese Carlyle " . 
 
 Mr. and Mrs, Yanagi ..... 
 
 Children catching Insects on Rice-seed Beds 
 Masters of a Country School and Some 
 
 Children ..... 
 
 Cultivation to the Hill-tops 
 Implements, Measures and Machines, and a 
 
 Bale of Rice ..... 
 Movable Stage at a Festival 
 Farmhouse at which Mr. Uchimura Preached 
 Tenant Farmers' Houses 
 Author at the "Spirit Meeting". 
 Some Performers at the " Spirit Meeting " 
 In a Buddhist Nunnery 
 Japanese Grass-cutting Tools compared with 
 
 A Scythe ..... 
 
 Child -collectors of Villagers' Savings 
 Nuns Photographed in a " Cell " . 
 Students' Study at an Agricultural School 
 Teachers of a Village School 
 Girls carrying Bales of Rice 
 Sericultural School Students 
 Silk Factories in Kamisuwa . 
 Village Assembly-room .... 
 
 Archery at an Agricultural School . 
 Cultivation of the Hillside 
 Railway Station " Bento " and Pot of Tea 
 A Scarecrow ...... 
 
 The Blind Headman and his Collecting-bag 
 Mr. Yanaghita in his Coronation Ceremony 
 
 Robes ....... 
 
 Portable Apparatus for raising Water 
 
 facing 79 
 
 facing 
 
 87 
 91 
 94 
 94 
 95 
 
 95 
 110 
 
 111 
 126 
 126 
 127 
 127 
 127 
 142 
 
 142 
 143 
 143 
 143 
 158 
 158 
 158 
 159 
 159 
 174 
 174 
 175 
 . 198 
 facing 206 
 
 206 
 206 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Village School with Portrait of Florence 
 Nightingale .... 
 
 River-beds in the Summer 
 
 School Shrine for Emperor's Portrait 
 
 Author addressing Lafcadio Hearn Meeting 
 
 A Peasant Proprietor's House 
 
 Gravestones reassembled after Paddy 
 Adjustment ..... 
 
 Temple in which this Chapter was written 
 
 Fire Engine and Primitive Figures 
 
 Young Men's Club-room 
 
 Memorial Stones . 
 
 Roof protected against Storms by Stones 
 
 Off to the Upland Fields 
 
 Farmer's Wife 
 
 Mother and Child . 
 
 A Cradle .... 
 
 Fire Alarm and Observation Post 
 
 Rack for Drying Rice . 
 
 Village Crematorium 
 
 Dog helping to pull Jinrikisha 
 
 Author, Mr. Yamasaki and Youngest Inhabit 
 ANTS. ...... 
 
 "ToRii" AT the Shrine of the Fox God 
 
 Tablets recording Gifts to a Temple . 
 
 Inside the " Shoji " . . . . 
 
 Automatic Rice Polisher 
 
 Author in a Crater .... 
 
 A Type of Wayside Monuments . 
 
 Giant Radish or " Daikon " . 
 
 Cutting Grass 
 
 facing 
 
 facing 
 
 XXlll 
 
 FAGB 
 
 206 
 207 
 238 
 238 
 239 
 
 239 
 263 
 265 
 266 
 266 
 267 
 269 
 273 
 275 
 279 
 281 
 294 
 294 
 294 
 
 294 
 295 
 295 
 310 
 310 
 310 
 311 
 311 
 367 
 
CURRENCY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 
 AND OFFICIAL TERMS 
 
 The prices given in the text (but not in the footnotes and Appendix) were 
 recorded before the War inflation began. The War was followed by a 
 severe financial crisis. Professor Nasu wrote to me during the summer of 
 1921 : 
 
 " You are very wise to leave the figures as they stood. It is useless to 
 try to correct them, because they are still changing. The price of rice, 
 which did not exceed 15 yen per koku when you were making your research 
 work, exceeded 50 yen in 1919, and is now struggling to maintain the price 
 of 25 yen. Taking at 100 the figures for the years 1915 or 1916 — for- 
 tunately there is not much difference between these two years — ^the prices 
 of six leading commodities reached in 1919 an average of about 250. After 
 1919 the prices of some conunodities went still higher, but mostly they did 
 not change very much ; on the other hand, recently the prices of many 
 commodities — among them rice and raw silk especially — ^have been coming 
 down and this downward movement is gradually extending to all other 
 commodities. From these considerations I deduce that the index number 
 of general commodities may be safely taken as 200 when your book appeMS. 
 The reader of your book has simply to double the figures given by you — that is 
 the figures of 1915 and 1916 — in order to get a rough estimate of present prices." 
 
 Where exact statements of area and yield are necessary, as in the study 
 of the intense agriculture of Japan, local measures are preferable to our 
 equivalents in awkward fractions. Further, the measvires used in this 
 book are easily remembered, and no serious study of Japanese agriculture 
 on the spot is possible without remembering them. While, however, 
 Japanese cvirrency, weights and measures have been uniformly used, 
 equivalents have been supplied at every place in the book where their 
 omission might be reasonably considered to interfere with easy reading. 
 The following tables are restricted to currency, weights and measures 
 mentioned in the book; 
 
 MONEY 1 
 
 Yen = roughly (at the time notes for the book were made) a florin or half 
 a dollar = 100 sen. 
 Sen — a farthing or half cent = 10 rin. 
 
 LONG 
 
 Ri — roughly 2J miles. 
 
 Shahu (roughly 1 ft.) = 11-93 in. 
 
 Ri are converted into miles by being multiplied by 2'44. 
 
 SQUARE 
 Bi (roughly 6 sq. miles) = 5-955 sq. nules. 
 
 Gho (sometimes written, Chobu) (roughly 2i acres) = 2-450 acres = 
 10 tan = 3,000 tsuboi 
 
 1 Exchange in 1916 ; in 1921 the yen is worth 2s. 8d. 
 xxiv 
 
CURRENCY, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES xxv 
 
 Tan or Tambu (roughly J acre) = 0-245 acres = 10 se = 300 bu. 
 
 Bu or Tsubo (roughly 4 sq. yds.) = 3-953 sq. yds. 
 
 An acre is about 4 tan 10 bu or 1,200 bu or tsubo (an urban measure). 
 The size of rooms is reckoned by the number of mats, which are ordinarily 
 6 shaku in length and 3 shaku in breadth. 
 
 CAPACITY 
 
 Koku (roughly 40 gals, or 5 bush.) = 39-703 gals, or 4-960 bush. = 
 10 to. Accorditig to American measurements, there are 47-653 gals, 
 (liquid) and 5-119 bush, (dry) in a, koku. A koku of rice is 313J lbs. 
 (British). 
 
 A koku of imported rice is, however, 330J lbs. The following koku must 
 also be noted : ordinary barley, 231 lbs. ; naked barley 301-1 lbs. ; wheat 
 288-7 lbs. ; proso millet, 247-9 lbs. ; foxtail millet, 280-9 lbs. ; barnyard 
 millet, 165-2 lbs.; briokaheat, 247-9 lbs. ; maize, 289-2 lbs. ; soya beans, 
 286-5 lbs. ; azuki (red) beans, 319-9 lbs. ; horse beans, 266-6 lbs. ; peas, 
 306-5 lbs. 
 
 Hyd (roughly 2 bush.) = 1-985 bush. = 4 to = bale of rice. 
 
 To (roughly 4 gals, or J bush.) = 3-970 gals, or -496 bush, or 1-985 pecks 
 = 10 sho. 
 
 Sho (roughly IJ qts.) = 1-588 qts. or 0-198 pecks or 108J cub. in. = 
 10 go. 
 
 Go (roughly J pint) = -3176 pints or 0-019 pecks. 
 
 Rice is not bagged but baled, and a bale is 4 to or 1 hy5. 
 
 WEIGHT 
 
 Kwan or itcomme '(roughly SJ lbs.) = 8-267 lbs. av. or 10-047 lbs. troy 
 = 1,000 momme. 
 Kin (catty) = 1-322 lbs. av. or 1-607 troy = 160 momme. 
 Momme = 2-116 drams or 2-41 1 dwts. According to American measure- 
 ments a momme is 0-132 oz. av. and 0-120 oz. troy. 
 Hyakkin (picul) = 100 kin = 132-277 lbs. 
 A stone is 1'693, a cwt. is 13"547, and a ton 270 "950 kwamme. 
 
 LOCAL ADMINISTRATIVE TERMS 
 
 Ken. — Prefecture. There are forty-three ken and Hokkaido. Ken 
 and f u are made up of the former sixty-six provinces. Sometimes the name 
 of the ken and the name of the capital of the ken are the stime : example, 
 Shidzuoka-ken, capital Shidzuoka. 
 
 Fu. — Three prefectures are municipal prefectures and are called not 
 ken but fu. They are Tokyo-fu, Kyoto-f u and Osaka-fu. 
 
 Oun (kori). — ^Division of a prefecture, a county or rural district. There 
 are 636 gun. Gun are now beiug done away with. 
 
 Shi. — City. There are seventy-nine cities. 
 
 Cho. — A town or rather a district preponderatingly urban. There are 
 1,333 cho. 
 
 Machi. — Japanese name for the Chinese character oho. 
 
 Son. — A village or rather a district preponderatingly rural. There are 
 10,839 son. 
 
 Mura. — Japanese name for a Chinese character son. 
 
 A true idea of the Japanese village is obtained as soon as one mentally 
 defines it as a eommvme. There may be a rural community called son 
 or a municipal community called oho. The cho or son consists of a number of 
 oaza, that is, big aza, which in turn consists of [a number of ko-aza or 
 small aza. A ko-aza may consist of twenty or thirty dwellings, that is, 
 a hamlet, or it may be only one dwelling. It may be ten acres in extent 
 or fifty. I foimd that the population of a particular municipality was 
 10,000 in seven big oaza comprising twenty-two ko-aza. 
 
THE 
 
 FOUNDATIONS OF JAPAN 
 
 STUDIES IN A SINGLE PREFECTURE 
 (AICHI) 1 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE MERCY OF BUDDHA 
 
 The only hard facts, one learns to see as one gets older, are the facts of 
 feeling. Emotion and sentiment are, after all, incomparably more solid 
 than any statistics. So that when one wanders hack in memory through 
 the field one has traversed in diligent search of hard facts, one comes back 
 bearing in one's arms a Sheaf of Feelings. — Havbloce Ellis. 
 
 One day as I walked along a narrow path between rice 
 fields in a remote district in Japan, I saw a Buddhist priest 
 coming my way. He was rosy-faced and benign, broad- 
 shouldered and a little rotimd. He had with him a string 
 of small children. I stood by to let him pass and lifted my 
 hat. He bowed and stopped, and we entered into con- 
 versation. He told me that he was taking the children to a 
 festival. I said that I should like to meet him again. He 
 offered to come to see me in the evening at my host's house. 
 When he arrived, and I asked him, after a little polite 
 talk, what was the chief difficulty in the way of improving 
 the moral condition of his village, he answered, " I am." 
 
 We spoke of Buddhism, and he complained thatitsTects 
 were " too aristocratic." WTien his own sect of Buddhism, 
 Shinshu7~Was "started; he said, it was something "quite 
 democratic for the common people." But with the lapse 
 
 1 The chapters in this section are based on notes of several visits paid 
 to Aiohi, which is in the middle of Japan, and agriculturally and socially 
 one of the most interesting of the prefectures. It is three prefectures 
 distant from Tokyo. 
 
 1 
 
2 THE MERCY OF BUDDHA 
 
 of time this democratic sect had also " become aristo- 
 cratic." " Though the founder of Shinshu wore flaxen 
 clothing, Shinshu priests now have glittering costumes. 
 And everyone has heard of the magnificence of the Kyoto 
 Hongwanji" (the great temple at Kyoto, the head- 
 
 i quarters of the sect).' " Contrary to the principles of 
 religion and democracy," people thought of the priest and 
 
 I the temple " as something beyond their own Uves." All 
 
 I this stood in the way of improvement. 
 
 The fashion in which many landowners " despised 
 exertion and lived luxuriously " was another hindrance. 
 These men looked down on education, " thinking them- 
 selves clever because they read the newspapers." Land- 
 lords of this sort were fond of curios, and kept their capital 
 in such things instead of in agriculture. Sellers of curios 
 visited the village too often. A wise man had called the 
 curio-seller the " Spirit of Poverty " (Bimbogami). He 
 said that the Spirit visited a man when he became rich — 
 in order to bring curios to him ; and again when he became 
 poor — in order to take them away from him ! After he 
 became poor the Spirit of Poverty never visited him again. 
 Yet another drawback to rm-al progress was petty 
 political ambition. People slandered neighbours who 
 belonged to another party and they would not associate 
 with them. Such party feeling was one of the bad in- 
 fluences of civilisation. 
 
 Further, "a mercenary spirit and materialism" had 
 to be fought in the village. There was not, however, 
 much trouble due to drink, and there was no gambling 
 now. There might still be impropriety between young 
 people— formerly young men used to visit the factory 
 girls — but it was rare. Lately there had been land specu- 
 lation, and some of those who made money went to tea- 
 houses to see geisha. 
 
 There was in the neighbourhood, this Buddhist pastor 
 went on, a temple belonging to the same sect as his own, 
 and he was on friendly terms with its priest. It was good 
 discipline, he said, for two priests to be working near one 
 
 * Throughout this book an attempt has been made to preserve in trans- 
 lation something of the character of the Japanese phraseology. 
 
BEFORE THE SHRINE 8 
 
 another if they were of the same sect, for their work was 
 compared. In answer to my enquiry, the old man said 
 that he preached four days a month. Each service con- 
 sisted of reading for an hour and then preaching for two 
 hours. About 150 or 200 persons would attend. He had 
 also a service every morning from five to six. In addition 
 to these gatherings in the temple he conducted services in 
 farmers' houses. " I feel rather ashamed sometimes," he 
 said, " when I listen to the good sermons of Christians." 
 
 As the priest was taking leave he told me that he was 
 going to a farmer's house in order to conduct a service. I 
 asked to be allowed to accompany him. He kindly agreed, 
 and invited me to stay the night in his temple. 
 
 When I reached the farmhouse there were there about 
 two dozen kneeUng people, including members of the 
 family. On the coming of the priest, who had gone to 
 the temple to put on his robes, the farmer threw open the 
 doors of the family shrine and lighted the candles in it. 
 The priest knelt down by the shrine and invited me to 
 kneel near him. In a few words he told the people why I 
 was in the district. Whereupon the farmer's aged mother 
 piped," We heard that a tall man had come, but to think that 
 we should see him and be in the same room with hi;n ! " 
 
 When he had prayed, the priest read from a roll of the 
 Shinshu scripture which he had taken reverently from 
 a box and a succession of wrappings. Afterwards he 
 preached from a " text," continuing, of course, to kneel 
 as we did. A flickering Ught fell upon us from a lamp 
 hanging from a beam. The room was pervaded with 
 incense from an iron censer which the farmer gently swung. 
 The worshippers told their beads, and in intervals between 
 the priest's sentences I heard the murmiu- of fervent prayer. 
 
 The priest preached his sermon with his eyes shut^ and 
 I could watch Jtiim narrowly. It is not so often that one 
 sees an old man with a sweet face. But there was sweet- 
 ness in both the face and voice of this priest. He spoke 
 slowly and clearly, sometimes pausing for a little between 
 his sentences as if for better inspiration, as a Quaker will 
 sometimes do in speaking at meeting. His tones were no 
 higher than could be heard clearly in the room. There was 
 
4 THE MERCY OF BUDDHA 
 
 nothing of the exhorter in this man. His talk did not 
 sound like preaching at all. It was like kind, friendly talk 
 at the fireside at a solemn time. " Faith, prayef7mofaIityT 
 these liTone are necessary," was the burden of the simple 
 address. " We have faith by divine providence ; out of 
 our thanksgiving comes prayer, and we cannot but be good." 
 It was plain that the old women loved their priest. In the 
 front of the congregation were three crones gnarled in 
 hands and face. When the sermon of an hour or so came 
 to an end they spoke quaveringly of the mercy of Buddha 
 to them, and of their own feebleness to do well. The old 
 priest gently offered them comfort and counsel. 
 
 After the service, in the light of the priest's paper lan- 
 tern, I made my way along the road to the temple. At 
 length I found myself mounting the lichened stone steps 
 to the great closed gates. The priest drew the long wooden 
 bolt and pushed one gate creakingly back. We went by a 
 paved pathway into the deeper shadow of the temple. 
 Then a light glowed from the side of the building, and we 
 were in the priest's house. It was like a farmer's house 
 only more refined in detail. 
 
 About half-past four in the morning I was awakened by 
 the booming of the temple bell. It is the sound whichj af 
 all delights mj;he Far East is mo£t,memora^ I got up, 
 and,'lbllowing the example of my host, had a bath in the 
 open, and dressed. -" 
 
 Then I was lighted along passages into the public part 
 of the temple. The priest with an acolyte began service 
 at the middle altar. Afterwards he proceeded to a side 
 altar. At one stage of the service he chanted a hymn which 
 ran something like this : 
 
 From the virtues and the mercies of divine providence we 
 
 get faith, the worth of which is boundless. 
 The ice of petty care and trouble which froze our hearts 
 
 is melted. 
 It has become the water of divine illumination, bearing 
 
 us on to peace. 
 The more care and trouble, the greater the illumination 
 
 and the reward. 
 
 I knelt on the outside of the congregational group. It 
 
THE LEPER, THE LIZARD AND THE LIAR 5 
 
 was cold as the great doors were slid open from time to 
 time and the kneeling figures grew in number to about 
 forty. Day broke and a few sparrows twittered by the 
 time the first part of the service was over. 
 
 The priest then took up his lamp and low table, and, 
 coming without the altar rail, knelt down m the midst of 
 the congregation. In this familiar relation with his people 
 he delivered a homily in a conversational tone. Buddha 
 was to mankind as a father to his children, he said. If a 
 man did bad things but repented, his father would be 
 more delighted than if he got rich. The way of serving 
 Buddha was^to feel his love^ To ask of the'ncE or of a 
 master was supplication, but we did not need to supplicate 
 Buddha. Our love of Buddha and his love for us would 
 become one thing. Carelessness, an evil spirit, doubt : 
 these were the enemies. Gold was beautiful to look at, but 
 if the gold st uck in one's ej^ssothat oiie could hot see, how 
 then? The true essence of belief was the abandonment of 
 ourselves to divine providence. 
 
 So the speaker went on, pressing home his thoughts with 
 anecdote or legend. There was the tale of a woman whose 
 character benefited when her husband became a leper. 
 Another story was of an injured lizard which was fed for 
 many days by its mate. We were also told of a mischievous 
 fellow who tried to anger a believer. The ne'er-do-weel 
 went to the man's house and called him a liar. The believer 
 thanked him for his faithful dealing, and said that it might 
 be true that he was a liar. He would be glad, he said, to 
 be given further advice after his wife had warmed water 
 in order that his visitor might wash his feet. " The mind 
 of the vagabond was thereupon changed." 
 
 The rays of light from the lamp illumined the large 
 Buddha-like shaven head and mild countenance of the 
 priest and the labour-worn faces of his flock around him. 
 Two weatherbeaten men curiously resembled Highland 
 elders. I saw that they, an old woman and a young 
 mother with a child tied on her back kept their eyes fixed 
 on the preacher. It was plain that in the service they 
 found strength for the day. 
 
 I was in a reverie when the priest ended his talk. To 
 
6 THE MERCY OF BUDDHA 
 
 my embarrassment he begged me to come with him within 
 the altar rail and speak to the people. I had been quick- 
 ened to such a degree by the experience of the previous 
 night and by this service at dawn that I stood up at once. 
 But there seemed to be not one word at my call, and my 
 knees knocked because of cold and shyness. I grasped 
 the chilly brass altar rail, and, as I met the gaze of friendly, 
 sun-tanned, care-rutted alien faces, which yet had the look 
 of " kent folk," I marvellously found sentence following 
 sentence. What I said matters nothing. What I felt was 
 the imity of all religion, my veneration for this rare priest, 
 a sense of kinship with these worshippers of another face" 
 and faith, and a realisation of the elemental things which 
 lie at the basis of international understandiiig. SeveraT 
 old men and women came up to me and bowed and made 
 little speeches of kindness and cordiaUty. Six was striking 
 on a clock in the priest's house as the doors of the temple 
 were shd open, the great crj^Jtomeria ' which guard the 
 village fane stood forth augustly in the morning light, and 
 the congregation went out to its labour. 
 
 As I knelt at breakfast and ate my rice and pickles and 
 drank my miso soup,' the priest, after the manner of a 
 Japanese with an honoured guest, did not take food but 
 waited upon me. He asked if the English clergy wore a 
 costume which marked them off from the people. He 
 liked the way of some of our preachers who wore ordinary 
 clothes and eschewed the title of " reverend." He was 
 also taken by the idea of the Quaker meeting at which 
 there is silence until someone feels he has a message to 
 utter. As to the future of Buddhism, he deeply regretted 
 to say that many priests were a generation behind the age. 
 If the priests were " more democratic, better educated and 
 more truly^eligious," then they might be able to keep hold 
 of young men. He knew of one priest in Tokyo who had 
 a dormitory for university students. 
 
 The priest presented his wife, a kindly woman full of 
 character. " This is my wife," he said ; " please teach 
 
 ' Cryptomeria japonica, or in Japanese, sugi, allied to the sequoia, yew 
 and cypress. 
 ' Miao, bean paste. 
 
WE ARE TO BECOME CONTENT' 
 
 her." I spoke of a kind of kindergarten which I had 
 learnt had been conducted at the temple for five years. 
 " We merely play with the children," she said. " I had 
 the plan of it from the kindergarten of a missionary," her 
 husband added. The priest and his wife were kneeling 
 side by side in the still temple-room looking out on their 
 restful garden. Behind them was a screen the inscription 
 on which might be translated, " We 
 are to be thankful for our environ- 
 ment ; we are to become content 
 quite naturally by the gracious 
 influence of the universe and by 
 the strength of our own will." 
 
 I could learn nothing from the 
 priest concerning several helpful 
 organisations which I had heard 
 that the villagers owed to his 
 influence and exertions. But the 
 manager of the village agricultural 
 association told me that for a 
 quarter of a century Otera San (Mr. 
 Temple) had superintended the 
 education of the young people, 
 that under his guidance the village 
 had a seven years' old co-operative 
 credit and selling society, 294 
 families belonged to a poultry society, 320 men and women 
 gathered to study the doctrines of Ninomiya (whom we in 
 the West know from a little book by a late Japanese 
 Ambassador in London, called For His People), and the 
 young men's association performed its discipline at half- 
 past five in the morning in the winter and at four o'clock 
 in the sunuuer. 
 
 ' To BOTJSE THE VllLAOE 
 YOTT MUST rlBST BOUSE 
 
 THE Priest " 
 (Autograph of Otera San) 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 " GOOD PEOPLE ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY PRECAUTIOUS " 
 
 Je ne propose rien, je n'impose rien, j'expose. — De la liberte du travail 
 
 He had been through Tokyo University, but his hands 
 were rough with the work of the rice fields. " I resent the 
 fact that a farmer is considered to be socially inferior to a 
 townsman," he said. " I am going to show that the ia- 
 come of a farmer who is diligent and skilful may equal that 
 of a Minister of State. I also propose to build a fine house, 
 not out of vanity, but in order to show that an honest 
 farmer can do as well for himself as a townsman." 
 
 When I asked the speaker to tell me something about 
 himself he went on : " My father was a follower of a pupil 
 of the great Ninomiya. Schools of frugal living and high 
 ideals were common in the Tokugawa period.' The object 
 sought was the education of heart and spirit. At night 
 when I was in bed my father used to kneel by me,'' his eldest 
 son, and say, ' When you grow big you must become a 
 great man and distinguish our family name.' This in- 
 struction was given to me repeatedly and it went deeply 
 into my heart." 
 
 " When I became a young man," he continued, " I had 
 two friends. We made promises to each other. One said, 
 ' I will become the greatest scholar in Japan.' The 
 second said, ' I will become the greatest statesman.' The 
 third, myself, said, ' I will be the greatest rice grower in 
 this cpuntry.' If we all succeeded we were to build beauti- 
 ful houses and invite each other to them. 
 
 1 Th^t is, before the Revolution of half a century ago, when the Toku- 
 gawa Shogun resigned his powers to the Emperor. 
 
 2 The Japanese bed, futon, consists of a soft mattress of cotton wool, 
 two or three inches thick. It is spread on the floor, which itself consists 
 of mats of almost the same thickness, 6 ft. long by 3 ft, wide 
 
 8 
 
"I WAS MADE TO THINK" 9 
 
 " I did not graduate at the University because, by the 
 entreaty of my father, when I reached twenty-one, I left 
 Tokyo in order to become a practical farmer. It is twenty- 
 one years since I began farming. I consulted with skilful 
 agriculturists and then I saw my way to make a plan. 
 Rice in my native place is inferior. I improved it for three 
 or four years, I gained the first gold prize at the pre- 
 fectural show. Some years later I obtained the first prize 
 at the exhibition which was held by five prefectiires 
 together. Later still I received the first prize at the exhi- 
 bition for eighteen prefectures, also the first prize at the 
 exhibition of the National Agricultural Association. 
 Further, I was appointed a judge of rice and travelled about. 
 
 " I consumed a great deal of time in doing this pubUc 
 work. One day I was made to think. A collector for a 
 charity said in my hearing that he expected larger sub- 
 scriptions from practical men because though public men 
 were estemeed by society their economic power was small. 
 I at once resolved that before doing any more public work 
 I should put myself in a soimd financial position. 
 
 " As I thought over the matter it seemed to me that it 
 was not to be expected that a public man should be able 
 to do his really best work if his financial position were not 
 sound. Again, could he have lasting influence with people 
 in practical affairs if his own practical affairs were not in 
 good order ? ' At any rate I determined not to go out to 
 any more exhibitions or lectures except those which were 
 remunerative, and I resolved to devote myself as my first 
 duty to my farming. 
 
 " I set to work and managed my land, 3 cho (a cho is 
 2| acres), so as to obtain the gross income of an M.P. [The 
 reader could scarcely have a more striking illustration of 
 the intensity with which Japanese land is cultivated — 
 
 ^ Most of the really big men of Australia have left political life in com- 
 paratively impoverished circumstances. Not only did Sir Henry Parkes 
 die poor. Sir George Reid took the High Commissionership in London ; 
 Sir Graham Berry was provided with a small annuity ; Sir George Dibbs 
 was made the manager of a State savings bank ; Sir Edmund Barton was 
 lifted to the High Court Bench. — Ti/mea, January 11, 1921. 
 
 To the last day of his life, executions were levied in his house, — 
 Lord Bosebery on Pitt. 
 
10 "GOOD PEOPLE ARE NOT PRECAUTIOUS" 
 
 the average area is under 3 acres per family.] I am now 
 working about 4 cho (10 acres). Later on I am going to 
 farm 7 cho (15J acres) and from that I am expecting the 
 income of a Minister.' I have already collected the 
 materials for my villa, for I am approaching my goal. One 
 of my two friends, who is also forty years of age, is a dis- 
 tinguished chemist in the Imperial Agricultural College. 
 My other friend, who is forty-four, is Secretary of the 
 Korean Government." 
 
 The indomitable experimenter swallowed another cupful 
 of tea and declared that " in order to be prosperous, all the 
 members of the family must work." All the members of 
 his family did work. His wife was strong and there were 
 five healthy children. He used the ordinary farm imple- 
 ments and his livestock consisted of only a horse and a few 
 hens. The home farm was five miles from the station. 
 The outlying farms were scattered in five villages — 
 " there are always spendthrift lazy fellows willing to sell 
 their land." " I have a firm beUef," the speaker added 
 complacently, " that agriculture is the most honest, the 
 most sincere, the most interesting, the most secure and 
 the most profitable calling." 
 
 " Very often," he went on, " good people are not suf- 
 ficiently precautious " — I give the excellent word coined by 
 my interpreter. " They spend for the pubhc good, and in 
 the end they are left poor. Renowned, rich fanailies have 
 come to a miserable condition by such action. What they 
 have done may have been good. But they are reduced to 
 pauperism and they are laughed at by many persons. 
 People jeer that they pretended to do good, yet they could 
 not do good to themselves. If all people who work for the 
 pubhc benefit are laughed at at last — and many are — ^it will 
 come to be thought that to work for the public benefit is 
 not good. Therefore I think that the man who would work 
 for the public good must be careful in his own affairs. He 
 must not be a poor man if he is to help public business. 
 However philanthropic he may be, if his financial position 
 is not strong he cannot go on long. He will be stopped on 
 his good way. He cannot help other people. Therefore 
 
 ' For his figures see Appendix I. 
 
"A NEEDLE IN YOUR HEAD" 11 
 
 I am now gathering wealth for strengthening my financial 
 position as a means to attain the higher end." 
 
 As the speaker awaited my judgment on his career, I 
 ventured to suggest that gifts, qualities and inspiration 
 which made a man a public man did not necessarily equip 
 him for being a great success in business life. The question 
 was, perhaps, whether the tjrpe of man who was pre-eminently 
 successful in promoting his own pecuniary interests was 
 necessarily the best type of public man. Was the average 
 character equal to the strain of many years of concentra- 
 tion on money-making to the exclusion of pubUc interests ? 
 When men emerged from the sphere of concentrated money- 
 making, were they worth so very much as public men ? 
 Might not the values of things have altered a little for 
 them ? Might it not have a shrivelling effect on the heart 
 to resist applications which must be refused when the 
 strengthening of one's financial position was regarded as 
 the chief object in life ? 
 
 At this point our host, Mr. Yamasaki, the respected 
 principal of the big agricultiu:al school of the prefecture 
 and a well-known rural author and speaker, broke in with 
 the ejaculation, "He has got a needle in your head" — the 
 Japanese equivalent for " touching the spot " — and con- 
 tinued : " Surely he is right who through his life offers 
 fi:eely what he may have as to members of his own family. 
 I give away many pamphlets and I have guests. I could 
 save in these directions. But I am not doing it. I am con- 
 tent if I can support my family. I gave a savings book to 
 each of my five children. When the boy becomes twenty- 
 one he will have enough to finish at the imiversity or start 
 as a sipall merchant so as not to be a parasite. My girls 
 will be provided with enough to furnish the costs of modest 
 marriage. If I did more I might perhaps become greedy." 
 
 I cannot say that the farmer who had so kindly outlined 
 his life's programme was impressed either by ova host's 
 views or by mine, but he told us that he now spent 5 per 
 cent, of his income on public purposes, and that 150 yen 
 received for giving lectures was spent on books and recrea- 
 tion " for enlarging mind and heart." He happened to 
 mention that, though his family^was of the^Zen sect of 
 
12 "GOOD PEOPLE ARE NOT PRECAUTIOUS" 
 
 Buddhism, he was a Shintoist. It is difficult to believe 
 that a genuine Buddhist could have evolved such a life 
 scheme. There is certainly a Shinto symboUsm in his plan 
 of tree planting before his house. He has set there, in the 
 order shown, eleven pines which he named as marked : 
 
 Thieves 
 
 Idleness 
 
 t t 
 
 Quarrels Sickness 
 
 Plan of the Eleven Symbolio Trees which the Faemee Planted 
 
 OTTTSIDB HIS HOTJSE AUD THE EviLS (SEPBESENTED BY AbbOWS) 
 FBOM WHICH THEY ABB SHIELDING HiM 
 
 The virtues inscribed on this plan are the guardians of 
 the farmer and his family, which is represented in the 
 middle of it. The words behind the arrows represent the 
 character of the attacks to which the farmer conceives 
 himself and his family to be exposed. Cotu-age is imagined 
 as going before and Wisdom as protecting the rear. 
 
 The talk turned to some advice which had been given 
 to farmers to lay out " economic gardens." They were to 
 plant no trees but fruit trees. To this an old farmer of 
 ova company replied : "If you are too economical your 
 children will become mercenary. Some families were too 
 
THE RISKS OF ECONOMY 13 
 
 economical and cut down beautiful trees, planting instead 
 economical ones. Those families I have seen come to an 
 evil end. The man who exercises rigid economy may be a 
 good man, but his children can know Uttle of his real 
 motives and must be wrongly influenced by his conduct." 
 We all agreed that there was nowadays too much talk 
 about money-making in rural Japan. " Even I," laughed 
 the owner of the symbolic trees, " planted not persimmons 
 but pines." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EAELY-RISING SOCIETIES AND OTHER INGENUOUS 
 ACTIVITIES 
 
 I should be heartily sorry if there were no signs of partiality. On the 
 other hand, there is, I trust, no importunate advocacy or tedious assenta- 
 tion. — ^MOBLEY 
 
 " The alarum clocks for waking us at four o'clock in the 
 summer and five in the winter " — it was the chairman of 
 a village Early-Rising Society who was speaking to me — 
 " are placed at the houses of the secretaries, and each 
 member is in turn a secretary. The duty of a secretary, 
 when the alarum clock strikes, is to get up and visit the 
 houses of all the members allotted to him and to shout 
 for the young men until they answer. Each member on 
 rising walks to the house of the secretary of his division 
 and writes his name on the record of attendances. Then 
 the member goes to the shrine, where we fence and wrestle 
 for a time. At first we thought that if we fenced and 
 wrestled early in the morning we should be tired for 
 our work, but we found that it was not so. 
 
 " Sometimes a clock gets damaged and does not ring, 
 so a few of us may be getting up later that morning. Or 
 a man becomes afraid of sleeping too late, fears his clock 
 is wrong, and gets up at 3 o'clock and then goes off to waken 
 members. Hence complaints. Some cunning fellows ask 
 their friends or brothers to write down for them their names 
 on the list of attendances. But we find out their deceit 
 by their handwriting. It is very difficult to form the habit 
 of early rising, because members are not expected to report 
 at the secretaries' houses on a rainy day. As there is no 
 control over them that day, they are easy in their minds and 
 sleep on. Thus they break the habit of early rising that 
 
 14 
 
THE DRUMS OF THE VILLAGE 15 
 
 they are forming. Getting up early is necessary not only 
 because it is good to begin work early but because early 
 rising overcomes the habit of gadding about at night which 
 is customary in many villages. 
 
 " You may say that all this is a great deal to ask of 
 young men," the chairman continued. " But if you ask 
 from them comfortable practices only, how can you expect 
 from them a remarkable result ? Young men should 
 ponder this and be willing to exert themselves." Later on 
 it was explained to me that it had been found that it took 
 a great deal of time for the secretaries to call up all the 
 members in the morning by shouting to them, " so the 
 secretary obtained bugles ; but even the bugles were not 
 heard everjrwhere, so they were changed to drums, and 
 now five drums go round our village every morning." 
 
 In every village of Japan there is a young men's associa- 
 tion, which is by no means to be confounded with the world- 
 encircling Y.M.C.A.' The village Y.M.A. of Japan is an 
 institution of some antiquity and it has nothing whatever 
 to do with religious effort. One day, when I was staying 
 in a rural district, I was invited to a remoter part in order 
 to see something of the discipline that the members of a 
 group of young men's associations were imposing on them- 
 selves. The members of this group of Y.M.A. belonged 
 to the branches established in a village of nineteen aza, 
 that is hamlets. This fact, with the further fact that the 
 village containing the nineteen aza had four elementary 
 schools and one higher school, will show that a Japanese 
 village may be much larger than a Western one. 
 
 Nearly six hundred young men were in the parade. They 
 were dressed exactly alike in the tight blue calico trousers 
 and kimono of jacket length which the Japanese farmer 
 ordinarily wears. Each man had the usual obi (waist 
 scarf) tied round his kimono, and in the obi was thrust the 
 small cotton towel which Japanese carry with them 
 everjTvhere. The young men wore puttees, waraji (straw 
 sandals) and caps. It is only of late that the Japanese 
 worker has taken to wearing head-gear, or at any rate 
 
 ' There are, however, 11,000 members of Y.M.C.A. in Japan. There 
 is also a Y.W.C.A. with a considerable membership. 
 
16 EARLY-RISING SOCIETIES 
 
 head-gear other than he could contrive with his towel. The 
 physical condition of the yoiing fellows was good and their 
 evolutions with dummy " rifles " were smart and skilful. 
 The paraders seemed lost in their desire to do their best 
 for their credit's sake and their own good. After the first 
 movements, the " troops " with " rifles " held as if there 
 were bayonets at the end, made rushes with loud cries. 
 The secret of this somewhat siu-prising display far away in 
 the heart of Japan was that the work of the young men 
 had been done under the direction of two fit, be-medaUed 
 army surgeons, reserve officers, who were present in order 
 to answer my questions. 
 
 Every morning half an hour before sunrise these Y.M.A. 
 members assemble in the grounds of their Shinto shrine 
 or of their school, where they exercise until the sun shows 
 itself. In the evenings after work they also fence, wrestle, 
 lift weights and develop their wrists. This wrist develop- 
 ment is done by two youths grasping a pole, one at either 
 end, and then trying to rotate it one against the other. 
 
 The members endeavour to cultivate their minds as well 
 as their bodies, and they also observe in their dress a self- 
 denying ordinance. On ceremonial occasions they permit 
 themselves to wear a full-length kimono and the hakama or 
 divided skirt, but they deny themselves the third article 
 of a Japanese man's full dress, the haori or silk overcoat. 
 An effort is also made to dispense with the use of " luxuri- 
 ous " geta (the national wooden pattens).' 
 
 The object of all this varied discipline is to develop 
 physique, self-control, self-respect and what the Japanese 
 call the spirit of association, or, as we might say, good 
 fellowship. The spirit of association is needed in order to 
 promote greater administrative, educational and social 
 efficiency. The modern Japanese village is no longer an 
 historical but a political imit which covers a considerable 
 district. It is, as I have explained, a combination of 
 clusters of aza (hamlets). Each of these aza has its local 
 sentiment, and this local sentiment when untouched by 
 outside influences tends to become selfish, narrow and 
 prejudiced. If, however, anything is to be done in the 
 1 See Appendix II. 
 
"TO ENLARGE PEOPLE'S IDEAS" 17 
 
 development of rural life there must be co-operation 
 between aza for all sorts of objects. 
 
 I was assured that in addition to the development of 
 physique, moral and the spirit of association, there was to be 
 seen, imder the influence of the Y.M.A., a development of 
 good manners and mental nimbleness. A special result 
 of early rising and discipline in one area had been that 
 " the habit of spending evening hours idly has died away, 
 immorality has diminished, singing loudly and foohshly 
 and boasting oneself have disappeared, while punctuahty 
 and respect for old age have increased." I was even assured 
 that parents — whom no true Japanese would ever dream of 
 attempting to reform at first hand — parents, I say, moved 
 by the physical and mental advance in their sons, have 
 " begun to practise greater punctuality." 
 
 After the drilling was over I was taken to a large elemen- 
 tary school and was called upon to address the young men, 
 who were kneeling in perfect files. Mr. Yamasaki followed 
 me and told the youths that Japanese were not so tall 
 as they might be, and that therefore their physique 
 " must be continuously developed." Nor were rural 
 conditions all they should be from a moral point of view. 
 Therefore, " every desire which interferes with the develop- 
 ment of your health or morality must be overcome." 
 
 Let me speak of another village. It numbers a thousand 
 famihes and it rises in the morning and goes to bed at night 
 by the soimd of the bugle. It has five public baths and a 
 notice-board of news " to enlarge people's ideas." The 
 shopkeepers are said to " work very dihgently, so things 
 are cheaper." The education of such of the young men 
 as are exempted from military service is continued on 
 Saturday evenings for four years. The Y.M.A., in addition 
 to the military discipliae, fencing, wrestling, weight- 
 lifting and pole-twisting of which I have spoken, exercises 
 itself in handwriting — which many Japanese practise 
 as an art during their whole lifetime — and in composing 
 the conventional short poem. I was gravely informed 
 that " the custom of spending money on sweet-stuft is 
 decreasiag." What this really means is that the young men 
 were not frequenting the sweet-stuft shops, which are staffed 
 
18 EARLY-RISING SOCIETIES 
 
 by girls who are in many cases a greater temptation than 
 the sweets. The worthy members of this association 
 had " burnt their geta." 
 
 In some places Y.M.A. members give their labour when 
 a school teacher or a fellow member is building his house, 
 or they do repairs at the school. Bicycle excursions are 
 made to neighbouring villages in order to participate in 
 inter-Y.M.A. debates, or to study vegetable raising, fruit 
 culture or poultry keeping. The Japanese are much given 
 to " taking trips," and the special training which they 
 receive at school in making notes and plans results in every- 
 body having a notebook and being able to sketch a rough 
 route-plan for personal use, or for a stranger who may 
 ask his way. 
 
 Not a few associations favour members cutting each 
 other's hair once a fortnight, thus at one and the same 
 time saving money and curbing vanity. Several Y.M.A.S 
 publish cyclostyled monthlies. Others minutely investigate 
 the economic condition of their villages. Some Y.M.A.S 
 provide public " complaint boxes," and have boards up 
 asking for friendly help for soldiers billeted in the district. 
 One association has issued instructions to its members that 
 they are not to ride when in charge of ox-drawn carts. 
 The reason is that the ox is only partially imder control 
 and may injm-e a pedestrian — unwittingly, I am sure, for 
 the gentleness of the ox and even of the bull in harness 
 arrests one's attention. Many Y.M.A.S devote themselves 
 to cultivating improved qualities of rice or to breaking up 
 new land. Sometimes the land of the Shinto shrine is 
 cultivated. I have heard of Y.M.A.S in remote parts 
 having handed over to them the exclusive sale of saki. 
 
 I find a Y.M.A. counselling its members " not to speak 
 vulgar words in a crowd." There is also among the mem- 
 bers of Y.M.A.S a certain addiction to diary keeping for 
 moral as well as economic purposes. The diaries are 
 distributed by the associations and " afterwards examined 
 and rewarded " — a plan which would hardly work in the 
 West. There are Y.M.A.s which make a point of seeing 
 off conscripts with flags and music. Others have fallen 
 on the more economical plan of " writing to the conscript 
 
"ABANDON SWEET-EATING" 19 
 
 as often as possible and helping with labour the family 
 which is suffering from the loss of his services." By some 
 Y.M.A.S " old people are respected and comforted." More 
 than one association has a practice of serving out red 
 and black balls to its members at the opening of every new 
 year, when good resolutions are in order, and at the end 
 of the year recalling either the red or the black according 
 to the degree to which the publicly announced good resolu- 
 tions have been kept. Among the good resolutions are : 
 to worship at the Shinto shrine or the Buddhist temple 
 regularly, to be tidier, to be more efficient in cropping the 
 land, to undertake work for the common good, to have 
 a secondary occupation in addition to farming, to sit 
 with more decorum at meals, to rise earlier, to visit the 
 graves of ancestors monthly, to be more considerate to 
 parents or elder brothers, and " not to remain idly at 
 people's houses." 
 
 One Y.M.A. decrees that a member found in a tea-house 
 in conversation with a geisha shall be fined 20 yen. There 
 is even a village in which the young men's association and 
 the young women's association have united to issue a 
 regulation providing that at night time members, in order 
 that their doings shall be public, shall carry lanterns 
 painted with the ideographs of their societies.' 
 
 With regard to the young women's associations, I 
 found that one of them studied domestic matters and good 
 manners, " asking questions and receiving answers." The 
 motto of the organisation was " Good Wives and Good 
 Mothers." A member, this Society believes, should be 
 " polite, gentle and warm-hearted, but with a strong Avill 
 inside and able to meet difficulties." Her hairdressing and 
 clothes " should not be luxurious," and she " must not run 
 after fashions." She must " respect Buddha and abandon 
 sweet-eating," for " taking food between meals is bad for 
 your health, for economy and for your posterity." 
 
 I^et us now hear something of Societies for the Cultivation 
 of Bice by Schoolboys. The lads become responsible for 
 the cultivation of a tan of their family land, or of a small 
 paddy, and they work it themselves with the help of such 
 
 1 For official action in regard to the Y.M.A.s, see later. 
 
20 EARLY-RISING SOCIETIES 
 
 advice as the schoolmaster may give them. (The cultiva- 
 tion of a tan of a paddy, a quarter of an acre, is supposed 
 to need in a year about twenty-one days' labour of a man 
 working from simrise to simset.) The re'port of one boy 
 to which I turned in a collection of reports by members 
 of a rice-cultivation society showed that he was between 
 fourteen and fifteen. His diary of work and observations 
 was as follows : 
 
 June 5. — 4 to of herring applied. 
 
 June 7. — Locusts and other insects arrive.' 
 
 June 20. — 153 clumps of rice transplanted from the 
 
 seed bed.' 
 July 11. — Rice cultivated and 4 to of herring applied. 
 July 27. — First weeding. 
 Aug. 6. — Second weeding. 
 Aug. 8. — Locusts again. 
 Aug. 11. — Third weeding. 
 Sept. 10. — All ears shot. 
 Oct. 10. — Some plants suffering from bacillus. 
 
 It was further noted that the soil was sandy, that cold 
 spring water was percolating through the bottom of the 
 paddy field, that the aeration of the soil was bad and that 
 some plants were laid by wind. The young farmer ap- 
 pended to his report an excellent plan. He received marks 
 as follows : Method of planting, 15 ; levelling, 20 ; pro- 
 vision against insects, 5 ; general attention, 25 ; total, 65. 
 Some boys got as many as 99 marks. 
 
 A word concerning a Village Association for Promoting 
 Morality. One of the things it does is to assemble yearly 
 the whole population, old and young, " in order to get 
 friendly." The police meanwhile keep an eye open for 
 strangers who might take it into their heads to visit the 
 village on that day and help themselves from the heuses. 
 I may quote three poems in rough translations from a 
 speech made by a priest at the annual meeting : 
 
 The legs of a horse, the rudder of a boat, the pin of a fan, 
 and the sincerity of a man. 
 
 ' ' The damage done by insects is estimated at 10 million yen a year. 
 In some parts locusts are roasted and eaten. 
 2 For an account of the processes of rice cultivation, see Chapter IX. 
 
A VILLAGE'S VOLUNTARY TAXATION 21 
 
 Let your heart be pure and true and you need not pray 
 
 for the protection of the gods. 
 The bride brings many things with her to her new home, 
 
 but one thing more, the spirit of sincerity, will not 
 
 encumber her. 
 
 After these varied accoimts of rural merit, I could not 
 but listen with attention to a tale of village gamblers, the 
 offence of gambling having been " introduced by the ex- 
 cavators on the new railway." First the headman fined a 
 dozen young men. Then he made a raid and found among 
 the village sinners several members of his own council. 
 " The salaried officials were at a loss to know what to do, 
 and proposed to resign. But the headman brought the 
 prisoners together before the whole body of officials. He 
 spoke of the sufferings of the troops in Manchuria and the 
 heroic deaths among them. (It was the time of the Rus- 
 sian war.) ' Lest your offences should come to be known 
 by our soldiers and discourage them,' said the headman, 
 ' I cannot but overlook your conduct.' It is thought that 
 gambling practically ceased from that time." 
 
 Local officials have a way of making the most of historic 
 events in order to touch the imagination of their villagers. 
 Many original undertakings were begun, for example, under 
 the inspiration of the Coronation. One village set about 
 raising a fund by a system of taxation under which inhabi- 
 tants contribute according to the following tariff : 
 
 Birth of a child, 10 sen (that is, 2|d. or 5 cents). 
 
 Wedding, 15 sen. 
 
 Adoption, 15 sen. 
 
 Graduation from the primary school, 10 sen ; advanced 
 
 school, 20 sen. 
 Teacher or official on appointment, 2 per cent, of salary ; 
 
 when salary is increased, 10 per cent, of increase. 
 When an official receives a prize of money from his 
 
 superior, 5 per cent. 
 Every villager to pay every quarter, 1 sen. 
 
 On the basis of this assessment it is expected that fifty- 
 seven years after the Coronation such a sum will have been 
 accumulated as will enable the villagers to live rate free. 
 
22 EARLY-RISING SOCIETIES 
 
 Some villages have thanksgiving associations in connec-r 
 tion with Shinto shrines. Aged villagers are " respected 
 by being blessed before the shrine and by being given a 
 present." Worthy villagers who are not aged " receive 
 prizes and honour." 
 
 More than once when I went to a village I was welcomed 
 first by a parade of the Y.M.A., then by the school children 
 in rows, and finally in the school grounds by two lines of 
 venerable members of an Ex-Public Servants' Association. 
 The object of an E.P.S.A. is to strengthen the hands of the 
 present officials and to give honour to their predecessors. 
 A headman explained to me : " If ex-officials fell into 
 poverty or lacked public respect, people would not be 
 inclined to work for the public good. A former clerk in the 
 village office whom everybody had forgotten was working 
 as a labourer. But as a member of the association he was 
 seen to be treated with honour, so the children were im- 
 pressed. The funeral of such a man is apt to be lonely, 
 but when this man died all the members of the association 
 attended his funeral in ceremonial dress and offered some 
 money to his memory.^ His honour is great and the 
 villagers say, ' We may well work for the public benefit.' " 
 
 Every village in Japan has a Village Agricultural Associa- 
 tion. One V.A.A., which belongs to a village of less than 
 6,000 people, sees the fruit of its labours in the existence of 
 " 322 good manure houses." The gift of a plan and the 
 grant of a yen had prompted the building of most of them. 
 Then the organisation incites its members to cement the 
 ground below their dwellings. This is not so much for 
 the benefit of the farmer and his family as for the welfare 
 of their silkworms. A fly harmful to silkworms winters 
 in the soil, but it cannot find a resting-place in concrete. 
 
 A word may also be said about the way in which silkworm 
 rearers have been induced by the V.A.A. to keep the same 
 breed of caterpillar, so facilitating bulking of cocoons at 
 the association's co-operative sales. A small library of 
 silkworm-culture books has been started in the village, and 
 
 1 It is the practical Japanese custom to make a gift of money to a family 
 on the occasion of a death. The Emperor makes a present to the family 
 of a deceased statesman. 
 
THE GIANT RADISH 23 
 
 there is a special pamphlet for yotmg men which they are 
 urged to keep in " their pockets and to study ten minutes 
 each day." A general library has 2,400 volumes divided 
 into eight circulating libraries. The cost of the building 
 which provides the library in chief, a meeting hall and also 
 a storehouse for cocoons has been defrayed by the com- 
 missions charged for the co-operative sale of cocoons. 
 
 Again, there used to be no cattle in the village, but now, 
 thanks to the purchase of young animals by the association, 
 and thanks to village shows, there are 103. 
 
 There is a competition to get the biggest yield of rice, 
 and there is also " an exhibition of crops." This exhibition 
 incidentally aims at ending trouble between landlord and 
 tenants due to complaints of the inferiority of the rice 
 brought in as rent. (Paddy-field rent is invariably paid in 
 rice.) These complaints are more directly dealt with by 
 the V.A.A, arbitrating between landlords and tenants who 
 are at issue. In addition to rice crop and cattle shows in 
 the village, there is a yearly exhibition of the products of 
 secondary industries, such as mats, sandals and hats. 
 
 The V.A.A. is also working to secure the planting of 
 hill-side waste. Some 300,000 tree seedlings have been 
 distributed to members of the Y.M.A., who " grow them 
 on," and, after examination and criticism, plant them out. 
 I must not omit to speak of the V.A.A.s' distribution of 
 moral and economic diaries of the type already referred to. 
 The vill?.gers, in the spirit of boy-scoutism, are " advised 
 to do one good thing in a day." I saw several of these 
 'diaries, well thumbed by their authors after having been 
 laboured at for a year. One yoimg farmer noted down on 
 the space for January 2 that he said his prayers and then 
 went daikon '■ pulling, and that daikon pulling (like our 
 mangold pulling) is a cold job. 
 
 1 The giant white radish which reaches 2 or 3 ft. in length and 3 in. or 
 more in diameter. There is also a correspondingly large turnip-shaped sort. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 " THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH " 
 
 It has been said that we should emulate rather than imitate them. 
 All I say is. Let us study them. — Matthew Arnold 
 
 Fob seven years in succession the men, old, middle-aged 
 and yoimg, who had done the most remarkable things in 
 the agriculture of the prefectiire had been invited to gather 
 in conference. I went to this annual " meeting of skilful 
 farmers." Among the speakers were the local governor and 
 chiefs of departments who had been sent down by the 
 Ministry of Agriculture and the Home Office. According 
 to our ideas, everybody but the luipractised speakers — ^the 
 expert farmers who were called from time to time to the 
 platform — spoke too long. But the kneeling audience 
 found no fault. Indeed, a third of it was taking notes. 
 It was an audience of seeking souls. 
 
 One of the impromptu speakers, a white-haired, toil- 
 marked farmer, told how forty years before he had gone to 
 the next prefecture and opened new land. " With his 
 spectacles and moustache," explained the chairman — if 
 the man who takes the initiative from time to time at a 
 Japanese meeting may be properly called a chairman — 
 " he looks like a gentleman ; but he works hard." And 
 the man showed his hands as a testimony to the severity 
 of his labours. 
 
 " It was in the winter," he said, " that I went away from 
 my home and obtained a certain tract of waste. I had no 
 acquaintance near. I brought some food, but when I fell 
 short I had no more. I had gone with my third boy. We 
 lived in a small hut and were in a miserable condition. 
 Then a fierce wind took oft the roof. It was at four in the 
 morning when the roof blew off. In February I began to 
 open a rice field. Gradually we got a cho. At length I 
 
 24 
 
THE WEEPING FARMERS 25 
 
 opened another cho, but there was much gravel. Some of 
 my newly opened fields are very high up the hill. If you 
 chance to pass my house please come to see me. The maple 
 leaves are very beautiful and you can enjoy the sight of 
 many birds." 
 
 The early meetings of the expert farmers used to last 
 not one day but two, for the men delighted in narrating 
 their experiences to one another. Some of the audience 
 used to weep as the older men told their tales. The 
 farmers would sit up late round a farmer or a professor 
 who was talking about some subject that interested them. 
 The originator of these gatherings, Mr. Yamasaki, told me 
 that he was " more than once moved to tears by the merits 
 and pure hearts of the farmer speakers." 
 
 Of the regard and respect which the farmers had for this 
 man I had many indications. Like not a few agricultm-al 
 authorities, he is a samurai. * He is exceptionally tall for 
 a Japanese, looks indeed rather like a Highland gilUe, and 
 when one evening I prevailed on him to put on armoiu", 
 thrust two swords in his obi and take a long bow in his hand, 
 he was an imposing figure. He carries the ideals of bushido 
 into his rural work. He does not sleep more than five 
 hours, and he is up every morning at five. 
 
 But I am getting away from the meeting. There was a 
 priest who spoke, a man curiously like Tolstoy. (He had, 
 no doubt, Ainu blood in him.) He wore the stiff buttoned- 
 up jacket of the primary school teacher and spoke 
 modestly. " Formerly the rice fields of my village suffered 
 very much from bad irrigation," he said, " but when that 
 was put right the soil became excellent. In the days when 
 the soil was bad the people were good and no man suspected 
 another of stealing his seal. ^ But when the soil became good 
 the disposition of the people was influenced in a bad way, 
 and they brought their seals to the temple to be kept safe. 
 
 " At that time the organiser of this meeting came and 
 made a speech in my village. On hearing his speech I 
 thought it an easy task to make my village good. At once 
 
 ' Samurai or shizoku comprise about a twentieth of the population. 
 2 Every Japanese signs by means of a stone or hard-wood seal which he 
 keeps in a case and ordinarily carries with him. 
 
26 « THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH " 
 
 I began to do good things. I formed several men's and 
 women's associations, all at once, as if I were Buddha. 
 But the real condition of the people was not much improved. 
 There came many troubles upon me, and our friend wrote 
 a letter. I was very thankful, and I have been keeping 
 that letter in the temple and bowing there morning and 
 evening. 
 
 " I began to ask many distinguished persons to help me. 
 They influenced the farmers. The sight of a good man is 
 enough. Speech is imnecessary. The villagers were not 
 educated enough to understand moraUsings or thinking, 
 but the kind face of a good man has efficacy. There was 
 a man in the village who was demoralised, and when I told 
 of him to a distinguished man who lives near our village 
 he sympathised very much. That distinguished man is 
 eighty-four years old, but he accompanied that demoraUsed 
 man for three days, giving no instruction but simply hving 
 the same life, and the demoralised man was an entirely 
 changed man and ever thankful. 
 
 " I am a sinful man. Sometimes it happens that after 
 I have been working for the public benefit I am glad that 
 I am offered thanks. I know it is not a good thing when 
 people express gratitude to me, for I ought not to accept it. 
 When I know I am doing a good thing and expecting 
 thanks, I am not doing a good thing. My thanks must 
 not come from men but from Buddha. I am trying to 
 cast out my sinful feelings. It must not be supposed that 
 I am leading these people. You skilful farmers kindly 
 come to my village if you pass. You need not give any 
 speech. Your good faces will do." 
 
 But the two speeches I have reported are hardly a fair 
 sample of the discourses which were delivered. The 
 addresses of the earnest Tokyo officials and the Governor 
 were directed towards urging on the farmers increased 
 production and increased labour, and the duty was pressed 
 upon them, as I understood, in the name of the highest 
 patriotism and of devotion to their ancestors. This talk 
 was excellent in its way, but when I got up I hazarded a 
 few words on different lines. If I ventiwe to summarise 
 my somewhat elementary address it is because it furnishes 
 
THE HIGHEST AIM 27 
 
 a key to some of the enquiries I was to make during my 
 journeys. I was told the next day that the local daily 
 had declared that my " tongue was tipped with fire," 
 which was a compliment to my kind and clever interpreter, 
 who, when he let himself go, seemed to be able to make 
 two or three sentences out of every one of mine : 
 
 I said that my Japanese friends kept asking me my 
 impressions, and one thing I had to say to them was that 
 I had got an impression in many quarters of spiritual dry- 
 ness. I dared to think that some responsibility for a 
 materialistic outlook must be shared by the admirable 
 officials and experts who moved about among the farmers. 
 They were always talking about crop yields and the amount 
 of money made, and they unconsciously pressed home the 
 idea that rural progress was a material thing. 
 
 But the rural problem was not only a problem of better 
 crops and of greater production. Man did not live by 
 food alone. Tolstoy wrote a book called What Men Live 
 By, and there was nothing in it about food. Men lived 
 not by the number of bales of rice they raised, but by the 
 development of their minds and hearts. It might be asked 
 if it was not the business of rural experts to teach agricul- 
 ture. But a poet of my coimtry had said that it took 
 a soul to move a pig into a cleaner sty. It was necessary 
 for a man who was to teach agriculture well to know 
 something higher than agricidture. The teacher must be 
 more advanced than his pupils. There must be a source 
 from which the energy of the rural teacher must be again 
 and again renewed. There must be a well from which he 
 must be continually refreshed and stimulated. Some 
 called that well by the name of religion, unity with God. 
 Some called it faith in mankind, faith in the destiny .of the 
 world, that faith in man which is faith in God. But it 
 must be a real belief, not a half-hearted, shivering faith. 
 
 Agriculture was not only the oldest and the most ser- 
 viceable calling, it was the foundation of everything. But 
 the fact must not be lost sight of that agriculture, important 
 and vital though it was, was only a means to an end. The 
 object in view was to have in the rural districts better 
 men, women and children. The highest aim of rural 
 progress was to develop the minds and hearts of the rural 
 population, and in all discussion of the rural problems 
 
28 " THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH " 
 
 it was necessary not to lose in technology a clear view of 
 the final object. 
 
 But when account is taken of all the drab materialism 
 in the rural districts there remains a leaven of imworldli- 
 ness. It takes various forms. Here is the story of a 
 landlord at whose beautiful house I stayed. " When a 
 tenant brings his rent rice to this landlord's storehouse," 
 a fellow-guest told me, " it is never examined. The door 
 of the storehouse is left unpadlocked, and the rent rice is 
 brought by the tenant when he is minded to do so. No 
 one takes note of his coming. If he meets his landlord 
 on the road he may say, ' I brought you the rent,' and 
 the landlord says, ' It is very kind of you.' It is an old 
 custom not to supervise the tenants' bringing of the rent. 
 
 " Nowadays, however, some tenants are sly. They say, 
 ' Our landlord never looks into our payments. Therefore 
 we can bring him inferior rice or less than the quantity.' 
 The landlord loses somewhat by this, but it is not in accord- 
 ance with the honour of his family to change the method 
 of collecting his rent. He is now chairman of the village 
 co-operative society as well as of the young men's society, 
 and he aims to improve his village fundamentally." 
 
 I also heard this narrative. The tenants in a certain 
 place wished to cultivate rice land rather than to farm 
 dry land. But when silkworm cultivation became pros- 
 perous they began to prefer dry land again in order that 
 they might extend the area of mulberries. Therefore the 
 landlords raised the rents of the dry farms. But there was 
 one landlord who said, " If this dry farm land had been 
 improved by me I should be justified in raising the rent. 
 But I did not improve it. Therefore it would be base to 
 take advantage of economic conditions to raise the rent." 
 
 So he did not raise the rent. Then he was excluded from 
 social intercourse by the other landlords because their 
 tenants grumbled. These landlords said to him, "You can 
 afford not to raise your rents, but we cannot." Therefore 
 the landlord who had not raised his rents called his tenants 
 together. He said to them, " It is a hard thing for me to 
 have no social intercourse with my equals. Therefore I 
 will now raise the rents. But I cannot accept that raised 
 
PHILANTHROPIC WILES 29 
 
 portion, and I will take care of it for you, and in ten years 
 I think it will amount to enough for you to start a co- 
 operative society." 
 
 That was eight years ago and the formation of the society 
 was now proceeding. In order that the reader may not 
 forget on what a very different scale landlordism exists 
 in Japan, I may mention that the area owned by this land- 
 lord was only 10 cho. 
 
 I was told the story of a landlord's solution of the rent 
 reduction problem. " Tenants," the narrator said, " some- 
 times pretend that their crops are poorer than they are. 
 Landlords may reduce the payment due, but sometimes 
 with a certain resentment. One landowner was asked for 
 a reduction for several years in succession on account of 
 poor crops, and gave it. But he was trying to think of a 
 plan to defeat the pretences of his tenants. At last he hit 
 on one. While the tenants' rice was young he often visited 
 the fields, and when any insects were to be seen he sent 
 his labourers secretly to destroy them. In the same way, 
 when crops seemed to be imder-manured, he secretly 
 cast artificial manure on them. At last his tenants found 
 out what he was doing, and they said, ' As our landlord 
 is so kind to us, we must not pretend that we need a reduc- 
 tion.' And they did not, and things are going on very 
 well there. This is an illustration of the fact that our 
 people are moved more by feeling than by logic." 
 ' This was capped by another story. " A landlord, a 
 samurai, has for his tenants his former subjects, so some- 
 thing of the relation of master and servant still remains. 
 He wished to raise his tenants to the position of peasant 
 proprietors, so when land was for sale in the village he 
 advised them to buy. They said they had no money, but 
 he answered, ' Means may perhaps be found.' He secretly 
 subscribed a sum to the Shinto shrine and then advised 
 the formation of a co-operative society, which could borrow 
 from the shrine for a tenant, so that the tenant need not 
 go to the landlord to thank him and feel patronised by 
 him. He need only to go to the shrine and give thanks 
 there." "The landlord," added the speaker in his 
 imperfect English, " has entirely hided himself from the 
 
30 " THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH " 
 
 business." A third of the tenants had become peasant 
 proprietors. 
 
 In order to better the feeling between the farmers and 
 landowners this landlord and several others had begun to 
 ask their tenants to their gardens, where they were given 
 tea and fruit. " In Japan," said one man to me, " we 
 see feudal ideas broken down by the upper, not the lower 
 class." 
 
 I visited the romantic coast of a peninsula a dozen miles 
 from the railway. Some 10,000 pilgrims come in a year 
 to the eighty-eight temples on the peninsula, and in some 
 parts the people are such strict Buddhists that in one village 
 the county authorities find great difficulty in overcoming 
 an objection to destroying the insect life which preys 
 on the rice crops. When rice land does not jdeld well, 
 one landlord causes an investigation to be made and gives 
 advice based upon it to the tenant, saying, " Do this, 
 and if you lose I will compensate you. If you gain, the 
 advantage will be yours." Money is also contributed by 
 the landlord to enable tenants to make journeys in order 
 to study farming methods. 
 
 A landlord here — I had the pleasure of being his guest — 
 had started an agricultural association. It had developed 
 the idea of a secondary school for practical instruction, 
 " rich men to give their money and poor men their labour." 
 In order to obtain a fund to enable tenants to get money 
 with which to set up as peasant proprietors, this landlord 
 had thought of the plan of setting aside each harvest 250 
 sho ' of rice to each tenant's 3 sho. 
 
 Good work was done in teaching farmers' wives. " When 
 no instruction is given," I was informed, " a wife may say, 
 when her husband is testing his rice seed with salt water, 
 ' Salt is very dear, nowadays, why not fresh water ? ' 
 If a husband is kind he will explain. If not, some implea- 
 sant^iess may arise, so wives are taught about the necessity 
 of selecting by salt water." 
 
 Tenants are advised to save a farthing a day. In order 
 to keep them steadfast in their thriftiness they are asked 
 to bring their savings to their landlord every ten days. 
 
 ' A ah6 is about a quart and a half. 
 
ME. TAMASAKI, DB. NITOBB, Tllli AUIHOE AiJD PEOFE330B NASTJ. p. xv 
 
 THE HOME IN WHICH THE TEA OBEEJIONT TOOK PIAOE. p. 31 
 
 [81 
 
A GRACIOUS HOSPITALITY 31 
 
 It is troublesome to be constantly receiving so many small 
 sums, but the landlord and his brother think that they 
 should not grudge the trouble. In two years nearly 
 1,000 yen have been saved. Said one tenant to his land- 
 lord, " I know how to save now, therefore I save." 
 
 One of my hosts, who was thirty-two, hoped to see all 
 his tenants peasant proprietors before he was fifty. The 
 relation of this landlord and his tenants was illustrated 
 by the fact that on my arrival several farmers brought 
 produce to the kitchen " because we heard that the landlord 
 had guests." The village was very kind in its reception 
 of the foreign visitor. A meeting was called in the temple. 
 I told the story of Wren's Si monumentum requiris cir- 
 cumspice and pointed a rural moral. Some months after- 
 wards I received a request from my host to write a word 
 or two of preface to go with a report of my address which 
 he was giving to each of his tenants as a New Year gift. 
 
 This landlord's family had lived in the same house for 
 eleven generations. The courtesy of my host and his 
 relatives and the beauty of their old house and its contents 
 are an ineffaceable memory. From the time my party 
 arrived imtil the time we left no servant was allowed to 
 do anything for us. The ladies of the house cooked our 
 food and the landlord and his younger brother brought it 
 to us. The younger brother waited upon us throughout 
 our meals, even peeling our pears. At night he spread our 
 silk-covered futon (mattresses). In the morning he folded 
 them up, arranged my clothes, swept the room and stood 
 at hand with towels, all of which were new, while I washed. 
 
 When on our arrival in the house we sat and talked in the 
 first reception-room we entered, I noticed that outside the 
 lattice a company of villagers was listening with no con- 
 sciousness of intrusion, in full view of our host, to the sound 
 of foreign speech. It was a Shakespearean scene. 
 
 Out of its setting, as it is often witnessed to-day, the 
 tea ceremony seems meaningless and wearisome, an affected 
 simplicity of the idle. But as a guest of this old house of 
 fine timbers weathered to silver-grey I foimd the secret 
 of Cha-no-yu. This flower of Far Eastern civilisation is 
 an aesthetic expression of true good-fellowship, and a gentle 
 
32 " THE SIGHT OF A GOOD MAN IS ENOUGH " 
 
 simplicity and sincerity are of its essence. The admission 
 of a foreigner to a family Cha-no-yu was a gesture of 
 confidence. 
 
 Five of us gathered late in the afternoon of an August 
 day in the cool matted rest-room ia the garden. We looked 
 on the beauty that generations of gardeners of a single 
 vision had created. Our minds rested in the quiet as, in 
 the quaint phrase, we " tasted the sound of the kettle 
 and listened to the incense." At length at a signal we 
 rose. Led by the priestess of the ceremony, our host's 
 aunt, a slight figure in grey with snow-white ta^i and new 
 straw sandals, we passed by the dripping rocky fountain, 
 with its lilies, and the azure hydrangea of the hills which, 
 some say, suggests distance. The hut-like tea-room, tra- 
 ditionally rude in the material of which it was built but 
 perfect in every detail of its workmanship, we entered 
 one by one. According to old custom we humbly crept 
 through the small opening which serves as entrance, the 
 idea being that all worldly rank must bow at the sanc- 
 tuary of beauty. The tiny chamber held, besides the won- 
 derful vessels of the ceremony, a flower arrangement of blue 
 Michaelmas daisies, and an exquisite scroll of wild duck 
 in flight in the miniature tokonoma,^ the tea mistress, 
 our host and four guests. We drank from a black daimyo 
 bowl which had been made four hundred years before. 
 We passed an hour together and in the twilight we came 
 out from the little room as from a sacrament of friendship. 
 A year afterwards my host wrote to me, " Yesterday we 
 had Cha-no-yu again and you were in our thoughts. During 
 the ceremony we placed your photograph in the tokonoma." 
 
 After dinner we had kyogen ' by distinguished amateurs, 
 one of whom, a neighbouring landowner, had lately appeared 
 before the Emperor. After the plays he painted kyogen 
 scenes for us on kakemono and fans. He painted the 
 kakemono as he knelt with his paper lying on a square 
 of soft material on the floor. 
 
 The plays were performed in ancient costumes or copies 
 
 1 The raiaed recess in which is usually displayed the flower arrangement, 
 a piece of pottery and a kakemono. (See Note, page 35.) 
 ' Farcical interludes of the No stage. 
 
THE PLAYERS' TALES 33 
 
 of old ones and of course without scenery. The players 
 were lighted by oily candles two inches in diameter, which 
 flamed and guttered in candlesticks not of this century 
 nor of the last. A player may make his exit merely by 
 sitting down. The players are men ; masks are used in 
 playing women's parts. The stories are of the simplest. 
 There was the well-known tale of the sly servant who was 
 sent to town by a stupid daimyo in order to buy a fan, and, 
 though he brought back an umbrella, succeeded in imposing 
 it on his master. There was also the play of the fox who 
 comes to a farmer to advise him not to kill foxes, but is 
 himself caught in a trap. I also recall a story of two good 
 tenants who had been rewarded by their landlord with an 
 order that they should receive hats. Owing to an oversight 
 they received one hat only between the two. Problem, 
 how to meet the difficulty. It was solved by the rustics 
 fastening two pieces of wood together T-shape, raising 
 the hat of honour upon the structure and walking home 
 in triumph under either side of the T. 
 
 The next morning I was greeted by the aged father and 
 mother of our host. The household was an interesting 
 one, for the landlord and his brother were married to two 
 sisters. Before taking our departure we knelt with our 
 landlord and his father before the Buddhist shrine on 
 which rested the memorial tablets of former heads of the 
 house. I expressed my sense of the privilege extended 
 to strangers. The reply was, " Our ancestors will feel 
 pleasure in your being among us." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 The sense of a common humanity is a real political force. — J. R. Gbben 
 
 The stranger in Japan sees so little of the intimacies of 
 country life that I shall say something of further visits to 
 what we should call county families. My hosts, who 
 seemed to be active to a greater or less degree in promoting 
 the welfare of their tenants, lived in purely Japanese style. 
 Yet now and then in a beautiful house there was a showy 
 gilt timepiece or some other thing of a deplorable Western 
 fashion. At all the houses without exception we were 
 waited upon by the host and his son, son-in-law or brother, 
 and for some time after our arrival our host and the mem- 
 bers of his family would kneel, not in the apartment in which 
 our zabuton (kneeling cushions) were arranged, but in the 
 adjoining apartment with its screens pushed back. Even 
 when the time of sweets and tea had passed and a regular 
 meal was served, all the little tables of food were brought 
 in not by servants but by the master of the house and such 
 male relatives as were at home. 
 
 When the duration of a Japanese meal is borne in mind, 
 some idea may be gained of the fatigue endured by the head 
 of a house in serving many guests. The host sometimes 
 honours his guests still further by eating apart from them 
 or by partaking of a portion only of the meal. The name 
 of a feast in Japanese is significant, " a ruiming about." 
 The ladies of the house are usually seen for only a few 
 minutes, when they come with the children to welcome the 
 guests on their arrival ; but on the second day of the visit 
 the ladies may bring in food or tea or play the koto. 
 
 The foreigner, though on his knees, feels a little at a loss 
 to know how to acknowledge politely the repeated bows of 
 
 34 
 
FAMILY TREASURES 35 
 
 so many kneeling men and women. He watches with 
 appreciation the perfect response of his Japanese traveUing 
 companions. It is difficult to convey a sense of the charm 
 and dignity of old courtesies exchanged with sincerity be- 
 tween well-bred people in a fine old house. Although all 
 the shoji ' are open, the trees of the beautiful garden cast a 
 pensive shade. The ancient ceremonial of welcome and 
 introduction would seem ludicrous in the full hght of a 
 Western drawing-room, but in the perfectly subdued light 
 of these romantically beautiful apartments, charged with 
 some strange and melancholy emotion, the visitor from the 
 West feels himself entering upon the rare experience of a 
 new world. 
 
 Everyone knows how few are the treasures that a Japan- 
 ese displays in his house. His heirlooms and works of art 
 are stored in a fireproof annexe. For the feasting of the 
 eye of every guest or party of visitors the appropriate 
 choice of kakemono,' carving or pottery is made. I had 
 the delight of seeing during my country-house visiting many 
 ancient pictures of country life and of animals and birds. 
 It was also a precious opportunity to inspect armour and 
 wonderful swords and stands of arrows in the houses in 
 )vhich the men who had worn the armour and used the 
 weapons had lived. The way of stringing the seven-feet- 
 high bow was shown to me by a kimono-clad samurai, as 
 has been recorded in the previous chapter. When he 
 threw himself into a warlike attitude and with an ancient 
 cry whirled a gleaming two-handed sword in the dim light 
 thrown by lanterns which had lighted the house in the 
 time of the Shoguns, the figures on old-time Japanese 
 prints had a new vividness. 
 
 ' Shoji are the screens which divide a room from the outside. They are 
 a dainty wooden framework of many divisions, each of which is covered 
 by a sheet of thin white paper. The shoji provide light and are never 
 painted. The sliding doors between two rooms are karahami {fusuma is 
 a literary word). They are a wooden framework with thick paper or cloth 
 on both sides of it and with paper packing between the layers. Kara- 
 hami are often decorated with writing or may be painted. No light 
 passes through them. 
 
 2 A writing or a picture on a long perpendicular strip of paper or silk 
 or of paper mounted on silk, with rollers. The length is about three times 
 the width, which is usually 1 ft. 3 in. or 1 ft. 10 in. The Uahemono in the 
 tokomnna of tea-ceremony rooms is about 10 in. wide. 
 
36 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 
 What also helped in illuminating for me the old prints of 
 warlike scenes was a display of a remarkable kind of fencing 
 with naked weapons which one of my hosts kindly provided 
 in his garden one evening. The tournament was conducted 
 by the village young men's association. The exercises, 
 which, as I saw them, are peculiar to the district, are called 
 ki-ai, which means literally " spirit meeting." They call 
 not only for long training but for courage and ardour. The 
 combats took place on a small patch of grass which was 
 fenced by four bamboo branches. These were connected 
 by a rope of paper streamers such as are used to distinguish 
 a consecrated place. Before the first bout the bamboos 
 and rope were taken away and a handful of salt was thrown 
 on the grass. Salt was similarly thrown on the grass before 
 every contest. The idea is that salt is a purifier. It signi- 
 fies, like the handshake of our boxers, that the feeUngs of 
 the combatants are cleansed from malice. 
 
 Most of the events were single combats, but there were 
 two meetings in which a man confronted a couple of assail- 
 ants. The contests I recall were spear v. spear, spear v. 
 sword, sword v. long billhook, spear v. the short Japanese 
 sickle and a chain, spear v. paper umbreUa and sword, 
 pole V. wooden sword, pole v. pole, and long billhook v. fan 
 and sword. The weapons were sharp enough to inflict 
 serious wounds if a false move should be made or there should 
 be a momentary lack of self-control. The flashing steel gave 
 an impression of imminent danger. There was also the 
 feehng aroused in the spectators by the way in which the 
 combatants sought to gain advantage over one another by 
 fierce snarls, stamping on the ground and appaUing gestures. 
 The neck veins of the fighters swelled and their faces 
 flamed with mock defiance. Their agility in escaping de- 
 scending blades was amazing. But the ki-ai player's 
 dexterity is famous. It is his boast that with his sword he 
 could cut a straw on a friend's head. I noticed that no 
 women were present at the " spirit meeting." 
 
 More than once I found that my landlord host was 
 accustomed to make a circuit of his village once or twice a 
 week in order to see how things were going with his tenants. 
 Public-spirited landlords were working for their people by 
 
"WE CHECK OURSELVES" 37 
 
 means of co-operation, lectures and prizes, the distribution 
 of leaflets and the giving of from 2| to 7| per cent, discount 
 in rent when good rice was produced. The rural phil- 
 anthropist in Japan sees himself as the father of his village.' 
 The Japanese word for landlord is " land master " and for 
 tenant " son tiller." The old idea was patronage on the 
 one side and respect on the other. This idea is dis- 
 kppearing. " We wish," said one landlord to me, " to pass 
 through the transition stage gradually. We do not feel 
 the same responsibility to our people, perhaps, now that 
 they do not show the same reverence for us, but we do not 
 say to them that they may go to the factory and we will 
 invest our money for our children. We check ourselves. 
 We know well, however, that things will change in our 
 grandsons' time. We therefore try to mix our grandfathers' 
 ideas and modern ideas. We are believers in co-opera- 
 tion and we try to be counsellors and to work behind the 
 curtain." 
 
 From time to time there are such things as tenants' 
 strikes. Mr. Yamasaki assured me that the problem of the 
 rural districts can be solved only by appeahng to the feel- 
 ings of the people in the right way. He said that " the 
 Japanese are largely moved by feelings, not by convictions." 
 In some coastwise counties, someone told me, a hurricane 
 destroyed the crops to such an extent that the tenants could 
 not pay rent, and the landlords who depended on their 
 rents were impoverished. Things reached such a pass that 
 a hundred thousand peasants signed a paper swearing 
 fidehty to an anti-landlord propaganda. Officials and 
 lawyers achieved nothing. Then Mr. Yamasaki went, 
 and, sitting in the local temple, talked things over with 
 both sides for days. He got the landlords to say that they 
 were sorry for their tenants and the tenants to say that 
 they were sorry for the landlords, and eventually he was 
 allowed to burn the oath-attested document in the temple.' 
 
 Many landlords are " endeavouring to cultivate a moral 
 relation" between themselves and their tenants. They 
 
 * For budgets of large property owners, see Appendix III. 
 2 There have been several serious tenants' demonstrations in Aichi 
 during 1921.. See Chapter XIX. 
 
38 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 
 have often the advantage that their ancestors were the 
 landlords of the same peasant families for many genera- 
 tions. But there are still plenty of absentee landlords and 
 landlords who are usurers. There are also the landlords 
 who have let their lands to middlemen. The cultivator 
 therefore pays out of all proportion to what the landlord 
 receives. Of landlords generally, an ex-daimyo's son said 
 to me : " Many landlords treat their tenants cruelly. The 
 rent enforced is too high. In place of the intimate relations 
 of former days the relations are now that of cat and dog. 
 The ignorance of the landlords is the cause of this state of 
 things. It is very important that the landlord's son shall 
 go to the agricultural school, where there is plenty of 
 practical work which will bring the perspiration from him." 
 The object of most good landlords is to increase the 
 income of their tenants. It is felt that unless the farmers 
 have more money in their hands, progress is impossible. 
 There is one direction in which the landlords are not tried. 
 The franchise is so narrow that farmers cannot vote against 
 their landlords. 
 
 In the house of one old landowning family in which I was 
 a guest I saw a gaku inscribed, ' ' Happiness comes to the 
 house whose ancestors were virtuous." I was admitted 
 to the family shrine. Round the walls of the small apart- 
 ment in which the shrine stood were the autographs or 
 portraits of distinguished members of the house going back 
 four or five hundred years. It was easy to see that the 
 inspiring force of this family was its untarnished name. It 
 was a crime against the ancestors to reduce the prestige 
 or merit of the family. No stronger influence could be 
 exerted upon an erring member of such a family than to be 
 brought by his father or elder brother before the family 
 shrine and there reprimanded in the presence of the 
 ancestral spirits. The head of this house is at present a 
 schoolboy of twelve and the government of the family is in 
 the hands of a " regent," the lad's uncle. I saw the boy 
 and his younger sister trot off in the morning with their 
 satchels on their backs to the village school in democratic 
 Japanese fashion. Japan is a much more democratic 
 country than the tourist imagines. Distinctions of class 
 
THE JAPANESE INTERIOR 39 
 
 are accompanied by easy relations in many important 
 matters. 
 
 I went for a second time to the restful city of Nagoya. 
 It is out of the sphere of influence of Tokyo and is con- 
 servative of old ideas. People live with less display than 
 in the capital and perhaps pride themselves on doing so. 
 But if the houses of even the well-to-do are small and 
 inconspicuous, the interiors are of satisfying quaUty in 
 materials and workmanship, and the family godowns bring 
 forth surprises. Here as elsewhere the guest is served in 
 treasured lacquer and porcelain. (While we are not accus- 
 tomed in the West to look at the marks on our host's table 
 silver, it is perfect Japanese manners to admire a food 
 bowl by examining the potter's marks.) My host hung a 
 rural kakemono in my room, one day a fine old study of 
 poultry, another an equally beautiful painting of holly- 
 hocks. 
 
 As we left the town my attention was attracted by a com- 
 memorative stone overlooking rice fields. The inscription 
 proclaimed the fact that at that spot the late Emperor 
 Meiji,' as a lad of fifteen, on his historic first journey to 
 Tokyo, " beheld the farmers reaping." 
 
 The matron of a farmhouse two centuries old showed me 
 a tub containing tiny carp which she had hatched for her 
 carp pond, the inmates of which, as is common, came to be 
 fed when she clapped her hands. In the garden there was 
 an old clay butt still used for archery. In the farmhouse 
 I was taken into a room in which in the old days the daimyo 
 overlord had rested, into another room which had a secret 
 door and into a third room where — an electric fan was 
 buzzing. 
 
 At a school I had to face the usual ordeal of having to 
 " write " as best I could a motto for use as a wall picture. 
 Our lettering, when done with a brush, falls pitifully be- 
 hind Chinese characters in decorative value, and our 
 mottoes will not readily translate into Japanese. I was 
 
 1 Each Emperor receives on his succession a name which is applied 
 to the period of his reign. The period of Mutsuhito'a reign, 1868-1912, is 
 called Meiji ; that of the present Emperor Taiaho. Thus the year 1912 
 would be Taigho 1. 
 5 
 
40 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 
 often grateful to Henley for " I am the master of my fate, I 
 am the captain of my soul," because with the substitution 
 of " commander " for captain, the lines translate literally. 
 
 We left the village through arches which had been erected 
 by the young men's association. At an old country house 
 four interesting things were shown to me. There was, 
 first, a phial of rice seed 280 years old. The agricultural 
 professor who was my fellow-guest told me that he had 
 germinated some of the grains, but they did not produce 
 rice plants. The second thing was a fine family shrine 
 before which a religious ceremony had been performed 
 twice a day by succeeding generations of the same family 
 for 350 years. The third object of interest was a little, 
 narrow, flat steel dagger about eight inches long, sheathed 
 in the scabbard of a sword. The dagger was used for 
 " fastening an enemy's head on." After the owner of the 
 sword had beheaded his foe, he drew the smaller weapon, 
 and, thrusting one end into the headless trunk and the other 
 end into the base of the head, politely united head and 
 body once more, thus making it possible " to show due 
 respect and sympathy towards the dead." Finally, I 
 had the privilege of handling a wonderful suit of armour 
 which was fitted slowly together for me out of many pieces. 
 Although it had been made several centuries ago, this rich 
 suit of lacquered leather had been a Japanese general's 
 wear on the field of battle within living memory. 
 
 One of the landowners I met was a poet who had been 
 successful in the Imperial poem competition which is held 
 every New Year. A subject is set by His Majesty and the 
 thousands of pieces sent in are submitted to a committee. 
 The dozen best productions are read before the sovereign 
 himself, and this is the honour sought by the competitors. 
 The subject for competition in the year in which the land- 
 owner had been successful was, " The cryptomeria in a 
 temple court." His poem was as follows : 
 
 In transplanting 
 
 The young cryptomeria trees 
 
 Within the sacred fence 
 
 There is a symbol 
 
 Of the beginning of the reign. 
 
POWER OF PUBLIC OPINION 41 
 
 The New Year poems come from every class of the com- 
 mimity and there is seldom a year in which landowners or 
 farmers are not among the fortmiate twelve. 
 
 As we rode along a companion spoke of the force of public 
 opinion in keeping things straight in the countryside, also 
 of the far-reaching control exercised by fathers and elder 
 brothers. But the good behaviour of some people was due, 
 he said, to a dread of being ridiculed in the newspapers, 
 which allow themselves extraordinary freedom in dealing 
 with reputations. 
 
 I met a man who had had a monument erected to him. He 
 was a member of a little company which received me in a 
 farmer's house. He was formerly the richest man in the 
 village, that is to say, he owned 20 cho and was worth about 
 100,000 yen. Moved by the poverty of his neighbours, 
 he devoted his substance to improving their condition. 
 Now many of them are well off, the village has been 
 " praised and rewarded " by the prefecture for its " good 
 farming and good morals," and the philanthropist is worth 
 only 50,000 yen. Impressed by his unselfishness, the village 
 has raised a great slab of stone in his honour. 
 
 I made enquiries continually about the influence exerted 
 by priests. I was told of many " careless " priests, but 
 also of others who delivered sermons of a practical sort. 
 A few of the younger priests were described as " philo- 
 sophical " and some preached " the kingdom of God is 
 within you." Many people laid stress on the necessity for 
 a better education of the priesthood and for combating 
 superstition among the peasantry, though the schools had 
 already had a powerful influence in shaking the faith of 
 thousands of the common people in charms and suchlike. 
 Many folk put up charms because it was the custom or to 
 please their old parents or because it could do no harm. 
 
 I was told that the Government does not encourage the 
 erection of new temples. Its notion is that it is better to 
 maintain the existing temples adequately. When I 
 went to see a gorgeous new temple, I foimd that official 
 permission for its erection had been obtained because the 
 figures, vessels and some of the fittings of an old and 
 dilapidated temple were to be used in the new edifice. This 
 
42 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 
 temple was on a large tract of land which had recently 
 been recovered from the sea. The building had cost between 
 80,000 and 90,000 yen. It stood on piles on rising ground 
 and had a secondary purpose in that it offered a place of 
 refuge to the settlers on the new land if the sea dike should 
 break. 
 
 The founder of the temple was the man who had 
 drained the land and established the colony. He had 
 given an endowment of 500 yen a year, three-quarters 
 of which was for the priest. This functionary had 
 also an income of 150 yen from a cho of land attached to 
 the temple. Further he received gifts of rice and vege- 
 tables. I noticed that the gifts of rice — acknowledged on a 
 list himg up in his house — varied in quantity from four 
 pecks to half a cupful. Probably the priest bought very 
 little of anything. If he needed matting for his house, which 
 was attached to the temple, or if he had to make a journey, 
 the villagers saw that his requirements were met. And 
 he was always getting presents of one kind or another. 
 " A man says to the priest," I was told, " ' This is too good 
 for me ; please accept it.' " The villagers on their side 
 sat and smoked in one of the temple rooms and drank 
 his reverence's tea for hours before and after service.' 
 
 The building of the temple was not only an act of piety 
 but a work of commercial necessity. The colonists on the 
 reclaimed land would never have settled there if there 
 had not been a temple to hold them to the place and to 
 provide burial rites for their old parents. Not all the 
 people were of the same sect of Buddhism, but " they 
 gradually came together." A third of what a tenant 
 produced went for rent and another third for fertilisers, 
 the remaining third being his own. The population was 
 1,800 in 300 families. The average area per family was 
 2 cho and colonists were expected to start with about 
 200 yen of capital. Some impromising tenants had been 
 sent away and "some had left secretly." Half of the 
 people were in debt to the landlord — the total indebtedness 
 
 1 It will be remembered that there is only one prefecture in which tea 
 is not grown in larger or smaller areas, and that it is served economically 
 without sugar or milk 
 
THE COMING OF THE EMPEROR 48 
 
 was about 15,000 yen— for the erection of houses and the 
 purchase of implements and stock. The rate was 8 per 
 cent. In the district 10 per cent, was quite usual and 12 
 per cent, by no means rare. The co-operative society 
 lent at the daily rate of 2j sen per 100 yen. 
 
 The landlord told me that the sea dikes took two years 
 to build and that most of the earth was carried by women, 
 5,000 of them. Their labour was cheap and the small 
 quantities of earth which each woman brought at a time 
 permitted of a better consolidation of an embankment 
 that was 240 feet wide at the base. More than a million 
 yen were laid out on the work. The reclaimed land was 
 free of State taxes for half a century, but the landlord made 
 a voluntary gift to the village of 2,000 yen a year. The 
 yearly rent coming in was already nearly 56,000 yen. The 
 cost of the management of the drained land and of repairs 
 to the embankment, 20,000 yen a year, was just met by 
 the profits of a fishpond. A valuable edible seaweed 
 industry was carried on outside the sea dikes. The land- 
 lord mentioned that he had had great difficulty in over- 
 coming the objections of his grandfather to the investment, 
 but that eventually the old man got so much interested 
 that at ninety-three he used to march about giving orders. 
 One day in the course of my journeying I was near a 
 railway station where country people had assembled to 
 watch the passing of a train by which the Emperor was 
 travelling. No one was permitted along the line except 
 at specified points which were carefuUy watched. A 
 yoimg constable who wore a Russian war medal was 
 opposite the spot where I stood. He politely asked me to 
 keep one shaku (foot) or so away from the paling. When 
 someone's child pushed itself half-way through the paling the 
 police instruction was, " Please keep back the little one for, 
 if it should pass through, other children will no doubt wish 
 to follow." A later request by the constable was to take 
 off our hats and keep silence when he raised his hand 
 on the approach of the Imperial train. We were further 
 asked not to point at the Emperor and on no accoimt to 
 cry Banzai. (The Japanese shout Banzai for the Emperor 
 in his absence and cry Banzai to victorious generals and 
 
44 COUNTRY-HOUSE LIFE 
 
 admirals, but perfect silence is considered the most re- 
 spectful way of greeting the Emperor himself.) The 
 Imperial train, which was preceded by a pilot engine 
 drawing a van full of rather anxious-looking police, slowed 
 down on approaching the station so that everyone had a 
 chance of seeing the Emperor, who was facing us. All 
 the school children of the district had been marshalled 
 where they could get a good view. The Japanese bow of 
 greatest respect — it has been introduced since the Restora- 
 tion, I was told — is an inclination of the head so slight that 
 it does not prevent the person who bows seeing his superior. 
 This bow when made by rows of people is impressive. 
 Undoubtedly the crowd was moved by the sight of its 
 sovereign. Not a few people held their hands together in 
 front of them in an attitude of devotion. The day before 
 I had happened to see first a priest and then a professor 
 examining a magazine which had a portrait of the Emperor 
 as frontispiece. Both bowed slightly to the print. Coloured 
 portraits of the Emperor and Empress are on sale in the 
 shops, but in many cases there is a little square of tissue 
 paper over the Imperial coimtenances. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMI ' 
 
 Nor do I see why we should take it for granted that their gods are 
 unworthy of respect. — Valerius 
 
 In Aichi prefecture I was asked to plant trees (per- 
 simmons) in the grounds of three temples or shrines and on 
 the land of several farmers. In an exposed position 
 on a hill-top I found persimmons being grown on a system 
 under which the landlord provided the land, trees and 
 manures and the farmer the labour, and the produce was 
 equally divided. 
 
 The cryptomeria at one of the shrines I visited were of 
 great age. All of them had lost their tops by lightning. 
 It cannot be easy for those who have never seen cryptomeria 
 or the redwoods of California to realise the impression made 
 by dark giant trees that have stood before some shrine for 
 generations. At the approach to the shrine of which I 
 speak there were venerable wooden statues. I recall one 
 figure carved in wood as full of life as that of the famous 
 Egyptian headman. 
 
 The aged chief priest, who was assisted by two younger 
 priests, kindly invited me to take part in a Shinto service. 
 First, I ceremonially washed my hands and rinsed my 
 mouth. Then, having ascended the steps, my shoes were 
 removed for me so that my hands should not be defiled. 
 On entering the serine I knelt opposite the young priests, 
 one of whom brought me the usual evergreen bough with 
 paper streamers. On receiving it I rose to my feet, passed 
 through the beautiful building and advanced to what I may 
 call, for the lack of a more accurate term, the altar table. 
 On this table, which, as is usual in Shinto ceremonies, was 
 of new white wood following the ancient design, I laid the 
 
 > Son-God-of-the-Spirit-of-the-Province, 
 4§ 
 
46 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMI 
 
 offering. Then I bowed and gave the customary three 
 smart hand-claps which summon the attention of the 
 deity of the shrine, and bowed again. On returning to my 
 former kneehng- place one of the priests offered me sakd and 
 a small piece of dried fish in paper.* The chief priest was 
 good enough to read and to hand to me an address headed, 
 " Words of Congratulation to the Investigator," which may 
 be Englished as follows : 
 
 " I, Yukimichi Otsu, the chief priest, speak most respect- 
 fully and reverently before the shrine of the august deity, 
 Okunitama-no-miko-no-kami, and other deities here en- 
 shrined : Dr. Robertson Scott, of England, is here this 
 good day. He comes to see the things of Japan under the 
 governance of our gracious Emperor. I, having made 
 myself quite pure and clean, open the door of gracious eyes 
 that they may look upon those who are here. May Dr. 
 Robertson Scott be protected during night and day, no 
 accident happening wherever he may go. Dr. Robertson 
 Scott goes everywhere in this country ; he may cross a 
 hundred rivers and pass over many hills. May there 
 be no foundering of his boat, no stumbling of his horse. 
 Offering produce of land and sea, I say this most respectfully 
 before the shrine." 
 
 After the shrine I visited a co-operative store, curiously 
 reminiscent of many a similar rural enterprise I had seen 
 in Denmark. Sugar, coarser than anjiihing sold at home, 
 was dear. Half the price paid for sugar in Japan is tax. 
 I was informed that there were no fewer than 400 co- 
 operative organisations in the prefecture. 
 
 At several places, although the villagers were busy rice 
 planting, the young men's association turned out. The 
 young men were reinforced by reservists and came sharply 
 to attention as our kuruma {jinrikisha, usually pneumatic- 
 tyred) passed. Some of the villages we bowled through 
 were off the ordinary track, and the older villagers observed 
 the ancient custom of coming out from their houses or farm 
 plots, dropping on their knees and bowing low as we 
 
 1 It was a tiny squid. There are seventy sorts of cuttlefish and octo- 
 puses in Japanese waters. Value of dried cuttlefish in 1917, 4 million yen. 
 
CHARMS 47 
 
 passed.' All over Japan, a villager encountered on the 
 road removed the towel from his head before bowing. If 
 a cloak or outer coat was worn, it was taken off or the motion 
 of taking it off was made. Frequently, in showery weather, 
 cyclists who were wearing mackintoshes or capes, alighted 
 and removed these outer garments before saluting. 
 
 I saw a village which a few years ago had been " disorderly 
 and poor " and in continual friction with its landlord. 
 Eventually this man realised his responsibility, and, in- 
 spired by Mr. Yamasaki, took the situation in hand. He 
 talked in a straightforward way with his villagers, reduced 
 a number of rents and spent money freely in ameliorative 
 work. To-day the village is " remarkable for its good con- 
 duct " and the relation between landlord and tenant seems 
 to be everything that can be desired. The landlord is not 
 only the moving spirit of the co-operative store but has 
 started a school for girls of from fifteen to twenty. They 
 bring their own food but the schooling is free. 
 
 On the gables of one or two houses near the roof I 
 noticed ventilators which were cut in the form of the 
 Chinese ideograph which means water, a kind of charm 
 against fire. At the door of one rather well-to-do peasant 
 house I saw several paper charms against toothache. 
 There was also an inscription intimating that the house- 
 holder was a director of the co-operative society and 
 another announcing that he was an expert in the applica- 
 tion of the moxa.' Every house I went into had a collec- 
 tion of charms. One charm, a verse of poetry hung 
 upside-down, as is the custom, was against ants. Another 
 was understood to ensure the safe return of a straying cat. 
 In one house in the village my attention was drawn to 
 the fact that the rice pot contained a large percentage of 
 barley. 
 
 In two or three places I passed pits for the excavation 
 of lignite, which does not look unlike the wood taken out 
 of bogs. A pit I stopped at was twenty-two fathoms deep. 
 There were twenty miners at work and air was being 
 pumped down. 
 
 ' The hands are laid flat on the ground with finger-tips meeting and 
 the forehead touches the hands. 
 ' See Chapter XX. 
 
48 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMI 
 
 One of the things we in the West might imitate with 
 advantage is the village crematorium. In Japan it is of 
 the simplest construction. The rate for villagers was 50 
 sen, that for outsiders 2 yen. No doubt there would be an 
 additional yen for the priest. In a little building which was 
 thirty years old 200 bodies had been cremated. 
 
 I looked into a small co-operative rice storehouse. The 
 building was provided by a number of members " swearing " 
 to save at the rate of a yen and a half a month each until the 
 funds needed had accumulated. The money was obtained 
 by extra labour in the evening. Just before I left Japan 
 the Department of Agriculture was arranging to spend 
 2 million yen within a ten-years' period to encourage the 
 building of 4,000 rice storehouses. 
 
 As I watched the water pouring from one rice field to 
 another and wondered how the rights of landowners were 
 ever reconciled, someone reminded me of the phrase, " water 
 splashing quarrels," that is disputes in which each side 
 blames the other without getting any farther forward. 
 To take an unfair advantage in controversy is to 
 draw water into one's own paddy. The equivalent for 
 " pouring water on a duck's back" is " flinging water in a 
 frog's face." A Western European is always astonished 
 in Japan by the lung power of Far Eastern frogs. The 
 noise is not unlike the bleating of lambs. 
 
 Every now and again one comes on a fragrant bed of 
 lotus in its paddy field. It seems odd at first that lotus — 
 and burdock — should be cultivated for food. As a pickle 
 burdock is eatable, but lotus and some unfamiliar tuberous 
 plants are pleasant food resembling in flavour boiled chest- 
 nuts. Konnyaku (hydrosme rivieri), a near relative of the 
 arum lily, is produced to the weight of 11 million kwan — a 
 kwan is roughly 8 J lbs.' The yield of burdock is about 44 
 million kwan. The chief of all vegetables is the giant 
 radish, of which 7i million kwan are grown. Taro yields 
 about 150 million kwan. Foreigners usually like the young 
 sprouts taken from the roots of the bamboo, a favourite 
 Japanese vegetable. 
 
 1 The root grows to about the size of a big apple. It may be seen 
 in the shops in white dried seotions. A stifi greyish jelly made from 
 it is eaten with rice. It ia also eaten as oden or dengaktt. 
 
UTILISATION OF WASTE 49 
 
 This is as convenient a place as any to speak of an 
 important agricultural fact, the enormous amount of filth 
 worked into the paddies. As is well known, hardly any of the 
 night soil of Japan is wasted. Japanese agriculture depends 
 upon it. Formerly the night soil was removed from the 
 houses after being emptied into a pair of tubs which the 
 peasant carried from a yoke. Such yoke-carried tubs are 
 still seen, but are chiefly employed in carrjdng the sub- 
 stance to the paddies. The tubs which are taken to dwellings 
 are now mostly borne on light two-wheeled handcarts which 
 carry sometimes four and sometimes six. A farmer will 
 push or pull his manure cart from a town ten or twelve 
 miles off. It is difficult to leave or enter a town without 
 meeting strings of manure carts. The men who haul the 
 carts get together for company on their tedious journey. 
 They peem insensible to the concentrated odour. Often 
 the wife or son or daughter may be seen pushing behind a 
 cart. There is a certain amount of transportation by horse- 
 drawn frame carts, carrying a dozen or sixteen tubs, and by 
 boats. I was told of a city of half a million inhabitants 
 which had thirty per cent, of its night soil taken ten miles 
 away. The work was undertaken by a co-operative society 
 which paid the municipality the large sum of 70,000 yen 
 a year. The removal of night soil, its storage in the fields 
 in sunken butts and concrete cisterns — carefully protected 
 by thatched, wooden or concrete roofs — and its constant 
 application to paddy fields or upland plots cause an odour 
 to prevail which the visitor to Japan never forgets.' 
 
 It must not be supposed that, because the Japanese are 
 careful to utilise human waste products, no other manure 
 is employed. There is an enormous consumption of 
 chemical fertilisers. Then there are brought into service 
 all sorts of crop-feeding materials, such as straw, grass, 
 compost, silkworm waste, fish waste, and of course the 
 manure produced by such stock as is kept.' In Aichi the 
 value of human waste products used on the land is only a 
 quarter of the value of the bean cake and fish waste 
 similarly employed. 
 
 At Mr. Yamasaki's excellent agricultural school (prefec- 
 
 > See Appendix IV. * See Appendix XX. 
 
50 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMI 
 
 tural), which I visited more than once,' I was struck by the 
 grave bearing of the students. I saw them not only in 
 their classrooms but in their large hall, where I was invited 
 to speak from a platform between the busts of two rural 
 worthies, Ninomiya, of whom we have heard before, and 
 another who was " distinguished by the righteousness of 
 his public career." As in the Danish rural high schools, 
 store is set on hard physical exercise. An hour of exercise 
 — judo (jujitsu), sword play or military drill — is taken 
 from six to seven in the morning and another at mid- 
 day with the object of " strengthening the spirit " and 
 " developing the character," for " our farmers must not 
 only be honest and determined but courageous." Severe 
 physical labour, shared by the teacher, is also given out of 
 doors, for example, in heaping manure. " We believe," 
 said one of the instructors, " in moral virtue taught by 
 the hands." 
 
 For an hour a day " the main points of moral virtue " 
 are put before the different grades of students, according 
 to their ages and development. The school has a guild to 
 which the twenty teachers and all the students belong. 
 It is a kind of co-operative society for the " purchase and 
 distribution of daily necessities," but one of its objects is 
 " the maintenance of public morality." Then there is the 
 students' association which has Uterary and gymnastic 
 sides, the one side " to refine wisdom and virtue," the other 
 " for the rousing of spirit." Mention may also be made 
 of a " discipline calendar " of fixed memorial days and 
 ceremonies " that all the students should observe " : the 
 ceremony of reading the Imperial Rescript on education, 
 thrift and moraUty, and the ceremonies at the end of rice 
 planting, at harvest and at the maturity of the silk- worm. 
 
 The fitting-up of the school is Spartan but the rooms are 
 high and well lighted and ventilated. The students' hot 
 bath accommodates a dozen lads at a time. The studies 
 are also the dormitories, and in the comer of each there is 
 stored a big mosquito netting. Except for a few square 
 yards near the doors, these rooms consist of the usual 
 raised platform covered with the national tatami or matting. 
 
 1 See Appendix V. 
 
THE OLD MAN AND THE OFFICIALS 51 
 
 I heard a characteristic story of the Director. During 
 the Russo-Japanese war everybody was economising, and 
 many people who had been in the habit of riding in kuruma 
 began to walk. Our agricultural celebrity had always had a 
 passion for walking, so it was out of his power to economise 
 in kuruma. What he did was to cease walking and take to 
 kuruma riding, for, he said, " in war time one must work 
 one's utmost, and if I move about quickly I can get more 
 done." 
 
 I may add a story which this rare man himself told me. 
 I had seen in his house a photograph of a memorial slab 
 celebrating the heroic death of a peasant. It appeared that 
 in a period of scarcity there was left in this peasant's 
 village only one imbroken bale of rice. This rice was in the 
 possession of the peasant, who was suffering from lack of 
 food. But he would not cook any of the rice because he 
 knew that if he did the village would be without seed in 
 spring. Eventually the brave man was foimd dead of 
 hunger in his cottage. His pillow had been the unopened 
 bale of rice. 
 
 In the house of a small peasant proprietor I visited the 
 inscriptions on the two gaku signified " Buddha's teaching 
 broken by a beautiful face " and " Cast your eyes on high." 
 On the wall there was also a copy of a resolution concerning 
 a recent Imperial Rescript which 500 rural householders, 
 at a meeting in the county, had " sworn to observe," 
 and, as I imderstood, to read two or three times a 
 year. 
 
 Japan, as I have already noted, has always been a more 
 democratic coimtry than is generally imderstood ; but the 
 people have been accustomed to act imder leaders. Some 
 time ago an ofl&cial of the Department of Agriculture 
 visited a certain district in order to speak at the local 
 temple in advocacy of the adjustment of rice fields. (See 
 Chapter VIII.) A dignitary corresponding to the chairman 
 of an English coimty council was at the temple to receive 
 the official, but at the time appointed for the meeting to 
 begin the audience consisted of one old man. Although the 
 ofiicial from Tokyo and the guncho (head of a county) 
 waited for some time, no one else put La an appearance. So 
 
52 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMI 
 
 they asked the old man the reason. He replied by asking 
 them the object of the meeting. They told him. He said 
 that he had so understood and that the community had so 
 understood, but the farmers were very busy men. There- 
 fore, as he was the oldest man in the district, they had sent 
 him as their representative. Their instructions were that 
 he would be able to tell from his experience of the district 
 whether what the authorities proposed would be a good 
 thing for it or not. If he considered it to be a bad thing 
 they would not do it, but if he thought it to be a good thing 
 they would do it. He was to hear all that was said and then 
 to give a decision on the community's behalf to the officials 
 who might attend. " So," said the old man to the Tokyo 
 official and the guncho, " if you convince me you have con- 
 vinced the village." And after two hours' explanation 
 they convinced him ! 
 
 There are in Japan hydraulic engineering works as 
 remarkable in their way as any I have seen in the Nether- 
 lands. Some of these works, for example the tunnels 
 for conducting rice-field water through considerable hills, 
 have been the work of imlettered peasants. In one place 
 I found that 80 miles or more of irrigation was based on a 
 canal made two centuries ago. It is good to see so many 
 embankings of refractory streams and excavations of 
 river beds commemorated by slabs recording the public 
 services of the men who, often at their own charges, carried 
 out these works of general utility. 
 
 In various parts of the country I came upon smallholders 
 who had reached a high degree of proficiency in the fine art 
 of dwarfing trees. One day I stopped to speak with a 
 farmer who by this art had added 1,000 yen a year to 
 his agricultural income. A thirty-years-old maple was 
 one of his triumphs. Another was a pomegranate about a 
 foot and a half high. It was in flower and would bear fruit 
 of ordinary size. The wonder of dwarfing is wrought, as 
 is now well known, by cramping the roots in the pot and 
 by extremely skilful pruning, manuring and watering. 
 While we drank tea some choice specimens were dis- 
 played before a screen of unrelieved gold. In the room in 
 which we sat the farmer had arranged in a bowl of water 
 
THE POLICEMAN 53 
 
 with great effectiveness hydrangea, a spray of pomegranate 
 and a cabbage. 
 
 One marks the respect shown to the rural policeman. In 
 his summer uniform of white cotton, with his flat white 
 cap and white gloves, and an imposing sword, he looks like 
 a naval officer, even if, as sometimes happens, his feet are 
 in zori. He gets respect because of his dignified presence 
 and sense of official duty, because of the considerable powers 
 which he is able to exercise, because he stands for the 
 Government, and because he is sometimes of a higher 
 social grade than that to which policemen belong in other 
 countries. At the Restoration many men of the samurai 
 class did not thiak it beneath them to enter the new sword- 
 wearing police force and they helped to give it a standing 
 which has been maintained. As to the policeman being a 
 representative of the Government, the ordinary Japanese 
 has a way of speaking of the Government doing this or that 
 as if the Government were irresistible power. Average 
 Japanese do not yet conceive the Government as something 
 which they have made and may unmake.' But is it likely 
 that they should, parliamentary history, the work of their 
 betters, being as short as it is ? It is not without sig- 
 nificance that the Chambers of the Diet are housed in 
 temporary wooden buildings. 
 
 The rural policeman is not only a paternal guardian of 
 the peace but an administrative official. He keeps an eye 
 on public health. He is charged with correctly main- 
 taining the record of names and addresses — and some other 
 particulars — of everybody in the village. It is his duty to 
 secure correct information as to the name, age, place of 
 origin and real business of every stranger. He attends all 
 public meetings, even of the young men's and young 
 women's associations, and no strolling players can give 
 their entertainment without his presence. As to the move- 
 ments of strangers, my own were obviously well known. 
 Indeed a friend told me that in the event of my losing 
 myself I had only to ask a policeman and he would be able 
 to tell me where I was expected next ! At the houses of 
 well-to-do people I was struck by the way in which the local 
 
 ' The truth i« being learnt by the yoiinger generation. 
 
64 BEFORE OKUNITAMA-NO-MIKO-NO-KAMl 
 
 police oflBcer — sometimes, no doubt, a sergeant or perhaps 
 a man of the rank of our superintendent or chief constable — 
 called with the headman and joined our kneeling circle in 
 the reception-room. Nominally he came to pay his 
 respects, but his chief object, no doubt, was to take stock 
 of what was going on. I invariably took the opportunity 
 of closely interviewing him. 
 
 The extraordinary degree to which Japanese are com- 
 monly accustomed in their differences of opinion to refrain 
 from blows makes many of their quarrels harmless. The 
 threat to send for the policeman or the actual appearance 
 of the policeman has an almost magical effect in calming 
 a disturbance. The Japanese policeman believes very 
 much in reproving or reprimanding evil doers and in 
 reasoning with folk whose " carelessness " has attracted 
 attention. Sometimes for greater impressiveness the 
 admonitions or exhortations are delivered at the police 
 station.' In more than one village I heard a tribute paid 
 to the good influence exerted on a community by a devoted 
 policeman. 
 
 The chief of an agricultural experiment station also seems 
 to obtain a large measure of respect, to some extent, no 
 doubt, because he occupies a public office. The regard 
 felt for Mr. Yamasaki goes deeper. A few years ago he 
 was sent on a mission abroad and in his absence his local 
 admirers cast about for a way of showing their appreciation 
 of his work. They began by raising what was described 
 to me as " naturally not a large but an honourable sum." 
 With this money they decided to add three rooms to his 
 dwelling. They had noted how visitors were always coming 
 to his house in order to profit by his experience and advice. 
 Mr. Yamasaki uses the rooms primarily as " an hotel for 
 people of good intentions — ^those who work for better 
 conditions." I was proud to stay at this " hotel " and to 
 receive as a parting gift an old seppuku blade. 
 
 Which reminds tne that one night at a house in the 
 country I found myself sitting under photographs of the 
 late General and Countess Nogi and of the gaunt blood- 
 stained room of the depressing " foreign style " house in 
 
 ' For Clime statistics, see Appendix VI, 
 
THE SUICIDE OF GENERAL NOGI 55 
 
 which they committed suicide on the day of the fxmeral of 
 the Emperor Meiji.' One of my fellow-guests was a pro- 
 fessor at the Imperial University ; the other was a teacher 
 of lofty and unselfish spirit. They were both samurai. I 
 mentioned that a man of worth and distinction has said to 
 me that, while he recognised the nobility of Nogi's action, 
 he could but not think it imjustifiable. I was at 
 once told that Japanese who do not approve of Nogi's 
 action " must be over-influenced by Western thought." 
 " Those who are quintessentially Japanese," it was ex- 
 plained, " think that Nogi did right. Bodily death is 
 nothing, for Nogi still lives among us as a spirit. He 
 labours with a stronger influence. Many hearts were puri- 
 fied by his sacrifice. One of Nogi's reasons for suicide was 
 no doubt that he might be able to follow his beloved 
 Emperor, but his intention was also to warn many vicious 
 or unpatriotic people. Some politicians and rich people 
 say they are patriotic, but they are animated by selfish 
 motives and desires. Nogi's suicide was due to his loving 
 his fellow-countrymen sincerely. Surely he was acting 
 after the manner of Christ. Nogi crucified himself for the 
 people in order to atone in a measure for their sins and to 
 lead them to a better way of life." 
 
 I heard from my friends something of Nogi's demeanour. 
 The old general was a familar figure in Tokyo. In the 
 street cars — those were the days when they were not over- 
 crowded — he was always seen standing. His admirers 
 used to say that his face " beamed with beneficence." 
 But Nogi, though he loved to be within reach of the 
 Emperor and did his part as head of the Peers' School, 
 liked nothing better than to get away to the coimtry. He 
 was originally a peasant and he still possessed a cho of 
 upland holding. He was glad to work on it with the digging 
 mattock of the farmer. 
 
 1 Harahiri {aeppuku is the polite word) still happens. Just before writing 
 this note I read of the captain of the first company of the Japanese garrison 
 in a Korean town having committed seppuku because of a sense of responsi- 
 bility for the irregularities of subordinates. But of 7,239 suicides of men 
 in 1916 only 308 were by cold steel. Of 4,558 cases of women suicides 
 140' were by steel. 
 
 6 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 OF " DEVIL-GON " AND YOSOGI 
 
 The oonRoiousness of a common purpose in mankind, or even the 
 acknowledgment that such a common purpose is possible, would alter the 
 face of world politics at once. — Geaham Wallas 
 
 There was a bad landlord who was nicknamed " Devil- 
 gon." He was shot. There was another bad landlord 
 who, as he was crossing a narrow bridge over a brook, was 
 " pistolled through the sleeve and tumbled into the 
 water." Although the murderer was well known, his name 
 was never revealed to the police, and the family of the 
 dead man was glad to leave the district. The villagers 
 celebrated their freedom by eating the " red rice " which 
 is prepared on occasions of festivity. In another village, 
 the guncho who spoke to me of these things said, there 
 were several usurious landlords. " The village headman got 
 angry. He called the landlords to him. He said to them 
 that if they continued to lend at high interest the people 
 would set fire to their houses and he would not proceed 
 against them. So the landlords became affrighted and 
 amended their lives." The rural people of Japan have 
 always three weapons against usvu-y, it was explained to 
 me. First, there may be tried injuring the offending 
 person's house — rural dwellings are mainly bamboo work 
 and mud — by bumping into it with the heavy palanquin 
 which is carried about the roadway at the time of the 
 annual festival. If such a hint should prove ineffective, 
 recourse may be had to arson. Finally, there is the pistol. 
 I remember someone's remark, " A man does not lose a 
 common mind and heart by becoming a landowner." 
 
 I could not travel about the rural districts without there 
 being brought under my eyes the conditions which lead 
 country girls to go to the towns as joro (prostitutes). A 
 
 66 
 
GEISHA AND " JORO " 57 
 
 considerable agricultural authority who had been all over 
 Japan told me that he was in no doubt that most of the 
 girls adopted an immoral life through poverty. I spoke to 
 this man, who had been abroad, of the disgrace to Japan 
 involved in the presence of thousands of Japanese joro at 
 Singapore and so many other ports of the Asiatic mainland. 
 Did these women go there of their free will ? My in- 
 formant was of opinion that " half are deceived." I 
 remember that on the Japanese steamship by which I 
 went out to Japan there were several Japanese girls, 
 degraded in aspect and apparently in ill health, who were 
 returning from Singapore. They were shepherded by an 
 evil-looking fellow. The parting of these unfortunates 
 from their girl friends as the vessel was about to start was 
 a piteous sight. An official who called on me in Aichi — 
 I understood that he was the chief of the prefectural police 
 — told me that there were in the prefecture 2,011 girls in 
 222 houses, and that there were in a year 725,598 customers, 
 of whom 2,147 were foreigners. Sums of from 200 to 
 500 yen might be paid to parents for a girl for a three-years 
 term. Food and clothes were also provided, but the girls 
 were almost invariably drawn into debt to the keepers, and 
 not more than 15 per cent, were able to return to their 
 villages. All the girls in the houses had alleged poverty 
 as the reason for their being there.i 
 
 Because I was told that the moral condition of the town 
 of Anjo — population 17,000 — where the agricultural school 
 of the prefecture is situated, had improved since its estab- 
 lishment, I asked for some statistics. I found that there 
 were 23 registered geisha, no joro, 50 teahouse girls with 
 dubious characters and 55 sellers of saM. Against these 
 figures were to be counted 19 Buddhist temples of four 
 sects with 19 priests and 20 Shinto shrines with 4 priests. 
 
 I met a schoolmaster who had prepared a history of his 
 village in a dozen beautifully written volumes. He had 
 been a vegetarian for fifteen years because, as a Buddhist, 
 he beheved that " all living things are in some degree my 
 relatives." I picked up from him a variant on " the early 
 bird catches the worm." It was, " The early riser may find 
 
 1 See Appendix VII. 
 
58 OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGl 
 
 a lost rin " (tenth of a farthing). He gave me another 
 proverb, " The contents of a spitting pot, like riches, 
 become fouler the more they accumulate." 
 
 I heard of temples which were promoting rural improve- 
 ment by means of lanterns. In one village the lanterns 
 were at the service of borrowers at three different places. 
 The inscription on the lanterns says, " Think of the mercy 
 of Buddha who illuminates the darkness of your heart." 
 There is written in smaller characters, " If you live half a 
 ri away you need not return this lantern." Three hundred 
 lanterns are lost or damaged in a year, but paper lanterns 
 are cheap. 
 
 One temple has a society composed of those who have 
 family graves in its grounds. These people " study how 
 to get the most abundant crop," There is a prize for the 
 best cultivated tan. Under this temple's auspices there 
 is not only a co-operative credit and purchase association, 
 a poultry society and an annual exhibition of agricultural 
 products, but a school for nurses — they are " taught to be 
 nurses not only physically but morally." The boys and 
 girls of the village are invited to the temple once a month 
 and " told a story." The youngsters are asked to come to 
 a " learning meeting" where they must recite or exhibit 
 something they have written or drawn ; " blockheads as 
 well as clever children are encouraged." A fund is being 
 raised so that " a genius who may be suffering from poverty 
 may be able to get proper education." Then there is a 
 Women's Religious Association which aims at " the 
 improvement, necessary from a religious point of view, 
 in the home and of agricultural business." Sermons are 
 given to 500 women monthly. The society sent comfort 
 bags, containing letters, tooth-brushes and sweets, to 
 soldiers at the taking of Tsingtao. A similar organisation 
 for men had for thirteen years listened to a monthly 
 lecture by a well-known priest. It sends occasional sub- 
 scriptions outside the village. Finally, this praiseworthy 
 temple issues every month 20,000 copies of a 4|-sen 
 magazine. 
 
 The Shinto shrines of the prefecture have in all a little 
 more than 40 cho of land. Someone has hit on the plan 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE PRIESTS 59 
 
 of getting the agricultural societies of the county and 
 villages to provide the priests with rice seed of superior 
 varieties, the crop of which can be exchanged with farmers 
 for common rice. This is done on a profitable basis, because 
 the shrines exchange unpolished rice for polished. A go of 
 seed rice makes only about "5 go when husked. 
 
 I walked along the road some little way with a Buddh t 
 priest. In answer to my enquiry he said that as a Buddhist 
 he felt no difficulty about the bag strung across his shoulders 
 being of leather, for the founder of his sect (Shinshu) ate 
 meat. Even a strict Buddhist might nowadays eat animals 
 not intentionally killed, animals which had not been seen 
 alive and animals which were killed painlessly. But my 
 companion abstained as much as possible from meat. As 
 to the reason why some priests were inactive in the work of 
 rural amelioration, he supposed that their poverty, the 
 tradition of devoting themselves to unworldly business 
 and the fact that many of them were hereditary priests 
 accounted for it. He dwelt on the things in common 
 between Shinshu and Christianity and said that, next to 
 the teaching of the head of the agricultural college in the 
 prefecture, the preaching of a missionary had led him to 
 work for the good of his village. 
 
 In my host's house in the evening someone happened to 
 quote the proverb, " Richer after the fire," It means, of 
 course, that after the fire the neighbours are so ready with 
 help that the last state of the victim of the fire is better 
 than the first. The view was expressed that hitherto 
 charitable institutions of some Western patterns had not 
 been so much needed in Japan as might be supposed.' 
 " Those who go to Europe from Japan are indeed much 
 surprised by the number of institutions to help people." 
 Here, however, is the story of an institution coming into 
 existence in a village : " There was a man who was thought 
 to be rich, but he lived like a miser. His shoji were made 
 of waste paper and his guests received tea only. So he 
 was despised. But many years afterwards it was found 
 that for a long time he had been collecting books. Then, 
 to the surprise of everybody, he built a library for his 
 
 1 See Appendix. VIII. 
 
60 OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGI 
 
 village. He is not at all proud of this and those who 
 ridiculed him are now ashamed." 
 
 I was invited to a " Rural Life Exhibition." Some 
 agricultural produce was shown, but three hundred of the 
 exhibits were manuscript books or diagrams. One dia- 
 gram illustrated the development in a particular county of 
 the use of two bactericides, formalin and carbon bisulphide. 
 The formalin was in use to the value of 2,000 yen. Then 
 there was a wall picture, a sort of Japanese " The Child : 
 What will he Become ? " The good boy, aged fifteen, 
 was shown spending his spare time in making straw rope 
 to the value of 3 sen 3 rin nightly, with the result that after 
 thirty years of such industry he became a rural capitaUst 
 who possessed 1,000 yen and lived in circumstances of 
 dignity. In contrast with this virtuous career there was 
 shown the rural rake's progress. A youth who was in the 
 habit of laying out 3 sen 3 rin riotously in sweet-shops 
 was proved to have wasted 1,000 yen in thirty years : the 
 prodigal was justly exhibited fleeing from his home in debt. 
 
 One of the books on exhibition mentioned the volumes 
 most in demand at some village library. I translatethetitles : 
 
 Physical and Intellectual Training 
 About being Ambitious 
 , The Housewife of a Peasant Family 
 The Management of a Farm 
 The Days when Statesmen were Boys 
 Culture and Striving 
 Essence of Rural Improvement 
 A Hundred Beautiful Stories 
 The Art of Composition 
 The Preparation of the Conscript 
 A Medical Treatise 
 A Translation of " Self-Help " 
 Nature and Human Life 
 The Glories of Native Places 
 Anecdotes concerning Culture 
 Lives of Distinguished Peasants 
 Mulberry Planting 
 Chinese Romances 
 Glories of this^^Peacefu] Reign 
 NinomiyaSontoku 
 
AN EGOIST'S STORY 81 
 
 I noticed among the exhibits a short autobiography of a 
 farmer, an engaging egoist who wrote : 
 
 " As a young man my will was not in study and though 
 I used my wits I did many stupid things and the results 
 were bad. Then I became a little awakened and for two 
 years I studied at night with the primary school teacher. 
 After that I thought to myself in secret, ' Shall I become a 
 wise man in this village, or, by diligently farming, a rich 
 man ? ' That was my spiritual problem. Then all my 
 family gathered together and consulted and decided ' that 
 it would suit the family better if I were to become a rich 
 man, and I also agreed. To accomplish that aim I increased 
 my area imder cultivation and worked hard day and night. 
 I cut down the cryptomeria at my homestead and planted 
 in their stead mulberries and persimmons. And I slowly 
 changed my dry land into rice fields (making it therefore 
 more valuable). The soil I got I heaped up at the home- 
 stead for eighteen years until I had 28,000 cubic feet. I 
 was able then to raise the level of my house which had 
 become damp and covered with mould. The increase of 
 my cultivated area and of the yield per tan and the improve- 
 ment of my house and the practice of economy were the 
 delight of my life. I felt grateful to my ancestors who gave 
 me such a strong body. Sometimes I kept awake all night 
 talking with my wife about the goodness of my ancestors. 
 Also when in bed I planned a compact homestead. I once 
 read a Japanese poem, ' What a joy to be bom in this 
 peaceful reign and to be favoured by ploughs and horses.' 
 (Most Japanese farming is done without either horses or 
 ploughs.) It went deeply into my heart. Also I heard 
 from the school teacher of four loves : love of State, 
 love of Emperor, love of teacher and love of parent. I 
 have been much favoured by those loves. I also heard 
 the doctrines of Ninomiya : sincerity, diligence, moderate 
 living, unselfishness. I felt it a great joy to live remember- 
 ing those doctrines. I also went to the prefectural 
 experiment station and studied fruit growing and my 
 spirit was much expanded. I returned again to the station 
 and the expert talked to me very earnestly. I asked for 
 a special variety of persimmon. The expert sent to Gifu 
 prefecture for it. I planted the tree and made its top into 
 six grafts. It bore fruit and many passers-by envied it. 
 
 '■ Family in the French sense. 
 
62 OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGI 
 
 Two years after that I grafted five hundred trees and sold 
 the grafted stock." 
 
 Several villages sent to the exhibition statistics of great 
 interest. One village set forth the changes which had taken 
 place in the social status of its inhabitants.^ Some com- 
 munities were represented by statements of their hours of 
 labour.^ One small community's tables showed how many 
 of its inhabitants were " diligent people," how many 
 " average workers " and how many " other people." » 
 A county agricultural association had painstakingly 
 collected information not only about the work done in a 
 year ' and the financial returns obtained by three typical 
 farmers but about the way in which they spent what they 
 earned.^ 
 
 On my way back from the exhibition I heard the story 
 of a priest. When fourteen years of age he obtained seeds 
 of cryptomeria and planted them in a spot in the hills. 
 He also practised many economies. When still in his 
 teens he asked permission to take two shares in a 50-yen 
 money-sharing club, but was not allowed to do so as no 
 one would believe that he could complete his payments. 
 He persisted, however, that he would be able to pay what 
 was required and he was at length accepted as a member. 
 At twenty he became priest of a small temple which was in 
 bad repair and had a debt of 125 yen. He brought with 
 him his 100 yen from the club and the young cryptomeria. 
 He planted the trees in the temple grounds. He said, " I 
 wish to rebuild the temple when these trees grow up." He 
 cultivated the land adjoining his temple and contrived to 
 employ several labourers. At last the cryptomeria grew 
 large enough for his purpose and he rebuilt the teniple, 
 expending on the work not only his trees but 600 yen 
 which he had by this time saved. Then he proceeded to 
 bring waste land into cultivation. At the age of sixty-two 
 he gave his temple to another priest and went to live in a 
 hut on the waste land. There came a tidal wave near the 
 place, so he went to the sufferers and invited five families 
 
 » See Appendis IX. » See Appendix XI. 
 
 ' See Appendix X. * See Appendix XII. 
 
 ^ See Appendix XIII. 
 
FBiroiNCr AT AN AG-aiOULTUEAIi SCHOOL, p. SO 
 
 WAB MEMENTOES AT THE SAME SCHOOL— ALL SCHOOlfe HAVE SOME 
 
 [03 
 
REAL BUDDHISTS 63 
 
 to his now cultivated waste land. He gave them each a 
 tan of land and the material for building cottages and 
 showed them how to open more land. 
 
 A good judge expressed the opinion that Buddhism was 
 flourishing in 80 per cent, of the villages of Aichi, but this 
 was in a material and ceremonial sense. The prefectures 
 of Aichi and Niigata had been called the " kitchens of 
 Hongwanji " ' (the great temple at Kyoto), such liberal 
 contributions were forthcoming from them. " A belief 
 in progress," this speaker said, " may be a substitute for 
 religion for many of our people ; another substitute is a 
 belief in Japan." A village headman from the next pre- 
 fecture (Shidzuoka) said : " People in my village do not 
 omit to perform their Buddhist ceremonies, but they are 
 not at their hearts religious. In our prefecture the influ- 
 ence of Ninomiya is greater than that of Buddhism. If the 
 villagers are good it is Ninomiyan principles that make 
 them so. Under Ninomiyan influence the spirit of associa- 
 tion has been aroused, thriftiness has been encouraged and 
 extravagance reprimanded." 
 
 I told Mr. Yamasaki one day that there was an old 
 Scotswoman who divided good people into " rael Christians 
 and guid moral fowk." What I was curious to know was 
 what proportion of Japanese rural people might be fairly 
 called " real Buddhists " and what proportion " good 
 moral folk." " There are certainly some real Buddhists, 
 not merely good moral folk," he assured me. " If you 
 penetrate deeply into the lives of the people you will be 
 able to find a great number of them. In ordinary daily 
 life, during a period when nothing extraordinary happens, it 
 is not easy to distinguish the two classes ; but when any 
 trouble comes then those real religious people are undis- 
 mayed, while the ordinarily good moral people may some- 
 times go astray. The proportion of religious people is 
 rather large among the poor compared with the middle 
 and upper classes. These poor people are always weighted 
 with many troubles which would be a calamity to persons 
 
 ' It was recently stated that the consent of the authorities was awaited 
 for collections to the amount of 20 million yen, of which 13i million were 
 for the two Hongwanjis. 
 
64. OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGl 
 
 of the middle or upper classes. Such humble folk get 
 support for their lives from what is in their hearts. Though 
 they may suffer privation or loss they are glad that they 
 can live on by the mercy of Buddha. There are some 
 religious people even among those who are not poor. They 
 are usually people who have lost some of their riches 
 suddenly, or a dear child, or have been deprived of high 
 position, or have met some kind of misfortune. Some- 
 times a man may become religious because he feels deeply 
 the misfortunes or miseries of a neighbour or the miseries 
 of war. Or his religion may come by meditation. A man 
 who begins to be religious is not, however, at once noticed. 
 On the contrary, if he is a true believer his daily life will 
 be most ordinary." 
 
 One day I passed a primary school playground. The 
 girls had just finished and the boys were beginning Swedish 
 drill. Everyone engaged in the drill, including the master, 
 was barefoot. 
 
 I saw that some of the cottages were built in an Essex 
 fashion, of puddled clay and chopped straw faced with 
 tarred boards. Some dwellings, however, were faced with 
 straw instead of boards. They had just had their wall 
 thatch renewed for the winter. 
 
 In one spot there was a quarter of a mile of wooden 
 aqueduct for the service of the paddy fields. Much agri- 
 cultural pumping is done in Aichi. I visited an irrigation 
 installation where pumps (from London) were turning 
 barren hill tops into paddy fields.' The work was being 
 done by a co-operative society of 550 members who had 
 borrowed the 40,000 yen they needed from a bank on an 
 imdertaking to repay in fifteen years. 
 
 It was .stated that common paddy near Anjo had been 
 bought at 5,000 yen per cho and not for building purposes. 
 When one member of our company said, " The farmers here 
 are rivalling each other in hard work," the weightiest 
 authority among us replied : " What the farmer must do 
 is to work not harder but better. At present he is not 
 working on scientific principles. The hours he is spending 
 on really profitable labour are not many. He must work 
 
 ' For yields of new paddy, see Appendix XTV. 
 
WHY FARMERS ARE POOR 65 
 
 more rationally. In 26 villages in the south-west of Japan, 
 where farming calls for much labour, it was found that the 
 number of days' work in the year was only 192. Statistics 
 for Eastern Japan give 186 days.' As to a secondary 
 industry, one or two hours' work a night at straw rope 
 making for a month may bring in a yen because the 
 market for rope is confined to Japan. The same with 
 zori, a coarse sort being purchasable for 2 sen a pair. But 
 supplementary work like silk-worm culture produces an 
 article of luxury for which there is a world market." 
 
 When we returned home my host was kind enough 
 to summarise for me — the general reader may skip here — 
 some of the reasons set forth by a professor of agricultural 
 politics for the farmer's position being what it is : 
 
 1. The average area cultivated per family is very small. 
 
 2. The law of diminishing return. 
 
 3. Imperfection of the agricultin-al system. Mainly 
 crop raising, not a combination of crop and stock raising, 
 as in England. No profitable secondary business but silk- 
 worm culture. Therefore the distribution of labour 
 throughout the year is not good and the number of days 
 of effective labour is relatively small. 
 
 4. The commercial side of agriculture has not been 
 sufficiently developed. 
 
 5. There has been a rise in the standard of Uving. 
 In the old days the farmer did not complain ; he thought 
 his lot could not be changed. He was forbidden to adopt 
 a new calhng and he was restricted by law to a frugal 
 way of living. Now farmers can be soldiers, merchants or 
 officials and can live as they please. They begin to com- 
 pare their standard of living with that of other callings. 
 What were once not felt to be miseries are now regarded 
 as such. 
 
 6. Formerly the farmer had not the expense of education 
 and of losing the services of his sons to the army. There 
 is also an increase in taxation. A representative family 
 which incurred a public expenditure, not including educa- 
 tion, of 12-86 yen in 1890, paid in 1898 19-68 yen. In 
 1908 it was faced by a claim for 84-28 yen.* 
 
 1 See Appendix XII. 
 
 2 It would be from 80 to 100 yen now. 
 
66 OF "DEVIL-GON" AND YOSOGl 
 
 7. Although the area of land does not increase in relation 
 to the increase of population, the size of the peasant 
 family is increasing owing to the decrease of infanticide 
 and abortion and the development of sanitation. 
 
 8. The farmer suffers from debts at high interest. 
 
 9. The character, morality and ability of the farmer are 
 not yet fully developed. 
 
 10. Formerly the farmer lived an economically self- 
 contained existence. He had no great need of money. 
 He must now sell his produce on a market with wider and 
 wider fluctuations. 
 
 11. There are many expensive customs and habits, for 
 instance the two or three days' feasting at weddings and 
 funerals. 
 
 During the evening I was told this story. In a village 
 in a far part of the prefecture there lived a farmer called 
 Yosogi. He was a thrifty and dihgent man. When he 
 became old he gave all that he had to his son. But the 
 old man could not stop working. He would go to the farm 
 and help his son. The son did not like this. He wanted 
 his old father to rest. In the end he found that the only 
 way to cope with his industrious parent was to work 
 very hard and leave him nothing to do. But the old man 
 was not to be balked. He took himself off to the hill- 
 side and began to make a paddy field where there had 
 never been a paddy field before. To make a paddy field 
 on such a slope is a difficult task. The land must be 
 embanked with stones and then levelled. The building 
 of the strong embankment alone calls for much labour. 
 The old man toiled very hard at his job and sometimes his 
 son in despair sent his labourers to help him. At length 
 the paddy field was finished. But it was only a tenth of 
 a tan in area. When the son saw the small result of so 
 much labour he said to his father, " I grieve for the way 
 you have toiled. You have laboured hard for many days 
 and my labourers have helped you, but all that has been 
 accomplished is the making of a paddy field so small and 
 distant that it is uneconomical." 
 
 To this the old man replied : " When you go to Tokyo 
 and seethe graveyard at Aoyama you will behold there many 
 
THE OLD MAN'S STORY 67 
 
 monuments of generals and ministers of State. Their 
 merits and their works in this world are described on those 
 monuments. But do you know where the monument of 
 the famous hero Kusunoki Masashige is ? It is near Kobe, 
 and it is not more than half as big as those monuments at 
 Tokyo. Do you know where the monument of the great 
 Taiko is ? It is in Kyoto, but it is only recently that this 
 monument was put up. Thus the monuments of our 
 greatest heroes are small or have been erected recently. 
 The reason is that it is unnecessary to raise big monuments 
 for them because what they did in their lives was in itself 
 their monument. They built their monument in the hearts 
 of the people. Therefore we can never judge from the 
 size of the monument the kind of work which was accom- 
 plished by the man who sleeps under it. Monuments are 
 not only for ministers and warriors. We peasants can 
 also erect monuments in our own way. To open a new 
 paddy field, to plant the bare hillside with trees, these are 
 our monuments. How lonely it would be for me if there 
 were no monument left after my death. However small 
 this paddy field may be, it will not be forgotten so long as 
 it yields for your posterity the blessing of its rice crop." 
 " Happily," the interpreter added, " the old man did not 
 die so soon as he thought he would do. He lived for several 
 years and planted the bare hillside with trees. Now the 
 wood which grows there is worth 10,000 yen." 
 
 A peasant proprietor expressed the conviction that good- 
 ness in a family was " not the result of its own efforts 
 but of the accumulation of ancestral effort." The " ances- 
 tral merits and good spirit remain in the family." On the 
 problem of rich and poor he quoted the proverb, " The very 
 rich cannot remain very rich for more than three genera- 
 tions ; a poor family cannot long remain poor." He said 
 that he would be interested to know what I found to be 
 " the causes of our villagers becoming good or bad." 
 " For ourselves," he said, quoting another proverb, '"At 
 the foot of the lighthouse it is dark.' " 
 
THE MOST EXACTING CROP IN THE WORLD 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 Toyo-asMwara-no-chiiho-aki-mizuho-no-Kuni (Land of plenteous ears 
 of rice in the plain of luxuriant reeds). 
 
 The vast difference between Far Eastern and Western 
 agriculture is marked by the fact that, except by using 
 such a phrase as shallow pond — and this is inadequate, 
 because a pond has a sloping bottom and a rice field 
 necessarily a level one — ^it is difficult to describe a rice 
 field in terms intelligible to a Western farmer. The Japan- 
 ese have a special word for a rice field, to, water field, 
 written gg , It will be noticed that the ideograph looks like 
 a water field in four compartments. Another word, 
 hata or hatdke,^ written j^, tells the story of the dry or 
 upland field. It is the ideograph for water field in associa- 
 tion with the ideograph for fire, and, as we shall see later 
 on, when we make acquaintance with " fire farming," an 
 upland field is a tract the vegetation of which was originally 
 burnt off. 
 
 Many of us have seen rice growing in Italy or in the United 
 States. But in Japan ' the paddies are very much smaller 
 than anything to be seen in the Po Valley and in Texas. 
 Owing to the plentiful water supply of a mountainous 
 land, cultivation proceeds with some degree of regularity 
 and with a certain independence of the rainy season ; 
 and there has been applied to traditional rice farming 
 not a few scientific improvements. 
 
 * Haia (upland field) is not to be confounded with hara (prairie, ^Ider- 
 nesB, moor, often erroneously translated, plain). 
 
 a Kioe is grown in every prefecture. The largest total yields are in 
 Niigata, Hyogo, Fukuoka, Aiohi, Yamagata, Ibariki and Chfba. 
 
 68 
 
THE RICE PADDY 
 
 69 
 
 There is a kind of rice with a low yield called upland 
 rice which, like corn, is grown in fields. But the first 
 requisite of general rice culture is water. The ordinary 
 rice crop can be produced only on a piece of ground on 
 which a certain depth of water is maintained. 
 
 In order to maintain this depth of water, three things 
 must be done. The plot of ground must be made level, 
 low banks of earth must be built round it in order to keep 
 in the water, and a system of irrigation must be arranged 
 to make good the loss of water by evaporation, by leakage 
 and by the continual passing on of some of the water to 
 other plots belonging to 
 the same owner or to other 
 farmers. The common 
 name of a rice plot is 
 paddy, and the rice with 
 its husk on, that is, as it 
 is knocked from the ear 
 by threshing, is called 
 paddy rice. The rice ex- 
 ported from Japan is some 
 of it husked and some of 
 it polished. 
 
 Some 90 per cent, of the 
 rice grown in Japan is 
 ordinary rice. The remain- 
 ing 10 per cent, is about 
 2 per cent, upland and 8 per cent, glutinous ' — the sort 
 used for making the favourite mocU (rice flour dumplings, 
 which few foreigners are able to digest). It would be 
 possible to collect in Japan specimens of rice under 
 4,000 different names, but, like our potato names, many 
 of these represent duplicate varieties. Rice, again re- 
 minding us of potatoes, is grown in early, middle and 
 late season sorts." 
 
 > See Appendix XV. 
 
 » The overage yield of the three kinds at Government experimental 
 farms — the middle variety yields best and next comes the late variety — 
 is about 2i koku per tan or roughly (a koku being about 5 bushels and a 
 tan about a quarter of an acre) about 45 bushels per acre. The average 
 yield of ordinary rice in Japan in an ordinary year is 40i bushels. In the 
 
 A 200-Yeabb-old Japanese DBAWiNa 
 OF THE Bice Plant 
 
70 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 Just one-half of the cultivated area of Japan is devoted 
 to paddy, but there is to be added to this area under 
 rice more than a quarter million acres producing the 
 upland rice, the jrield of which is lower than that of paddy 
 rice. The paddy and upland rice areas together make 
 up more than a half of the cultivated land. The paddies 
 which are not in situations favourable to the production 
 of second crops of rice (they are grown in one prefecture 
 only) are used, if the water can be drawn off, for growing 
 barley or wheat or green manure as a second crop.' 
 
 It is not only the Eastern predilection for rice and the 
 wet condition of the country, but the heavy cropping 
 power of the plant ' — 500 go per tan above barley and wheat 
 yields — ^that makes the Japanese farmer labour so hard to 
 grow it.' Intensively cultivated though Japan is, the 
 percentage of cultivated land to the total area of the country 
 is, however, little more than half that in Great Britain.' 
 This is because Japan is largely mountains and hills. 
 Level land for rice paddies can be economically obtained 
 in many parts of such a country by working it in small 
 patches only. There is no minimum size for a Japanese 
 paddy. I have seen paddies of the area of a counterpane 
 and even of the size of a couple of dinner napkins. 
 
 The problem is not only to make the paddy in a spot 
 where it can be supplied with water, but to make it in such 
 a way that it will hold all the water it needs. It must be 
 level, or some of the rice plants will have only their feet 
 wet while others will be up to their necks. The ordinary 
 procedure in making a paddy is to remove the top soil, 
 beat down the subsoil beneath, and then restore the top 
 soil — there may be from 5 to 10 in. of it. But the best 
 
 bumper year of 1920 the average yield was 41 J bushels. In the year 1916 
 (to which most of the figures in this book, apart from the Appendix and 
 footnotes, in which the latest available figures are given, refer) there was 
 produced 58 J million koku of all kinds of rice, the value of which was 826i 
 million yen. The normal yield (average of 7 years, excluding the years of 
 highest and lowest production) is 54^ million koku. See Appendix XV. 
 
 1 For wheat and barley crops, see Appendix XVI. 
 
 2 A few rice plants may be seen growing at Kew. 
 
 ° The cost of the rice crop and the income it yields are discussed in 
 Appendix XVII. 
 ♦ See Appendix XVIII. 
 
A PROBLEM OF THE PADDY 71 
 
 efforts of the paddy-field builder may be brought to 
 naught by springs or by a gravelly bottom. Then the 
 farmer must make the best terms he can with fortune. 
 
 Paddies, as may be imagined from their physical limita- 
 tions, are of every conceivable shape. There is assuredly 
 no way of altering the shape of the paddies which are 
 dexterously fitted into the hillsides. But large numbers of 
 paddies are on fairly level ground.' There is no real need 
 for these being of all sizes and patterns. They are what 
 they are because of the degree to which their construction 
 was conditioned by water-supply problems, the financial 
 resources of those who dug them or the position of neigh- 
 bours' land. And no doubt in the course of centuries there 
 has been a great deal of swapping, buying and inheriting. 
 So the average farmer's paddies are not only of all shapes 
 and sizes but here, there and everywhere. 
 
 Therefore there arose wise men to point out that for a 
 farmer to work a number of oddly shaped bits of land 
 scattered all about the village was uneconomical and out 
 of date. (Like the old English strip system which still 
 survives in the Isle of Axholme.) So what was called an 
 adjustment of paddy fields was carried out in many places. 
 The farmers were persuaded to throw their varied assort- 
 ment of fields into hotchpot and then to have the mass cut 
 up into oblong fields of equal or relative sizes. These were 
 then shared out according to what each man had con- 
 tributed. In some cases a little compensation had to be 
 given, for there were differences in the qualities as well as 
 the areas of the holdings. But reasonable justice was 
 eventually done all round, and ever afterwards a farmer, 
 now that his holding was in adjoining tracts, might spend 
 
 1 In Japanese rural statistics the word plain may be said to mean a tract 
 of land which is neither cultivated nor timbered nor used for the purposes 
 of habitation. Sometimes it is called prairie, but this is not always correct 
 as it is very often a barren waste, a tract of volcanic ash, or an area producing 
 bamboo grass. Some of this land, however, could be cultivated after 
 proper irrigation, etc. In this note, plains is employed in the ordinary 
 acceptation of the word. Of such plains there are several. The plain in 
 which Tokyo is situated is 82,000 acres in extent. The traveller from Kobe 
 to Tokyo passes through the Kinai plain in which Kobe, Kyoto and Osaka 
 stand. It is said to feed 2^ million people. Four other plains are reputed 
 to feed 7^ million. 
 7 
 
72 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 his time working in his paddies instead of in walking to and 
 from them. Because many unnecessary paths and divi- 
 sions between paddies were done away with there was 
 brought about a saving of labour and increased efficiency 
 of cultivation. There was also a little more land to culti- 
 vate and the paddies were big enough for an ox or a pony 
 to be employed in them, and the water supply was better 
 and sufficiently under control for floods to be averted.' 
 In brief, costs were lower and crops were better.' 
 
 Thus all over Japan nowadays one sees considerable 
 tracts of adjusted paddy fields. They are a joy to the 
 rural sociologist. In its way there has been nothing like 
 it agriculturally in our time. For each of these little 
 farmers valued his odds and ends of paddy above their 
 agricultural worth. He or his forbears had made them 
 or bought them or married into them. And he believed 
 that his own paddies were in a condition of fertility sur- 
 passing not a few, and he doubted greatly whether after 
 adjustment he would find himself in possession of as valu- 
 able land as his own. Sometimes also he believed that his 
 paddies were especially fortunate geomantically.' Yet, 
 convinced by the arguments for adjustment, the peasant 
 agreed to the proposed rearrangement, let his old tracts 
 go and accepted in exchange neat oblongs out of the com- 
 mon stock. Sometimes so great was the change brought 
 about in a village by adjustment that more than the paddies 
 were dealt with. Cottages were taken to new sites and the 
 bones in many little grave plots were removed. In a 
 village in which there had been an exhumation of the bones 
 of 2,700 persons and a transference of tombstones, I was 
 told that the assembling together of the remains of the 
 departed in one place " had had a unifying effect on the 
 
 1 Rivers supply about 65 per cent, of the paddy water and reservoirs 
 about 21 per cent. The remainder has to be got from other sources. 
 
 2 An acreage of a tan is aimed at, but it is frequently larger; it may even 
 be 4 tan (an acre). The cost ranges from about 8 yen to 60 yen per tan. The 
 average increase in yield after adjustment is about 16 per cent., to which 
 must be added the yield of the new land obtained, say 3 per cent, of the 
 area adjusted. The consent of half the owners is required for adjustment. 
 
 » Once when a friend in Tokyo had trouble with her servants a maid 
 informed her that the house waa unlucky because a certain necessary 
 apartment faced the wrong point of the compass. 
 
FARMING IN SLUDGE 78 
 
 community." In this village within a period of twelve 
 years 96 per cent, of the paddies had been adjusted.' 
 
 An advantage of adjustment which has not yet been 
 mentioned is that adjusted paddies can usually be dried 
 off at harvest and can therefore be put under a second crop, 
 usually of grain. More than a third of the paddy-field 
 area of the country can be dried off, and therefore produces 
 a second crop of barley or wheat. The farmer has two 
 advantages if, owing to adjustment or natural advantages, 
 he is able to dry off his land. Of the first or rice crop, if he 
 is a tenant farmer, he has had to pay his landlord perhaps 
 60 per cent, in rent, less straw ; * but the second crop is his 
 own. The further advantage is that second-crop land can 
 be cultivated dry shod. One-crop paddy is under water 
 all the year round, and must be cultivated with wet feet 
 and legs. 
 
 It is because more than half the paddies are always under 
 water that rice cultivation is so laborious. Think of the 
 Western farm labourer being asked to plough and the 
 allotment holder to dig almost knee-deep in mud. Al- 
 though much paddy is ploughed with the aid of an ox, a 
 cow or a pony,' most rice is the product of mattock or 
 spade labour. There is no question about the severity of 
 the labour of paddy cultivation. For a good crop it is 
 necessary that the soil shall be stirred deeply. 
 
 Following the turning over of the stubble under water, 
 comes the clod smashing and harrowing by quadrupedal or 
 bipedal labour. It is not only a matter of staggering about 
 and doing heavy work in sludge. The sludge is not clean 
 dirt and water but dirty dirt and water, for it has been 
 heavily dosed with manure, and the farmer is not fastidious 
 as to the source from which he obtains it.* And the sludge 
 
 1 In the whole of Japan by 1919 two million and a half acres had 
 been adjusted or were in course of adjustment. 
 
 » The rent is usually 57 per cent, of the rice harvest in the paddies and 
 44 per cent, (in cash or kind) of the crops on the non-paddy laud. Any 
 crop raised in the paddies between the harvesting of one rice crop and the 
 planting out of the next belongs to the farmer. (All taxes and rates are 
 paid by the landlord, and amount to from 30 to 33 per cent, of the rent.) 
 The area under paddy and the area of upland under cultivation are 
 almost equal. 
 
 ' See Appendix XIX. * See Appendix XX. 
 
74 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 ordinarily contains leeches. Therefore the cultivator must 
 work uncomfortably in sodden clinging cotton feet and leg 
 coverings. Long custom and necessity have no doubt 
 developed a certain indifference to the physical discomfort 
 of rice cultivation. The best rice will grow only in mud 
 and, except on the large uniform paddies of the adjusted 
 areas, there is small opportunity for using mechanical 
 methods. 
 
 One day when I went into the country it happened to 
 be raining hard, but the men and women toiled in the 
 paddies. They were breaking up the flooded clods with a 
 tool resembUng the " pulling fork " used in the West for 
 getting manure from a dung cart. On other farms the 
 task of working the quagmire was being done by two 
 persons with the aid of a disconsolate pony harnessed to 
 a rude harrow. The men and women in the paddies kept 
 off the rain by means of the usual wide straw hats and loose 
 straw mantles, admirable in their way in their combination 
 of lightness and rainproofness. Often, besides the farmer's 
 wife, a young widow or a young unmarried woman may 
 be seen at work, but, as was once explained to me, " The 
 old Miss is not frequent in Japan." ^ 
 
 Planting time arrives in the middle of June or there- 
 abouts, when the paddy has been brought by successive 
 harrowings into a fine tilth or rather sludge. It is illus- 
 trative of the exacting ways of rice that not only has it to 
 have a growing place specially fashioned for it, it cannot 
 be sown as cereals are sown. It must be sown in beds 
 and then be transplanted. The seed beds have been 
 sown in the latter part of April or the early part of May, 
 according to the variety of rice and the locality.' The 
 seeds have usually been selected by immersion in salt 
 water and have been afterwards soaked in order to advance 
 germination. There is a little soaking pond on every farm. 
 By the use of this pond the period in which the seeds are 
 exposed to the depredations of insects, etc., is diminished. 
 The seed bed itself is about the width of an onion bed, in 
 order that weeds and insect pests may be easily reached. 
 
 1 In 1920 there were 38,922,437 males and 38,083,073 females. 
 ° See Appendix XXI. 
 
THE COMMUNAL SEED-BED 75 
 
 The seed bed is, of course, under water. The seed is 
 dropped into the water and sinks into the mud. Within 
 about thirty or forty days the seedlings are ready for 
 transplanting. They have been the object of unremitting 
 care. Weeds have been plucked out and insects have 
 been caught by nets or trapped. There is a contrivance 
 which, by means of a wheel at either end, straddles the 
 seed bed, and is drawn slowly from one end to the other. 
 It catches the insects as they hop or fly up. 
 
 In many localities specially fine varieties are grown for 
 seed on the land of the Shinto shrines. In other localities 
 special sorts are raised in ordinary paddies but surrounded 
 by the rope and white paper streamers which represent a 
 consecrated place. In not a few villages there are com- 
 munal seed beds so that many farmers may grow the same 
 variety, and there may be a considerable bulk for co- 
 operative sale. 
 
 At transplanting time every member of the family 
 capable of helping renders assistance. Friends also give 
 their aid if it is not planting time for them too. The 
 work is so engrossing that young children who are not at 
 school are often left to their own devices. Sometimes they 
 play by the ditch round the paddies and are drowned. 
 Five such cases of drowning are reported from three pre- 
 fectures on the day I write this. The suggestion is made 
 that in the rice districts there should be common nurseries 
 for farmers' children at planting time. 
 
 The rate at which the planters, working in a row across 
 the paddy, set out the seedlings in the mud below the 
 water, is remarkable.^ The first weeding or raking takes 
 place about a fortnight after planting. After that there 
 are three more weedings, the last being about the end of 
 August. All kinds of hoes are used in the sludge. They 
 are usually provided with a wooden or tin float. But most 
 of the weeding is done simply by thrusting the hand into 
 the mud, pulling out the weed and thrusting it back into 
 the sludge to rot. The back-breaking character of this 
 work may be imagined. As much of it is done in the hot- 
 test time of the year the workers protect themselves by wide- 
 
 1 See Appendix XXII. 
 
76 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 brimmed hats of the willow-plate pattern and by flapping 
 straw cloaks or by bundles of straw fastened on their backs. 
 
 A sharp look-out must be kept for insects of various sorts. 
 In more than one place I saw the boys and girls of element- 
 ary schools wading in the paddies and stroking the young 
 rice with switches in order to make noxious insects rise. 
 The creatures were captured by the young enthusiasts with 
 nets. The children were given special times off from 
 school work in which to hunt the rice pests and were 
 encouraged to bring specimens to school. 
 
 There is no greater dehght to the eye than the paddies in 
 their early green, rippled and gently laid over by the wind. 
 (One should say greens, for there is every tint from the 
 rather woe-begone yellowish green of the newly planted 
 out rice to the happy luxuriant dark green of the paddies 
 that have long been enjoying the best of quarters.) As 
 harvest time approaches,' the paddies, because they are 
 not all planted with the same variety of rice, are in patches 
 of different shades. Some are straw colour, some are 
 reddish brown or almost black. A poet speaks of the 
 " hanging ears of rice." Rice always seems to hang its 
 head more than other crops. It is weaker in the straw 
 than barley, but rice frequently droops not only because of 
 its natural habit, but because it has been over-manured or 
 wrongly manured or because of wind or wet. 
 
 Beyond wind,' insects and drought, floods are the 
 enemies of rice. When the plants are young, three or four 
 days' flooding do not matter much, but in August, when 
 the ears are shooting, it is a different matter. The sun 
 pom-s down and soon rots the rice lying in the warm water. 
 Sometimes the farmer, by almost withdrawing the water 
 from his paddies, raises the temperature of the soil with 
 benefit to the crop. 
 
 The farmer is fortunate who is able to get the water 
 completely out of his paddies by the time harvest arrives, 
 
 1 The harvest extends from mid-September in the north ol Japan to 
 the end of October or beginning of November in the south. The harvest 
 is taken early in the north for fear of frost. 
 
 • The " 210th day " (counted from the beginning of spring), when flower- 
 ing commences, is so critical a period that the weather conditions during 
 the twenty-four hours in every prefecture are reported to the Emperor. 
 
THE SLUSHY HARVEST 77 
 
 but, as we have seen, two-thirds of the paddies must be 
 harvested in sludge. Many crops are muddied before they 
 can be cut. Sometimes on the eve of harvest the farmer 
 wades in and tries, by arranging the fallen stems across one 
 another, to keep some of the ears out of the water. But 
 he is not very successful. Rice may lie in the wet a week 
 or even the best end of a fortnight without serious damage. 
 But all that this means is that within the period specified 
 it may not sprout. It must be damaged to some extent 
 even by a few days' immersion. The reason why it is not 
 damaged more than it is is no doubt, first, because rice is 
 a plant which has been brought up to take its chances with 
 water, and in the second place because the thing which is 
 known to the housewife as rice is not really the grain at 
 all but the interior of the grain. 
 
 Western farmers are hard put to it when their grain 
 crops are beaten down by wind and rain ; Japanese agricul- 
 turists, because they gather their harvest with a short 
 ' sickle, do not find a laid crop difficult to cut. But these 
 harvesters are very muddy indeed. When the rice is cut 
 and the sheaves are laid along the low mud wall of the 
 paddy they are still partly in the sludge. We know how 
 miserable a wet harvest is at home, but think of the slushy 
 harvest with which most Japanese farmers struggle every 
 year of their lives. The rice grower, although year in and 
 year out he has the advantage of a great deal of sunshine, 
 seldom gets his crop in without some rain. How does he 
 manage to dry his October and November rice ? By means 
 of a temporary fence or rack which he rigs up in his paddy 
 field or along a path or by the roadside. On this structure 
 the sheaves are painstakingly suspended ears down. Some- 
 times he utilises poles suspended between trees. These 
 trees, grown on the low banks of the paddies, have their 
 trunks trimmed so that they resemble parasols. 
 
 When the sheaves are removed in order to be threshed 
 on the upland part of the holding, they are carried away at 
 either end of a pole on a man's shoulder or are piled up on 
 the back of an ox, cow or pony. The height of the pile 
 under which some animals stagger up from the paddies 
 gives one a vivid Qonception of " the last straw,'' 
 
78 THE HARVEST FROM THE MUD 
 
 Threshing is usually done by a man, woman, girl or 
 youth taking as many stems as can be easily grasped in 
 both hands and drawing the ears, first one way and 
 then another, through a horizontal row of steel teeth. 
 The flail is not used for threshing rice but is employed 
 for barley. Another common way of knocking out grain 
 is by beating the straw over a table or a barrel. There 
 are all sorts of cheap hand-worked threshing machines. 
 After the threshing of the rice comes the winnowing, 
 which may be done by the aid of a machine but is 
 more likely to be effected in the immemorial way, by 
 one person pouring the roughly threshed ears from a 
 basket or skep while another worker vigorously fans the 
 grain. The result is what is known as paddy rice. 
 The process which follows winnowing is husking. This is 
 done in the simplest possible form of hand mill. Before 
 husking the rice grain is in appearance not unlike barley 
 and it is no easy matter to get its husk off. The husking 
 mill is often made of hardened clay with many wooden 
 teeth on the rubbing surface. After husking there is 
 another winnowing. Then the grains are run through a 
 special apparatus of recent introduction called mangoku 
 doshi, so that faulty ones may be picked out. The result is 
 unpolished rice. 
 
 It looks grey and unattractive, and imfortunately the 
 unprepossessing but valuable outer coat is polished away. 
 This is done in a mortar hollowed out of a section of a tree 
 trimk or out of a large stone. One may see a young man 
 or a young woman pounding the rice in the mortar with a 
 heavy wooden beetle or mallet. Often the beetle is fastened 
 to a beam and worked by foot. Or the polishing apparatus 
 may be driven by water, oil or steam power. Constantly 
 in the country there are seen little sheds in each of which a 
 small polishing mill driven by a water wheel is working 
 away by itself. After the polishing, the mangoku doshi is 
 used again to free the rice from the bran. This polished 
 rice is still further polished by the dealer, who has more 
 perfect mills than the farmer. 
 
 The farmer pays his rent not in the polished but in the 
 husked rice. At the house of a former daimyo I saw an 
 
PLASTIJv^rf OUT EICE SBEDLIilGS. p. 73 
 
 PUSH-OAKT FOK OOLLECTIOS OF FERTILISBE (TOKYO), p. 49 
 
 [70 
 
"BLACK SAKE" 79 
 
 instrument which the feudal lord's bailiff was accustomed 
 to thrust into the rice the tenants tendered. If when the 
 instrument was withdrawn more than three husks were 
 found adhering, the rice was returned to be recleaned. 
 There are names for all the different kinds of rice. For 
 instance, paddy rice is momi ; husked rice is gemmai ; half- 
 polished rice is hantsukimai ; polished rice is hakumai ; 
 cooked rice is gohan. 
 
 A century ago the farmer ate his rice at the gemmai stage, 
 that is in its natural state, and there was no beri-beri. The 
 " black sak6 " made from this gemmai rice is still used in 
 Shinto ceremonies. In order to produce clear saki the rice 
 was polished. Then well-to-do people out of daintiness had 
 their table rice polished. Now polished rice is the common 
 food. Half-polished rice may be prepared with two or 
 three hundred blows of the mallet ; fully polished or white 
 rice may receive six, seven or eight hundred, or even it 
 may be a thousand blows. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE RICE BOWL, THE GODS AND THE NATION 
 
 I thank whatever gods there be. . . . — Hbnlby 
 I 
 
 How many people who have not been in the East or in the 
 rice trade realise that rice, in the course of the polishing it 
 receives from the farmer and the dealer, loses nearly half 
 its bulk ? A necessary part of the grain is lost. No wonder 
 that sensible people in Japan and the West demand the 
 grey unpolished rice. In Japan some enterprising person 
 has started selling bottled stuff made from the part of the 
 rice grain that is rubbed off in the polishing process. It 
 does not look appetising. An easier thing would be to 
 leave some of the coating on the rice. One thinks of what 
 Smollett said of white bread : 
 
 " They prefer it to wholesome bread because it is whiter. 
 Thus they sacrifice their health to a most absurd gratifica- 
 tion of a misjudging eye, and the tradesman is obliged to 
 poison them in order to live." 
 
 Although, for economy's sake, a considerable amount of 
 barley is eaten with or instead of rice, it may be said in a 
 general way that the Japanese people, like so many millions 
 of other Asiatics, have rice for breakfast, rice for lunch 
 and rice for dinner. If they have anything to eat between 
 meals it is as like as not to be rice cakes — to the foreigner's 
 taste a loathly, half -cooked compost of rice flour or pounded 
 rice and water, a sort of tepid imderdone muffin. We in 
 the West have bread at every meal as the Japanese have 
 rice, but we eat our bread not only as plain bread but as 
 toast and bread-and-butter ; we also ring the changes on 
 brown, white and oat bread. 
 
 Among the covered lacquer dishes on the little table set 
 
 80 
 
THE TASTE FOR RICE 81 
 
 before each kneeling breakfaster, luncher or diner in 
 Japan there is one which is empty. This is the rice bowl. 
 When the meal begins — or in the case of an elaborate dinner 
 at the rice course — the maid brings in a large covered 
 wooden copper-bound or brass-bound tub or round lac- 
 quered box of hot rice. This rice she serves with a big 
 wooden spoon, the only spoon ever seen at a Japanese 
 meal. A man may have three helpings or four in a bowl 
 about as big as a large breakfast cup. The etiquette is 
 that, though other dishes may be pecked at, the rice in one's 
 bowl must be finished. The usage on this point may have 
 originated in the feeling that it was almost impious to 
 waste the staple food of the country. It is not difficult to 
 pick up the last rice grains with the wooden hashi (chop- 
 sticks), for the rice is skilfully boiled. (Soft rice is served to 
 invalids only.) But when the bowl is almost empty the 
 custom is to pour into it weak tea or hot water, and then 
 to drink this, so getting rid of the odd grains. It is through 
 omitting to drink in this way that foreigners get indigestion 
 when at a Japanese meal they eat a lot of rice. 
 
 At first it is not easy for the foreigner to believe that 
 people can come with appetite to several bowls of plain 
 rice three times a day.' But good rice does seem to have 
 something of the property of oatmeal, the property of a 
 continual tastiaess. Further, the rice eater picks up now 
 and then from a small saucer a piece of pickle which may 
 have either a salty or a sweet fermented taste. The 
 nutrition gained at a Japanese meal is largely in soups in 
 which the bean preparations, tofu and miso, and occasionally 
 eggs, are used. And there is no country in the world where 
 more fish is eaten than in Japan. The coast waters and 
 rivers team with fish, and fish — afresh, dried and salted, 
 shell-fish and fish unrecognisable as fish after all sorts of 
 ingenious treatment — is consumed by almost everybody. 
 
 The Japanese are in no doubt that the foreign rice 
 which is brought into the country to supplement the home 
 supply is inferior to their own.' Inferior means that they 
 
 1 For estimate of daily oonsumpiion of rice by Japanese, see Appendix 
 XXIII. 
 
 s For ptatistios of imported and exported rice, see Appendix XXIV. 
 
82 RICE BOWL, GODS AND NATION 
 
 prefer the flavour of their own rice, just as most Scots 
 prefer oatmeal made from oats grown in Scotland. 
 
 II 
 
 In the year of the Coronation — it took place three years 
 after the Emperor's accession — two prefectures had the 
 honour of being chosen to produce the rice to be placed 
 before gods. Emperor and dignitaries at Kyoto. The 
 work was not undertaken without ceremony. I was a 
 witness of the rites performed at the planting of the rice 
 in one of the prefectures. Plots had been prepared with 
 enormous care. Along the top of the special fencing were 
 the Shinto straw bands and paper streamers. A small ^ ^ 
 shrine had been built to overlook the plots. Even the in- 
 struments of the little meteorological station near, by which 
 the management of the crop would be guided, were sur- 
 rounded by straw bands and streamers — religion protecting 
 science. The mattocks and other implements which had 
 been used in the preparation of the paddy or were to be 
 used in getting in the crops and in cultivating, harvesting, 
 threshing and cleaning it were all new. Even the herring 
 which had manured the plot had been " specially selected 
 and blessed." Further, there was a special bath-house 
 where the young men and women who were to plant the 
 rice had washed ceremonially at an early hour. 
 
 We had reached the spot through a crowd of twenty or 
 thirty thousand people who were gathering to witness the 
 ceremony. A covered platform had been built in front 
 of the rice field shrine, and on either side were large roofed- 
 in spaces for some scores of Shinto priests and the favoured 
 spectators. The ceremony lasted two hours. It carried 
 us magically away from a Japan of frock coats to Japan of 
 a thousand, it may be two thousand years ago. Between 
 the wail of ancient wood and wind instruments and the 
 cinema operators who missed nothing external and some 
 bored top-hatted spectators who furtively puffed a cigar- 
 ette before the ceremony came to an end,' what a gulf ! 
 
 ' Japanese. I was the only foreigner present. 
 
THE GODS DESCEND 88 
 
 Platter after platter of food, sometimes rice, sometimes 
 vegetables, sometimes fruit, sometimes a big fish, was 
 passed by one priest to another in the sunlight until 
 all the offeriags were reverently placed by a special 
 dignitary on one of those unpainted, unvarnished, un- 
 decorated but exquisitely proportioned altars which 
 are an artistic glory of Shintoism. The shrine was 
 wholly open on the side of the rice field, and the high 
 priest was in full view as he stood before the altar with 
 bowed head and folded hands, his robe caught by the 
 breeze, and delivered in a loud voice his zealous invocation. 
 His words were stressed not only by an acolyte who 
 twanged the strings of a venerable harp, but by the song 
 of a lark which rose with the first strains of the harpist. 
 The purpose of the ceremony was to call down the gods 
 and to gain their blessing for the crop and the new reign. 
 At the moment of highest solemnity the thousands 
 assembled bowed their heads : the gods were deigning to 
 descend and accept the offering. More ancient music, 
 more ceremonial, and the gods having been called upon to 
 return to high heaven, the laden platters were gravely 
 removed, and the rice planting in the adjoining field began. 
 To the sound of drum the young men and women in 
 special costumes strode through the wicket into the mud 
 of the paddies, and, under the supervision of the director 
 of the prefectural agricultural experiment station in a silk 
 hat, planted out the tufts of rice seedlings in scrupulously 
 measured rows. 
 
 I asked a distinguished Japanese who was standing near 
 me — he is a Christian — how many of the educated people 
 in the assembly believed that the gods had descended. 
 His answer was, " I may not believe that the gods of a truth 
 descended, but I find something beautiful in calling on the 
 gods with a harp of Old Japan, and I do believe that our 
 humble and natural offering to-day may be acceptable 
 to whatever gods there may be and that it is a worthy 
 exercise for us to undertake and may also be conducive 
 to a good harvest." My friend attempted the following 
 rough rendering of a song which had been sung by the rice 
 planters before the shrine : 
 
84 RICE BOWL, GODS AND NATION 
 
 This day the beginning of sowing at an auspicious time — 
 
 Long life to the rice ! 
 
 May it be a token of the years of the Reign, 
 
 The seed of peace for the world — 
 
 May it start from this consecrated field ! 
 
 One in heart we see to it that our seedlings are well matched. 
 
 Mikawa's ' millennium and the millennium of rice. 
 
 Let us pray for an abundant shooting. 
 
 Now let us plant the seedlings straight ; 
 
 Pleasing to the gods are the ways that are not crooked. 
 
 After this ceremony, in which the staple crop of the coun- 
 try and the labour of the farmer in his paddy field had been 
 honoured by the State and dignified by ancestral blessings, 
 there was luncheon in one of those deftly contrived reed- 
 covered structures, of the building of which the Japanese 
 have the knack, and the Governor asked some of us to say 
 a few words. Then on a raised platform in the open 
 there was enacted a comic interlude such as might have 
 been seen in England in the Middle Ages. In the evening 
 I was bidden to a dinner of the officials responsible for 
 the day's doings. The Governor made a kindly reference 
 to my labours and the local M.P. presented me with a 
 kimono length of the cotton material which had been 
 woven for the planters of the sacred rice. 
 
 Ill' 
 
 The production of rice has increased more quickly than 
 the growth of the population. If we consider, along with 
 the advance in population, the crops of the years 1882 and 
 1913, which were held to be average, and, in order to be 
 as up-to-date as possible, the normal annual yield ' of 
 the five-years period 1912-18, we find that, as between 
 1882 and 1913, the population increased 45 per cent, 
 and rice production increased 63 per cent., while as between 
 1882 and the normal annual yield period of 1912-18, the 
 population increased 55 per cent, and the crop 75 per cent.* 
 
 1 jThe old name for a considerable part of Aichi 
 
 2 Thia section of the chapter was written in 1921. 
 
 » For the way in which " normal yield " is arrived at, see p. 70. 
 » See Appendix XXV. 
 
HOW THE FARMER STANDS 85 
 
 This is a noteworthy fact. But equally noteworthy is 
 the fact that in the 1882-1913 period, in which the pro- 
 duction of rice increased 63 per cent, and the population 
 only 45 per cent., the price of rice did not fall. On the 
 contrary it rose. This was due largely ^ to the fact that 
 people had begun to eat rice who had not before been able 
 to afford it. Many people who grow rice eat, as has been 
 noted, barley or barley mixed with a little rice. From 
 the 'eighties onwards more and more rice was eaten.* 
 
 The reason was that, what with the cash obtained from 
 cocoons through the enormous development of sericul- 
 ture,' what with the money received by the girls who had 
 gone to the factories, what with the growth of big cities 
 causing an increased demand for vegetables, eggs and 
 especially fruit at good prices, what with the use of better 
 seed and more artificial manure, what with agricultural 
 co-operation, paddy-field adjustment and the taking-in 
 of new land, the farmer, in spite of increased taxation,' 
 was doing better, or at any rate was minded to live better. 
 In the thirty-years period 1882-1913, his crop increased 
 63 per cent, although his area under cultivation increased 
 by only 17 per cent. In the following pages we shall 
 hear more of the methods by which the farmer's receipts 
 have been increased. We shall hear also, alas ! of the ways 
 in which his expenditure has increased. He is indeed in a 
 trying situation. Everything depends on his character 
 and education and on the influences, social and political, 
 moral and religious, under which he lives. That is why 
 this book, in devoting itself to an examination of the 
 foundations of an agricultural country, is concerned with 
 rural sociology rather than with the technique of crops and 
 cropping. 
 
 The outstanding problem of the rice grower is fluctuations 
 in price.' It is also the problem of the landlord, for rents 
 are fixed not at so much money but at so many koku of 
 
 > War with China, 1894 ; with Russia, 1904. 
 2 For farmers' diet, see Appendix XXVI. 
 
 » Farmers in serioultural districts live better than the ordinary rice 
 farmers. 
 * See Appendix XXVII. ^ See Appendix XXVHI. 
 
86 RICE BOWL, GODS AND NATION 
 
 rice. This means that on rent day the farmer must pay 
 the same amount of rice whether his crop has been good 
 or bad. It also means that when the price of rice rises the 
 amount of rent is automatically raised. If rent were paid, 
 not in so many koku of rice but in money at a fixed amount, 
 the landlord would know where he was and the tenant 
 would be in an easier position, for when the rice crop failed 
 the price would be high and he would be able to meet his 
 rent by selling a smaller amount of rice. The counsel 
 of the prudent to the rice producer is to build storehouses 
 and not to sell the whole of his crop immediately after 
 harvest, but to extend the sale over the whole year, mar- 
 keting each month about the same amount if possible. 
 The Government Granary plan came into force in 1921, 
 some 3 million koku of unpolished rice being bought in 
 five grades at from 27 yen to 33 yen. In the year before 
 the War rice was selhng at 20 yen per koku (5 bushels). 
 The previous year (1912) it had been 21 yen — had risen 
 at times to 23 yen — an unheard-of price. Between 1894 
 and 1912 it had climbed merely from about 7 yen to a 
 maximum of 16 yen.' In the year in which the War broke 
 out, it dropped as low as 12 yen, and in 1915 it was only 
 11 yen. By 1916 it had not risen beyond 14 yen. 
 
 The fall in prices was due to exceptional harvests in 
 1914 and 1915 (that is, 57,006,541 koku and 55,924,590 
 koku as compared with the 50,255,000 koku of the year 
 before the War, or the 51,312,000 which may be taken as 
 the average of the seven-years period 1907-13). Such 
 exceptional harvests as those of 1914 and 1915 showed 
 a surplus of from 4^ to 6 million koku over and above the 
 needs of the country, which are roughly estimated at 1 
 koku per head including infants and the old and feeble. 
 In 1916 it was established, when account was taken of 
 stored rice, that the actual surplus was something like 
 6 or 7 million koku. Therefore a fall in price took place. 
 The extent to which rice is imported and exported is shown 
 in Appendix XXIV. This Chapter would become much 
 more technical than is necessary if I entered into the 
 question of the correctness of rice statistics. Roughly, the 
 
 1 For prices, see Appendix XVII. 
 
THE RICE RIOTS 
 
 8r 
 
 statistics show a production 15 per cent, less than the actual 
 crops. Formerly the under-estimation was 20 per cent. 
 The practice has its origin in the old taxation system. 
 
 The notes for the account of rural life in Japan which 
 will be found in this book were chiefly made in the second 
 and third years of the War. Since that time there has 
 been an enormous rise in the price of everything. For a 
 time the farmers prospered as they had prospered in the 
 high rice-price years, 1912-13.' The high prices of all 
 
 [Haiti 
 Minister of AaMoxTLTUBE's Effobts to keep the Pbioe of Rioe 
 FROM Rising 
 
 grain as well as the fabulous price of raw silk (due to 
 increased export to America and to increased home 
 consumption) were a great advantage. 
 
 Then came the rice riots of the city workers, the general 
 slump and finally the commercial and industrial crash. 
 Raw silk fell nearly to one-third of its top price, and 
 farmers had to sell cocoons under the cost of production. 
 Everjrwhere countrymen and countrywomen employed in 
 
 1 The rise in prices towards the close of the War, with the rise in the 
 cost of living throughout the world, has been discussed on page xxv. 
 8 
 
88 RICE BOWL, GODS AND NATION 
 
 the factories were discharged in droves. A large pro- 
 portion of these unfortunates returned to their villages 
 to dispel some rural dreams of urban Eldorado. 
 
 But this matter of the going up and coming down of 
 prices has but a passing interest for the reader. The only 
 economic fact of which he need lay hold is that in recent 
 years the farmers have been led into the way of spending 
 more money — in taxation as well as in general expenses 
 of living — and that, when account is taken of every 
 advantage they have gained from better methods of pro- 
 duction, they have pressing on them the limitations im- 
 posed by the size of their farms and their farming practice. 
 Whatever the prices obtained for the products of the soil, 
 climatic facts,' the character and social condition of the 
 people, their attitude towards life and authority and the 
 attitude of authority towards them remain very much the 
 same. And thus a narrative of things seen and heard 
 chiefly during the first years of the War is not at all out 
 of date even if it were not supplemented as it is by a plenti- 
 ful supply of notes containing the latest statistical data. 
 
 There is one curious exception only. The reader of these 
 pages will constantly come on references to the poverty 
 of the tenant farmers. They are, of course, practically 
 labourers, for they cultivate two or three acres only, and 
 at the end of the year, as has been shown, have merely 
 a trifle in hand and sometimes not that. Influenced by 
 the labour movement, which developed in the industrial 
 centres during and after the War,' this depressed class has 
 of late shown spirit. It has begun to assert its claims against 
 landowners. At the end of 1920 there were as many as 
 ninety associations of tenant farmers, and sixty of these 
 had been started for the specific purpose of representing 
 tenants' interests against landowners. Strikes of tenants 
 began and continue. The end of this movement of a 
 proverbially conservative class is not at all certain.' 
 
 The outstanding facts which are to be borne in mind 
 about agricultural Japan are that the population is as 
 
 1 See Appendix XXIX. > See Chapter XX. 
 
 " Recent figures show 400 tenants' associations, of which a third are 
 militant. 
 
THE PRESSURE OF POPULATION 89 
 
 thick on the ground as the population of the British Isles 
 (thicker in reality, for so much of Japan is mountain and 
 waste) — ten times thicker than the population of the United 
 States ' — that Japan is primarily an agricultural country, 
 while Great Britain is largely a manufacturing and trading 
 country, and that only 15J per cent, of Japan proper 
 (including Hokkaido) is under cultivation against 27 per 
 cent, in Great Britain." The average area cultivated per 
 farming family in Japan, counting paddy and upland 
 together, is less than 3 acres. As the total population 
 of Japan is now (1921) 56 millions (55,960,150 in 1920, 
 plus the annual increase of 600,000), every acre has to feed 
 close on four persons. (" Even in Hokkaido," Dr. Sato 
 notes, " the average area per family is only 7^ acres.") 
 Happily the number of families cultivating less than 1| 
 acres is decreasing and the number cultivating from IJ 
 up to 5 acres is increasing.' In other words, the favourite 
 size of farm is one which finds work for all the members 
 of the farmer's family. As on small holdings all over the 
 world, it is found that profits are difficult to make when 
 help has to be paid for. The facts that in the last four 
 years for which figures are available the number of farming 
 families keeping silk-worms has risen by half a million 
 and that every year the area of land under cultivation 
 increases show that new ways of increasing income are 
 eagerly seized on. 
 
 • See Appendix X2f X and page 97. 2 See Chapter XX. 
 
 ' See Appendix XXXI. 
 
BACK TO FIRST PRINCIPLES : THE APOSTLE 
 AND THE ARTIST 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A TROUBLER OF ISRAEL 
 
 The signification of this gift of life, that we should leave a better 
 world for our successors, is being understood. — ^Meredith 
 
 To some people in Japan the countryman Kanz5 Uchi- 
 mura is " the Japanese Carlyle." To others he is a reli- 
 gious enthusiast and the Japanese equivalent of a troubler 
 of Israel. He appeared to me in the guise of a student of 
 rural sociology. 
 
 Uchimura is the man who as a school teacher " refused 
 to bow before the Emperor's portrait." ' He endured, as 
 was to be expected, social ostracism and straitened means. 
 But when his voice came to be heard in journalism it was 
 recognised as the voice of a man of principle by people 
 who heard it far from gladly. There is a seamy side to 
 some Japanese journalism « and Uchimura soon resigned 
 his editorial chair. He abandoned a second editorship 
 because he was determined to brave the displeasure of his 
 
 ' The statement is, he told me, a calumny. He explained that he lost 
 his post for refusing to bow, not to the portrait, but to the signature of 
 the Emperor, the signature appended to that famous Imperial rescript on 
 education which is appointed to be read in schools. Uchimura is very 
 willing, he said, to show the respect which loyal Japanese are at all times 
 ready to manifest to the Emperor, and he would certainly bow before the 
 portrait of His Majesty ; but in the proposal that reverence should be 
 paid to the Imperial autograph he thought he saw the demands of a 
 " Kaiserism " — his word, he speaks vigorous English — ^whioh was foreign 
 to the Japanese conception of their sovereign, which would be inimical 
 to the Emperor's influence and would be bad for the nation. 
 
 ' But journalism is one of the most powerful influences for good, and 
 some of the best brains of the country is represented in it. Papers like 
 the Jiji, Aadhi, Nichi Nichi, and the Osaka papers run in conjunction with 
 tbena have altogether a circulation approaching two millions. 
 
 90 
 
THE "JAPANESE CARLYLE 
 
 91 
 
 countrymen by opposing the war with Russia. To-day 
 he deplores many things in the relations of Japan and 
 China. 
 
 Uchimura has written more than two dozen books, mostly 
 on religion. How I became a Christian has been translated 
 into English, German, Danish, Russian and Chinese, and 
 is to that extent a landmark in the literary history of Japan. 
 His Christianity is an Early Christianity which places him 
 
 Muzzled Editohs. 
 
 [Fuhei 
 
 in antagonism, not only to his own coimtrymen who are 
 Shintoists, Buddhists or Confucians, or vaguely National- 
 ists, but to such foreign missionaries as are sectarians and 
 literalists. His earliest training was in agricultural science, 
 and the welfare of the Japanese coimtryside is near his 
 heart. If he be a Carlyle, as his fibre and resolution, down- 
 right way of writing and speaking, hortatory gift, humour, 
 plainness of life and dislike of officials, no less than his cast 
 of countenance, his soft hat and long gaberdine-like coat 
 
92 A TROUBLER OF ISRAEL 
 
 have suggested, he is a Carlyle who is content to stay both 
 in body and mind at Ecclefechan. He is not, however, 
 like Carlyle, whom he calls " master," a peasant, but a 
 samurai. 
 
 " As you penetrate into the lives of the farmers and 
 discover the influences brought to bear on them," Uchimura 
 said to me in his decisive way, " there will be laid bare to 
 you the foundations of Japan. You know our proverb, of 
 course, No wa kuni no taihon nari (' Agriculture is the 
 basis of a nation ') ? Have you been to Nikko ? " This 
 seemed a little inconsequent, but I told him I had not 
 yet been to Nikko. (" Until you have seen Nikko," runs 
 the adage, " do not say ' splendid.' ") " How many of 
 the tourists who are delighted with Nikko," he went on, 
 " have heard how the richest farms near that town were 
 devastated ? A century ago a minister of the Shogun, 
 who realised that fertility depended on trees, saw to the 
 whole range of Nikko hills being afforested. It was a tract 
 twenty miles by twenty miles in extent. But the ' civilised ' 
 authorities of our own days sold aU the timber to a copper 
 company for 8,000 yen. The company destroyed the fer- 
 tility of the district not only by cutting down the forest but 
 by poisoning the water with which the farmers irrigated 
 their crops. A member of Parliament gave himself with 
 such devotion to the cause of the ruined farmers that when 
 he died the ashes of his cremated body were divided and 
 preserved in four shrines erected to his memory." 
 
 It was a sad thing, said Uchimura, that the farmers 
 of Japan, because of the decreased fertility of the land due 
 to the denudation of the hUls of trees, and because of their 
 increased expenses, should be laying out " a quarter of their 
 incomes on artificial manures." " The enemies which Japan 
 has most to fear to-day," Uchimura declared, " are im- 
 paired fertility and floods." 
 
 It may be well, perhaps, to explain for a few readers 
 how floods do their ill work. The rain which falls on tree- 
 less mountains is not absorbed there. The water washes 
 down the mountain sides, bringing with it first good soil 
 and then subsoil, stones and rock. The hills eventually 
 become those peaked deserts the queer look of which must 
 
"THE DEPTHS OF THE PEOPLE" 98 
 
 have puzzled many students of Japanese pictures. The 
 debris washed away is carried into the rivers, along with 
 trees from the lower slopes, and the level of the river beds 
 is raised. Because there is less space in the river beds 
 for water the rivers overflow their banks, and disastrous 
 floods take place. The farmers, the local authorities and 
 the State raise embankments higher and higher, but 
 embankment building is costly and cannot go on indefinitely. 
 The real remedy is to decrease the supply of water by plant- 
 ing forests in the mountains.' In many places the rivers 
 are flowing above the level of the surrounding country. 
 The imagination is caught by the fact that there are four 
 earthquakes a day in Japan ' and that within a twelvemonth 
 fires destroy 400 acres or so of buildings ; but every year, 
 on an average, floods, tidal waves and typhoons together 
 drown more than 600 people and cause a money loss 
 of 25 million yen ! Every year 10 J million yen are 
 spent by the State and the prefectures on river control 
 alone. 
 
 Uchimura put on his famous wideawake and we went 
 out for a walk. " I should like," he said, " to press the 
 view that the vaunted expansion of Japan has meant to 
 the farmers an increase of prices and taxes and of arma- 
 ments out of aU proportion to our population." ' 
 
 Uchimura stood stock still in the little wood we had 
 entered. " There is one thing more," he added gravely. 
 " Before you can get deeply into your subject you must 
 touch religion. There you see the depths of the people. A 
 large part of the deterioration of the countryside is due to 
 the deterioration of Buddhism. You must ask about it. 
 You will see in the vUlages much of what your old writers 
 used to call * priestcraft.' You will hear of the thraldom 
 of many of the people. You will see with your own eyes 
 
 * For statistics of forests, see Appendix XXXII. 
 
 > A severe shook occurs on an average about every six years. The 
 eminent seismologist, Professor Omori, told me that he does not expect 
 an earthquake of a dangerous sort for a generation. 
 
 ' The Oriental Economist, a Japanese publication, in the autumn of 
 1921 suggested the abandonment of all the extensions to the Empire 
 on the score that they had not been a benefit to Japan, and that she was 
 in no way dependent on them. See also Appendix XXXIII. 
 
94 A TROUBLER OF ISRAEL 
 
 that real Christianity may be a moral bath for a rural 
 district." 
 
 ' ' The essentials, not the forms of Christianity," he de- 
 clared, would save the countryside by " brotherly union." 
 " Brotherly union " would make a better life and a better 
 agriculture. The rural class, he explained, was more 
 sharply divided than foreigners understood into owners 
 of land who lived on their rents and farmers who farmed.' 
 The division between the two classes was "as great as 
 an Indian caste division." " To the landowner who lives 
 in his village like a feudal lord the simple Gospel, with 
 its insistence on the sacredness of work, comes as an intel- 
 lectual revolution." Women as well as men of means 
 received from Christianity " a new conception of 
 humanity." They ceased to " look upon their own glory 
 and to take delight in the flattery of poor people." They 
 changed their way of speaking to the peasants. They 
 developed an interest, of which they knew nothing before, 
 in the spiritual and material betterment of the men, 
 women and children of their village. 
 
 I went a two-days journey into the country with Uchi- 
 mura. We stayed at the house of a landowner who was one 
 of his adherents. I found myself in a large room where 
 two swallows were flitting, intent on building on a beam 
 which yearly bore a nest. In this room stood a shrine 
 containing the ancestral tablets. The daily offerings were 
 no longer made, but Uchimura's coimsel, imlike that of 
 some zealots, was to preserve not only this shrine but the 
 large family shrine in the courtyard. Near by was an 
 engraving of Luther. 
 
 Uchimura spoke in the house to some thirty or more 
 " people of the district who had accepted Christianity." 
 His appeal was to " live Christianity as given to the world 
 by its founder." The address, which was delivered from 
 an arm-chair, was based on the fifth chapter of Matthew, 
 which in the preacher's copy appeared to contain cross- 
 references to two disciples called Tolstoy and Carlyle.* When 
 I was asked to speak I found that the women in the 
 gathering had places in front. " The remarkable effect of 
 
 1 See Appendix XXXIV. 
 
CHILDREIT OATOHIjfa IlsrS330T3 ON' BIOB-SBED BEDS 
 
 7,«^Sti2»*'' 
 
 
 
 MASTERS OF A COUNTRY SCHOOL AND SOME OP THE CHILDREN, p. 112 
 
 [95 
 
"THE QUALITY OF EASTERN MORALITY" 95 
 
 Christianity among those who have come to think with us," 
 Uchimura told me afterwards, " is seen most in their 
 treatment of women. Our host, had he not been a Christian, 
 would have been credited by public opinion with the posses- 
 sion of a concubine, and would not have been blamed for 
 it." When, after the speaking, we knelt in a circle and 
 talked less formally of how best to benefit rural people, 
 we were joined by the women folk. Later, when a dozen 
 of the neighbours were invited to dinner, it was not served 
 at separate tables for each kneeling guest, but at one long 
 table, an innovation " to indicate the brotherly relation." 
 
 " So you see," said Uchimura, as we walked to the 
 station in the morning, " in an antiquated book, which, I 
 suppose, stands dusty on the shelves of some of your 
 reformers, there is power to achieve the very things they aim 
 at." He went on to explain that he looked " in the lives of 
 hearers, not in what they say," for results from his teaching. 
 He believed in liberty and freedom, in sowing the seed of 
 change and reform and allowing people to develop as they 
 would. " Let men and women believe as they have light." 
 
 He spoke in his kindly way of how " the bond of a com- 
 mon faith enables Japanese to get closer to the foreigner 
 and the foreigner closer to the Japanese." There were 
 many things we foreigners did not understand. We did 
 not understand, for example, that " A man's a man for a' 
 that " was an imfamiliar conception to a Japanese. I was 
 to remember, when I interrogated Japanese about the 
 problems of rural life, that they had had to coin a word for 
 " problems." Above all, I must be careful not to " ex- 
 aggerate the quality of Eastern morality." Uchimura 
 asserted sweepingly that "morality in the Anglo-Saxon 
 sense is not found in Japan." We of the West underrated 
 the value of the part played by the Puritans in our 
 development. Our moral life had been evolved by the 
 soul-stirring power of the Hebrew prophets and of Christ. 
 To deny this was " kicking your own mother." Just as it 
 was not possible for the Briton or American to get his 
 present morality from Greece and Rome exclusively, it was 
 not possible for the Japanese to obtain it from the sources 
 at his disposal. 
 
96 A TROUBLER OF ISRAEL 
 
 The faults of the Eastern were that he thought too much 
 of outward conduct. Good political and neighbourly- 
 relations, kindliness, honesty and thrift were his idea of 
 morality. " To love goodness and to hate evil with one's 
 whole soul is a Christian conception for which you may 
 search in vain through heathendom." The horror which 
 the Western man of high character felt when he thought 
 of the future of the little girls in attendance on geisha 
 was not a horror generated by Plato. " Heathen life looks 
 nice on the outside to foreigners," but Confucianism, 
 Buddhism and Shintoism had all been weak in their attitude 
 towards immorality. It was Christianity alone which 
 controlled sexual life. Without deep-seated love of and 
 joy in goodness and deep-seated horror of evil it was 
 impossible to reform society. 
 
 Uchimura said that it had taken him thirty years to 
 reach the conviction that the best way of raising his country- 
 men was by preaching the religion of " a despised foreign 
 peasant." Many things he had been told by exponents 
 of Christianity now seemed "very strange," but there 
 remained in the first four books of the New Testament, in 
 the essence of Christianity, principles " which would give 
 new life to all men." Moved by this belief, Uchimura and 
 his friends gave their lives to the work of the Gospel, to a 
 work attended by humiliations ; " but this is our glory." 
 
 Japanese civilisation, he reiterated, was " only good in 
 the sense that Greek and Roman civilisations were good." 
 Modern Japan represented " the best of Europe minus 
 Christianity ; the moral backbone of Christianity is lack- 
 ing." " Probe a dozen Buddhist priests in turn," he said, 
 " and you find something lacking ; you don't find the 
 Buddhist or Confucian really to be your brother." ' 
 
 1 What of the old story which I have heard from Uchimura and others 
 of the Confucian missionary to certain head hunters of Formosa ? After 
 many years of labour among them they promised to give up head hunting 
 if they might take just one more head. At last the good man yielded, 
 and told them that a Chinaman in a red robe was coming towards the 
 village the next day and his head might be taken. On the morrow the men 
 lay in wait for the stranger, sprang on him and cut ofi his head, only to 
 find that it was the head of their beloved missionary. Struck with re- 
 morse and realising the evil of head taking, the tribe gave up head hunting 
 for ever. 
 
UNCULTIVATED JAPAN 97 
 
 " The greatness of England," he went on, " is not due 
 to the inherent greatness of the EngUsh people, but to the 
 greatness of the truths which they have received." In 
 considering the sources of national greatness, it was idle 
 to believe that some peoples were original and some not 
 original in their ideas and methods. Where were the 
 people to be found who were without extraneous influence ? 
 Where would England be without Greek philosophy, 
 Roman law, and Christianity ? 
 
 Our talk broke off as several peasant women passed us 
 on the narrow way by the rice fields. The mattocks they 
 carried were the same weight as their husbands' mattocks 
 and the women were going to do the same work as the men. 
 But the women were nearly all handicapped by having a 
 child tied on their backs. Uchimura, returning to his 
 objection to foreign political adventure, said that Japan, 
 properly cultivated, could support twice its present popula- 
 tion. There were many marshy districts which could be 
 brought into cultivation by drainage. Then what might 
 not forestry do ? But the progress could not be made 
 because of lack of money. The money was needed for 
 " national defence." 
 
 " For myself," said Uchimura, " I find it still possible 
 to believe in some power which will take care of inoffensive, 
 quiet, humble, industrious people. If all the high virtues 
 of mankind are not safeguarded somehow, then let us take 
 leave of all the ennobling aspirations, all the poetry, and 
 all the deepest hopes we have, and cease to struggle upward. 
 The question is whether we have faith." We still waited, 
 he declared, for the nation which would be Christian 
 enough to take its stand on the Gospel and sacrifice 
 itself materially, if need be, to its faith that right was 
 greater than might. 
 
 And so " impractical, outspoken to rashness, but 
 thoroughly sincere and experienced," as one of his apprecia- 
 tive countrymen characterised him to me, we take leave 
 of the " Japanese Carlyle." With whom could I have gone 
 more provocatively towards the foundation of things at 
 the beginning of my investigation in farther Japan ? 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE IDEA OF A GAP 
 
 Bold is the donkey driver, O Khedive, and bold is the Khedive who 
 dares to say what he will believe, not knowing in any wise the mind of 
 Allah, not knowing in any wise his own heart. 
 
 The " Japanese Carlyle " is getting grey. It seemed well 
 to seek out some young Japanese thinker and take his view 
 of that " heathenism " concerning which Uchimura had 
 delivered himself so unsparingly. Let me speak of my first 
 visit to my friend Yanagi. 
 
 As a youth Yanagi was a lonely student. He took his 
 own way to knowledge and reUgion. The famed General 
 Nogi had been given by the Emperor the direction of the 
 Peers' School, but even under such distinguished tutelage 
 the stripling made his stand. His reading led him to write 
 for the school magazine an anti-militarist article. The 
 veteran, as I once learned from a friend of Yanagi, promptly 
 paraded the school, boys and masters. He spoke of dis- 
 loyal, immoral, subversive ideas, and bade the youthful 
 disturber of the peace attend him at his own house. When 
 Yanagi stood before Nogi and was asked what he had to 
 say, he replied with the question, " Don't you feel pain 
 because of sending so many men to death before Port 
 Arthur ? " ' 
 
 Again I found my prophet in a cottage. It was a cottage 
 overlooking rice fields and a lagoon. From the Japanese 
 scene outdoors I passed indoors to a new Japan, Cezanne, 
 Puvis de Chavannes, Beardsley, Van Gogh, Henry Lamb, 
 Augustus John, Matisse and Blake — Yanagi has written 
 a big book on Blake which is in a second edition — hung 
 
 1 One ol the reasons assigned for the suicide of the General was thought* 
 of his responsibility for the terrible slaughter in the assaults on Port 
 Arthur. 
 
 98 
 
A "HEATHEN'S" HOME 99 
 
 within sight of a grand piano and a fine collection of 
 European music' Chinese, Korean and Japanese pottery 
 and paintings filled the places in the dwelling not occupied 
 by Western pictures and the Western library of a man well 
 advanced with an interpretative history of Eastern and 
 Western mysticism. An armful of books about Blake and 
 Boehme, all Swedenborg, all Carlyle, all Emerson, all 
 Whitman, all Shelley, all Maeterlinck, all Francis Thomp- 
 son, and all Tagore, and plenty of other complete editions ; 
 early Christian mystics ; much of WiUiam Law, Bergson, 
 Eucken, Caird, James, Haldane, Bertrand Russell, Jefferies, 
 Havelock Ellis, Carpenter, Strindberg, " ^," Yeats, 
 Synge and Shaw ; not a little poetry of the fashion of 
 Vaughan, Traherne and Crashaw ; a well-thumbed Emily 
 Bronte ; all the great Russian novelists ; numbers of 
 books on art and artists — it was an arresting collection to 
 come on in a Japanese hamlet, and odd to sit down beside 
 it in order to talk of " heathen." 
 
 " Yes," said Yanagi — he speaks an English which re- 
 flects his wide reading — " our young maid, on being shown 
 the full moon the other night, bowed her head. I find this 
 natural instinct of some value. Our people have much 
 natiu-al feehng towards Nature. If modern Japanese art 
 has degenerated it is because it does not sufficiently find 
 out life in things. The sough of the wind in the trees 
 may have only a slight influence on character, but it is a 
 vital influence. I do not like, of course, the word ' heathen- 
 dom ' of which Uchimura seems so fond. I dearly admire 
 Christ, but most of the Christianity of to-day is not 
 Christ. It is largely Paiil. It is a mixture. It is not the 
 clear, pure, original thing. Christians must reform their 
 Christianity before it can satisfy us. In the East we now 
 see clearly enough to seek only the best that the West can 
 offer." 
 
 Yanagi said that the spontaneity and naturalness of 
 Eastern religions ought to be recognised. " You will find 
 Christians admiring Walt Whitman, but it is Whitman the 
 democrat they admire, not Whitman the prophet of natural- 
 
 ' Mrs. Yanagi is one of the best contraltos heard at the now numerous 
 Japanese concerts of Western music. 
 
100 THE IDEA OF A GAP 
 
 uess." He spoke with appreciation of the Zen sect of Buddh- 
 ists. Many of the Zen devotees were " noble and had a 
 profound idea." He was unable to see " any difference at 
 all " between the best part of Buddhism and the best part of 
 Christianity. He said that his own mysticism was based 
 on science, art, religion and philosophy. " My sincerest 
 wish," he declared, "is to produce a beautiful reconcilia- 
 tion of these four. As it is, too often scientists and philoso- 
 phers have no deep knowledge of religion or art, artists 
 have no deep knowledge of religion or science, and the 
 religious have no idea of art. Surely the deepest religious 
 idea is the deepest artistic and philosophic idea. Perhaps 
 our scientists are in the poorest state just now with no 
 understanding of art or religion. Our scientists are im- 
 mersed in the problem of matter, our reUgious people in 
 the problem of spirit, and our artists forget that in dealing 
 with nature they are deahng with spirit as well as 
 body." 
 
 Faced by force and science when Commander Perry came, 
 Japan, in order to save herself from foreign colonisation, 
 had had to concentrate all her attention on force and 
 science. She had concentrated her attention with signal 
 success. But naturally she had had, in the process, to 
 slacken her hold somewhat on the spiritual life, 
 
 " Always remember how difficult the Japanese find it to 
 know which way to take. Their whole basis has been 
 shaken and on the surface all has become chaotic. Ten 
 years hence it will be possible to take a just view. There 
 is much reason for high hopes. For one thing, the burden 
 of old thought does not rest so heavily on us as might be 
 supposed. We are very free in many ways. In the matter 
 of religion Japan is the most free nation in the world. If 
 England were to become Buddhist it would sound strange 
 or exotic, but Japan is free to become what she may." 
 
 " There may be a great difference between one of our 
 temples and shrines and an English church," Yanagi pro- 
 ceeded, " but I cannot believe in the gap which some people 
 seem to see yawning between East and West. It is 
 deplorable that the world should think that there is such a 
 complete difference between East and West. It is usually 
 
EASTERN MORALITY AND WESTERN 101 
 
 said that self-denial, asceticism, sacrifice, negation are 
 opposed to self-affirmation, individualism, self-realisation ; 
 but I do not believe in such a gap. I wish to destroy the 
 idea of a gap. It is an idea which was obtained analytically. 
 T he meeting o f East and West will not be upon a bridge over 
 a gap, but upon the destruction o? the idea of a gap. 
 " "In future, religion cannot be limited by this or that 
 sect or idea. Religion cannot be limited to Christianity, 
 Buddhism, Confucianism or Mahomedanism. Uchimura 
 says that it is the essence_of^ChristijiHity which has the 
 power to rescue Japan from its chaotic state. But the 
 essence of Buddhism can also contribute some important 
 element to the future of Japan. The notion that the 
 essence of Christianity and the essence of Buddhism are 
 far apart is artificial and prejudiced." 
 
 One day some weeks later I walked with Yanagi on the 
 hills. He said : " The weakest point in the^Ja£anes£ 
 character is the lack of the power of guestioning., We are 
 repressed by our educational system. And so many things 
 come here at one time that it makes confusion. What is 
 so often taken for a lack of originality in us is a state 
 resulting from an immense importation of foreign ideas. 
 They have been overpowering. Many of us have no clear 
 ideas on life, society, sex and so on, and you will find it 
 difficult to get satisfactory answers to many questions 
 which you will want to ask." 
 
 As to morality, it was dangerous to say " this or that is 
 immoral." Morality was often merely custom. Ordinary 
 morality had scant authority. Critics of Japanese morahty 
 should not forget that, in the opinion of Japanese, Western 
 people were more erotic than they were. Western dancing — 
 not to speak of Western women's evening costumes — was 
 undoubtedly more erotic than Japanese dancing. Again, 
 the sexual curiosity of foreigners seemed stronger than 
 that manifested by Japanese. It was a well-known fact 
 that the girls at many hotels and restaurants had not a 
 little to complain of from foreign men who misjudged their 
 naive ways. It must be remembered that Japanese were 
 franker in sexual matters than Europeans and Americans. 
 Sexual ill-doing was not so much concealed as in Europe. 
 
102 THE IDEA OF A GAP 
 
 A wrong impression of Japanese morality was taken away 
 by tom-ists whose guides showed them, as in Paris, what 
 they expected to see. 
 
 " I wonder," he said, " that Western visitors to Tokyo 
 who talk of our immorality are not struck by the fact that 
 in an Eastern capital a foreign lady may walk home at 
 night and be practically safe from being spoken to. The 
 Japanese are imdoubtedly a very kind people. They may 
 be unmoral, but they are not immoral." 
 
 " Most of our people do not understand liberty in the 
 mental sexual relations. Love is not free. In a very large 
 proportion of cases, indeed, parents would oppose a match 
 because a son or daughter had fallen in love. And if it is 
 difficult to marry for love it is not easy to fall in love.' 
 Society in which young men and young women meet is 
 restricted ; there are few opportunities of conversation. 
 Without liberty towards women there can be no perfect 
 serise of resjjonsibility towardi'tEeBn*'^^"'" " - 
 
 ^Wiiat had been taugEiETo"womenr as the supreme virtue 
 was the virtue of sacrifice for father, husband, children. It 
 was most important to let women know the significance of 
 individualism. They were always offering themselves for 
 others before they became themselves. But the idea of 
 individuality was very little clearer to the Japanese man 
 than to the Japanese woman. People were too prone to 
 wish to give 100 yen before they had 100 yen. The 
 Japanese were the most devotional people in the world, 
 but they hardly knew yet the things to be devoted to. 
 
 Yanagi is a leading member of a small association of 
 literary men, artists and students who graduated together 
 from the Peers' School. They call themselves for no 
 obvious reason the Shirakaba or Silver Birch Society. 
 The intelligent and consistent efforts of these young men 
 to introduce vital Western work in literature, philosophy, 
 painting, sculpture, draughtsmanship and music, and the 
 large measure of success they have attained is of some 
 significance. Several members of the group belong to 
 the old Kuge families, that is the ancient nobility which 
 
 • Shinja, or suicide for love, the girl often being a geisha, is common. 
 
THE WHITE BIRCH SOCIETY 103 
 
 surrounded the Emperor at Kyoto before the Restoration. 
 Cut off for centuries from military and administrative 
 activities by the dominance of the Shogunate Government, 
 the Kuge devoted themselves to the arts and the refine- 
 ments of life. For the exclusiveness of the past some 
 of their descendants substitute artistic integrity. The 
 Shirakaba has had for several years a remarkable magazine. 
 Its editor and its publisher, its size, its price and its date 
 of publication are continually changed ; it never makes 
 any bid for popularity; it expresses its sentiments in a 
 downright way and it has always been anti-official : yet it 
 survives and pays its way. Beyond the magazine, the 
 Society has had every year at least one exhibition of what 
 its members conceive to be significant modern European 
 work. The members have also supported a few Japanese 
 artists of outstanding sincerity. Through the Shirakaba 
 the influence of Cezanne, Van Gogh, Rodin, Blake, Dela- 
 croix, Matisse, Augustus John, Beardsley, Courbet,Daumier, 
 Maillol, Chavannes and Millet, particularly Cezanne, Van 
 Gogh, Rodin and Blake, has been marked. The Silver 
 Birch group has never tired of extolling the great names of 
 Rembrandt, Diirer, El Greco, Van Eyck, Goya, Leonardo, 
 Michael Angelo, Tintoretto, Giotto and Mantegna.' 
 
 While an ardent Young Japan has formed and dissolved 
 many societies, movements and fashions, this Shirakaba 
 group has held fast and has gained friends by its sincerity, 
 its vision and its audacity.' Rodin encouraged the Shira- 
 kaba efforts to reproduce the best Western art by pre- 
 senting it with three pieces of sculpture. 
 
 " The intellectual man does no fighting," Froude has 
 written. Why do not Yanagi and his friends make a 
 stand on public questions ? " Because," he said, " at 
 
 1 " I am inclined to think," wrote Yanagi in 1921, in a paper on Korean 
 art, " that we have paid if anything rather too much attention to European 
 works while making little efiort to pay attention to what lies much nearer 
 to us." 
 
 ' Police Standards. — ^The sale of one issue of the magazine was 
 prohibited by the police, who found a nude " antagonistic to the ordinary 
 standard of public morals." The editors' answer next month — the police 
 standard being, " No front views " — ^wafl to publish half a dozen more 
 nudes with their backs to the reader. 
 9 
 
104 THE IDEA OP A GAP 
 
 the present stage of our development it is almost impossible 
 to take up a strong attitude, and because, important though 
 political and social questions are, they are not, in our 
 opinion, of the first importance. To artists, philosophers, 
 students of religion, such problems are secondary. More 
 important problems are : What is the meaning of this 
 world ? What is God ? What is the essence of religion ? 
 How can we best nourish ourselves so as to realise our own 
 personalities ? Political and social problems are secondary 
 for us at present ; they are not related emotionally to our 
 present conditions.' 
 
 For the East the Root, 
 For the West the Fruit. 
 
 " If we faced such problems directly we should probably 
 make them primary problems, as you do in Great Britain. 
 Our present attitude does not prove, however, that we are 
 cold to political and social problems. In fact, when we 
 think of these terrible political and social questions they 
 make us boil. But you will understand that in order to 
 have something to give to others, we must hayejbha t some- 
 thiiigT We are seeking after that so mething ." 
 
 Yanagi, continuing, spoke of the direct contribution 
 which the new artistic movement in Japan, under the in- 
 fluence of modern Western art, was making to the solution 
 of political and social questions.^ The interest of the 
 younger generation in Post Impressionism was " quite 
 
 1 It will be remembered that this conversation took place in the summer 
 of 1915 at the outset of my investigation. Since then, as noted throughout 
 this book, economic questions have increasingly pressed themselves 
 forward, I may mention that in 1919 Yanagi wrote a vigorous and moving 
 protest against misgovemment in Korea. In a recent letter to me he says : 
 " You know that I am going to establish a Korean Folk Art Society 
 in Seoul. This is a big work, but I want to do it with all my power for 
 love of Korea. I approach the solution of the Korean question by the 
 way of Art. Politics can never solve the question. I want to use the 
 gallery as a meeting-place of Koreans and Japanese. People cannot 
 quarrel in beauty. This is my simple yet definite belief." Yanagi's 
 manifesto on his project made one think of the age when the great culture 
 of China and India glowed across the straits of Tsushima in the wake of 
 early Buddhism. 
 
 2 A well-known member of the Shirakaba group started two years ago 
 an " ideal village " among the mountains. It is an effort towards social 
 freedomi in which the police manifest a continuous interest. 
 
EAST MEETS WEST IN HARMONY 105 
 
 disharmonious with the ordinary attitude towards mili- 
 tarism," European art broke down barriers in the Japanese 
 mind. When the younger generation, nourished on higher 
 ideals, grew up, it would be the State, and there would be 
 a more hopeful condition of affairs. People generally 
 supposed that social questions were the most practical ; but 
 religious, artistic, philosophic questions were, in the 
 truest sense of the word, the most practical. 
 
 Yanagi went on to tell of his devotion to Blake. He 
 could not understand " why Englishmen are so cool to 
 him." He asked me how it was that there was no word 
 about Blake in Andrew Lang's work on English literature. 
 " I cannot imagine," he said, " why such an intelligent man 
 could not appreciate Blake." Yanagi regarded Blake as 
 " the artist of immense will, of immense desire, and a man 
 in whom can be seen that affirmative attitude towards life, 
 exhibited later by Whitman." Yanagi spoke also of 
 " Anglo-Saxon nobility, liberty, depth of character and 
 healthiness," and of "a deep and noble character " in 
 English literature which he did not find elsewhere. Whit- 
 man, Emerson, Poe and William James were " the crown 
 of America." 
 
 As I close this chapter I recall Yanagi's library, in the 
 service of which, bettering Mark Pattison's example, two- 
 thirds of its owner's income was for some time expended. 
 I remember the thatched dwelling overlooking the quiet 
 reed-bound lagoon with its frosty sunrises, red moonrises 
 and apparitions of Fuji above the clouds seventy miles 
 away. No Western visitor whom I took to Abiko failed 
 to be moved by that room, designed by Yanagi himself in 
 every detail, wherein East meets West in harmony. I have 
 made note of his Western books but not of the classics and 
 strange mystic writings of Chinese and Korean priests in 
 piles of thin volumes in soft bindings of blue or brown. I 
 have not mentioned a Rembrandt drawing and next to it the 
 vigorous but restful brush lines of an artist priest of the 
 century that brought Buddhism to Japan ; severe little 
 gilt-bronze figures of deities from China, a little older ; 
 pottery figures of exquisite beauty from the tombs of Tang, 
 a little later ; Sung pottery, a dynasty farther on ; Korai 
 
106 THE IDEA OF A GAP 
 
 celadons from Korean tombs of the same epoch ; and whites 
 and blue and whites of Ming and Korean Richo. On the wall 
 a black and yellow tiger is " burning bright " on a strip of 
 blood-red silk tapestry woven on a Chinese loom for a 
 Taoist priest 500 years ago. Cimabue's portrait of St. 
 Francis breathes over Yanagi's writing desk from one side, 
 while from the other Blake's amazing life mask looks down 
 " with its Egyptian power of form added to the intensity 
 of Western individualism." These are Yanagi's silent 
 friends. His less quiet friends of the flesh have felt that 
 this room was a sanctuary and Yanagi a priest of eternal 
 things, but a priest without priestcraft, a priest living 
 joyously in the world. Above his desk is inscribed the line 
 of Blake : 
 
 Thou also, dwellest in eternity 
 
 and Kepler's aspiration, " My wish is that I may perceive 
 God whom I find everywhere in the external world in like 
 manner within and without me." 
 
ACROSS JAPAN (TOKYO TO NIIGATA AND 
 
 BACK) 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 TO THE HILLS 
 (TOKYO, SAITAMA, TOCHIGI AND FUKUSHIMa) 
 
 Nothing which concerns a, cotmiryraaxi is a matter of unconcern to 
 me. — Tbbenoe 
 
 During the month of July I went from one side of Japan 
 to the other, starting from Tokyo, across the sea from which 
 Hes America, and coming out at Niigata, across the sea 
 from which lies Siberia. 
 
 We first made a four hours' railway run through the 
 great Kwanto plaia (6,000 square miles). TraveUing is 
 comfortable on such a trip, for travellers take off their 
 coats and waistcoats, and the train-boy — he has the word 
 " Boy " on his collar in English — brings fans and bedroom 
 slippers. The fans, which on one side advertised " Hotels 
 in European style, directly managed by the Imperial 
 Government Railway," ^ offered on the other a poem and 
 a drawing. A poem addressed to a snail played with the 
 idea of its giving its life to climbing Fuji. The poem was 
 composed by a poet who wrote many delightful hokku 
 (seventeen-syllable poems), showing a humorous sympathy 
 with the humblest creatures. One poem is : 
 
 Come and play with me. 
 Thou orphan sparrow ! 
 
 Like Burns, Issa addressed a poem to a louse. 
 
 As we climbed from the vicinity of the sea to higher 
 lands someone recalled the saying about saints living in 
 
 ' For statistics of railways, see Appendix XXXV. 
 107 
 
108 TO THE HILLS 
 
 the mountains and sages by the sea. Speaking of religion, 
 one man said that he had known of people giving half their 
 income to religious purposes. He also mentioned that for 
 some years his mother had gone to hear a sermon in a 
 Japanese Christian church every Sunday, but she still 
 served her Buddhist shrine. 
 
 It was at an inn at the hot spring near the Mount Nasu 
 volcano — the odour of the sulphurous hot water was every- 
 where in the district — that I first enjoyed the attentions of 
 the blind amma {masseur or masseuse), the call of whose 
 plaintive pipe is heard every evening in the smallest com- 
 mtmity. Amma san rubbed and pommelled me for an 
 hour for 28 sen. The amma does not massage the skin, but 
 works through the yukata (bath gown) of the patient. I 
 had my massaging as I knelt with the other guests of the 
 inn at an entertainment arranged for the benefit of resi- 
 dents. The entertainers, professional and non-professional 
 — the non-professionals were local farmers — knelt on a low 
 platform or danced in fi"ont of it. They were extra- 
 ordinarily able. A dramatic tale by one of the story-tellers 
 was about a yokelish yoimg wrestler and a daimyo. An- 
 other described the woes and suicide of an old-time Court 
 lady. 
 
 The next day we started on foot on a seven miles' climb 
 of the volcano. Its lower slopes were covered with a 
 variety of that knee-high bamboo with a creeping root, 
 which is so troublesome to farmers when they break up new 
 ground. One variety is said to blossom and fruit once in 
 sixty years and then die. An ingenious professor has 
 traced mice plagues to this habit. In the year in which 
 the bamboo fruits the mice increase and multiply exceed- 
 ingly. Suddenly their food supply gives out and they 
 descend to the plains to live with the farmers. 
 
 At length we came in sight of the smoke and vapour 
 of the volcano. Soon we were near the top, where the white 
 trunks and branches of dead trees and scrub, killed by 
 falling ash or gusts of vapour, dotted an awesome desola- 
 tion of calcined and fused stone and solidified mud. At 
 the summit we looked down into the churning horror of the 
 volcano's vat and at different spots saw the treacly sulphur 
 
THE CRATER 109 
 
 pouring out, brilliant yellow with red streaks. The man to 
 whom there first came the idea of hell and a prisoned re- 
 vengeful power must surely have looked into a crater. In 
 the throat of this crater there seethed and spluttered an 
 ugliness that was scarlet, green, brown and yellow. The 
 sound of the steam blowing off was like the roar of the sea. 
 The air was stifling. It was very hot, and there was a 
 high eerie wind. 
 
 Adventurous men had built rude bulwarks of stone over 
 some of the orifices, and in this way had compelled the 
 volcano to furnish them with sulphur free from dirt. The 
 production of sulphur in Japan is valued at close on three 
 million yen. 
 
 As we went on our journey we spoke of the sturdiness 
 and cheeriness of our chief carrier, who had told us that he 
 was seventy. I asked him if he thought it fair that he 
 should have to walk so far on a hot day with so much to 
 carry while we were empty-handed. He replied that it 
 might appear to be unjust, but that he was happy enough. 
 He said that he had lived long and seen many things, 
 and he knew that to be rich was not always to be happy. 
 He quoted the proverb, " Sunshine and rice may be found 
 everywhere," and the poem which may be rendered, " If 
 you look at a water- fowl thoughtlessly you may imagine 
 that she has nothing to do but float quietly on the water, 
 yet she is moving her feet ceaselessly beneath the surface." 
 
 At the little hot spring inn where we next stayed, insect 
 powder was on sale, not without reasonable hope of patron- 
 age by the guests. The Asahi once facetiously reported 
 that I had taken on a journey three to (six pecks) of insect 
 powder. The chief protector of the prudent traveller in 
 remote Japan is a giant pillowslip of cotton. He gets into it 
 and ties the strings together under his chin. The mats 
 and futon of old-fashioned hotels are full of fleas. The hard 
 cylindrical Japanese pillow has no doubt its tenants also, 
 but I never got accustomed to using it, and laid my head 
 on a doubled-up kneeling cushion. 
 
 A foot-high partition separated the men's hot bath from 
 the women's. My cold bath in the morning I found I had 
 to take unselfconsciously at a water-gush in front of the 
 
110 TO THE HILLS 
 
 house. As the food was poor here, we were glad of our 
 tinned food and ship's biscuits. This was of course in 
 a remote part. Apart from ordinary Japanese food, there 
 are usually available at the inns chicken, fish of some sort, 
 eggs, omelettes and soups. With a pot of jam or two and 
 some powdered milk in one's bag, one can live fairly well. 
 Fresh milk can now be got in unlikely places on giving 
 notice overnight. It is produced for invalids and children. 
 If one makes no fuss, remembers one is a traveller who has 
 resolved to see rural Japan, and realises that the inn people 
 will try to do their best, one will not fare so badly. On the 
 railway one is well catered for by the provision of bento 
 (lunch) boxes, sold on the platforms of stations. These 
 chip boxes contain rice (hot), cold omelette, cold fish or 
 chicken and assorted pickles, and provide an appetising 
 and inexpensive meal. 
 
 Monkeys, bears and antelopes are shot in this district. 
 One man spoke of a troop of eighty monkeys. In the high 
 mountain regions there are still people who escape the 
 census and live a wild life. The records of a gipsy folk 
 called Sanka have a history going back 700 or 800 years. 
 
 As we wound our way up and down the hill-sides we saw 
 evidence of " fire-farming." It is the simple method by 
 which a small tract with a favourable aspect is cleared 
 by fire and cultivated, and then, when the fertility is ex- 
 hausted, abandoned. I was assured that after fire-farming 
 " tea springs up naturally," and that though tea-drinking 
 may have been introduced from China there could not 
 be such large areas of tea growing wild if tea were not 
 indigenous. 
 
 Most of our paths lay through woods and matted vege- 
 tation. I noticed that trees were often felled in order that 
 mushrooms might be grown on and around their trunks. 
 There is a large consumption of these tree-grown mush- 
 rooms in Japan and an export trade worth two and a half 
 million yen. 
 
 An inscribed stone by our path was a reminder of the 
 belief in " mountain maidens." They have the undoubted 
 merit of not being " so peevish as fairies." At another 
 stone, before which was a pile of small stones, a farmer 
 
'- ' 'iftifejisita»i ■„„».: ri|».^ 
 
 IMPLEMENTS, MEASURES AND MACHINES, AND A BALE OP EICE 
 The photograph was taken in Aichi-ken. p. 73 
 
 [111 
 
THE PROBLEM OF THE HILLS 111 
 
 told us that when a traveller threw a stone on the heap he 
 "left behind his tiredness." 
 
 In the first house we came to we found a young widow 
 turning bowls with power from a water-wheel. She could 
 finish 400 bowls in a day and got from one to five sen 
 apiece. She said that she had often wished to see a 
 foreigner. Like nearly all the girls and women of the 
 hills, she wore close-fitting blue cotton trousers. 
 
 We descended to a kind of prairie which had a tree here 
 and there and roughly wooded hills on either side. This 
 brought us to the problem of the wise method of dealing 
 with the enormous wood-bearing areas of the country, the 
 timber crop of which is so irregular in quality. Japan 
 requires many more scientifically planned forests. As coal 
 is not in domestic use, however, large quantities of cheap 
 wood are needed for burning and for charcoal making. 
 The demand for hill pasture is also increasing. How shall 
 the claims of good timber, good firewood, good charcoal- 
 making material and good pasture be reconciled ? In the 
 county through which we were passing — a county which, 
 OAving to its large consumption of wood fuel, needs rela- 
 tively little charcoal — the charcoal output was worth as 
 much as 35,000 yen a year. 
 
 We saw " buckwheat in full bloom as white as snow," as 
 the Chinese poem says. At a farmhouse there was a box 
 fixed on a barn wall. It was for communications for the 
 police from persons who desired to make their suggestions 
 for the public welfare privately. 
 
 Towards evening, when we had done about twenty miles, 
 I managed to twist an ankle. Happily I had the chance 
 of a ride. It was on the back of a dour-looking mare which 
 was accompanied by her foal and tied by a halter to the 
 saddle of a led pack-horse which was carrjdng two large 
 boxes. Thus impressively I did several miles in descending 
 darkness and across the rocky beds of two rivers. The 
 horse of this district is a downcast-looking animal in spite 
 of the fact that it is stalled under the same roof as its 
 owner and is thus able to share to some extent in his family 
 life. 
 At the town at which we at last arrived, the comfort of 
 
112 TO THE HILLS 
 
 the hot bath was enhanced by a sturdy lass of the inn who 
 unasked and unannounced came and applied herself 
 resolutely to scrubbing a;nd knuckling our backs. 
 
 The next day I went to the principal school. There 
 were in the place three primary schools, one with a branch 
 for agricultural work. The " attendance " at the principal 
 school, where there were 379 boys and girls, was 98 per cent, 
 for the boys and 94 per cent, for the girls.' The buildings 
 were most creditable to a small place fifty miles from a 
 railway station. The community had met the whole cost 
 out of its official funds and by subscriptions. More than 
 half the expenditure of many a village is on education, which 
 in Japan is compulsory but not free. One cannot but be 
 impressed by the pride which is taken in the local schools. 
 The dominating man-made feature of the landscape is less 
 frequently than might be supposed a temple or a shrine : 
 where the picture which catches the eye is not the vast 
 expanse of the crops of the plain or the marvels of terracing 
 for hill crops, it is the long, low school building, set almost 
 invariably on the best possible site. The poorly paid men 
 and women teachers are earnest and devoted, and their 
 influence must be far-reaching. They are rewarded in part, 
 no doubt, by the respect which pupils and the general 
 public give to the sensei (teacher).* At the school I 
 visited, the children, as is customary, swept and washed out 
 the schoolrooms and kept the playground trim. Above one 
 teacher's desk were the following admonitions : 
 
 Be obedient. 
 Be decent. 
 Be active. 
 Be social. 
 Be serious. 
 
 " Be serious " ! — graver small folk sit in no schools in 
 the world. Here, as usual, corporal punishment was never 
 given. I suggested to teachers all sorts of juvenile delin- 
 
 ' The percentage of children " attending " school for the whole of Japan 
 is officially reported in 1918 as : cities, 98-18 per cent. ; villages, 99-23 
 per cent. ; but this does not mean daily attendance. 
 
 2 Since 1919 the salaries of elementary school teachers have been raised 
 to 26, 16 a«d 15 yen per month, according to gradg. 
 
THE WAY OF TRANSGRESSORS 113 
 
 quencies, but their faith in the sufficiency of reprimands, 
 of " standing out " and of detention after school hours was 
 unshaken. 
 
 A new wing, a beautiful piece of carpenter's work, had 
 cost 4,000 yen, a large sum in Japan, where wood and 
 village labour are equally cheap. It was to be used chiefly 
 for the gymnastics which are steadily adding to the stature 
 of the Japanese people. At one end there was an opening, 
 about 20 ft. across and 5 ft. deep, designed as an honourable 
 place for the portraits of the Emperor and Empress, which 
 are solemnly exposed to view on Imperial birthdays.^ 
 
 Apart from a local spirit of pride and emulation and a 
 belief in education, one of the reasons for the building of 
 new schools and adding to old ones is to be found in the 
 recent extension of the period of compulsory attendance. 
 It used to be from six to ten years of age ; it is now from 
 six to twelve. The visitor to Japan usually under-estimates 
 the ages of children because they are so small. Japanese 
 boys grow suddenly from about fifteen to sixteen. 
 
 In the whole of this county, with a population of 35,000, 
 there were, I learnt at the county offices, 22 elementary 
 schools with 36 branch schools, 3 secondary schools and 17 
 winter schools. Within the same area there were 46 
 Buddhist temples with about 60 priests, and 125 Shinto 
 shrines with 11 priests. 
 
 The chief police officer, in chatting with me, mentioned 
 that, out of 71 charges of theft, only 47 were proceeded 
 with. When charges were not proceeded with it was 
 either because restitution had been made or the chief 
 constable had exercised his discretion and dismissed the 
 offender with a reprimand. When transgressors are dis- 
 missed with a reprimand an eye is kept on them for a 
 year. As the Japanese are in considerable awe of their 
 police, I have no doubt that, as was explained to me, those 
 who have lapsed into evil-doing, but are released from 
 custody with a warning, may "tremble and correct 
 their conduct." In the whole county in a year 14,400 
 admonitions were given at 14 police stations. The 
 
 ' Only last year ( 1921) another schoolmaster lost his life in an endeavour 
 to save the Emperor's portrait from hia burning school. 
 
114 TO THE HILLS 
 
 noteworthy thing in the criminal statistics is the small 
 proportion of crime against women and children. 
 
 The fact that the county was in a remote part of Japan 
 may be held, perhaps, to accomit for the fact that there 
 were in it, I was assured, only 14 geisha and 8 women 
 known to be of immoral character. All of them were living 
 in the town and they were said to be chiefly patronised by 
 commercial travellers and imported labourers. I was told 
 that there were pre-nuptial relations between many young 
 men and young women. Two undoubted authorities in 
 the district agreed that they could not answer for the 
 chastity of any young men before marriage or of " as many 
 as 10 per cent." of the young women. In an effort to save 
 the reputation of their daughters, fathers sometimes 
 register illegitimate children as the offspring of themselves 
 and their wives. Or when an unmarried girl is about to 
 have a chUd her father may call the neighbours to a feast 
 and annoxmce to them the marriage of his daughter to her 
 lover. The figures for illegitimate births are vitiated by 
 the fact that in Japan children are recorded as illegitimate 
 who are born to people who have omitted to register their 
 otherwise respectable unions.^ 
 
 In the county in which I was travelling I was assured 
 that half the still births might be put down to immoral 
 relations and half to imperfect nourishment or overworking 
 of the mother. In this district girls marry from 17 or 18, 
 men from 18 to 30. 
 
 The town was full of country people who had come to 
 see the festival. One feature of it was the performance of 
 plays on four ancient wheeled stages of a simplicity in 
 construction that would have delighted William Poel. 
 Formerly these plays were given by the local youths ; 
 now professional actors are employed. The different acts 
 of the historical dramas which were performed were divided 
 into half a dozen scenes, and when one of these scenes had 
 been enacted the stage was wheeled farther along the street. 
 At the conclusion of each scene some three dozen small 
 boys, all wearing the white-and-black speckled cotton 
 kimono and German caps which are the common wear of 
 » See Appendix XXXVI. 
 
ACTING UNDER DIFFICULTIES 115 
 
 lads throughout Japan, would swarm up on the stage, and, 
 with fans waved downwards, would yell at the pitch of their 
 voices an ancient jingle, which seemed to signify " Push, 
 push, push and go on ! " This was addressed to a score or 
 so of young men who with loud shouts hauled the heavy 
 stage-wagon along the street. The performances on the 
 four moving theatres went on simultaneously and some- 
 times the cars passed one another. The performances were 
 given on the eve and on the day and through the night of 
 the festival. The acting was amazingly good, considering 
 the July heat and the cramped conditions in which the 
 actors worked. Happy boys sat at the back of the scenes 
 fanning the players. Our kindly and voluble landlady was 
 not satisfied with the number of times the stages stopped 
 before her inn. She loudly threatened the youths who 
 were dragging them that she would reclaim some properties 
 she had lent and tell her dead husband of their ingratitude ! 
 
 At one of the booths which had been opened for the 
 festival by a strolling company there were women actors, 
 contrary to the convention of the Japanese stage on which 
 men enact female rSles and in doing so use a special falsetto. 
 Some of these actresses performed men's parts. At every 
 performance in a Japanese theatre, as I have already men- 
 tioned, a policeman is provided with a chair on a special 
 platform, or in an otherwise favourable position, so that he 
 can view and if necessary censor what is going on. The 
 constable at this particular play was kind enough to offer 
 me his seat. The rest of the audience was content with 
 the floor. The poor little company of players brought to 
 their work both ability and an artistic conscience, but they 
 had to do everything in the rudest way. They were in no 
 way embarrassed by the attendants frequently trimming the 
 inferior oil lamps on the stage. A little girl on the floor, 
 entranced by the performance on the stage, or curious 
 about some detail of it, ran forward and laid her chin on the 
 boards and studied the actors at leisure. The folk in the front 
 row of the gallery dangled their naked legs for coolness. 
 
 One of my friends asked me how we managed in the West 
 to identify the people who wanted to leave the theatre 
 between the acts. I explained that as our performances 
 
116 TO THE HILLS 
 
 did not last from early afternoon until nearly midnight it 
 was rare for anyone to wish to leave a theatre until the play 
 was over. At a Japanese playhouse, however, a portion 
 of the audience may be disposed to go home at some stage 
 of the proceedings and return later. The careful manager 
 of a small theatre identifies these patrons by impressing a 
 small stamp on the palms of their hands. 
 
 From the theatre we went to the travelling shows. They 
 charged 2 sen. We were shown a mermaid, peepshows, a 
 snake, an imhappy bear, three doleful monkeys and some 
 stuffed animals which may or may not have had in life an im- 
 common number of legs. There was a barefaced imposture 
 by a young and pretty show-woman who insisted that two 
 marmots in her lap were the offspring of a girl. " Look," 
 she cried, " at two sisters, the daughters of one mother. See 
 their hands ! " And she held up their paws. She rounded 
 off the fraud by feeding the creatures with condensed milk. 
 
 As I returned to the inn from these Elizabethan scenes 
 I noticed that I was preceded in the crowd by a spectacled 
 policeman who carried a paper lantern. Although, as I 
 have explained, the stage plays given in the street were 
 continued all night, only one arrest was made. The 
 prisoner was a drunkard who proved to be a medicine 
 seller but described himself as a journalist. I went to see 
 the clean wooden cell where topers are confined until they 
 are sober. It had a very low door, so that culprits might 
 be compelled to enter and leave humbly on their knees. 
 
 We had begmi our festival day at six in the morning by 
 attending a celebration at the Shinto shrine. " Although 
 it is no longer necessary, perhaps, to attend the ceremony 
 in a special kind of geta" said our landlady, " it would be 
 as well if you observed the old rule not to attend without 
 taking a bath in the early morning." ' 
 
 At the ancient shrine the townspeople whose turn it was 
 to attend the annual function had assembled in ceremonial 
 costumes. One man wore his hair tied up in the fashion 
 of the old prints. The plaintive strains of old instruments 
 
 1 A hot bath is ordinarily obtainable only in the afternoon and evening 
 in most Japanese hotels. In the morning people are content merely with 
 rinsing their hands and face. 
 
"CONTAGION OF FOREIGNERS" 117 
 
 made the strange appeal of all folk music. A decorous 
 procession was headed by the piebald pony of the shrine. 
 Youths and maidens carried aloft tubs of rice, vegetables, 
 fish and sak6. These were received by the chief priest. 
 He carefully placed a strip of cloth before his mouth and 
 nose ' and addressed the chief deity, all heads being bowed. 
 Then the priest placed the offerings in the darkened interior 
 of the shrine. There was a cheery naturalness in all the 
 proceedings. A few small children in gay holiday dress ran 
 freely among the worshippers and encountered indulgent 
 smiles. When an end had been made of offering food and 
 drink the priest within the shrine read a second message to 
 the deity. Again all heads were bowed. His thin voice 
 was heard in the morning quiet, interrupted only by a child's 
 cry, the twittering of birds and the wind rustling the 
 cryptomeria, dark against the blue of the hills. 
 
 After the ceremony the food and drink which had been 
 brought by the people were consumed by the priests and the 
 country folk in a large room of the chief priest's house. We 
 were given ceremonial saM to which rice had been added and 
 as mementoes little cakes and dried fish. Not so long ago the 
 presence of a foreigner would have been imwelcome at such 
 a ceremony as we had witnessed : the fear of " contagion of 
 foreigners " extended even to people from another prefecture. 
 To-day the amiable priest placed in our hands for a few 
 moments a small Buddha supposed to be six centuries old. 
 
 Before the festival the priest had observed certain 
 taboos for eight days. He had avoided meeting persons 
 in mourning and his food had been cooked at a specially 
 prepared fire. He had been careful not to touch other 
 persons, particularly women ; he had bathed several times 
 daily in cold water and he had said many prayers. The 
 heads of the household in the commimity whose turn it was 
 to attend at the shrine were also supposed to have observed 
 some of the same taboos. Only those persons might make 
 offerings at the shrine whose fathers and motherswereliving.^ 
 
 • In addressing a superior, many Japanese still draw in their breath 
 from time to time audibly. 
 
 ' That is, persons ^ho might be considered not to have failed in their 
 filial duties. 
 
118 TO THE HILLS 
 
 Formerly portions of the offerings of rice and saM at 
 the shrine were solemnly given to a young girl. 
 
 In this district, when we discussed the influences which 
 made for moral or non-material improvement, everyone 
 put the school first. Then came home training. In this 
 part of the world the Buddhist priest was too often 
 indifferent ; the Shinto priest worked at his farm. One 
 person well qualified to express an opinion said that a 
 " wise and benevolent " chief constable could exercise a 
 good moral influence. Others believed in public opinion. 
 A policeman said, " The first thing is for people to have 
 food and clothes ; without such primary satisfaction it 
 is very difficult to expect them to be moral." In consider- 
 ing the influence of the police and the schoolmaster it is 
 not without interest to remember that a chief of police and 
 the head of a school receive about the same salary. Assist- 
 ant teachers and plain constables are also on an equality. 
 I found the salary of the administrative head of one county, 
 the guncho, to be only 2,000 yen a year. 
 
 I was told that in the prefecture we were passing through 
 there were no fewer than 860 co-operative societies. The 
 credit branches had a capital of two million yen ; the 
 purchase and sale branches showed a turnover of three 
 million yen. In time of famine, due to too low a tempera- 
 ture for the rice or to floods which drown the crop, 
 co-operation had! proved its value. The prefectures north 
 of Tokyo facing the Pacific are the chief victims of famine, 
 for near Sendai the warm current from the south turns 
 oft towards America. I was told that the number of per- 
 sons who actually die as the result of famine has been 
 " exaggerated." The number in 1905 was " not more than 
 a hundred." These unfortunates were infants " and infirm 
 people who suffered from lack of suitable nourishment." 
 Every year the development of railway and steam communi- 
 cations makes easier the task of relieving famine sufferers.' 
 In the old days people were often found dead who had money 
 but were unable to get food for it. As Japan is a long 
 island with varying climates there is never general scarcity. 
 
 ^ Alter the failure of the 1918-19 crop in India, 600,000 persons were in 
 receipt of famine relief. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 the dwellers in the hills 
 (fukushima) 
 
 I didn't visit this place in the hope of seeing fine prospects — my study 
 is man. — ^Bobbow 
 
 Before I left the town I had a chat with a landowner who 
 turned his tenants' rent rice into sake. He was of the fifth 
 generation of brewers. He said that in his childhood 
 drunken men often lay about the street ; now, he said, 
 drunken men were only to be seen on festival days. 
 
 There had been a remarkable development in the trade 
 in flavoured aerated waters, " lemonade " and " cider 
 champagne " chiefly. I found these beverages on sale in 
 the remotest places, for the Japanese have the knack of 
 tying a number of bottles together with rope, which makes 
 them easily transportable. The new lager beers, which are 
 advertised everywhere, have also affected the consumption 
 of saki} SakS is usually compared with sherry. It is 
 drunk mulled. At a banquet, lasting five or six hours or 
 longer, a man " strong in saki " may conceivably drink 
 ten go (a go is about one-third of a pint) before achieving 
 drunkenness, but most people would be affected by three go. 
 Some of the topers who boast of the quantity of saki they 
 can consume — I have heard of men declaring that they could 
 drink twenty go — are cheated late in the evening by the 
 waiting-maids. The Uttle sake bottles are opaque, and it is 
 easy to remove them for refilling before they are quite 
 empty. 
 
 The brewer, who was a firm adherent of the Jishu sect 
 of Buddhists, was accustomed to burn incense with his 
 family at the domestic shrine every morning. But this was 
 
 1 See Appendix XXXVII. 
 10 "9 
 
120 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 not the habit of all the adherents of his denomination. As 
 to the moral advancement of the neighbourhood, his grand- 
 father " tried veryearnestlyto improve the district bymeans 
 of religion, but without result." He himself attached 
 most value to education and after that to young men's 
 associations. 
 
 As we left the town we passed a " woman priest " who 
 was walking to Nikko, eighty miles away. Portraits of 
 dead people, entrusted to her by their relatives for convey- 
 ance to distant shrines, were hung round her body. 
 
 As the route became more and more hilly I realised how 
 accurate is that representation of hills in Japanese art 
 which seems odd before one has been in Japan : the land- 
 scape stands out as if seen in a flash of lightning. 
 
 Three things by the way were arresting : the number 
 of shrines, mostly dedicated to the fox god ; the rice 
 suspended round the farm buildings or drying on racks ; 
 and the masses of evening primroses, called in Japan 
 " moon-seeing flowers." 
 
 A feature of every village was one or more barred wooden 
 sheds containing fire-extinguishing apparatus, often pro- 
 vided and worked by the young men's association. Some- 
 times a piece of ground was described to me as " the train- 
 ing ground of the fire defenders." The night patrols of the 
 village were young fellows chosen in turn by the constable 
 from the fire-prevention parties, made up by the youths of 
 the village. There stood up in every village a high perpen- 
 dicular ladder with a bell or wooden clapper at the top to 
 give the alarm. The emblem of the fire brigade, a pole with 
 white paper streamers attached, was sometimes dis- 
 tinguished by a yellow paper streamer awarded by the 
 prefecture. 
 
 On a sweltering July day it was difficult to realise that 
 the villages we passed through, now half hidden in foliage, 
 might be under 7 ft. of snow in winter. In travelling in 
 this hillier region one has an extra kurumaya, who pushes 
 behind or acts as brakeman. 
 
 At the " place of the seven peaks " we found a stone 
 dedicated to the worship of the stars which form the 
 Plough. Again and again I noticed shrines which had 
 
THE ONCOMING OF THE WEST 121 
 
 before them two tall trees, one larger than the other, called 
 " man and wife." It was explained to me that " there 
 cannot be a more sacred place than where husband and wife 
 stand together." A small tract of cr j^tomeria on the lower 
 slopes of a hill belonged to the school. The children had 
 planted it in honour of the marriage of the Emperor when 
 he was Crown Prince. 
 
 Often the burial-grounds, the stones of which are seldom 
 more than about 2 ft. high by 6 ins. wide, are on narrow 
 strips of roadside waste. (The coffin is commonly square, 
 and the body is placed in it in the kneeling position so often 
 assumed in life.) Here, as elsewhere, there seemed to be 
 rice fields in every spot where rice fields could possibly be 
 made. 
 
 On approaching a village the traveller is flattered by 
 receiving the bows of small girls and boys who range them- 
 selves in threes and fours to perform their act of courtesy. 
 I was told that the children are taught at school to bow to 
 foreigners, I remember that in the remoter villages of 
 Holland the stranger also received the bows of young people. 
 
 On the house of the headman of one village were displayed 
 charms for protection from fire, theft and epidemic. We 
 spoke of weather signs, and he quoted a proverb, " Never 
 rely on the glory of the morning or on the smile of your 
 mother-in-law." 
 
 We had before us a week's travel by huruma. Otherwise 
 we should have liked to have brought away specimens of 
 the wooden utensils of some of the villages. The travelUng 
 woodworker whom we often encountered) — he has to travel 
 about in order to reach new sources of wood supply — has 
 been despised because of his unsettled habits, but I was told 
 that there was a special deity to look after him. In the 
 town we had left there was delightful woodwork, but most 
 of the draper's stuff was pitiful trash made after what 
 was supposed to be foreign fashions. I may also mention 
 the large collection of blood-and-thunder stories upon 
 Western models which were piled up in the stationers' 
 shops. 
 
 As we walked up into the hills — the kuruma men were 
 sent by an easier route — we passed plenty of sweet chest- 
 
122 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 nuts and saw large masses of blue single hydrangea and 
 white and pink spirea. We came on the ruined huts of 
 those who had burnt a bit of hillside and taken from it a 
 few crops of buckwheat. The charred trunks of trees 
 stood up among the green undergrowth that had invaded 
 the patches. There was a great deal of plantain and a 
 kurumaya mentioned that sometimes when children found 
 a dead frog they buried it in leaves of that plant. Japanese 
 children are also in the habit of angling for frogs with a 
 piece of plantain. The frogs seize the plantain and are 
 jerked ashore. 
 
 We took our lunch on a hill top. It had been a stiff 
 climb and we marvelled at the expense to which a poor 
 county must be put for the maintenance of roads which so 
 often hang on cliff sides or span torrents. The great piles 
 of wood accumulated at the summit turned the talk to 
 " silent trade." In " silent trade " people on one side of 
 a hill traded with people on the other side without meeting. 
 The products were taken to the hill top and left there, 
 usually in a rough shed built to protect the goods from rain. 
 The exchange might be on the principle of barter or of cash 
 payment. But the amount of goods given in exchange or 
 the cash payment made was left to honour. " Silent 
 trade " still continues in certain parts of Japan. Sometimes 
 the price expected for goods is written up in the shed. 
 " Silent trade" originated because of fears of infectious 
 disease ; it survives because it is more convenient for one 
 who has goods to sell or to buy to travel up and down one 
 side of a mountain than up and down two sides. 
 
 As we proceeded on our way we were once more struck 
 by the extraordinary wealth of wood. Here is a country 
 where every household is burning wood and charcoal daily, 
 a country where not only the houses but most of the things 
 in common use are made of wood ; and there seems to be 
 no end to the trees that remain. It is little wonder that 
 in many parts there has been and is improvident use of 
 wood. Happily every year the regulation of timber areas 
 and wise planting make progress. But for many square 
 miles of hillside I saw there is no fitting word but jungle. 
 
 At the small ramshackle hot-spring inns of the remote 
 
"THE DEVIL WAS ONCE EIGHTEEN" 128 
 
 hills the guests are mostly country folk. Many of them 
 carefully bring their own rice and miso, and are put up at a 
 cost of about 10 sen a day. In the passage ways one finds 
 rough boxes about 4 ft. square full of wood ash in the centre 
 of which charcoal may be burned and kettles boiled. 
 
 We were in a region where there is snow from the middle 
 of November to the middle of April. For two-thirds of 
 December and January the snow is never less than 2 ft. 
 deep. The attendance of the children at one school during 
 the winter was 95 per cent, for boys and 90 per cent, for 
 girls. (See note, p. 112.) 
 
 My kurumaya pointed to a mountain top where, he said, 
 there were nearly three acres of beautiful flowers. The 
 rice fields in the hills were suffering from lack of water and 
 a deputation of villagers had gone ten miles into the 
 mountains to pray for rain. It is wonderful at what alti- 
 tudes rice fields are contrived. I noted some at 2,500 ft. 
 In looking down from a place where the cliff road hung 
 out over the river that flowed a hundred feet below I 
 noticed a stone image lying on its back in the water. It 
 may have come there by accident, but the ducking of such 
 a figure in order to procure rain is not unknown. 
 
 At an inn I asked one of the greybeards who courteously 
 visited us if there would be much competition for his seat 
 when he retired from the village assembly. He thought 
 that there would be several candidates. In the town from 
 which we had set out on our journey through the highlands 
 a doctor had spent 500 yen in trsdng to get on the assembly. 
 
 The tea at this resting place was poor and someone 
 quoted the proverb, " Even the devil was once eighteen 
 and bad tea has its tolerable first cup." On going to the 
 village office I found that for a population of 2,000 there 
 were, in addition to the village shrine, sixteen other shrines 
 and three Buddhist temples. Against fire there were four 
 fire pumps and 155 " fire defenders." A dozen of the 
 yoimg men of the village were serving in the army, four 
 were home on furlough, six were invalided and forty were 
 of the reserve. As many as thirty-seven had medals. The 
 doctors were two in number and the midwives three. 
 There was a sanitary committee of twenty-three members . 
 
124 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 The revenue of the village was 5,740 yen. It had a fund of 
 740 yen " against time of famine." The taxes paid were 
 2,330 yen for State tax, 2,460 yen for prefectural tax and 
 4,350 yen for village tax. The village possessed two co- 
 operative societies, a young men's association, a Buddhist 
 yoimg men's association, a Buddhist young women's 
 association, a society for the development of knowledge, 
 a society of the graduates of the primary school, two 
 thrift organisations, a society for "promoting knowledge 
 and virtue," and an association the members of which 
 "aimed at becoming distinguished." There were in the 
 village ninety subscribers to the Red Cross and two dozen 
 members of the national Patriotic Women's Association. 
 
 In the county through which we were moving there was 
 gold, silver and copper mining.^ Out of its population of 
 36,000 only 632 were entitled to vote for an M.P. 
 
 We rested at a school where the motto was, " Even in 
 this good reign I pray because I wish to make our country 
 more glorious." There were portraits of four deceased local 
 celebrities and of Peter the Great, Franklin, Lincoln, 
 Commander Perry and Bismarck. Illustrated waU charts 
 showed how to sit on a school seat, how to identify 
 poisonous plants and how to conform to the requirements 
 of etiquette. The following admonitions were also dis- 
 played — a copy of them is given to each child, who is ex- 
 pected to read the twelve counsels every morning before 
 coming to school : 
 
 1. — ^Do your own work and don't rely on others to do it. 
 
 2. — Be ardent when you learn or play. 
 
 3. — Endeavour to do away with your bad habits and 
 
 cultivate good ones. 
 4. — ^Never tell a lie and be careful when you speak. 
 5. — ^Do what you think right in your heart and at the 
 
 same time have good manners. 
 6. — Overcome difficulties and never hold back from 
 
 hard work. 
 7. — Do not make appointments which you are vmcertain 
 
 to keep. 
 8. — Do not carelessly lend or borrow. 
 1 See Appendix XXXVIII. 
 
WESTERN "DECENCY" 125 
 
 9. — Do not pass by another's difficulties and do not 
 
 give another much trouble. 
 10. — Be careful about things belonging to the public as 
 
 well as about things belonging to yourself. 
 11. — Keep the outside and inside of the school clean and 
 
 also take care of waste paper. 
 12. — Never play with a grumbling spirit. 
 
 There was stuck on the roofs of many houses a rod with 
 a piece of white paper attached, a charm against fire. One 
 house so provided was next door to the fire station. Fre- 
 quently we passed a children's jizo or Buddha, comically 
 decked in the hat and miscellaneous garments of youngsters 
 whose grateful mothers believed them to have been cured 
 by the power of the deity. 
 
 Speaking of clothes, it was the hottest July weather and 
 the natural garment was at most a loin cloth. The women 
 wore a piece of red or coloured cotton from their waist to 
 their knees. The backs of the men and women who were 
 working in the open were protected by a flapping ricestraw 
 mat or by an armful of green stuff. The boys under ten or 
 so were naked and so were many little girls. But the 
 influence of the Westernising period ideas of what was 
 " decent " in the presence of foreigners survives. So, 
 whenever a policeman was near, people of all ages were to 
 be seen huddling on their kimonos. I was sorry for a merry 
 group of boys and girls aged 12 or 13 who in that torrid 
 weather ' were bathing at an ideal spot in the river and 
 suddenly caught sight of a policeman. It is deplorable 
 that a consciousness of nakedness should be cultivated when 
 nakedness is natural, traditional and hygienic. (Even in 
 the schools the girls are taught to make their kimonos 
 meet at the neck — with a pin ! ' — much higher than they 
 used to be worn.) It is only fair to bear in mind, however, 
 that some hurrying on of clothes by villagers is done out 
 of respect to the passing superior, before whom it is impolite 
 
 1 In Tokyo one may sleep night after night in summer with no covering 
 but the thinnest loose cotton kimono and have an electric fan going within 
 the mosquito curtain, and still feel the heat. 
 
 3 The kimono has no button, hook, tie, or fastening of any kind, and 
 is kept in place by the waist string and obi. 
 
126 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 to appear without permission half dressed or wearing other 
 than the usual clothing. 
 
 At a hot spring we found many patrons because, as I 
 was told, " Ox-day is very suitable for bathing." The old 
 pre-Meiji days of the week were twelve : Rat-, Ox-, Tiger-, 
 Hare-, Dragon-, Snake-, Horse-, Sheep-, Monkey-, Fowl-, 
 Dog- and Boar-day. When the Western seven days of the 
 week were adopted they were rendered into Japanese as : 
 Sun, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Metal and Earth, followed 
 by the word meaning star or planet and day. For instance, 
 Sunday is Nichi (Sun) yo (star) bi (day), and Monday, 
 Getsu (Moon) yo (planet) bi (day), or Nichi-yo-bi and 
 Getsu-yo-bi. For brevity the bi is often dropped off. 
 
 The headman of a village we passed through told me 
 that the occasion of my coming was the first on which 
 English had been heard in those parts. Talking about the 
 people of his village, he said that there had been four 
 divorces in the year. Once in four or five years a child was 
 born within a few months of marriage. In the whole 
 county there had been among 310 young men examined 
 for the army only four cases of " disgraceful disease." 
 There was no immoral woman in the 75-miles-long valley. 
 Elsewhere in the county many yoimg men were in debt, 
 but in the headman's vUlage no youth was without a savings- 
 bank book. And the local men-folk " did not use women's 
 savings as in some places." 
 
 One shrine we passed seemed to be dedicated to the moon. 
 Another was intended to propitiate the horsefly. Several 
 villages had boxes fastened on posts for the reception of 
 broken glass. As we approached one village I saw an 
 inscription put up by the young men's association, " Good 
 Crops and Prosperity to the Village." When we came to 
 the next village the schoolmaster was responsible for an 
 inscription, " Peace to the World and Safety to the State." 
 In other places I foimd young men's society notice boards 
 giving information about the area of land in a village, how 
 it was cropped, the kind of crops, the area of forest, lists 
 of famous places, etc. 
 
 In the gorges we rode over many suspension bridges 
 and crossed the backbone of Japan in unforgettable scenes 
 
TENAITT FAKMERS' HOIWES, p. 379 
 
 AUTHOR AT THE " SriRIT MEETING." p. 3G 
 
 SOME rERFOEMBES AT THE "SPIRIT MBETIKG." p. 36 
 
 1127 
 
EIGHTY MILES FROM A MARKET 127 
 
 of romantic beauty. From the craggy paths of our high- 
 lands, amid a wealth not only of gorgeous flowers and 
 greenery but of great velvety butterflies, we saw the far-off 
 snow-clad Japanese Alps. 
 
 At one of the schools where we lunched I noticed that 
 the large wall maps were of Siam and Malaya, Borneo, 
 Australia and China (two). The portraits were of Florence 
 Nightingale, Lincoln, Napoleon and Christ as the Good 
 Shepherd, the last named being " a present from a believer 
 friend of the schoolmaster." ' This school closed at noon 
 from July 10 to July 31, and had twenty days' vacation in 
 August and another twenty days in the rice-planting and 
 busy sericultural season. The sewing-room of the school 
 was used in winter as a dormitory for boys who lived at a 
 distance. Accommodation for girls was provided in the 
 village. The children brought their rice with them. The 
 products of the school farm were also eaten by the boarding 
 pupils. It was estimated that the cost of maintaining the 
 girls was 10 sen a day. Three-fourths of this expense was 
 borne by the village. The regularity and strictness of the 
 dormitory management were found to have an excellent 
 effect. At the winter school, an adjunct of the day school, 
 there was an attendance of a score of youths and sixty 
 girls. 
 
 Speaking of a place where we stayed for the night, one 
 who had a wide knowledge of rural Japan said that he did 
 not think that there was a lonelier spot where farming was 
 carried on. There was no market or fair for 80 or 90 miles 
 and the little groups of houses were 2 or 3 miles apart. In 
 this district, it was explained, " the rich are not so rich 
 and the poor are not so poor." 
 
 We passed somewhere a fine shrine for the welfare of 
 horses. At a certain festival hundreds of horses are driven 
 down there to gallop round and round the sacred buildings. 
 Thousands of people attend this festival, but it was declared 
 that no one was ever hurt by the horses. 
 
 The poetical names of country inns would make an inter- 
 
 1 It is an illustration of the difficulty of using a foreign symbolism that 
 it is unlikely that a single child in the school had ever seen a shepherd or 
 a sheep. 
 
128 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 esting collection. I remember that it was at " the inn of 
 cold spring water " that the waiting-maid had never seen 
 cow's milk. She proved to be the daughter of the host 
 and wore a gold ring by way of marking the fact. This 
 girl told us that on the banks of the river there was only 
 one house in 70 miles. The village was having the usual 
 holiday to celebrate the end of the toilsome sericultural 
 season. 
 
 On our way to the next village we met two far-travelled 
 young women selling the dried seaweed which, in many 
 varieties, figures in the Japanese dietary.^ (There are shops 
 which sell nothing but prepared seaweeds.) A notice board 
 there informed us that the road was maintained at the cost 
 of the local young men's society. As we were on foot we 
 felt grateful, for the road was well kept. We passed for 
 miles over planking hung on the cliff side or on roadway 
 carried on embankments. On the suspended pathways 
 there was now and then a plank loose or broken, and there 
 was no rail between the pedestrian and the torrent dashing 
 below. Where there was embanked roadway it was almost 
 always uphill and downhill and it frequently swung sharply 
 round the corner of a cliff. As the river increased in 
 volume we saw many rafts of timber shooting the rapids. 
 At one place twenty-six raftsmen had been drowned. The 
 remnants of two bridges showed the force of the floods. 
 
 In this region the kurumaya were hard put to it at times 
 and once a kuruma broke down. Its owner cheerfully 
 detached its broken axle and went off with it at a trot ten 
 miles or so to a blacksmith. Later he traversed the ten 
 miles once more to refit his kuruma, afterwards coming on 
 fifteen more miles to our inn. The endurance and cheeri- 
 ness of the kurumaya were surprising. It was usually in 
 face of their protests that we got out to ease them while 
 going uphill. Every morning they wanted to arrange to 
 go farther than we thought reasonable. Each man had 
 not only his passenger but his passenger's heavy bag. One 
 day we did thirty-six miles over rough roads. The kuru- 
 maya proposed to cover fifty. They showed spirit, good 
 nature and loyalty. The character of their conversation 
 
 1 In 1918 the value of seaweed was returned at 13,600,000 yen. 
 
"KURUMAYA" MANNERS 129 
 
 is worth mentioning. At one point they were discussing 
 the plays we had witnessed, at other times the scenery, 
 local legends, the best routes and the crops, material con- 
 dition and disposition of the villagers. Our kurumaya 
 compared very favourably indeed with men of an equal 
 social class at home. Their manners were perfect. They 
 stayed at the same inns as we did — once in the next room — 
 and behaved admirably. Every evening the men washed 
 their white cotton shorts and jackets — ^their whole costume 
 except for a wide-brimmed sun hat and straw waraji. Tied 
 to the axle of each kuruma were several pairs of waraji, for 
 on the rough hill roads this simple form of footgear soon 
 wears out. Discarded waraji are to be seen on every 
 roadside in Japan. 
 
 The inscriptions on some of the wayside stones we passed 
 had been written by priests so ignorant that the wording 
 was either ridiculous or almost without meaning. But there 
 was no difficulty in deciphering an inscription on a stone 
 which declared that it had been erected by a company of 
 Buddhists who claimed to have repeated the holy name of 
 Amida 2,000,000 times. (The idea is that salvation may 
 be obtained by the repetition of the phrase Namu Amida 
 Butsu.) A small stone set up on a rock in the middle of 
 paddy fields intimated that at that spot " people gathered 
 to see the moon one night every month." A third stone was 
 dedicated to the monkey as the messenger of a certain 
 god, just as the fox is regarded as the messenger of Inari. 
 
 We saw during our journey large numbers of kiri 
 (Paulownia) used for making geta and bride's chests. Some 
 farmers seem to plant kiri trees at the birth of a daughter 
 so as to have wood for her wedding chest or money for her 
 outfit.^ Kiri seems to be increasingly grown. On the other 
 hand in the same districts lacquer trees were now seldom 
 planted. The farmers complained that they were cheated 
 by the collectors of lacquer who come round to cut the 
 trees. The age of cutting was given me as the eighth or 
 ninth year, but poor farmers sometimes allowed a yoimg 
 
 1 In fifteen years a kiri tree may be about 20 ft. high and 3 ft. in cir- 
 cumference and be worth 30 yen. Kiri trees to the value of 3 million yen 
 were felled in 1918. 
 
130 THE DWELLERS IN THE HILLS 
 
 tree to be cut. A tree may be cut once a year for three or 
 four years. After that it is useless even for fuel, owing to 
 the smell it gives off, and is often left standing. The old 
 scarred trunks, sometimes headless, suggested the tattooed 
 faces and bodies of Maori veterans. As lacquer is poisonous 
 to the skin the wood calls for careful handling. I saw one 
 of the itinerant lacquer collectors, his hands wrapped in 
 cotton, operating on a tree. 
 
 During a particularly hot run we had the good fortune 
 to come on a soda-water spring from which we all drank 
 freely. A factory erected to tap the spring was in ruins. 
 Evidently the cost of carriage was prohibitive. 
 
 In these hills the rice was planted farther apart than is 
 usual so that the sun might warm the water. Here as 
 elsewhere daikon were hung up to dry on walls and trees, 
 and looked like giant tallow candles. Below a bridge, 
 which marked the village boundary, flags had been flung 
 down by way of keeping oft epidemics. Evil spirits were 
 warded oft by special dances. 
 
 The porch of a little tea-house where we rested was 
 covered with grapes. Soon after leaving it we reached our 
 destination for the night, a small town of houses of several 
 storeys which clustered on a hillside under the shadow of 
 a Zen temple. Meat and eggs were forbidden to the town, 
 but as the residents were all Zen Buddhists the restriction 
 was no hardship. There was no cow in the place, but 
 condensed milk was allowed. A man at the inn told me 
 that he knew of ten Shinto shrines which forbade the use 
 of chickens and eggs in their localities. The view from the 
 temple, perched high on its rock above the wide riverway, 
 was exceptionally fine. Parties of boys and girls of thirteen 
 paid visits to this temple " because thirteen is known as 
 a perilous age." The people of the vegetarian town, 
 instead of feeding on the fish in the river, fed them. I saw 
 a shoal of fish being given scraps at the water edge. 
 
 As we went on our way and spoke of the bad roads it 
 was suggested that in the old days roads were purposely 
 left uphill and downhill in order that the advance of 
 enemies might be hindered. We came to a dilapidated 
 tea-house kept by an ugly old woman who showed a touch- 
 
" DA-DA-DA-BANG " 181 
 
 ing fondness for a cat and a dog. From her shack we had 
 a view of a volcano which had destroyed two villages a 
 few years before. Our hostess, who made much of us, said 
 that the catastrophe had been preceded by " horrible 
 da-da-da-bang " sounds and lightnings, and that it was 
 accompanied by " thunderbolts and heavy thick smoke." 
 The old woman had beheld " soil boiling and cracking." 
 
 Along our route we had more evidences of " fire farm- 
 ing." The procedure was to sow buckwheat the first year 
 and rape and millet the second year. In the cryptomeria 
 forests there was a variety which, when cut, sprouts from 
 the ground and makes a new growth like an elm. One 
 crop we saw was ginseng, protected by low structures 
 covered by matting. 
 
 At length we heard the distant sound of a locomotive 
 whistle. We were approaching the newly opened railway 
 which was to take us the short run to the sea. Soon we 
 were in a rather unkempt village which had hardly recovered 
 from its surprise at finding that it had a railway station. 
 We paid our kurumaya the sum contracted for and some- 
 thing over for their faithful service and for their long return 
 run, and having exchanged bows and cordial greetings, we 
 left for a time the glorified perambulators which a foreign 
 missionary is supposed to have introduced half a century 
 ago. (The Japanese claim the honour of " inventing " the 
 jinrikisha.) 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 shrines and poetry 
 (niigata and toyama) 
 
 Sir, I am talking of the mass of the people. — Johnson 
 
 The railway made its way through snow stockades and 
 through many tunnels which pierced cryptomeria-clad 
 hills. Eventually we descended to the wonderful Kambara 
 plains, a sea of emerald rice. Fourteen million bushels of 
 rice are produced on the flats of Niigata prefecture, which 
 grows more rice than any other. The rice, grown under 
 800 different names, is officially graded into half a dozen 
 quahties. The problem of the high country we had come 
 from was how to keep its paddy fields from drying up ; the 
 problem of Niigata is chiefly to keep the water in its fields 
 at a sufficiently low level. Almost every available square 
 yard of the prefecture is paddy. 
 
 At Gosen there were depressing-looking weaving sheds, 
 but the Black Country created by the oil fields farther on 
 was in even more striking contrast with the beautiful 
 region we had left. The petroleum yield was 65 million 
 gallons, and the smell of the oil went with us to the capital 
 city. 
 
 Niigata has a dark reputation for exporting farmers' 
 daughters to other parts of Japan, but I have also heard 
 that the percentage of attendance made by the children 
 at the primary schools of the prefecture is higher than any- 
 where else. Like Amsterdam, Niigata is a city of bridges. 
 There must be 200 of them. The big timber bridge across 
 the estuary is nearly half a mile long. One finds in Niigata 
 a Manchester-like spirit of business enterprise. Our hotel 
 was excellent. 
 
 Because they speak with all sorts of people and hear a 
 
 132 
 
AT THE VILLAGE ASSEMBLY 133 
 
 great deal of conversation the blind amma are full of inter- 
 esting gossip. A clever amma who ran his knuckles up and 
 down my back said that farm land a good way from 
 Niigata was sold at from 200 yen to 300 yen and sometimes 
 at 400 yen per quarter acre.' Prefectural officials who called 
 on me explained that drainage operations on a large scale 
 were being completed. The water of which the low land 
 was relieved would be used to extend farming in the hills. 
 An effort was also being made to develop stock-keeping in 
 the uplands. It was proposed " to supply every farmer 
 with a scheme for increasing his live stock." The optim- 
 istic authorities were particularly attracted by the notion 
 of keeping sheep. The plan was to arrange for co-operation 
 in hill pasturing and in wool and meat production. 
 Mutton was as yet unknown, however, in Niigata. (The 
 mutton eaten by foreigners in Japan usually comes from 
 Shanghai.) 
 
 I went into the country to a little place where the natural 
 gas from the soil was used by the farmers for lighting and 
 cooking. I heard talk in this village and in others of the 
 influence of the local army reservists' society. ' ' Young men 
 on returning from their army service are always influential. 
 They are much respected by the youths and are talkative 
 indeed in the village assembly." 
 
 As our host was the village headman he kindly brought 
 the assembly together to meet me. I asked the assembled 
 fathers about two stones erected in the village. Somebody 
 had kindled a fire of rice screenings near one of them and 
 it had been scorched. On the other stone a kimono had 
 been hung to dry. The explanation was that the stones 
 were monuments not shrines, and that the people who had 
 set them up had left the district. The stones were no doubt 
 respected while the donors lived. It was not uncommon 
 for a pilgrim to a shrine to erect a memorial on his return 
 home. 
 
 In this viUage fifty Shinto shrines of the fifth class had 
 been closed under the influence of the Home Office. They 
 were shrines which had no offering from the village to 
 
 > For prices of land, see Appendix LIV. 
 
134 SHRINES AND POETRY 
 
 support them. They had only a few worshippers. All 
 the remaining shrines were of the fifth class but one, and it 
 was of the fourth class. In the county there was a second- 
 class shrine and in the whole prefecture there were two or 
 three first-class shrines. The villagers had agreed among 
 themselves which of their own shrines should be made an 
 end of. A shrine which was dispensed with was burnt. 
 The stone steps approaching it were also removed. Burn- 
 ing was not sacrilege but purification. On the closing of a 
 shrine there might be complaints on the part of some old 
 man or woman, but the majority of people approved. 
 One Shinto shrine guardian lived at the fourth-class 
 shrine and conducted a ceremony at the sixteen fifth-class 
 shrines. Of the twenty Buddhist temples in the village 
 (300 families cultivating an average of a cho apiece), twelve 
 were Hokke, five Shingon, two Shinshu and one Zen. All 
 the priests were married.* 
 
 I have used the phrase " Buddhist temple " loosely and 
 may do so again, for it conveys an idea which " Buddhist 
 church " does not. A temple {do) is properly an edifice 
 in which a Buddha is enshrined. This building is not for 
 services or burial ceremonies or anniversary offerings for 
 departed souls. It may or may not have a guardian 
 (domori). He is never a priest with a shaven head. A 
 Buddhist church (tera) is a place where adherents go as 
 anniversaries come roimd or for sermons. It possesses a 
 priest. There is a considerable difference in the style of 
 Buddhist edifices according to their denomination — Zen 
 buildings are particularly plain — but all are more elaborate 
 than Shinto shrines. 
 
 A large Shinto shrine is called yashiro (house of god) ; a 
 small one hokora. A hokora is transportable. Originally 
 it was and in some places it still is a perishable wooden 
 shrine thatched with reed or grass straw which is renewed 
 at the spring and autumn festivals. It may be less than two 
 feet high and may be made of stone or wood. But it cannot 
 be regarded as a building. Inside there are gohei (upright 
 
 1 There are about 116,000 Shinto shrines of all grades and 14,000 priests, 
 and 71,000 temples and 51,000 priests. There are about a dozen Shinto 
 sects and about thirty Buddhist sects and sub-sects. 
 
"A MIXING IN THE HEART" 185 
 
 sticks with paper streamers). In a rich man's house a 
 hokora may be seven or eight feet high or bigger than the 
 smallest yashiro, and may be embellished with colour and 
 metal. ' 
 
 Returning to Buddhism, if a priest has a son he may be 
 succeeded by him. But many Buddhist priests marry late 
 and have no children. Or their children do not want to 
 be priests. So the priest adopts a successor. Sometimes 
 he maintains an orphan as acolyte or coadjutor. During 
 the day this assistant goes to school. In the evenings and 
 during holidays he is taught to become a priest. When the 
 primary-school education is finished the lad may be sent 
 by his patron, if he is well enough off, to a school of his sect 
 at Kyoto or Tokyo. 
 
 My travelling companion spoke of the infiltration of 
 new ideas in town and country. " A mixing is taking place 
 in the heart and head of everybody who is not a bigot. 
 But I don't know that some kinds of Christianity are to do 
 much for us. I heard the other day of a Japanese Presby- 
 terian who was preaching with zest about hell fire. Gener- 
 ally speaking, our old men are looking to the past and our 
 young men are aspiring, but not all. Some are content if 
 they can live uncriticised by their neighbours. When 
 they become old they may begin to think of a future life 
 and visit temples. But as young men their thoughts are 
 fully occupied by things of this world." 
 
 In the office of the headman whom I mentioned a page 
 or so back, there was behind his chair a kakemono which 
 read, " Reflecting and Examining One's Inner Spirit." 
 We passed a night in the old house of this headman, who was 
 a poet and a coimtry gentleman of a delightful type. Being 
 an eldest son he had married young, and his relations with 
 his eldest boy, a frank and clever lad, were pleasant to see. 
 The garden, instead of being shut in by a wall with a tiled 
 coping or by a palisade of bamboo stems in the ordinary 
 way, was open towards the rice fields, a scene of restful 
 beauty. As our kuruma drew near the house, the steward 
 appeared, a broom in his hand. Running for a short 
 distance before us imtil we entered the courtyard, he sym- 
 bolically swept the ground according to old custom. 
 11 
 
136 SHRINES AND POETRY 
 
 After a delightful hot bath and an elaborate supper, which 
 my fellow traveller afterwards assured me had meant a 
 week's work for the women of the household — snapping 
 turtle and choice bamboo shoots were among the honour- 
 able dishes — we gathered at the open side of the room 
 overlooking the garden. Fireflies glowed in the paddies 
 and in the garden two stone lanterns had been lighted. 
 One of them, which had a crescent-shaped opening cut 
 in it, gleamed like the moon ; the other, which had a 
 small serrated opening, represented a star. 
 
 I paid a visit to the local agricultural co-operative store 
 which did business under the motto, " Faith is the Mother 
 of all Virtue." More than half the money taken at the 
 store was for artificial manures. Next came purchases of 
 imported rice, for, like the Danish peasants who export 
 their butter and eat margarine, the local peasants sold 
 their own rice and bought the Saigon variety. The society 
 sold in a year a considerable quantity of sdki. Stretched 
 over the doorway of the building in which the goods of the 
 society were stored were the rope and paper streamers 
 which are seen before Shiato shriaes and consecrated 
 places. The society had a large flag post for weather 
 signals, a white flag for a fine day, a red one for cloudy 
 weather and a blue one for rain. 
 
 I brought away from this village a calendar of agri- 
 cultural operations with poems or mottoes for each month, 
 in the collection of which I suspect the poet had a 
 hand : 
 
 January : Future of the day determined in the morning. 
 
 February : The voice of one reading a farming book coming 
 from the snow- covered window. 
 
 March : Grafting these young trees, thinking of the days 
 of my grandchildren. 
 
 April : Digging the soil of the paddy field, sincerity con- 
 centrated on the edge of the mattock. 
 
 May: Returning home with the dim moonlight glinting 
 on the edges of our mattocks. 
 
 June : Boundless wealth stored up by gracious heaven : 
 dig it out with your mattock, take it away with your 
 sickle. 
 
THE RAIN DELEGATE 137 
 
 July : Weeding the paddy field * in a happiness and con- 
 tentment which townspeople do not know. 
 
 August : Standing peasant worthier than resting rich man. 
 
 September : Ears of rice bend their heads as they ripen. 
 (An allusion to wisdom and meekness.) 
 
 October : White steam coming out of a manure house on 
 an autumn morning. 
 
 November : Moon clear and bright above neatly divided 
 paddy fields. 
 
 December : All the members of the family smiling and 
 celebrating the year's end, piling up many bales of rice. 
 
 In this district I first noticed cotton. It is sown in June 
 and is picked from time to time between early September 
 and early November. Cotton has been grown for centuries 
 in Japan, but nowadays it is produced for household weaving 
 only, the needs of the factories being met by foreign im- 
 ports. The plant has a beautiful yellow flower with a 
 dark brown eye. 
 
 In one village I asked how many people smoked. The 
 answer was 60 per cent, of the men and 10 per cent, of 
 the women. In the same village, which did not seem par- 
 ticularly well off, I was told that 200 daily papers might 
 be taken among 1,300 families. Eighty per cent, of the 
 local papers were dailies and cost 35 sen a month. Tokyo 
 papers cost 45 or 50 sen a month. 
 
 I visited a school, half of which was in a building adjoin- 
 ing a temple and half in the temple itself. In the same 
 county there were two other schools housed in temples. 
 The small Shinto shrine in this temple held the Imperial 
 Rescript on education. On one side of it was an ugly 
 American clock and on the other a thermometer. In the 
 temple (Zen) two Tokyo University students were staying 
 in ideal conditions for vacation study. 
 
 I saw at one place a very tired, imslept-looklng peasant 
 with a small closed tub carried over his shoulder by means 
 of a pole. On the tub was tied a white streamer, such as 
 is supplied at a Shinto shrine, and a branch of sdkdki 
 {Eurya ochnacea, the sacred tree). The traveller was 
 
 ' It is done by wading in leech-infested water under a burning sun 
 and pulling out the weeds by hand and pushing them down into the sludge. 
 
138 SHRINES AND POETRY 
 
 the delegate of his village. He had been to a mountain 
 shrine in the next prefecture and the tiib held the water he 
 had got there. The idea is that if he succeeds in making 
 the journey home without stopping anywhere his efforts 
 will result in rain coming down at his village. If he should 
 stop at any place to rest or sleep, and there should be the 
 slightest drip from his tub there, then the rain will be pro- 
 cured not for his own village but for the community in 
 which he has tarried. So our voyager had walked not 
 only for a whole day but through the night. I heard of a 
 rain delegate who had stamina enough to keep walking for 
 three or four days without sleeping. 
 
 Another way of obtaining rain has principally to do with 
 tugging at a rock with a straw rope. Then there is the 
 plan already referred to of tying straw ropes to a stone 
 image and flinging it into the river, saying, " If you don't 
 give us rain you will stay there ; if you do give us rain you 
 shall come out." There is also the method of paying 
 someone liberally to throw the split open head of an ox 
 into the deep pool of a waterfall. " Then the water god 
 being much angry," said my informant, " he send his 
 dragon to that village, so storm and rain come necessarily." 
 Yet another plan is for the villagers simply to ascend to a 
 particular moimtain top crying, " Give us rain ! Give us 
 rain ! " While dealing with these magic arts I may 
 reproduce the following rendering of a printed " fortune " 
 which I received from a rural shrine : " Wish to agree but 
 now somewhat difficult. Wait patiently for a while. Do 
 nothing wrong. Wait for the spring to come. Everything 
 will be completed and will become better. Endeavouring 
 to accomplish it soon will be fruitless." 
 
 It was a student of agricultural conditions in Toyama 
 who gossiped to me of the large expenditure by farmers of 
 that prefecture on the marriage of their daughters. " It 
 is not so costly as the boys' education and it procures a good 
 reception for the girl from father- and mother-in-law. The 
 pinch comes when there is a second and third daughter, for 
 the average balance in hand of a peasant proprietor in this 
 prefecture at the end of the year is only 48 yen. Borrowing 
 is necessary and I heard of one bankruptcy. The Governor 
 
A NEW LIGHT ON DOWRIES 139 
 
 tried to stop the custom but it is too old. They say Toyama 
 people spend more proportionately than the people in other 
 prefectures. In general they do not keep a horse or ox. I 
 heard of young farmers stealing each other's crops. Parents 
 are very severe upon a daughter who becomes ill-famed, 
 for when they seek a husband for her they must spend more. 
 So mostly daughters keep their purity before marriage. 
 But I know parts of Japan where a large number of the 
 girls have ceased to be virtuous. Concerning the priests, 
 those of Toyama are the worst. A peasant proprietor 
 with seven of a family and a balance at the end of the year 
 of 100 yen must pay 30 to 40 yen to the temple. Some 
 priests threaten the farmer, sajong that if he does not pay 
 as much as is imposed on him by the collector an inferior 
 Buddha will go past his door. Priests want to keep farmers 
 foolish as long as they can." 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE nun's cell 
 
 (nagano) 
 
 It is one more incitement to a man to do well. — Boswell 
 
 EightV per cent, of Nagano is slope. Hence its dependence 
 on sericulture. The low stone-strewn roofs of the houses, 
 the railway snow shelters and the zig-zag track which the 
 train takes, hint at the clintiatic conditions in winter time. 
 Despite the snow — ski-ing has been practised for some years 
 — the summer climate of Nagano has been compared with 
 that of Champagne and there is one vineyard of 60,000 
 vines. 
 
 I was invited to join a circle of administrators who were 
 discussing rural morality and rehgion. One man said 
 that there was not 20 per cent, of the villages in which 
 the priests were " active for social development." Another 
 speaker of experience declared that " the four pillars of 
 an agriculttiral village " were " the soncho (headman), 
 the schoolmaster, the policeman and the most influential 
 villager." He went on : "In Europe religion does many 
 things for the support and development of morality, but 
 we look to education, for it aims not at only developing 
 intelligence and giving knowledge, but at teaching 
 virtue and honesty. But there is something beyond that. 
 Thousands of our soldiers died willingly in the Russian war. 
 There must have been something at the bottom of their 
 hearts. That something is a certain sentiment which 
 penetrates deeply the characters of our countrymen. 
 Our morality and customs have it in their foundations. 
 This spirit is Yamato damashii (Japanese spirit). It ap- 
 peared among our warriors as bushido (the way of the 
 soldier), but it is not the monopoly of soldiers. Every 
 
 140 
 
"HALF-CIVILISED" EUROPE 141 
 
 Japanese has some of this spirit. It is the moral backbone 
 of Japan." 
 
 " I should like to say," another speaker declared, " that 
 I read naany European and American books, but I remain 
 Japanese. Mr. Uchimura sees the darkest side of Buddh- 
 ism and Mr. Lafcadio Hearn expected too much from it. 
 ' So mysterious,' Hearn said, but it is not so mysterious to 
 us. We must be grateful to him for seeing something of 
 the essence of our life. Sometimes, however, we may be 
 ashamed of his beautifying sentences. I am a modern man, 
 but I am not ashamed when my wife is with child to pray 
 that it may be healthy and wise. It is possible for us 
 Japanese to worship some god somewhere wTtEout knowing 
 why. TKe poet says, ' I do not know the reason of it, but . 
 tears fall down from my eyes m reverence and gratitude.' 
 I suppose this is natural theology. The proverb says, 
 ' Even the head of a sardine is something if believed ig,.' 
 I attach more importance to a man's attitudeTo something 
 higher than himself than to the thing which is revered by_ 
 him. Whether a man goes to Nara and Kyoto or to a 
 Roman Catholic or a Methodist church he can come home 
 very purified in heart." 
 
 " Some foreigners have thought well to call us ' half 
 civilised,' " the speaker went on. " Can it be that 
 uncivilised is something distasteful to or not understood by 
 Europeans and Americans ? We have the ambition to 
 erect some system of Eastern civilisation. It is possible 
 that we may have it in our minds to call some things in 
 Europe ' half civilised.' Surely the barbarians are usually 
 the people other than ourselves. When the townsman 
 goes to the country he says the people are savages. But 
 the countryman finds his fellow-savages quite decent 
 people." 
 
 " Some time ago," broke in a professor, " I read a 
 novel by Ren6 Bazin and I could not but think how much 
 ahke were our peasants and the peasants of the West." 
 
 The previous speaker resumed : " The other day a 
 foreigner laughed in my presence at our old art of incense 
 burning and actually said that we were deficient in the sense 
 of smell. I told him that fifty years ago our samurai 
 
142 THE NUN'S CELL 
 
 class, in excusing their anti-foreign manifestations, said they 
 could not endure the smell of foreigners, and that to this 
 day our peasants may be heard to say of Western people, 
 ' They smell ; they smell of butter and fat. ' " 
 
 In the city of Nagano early in the morning I went to a 
 large Buddhist temple where the authorities had kindly 
 given me special facilities to see the treasures — alas ! all in 
 a wooden structure. A strange thing was the preservation 
 untouched of the room in which the Emperor Meiji rested 
 thirty years ago. May oblivion be one day granted to 
 that awful chenille table cover and those appalling chairs 
 which outrage the beautiful woodwork and the golden 
 tatami of a great building ! At the entrance of the temple 
 priests in a kind of open office were reading the newspaper, 
 playing go or smoking. More pleasing was the sight of 
 matting spread right round the temple below its eaves, in 
 order that weary pilgrims might sleep there, and the spec- 
 tacle of travel-stained women tranquilly sleeping or suckling 
 their infants before the shrine itself. There is a pitch dark 
 underground passage below the floor round the founda- 
 tions of the great Buddha, and if the circuit be made and 
 the lock communicating with the entrance door to the 
 sacred figure be fortunately touched on the way, paradise, 
 peasants believe, is assured. I made the circuit a few 
 moments after an old woman and found the lock, and on 
 returning to the temple with the rustic dame knelt with 
 her before the shrine as the curtain which veils the big 
 Buddha was withdrawn. The face of one wooden figure 
 in the temple had been worn, like that of many another in 
 Japan, with the stroking that it had received from the ailing 
 faithful. 
 
 I had the privilege of visiting the adjoining nunnery. As 
 I was specially favoured by a general admission, I asked to 
 be permitted to see some nuns' cells. They showed a 
 Buddhist advance on Western ideas. The word " cells " 
 was a misnomer for beautiful little flower-adorned rooms 
 of a cheerful Japanese house. The fragile, wistful nun 
 who was so kind as to speak with me had a consecrated 
 expression. Her dress was white, and over it was brocade 
 in a perfect combination of green and cream. Her head 
 
I.X A BUDDHIST XUXtXERT. iJ.lJi; 
 
 GBASS-OUTTISCi TOOLS OOMPAKED WITH A "VVESTBBX SCYTHE, p. 307 
 
 U3] 
 
THE CHILD -OOLLBCTOES OF VILLAGERS" SAYISaS. r- 230 
 
 NUXS PHOTOGRAPHED IN A " CELL " BY THE AUTHOR, p. 142 
 
 STUDENTS' STUDY AT AN AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, p. 50 
 
 [143 
 
"SLAVES OF THEIR HUSBANDS" 143 
 
 was shaven ; her hands, which continually told her beads, 
 were hidden. Religious services are conducted and sermons 
 are delivered here and in other nunneries by the nuns 
 themselves. I could not but be sorry for some girl children 
 who had become nuns on their relatives' or guardians' 
 decision. Adult newcomers are given a month in which, 
 if they wish, they may repent them of their vows ; but 
 what of the children ? The head of this nunnery was a 
 member of the Imperial family. The institution, like the 
 temple from which I had just come, stores thousands of 
 wooden tablets to the memory of the dead. There are 
 many little receptacles in which the hair, the teeth or 
 the photographs of believers are preserved. I found that 
 both at the nunnery and the temple a practical interest 
 was being shown in the reformation of ex-criminals. 
 
 While in the highlands of Nagano I spent a night at 
 Karuizawa, a hill resort at which tired missionaries and their 
 families, not only from all parts of Japan but from China, 
 gather in the sununer months beyond the reach of the 
 mosquito." I stayed in the summer cottage of my travel- 
 ling companion's brother-in-law. The family consisted of 
 a reserved, cultivated man with a pretty wife of what I 
 have heard a foreigner call " the maternal, domestic type." 
 In their owlishness newcomers to the country are inchned to 
 commiserate all Japanese housewives as the " slaves of 
 their husbands." They would have been sadly wrong in 
 such thoughts about this happy wife and mother. The 
 eldest boy, a wholesome-looking lad, had just passed 
 through the middle school on his way to the university, 
 and spoke to me in simple English with that air of responsi- 
 bility which the eldest son so soon acquires in Japan. His 
 brothers and sisters enjoyed a happy relation with him 
 and with each other. The whole family was merry, 
 unselfish and, in the best sense of the word, educated. 
 As we knelt on our zabuton we refreshed ourselves with tea 
 and the fine view of the active volcano, Asama, and chatted 
 
 » Although, as has been seen, the rural problems under investigation 
 in this book are inextricably bound up with religion, limits of space make 
 it necessary to reserve for another volume the consideration of the large 
 and complex question of missionary work. 
 
144 THE NUN'S CELL 
 
 on schools, holidays, books, the country and religion. 
 After a while, a little to my surprise, the mother in her sweet 
 voice gravely said that if I would not mind at all she would 
 like very much to ask me two questions. The first was, 
 " Are the people who go to the Christian church here all 
 Christians ? " and the second, " Are Christians as affec- 
 tionate as Japanese ? " 
 
 Karuizawa, which is full of ill-nourished, scabby-headed, 
 " bubbly-nosed " ^ Japanese children, is an impoverished 
 place on one of the ancient highways. We took ourselves 
 along the road until we reached at a slightly higher altitude 
 the decayed village of Oiwake. When the railway came 
 near it finished the work of desolation which the cessation 
 of the daimyos' progresses to Yedo (now Tokyo) had begun 
 half a century ago. In the days of the Shogun three- 
 quarters of the 300 houses were inns. Now two-thirds of 
 the houses have become uninhabitable, or have been sold, 
 taken down and rebuilt elsewhere. The Shinto shrines are 
 neglected and some are unroofed, the Zen temple is im- 
 poverished, the school is comfortless and a thousand tomb- 
 stones in the ancient burying ground among the trees are 
 half hidden in moss and undergrowth. 
 
 The farm rents now charged in Oiwake had not been 
 changed for thirty, forty or fifty years. In the old inn there 
 was a Shinto shrine, about 12 ft. long by nearly 2 ft. deep, 
 with latticed sliding doors. It contained a dusty collection 
 of charms and memorials dating back for generations. 
 Outside in the garden at the spring I found an irregular 
 row of half a dozen rather dejected-looking little stone 
 hokora about a foot high. Some had faded gohei thrust 
 into them, but from the others the clipped paper strips had 
 blown away. At the foot of the garden I discovered a 
 somewhat elaborate wooden shrine in a dilapidated state. 
 " Few country people," someone said to me, " know who 
 is enshrined at such a place." It is generally thought that 
 these shrines are dedicated to the fox. But the foxes are 
 
 1 As to the "bubbly-nosed oallant," to quote the description given of 
 young Smollett, nasal unpleasantness seems to be popularly regarded as 
 a sign of health. The constant sight of it is one of the minor discomforts 
 of travel. 
 
THE RETURNED TEN SEN 145 
 
 merely the messengers of the shrine, as is shown by the 
 figures of crouching or squatting foxes at either side. A 
 well-known professor lately arrived at the conviction that 
 the god worshipped at such shrines is the god of agri- 
 culture. He went so far as to recommend the faculty of 
 agriculture at Tokyo university to have a shrine erected 
 within its waUs to this divinity, but the suggestion was not 
 adopted. 
 
 In the course of another chat with the old host of the inn 
 he referred to the time, close on half a century ago, when 
 3,000 hungry peasants marched through the district 
 demanding rice. They did no harm. " They were satisfied 
 when they were given food ; the peasants at that time were 
 heavily oppressed." To-day the people round about look 
 as if they were oppressed by the ghosts of old-time tjnrants. 
 But there is " something that doth linger " of self-respect. 
 When we left on our way to Tokyo I gave the man who 
 brought our bags a mile in a barrow to the station 40 sen. 
 He returned 10 sen, saying that 30 sen was enough. 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE SILK PREFECTURE^ 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PROBLEMS BEHIND THE PICTURESQUE 
 (SAITAMA, GUMMA, NAGANO AND YAMANASHi) 
 
 A foreigner who comes among us without prejudice may speak his 
 mind freely. — Goldsmith 
 
 I WENT back to Nagano to visit the silk industrial regions. 
 My route lay through the prefectures of Saitama and 
 Gumma. I left Tokyo on the last day of June. Many 
 farmers were threshing their barley. On the dry- land 
 patches, where the grain crop had been harvested, soya 
 bean, sown between the rows of grain long before harvest, 
 was becoming bushier now that it was no longer over- 
 shadowed. Maize in most places was about a foot high, 
 but where it had been sown early was already twice that 
 height. The sweet potato had been planted out from its 
 nursery bed for weeks. Here and there were small crops of 
 tea which had been severely picked for its second crop. I 
 noticed melons, cucumbers and squashes, and patches of 
 the serviceable burdock. Many paddy farmers had water 
 areas devoted to lotus, but the big floating leaves were not 
 yet illumined by the mysterious beauty of the honey- 
 scented flowers. 
 
 In order to imagine the scene on the rice flats, the reader 
 must not think of the glistering paddy fields ' as stretching 
 in an unbroken monotonous series over the plain. 
 Occasionally a rocky patch, outcropping from the paddy 
 tract, made a little island of wood. Sometimes it was a 
 
 1 The three leading silk prefectures are in order : Nagano, Fukushima 
 and Gumma. 
 
 2 At this time of the year, when the rice plants are small, the water in 
 the paddies is still conspicuous. 
 
 146 
 
A POINT FOR VEGETARIANS 147 
 
 sacred grove in which one caught a glimpse of a Shinto 
 shrine or the head stones of the dead. Sometimes there 
 was a little clump of cropped tree greenery which kept a 
 farmhouse cool in summer and, at another time of the 
 year, sheltered from the wind. Few householders were too 
 poor or too busy to be without their little patch of flowers. 
 
 Before the train climbed out of the Kwanto plain 
 temperature of not far below 100° F. the planting of rice 
 seemed to be almost an enviable occupation. The peasant 
 had his great umbrella-shaped straw hat, sometimes an 
 armful of green stuff tied on his back, and a delicious 
 feeling of being up to the knees in water or mud on a hot 
 day — one recalled the mud baths of the West — when the 
 alternative was walking on a dusty road, digging on the 
 sun-baked upland or perspiring in a house or the train. 
 
 With the rise in the level a few mulberries began to 
 appear and gradually they occupied a large part of the 
 holdings. Sometimes the mulberries were cultivated as 
 shoots from a stump a little above ground level, and 
 sometimes as a kind of small standard. As mulberry, 
 culture increased, the silk factories' whitewashed cocoon 
 stores and the tall red and black iron chimneys of the 
 factories themselves became more numerous. It is a pity 
 that the silk factory is not always so innocent-looking 
 inside as the pure white exterior of its stores might suggest. 
 It is certain that the overworked girl operatives, sitting 
 at their steaming basins, drawing the silk from the soaked 
 cocoons, were glad to find the weather conditions such that 
 they could have the sides of their reeling sheds removed. 
 
 At many of the railway stations there were stacks of 
 large, round, flat bean cakes, for the farmer feeds his " cake " 
 to his fields direct, not through the medium of cattle. 
 Although a paddy receives less agreeable nutritive materials 
 than bean cake, the extensive use of this cake must be com- 
 forting to a little school of rural reformers in the West. 
 These ardent vegetarians have refused to hsten to the 
 allegation that vegetarianism was impossible because 
 without meat-eating there would be no cattle and there- 
 fore no nitrogen for the fields. 
 
 It was not only the bean cakes at the stations which 
 
148 PROBLEMS BEHIND THE PICTURESQUE 
 
 caught my attention but the extensive use of lime. Square 
 miles of paddy field were white with powdered lime, 
 scattered before the planting of the rice, an operation which 
 in the higher altitudes would not be finished until well on 
 in July. 
 
 A contented and prosperous countryside was no doubt 
 the impression reflected to many passengers in the train 
 that sunny day. But I knew how closely pressed the 
 farmers had been by the rise in prices of many things that 
 they had got into the way of needing. I had learnt, too, 
 the part that superstition ' as well as simple faith played in 
 the lives of the country folk. When, however, I pondered 
 the way in which the rural districts had been increasingly 
 invaded by factories run under the commercial sanctions 
 of our eighteen- forties, I asked myself whether there might 
 not be superstitions of the economic world as well as of 
 religious and social life. 
 
 I heard a Japanese speak of being well treated at inns in 
 the old days for 20 sen a night. It should be remembered, 
 however, that there is a system not only of tipping inn ser- 
 vants but of tipping the inn. The gift to the inn is called 
 chadai and guests are expected to offer a sum which has 
 some relation to their position and means and the food and 
 treatment they expect. I have stayed at inns where I 
 have paid as much chadai as bill. To pay 50 per cent, of 
 the bill as chadai is common. The idea behind chadai is 
 that the inn-keeper charges only his out-of-pocket expenses 
 and that therefore the guest naturally desires to requite 
 him. In acknowledgment of chadai the inn-keeper brings 
 a gift to the guest at his departure — fans, pottery, towels, 
 picture postcards, fruit or slabs of stiff acidulated fruit 
 jelly (in one inn of grapes and in another of plums) laid 
 between strips of maize leaf. The right time to give 
 chadai is on entering the hotel, after the " welcome tea." 
 In handing money to any person in Japan, except a porter 
 or a hurumaya, the cash or notes are wrapped in paper. 
 
 On the journey from the city of Nagano to Matsumoto, 
 wonderful views were unfolded of terraced rice fields, and, 
 
 1 An old Japan hand once counselled me that " the thing to find out 
 in sociological enquiries is not people's religions but their superstitions." 
 
"OUR MORALS ARE NOT SO BAD" 149 
 
 above these, of terraced fields of mulberry. How many- 
 hundred feet high the terraces rose as the train climbed the 
 hills I do not know, but I have had no more vivid impression 
 of the triumphs of agricultural hydraulic engineering. We 
 were seven minutes in passing through one tunnel at a high 
 elevation. 
 
 I spoke in the train with a man who had a dozen cho 
 under grapes, 20 per cent, being European varieties and 80 
 per cent. American. He said that some of the people in 
 his district were " very poor." Some farmers had made 
 money in sericulture too quickly for it to do them good. 
 He volunteered the opinion, in contrast with the statement 
 made to me during oiir journey to Niigata, that the people 
 of the plains were morally superior to the people of the 
 mountains. The reason he gave was that " there are many 
 recreations in the plains whereas in the mountains there is 
 only one." In most of the mountain villages he knew three- 
 quarters of the young men had relations with women, 
 mostly with the girls of the village or the adjoining village. 
 He would not make the same charge against more than 
 ten per cent, of the young men of the plains, and "it is 
 after all with teahouse girls." He thought that there 
 were " too many temples and too many sects, so the priests 
 are starved." 
 
 An itinerant agricultural instructor in sericulture who 
 joined in our conversation was not much concerned by the 
 plight of the priests. " The causes of goodness in our 
 people," he said, " are family tradition and home training. 
 Candidly, we believe our morals are not so bad on the whole. 
 We are now putting most stress on economic development. 
 How to maintain their families is the question that troubles 
 people most. With that question unsolved it is preaching 
 to a horse to preach morality. We can always find high 
 ideals and good leaders when economic conditions improve. 
 The development of morality is our final aim, but it is en- 
 couraged for six years at the primary school. The child 
 learns that if it does bad things it will be laughed at and 
 despised by the neighbours and scolded by its parents. We 
 are busy with the betterment of economic conditions and 
 questions about moraUty and religion puzzle us." 
 
150 PROBLEMS BEHIND THE PICTURESQUE 
 
 When I reached Matsumoto I met a rural dignitary who 
 deplored the increasing tendency of city men to invest in 
 rural property. " Sometimes when a peasant sells his 
 land he sets up as a money-lender." I was told that nearly 
 every village had a sericultural co-operative association, 
 which bought manures, mulberry trees and silk- worm eggs, 
 dried cocoons and hatched eggs for its members and spent 
 money on the destruction of rats. Of recent years the 
 county agricultural association had given 5 yen per tan to 
 farmers who planted improved sorts of mulberry. About 
 half the farmers in the county had manure houses. Some 
 800 farmers in the county kept a labourer. 
 
 I went to see a guncho and read on his wall : " Do not 
 get angry. Work ! Do not be in a hurry, yet do not 
 be lazy." " These being my faults," he explained, " I 
 specially wrote them out." There was also on his wall a 
 kakemono reading : "At twenty I found that even a plain 
 householder may influence the future of his province ; at 
 thirty that he may influence the future of his nation ; at 
 forty that he may influence the future of the whole world." 
 Below this stirring sentiment was a portrait of the writer, 
 a samurai scholar, from a photograph taken with a camera 
 which he had made himself. He hved in the last period of 
 the Shogunate and studied Dutch books. He was killed by 
 an assassin at the instance, it was believed, of the Shogun. 
 
 One of the noteworthy things of Matsumoto was the 
 agricultural association's market. Another piece of organ- 
 isation in that part of the world was fourteen institutes 
 where girls were instructed in the work of silk factory hands. 
 The teachers' salaries were paid by the factories. So were 
 also the expenses of the silk experts of the local authorities. 
 On the day I left the city the daily paper contained an 
 announcement of lectures on hygiene to women on three 
 successive days, " the chief of police to be present." This 
 paper was demanding the exemption of students from the 
 bicycle tax, the rate of which varies in different pre- 
 fectures. 
 
 A young man was brought to see me who was special- 
 ising in musk melons. He said that the Japanese are 
 gradually getting out of their partiality for unripe fruit. 
 
AN ENTERPRISING YOUNG MAN 151 
 
 On our way to the Suwas we saw many wretched dwell- 
 ings. The feature of the landscape was the silk factories' 
 tall iron chimneys, ordinarily black though sometimes 
 red, white or blue. 
 
 It is not commonly understood that Japanese lads by 
 the time they " graduate " from the middle school into 
 the higher school have had some elementary military train- 
 ing. A higher-school youth knows how to handle a rifle 
 and has fired twice at a target. At Kami Suwa the 
 problem of how middle-class boys should procure econom- 
 ical lodging while attending their classes had been solved 
 by self-help. An ex-scholar of twenty had managed to 
 borrow 4,000 yen and had proceeded to build on a hillside 
 a dormitory accommodating thirty-six boarders. Lads did 
 the work of levelling the ground and digging the well. 
 The frugal lines on which the lodging-house was conducted 
 by the lads themselves may be judged from the fact that 
 5 yen a month covered everything. Breakfast consisted 
 of jice, miso soup and pickles. Cooking and the emptying 
 of the benjo ' were done by the lads in turn. A kitchen 
 garden was run by common effort. Among the many 
 notices on the walls was one giving the names of the resi- 
 dents who showed up at 5 o'clock in the morning for a cold 
 bath and fencing. I also saw the following instruction 
 written, by the founder of the house, which is read aloud 
 every morning by each resident in turn : 
 
 Be independent and pure and strive to make your char- 
 acters more beautiful. Expand your thought. Help each 
 other to accomplish your ambitions. Be active and steady 
 and do not lose your self-control. Be faithful to friends and 
 righteous and polite. Be silent and keep order. Do not 
 be luxurious (sic). Keep everything clean. Pay attention 
 to sanitation. Do not neglect physical exercises. Be 
 diUgent and develop your intelligence. 
 
 The borrower of the 4,000 yen with which the institution 
 was built managed to pay it back within seven years 
 with interest, out of the subscriptions of residents and 
 ex-residents. 
 
 1 See Appendix IV. 
 12 
 
152 PROBLEMS BEHIND THE PICTURESQUE 
 
 An agricultural authority whom I met spoke of " farming 
 families living from hand to mouth and their land slipping 
 into the possession of landlords " ; also of a fifth of the 
 peasants in the prefecture being tenants. A young novel- 
 ist who had been wandering about the Suwa district had 
 been impressed by the grim realities of life in poor farmers' 
 homes and cited facts on which he based a low view of rural 
 morality. 
 
 Suwa Lake lies more than 3,500 ft. above sea level and 
 in winter is covered with skaters. The country round 
 about is remarkable agriculturally for the fact that many 
 farmers are able to lead into their paddies not only warm 
 water from the hot springs but water from ammonia 
 springs, so economising considerably in their expenditure 
 on manure. A simple windmill for lifting the fertiUsing 
 water is sold for only 4 yen. 
 
 We went to Kofu, the capital of Yamanashi prefecture, 
 through many mountain tunnels and ravines. Entrancing 
 is the just word for this region in the vicinity of the Alps. 
 But joy in the beauty through which we passed is tinged 
 for the student of rural life by thoughts of the highlander's 
 difficulties in getting a living in spots where quiet streams 
 may become in a few hours ungovernable torrents. I 
 remember glimpses of grapes and persimmons, of parties of 
 middle-school boys tramping out their holiday — every inn 
 reduces its terms for them— and of half a dozen peasant 
 girls bathing in a shaded stream. But there were less 
 pleasing scenes : hills deforested and paddies wrecked by a 
 waste of stones and gravel flung over them in time of flood. 
 Here and there the indomitable farmers, counting on the 
 good behaviour of the river for a season or two, were 
 endeavouring, with enormous labour, to resume possession 
 of what had been their own. The spectacle illustrated at 
 once their spirit and their industry and their need of land. 
 At night we slept at Kofu at " the inn of greeting peaks." 
 In the morning a Governor with imagination told me of 
 the prefecture's gallant enterprises in afforestation and river 
 embanking at expenditures which were almost crippling. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE BIRTH, BEIDAL AND DEATH OF THE SILK-WOKM 
 
 (NAGANO) 
 
 The mulberry leaf knoweth not that it shall be silk. — Arab proverb 
 
 One acre in every dozen in Japan produces mulberry leaves 
 for feeding the silk-worms which two million farming 
 families — more than a third of the farming families of 
 the country — painstakingly rear. 
 
 But the mulberry is not the only mark of a sericultural 
 district. Its mark may be seen in the tall chimneys of the 
 factories and in the structure of the farmers' houses. 
 Breeders of silk-worms are often well enough off to have 
 tiled instead of thatched roofs ; they have frequently two 
 storeys to their dwellings ; and they have almost always a 
 roof ventilator so that the vitiated air from the hibachi- 
 heated silk- worm chambers may be carried oft. Yet another 
 sign of sericulture being a part of the agricultural activities 
 of a district is its prosperity. Silk-worms produce the 
 most valuable of all Japanese exports, Japan sends 
 abroad more raw silk than any other country.' 
 
 It is in the middle of the country that sericulture chiefly 
 flourishes. The smallest output of raw silk is from the 
 most northerly prefecture and from the prefecture in the 
 extreme south-west of the mainland. But human aptitude 
 plays its part as well as climate. The Japanese hand is a 
 wonderful piece of mechanism — look at the hands of the 
 next Japanese you meet — and in sericulture its delicate 
 touch is used to the utmost advantage. 
 
 The gains of sericulture are not made without corre- 
 sponding sacrifices. Silk- worm raising is infinitely laborious. 
 The constant picking of leaves, the bringing of them home 
 and the chopping and supplying of these leaves to the 
 
 1 For statistics of serioultiire, see Appendix XXXIX. 
 153 
 
154 BIRTH, BRIDAL AND DEATH OF SILK- WORM 
 
 smallest of all live stock and the maintenance of a proper 
 temperature in the rearing-chamber day and night mean 
 unending work. The silk- worms may not be fed less than 
 four or five times in the day ; in their early life they are 
 fed seven or eight times. This is the feeding system for 
 spring caterpillars. Summer and autumn breeds must have 
 two or three more meals. The men and women who attend 
 to them, particularly the women, are worn out by the end 
 of the season. " The women have only three hours' rest 
 in the twenty-four hours," I remember someone saying. 
 " They never loose their obi." 
 
 When the caterpillars emerge from the tiny, pin-head-like 
 eggs of the silk- worm moth they are minute creatures. 
 Therefore the mulberry leaves are chopped very fine indeed. 
 They are chopped less and less fine as the silk- worms grow, 
 until finally whole leaves and leaves adhering to the shoots 
 are given. Some rearers are skilful enough to supply fi-om 
 the very beginning leaves or leaves still on the shoots. 
 The caterpillars live in bamboo trays or " beds " on racks. 
 In the house of one farmer I found caterpillars about three- 
 quarters of an inch long occupying fifteen trays. When 
 the silk-worms grew larger they would occupy two 
 hundred trays. 
 
 The eggs, when not produced on the farm, are bought 
 adhering to cards about a foot square. There are usually 
 marked on these cards twenty-eight circles about 2 ins. 
 in diameter. Each circle is covered with eggs. The eggs 
 come to be arranged in these convenient circles because, as 
 will be explained later on, the moths have been induced to 
 lay within bottomless round tins placed on the circles on 
 the cards. The eggs are sticky when laid and therefore 
 adhere. In a year 35,000,000 cards, containing about a 
 billion eggs, are produced on some 10,000 egg-raising farms. 
 
 The eggs— they are called " seed " — are hatched in the 
 spring (end of April — as soon as the first leaves of the 
 mulberry are available — to the middle of May), summer 
 (June and July) and autumn (August and October). It 
 takes from three to seven days — according to temperature 
 — for the " seed " to hatch, and from twenty to thirty-two 
 days — according to temperature — ^for the silk-worms to 
 
THE WONDER OF BIRTH AND LIFE 155 
 
 reach maturity. Half the hatching is done in spring. 
 In one farmer's house I visited in the spring season I 
 found that he had hatched fifty cards of " seed." From 
 the birth of the caterpillars to the formation of cocoons 
 the casualties must be reckoned at ten per cent, daily. 
 Not more than eighty-five per cent, of the cocoons which 
 are produced are of good quality. The remainder are 
 misshapen or contain dead chrysalises. As there are 
 more than a thousand breeds of silk- worm, all cocoons are 
 not of the same shape and colour. Some are oval ; some 
 are shaped like a monkey nut. Most are white but some 
 are yellow and others yellow tinted. 
 
 In the whole world of stock raising there is nothing more 
 remarkable than the birth of silk- worm moths. The co- 
 coons on the racks in the farmer's loft are covered by sheets 
 of newspaper in which a number of round holes about three- 
 quarters of an inch in diameter have been cut. When the 
 moths emerge from their cocoons they seek these openings 
 towards the light and creep through to the upper side of the 
 newspaper. For newly born things they come up through 
 these openings with astonishing ardour. In body and wings 
 the moths are flour white. White garments are suitable 
 for the babe, the bride and the dead, and the moth perfected 
 in the cocoon is arrayed not only for its birth but for bridal 
 and death, which come upon it in swift succession. The 
 male as well as the female is in white and is distinguishable 
 by being somewhat smaller in size. On the newspaper the 
 few males who have not found partners are executing wild 
 dances, their wings whirring the while at a mad pace. When 
 from time to time they cease dancing they haimt the holes 
 in the paper through which the newly born moths emerge. 
 When a female appears a male instantly rushes towards her, 
 or rather the two creatures rush towards one another, and 
 they are at once locked in a fast embrace. Immediately 
 their wings cease to flutter, the only commotion on the news- 
 paper being made by the unmated males. In a hatching- 
 room these males on the stacks of trays are so numerous 
 that the place is filled with the sound of the whirring of 
 their wings. The down flies from their wings to such an 
 extent that one continually sneezes. The spectacle of the 
 
156 BIRTH, BRIDAL AND DEATH OF SILK-WORM 
 
 stacks of trays covered by these ecstatic moths is re- 
 markable, but still more remarkable is the thrilUng sense 
 of the power of the life-force in a supposedly low form of 
 consciousness. 
 
 The wonder of the scene is missed, no doubt, by most 
 of those who are habituated to it. From time to time 
 weary, stolid-looking girls or old women lift down the trays 
 and run their hands over them in order to pick up super- 
 fluous male moths. Sometimes the male moths are walking 
 about the newspaper, sometimes they are torn callously 
 from the embrace of their mates. The fate of the male 
 moths is to be flung into a basket where they stay until 
 the next day, when perhaps some of them may be mated 
 again. The novice is impressed not only by the ruthless- 
 ness of this treatment but by the way in which the whole 
 loft is littered by male moths which have fallen or have been 
 flung on the floor and are being trampled on. 
 
 The female moths, when their partners have been 
 removed, are taken downstairs in newspapers in order to 
 be put into the little tin receptacles where the eggs are to 
 be laid. On a tray there are spread out a number of egg 
 cards with, as before mentioned, twenty-eight printed circles 
 on each of them. On these circles are placed the twenty- 
 eight half-inch-high bottomless enclosures 6f tin. Some 
 one takes up a handful of moths and scatters them over the 
 tins. Some of the moths fall neatly into a tin apiece. 
 Others are helped into the little enclosures in which, to do 
 them credit, they are only too willing to take up their 
 quarters. The curious thing is the way in which each moth 
 settles down within her ring. Indeed from the moment 
 of her emergence from the cocoon until now she has never 
 used her wings to fly. Nor did the male moth seem to 
 wish to fly. The sexes concentrate their whole attention 
 on mating. After that the female thinks of nothing but 
 lajdng eggs. Almost immediately after she is placed within 
 her little tin she begins to deposit eggs, and within a few 
 hours the circle of the card is covered. 
 
 Food is given neither to the females nor to the males. 
 Those which are not kept in reserve for possible use on the 
 second day are flung out of doors. When the female moth 
 
THE MOTH AND THE MICROSCOPE 157 
 
 has deposited her eggs she also is destroyed.' The shoji 
 of the breeding and egg-laying rooms permit only of a dif- 
 fused light. The discarded moths are cast out into the 
 brilliant sunshine where they are eaten by poultry or are 
 left to die and serve as manure. 
 
 Sericulture is always a risky business. There is first 
 the risk of a fall in prices. Just before I reached Japan 
 ""prices were so low that many people despaired of being 
 able to continue the business, and shortly after I left there 
 was a crisis in the silk trade in which numbers of silk 
 factories failed. At the time I was last in a silk-worm 
 farmer's house cocoons were worth from 5 to 6 yen per kwan 
 of Sj lbs. From 8 to 10 kwan of cocoons could be expected 
 from a single egg card. Eggs were considered to be at a 
 high price when they were more than 2 yen per card. The 
 risks of the farmer are increased when he launches out and 
 buys mulberry leaves to supplement those produced on 
 his own land. Sometimes the price of leaves is so high 
 that farmers throw away some of their silk- worms. The 
 risks run by the man who grows mulberries beyond his own 
 leaf requirements on the chance of selling are also con- 
 siderable. 
 
 Beyond the risk of falling prices or of a short mulberry 
 crop there is in sericulture the risk of disease. One ad- 
 vantage of the system in which the eggs are laid in circles 
 on the cards instead of all over them is that if any disease 
 should be detected the affected areas can be easily cut out 
 with a knife and destroyed. Disease is so serious a matter 
 that silk-worm breeding, as contrasted with silk-worm 
 raising, is restricted to those who have obtained licences. 
 The silk-worm breeder is not only licensed. His silk- 
 worms, cocoons and mother moths are all in turn officially 
 examined. Breeding " seeds " were laid one year by 
 about 33,000,000 odd moths ; common " seeds " by about 
 948,000,000. 
 
 Of recent years enormous progress has been made in 
 combating disease. I have spoken of how a silk-worm 
 district may be recognised by the structure of the farm- 
 
 1 She is examined microsoopioally in order to make sure that she was 
 not affected by infectious disease. 
 
158 BIRTH, BRIDAL AND DEATH OF SILK-WORM 
 
 houses and the prosperity of the farmers, but another 
 striking sign of sericulture is the trays and mats lying in 
 the sun in front of farmers' dwellings or on the hot stones 
 of the river banks in order to get thoroughly purified from 
 germs. It is illustrative of the progress that has been 
 made under scientific influence, that whereas twenty years 
 ago a sericulturist would reckon on losing his silk-worm 
 harvest completely once in five years, such a loss is now 
 rare. Scientific instructors have their difficulties in Japan 
 as in the rural districts of other countries, but the people 
 respect authority, and they are accustomed to accept in- 
 struction given in the form of directions. Also the Japan- 
 ese have an unending interest in the new thing. Further, 
 there is a continual desire to excel for the national advantage 
 and in emulation of the foreigner. The advance in scientific 
 knowledge in the rural districts is remarkable, because it is 
 in such contrast with the primitive lives of the country 
 people. Picture the surprise of British or American 
 farmers were they brought face to face with thermometers, 
 electric light and a working knowledge of bacteriology 
 in the houses of peasants in breech clouts. 
 
 It was while I was trying to learn something of the seri- 
 cultural industry that I had the opportunity of visiting 
 a noteworthy institution. It is noteworthy, among other 
 reasons, because I seldom met a foreigner in Japan who 
 knew of its existence. It is the great Ueda Sericultural 
 College in the prefecture of Nagano. I was struck not only 
 by its extent but by its systematised efficiency. On a 
 level with the director's eyes was a motto in large lettering, 
 " Be diligent. Develop your virtues." 
 
 The Institute devotes itself to mulberries, silk- worms and 
 silk manufacture. There are 200 students, as many as it 
 will hold. The young men become teachers of sericulture, 
 advisers in mills and experts of co-operative sericultural 
 societies. The institution, in addition to the fees it 
 receives and its earnings from its own products, some 
 33,000 yen in all, has an annual Government subsidy of 
 about 114,000 yen. There are other sericultural colleges 
 doing similar work in Tokyo and Kyoto, and there is also 
 in the capital the Imperial Sericultural Experiment Station 
 
T"EACHEBS or A VILLAGE School., p. Ik 
 
 
 
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 1 
 
 ^^^^ni^V^^flHHft ' '"'^v^ 
 
 
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 JH^ 
 
 £ 
 
 
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 QIHLS CAHRYING BALES OF RIOE. p. 136 
 
 
 168] 
 
 SBKIOULTUBAL SCHOOL STUDENTS, p. 158 
 
SOIIE OF THE SILK FACTOHIES IS KA3IISUWA. p. 161 
 
 VILLiOE ASSBJIBLY-KOOM:. p. 1S3 
 
 [153 
 
A NEW MEAT ESSENCE 159 
 
 (with a staff of 87), where I saw all sorts of research work 
 in progress. This experiment station has half a dozen 
 branches scattered up and down the silk districts. 
 
 At Ueda I went through corridors and rooms, sterilised 
 thrice a year, to visit professors engaged in a variety of 
 enquiries. One professor had turned into a kind of beef 
 tea the pupae thrown away when the cocoons are unwound ; 
 another had made from the residual oil two or three kinds 
 of soap. The usual thing at a silk factory is for the pupae, 
 which are exposed to view when the silk is unrolled from 
 the scalded cocoons, to lie about in horrid heaps until 
 they are sold as manure or carp food. The professor 
 declared that his product was equal to a third of the total 
 weight of the pupae utilised, and was sure that it could be 
 sold at a fifteenth of the price of Western beef essences. 
 The Director of the College had tried the product with his 
 breakfast for a fortnight and avowed that during the 
 experiment he was never so perky. 
 
 It was a pleasure to look into the well-kept dormitories 
 of the students, where there was evidence, in books, pictures 
 and athletic material, of a strenuous life. The young men 
 are made fit not only by judo, fencing, archery, tennis and 
 general athletics, but by being sent up the mountains on 
 Sundays. The men are kept so hard that at the open 
 fencing contest twice a year the visitors are usually beaten. 
 The director quoted to me Roosevelt's " Sweat and be 
 saved." 
 
 From men we went to machines and mulberries. I 
 inspected all sorts of hot chambers for killing cocoons. 
 I saw, in rooms draped in black velvet like the pictured 
 scenes at a beheading, silk testing for lustre and colour. I 
 gazed with respect on many kinds of winding and weaving 
 machinery. Then, going out into the experiment fields, I 
 strode through more varieties of mulberry than I had im- 
 agined to exist. There are supposed to be 500 sorts in the 
 country but many are no doubt duplicates. The varieties 
 differ so much in shape and texture of leaf that the novice 
 would not take some of them for mulberries. 
 
 It was held that it would not be difiicult to increase the 
 mulberry area in Japan by another quarter of a million 
 
160 BIRTH, BRIDAL AND DEATH OF SILK-WORM 
 
 acres. The yield of leaves might be raised by 3,300 lbs. per 
 acre if the right sort of bushes were always grown and the 
 right sort of treatment were given to them and to the soil. 
 As to the additional labour needed for an extended seri- 
 culture, the annual increase in the population of Japan 
 would provide it. I was told that' " the technics of seri- 
 culture are sure to improve." It would be easy to raise 
 the yield 2 kwan per egg card for the whole country. 
 Within a seven-year period the production of cocoons 
 per egg card had become 20 per cent, better. The talk was 
 of doubling the present yield of cocoons. The " proper 
 encouragement " needed for doubling the production of 
 cocoons was more technical instruction and more co-opera- 
 tive societies. There had been a continual rise in the 
 world's demand for silk and there was no need to fear 
 " artificial silk." " People who buy it often come to 
 appreciate natural silk." And I read in an official publica- 
 tion that " the climate of Japan is suitable for the cultiva- 
 tion of mulberry trees from south-west Formosa to 
 Hokkaido in the north." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 " GIRL COLLECTORS " AND FACTORIES 
 (NAGANO AND YAMANASHi) 
 
 At your return shew the truth. — ^Fboissart 
 
 I VISITED factories in more than one prefecture. At the 
 first factory — it employed about 1,000 girls and 200 men — 
 work began at 4.30 a.m., breakfast was at 5 and the next 
 meal at 10.30. The stoppages for eating were for a few 
 minutes only. A cake was handed to each girl at her 
 machine at 3. Suppertime came after work was finished 
 at 7.' No money was paid the first year. The second 
 year the wages might be 3 or 4 yen a month. The state- 
 ment was made that at the end of her five years' term a 
 girl might have 300 yen, but that this sum was not within 
 the reach of all.' The girls were driven at top speed by 
 a flag system in which one bay competed with another and 
 was paid according to its earnings. Owing to the heat the 
 flushed girls probably looked better in health than they 
 really were. They were fat in the face, but this could not 
 be regarded as an indication of their general well-being. It 
 was admitted that some girls left through illness. Em- 
 ployees returned to their homes for January and February, 
 when the factory was closed down ; there was also three 
 days' hohday in June. In the dormitory I noticed that 
 
 ^ The times stated are those given to me in the factories. The question 
 of overtime is referred to later in the Chapter. 
 
 2 Again the reader must be reminded of the rise in wages and prices 
 (estimated on p. xxv). During the recent period of inflation, silk rose 
 to 3,000 yen per picul and fell to 1,300 or 1,400 yen. There have been 
 great fluctuations in the wages of factory girls. At the most flourishing 
 period as much as 25 yen per head was paid to recruiters of girls. In this 
 Chapter, however, it is best to record exactly what I saw and heard. 
 
 161 
 
162 " GIRL COLLECTORS " AND FACTORIES 
 
 each girl had the space of one mat only (6 ft. by 3 ft.). 
 Twenty-two girls slept in each dormitory. The men con- 
 nected with this factory were low-looking and shifty-eyed. 
 
 An agricultural expert who was well acquainted with the 
 conditions of silk manufacture and of the district and was 
 in a disinterested position told me after my visit to this 
 factory how the foremen scoured the country for girl labour 
 during January and February. The success of the kemban 
 or girl collector was due to the poverty of the people, who 
 were glad " to be relieved of the cost of a daughter's food." 
 Occasionally the kemban had sub-agents. The mill pro- 
 prietors were in competition for skilled girls, and money 
 was given by a kemban intent on stealing another factory's 
 hand. 
 
 The novices had no contract. The contract of a skilled 
 girl provided that she should serve at the factory for a 
 specified period and that if she failed to do so, she should 
 pay back twenty times the 5 yen or whatever sum had been 
 advanced to her. Obviously 100 yen would be a prohibitive 
 sum for a peasant's daughter to find. The amount of 
 the workers' pay was not specified in the contract. The 
 document was plainly one-sided and would be regarded in 
 an Enghsh court as against public policy and unenforce- 
 able. Married women might take an infant with them 
 to the factory. In more than one factory I saw several 
 thin-faced babies. 
 
 The effect of factory life on girls, a man who knew the 
 countryside well told me, was " not good." The girls had 
 weakened constitutions as the result of their factory hfe and 
 when they married had fewer than the normal number of 
 children. The general result of factory life was degenera- 
 tion. The girls " corrupted their villages." 
 
 The custom was, I understood, that the girls were kept 
 on the factory premises except when they could allege 
 urgent business in town. But they were allowed out on 
 the three nights of the Bon festival. It was rare that 
 priests visited the factories and there were no shrines there. 
 The girls had sometimes " lessons " given them and oc- 
 casionally story-tellers or gramophone owners amused them. 
 The food supplied by some factories was not at all adequate 
 
"THE SPOILING OF THEIR DAUGHTERS" 163 
 
 and the girls had to spend their money at the factory 
 tuck-shops, " Most proprietors," I was told, " endeavour 
 to make part of their staff permanent by acting as middle- 
 men to arrange marriages between female and male 
 workers." The infants of married workers were " looked 
 after by the youngest apprentices." 
 
 In another place I saw over a factory which employed 
 about 160 girls, who were worked from 5.30 a.m. to 6.40 
 p.m. with twenty minutes for each meal. If a girl " broke 
 her contract " it was the custom to send her name to other 
 factories so that she could not get work again. The 
 fotemen at this establishment seemed decent men. 
 
 One who had no financial interest in the silk industry but 
 knew the district in which this second factory stood said 
 that " many girls " came home in trouble. The peasants 
 did not like " the spoiling of their daughters," but were 
 " captured in their poverty by the idea of the money to 
 be gained." Undoubtedly the factory life was pictured in 
 glowing colours by the kemban. 
 
 In a third factory there were more than 200 girls and 
 only 15 men. The proprietor and manager seemed good 
 fellows. I was assured that it was forbidden for men 
 workers to enter the women's quarters, but on entering the 
 dormitory I came on a man and woman scuffling. The girls 
 of this factory and in others had running below their feet 
 an iron pipe which was filled with steam in cold weather. 
 On some days in July, the month in which I visited this 
 factory, I noticed from the temperature record sheet that 
 the heat had reached 94 degrees in the steamy spinning 
 bays, where, unless the weather be damp, it was impossible, 
 because of spinning conditions, to admit fresh air. I saw 
 a complaint box for the workers. As in other factories, 
 there was a certain provision of boiled water and ample 
 bathing accommodation. Hot baths were taken every night 
 in summer and every other night in winter. Here, as else- 
 where, though many of the girls were pale and anaemic, all 
 were clean in their persons, which is more than can be said 
 of all Western factory hands. Work began at 4 a.m. and 
 went on until 7 p.m. From 10 to 15 minutes were allowed 
 for meals. The winter hours were from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 
 
164 "GIRL COLLECTORS" AND FACTORIES 
 
 In this factory, as in others, there was a system of tallies, 
 showing to all the workers the ranking of the girls for pay- 
 ment. The standard wage seemed to be 20 sen a 
 day, and the average to which it was brought by good work 
 30 sen. There were thirty or more girls who had deduc- 
 tions from their 20 sen. Apprentices were shown as work- 
 ing at a loss. Once or twice a month a story-teller came to 
 entertain the girls and every fortnight a teacher gave them 
 instruction. When I asked if a priest came I was told that 
 " in this district the families are not so religious, so the 
 girls are not so pious." Two doctors visited the factory, one 
 of them daily. Counting all causes, 5 per cent, of the girls 
 returned home. The owner of the factory, a man in good 
 physical training and with an alert and kindly face, said 
 the industry succeeded in his district because the employers 
 " exerted themselves " and the girls " worked with the 
 devotion of soldiers." I thought of a motto written by the 
 Empress, which I had seen at Ueda, " It is my wish that 
 the girls whose service it is to spin silk shall be always 
 diligent." Behind the desk of this factory proprietor hung 
 the motto, " Cultivate virtues and be righteous." 
 
 The fourth factory I saw seemed to be staffed entirely 
 with apprentices who were turned over to other factories 
 in their third year. The girls appeared to have to sleep 
 three girls to two mats. In the event of fire the dormitory 
 would be a death-trap. I was told that there was an 
 entertainment or a " lecture on character " once a week. 
 The motto on the walls of this factory was, " Learning 
 right ways means loving mankind." 
 
 I went over the factory which belonged to the largest 
 concern in Japan and had 10,000 hands. The girls were 
 looked after in well- ventilated dormitories by ten old women 
 who slept during the day and kept watch at night. There 
 was a fire escape. All sorts of things were on sale at whole- 
 sale prices at the factory shop, but for any good reason an 
 exit ticket was given to town. The dining-room was ex- 
 cellent. There was a hospital in this factory and the nurse 
 in the dispensary summarised at my request the ailments 
 of the 35 girls who were lying down comfortably : stomachic, 
 12 ; colds, 7 ; fingers hurt by the hot water of the cocoon- 
 
"THE GIRLS ARE IN BETTER CONDITION" 165 
 
 soaking basins, 5 ; female affections, 4 ; nervous, 2 ; eyes, 
 rheumatism, nose, lungs and kidneys, 1 each. The average 
 wages in this factory worked out at 60 yen for 9 months. 
 The hour of beginning work was 4.80 at the earliest. The 
 factory stopped at sunset, the latest hour being 6.80. I was 
 assured that of the girls who did not get married 70 per 
 cent, renewed their contracts. A large enclosed open space 
 was available in which the girls might stroll before going to 
 bed. The motto of the establishment was, " I hear the 
 voice of spring under the shadow of the trees." In reference 
 to the new factory legislation the manager said that the 
 hours of labour were so long that it would be some time 
 before 10 hours a day would be initiated. • This factory 
 and its branches were started thirty years ago by a man 
 who was originally a factory worker. Although now very 
 rich he had " always refused to be photographed and had 
 not availed himself of an opportunity of entering the 
 House of Peers." 
 
 I visited several factories the girls working at which did 
 not live in dormitories but outside. At a winding and 
 hanking factory which was airy and well lighted the hours 
 were from 6 to 6. At a factory where the hours were from 
 4.30 to 7 some reelers had been fined. Japanese Christian 
 pastors sometimes came to see the girls, and on the wall 
 of the recreation room there were paper gohei hung up 
 by a Shinto priest. 
 
 I got the impression that the girls in the factories at 
 Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture were not driven so hard 
 as those at the factories in the Suwas in Nagano. Someone 
 said : " However the Suwa people may exploit their girls, 
 we are able, working shorter hours and giving more enter- 
 tainments, to produce better silk, for the simple reason that 
 the girls are in better condition. We can get from 5 to 10 
 per cent, more for our silk." A factory manager said that 
 it would be better if the girls had a regular holiday once a 
 week, but one firm could not act alone. (The factories are 
 
 ^ On the day on which I re-read this for the printers, I notice in an Ameri- 
 can paper that one of the largest employers of labour in the United States 
 has just stated that he did not see his way to abolish the twelve-houra' 
 day. 
 
166 "GIRL COLLECTORS" AND FACTORIES 
 
 working seven days a week, except for festival days and 
 public holidays.) 
 
 With regard to the kemhan, I was told in Yamanashi 
 that many girls went to the factories " unwillingly by the 
 instructions of their parents." It was also stated that the 
 money paid to girls or their parents on their engagement 
 was not properly a gratuity but an advance. I heard that 
 the police keep a special watch on kemban. They would 
 not do this without good reason. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 " FBIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S " GRIM TALE 
 
 The psychology of behaviour teaches us that [a country's] failures 
 and semi-failures are likely to continue until there is a far more widespread 
 appreciation of the importance of studying the forces which govern 
 behaviour. — Saxby 
 
 I 
 
 I DO not think that some of the factory proprietors are 
 conscious that they are taking undue advantage of their 
 employees. These men are just average persons at the 
 ante-Shaftesbury stage of responsibility towards labour.' 
 Their case is that the girls are pitifully poor and that the 
 factories supply work at the ruling market rates for the 
 work of the pitifully poor. Said one factory owner to me 
 genially : " Peasant families are accustomed to work from 
 dayUght to dark. In the silk- worm feeding season they have 
 almost no time for sleep. Peasant people are trained to 
 long hours. Lazy people might suffer from the long hours 
 of the factory, but the factory girls are not lazy." 
 
 It hardly needs to be pointed out that there is all the 
 difference between a long day at the varied work of a farm, 
 even in the trying silk-worm season, and a long day, for 
 nine or ten months on end, sitting still, with the briefest 
 
 1 It is a chastening exercise to read before proceeding with this Chapter 
 an extract from Spencer Walpole's History of England, vol. iii, p. 317, 
 under the year 1832 : " The manufacturing industries of the country 
 were collected into a few centres. In one sense the persons employed 
 had their reward : the manufacturers gave them wages. In another 
 sense their change of occupation brought them nothing but evil. Forced 
 to dwell in a crowded alley, occupying at night a house constructed in 
 neglect of every known sanitary law, employed in the daytime in an un- 
 healthy atmosphere and frequently on a dangerous occupation, with no 
 education available for his children, with no reasonable recreation, with the 
 sky shrouded by the smoke of an adjoining capital, with the face of nature 
 hiddenjby a brick wall, neglected by an overworked clergyman, regarded 
 as a mere machine by an avaricious employer, the factory operative turned 
 to the public house, the prize ring or the cockpit." 
 13 167 
 
168 "FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S" GRIM TALE 
 
 intervals for food, in the din and heat of a factory. Such a 
 life must be debiUtating. When it is added that in most 
 factories, in the short period between supper and sleep, and 
 again during the night, the girls are closely crowded, no 
 further explanation is wanted of the origin of the tuber- 
 culosis which is so prevalent in the villages which supply 
 factory labour.' There is no question that in the scanty 
 moments the girls do have for an airing most of them are 
 immured within the compounds of their factories. A large 
 proportion of the many thousands of factory girls ^ who are 
 to be mothers of a new generation in the villages are passing 
 years of their lives in conditions which are bad for them 
 physically and morally. It must not be forgotten that very 
 many of the girls go to the factories before they are fully 
 grown. On the question of morality, evidence from dis- 
 interested quarters left no doubt on my mind that the 
 morale of the girls was lowered by factory life. The 
 Lancashire factory girl goes home every evening and she 
 has her Saturday afternoon and her Sunday, her church or 
 chapel, her societies and clubs, her amusements and her 
 sweetheart. Her Japanese sister has none of this natural 
 life and she has infinitely worse conditions of labour. 
 
 It is only fair to remember, however, that the Japanese 
 factory girl comes from a distance. She has no relatives 
 or friends in the town in which she is working. But the 
 plea that she would get into trouble if she were allowed her 
 liberty without control of any sort does not excuse her 
 present treatment. If the factories offered decent con- 
 ditions of life not a few of the companies would get at their 
 doors most of the labour they need and many of the girls 
 woTxld live at home. If the factories insist on having cheap 
 rural labour then they should do their duty by it. The 
 girls should have reasonable working hours, proper sleeping 
 accommodation and proper opportunities inside and out- 
 side the factories for recreation and moral and mental im- 
 provement. It is idle to suggest that fair treatment of 
 this sort is impossible. It is perfectly possible. 
 
 1 See Appendix XL. 
 
 ^ Number of factory workers, a million and a half, of whom 800,000 
 are females. For statistics of women workers, see Appendix XLI. 
 
PROFIT AND NET PROFIT 169 
 
 The factory proprietors are no worse than many other 
 people intent on money making. But the silk industry, 
 as I saw it, was exploiting, consciously or unconsciously, 
 not only the poverty of its girl employees but their strength, 
 morality, deftness ' and remarkable school training in 
 earnestness and obedience. Several times I heard the un- 
 enlightened argument that, if there were a certain sacrifice 
 of health and well-being, a rapidly increasing population 
 made the sacrifice possible ; that, as silk was the most 
 valuable product in Japan, and it was imperative for the 
 development and security of the Empire that its economic 
 position should be strengthened, the sacrifice must be made. 
 Nothing need be said of such a hopelessly out-of-date and 
 nationally indefensible attitude except this : that it is 
 doubtful whether any considerable proportion of the people 
 connected with the silk industry have felt themselves 
 specially charged with a mission to strengthen the economic 
 condition of their country. They have simply availed 
 themselves of a favourable opportunity to make money. 
 That opportunity was presented by the cheap labour 
 available in farmers' daughters unprotected by effective 
 trade unions, by properly administered factory laws or by 
 public opinion. 
 
 II « 
 
 The enterprise, the efficiency and the profits shown by 
 the sericultural industry have been remarkable, and not a 
 few of the capitalists connected with it are personally 
 public-spirited. But many well-wishers of Japan, native- 
 born and foreign, cannot help wondering what is the real 
 as compared with the seeming return of the industry to a 
 nation the strength of which is in its reservoir of rustic 
 health and wiUingness. It is significant of the extent to 
 which the factories are working with cheap labour that, 
 in a country in which there are more men than women,' 
 there was in about 20,000 factories 58 per cent, of female 
 labour. If I stress the fact of female employment it is 
 
 1 The Minister of Commerce has himself stated that the serieioltural 
 industry is rooted in the dexterity of the Japanese oovmtiywoman. 
 3 This section of the Chapter was written in 1921. 
 » In Japan in 1918 there were, per 1,000, 505'2 men to 494-8 women. 
 
170 "FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S" GRIM TALE 
 
 because in Japan nearly every woman eventually marries. 
 Enfeebled women must therefore hand on enfeeblement 
 to the next generation.' 
 
 The Japanese, in their present factory system, as in 
 other developments, insist on making for themselves all the 
 mistakes that we have made and are now ashamed of. 
 In judging the Japanese let us remember that all our in- 
 dustrial exploitation of women ' was not, as we like to 
 believe, an affair as far off as the opening nineteenth century. 
 I do not forget as a young man filling a newspaper poster 
 with the title of an article which recounted from my own 
 observation the woes of women chain makers who, with 
 bared breasts and their infants sprawling in the small coals, 
 slaved in domestic smithies for a pittance. And as I write 
 it is announced that the head of the United States Steel 
 Corporation says that " there is no necessity for trade 
 unions," which are, in his opinion, " inimical to the best 
 interests of the employers and the public." That is pre- 
 cisely the view of most Japanese factory proprietaries. 
 
 The trade union is not illegal in Japan, but its teeth have 
 been drawn (1) by the enactment that " those who, with 
 the object of causing a strike, seduce or incite others " 
 shall be sentenced to imprisonment from one to six months 
 with a fine of from 3 to 30 yen ; (2) by the power given to 
 the police (a) to detain suspected persons for a succession 
 of twenty-four hour periods, and (b) summarily to close 
 public meetings, and (3) by the franchise being so narrow 
 that few trade unionists have votes. During the six years 
 of the War there were as many as 141,000 strikers, but a not 
 uncommon method of these workers was merely to absent 
 
 1 Of the workers under the age of fifteen in the 20,000 factories, 82 per 
 cent, were girls. The statistics in this paragraph were issued by the 
 Ministry of Commerce in 1917. 
 
 2 For sketches of women and children (with a chain between their legs) 
 harnessed to coal wagons in the pits, see Parliamentary Papers, vol. xv, 
 1842. " There is a factory system grown up in England the most horrible 
 that imagination can conceive," wrote Sir William Napier to Lady 
 Heater Stanhope two years after Queen Victoria's accession. " They 
 are hells where hxindreds of children are killed yearly in protracted torture." 
 In Torrens's Memoirs of the Queen's First Prime Minister, one reads : 
 " Melbourne had a Bill drawn which with some difficulty he persuaded 
 the Cabinet to sanction, prohibiting the employment of children under 
 9 in any except silk mills." 
 
"THE SONG OF REVOLUTION" 171 
 
 themselves from work, to refrain from working while in 
 the factory, or to " ca' canny." Nevertheless 638 of them 
 were arrested. When I attended in Tokyo a gathering of 
 members of the leading labour organisation in Japan it 
 was discreetly named Yu-ai-kai (Friend-Love-Society, i.e. 
 Friendly Society). Now it is boldly called the Con- 
 federation of Japanese Labour. A Socialist League ' 
 and several labour publications exist. Workers assemble 
 to see moving pictures of labour demonstrations, and 
 a labour meeting has defied the police in attendance by 
 singing the whole of the '* Song of Revolution." But 
 crippled as the unions are under the law against strikes 
 and by the poverty of the workers, they find it difficult 
 to attain the financial strength 'necessary for effective 
 action. Many workers are trade unionists when they 
 are striking but their trade unionism lapses when the 
 strike is over, for then the unions seem to have small 
 reason for existing. The head of the Federation of Labour 
 lately announced that the number of trade unionists was 
 only 100,000, or half what it was during the recent big 
 strikes ; and it is doubtful whether, even including the 
 7,000 members of the Seamen's Union, there are in Japan 
 more than 50,000 contributing members of the different 
 unions. But this 50,000 may be regarded as staunch. 
 
 The poverty-stricken unions certainly afford no real 
 protection to the girl workers, who form indeed a very 
 small proportion of their members. And the Factory Law 
 does little for them. A Japanese friend who knows the 
 labour situation well writes to me : 
 
 " According to the Factory Law, which came into force in 
 the autumn of 1916, ' factory employers are not allowed 
 to let women work more than twelve hours in a day,' 
 (Article III, section 1.) But if necessary, ' the competent 
 Minister is entitled to extend this limitation to fourteen 
 hours.' (Section 2.) As to night work the law says that 
 ' factory employers are not allowed to let women work 
 from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.' (Article IV.) If, however, there 
 are necessary reasons, ' the employers can be exempted 
 from the obligation of the Article IV.' (Article V.) 
 
 1 More than 200 books on Socialism were published in 1920. 
 
172 "FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S" GRIM TALE 
 
 Article IX says that ' the employers are forbidden to let 
 women engage in dangerous work.' But whether work 
 is dangerous or not is determined by ' the competent 
 Minister ' (Article XI), who may or may not be well in- 
 formed. There is also Article XII, ' The competent Min- 
 ister can limit or prohibit the work of women about to have 
 children ' and within three weeks after confinement. 
 But anyone who enters factories may see women with pale 
 faces because they work too soon after their confinement. 
 " I cannot tell you how far these provisions are enforced. 
 I can only say that I have not yet heard of employers being 
 punished for violating the Factory Law. Can it be supposed 
 that employers are so honest as never to violate the Factory 
 Law ? As to working hours, in some factories they may 
 work less than fourteen hours as the law indicates. In 
 others they may work more, because " there are necessary 
 reasons." This is especially true of the factories in the 
 country parts. As 200 inspectors have been appointed, the 
 authorities must by now know the actual situation pretty 
 well." 
 
 Dr. Kuwata, a former member of the Upper House, with 
 whom I frequently discussed the labour situation, declares 
 the Factory Law to be " palpably imperfect and primitive." 
 At the end of 1917 there were, according to official figures, 
 99,000 female factory operatives under fifteen years of age 
 and 2,400 under twelve. Some 20,000 of these children 
 were employed in silk factories. What protection have 
 they ? Before passing this page for the press I have shown 
 it to a well-informed Japanese friend and he says that he 
 has never seen any newspaper report of a prosecution under 
 the Factory Law. Obviously a Factory Law under which 
 no one is ever prosecuted is not operative.^ 
 
 It is excellent that Japan has sent a large permanent 
 delegation to Switzerland to establish a system of liaison 
 with the International Labour Office of the League of 
 Nations. This company of young men will keep the 
 Japanese Government well informed. There is undoubt- 
 edly in Japan, under Western influence, a steady develop- 
 ment of sensitiveness to working-class conditions and a 
 
 1 For a declaration by Dr. Kuwata concerning bad food and " defianca 
 of hygienic rules," see Appendix XLII. 
 
THE EXPLOITATION OF GIRLS 173 
 
 rapid growth of modern social ideas. But the Government 
 and the Diet will not step out far in advance of general 
 opinion, the most will naturally be made by the authori- 
 ties and trade interests of bad factory conditions on the 
 Continent of Europe and in some industries in the United 
 States, and the majority of a public which has been carefully 
 nurtured in the belief that a profitable industrialism is 
 the great desideratum for Japan will not be restive. Real 
 factory reform is not to be expected until an enlightened 
 view is taken by Japanese in general of the exploitation 
 of girls for any purpose. It is not in commercial human 
 nature. Eastern or Western, that factory directors and 
 shareholders should forgo without a struggle the ad- 
 vantage of possessing cheaper and more subjected labour 
 than their foreign rivals. Some influence may be exerted 
 in the right direction by the fact that those who are profit- 
 ing by cheap and docile labour may themselves be under- 
 sold before long by cheaper and still more docile labour in 
 China.' And in 1922 Japan is under an obligation, accepted 
 at the Washington Labour Conference, to stop women 
 working more than eleven hours a day and to abolish night 
 work. Meantime the labour movement makes progress. 
 It is significant that many of its leaders are under the 
 influence of " direct action " ideas. They hope little from 
 a Diet elected on a narrow franchise and supported by a 
 strong Government machine backed by the Conservative 
 farmer vote. Although, however, there does not seem 
 to be as yet a junction between the labour movement and 
 the unions of the tenant farmers, who have their own inter- 
 ests alone in view, the future may present unexpected 
 developments. As I write, the labour movement is conduct- 
 ing a trial of strength with the great Mitsubishi and 
 Kawasaki enterprises and is presenting a stronger front 
 than it has yet done. 
 
 This Chapter would give an unfair impression of the 
 relations of capital and labour in Japan if it included no 
 reference to the well-intentioned efforts made by several 
 large employers to improve the conditions of working-class 
 life and labour. Sometimes they have followed the example 
 1 See Appendix XLIII. 
 
174 " FRIEND-LOVE-SOCIETY'S " GRIM TALE 
 
 of philanthropic firms in Great Britain and America. As 
 often as not they have been inspired by old Japanese ideas 
 of a master's responsibilities. Many leading industrials 
 have believed and still believe that by the conservation and 
 development of old ideas of paternalism and loyalty the 
 trade- union stage of industrial development maybe avoided. 
 This conviction was expressed to me by, among others, 
 Mr. Matsukata, of the famous Kawasaki concern, who has 
 made generous contributions to " welfare " work. My 
 own brief experience as an employer in Japan made me 
 acquainted with some canons in the relationship of employer 
 and employed which have lost their authority in the West. 
 Given wisdom on the part of masters, the prolonged bitter- 
 ness which has marked the industrial development of the 
 West need not be repeated in Japan, but whether that 
 wisdom will be displayed in time is doubtful. The Japan- 
 ese commercial world has been commendably quick to learn 
 in many directions in the West. It will be a serious reflection 
 on the intelligence of the country if the lessons of the 
 industrial acerbities of Europe and the United States 
 should not be grasped. Meantime it is a duty which the 
 foreign observer owes to Japan to speak quite plainly of at- 
 tempts as silly as they are useless • to obscure the lamentable 
 condition of a large proportion of Japanese workers, to hide 
 the immense profits which have been made by their em- 
 ployers and to pretend that factory laws have only to be 
 placed on the statute book in order to be enforced. But 
 if he be honest he must also recognise the handicap of 
 specially costly equipment * and of unskilled labour and 
 inexperience under which the Japanese business world is 
 competing for the place in foreign trade to which it has a 
 just claim. Such conditions do not in the least excuse 
 inhumanity, but they help to explain it. 
 
 ' See Appendix XLII. 
 
 2 In a pre-War publication of the United States Department of Com- 
 merce it was stated that the cost of cotton mills per spindle is in England 
 32a., in the United States 44s., in Germany 52s., and in Japan 100s. 
 
ARCHERY AT AX AGRICULTURAL SCHOOL, p. 1.53 
 
 OULTIVATIOIf 0¥ THE HILLSIDE, p. liS 
 
 174] 
 
\ K< 
 
 
 5 I 
 
 w 5 
 
FROM TOKYO TO THE NORTH BY THE 
 WEST COAST 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 " the garden wheee virtues abe cultivated " 
 (fukushima and yamagata) 
 
 BoswEiiL : If you should advise me to go to Japan I believe I should. 
 Johnson : Why yes, Sir, I am serious. 
 
 In one of my journeys I went from Tokyo to the extreme 
 north of Japan, travelling up the west coast and down the 
 east. Fukushima prefecture — in which is Shirakawa, 
 famous for a horse fair which lasts a week — encourages the 
 eating of barley, for on the northern half of the east coast 
 of Japan there is no warm current and the rice crop may be 
 lost in a cold season. " Officials of the prefecture and 
 county," someone said to me, " take barley themselves ; 
 enthusiastic guncho take it gladly." 
 
 The prefectural station, by selecting the best varieties 
 of rice for sowing, had effected a 10 per cent, improvement 
 in yield. In each county an official " agricultural en- 
 courager " had been appointed. The lectures given at the 
 experiment station were attended by 18,000 persons. The 
 studious who listen to the lectures had formed an associa- 
 tion that provided at the station a fine building where 
 supper, bed, breakfast and lunch cost 80 sen. It con- 
 tained a model of the Ise shrine with a motto in the hand- 
 writing of a well-known Tokyo agricultural professor, 
 " Difficulties Polish You." 
 
 " Some villagers," said a local authority, " want to 
 make the Buddhist temple the centre of the development 
 of village life. In several places agricultural products are 
 exhibited at Shinto shrines. Farmers offer them out of 
 
 17S 
 
176 " GARDEN WHERE VIRTUES ARE CULTIVATED " 
 
 a kind of piety, but the products are afterwards criticised 
 from a technical point of view. This is done on the 
 initiative of the villagers encouraged by the prefecture." 
 
 Hereabouts the winter work of the people, in addition to 
 basket, rope and mat making, was paper making and 
 smoothing out the wrinkles of tobacco.' A considerable 
 number of people had emigrated to South America. The 
 principal need of the villages, it was stated, was money at 
 less than the current rate of 20 per cent. In one place I 
 found a factory built on the side of a daimyo's castle. 
 
 I was told of crops of konnyaku which had made one man 
 the second richest person in the prefecture and had there- 
 fore qualified him for membership in the House of Peers. 
 (The House includes one member from each prefecture as 
 the representative of the highest taxpayers of that pre- 
 fecture.) 
 
 During my journeys I picked up many odds and ends of 
 information by walking through the trains and having 
 chats with country people. I was also helped by county 
 and prefectural agricultural officials who, having learnt 
 of my movements, were kind enough to join me in the train 
 for an hour or so. One head of an agricultural school 
 which was full up with students told me that there were 
 already in Fukushima two prefectural and five county 
 agricultural schools. 
 
 Our train, half freight with a locomotive at each end, 
 went over the backbone of Japan through the usual series 
 of snow shelters and tunnels. Having surmounted the 
 heights we slid down into Yamagata. I should properly 
 write Yamagataken, which we cannot translate Yama- 
 gatashire, for a ken (prefecture) is made up of counties. 
 There are eleven counties in Yamagataken. 
 
 Almost any sort of dwelling looks tolerable in August, but 
 many of the houses that first caught our attention must be 
 lamentable shelters in winter. Some farmers, I learnt, 
 were " in a very bad condition." We dropped from a silk 
 and rice plateau and then to a region where the main crop 
 was rice. The bare hills to be seen in our descent were an 
 appalling spectacle when it was realised how close was their 
 ^ See Appendix XLV. 
 
CREMATION FOR TEN SHILLINGS 177 
 
 relation to the disastrous floods of the prefecture. A man 
 in the train had lost 10,000 yen by floods, a large sum in 
 rural Japan. In two years the prefecture had spent in 
 river-bank repairs nearly a million yen. A flood some years 
 ago did damage to the amount of 20 million yen. The 
 prefecture had a debt of 60 million yen, chiefly due to 
 havoc wrought by its big river. A yearly sum was spent on 
 afforestation in addition to what was laid out by the State 
 and by private individuals. A forestry association was 
 trying to raise half a million yen for tree planting. But 
 the flooding of the plains was not the only water trouble of 
 the Yamagatans. In one district they had a stream which 
 contained solutions of compounds of sulphuric acid so 
 strong that crops fail for three years on ground watered 
 from it. In other parts of the prefecture, however, farmers 
 had the advantage, enjoyed in many parts of Japan, of 
 being able to water from ammonia water springs. 
 
 Hereabouts I first noticed the device common to many 
 districts of having on the roof of a cottage a water barrel, 
 tub or cistern, ready to be emptied on the shingle roof when 
 sparks fly from a burning dwelling. Sometimes the wooden 
 water receptacles are wrapped round with straw. 
 
 In the prefectural city of Yamagata I heard of a primary 
 school which had a farm and made a profit, also of four 
 landowners who had engaged an agricultural expert for the 
 instruction of their tenants. " A very certain crop " 
 round about the city was grapes. Some 25,000 persons 
 yearly visited the prefectural 12-chd experiment station, 
 which within a year had distributed to farmers 7,600 
 cyanided fruit trees and 80 bushels of special seed rice. 
 
 Near the experiment station was a crematorium of ugly 
 brick and galvanised iron belonging to the city of Yamagata 
 at which 1,000 bodies were burnt in a year in furnaces 
 heated with pine blocks. A selection might be made from 
 four rates ranging from 35 sen to 5 yen. The most ex- 
 pensive rate was for folk who arrived in Western-style 
 cofiRns. 
 
 The experiment station had another institution at its 
 doors. This had to do not with the dead but with the 
 living. Its name was " The Garden where Virtues are 
 
178 " GARDEN WHERE VIRTUES ARE CULTIVATED " 
 
 Cultivated." The director of it was the father of the 
 agricultural expert of the prefecture. The garden, which 
 was not a garden, was a home for bad boys, or rather for 
 thirty bad boys and one bad girl. The bad girl — the 
 director, being a man of humanity, common sense and 
 courage, thought it most necessary that there should be at 
 least one bad girl — acted as maidservant to the director. 
 The bad boys " maided " themselves and the school. The 
 lads were such as had fallen into the hands of the police. 
 They were being reformed in a somewhat original way by 
 a somewhat original director. 
 
 Early in the day they had their cold bath, which was 
 itself a break with Japanese custom, for, though most 
 Japanese have a nightly hot bath, they are content with a 
 basin wash in the morning. Then the boys " cleaned 
 school." Next they were marched up one by one to a mirror 
 and required to take a good look at themselves, in order, 
 no doubt, to see just how bad they were. After this they 
 were called on to " give thanks to the Emperor and 
 their ancestors." Finally came a half-hour lecture on 
 " morality." It was considereid that by this time the boys 
 were entitled to their breakfast. For open-air labour they 
 were sent to the experiment station, but they had manual 
 work also in their own school, where, among other things, 
 they " made useful things out of waste," thefincome from 
 which went to their families. On Sundays the master, 
 though he must be nearer sixty than fifty, fenced with 
 every one of the thirty boys in turn^ — no ordinary task, for 
 Japanese fencing calls not only for an eye and a hand, but 
 for a muscular back. Some wholesome-looking young 
 fellows, members of a young men's association, served as 
 volunteer masters and lived in the bare fashion that was so 
 good for the boys. 
 
 The director did not believe that bad boys were hopeless. 
 He said that not only the boys but their parents were better 
 for the work done in " The Garden where Virtues are Culti- 
 vated." He seemed to have become a sort of consulting 
 expert to primary school-masters who were at a loss to 
 know how to manage bad boys. Chastisement, as is well 
 known, is unusual in Japanese schools. The director of the 
 
THE MOXA 179 
 
 human hortus inclusus confessed to me that though two of 
 his boys whom he had caught fighting might not have been 
 separated without, in the Western phrase, " feeling the 
 weight of his hand," his heaviest punishment on other 
 difficult occasions was the moxa. 
 
 The moxa brings us back to real horticulture. Moxa 
 is mogusa or mugwort. Mogusa means " burning herb." 
 The moxa is a great therapeutic agent in the Far East. 
 A bit of the dried herb is laid on the skin and set fire to 
 as a sort of blister. From the application of the moxa 
 as a cure for physical ills to its application for the cure of 
 bad boys is a natural step. One sees by the scars on the 
 backs of not a few Japanese that in their youth either their 
 health or their characters left something to be desired. The 
 moxa, then, is the rod in pickle in " The Garden where 
 Virtues are Cultivated," But I think it is not brought out 
 often. A wrestling ring in a mass of sand thrown down 
 in a yard, a harmonium, a blackboard for the boys to work 
 their will on, doors labelled " The Room of Patience," 
 " The Room of Honesty," " The Room of Cleanliness " and 
 " The Room of Good Arrangement," not to speak of a 
 rabbit loping about the school premises — these and some 
 other touches in the management of the school spoke of 
 an even stronger influence toward well-doing than the moxa. 
 But even if the moxa should fail, the attention of the boys 
 could always be drawn to the crematorium. 
 
 One who knew the rural districts discoursed to me in this 
 wise : " The best men are not numerous, but neither are 
 the worst. I doubt whether the desire to enjoy life is as 
 strong in the Japanese as in the people of the West. Most 
 farmers would no doubt be happy with material comfort. 
 Pressed as they have been by material needs, they have 
 no time to think. When they are easier, they may get 
 something beyond the physical. At present we must 
 regard their material welfare as the most urgent thing." 
 But a man standing by, who was also a countryman, 
 strongly dissented. " Religion," he said, " is not only 
 important but fundamental." 
 
 I have been received by more than one prefectural 
 governor at eight in the morning. His Excellency of 
 
180 " GARDEN WHERE VIRTUES ARE CULTIVATED " 
 
 Yamagata sets a good example by rising at five and by 
 going to bed at nine. He told me that he thought the 
 farmer's chief lack was cheap money. Low interest and a 
 long term might convert into arable 25,000 acres of barren 
 land in his prefecture. In the old days, as I knew, the 
 farmers drove tiumels considerable distances for irrigation, 
 but with modern engineering better results would be 
 possible if money were available. As to the misdeeds of 
 the rivers, it might almost be said that every village was 
 feeling the need of embanking and of going to the source 
 of loss by planting trees in the hills. Beautiful forests of 
 feudal period had been wasted in the early days of Meiji 
 and the result was now plain. 
 
 But attention had to be given to the minds as well as 
 the pockets of the villagers. Families that were once 
 reasonably content were now discontented. A livelihood 
 was harder to get, taxation was heavier and there was an 
 increase in needs. Country people imagined townspeople 
 to be comfortably off, " not realising how they were 
 tormented." Villagers envied townsmen their amuse- 
 ments. Some prefectures had forbidden the Bon dance 
 and had supplied nothing in its place. It was easy to see 
 why farmers no longer applied themselves so closely to 
 their calling and were wavering in their allegiance to 
 country life. Healthful amusements were necessary for 
 those whose minds were not much developed. Also, 
 country people should be taught the true character of 
 town life, and that agriculture, though it might not yield 
 the profit of commerce and industry, ensured a reasonably 
 happy life in healthful places where physical strength 
 could be enjoyed. The right kind of village libraries 
 should be encouraged. Music might perhaps be forced 
 into competition "with sakS. 
 
 A mental awakening by education was the final solution 
 of the rural problem, the Governor thought. Religion was 
 also important for the development of the village. Be- 
 lievers not under the eyes of others would avoid wrong- 
 doing because watched by heaven. Lectures on agriculture 
 and sanitation had a good influence when delivered by 
 priests. Temples were often schools before the era of 
 
VILLAGE SNOBBERY 181 
 
 Meiji and so priests were socially active. Under the new 
 dispensation the work was taken out of their hands. So 
 they had come to care little for the affairs of the world. 
 But they were influential and the prefecture had asked for 
 their help. The merits of many priests might not be con- 
 spicuous, but the number of them who were active was 
 increasing and the villagers deferred to them if they took 
 any step. 
 
 The most hopeful thing in the villages was the awakening 
 of the young men : they were becoming " sincere," a 
 favourite Japanese word. For the most part the credit 
 societies were not efficient, but in one county credit societies 
 had lessened the business of the banks. The best way to 
 furnish capital to farmers was out of the capital of their 
 fellow farmers. 
 
 Possibly the girls of the villages were not making the 
 same advance as the boys. They did not go to their field 
 labour willingly. Sometimes when a woman was asked by 
 a neighbour on the road, " Have you been working on the 
 farm ? " she would answer, " No, I have been to the 
 temple." The host of women's papers had a bad effect. 
 With regard to the habutae (silk goods) factories, there was 
 a bright side, for they gave work to the girls in winter, 
 when they were idle " and therefore poor and sometimes 
 immoral." On the other hand, factory girls tended to 
 become vain and thriftless and the stay-at-home girls were 
 inclined to imitate them. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 the " tanomoshi " 
 (yamagata) 
 
 Society is kept in animation by the customary and by sentiment. — 
 Mebboith 
 
 Six feet of snow is common on the line on which we travelled 
 in Yamagata prefecture, and washouts are not infrequent. 
 A train has been stopped for a week by snow. It was 
 difficult to think of snow when one saw groups of pilgrims 
 with their flopping sun-mats on their backs. The shrines 
 on three local mountain tops are visited by 20,000 people 
 yearly. 
 
 We bought at railway stations different sorts of gelatin- 
 ous fruit preparations. Most places in Japan have a 
 speciality in the form of a food or a curiosity that can be 
 bought by travellers. 
 
 In the great Shonai plain, which extends through three 
 counties, there are no fewer than 82,500 acres of rice and 
 the unending crops were a sight to see. A great deal of 
 the paddy land has been adjusted. In one county there is 
 the largest adjusted area in Japan, 20,000 acres. When 
 one raises one's eyes from the waving fields of illimitable 
 rice, the dominating feature of the landscape is Mount 
 Chokai with his August snow cap. 
 
 The three-storey hotel at which we stayed had been taken 
 to pieces and transported twenty miles. Such removal of 
 houses to a more convenient or, in the case of an hotel, a 
 more profitable site, is not uncommon. I sometimes 
 patronised at Omori a large hotel on a little hill halfway 
 between Yokohama and Tokyo, which had formerly been 
 the prefectural building at Kanagawa. In the hotel in 
 
 182 
 
"WOULD THAT MY DAUGHTER—" 188 
 
 which I was now staying I was interested in the " Notice " 
 in my room : 
 
 1. A spitting-pot is provided. [Usually of bamboo or 
 porcelain.] 
 
 2. No towels are lent for fear of trachoma.^ [The travel- 
 ler in Japan carries his own towels, but a towel is a common 
 gift on a guest's departure in acknowledgment of his tea 
 money.] 
 
 3. There is a table of rates. Guests are requested 
 to say in which they desire to be reckoned. [To the 
 hotel proprietor, landlord or manager when the visit of 
 courtesy is paid on the guest's arrival. Otherwise a 
 judgment is formed from the guest's clothes, demeanour 
 and baggage.] 
 
 4. Please lock up your valuables or let us keep them. 
 [There are no locks on Japanese doors.] 
 
 5. Railroad, kuruma, box-sledge or automobile charges 
 on application. [The box-sledge shows what the country 
 is like in winter.] 
 
 In conversations about local conditions I was told that 
 " landowners of the middle grade " were suffering from 
 " trying to keep up their position." I remembered the 
 song which may be rendered : 
 
 Would that my daughter 
 
 Were married to a middle farmer. 
 
 With two cho of farm 
 
 And a tan in the wood. 
 
 No borrowing ; no lending ; 
 
 Both ends meeting. 
 
 Visiting the temple by turns — 
 
 Someone must stay at home. 
 
 Going to Heaven sooner or later. 
 
 What a happy life ! 
 
 What a happy life ! 
 
 Tenants were rather well off because their standard of living 
 was lower than that of owners. Economic conditions were 
 improving in Yamagata, but in the adjoining prefecture of 
 Miyagi on the eastern coast of Japan " whole villages " 
 
 1 In the three years 1918-18 the percentage, of conscripts suffering from 
 trachoma was 15'8. 
 14 
 
184 THE "TANOMOSHI" 
 
 had gone to Hokkaido. Some poor farmers were spending 
 only 5 sen a day on food, the rest of what they ate coming 
 entirely from their own holdings. Some farmers said, 
 " If you calculate our income, we are certainly unable to 
 make a living, but in some way or other we are able," 
 which is what some small holders in many countries 
 would say. 
 
 I was told that a labourer's 5 tan could be cultivated by 
 working half days. Generally more was earned by labour- 
 ing than could be gained from a small patch of land. But 
 for half the year labourer's work was not obtainable. My 
 informant found small tenant labourers " well off " if both 
 husband and wife had wages : " they are able to buy a 
 bottle of sakS in the evening." Their position was better 
 than that of a small peasant proprietor. 
 
 One in a thousand of the families in a specified county 
 slept in straw. I heard of the payment of 20 to 25 per cent, 
 to pawnbroker lenders. 
 
 But there is another way of borrowing. The plan of the 
 ko may be adopted. A ko — it is odd that it should so closely 
 resemble our abbreviation " Co." — is simple and effective. 
 If a man is badly off or wants to undertake something 
 beyond his financial resources, and his friends decide to help 
 him, they may proceed by forming a ko. A ko is composed 
 of a number of people who agree to subscribe a certain sum 
 monthly and to divide the proceeds monthly by ballot, 
 beginning by giving the first month's receipts to the person 
 to succour whom the ko was formed. Suppose that the 
 subscription be fixed at a yen a month and that there are 
 fifty subscribers. Then the beneficiary — who pays in his 
 yen with the rest — gets 50 yen on the occasion of the first 
 ingathering. Every month afterwards a menaber who 
 is lucky in the ballot gets 50 yen. The monthly paying in 
 and paying out continue for fifty months and all the sub- 
 scribers duly get their money back, with the advantage of 
 having had a little excitement and having done a neigh- 
 bourly action. 
 
 But the ko, or tanomoshi, as I ought to call it, is not 
 always the innocent organisation I have described. There 
 is a tanomoshi system under which, after member A, the 
 
SHOWING RESPECT TO RICE 185 
 
 beneficiary, has received the first month's subscriptions, 
 the other members are open to receive bids for their shares. 
 That is to say that, when the time comes round for the 
 second pajdng out of 50 yen, member F, who happens to 
 have become as much in need of ready money as A was, 
 offers, if the month's moneys be handed over to him, to 
 distribute among the members sums up to 20 yen. July 
 and December, when most people need ready money, are 
 months in which a hard-up member of a tanomoshi may 
 sometimes offer to distribute as much as 50 per cent, of 
 what he receives. The result of such bidding for shares is 
 that well-to-do members of a tanomoshi, who are the last 
 to draw their 50 yen, receive in addition to it all the extra 
 payments made by impoverished members who took their 
 shares earlier. Benevolence in a tanomoshi is not seldom 
 a mask for avarice that the law against usury cannot touch. 
 In truth, the only virtuous part of a tanomoshi may be the 
 first sharing out to the person in whose interest it was 
 supposed to be started. It should be added, however, 
 that there is a sort of tanomoshi which has no particular 
 beneficiary and is merely a kind of co-operative credit 
 society. In one place I heard of a tanomoshi that main- 
 tained a large fund for the relief of orphans and the sick. 
 
 In many villages there were private or co-operative 
 godowns for the storage of rice against fire, rats and damp. 
 Though the farmer who sends rice to such a store receives 
 a receipt, it is not legally a marketable document. Hence 
 an improvement on this simple storage plan. I visited the 
 premises of a company that could store more than 500,000 
 bushels of rice, and I found purification by carbon bi- 
 sulphide going on. The receipts given by this company — 
 " certificated " for large quantities and " tickets " for small 
 — certify not only the quantity but the quality of the rice, 
 and are readily cashed. The storehouse owners work under 
 a licence, and they have the advantage that the buyer of 
 the receipts of non-licensed stores is not protected by the 
 courts. 
 
 In the office of the company were samples of eleven 
 market qualities of rice, and before them, by way of showing 
 respect to the great food staple, was set the gohei of cut 
 
186 THE "TANOMOSHI" 
 
 white paper seen in Shinto shrines. Outside the office, girl 
 porters carried the bales of rice to and fro. Close to the 
 store was a river in which some of the dusty, perspiring 
 porters were washing and cooHng themselves with a sim- 
 plicity to which Western civilisation is not yet equal. 
 Opposite them men were fishing by casting in draw nets 
 from the shore just as in biblical pictures the apostles are 
 represented as doing. 
 
 The company has a rice market where farmers were 
 putting their business in the dealers' hands. Each dealer 
 has to deposit 5,000 yen with the State. The dealer who 
 buys rice from a farmer has better polishing machinery 
 than the farmer possesses. Therefore he can give the rice 
 a more uniform appearance. By decreasing the weight of 
 the rice during the polishing he gives it he is also able to 
 lessen the sum payable for^ carriage and he has the value of 
 the oftal. 
 
 In order to visit farmers I rode some distance into the 
 country.' The village, which was of the Zen sect, was at 
 work cleaning out and straightening the stream which, as 
 is usual in many villages, ran through the middle of it. I 
 was impressed during my visit not only by the readiness 
 and intelligence with which my questions were answered 
 but by the good humour with which a stranger's inquiries 
 concerning personal matters was received. I had another 
 thought, that I might not have found a group of Western 
 farmers so well informed about their financial position as 
 these simple, primitively clad men. 
 
 Our huruma route to and from the village had been 
 through one great tract of well-adjusted rice fields. Ad- 
 justment was not difficult in this region because half the 
 land belongs to the Homma family, which has given much 
 study to the art of land-holding. For two centuries the 
 clan by charging moderate rents and studying the interests 
 of its tenants has maintained happy relations with them. 
 
 For many years a plan has been in operation by which 
 
 200 one-fan paddy-fields are cultivated by the agents or 
 
 managers of the estate, by tenants selected by their fellow 
 
 tenants for merit, by tenants chosen by the landlord for 
 
 ^ For faiiuers' budgets, see Appendix XIII (end). 
 
ROBES OF HONOUR 187 
 
 diligence and by others picked out because of their interest 
 in agriculture. In order to increase the zest of competition 
 the cultivators are divided into a black and a white com- 
 pany. The names of those who raise the naost and best 
 rice are pubUshed in the order of their success, farm 
 implements are distributed as prizes, the clever cultivators 
 are invited to the landlord's New Year entertainment to 
 the agents and managers, and at that feast " places of 
 distinction are given." 
 
 There is also a system of rewarding the best five-years 
 averages. A competition takes place between what are 
 called " dress fields " because those who get the best results 
 from them receive a ceremonial dress bearing the inscrip- 
 tion, " Prosperity and Welfare." The honour of wearing 
 these rqbes in the presence of their landlord at his annual 
 feast is valued by these simple countrymen. 
 
 Through the introduction by the landlord of horse 
 labour and ploughs — implements with which the farmers 
 were formerly unacquainted — second cropping of part of 
 the paddies has become possible. There is an elaborate 
 system of " progressive reduction " and " average reduc- 
 tion " of rents in a bad season, by which, it was explained, 
 " the industrious tenant enjoys a larger reduction than an 
 idle one." " Tenants are grouped in fives, which help one 
 another in their work and in cases of misfortune." In 
 their agreement with their landlord, tenants promise that 
 " wrong-doing shall be mutually reprimanded and counsel 
 shall be given one to another." " Again, if a tenant falls 
 ill, has his house burnt or meets with misfortune, assistance 
 shall be given by his fellows." During the war with Russia 
 the following instructions were issued : 
 
 Those enlisted in the army shall render their service at 
 the cost of their lives. 
 
 Those who stay at home shall do their best, complying 
 with the principles laid down by the Minister of Agriculture. 
 
 Relatives of soldiers at the front shall be helped and 
 sympathised with. 
 
 All shall subscribe to war bonds as much as possible. 
 
 All shall practise thrift and economy in accordance with 
 their social standing. 
 
188 THE "TANOMOSHI" 
 
 Musical entertainments shall be given up for two years. 
 
 Methods proved to be effective in cultivation shall be 
 reported. 
 
 In the warm, cloudy days insects multiply rapidly. 
 Think of your brothers at the front, struggling against one 
 of the mighty military powers of the world, and be ashamed 
 to be vanquished by hordes of insects or masses of vegetable 
 growth in your fields. For the purpose of destroying 
 insects an ample supply of oil is to be had at the experi- 
 mental farm, as during last year ; and payment therefor 
 may be deferred until after harvest. 
 
 A communication to agents and managers says : " Com- 
 port yourselves in a way suitable to the dignity of an agent 
 of the clan. Bear in mind the privileges and favours 
 you enjoy, and exert yourselves to requite these favours. 
 Respect the name and the coat-of-arms of the clan," In 
 the neighbourhood there are about a hundred families 
 bearing the name of Homma. 
 
BACK AGAIN BY THE EAST COAST 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 " BON " SONGS AND THE SILENT PEIEST 
 
 (yAMAGATA, AKlTAji AOMORI, IWATE, MrSTAGI, FUKUSHIMA 
 AND IBARAKi) 
 
 The worst of our education is that it looks askance, looks over its 
 shoulder at sex. — B,. L. S. 
 
 A VILLAGE headman, encounted in the train just as we 
 were leaving Yamagata prefecture, gave me some insight 
 into the life of his little community. The fathers of two- 
 score families were shopkeepers and tradesmen — that is, 
 tradesmen in the old meaning of the word. There were 
 also a few labourers. About two hundred and fifty 
 families owned land and some of them rented additional 
 tracts. Another sixty were simply tenants. The poorer 
 farmers were also labourers or artisans. Most of them 
 were " comfortable enough." There were, however, half a 
 dozen people in the village who were helped from village 
 funds. Of the middle-grade farmers " it might be said that 
 they do not become richer or poorer." 
 
 The headman had formed a society which sent its 
 members to visit prefectures more developed agriculturally. 
 This society had engaged an instructor from without the 
 prefecture and he had taught horse tillage and the manage- 
 ment of upland fields and had made model paddies. Five 
 stallions had been obtained and a simple adjustment of 
 paddy-land had been brought about. As a result the rice 
 yield had risen. 
 
 This headman had also had addresses delivered in the 
 village for the first time. Further, after buying a number 
 
 1 Some Yamagata notes and those relating to Akita are conveniently 
 included in this Chapter, but these two prefectures are on the west coast. 
 
 189 
 
190 "BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST 
 
 of books, he had visited all the villagers in turn and shown 
 them the books and had said to each of them, " I wish you 
 to buy a book and, after reading it, to give it to the library." 
 " And," he told me, " none of them objected." Soon a 
 valuable library came into existence. 
 
 This admirable functionary felt some satisfaction at 
 having been able to abate the custom according to which 
 the young men, with the tacit permission of their parents, 
 had gone into the neighbouring town after harvest " to 
 visit the immoral women." " They used to spend as much 
 as 5 yen," said our headman. He had started worthier 
 forms of after-harvest relaxation, and " the cost of the 
 amusement days is now only 50 or 60 sen." 
 
 When we got on the main line again and pursued our way 
 farther north, it was through even stouter snow shelters 
 and through many tunnels. Not a few miserable dwellings 
 were to be seen as we passed into Akita prefecture. We 
 broke our journey after some hours' travelling to stay the 
 night at a rather primitive hot spring inn four or five miles 
 up in the hills. A slight rain was falling. Four passengers 
 at a time made the ascent to the hotel, squatting on a mat 
 in an old contractor's wagon, pushed along roughly laid 
 rails by two perspiring youths in rain-cloaks of bark strips. 
 At the inn, on going to the bath, I found therein a miscel- 
 laneous collection of people of both sexes from grandparents 
 to grandchildren. One bather enlivened us by perform- 
 ances on the flute, which, if a musical instrument must 
 be played in a bath, seems as suitable as any. In this 
 rambling inn there were many farmers who, by preparing 
 their own food and doing for themselves generally, were 
 holiday-making at bedrock prices. 
 
 As it was the Bon season, when the spirits of the dead are 
 supposed to return, I was a witness of the method adopted 
 to help the ghosts to find their old homes. At the top of 
 a 30 or 40 ft. pole a lantern is fixed with a pulley. Fastened 
 up beside the lantern is a bunch of green stuff, cryptomeria 
 in many cases. The lantern is lighted each evening for a 
 week. Having heard a good deal about the suppression of 
 Bon dances and songs I was interested when a fellow-guest 
 began talking about them. He had seen many Bon dances 
 
BUCOLIC WIT 191 
 
 and had heard many Brni songs. There can be no doubt 
 that there has been some unenlightened interference with 
 the Bon gathering. The country people seem to be suffer- 
 ing from the determination of officialdom to make an end 
 of everything in country as well as town that may be 
 considered " uncivilised " by any foreigner, however ill 
 instructed. In towns the sexes are not accustomed to 
 meet, but country people must work together ; therefore 
 they find it natural to dance and sing together. As to the 
 Bon songs, it is common sense that expressions which may 
 be regarded as outrageous and indecent in a drawing-room 
 may not be so terrible on a hilltop among rustics used to 
 very plain speech and to easy recognition of natural facts 
 that are veiled from townspeople. My chance acquaint- 
 ance at the inn recited a number of Bon songs and next 
 morning brought me some more that he had remembered 
 and had been kind enough to write down. They merely 
 established the fact that bucolic wit is as elemental in Japan 
 as in other lands. Most of the songs had a Rabelaisian 
 touch, some were nasty, but nearly all had wit. The 
 following is an entirely harmless example : 
 
 Mr. Potato of the Countryside 
 
 Got his new European suit. 
 
 But a potato is still a potato. 
 
 He took one and a half rin ' out of his bag 
 
 And bought amS ' and licked at it. 
 
 Here are three others : 
 
 Tip-toe, tip-toe. 
 Creaks the floor. 
 Girl made prayer, 
 Dreading ghost. 
 But 'twas her lover 
 Who stealthily came. 
 
 Dancer, dancer. 
 Do not laugh at me. 
 My dance is very bad, 
 But I only began last year. 
 
 ' A rim is the tenth part of a sen, which in its turn is a farthing. 
 > A kind of barley sugar. 
 
192 "BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST 
 
 How thin a thin-legged man may be 
 It he does not take his miso soup.' 
 
 The quality of these dramatic songs will be entirely 
 missed if the reader does not bear in mind the mimetic skill 
 of the amateur Japanese dancer and his power as a con- 
 tortionist. Clever dancers often use their powers in a 
 humorous pretence of clumsiness. Of the freer sort of 
 songs I may quote two : 
 
 Never buy vegetables in Third Street,' 
 You'll lose 30 sen and your nose. 
 
 Onions from a basket hanging in the benjo ' 
 Were cooked in miso * and given to a blind man, 
 But that chap was greatly delighted. 
 
 Some of the other songs may be described, I suppose, 
 as obscene, if obscene be, as the dictionary says, " some- 
 thing which delicacy, purity and decency forbid to be 
 exposed " ; but " delicacy, purity and decency " must be 
 considered in relation to climate, work and social usage. 
 What one feels about some critics of Bon songs and dances 
 is that they need a course of The Golden Bough. Such 
 an illustration as Bon songs furnish of the moral and mental 
 conditions from which country folk must raise themselves 
 is of value if rural sociology is a real thing. There is far 
 too much theorising about the countryman and the country- 
 woman, far too much idealising of them and far too much 
 rating of them as clods. If country people of all lands are 
 free-spoken let us be neither hypercritical nor hypocritical. 
 A big gap seems to yawn between the paddy-field peasant 
 in his breech clout and the immaculate clubman, but what 
 difference is there between the savour of the average Bon 
 song and of many a smoking-room jest which is not to the 
 credit of the peasant ? At an inn in Naganoken a Japanese 
 artist on holiday showed me his sketch book. Among 
 his drawings was a representation of a shrine festival which 
 he had witnessed in a remote village. A festival car was 
 
 1 Bean soup. 
 
 * A street in Akita in which many prostitutes live. 
 
 3 Closet. * Bean paste. 
 
"SO DESUKA?" 198 
 
 being pushed by a knot of youths and by about an equal 
 number of young women and all of them were nude. But 
 no enlightened person believes that either decency or morals 
 depends on clothing, or would expect to find more essential 
 indecency and immorality in that village than in a modern 
 city. What one would expect to find would be marriages 
 between physically well-developed men and women. 
 
 How the race moves on is shown in the famous tale of a 
 saintly Zen priest which I first heard in that little hill inn 
 but was afterwards to see in dramatic form on the stage of 
 a Tokyo theatre. An unmarried girl in the village in which 
 the priest's temple was situated was about to have a child. 
 She would not confess to her angry father the name of her 
 lover. At last she attributed her condition to the greatly 
 honoured priest. Her father was astonished but he was 
 also glad that his daughter was in the favour of so eminent 
 a man. So he went to the priest and said that he brought 
 him good tidings : the girl whom he had deigned to notice 
 was about to have a child. The father went on to express 
 at length his sense of obligation to the priest for the honour 
 done to his family. All the priest said in reply was. So 
 desuka ? (Is that so ?) Soon after the birth of the child the 
 girl besought her father to marry her to a certain young 
 farmer. The father, proud of the association with the 
 priest, refused. Finally the girl told her parent that it was 
 not the priest but the young farmer who was the father of 
 her child. The parent was aghast and chagrined as he 
 recalled the terms in which he had addressed the saintly 
 man. He betook himself at once to the temple and 
 expressed in many words his feelings of shame and deep 
 contrition. The priest heard him out, but all he said 
 was. So desuka ? 
 
 Yamagata signifies " shape of a mountain " and Akita 
 means " autumn rice field." Although Akita prefecture 
 is mountainous there is a greater proportion of level land 
 in it than in Yamagata. I find " Rice, rice, rice " written 
 in my notebook. An agricultural expert gave me to under- 
 stand that fifteen per cent, of the farmers were probably 
 living on rents or on the dividends of silk factories, that 55 
 or 60 per cent, were of the middle grade with an annual 
 
194 "BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST 
 
 income of 300 yen, that 25 or 30 per cent, had about 150 
 yen — ^the lowest sum on which a family could be supported 
 — and that there were 3 or 4 per cent, of farm labourers 
 who earned less than 150 yen. There had been much paddy 
 adjustment and the prefecture was spending 300,000 yen a 
 year for the encouragement of adjustment and the opening 
 of new paddies. In the case of newly opened fields, tenants 
 had contracts, but ordinary tenancies were by word of 
 mouth generation after generation. A great deal of agri- 
 cultural instruction was given by the prefecture, the 
 counties and the villages, and in 30 years the rice crop had 
 been doubled although the area had remained about the 
 same. In order to secure help in the work of rural ameliora- 
 tion a gathering of Buddhist priests and another of Shinto 
 priests had been lectured to at the prefectural office. 
 Nearly 300,000 yen had been spent in twelve months on 
 afforestation. The following year a special effort was to 
 be made to spend 500,000 yen. A society raised young trees 
 and sold them at cheap rates to farmers. Every young 
 men's association in the prefecture had land and had planted 
 trees. It was in Akita that I first saw peat in Japan. 
 There are said to be 7,000 acres of it in the country. 
 
 The prefecture of Aomori forms the northern tip of the 
 mainland. Apart fronti its enormous forest area and the 
 railroad stacks of sawn lumber, what caught my eye were 
 the apple orchards and the number of farmers on horseback 
 or seated in wagons. Who that has been in Japan has not 
 a memory of narrow winding roads along which men and 
 women and young people are pulling and pushing carts ? 
 Here many farming folk rode. I was told that Akita 
 produced apples and potatoes to the value of a million yen 
 each and that there were ten co-operative apple societies. 
 Much of the fruit went to Russia. 
 
 Having passed through the city of Aomori we started to 
 come down the east coast. An agricultural authority 
 said that the net profit of a dry farm, that is a farm without 
 any paddy, was almost negligible. Because of low prices, 
 cattle keeping had decreased to half what it used to be. 
 (The only cattle I saw from the train were on the road 
 with harness on their backs.) Only 18 yen could be got for 
 
"ONLY ROBBERS" 196 
 
 a two-year-old ; the Aomori cattle were indeed the cheapest 
 in Japan. The expert added, " There are no buyers ; 
 only robbers." 
 
 But the dealers were not the only robbers. Boats came 
 from Hokkaido and stole cattle from the prefecture to the 
 number of a hundred a year. Sometimes horses were taken 
 too, but horse thefts were rare " because you cannot kill a 
 horse and sell it for meat." The average price of a two- 
 year-old not thus illicitly vended was 70 yen. (It was a 
 little less in the next prefecture of Iwate and in Hokkaido.) 
 Half of the stalhons belonging to the " Bureau of Horse 
 Pohtics " of the Ministry of Agriculture were bought in 
 Aomori. 
 
 The farmers by the lake that we passed on our way south 
 were described as " very poor," for their soil was barren 
 and their climate bad. Their crops were only a third of 
 what could be raised in another part of the prefecture. 
 The agriculture of all the prefectures through which I now 
 journeyed south to Tokyo suffer from the cold temperature 
 of the sea. The east- coast temperature drops in winter 
 to 7 degrees below freezing.' " Living is more and more 
 difficult," said someone to me. " The number of tenants 
 increases because farmers get into debt and have to sell 
 their land. Millet and buckwheat are much eaten. 
 Although the temperature is 5 per cent, colder in Hokkaido, 
 the people do worse here because our soil is barren and there 
 is no profitable winter occupation like lumbering. Only 
 10 per cent, of the rural population save anything. In bad 
 times 65 per cent, of the families get into debt." 
 
 At Morioka in Iwate prefecture I visited the excellent 
 higher agricultural college, where there were 300 
 students. The competition for places, as at every educa- 
 tional institution in Japan, was keen. The number who 
 sat at the last entrance examinations — ^the average age was 
 twenty — was 317, of whom only 80 got in. There were 
 15 professors and 10 assistants. The charge to students 
 
 ^ The warm black current from the south flows up the east and west 
 eoasts. Some distance north of Tokyo, the east-coast current meets the 
 cold Oyashiro current from Kamchatka, and is turned ofi towards 
 America. 
 
196 "BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST 
 
 was 300 yen for a year of ten months. The annual cost of 
 the college to the Government was 70,000 yen. Of the 
 foreign volumes among the 20,000 books in the library 50 
 per cent, were German, 30 per cent. English and 20 per cent. 
 American. 
 
 An apiary of a single skep in a roped-off enclosure was an 
 illustration of unfamiliarity with bees. It seemed strange 
 to find that in this up-to-date and efficient institution the 
 biggest implement for cutting grass which was in use, a 
 sickle of course, had a blade no longer than 8 inches. 
 Hung up at the back of a shed I noticed a rusty scjrthe. 
 When I tried to show what it could do it was suggested 
 that the implement was " too heavy, too difficult and too 
 dangerous." 
 
 Iwate is the poorest of the northern prefectures, for bad 
 weather so often comes when the rice is in flower. As 
 many as 40 per cent, of the people were just making ends 
 meet. Another 40 per cent, were always dogged by poverty. 
 Millet was the food of 10 per cent, of the farmers ; millet, 
 salted vegetables and bean soup were the meagre diet of 5 
 per cent ; the staple food of the remainder was barley and 
 rice. There are few temples in Iwate compared with the 
 rest of Japan. " Education is more backward than in 
 other prefectures," someone said. " The farmers are 
 not able. Too much sak6 is drunk." Farmers come in to 
 Morioka to sell charcoal and wood and I saw some of them 
 turning into the sak6 shops. 
 
 There was talk in praise of millet. Though low socially 
 in the dietary of Japan, it has merits. It withstands cold 
 and even salt spray. It ripens earlier than rice and so may 
 sometimes be harvested before a spell of bad weather. 
 It yields well, it will store for some time, its taste is " little 
 inferior to rice and better than that of barley " and it 
 contains more protein than rice. It is cooked after slight 
 polishing and the straw provides fodder. " In the north- 
 east, where millet is most eaten," I was told, " there are 
 people who are 5 ft. 10 ins, to 6 ft. and there are many 
 wrestlers." The seeds in the handsome heavy ears of 
 millet are about the size of the letter O in the footnote type 
 of this book. 
 
THE YOUNG MEN'S PAST 197 
 
 In the train a farmer who knew the prefecture spoke of 
 Bon songs and dances : " The result of the action against 
 them was not good. The meeting of young men and 
 women at the Bon gatherings was in their minds half the 
 year in prospect and half in retrospect. Bearing in mind 
 the condition of the people, even the worst Bon songs are 
 not objectionable. But when the people become educated 
 some songs will be objectionable." 
 
 Visitors to a poor prefecture like Miyagi must be sur- 
 prised to see so much adjusted paddy. There is more 
 adjusted paddy in Miyagi than in any other prefecture. 
 Some 90,000 acres have been taken in hand and a large 
 amount of money has been spent. The work has been 
 carried out largely by way of giving wages to farmers during 
 famine. A new tunnel brought water to 6,000 acres. 
 " The bad climate of Miyagi cannot be mended," I was 
 told ; "all that can be done is to seek for the earliest 
 varieties of rice, to sow early, to work as diligently as 
 possible and to deal with floods by embanking the rivers and 
 by tree planting." As many as 7,000 people go from 
 Miyagi to Hokkaido in a year. It seems to point to a 
 certain amount of fecklessness that 15 per cent, of them 
 return. 
 
 One man I spoke with during my journey south gave a 
 vivid impression of the influence of young men's associa- 
 tions. " Before they started," said he, " the young men 
 spent their time in singing indecent songs, in gambling, 
 in talking foolishly, and twice or thrice a year in im- 
 morality. A young widow has sometimes been at fault ; 
 the parents-in-law need her help and village sentiment 
 is against her remarriage. The suppression of Bon dances 
 has done more harm than good by keeping out of sight 
 what used to be said and done openly.' Two or three 
 priests are active in this prefecture. Where the Shinshu 
 sect is strong you will find little divorce. But the influ- 
 ence of Buddhism has been stationary in recent years. 
 There is some action by missionaries of the Japanese 
 
 ' See A Free Farmer m a Free State, pp. 173-4, for an acoovmt of the 
 custom in Zealand by which peasants preserved themselves from the 
 calamity of childless marriage. 
 
198 
 
 BON" SONGS AND THE SILENT PRIEST 
 
 Christian church, but the number of Christians among real 
 rustics is very small." 
 
 At Sendai it was pleasant to see a prefectural office — or 
 most of it — housed in a Japanese building instead of a 
 dreadful edifice " in Western style." In feudal times the 
 building was a school. Portraits of daimyos and famous 
 scholars of the Sendai clan surround the Governor's room, 
 and adjoining it is the tatomi-covered apartment in which 
 the daimyo used to sit when he was present at the examina- 
 tions. Among the portraits is one of a retainer which was 
 
 painted in Rome, 
 where he had been 
 sent on a mission 
 of inquiry. 
 
 In his scarecrow- 
 making the Japan- 
 ese farmer seems to 
 have great faith in 
 the Western-style 
 cap, felt hat, or 
 even umbrella, if he 
 can get hold of one. 
 Ordinarily, the 
 bogey man has a 
 bow with the arrow 
 strung. Occasion- 
 ally a farmer seeks 
 to scare birds by 
 means of clappers 
 which he places in the hands of a child or an old man who 
 sits in a rough shelter raised high enough to overtop the rice. 
 Now and then there is a clapper connected with a string to 
 the farm-house. I have also seen a row of bamboos carried 
 across a paddy field with a square piece of wood hanging 
 loosely against each one. A rope connecting all the bam- 
 boos with one another was carried to the roadway, and now 
 and then a passer-by of a benevolent disposition, or with 
 nothing better to do, or, it may be, standing in some degre* 
 of relationship to the paddy-field proprietor, gave the rope 
 a tug. Then all the bamboos bent, and as they smartly 
 
 A SC ABECBOW. — A SKETCH BY PbOFESSOB NaSTJ. 
 
SINCE THE SHOGUNATE 199 
 
 straightened themselves caused the clappers to give forth 
 a sound sufficiently agitating to sparrow pillagers in several 
 paddies. 
 
 On leaving Miyagi we were once more in Fukushima, with 
 notes on which this account of a trip to the north of Japan 
 and back again began. This time, instead of journeying 
 by routes through the centre of the prefecture, as in coming 
 north, or as in the visit paid to Fukushima in the Tokyo-to- 
 Niigata journey, I travelled along the sea coast. When we 
 had passed through Fukushima we were in Ibaraki, a charac- 
 teristic feature of which is swamps. Drainage operations 
 have been going on since the time of the Shogunate. There 
 is in this prefecture the biggest production of beans in 
 Japan, and we have come far enough south to see tea 
 frequently. In the lower half of the prefecture we are in 
 the great Kwanto plain, the prefectures in which are most 
 conveniently surveyed from Tokyo. 
 
 15 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 A MIDNIGHT TALK 
 
 True religion is a relation, accordant with reason and knowledge, which 
 man establishes with the infinite life surrounding him, and it is such as 
 binds his life to that infinity, and guides his conduct. — Tolstoy 
 
 One of the most instructive experiences I had during my 
 rural journeys occurred one night when I was staying at a 
 country inn. At a late hour I was told that the Governor 
 of the prefecture was in a room overhead. I had called on 
 him a few days before in his prefectural capital. He was a 
 large daimyo-like figure, dignified and courteous, but seem- 
 ingly impenetrable. There was no depth in our talk. His 
 aloof and xmcommunicative manner was deterring, but by 
 this time I had learnt the elementary lesson of unending 
 patience and freedom from hasty judgment that is the first 
 step to an advance in knowledge of another race. I felt 
 that I should like to know more about the man inside this 
 Excellency. No one had told me anything of his life. 
 
 Now that he was in the same inn with me it was Japanese 
 good manners to pay him a visit. So I went upstairs 
 with my travelling companion, telling him on the way that 
 we should not remain more than five minutes. We were 
 wearing our bath kimonos. The Governor was also at 
 his ease in one of these garments. He was kneeUng at a 
 low table reading. We knelt at the other side, spoke on 
 general topics, asked one or two questions and began to 
 take our leave. On this the Governor said that he would 
 like very much to ask me in turn some questions. We 
 spoke together until one in the morning, his Excellency 
 continually expressing his unwillingness for us to go. He 
 spoke rapidly and with such earnestness that I was balked 
 of understanding what he said sentence by sentence. The 
 
 200 
 
"IF WE SACRIFICE OURSELVES" 201 
 
 next day my companion wrote out a summary of what the 
 Governor had said and I had tried to say in reply. As a 
 brief report of a talk of three hours' duration it is plainly 
 imperfect. The artless account is of some interest, how- 
 ever, because it furnishes an impression at once of an 
 engaging simplicity and sincerity in the Japanese character 
 and of the pressure of Western ideas. 
 
 Governor : " There have died lately my mother, my wife 
 and one of my daughters. Some of my officials come to me 
 and ask what consolation I am getting. What do I feel at 
 first when such things happen ? Am I content under such 
 misfortune ? I feel that I should be happy if I could believe 
 something and tell it to them. I am tormented by the 
 conflict of my scientific and rehgious feelings. How is the 
 relation of science and religion in your mind ? Are you 
 tormented or are you composed and peaceful even when 
 meeting such misfortune as mine ? 
 
 Myself: "It is certain that it is not well to torment 
 ourselves, for grief is loss.' As to science, it did not drive 
 away religion. Science seeks after truth in all matters, but 
 there are truths which are to be searched out through our 
 feeling, conscience and instinct. Religion has to do with 
 these truths. It is quite good for religion if all supersti- 
 tion, dogma and ignorance are cleared away by science. 
 Concerning a future life, we are hampered in our thinking 
 by our traditions, prejudices, deep ignorance and poor 
 mental strength and training ; and much energy is needed 
 in the world for present service. Some have thought of an 
 immortality which is that a man's sincere influence, his 
 unselfish manifestations, those things which are the 
 essence of a man's existence, will live on ; in other words, 
 that the best of a fife is immortal ; but not in the way of 
 ghosts. As to the memory, example and achievement of 
 the dead it is sure that we are aided by them." 
 
 Governor : "If we sacrifice ourselves for the public good 
 
 1 " The strength that is given at such times arises not from ignoring loss 
 or persuading oneself that the thing is not that is, but from the resolute 
 setting of the face to the East and the taking of one step forwards. Any- 
 thing that detaches one, that makes one turn from the past and look 
 simply at what one has to do, brings with it new strength and new intensity 
 of interest." — ^Haldane. 
 
202 A MIDNIGHT TALK 
 
 it is the best that we can do in this world. But are you 
 composed at the sad news concerning the Lusitania ? If 
 you think that event was directed by divine destiny then 
 you can be composed and may not complain." 
 
 Myself: " Such an accident may only be by divine 
 destiny in the sense that everything in this world, the 
 saddest misery, the greatest misfortunes, are suffered in 
 the development of mankind, so that even this War is 
 unquestionably for the final betterment of the whole world." 
 Governor : " Please say what is God." 
 Myself: " ' If I could tell you what God is, I should be 
 God myself.' Many of my own countrymen have been 
 taught that God is ' Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchangeable 
 in His Being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness 
 and truth.' There are those who would say that God may 
 be the total developing or bettering energy, and that we are 
 all part of God. Some people have a more personal con- 
 ception of God, the sum of all goodness. May not his Excel- 
 lency consider the peasant's idea of a Governor of a pre- 
 fecture ? The peasant's idea of a Governor is greater than 
 that of any particular Governor. His Excellency's good 
 works are not done by himself alone, but by all the good 
 energies inherent in the Governorship. Those energies are 
 unseen but real. The Japanese army and navy triumphed 
 by the virtue of the Emperor — by the virtue of ideas." 
 Governor : " The thought of Sensei ' is quite Oriental." 
 Myself: " All religions are from Asia." 
 Governor: " This world where stars move, flowers blossom 
 and decay, spring and autumn come, and people are born 
 and die is too full of mystery, but I can feel some intelligence 
 working through it though incomprehensible." 
 
 Myself: " Alas, people will try to explain that incompre- 
 hensibleness." 
 
 Governor : " What you have said is what I have been 
 accepting to this day. It satisfies my reason, but I feel in 
 my heart something lacking. I seek for a warmer inter- 
 pretation of the world, for a more heartfelt relation with 
 cosmos. Several of my officials themselves lost their dear 
 
 1 Teacher, inatruotor, master, or a polite way of saying " You " — ^the 
 us ual title by which I was addressed. 
 
A PARBOILED GOVERNOR 203 
 
 children recently. They cannot with heart and brain accept 
 their loss, and they ask my direction." 
 
 Myself: " In the New Testament one thing is taught, 
 God is Love. We can be composed if we feel that God is 
 love. The Gospel of John is the most tender story in the 
 world." 
 
 (Sovernor : "It may be difl&cult for all people to come to 
 the same point and agree altogether. We must solve a 
 great problem by ourselves." 
 
 Myself: " We have opportunities of doing some good 
 works in this life. Therefore we must go on till we die and 
 we must be content at being able to do something good, 
 directly or indirectly, in however small measure. ' Earth 
 is not as thou ne'er hadst been,' wrote an Englishwoman 
 poet of great scientific ability ' who died while yet a young 
 woman," 
 
 Governor : "I think of Napoleon dying tormented on 
 St. Helena, and the peaceful attitude of Socrates though 
 being poisoned by enemies. But Socrates had done many 
 good things, yet he was poisoned." 
 
 Myself: " Socrates had done what he could for his 
 country and the world, yet by his brave death he could add 
 one thing more." ' 
 
 The Governor said that he " got comfort from our talk," 
 but this did not perfectly reassure me. The next evening, 
 however, I found a parboiled Governor alone in the bath 
 and he greeted me very warmly. Without our interpreter 
 we could say nothing that mattered, but we were glad of this 
 further meeting in the friendly hot water. It seemed that 
 our rtiidnight talk would be memorable to both of us. 
 
 It is convenient to copy out here the following dicta on 
 religion and morals which were delivered to me at various 
 times during my journeys : 
 
 A. " The weakest deterrent influence among us is, ' It 
 is wrong.' A stronger deterrent influence is, ' Heaven 
 will punish you.' The strongest deterrent influence of all 
 is, ' Everybody will laugh at you.' " 
 
 ' Constance Naden. 
 
 2 " The Phaedo was bought for us by the death of Socrates." — Quilleb 
 Couch. 
 
204 A MIDNIGHT TALK 
 
 B. "In Japan all religions have been turned into 
 sentiment or sestheticism." 
 
 C. {after speaking appreciatively of the ideas animating 
 many Japanese Christians) : " All the same I do not feel 
 quite safe about trusting the future of Japan to those 
 people." 
 
 D. " We Japanese have never been spiritually gifted. 
 We are neither meditative and reflective like the Hindus 
 nor individualistic like the Anglo-Saxons. Nevertheless, 
 like all mankind we have spiritual yearnings. They will 
 be best stirred by impulses from without." 
 
 E. {in answer to my enquiry whether a Quakerism which 
 compromised on war, as John Bright' s male descendants had 
 done, might not gain many adherents in Japan) : " Other 
 sects may have a smaller ultimate chance than Quakerism. 
 One mistake made by the Quakers was in going to work 
 first among the poorer classes. The Quakers ought to have 
 begun with the intellectual classes, for every movement in 
 Japan is from the top." 
 
 F. " You will notice what a number of the gods of Japan 
 are deified men. There is a good side to the earth earthy, 
 but many Japanese seem unable to worship anything 
 higher than human beings. The readiest key to the re- 
 ligious feeling of the Japanese is the religious life of the 
 Greeks. The more I study the Greeks the more I see our 
 resemblance to them in many ways, in all ways, perhaps, 
 except two, our lack of philosophy and our lack of physical 
 comeliness." 
 
 G. " As to uncomeliness there are several Japanese 
 types. The refined type is surely attractive. If many 
 Japanese noses seem to be too short, foreigners' noses seem 
 to us to be too long. The results of intermarriage between 
 Western people and Japanese who are of equal social and 
 educational status and of good physique should be closely 
 watched." 
 
 H. "In our schools an hour or two a week is reserved for 
 culture, but the true spirit of culture is lacking. The 
 Imperial Rescript on education is very good moral 
 doctrine, but the real life's aim of many of us is to be 
 well off, to have an automobile, to become a Baron or to 
 
A JUSTER IDEA ABOUT "IDOLS" 205 
 
 extend the Empire. We do not ask ourselves, ' For 
 what reason ? ' " 
 
 I. " I conduct certain classes which the clerks of my 
 bank must attend. The teaching-I give is based on Con- 
 fucian, Christian and Buddhist principles. I try to make 
 the young men more manful. I constantly urge upon them 
 that ' you must be a man before you can be a clerk.' " 
 
 J. (a septuagenarian ex-daimyo) : " Confucianism is the 
 basis of my life, but twice a month I serve at my Shinto 
 shrine and I conduct a Buddhist service in my house 
 morning and evening. It is necessary to make the profes- 
 sion that Buddha saves us. I do not believe in paradise. 
 It is paradise if when I die I have a peaceful mind due to a 
 feehng that I have done my duty in life and that my sons 
 are not bad men. Unless I am peaceful on my deathbed 
 I cannot perish but must struggle on. Therefore my sons 
 must be good. I myself strove to be filial and I have 
 always said to my sons, ' Fathers may not be fathers but 
 sons must be sons.' " 
 
 K. {the preceding speaker's son expressing his opinion on 
 another occasion) : " My father as a Confucian is kind to 
 people negatively. We want to be kind positively because 
 it is right to be kind. As to filial obedience, even fathers 
 may err ; we are righteous if we are right. My father is a 
 Shintoist because it is our national custom. He wants to 
 respect his ancestors in a .wide sense and he desires that 
 Japan, his family and his crops may be protected." 
 
 L. " I wish foreigners had a juster idea about ' idols.' 
 There is a difference between frequenters of the temples 
 believing the figures to be holy and believing them to be 
 gods. Every morning my mother serves before her shrine 
 of Buddha but she does not believe our Buddha to be God. 
 She would not soil or irreverently handle our Buddha, but 
 it is only holy as a symbol, as an image of a holy being. 
 My mother has said to me, ' Buddha is our father. He 
 looks after us always ; I cannot but thank him. If there 
 be after life Buddha will lead me to Paradise. There is no 
 reason to beg a favour.' My mother is composed and 
 peaceful. All through her life she has met calamities and 
 troubles serenely. I admire her very much, She is a 
 
206 A MIDNIGHT TALK 
 
 good example of how Buddha's influence makes one 
 peaceful and spiritual. But such religious experience may 
 not be grasped from the outside by foreigners." 
 
 M. " When I am in a temple or at a shrine I reaUse its 
 value in concentrating attention. The daily domestic 
 service before the shrine in the house also ensures some 
 religious life daily. Many of my countrymen no doubt 
 regard religion as superstition ; they know little of spiritual 
 life. For some of them patriotism or humanitarian senti- 
 ments or eagerness to seek after scientific truth takes the 
 place of religion. Most men think that they can never 
 comprehend the cosmos and say, ' We may believe only what 
 we can prove. Let us follow not after preachers but after 
 truth.' I believe with your Western philosophers who say 
 that the cosmos is not perfect but that it is moving towards 
 perfection. Many think that this War shows that the 
 cosmos is not perfect. Spiritual life is living according 
 to one's purest consciousness. But what is of first import- 
 ance is our actions. It is not enough merely to strive after 
 moral development. One must strive after economic and 
 social development. Some religious people think only of 
 the spiritual life and have no sympathy with economics. 
 The labours of such religious people must be of small 
 value." 
 
 In later Chapters the views of other thoughtful Japanese 
 are noted down as they were communicated to me. 
 
THE BLIND HEADMAN AND HIS 
 COLLECTING-BAG. p. 229 
 
 ME. YANAGHITA IN HIS CORONA- 
 TION OEREMONr EOBES. p. xv 
 
 206] 
 
 PORTABLE APPARATUS FOR 
 RAISING WATER, p. 216 
 
 VILLAGE SCHOOL "WITH PORTRAIT OF 
 FLORENCE NIGHTIiTGALE. p. 127 
 
EIVER-BBDS IN THE SUMMER 
 From which may be imagined the power ot the water in time of flood, p. 92 
 
 [207 
 
THE ISLAND OF SHIKOKU 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 (TOKUSHIMA, KOCHI AND KAGAWA) 
 
 The most capital article, the character of the inhabitants. — Tytler 
 
 In travelling southwards I noticed between Kyoto and 
 Osaka that farms were being irrigated from wells in the 
 primitive way by means of the weighted swinging pole and 
 bucket. Along the coast to the south, indeed as far as 
 Hiroshima, there have been great gains from the sea, and 
 in the neighbourhood of Kobe there are three parallel roads 
 which mark successive recoveries of land. Before crossing 
 the Inland Sea at Okayama to Shikoku (area about 1,000 
 square miles) I visited one of the new settlements on 
 recovered land. The labour available from a family was 
 reckoned as equal to that of two men, and as much as 
 4 to 5 cho was allotted to each house. It will be seen how 
 much larger is this area — 5 cho is 12^ acres — than the 
 average Japanese farming family must be content with, 
 a httle less than 3 acres. The company supplied houses, 
 seeds, manures, etc., and after all expenses were met the 
 workers were allowed 25 per cent, of the net income of their 
 summer crop and ^5 per cent, of the net income of their 
 second crop. The cultivation was directed by the company. 
 There had been 300 applications for the last twenty houses 
 built. An experiment station was maintained, and a cam- 
 paign against a rice borer had been of benefit to the amount 
 of about 10,000 yen. I found the company's winnowing 
 machine discharging its chaff into the furnace of the rice- 
 drying apparatus. 
 
 One of the experts of the company came with me for some 
 
 207 
 
208 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 distance in the train in order to discuss some of his problems. 
 He thought agricultural work could be done in less back- 
 breaking ways. He wanted a small threshing machine 
 which would be suitable not only for threshing small 
 quantities of rice or corn but for easy conveyance along the 
 narrow and easily damaged paths between the rice fields. 
 If he had such a machine he would like to improve it so 
 that it would lay out the threshed straw evenly, so making 
 the straw more valuable for the many uses to which it is 
 put. He wished to see a machine invented for planting 
 out rice seedlings and another contrivance devised for 
 drying wheat. The company's rice-drying machine handled 
 200 koku of rice a day, but there were difficulties in drying 
 wheat. (In many places I noticed the farmers drying their 
 corn by the primitive method of singeing it and thus 
 spoiling it.)' 
 
 On the Inland Sea, aboard the smart little steamer of 
 the Government Railways, my companion spoke of the 
 extent to which sea-faring men, a conservative class, had 
 abandoned the use of the single square sail which one sees 
 in Japanese prints ; the little vessels had been re-rigged in 
 Western fashion. But many superstitions had survived 
 the aboUshed square sails. The mother of my fellow- 
 traveller once told him that, when she crossed the Inland 
 Sea in an old-style ship and a storm arose, the shipmaster 
 earnestly addressed the passengers in these words, " Some- 
 body here must be unclean ; if so, please tell me openly." 
 The title of the book my companion was reading was The 
 History of the Southern Savage. Who was the " Southern 
 Savage " ? The word is namban, the name given to the 
 early Portuguese and Spanish voyagers to Japan. (The 
 Dutch were called komojin, red-haired men.) In looking 
 through the official railway guide on the boat I saw that 
 there was a list of specially favourable places for viewing 
 the moon. An M.P. passenger told me that the average 
 cost of getting returned to the Diet was 10,000 yen.* 
 
 ^ At Aajo agricultural experiment station I saw eighteen kinds of 
 small threshing machines at from 13 to 18 yen. There were husking 
 machines of three sorts. A rice thresher was equal to dealing with the 
 crop of one tan, estimated at 2 kohu 4 to, in three hours, 
 
 2 See Appendix XLVI. 
 
IN THE DAIMYO'S TOWER 209 
 
 The difficulties of communication in Shikoku are so 
 considerable that I was compelled to leave the two pre- 
 fectures of Tokushima and Kochi unvisited. Kochi is 
 without a yard of railway line. In the prefecture of Ehime 
 most of my journey had to be made by kuruma. Com- 
 munication between the four prefectures of Shikoku — ^the 
 one in which I landed was Kagawa — is largely conducted 
 by coasting steamers and sailing craft. An interesting 
 thing in Kochi is the area by the sea in which two crops of 
 rice are grown in the year. Tokushima holds a leading 
 place in the production of indigo. At one place in the hills 
 the adventurous have the satisfaction of crossing a river 
 by means of suspension bridges made of vine branches. 
 
 The streets of Takamatsu, the capital of Kagawa, are 
 many of them so narrow that the shopkeepers on either 
 side have joint sun screens which they draw right across 
 the thoroughfares. Here I found the carts hauled by a 
 smallish breed of cow. The placid animals are handier in 
 a narrow place and less expensive than horses. They are 
 shod, like their drivers, in waraji. In Shikoku the cow or ox 
 is generally used in the paddies instead of the horse. " It 
 is slower but strong and can plough deep," one agricultural 
 expert said. " It eats cheaper food than the horse, which 
 moves too fast in a small paddy. Cows and oxen are prob- 
 ably not working for more than seventy-five or eighty days 
 in the year." 
 
 At Takamatsu I had the opportunity of visiting a 
 daimyo's castle. I was impressed by its strength not only 
 because of the wide moats but because of the series 
 of earthen fortifications faced with cyclopean stonework 
 through which an invading force must wind its way. 
 There was within the walls a surprisingly large drilling 
 ground for troops and also an extensive drug garden. 
 The present owner of the castle proposed to build here 
 a library and a museum for the town. I was glad of 
 the opportunity to ascend one of the high pagoda-like 
 towers so familiar in Japanese paintings. I was dis- 
 illusioned. Instead of finding myself in beautiful rooms 
 for the enjoyment of marvellous views and sea breezes 
 I had to clamber over the roughest cob-webbed timbers. 
 
210 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 One storey was connected with another by a stair of 
 rude planking. Such pagodas were built only for their 
 military value as lookouts and for their dehghtful appear- 
 ance from the outside. 
 
 The town now enjoyed as a park of more than ten acres 
 the grounds of a subsidiary residence of the daimyo. The 
 magnificent trees, with lakes, rivulets and hills fashioned 
 with infinite art,' and the background of natural hiU and 
 woodland, made in all a possession which exhibited the 
 delectable possibilities of Japanese gardening. An occa- 
 sional electric light amid the trees gave an effect in the 
 evening in which Japanese delight. Some of the old carp 
 which dashed up to the bridges when they heard our foot- 
 steps seemed to be not far short of 3 ft. long. 
 
 Except for a small patch of sugar cane in Shidzuoka — 
 it is grown practically on the sea beach where it is visible 
 from the express — the visitor to Japan may never see 
 sugar cane until Shikoku is reached. The value of the 
 crop in the whole island is about 800,000 yen. The tall cane 
 is conspicuous alongside the more diminutive rice. In this 
 prefecture an experiment is being made'in growing olives. 
 
 Kagawa is remarkable in having had until lately 30,000 
 pond reservoirs for the irrigation of rice fields. Under the 
 new system of rice-field adjustment many of the ponds are 
 joined together. Because in Shikoku flat tracts of land or 
 tracts that can be made flat are limited in number the 
 farmers have to be content with small pieces of land. 
 The average area of farm in Kagawa outside the 
 mountainous region is less than two acres. When the 
 farms are near the sea, as they commonly are, the agri- 
 culturists may also be fishermen. 
 
 The number of place names ending in ji (temple) pro- 
 claims the former flourishing condition of Buddhism. 
 Shikoku is a great resort of white-clothed pilgrims. Some- 
 times it is a solitary man whom one sees on the road, 
 sometimes a company of men, occasionally a family. Not 
 seldom the pilgrim or his companion is manifestly suffering 
 from some affection which the pilgrimage is to cvie. In 
 
 1 It is quite possible that the trees had also come into their positions 
 artificially. There are no more skilful tree movers than the Japanese. 
 
THE PILGRIMS AND THE SHRINE 211 
 
 the old days it was not unusual to send the victim of 
 " the shameful disease " or of an incurable ailment on a 
 pilgrimage from shrine to shrine or temple to temple. He 
 was not expected to return. In Shikoku there are eighty- 
 eight temples to Buddha and the founder of the Shingon 
 sect, and it is estimated that it would mean a 760 miles' 
 journey to visit them all. 
 
 We went off our route at one point where my companion 
 wished to visit a gorgeous shrine. A guidebook said that 
 people flocked there " by the milUon," but what I was told 
 was that last year's attendance was 80,000. The street 
 leading to the approach to the shrine was in a series of steps. 
 On either side were the usual shops with piled-up memen- 
 toes in great variety and of no Uttle ingenuity, and also, on 
 spikes, little stacks of rin — the old copper coin with a square 
 hole through the middle — into which the economical 
 devotee takes care to exchange a few sen. We climbed to 
 the shrine when twilight was coming on. At the point 
 where the series of street steps ended there began a new 
 series of about a thousand steps belonging to the shrine. 
 A thousand granite steps may be tiring after a hot 
 day's travel in a kuruma. All the way up to the shrine 
 there were granite pillars almost brand new, first short 
 ones, then taller, then taller still, and after these a few 
 which topped the tallest. They were conspicuously in- 
 scribed with the names of donors to the shrine. A small 
 pillar was priced at 10 yen. What the big, bigger and 
 biggest cost I do not know. I turned from the pillars 
 to the stone lanterns. " They burn cedar wood, I believe," 
 said my companion. But soon afterwards I saw a man 
 working at them with a length of electric-light wire. 
 
 The great shrine was impressive in the twilight. There 
 was a platform near, and from it we looked down from the 
 tree-covered heights through the growing darkness. Where 
 the Ughts of the town twinkled there was a subsidiary shrine. 
 A bare-headed, kimono-clad sailor stepped forward near 
 us and bowed his head to some semblance of deity down 
 there. Various fishermen had brought the anchors of 
 their ships and the oars of their boats to show forth their 
 thankfulness for safety at sea. In the murkiness I was 
 
212 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 just able to pick out the outlines of a bronze horse which 
 stands at the shrine, "as a sort of scape - goat," my 
 companion explained. "It is probably Buddhist," he 
 said ; " but you can never be sure ; these priests embellish 
 the history of their temples so." 
 
 It was at the inn in the evening that someone told me 
 that in the town which is dependent on the shrine there 
 were " a hundred prostitutes, thirty geisha and some 
 waitresses." Late at night I had a visit from a man in a 
 position of great responsibility in the prefecture. He was 
 at a loss to know what could be done for moraUty. 
 " Religion is not powerful," he said, " the schools do not 
 reach grown-up people, the young men's societies are weak, 
 many sects and new moralities are attacking our people, 
 and there are many cheap books of a low class." 
 
 Next day I laid this view before a group of landlords. 
 They did not reply for a Uttle and my skilful interpreter 
 said, " they are thinking deeply." At length one of them 
 delivered himself to this effect : " Landowners hereabouts 
 are mostly of a base sort. They always consider things 
 from a material and personal point of view. But if they 
 are attacked and made to act more for the public good it 
 may have an effect on rural conditions which are now low." 
 
 I enquired about the new sects of Buddhism and 
 Shintoism, for there had been pointed out to me in some 
 villages " houses of new religions." " New religions in 
 many varieties are coming into the villages," I was told, 
 " and extravagant though they may be are influencing 
 people. The adherents seem to be moral and modest, 
 and they pay their taxes promptly. There is a so-called 
 Shinto sect which was started twenty years ago by an 
 ignorant woman. It has believers in every part of Japan. 
 It is rather communistic." ' None of the landlords who 
 talked with me believed in the possibility of a " revival 
 of Buddhism." One of them noted that " people educated 
 in the early part of Meiji are most materialistic. It is a 
 sorrowful circumstance that the ofiicials ask only materi- 
 alistic questions of the villagers." 
 
 1 It has recently come into collision with the authorities. Another 
 sect with Shinto ideas was also started by a woman. 
 
SAKE ETIQUETTE 213 
 
 I asked one of the landlords about his tenants. He said 
 that his "largest tenant" had no more than 1'3 tan of 
 paddy. It was explained that " tenants are obedient to 
 the landowner in this prefecture." Under the system of 
 official rewards which exists in Japan, 1,086 persons in the 
 prefecture had been " rewarded " by a kind of certificate 
 of merit and nine with money — to the total value of 26 yen. 
 
 When I drew attention to the fact that the manufacture 
 of sak& and soy seemed to be frequently in the hands of 
 landowners it was explained to me that formerly this was 
 their industry exclusively. Even now " whereas an 
 ordinary shop-keeper is required by etiquette to say 
 ' Thank you ' to his customer, a purchaser of sak& or soy 
 says ' Thank you ' to the shop-keeper," 
 
 The flower arrangement in my room in the inn consisted 
 of an effective combination of Jiagi (Lespedeza bicolor, a 
 leguminous plant which is grown for cattle and has been 
 a favourite subject of Japanese poetry), a cabbage, a rose, 
 a begonia and leaf and a fir branch. 
 
 A landowner I chatted with in the train showed me that 
 it was a serious matter to receive the distinction of 
 growing the millet for use at the Coronation. One of his 
 friends who was growing 5 sho, the actual value of which 
 might be 50 or 60 sen, was spending on it first and last 
 about 3,000 yen. 
 
 I enquired about the diversions of landowners. It is 
 easy, of course, to have an inaccurate impression of the 
 extent of their leisure. Only about 1 per cent, have more 
 than 25 acres.' Therefore most of these men are either 
 farmers themselves or must spend a great deal of time 
 looking after their tenants. Still, some landowners are 
 able to take things rather easily. The landowners I 
 interrogated marvelled at the open-air habits of Enghsh 
 landed proprietors. They were greatly surprised when I 
 told them of a countess who is a grandmother but thinks 
 nothing of a canter before breakfast. The mark of being 
 well off was often to stay indoors or at any rate within 
 garden walls, which necessarily enclose a very small area. 
 (Hence the fact that one object of Japanese gardening 
 1 See Appendix XLVII. 
 
214 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 is to suggest a much larger space than exists.) A good 
 deal of time is spent " in appreciating fine arts." Cere- 
 monial tea drinking still claims no small amount of 
 attention. (In many gardens and in the grounds of hotels 
 of any pretensions one comes on the ostentatiously humble 
 chamber for Cha-no-yu.) No doubt there is among many 
 landowners a considerable amount of drinking of something 
 stronger than tea, and not a few men sacrifice freely to 
 Venus. Perhaps the greatest claimant of all on the time of 
 those who have time to spare is the game of go, which is said 
 to be more difficult than chess. One cannot but remark 
 the comparatively pale faces of many landowners. 
 
 As we went along by the coast it was pointed out to me 
 that it was from this neighbourhood that some of the 
 most indomitable of the old-time pirates set sail on their 
 expeditions to ravage the Chinese coast. They visited 
 that coast all the way from Vladivostock, now Russian 
 (and like to be Japanese), to Saigon, now French. There 
 are many Chinese books discussing effectual methods of 
 repelling the pirates. In an official Japanese work I once 
 noticed, in the enumeration of Japanese rights in Taiwan 
 (Formosa), the naive claim that long ago it was visited by 
 Japanese pirates ! The Japanese fisherman is still an 
 intrepid person, and in villages which have an admixture 
 of fishing folk the seafarers, from their habit of following 
 old customs and taking their own way generally, are the 
 constant subject of rural reformers' laments. 
 
 I spent some time in a typical inland village. The 
 very last available yard of land was utilised. The cottages 
 stood on plots buttressed by stone, and only the well-to-do 
 had a yard or garden ; paddy came right up to the 
 foundations. Now that the rice was high no division 
 showed between the different paddy holdings. I noticed 
 here that the round, carefully concreted manure tank 
 which each farmer possessed had a reinforced concrete hood. 
 I asked a landowner who was in a comfortable position 
 what societies there were in his village. He mentioned a 
 society " to console old people and reward virtue." Then 
 there was the society of householders, such as is mentioned 
 in Confucius, which met in the spring and autumn, and ate 
 
TREE GROOMING 215 
 
 and drank and discussed local topics " with open heart." 
 There were sometimes quarrels due to sake. Indeed, some 
 villagers seemed to save up their differences until the house- 
 holders' meeting at its saki stage. At householders' 
 meetings where there was no sak& peace appeared to prevail. 
 The householders' meeting was a kind of informal village 
 assetably. That assembly itself ordinarily met twice a 
 year. There were in the village, in addition to the house- 
 holders' organisation, the usual reservists' association, the 
 young men's society and agricultural association. As to 
 ko, from philanthropic motives my informant was a member 
 of no fewer than ten. 
 
 My host told me that he spent a good deal of time in 
 plajdng go, but in the shooting season (October 15 to April 
 15) he made trips to the hills and shot pheasants, hares, 
 pigeons and deer. In the garden of his house two gardeners 
 were stretched along the branches of a pine tree, nimbly 
 and industriously picking out the shoots in order to get that 
 bare appearance which has no doubt puzzled many a 
 Western student of Japanese tree pictures. Each man's 
 ladder — two lengths of bamboo with rungs tied on with 
 string — was carefully leant against a pole laid from the 
 ground through the branches. Many of the well- 
 cared-for trees in the gardens and public places of Japan 
 pass the winter in neat wrappings of straw. 
 
 I visited a farm-house and found the farmer making 
 baskets. When I was examining the winnowing machine 
 my companion reminded me smilingly that when he was a 
 boy he was warned never to turn the wheel of the winnowing 
 machine when the contrivance had no grain in it or a demon 
 might come out. There was a properly protected tank of 
 liquid manure and a well-roofed maniu-e house. The family 
 bath in an open shed was of a sort I had not seen before, 
 a kind of copper with a step up to it. Straw rope about 
 three-quarters of an inch in diameter was being made by 
 the farmer's son, a day's work being 40 yds. At another 
 farm a woman showed me the working of a rough loom 
 with which she could in a day make a score of mats worth 
 in all 60 sen. From the farmer's house I went to the 
 room of the young men's association and looked over its 
 16 
 
216 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 library. I was impressed by the high level of civilisation 
 which this village seemed to exhibit in essentials. 
 
 When we continued our journey we saw two portable 
 water wheels by means of which water was being lifted into 
 a paddy. Each wheel was worked by a man who continu- 
 ally ascended the floats. The two men were able to leave 
 their wheels in turn for a rest, for a third man was stretched 
 on the ground in readiness for his spell. It seems that a 
 man can keep on the water tread-mill for an hour. The 
 two wheels together were lifting an amazing amount of 
 water at a great rate. When the pumping is finished one of 
 these light water wheels is easily carried home on a man's 
 shoulders. 
 
 Farther on I saw in a dry river bed a man sieving gravel 
 in an ingenious way. The trouble in sieving gravel is that if 
 the sieve be filled to its capacity the shaking soon becomes 
 tiring. This man had a square sieve which when lying on 
 the ground was attached at one side by two ropes to a 
 firmly fixed tripod of poles. When the sieve was filled the 
 labourer lifted it far enough away from the tripod for it to 
 be swinging on one side. Therefore when he shook the 
 sieve he sustained a portion only of its weight. 
 
 As we rode along I was told that the largest taxpayer in 
 the county " does not live in idleness but does many good 
 works." The next largest taxpayer " labours every day 
 in the field." When I enquired as to the recreations of 
 moneyed men I was told " travelling, go and poem writing." 
 
 As we rode by the sea a trustworthy informant pointed 
 out to me an islet where he said the young men have the 
 young women in common and " give permission for them to 
 marry." There is a house in which the girls live together 
 at a particular time and are then free from the attentions 
 of the youths. Children born are brought up in the families 
 of the mothers but there is some infanticide. In another 
 little island oft the coast there are only two classes of people, 
 the seniors and the juniors. Any person senior to any other 
 " may give him orders and call him by his second name." 
 (The surname comes first in Japanese names.) 
 
 Our route led us along the track of the new railway line 
 which was penetrating from Kagawa into Ehime. Not 
 
A "BASHA" STORY 217 
 
 for the first time on my journeys was I told of the corrupt- 
 ing influence exerted on the countryside by the imported 
 " navvies," if our Western name may be apphed to men 
 who in figure and dress look so little hke the big fellows 
 who do the same kind of work in England. Although 
 these navvies were a rough lot and our ancient basha (a 
 kind of four-wheeled covered carriage) was a thing for 
 mirth, we met with no incivihty as we picked our way 
 among them for a mile or two. I was a witness indeed of 
 a creditable incident. A handcart fuUof earth was being 
 taken along the edge of the roadway, with one man in the 
 shafts and another pushing behind. Suddenly a wheel 
 slipped over the side of the roadway, the cart was canted 
 on its axle, the man in the shafts received a jolt and the 
 cargo was shot out. Had our sort of navvies been con- 
 cerned there would have been words of heat and colour. 
 The Japanese laughed. 
 
 The reference to our venerable basha reminds me of a well- 
 known story which was once told me by a Japanese as a 
 specimen of Japanese humour. A basha, I may explain, 
 has rather the appearance of a vehicle which was evolved 
 by a Japanese of an economical turn after hearing a de- 
 scription of an omnibus from a foreigner who spoke very 
 little Japanese and had not been home for forty years. 
 The body of the vehicle is just high enough and the 
 seats just wide enough for Japanese. So the foreigner 
 continually bumps the roof, and when he is not bump- 
 ing the roof he has much too narrow a seat to sit 
 on. Sometimes the basha has springs of a sort and some- 
 times it has none. But springs would avail little on the 
 rural roads by which many basha travel. The only toler- 
 able place for Mr. Foreigner in a bashais one of the top corner 
 seats behind the driver, for the traveller may there throw an 
 arm round one of the uprights which support the roof. If 
 at an unusually hard bump he should lose his hold he is 
 saved from being cast on the floor by the responsive bodies 
 of his polite and sympathetic fellow-travellers who are em- 
 bedded between him and the door. The tale goes that a 
 tourist who was serving his term in a basha was perplexed 
 to find that the passengers were charged, some first-, some 
 
218 LANDLORDS, PRIESTS AND " BASHA " 
 
 second- and some third-class fare. While he cliong to his 
 upright and shook with every lurch of the conveyance 
 this problem of unequal fares obsessed him. It was like 
 the persistent " punch-in-the-presence-of-the-passengare." 
 What possible advantage, he pondered, could he as first 
 class be getting over the second and the second class over 
 the third ? At length at a steep part of the road the vehicle 
 stopped. The driver came round, opened the door, and 
 bowing politely said : " Honourable first-class passengers 
 will graciously condescend to keep their seats. Second- 
 class passengers will be good enough to favour us by 
 walking. Third-class passengers will kindly come out and 
 push." And push they did, no doubt, kimonos roUed 
 up thighwards, with good humour, sprightliness and 
 cheerful grunts, as is the way with willing workers in Japan. 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 " special tribes " 
 
 (ehAme) 
 
 A frank basis of reality. — ^Meebdith 
 
 In the prefecture of Ehime our journey was still by basha 
 or kuruma and near the sea. The first man we talked with 
 was a guncho who said that " more than half the villages 
 contained a strong character who can lead." He told us 
 of one of the new religions which taught its adherents to 
 do some good deed secretly. The people who accepted this 
 religion mended roads, cleaned out ponds and made offerings 
 at the graves of persons whose names were forgotten. I 
 think it was this man who used the phrase, " There is a 
 shortage of religions." 
 
 I had not before noticed wax trees. They are slighter than 
 apple trees, but often occupy about the same space as the 
 old-fashioned standard apple. The clusters of berries have 
 some resemblance to elderberries and would turn black if 
 they were not picked green.' Occasionally we saw fine 
 camphor trees. Alas, owing to the high price of camphor, 
 some beautiful specimens near shrines, where they were as 
 imposing as cr3^tomeria, had been sacrificed. 
 
 I began to observe the dreadful destruction wrought in 
 the early ear stage of rice not by cold but by wind. The 
 wind knocks the plants against one another and the friction 
 generates enough heat to arrest further development. The 
 crops affected in this way were grey in patches and looked 
 as if hot water had been sprayed over them. In one 
 county the loss was put as high as 90 per cent. Happily 
 farmers generally sow several sorts of rice. Therefore 
 paddies come into ear at different times. 
 
 ' For an account of a vegetable wax factory, see Appendix XLVIII. 
 
 219 
 
220 "SPECIAL TRIBES" 
 
 The heads of millet and the threshed grain of other up- 
 land crops were drying on mats by the roadside, for in the 
 areas where land is so much in demand there is no other 
 space available. Sesame, not unlike snapdragon gone to 
 seed, only stronger in build, was set against the houses. 
 On the growing crops on the uplands dead stalks and 
 chopped straw were being used as mulch. 
 
 I noticed that implements seemed always to be well 
 housed and to be put away clean. Handcarts, boats and 
 the stacks of poles used in making frameworks for drying 
 rice were protected from the weather by being thatched 
 over. 
 
 We continued to see many white- clad pilgrims and every- 
 where touring students, as often afoot as on bicycles. I 
 noted from the registers at many village offices that the 
 number of young men who married before performing their 
 military service seemed to be decreasing. In one com- 
 munity, where there were two priests, one Tendai and the 
 other Shingon, neither seemed to count for much. One 
 was very poor, and cultivated a small patch near his temple; 
 the other had a little more than a cko. The custom was 
 for the farmers to present to their temple from 5 to 10 sho 
 of rice from the harvest. 
 
 In connection with the question of improved implements 
 I noticed that a reasonably efficient winnowing machine in 
 use by a comfortably-oft tenant was forty-nine years old — 
 that is, that it dated back to the time of the Shogun. The 
 secondary industry of this farmer was dwarf- plant growing. 
 He had also a loom for cotton-cloth making. There were 
 in his house, in addition to a Buddhist shrine, two Shinto 
 shrines. After leaving this man I visited an ex-teacher who 
 had lost his post at fifty, no doubt through being unable to 
 keep step with modern educational requirements. He had 
 on his wall the lithograph of Pestalozzi and the children 
 which I saw in many school-houses. 
 
 On taking the road again I was told that the local land- 
 lords had held a meeting in view of the losses of tenants 
 through wind. Most had agreed to forgo rents and to 
 help with artificial manure for next year. I found taro 
 being grown in paddies or under irrigation. Not only the 
 
THE "ETA" VILLAGE 221 
 
 tubers of the taro but its finer stalks are eaten. I saw 
 gourds cut into long lengths narrower than apple rings and 
 put out to dry. I also noticed orange trees a century old 
 which were still producing fruit. Boys were driving iron 
 hoops — the native hoop was of bamboo — and one of the 
 hoop drivers wore a piece of red cloth stitched on his shoul- 
 der, which indicated that he was head of his class. One 
 missed a dog bounding and barking after the hoop drivers. 
 Sometimes at the doors of houses I noticed dogs of the lap- 
 dog type which one sees in paintings or of the wolf type 
 to which the native outdoor dog belongs. The cats were as 
 ugly as the dogs and no plumper or happier looking. When 
 I patted a dog or stroked a cat the act attracted attention. 
 
 We saw a good deal of hinoki (ground cjrpress), the wood 
 of which is still used at Shinto festivals for making fire by 
 friction. 
 
 We were able to visit an Eta village or rather oaza. 
 Whether the Eta are largely the descendants of captives of 
 an early era or of a low class of people who on the intro- 
 duction of Buddhism in the seventh or eighth century were 
 ostracised because of their association with animal eating, 
 animal slaughter, working in leather and grave digging is in 
 dispute. No doubt they have absorbed a certain number of 
 fugitives from higher grades of the population, broken 
 samurai, ne'er-do-weels and criminals. The situation as 
 the foreigner discovers it is that all over Japan there are 
 hamlets of what are called " special tribes." In 1876, 
 when distinctions between them and Japanese generally 
 were officially abolished, the total number was given as 
 about a million. Most of these peculiar people, perhaps 
 three-quarters of them, are known as Eta. But whether 
 they are known as Eta or Shuku, or by some other name, 
 ordinary Japanese do not care to eat with them, marry 
 with them or even talk with them. In the past Eta have 
 often been prosperous, and many are prosperous to-day, 
 but a large number are still restricted to earning a living as 
 butchers and skin and leather workers, and grave diggers. 
 The members of these "special tribes," believing themselves 
 to be despised without cause, usually make some effort to 
 hide the fact that they are Eta. 
 
222 "SPECIAL TRIBES" 
 
 Shuku seem to be living principally in hamlets of a score 
 
 or so of houses in the vicinity of Osaka, Kyoto and Nara, 
 
 and are often travelling players, or, like some Eta, 
 
 skilled in making tools and musical instruments. There 
 
 seems to be a half Shuku or intermarried class. Many 
 
 prostitutes are said to be Shuku or Eta. I was told that 
 
 most of the girls in the prostitutes' houses of Shimane 
 
 prefecture are from " special tribes," and that they are 
 
 " preferred by the proprietors " because, as I was gravely 
 
 informed, " they do not weary of their profession and are 
 
 therefore more acceptable to customers." As prostitutes 
 
 are frequently married by their patrons, it is believed that 
 
 not a few women from " special villages " are taken to wife 
 
 without their origin being known. Unwitting marriage with 
 
 an Eta woman has long been a common motif in fiction 
 
 and folk story. Many members of the "special tribes" 
 
 go to Hokkaido and there pass into the general body 
 
 of the population. The folk of this class are " despised," 
 
 I was told by a responsible Japanese, " not so much for- 
 
 themselves as for what their fathers and grandfathers 
 
 did." The country people undoubtedly treat them more 
 
 harshly than the townspeople, but a man of the " special 
 
 tribes " is often employed as a watchman of fields or 
 
 forests. I was warned that it was judicious to avoid using 
 
 the word Eta or Shuku in the presence of common people' 
 
 lest one might be addressing by chance a member of the 
 
 " special tribes." 
 
 Except that the houses of the village we were visiting 
 looked possibly a trifle more primitive than those of the 
 non-Eta population outside the oaza, I did not discern 
 anything different from what I saw elsewhere. The people 
 were of the Shinshu sect ; there was no Shinto shrine. 
 At the public room I noticed the gymnastic apparatus of 
 the " fire defenders." The hamlet was traditionally 300 
 years old and one family was still recognised as chief. 
 According to the constable, who eagerly imparted the 
 information, the crops were larger than those of neighbour- 
 ing villages " because the people, male and female, are 
 always diligent." 
 
 The man who was brought forward as the representative 
 
CHARMS AGAINST AN EPIDEMIC 223 
 
 of the village was an ex-soldier and seemed a quiet, able and 
 self-respecting but sad human being. His house and 
 holding were in excellent order. None of his neighbours 
 smiled on us. Some I thought went indoors needlessly ; 
 a few came as near to glowering as can be expected in Japan. 
 I got the impression that the people were cared for but were 
 conscious of being " hauden doon " or kept at arm's length.' 
 
 Our next stop was for a rest in a fine garden, the effect 
 of which was spoilt in one place by a distressing life-size 
 statue of the owner's father. When we took to our 
 kuruma again we passed through a village at the approaches 
 to which thick straw ropes such as are seen at shrines had 
 been stretched across the road. Charms were attached. 
 The object was to keep off an epidemic. 
 
 The indigo leaves drjring on mats in front of some of the 
 cottages were a delight to the eye. There were also mats 
 covered with cotton which looked like fluffy cocoons. On 
 the tele graph wir es, the poles of Avhich all oyer JapaiR take 
 short cuts ^through the paddies, swallows clustered as in 
 EnglanHTbut it is to the South Seas, not to Africa, that the 
 Japanese swallow migrates. When the telegraph was a 
 newer feature of the Japanese landscape than it is now 
 swallows on the wires were a favourite subject for young 
 painters. 
 
 We crossed a dry river bed of considerable width at a 
 place where the current had made an excavation in the 
 gravel, rocks and earth several yards deep. It was an 
 impressive illustration of the power of a heavy flood. 
 
 I found in one mountainous county that only about a 
 sixth_of_the_area was under cultivation. A responsible 
 man said : " This is a county of the biggest landlords and 
 the smallest tenants. Too many landowners are thinking 
 of themselves, so there arise sometimes severe conflicts. 
 Some 4,000 tenants have gone to Hokkaido." The conver- 
 sation got round to the young men's societies and I was 
 told a story of how an Eta village threatened by floods had 
 been saved by the young men of the neighbouring non-Eta 
 village working all night at a weakened embankment. 
 
 * For further particulars of Eta in Japan and America, see Appendix 
 XLIX. 
 
224 "SPECIAL TRIBES" 
 
 Some days later an Eta deputation came to the village and 
 " with tears in their eyes gave thanks for what had been 
 done." The comment of a Japanese friend was : "In the 
 present state of Japan hypocrisy may be valuable. The boys 
 and the Eta were at least exercising themselves in virtue." 
 
 Four villages in this county have among them eight 
 fish nurseries, the area of salt water enclosed being roughly 
 120 acres. I looked into several cottages where paper 
 making was going on.' 
 
 I also went into two cotton mills. In both there were 
 girls who were not more than eleven or twelve. " They 
 are exempted from school by national regulation because 
 of the poverty of their parents," ' I was told. 
 
 As we passed the open shop fronts of the village 
 barbers I saw that as often as not a woman was shaving 
 the customer or using the patent cUppers on him. 
 
 We looked at a big dam which an enterprising landowner 
 was constructing. Three hundred women were consoli- 
 dating the earthwork by means of round, flat blocks of 
 granite about twice the size of a curling stone. Round 
 each block was a groove in which was a leather belt 
 with a number of rings threaded on it. To each ring a rope 
 was attached. When these ropes were extended the granite 
 block became the hub of a wheel of which the ropes were the 
 spokes . A number of women and girls took ropes apiece and 
 jerked them simultaneously, whereupon the granite block 
 rose in the air to the level of the rope pullers' heads. It was 
 then allowed to fall with a thud. After each thud the 
 pullers moved along a foot so that the block should drop on a 
 fresh spot. The gangs hauling at the rammers worked to the 
 tune of a plaintive ditty which went slowly so as to give 
 them plenty of breathing time. It was something like this : 
 
 Weep not. 
 
 Do not lament, 
 
 This world is as the wheel of a car. 
 
 If we live long, 
 
 We may meet again on the road. 
 
 1 See Appendix L. 
 
 ' In 1918 net profits of 33 million yen were made by cotton factories. 
 The factories are anticipating sharp competition from China. 
 
AN ALTERNATIVE TO CREMATORIA 225 
 
 None of the sturdy earth thumpers seemed to be over- 
 worked in the bracing air of the dam top, and they cer- 
 tainly looked picturesque with their white and blue towels 
 round their heads. Indeed, with all the singing and 
 movement, not to speak of the refreshment stalls, the scene 
 was not unlike a fair. When we got back to the road again 
 we passed through a well-watered rice district which was 
 equal to the production of heavy crops. Only three years 
 before it had been covered by a thick forest in which it 
 was not uncommon for robbers to lurk. The transforma- 
 tion had been brought about by the construction of a dam 
 in the hills somewhat similar to the one we had just 
 visited. 
 
 I could not but notice in this district the considerable 
 areas given up to grave-plots. No crematoria seemed to be 
 in use. There had been a newspaper proposal that in areas 
 where the population was very large in proportion to the 
 land available for cultivation the dead should be taken out 
 to sea. Where land is scarce one sees various expedients 
 practised so that every square foot shall be cropped. I 
 repeatedly found stacks of straw or sticks standing not on 
 the land but on a rough bridge thrown for the purpose over 
 a drainage ditch. In this district land had been recovered 
 from the sea. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 the story of the blind headman 
 (ehime) 
 
 The thing to do is to rise humorously above one's body which is the 
 veritable rebel, not one's mind. — ^Meredith 
 
 It is delightful to find so many things made of copper. 
 Copper, not iron, is in Japan the most ^valuable mineral 
 product after coal.' But there are drawbacks to a success- 
 ful copper industry. Several times as I came along by the 
 coast I heard how the farmers' crops had been damaged 
 by the fumes of a copper refinery. " There are four 
 copper refineries in Japan, who fighted very much with 
 the farmers," it was explained. The Department of 
 Agriculture is also the Department of Commerce and " it 
 was embarrassed by those battles." The upshot was that 
 one refinery moved to an island, another rebuilt its chimney 
 and the two others agreed to pay compensation because it 
 was cheaper than to instal a new system. The refinery 
 which had removed to an island seven miles oft the coast 
 I had been traversing had had to pay compensation as well 
 as remove. I saw an apparatus that it had put up among 
 rice fields to aid it in determining how often the wind was 
 carrjring its fumes there. The compensation which this 
 refinery was paying yearly amounted to as much as 75,000 
 yen. It had also been compelled to buy up 500 cho of the 
 complaining farmers' land. When we ascended by basha 
 into the mountains we looked down on a copper mine in a 
 ravine through which the river tumbled. The man who 
 had opened the original road over the pass had had the 
 beautiful idea of planting cherry trees along it so that the 
 traveller might enjoy the beauty of their blossoms in spring 
 
 1 See Appendix XXXVIII. 
 226 
 
PATIENT ENDEAVOUR AND SKILFUL CULTURE 227 
 
 and their foliage and outlines the rest of the year. The 
 trees had attained noble proportions when the refinery 
 started work and very soon killed most of them. They 
 looked as if they had been struck by lightning. 
 
 Some miles farther on, wherever on the mountain-side 
 a little tract could be held up by walling, the chance of 
 getting land for cultivation had been eagerly seized. It 
 would be difficult to give an impression of the patient en- 
 deavour and skilful culture represented by the farming on 
 these isolated terraces held up by Galloway dykes. Else- 
 where the heights were tree-clad. In places, where the 
 trees had been destroyed by forest fires or had been cleared, 
 amazingly large areas had been closely cut over for forage. 
 One great eminence was a wonderful sight with its whole 
 side smoothed by the sickles of indomitable forage col- 
 lectors. In some spots " fire farming " had been or was 
 still being practised. Here and there the cultivation of 
 the shrubs grown for the production of paper-making bark 
 had displaced " fire farming." I saw patches of millet 
 and sweet potato which from the road seemed almost 
 inaccessible. 
 
 On the admirable main road we passed many pack ponies 
 carr3dng immense pieces of timber. Speaking of timber, 
 the economical method of preserving wood by charring is 
 widely practised in Japan. °T?he palisades around houses 
 and gardens and even the boards of which the walls or the 
 lower part of the walls of dwellings are constructed are 
 often charred. The effect is not cheerful. What does 
 have a cheerful and trim effect is a thing constantly under 
 one's notice, the habit of keeping carefully swept the un- 
 paved earth enclosed by a house and buildings as well as the 
 path or roadway to them. This careful sweeping is usually 
 regarded as the special work of old people. Even old ladies 
 in families of rank in Tokyo take pleasure in their daily task 
 of sweeping. 
 
 When we had crossed the pass and descended on the 
 other side and taken kuruma we soon came to a wide but 
 absolutely dry river bed. The high embankments on 
 either side and the width of the river bed, which, walking 
 behind our kuruma, it took us exactly four minutes to 
 
228 THE STORY OF THE BLIND HEADMAN 
 
 cross, afforded yet another object lesson in the severity 
 of the floods that afflict the country. The rock- and 
 rubble-choked condition of the rivers inclines the traveller 
 to severe judgments on the State and the prefectures for 
 not getting on faster with the work of afforestation ; but 
 it is only fair to note that in many places hillsides were 
 pointed out to me which, bare a generation ago, are now 
 covered with trees. Within a distance of twenty-five miles 
 hill plantations were producing fruit to a yearly value of 
 half a million yen. As for the cultivation on either side of 
 the roadway, along which our kurumaya were trotting us, 
 I could not see a weed anywhere. 
 
 A favourite rural recreation in Ehime, as in Shimane on 
 the mainland, is bull fighting. It is not, however, fighting 
 with bulls but between bulls : the sport has the redeeming 
 featTire that the animals are not turned loose on one another 
 but are held all the time by their owners by means of the 
 rope attached to the nose ring. The rope is gripped quite 
 close to the bull's head. The result of this measure of 
 control is, it was averred, that a contest resolves itself 
 into a struggle to decide not which bull can fight better but 
 which animal can push harder with his head. That the 
 bulls are occasionally injured there can be no doubt. The 
 contests are said to last from fifteen to twenty minutes and 
 are decided by one of the combatants turning tail. There 
 is a good deal of gambling on the issue. In another pre- 
 fecture of Shikoku the rustics enjoy struggles between 
 muzzled dogs. A taste for this sport is also cultivated in 
 Akita. A certain amount of dog and cock fighting goes on 
 in Tokyo. 
 
 At an inn there was an evident desire to do us honour by 
 providing a special dinner. One bowl contained trans- 
 parent fish soup. Ljdng at the bottom was_a_glass;^e;ge 
 staring up balefuUy at me. (The head, especially the eye, 
 of a fish is reckoned the daintiest morsel.) There was a 
 relish consisting of grapes in mustard. A third dish pre- 
 sented an entire squid. I passed honourable dishes 
 numbers two and three and drank the fish soup through 
 clenched teeth and with averted gaze. 
 
 I interrogated several chief constables on the absence 
 
OFFENCES AGAINST WOMEN 229 
 
 of assaults on women from the lists of crimes in the rural 
 statistics I had collected. Various explanations were 
 offered to me : if there were cases of assault they were kept 
 secret for the credit of the woman's family ; no prosecution 
 could be instituted except at the instance of the woman, 
 or, if married, the woman's husband ; women did not go 
 out much alone ; the number of cases was not in fact as 
 large as might be imagined, because the people were well 
 behaved. An official who had had police experience in 
 the north of Japan declared that the south was more 
 " moral and more civilised and had higher tastes." In 
 Ehime, for example, there was very little illegitimacy and 
 fewer children still-born than in any other prefecture. 
 Nevertheless four offences against women had occurred in 
 villages in Ehime within the preceding twelve months. 
 
 One of the most interesting stories of rural regeneration 
 I heard was told me by a blind man who had become head- 
 man of his village at the time of the war with Russia. His 
 life had been indecorous and he had gradually lost his 
 sight, and he took the headmanship with the wish to make 
 some atonement for his careless years. This is his 
 story : 
 
 " Although I thought it important to advance the eco- 
 nomic condition of the village it was still more important 
 to promote friendship. As the interests of landowners and 
 tenants was the same it was necessary to bring about 
 an understanding. I began by asking landowners to contri- 
 bute a proportion of the crops to make a fund. I was 
 blamed by only fourteen out of two hundred. But the 
 landowners who did blame me blamed me severely, so much 
 so that my family ' were uneasy. I went from door to 
 door with a bag collecting rice as the priests do. My 
 eccentric behaviour was reported in the papers. The 
 anxiety of my household and relatives grew. My children 
 were told at the school that their father was a beggar. 
 During the first harvest in which I collected I gathered 
 about 40 koku (about 200 bushels). In the fourth year a 
 hundred tenants came in a deputation to me. They said : 
 ' This gathering of rice is for our benefit. But you gather 
 
 ' That is, not only his household but his relatives. 
 
230 THE STORY OF THE BLIND HEADMAN 
 
 from the landowners only. So please let us contribute 
 every year. Some of us will collect among ourselves and 
 bring the rice to you, so giving you no trouble.' I was very 
 pleased with that. But I did not express my pleasure. 
 I scolded them. I said : ' Your plan is good but you think 
 only of yourselves. You do not give the landowners their 
 due. When you bring your rent to them you choose in- 
 ferior rice. It is a bad custom.' I advised them to treat 
 their landowners with justice and achieve independence in 
 the relation of tenant and landowner. They were moved 
 by my earnestness. 
 
 " In the next year the tenants exerted themselves and 
 the landowners were pleased with them. Thus the relation 
 of landlord and tenant became better. The landowners 
 in their turn became desirous of showing a friendly feeling 
 toward the tenants. Some landlords came to me and said, 
 ' If you wish for any money in order to be of service to the 
 tenants we will lend it to you without interest.' I received 
 some money. I lent money to tenants to buy manure and 
 cattle, to attack insect pests, to provide protection against 
 wind and flood and to help to build new dwellings nearer 
 their work. By these means the tenants were encouraged 
 and their welfare was promoted. The landlords were also 
 happier, for the rice was better and the land improved. 
 The landlords found that their happiness came from the 
 tenants. There was good feeling between them. The land- 
 lords began to help the tenants directly and indirectly. 
 Roads and bridges and many aids to cultivation were fur- 
 nished by the landlords. A body of landlords was consti- 
 tuted for these purposes and it collected money. My idea 
 was realised that the way of teaching the villages is to let 
 landlords and tenants realise that their interests agree and 
 they will become more friendly." 
 
 The co-operative credit society which the blind headman 
 established not only buys and sells for its members in the 
 ordinary way but hires land for division among the humbler 
 cultivators. One of the departments of the society's work 
 is the collection of villagers' savings. They are gathered 
 every Sunday by school-children. One lad, I found from 
 his book, had collected on a particular Sunday 5 sen each — 
 
ECONOMIC AND MORAL DIARIES 231 
 
 5 sen is a penny — from two houses and 10 sen each from 
 another two dwellings. The next Sunday he had received 
 5 sen from one house, 10 sen from two houses, 80 sen and 
 50 sen from others and a whole yen from the last house on 
 his list. The subscriber gets no receipt but sees the lad 
 enter in his book the amount handed over to him, and the 
 next Sunday he sees the stamp of the bank against the sum. 
 Some 390 householders out of the 497 in the village hand 
 over savings to the boy and girl collectors, whose energy 
 is stimulated with 1 per cent, on the sums they gather. 
 In five years the Sunday collections have amassed 60,000 
 yen. The previous year had been marked by a bad harvest 
 and large sums had been drawn out of the bank, but there 
 was still a sum of 14,000 yen in hand. 
 
 In this village there had been issued one of the economic 
 and moral diaries mentioned in an earlier chapter. The 
 diary of this village has two spaces for every day — that is, the 
 economic space and the moral space. The owner of this book 
 had to do two good deeds daily, one economic and the other 
 moral, and he had to enter them up. Further, he had to 
 hand in the book at the end of the year to the earnest 
 village agricultural and moral expert who devised the 
 diary and carefully tabulates the results of twelve months' 
 economic and moral endeavour. One might think that the 
 scheme would break down at the handing in of the diary 
 stage, but I was assured that there were good reasons for 
 believing that a considerable proportion of the 440 persons 
 who had taken out diaries would return them. 
 
 There is an old custom by which Buddhist believers, in 
 companies of a dozen or so, meet to eat and drink together. 
 As a good deal is eaten and drunk the gatherings are costly. 
 Our blind headman met the difficulty of expense in his 
 village by getting the companies of believers to cultivate 
 together in their spare time about three acres of land. His 
 object was to associate religion and agriculture and so to 
 dignify farming in the eyes of young men. He also wished 
 to provide an object lesson in the results of good cultivation. 
 The profits proved to be, as he anticipated, so considerable 
 as to leave a balance after defraying the cost of the social 
 gathering. The headman prevailed on the cultivators to 
 17 
 
232 THE STORY OF THE BLIND HEADMAN 
 
 keep accurate accounts and they made plain some unex- 
 pected truths : as for example, that a tan of paddy did not 
 need the labour of a man for more than twenty-three days 
 of ten hours, and that the net income from such an area 
 was a little more than 16 yen, and that thus the return for a 
 day's labour was 73 sen. It was demonstrated, therefore, 
 that labour was recompensed very well, and that instead 
 of farming being " the most unprofitable of industries " — 
 for in Japan as in the West there are sinners against the 
 light who say this — it was reasonably profitable. 
 
 But if rice called for only twenty-three days' labour per 
 tan — nearly all the farmers' land was paddy^ — and the 
 whole holding numbered only a few tan, it was also plain 
 that there were many days in the year when the farmer was 
 not fully employed. From this it was easy to proceed to 
 the conviction that the available time should be utilised 
 either in secondary employments, or in, say, draining, which 
 would reduce the quantity of manure needed on the land. 
 So the farmers began to think about drainage and the 
 means of economising labour,, They began to realise how 
 time was wasted owing to most farmers working not only 
 scattered, but irregularly shaped pieces of land. So the 
 rice lands were adjusted, and everybody was found to have 
 a trifle more land than he held before, and the fields were 
 better watered and more easily cultivated. Only from 
 sixteen to seventeen days' labour instead of twenty- 
 three were now needed per tan ' and the crops were 
 increased. There is now no exodus from this progressive 
 village. 
 
 Concerning his blindness the headman said that it was 
 more profitable for him to hear than to see, for by sight 
 " energy might be diverted." He had recited in every 
 prefecture his personal experience of rural reform. He 
 asserted that while conditions varied in every prefecture, 
 there was, generally speaking, labour on the land for no 
 more than 200 days in the year. He deplored the dis- 
 appearance of some home employments. He did not 
 
 1 Adding to the 17 days' labour for the rice orop, 13 days' labour 
 for the suooaeding barley orop, the total was 30 days' labour per tan against 
 the general Japan average of 39 days per tan. 
 
A HOT-SPRING CATASTROPHE 233 
 
 approve of the condition of things in the north where 
 women worked as much in the fields as their husbands 
 and brothers. Women were " so backward and con- 
 servative." The biggest obstacles to agricultural progress 
 were old women. To introduce a secondary industry was 
 to take women from the fields. 
 
 I spoke with an agricultural expert, one of whose dicta 
 was that " students at normal schools who come from 
 town families are not so clever as students from farmers' 
 families." He told me that 10,000 young men in his 
 county had sworn " to act in the way most fitting to 
 youths of a military state [sic], to buy and use national 
 products as far as possible and so to promote national 
 industry." 
 
 What was wrong with some farming, according to an 
 official of a county agricultural association whom I met 
 later, was that the farmers cultivated too intensively. 
 They used too much " artificial." A prefectural official, 
 speaking of the possibility of extending the cultivated area 
 in Japan, said that in Ehime there were 6,000 cho which 
 might be made into paddies if money were available. 
 As to afforestation, 100,000 yen a year, exclusive of salaries, 
 was spent in the prefecture. As a final piece of statistics 
 he mentioned that whereas ten years before pears were 
 grown only in a certain island of the prefecture, the 
 production of a single county was now valued at half a 
 million yen yearly, 
 
 I spent a night at a hot spring. It is said that the volume 
 of water is decreasing. What a situation for a town 
 which lives on a hot spring if the hot-water supply should 
 suddenly stop ! I heard of another hot-spring resort at 
 which the water is gradually cooling : it is warmed up 
 by secret piping. 
 
 I have not troubled my readers with many stories of the 
 jostling of past and present, but I noticed in an electric 
 street car at Matsuyama a peasant tr3dng to light his pipe 
 with ffint and tinder. As he did not succeed a fellow- 
 passenger offered him a match. He was so inexpert with it 
 that he still failed to get a light and he had to be handed 
 a cigarette stump. 
 
234 THE STORY OF THE BLIND HEADMAN 
 
 In riding down to the port in the street car I borrowed 
 for a few moments a schoolboy's English reader. It seemed 
 rather mawkish. A book of Japanese history which I 
 was also allowed to look at was full of reproductions 
 of autographs of distinguished men. " They make the 
 impression very strong," I was told. 
 
THE SOUTH-WEST OF JAPAN 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 up-country oeatoey 
 (yamaguchi) 
 
 I have confidence, which began with hope and strengthens with 
 experience, that humanity is gaining in the stores of mind. — ^Meredith 
 
 The main street of an Inland Sea island we visited was 
 4 ft. wide. Because it was the eve of a festival the old folk 
 were at home " observing their taboo." The islander who 
 had been the first among the inhabitants to visit a foreign 
 country was only fifty. The local policeman made us a 
 gift of pears when we left. 
 
 At another primitive island querns were in use and 
 " ordinary families " were " only beginning to indulge in 
 tombstones." In contrast with this, the constable told 
 us that a small condensed-milk factory had been started. 
 (This constable was a fine, dignified-looking fellow, but so 
 poor that his toes were showing through his blue cloth 
 tabi.) The condensed-milk factory must have been 
 responsible for some surprises to the cows when they were 
 first milked in its interests, I heard a tale of the first 
 milking of an elderly cow. She had ploughed paddies, 
 carried hay and other things and had drawn a cart. But 
 it took five men and a woman to persuade her that to be 
 milked into a clay pot was a reasonable thing. 
 
 The third island we explored lies in such a situation in 
 the Inland Sea that sailing ships used to be glad to shelter 
 under it while waiting for a favourable wind. Someone had 
 the evil thought of providing it with prostitutes, and, until 
 steam began to take the place of sails, the number of these 
 women established in the island was large. Even now, 
 
 235 
 
236 UP-COUNTRY ORATORY 
 
 although the whole population numbers only a hundred 
 families, there are thirty women of bad character. These 
 poor creatures were conspicuous because of their bright 
 clothing and dewomanised look. A scrutiny of the islanders 
 old and young yielded the impression that the whole place 
 was suffering from its peculiar traffic. There were two 
 houses, one for registering the women and the other for 
 investigating their state of health, and the purpose of the 
 buildings was bluntly proclaimed on the nameboards at 
 their doors. 
 
 When we got out to sea again the newest Japanese 
 battleship doing her trials was pointed out to me, but I 
 was more interested in a large fishing boat running before 
 the wind. A sturdy woman was at the helm and her naked 
 young family was sprawling about the craft. 
 
 Someone spoke of villagers of the mainland " failing to 
 realise that they now possessed the privilege of self- 
 government." I was reminded of the pleasant way of the 
 headman of a village assembly in the Loochoos, Japan's 
 oldest outlying possession. He assembles or used to 
 assemble his colleagues in his courtyard and appear there 
 with a draft of proposed legislation. They bowed and 
 departed and the Bill had become an Act. 
 
 Although we were already within the territorial waters of 
 Hiroshima prefecture, we determined not to make the 
 mainland at once but to stay the night at the famous 
 island which is called both Miyajima (shrine island) and 
 Itsukushima (taboo island), and is considered to be one of 
 the three most noteworthy sights in Japan. Photographs 
 and drawings of the shrine with its red colonnades on piles 
 by the shore and its big red torii standing in the sea are as 
 familiar as representations of Fuji. It used to be the cus- 
 tom to prevent as far as possible births and deaths occurring 
 on the island. Even now, funerals, dogs and kuruma are 
 prohibited. The iron lanterns of the shrine and galleries 
 and a hundred more in the pine tree-studded approaches 
 are undoubtedly " a most magnificent spectacle at full tide 
 on a moonless night " ; but what of the subservience 
 to the profitable foreign tourist seen in this shrine 
 notice ? — 
 
THE GODS AND THE SIRENS 287 
 
 Zori (straw sandals), geta (wooden pattens) and all foot- 
 gear except shoes and boots are forbidden. 
 
 One is attracted by the idea of listening to music and 
 watching dances which came from afar in the seventh or 
 eighth centuries, but the business-like tariff, 
 
 Ordinary music, 12 sen to 5 yen. 
 
 Special music and dance, 10 yen and upwards, 
 
 Lighting all lanterns, 9 yen, 
 
 is calculated to take one out of the atmosphere of Hearn's 
 dreams. The deities of the shrine get along as best they 
 can with the raucous sirens of the tourist steamers, the din 
 of the motor boats and the boom of the big guns which are 
 hidden at the back of the island and make of Miyajima 
 and its vicinity " a strategic zone " in which photography, 
 sketching or the too assiduous use of a notebook is for- 
 bidden. Alas, I had myself arrived in a steamer which 
 blew its siren loudly, and in the morning I crossed from 
 the holy isle to the mainland in a motor launch. 
 
 The name of Yamaguchi prefecture, which is at the 
 extreme end of the mainland and has the sea to the south, 
 the east and the north, is not so familiar as the name of its 
 port, Shimoneseki. It was mentioned to me that the 
 farmers of Yamaguchi worked a smaller number of days 
 than in Ehime, possibly only a hundred in the year. The 
 comment of my companion, who had visited a great deal of 
 rural Japan, was that 150 full days' work was the average 
 for the whole country.' 
 
 I was told that here as elsewhere there was an unsound 
 tendency to turn sericulture from a secondary into a 
 primary industry. " Experts are not always expert," 
 confessed an official. " Our farmers have had bitter 
 experience. Experts come who have learnt only from 
 books or in other districts, so they give unsuitable counsel. 
 Then they leave the prefecture for other posts before the 
 results of their unwisdom are apparent." 
 
 The same official told me of a " little famine " in one 
 county which had imprudently concentrated its attention 
 
 1 See Appendix XII. 
 
238 UP-COUNTRY ORATORY 
 
 on the production of grape fruit to the annual value of about 
 a million yen. When a storm came one spring there was 
 almost a total loss. " The river and the sea were covered 
 with fruit, fishing was interfered with, and the county town 
 complained of the smell of the rotting fruit." It seems 
 that many of the suffering orange growers were samurai 
 who found fruit farming a more gentlemanly pursuit than 
 the management of paddies. Like rural amateurs every- 
 where, " some of them would do better if they knew more 
 about the working of the land." 
 
 Rice was being assailed by a pest which survived in the 
 straw stack and had done damage in the prefecture to the 
 amount of 30,000 yen. 
 
 In this prefecture and two others during our tour my 
 companion delivered addresses to farmers under the 
 auspices of the National Agricultural Association. The 
 burden of his talk was their duty as agriculturists in the 
 new conditions which were opening for the nation. His 
 three audiences numbered about 700, 1,000 and 1,500. 
 They were composed largely of picked men. At the first 
 gathering the audience squatted ; at the next chairs were 
 provided ; at the third there were school forms with 
 backs. What I particularly noticed was the easy-going 
 way in which the meetings were conducted. No gathering 
 began exactly at the time announced, although one of the 
 audiences had been encouraged to be in time by the promise 
 of a gift of mottoes to the first hundred arrivals. At each 
 meeting the Governor of the prefecttire was the first 
 speaker. At one meeting the Governor arrived about 
 8.80 a.m., made his speech and departed. When my friend 
 had been introduced to various people in the anteroom, 
 had drunk tea and had smoked and chatted a little, he was 
 taken to the platform half an hour or three quarters after 
 the conclusion of the Governor's speech. Nothing had 
 happened at the meeting in the interval. The idea was 
 that the wait would help the audience's digestion of the 
 speech it had had and the speech it was going to have. 
 There was no formal introduction of the orator. He just 
 mounted the platform and spoke for two hours. 
 
 At the second meeting the Governor awaited our arrival 
 
SCHOOL SHRIN'Ji FOR EJIPE ROE'S PORTRAIT, p. 113 
 
 THE AUTHOR ADDRESSIifG, THEOaGH AN IN-TERPRBTER, LAFCADIO HEARN 
 
 DEATH-DAY JIEETINO AT JIATSUE v.-jr,3 
 •238] 
 
A PEASANT PaOPBIBTOK'S HOUSE, p. 378 
 
 GRAYESTOKES BEASSEMBLBD APTEB PADDT ADJUSTMENT, p. 72 
 
A JAPANESE PUBLIC MEETING 289 
 
 but " went on " alone. The star speaker meanwhile re- 
 freshed himself in the anteroom with tea, tobacco and con- 
 versation as before. In a few minutes the Governor, having 
 done his turn, rejoined us, and my friend proceeded to 
 the meeting to deUver his speech, the Governor taking his 
 departure. 
 
 At the third meeting the Governor and the speaker of 
 the day did enter the hall together, but before the Governor 
 had finished his introductory harangue my companion took 
 himself oft to the anteroom to refresh himself with a cigar 
 and a chat. When the Governor concluded and returned 
 to the anteroom there was conversation for a few minutes, 
 and then my friend and his Excellency went into the 
 meeting together. This time the Governor stayed to the 
 end. 
 
 In his three speeches my friend said many moving things 
 and his audiences were appreciative. But no one pre- 
 sumed to interrupt with applause. At the end, however, 
 there was a hearty round of hand-clapping, now a general 
 custom at public gatherings. On the conclusion of each 
 of his addresses the orator stepped down from the platform 
 and made off to the hall, for no one dreamt of asking ques- 
 tions. When he was gone an official expressed the thanks 
 of the audience and there was another round of applause. 
 Then everybody connected with the arrangement of the 
 meeting gathered in the anteroom and one after the other 
 made appreciative speeches and bows. I marvelled at the 
 orator's toughness. Before he went on the platform he had 
 been pestered with unending introductions and beset by 
 conversation. But I do not know that my friend felt any 
 strain. Nor did the fashion in which the speakers wandered 
 on and off the platform, and thus, according to our notions, 
 did their utmost to damp the enthusiasm of the meetings, 
 seem to have any such effect. Once in an oculist's con- 
 sulting clinic in Tokyo I was struck by the fact that when 
 water was squirted into the eyes of a succession of patients 
 of both sexes and various ages, they did not wince as 
 Western people would have done. 
 
 I was told that school fees go up a little when the 
 price of rice is high ; also of the " negatively good " effects 
 
240 UP-COUNTRY ORATORY 
 
 of young men's associations. During the period of our 
 tour efforts were being made to systematise these organisa- 
 tions. The Department of Agriculture wanted a farmer 
 at the head of each society, the War Ofl&ce an ex-soldier. 
 There can be no doubt that the militarists have been doing 
 their best to give the societies the mental attitude of the 
 army. 
 
 In the country we were entering, the horse had taken the 
 place of the ox as the beast of burden. Two men of some 
 authority in the prefecture agreed that it was difficult to 
 think of tracts in the south-west that would be suitable for 
 cattle grazing. There was certainly no " square ri where 
 the price of land was low enough to keep sheep." As to 
 cattle breeding and forestry, one of them must give way. 
 It was necessary to keep immense areas under evergreen 
 wood for the defence of the country against floods. With 
 regard to the areas available for afforestation, for cattle 
 keeping and for cultivation respectively, it was necessary 
 to be on one's guard against " experts " who were disposed 
 to claim all available land for their specialties. 
 
 When we took to an automobile for the first stage of our 
 long journey through Yamaguchi and Shimane — the rail- 
 way came no farther than the city of Yamaguchi — I noticed 
 that just as the bridges are often without parapets, the 
 roads winding round the cliffs were, as in Fukushima, 
 unprotected by wall or rail. This was due, no doubt, to 
 considerations of economy, to a widely diffused sense of 
 responsibility which makes people look after their own 
 safety, and also, in some degree, to stout Japanese nerves. 
 That our driver's nerves were sound enough was shown by 
 the speed at which he drove the heavy car round sharp 
 corners and down slippery descents where we should have 
 dropped a few hundred feet had we gone over. 
 
 At our first stopping-place I saw a photograph showing 
 a Shinshu priest engaged with the girl pupils of a Buddhist 
 school in tree planting. Our talk here was about the low 
 incomes on which people contrive to live. A little more 
 than a quarter of a century ago the family of a friend of 
 mine, now of high rank, was living in a county town on 5 
 yen a month ! There were two adults and three children. 
 
THE SEALED ENVELOPE 841 
 
 Rent was 1*20 yen and rice came to 1*80 yen. Even to-day 
 an ex-Minister may have only 1,500 yen a year. Many 
 ex-Governors are living quietly in villages. We went to 
 call upon one of them who was getting great satisfaction 
 out of his few tan. Among other things he told us was 
 that there were five doctors and one midwife in the com- 
 munity. These doctors do not possess a Tokyo qualifica- 
 tion. They have qualified by being taught by their fathers 
 or by some other practitioner, and they are entitled to 
 practise in their own village and in, perhaps, a neighbouring 
 one. 
 
 It was thoughtless of me, after inquiring about the 
 doctors, to ask about the gravedigger. I was told that 
 when there was no member of a " special tribe " available 
 it was the duty of neighbours to dig graves. A com- 
 munity's displeasure was marked by neighbours refraining 
 from helping to dig an unpopular person's grave. (One 
 might have expected to hear that such a grave would be 
 dug with alacrity.) Families which had run counter to 
 public opinion had had to " apologise " before they could 
 get neighbourly help at the burial of their dead. 
 
 Only one family in the village, I learnt from the headman, 
 was being helped from public funds. This family consisted 
 of an old man and his daughter, who, owing to the attend- 
 ance her father required, could not go out to work. The 
 village provided a small house and three pints of rice daily. 
 The headman in his private capacity gave the girl, with the 
 assistance of some friends, straw rope-making to do and 
 paid a somewhat higher price than is usual. 
 
 Of last year's births in the village 10 per cent, had been 
 legally and 5 per cent, actually illegitimate. Four or five 
 births had occurred a few months after marriage. 
 
 We ate our lunch in the headman's room in the village 
 ofiice. Hanging from the ceiling was a sealed envelope to 
 be opened on receipt of a telegram. Some member of the 
 village staff always slept in that room. The envelope 
 contained instructions to be acted upon if mobilisation 
 took place. 
 
 When we had gone on some distance I stopped to watch 
 a farmer's wife and daughter threshing in a barn by pulling 
 
242 UP-COUNTRY ORATORY 
 
 the rice through a row of steel teeth, the simple form of 
 threshing implement which is seen in slightly different 
 patterns all over Japan. (It is the successor of a contriv- 
 ance of bamboo stakes.) The women told me that one 
 person could thresh fourteen bushels a day. The imple- 
 ment cost 2 1 yen from travelling vendors but only 1^ yen 
 from the co-operative society. While we talked the farmer 
 appeared. I apologised to him for unwittingly stepping 
 on the threshold of the barn — that is, the grooved timber 
 in which the sliding doors run. It is considered to be an 
 insult to the head of the house to tread on the threshold as 
 in some way " standing on the householder's head." 
 
 This man had a bamboo plantation, and he told me, in 
 reply to a question, that the bamboo would shoot up at the 
 rate of more than a foot in twenty-four hours. (During 
 the month in which this is dictated I have measured the 
 growth of a shoot of a Dorothy Perkins climber and find 
 that it averages about quarter of an inch in twenty-four 
 hours.) 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 men, dogs and sweet potatoes 
 (shimane) 
 
 Nothing but omniscience could suffice to answer all the questions 
 implicitly raised. — J. G. Frazkb 
 
 When we descended from the hills we were in Shimane, a 
 long, narrow, coastwise prefecture through which one 
 travels over a succession of heights to the capital, Matsue, 
 situated at the far end. Two-thirds of the journey must 
 be made on foot and by kuruma.^ Some talk by the way 
 was about the farmers going five or six miles daily to the 
 hills to cut grass for their " cattle," the average number of 
 cattle per farmer being l-S hereabouts. It seemed strange 
 to see buckwheat at the flowering stage reached by the 
 crops seen in Fukushima several months before. The ex- 
 planation was that buckwheat is sown both in spring and 
 autumn. 
 
 In the old days notable samurai, fugitives from Tokyo, 
 had kept themselves secluded in the rooms we occupied at 
 Yamaguchi. In Shimane we had small plain low-ceiled 
 rooms in which daimyos had been accommodated. Not 
 here alone had I evidences of the simplicity of the life of 
 Old Japan. 
 
 I was wakened in the morning by the voice of a woman 
 earnestly praying. She stood in the yard of the house 
 opposite and faced first in one direction and then in 
 another. A friend of mine once stayed overnight at an inn 
 on the river at Kyoto. In the morning he saw several men 
 and a considerable number of women praying by the water- 
 side. They were the keepers and inmates of houses of 
 ill-fame. The old Shinto idea was that prayers might be 
 
 1 The railway has now been extended in the direction of Yamaguchi. 
 
 243 
 
244 MEN, DOGS AND SWEET POTATOES 
 
 made anywhere at other times than festivals, for the god was 
 at the shrine at festivals only. Nowadays some old men 
 go to the shrine every morning, just as many old women 
 are seen at the Buddhist temples daily. Half the visitors 
 to a Shinto shrine, an educated man assured me, may pray, 
 but in the case of the other half the " worship " is " no more 
 than a motion of respect." My friend told me that when 
 he prayed at a shrine his prayer was for his children's or his 
 parents' health. 
 
 At a county town I found a library of 4,000 volumes, 
 largely an inheritance from the feudal regime. Wherever 
 I went I could not but note the cluster of readers at the 
 open fronts of bookshops.' 
 
 On our second day's journey in Shimane I had a kuruma 
 with wooden wheels, and in the hills the day after we passed 
 a man kneeling in a kago, the old-fashioned litter. When we 
 took to a basha we discovered that, owing to the roughness 
 of the road, we had a driver for each of our two horses. 
 We had also an agile lad who hung on first to one part and 
 then another of the vehicle and seemed to be essential in 
 some way to its successful management. The head of the 
 hatless chief driver was shaved absolutely smooth. 
 
 It was a rare thing for a foreigner to pass this way. My 
 companion frequently told me that he had difficulty in 
 understanding what people said. 
 
 We saw an extinct volcano called " Green Field Moun- 
 tain." There was not a tree on it and it was said never 
 to have possessed any. The whole surface was closely 
 cut, the patches cut at different periods showing up in 
 rectangular strips of varying shades. Wherever the hills 
 were treeless and too steep for cultivation they were care- 
 fully cut for fodder. In cultivable places houses were 
 standing on the minimum of ground. More than once we 
 had a view of a characteristic piece of scenery, a dashing 
 stream seen through a clump of bamboo. 
 
 When our basha stopped for the feeding of the horses, 
 they had a tub of mixture composed of boiled naked barley, 
 rice chaff, chopped straw and chopped green stuff. I 
 noticed near the inn a doll in a tree. It had been put there 
 
 1 See Appendix LI. 
 
THE ELEVEN SIGNS 245 
 
 by children who beUeve that they can secure by so doing 
 a fine day for an outing. When we started again we met 
 with a company of strolling players : a man, his wife and 
 two girls, all with clever faces. We also saw several 
 peasant anglers fishing or going home with their catch. 
 A licence available from July to December cost 50 sen. 
 
 At a shop I made a note of its signs, the usual strips of 
 white wood about 8 ins. by 3, nailed up perpendicularly, 
 with the inscriptions written in black. One sign was the 
 announcement of the name and address of the householder, 
 which must be shown on every Japanese house. A second 
 stated that the place was licensed as a shop, a third that the 
 householder's wife was licensed to keep an inn, a fourth 
 that the householder was a cocoon merchant, a fifth that he 
 was a member of the co-operative credit society, a sixth 
 that he belonged to the Red Cross Society, a seventh that 
 his wife was a member of the Patriotic Women's Society,' 
 the eighth, ninth and tenth that the shopkeeper was an 
 adherent of a certain Shinto shrine, a member of a Shinto 
 organisation and had visited three shrines and made 
 donations to them. An eleventh board proclaimed that he 
 was of the Zen sect of Buddhism. Finally, there was a box 
 in which was stored the charms from various shrines. 
 
 We passed a company of villagers working on the road 
 for the local authority. The labourers were chiefly old 
 people and they were taking their task very easily. 
 Farther along the road men and women were working 
 singly. It seemed that the labourers belonged to families 
 which, instead of paying rates, did a bit of roadmending. 
 The work was done when they had time to spare. 
 
 For some time we had been in a part of the country in 
 which the ridges of the houses were of tiles. At an earlier 
 stage of our journey they had been either of straw or of 
 earth with flowers or shrubs growing in it. The shiny, red- 
 brown tiles give place elsewhere to a slate-coloured variety. 
 
 ' Protests have been made against the way in which the country people 
 are dunned for subscriptions to these semi-official organisations. A high 
 agricultural authority has stated that in Nagano the farmers' taxes and 
 subscriptions to the Bed Cross and Patriotic Women Societies are 
 from 65 to 70 per cent, of their expenditure as against 30 to 35 per cent, 
 spent on outlay other than food and clothing. 
 
246 MEN, DOGS AND SWEET POTATOES 
 
 The surface of all of these tiles is so smooth that they are 
 unlikely to change their hard tint for years. Meanwhile 
 they give the villages a look of newness. Their use is 
 spreading rapidly. Shiny though the tiles may be, one 
 cannot but admire the neat way in which they interlock. 
 One day when I wondered about the cost involved in 
 recovering roofs with these tiles, a woman worker who over- 
 heard me promptly said that, reckoning tiles and labour, 
 the cost was 60 or 70 sen per 22 tiles. In the old days 
 tiled porticoes were forbidden to the commonalty. They 
 were allowed only to daimyos who also used exclusively 
 the arm rests which every visitor to an inn may now 
 command. Besides arm rests I have frequently had 
 kneeling cushions of the white brocade formerly used only 
 for the zabuton of Buddhist priests. 
 
 In the county through which we were passing the fine 
 water grass, called i, used for mat making, is grown on 
 an area of about 78 ch5. It is sown in seed beds like rice 
 and is transplanted into inferior paddies in September. 
 (The grass is better grown in Hiroshima and Okayama.) 
 
 I saw a beautiful tree in red blossom. The name given 
 to it is " monkey slip," because of the smoothness of its 
 skin, which recalled the name of that very different 
 ornament of suburban gardens, " monkey puzzle." 
 
 During this journey we recovered something of the 
 conditions of old-time travel. There were chats by the 
 way and conferences at the inn in the evening and in 
 the morning concerning distances, the kind of vehicles 
 available, the character of their drivers, the charges, the 
 condition of the road, the probable weather and the places 
 at which satisfactory accommodation might be had. 
 What was different from the old days was that at every 
 stopping-place but one we had electric light. Part of our 
 journey was done in a small motor bus lighted by 
 electricity. Like the automobile we had hired a day or two 
 before, it was driven — by two young men in blue cotton 
 tights — at too high a speed considering the narrowness and 
 curliness of the roads by which we crossed the passes. 
 The roads are kept in reasonably good condition, but they 
 were made for hand cart and kuruma traffic. 
 
MARVELLOUS MEDICINE VENDING 247 
 
 We passed an island on which I was told there were a 
 dozen houses. When a death occurs a beacon fire is made 
 and a priest on the mainland conducts a funeral ceremony. 
 By the custom of the island it is forbidden to increase the 
 number of the houses, so presumably several families live 
 together. In the mountain communities of the mainland, 
 where the number of houses is also restricted, it is usual 
 for only the eldest brother to be allowed to marry. The 
 children of younger brothers are brought up in the families 
 of their mothers. 
 
 We passed at one of the fishing hamlets the wreck of a 
 Russian cruiser which came ashore after the battle of 
 Tsushima. Two boat derricks from the cruiser served 
 as gate posts at the entrance of the school playground. 
 
 A familiar sight on a country road is the itinerant 
 medicine vendor. He or his employer believes in pushing 
 business by means of an impressive outfit. One typical 
 cure-all seller, who had his medicines in a shiny bag slung 
 over his shoulders, wore yellow shoes, cotton drawers, a 
 frock coat, a peaked cap with three gold stripes, and a 
 mysterious badge. On his hands he had white cotton 
 gloves and as he walked he played a concertina. A 
 common practice is to leave with housewives a bag of 
 medicines without charge. Next year another call is 
 made, when the pills and what not which have been used 
 are paid for and a new bag is exchanged for the old one. 
 
 The use of dogs to help to draw kuruma is forbidden in 
 some prefectures, but in three stages of our journey in 
 Shimane we had the aid of robust dogs. During this 
 period, however, I saw, attached to kuruma we passed, 
 three dogs which did not seem up to their work. Dogs 
 suffer when used for draught purposes because their chests 
 are not adapted for pulling and because the pads of their 
 feet get tender. The animals we had were treated well. 
 Each kuruma had a cord, with a hook at the end, attached 
 to it ; and this hook was slipped into a ring on the dog's 
 harness. The dogs were released when we went downhill 
 and usually on the level. Several times during each run, 
 when we came to a stream or a pond or even a ditch, the 
 dogs were released for a bathe. They invariably leapt into 
 18 
 
248 MEN, DOGS AND SWEET POTATOES 
 
 the water, drank moderately, and then, if the water was too 
 shallow for swimming, sat down in it and then lay down. 
 Sometimes a dog temporarily at liberty would find on his 
 own account a small water hole, and it was comical to see 
 him taking a sitz bath in it. When the sun was hot a dog 
 would sometimes be retained on his cord when not pulhng 
 in order that he might trot along in the shade below the 
 kuruma. The dog of the kuruma following mine usually 
 managed when pulling to take advantage of the shade 
 thrown by my vehicle. A kurumaya told me that he had 
 given 8 yen for his dog. Dogs were sometimes sold for 
 from 10 to 15 yen. The difficulty was to get a dog that 
 had good feet and would pull. The dogs I saw were all 
 mongrels with sometimes a retriever, bloodhound or Great 
 Dane strain. 
 
 I made enquiries about another county town library. 
 There were 18,000 volumes of which 300 consisted of Europ- 
 ean books and 600 of bound magazines. The annual ex- 
 penditure on books, and I presume magazines, was 600 yen. 
 
 We passed a " special tribe " hamlet. Here the Eta 
 were devoting themselves to tanning and bamboo work. 
 I was told of other " peculiar people " called Hachia, 
 also of a hawker-beggar class which sells small things of 
 brass or bamboo or travels with performing monkeys. 
 
 Water from hot springs is piped long distances in water 
 pipes made of bamboo trunks, the ends of which are pushed 
 into one another. A turn is secured by running two pipes 
 at the angle required iiito a block of wood which has been 
 bored to fit. 
 
 When we got down to the sand dunes there were wind- 
 breaks, 10 or 15 ft. high, made of closely planted pines cut 
 flat at the top. Elsewhere I saw such windbreaks 30 ft. 
 high. On the telegraph wires there were big spiders' 
 webs about 4 ft. in diameter. 
 
 As we sped through a village my attention was attracted 
 by a funeral feast. The pushed-back shoji showed about 
 a dozen men sitting in a circle eating and drinking. 
 Women were waiting on them. At the back of the room, 
 making part of the circle, was the square coffin covered 
 by a white canopy. 
 
POTATO MONUMENTS 249 
 
 While passing a Buddhist temple I heard the sound of 
 preaching. It might have been a voice from a church or 
 chapel at home. 
 
 Shortly afterwards I came on a memorial to the man who 
 introduced the sweet potato into the locality 150 years 
 before. This was the first of many sweet-potato memorials 
 which I encountered in the prefecture and elsewhere. 
 Sometimes there were offerings before the monuments; 
 Occasionally the memorial took the form of a stone cut 
 in the shape of a potato. There is a great exportation of 
 sweet potatoes — sliced and dried until they are brittle — 
 to the north of Japan where the tuber cannot be cultivated.' 
 
 While we rested at the house of a friend of my companion 
 we spoke of ennigration. There are four or five emigration 
 companies, and it is an interesting question just how much 
 emigration is due to the initiative of the emigrants them- 
 selves and how much to the activity of the companies. 
 The chief reason which induces emigrants to go to South 
 America is that, under the contract system, they get twice 
 as much money as they would obtain, say, in Formosa." 
 
 Our host did not remember any foreigner visiting his 
 village since his boyhood, though it is on the main road. 
 It took nearly four days for a Tokyo newspaper to arrive. 
 This region is so little known that when a resident 
 mentioned it in Tokyo he was sometimes asked if it was in 
 Hokkaido. 
 
 I was interested to see how many villages had erected 
 monuments to young men who had won distinction away 
 from home as wrestlers. 
 
 I had often noticed bulls drawing carts and behaving as 
 sedately as donkeys, but it was new to see a bull tethered at 
 the roadside with children plajdng round it. Why are the 
 Japanese bulls so friendly ? 
 
 In the mountainous regions we passed through I saw 
 several paddies no bigger than a hearthrug. At one spot 
 a land crab scurried across the road. It was red in colour 
 and about 2| ins. long. 
 
 ' Satsuma-imo is Bweet potato. Our potato is called jaga-imo or 
 bareisho. Imo Ib the general naiue. 
 ' See Appendix LIL 
 
250 MEN, DOGS AND SWEET POTATOES 
 
 At a village office the headman's gossip was that priests 
 had been forbidden by the prefecture to interfere in 
 elections. We looked through the expenses of the village 
 agricultural association. For a lecture series 5 yen a 
 month was being paid. Then there had been an expen- 
 diture by way of subsidising a children's campaign against 
 insects prejdng on rice. For ten of the little clusters of 
 eggs one may see on the backs of leaves 4 rin was paid, 
 while for 10 moths the reward was 2 rin. The association 
 spent a further 10 yen on helping young people to attend 
 lectures at a distance. The commune in which those things 
 had been done numbered 3,100 people. There had been 
 two police offences during the year, but both offenders were 
 strangers to the locality. 
 
 In a cutting which was being made for the new railway, 
 girl labourers were steering their trucks of soil down a half- 
 mile descent and singing as they made the exhilarating run. 
 The building of a railway through a closely cultivated and 
 closely populated country involves the destruction of a 
 large amount of fertile land and the rebuilding of many 
 houses. The area of agricultural land taken during the 
 preceding and present reigns, not only for railways and 
 railway stations but for roads, barracks, schools and other 
 public buildings, has been enormous. " The owner of land 
 removed from cultivation may seem to do well by turning 
 his property into cash," a man said to me. " He may also 
 profit to some extent while the railway is building by the 
 Jobs he is able to do for the contractor, with the assistance 
 of his family and his horse or bull ; but afterwards he has 
 often to seek another way of earning his living than 
 farming." 
 
 We neared railhead on a market day and many folk in 
 their best were walking along the roads. Of fourteen 
 umbrellas used as parasols to keep off the sun that I counted 
 one only was of the Japanese paper sort ; all the others were 
 black silk on steel ribs in " foreign style " except for a crude 
 embroidery on the silk. 
 
 When we got into the town it was as much as our 
 kurumaya could do to move through the dense crowd of 
 rustics in front of booths and shops. Once more I was 
 
SALT TEARS 261 
 
 impressed by the imperturbability and natural courtesy of 
 the people. At the station quite a number of farmers and 
 their families had assembled, not to travel by the train 
 but to see it start. 
 
 During the short journey by train I noticed lagoons in 
 which fish were artificially fed. At an agricultural 
 experiment station in the place at which we alighted there 
 were two specimen windmills set up to show farmers who 
 were fortunate enough to have ammonia water on their land 
 the cheapest means of raising it for their paddies. The 
 tendency here as elsewhere was to apply too much of the 
 ammonia water. All rubbish on this extensive experiment 
 station was carefully burnt under cover in order to 
 demonstrate the importance not only of getting all the 
 potash possible but of preserving it when obtained. 
 
 Farmers who are without secondary industries are short 
 of cash except at the times when barley, rice and cocoons 
 are sold, and in certain places they seem to have taken 
 to saving money on salt. An old man told us with tears 
 in his eyes how he had protested to his neighbours against 
 the tendency to do without salt. An excuse for attempting 
 to save on salt, besides the economical one, was the size 
 of the salt cubes. Neighbours clubbed together to buy a 
 cube, and thus a family, when it had finished its share, had 
 to wait until the neighbours had disposed of theirs and 
 market day came round.' 
 
 I saw a monument erected to the memory of " a good 
 farmer " who had planted a wood and developed irrigation. 
 
 We made a stay at the spot where, on a forest-clad hill 
 overlooking the sea, there stands in utter simpHcity the 
 great shrine of Izumo. The customary collection of shops 
 and hotels clustering at the town end of the avenue of torii 
 cannot impair the impression which is made on the alien be- 
 holder by this shrine in the purest style of Shinto architec- 
 ture. In the month in which we arrived at Izumo the deities 
 are believed to gather there. Before the shrine the Japanese 
 visitor makes his obeisance and his offering at the precise 
 spot — four places are marked — to which his rank permits 
 him to advance. (This inscription may be read : 
 
 * TJje Salt Monopoly profits are estimated at 314,204 yen for 1920-21. 
 
252 MEN, DOGS AND SWEET POTATOES 
 
 " Common people at the doorway.") The estimate which 
 an official gave me of the number of visitors last year, 
 40,000, bore no relation to the " quarter of a milUon " 
 of the guide book. But it had been a bad year for farmers. 
 Forty-seven geisha, who had reported the previous year 
 that they had received 35,000 yen — there is ho limit to 
 what is tabulated in Japan — now reported that they had 
 gained only half that sum in twelve months, " the price of 
 cocoons being so low that even well-to-do farmers could not 
 come." I noticed that there was a clock let into one of 
 the granite votive pillars of the avenue along which one 
 walks from the town to the shrine. As I glanced at the 
 clock it happened that the sound of children's voices 
 reached me from a primary school. I wondered what 
 time and modern education, which have brought such 
 changes in Japan, might make of it all. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN 
 (SHIMANE, TOTTORI AND HYOGO) 
 
 Those who suffer learn, those who love know. — ^Mrs. Havblock 
 Ellis 
 
 At Matsue, with which the name of Lafcadio Hearn will 
 always be associated, I chanced to arrive on the anniver- 
 sary of his death. His local admirers were holding a 
 memorial meeting. As a foreigner I was honoured with a 
 request to attend. First, however, I had the chance of 
 visiting Hearn's house. Matsue was the first place at which 
 Hearn lived. He always remembered it and at last came 
 back there to marry. Except that a pond has been filled 
 up — no doubt to reduce the number of mosquitoes — the 
 garden of his house is little changed. 
 
 The most interesting feature of the meeting was old 
 pupils' grateful recollections of Hearn, the middle-school 
 teacher. The gathering was held in a room belonging to 
 the town library in the prefectural grounds, but neither 
 the Governor nor the mayor was present. A sympathetic 
 speech was made by a chance visitor to the town, the 
 secretary-general to the House of Peers. He recalled 
 the antagonism which the young men at Tokyo University, 
 himself among them, felt towards the odd figure of Hearn — 
 he had a terribly strained eye and wore a monocle — when 
 he became a professor, and how very soon he gained the 
 confidence and regard of the class. 
 
 I had often wondered that there was no Japanese 
 memorial to Hearn, and when I rose to speak I said so. I 
 added that it was rare to meet a Japanese who had any 
 understanding of how much Hearn had done in forming 
 the conception of Japan possessed by thousands of 
 
 253 
 
254 FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN 
 
 Europeans and Americans. The fault in so many books 
 about Japan, I went on, was not that their " facts " were 
 wrong. What was wrong was their authors' attitude of 
 mind. I had heard Japanese say that Hearn was " too 
 poetical " and that some of his inferences were " in- 
 accurate." That was as might be. What mattered was 
 that the mental attitude of Hearn was so largely right. 
 He did not approach Japan as a mere " fact " collector 
 or as a superior person. What he brought to the country 
 was the humble, studious, imaginative, sympathetic atti- 
 tude ; and it was only by men and women of his rare type 
 that peoples were interpreted one to the other. 
 
 In that free-and-easy way in which meetings are con- 
 ducted in Japan it was permissible for us to leave after 
 another speech had been made. The proceedings were 
 interrupted while the promoters of the gathering showed 
 us a collection of books and memorials of Hearn, 
 arranged under a large portrait, and accompanied us to the 
 door of the hall. I do not recall during the time I was in 
 Japan any other public gathering in honour of Hearn, and 
 I met several prominent men who had either never heard 
 his name or knew nothing of the far-reaching influence 
 of his books. But some months after this Matsue meeting 
 there was included among the Coronation honours a 
 posthumous distinction for Hearn — " fourth rank of the 
 junior grade." ' 
 
 During this journey I attended a dinner of officials and 
 leading agriculturists and had the odd sensation of making 
 a short after-dinner speech on my knees. At such a dinner 
 the guests kneel on cushions ranged round the four walls 
 of the room, and each man has a low lacquer table to 
 himself, and a geisha to wait on him. When the geisha 
 is not bringing in new dishes or replenishing the saki bottle, 
 she kneels before the table and chatters entertainingly. 
 
 1 This is, I am ofSoially informed, the highest rank ever bestowed on 
 a foreigner; but then Hearn was naturalised. In 1921 an appreciation of 
 " Koizumi Yakumo " was included by the Department of Education in a 
 middle-school textbook. Curiously enough, the fact that Hesirn married 
 a Japanese is overlooked. Owing to the fact that Hearn bought land 
 in Tokyo which has appreciated in value his family is in comfortable 
 oircumstances. 
 
THE GEISHA'S LIFE 255 
 
 The governors of the feast visit the guests of honour and 
 drink with them. In the same way a guest drinks with his 
 neighbour and with his attendant geisha. I have a vivid 
 memory of a grave and elderly dignitary who at the merry 
 stage of such a function capered the whole length of the 
 room with his kneeling- cushion balanced on the top of his 
 head. There is a growing temperance movement in 
 Japan but a teetotaller is still something of an oddity. 
 My abstinence from saki was frequently supposed to be 
 the result of a vow. 
 
 Although the average geisha may be inane in her patter 
 and have little more than conventional grace and charm, 
 I have been waited on by girls who added real mental 
 celerity, wit and a power of skilful mimicry to that elusive 
 and seductive quality that accounts for the impregnable 
 position of their class. At one dinner impersonations in 
 both the comic and the tragic vein were given by a girl of 
 unmistakable genius. Frequently a plain, elderly geisha 
 will display unsuspected mimetic ability. Alas, behind the 
 merry laugh and sprightliness of the girls who adorn a 
 feast lurks a skeleton. One is haunted by thoughts of the 
 future of a large proportion of these butterflies. No 
 doubt most foreigners generalise too freely in identifying 
 the professions of geisha and joro. In the present organisa- 
 tion of society some geisha play a legitimate r61e. They 
 gain in the career for which they have laboriously trained 
 an outlet for the expression of artistic and social gifts which 
 would have been denied them in domestic life. At the same 
 time the degrading character of the life led by many geisha 
 cannot be doubted. Apart from every other consideration 
 the temptation to drink is great. The opening of new 
 avenues to feminine ability, the enlarged opportunities 
 of education and self-respect and the increasing opening 
 for women on the stage — from which women have been 
 excluded hithertd — must have their effect in turning the 
 minds of girls of wit and originality to other means of 
 earning a living than the morally and physically hazardous 
 profession of the geisha. 
 
 When we left Matsue by steamer on our way to Tottori 
 prefecture I saw middle-school eights at practice. An 
 
256 FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN 
 
 agriculturist told me of the custom of giving holidays to 
 oxen and horses. The villagers carefully brush their 
 animals, decorate them and lead them to pastures where, 
 tethered to rings attached to a long rope, " they may graze 
 together pleasantly." One of the islands we visited bore 
 the name of the giant radish, Daikon, which is itself a 
 corruption of the word for octopus. The island devoted 
 itself mainly to the growing of peonies and ginseng. The 
 ginseng is largely exported to China and Korea, but there 
 is a certain consumption in Japan. Ginseng is sometimes 
 chewed, but is generally soaked, the liquid being drunk. 
 Ginseng is popularly supposed to be an invigorant, and 
 Japanese doctors in Korea have lately declared that it has 
 some value. The root is costly, hence the proverb about 
 eating ginseng and hanging oneself, i.e. getting into debt. 
 
 In walking across the island I passed a forlorn little 
 shrine. It was merely a rough shed with a wide shelf at 
 the back, on which stood a row of worn and dusty figures, 
 decked with the clothes of children whose recovery was 
 supposed to have been due to their influence. It was 
 raining and the shelter was full of children playing in the 
 company of an old crone with a baby on her back. Further 
 on in the village I came across a new public bath. The 
 price of admission was one sen, children half price. 
 
 A small port was pointed out to me as being open to 
 foreign trade. Everybody is not aware that in Japan there 
 is a restriction upon foreign shipping except at sixty 
 specified places.' The reason given for the restriction is 
 the unprofitableness of custom houses at small places. One 
 day, perhaps, the world will wake up to the inconvenience 
 and financial burden imposed by the custom-house 
 system of raising revenue. 
 
 We stayed the night at a little place at the eastern ex- 
 tremity of the Shimane promontory where there is a shrine 
 and no cultivation of any sort is allowed " for fear of de- 
 filement." Waste products are taken away by boat. I 
 marked a contrast between theoretical and practical 
 holiness. Our inn overlooked a special landing-place 
 
 1 Coastwise traffic is also forbidden to foreign vessels, as is traffic 
 between France and Algeria to other than French vessels, 
 
"DOUBLE LICENSE" GIRLS 257 
 
 where, because a " sacred boat " from the shrine is launched 
 there, a notice had been put up forbidding the throwing of 
 rubbish into the sea. A few minutes after the board had 
 been pointed out to me I saw an old man cast a considerable 
 mass of rubbish into the water not six feet away from it. 
 When we visited the shrine three pilgrims were at their 
 devotions. The next morning when our steamer left and 
 the chief priest of the shrine was bidding us adieu my at- 
 tention was attracted by loud conversation in the second 
 storey of an inn, the shoji of which were open. Our pil- 
 grims, two of whom were bald, had spent the night at an inn 
 of bad character and were now in the company of prosti- 
 tutes in the sight of all men. One pilgrim had a girl on his 
 knee, another was himself on a girl's knee and a third had 
 his arm round a girl's neck. In this " sacred " place of 
 2,000 inhabitants there were forty " double license " girls, 
 five being natives. A few years ago all the girls were 
 natives. A " double license " girl means one who is 
 licensed both as a geisha and a prostitute. The plan of 
 issuing " double licenses " is adopted at Kyoto and else- 
 where. As to the pilgrims to whom I have referred, some- 
 one quoted to me the saying, " It is only half a pilgrimage 
 going to the shrine without seeing the girls." 
 
 Returning to the custom of launching a sacred boat it 
 is not without significance that many Japanese deities have 
 some connection with the sea. Even in the case of the 
 deities of shrines a long way from the sea the ceremony of 
 " going down to the sea " is sometimes observed. Sand 
 and sea water are sent for in order to be mixed with the 
 water used to cleanse the car in which the figure of the 
 deity is drawn through the streets. 
 
 The social and financial position of tenants was illus- 
 trated by an incident at an inn. As the maid came from 
 the country I asked her if her father were a tenant or an 
 owner. My companion interrupted to tell me that the 
 question was not judiciously framed because the girl would 
 " think it a disgrace to own that her father was a tenant." 
 The name of a tenant used long ago to be " water drinker." 
 This waiting-maid was a good-looking and rather clever 
 girl. I was dismayed when my friend told me that she had 
 
258 FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN 
 
 said to him quite simply that she had thoughts of becoming 
 a joro. She thought it would be a " more interesting life." 
 
 When we reached Tottori prefecture we found ourselves 
 in a country which grows more cotton than any other. 
 Japanese cotton (grown on about 400 cho) is unsuitable for 
 manufacture into thread, but because of its elasticity is 
 considered to be valuable for the padding of winter clothing 
 and for futon and zabuton. Their softness is maintained 
 by daily sunning. 
 
 At a county office I noted that the persons who were 
 receiving relief were classified as follows : Illness, 26 ; 
 cripples, 17 ; old age, 16 ; schoolboys, 12 ; infancy, 1. 
 
 In the course of our journey a Shinto priest was pointed 
 out to me as observing the priestly taboo by refusing tea 
 and cake. I noticed, however, that he smoked. I was 
 told that when he was in Tokyo he purified himself in the 
 sea even in midwinter. I did not like his appearance. Nor 
 for the matter of that was I impressed by the countenances 
 of some Buddhist priests I encountered in the train from 
 time to time. " Thinking always of money," someone said. 
 But every now and again I saw fine priestly faces. 
 
 I have noted down very little in regard to the crops and 
 the countryside in Tottori. Things seemed very much the 
 same as I had seen in Shimane. At an agricultural show in 
 the city of Tottori the varieties of yam and taro were so 
 numerous as to deceive the average Westerner into behev- 
 ing that he was seeing the roots of different kinds of plants. 
 A feature of the show was a large realistic model of a rice 
 field with two life-size figures. 
 
 In the evening I talked with two distinguished men 
 until a late hour. " We are not a metaphysical people," 
 one of them said. " Nor were our forefathers as religious 
 as some students may suppose. Those who went before us 
 gave to the Buddhist shrine and even worshipped there, 
 but their daily life and their religion had no close connec- 
 tion. We did not define religion closely. ReUgion has 
 phases according to the degree of public instruction. Our 
 religioh has had more to do with propitiation and good for- 
 tune than with moraUty. If you had come here a century 
 ago you would have been unable to find even then religion 
 
"MAKE THE YOUNG FELLOWS WORK" 259 
 
 after another pattern. If it be said that a man must be 
 religious in order to be good the person who says so does 
 not look about him. I am not afraid to say that our people 
 are good as a result of long training in good behaviour. 
 Their good character is due to the same causes as the free- 
 dom from rowdiness which may be marked in our crowds." 
 
 " What is wanted in the villages," said the other person- 
 age, " is one good personality in each." I said that the 
 young men's association seemed to me to be often a dull 
 thing, chiefly indeed a mechanism by means of which 
 serious persons in a village got the young men to work 
 overtime. " Yes," was the response, " the old men make 
 the young fellows work." 
 
 The first speaker said that there had been three watch- 
 words for the rural districts. " There was Industrialisa- 
 tion and Increase of Production. There was Public Spirit 
 and Public Welfare. There was The Shinto Shrine the 
 Centre of the Village. We have a certain conception of a 
 model village, but perhaps some hypocrisy may mingle 
 with it. They say that the village with well-kept Buddhist 
 and Shinto shrines is generally a good village." 
 
 " In other words," I ventured, " the village where there 
 is some non-material feeling." 
 
 The rejoinder was : " Western religion is too high, and, 
 I fear, inapplicable to our life. It may be that we are too 
 easily contented. But there are nearly 60 millions of us. 
 I do not know that we feel a need or have a vacant place 
 for religion. There is certainly not much hope for an in- 
 crease of the influence of Buddhism." 
 
 As we went along in the train I was told that on a sixth 
 of the rice area in Tottori there had been a loss of 70 per 
 cent, by wind. When a man's harvest loss exceeds this 
 percentage he is not liable for rates and taxes. A passenger 
 told me about " nursery pasture." This is a patch of grass 
 in the hills to which a farmer sends his ox to be pastured in 
 common with the oxen of other farmers under the care of a 
 single herdsman. It is from cattle keeping on this modest 
 scale that the present beef requirements of the country are 
 largely met.' 
 
 1 See Appendix LIIL, 
 
260 FRIENDS OF LAFCADIO HEARN 
 
 Although the opinions expressed to me by Governors of 
 prefectures have been frequently recorded in these pages, I 
 have not felt at liberty to identify more than one of the 
 Excellencies who were good enough to express their views to 
 me. A friend who knew many Governors offered me the 
 following criticism, which I thought just : " They are too 
 practical and too much absorbed in administration to be 
 able to think. Often they read very little after leaving 
 the university. They have seldom anything to tell you 
 about other than ordinary things, and they seldom show 
 their hearts. You cannot learn much from Governors who 
 have nothing original to say or are fearful or live in their 
 frock coats or do not mean to show half their minds or are 
 practising the old official trick of talking round and round 
 and always evading the point. One fault of Governors is 
 that they are being continually transferred from prefecture 
 to prefecture. You have no doubt yourself noticed how 
 often Governors were new to their prefectures. But with 
 all the faults that our Governors have, there are not a few 
 able, good and kind men among them and they are not 
 recruited from Parliament but must be members of the Civil 
 Service. One of the most common words in our political 
 life is genshitsu, ' responsibility for one's own words.' If 
 Governors fear to assume the responsibility of their own 
 views they are only of a part with a great deal of the 
 official world." 
 
 We turned away from the northern sea coast and struck 
 south in order to cross Japan to the Inland Sea en route for 
 Kobe and Tokyo. 
 
 As we came through Hyogo prefecture my companion 
 pointed to hill after hill which had been afforested since his 
 youth. One of the things which interested me was the 
 number and the tameness of the kites which were catching 
 frogs in the paddies. 
 
 Before I left Hyogo I had the advantage of a chat with 
 one who for many years past had thought about the rural 
 situation in Japan generally. He spoke of " the late 
 Professor King's idealising of the Japanese farmer's con- 
 dition." He went on : " While King laid stress on the 
 ability to be self-supporting on a small area he ignored 
 
A "PARASITIC CLASS" 261 
 
 the extent to which many rural people are underfed. The 
 change in the Meiji era has been a gradual transference 
 from ownership to tenancy. Many so-called representa- 
 tive farmers have been able to add field to field until they 
 have secured a substantial property and have ceased to be 
 farmers. An extension of tenancy is to be deplored, not 
 only because it takes away from the farmer a feeling of 
 independence and of incentive, but because it creates a 
 parasitic class which in Japan is perhaps even more parasitic 
 than in the West. A landowner in the West almost 
 invariably realises that he has certain duties. In Japan 
 a landowner's duties to his neighbourhood and to the 
 State are often imperfectly understood. 
 
 " On the other hand the position of the farmer has been 
 very much improved socially. A great deal of pity bestowed 
 by the casual foreign visitor is wasted. The farmer is 
 accustomed to extremes of heat and cold and to a bare 
 living and poor shelter. And after all there is a great deal 
 of happiness in the villages. It is hardly possible to take a 
 day's kuruma ride without coming on a festival somewhere, 
 and drunkenness has undoubtedly diminished." 
 
 I spoke with an old resident about the agricultural 
 advance in the prefecture. " In fifteen years," he said, 
 " our agricultural production has doubled. As to the 
 non-material condition of the people, generally speaking the 
 villagers are very shallow in their religion. Not so long 
 ago officials used to laugh at religion, but I don't know that 
 some of them are not now changing their point of view. 
 Some of us have thought that, just as we made a Japanese 
 Buddhism, we might make a Japanese Christianity which 
 would not conflict with our ideas." 
 
TWO MONTHS IN TEMPLE 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 THE LIFE OF THE PEASANTS AND THEIR PRIESTS 
 
 (NAGANO) 
 The condition of the lower orders is the true mark. — Johnson 
 
 The Buddhist temple in which I lived for about two 
 months stands on high ground in a village lying abdut 
 2,500 ft. above sea-level in the prefecture of Nagano and 
 does not seem to have been visited by foreigners. It is 
 reached by a road which is little better than a track. No 
 kuruma are to be found in the district, but there are a 
 few light two- wheeled lorries. Practically all the traffic is 
 on horseback or on foot. There is a view of the Japanese 
 Alps and of Fuji. 
 
 Running through the village ' is a river. Most of the 
 summer it may be crossed by stepping stones, but the width 
 of the rocky bed gives some notion of the volume of water 
 which pours down after rains and on the melting of the 
 snow. Two or three miles up from the village a consider- 
 able amount of water is drawn off into two channels which 
 have been dug, one on either side of the river, at a gentler 
 slope than that at which the stream flows. The rapid fall of 
 the river is indicated by the fact that these channels reach 
 the village more than 100 ft. above the level at which the 
 river itself enters it. The channels, cut as they have been 
 through sharply sloping banks packed with boulders and 
 
 ' The village consists of about 270 houses. It is joined administratively 
 to another village, about two miles off, in order to form a mura (commune). 
 The village I am about to describe is an oaza (large hamlet), which is made 
 up in its turn of two aza (small hamlets). These aza are themselves divided 
 into six kumi (companies), which are again sub-divided, in i<he case of the 
 largest, into four. 
 
 262 
 
COMMUNAL LABOUR 263 
 
 big stones, and strengthened throughout by banking, in 
 order to cope as far as possible with the torrents which 
 rage down the hillside in winter, represent a vast amount 
 of communal labour. By the side of each channel the 
 excavated earth and stones have been used to make a path 
 for pack horses. The water which comes down these 
 channels serves not only for the ordinary uses of the village 
 but for irrigating the rice fields and for driving the many 
 
 The Buddhist Temple (with Shinto Shrine on the Left) in which 
 THIS Chapter was written 
 
 water wheels, the plashing and groaning of which are heard 
 night and day. 
 
 The whole area of the oaza is officially recorded as 800 
 cho, but the real area may be double, or even more than 
 that. About 40 per cent, is cultivated either as paddy or 
 as dry land. The remaining 60 per cent., from which 
 18 cho may be deducted for house land, is under grass and 
 wood. Half of this grass and woodland belongs to the 
 oaza and half to private persons. The grass is mostly 
 couch grass and weeds. In places there is a certain amount 
 of clover and vetch. Of the 200 families, numbering about 
 1,700 people, less than a dozen are tenants. Of the others, 
 19 
 
264 LIFE OF PEASANTS AND THEIR PRIESTS 
 
 a third cultivate their own land and hire some more. The 
 remaining two-thirds cultivate their own land and hire 
 none. The outstanding crop beyond rice is mulberry. A 
 considerable amount of millet and buckwheat is also grown. 
 
 The village is obviously well off. The signs are : suc- 
 cessful sericulture, the large quantity of rice eaten, the 
 number of well-looking horses (the millet seems to be grown 
 largely for them, but they also receive beans and wheat 
 boiled), the fact that no attempt is made to collect the 
 considerable amount of horse manure on the roads, the 
 cared-for appearance of the temple and shrines, the almost 
 complete absence of tea-houses, the ease with which new 
 land may be obtained and the contented look of the people. 
 
 One does not expect to find in a remote and wholly 
 Buddhist village many other animals than horses, and in 
 this community the additional live stock consists of ten 
 goats (kept for giving milk for invalids), two pigs and a 
 number of poultry. A working horse over four years was 
 worth 150 yen. The value of land ^ is to be considered in 
 relation to local standards of value. It is doubtful if the 
 priest, who seemed to be comfortably off, is in receipt of 
 more than 250 yen a year. The midwife, who belongs to 
 the oldest family and has been trained in Tokyo, gets from 
 2 to 2f yen per case. As new land is always available on 
 the hillsides there is very little emigration to the towns, 
 but twenty girls are working in the factories in the big 
 silk-reeUng centre twelve miles off. The hillside land which 
 is owned by the village is not sold but rented to those 
 who want it. To make new paddies is primarily a question 
 of having enough capital with which to buy the artificial 
 manure required for the crops. 
 
 I was given to understand that no one in the village 
 was poor enough to need public help, but that the school 
 fees of twelve children were paid by the community. This 
 is a system peculiar to Nagano, which is a progressive 
 prefecture vying with other prefectures to increase the 
 percentage of school attendance. One of the signs of 
 the well-off character of the village which appears 
 when one is able to investigate a little is that the 
 
 ' See Appendix LIV. 
 
THE FIRE ENGINES 
 
 265 
 
 place is a favourite haunt of beggars, who, I am told — 
 every calling is organised — have made it over to the less 
 fortunate members of their fraternity. The village has 
 enough money to spend to make it worth while for trades- 
 men from a distance to open temporary shops every Bon 
 season and at the New Year festival. A man in an average 
 position may lay out 200 yen on his daughter's wedding. 
 A farmer who knew his fellow-villagers' position pretty 
 closely said he thought that the position of tenant farmers 
 was " rather well." In the whole village there might be 
 seventy or eighty householders who had some debt, but it 
 was justifiable. In an ordinary year about 150 farmers 
 wpuld have 
 something to lay 
 by after their 
 twelve months' 
 work. Perhaps 
 fifty farmers, if 
 the; price of rice 
 or of cocoons 
 were low, might 
 be unable to 
 save ; but ordi- 
 narily they 
 would have 
 something in 
 
 their pockets. About half the farmers are engaged in 
 sericulture — I noticed cocoons offered at the shrine. The 
 other half sell their mulberry leaf crop to their neighbours. 
 The village, which is perhaps 400 years old, is increasing 
 in population by about forty every year. The family which 
 is said to have founded the village is still largely represented 
 in it. 
 
 The village has as many as six fire engines, which can 
 be moved about either on wheels or on runners according 
 to the weather, and as many look-out ladders and fire- 
 alarm bells. The young men's association has no 
 fewer than half a dozen buildings, the property of the 
 village. Five of them are little more than sheds and 
 seem to be used on wet days as nurseries and playrooms 
 
 Fire Engine aotj Pbimitive Figures 
 
266 LIFE OF PEASANTS AND THEIR PRIESTS 
 
 Young Men's Clttb-boom 
 
 for children. The sixth is the village theatre, playing 
 at which appears to have been abandoned for some 
 years. Travelling players give their shows where .they 
 will. The theatre stands in a space encircled by large 
 trees opposite the chief shrine of the village. There is 
 
 also here a 
 smaller shrine 
 (fox god) and 
 some tomb- 
 stones. 
 
 Before the 
 chief shrine are 
 two large 
 leaden lan- 
 terns. At the 
 base of these a considerable strip of metal has been torn 
 away. This unusual destruction by village lads caused 
 me to make enquiry. I found that the boys had 
 merely enlarged a hole made by adults. The destruction 
 had been wrought in order to remove the inscription on 
 the lanterns. It was said that the local donor had meanly 
 omitted to 
 make the cus- 
 tomary gift to 
 the shrine to 
 cover the small 
 expense of 
 lighting the 
 lanterns on the 
 occasion of 
 festivals. It 
 was the feeling 
 of the villagers, 
 therefore, that 
 
 he should not be allowed to blazon his name in connection 
 with a shabby gift. 
 
 There is a ceremony about half a dozen times a year at 
 the chief shrine, which is about a century old. The Shinto 
 priest, who seemed to be a genuine antiquary, was of 
 opinion that the structure inside the shrine might have been 
 
 Memorial Stones 
 
THE HORSE GOD 
 
 267 
 
 built two hundred years ago. In addition to this chief 
 shrine and the small shrine near it, there are two other 
 shrines in the village, one in the temple yard (god of happi- 
 ness) and the other (horse god) in an open space of its own. 
 
 But perhaps the most remarkable thing about the non- 
 material life of this village is the fact that it contains no 
 fewer than 400 carved stones of a more or less religious 
 character. A few are Buddhist ; some are memorials to 
 priests or teachers ; several bear that representation of a 
 man and a woman facing one another (p. 265) which is one of 
 the oldest mystic emblems ; the majority are devoted ap- 
 parently to the horse god. Every man who loses a horse 
 erects a stone. There are two persons in the village who 
 can carve these stones at a cost of about 2 yen. Some stones 
 which are 
 painted red are 
 dedicated to 
 the fire god. 
 The 400 stones 
 of which I am 
 speaking do 
 not include 
 grave stones. 
 These are seen 
 everywhere, 
 many of them 
 
 just by the wayside. Nearly every family buries in its own 
 ground. Some burial places with stones of many forms 
 dating back for a long period of years are extremely im- 
 pressive. At the Bon season the grass on every burying 
 ground is carefully cut. 
 
 All the shop-keepers seem to own their own houses and 
 all but three have some land. There are three saki shops, 
 two of which sell other things than sakS, two general shops, 
 two cake and sweet shops, two tobacco shops, a lantern 
 shop and a barber. There are eight carpenters, four stone- 
 cutters, jBve plasterers and wall builders, five woodcutters, 
 two roof makers, two horse shoers, and in the winter a 
 blacksmith. (The cost of putting on four shoes is 60 sen.) 
 All these artisans own their own houses and all have land. 
 
 Roof protected against Storms by Stones 
 
268 LIFE OF PEASANTS AND THEIR PRIESTS 
 
 As to the health of the village there are two doctors who 
 come every other day. One was qualified at Chiba and the 
 other at Sendai. They make no charge for advice and the 
 price of medicine is only 10 sen unless the materials are 
 expensive. I suppose they may receive presents. They 
 also probably have a piece of land. There is no veterinary 
 surgeon, but one is to be found in the village which com- 
 poses the other half of the commune. 
 
 A physician who had been born in the village and was 
 staying for a few days with the Buddhist priest who was 
 my host, thought that 90 per cent, of the villagers ate no 
 meat whatever and that only 50 or 60 per cent, ate fish, and 
 then only ceremonially, that is at particular times in the 
 year when it is the custom in Japan to eat fish. The 
 villagers who did eat meat or fish did not take it oftener 
 than twice or thrice a month. The canned meat and 
 canned fish in the shops — Japanese brands — were used 
 almost entirely for guests. The doctor expressed the 
 opinion of most Japanese that " people who do not eat 
 meat are better tempered and can endure more." I have 
 heard Japanese say that " foreigners are short-tempered 
 because they eat so much meat." 
 
 We spoke of the considerable consumption of pickles, 
 highly salted or fermented. For example, in the ordinary 
 25-sen bento (lunch) box there are three or four different 
 kinds of pickles. The doctor said that pickles were not 
 only a means of taking salt and so appetisers to help the 
 rice down, but digestives ; fermented pickles supplied 
 diastase which enabled the stomach to deal promptly with 
 the large quantities of rice swallowed. 
 
 I asked for the doctor's opinion as to the prevalence of 
 tumours, displacements and cancer among women who 
 labour in the fields and have to bring up children and do 
 all the housework of a peasant's dwelling. The doctor 
 replied that he was disposed to think that cases of the 
 ailments I spoke of were not numerous. Cancer was cer- 
 tainly rare. He knew that in Japan rickets, goitre and gout 
 were all less common than in the West. He expressed the 
 opinion that childbirth was easier than in the West. It 
 was a delight to see the fine carriage of the women and girls 
 
THE WORLD WITHOUT RICE 
 
 269 
 
 astride on the high saddles of the horses.^ Both sexes in 
 the district wear over their kimonos blue cotton trousers, 
 something like a plumber's overall only tighter in the legs. 
 The women are certainly strong. One day I saw a woman 
 carrjang uphill on her back two wooden doors about 6 ft. 
 by 5 ft. 6 ins. An old woman I met on the road volunteered 
 her view that women were " stronger " than men. She 
 was very much concerned to know how foreigners could live 
 without eating rice. She said 
 — and this is characteristic- 
 ally Japanese — that she 
 envied me being able to travel 
 all over the world. 
 
 The Buddhist temple is 
 built wholly of wood and 
 the roof is thatched. When- 
 ever there was an earth- 
 quake the timbers seemed to 
 crackle rather than creak. 
 The temple is relatively new 
 and seems to have been built 
 with materials given by the 
 villagers and by means of a 
 gift of 1 ,000 yen. The work- 
 manship was local and a good 
 deal of it was faulty. This 
 may have been due to lack of 
 experience, but it is more 
 likely that the cause was 
 limited funds. The plan and 
 proportions of the building 
 
 are excellent and the carving is first-rate. The right of 
 " presentation to the living " is in the hands of the village. 
 The priest and his family hve in a large house on one side 
 of the temple. On the other side is a small Shinto shrine 
 to which the priest seems to give such attention as is neces- 
 sary. The temple is Shingon. There is a sermon once a 
 
 1 The horses wear basket-work muzzles to prevent them nibbling the 
 crops. By way of compensation for these encumbrances they have head 
 tassels and belly cloths to keep ofl the flies. 
 
 Off to the Upland Fields 
 
270 LIFE OF PEASANTS AND THEIR PRIESTS 
 
 year only, or " when some famous man comes." / The 
 actual temple in which the priest, who showed me k fine 
 collection of robes, conducts his services is betweei/ forty 
 and fifty mats in area. Behind it is the room in wl^ch the 
 ihai or tablets of the dead are arranged. This hart of 
 the building is covered on the outside with plastef in the 
 manner of a kura (godown) so as to be fire-proof. On 
 either side of the actual temple are rooms very much as in 
 a spacious private house. There are two of eighteen and 
 fifteen mats, two of twelve and ten mats and two small 
 ones. There is also a wide covered engawa (verandah) in 
 front and at the sides. A small kitchen and what the 
 auctioneers call the usual offices complete the building. 
 
 Right round the temple there is a nice garden which 
 keeps the priest's man, a picturesque, sweet-tempered, 
 guileless old fellow, occupied much of his time. The priest 
 conducted a service twice a day, at 5.30 in the morning 
 and at 7.30 in the evening. When he fell ill and had to be 
 carried in a litter to the nearest town for an operation, we 
 missed his beautiful chanting and expert sounding of the 
 deep-toned gong of the sanctuary. The great bell in the 
 court-yard was struck by the priest's boy at sundown. 
 The priest kept the old rule against meat. He and his wife 
 would not eat even cake or biscuits because they feared 
 that there might be milk and butter in them. The couple 
 were very kind to us and we enjoyed a delightfully quiet 
 life in the lofty sunny temple rooms. I should judge that 
 OteraSan (Mr. Temple) was respected in the village. His 
 wife was a bustling woman of such sweetness and simplicity 
 of nature as can only be found in a far valley. 
 
 I have mentioned that the total incomings of the priest 
 are probably about 250 yen. He receives no salary but has 
 his house free. He must " discuss about an5i;hing wanted 
 in the temple." I do not suppose he had to ask anybody 
 whether he might lodge us or not. He receives considerable 
 gifts of rice, perhaps to the value of 120 yen, at any rate 
 enough for the whole year. He has also the rent of the 
 " glebe," which consists of 12 tan of paddy, 2 tan of dry 
 field and 10 tan of woodland. Then there are the gifts 
 which are made to him at funerals and for the services he 
 
THE PRIESTS' PENCE 271 
 
 conducts at the villagers' houses on the days of the dead. 
 One day during the Bon season every household sent a little 
 girl or boy with a present to the priest. In return these 
 small, visitors were given sweets. During the Bon season 
 some very old men of the village came and worshipped at 
 the Shinto shrine and were entertained with sakS by the 
 priest on the engawa of his temple. The amount in the 
 collecting box in front of the little Shinto shrine in the 
 temple yard, largely in rin, would not be more than 10 or 
 15 sen in the year. Most of the contributions are in the 
 form of pinches of rice. The priest may give 10 yen a 
 year to his man who works about the temple and his house 
 and accompanies him to funerals and to the memorial 
 services at the villagers' dwellings ; but this servitor, like 
 his master, no doubt receives presents. 
 
 The Shinto priest is probably not so well off as the 
 Buddhist priest. The village makes a small payment to 
 him twice a year. At New Year 3 yen in all may be flung 
 in the collecting box at the shrine, but the priest has 
 presents made to him when he goes to see ailing folk and 
 when he officiates at the building of a new house. Most 
 people when they are ill seem to send for the Shinto priest. 
 But he explained to me that he does not expect a sick man 
 to " worship only." He is accustomed to say to the people, 
 " Doctor first, god second," from which I was to conclude, 
 one who heard told me, that the priest was " rather a civil- 
 ised man." The Shinto priest had succeeded a relative in 
 his position. The village had found its Buddhist priest 
 in a neighbouring district. 
 
 The Buddhist priest told me that every year 150 or 160 
 men and women made a pilgrimage to a famous shrine some 
 few miles off. The custom was for every house to be 
 represented in the pilgrimage. Half a dozen people in the 
 year might go on personal pilgrimages and fifty or so might 
 visit a little shrine on a neighbouring mountain. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 " BON " SEASON SCENES 
 (NAGANO) 
 
 As modems we have no direct afSnity ; as individuals we have a capacity 
 for personal sympathy. — Matthew Abnold 
 
 I HAD the good fortune to be in the village during the Bon 
 season. The idea is that the spirits which are visiting their 
 old homes remain between the 11th and 14th of August. 
 The 11th is called mukae bon and the 14th okuri bon. 
 {Mukae means going to meet ; okuri to see off.) On the 
 11th the villagers burned a piece of flax plant in front of 
 their houses. That night the priest said a special prayer in 
 the temple and used the cymbals in addition to the ordinary 
 gong and drum. The prayer seemed peculiarly sad. 
 Before the shrines in their houses the villagers placed offer- 
 ings. One was a horse made out of a cucumber, the legs 
 being bits of flax twig and the tail and mane the hair-like 
 substance from maize cobs. There were also offerings 
 of real and artiflcial flowers and of grapes. In one house 
 I visited I saw geta, waraji, kimonos, pumpkins, caramels 
 and pencils. Strings of buck-wheat macaroni were laid 
 over twigs of flax set in a vase. The ihai (name-plates of 
 the dead) seemed to be displayed more prominently than 
 usual. (They are kept in a kind of small oratory called 
 ihaido, and after a time several names are collected on a 
 single plate.) Mochi (rice- flour dumpling) is eaten at this 
 time. On the 12th and 14th the priest called at each 
 house for two or three minutes. 
 
 I asked if the villagers really believed that their dead 
 returned at the Bon season. The answer was, " Only the 
 old men and young children believe that the dead actually 
 come, but the young men and young women, when they see 
 
 272 
 
GRIEF AND A SMILING FACE 
 
 273 
 
 the burning of the flax-plant and the other things that are 
 done, think of the dead ; they remember them solemnly at 
 this time." And I think it was so. The stranger to a 
 Japanese house, in which there is not only a Shinto shelf 
 but a Buddhist shrine — where the name plates of the dead 
 for several generations are treasured — cannot but feel that, 
 when all allowances are made for the dulling influences of 
 use and wont, the plan is a means of taking the minds of the 
 household beyond the daily round. The fact that there is 
 a certain familiarity with the things of the shrine and of 
 the Shinto shelf, just as there 
 is a certain freedom at the 
 public shrines and in the 
 temple, does not destroy the 
 impression. When a man has 
 taken me to his little grave- 
 yard I have been struck by 
 the lack of that lugubriousness 
 which Western people com- 
 monly associate with what is 
 sacred. The Japanese con- 
 ception of reverence is some- 
 what different from our own. 
 As to sorrow, the idea is, as is 
 well known, that it is the 
 height of bad manners to 
 trouble strangers with a dis- 
 play of what in many cases is 
 largely a selfish grief. A man- 
 servant smiled when he told 
 
 me of his only son's death. On my offering sympathy the 
 tears ran down his face. 
 
 When the Bon season ended on the fourteenth all the 
 flowers and decorations of the domestic shrines were taken 
 early in the morning to the bridge over the diminished 
 river and flung down. The idea is perhaps that they are 
 carried away to the sea. (As a matter of fact there was so 
 little water that almost everything flung in from the bridge 
 remained in sight for weeks until there was a storm.) 
 _When the flowers and -decorations had been cast from the 
 
 Fabmek's Wife 
 
274 "BON" SEASON SCENES 
 
 bridge the people went off to worship at the graves. Many 
 coloured streamers of paper, written on by the priest, were 
 flying there. 
 
 The Bon dances took place five nights running in the 
 open space between the Shinto shrine and the old barn 
 theatre. Nothing could have been duller. The line from 
 Ruddigore came to mind, " This is one of our blameless 
 dances." The first night the performers were evidently 
 shy and the girls would hardly come forward. Things 
 warmed up a little more each night and on the last night 
 of all there was a certain animation ; but even then the 
 movement, the song and the whole scheme of the dance 
 seemed to be lacking in vigour. What happened was that 
 a number of lads gradually formed themselves into a ring, 
 which got larger or smaller as the girls joined it or waited 
 outside. The girls bunched together all the time. None 
 of the dancers ever took hands. The so-called dancing con- 
 sisted of a raising of both arms — the girls had fans in their 
 hands — and a simple attitudinising. The lads all clapped 
 their hands together in time, but in a half-hearted kind of 
 way ; the girls struck the palms of their left hands with 
 their fans. The boys were in clean working dress. Some 
 had towels wound round their heads, some wore caps and 
 others hats. The girls were got up in all their best clothes 
 with fine obi and white aprons. The music was dirge-like. 
 It was not at all what Western people understand to be 
 singing. The performers emitted notes in a kind of 
 falsetto, and these five or six notes were repeated over and 
 over and over again. The only word I can think of which 
 approximately describes what I heard, but it seems harsh, 
 is the Northern word, yowling. First the lads yowled and 
 then the girls responded with a slightly more musical 
 repetition of the same sounds. For all the notice the boys 
 appeared to take of the girls they might not have been 
 present. The lads and lasses were no doubt fully conscious, 
 however, of each other's presence. The dancing took place 
 on the nights of the full moon. But it was cloudy, and, 
 owing to the big surrounding trees, the performance was 
 often dimly lit. 
 
 To me the dancing was depressing, but that is not to say 
 
DEVITALISED "BON" 
 
 275 
 
 that the dancers found it so. Dancing began at eight 
 o'clock and went on till midnight. " They would not be 
 fit for their work next day if they danced later," a sober- 
 minded adult explained. This was only one suggestion 
 among many that the dance has been devitalised under 
 the respectabilising influence of the policeman and village 
 elders who had forgotten their youth. To the onlooker it 
 did not seem to matter very 
 much whether the dance, as 
 it is now, continues or not. 
 Occasionally one had an im- 
 pression that it had once been 
 a folk dance of vigour and 
 significance. But the present- 
 day performance might have 
 been conceived and presented 
 by a P.S.A. All this is true 
 when the dance is contrasted 
 with an English West- country 
 dance or a dance in Scotland 
 at Hallowe'en. But it must 
 be remembered that the Bon 
 dance during the first nights is 
 in the nature of a lament for 
 the dead. There is something 
 haunting in the strange little 
 refrain, though it is difficult 
 to hum or whistle it. Perhaps 
 the whole festival is too inti- 
 mately racial to be fully under- 
 stood by a stranger. By the 
 end of the festival, on the night 
 of merrymaking in honour of the village guardian spirit, 
 things were livelier. Some of the lads had evidently had 
 saM and even the girls had lost their demureness. 
 
 After the Buddhist Bon season was over it was the turn 
 of Shinto, and the village children were paraded before the 
 shrine. A number of Shinto priests in the neighbourhood 
 took a leading part in making the customary offerings and 
 the local priest read a longish address to the guardian spirit 
 
 Mother and Child 
 
276 "BON" SEASON SCENES 
 
 of the village. Respectful correctness rather than devout- 
 ness is the phrase which one would ordinarily be disposed 
 to apply to the ceremonies at a Shinto shrine, but the local 
 priest was reverential. The ceremonies of the day evi- 
 dently meant a great deal to him. The children paid a well- 
 drilled attention. They also sang the national anthem and 
 a special song for the day under the leadership of the 
 school teacher, who played on a portable harmonium which 
 sounded as portable harmoniums usually sound. The 
 whole proceedings wore a semi-official look. 
 
 Happily there was nothing semi-official about the 
 wrestling to which we were invited later in the day. A 
 special little platform had been put up for us. The ring 
 was made on rice chaff and earth. The wrestlers squatted 
 in two parties at opposite sides of the ring. They did not 
 wear the straw girdles of the professionals. Each man had 
 a wisp of cotton cloth tied round his waist and between his 
 legs. One of the best things about the wrestling was the 
 formal introduction of the competitors. A weazened little 
 man with a tucked-up cotton kimono and bare legs, but with 
 the address and dignity of a " No " player, proclaimed the 
 names and styles — it seems that the wrestlers have a fancy 
 to be known by the names of mountains and rivers — in a 
 fashion which recalled the tournament. There was also 
 another personage, with a Dan Leno-like face and an extra- 
 ordinary gift of contorting his legs, who played the buffoon, 
 and gyrated round the dignified M.C., who remained un- 
 moved while the audience laughed. It was evidently the 
 right thing for the prizes — they were awarded at the end of 
 each bout — to be presentedascomicallyas possible; andsome 
 of the Shakespearean humours which appealed so powerfully 
 to the groundlings at the Globe were enacted as if neither 
 space nor time intervened between us and the Elizabethans. 
 The bouts were not so fast as professional wrestlers are 
 accustomed to, but they were none the less exciting. The 
 result was invariably in some doubt and often entirely un- 
 expected. The usual rule was that he who threw his man 
 twice was the winner. In some events, immediately a 
 wrestler had been thrown, a succession of other contestants 
 rushed at the victor, one after the other, without allowing 
 
THE VILLAGE WRESTLERS 277 
 
 him time even to straighten his back. Some of the 
 competitors were poorly developed but the lankiest and 
 skinniest were often excellent wrestlers. At an interval in 
 the wrestling the committee flung hard peaches to wrestlers 
 and spectators. I wanted to make some little acknowledg- 
 ment of the kindness of the young men's association in 
 providing us with our little platform, and it was suggested 
 that autographed fans at about a penny three-farthings 
 apiece for about forty wrestlers would be acceptable. 
 This gift was announced on a long streamer. The funny 
 man of the ring also made a speech of welcome. I may 
 add that the young men's association had fitted up on 
 the way to the scene of the wrestling a number of special 
 lanterns which bore efforts in English by a student home 
 for the holidays. 
 
 I was told that the people of the village were " honest, 
 independent and earnest," and I am disposed to think that 
 this may be true of most of them. As to honesty, we had 
 the satisfaction of living without any thought of dorobo 
 (robbers). It is a great comfort to be able at night to 
 leave open most of the shoji and not to have to pull out the 
 amado (wooden shutters) from their case. The nature of 
 our possessions was well laiown not only in the village but 
 throughout the district, for there was seldom a day on which 
 a knot of grown-ups or children did not come to peer into 
 our rooms. The inspection was accompanied by many 
 polite bows and friendly smiles. On a festival day the 
 crowd occasionally reached about fifty. 
 
 There were formerly several teahouses in the village, but 
 under the influence of the young men's association all houses 
 of entertainment but two had been closed. These two had 
 become " inns." In one of these the girl attendant was 
 the proprietor's daughter ; in the other there was a solitary 
 waitress. One of the abolished teahouses had taken itself 
 two miles away, where possibly it still had visitors. There 
 seemed to be two public baths in the village, both belonging 
 to private persons. The charge was 1 sen for adults and 
 6 rin for children. At one of the baths I noticed separate 
 doors for men and women ; in the bath itself the division 
 between the sexes was about two feet high. 
 
278 "BON" SEASON SCENES 
 
 The smallest subdivision of the village is called kumi or 
 company. Each of these has a kind of manager who is 
 elected on a limited suffrage. The managers of the kumi, 
 it was explained, are " like diplomatists if something is 
 wanted against another village." The kumi also seems to 
 have some corporate life. There is once a month a semi- 
 social, semi-religious meeting at each member's house in 
 turn. The persons who attend lay before the house shrine 
 8 or 5 sen each or a small quantity of rice for the feast. 
 The master of the house provides the sauce or pickles. 
 I heard also of a kind of ko called mujin, a word which has 
 also the meaning of " inexhaustible." By such agencies 
 as these money is collected for people who are poor or for 
 men who want help in their business or who need to go on 
 a journey. 
 
 We have seen that the village is by every token well off. 
 What are its troubles ? Undoubtedly the people work 
 hard. I imagine, however, that there are very many 
 districts where the people work much harder. The 
 foreigner is too apt to confuse working hard with working 
 continuously. Whether outdoors or indoors, whether at a 
 handicraft or at business, an Oriental gives the impression 
 of having no notion of getting his work done and being 
 finished with it. The working day lasts all day and part of 
 the night. Whether much more is done in the time than in 
 the shorter Western day may be doubted. During the brief 
 silk- worm season many of the women of the village in which 
 I stayed are afoot for a long day and for part of the night, 
 but the winter brings relief from the strain of all sorts of 
 work. Owing to the snow it is practically impossible to do 
 any work out of doors in January, February and March. 
 The snow may stop work even in December. Here, then, 
 is a natural holiday. Whether with their men indoors 
 the women have much of a holiday is uncertain. But 
 indoors should not be taken too exactly. There is some 
 hunting in the winter. Deer come within two miles and 
 hares are easily got. 
 
 Well-off though the village is, there is a strong desire to 
 increase incomes. The people are working harder than they 
 have done in the past because the cost of living has risen. 
 
A NEW RURAL TYPE" 
 
 279 
 
 An attempt is to be made to increase secondary employ- 
 ments. Corporately, the village is said to possess 10,000 
 yen in cash in addition to its land. It is said that this 
 money is lent out to some of the more influential people. 
 What the security is and how safe the monetary resources 
 of a village loaned out in this way may be I do not know, 
 but there is obviously some risk and I gathered that some 
 anxiety existed. 
 
 The people of the village, like a large proportion of the 
 population of the prefecture, are distinctly progressive. 
 Nagano is full of what someone called " a new rural type " 
 of men who 
 read and de- 
 light in going 
 to lectures. 
 Lectures are a 
 great institu- 
 tion in Na- 
 gano. For 
 these lectures 
 country peo- 
 ple tramp into 
 a county town 
 in their waraji 
 carrying their 
 bento. To 
 these rustics 
 a lecture is 
 a lecture. A 
 
 friend of mine who is given to lecturing spoke on one 
 occasion for seven hours. It is true that he divided the 
 lecture between two days and allowed himself a half hour's 
 rest in the middle of each three and a half hours' section. 
 He started with an audience of 500. On the first day at 
 the end of the second part of the lecture it was noticed that 
 the audience had decreased by about 70. On the second 
 day about 100 people in all wearied in well-doing. But it 
 was the townsfolk, not the country people, who left. 
 
 I found upon enquiry that in the village in which I had 
 been living there had been one arrest only during the 
 20 
 
 A Cradle 
 
280 "BON" SEASON SCENES 
 
 previous year. The charge was one of theft. Half a 
 dozen other people had got into trouble but their arrests 
 had been " postponed." Two of these six delinquents had 
 " caused fire accidentally," two had been guilty of petty 
 theft, and the remaining two had sold things of small value 
 which did not belong to them. During the twelve months 
 there had been no charges of immorality and no gambling. 
 Perhaps, however, there may have been police admonitions. 
 It seemed to have been a long time since there had been a 
 case of what we should call illegitimacy or of a child being 
 born in the first months of a young couple's marriage. 
 Someone mentioned, however, that the girls who went to 
 the silk factories were, as a consequence of their life there, 
 " debased morally and physically." 
 
 A notable thing in the village was four fires, two the month 
 before we arrived and two while we were there. They 
 were suspected to have been the work of a person of weak 
 intellect. (As in our own villages half a century ago, there 
 is in every community at least one " natural.") On the 
 night of the first fire we were awakened about 3 a.m. by 
 shouting, by the clanging of the fire bell and by the booming 
 of the great bell in the temple yard. The fire was about 
 four houses away. It was a still night and the flames and 
 sparks went straight up. As the possibility of the wind 
 shifting and the fire spreading could not be entirely 
 excluded we quickly got our more important possessions 
 on the engawa — at least a young maidservant did so. The 
 continual experience which the Japanese have of fires makes 
 them self-possessed on these occasions, and this girl had 
 futon, bags, etc., neatly tied in big furoshiki (wrapping 
 cloths) in the shortest possible time. It was only when she 
 was satisfied that our belongings were in readiness for easy 
 removal that she went to look after her own. The matter- 
 of-fact, fore-sighted, neat way in which she got to work was 
 admirable. With great kindness one of the elders of the 
 village came hurriedly to the temple, evidently thinking we 
 should feel alarmed, and cried out, " Yoroshii, Yoroshii " 
 (" All right "). 
 
 As I stood before the blaze what struck me most was 
 the orderUness and quiet of the crowd and the way in 
 
AT THE FIRE 
 
 281 
 
 which whatever help was needed was at once forthcoming 
 without fuss. The fire brigades were working in an orderly 
 way and everything was so 
 well managed that the scene 
 seemed almost as if it were 
 being rehearsed for a cinema. 
 One difference between what 
 I saw and what would be 
 seen at home at a fire was 
 that the scene was well 
 lighted from the front, for 
 the members of the fire 
 brigades carried huge 
 lanterns on high poles. 
 From the mass of old wet 
 reed in the roadway I judged 
 that the first act of the fire- 
 men had been to use their 
 long hooks to denude the 
 roof of the burning house 
 of its thatch, 
 which in the 
 lightest wind is so 
 dangerous to sur- 
 rounding dwell- 
 ings. Nobody in 
 the village is in- 
 sured, but the 
 neighbours seem 
 to meet about a 
 third of the loss 
 caused by a fire. 
 It is an illustra- 
 tion of local 
 values that a 
 larger subscrip- 
 tion than 2 yen 
 would not be 
 accepted from me 
 mentioned to me that incendiarism is specially prevalent 
 
 FiKE Alarm and Observation Post 
 In connection with this fire someone 
 
282 "BON" SEASON SCENES 
 
 in some prefectures, while in others the use of the knife is 
 the usual means of wiping out scores. The phrase used by 
 a person who threatens arson is, " I will make the red worm 
 creep into your roof." 
 
 During the winter there is too much drinking — "generally 
 by poor men " — but there is said to be less of this than 
 formerly. Some people stop their newspaper in the summer 
 and resume taking it during the greater leisure of the winter. 
 It has been noted, among other small matters, that the 
 local vocabulary has expanded during the past fifteen years. 
 During our stay the young midwife, who was going to 
 America to join her husband, was eager to give her service in 
 the kitchen for the chance of improving her English. We also 
 gave help in the evenings thrice a week to one of the school 
 teacherswho hadmanagedto obtain a fair reading knowledge 
 of English. The earnestness with which these two people 
 studied was touching. While I was in the village the young 
 men's association began the issue of a magazine. Litho- 
 graphic ink was brought to me so that I might contribute in 
 autograph as well as in translation. The association, which 
 receives 10 yen a year from the village, cultivates several plots 
 of paddy and dry land. The bigger schoolboys drilled with 
 imitation rifles, imitation bayonets and imitation cartridges. 
 
 I felt that I should know more about the villagers if I 
 could learn, like Synge, their topics of conversation when no 
 stranger was present. One day while strolling with a friend 
 I asked him what was being said by two girls who were 
 working among the mulberries and were hidden from us by 
 a hedge (hedges only occur round mulberry plots). He told 
 me that one was enhancing to her companion the tremend- 
 ous dignity of the Crown Prince by exaggerating grotesquely 
 the size of the house he lived in, which reminded me of the 
 servant who told her friend that " Queen Victoria was so 
 rich that she had a piano in her kitchen." Generally the 
 conversational topics of the villagers seemed to be people 
 and prices. Undoubtedly, I was told, the subjects which 
 were most popular, " because they provoked hilarity," 
 were family discords and sexual questions. One man with 
 whom I spoke about the moraUty of the village said 
 cautiously, " They say there are some moneylenders here." 
 
IN AND OUT OF THE TEA PREFECTURE 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 PROGKESS OF SORTS 
 (SHIDZUOKA AND KANAGAWA) 
 
 I am not of those who look for perfection amongst the rural popula- 
 tion. — BOBROW 
 
 The torrents that foam down the slopes of Fuji are a cheap 
 source of electricity, and, though the guide book may not 
 stress the fact, it is possible that the first glimpse of the 
 unutterable splendours of the sacred mountain may be 
 gained in the neighbourhood of a cotton, paper or silk 
 factory. The farmers welcomed the factories when they 
 found that factory contributions to local rates eased the 
 burden of the agricultural population. The farmers also 
 realised that to the factories were due electric light, the 
 telephone, better roads and more railway stations. The 
 farmers are undoubtedly better off. They are so well off 
 indeed that the district can afford an agricultural expert 
 of its own, children may be seen wearing shoes instead of 
 geta, and the agriculturists themselves occasionally sport 
 coats cut after a supposedly Western fashion. But the 
 people, it was insisted, have become a little " sly," and 
 girls return from the factories less desirable members of 
 the community. 
 
 Mention of these matters led an agricultural authority 
 whom I met during my trip in Shidzuoka to deliver himself 
 on the general question of the condition of the farmer in 
 Japan. He expressed the opinion that 10 per cent, of the 
 farmers were in a " wretched condition." Big holdings — if 
 any holdings in Japan can be called big — were getting 
 bigger ; it was an urgent question how to secure the position 
 
 283 
 
284 PROGRESS OF SORTS 
 
 of the owners of the small and the medium-sized classes 
 of holding. The fact that many rural families were in 
 debt, not for seed or manure but for food spoke for itself. 
 The amounts might seem trivial in Western eyes, but when 
 the average income was only 350 yen a year a debt of 80 
 yen was a serious matter ; and 80 yen was the average debt 
 of farming families in the prefecture of Shidzuoka. No one 
 could say that the farmers were lazy : they were working 
 hard according to their lights. They were working too 
 hard, perhaps, on the limited food they got. There could 
 be no doubt that the physical condition of the countryman 
 was being lowered. 
 
 Again, there was the fact of the rural exodus — the 
 phrase sounded strangely in the middle of a Japanese sen- 
 tence. As to the causes, the first unquestionably was that 
 thefarmer had not enough land on which to makealiving. If 
 the farmer could have 5 acres or thereabouts he would be 
 well off. But the average area per farmer in the prefecture 
 in which we were travelling was a little less than 2| acres. 
 High taxes were another cause of the farmer's present con- 
 dition. Then a year's living would be mortgaged for the 
 expenses of a marriage ceremony. At a funeral, too, the 
 neighbours came to eat and drink. They took charge of 
 the kitchen and even ordered in food. (After a Japanese 
 feast the guests are given at their departure the food that is 
 left over.) Further, some farmers wasted their substance on 
 the ambitions of local politics. Again, conscripts who had 
 gone off to the army hatless and wearing straw shoes came 
 home hatted and sometimes booted. Military service de- 
 prived farmers of labour, and their boys while away asked 
 their parents for money. Conscription pressed more heavily 
 on the poor because the sons of well-to-do people continued 
 their education to the middle school, and attendance at a 
 middle school entitled a young man to reduction of military 
 service to one year only.' 
 
 The countryside was suffering from the way in which 
 
 importance was increasingly attached to industry and 
 
 commerce. Many M.P.s were of the agricultural class, 
 
 but they were chiefly landlords, and they were often share- 
 
 1 See Appendix LXIII. 
 
SCHOOLGIRLS' TABLETS 285 
 
 holders and directors of industrial companies. There was 
 very little real Parliamentary representation of the farming 
 class and it had not yet found literary expression. There 
 were signs, however, that some landlords were realising 
 that industry and agriculture were not of equal importance. 
 But the farmers were slow to move. The traditions of the 
 Tokugawa epoch survived, making action difficult. Finally, 
 there was the drawback to rural development which exists 
 in the family system. But that, as Mr. Pickwick said, 
 comprises by itself a difficult study of no inconsiderable 
 magnitude, and we must return to it on another occasion. 
 
 In one of my excursions I went over a large agricultural 
 school, the boast of which was that of all the youths who had 
 passed through it, twenty only had deserted the land. I 
 met the present scholars marching with military tread, 
 mattocks on shoulders, to the school paddies. 
 
 I noticed schoolgirls wearing a wooden tablet. It was a 
 good-conduct badge. If a girl was not wearing it on reaching 
 home her parents knew that her teacher had retained it 
 because of some fault ; if she was not wearing it at school 
 her teacher knew that her parents had kept it back for a 
 similar reason. The girls when they come to school have 
 often baby brothers or sisters tied on their backs. Other- 
 wise the girls would have to stay at home in order to look 
 after them. I asked a schoolmaster what happened when 
 children were kept at home. He said that when a child 
 had been absent a week he called twice on the parents in 
 order to remonstrate. If there was no result he reported 
 the matter to the village authorities, who administered two 
 warnings. Failing the return of the truant a report was 
 made by the village authorities to the county authorities. 
 They summoned the father to appear before them. This 
 meant loss of time and the cost of the journey. Should the 
 parent choose to continue defiant he was fined 5 to 10 yen 
 for disobedience to authority and up to 30 yen for not 
 sending his child to school. 
 
 I found that a local philanthropic association had provided 
 the speaker's school with a supply of large oil-paper-covered 
 umbrellas so that children who had come unprovided could 
 go home on a rainy day without a parent, elder brother 
 
286 PROGRESS OF SORTS 
 
 or sister having to leave work to bring an umbrella to 
 school. 
 
 In the playground of this school there was a low platform 
 before which the children assembled every morning. The 
 headmaster, standing on the platform, gravely saluted the 
 children and the children as gravely responded. The 
 scholars also bowed in the direction of Tokyo, in the centre 
 of which is the Emperor's palace. An inscription hanging 
 in the school was, " Exert yom:self to kill harmful insects." 
 In another school there was a portrait of a former teacher 
 who had covered the walls of the school with water-colours 
 of local scenery. I noticed in the playground of a third 
 school a flower-covered cairn and an inscribed slab to the 
 memory of a deceased master. Every school possesses 
 equipment taken from the enemy during the Russo- 
 Japanese war, usually a shell, a rifle and bayonet and an 
 entrenching spade. 
 
 In this prefecture I heard of young men's associations' 
 efforts to discourage " cheek binding," which is the wearing 
 of the head towel in such a way as to disguise the face and 
 so enable the cheek binder to do, if he be so minded, things 
 he might not do if he were recognisable. 
 
 One day I made my headquarters in a town that had just 
 been rebuilt after a fire. Within four hours the blaze aided 
 by a strong wind had consumed 1,700 houses and caused 
 the deaths of nine persons. The destruction of so many 
 dwellings is wrought by bits of paper or thatch, or the hght 
 pieces of wood from the shoji, which are carried aflame by 
 the wind, setting fire to several houses simultaneously. 
 
 Beside street gutters I came across little stone jizo, the 
 cheerful-looking guardian deities of the children playing 
 near ; but they looked as incongruous in the position they 
 occupied as did a small shrine which was standing in the 
 shadow of a gasometer. 
 
 I heard of contracts under which girls served as nurse 
 girls in private families. A poor farmer may enter into a 
 contract when his girl is five for her to go into service at 
 eight. He receives cash in anticipation of the fulfilment of 
 the contract. 
 
 I was assured by a man competent to speak on the matter 
 
A "SLAVE SYSTEM" 287 
 
 that a certain small town was notorious for receiving boys 
 who had been stolen as small children from their homes in 
 the hills. Up to 30 yen might be given for a boy. There 
 might be a dozen of such unfortunates in the place. Happily 
 many of the children obtained by this " slave system," as 
 my informant called it, ran away as soon as they were old 
 enough to realise how they had been treated. 
 
 I visited a well-known rural reformer in the village which 
 he and his father had improved under the precepts of 
 Ninomiya. The hillside had been covered with tea, 
 orange trees and mulberry ; the community had not only 
 got out of debt but had come to own land beyond its 
 boundaries ; gambling, drunkenness and immorality, it 
 was averred, had " disappeared " ; there were larger and 
 better crops ; and " the habit of enjoying nature " had 
 increased. The amusements of the village were wrestling, 
 fencing, jujitsu and the festivals. 
 
 I heard here a story of how a bridge which was often 
 injured by storms was as often mysteriously repaired. On 
 a watch being kept it was found that the good work was 
 done by a villager who had been scrupulous to keep 
 secret his labours for the public welfare. Another tale 
 was of a poor man who bought an elaborate shrine and 
 brought it to his humble dwelling. On his neighbours 
 suggesting that a finer house were a fitter resting-place for 
 such a shrine, the man rephed : " I do not think so. My 
 shrine is the place of my parents and ancestors, and may 
 be fine. But the place in which the shrine stands is my 
 place ; it need not be fine." 
 
 In travelling the roads notices are often seen on official- 
 looking boards with pent roofs. But all of these notices 
 are not official ; one I copied was the advertisement of a 
 shrine which declared itself to be unrivalled for tooth- 
 ache. The horses on the roads are sometimes protected 
 from the sun by a kind of oblong sail, which works on a 
 swivel attached to the harness. Black velvety butterflies 
 as big as wrens flit about. (There are twice as many 
 butterflies and moths in Japan as at home). Snakes, 
 ordinarily of harmless varieties, are frequently seen, dead 
 or alive. 
 
288 PROGRESS OF SORTS 
 
 Many of the people one passes are smoking, usually the 
 little brass pipe used both by men and women, which, 
 like some of the earliest English pipes, does not hold more 
 tobacco than will provide a few draws. The pipe is usually 
 charged twice or thrice in succession. One notices an 
 immense amount of cigarette smoking, which cannot be 
 without ill effect. There is a law forbidding smoking below 
 the age of twenty. It is not always enforced, but when 
 enforced there is a confiscation of smoking materials and a 
 fining of the parents. The voices of many middle-aged 
 women and some young ones are raucous owing to excessive 
 smoking of pipes or cigarettes. 
 
 I looked into a school and saw the wall inscription, 
 " Penmanship is like pulling a cart uphill. There must be 
 no haste and no stopping." Here, as in so many places, I 
 saw the well-worn cover and much-thumbed pages of Self 
 Help. I may add a fact which would be in its place in a 
 new edition of Smiles' s Character. As a simple opening 
 to conversation I often asked if a man had been in Europe 
 or America. His answer, if he had not travelled, was never 
 " No." It was always " Not yet." 
 
 In these country schools most of the songs are set to 
 Western tunes. Such airs as " Ye Banks and Braes," 
 " Auld Lang Syne," " Annie Laurie," " Home, Sweet 
 Home " and " The Last Rose of Summer " are utilised for 
 the songs not only of school children but of university 
 students. Few of the singers have any notion that the 
 music was not written in their own land. A Japanese 
 friend told me that all the airs I mentioned " seem tender 
 and touching to us," and I remember a Japanese agricul- 
 tural expert saying, " Reading those poems of Burns, I 
 believe firmly that our hearts can vibrate with yours." 
 
 As I have denied myself the pleasure of dwelling on Jap- 
 anese scenic beauties, I may not pause to bear witness to the 
 faery delights of cherry blossom which I enjoyed everywhere 
 during this journey. But I may record two cherry-blossom 
 poems I gathered by the way. The first is, " Why do you 
 Wear such a long sword, you who have come only to see the 
 cherry blossoms ? " The second is, " Why fasten your 
 horse to the cherry tree which is in full bloom, when the 
 
LADYBIRDS AND PEARS 289 
 
 petals would fall off if the horse reared ? " A Japanese 
 once told me that a foreigner had greatly surprised him by 
 asking if the cherry trees bore much fruit. 
 
 Orange as well as tea culture is a feature of the agricul- 
 tural life of the prefecture. As in California and South 
 Africa, ladybirds have been reared in large numbers in order 
 to destroy scale. I saw at the experiment station miserable 
 orange trees encaged for producing scale for the breeding 
 ladybirds. The insects are distributed from the station 
 chiefly as larvae. They are sent through the post about a 
 hundred at a time in boxes. The ladybird, which has, I 
 believe, eight generations a year, and as an adult lives some 
 twenty days, lays from 200 to 250 eggs, 150 of the larvae 
 from which may survive. Alas for the released ladybirds 
 of Shidzuoka ! Scale is said to be disappearing so quickly 
 that they are having but a hard life of it. 
 
 In the neighbouring prefecture of Kanagawa I paid a 
 visit to a gentleman who, with his brother, had devoted 
 himself extensively to fruit and flower growing. Their 
 produce was sent the twenty-six hours' journey by road to 
 Tokyo, where four shops were maintained. A considerable 
 quantity of foreign pears had been produced on the palmette 
 verrier system. The branches of the extensively grown 
 native pear are everywhere tied to an overhead framework 
 which completely covers in the land on which the trees 
 stand. This method was adopted in order to cope with 
 high winds and at the same time to arrest growth, for in the 
 damp soil in which Japanese pears are rooted, the branches 
 would be too sappy. Foreign pears are not more generally 
 cultivated because they come to the market in competition 
 with oranges, and the Japanese have not yet learnt to 
 buy ripe pears. The native pear looks rather like an 
 enormous russet apple but it is as hard as a turnip, and, 
 though it is refreshing because of its wateriness, has little 
 flavour. Progress is being made with peaches and apricots. 
 Figs are common but inferior. A fine native fruit, when 
 well grown, is the biwa or loquat. And homage must be 
 paid to the best persimmons, which yield place only to 
 oranges and tangerines.' In the north the apples are good, 
 1 See Appendix LV. 
 
290 PROGRESS OF SORTS 
 
 but most orchards are badly in need of spraying. Experi- 
 ments have been made with dates. Flowers have a weaker 
 scent than in Europe. A rose called the " thousands " — 
 a ri is two and a half miles — has only a slight perfume two 
 and a half inches away, and then only when pulled. I met 
 with no heather — it is to be seen in Saghalien, which has 
 several things in common with Scotland — but found masses 
 of sweet-scented thyme. 
 
 One of the horticulturists to whom I have referred was 
 something of an Alpinist and was married to a Swiss lady. 
 They had several children. I also met an American lady 
 who had had great experience of fruit growing in California, 
 had married a Japanese farmer there, and had come to live 
 with him in a remote part of his native country. From such 
 alliances as these there may come some day a woman's 
 impressions of the life and work of women and girls on the 
 farms and in the factories of rural Japan. Many a visitor 
 to the country districts must have marked the dumbness 
 of the women folk. Women were often present at the 
 conversations I had in country places, but they seldom 
 put in a word. I was received one day at the house of a 
 man who is well known as a rural philanthropist — he has 
 indeed written two or three brochures on the problems of 
 the country districts — but when he, my friend and I sat at 
 table his wife was on her knees facing us two rooms off. 
 Every instructed person knows that there is a beautiful 
 side to the self-suppression of the Japanese woman — many 
 moving stories might be told — and that the "subservience " 
 is more apparent than real. But there is certainly un- 
 merited suffering. The men and women of the Far East 
 seem to be gentler and simpler, however, than the vehement 
 and demonstrative folk of the West, and conditions which 
 appear to the foreign observer to be unjust and unbearable 
 cannot be easily and accurately interpreted in Western 
 terms. At present many women who are conscious of the 
 situation of their sex see no means of improvement by their 
 own efforts. But the development of the women's move- 
 ment is proceeding in some directions at a surprising pace. 
 Many young men are sincerely desirous to do their part in 
 bringing about greater freedom. They realise what is un- 
 
POST-GRADUATE FOREIGN TRAVEL 291 
 
 doubtedly true that not a few things which urgently need 
 changing in Japan must be changed by men and women 
 working together. 
 
 Money has always been forthcoming, officially, semi- 
 officially and privately, for sending to America and Europe 
 numbers of intelligent young men and women. So dis- 
 ciphned and studious are most of these young people that 
 their country has had back with interest every yen of the 
 funds so wisely provided. We have much to learn from 
 Japanese methods in this matter of well-considered post- 
 graduate foreign travel.' 
 
 ' See Appendix LVI. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 green tea and black 
 (shidzuoka) 
 
 Things I would know but am forbid 
 By time and briefness. 
 
 Laubenoe Binyon 
 
 MoRE than half of the tea grown in Japan comes from the 
 hilly coast-wise prefecture of Shidzuoka through which 
 every traveller passes on his journey from Kobe or Kyoto 
 to Tokyo. He sees a terraced cultivation of tea and fruit 
 carried up to the skyline. But there is more tea on the 
 hills than the passenger in the train imagines. When viewed 
 from below much of the tea looks like scrub. In various 
 parts of southern Japan patches of tea may be noticed 
 growing on little islands in the paddies, but tea is a hill 
 plant and it is on the sides of hills and on the plateaus at 
 the top of them that the plantations are to be found. 
 
 Tea looks not unlike privet and grows or is made to grow 
 like box to a height which can be conveniently picked over. 
 The rows of neat-looking plants are half a dozen feet apart. 
 The first picking may take place when the bush is three or 
 four years old. Bushes may last forty, fifty or even a hun- 
 dred years, but the ordinary life of tea is between twenty 
 and thirty. A bush is usually cut back every ten years or 
 so. A good deal depends on the pruning. After each 
 picking the bushes are cut over with the shears just as we 
 trim box. These trimmings may be used to make an 
 inferior tea for farmhouse consumption, or they may be 
 utilised in the manufacture of caffeine or theine — the two 
 products are indistinguishable. Usually the bushes are 
 cut round-topped, but occasionally they are roof-shaped 
 and sometimes they are like giant green toadstools. 
 
 292 
 
TO "PICK UP WIVES" 298 
 
 The characteristic feature of a tea district beyond the 
 rows of tea bushes is the chimney piping of the farmhouses 
 which manufacture their own tea. (The word manufacture 
 is used in the original sense, for farmhouse tea is hand-made.) 
 In a country where the houses are chimneyless these 
 galvanised iron chimneys are conspicuous. 
 
 The picking of the tea seems to be done almost entirely 
 by women and children. The pickers are supposed to take 
 only the three leaves at the tips. But the pickers mostly 
 take bigger pieces, for the somewhat higher price given for 
 good picking is not enough to secure three-leaf stuff only. 
 It is not absolutely necessary, however, that the leaves 
 gathered should be all of such a choice sort. 
 
 Women and girls come from a distance to pick tea. 
 Picking is regarded as " polite labour by the daughters of 
 the higher middle class of farmers." It has also the 
 attraction that farmers' sons have a way of visiting tea 
 gardens in order to " pick up wives." The girls certainly 
 give would-be husbands every chance of seeing what they 
 can do, for they are at work for a long day, often of from 
 twelve to fourteen hours. In such a day it is possible, I was 
 told, to pick 50, 80 or even 100 lbs. of leaves. One man put 
 the rate as from 50 to 120 pieces a minute. Four pounds 
 of leaves make a pound of tea. 
 
 In one district the first picking may take place during 
 the first three weeks of May. In colder districts it is pro- 
 ceeding until the end of the month. The second season is 
 from the end of June until the beginning of July. The 
 third is in August. The bushes, after producing their 
 three crops of leaves, bear in November their seeds, which 
 are about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and are 
 worth about a sen a pound. Oil is pressed from 
 them. 
 
 Good tea depends on climate and soil, careful cutting 
 over and good manuring. In some places I saw soya bean 
 being grown between the rows as green manuring. Like 
 so many other crops, tea is or ought to be sprayed. The 
 northern limit of tea is Niigata, where the bushes must be 
 protected from the snow, which may fall in that prefecture 
 to a great depth. The region in which tea cannot be 
 
294 GREEN TEA AND BLACK 
 
 grown is that in which the temperature falls below zero 
 for two months. 
 
 Tea is not grown, as in India and Ceylon, by tea planters, 
 but in small areas and as a side-Une at that. I never saw 
 a plantation of more than five acres. Most areas are much 
 smaller. The chief reason for this is that tea is largely 
 manufactured on the day on which it is picked and the 
 capacity of a farmer's tea manufacturing equipment is 
 limited. In Shidzuoka nearly a quarter of the tea is hand 
 rolled and three-quarters made by machinery. Elsewhere 
 in Japan half the crop may be hand rolled. 
 
 When leaves are sold to factors the transactions take 
 place in booths opened by them in the tea districts. It is a 
 busy scene in the region of the cottage factories. One is 
 on a wide p^^teau covered almost entirely with rows of tea 
 plants. Here and there are parties of chattering pickers, 
 their heads protected by the national towel. Against the 
 blue hilltops on the horizon stand out the cottages of 
 the farmers with chimney-pipes smoking, the booths of the 
 dealers, and, in every patch of tea, the thatched roof 
 over the precious sunken pot of liquid manure by which the 
 tea bushes have so often benefited. On the road one passes 
 women with baskets on their backs, like Scotch fish-wives 
 with their creels, men carrying two baskets suspended from 
 a pole across one shoulder, or a man and his wife hauling a 
 barrow, all heavy-laden with newly picked leaves. Small 
 horse-drawn wagons carry the manufactured tea in big, 
 well-tied, pink paper bales. On the whole, although the 
 labour is hard it seemed a better life having to do with 
 the fragrant tea than with the rice of the sludge ponds in 
 the valley below. 
 
 The tea produced in Japan is principally green tea. 
 Most of this is of the kind called sencha — cha means tea. 
 An inferior article made out of older and tougher leaves is 
 called bancha. The custom is for the maid who serves 
 bancha to heat the leaves over the charcoal fire just before 
 infusing. This gives it an agreeable roasted flavour. It 
 is often served in a darker shade of porcelain than is used 
 for ordinary tea. There are also the finer teas, kikicha 
 (powdered tea) and gyoUuro (jewelled dewdrops), which is 
 
BACK FOB DRYING KIOE. p. 77 
 
 TILLAGE CKEMATOHIDM. p. 48 
 
 DOG HELPUrU TO PULL 
 JINBIKISHA 
 
 AUTHOR, ME. YAIIASAKI AND 
 YOUNGEST INHABITANTS, p. 809 
 
 2041 
 
THE POWER OP THE GUILD 295 
 
 the best kind of sencha. Black tea was being made experi- 
 mentally when I first arrived in Japan. Brick tea (pressed 
 to the consistency and weight of wood) may be green or 
 black. Most of the exported tea, other than brick tea, 
 goes to America. 
 
 It is unnecessary to state that the Japanese tea-tray does 
 not include a sugar basin, cream jug or spoons. It does 
 include, however, a sqnat, oval jug into which the hot water 
 from the kettle is poured in order to lower the temperature 
 below boihng point. Boiling water would bring out a bitter 
 flavour from the tea. Made with water just below boiling 
 point the tea is deliciously soft, even oily, and has a flavour 
 and aroma which cream and sugar would ruin. It is cer- 
 tainly refreshing, and, when drunk newly infused, relatively 
 harmless. Bancha is made with hotter water than other 
 tea. The handleless cups hold about half of what our tea- 
 cups contain.' Tea is not the only plant used for making 
 "tea." One drinks in some parts infusions of cherry, 
 plum or peach blossom. 
 
 The processes of tea manufacture in farmers' outhouses 
 and in factories are described in school-books, and I need 
 not transcribe my impressions.' But I may note that 
 some of the money the tea farmer earns for the country is 
 spent in his interests. There is in Shidzuoka a well-directed 
 prefectural experiment station which exercises itself over 
 problems of tea production. Every tea grower and tea 
 dealer in the prefecture must belong to the prefectural tea 
 guild. He must also belong to his county tea guild. The 
 rules of the guilds — ^there is a central guild in Tokyo — have 
 the force of law. Evil doers in the tea industry have their 
 product confiscated. Tea dealers who do not carry their 
 guild membership card are fined. It is not difficult to 
 discover colouring in tea if it is rubbed on white paper. 
 The Government's part in subduing tea colouring was to 
 seize all the dye stuff it could lay hold of which could be 
 used for colouring tea. 
 
 ' At many stations one used to have handed into the carriage for less 
 than a penny a pot of tea and a cup — you are entitled to keep both pot 
 and cup if you like. The tea-seller's kettle of water is kept hot with 
 charcoal. Tea is freshly infused in each customer's pot. 
 
 ' For statistics and theine percentages, see Appendix LVII. 
 21 
 
296 GREEN TEA AND BLACK 
 
 The future of green tea depends almost entirely on the 
 demand from the growing population of Japan, but a taste 
 for the " foreign style " black tea — with condensed milk — 
 is spreading. The cheap labour of India and China and the 
 big plantations and factories of India have diminished the 
 Japanese green tea trade and the effort to produce black 
 tea is also met by foreign competition. I was told that 
 China tea receives much sunshine while growing, and that 
 there was most hope for Japanese black tea when made from 
 leaves grown in the extreme south. There is a difference 
 between the Chinese and the Japanese tea plant and it 
 cannot be got over by importing Chinese plants, for the 
 climate of Japan simply Japanises the imported sort. 
 
 I found in the United States that green tea is bought, as 
 it is no doubt sold in Shidzuoka, on appearance. American 
 housewives were pajdng for an appearance that matters 
 little in an article that is not to be looked at but soaked. 
 Not only is much extra labour required for sifting the leaf 
 several times in order to obtain a good appearance, but the 
 bulk is reduced from 5 to 10 per cent. The drinking quality 
 of the tea also suffers, for the largest leaf has usually the 
 best cup quality. If teas were bought for cup quality only 
 they might be at least from 5 to 10 per cent, cheaper. 
 
EXCURSIONS FROM TOKYO 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 a country doctok and his neighbours 
 (chiba) 
 
 What was yet wanting must be sought by fortuitous and unguided 
 excursions and gleaned as industry should find or chance should o£Eer. — 
 Johnson 
 
 When I first went to Chiba, the peninsular prefecture lying 
 across the bay from Tokyo, many carriages in the trains 
 were heated by iron hibachi ' with pieces of old carpet thrown 
 over them. It is on the Chiba trains that the recruits of 
 that section of the army which has to do with the operation 
 of the railways learn their business. It is in part of Chiba — • 
 and also in a district in Tokyo prefecture — that the earliest 
 rice is grown. Chiba also contains more poultry than any 
 other prefecture." It has the further distinction of having 
 tried to issue truthful crop statistics.' 
 
 Wherever one goes in Japan one is impressed by the 
 large consumption of fish — fresh, dried, and salted. Thin 
 slices of raw fish make one of the tasty dishes at a Japanese 
 meal. The foreigner, forgetting the Western relish for 
 oysters and clams, is repelled by this raw fish, but a liking 
 for it seems to be quickly acquired. In Tokyo the slices 
 of raw fish are cut from the meaty bonito (tunny), but tai 
 (bream) is also used. Bonito also provides the long narrow 
 steaks, dried to a mahogany-like hardness, which are known 
 as katsubushi. This katsubushi keeps indefinitely and is 
 
 ' The Japanese firepot, which is made of wood or porcelain as well as 
 metal, contains pieces of charcoal smouldering in wood ash. 
 
 » I saw poultry of the table breeds which we call Indian Game or Malay ; 
 the Japanese call them Siamese. 
 
 » See Appendix LVIII. 
 
 297 
 
298 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 grated or shaved with a kind of plane and used much as the 
 Western cook employs Parmesan cheese, 
 
 I heard a man in Chiba combating very strongly the idea 
 of there being a connection between leprosy and fish eating. 
 As to leprosy, it is doubtful if the belief expressed by the 
 Chinese name for the disease, " heavenly punishment," 
 has disappeared. There are at least 24,000 lepers in Japan, 
 and as a well-known Japanese work of reference casually 
 remarks, " the hospitals can at present accommodate only 
 5 per cent, of them." 
 
 I could not but compare the undulating countryside, on 
 which so vast an amount of labour had been expended, 
 with what it would have been under European treatment 
 and the influence of an European climate — possibly 
 picturesque pasture with high hedges. The congeries of 
 rice fields was fringed, where the water supply had given 
 out, with upland cultivation. On the low mud walls which 
 separated the paddies beans grew except at a boundary 
 corner, where a tea or mulberry bush served as a landmark. 
 In looking down or up the little valleys one saw how com- 
 pletely the houses had been brushed aside to the foot of the 
 low hills so that no land cultivable as paddies should be 
 wasted. This intensely developed countryside was not 
 however ideal land. It was often much too sandy. Not 
 a few paddies had to depend to some extent on the water 
 they could catch for themselves. A naturally draughty 
 and hungry land was yielding crops by a laborious manurial 
 improvement of its physical and chemical condition, by 
 wonders being wrought in rural hydraulics and by unending 
 industry in cultivation and petty engineering. 
 
 It might be supposed that beauty had gone from the 
 countryside. Some of what the land agents call the 
 amenities of the district had certainly disappeared. There 
 seemed to be nowhere for the pedestrian to sit down in 
 order to refresh himself with those rural sights and sounds 
 which exhilarate the spirit. But this marvellously delved, 
 methodised and trimmed countryside had a character and 
 a stimulus of its own. It reflected the energy and persist- 
 ence that had subdued it. I saw nothing ugly. The tidied 
 rice plots, shaped at every possible curve and angle, and 
 
CARRYING OFF HILLS 299 
 
 eloquent of centuries of unremitting toil ; the upland 
 beyond them, worked to a skilled perfection of finish ; 
 the nesting houses which nowhere offended the eye ; the 
 big still ponds contrived by the rude forefathers of the 
 hamlet for water storage or the succour of the rice in the 
 hottest weather ; the low hilltops green with pine because 
 cultivation could not ascend so far, and hiding here and 
 there a Shinto sanctuary: such a countryside was satis- 
 fying in its own way. 
 
 In Chiba, as in other prefectures, one is impressed by 
 the way in which the exertions of many generations have 
 resulted in the levelling of wide areas and even the com- 
 plete removal of small hills. In many places one can still 
 see low hills in process of demolition. In Tokyo itself 
 several small hills have been carried off in recent years. 
 
 I was in Chiba several times and I remember to have 
 noticed one winter day with what considered roughness 
 the paddies had been dug in order tb receive from frost and 
 sun the benefits which are as good as a manuring. Some 
 notion of the strength of the weather forces at work may be 
 gathered from the fact that, though I was walking without 
 an overcoat and was glad to shade my eyes by pulling down 
 the brim of my hat, the frost of the two previous nights had 
 produced ice on the paddies an inch thick. 
 
 Sometimes at the irrigation reservoirs one may see 
 notice boards announcing that these water areas are 
 stocked with koi (carp). This fish is also kept in the paddies. 
 The carp are put in as yearlings or two-year-olds, when the 
 paddies are flooded, and a score out of every hundred come 
 out in the autumn — assuming the happiest conditions — 
 ten inches or so long. Carp culture flourishes in the seri- 
 culture districts, where the pupae which remain when the 
 cocoons are unwound are thrown to the fish ; but pupse 
 fed carp have a flavour which diminishes their value. 
 Indeed paddy-field fish, which on the whole must have a 
 rather troubled existence, do not bring the price of river 
 carp. Other fish than carp, eels for instance, are also kept 
 in paddies.' 
 
 1 In 1918 carp was produced to the value of a million and a half yen and 
 eels to the value of nearly a million. 
 
300 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I visited a vigorous personality who was at once a land- 
 owner and rural oculist, as his father and grandfather had 
 been before him. He had graduated at Tokyo and had 
 kept himself abreast of German specialist literature. There 
 was accommodation for about a hundred patients in the 
 buildings attached to his house. He believed in the 
 efficacy in eye cases of " the air of the rice fields," not to 
 speak of the shrine which overlooks the patients' quarters. 
 As the number of blind people in Japan is appalling,' it 
 was interesting to hear the opinion that the chief causes 
 were gonorrhoea, inadequate attention at birth, insufficient 
 nourishment in childhood and nervous disease — all more 
 or less preventible. Nearly a quarter of my host's patients 
 had had their eyes wounded by rice-stem points while stoop- 
 ing in the paddies. As the people are hurt in the busy 
 season they often put off coming for help until it is too late. 
 
 The landowner-oculist's premises were lighted by natural 
 gas from a depth of 900 ft. According to a fellow-guest, 
 who happened to be an expert in this matter, natural gas 
 is to be had all over Japan.' 
 
 The room in which I slept belonged to a part of the house 
 which was of great age, but by ray futon there was laid an 
 electric torch. 
 
 A pleasant thing during my visit was the presence of a 
 dozen intelligent, kindly students who early in the evening 
 came and knelt in a semicircle round us, "in order to 
 profit by our talk." One of them, a son of the house, an 
 athlete (and now, after travelling in Europe, his father's 
 successor), did all sorts of services for me during my stay, 
 in the simple-hearted fashion that shows such an attractive 
 side of the Japanese character. One question asked by the 
 students was, " For what reasons does Sensei believe that 
 the influence of women in public life would be good ? " 
 Another enquiry was, " Which are the best London and 
 Paris papers ? " These lads could hardly hope to get 
 through the university before they were twenty-five or 
 twenty-six. Yet, compared with our undergraduates, 
 they had very little time for general reading, discussions 
 
 1 See Appendix LIX. ' See Appendix LX. 
 
THE STUDENTS' BURDEN 301 
 
 and outdoor sports. I remember a man of some experience 
 in the educational world saying to me, " Our students do 
 not read enough apart from their studies ; it is their 
 misfortune." They have not only the burden of having 
 to learn nearly several thousand ideographs,' three scripts 
 and Japanese and Chinese pronunciation. They have to 
 acquire Western languages, which, owing to their absolute 
 dissimilarity from Oriental tongues — for example, the 
 word for "I" is watakushi — must be learnt entirely from 
 memory. It is not that the Japanese student does not 
 begin early as well as leave off late. A professor once said 
 to me, " For some little time after I first went to school I 
 was still fed from the bosom of my mother." In some 
 ways it is no doubt a source of strength for Japan that her 
 men can spend from their earliest years to the age of twenty- 
 six on the acquirement of knowledge and self-discipline' — 
 the privileges of the student class and the generosity of 
 their families and friends and the public at large are re- 
 markable — but the disadvantages are plain. No sight 
 seems stranger to a new arrival in Japan than that of so 
 many men in their middle or late twenties still wearing the 
 conspicuous kimono and German bandsman cap of the 
 student. 
 
 To return to our host, he told us that tenants were 
 " getting clever." They were paying their rent in " worse 
 and worse qualities of rice." The landlords " encouraged " 
 their tenants with gifts of tools, clothes or sake in order that 
 they might bring them the best rice, but the tenants evi- 
 dently thought it paid better to forgo these benefits and 
 market their best rice. This raises the question whether 
 rent ought nowadays to be paid in kind. Rural opinion as 
 a whole is in favour of continuing in the old way, but there 
 is a clear-headed if small section of rural reformers which 
 is for rent being paid in cash. 
 
 One thing I found in my notes of my talk with the 
 
 1 To oite a Tford already used in these pages, there are hajf a dozen worda 
 spelt ko and as many as fourteen spelt ko, but all have a different ideo- 
 graph. When the prolongation of the educational ooiu'se by the ideographs 
 ia dwelt on, it is wholesome for us to remember Professor Gilbert Murray's 
 declaration that "English spelling entails a loss of one year in the child's 
 school time." Other authorities have considered the loss to be much more. 
 
302 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 landowner-oculist I hesitated to transcribe without confir- 
 mation. Speaking of the physique of the people, he had 
 said that few farmers could carry the weights their fathers 
 and grandfathers could move about. But later on a high 
 agricultural authority mentioned to me that it had been 
 found necessary to reduce the weight of a bale of rice from 
 19 to 18 kwamme and then to 15 — 1 kwamme is 8-26 lbs. 
 
 In the oaza in which I was sta3dng there were eighty 
 families. Seventy were tenants. Under a savings arrange- 
 ment initiated by my host, the hamlet, including its five 
 peasant proprietors, was saving 120 yen a month. On the 
 other hand, more than half the tenants were in debt " in 
 connection with family excesses," such as weddings, births 
 and burials. But there might be unknown savings. I 
 should state that the villagers seemed contented enough. 
 
 For some reason or other I was particularly struck by 
 the sturdiness of the small girls. This was interesting 
 because Chiba had for long an evil reputation for infanticide, 
 and under a system of infanticide in the Far East it would 
 be supposed — I have heard this view stoutly questioned — 
 that more girls die than boys. The landowner-ocuhst was 
 of opinion that in stating the causes of the low economic 
 condition of his tenants the abating of infanticide must be 
 put first. People no longer restricted themselves to three 
 of a family. The average area available locally was only 
 6 tan of paddy and 1-2 tan of dry land. In a one-crop dis- 
 trict in which there was work for only a part of the year 
 this area was obviously insufl&cient and there was not 
 enough dry land for mulberries. Then taxation was now 
 2^ yen per bale of rice (hyo). A third of the rice went in 
 rent. 
 
 I tried to find out what the oaza might be spending on 
 religion. The Shinto priest seemed to get 5 sen a month 
 per family, which as there are eighty families would be 
 48 yen yearly. The Buddhist priest had land attached to 
 his temple and money was given him at burials and at the 
 Bon season. The oaza might spend 100 yen a year to send 
 five pilgrims as far away as Yamagata, on the other side of 
 Japan. The priests did not seem to count for much. 
 " Their only concern with the public," I was informed, " is 
 
SAKE FOR ELECTORS 303 
 
 to be succoured by it. They are living very painfully. 
 The Buddhist priests have to send money to their sect at 
 Kyoto." In one of my strolls I passed the Shinto priest 
 carrying a rice basket and looking, as my companion said, 
 " just like any other man." At a shrine I saw a number 
 of bowls hung up. A hole cut in the bottom of each seemed 
 a pathetic symbol of need, material or spiritual. 
 
 The keeper of the teahouse in the oaza had beenjgiven a 
 small sum by our host to take himself off, but in the village 
 of which the oaza formed a part there were two teahouses, 
 where ten times as much was spent as was laid out on 
 religion. No one had ever heard of a case of illegitimacy in 
 the oaza but there had been in the twelve months three 
 cases which pointed to abortion. It was five years since 
 there had been an arrest. The young men's association 
 helped twice a year families whose boys had been con- 
 scripted. 
 
 According to what I was told in various quarters, some 
 landowners in Chiba did a certain amount of public work 
 but most devoted themselves to indoor trivialities. The 
 fact that two banks had recently broken at the next town, 
 one for a quarter of a million yen, and that a landowner had 
 lost a total of 30,000 yen in these smashes, seemed to show 
 that there was a certain amount of money somewhere in 
 the district. No one appeared to " waste time on politics." 
 In ten years " there had been one or two politicians," but 
 " one member of Parliament set a wholesome example by 
 losing a great deal of money in politics ." As to local politics , 
 election to the prefectural assembly seemed to cost about 
 500 yen. Membership of the village assembly might mean 
 " a cup of saki apiece to the electors." 
 
 I was assured that this hamlet was above the economic 
 level of the county. The belief was expressed that it could 
 maintain that position for three or four years. " I do not 
 feel so much anxiety about the present condition of the 
 people," my host said ; " they are passive enough : but as 
 to the future it is a diflicult and almost insoluble question." 
 
 " The condition of our rural life is the most difficult 
 question in Japan," said a fellow guest. 
 
 In one of the farmers' houses a girl, with the assistance 
 
304 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 of a younger brother, was weaving rough matting for bahng 
 up artificial manure. Near them two Minorcas were lajdng 
 in open boxes. In this family there were seven children, 
 " three or four of whom can work." The hired land was 
 8 tan of paddy and 2 J of dry. There was nothing to the 
 good at the end df the year. Indeed rice had had to be 
 borrowed from the landlord. The family was therefore 
 working merely to keep itself alive. But it looked cheerful 
 enough. Looking cheerful is, however, a Japanese habit. 
 The conditions of life here were what many Westerners would 
 consider intolerable. But it was not Westerners but 
 Orientals who were concerned, and what one had to try to 
 guess was how far the conditions were satisfactory to 
 Eastern imaginations and requirements. The people at 
 every house I visited — as it happened to be a holiday the 
 mending of clothing and implements seemed to be in order — 
 were plainly getting enjoyment from the warm sunshine. 
 Undoubtedly the long spells of sunshine in the com- 
 paratively idle period of the year make hard conditions 
 of life more endurable. 
 
 In a very small house which was little more than a shelter, 
 the father and mother of a tenant were living. It is not 
 uncommon for old peasants to build a dwelling for them- 
 selves when they get nearly past work, or sometimes after 
 the eldest son marries. 
 
 I found a 1-cho peasant proprietor playing go and rather 
 the worse for sake, though it was early in the morning. A 
 3-cho proprietor was living in a good-sized house which had a 
 courtyard and an imposing gateway. 
 
 On the thatch of one house I noticed a small straw horse 
 perhaps two feet long. On July 7 such a horse is taken by 
 young people to the hills, where a bale of grass is tied on its 
 back. On the reappearance of the figure at the house, 
 dishes of the ceremonial red rice and of the ordinary food of 
 the family are set before it. " The offering of other than 
 horse food indicates," it was explained, " that the desire is 
 to keep the straw animal as a little deity." Finally the 
 horse is flung on the roof. 
 
 I went some distance to visit an oaza of twenty families. 
 It was described to me as " well off and peaceful." Alas, 
 
"JUMP LAND" 805 
 
 one peasant proprietor had gone to Tokyo, where he had 
 made money, and on his return had built his second son a 
 house with Tokyo labour instead of with the labour of his 
 neighboxtts. So the oaza was " excited with bitter inward 
 animosity." Like our own hamlets, these oaza in the sun- 
 shine, seemingly so peaceful, whisper nothing to townsfolk 
 of their bickerings and feuds. 
 
 One of the thatched mud houses I came to was at once a 
 primitive co-operative sale-and-purchase society and the 
 clubhouse of the old people of the oaza. The rent the old 
 folk received from the society was enough to maintain the 
 building. The oldsters gather from time to time in order 
 to eat, drink and make merry with gossip and dancing. 
 Dancing is a possibility for old people because it is swaying, 
 sliding and attitudinising, with an occasional stamp of the 
 foot, rather than hopping and whirling. One of the best 
 amateur dances I have seen was performed by a grandsire. 
 Such clubhouses, places for the comfort of the ageing 
 and aged, are found in many villages. Young people are 
 not admitted. The subscription to this particular club- 
 house was 2 yen and 3 sho of sak^ on joining and 2 yen a 
 year. 
 
 As we went on our way there was pointed out to me a 
 house the owner of which had sold half a tan of land for 120 
 yen and was drinking steadily. He had tried to make 
 money by opening an open-air village theatre which owing 
 to rain had been a failure. 
 
 I visited an oaza where all the land belonged to the man 
 I called upon. He assured me that most of his tenants 
 " made ends meet." The remainder had a deficiency at 
 the end of the year due to " lack of will to save " and to 
 their " lack of capital which caused them to pay interest 
 to manure dealers." A co-operative society had just been 
 started. 
 
 In looking at a map of the village to which some of these 
 oaza belonged I noticed many holdings tinted a special 
 colour. These were called " jump land." They consisted 
 of land subdued from the wild by strangers. The proper- 
 ties were regarded as belonging to the oaza in which their 
 cultivators lived. 
 
306 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 I walked through a bit of woodland which had formerly 
 been held in common and had been divided up, amid 
 felicitations no doubt, at the rate of half a tan each to every 
 family. But the well-to-do people soon got hold of their 
 poorer neighbours' portions. 
 
 In a roughish tract I came on burial grounds. One 
 portion was set apart for the eight families which recognised 
 the chief landlord as their head. The graves of lowlier folk 
 seemed to occur anywhere. Each grave was covered by a 
 pyramidal mound of sandy earth with a piece of twig stuck 
 in it. Sometimes a tree had been planted and had grown. 
 A child's grave had some tiny bowls of food and a clay doll 
 before a little headstone. By way of shelter for these 
 offerings there was hung on the headstone a peasant's wide 
 straw hat. A large beehive-shaped bamboo basket over 
 another grave was a reminder of the time when a grave 
 needed such protection in order to save the body from wild 
 animals. 
 
 I saw at a distance in the midst of paddies two tree- 
 covered mounds, a large one and a small one. They looked 
 like the grave mounds I had seen in China, but it was 
 suggested that they were probably on an old frontier line 
 and marked spots at which ceremonies for scaring off 
 disease were performed. 
 
 In one place I found the people planting plum trees in 
 order to meet their communal taxation. It was reckoned 
 that the yield of one tree when it came into full bearing 
 would defray the taxes of a moderate-sized family. 
 
 An open space in a wood was pointed out to me as the 
 spot on which dead horses were formerly thrown to the 
 dogs and birds. Nowadays notice was given to the Eta 
 that a dead horse was to be cast away, and they came and, 
 after skinning the animal, buried the body. Farther on, on 
 the high road, I saw an 8 ft. high monument to a local steed 
 that had died in Manchuria. 
 
 One of my further visits to Chiba was in the spring. 
 The paddies, which had been fallow since November, were 
 under water ; but much of the stubble had been turned 
 over with the long-bladed mattock. The seed beds from 
 which the rice is transplanted to the paddies were a vivid 
 
THE PEASANT AND THE PRISONERS 307 
 
 green. On the high ground I saw good clean crops of 
 barley and wheat, beans and peas, on soil of very moderate 
 quality. 
 
 The name of Funabashi at a station reminded me of a 
 Japanese friend having told me that it was " famous for a 
 shrine and a very immoral place." But I afterwards heard 
 that the keeper of that shrine, " acting from conscientious 
 motives, gave up his lucrative post and died a poor man." 
 It is said of one of the most sacred places in Japan that it is 
 also the " most immoral." Kyoto which contains nine 
 hundred shrines is also supposed to harbour several 
 thousand women of bad character. 
 
 I passed a place where 25,000 Russian prisoners had been 
 detained. There was an old peasant there who told his 
 son that he could not understand why so many Japanese 
 went abroad at such great cost to see the different peoples 
 of the world. If they would only stay at home, he said, 
 they would see them all in turn, for first there had been the 
 Chinese prisoners, then the Russians and now there were 
 the Germans. 
 
 In the uplands it was peaceful and restful to walk through 
 the shady lanes between the tree-studded homesteads or 
 along the road passing between plots of mulberry, tea, 
 vegetables or grain, cultivated with the care given to plants 
 in a garden. In the herbage by the roadside, but not 
 among the crops I need hardly say, I noticed dandelions, 
 sow thistles, Scots thistles, plantains and some other 
 familiar weeds. 
 
 In the paddies some men wore only a narrow band of red 
 cotton between their legs joined to a waist string, which, 
 though convenient wear in paddies, was comically con- 
 spicuous. I recall a friend's story of a little foreign girl of 
 seven who stayed with her mother in a Japanese hamlet 
 and struck up a friendship with a kindly old peasant. 
 One hot summer day the child came home carrying all her 
 scanty garments over her arm, and covered with mud to 
 the waist. In answer to her mother's enquiries the child 
 said, " Well, mother, Ito San has all his clothes oft, and I 
 could not go into the paddy to help him with mine on." 
 
 I visited an elementary school which was little more than 
 
308 A COUNTRY DOCTOR AND HIS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 a shed. The roofing was of bark and the paper-covered 
 window shutters were of the roughest. It said much for 
 the stamina of the children that they could sit there in bleak 
 weather. An attempt had been made to shut off the classes 
 from one another by pieces of thin cotton sheeting fastened 
 to a string. But such essential furnitm-e, ffom a hygienic 
 point of view, as benches with backs had been provided, 
 for it is considered by the national educational authorities 
 that kneeling in the Japanese manner is inimical to physical 
 development. I noticed, also, that when the children sang 
 they had been taught to place their hands on their hips in 
 order that their chests might benefit from the vocal exercise. 
 The earnestness and kindliness of the men and women 
 teachers were evident. All the teachers came to school 
 bare-foot on geta.^ 
 
 The sea was not far off and we went to the beach where 
 there was nothing between us and America. My com- 
 panion and I were carried over shallows on the backs of 
 fishermen, wonderful bronze-coloured figures. Above 
 high-water mark heaps of small fish were drying. They 
 were to be turned into oil and fish- waste manure. I saw an 
 earthenware vase with a hole in the bottom like a flowerpot 
 and found that it was used, with a rope attached to the rim, 
 for catching octopus. When the octopus comes across 
 such a vase on the sea bottom he regards it as a shelter 
 constructed on exactly the right principles and takes up 
 his abode therein. He is easily captured, for he refuses 
 to let go his vase when it is brought to the surface. In- 
 deed the only way to dislodge him is to pour hot water 
 through the hole in the bottom of his upturned tenement. 
 
 ' For statistics of stamina, heights and weights of children, see Appendix 
 LXI. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 THE HUSBANDMAN, THE WRESTLER AND THE CARPENTER 
 
 (SAITAMA, GUMMA AND TOKYO) 
 
 We are here to search the wounda of the realm, not to skim them 
 over. — ^Bacon 
 
 One day in the third week of October when the roads were 
 sprinkled with fallen leaves I made an excursion into the 
 Kwanto plain and passed from the prefecture of Tokyo into 
 that of Saitama.' The weather now made it necessary for 
 Japanese to wear double kimonos. During the middle of 
 the day, however, I was glad to walk with my jacket over 
 my arm, and many little boys and girls were running about 
 naked. The region visited had a naturally well-drained 
 dark soil, composed of river silt, of volcanic dust and of 
 humus from buried vegetation, and it went down to a depth 
 beyond the need of the longest daikon (giant radish). 
 Sweet potatoes and taro were still on the ground, and large 
 areas, worked to a perfect tilth, had been sown or were in 
 course of preparation for winter wheat and barley ; but 
 the most conspicuous crop was daikon. There were miles 
 and miles of it at all sorts of stages from newly trans- 
 planted rows to roots ready for pulling. There is daikon 
 production up to the value of about a million yen. In 
 addition to the roots sent into Tokyo, there is a large export 
 trade in daikon salted in casks. 
 
 I came into a district where there was a system of 
 alternate grain and wood crops. The rotation was barley 
 and wheat for three or four years, then fuel wood for about 
 fifteen. The tendency was to lengthen the corn period in 
 the rotation. 
 
 1 The Kwanto plain (73 by 96 miles) includes moat of Tokyo and 
 Saitama prefecture, and also the larger part of Kanagawa and Chiba and 
 parts of Ibaraki, Gumma and Toohigi. 
 
 309 
 
310 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 The women even as near Tokyo as this wore blue cotton 
 trousers like the men. One farm-house I entered was a cen- 
 tury old but it had not been more than forty years on its 
 present site. It had been transported three miles. I was 
 once more impressed by the low standard of living. If by 
 this time I had not been getting to know something of the 
 ways of the farmers I should have found it difficult to 
 credit the fact that a household I visited was worth ten 
 thousand yen. 
 
 Sweet potatoes are here much the most important crop. 
 They were bringing the farmer in Tokyo a little over a 
 yen the 82 lbs. bale. The consumer was paying double 
 that. Not a few of the farmers were cultivating as much 
 as 5 cho or even 8 did, for there was little paddy. Even 
 then, I was told, " it's a very hard life for a third of the 
 farmers." The reason was that there was no remunerative 
 winter employment. 
 
 Before the Buddhist temple, where there was preaching 
 twice a year, were rows of little stone figures, many of which 
 had lost their heads. The heads were in much demand 
 among gamblers who value them as mascots. Among 
 some mulberry plots belonging to different owners I saw a 
 little wooden shrine, evidently for the general good. It was 
 there, it was explained, " not because of belief but of 
 custom." The evening was drawing in and Fuji showed 
 itself blue and mystical above the dark greenery of the 
 country. As I gazed a ^weet-sounding gong was struck 
 thrice in the temple. Three times a day there is heard this 
 summons to other thoughts than those of the common task. 
 
 My companion entered into conversation with a decent 
 middle-aged pedestrian, neatly but poorly dressed, and 
 found that he was a man who had formerly pulled his 
 kuruma in Tokyo. The man had found the work of a 
 kurumaya too much for him and had withdrawn to his 
 village to open a tiny shop. But he had been taken ill and 
 had been removed to hospital. When he came out he found 
 that his wife was in poverty and that his eldest son had been 
 summoned to serve in the army. Now his wife had be- 
 come ill and he was on his way to a distant relative to ask 
 him to take charge of a small child and to help him with a 
 
A WAYSIDE MONTrMENT. p. 39 
 
 THE GIANT EADISH OR i" DAIKON,"j WHICH IS USED AS A PIOKLE. p. 
 
 [311 
 
SECRET PLOUGHING 311 
 
 little money to start some petty business. My companion 
 gave him a yen and deplored the fact that poor people 
 should fail to take advantage of the law releasing from 
 service a son required for the support of a parent. They 
 failed occasionally to find friends to represent their case 
 to the authorities. 
 
 While waiting at the station we talked with another old 
 man. He had come to see his daughter whose husband had 
 been called up for two years' service. She was living of 
 course with her parents-in-law. He said that his daughter 
 would have no difficulty in keeping the farm going during 
 the young man's absence, but his being away was " a 
 great loss." 
 
 The old man, who squatted at our feet as he spoke, went 
 on to tell us about a young man of his village who had served 
 his term in the navy but thought of remaining for another 
 term. " Gran'fer " thought it a good opening for him ; he 
 would not only get his living and clothes but — and this is 
 characteristic — " see the world and send back interesting 
 letters." The ancient was specially interested in the sailor, 
 he said, because his wife had " given milk " to the ad- 
 venturer when an infant. 
 
 It is difficult to enter a village which has not its pillar 
 or its slab to the memory of a youth or youths who 
 perished in the Russian or Chinese wars.' But in the 
 severe struggle with Russia the villages did more than 
 give their sons and build memorials to them when they 
 were killed. They tried, in the words of an official circular 
 of that time, " to preserve the spirit of independence 
 in the hearts of the relieved and to avoid the abuses 
 of giving out ready money." There was the secret 
 ploughing society of the young men of a village in Gumma 
 prefecture. " Either at night or when nobody knew these 
 young men went out and ploughed for those who were at 
 the front." In one prefecture the school children helped 
 in working soldiers' farms. In villages in Osaka and Hyogo 
 prefectures there was given to soldiers' families the mon- 
 opoly of selling tofu, matches and other articles. Some of 
 
 ' The characters on these slabs are beautifully written. They have 
 usually been penned by distinguished men. 
 22 
 
312 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 the societies which laboured in war time were the Women's 
 One Heart Society, the Women's Chivabous Society, the 
 National Backing Society and the Nursing Place of Young 
 Children of those Serving at the Front. 
 
 In the train we talked of the hardiness induced by not 
 being the slave of clothing. When it rains kuruma men and 
 workmen habitually roll up their kimonos round their 
 loins, or if they are wearing trousers, take them off.' Of 
 course no Japanese believes in catching cold through 
 getting his feet wet. This is a condition which is continu- 
 ally experienced, for the cotton tabi are wet through at 
 every shower. Some years back it was not uncommon in 
 walking along the sea-beach at night to find fishermen sleep- 
 ing out on the sand. An old man told me that it used to be 
 the custom in his sea-shore hamlet for all members of a 
 family to sleep on the beach except fathers, mothers and 
 infants. 
 
 On my return from the country I found myself in a com- 
 pany of earnest rural reformers who were discussing a plan 
 of State colonisation for the inhabitants of some villages 
 where everything had been lost in a volcanic eruption. 
 Families had been given a tract of forest land, 15 yen for a 
 cottage, 45 yen for tools and implements and the cost of 
 food for ten months (reckoned at 8 sen per adult and 7 sen 
 per child per day). During the evening I was shown the 
 figure of a goddess of farming venerated by the afflicted 
 folk. The deity was represented standing on bales of rice, 
 with a bowl of rice in her left hand and a big serving spoon 
 in her right. 
 
 The gathering discussed the question of rural morality. 
 As to the relations of the young men and women of the 
 villages, to which there has necessarily been frequent 
 references in these pages, the reader must always bear in 
 mind the way in which the sexes are normally kept apart 
 under the influence of tradition. In nothing does this 
 Japanese countryside differ more noticeably from our own 
 than in the fact that joyous young couples are never seen 
 
 1 The Japanese man wears below his kimono or trousers a pair of bathing 
 shorts. Feasants frequently wear in the fields nothing but a little cotton 
 bag and string. 
 
UNKISSED— AND KIND 318 
 
 arming each other along the road of an evening. Thous- 
 ands of allusions in our rural songs and poetry, innumerable 
 scenes in our genre pictures, speak of blissful hours of 
 which Japan gives no sign. There is no courting; there are in 
 the public view no ' ' random fits of daffin' .' ' An unmarried 
 young man and young woman do not walk and talk to- 
 gether. A young man and woman who were together of an 
 evening would be suspected of immorality. Even when 
 married they would not think of linking arms on the road. 
 I was a beholder of a family reunion at a railway station in 
 which a young wife met her young husband returned from 
 abroad. There were merely repeated bows and many 
 smiles. The view taken of kissing in Japan is shown by the 
 fact that an issue of a Tokyo periodical was prohibited by 
 the police because it contained an allusion to it. We are 
 helped to understand the Japanese standpoint a little if 
 we remember how repugnant to English and American 
 ideas is the Continental custom of men kissing one another. 
 Kissing is understood by the Japanese to be a sexual act, as 
 is shown by their word for it. 
 
 Early in November in the neighbourhood of Tokyo, 
 where three crops are taken in the year and sometimes four 
 or five, I found between the rows of growing winter barley 
 two Unes of green stuff which would be cleared oft as the 
 barley rose. The barley was sown in clumps of two dozen 
 or even thirty plants, each clump being about a foot apart, 
 and liberally treated with liquid manure. In Saitama 100 
 bushels per acre has been produced by a good farmer. 
 The clump method of sowing is believed to afford greater 
 protection against the weather. (Outside the volcanic- 
 soil area ordinary sowing in rows is common.) The volcanic 
 soil, as one sees in spots where excavations have been made, 
 is originally light yellow. The humus introduced by the 
 liberal applications of manure has made it black. 
 
 I came upon a hollow in some low hills, studded with 
 trees and overlooking Tokyo Bay, which had been secured 
 for the building of an elaborate series of temples at a cost 
 of three million yen. Acres of grounds were being laid out 
 with genius. The buildings were of that beautiful sim- 
 plicity which marks the edifices of the Zen sect. The con- 
 
314 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 struction was in the hands of some of the cleverest master 
 craftsmen in Japan. The wotk was to be spread over four 
 years. A great hoarding displayed thousands of wooden 
 tablets bearing the names and the amounts of the sub- 
 scriptions of the faithful. In one of the completed temples 
 a kindly priest was preaching. He added to the force of 
 his gestures by the use of a fan. He was being attentively 
 listened to by an intelligent-looking congregation. I 
 caught the injunction that in the attainment of goodness 
 aspiration was little worth without will. 
 
 The method of announcing subscriptions on hoardings 
 was also adopted outside the new primary school near by. 
 The subscriptions were from a hundred yen to one yen. 
 The charge to scholars at this school, I found, was 10 sen 
 per month during the first compulsory six years and 30 
 sen during the next two years. 
 
 Just after Christmas I walked again into the country. 
 There were miles of dreary brown paddies with the stubble 
 in puddles. On the non-paddy land there was the refresh- 
 ing green of young corn which seemed greatly to enjoy 
 being treated as a garden plant in a deep exquisitely 
 worked soil with never a weed in an acre. But children 
 were kept from school because their parents could not get 
 along without their help. Many of the school teachers 
 seemed as poor as the farmers. As I passed the farm-houses 
 in the evening they seemed bleak and uninviting. In the 
 fire hole ' of every house, however, there was a generous 
 blaze and the bath tub out-of-doors was steaming for the 
 customary evening hot dip in the opening. 
 
 In my host's house I noticed an old painting of a forked 
 daikon. Such malformed roots used to be presented to 
 shrines by women desirous of having children. 
 
 In the office of one village I visited I was permitted to 
 examine the dossiers of some of the inhabitants. Among 
 a host of other particulars about a certain person's origin 
 and condition I read that he was a minor when his father 
 died, that such and such a person acted as his guardian, 
 that the guardianship ended on such and such a date, and 
 
 1 Poor households ordinarily use, instead of movable hibachi, a big 
 square box in an opening in the floor and resting on the earth. 
 
"REST AFTER A MEAL EVEN—" 315 
 
 that his widowed mother had a child nine years after her 
 husband's death. 
 
 In not a few places I found that the tiny shrines of 
 hamlets (aza) had been taken away and grouped together 
 at a communal shrine with the notion of promoting local 
 solidarity. At one such combination of shrines I saw notice 
 boatds intimating that "tramps, pedlars, wandering priests 
 and other carriers of subscription lists and proselytisers " 
 were not received in the village. It was explained that a 
 community was sometimes all of one faith : " therefore it 
 does not want to be disturbed by tactless preachers of 
 other beliefs." 
 
 At an inn there was a middle-aged widow who served 
 there as waitress in the summer but in the winter returned 
 to Tokyo, where she employed a number of girls in making 
 haori tassels. (She gave them board and lodging and 
 clothes for two years, and, after that period, wages.') 
 Remembering what I had written down about courting, I 
 asked for her mature judgment on our rural custom of 
 " walking out." She was amused, but, in that way the 
 Japanese have of trying to look at a Western custom on 
 its merits, she said, after consideration, that there was 
 much to be said for the plan. " In Japan," she declared, 
 " you cannot know a husband's character until you are 
 married. On the whole, I wish I had been a man." In 
 order to catch our train we had to leave this inn the moment 
 our meal was finished, although the widow quoted to us the 
 adage, " Rest after a meal even if your parents are dead." 
 
 On a morning in May I went into the country to visit a 
 friend who was taking a holiday in a ramshackle inn 
 4,000 ft. up Mount Akagi. I continually heard the note of 
 the kakko (cuckoo). On the higher parts of the mountain 
 there were azaleas at every yard, some quite small but others 
 12 or even 15 ft. high. Many had been grazed by cattle. 
 Big cryptomeria were plentiful part of the way up, but at 
 the top there were no trees but diminutive oaks, birches 
 
 1 When I was in Tokyo, tradesmen's messenger boys received only their 
 food, lodging and clothing and an occasional present, with help no doubt 
 in starting a linked business when they were out of their time. Now such 
 youths, as a development of the labour movement, are on a wage basis 
 and receive 20 yen a month. 
 
316 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 and pines, stunted and lichen covered, the topmost branches 
 broken oft by the terrific blasts which from time to time 
 sweep along the top of the extinct volcano. 
 
 One of the products of rural Japan is the wrestler. Sumo, 
 which is going on in every school and college of the country, 
 exhibits its perfect flower twice a year in the January and 
 May ten-days-long tournaments in the capital. The 
 immense rotunda of the wrestlers' association suggests a 
 rather rickety Albert Hall and holds 13,000 people.' On 
 the day I went in I paid 2 yen and had only standing room. 
 Everybody knows the more than Herculean proportions of 
 the wrestlers in comparison with the rest of their country- 
 men. The rigorous training. Gargantuan feeding and 
 somewhat severe discipline of the wrestlers enable them to 
 grow beyond the average stature and to a girth, protected 
 by enormously developed abdominal muscles, which rein- 
 forces strength with great weight.' 
 
 I had often the opportunity at a railway station or in a 
 train to witness the easy carriage and magnificent pride of 
 these massive, good-tempered men. There is not in the 
 world, probably, a more remarkable illustration than they 
 afford of what superior physical training and superior feed- 
 ing can do. At first sight, indeed, these gigantic creatures 
 seem to belong to a different race. It is no wonder that they 
 should be so commonly proteges of the rich and dis- 
 tinguished. When an eminent wrestler retired in the year 
 in which I first saw a good wrestling bout the ceremony 
 of cutting his hair — for, like Samson, the wrestler wears his 
 hair long — was performed by a personage who combined 
 the dignities of an admiral and a peer. There is nothing 
 of the bruiser in the looks of the smooth-faced wrestlers. 
 Many, however, are the bruises to their bodies and to their 
 self-esteem which they receive in their disciplinary progress 
 from the contests of their native villages through all the 
 grades of their profession to the highest rank. Their sexual 
 morality is commonly of the lowest. 
 
 In my own hamlet at home in England I have seen the 
 
 1 The place has since been burnt down. A bigger building has been 
 erected. 
 
 a See Appendix LXII. 
 
THE SUPPLE TOES 317 
 
 shoemaker, tailor and carpenter successively pass away ; 
 the only craftsman left is the smith. In Japan the heredit- 
 ary craftsman survives for a while. I watched in my house 
 one day the labours of such a worker. He was not arrayed 
 in a Sunday suit fallen to the greasy bagginess of everyday 
 wear, topped by a soiled collar. He appeared in a blue 
 cotton jacket-length kimono and tight-fitting trousers of 
 the same stuff, and both garments, which were washed at 
 least once a week, were admirably fitted to their wearer's 
 work. Almost the same rig was worn by our own medieval 
 and pre-medieval workmen. The carpenter had on the 
 back of his coat the name of his master or guild in decorative 
 Chinese characters in white. There are nowadays in the 
 cities many inferior workers, but all the men who came to 
 my house worked with rapidity and concentration, hardly 
 ever lifting their eyes from their jobs. The dexterity of 
 the Japanese workman is seldom exaggerated. To his 
 dexterity he adds the considerable advantage of having 
 more than two hands, for he uses his feet together or singly. 
 His supple big toes are a great possession. We have lost 
 the use of ours, but the Japanese artisan, accustomed from 
 his youth to tabi with a special division for the big toe, 
 and to geta, which can be well managed only when the big 
 toe is lissom, uses his toes as naturally as a monkey, with 
 his paws and mouth full of nuts, gives a few to his feet to 
 hold. The first sight of a foot holding a tool is uncanny. 
 
 The pitiful thing is that a modest, polite, cheerful, in- 
 dustrious, skilful, and in the best sense of the word artistic 
 hereditary craftsmanship is proving only too easy a prey 
 to the new industrial system. It is a sad reflection that 
 the country which, owing to her long period of seclusion, 
 had the opportunity of applying to all the things of common 
 life so remarkable a skill and artistry, should be so little 
 conscious of the pace at which her industrial rake's pro- 
 gress is proceeding, so insensible to the degree to which she 
 is prodigally sacrificing that which, when it is lost to her, 
 can never be recovered. It is no doubt true that when 
 our own handicrafts were dying we also were insensitive. 
 But because the Middle Ages in England encountered the 
 industrial system gradually we suffered our loss more slowly 
 
318 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 than Japan is doing. Because, too, we never had in our 
 bustling history the long periods of immunity from home 
 and foreign strife by which Japanese craftsmanship profited 
 so wonderfully, we may not have had such large stores of 
 precious skill and taste to squander as New Japan, the 
 spendthrift of Old Japan's riches, is unthinkingly casting 
 away. 
 
 It is at Christmas at home that we have in the Christmas 
 tree our reminder of the country. It is on New Year's Day 
 that in Japan a pine tree is set up on either side of the front 
 gate, but there are three bamboos with it, and the four 
 trunks are all beautifully bound together with rope. If the 
 ground be too hard for the trees to be stuck in the ground, 
 they are kept upright by having a dozen heavy pieces of 
 wood, not unlike fire logs, neatly bound round them. 
 The pines may be about 10 ft. high, the bamboo about 15 
 ft. To the trees are affixed the white paper gohei. Over 
 the doorway itself is an arrangement of straw, an orange, a 
 lobster, dried cuttlefish and more gohei. A less expensive 
 display consists of a sprig of pine and bamboo. Poor 
 people have to be content with a yard-high pine branch 
 with a French nail through it at either side of their doorway. 
 I have been ruralist enough to harbour thoughts of the 
 extent to which the woods are raided for all this New Year 
 forestry. Some prefectures, in the sincerity of their de- 
 votion to afforestation, forbid the New Year destruction 
 of pine trees. 
 
 I remember the gay and elaborate dressing of the horses 
 during the New Year holidays. I saw one driver of a wagon 
 who was not content with tying streamers on every part 
 of his horse where streamers could be tied : he had also 
 decorated himself, even to the extent of having had his 
 head cropped to a special pattern, tracts of hair and bare 
 scalp alternating. 
 
 It was pleasant to learn that a fine chrysanthemum show 
 arranged in an open space in Tokyo was free to the public. 
 Some plants, by means of grafting, bore flowers of half a 
 dozen different varieties. Several plants had been won- 
 drously trained into the form of kuruma, etc. Not a few of 
 the varieties exhibited were, according to our ideas, atrocious 
 
" LONELYISM " 319 
 
 in colouring, but many were beautiful and all were marvels 
 of cultivation. Even greater manipulative and horti- 
 cultural skill was represented in the chrysanthemums I 
 saw at the Imperial garden party. A chief of a depart- 
 ment of the Ministry of Agriculture told me that from a 
 chrysanthemum growing in the ground it was possible to 
 have a thousand blooms. 
 
 In a Japanese room the timber upright alongside the 
 tokonoma is always a tree trunk in the rough. If it be cherry 
 it has its bark on. The contrast with the finely finished 
 wood of the rest of the room is arresting. It is said that 
 the use of the unplaned upright is not more than three or 
 four hundred years old and that it had its origin in Cha-no- 
 yu affectations of simplicity. 
 
 I was visited one evening by an agricultural official who 
 had returned from a visit to Great Britain. He spoke of 
 the " lonelyism " of our best hotels. In a Japanese hotel 
 of the same class one's room is so simple and the view of the 
 garden is so refreshing that, with the beautiful flower 
 arrangement indoors, the frequent change of kakemono, the 
 serving of one's meals in a different set of lacquer and 
 porcelain each day and the willing and smiling service 
 always within the call of- a hand clap, there comes a sense of 
 restfulness and peace. The drawback which the Western 
 man experiences is the lack of any means of resting his 
 back but by lying down and the inability to read for long 
 while resting an elbow on an arm rest which is too low for 
 him.' A Japanese often reads kneeling before a table. 
 
 Here I am reminded to say that the development of the 
 desire for books and newspapers in the rural districts is a 
 noticeable thing, if only because it is new. It is not so long 
 ago that reading was considered to be an occupation for old 
 men and women and for children. The samurai had few 
 books and the farmers fewer still. But the idea of combining 
 cultivation and culture was not unknown. I have heard a 
 rural student humbly quote the old saying, Sd-ko U-doku 
 
 1 There is also the occasional whiff of the benjo ; but, as an agricultural 
 expert said, " It is not a bad thing that a people which is increasingly under 
 the influence of industrialism should be compelled to give a thought to 
 agriculture." There are European countries famous for their farming 
 whose sanitary experts are evidently similarly minded. 
 
320 HUSBANDMAN, WRESTLER AND CARPENTER 
 
 (literally, " Fine weather — farming — Rainy weather — 
 reading"). 
 
 I have a rural note of one of my visits to the Nd.'^ One 
 farce brought on an inferior priest of a sect which is now 
 extinct but surely deserves to be remembered for its en- 
 couragement of mountain climbing. This " mountain 
 climber," as he was called, was hungry and climbed a 
 farmer's tree in order to steal persimmons. (The actor got 
 on a stool, obligingly steadied by a supposedly invisible 
 attendant, and pretended to clamber up a corner post of the 
 stage.) While he was eating the persimmons he was dis- 
 covered by their owner. The farmer was a man of humour 
 and said that he thought that " that must be a crow in the 
 tree." So the poor priest tried to caw. " No," said the 
 farmer, " it is surely a monkey." So the priest began to 
 scratch after the manner of monkeys. " But perhaps," 
 the farmer went on, " it is really a kite." The priest 
 flapped his arms — and fell. The farmer thought that he 
 had the priest at his mercy. But the priest, rubbing his 
 beads together, put a spell on him and escaped. The 
 word No is written with an ideograph which means ability, 
 but No also stands for agriculture.' 
 
 1 The fact that Dr. Waley'e scholarly book is the third work on the No 
 to be published in England in recent years is evidence that a knowledge of a 
 form of lyrical drama of rare artistry is gradually extending in the West. 
 
 ' Hence the names of the two national agricultural organisations, 
 Teikoku Nokai, that is the Imperial Agricultural Society, and Dai Nippon 
 Nokai, that is the Great Japan Agrioultiiral Society. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 " THKY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN " 
 (gumma, KAN AG a WA AND CHIBA) 
 
 I find the consolation of life in things with which Governments cannot 
 interfere, in the light and beauty the earth puts forth for her children. If 
 the universe has any meaning, it exists for the purposes of soul. — M 
 
 One December night there walked into my house a pro- 
 fessor of agricultural politics, clad in tweeds and an over- 
 coat, and with him a man who wore only a cotton kimono 
 and a single under-garment. The sunburnt forehead of 
 this man showed that he was not in the habit of wearing 
 a hat. There is a smiling Japanese face which to many 
 foreigners is merely irritating. It is not less irritating 
 when, as often happens, it displays bad teeth ostenta- 
 tiously gold-stopped. This man's smile was sincere and 
 he had beautiful teeth. His hands were nervous and thin, 
 his bearing was natural and his voice gentle. Here, 
 evidently, was an altruist, perhaps a zealot, probably a 
 celibate. He was introduced as a rural religionist from 
 Gumma prefecture set on reforming his countrymen. It 
 is important to know the strength of the reforming power 
 which Japan is itself generating : here was a man who 
 for eight years had lived a life of poverty in remote regions 
 and had shaped his life by three heroes, " St. Francis, 
 Tolstoy and Kropotkin." He believed that the way to 
 influence people was " to work with them." He lived on 
 his dole as a junior teacher in an elementary school. His 
 food, which he cooked himself, was chiefly rice and miso. 
 He had been a vegetarian for ten years. He was twenty- 
 nine. 
 
 He said that as far as the people of his village — largely 
 peasant proprietors who hired additional land — were con- 
 
 321 
 
322 "THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN" 
 
 cerned, " It is happy for them if they end the year without 
 debt." I asked how the men in the village who owned land 
 but did not work it spent their time. The reply was : 
 " They are chattering of many things, very trivial things, 
 and they disturb the village. They drink too much and 
 they have concubines or women elsewhere." 
 
 " If an ordinary peasant went to the next town to see 
 women there," the speaker continued, " young men of the 
 village would go and give him a good knock. In former 
 times ' waitresses ' were highly spoken of in the village, but 
 not now. There are some young men who may go at night 
 to a house where there are young girls in the family and 
 open the door. Sometimes they bring cucumbers. Cu- 
 cumbers are symbols. Some do this out of fun and some 
 sincerely to express their feelings. If the young men who 
 do such a thing do it out of fun they are given a good 
 knock by members of that house when discovered. If 
 they are sincere the members of the family will smile. 
 There are in our village of 6,000 inhabitants only four 
 illegitimate children." 
 
 As to the influences exerted for the betterment of the 
 people the follower of St. Francis was convinced that 
 " when Buddhist influence, Shintoism, Confucianism and 
 the good customs of our race are all mixed together so that 
 you cannot discern one from the other we have some living 
 power." His own religion was " that of St. Francis com- 
 bined with Buddhism." 
 
 Speaking generally of rural people my visitor said : 
 " They are falling into miserable conditions, are in effect 
 spending what was accumulated by their ancestors. Their 
 houses are not so practical and cost more. They think they 
 live better but their physical condition is not better. The 
 number who cannot earn much is increasing." I was told 
 of a growing habit among village boys of running off to 
 Tokyo without their parents' permission. And bands of 
 girls came to the district to help in the silk-worm season 
 " often without their parents' approval." 
 
 Many villagers consulted my visitor on all sorts of 
 subjects until he had almost no leisure. Some wanted 
 counsel about the future of their children, some desired 
 
"THE FUNDAMENTAL POWER" 323 
 
 advice about the family debt, some wanted to know how 
 to put an end to quarrels and some asked " how a man 
 will be able to be easy-minded." The ordinary result of 
 the primary school system was " a mass of many informa- 
 tions in young brains and they cannot tell wisdom from 
 knowledge. The result is that they are discontented with 
 their hard lot. They grow up wishing to rob each other 
 within the bounds of the law. They want to live com- 
 fortably without hard work. Good customs which were 
 the crystallisation of the experience of our race are dying 
 away." 
 
 My visitor had met an old woman on the road clad 
 miserably. She earned as a labourer on a farm, beside her 
 board and lodging, 25 sen daily. Of this sum she handed 
 to a fellow-villager whom she trusted 20 sen. He gave 
 away many clothes to the poor and her contribution was 
 used with the money he expended. " If," said she, " one 
 shall give to God a small thing in darkness then it is 
 accepted to its full value, but, if it be known, it is accepted 
 only at a small value." She was " content and quite 
 happy." 
 
 This woman and many others in the district had a primi- 
 tive kind of religion. They observed the days called 
 " waiting for the sun " and " waiting for the moon." 
 " The same-minded people gather. The one most deeply 
 experienced tells something to those assembled and they 
 begin to be imbued with the same spirit. It is some kind 
 of transformed worship of the sun god. They feel the 
 mercy of the sun. They do not worship the heavenly 
 bodies but as the symbol of the merciful universe. These 
 people take meals together several times in a year. They 
 talk not only on spiritual but on common things and about 
 the news in the papers. It may seem to a stranger that 
 what they talk is foolish, but they have a wonderful power 
 to attract the essential out of those trifles." 
 
 " The fundamental power which made Japan what it is," 
 the speaker went on with animation, " is not institutions 
 and statesmen, but those primitive religious acts. The 
 people strongly resembling the old woman I spoke of may 
 be only 1 per cent., but almost all villagers are imbued 
 
324 "THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN" 
 
 with such religious notions and feel thankfulness, and on 
 rare occasions a latent sentiment springs from their hearts. 
 Their religion may be connected with Buddhism or 
 Shintoism ; it is not Buddhism or Shintoism, however, 
 but a primitive belief which in its manifestation varies 
 much in different villages. For example, in one village the 
 good deeds of an ancient sage are told. The time when 
 that priest lived and particulars about him are getting 
 dimmer and dimmer, but his influence is still considerable. 
 Though many people are worshipped in national and pre- 
 fectural shrines the influence of those enshrined is small 
 compared with the influence of a man or woman of the 
 past who was not much celebrated but was thought to be 
 good by the rustic people. 
 
 " Think of the way in which the memory of the maid- 
 servant Otake is worshipped by the peasants through one- 
 half of Japan. That was a pious and illuminated person 
 who worked very hard. As her uta (poem) says, ' Though 
 hands and feet are very busy at work, still I can praise and 
 follow God always because my mind and heart are not 
 occupied by worldly things.' She ate poor food and gave 
 her own food to beggars. So when a countryman wastes 
 the bounty of nature he is still reprimanded by the ex- 
 ample of that maid-servant. She is more respected than 
 many great men." 
 
 My visitor thought a religious revival might happen 
 under the leadership of a Christian or of a Buddhist, or of a 
 man who " united Buddhism and Christianity " or " de- 
 veloped the primitive form of faith among the lower 
 people." He thought there were " already men in the 
 country who might be these leaders." He said that much 
 might happen in ten years. " Materialism is prevalent 
 everywhere, but people will begin to feel difficulties in 
 following their materialism. When they cannot go any 
 further with it they will begin to be awakened." 
 
 And then this young man who sincerely desires to do 
 something with his life and has at any rate made a beginning 
 went his way. Up and down Japan I met several single- 
 hearted men not unlike him. 
 
 One day I made an excursion from Tokyo and came on an 
 
THE FOXES AND THE TEAHOUSES 825 
 
 extraordinary avenue of small wooden red painted torii, 
 gimcracky things made out of what a carpenter would call 
 " two by two stuff." By the time I got to the shrine to 
 which the torii led I must have passed a thousand of these 
 erections. In one spot there was a stack of torii lying on 
 their sides. The shrine was in honour of the fox god and 
 there was a curious story behind it. Twenty years before 
 a man interested in the " development " of the district 
 had caused it to be given out that foxes, the messengers of 
 the god Inari, had been seen on this spot in the vicinity 
 of a humble shrine to that divinity. The farmers were 
 continually questioned about the matter. It was suggested 
 that the god was manifesting his presence. In the end 
 more and more worshippers came, and, with the liberal 
 assistance of the speculator, a fine new shrine was erected 
 in place of the shabby one. His hand was also seen in the 
 building of a big burrow — of concrete — for the comfort of 
 the god's messenger. The top of the burrow also fur- 
 nished an excellent view of the surrounding district, and 
 teahouses were built in the vicinity. Indeed in a year or 
 two quite a village of teahouses came into existence. The 
 place, which was on the sea-coast, had become a kind of 
 Southend or Coney Island, and attracted thousands of 
 visitors. 
 
 A large proportion of these teahouses would have great 
 difficulty in establishing a claim to respectability. Numbers 
 of lamps which crowded the space before the shrine were 
 the gifts of women of bad character and the inscriptions on 
 these gifts bore the addresses and profession of the donors. 
 The final irony was the provision of a tram service for the 
 convenience of those who wished to worship at another 
 altar than that of the fox god. Although most of the 
 visitors found the chief attraction of the place in the tea- 
 houses,^ they were none the less devout. Every visitor 
 to the teahouses worshipped at the shrine. 
 
 What do those who bow their heads and throw their 
 coppers in the treasury pray for ? " Well-being to my 
 
 • Someone said to me, " I have in mind one village where there is a 
 poorly cared-for school and a score of teahouses giving employment to 
 nearly two hundred people," 
 
326 "THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN" 
 
 fan:iily and prosperity to my business " was, I was told, a 
 common form of invocation. Even among not a few 
 reasonably well educated people there is a conviction that 
 prayers made at the altar of the fox god are peculiarly 
 efficacious. Kanzo Uchimura, who accompanied me on 
 this trip, improved the occasion by saying in his vigorous 
 English : " You in the West have some difficulty, no doubt, 
 in understanding the fierceness of the indignation with 
 which Old Testament prophets denounce heathen gods. 
 When you behold such an exhibition as this you may be 
 helped to understand. Here is impurity under divine pro- 
 tection, and this place may fairly be called a fashionable 
 shrine. The visitor to Japan often vaunts himself on being 
 broadminded. He regards heathendom as only another sect 
 and he desires to be respectful to it. But I want to show 
 you that it is not a case of only another sect but often a 
 case of gross and demoralising superstition and priestly 
 countenancing of immorality. Heaven forbid that I 
 should deny the beauty of the idea of the foxes being the 
 messengers of divinity or that I should suggest that some 
 religious feelings may not inspire and some religious feel- 
 ing may not reward the sincere devotion of the countryman 
 to his fox god, but how much does it amount to in sum ? " 
 
 I thought of what Uchimura had said when one day, in 
 the course of a walk with his critic, Yanagi (Chapter XI), 
 I was shown a shrine pitifully bedizened by the waraji 
 (straw sandals) and ema ' of a thousand or more pilgrims 
 who were suffering or had recovered from syphilis.' 
 
 During our conversation Yanagi said : " Shintoism is 
 not of course a religion at all. It draws great strength 
 from the national instinct for cleanliness manifested by 
 
 ^ " Small boards with crude designs painted on them. They may be 
 prayers, thank-offerings or protective charms. A shrine -where many 
 thanks ema have been left is clearly that of a god ready to hear and answer 
 prayer. Worshippers flock to the place and the accumulation of painted 
 boards — ^whether prayers or thanks — increases." — Fredbbick Stabb, 
 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xlviii. 
 
 2 The percentage in conscripts in 1918 was 2-2 per cent, against 2'6 per 
 cent, in 1917 and 2-7 per cent, in 1916. ("Not less than 10 per cent, 
 of the population of our large towns are infected with syphilis and a much 
 larger proportion with gonorrhoea." — Sib James /Cbichton-Bbowne.) 
 The figures for the general population of Japan must be higher. 
 
BUDDHISM WITHOUT BUDDHA 327 
 
 people living in a hot climate. The religion of poor people 
 is largely custom ; I complain of educated people not that 
 they are sceptical but that they are not sceptical enough. 
 They simply don't care. According to Mr. Uchimura, 
 there is only one way to God and that is through Chris- 
 tianity. But there are many ways. A personal religion 
 like Christianity is more effective than Buddhism, but it 
 does not follow that Christianity is better than Buddhism. 
 I find I get to like Mr. Uchimura more and more and his 
 views less and less. It is not his theoretical Christianity 
 but his courageous spirit which attracts. He is a courage- 
 ous man and we have very great need of morally courageous 
 men. Although Christianity is impossible without Christ, 
 Buddhism is possible without Buddha. A variety of re- 
 ligions is not harmful, and we have to take note of the 
 Christian temperament and the Buddhistic temperament. 
 Orientals can only be appealed to by an Oriental religion. 
 Christianity is an Oriental religion no doubt, but it has 
 been Westernised. It must always be borne in mind that 
 Buddhistic literature is in a special language and that it is 
 difficult for most people to get a general view of Buddhism." 
 
 In further talk the speaker said that in Japan the 
 individual had not been separated from the mass. But it 
 was difficult to exaggerate the swiftness of the national 
 development. The newer Russian writers were " certainly 
 as well known in England, possibly better known." As to 
 Tolstoy alone, there were iat least fifty books about him. 
 But it had to be admitted that, generally speaking, the 
 Japanese development though rapid had not gone deep. 
 In painting there was dexterity and technique but few 
 men knew where they were going. Their work was 
 " surface beautiful." They had not passed the stage 
 of Zorn. 
 
 We spoke of conscription and I said that it had not 
 escaped my attention that many young men showed an 
 increasing desire to avoid military service. From a single 
 person I had heard of youths who had escaped by looking 
 iU— through a week's fasting— by impairing their eyesight 
 by wearing strong glasses for a few weeks, by contriving to 
 be examined in a fishing village where the standard of 
 28 
 
328 " THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN " 
 
 physique was high, or by shamming Sociahst.' Many 
 Japanese bear uncomplainingly the heavy burden of the 
 military system. But the others are to be reckoned with. 
 
 Said one of these to me : " We Japanese are not in- 
 herently a warlike people and have no desire to be militar- 
 ists ; but we are suffering from German influence not only 
 in the army but through the middle-aged legal, scientific 
 and administrative classes who were largely educated in 
 Germany or influenced by German teaching. This German 
 influence may have been held in check to some extent, 
 perhaps, by the artistic world, which has certainly not been 
 German, except in relation to music, and after all that is the 
 best part of Germany. Many young people have taken their 
 ideas largely from Russia ; more from the United States 
 and Great Britain. But Germany will always make her 
 appeal on account of her reputation with us for system, 
 order, industry, depth of knowledge, persistence and 
 nationalism." 
 
 On the family system, the study of which was more than 
 once urged upon me in connection with the rural problem, 
 this statement was made to me by an agricultural expert : 
 " I will tell you the story of an official whose salary was that 
 of a Governor. His father was a farmer. The farmer 
 borrowed money to educate his son. When the son be- 
 came an official he paid the money back, but on the small 
 salaries he received this repayment was a strain. Then two 
 brothers came to his house frequently for money, and when 
 they received it spent it in ridiculous ways. This begging 
 has gone on for nine years. My friend has to live not like 
 an Excellency but like a guncho. He cannot treat his 
 wife and children fairly. But of the money he gives to his 
 brothers he say^, ' It is my family expense.' " 
 
 I also heard this story : "A married B. B died without 
 having any children. A next married B's sister, C. Then, 
 because of the necessity of having a male heir for the 
 maintenance of his family, and because he thought it was 
 unlikely that his wife C would have children as her dead 
 sister B had had none, he adopted his wife's younger brother, 
 
 ' See Appendix LXIII. 
 
THE TRYING FAMILY SYSTEM 329 
 
 D. But the wife C did have children. Consequently, not 
 only is A's wife his sister-in-law and his eldest ' son ' his 
 wife's brother, but his children are his eldest ' son's ' 
 nephews. The eldest of these children, E, is legally the 
 younger son. He says, ' I am glad that instead of an 
 uncle I have an elder brother. I am much attached to him 
 and he is attached to me, I am not sorry to be younger 
 instead of elder brother, for when my father dies my 
 adopted brother will become head of the family and he 
 must then bring up his younger brothers and sisters, manage 
 the family fortunes, bear the family troubles and keep all 
 the cousins and uncles in good humour by inviting them 
 occasionally and at other times by visiting them and giving 
 them presents.' ' 
 
 "It is obvious that our family system, for speaking in 
 criticism of which officials have been dismissed from their 
 posts, puts too much stress on the family and too little on 
 the individual. The family is the unit of society. Any 
 member of it is only a fraction of that unit. For the sake 
 of the family every member of it must sacrifice almost 
 ever3^hing.' Sometimes the development of the individual 
 character and individual initiative is checked by the family 
 system. An eldest son is often required to follow his 
 father's calling irrespective of his tastes. Nowadays some 
 eldest sons go abroad, but their departure attracts attention 
 and you seldom find such a thing happening among farmers. 
 The family system, by which all is subordinated to family, 
 is convenient to farmers for it means increased labour and 
 economy of living. Sometimes there may be two married 
 sons living at home and then there is often strife. Generally 
 speaking, the family system at one and the same time keeps 
 young men from striking out in the world and compels their 
 early marriage so that the helping hands to the family may 
 be more numerous. The family system concentrates the 
 attention on the family and not on society. There is no 
 energy left for society. 
 
 1 It sometimes happens that an adopted son is dismissed with " a 
 sufficient monetary compensation " when a real son is bom. 
 
 2 I met a fine ex-daimyo, who after the Bestoration had served as a 
 prefeotural governor. He was so generous in giving money to public 
 obieota in his prefecture that his family compelled him to resign office. 
 
830 " THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN " 
 
 " Again, the family system gives too much power to 
 relatives and leads to disagreeable interference. In the 
 case of a marriage being proposed between family A and 
 family B, the families related to A or B who will be brought 
 into closer connection by the marriage may object. On the 
 other hand, the family system has the advantage that the 
 relatives who interfere may also be looked upon for help. 
 Not a few people are all for maintaining the family system. 
 But the spirit of individualism is entering into some families 
 and here and there children are beginning to claim their 
 rights and to act against relatives' wishes. One hears of 
 farmers sending boys, even elder sons, to the towns, and for 
 their equipment borrowing from the prefectural agricul- 
 tural bank instead of spending on the development of their 
 business." 
 
 At a Christmas-day luncheon I met four students of rural 
 problems, two of whom were peers, one a governor of an 
 important prefecture, and a fourth a high official in the 
 agricultural world. One man, speaking of the family 
 system, said " the success of agriculture depends on it." 
 " In my opinion," someone remarked, " the foundation of 
 the family system is common production and common 
 consumption, so when these things go there must be a 
 gradual disappearance of the family system." " No," 
 came the rejoinder, " the only enemy of the family system 
 is Western influence." " Yes," the fourth speaker added, 
 " an enemy whose blows have told." 
 
 Someone suggested that the Japanese rural emigrant 
 always hoped to return home, that is if he could return with 
 dignity — does not the proverb speak of the desirability of 
 returning home in good clothes ? One of the company said 
 that he had seen in Kyushu rows of white-washed slated 
 houses which had been erected by returned emigrants. 
 " But they were successful prostitutes. Often, however, 
 these girls invest their money unwisely and have to go 
 abroad again." 
 
 Everybody at table agreed that there was in the villages 
 a slow if steady slackening of " the power of the landlord, 
 of the authorities and of religion," and a development of 
 a desire and a demand for better conditions of life. One 
 
TO WESTERNISE FARTHER? 381 
 
 who proclaimed himself a conservative urged that changes 
 of form were too readily confounded with changes of spirit. 
 The change in thought in Japan, he said, was slow, and some 
 occurrences might be easily misjudged. I said that that 
 very day I had heard from my house the drone of an aero- 
 plane prevail over the sound of a temple bell. Happening 
 to speak of The Golden Bough, I asked my neighbour, who 
 had read it, if to a Japanese who got its penetrating view 
 some things could ever be the same again. He answered 
 frankly, " There are things in our life which are too near to 
 criticise. Do you know that there are parts of Japan where 
 folklore is still being made ? " 
 
 I was invited one evening to dinner to meet a dozen men 
 conspicuous in the agricultural world. Priests were apolo- 
 gised for because most of them were " very poor men and 
 also poorly educated." Very few had been even to a 
 middle school. Many priests read Chinese scriptures 
 aloud but they did not understand what they were reading. 
 
 One man reported that an old farmer had said to him 
 that paddy-field labour was harder than dry-land labour, 
 but young men did not go off to Tokyo because of the 
 severity of the work ; they went away because of " the 
 bondage of rural life." 
 
 How much has the economic stress affected old convic- 
 tions ? How general and how eager is the Japanese resolu- 
 tion to Westernise farther ? None of the rural sociolo- 
 gists had given any thought apparently to a new factor in 
 the rural problem : the way in which compulsory military 
 service, in taking farmers' sons to the cities as soldiers and 
 bluejackets, is giving them an acquaintance with neo- 
 Malthusianism. In Tokyo and other large cities certain 
 articles are prominently advertised on the hoardings. It 
 is of some importance to consider what will be the effect of 
 this knowledge in competition with the national apprecia- 
 tion of large famihes.^ Is it likely that an intensely 
 " practical " people, which has bolted so much of European 
 and American " civilisation," will be wholly uninfluenced 
 by the Western practice of limitation of offspring ? What 
 
 » See Appendix XXX. 
 
382 " THEY FEEL THE MERCY OF THE SUN " 
 
 is to-day the actual strength of the social needs which have 
 produced the large Japanese fanaily ? ' Whatever middle- 
 aged Japanese may think, the matter is not in their hands, 
 but in the hands of the younger generation. Most Western 
 economists would no doubt argue that if fewer babies arrived 
 in Japan there would not be so many farmers' boys and. 
 university graduates bent on emigrating. 
 
 Without the voluntary limitation of families, however, 
 the number of children born is likely to be diminished 
 by the increased cost of living and by the postponement 
 of marriage. I know Japanese men who were married 
 before they were twenty ; the younger generation of my 
 friends is marrying nearer thirty.' 
 
 There is reason to believe that the population has not 
 increased of recent years at the old rate.' A responsible 
 authority expressed the opinion to me that the necessities 
 of the population are unlikely to overtake the means of 
 production in the near future,* 
 
 The Japanese are intensely practical, but they have, as 
 we have seen, another side. If that other side is not 
 
 1 It is only within the last quarter of a century that the authorities 
 have taken a stand against infanticide. There is no traditional dislike of 
 an artificial diminution of progeny, for many of the fathers and grandfathers 
 of the present generation practised it. Methods of procuring aborti(Si 
 were also common. A certain plant has a well-known reputation as an 
 abortif acient. A young peer and his wife are now conducting a campaign 
 on behalf of smaller families, and the discussion has advanced far enough 
 for a magazine to invite Dr. Havelock Ellis to express his views. 
 
 2 According to the 1918 figures the ages at which men and women 
 married were as follows per 1,000 : before 20, m. 37-6, w. 259-0 ; 20-25, 
 m. 304-9, w. 434-8 ; 26-30, m. 347-9, w. 159-4 ; 31-35, m. 145-1, w. 67-3 ; 
 36-40, m. 70-0, w. 37-1 ; 41-45, m. 41-8, w. 21-4; 46-50, m. 22-8, w. 
 10-5; 61-55, m. 14-7, w. 6-0; 66-60, m. 7-3, w. 2-6; 61 and upwards, 
 m. 7-9, w. 2. 
 
 3 See Appendix XXX. 
 
 • See Appendices XXV and LXXX ; also page 363 for the reasons operat- 
 ing against emigration. Mr. J. Russell Kennedy, of Kokusai-Reuter, 
 declared (1921) that it was " a myth that Japan must find an outlet for 
 surplus population ; Japan has plenty of room within her own border," 
 that is, including Korea and Formosa as well as Hokkaido in Japan. Mr. 
 S. Yoshida, Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in London, in an address 
 also delivered in 1921, stressed the value of the fishing-grounds and the 
 mercantile marine as openings for an increased population. " The 
 resources of the sea," he said, " give Japan more room for her population 
 than appears." 
 
THE ABBOT AND THE RONIN 883 
 
 " spiritual," in the sense in which the word is largely used 
 in the West, it is at least regardful of other considerations 
 than the ' ' practical.' ' It is with thoughts of that vital side 
 of the national character that I recall a story told me by 
 Dr. Nitobe of the last days of the Forty-seven Ronin. It 
 is well authenticated. When the Ronin had slain their 
 dead lord's persecutor and had given themselves up to the 
 authorities, they were found worthy of death. But the 
 Shogun was in some anxiety as to what might justly be 
 done. He sent privily to a famous abbot saying that it 
 was at all times the duty of the Shogun to condemn to death 
 men who had committed murder. Yet it was the privilege 
 of a priest to ask for mercy, and in the matter of the lives 
 of the Ronin the Shogun would not be unwilling to listen 
 to a plea for mercy. The abbot answered that he sympa- 
 thised deeply with the Ronin, but because he so sympathised 
 with them he was unwilling to take any steps which might 
 hinder the carrying out of the sentence. It was true, he 
 said, that there were old men among the Ronin, but many, 
 of them were young men — one was only fifteen^ — and it 
 had to be borne in mind that if they escaped death at the 
 hands of the law it was hardly likely that during the whole 
 course of their after-lives they could hope to escape com- 
 mitting sin of some sort or another. At the moment they 
 had reached a pinnacle of nobility which they could never 
 pass and it was a thing to be desired for them that they 
 should die now, when they would live to all posterity as 
 heroes. The happiest fate for the Ronin was a righteous 
 death, and as their admiring sympathiser the abbot ex- 
 pressed his unwillingness to do anything which might have 
 the effect of saving them from so glorious an end. 
 
REFLECTIONS IN HOKKAIDO 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 COLONIAL JAPAN AND ITS UN-JAPANESE WAYS 
 Above all, this is not concerned with poetry. — ^Wii.feed Owen 
 
 When the traveller stands at the northern end of the 
 mainland ^ of Japan he is five hundred miles from Tokyo. 
 In the north of Hokkaido he is a thousand miles away. 
 Hokkaido, the most northerly and the second biggest of 
 the four islands into which Japan is divided, is cui;iously 
 American. The wide straight streets of the capital, 
 Sapporo,' laid out at right angles, the rough buggies with 
 the farmer and his wife riding together, the wooden houses 
 with stove stacks, and, instead of paper-covered shoji, 
 window panes : these things are seen nowhere else in Japan 
 and came straight from America. It was certainly from 
 America that the farmers had their cries of " Whoa." One 
 of the best authorities on Hokkaido has declared that the 
 administrative and agricultural instructors whom America 
 sent there from about the time of the Franco-Prussian war 
 " gave Japan a fairer, kindlier conception of America than 
 all her study of American history." 
 
 In Old Japan there is always something which speaks of 
 the centuries that are gone ; in Sapporo there is nothing 
 that matters which is fifty years old. One of the most 
 
 1 The word used by people in Hokkaido for the main island, Hondo or 
 Honshu {Hon, main ; do or shu, land), is Naicki (interior). 
 
 2 Fronx Aoniori on the mainland to Hakodate in Hokkaido is a 50-miles 
 sea trip. Then comes a long night journey to Sapporo, during which one 
 passes between two active volcanoes. The sea trip is 60 miles because a 
 large part of the route taken by the steamer is through Aomori Bay. The 
 nearest part of Hokkaido to the mainland is a little less than the 
 distance between Dover and Calais. 
 
 334 
 
THE FOREIGN HELPERS 885 
 
 remarkable facts in the agricultural history of Japan is that 
 a country with a teeming population and an intensive 
 farming should have left entirely undeveloped to so late a 
 period as the early seventies a great island of 35,000 square 
 miles which lies within sight of its shores. The wonder is 
 that an attempt on Yezo ' was not made by the Russians, 
 who, but for the vigorous action of a British naval com- 
 mander, would undoubtedly have taken possession of the 
 island of Tsushima, 700 miles farther south and midway 
 between Japan and Korea. Up to the time of the fall of the 
 Shogun the revenue of the lords of Yezo was got by taxing 
 the harvest of the sea and the precarious gains of hunters. 
 The Imperial Rescript carried by the army which was sent 
 against certain adherents of the Shogun who had fled there 
 said : " We intend to take steps to reclaim and people the 
 island." ' It is doubtful if at that period the population 
 was more than 60,000 ' (including Ainu).* 
 
 When Count Kuroda was put at the head of the Colonial 
 Government he went over to America and secured as his 
 adviser-in-chief the chief of the Agricultural Department 
 at Washington. Stock, seeds, fruit trees, implements and 
 machinery, railway engines, buildings, practically every- 
 thing was American in the early days of Hokkaido. During 
 a ten-year period, in which forty-five American instructors 
 were sent for, five Russians, four Britons, four Germans, 
 three Dutchmen and a Frenchman were also imported.' 
 
 Governor Kuroda had a million yen placed at his disposal 
 for ten years in succession, and a million yen was a big sum 
 in those days. Before long there were flour mills, brew- 
 
 ' Foreigners sometimes confound Yezo (Hokkaido) with Yedo, the old 
 name for Tokyo. 
 
 ' A sixth of Hokkaido still belongs to the Imperial Household. In 1918 
 it decided to sell forest and other land (parts of Japan not stated) to the 
 value of 100 million yen. In 1917 the Imperial estates were estimated at 
 18J million cho of forest and 22J million cho of " plains," that is tracts 
 which are not timbered nor cultivated nor built on. 
 
 ' In 1919 it was 2,137,700. 
 
 * Considerations of space compel the holding over of a chapter on the 
 Ainu for another volume. 
 
 " Of the 96 foreign instructors in institutions "under the direct control " 
 of the Tokyo Department of Education in 1917-18, there were 27 British, 
 22 German, 19 American and 12 French. 
 
886 COLONIAL JAPAN AND ITS UN-JAPANESE WAYS 
 
 eries, beet-sugar factories, canning plants, lead and coal 
 mining and silk manufacturing and an experiment in soldier 
 colonisation which owed something to Russian experiments 
 in Cossack farming. An agricultural school grew into a 
 large agricultural college ; and this agricultural college has 
 lately become the University of Hokkaido, with nearly a 
 thousand students.' How much of a pioneer Sapporo 
 College was may be gathered from the fact that when I was 
 in Hokkaido 67 out of the 140 men who were members of 
 the faculty had been themselves taught there. Dean Sato 
 (Japan's first exchange lecturer to American universities), 
 Dr. Nitobe (Japanese Secretary of the League of Nations) 
 and Kanzo Uchimura were among the first students. 
 There have always been American professors at Sapporo — 
 its first president came from Massachusetts — and the 
 professorship of English has always been held by an 
 American. 
 
 The 50 acres of elm-studded land in which the University 
 buildings stand are a surprise, for the elm grows nowhere 
 else in Japan but Hokkaido.' The extent of the Univer- 
 sity's landed possessions is also unexpected. There are 
 two training farms of 185 and 260 acres respectively, 
 beautifully kept botanic gardens, a tract of 15,000 acres 
 on which there are already more than a thousand tenants, 
 and 300,000 acres of forests in Hokkaido, Saghalien and 
 Korea. Four or five times as many students as can be 
 admitted offer themselves at Sapporo. 
 
 There is in Hokkaido an agricultural and rural life con- 
 ceived for a country where stock may be kept and a farmer 
 does not need to practise the superintensive farming of Old 
 Japan. At the first University farm I looked over it was 
 clear that not only American but Swedish, German and 
 Swiss farming practice had had its influence. No longer 
 was the farmer content with mattocks, hoes and flails. A 
 silo dominated the scene, and maize, eaten from the cob in 
 
 1 Hokkaido is one of five Imperial universities. There are in addition 
 several well-known private universities. 
 
 2 Grouse are also to be found in Hokkaido, but no pheasants and no 
 monkeys. The deep Tsugaru Strait marks an ancient geological division 
 between Hokkaido and the mainland. 
 
THE JAPANESE MANITOBA 387 
 
 Old Japan, was a crop for stock.' I also noticed crops of 
 oats and rye. 
 
 I arrived in Hokkaido in the last week of August in a linen 
 suit and was glad to put on a woollen one. By September 
 29 it was snowing. Snow-shoes were shown among the 
 products of the island at the prefectural exhibition. 
 Canadians have likened the climate of Hokkaido to 
 that of Manitoba. Hokkaido is on the line of the Great 
 Lakes, but the cold current from the North makes com- 
 parisons of this sort ineffective. It is only in southern 
 Hokkaido that apples will grow. Thirty years ago wolves 
 and bear were shot two miles from Sapporo and bear may 
 still be found within ten miles. 
 
 The sea fisheries of Hokkaido are valuable but agriculture 
 and forestry are greater money makers. Even without 
 forestry agriculture is well ahead of factory industry, which 
 is also eclipsed by mining. Industry is aided by the presence 
 of coal. Among manufactures, brewing stands out even 
 more conspicuously than wood-pulp making or canning. 
 One of the three best-known beers in Japan comes from 
 Hokkaido.' In contrast with the situation in Old Japan, 
 where the land is half paddy and half upland, there is in 
 Hokkaido only a ninth of the cultivated land under rice.' 
 When I was in Hokkaido there were 600,000 cho under 
 cultivation, a hundred and fifty times more than there were 
 in 1873. The line marking the northern or rather the north- 
 eastern limit of rice shows roughly a third of the island 
 on the northern and eastern coasts to be at present beyond 
 the skill of rice growers. There is always uncertainty with 
 the rice crop in Hokkaido. As the growing period is short, 
 half the rice is not transplanted but sown direct in the 
 paddies. A bad crop is expected once in seven years. In 
 such a season there is no yield and even the straw is not 
 good. 
 
 Immigrants get 5 cho, but if they are without capital they 
 first go to work as tenants. There are contractors in the 
 
 1 It is sometimes eaten, ground to a rough meal, with rice. The 
 argument is that maize is two thirds the price of rice and more easily 
 digested. 
 
 2 See Appendix XXXVII. 
 
 ' The latest figures for Hokkaido show only a tenth. 
 
888 COLONIAL JAPAN AND ITS UN-JAPANESE WAYS 
 
 towns who supply labourers to farmers and factories at 
 busy times. When newcomers have capital and are keen 
 on rice growing and are families working without hired 
 labour, they are strongly recommended not to devote 
 more than 2J cho to rice — from 3 to 5 cho are the absolute 
 limit — against 1 J or 2 cho to other crops. When the holder 
 of a 5- cho holding prospers he buys a second farm and more 
 horses and implements, and hires labour for the busy period. 
 But 10 or 15 cAo is considered as much as can be worked in 
 this way. If the area is more than 10 or 15 cho it is diflRcult 
 to get labour in the busy season, for it is the busy season for 
 everybody. Labourers from a distance can be got only at 
 an unprofitable rate. It is first the lack of capital and then 
 the lack of labour which prevents the farmer extending his 
 holding.' The limit of practical mixed farming is 30 cho. 
 (Stock farming is for milk rather than for meat, and more 
 than one condensed-milk factory is in operation.) Even 
 in Hokkaido large farming, as it is understood in Great 
 Britain and America, is not easy to find. ' 
 
 On my journey north from Sapporo the first thing which 
 brought home to me the colonial character of the agricul- 
 ture was the tree stumps sticking up in the paddies. The 
 second was the extent to which the rivers were still uncon- 
 trolled. The longest river in Japan, 260 miles long, is in 
 Hokkaido. There was obviously a vast moorland area in 
 need of draining. Peat — there are 300,000 cho of it — 
 may be a standby when the waste of timber that is going 
 on brings about a shortage of fuel other than coal. From 
 poor peat soil, which was growing oats, buckwheat and 
 millet, we passed to land capable of producing rice, and saw 
 ploughing with horses. One region had been opened for 
 only twenty years, but already the farmers had cultivated 
 the hillsides in the assiduous fashion of Old Japan. 
 
 From Ashigawa we made some excursions in a prim 
 basha to places which were always several miles farther on 
 than they were supposed to be and were usually reached by 
 tracks covered with stones from 6 to 9 ins. long and 
 having ruts a foot deep. 
 
 1 For farmers' incomes, see Appendix XIII. 
 ' For sizes of farms, see Appendix LXIV. 
 
STARCH AND PEPPERMINT FACTORIES 889 
 
 We visited a large estate with 350 tenants who were 
 mostly working 2^ cho, though some had twice as much. 
 Nearly all of these tenants appeared to have one or two 
 horses, although the estate manager had advised them to 
 use oxen or cows as more economical draught animals. 
 When I remembered the distance the farmers were from 
 the town and the state of the roads, and noticed the satis- 
 faction which the men we passed displayed in being able to 
 ride, it was easy to believe that the possession of a horse 
 might have its value as a means of social progress. During 
 the last ten years half the tenants had made enough to 
 enable them to buy farms. The tenants on this estate had 
 two temples and one shrine.' 
 
 I visited a fifteen-years-old co-operative alcohol factory 
 with a capital of 300,000 yen. Of its materials 80 per 
 cent, seemed to be potato starch waste and 20 per cent, 
 maize. The product was 6,000 or 7,000 koku of alcohol. 
 The dividend was 8 per cent. On the waste a large number 
 of pigs was fed. The animals were kept in pens with 
 boarded floors within a small area, and I was not surprised 
 to learn that three or four died every month. Starch 
 making, which produces the waste used by the alcohol 
 factory, is managed on quite a small scale. An outfit may 
 cost no more than 30 or 50 yen. I went over a small 
 peppermint- making plant. Most of the peppermint raised 
 in Japan — it reaches a value of 2 million yen — is grown 
 in Hokkaido. 
 
 One day in the eastern part of the island I met in a small 
 hotel, which was run by a man and his wife who had been 
 in America, several old farmers who had obviously made 
 money. They declared that formerly only 20 per cent, of 
 the colonists succeeded, but now the proportion was more 
 than 65 per cent. I imagine that they meant by success 
 that the colonists did really well, for it was added that it was 
 rare in that district for people to return to Old Japan. One 
 of the company said that not more than 5per cent, returned. 
 " Land is too expensive at home," he continued; " when 
 a Japanese comes here and gets some, he works hard." 
 
 ^ For a tenant'* contract, see Appendix LXV. 
 
340 COLONIAL JAPAN AND ITS UN-JAPANESE WAYS 
 
 A good man, they said, should make, after four or five 
 years, 70 to 100 yen clear profit in a year. 
 
 I rather suspect that the men I talked with had made 
 some of their money by advancing funds to their neigh- 
 bours on mortgage. They all seemed to own several farms. 
 When I asked how religion prospered in Hokkaido they 
 said with a smile, " There are many things to do here, so 
 there is no spare time for religion as in our native places." 
 There is a larger proportion of Christians in Hokkaido 
 than on the mainland. One village of a thousand inhabit- 
 ants contained two churchesand a SalvationArmy barracks. 
 It was reputed, also, to have eight or ten " waitresses " 
 and five sake shops. It is said that a good deal of shochu, 
 which is stronger than sake, is drunk. 
 
 The roughest basha ride I made was to a place seven 
 miles from railhead in the extreme north-east. Such roads 
 as we adventured by are little more than tracks with ditches 
 on either side. The journey back, because there were no 
 horses to ride, we made in a narrow but extraordinarily 
 heavy farm wagon with wheels a foot wide and drawn by a 
 stallion. Shortly after starting there was a terrific thunder- 
 storm which soaked us and hastened uncomfortably the 
 pace of the animal in the shafts. When the worst of the 
 downpour was over, and we had faced the prospect of 
 slithering about the wagon for the rest of the journey, for 
 the stallion had decided to hurry, a farmer's wife asked us 
 for a lift and clambered in with agility. My companion 
 and I were then sitting in a soggy state with our backs 
 against the wagon front andour legsoutstretchedresignedly. 
 The cheery farmer's wife, who was wet too, plopped down 
 between us and, as the bumps came, gripped one of my legs 
 with much good fellowship. She was a godsend by reason 
 of her plumpness, for we were now wedged so tight that we 
 no longer rocked and pitched about the wagon at each jolt. 
 And no doubt we dried more quickly. Providence had 
 indeed been good to us, for shortly afterwards we passed, 
 lying on its side in a spruit, the basha that had carried us 
 on our outward journey. 
 
 We were three hours in all in the wagoh. Our passenger 
 told us that her husband had several farms and that they 
 
A FORMULA FOR WASTRELS 341 
 
 were very comfortably off and very glad that they had come 
 to Hokkaido. When the farmer's wife had to alight a 
 mile from our destination we chose to walk. Bad roads are 
 a serious problem for the Hokkaido farmer. In one district, 
 only fifteen miles from the capital, they are so bad that 
 rice is at half the price it makes in Sapporo. It is un- 
 fortunate that the roads are at their worst in autumn and 
 spring when the farmer wants to transport his produce. 
 
 I visited the 700- acre settlement which Mr. Tomeoka has 
 opened in connection with his Tokyo institution for the 
 reclamation of young wastrels. His formula is, " Feed 
 them well, work them hard and give them enough sleep." 
 Among the volumes on his shelves there were three 
 books about Tolstoy and another three, one English, one 
 American and one German, all bearing the same title, 
 The Social Question. Needless to say that Self-Help had its 
 place. 
 
 I liked Mr. Tomeoka's idea of an open-air chapel on a tree- 
 shaded height from which there was a fine view. It re- 
 minded me of the view from an open space on rising ground 
 near the famous Danish rural high school of Askov, from 
 which, on Sundays, parties of excursionists used to look 
 down enviously on Slesvig and irritate the Germans by 
 singing Danish national songs. Mr. Tomeoka believed in 
 better houses and better food for farmers and in money 
 raised by means of the ko — " the rules and regulations of 
 co-operative societies are too complicated for farmers to 
 understand." 
 
 I saw the huts of some settlers who had weathered their 
 first Hokkaido winter. Buckwheat, scratched in in open 
 spaces among the trees, was the chief crop. The huts con- 
 sisted of one room. Most of the floor was raised above 
 the ground and covered with rough straw matting. In the 
 centre of the platform was the usual fire-hole. The walls 
 were matting and brushwood. I was assured that "the 
 snow and good fires, for which there is unlimited fuel, keep 
 the huts warm." 
 
 The railway winds through high hills and makes sharp 
 curves and steep ascents and descents. There are tracts 
 of rolling country under rough grass. Sometimes these 
 
842 COLONIAL JAPAN AND ITS UN-JAPANESE WAYS 
 
 areas have been cleared by forest fires started by lightning. 
 Wide spaces are a great change from the scenery of closely 
 farmed Japan. The thing that makes the hillsides different 
 from our wilder English and Scottish hillsides is that there 
 are neither sheep nor cattle on them. 
 
 When the culpable destruction of timber in Hokkaido is 
 added to what has been lost by forest fires, due to lightning 
 or to accident — one conflagration was more than 200 acres 
 in extent^ — it is easy to realise that the rivers are bringing 
 far more water and detritus from the hills than they ought 
 to do and are preparing flood problems with which it will 
 cost millions to cope when the country gets more closely 
 settled. It is deplorable that, apart from needless burning 
 on the hillsides, the farmers have not been dissuaded from 
 completely clearing their arable land of trees. On many 
 holdings there is not even a clump left to shelter the 
 farmhouse and buildings. In not a few districts the colon- 
 ists have created treeless plains. In place after place the 
 once beautiful countryside is now ugly and depressing. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 SHALL THE JAPANESE EAT BREAD AND MEAT ? 
 Bon yori shoko (Proof, not argument) 
 
 One day in Tokyo I heard a Japanese who was looking at a 
 photograph of a British woman War-worker feeding pigs 
 ask if the animals were sheep. Sheep are so rare in Japan 
 that an old ram has been exhibited at a country fair as a 
 lion. In contrast with Western agriculture based on live 
 stock we have in Japan an agriculture based on rice.' 
 But a section of the Japanese agricultural world turns its 
 eyes longingly to mixed farming, and so, when I returned 
 to Sapporo from my trip to the north of Hokkaido, I was 
 taken to see a Government stock farm — with a smoking 
 volcano in the background. Hokkaido has four other 
 official farms, one belonging to the Government and one for 
 raising horses for the £(rmy. I was shown, in addition to 
 horses, Ayrshire, Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle, Berk- 
 shire and Yorkshire pigs and Southdown and Shropshire 
 sheep in good buildings. I noticed two self-binders and a 
 hay loader and I beheld for the first time in Japan a dairy- 
 maid and collies — one was of a useless show type. 
 
 The extent to which the knack of looking after animals 
 and a liking for them can be developed is an interesting 
 question. Experts in stock-keeping with generations of 
 experience behind them will agree that it is on the answer 
 to this question that the success or non-success of the 
 Japanese in animal industry in no small measure depends. 
 
 I have a note of a discussion on the general treatment 
 of domestic animals in Japan in the course of which it was 
 admitted that they were " certainly not treated as well as 
 in most parts of Europe, or as in China." One reason given 
 
 1 For statistics of cultivated area and live stock, see Appendix LXVI. 
 24 343 
 
344 SHALL THE JAPANESE EAT BREAD AND MEAT ? 
 
 was that " most sects believe in the reincarnation of the 
 wicked in the form of animals." The freedom which dogs 
 enjoyed in English houses seemed strange ; my friends no 
 doubt forgot that Western houses have no tatami to be 
 preserved. It was contended, however, that cavalry 
 soldiers " often weep on parting from their horses " and 
 that " people with knowledge of animals are fond of them." 
 I have myself seen farmers' wives in tears at a horse fair 
 when the foals they had reared were to be sold and the 
 animals in their timidity nuzzled them. Westerners who 
 are familiar with the exquisite and humoursome studies 
 of animal, bird and insect life by Japanese artists of the 
 past and present day,^ are in no doubt that such work was 
 prompted by real knowledge and love of the "lower 
 creation." The Japanese have a keen appreciation of the 
 " song " of an amazing variety of " musical " insects — 
 there are 20,000 kinds of insects. It is an appreciation 
 not vouchsafed to the foreigner whose nerves are racked 
 by the insistent bizz of the semi or cicada — there are 
 38 kinds of cicada. Everyone will recall Hearn's chapter 
 on the trade in " singing insects." 
 
 One of my hosts in Aichi had two tiny cages which each 
 contained one of these creatures. The cages were hung 
 from the eaves. In the evening when the stone lantern in 
 the garden was lit, and it was desired to give an illusion of 
 greater coolness after a hot day a servant was sent up to the 
 roof to pour down a tubful of water in order to produce the 
 dripping sound of rain ; and this at once set the caged in- 
 sects chirping. 
 
 The sensitive foreigner is distressed by the way in which 
 newly born puppies and kittens are thrown out to die 
 because their Buddhist owners are too scrupulous to kill 
 them. The stranger's feelings are also worked on by the 
 unhappy demeanour and uncared-for look of dogs and cats. 
 On chancing to enter in a Japanese city an English 
 home where there were three dogs I could not but mark 
 
 1 One thinks of Takeuchi Seiho who lives in Kyoto, of Toba Sojo (11th 
 century) for monkeys, frogs and bullocks, and in the Tokugawa period 
 of Okio for dogs and carp, of Jakchii for fowls and birds, of Hasegawa 
 Tohaku and Sosen for monkeys, of Kawanabe Kyosai for crows, and of 
 Kesai and Hokusai for birds, fish and insects. 
 
THE PENSIONED HENS 845 
 
 how they contrasted in bearing and appearance with the 
 generality of the animals I had seen. Yet these dogs were 
 all mongrel foundlings which had been abandoned near my 
 friend's house or dropped into her garden. No doubt 
 most Japanese dogs suffer from having too much rice — and 
 poUshed at that — and practically no bones. An excuse 
 for the neglect of cats is that they scratch woodwork and 
 tatami and insist on carrying their food into the best room. 
 
 Horses are often overloaded and mercilessly driven on 
 hilly roads.' On the other hand, carters lead their horses. 
 It might be added that the coohes who haul and push hand- 
 carts bearing enormous loads never spare themselves. I 
 was told more than once of people who had been too tender- 
 hearted to make an end of old horses. I also heard of 
 hens which had been allowed to live on until they died of 
 old age. In some mountain communities it is the custom, 
 when a chicken must be killed for a visitor's meal, for an 
 exchange of birds to be made with a neighbour in order 
 that the killing may not be too painful for the owner." 
 
 Except in hotels and stores in Tokyo and the cities which 
 cater for foreigners, one seldom sees such an animal product 
 as cheese. On the Government farm I found excellent 
 cheese and butter being made. Untravelled Japanese 
 have the dislike of the smell of cheese that Western people 
 have of the stench of boiling daikon. Nor is cheese the 
 only alien food with which the ordinary Japanese has a 
 difficulty. The smell of mutton is repugnant to him and 
 he has yet to acquire a taste for milk. The demand for 
 milk is increasing, however. The guide books are quite 
 out of date. Nearly all the milk ordinarily sold for foreign- 
 
 ' Nevertheless it is well not to be hasty in judgment. On the day on 
 which this footnote was written, April 7, 1921, I find the following items 
 in the Daily Mail. On page 4 the Attorney-General regrets that the law 
 tolerates the " cruel practice " by which 30 pigeons were killed or injured 
 at a certain pigeon-shooting competition and expresses inability to bring in 
 legislation. On page 5, col. 2, an M.P. is reported as mentioning a case 
 in which a puppy had been kicked to death and as asking the Home 
 Secretary whether the law imposing imprisonment for a short term could not 
 be strengthened. On the same page, col. 5, » railway porter is reported 
 as having been fined for flinging three small calves into a farm cart by 
 the tails. 
 
 ' For poultry statistics, see Appendix LXVII. 
 
346 SHALL THE JAPANESE EAT BREAD AND MEAT ? 
 
 ers and invalids is supplied sterilised in bottles. On the 
 platforms of the larger railway stations bottles of milk are 
 vended from a copper container holding hot water. In 
 places where I have been able to obtain bread I have usually 
 had no difficulty in getting milk. (The word for bread, 
 fan, has been in the language since the coming of the 
 Portuguese, and all over Japan one finds sponge cake, 
 kasutera, a word frona the Spanish.) Butter in country 
 hotels is usually rancid, for the reason, I imagine, that it 
 is carelessly handled and kept too long and that few 
 Japanese know the taste of good butter. The development 
 of a liking for bread and butter is obviously one of the condi- 
 tions of the establishment of a successful animal industry. 
 Condensed milk is sold in large quantities, but chiefly to 
 supplement infants' supplies and to make sweetstuff. The 
 1919 production was estimated at 57 million tins. 
 
 One argument for an animal industry is that with an 
 increasing population the fish supply will not go so far as it 
 has done. It is said that fish are not to be found in as large 
 quantities as formerly. Another argument is that the 
 national imports include many products of animal industry 
 which might be advantageously produced at home. Not 
 only is more milk, condensed and fresh, being consumed : 
 with the adoption of foreign clothes in professional and 
 business life and in the army and navy, more and more 
 wool is being worn ' and more and more leather is needed 
 for the boots which are being substituted for geta and also 
 for service requirements. It is contended that for the 
 emancipation of Japanese agriculture from the petite 
 culture stage it is essential that a larger number of draught 
 oxen and horses shall be used. It is equally important, it 
 is suggested, that more manure shall be made on the farms, 
 so that a limit shall be placed on the outlay on imported 
 fertilisers. Finally there are those who urge that the 
 Japanese should be better fed and that better feeding can 
 only be brought about by an increased consumption of 
 animal products." 
 
 ' Before the extensive use of yofuku (foreign clothes) the dress of Japanese 
 men and women was entirely of cotton and silk or of cotton only. Much 
 of the material from which yo uhu are made is no doubt cotton. 
 See Appendix LXVIII 
 
PORK FOR JAPAN 347 
 
 The possibilities of outdoor stock keeping in Hokkaido 
 are limited by the fact that snow lies from November to 
 the middle of February and in the north of the island to the 
 end of March. A high agricultural authority did not think 
 that the number of cattle in all Japan could be raised to 
 more than two million within twenty years.' 
 
 In the management of sheep — there were about 5,000 in 
 the whole country when I was in Hokkaido — there has been 
 failure after failure, but it is held that the prospects for 
 sheep in Hokkaido are promising. (The question is dis- 
 cussed in the next Chapter.) At present, owing to the lack 
 of a market for mutton, pigs, which used to be kept in the 
 days before Buddhism exerted its influence, seem more 
 attractive to experimenting farmers than sheep. No one 
 has proposed that sheep should be kept in ones and twos 
 for milking as in Holland.' When milk is needed it is said 
 that goats, of which there are more than 90,000 in Japan, 
 are desirable stock, but I doubt whether more than 500 of 
 these goats are milked.' They are kept to produce meat. 
 Some people hope that those who eat goat's flesh will come 
 to realise the superiority of mutton. 
 
 The case for pigs is that sweet potatoes and squash can 
 be fed to them, that they produce frequent litters, that pork 
 is more and more appreciated, and that there are 800,000 
 of them in the country already. Some confident experts 
 who have possibly been influenced by the large consump- 
 tion of pork in China argue that pork may become equally 
 popular in Japan. There are two bacon factories not far 
 from Tokyo. 
 
 As in other countries, the argument for doing away with 
 foreign imports is pushed in Japan to ridiculous lengths. 
 Japan, which aims above all at being an exporting country, 
 cannot attain her desire without receiving imports to pay for 
 
 > The number of cattle, which was 1,342,587 in 1916, was only 1,307,120 
 in 1918. See also Appendix LXVI. 
 
 'For photographs and particulars of the milk sheep, see my Free 
 Fa/rmer in a Free State. 
 
 ' The value of the well-bred and well-cared-for goat as a milk and manure 
 producer is underestimated. The problem of keeping goats in such a way 
 that they shall not be destructive and shall yield the maximum of manure 
 is discussed in my Case for the Ooat. 
 
348 SHALL THE JAPANESE EAT BREAD AND MEAT ? 
 
 her exports.' The physiological argument for an animal 
 industry is unconvincing. The Japanese have a long 
 dietetic history as vegetarians who eat a little fish and 
 a few eggs. There exists in Japan an exceptionally in- 
 genious variety of nitrogenous foods derived from the 
 vegetable kingdom, and the Japanese have become ac- 
 customed to digest vegetable protein.' It might be 
 suggested, with some show of reason, that in this matter of 
 the adoption of a meat dietary the Japanese are once more 
 under the influence of foreign ideas which are a little out 
 of date.' In Europe and America there is evidence of a 
 decreasing meat consumption among educated people, and 
 medical papers are full of counsels to diminish the amount 
 of meat consumed. There is also in the West an increasing 
 sensitiveness to the horrors inflicted on animals in trans- 
 portation by rail and steamer, and if an animal industry 
 were established in Japan there would certainly be a great 
 deal of transportation by rail and steamer from the breeding 
 to the rearing districts, and from these districts to the 
 slaughtering centres. If the present advocacy of an animal 
 industry for Japan should triumph over the reluctance to 
 take animal life inculcated by Buddhism it is hardly likely 
 to be regarded in the West as a forward step in the ethical 
 evolution of the Japanese.* 
 
 I had the good fortune to meet in Sapporo a man who 
 
 1 This question as it aSeots an agricultural country is discussed in 
 A Free Farmer in a Free State. 
 
 ' There is a consensus of scientific opinion that " non-meat eating " races 
 such as the Japanese have longer alimentary tracts than flesh-eating Europ- 
 eans. It is difficult to be precise on the subject, an eminent Western 
 surgeon tells me, for bowels are as contractile as worms, which at one 
 minute measure 100 unite in length and the next minute have shortened to 
 30. So much depends on the state at death. 
 
 ' On the other hand, the Japanese have taken up many new things at 
 the point which we in the West have only recently reached. They begin 
 to produce milk and supply it, not in the milkman's pail, but in steriUsed 
 bottles. They abandon osmdles and lamps and, practically skipping gas, 
 adopt electric light. Three-quarters of the cities, towns and villages have 
 electric light or power. The capital invested in electric enterprises in 1919 
 was about 700 million yen or seven times that invested in gas. 
 
 * There is one blameless form of stock-keeping which is developing in 
 Hokkaido. Bees, which have still to make their way in Old Japan, are 
 now 6,000 hives strong in the northern island, though a stact was made only 
 six or seven years ago. 
 
WHAT JAPANESE EAT 
 
 849 
 
 has made a special study of the food of the Japanese people, 
 Professor Morimoto of the University. He said that he 
 had no doubt that when the Japanese began to eat bread 
 instead of rice they would develop a taste for meat as well 
 as butter. With great kindness he placed at my disposal 
 statistics which he afterwards expanded in a thesis for 
 Johns Hopkins University. He had investigated the 
 dietary of the families of 200 tenants of the University 
 farms. Reduced to terms of men per day the result was : 
 
 Rice (1-95 go) . 
 (Naked) barley (8-45 go) 
 Fish .... 
 Miso 
 Shoyu (soy) 
 
 Sen. 
 4-2 
 8-3 
 10 
 
 •7 
 
 •03 
 
 Vegetables 
 Pickles ' 
 Sak6 . 
 Sugar . 
 
 Sen. 
 . 2-2 
 . -6 
 . -08 
 . -02 
 
 1218 
 
 Or at Tokyo prices, 14-3 sen. On averaging, in terms of 
 per man per day, the food and drink consumption of all 
 Japan, Professor Morimoto found the result to be : 
 
 
 Sen. 
 
 
 Sen; 
 
 Grain 
 
 6-60 
 
 Fruits . 
 
 . -40 
 
 Legumes . 
 
 •89 
 
 Sugar . 
 
 . -53 
 
 Vegetables 
 
 2-00 
 
 Salt 
 
 . -20 
 
 Fish and seaweeds 
 
 •54 
 
 Tea 
 
 . 10 
 
 Beef and veal 
 
 •10] 
 
 Alcoholic 
 
 
 Other animal food 
 
 •08 
 
 liquor 
 
 . 1-50 
 
 Chicken 
 
 •03 
 
 •83 Tobacco 
 
 . 45 
 
 Eggs 
 
 •13 
 
 
 
 Milk 
 
 •04 
 
 
 1804' 
 
 The Professor compares with these totals the 84^4 sen and 
 89^3 sen per day which seem to represent the cost of the 
 food of the rank and file in the navy and army, and three 
 
 ' It is illustrative of the extent to which pickle is consumed in Japan 
 that a family in Sapporo was found to have eaten no fewer than 283 daikon 
 in a year. 
 
 2 The reader must put away the impression which this table gives of a 
 varied dietary. Few Japanese have such a range of food. The average 
 man habitually lives on rice, bean products {tofu, bean jelly and miso, 
 soft bean cheese), pickles, vegetables, tea, a little fish and sometimes 
 eggs. People of narrow means see little of eggs and not much fish, unless 
 it be kataubushi. 
 
350 SHALL THE JAPANESE EAT BREAD AND MEAT ? 
 
 standards of diet issued by the official Bureau of Hygiene 
 providing for expenditures of 32'1 sen, 33 sen and 44-4 sen 
 respectively. (All the prices I have cited are dated 1915.) 
 Beef and pork as well as fish are used in the army and navy. 
 The navy also uses bread. 
 
 Professor Morimoto estimates that a Japanese may be 
 fairly expected to consume only 80 per cent, of what a 
 foreigner needs, for the average weight of Japanese is only 
 13 hwan 830 momme to the European's 17 kwan 20 momme. 
 My personal impression, which I give merely for what it is 
 worth, for I have made no investigation of the subject, is 
 that, though Japanese may thrive on meagre fare, they eat 
 large quantities of food when their resources permit of 
 indulgence. The common ailment seems to be " stomach 
 ache." This may be due to eating at irregular hours, to an 
 unbalanced dietary, to the eating of undercooked viands 
 or to occasional over-eating, or to all of these causes.' 
 Undoubtedly there is much room for dietetic reform. 
 
 Professor Morimoto had come to the conclusion " that 
 there is under-feeding, largely due to a bad choice of foods, 
 that the relation of the nutritive value of foods to their cost 
 is insufficiently studied and that cooking can be improved." 
 It is of course an old criticism of the Japanese table that 
 food is either imperfectly cooked or prepared too much 
 with a view to appearance. The Professor's finding was 
 that the Japanese need the addition of meat and bread to 
 their dietary. As far as meat is concerned he did not con- 
 vince me. Let me quote him on the soy bean : " It is a 
 remarkably good substitute for meat. It is very low in 
 price but its nutritive value is very high. The essential 
 element of miso, tofu and shoyu is soy bean." Bread is 
 another matter. The Japanese Navy, presumably be- 
 
 ' The watering of vegetables with liquid manure, the usual practice of 
 the Japanese farmer, and the pollution of the paddies make salads and 
 insufficiently cooked green stuff dangerous and many water supplies of 
 questionable purity. Great efforts have been made to provide safe tap 
 water from the hills. Intestinal parasites are common. The build of the 
 Japanese makes for strength, but in the urban areas there is much absence 
 from work on the plea of ill-health. Both in Japan and in England I have 
 been struck by the fact that when I made an excursion with an urban 
 Japanese he often tired before I did, and on none of these trips was I in 
 anything like first-class condition. 
 
THE CASE AGAINST RICE 851 
 
 cause it may find itself far from Japan, has accustomed its 
 sailors to eat bread, and a case can certainly be made out 
 for the general population not relying on rice as a grain 
 food. But, as the large quantities of barley eaten show, 
 there is no such reliance now. Morimoto urged that while 
 there might be no difference in the nutritive value of wheat 
 and rice, rice as tisually eaten induced " abnormal disten- 
 sion of the stomach and poor nutrition." Again, wheat 
 was a world crop,' whereas rice, owing to the Japanese 
 objection to foreign rice, was a local crop. If the Japanese 
 were users of wheat as well as of rice they would not have 
 to pay so much for food, when, on the failure of the rice crop 
 in considerable parts of Japan, the price of rice was high. 
 " The consumption is about 10 million bushels more than 
 the production." Further, rice was more costly in cultiva- 
 tion than wheat, and its production could not be increased so 
 as to keep pace with the increase in population. The yield, 
 which was 46 million koku in 1904, was only 50 millions in 
 1912 ; and 65 millions in 1927 seemed an excessive 
 estimate. In 1912 the importation of rice was 2 million 
 hoku. But on all these points the reader should take note of 
 the data on page 84 and in Appendices XXIV and XXV. 
 The Professor's concluding point against rice was that it 
 was expensive to prepare. The washing of the rice in a 
 succession of waters and the cleaning of the sticky pot in 
 which it was cooked and of the equally sticky tub in which 
 it was served took a great deal of time. Then in order to 
 cook rice properly — and the Japanese have become connois- 
 seurs — the exact proportion of water must be gauged. The 
 supplies of rice to be cooked were so considerable that the 
 name of the servant lass was " girl to boil the rice." But 
 when bread was used instead of rice, said the Professor 
 jubilantly, a baking twice a week would do. Why, an hour a 
 day might be saved, which in twenty years would be 73,000 
 hours, or a whole year, and, reckoning women's labour as 
 worth 5 sen an hour, that would be a saving of 565 yen ! 
 
 1 Many Japanese look forward to a great production of wheat on the 
 north-eastern Asiatic mainland under Japanese auspices. In considering 
 imports of wheat it shotild be remembered that some of it is used in soy 
 and macaroni. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 MUST THE JAPANESE MAKE THEIR OWN " YOFUKU " ? ' 
 
 " God damn all foreigners ! " — Jnterrupier at one of Mr. Gladstone's 
 early meetings at Oxford 
 
 When I was in Hokkaido sheep were being experimented 
 with at different places on the mainland, investigators and 
 sheep buyers had gone off to Australia, New Zealand and 
 South America, and a Tokyo Sheep Bureau of two dozen 
 officials had been established. Great hopes were built on 
 a few hundred sheep in Hokkaido.' But I noticed that 
 Government farm sheep were under cover on a warm 
 September day. Also I heard of trouble with two well- 
 known sheep ailments. There was talk nevertheless of the 
 day when there would be a million sheep in Hokkaido, 
 perhaps three millions. On the mainland I also met high 
 officials and enthusiastic prefectural governors who dreamed 
 dreams of sheep farming in Old Japan, where land is costly, 
 farms small, agriculture intensive, grazing ground to seek, 
 and farmland necessarily damp. This sheep keeping is 
 conceived as one animal or perhaps two on a holding as 
 rather unhappy by-products. The notion is that the wool 
 and manure of a sheep would meet the expense of its keep 
 and that the mutton would be profit. Hopes of an extension 
 of sheep breeding resting on such a basis seem to be extrava- 
 gant. One high authority told me that it would take 
 twenty or thirty years to develop sheep keeping. 
 
 The sheep at present in Japan are not living in natural 
 conditions. They feed on cultivated crops. Sheep could 
 hardly live a week on natural Japanese pasture. The 
 wild herbage is full of the sharp bamboo grass. In the 
 
 ' Yofuku means foreign clothes. 
 
 ' In 1920 there were 8,219 sheep in Japan, including 945 in Hokkaido. 
 
 352 
 
THE SHEEP PROBLEM 858 
 
 summer much of the eatable herbage dries up. Not only 
 must sheep endure the summer heat and insects ; they must 
 survive the trying rainy season. But they must do more 
 than merely endure and survive. In order to produce good 
 wool it is necessary that they shall be in good condition. 
 The hair of one's head immediately shows the effect of 
 imperfect nutrition or unhealthy conditions, and it is the 
 same with the wool on the back of the sheep. 
 
 It is said that the quaUty of the wool on the sheep kept 
 in Japan depreciates. However this may be, it is plain that 
 sheep breeding must be conducted on a large scale in order 
 to produce wool in commercial quantities and of even 
 quality. Some notion of the land normally required for 
 sheep may be estimated from the fact that Australian 
 pasture carries no more than four sheep per acre.^ 
 
 An improvement of Japanese herbage sufficient to fit it 
 for sheep would be a heavy task even in small areas. It is 
 not only the herbage but the rocks below it which are all 
 wrong for sheep, if we are to judge by the geological forma- 
 tions on which sheep flourish in the West. If the sheep were 
 put on cultivated land ' or placed on straw as I saw them 
 in Hokkaido there would be serious risks of foot rot. No 
 doubt there would also be insect pests to control. If Japan 
 set up sheep keeping she would no doubt have to devise her 
 own special breed of sheep, for the well-known Western 
 breeds are artificial products. Probably the experiments 
 which are being made in China with sheep at an earlier stage 
 of development are proceeding on the right lines. I have 
 already spoken of the fact that a Japanese taste for mutton 
 has yet to be cultivated. 
 
 This is a formidable list of difficulties confronting the 
 new Governmental Sheep Bureau. No doubt much may be 
 done by a large expenditure of money and much patience. 
 The Japanese have wrought marvels before by spending 
 money and having a large stock of patience. Account must 
 also be taken of the spirit reflected in the speech made to me 
 
 '■ A sheep produces about 7 lbs. of wool in the year. But this is the 
 unsooured weight. In Japan, an expert assured me, it would not reach 
 more than 56 to 60 per cent, when scoured. 
 
 2 "To-day sheep cannot be kept on arable to leave any reward to the 
 fanner. " — Country Life, August 20, 1921. 
 
354 MUST JAPANESE MAKE THEIR OWN " YOFUKU " ? 
 
 by a Japanese friend when I read the foregoing paragraph 
 to him : 
 
 " But we are keen to try. If there were no necessity to 
 prepare for war, when we must have wool for soldiers, 
 sailors and officials, we might rely on Australia and else- 
 where and hope to improve the inferior and dirty Chinese 
 wool. But thinking of the disease prevailing in Northern 
 Manchuria and of service needs, we want to try sheep keep- 
 ing with some subsidy in Hokkaido and on the mainland 
 in Northern Aomori where there is much dry wild land and 
 the farmers are often miserable — there are villages where 
 the people do not wash. We might provide some of the 
 wool needed by Japan. We have practically met our needs 
 in sugar, though of course our needs are small compared 
 with England and America." 
 
 Let us turn from the sheep problem to the factory prob- 
 lem. What are the difficulties of the woollen industry ? 
 In the first place, as we have seen, there is no home supply 
 of wool worth mentioning. Further, there is the intricacy 
 of woollen manufacture. Cotton machinery has been 
 brought to such a pitch of perfection for every operation 
 and there are in existence so many technical manuals for 
 every department of cotton manufacture that a certain 
 standardisation of output is not difficult. The problem 
 of woollen manufacture is much more comphcated. The 
 output cannot be similarly standardised, and there are 
 many directions in which originality, self-reliance and 
 experience come into play decisively. 
 
 In the woollen districts of Great Britain the operatives 
 are people who have been in the trade all their lives, whose 
 parents and grandparents have been in the trade before 
 them. There is not only an hereditary aptitude but an 
 hereditary interest. There is not only an individual interest 
 but an interest of the whole community. The welfare of a 
 town or city is wrapped up in the woollen industry. This 
 is not so in Japan. The mill workers in the Tokyo prefec- 
 ture, for example, come from remote parts of Japan, and 
 the girls — and three-quarters of the employees of the woollen 
 industry are girls — are merely on a three-years contract. 
 The girls arrive absolutely inexperienced. Even in England 
 
OF JAPANESE GOODS 855 
 
 it is considered that it takes two or three years to make a 
 worker skilful. Within the three-years period for which 
 the Japanese mill girls or their parents contract, as many as 
 30 per cent, leave the mills and, appalling fact, from 20 to 
 25 per cent, die.' Not more than 10 per cent, renew their 
 three-years contract. Therefore there is, at present at 
 any rate, little real skilled labour in the factories. Another 
 difficulty is the absence of skilful wool sorters. Even 
 before the War a good wool sorter commanded in England 
 from £3 to £4 a week. One of the things which hampers 
 the Japanese woollen industry is the prevalence of illness 
 at the factories. They must have, in consequence, about 
 25 per cent, more labour than is needed. 
 
 Generally one would say that the industry at its present 
 stage is not only weak on the labour side,' but, where it 
 is efficient, is skilful rather in imitation than in original 
 design. Ever5rthing produced is an imitation of foreign 
 designs. That is not an unnatural state of things, however, 
 at the commencement of a new industry. 
 
 With regard to the old complaint of Japanese goods 
 failing to come up to sample, the shortcoming is often due 
 not to intentional dishonesty but simply to inability to 
 produce a uniform product. In one factory an order had 
 to be filled by bringing together work from 300 different 
 places. The first delivery of the cloth produced for the 
 Russian army was like the sample, but the later deliveries, 
 though of excellent material, were not, for the simple reason 
 that the precise raw materials for the required blending 
 did not exist in Japan. 
 
 One of the marvels of the industry is the high prices 
 obtained in Japan. The best winter serge was selUng in 
 England before the War at 8s. a yard. The Japanese price 
 for winter serge was from 5 to 6 yen. Before the War it 
 was possible to import cloth at 50 per cent, less than the 
 local rates. Nevertheless there seemed to be a market for 
 everything. Japanese cloth lacks finish but it is made out 
 of good materials and will wear. The factories are com- 
 pelled to use a better quahty of material in order to get 
 anywhere near the appearance of imported goods. A 
 ^ See Appendix LXIX. ^ See Appendix LXX. 
 
856 MUST JAPANESE MAKE THEIR OWN " YOFUKU " ? 
 
 foreign manufacturer, " owing to his skill in manufacture," 
 as it was once explained to me, may produce a cloth of a 
 certain quality containing only 10 per cent, new wool : 
 the Japanese manufacturer, in order to produce a com- 
 parable article must use 30 per cent, new wool. Obviously 
 this means that the Japanese factory must charge higher 
 prices. 
 
 In considering the position of the industry it is natural 
 to ask how it would be affected if the Japanese factories 
 were able to draw more largely upon Manchuria for wool. 
 The answer is that the sheep in Manchuria at present yield 
 what is called " China " wool, which is suitable only for 
 blankets and coarse cloth. 
 
 To some who feel a sympathy for Japan in her present 
 stage of industrial development and are inclined to take 
 long views it may seem a pity that she should contemplate 
 making such a radical change in her national habits as is 
 represented by the demand for woollen materials and for 
 meat. Japanese dress, easy, hygienic and artistic though 
 it is, and admirably suited for wearing in Japanese dwell- 
 ings, is ill adapted for modern business life, not to speak of 
 factory conditions. But it has not yet been demonstrated 
 that Japan is under the necessity of substituting, to so 
 large an extent as she evidently contemplates doing, 
 woollen for cotton and silk clothing, and Western clothing 
 for her own characteristic raiment.' The cotton padded 
 garment and bed cover are both warm and clean. It is 
 odd that this new demand on the part of Japan for woollen 
 material should coincide with movements in Europe and 
 America to utilise more cotton, for underclothing at any 
 rate. There is undoubtedly a hygienic case of a certain 
 force against wool. The same is true of meat. It may well 
 be that the dietary of many Japanese has not been si^- 
 ciently nutritious, but much of the meat-eating which is now 
 being indulged in seems to be due more to an aping of 
 foreign ways than to physical requirements. The more meat 
 
 1 An immense amount of silk is used in Japanese men's clothing. The 
 kimono, except the cheaper summer kind and the bath kimono {yukata), 
 which are cotton, is silk. So are the hakama (divided skirt) and the 
 haori (overcoat). Japanese women's clothes are largely silk. The dress 
 of working people is cotton, but even they have some silk clothing. 
 
TEN YEARS HENCE 857 
 
 Japan eats and the more she dresses herself in wool the 
 more she places herself under the control of the foreigner.' 
 Whatever degree of success may attend sheep breeding 
 within the limits imposed upon it by physical conditions 
 in Japan, the raw material of the woollen industry must be 
 mostly a foreign product. As far as meat is concerned, 
 it is difficult to believe that while the agriculture of 
 Japan is based upon rice production there is room for the 
 production of meat on a large scale. If the meat and wool 
 are to be produced in Manchuria and Mongolia we shall see 
 what we shall see. The significance of the experiment of 
 the Manchuria Railway Company since 1913 in crossing 
 merino and Mongolian sheep and the work which is being 
 done on the sheep runs of Baron Okura in Mongolia cannot 
 be overlooked. Ten years hence it will be interesting to 
 examine industrially and socially the position of the woollen 
 industry ' and the animal industry in Japan and on the 
 mainland, and the net gain that the country has made. 
 
 » " By degrees they proceeded to all the stimulations of banqueting 
 which was indeed part of their bondage." — Tacitus on the Britons under 
 Roman influence. 
 
 2 The industry has already made on the London market an impression 
 of competence in some directions. For production and exports, see 
 Appendix LXX, 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 Concerning these things, they are not to be delivered but from much 
 intercourse and discussion. — Plato 
 
 Emigrants do not willingly seek a climate worse than their 
 own. This is one of the reasons why the development of 
 Hokkaido has not been swifter. The island is not much 
 farther from the mainland than Shikoku, but it is near, not 
 the richest and warmest part of the mainland, but the 
 poorest and the coldest. If we imagine another Scotland 
 lying off Cape Wrath, at the distance of Ireland from Scot- 
 land, and with a climate corresponding to the northerly 
 situation of such a supposititious island, we may reahse how 
 remoteness and climatic limitations have hindered the 
 progress of Hokkaido. 
 
 " Our mode of living is not suited to the colder climate," 
 an agricultural professor said to me. " Poor emigrants 
 do not have money enough to build houses with stoves and 
 properly fitting windows." 
 
 To what extent the modified farming methods rendered 
 necessary by the Hokkaido climate have had a deterring 
 effect on would-be settlers I do not know. It has never 
 been demonstrated that the Japanese farmer prefers ardu- 
 ous amphibious labour to the dry-land farming in which 
 most of the world's land workers are engaged ; but the 
 cultivation of paddy or a large proportion of paddy is his 
 traditional way of farming. Rice culture also means to 
 him the production of the crop which, when weather con- 
 ditions favour, is more profitable than any other. In 
 Hokkaido, as we have seen, the remunerative kind of agri- 
 culture is mixed farming, and, in a large part of the country, 
 rice cannot be grown at all. Against objections to 
 Hokkaido on the ground of the strangeness of its farming 
 
 358 
 
LAND GRABBERS AND WASTERS 359 
 
 may probably be set, however, the cheapness of land 
 there. 
 
 An undoubted hindrance to the colonisation of Hokkaido 
 has been land scandals and land grabbing. Many of 
 what the late Lord Salisbury called the " best bits " are 
 in the hands of big proprietors or proprietaries. Some 
 large landowners no doubt show public spirit. But 
 their class has contrived to keep farmers from getting 
 access to a great deal of land which, because of its 
 quality and nearness to practicable roads and the 
 railway, might have been worked to the best advantage. 
 In various parts of Japan I heard complaints. " The 
 land system in Hokkaido," one man in Aichi said to 
 me, "is so queer that land cannot be got by the families 
 needing it, I mean good land." Again in Shikoku I was 
 assured that " the most desirable parts of the Hokkaido 
 are in the hands of capitalists who welcome tenants only." 
 In more than one part of northern Japan I was told of 
 emigrants to Hokkaido who had " returned dissatisfied." 
 A charge made against the large holder of Hokkaido land 
 is that he is an absentee and a city man who lacks the 
 knowledge and the inchnation to devote the necessary 
 capital to the development of his estate. Of late the rise in 
 the value of timber has induced not a few proprietors to 
 interest themselves much more in stripping their land of 
 trees than in developing its agricultural possibiUties. 
 
 The development of Hokkaido may also have been slowed 
 down to some extent by a lower level of education among the 
 people than is customary on most of the mainland, by a 
 rougher and less skilful farming than is common in Old 
 Japan and by the existence of a residuum which would 
 rather " deal " or " let George do it " or cheat the Ainu 
 than follow the laborious colonial life. But no cause has 
 been more potent than a lack of money in the public 
 treasury. I was told that for five years in succession 
 Tokyo had cut down the Hokkaido budget. Necessary 
 public work and schemes for development have been 
 repeatedly stopped. At a time when the interests of Hok- 
 kaido demand more farmers and there is a general com- 
 plaint of lack of labour, at a time when there are per- 
 25 
 
360 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 sistent pleas for oversea expansion, there are in Japan 
 twice or thrice as many people applying for land in the 
 island as are granted entry. The blunt truth is that the 
 State has felt itself compelled to spend so much on mili- 
 tary and naval expansion that the claims of Hokkaido for 
 the wherewithal for better roads, more railway line and 
 better credit have often been put aside.' 
 
 One thing is certain, that slow progress in the develop- 
 ment of Hokkaido gives an opening to the critics of 
 Japan who doubt whether her need for expansion beyond 
 her own territory is as pressing as is represented by 
 some writers. However this may be, Hokkaido is stated 
 to take only a tenth of the overplus of the population of 
 Old Japan. The number of emigrants in 1913 was no 
 larger than the number in 1906. A usual view in Hokkaido 
 is that the island can hold twice as many people as it now 
 contains. " When 3,625,000 acres are brought into 
 cultivation," says an official publication, " Hokkaido will 
 be able easily to maintain 5,000,000 inhabitants on her own 
 products." 
 
 Very much of what has been achieved in Hokkaido has 
 been done under the stimulating influence of the Agri- 
 cultural College, now the University. The northern 
 climate seems to be conducive to mental vigour in both 
 professors and students. If in moving about Hokkaido 
 one is conscious of a somewhat materialistic view of progress 
 it may be remembered that an absorption in " getting on " 
 is characteristic of colonists and their advisers everjrwhere. 
 It is not high ideals of Ufe but bitter experience of inability 
 to make a living on the mainland which has brought immi- 
 grants to Hokkaido. As time goes on, the rm-al and 
 industrial development may have a less sordid look.' At 
 
 "■ A high authority assured me that 100 million yen (pre-War figures) 
 could be laid out to advantage. A Japanese economist's comment was : 
 " Why not touch on the extraordinary proportion of land owned by the 
 Imperial Household and also by the State for military purposes ? " 
 
 2 In driving through what seemed to be one of the best streets in 
 Sapporo, I noticed that some exceptionally large houses were the dwellings 
 of the registered prostitutes. Each house had a large ground-floor window. 
 Before it was a barrier about a yard high which cleared the ground, leaving 
 a space of about another yard. Such of the public as were interested were 
 able, therefore, to peer in without being identified from the street, for 
 
WHAT HOKKAIDO HAS TAUGHT 361 
 
 present the visitor who lacks time to penetrate into the 
 fastnesses of Hokkaido and enjoy its natural beauties brings 
 away the unhappy impression which is presented by a view 
 of man's first assault on the wild. 
 
 But he must still be glad to have seen this distant part 
 of Japan. He finds there something stimulating and free 
 which seems to be absent from the older mainland. It is 
 possible that when Hokkaido shall have worked out her 
 destiny she may not be without her influence on the develop- 
 ment of Old Japan. Those of the settlers who are reason- 
 ably well equipped in character, wits and health are not 
 only making the living which they failed to obtain at home ; 
 they are testing some national canons of agriculture. 
 Face to face with strangers and with new conditions, 
 these immigrants are also examining some ideals of 
 social Ufe and conduct which, old though they are, may 
 not be perfectly adapted to the new age into which Japan 
 has forced herself. One evening in Hokkaido I saw a lone 
 cottage in the hills. At its door was the tall pole on which 
 at the Bon season the lantern is hung to guide the hovering 
 soul of that member of the family who has died during the 
 year. The settler's lantern, steadily burning high above 
 his hut, was an emblem of faith that man does not live 
 by gain alone which the hardest toil cannot quench. In 
 whatever guise it may express itself, it is the best hope for 
 Hokkaido and Japan. 
 
 During my stay in the island I had an opportunity of 
 meeting some of the most influential men from the Governor 
 downwards ; also several interesting visitors from the main- 
 land. We often found ourselves getting away from Hok- 
 kaido's problems to the general problems of rural life. 
 
 Of the good influences at work in the village, the first 
 I was once more assured, was " popular education and 
 school ethics, a real influence and blessing." The 
 second was " the disciplinary training of the army for 
 
 only their legs and feet were visible. In Tokyo and elsewhere this 
 exhibition of girls to the public has ceased. The place of the girls is taken 
 by enlarged framed photographs. I found on enquiry that the Sapporo 
 houses are so well organised as to have their proprietors' association. At a 
 little town like Obihiro an edifice was pointed out to me containing fifty 
 or more women. 
 
362 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 regularity of conduct." (" The influence of officers on 
 their young soldiers is good, and they give them or pro- 
 vide them with lectures on agricultural subjects and allow 
 them time to go in companies to experimental farms.") 
 
 Someone spoke of " the influence of the religion of the 
 past." " The religion of the past I " exclaimed an elderly 
 man ; "in half a dozen prefectures it may be that religion 
 is a rural force, but elsewhere in the Empire there is a lack 
 of any moral code that takes deep root in the head. After 
 all Christians are more trustworthy than people drinking 
 and playing with geisha." 
 
 On the other hand a prominent Christian said : " There 
 is a weakness in our Christians, generally speaking. There 
 is an absence of a sound faith. The native churches have 
 no strong influence on rural Ufe. There is often a certain 
 priggishness and pride in things foreign in saying, ' I am 
 a Christian.' " 
 
 Another man spoke in this wise : " I have been impressed 
 by some of the following of Uchimura. They seem ardent 
 and real. But I have also been attracted by strength of 
 character in members of various sects of Christians. The 
 theology and phraseology of these men may be curious, may 
 be in many respects behind the times, but their religion had 
 a beautiful aspect.' Many of our people have got some- 
 thing of Christian ethics, but are no church-goers. Some 
 Japanese try to combine Christian principles with old 
 Japanese virtues ; others with some soul supporting 
 Buddhistic ideas. We must have Christianity if only to 
 supply a great lack in our conception of personality. 
 People who have accepted Christianity show so much more 
 personality and so much more interest in social reform." 
 
 When we returned to agricultural conditions, one who 
 spoke with authority said : " In Old Japan the agricultural 
 system has become dwarfed. The individual cannot raise 
 the standard of living nor can crops be substantially in- 
 creased. The whole economy is too small.' The people 
 
 ^ The classification is 101,571 Protestants, 76,983 Boman Catholics and 
 36,265 Greek Church. 
 
 2 " ' Spade fanning ' is an apt designation of the system of farming or 
 rather of cultivation, for little is done in the way of raising stock." — 
 Pbofessob Yoeoi. 
 
ATTRACTIONS OF CALIFORNIA AND AUSTRALIA 363 
 
 are too close on the ground. They must spread out to north- 
 eastern Japan, to Hokkaido, Korea and Manchuria. The 
 population of Korea could be greatly increased. There is 
 an immense opening in Manchuria, which is four or five 
 times the area of the Japanese Empire and sparsely popu- 
 lated. There is also Mongolia." ' 
 
 " But in Korea," one who had been there said, " there 
 are the Koreans, an able if backward people, to be con- 
 sidered — they will increase with the spread of our sanitary 
 methods among a population which was reduced by a 
 primitive hygiene and by maladministration. And as to 
 our people going to the mainland of Asia, we do not really 
 like to go where rice is not the agricultural staple, and we 
 prefer a warm country. In Formosa, where it is warm, we 
 are faced by the competition of the Chinese at a lower 
 standard of life." The perfect places for Japanese are 
 California, New Zealand and Australia, but the Americans 
 and Australasians won't have us. I do not complain ; we 
 do not allow Chinese labour in Japan. But we think that 
 we might have had Australasia or New Zealand if we had 
 not been secluded from the world by the Tokugawa regime, 
 and so allowed you British to get there first. It is not 
 strange that some of our dreamers should grudge you your 
 place there, should cherish ideas of expansion by walking 
 in your footsteps. But it is wisdom to realise that we 
 cannot do to-day what might have been done centuries ago 
 or make history repeat itself for our benefit. It is wiser 
 to seek to reduce the amount of misapprehension, prejudice 
 and — shall I say ? — national feehng in Japan and America 
 and Australasia, and try to procure ultimate accom- 
 modation for us all in that way. But not too much reduce, 
 perhaps, for, in the present posture of the world, nationa- 
 
 1 See Appendix XXX. 
 
 2 But surely the basic reason against a large emigration of farmers and 
 artisans to Formosa, or to Manchuria, Mongolia or Korea, with the 
 intention of working at their callings, is that the standard of living is lower 
 there ? The chief attraction of America and Australasia is that the standard 
 of living, is higher. The question of over- population must be considered 
 in relation to the facts in Appendices XXV, XXX and LXXX, and on 
 page 331. It is not established that the Japanese have now, or are likely 
 to have in the near future, a pressing need to emigrate. 
 
864 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 list feeling and — we do not want premature inter-marriage 
 — racial feeling are still valuable to mankind." 
 
 A speaker who followed said : " Remember to our credit 
 how our area under cultivation in Old Japan continually 
 increases.' Bear in mind, too, what good use we have 
 made of the land we have been able to get under cultivation 
 — so many thousand more cho of crops than there are cho 
 of land, due, of course, to the two or three crops a year 
 system in many areas." " 
 
 " As for the situation the emigrants ' leave behind them 
 in Old Japan," resumed the first speaker, " the experiment 
 should be tried of putting ten or so of tiny holdings * under 
 one control, and an attempt should be made to see what 
 improved implements and further co-operation' can 
 effect. I suppose the thing most needed on the naainland 
 is working capital at a moderate rate. Think of 900 
 million yen of farmers' debt, much of it at 12 per cent, and 
 some of it at 20 per cent. ! I do not reckon the millions of 
 prefectural, county and village debt. Of what value is it 
 to raise the rice crop to 3 or 4 koku per tan (60 or 80 bushels 
 per acre) ° if the moneylender profits most ? The farmers 
 of Old Japan are undoubtedly losing land to the moneyed 
 people.' Every year the number of farmers owning their 
 own land decreases " and the number of tenants increases 
 and more country people go to the towns.' And, as an 
 official statement says, ' the physical condition of the army 
 conscripts from the rural districts is always superior to that 
 of the conscripts of the urban districts.' " 
 
 Some Western criticism of Japanese agriculture cannot 
 be overlooked.'" Criticism is naturally invited by (1) 
 
 1 See Appendix LXXII. a See Appendix LXXIII. 
 
 3 See Appendi-x LXXIV. 
 
 * Between 1909 and 1918 the average area of holdings rose from 1'03 
 to 1-09 oho or from 2-52 to 2-67 acres or 1-02 to 1-08 hectares. 
 
 ' There were in 1919 some 13,000 co-operative societies of all sorts. The 
 number increases about 500 a year. 
 
 • For rise in production per tan, see Appendix LXXV. 
 
 ' See Appendix LXXVI. » See Appendix LXXVII. 
 
 ' See Appendix LXXVIII. 
 
 '" See, for example, C. V. Sale in the Transactions oj the Society of Arts, 
 1907, and J. M, MoCaleb in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 
 Japan, 1916. 
 
ANSWERS TO SOME CRITICS 365 
 
 Japanese devotion to what is in Western eyes an exotic 
 crop — but owing to exceptional water supplies, favourable 
 climatic conditions and acquired skill in cultivation, the 
 best crop for all but the extreme north-east of Japan ' ; (2) 
 the small portions in which much of that crop is grown — 
 of necessity ; (3) the primitive implements — not ill-adapted, 
 however, to a primitive cultural system; (4) the non- 
 utihsation of animal or mechanical power in a large part of 
 the country — due as much to physical conditions as to lack 
 of cheap capital ; (5) what is spoken of as " the never- 
 ending toil" — against which must be set the figures I have 
 quoted showing the number of farmers who do not work 
 on an average more than 4 or 5 days a week ; and (6) the 
 moderate total production compared with the number of 
 producers — which must be considered in reference to the 
 object of Japanese agriculture and in relation to a lower 
 standard of living. Japanese agriculture, as we have seen, 
 has shortcomings, many of which are being steadily met ; 
 but with all its shortcomings it does succeed in providing, 
 for a vast population per square ri, subsistence in conditions 
 which are in the main endurable and might be easily made 
 better. 
 
 Paddy adjustment has clearly shown that paddies 
 above the average size are more economically worked 
 than small ones, but these adjusted paddies are on 
 the plains and a large proportion of Japanese paddies 
 have had to be made on uneven or hilly ground where 
 physical conditions make it impossible for these rice 
 fields to be anything else than small and irregular. 
 Japanese agriculture is what it is and must largely 
 remain what it is because Japan is geologically and 
 cUmatically what it is, and because the social develop- 
 ment of a large part of Japan is what it is. Com- 
 parisons with rice culture in Texas, California and Italy 
 are usually made in forgetfulness of the fact that the rice 
 fields there are generally on level fertile areas, in America 
 sometimes on virgin soil. In Japan rice culture extends to 
 poor unfavourable land because the people want to have 
 
 ' For the question, la rice the right crop for Japan ? see Appendix 
 LXXIX. 
 
366 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 rice everywhere.' The Japanese have cultivated the same 
 paddies for centuries, Some American rice land is thrown 
 out of cultivation after a few years. In fertile localities the 
 Japanese get twice the average crop. It must also be 
 remembered that Japanese paddies often produce two crops, 
 a crop of rice and an after-crop. Japanese technicians are 
 well acquainted with Texan, Californian and Italian rice 
 culture, and Japanese have tried rice production both in 
 California and Texas. 
 
 " They talk of Texan and Italian rice culture," said one 
 man who had been abroad on a mission of agricultural 
 investigation, " but I found the comparative cost of rice 
 production greater in Texas than in Japan. Some 
 Japanese farmers who went to Texas were overcome by 
 weeds because of dear labour. In Italian paddies, also, 
 I saw many more weeds than in ours. It is rational, 
 of coiu-se, for Americans and Italians to use improved 
 machinery, for they have expensive labour conditions, but 
 we have cheap labour. The Texans have large paddies 
 because their land is cheap, but ours is dear. In these big 
 paddies the water cannot be kept at two or three inches, as 
 with us. It is necessarily five inches or so, too deep, and 
 the soil temperatm-e falls and they lose on the crops what 
 they gain by the use of machinery. Further, it must be 
 remembered that we are not producing our rice for export. 
 It is a special kind for ourselves, which we like " ; but 
 foreigners would just as soon have any other sort. We 
 have no call, therefore, to develop our rice culture in the 
 same degree as our sericulture, which rests mainly on a 
 valuable oversea trade." 
 
 " On this general question of improvement of implements 
 and methods," said another member of our company, " we 
 
 ' Dr. Yahagi in an address delivered in Italy pointed out to his audience 
 that Japan had 15 times as large an area under rice as Italy and that, 
 while the Italian harvest ranged between 42 and 83 hectolitres per hectare, 
 the Japanese ranged between 66 and 130. The area under rice in the 
 United States in 1920 was 1,337,000 acres and the yield 53,710,000 bushels. 
 The area under rice has steadily increased since 1913, when it was only 
 25,744,000 bushels. 
 
 2 A well-informed Japanese who read this Chapter doubted the ability 
 of his countrymen to distinguish between native and Korean, Californian 
 pr Texem rice. Saigon is another matter. See Appendix XXIV, 
 
TOOLS AND MACHINERY 
 
 867 
 
 must use machinery and combine farming management 
 when industrial progress drives us to it ; but why try to 
 do it before we are compelled ? Concerning horses, the diffi- 
 culty which some farmers have in using them is the difficulty 
 of feeding them economically. Concerning cereals, our 
 consumption is not less than that of Germany, but Germany 
 imports more than twice the cereals we do, so there would 
 seem to be something to be said for our system." 
 
 " Some revolutionising of Japanese farming is necessary, 
 in combined threshing, for instance," the expert who had 
 opened our discussion said. " This combined threshing 
 is now seen in several districts, and combined threshing will 
 be extended. But there 
 is the objection to the 
 threshing machine that 
 it breaks the straw and 
 thus spoils it for farmers' 
 secondary industries. It 
 should not be impossible 
 to invent some way of 
 avoiding this, but the 
 threshing machine is also 
 too heavy for narrow 
 roads between paddies. 
 It is difficult to deliver 
 the crops to the machine 
 in sufficient bulk. Neces- 
 sity may show us ways, but small threshing machines 
 are not so economical. Of course we must have much 
 more co-operative buying of rural requirements, and 
 certainly there is room in some places for the Western scythe 
 made smaller, but our people, as you have seen, are 
 dexterous with their extremely sharp, short sickle, and 
 fodder is often cut on rather difficult slopes, from which 
 it is not easy to descend loaded, with a scythe. Some 
 foreigners who speak so positively about machinery for 
 paddies, and for, I suppose, the sloping uplands to which 
 our arable farming is relegated, do not really grasp the 
 physical conditions of our agriculture. And they are 
 always forgetting the warm dankness of our cUmate. 
 
 Cutting Grass 
 
368 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 They forget, too, that implements for hand use are more 
 efficient than machinery, and, if labour be cheap, more 
 economical. They forget above all that we are of 
 necessity a small- holdings country." 
 
 Is it such a bad thing to be a small-holdings country ? 
 Does the rural life of countries which are pre-eminently 
 small-holding, like Denmark and Holland, compare so 
 unfavourably with that of England ? I wonder how 
 much money has been sunk — most of it lost — duHng the 
 past quarter of a century in attempts to increase small 
 holdings in England. 
 
 " Because we have much remote, wild, uncultivated 
 land," the speaker I have interrupted continued, " that is 
 not to say that most of it, often at a high elevation, or 
 sloping, or poor in quality, as well as remote, can be profit- 
 ably broken up for paddies. Much of this land can be and 
 ought to be utilised in one fashion or another, but we have 
 found some experiments in this direction unprofitable, 
 even when rice was dear. But it may be said. Why break 
 up this wild land into paddies ? Why not have nice grassy 
 slopes for cattle as in Switzerland ? But our experts have 
 tried in vain to get grass established. The heavy rains 
 and the heat enable the bamboo grass to overcome the new 
 fodder grass we have sown. The first year the fodder grass 
 grows nicely, but the second year the bamboo grass con- 
 quers. In Hokkaido and Saghalien we are conquering 
 bamboo grass with fodder grass. The advice to go in 
 largely for fruit ignores the fact of our steamy damp 
 climate, which encourages sappy growth, disease and 
 those insects which are so numerous in Japan. We 
 cannot do much more than grow for home consumption." 
 
 " The advice to draw the cultivation of our small farms 
 under group control has not always been profitable when 
 followed by landlords," one who had not yet spoken 
 remarked. " They have not always made more when they 
 farmed themselves than when they let their land. All the 
 world over, land workers do better for themselves than for 
 others. Proposals further to capitalise farming which, with 
 a rural exodus already going on, would have the effect of 
 driving people off the land who are employed on it healthily 
 
THE TRUTH ABOUT INDUSTRIALISATION 869 
 
 and with benefit to the social organism, do not seem to offer 
 a more satisfactory situation for Japan. No country has 
 shown itself less afraid of business combination than Japan, 
 and the world owes as much to industry as to agriculture, 
 and I am not in the least afraid of machinery and capital ; 
 but production is not our final aim. Production is to serve 
 us ; we are not to serve production. If people can live in 
 self-respect on the land they are better off in many ways 
 than if they are engaged in industry in some of its modern 
 developments." 
 
 " The world is also better off," my interpreter in his notes 
 records me as saying when I was pressed to state my 
 opinion. " The day will come when the uselessness and 
 waste of a certain proportion of industry and commerce 
 will be realised, when the saving power of an export and 
 import trade in unnecessary things will be questioned and 
 when the cultivator of the ground will be restored to the 
 place in social precedence he held in Old Japan. With him 
 will rank the other real producers in art, literature and 
 science, industry and commerce. The industrialisation of 
 the West and its capitalistic system have not been so 
 perfectly successful in their social results for it to be certain 
 that Japan should be hurried more quickly in the industrial 
 and capitalistic direction than she is travelling already.' If 
 she takes time over her development, the final results may 
 be better for her and for the world. I have not noticed 
 that Japanese rural people who have departed from a simple 
 way of life through the acquirement of many farms or the 
 receipt of factory dividends have become worthier. On 
 the question of the alleged over-population of rural Japan, 
 one Japanese investigator has suggested to me that as many 
 
 • " Some of our statesmen," notes a Japanese reader of this Chapter, 
 " are carried away by ideas of an industrial El Dorado." Such men have 
 no understanding of the relation of rural Japan to the national welfare. 
 They are as blind guides as the Japanese who, caught by the glamour of 
 the West, threw away the artistic treasures of their forefathers and pulled 
 down beautiful temples and yaahiki. Japan has much to gain from i* 
 wise and just indtistrial system, but not a little of the present industrialisa- 
 tion is an exploitation of cheap labour, a destruction of craftsmanship and 
 social obligation, and an attempt to cut out the foreigner by the production 
 of rubbish. 
 
370 THE PROBLEMS OF JAPAN 
 
 as 20 per cent, could be advantageously spared from 
 agricultural labour. But he was not himself an agriculturist 
 or an ex-agriculturist. He was not even a rural resident. 
 Further, he conceived his 20 per cent, as entering rural 
 rather than urban industry. 
 
 " A great deal of afforestation and better use of a 
 large proportion of forest land, much more co-operation 
 for borrowing and buying, improved implements where 
 improved implements can be profitably used, animal 
 and mechanical power where they can be employed to 
 advantage, paddy adjustment to the limit of the practical, 
 more intelligent manuring, a wider use of better seeds,' 
 the bringing in of new land which is capable of yielding 
 a profit when an adequate expenditure is made upon 
 it, a mental and physical education which is ever im- 
 proving — all these, joined to better ways of life generally, 
 are obvious avenues of improvement, in Northern Japan 
 particularly, not to speak of Hokkaido.' But it is not 
 so much the details of improvement that seem urgently 
 to need attention. It is the general principles. I have 
 been assured again and again by prefectural governors and 
 agricultural experts — and in talking to a foreigner they 
 would hardly be likely to exaggerate — that considered 
 plans for the prevention of disastrous floods, for the 
 breaking up of new land, for the provision of loans and for 
 the development of public intelligence and well-being were 
 hindered in their areas by lack of money alone. The 
 degree to which rural improvements, with which the best 
 interests of Japan now and in the future are bound up, may 
 have been arrested and may still be arrested by erroneous 
 conceptions of national progress and of the ends to which 
 public energy and public funds ' may be wisely devoted is 
 
 1 The chairman of Rothamsted declares as I write that the standard 
 of English farming could be raised 60 per cent. Hall and Voelcker have 
 estimated that 20 million tons of farmyard manure made in the United 
 Kingdom is wasted through avoidable causes. 
 
 s For a discussion of the question of inner colonisation versus foreign 
 expansion, see Appendix LXXX. 
 
 ' For figures bearing on the relative importance of agriculture, commerce 
 and industry, see Appendix LXXXI. For armaments, see Appendix 
 XXXIII. 
 
THE TWO PATRIOTISMS 871 
 
 a matter for patriotic reflection.' No impression I have 
 gained in Japan is sharper than an impression o f arden t 
 patriotism. For good or ill, pat riotism isjhe^outstandinjgi 
 3a^^ese"virtuer What some patriots here and elsewhere 
 do not seem to realise, however, is what a quiet, homely, 
 everyday thing true patriotism is. The Japanese, wTOTso" 
 iMn^riEalents^b niaiiy n fortuitous advantages, 
 
 and with opportunities, such as no other nation has enjoyed, 
 of being able to profit by the social, economic and inter- 
 national experi ence of Stat es that have bought their experi- 
 ence dearly and havejnucKjEo^ riie, caiinoOairly expeiet to 
 We "IigKfcTy judged by contemporaries or by history. If the 
 course taken by Japan towards national greatness is at 
 times uncertain, it is due no doubt to the fascinations of 
 many will-o'-the-wisps. There can be one basis only for 
 the enlightened judgment of the world on the Japanese 
 people : the degree to which they are able to distinguish 
 the true from the mediocre and the resolution and common- 
 sense with which they take their own way." 
 
 " Our rural problems," a sober-minded young professor 
 added, after one of those pauses which are usual in conversa- 
 tions in Japan, " is not a technical problem, not even an 
 economic problem. It is, as you have realised, a socio- 
 logical problem. It is bound up with the mental attitude 
 of our people — and with the mental attitude of the 
 whole world." 
 
 '■ There are meuiy Britons who now reflect that millions which have gone 
 into Mesopotamia might have been better spent by the Ministries of 
 Health and Education. 
 
The blessing of her sun-warmed days ; 
 
 Her sea-spun cloak of wet ; 
 Her pointing valleys, veiled in haze, 
 
 Where field and wood have met ; 
 When we have gone our differing ways 
 
 These we shall not forget. 
 
 L. T., in The New East. 
 
 372 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 The sermon was bad enough, but the appendix was abominable.— 
 Mb. Bowdleb. 
 
 THE INCOME OF A MINISTER OF STATE FROM THE 
 LAND [I]. The speaker began by inheriting 3 cho (7 J acres). 
 He farmed a cho of rice field and about a third of a cho of dry 
 land. With rent from the part he let, with gains from the part 
 he farmed and with interest on 2,000 yen spare capital, he had 
 at end of the year a balance of 370 yen. With the money gained 
 from year to year more and more land was bought. At the 
 time of his talk with me he owned 8 cho. His net income, after 
 deducting cost of living, was 1,200 yen (including 500 yen from 
 the land that was let). In the future, when he farmed 7 cho 
 {\5\ acres), he believed that his balance would be 4,500 yen, 
 which is the salary of a Governor ! Or was, until the rise in 
 prices when Governors' salaries were raised about another 
 1,000 yen, with an additional allowance of from 600 to 400 yen 
 in the case of some prefectures. See also Appendix III. 
 
 " GETA " [II]. The geta is a flat piece of hard wood, about 
 the length of the foot but a little wider, with two stumpy pieces 
 fastened transversely below it. The foot maintains an un- 
 certain and, in the case of a novice whose big toe has not been 
 accustomed to separation from its fellows, a painful hold by 
 means of a toe strap of thick rope or cotton. To persons 
 unused from childhood to the special toe grip and scuffle of the 
 geta, it seems odd to associate with this difficult clattering foot- 
 gear the idea of " luxury." But no pains are spared by the 
 geta makers in choosing fine woods and pretty cords. 
 
 BUDGETS OF LARGE PROPERTY OWNERS [III]. 
 Two landlords, A and B, kindly allowed me to look into their 
 budgets : 
 
 
 
 yen 
 
 80 cho of rural land 
 
 . 
 
 320,000 
 
 20 cho of rural land 
 
 
 60,000 
 
 20,000 taubo of city land . 
 
 
 130,000 
 
 Negotiable instruments . 
 
 
 150,000 
 
 Dwelling and furniture . 
 
 
 160,000 
 
 
 Total property 
 
 810,000 
 
 373 
 
374 APPENDICES 
 
 EXPENDITTJBE OP PaST YeAE 
 
 yen 
 
 House 2,100 
 
 Food and drink 1,380 
 
 aothing 1,000 
 
 Social intercourse ... 1,600 
 
 Public benefit .... 800 
 
 Miscellaneous ....... 1,000 
 
 Taxes 5.000 
 
 12,750 
 
 owns 62 chd 4 tan and receives in rent 623 kohu 7 to. Members of family, 
 11 ; servants, 8. 
 
 Expenditure of Past Yeab 
 
 yen 
 
 House ......... 619 
 
 Food and drink (18 sen each per day for members of 
 
 family ;• 13 sen each for servants) . . 1,102 
 
 Fuel. . . . 166 
 
 Light . ... . . 36 
 
 Caothing 770 
 
 Education (3 middle-school boya at 20 yen per month ; 
 
 3 primary-school boys and girls at 2 yen) . . . 312 
 
 Social intercourse . . . . . . . 120 
 
 Amusements (journey, 100 yen; summer trip, 231; 
 
 others, 50) 381 
 
 Miscellaneous (servants, 480 yen ; medicine, 160' ; other 
 
 things, 150) 780 
 
 Donations ........ 300 
 
 Taxes 3,976 
 
 8,461 
 
 THE " BENJO " [IV]. I never noticed a case in which earth 
 was thrown into the domestic closet tub according to Dr. 
 Poore's system. I have come across attempts to use deo- 
 dorisers, but the application of a germicide is inhibited because 
 of the injury which would be caused to the crops. Farmers 
 are chary about removing night soil which has been treated even 
 with a deodoriser. I ventured to suggest more than once that 
 Japanese science should be equal to evolving a deodoriser to 
 which the farmer, who in Japan seems to be so easily directed, 
 could have no objection. The drawback to using Dr. Poore's 
 system is that the added earth would greatly increase the weight 
 of the substance to be removed. There would be the same 
 objection to the use of hibachi ash (charcoal ash), but there is 
 not enough produced to have any sensible effect. The truth 
 is that there is no lively interest in the question of getting rid 
 
APPENDICES 875 
 
 of the stink for everyone has become accustomed to it. The 
 odour from the benjo — the politer word is habakari — which is 
 always indoors, though at the end of the engawa (verandah), 
 often penetrates the house. {Engawa [edge or border] is the 
 passage which faces to the open ; roka is a passage inside a house 
 between two rooms or sometimes a bridgelike passage in the 
 open, connecting two separate buildings or parts of a house.) 
 Emptying day is particularly trying. This much must be said, 
 however, that the farmers' tubs are washed, scrubbed and 
 sunned after every journey and have close-fitting lids. And 
 primitive though the benjo is, it is scrupulously clean. Also, if 
 it is always more or less smelly, it is contrived on sound 
 hygienic principles. There is no seat requiring an unnatural 
 position. The user squats over an opening in the floor about 
 2 ft. long by 6 ins. wide. This opening is encased by a simple 
 porcelain fitting with a hood at the end facing the user. The 
 top of the tub is some distance below the floor. In peasants' 
 houses there is no porcelain fitting. Manure is so valuable 
 in Japan that farmers whose land adjoins the road often build 
 a benjo for the use of passers-by. Although the traveller in 
 Japan has much to endure from the unpleasant odour due to the 
 thrifty utilisation of excreta, the Japanese deserve credit for 
 the fact that their countryside is never fouled in the disgusting 
 fashion which proves many of our rural folk to be behind the 
 primitive standard of civilisation set up in Deuteronomy 
 (chap, xxiii. 13). The Western rural sociologist is not inclined 
 to criticise the sanitary methods of Japan. He is too conscious 
 of the neglect in the West to study thoroughly the grave question 
 of sewage disposal in relation to the needs of our crops and the 
 cost of nitrogenous fertilisers. See also Appendix XX. 
 
 AGRICULTURAL SCHOOLS [V]. In Mr. Yamasaki's 
 school there was dormitory accommodation for 200 youths, 
 some 40 lived in teachers' houses, another 15 were in lodgings, 
 and 45 came daily from their parents' homes. Lads were 
 admitted from 14 to 16 and the course was for 3 years. The 
 students worked 30 hours weekly indoors and the rest of their 
 time outside. Upper and lower grade agricultural schools 
 number 280 with 23,000 students. In addition there are 
 7,908 agricultural continuation schools with more than 430,000 
 pupils. The ratio of illiteracy in Japan for men of conscription 
 age (that is, excluding old people and young people), which 
 had been over 5 per cent, up to 1911, was reported to be only 
 2 per cent, in 1917. 
 
 26 
 
376 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 
 CRIME [VI]. In 1916 the chief offences in Japan were : 
 
 Dealt with at police 
 
 
 Wilful injury 
 
 2,032 
 
 station 
 
 445,502 
 
 Murder 
 
 1,886 
 
 Gambling and lotteries 
 
 81,649 
 
 Abortion 
 
 1,252 
 
 Larceny 
 
 81,063 
 
 Abduction . 
 
 907 
 
 Fraud and usurpation 
 
 49,772 
 
 Rioting 
 
 813 
 
 Assaults 
 
 19,022 
 
 Official disgrace 
 
 481 
 
 Robbery 
 
 10,383 
 
 Military and naval 
 
 387 
 
 Arson . 
 
 9,533 
 
 Desertion 
 
 315 
 
 Accidental assaults 
 
 3,277 
 
 Forgery 
 
 307 
 
 Obscenity 
 
 2,796 
 
 Coining 
 
 206 
 
 PROSTITUTES [VII]. The chief of police was good enough 
 to let me have a copy of the form to be filled up by girls desiring 
 to enter the houses in the prefecture. It is under nine heads : 
 1. The reason for adopting the profession. 2. Age. 3. Per- 
 mission of head of household. If permission is not forthcoming, 
 reason why. 4. If a minor, proof of permission. 5. House 
 at which the girl is going to "work." 6. Home address. 7. 
 Former means of getting a living. 8. Whether prostitute 
 before. If so, particulars. 9. Other details. 
 
 When I was in Japan there were reputed to be about 60,000 
 joro (prostitutes), about half that number of geisha and about 
 35,000 " waitresses." 
 
 PHILANTHROPIC AGENCIES [VIII]. In 1917 the num- 
 ber of paupers, tramps and foundlings relieved by the State 
 did not exceed 10,000. The number of institutions was 780 
 (of which 40 were run by foreigners), with the expenditure of 
 about 5\ million yen. 
 
 CHANGES IN RURAL STATUS [IX]. It seemed that 
 during 47 years 18 tenants had become peasant proprietors, 
 14 peasant proprietors had become landowners (that is men who 
 make their living by letting land rather than by working it), 
 8 tenants had stepped straightway into the position of land- 
 owners, 7 landowners had fallen to the grade of peasant 
 proprietors and 7 more to that of tenants, while 114 householders 
 had changed their callings or had gone to Hokkaido. 
 
 HOURS OF WORK PER DAY [X]. One of these villages 
 showed that during January and February it worked 6 hours, 
 during March and April 8 hours, from May to August \2\ hours, 
 during September and October 9J hours, and during November 
 and December 9 hours. There was a further record of labour 
 at night. In January and February it worked from 6.80 p.m. 
 to 10 p.m., during March and April and September and October 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 877 
 
 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. and in November and December from 
 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. As in the period from May to August 
 inclusive the day working hours were from 5 a.m. to 7.80 p.m., 
 there then was no night labour. 
 
 DILIGENT PEOPLE AND OTHERS [XI]. The adults of 
 the village were classified as follows : Diligent people, men 294, 
 women 260 ; average workers, men 270, women 286 ; other 
 people, men 242, women 191. One supposes that, in considering 
 the women's activities, all that was estimated was the number 
 of hours spent in agricultural work or in remimerative employ- 
 ment in the evening. 
 
 FARM AREAS AND DAYS WORKED IN THE YEAR 
 [XII]. The information concerned three typical peasant 
 proprietors. A, B and C, living in the same county. The 
 areas of their land are given in tan : 
 
 
 Where fanning 
 
 P»ddy 
 
 Dry 
 
 Homestead 
 
 Bented 
 
 Children 
 
 Parents 
 
 A 
 B 
 C 
 
 In hills . 
 On plain . 
 Near town 
 
 6 
 
 6-6 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 2-6 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 •5 
 
 1 
 
 2 paddy 
 
 3 
 3 
 3 
 
 2 
 2 
 
 Next we are told the number of days that not only A, B 
 and C but their wives and their parents worked and did not 
 work during the year : 
 
 Husbands 
 
 Wives 
 
 Fathers 
 
 Mothers 
 
 ■ A 
 B 
 
 .C 
 
 ■ A 
 B 
 C 
 
 A 
 B 
 C 
 
 A 
 B 
 C 
 
 
 Agrioaltore 
 
 Domestic 
 Work 
 
 National 
 
 Holidays 
 
 and Festirals 
 
 Illneaa 
 
 
 254 
 239 
 231 
 
 28 
 37 
 49 
 
 25 
 25 
 19 
 
 6 
 2 
 
 
 239 
 150 
 141 
 
 54 
 128 
 174 
 
 7 
 
 26 
 
 9 
 
 — 
 
 
 144 
 205 
 
 47 
 69 
 
 85 
 40 
 
 18 
 
 
 15 
 
 82 
 
 324 
 
 220 
 
 6 
 23 
 
 — 
 
 
 ~ 
 
 "~ 
 
 ~ 
 
 — . 
 
 Bemaining 
 Days 
 
 52 
 64 
 64 
 
 64 
 61 
 41 
 
 72 
 61 
 
 20 
 41 
 
 It will be seen that men only were ill ! [See next page.] 
 
378 APPENDICES 
 
 For average, of hours worked elsewhere, see page 232 and 
 page 237. 
 
 FARMERS' EARNINGS AND SPENDINGS [XIII]. If 
 the reader should feel that the following details are lacking 
 in comprehensiveness or definiteness, he should understand that 
 reports of a national and authoritative character on the 
 economic condition of the farmer were not available. There 
 existed certain reports of the Ministry of Agriculture, but they 
 were subjected to criticism. The National Agricultural 
 Association had set on foot an elaborate enquiry as to the 
 condition of the " middle farmer," but it was suggested that too 
 much reliance was placed on arithmetical calculations and 
 too little on known facts. I have had to rely, therefore, on 
 official and private investigations made in various prefectures 
 and villages, and I give a selection for what they are worth. 
 Of the general condition of the agricultural population the reader 
 is offered the impressions recorded in my different Chapters. 
 
 Incomes and Expenditures of Peasant Pkopeietors. — 
 The incomes and expenditures of the three households referred 
 to in Appendix XII were : 
 
 
 Income 
 
 Expenditure 
 
 Balance in hanil 
 
 
 yen 
 
 yen 
 
 yen 
 
 A . 
 
 477 
 
 449 
 
 28 
 
 B . 
 
 915 
 
 838 
 
 77 
 
 C . 
 
 971 
 
 703 
 
 68 
 
 Household Expenditures. — The household expenditures 
 of the three families were, in yen : 
 
 
 A 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 yen 
 
 yen 
 
 yen 
 
 Food 
 
 192-76 
 
 216-64 
 
 189-57 
 
 House . 
 
 
 
 2-32 
 
 2-24 
 
 1-20 
 
 Clothes 
 
 
 
 18-72 
 
 15-16 
 
 10-08 
 
 Fuel . 
 
 
 
 12-72 
 
 13-53 
 
 2100 
 
 Tools and furniture 
 
 
 
 10-97 
 
 160-18 
 
 1-66 
 
 Social intercourse . 
 
 
 
 9-58 
 
 — 
 
 6-05 
 
 Education . 
 
 
 
 1-56 
 
 
 
 4-15 
 
 Amusement . 
 
 
 
 3-30 
 
 2-03 
 
 18-00 
 
 Unforeseen . 
 
 
 
 7-85 
 
 13-72 
 
 22-33 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 
 
 6-43 
 
 7-71 
 
 11-15 
 
 
 
 
 266-21 
 
 431-21 
 
 280-19 
 
APPENDICES 879 
 
 It will be observed that the expenditure of B under the 
 heading of furniture, 160 yen, is out of all proportion with the 
 expenditures of A and C, 10 yen and 1 yen respectively. This 
 is due to the fact that B had to provide a bride's chest for a 
 daughter. 
 
 A balance sheet given me by a peasant proprietor in Aichi 
 (5 tan of two-crop paddy and 5 tan of upland) showed a balance 
 in hand of 27 yen. 
 
 An agricultural expert said to me, " The peasant proprietors 
 are the backbone of the country, but the condition of the back- 
 bone is not good. The peasant proprietors can make ends meet 
 only by secondary employments." The expert showed me aver- 
 age figures for 18 farmers for 1891, 1900 and 1909. The average 
 land of these men was a little over a cho of paddy and 5 tan of 
 upland and some woodland. They had spent 39, 63 and 86 
 yen on artificial manures as against 100, 153 and 204 yen on 
 food. The balance at the end of the year for the three years 
 respectively was 27, 40 and 29 yen. " The figures reflect the 
 general condition," I was told. 
 
 Incomes and Expenditures of Tenants. — I may also note 
 the circumstances of the largest and of the smallest tenant in an 
 Aichi village I visited. The largest tenant family showed a 
 balance in hand, 93 yen ; the smallest tenant, 23 yen. 
 
 The accounts of 16 tenants for 1891 showed an average sum of 
 3 yen in hand at the end of the year, for 1900 a loss of 5 yen and 
 for 1909 a gain of 1 yen. These men had an average of 9 tan 
 of paddy and 2 tan of upland. The man who gave me the data 
 said that in the north-east of Japan " the condition of the 
 tenants is miserable — eating almost cattle food." The only 
 bright spot for tenants was that, as compared with peasant 
 proprietors, they were free to change their holdings and even 
 their business. 
 
 Incomes of Tenants and Peasant Proprietors (Shid- 
 zuoka). — One tenant, who pays 159 yen in rent and taxes, shows 
 a total income of 374 yen and an expenditure of 538 yen, with a 
 net loss of 164 yen. " Farmers of this class," notes the local 
 expert on the memorandum he gave me, " are becoming poorer 
 every year." This tenant spent 2 yen on medicine and 5 yen 
 on tobacco. (" Nothing else for enjoyment," pencils the 
 expert.) In addition to parents, a man, a woman and a girl 
 of the family worked. Food cost 321 yen (cost of fish and 
 meat, 4J yen) and clothing 34 yen. 
 
380 APPENDICES 
 
 In a " model village," where " the farmers are always diligent," 
 a small tenant's income was 508 yen and expenditure 527 yen ; 
 loss, 19 yen. Clothes cost 95 yen and food 190 yen. (Cost of 
 fish and meat, 4f yen.) There was an expenditure on medicine 
 of IJ yen and on tobacco and saki ("only enjoyment") 
 10 yen. 
 
 Twenty per cent, of the farmers, I was told, " lead a middle- 
 class life and occupy a somewhat rational area of land." 
 The budgets of ten of these men, who own their own land, show a 
 balance of 85 yen. " If they were tenants they would not be in 
 such a good condition." " We think the farmer ought to have 
 2 cho." 
 
 Budgets of Farmers on the Land of the Homma Clan, 
 Yamagata (page 186). — ^A tenant had 3 cho of paddy and a small 
 piece of vegetable land. There lived with him his wife, two 
 sons and the widow and child of the eldest son. After paying 
 his rent he had 30 koku of rice left. The cost of production and 
 taxes, 100 yen or a little more, had to come out of that. This 
 tenant had a debt of 250 yen. 
 
 A sturdy wagoner with a sturdy horse lived with his wife and 
 three children and his old mother. He hired 1 cho for 28 
 koku of rice and his crop was 40 koku. He spent 30 yen on 
 manure and 4 yen went in taxes. 
 
 A middle-grade farmer owned a house and a little more than 
 1 cho and rented 3 chd of paddy and a patch for vegetables. 
 His rent was about 88 koku. He spent 100 yen on manure 
 and 128 yen for taxes, temple dues and regulation of the paddy. 
 He employed at 2j koku a man who lived with the family, also 
 temporary labour for 48 days. His crop might be 100 koku 
 or more. He had no debt. 
 
 A third man was above the middle grade of farmer. His 
 taxes were 240 yen and his manure bill 180 yen. His payment 
 for paddy-field regulation, to continue for ten years, was 60 yen. 
 He had three labourers and he also hired extra labour for 100 
 days. He had three unmarried sons of 40, 29 and 25. There 
 were 260 yen of pensions in respect of the war service of one 
 son and the death of another. 
 
 Income of Peasant Proprietors (Hokkaido). — ^The follow- 
 ing statistics for the whole of Hokkaido are based on the 
 experience of peasant proprietors. The 2^-cho men are rice 
 
APPENDICES 381 
 
 farmers — ^rice farming means farming with rice as the principal 
 crop. The 5-chd men are engaged in mixed farming : 
 
 Fanner's 
 Area 
 
 Income 
 
 from 
 
 Farming 
 
 Income 
 
 from Other 
 
 Work 
 
 Total 
 
 Cost of 
 Cultivation 
 
 Cost of 
 Living 
 
 Total 
 Outlay 
 
 Balance. 
 
 2ichd 
 5 cho 
 
 yen 
 366 
 441 
 
 yen 
 43 
 33 
 
 yen 
 409 
 
 474 
 
 yen 
 107 
 119 
 
 yen 
 276 
 301 
 
 382 
 423 
 
 yen 
 27 
 52 
 
 It will be seen that mixed farming is the more profitable. 
 
 Income of Tenants (Hokkaido). — Professor Takaoka was 
 kind enough to give me the following smnmaries of balance 
 sheets of tenants of college lands in different parts of Hokkaido 
 in 1915. (In all cases the accounts have been debited with 
 wages for the farmer's family.) 
 
 Five cho. Income, 447 yen ; net return, 37 yen. (Rye, 
 wheat, oats, com, soy, potatoes, grass, flax, buckwheat and 
 rape. One horse and a few hens.) 
 
 Five cho. Income, 763 yen ; net return, 58 yen. (Rye, 
 wheat, oats, rape, soy, potatoes, corn, grass, flax and onions. 
 Three cows, one horse.) 
 
 Ten cho. Income, 1,015 yen ; net return, 122 yen. (Same 
 crops with two cows and one horse and some hired labour.) 
 
 Five cho (peppermint on 3 cho). Income, 882 yen ; net return, 
 93 yen. 
 
 Three cho. Income, 1,195 yen ; net return, 332 yen. (Vege- 
 table farming. 206 yen paid for labour.) 
 
 Thirty cho. Income, 1,979 yen ; net return, 61 yen. (Mixed 
 farming ; 632 yen paid for labour.) 
 
 Model 5-ch6 farm without rice. Made 604 yen, and 107 yen 
 net return, farm capital being 1,487 yen. (208 yen allowed for 
 labour, interest 128 yen, amortisation 27 yen, and taxes 13 yen.) 
 
 Milk farmer, 12 cho and 90 cattle. Income, 12,280 yen; 
 net return q/'3,641 yen. 
 
 2,120 cho (1,235 forest, 402 pasture, 110 artificial grass and 
 42 crops; 111 cattle). Income, 66,205 yen; net return, 1,011 
 yen. (Milk and meat farming.) 
 
 Average income and expenditure of 200 tenants of University 
 land whose budgets Professor Morimoto (see Chapter XXXIV) 
 investigated : 
 
382 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 yea 
 
 Crops 451-66 
 
 Wages earned ........ 61-33 
 
 Horses 20-09 
 
 Poultry and eggs . . . . . . • '96 
 
 Pigs -85 
 
 Manure (animal, 35 fcwon ; human, 14 fcofcu) . . 24-60 
 
 Other income ........ 29-64 
 
 689-03 
 
 Cultivation, etc. 
 Cost of living 
 
 Proat 
 
 yen 
 206-32 
 303-33 
 
 509-65 
 79-38 
 
 The returns of capital yielded the following averages ; 
 
 Tenant right in respect of 6-16 chd 
 
 Buildings (32-2 taubo) 
 
 Clothing . 
 
 Horse (average 1-23) 
 
 Furniture 
 
 Implements 
 
 Poultry (average 2-58) 
 
 Pigs (average -12) 
 
 yen 
 
 750-82 
 
 196-95 
 
 162-82 
 
 108-48 
 
 58-47 
 
 51-23 
 
 1-15 
 
 •87 
 
 Total 1,329-79 
 
 VALUE OF NEW PADDY [XIV]. More delicious rice could 
 be got, I was told, from well-fertilised barren land than from 
 naturally fertile land. The first year the new paddy yielded 
 per tan an average of 1-2 koku, the second 1-6, the third 2, 
 and this fourth year the yield would have been 2-3 had it not 
 been for damage by storm. 
 
 AREAS AND CROPS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF RICE 
 [XV]. In 1919 there was grown of paddy rice 2,984,750 chd 
 (2,729,639 ordinary, 255,111 glutinous) and of upland rice 
 141,365 cho. Total, 3,126,115 cho. The yield (husked, un- 
 cleaned) was of paddy 61,343,403 koku (ordinary, 56,438,005 ; 
 glutinous, 4,905,898) ; of upland, 1,839,312. Total, 63,182,715 
 koku; value, 2,352,145,519 yen. 
 
 In 1877 the area is reputed to have been 1,940,000 cho with 
 a yield of 24,450,000 koku and in 1882 2,580,000 cho with a 
 yield of 80,692,000 koku. The average of the five years 1910-14, 
 was 3,033,000 cho with a yield of 57,006,000 koku ; of the five 
 years 1915-19, 3,081,867 cho with a yield of 94,817,431 koku. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 888 
 
 In a prefecture in south-western Japan I found that 2 koku 5 to 
 (or 2^ koku, there being 10 to in a koku) per tan was common 
 and that from 3 koku to 8 koku 5 <o was reached. " A good yield 
 for 1 tan," says an eminent authority, " is 3 koku, or on the best 
 fields even 4 koku." The average yield in koku per tan for 
 the whole country has been (paddy-field rice only) : 1882, 1-19 
 1894-8, 1-38 ; 1899-1908, 1-44 ; 1904-8, 1-57 ; 1909-13, 1-63 
 1914-18, 1-86; 1919, 1-99; 1920, 2-05 (ordinary, 2-06 
 glutinous, 1-92). Upland rice in 1920, 1-80 as against 1-02 in 
 1909. All these figures are for husked, uncleaned rice, 
 
 BARLEY AND WHEAT CROPS [XVI]. The following 
 table (average of five years, 1913-17) shows the yields per tan 
 of the two sorts of barley and of wheat and the average yield 
 all three together in comparison with the rice yield (all quantities 
 husked) : 
 
 Barley 
 
 Naked barley 
 Wheat . 
 
 go 
 1,672 
 1,172 
 1.073 
 
 All three together 
 Rice 
 
 go 
 1,307 
 1,808 
 
 Naked barley is grown as an upland crop, as are ordinary 
 barley and wheat ; but it is more largely grown as a second crop in 
 paddies than either barley or wheat. The barleys are chiefly 
 used for human food with or without rice. Wheat is eaten in 
 macaroni, sweetstuffs and bread. It is also used in con- 
 siderable quantities in the manufacture of soy, the chief in- 
 gredient of which is beans. There was imported in the year 
 1920 wheat to the value of 28^ million yen, and flour to the 
 value of 3J million yen. Macaroni is largely made of buck- 
 wheat as well as of wheat. The other grain crop is millet, 
 which is eaten by the poorest farmers. In 1918, as against 
 60 million koku of rice, there were grown 5 million koku of 
 beans and peas. The crops of barley were 17 million, of wheat 
 6 million, of millet 3J million, and of buckwheat | million. 
 More than a million kwan of sweet potatoes were produced and 
 nearly half a million of " Irish " potatoes. (The figures for 
 barley and wheat are for 1919.) 
 
 COST AND PRICE OF RICE [XVII]. The annual figures 
 (from Aichi) for the years 1894 to 1915 (page 384) show the cost 
 of producing a tan of rice, that is the summer crop. The 
 amounts per tan are calculated on the basis of the expenses of a 
 tenant who is cropping 8 tan. The totals for the winter crop 
 
Total Net 
 Income 
 
 from both 
 Crops. 
 
 rH eq OS cq CO OS CO 00 us us i-< t* eo wi -^ i-t oo o --h 
 ,-1 ffi to i> M oio >o 00 OS t-eq ■* 0(N osow m as 
 0(»i>(N»dsmrt«tbio>oebo<NAoobMOmob 
 S -< (N fh ,-( rt rf rt rt pH eci M N (N eq <N COIN -^ 
 
 Net Income 
 
 from "Winter 
 
 Crop 
 
 (?Barler) 
 
 r-f 00 00 oq o cq cq t> ^ co t^ os o os os r-i os co cq •* t* 
 5-S«eqmiMoq 00-71 <o i> to t- ■* -* ■* i> to 10 cp 
 ««c«5ib>oei-*cb-*totbtoiocooA»<cieoNrHds 
 
 ^H ^H ^"i ^*H ^H ^^ 
 
 Days of 
 
 LKbour on 
 
 Summer 
 
 Orop of 
 
 Bice 
 
 loioioioio 10 ip 10 10 
 "^eqcqeqcqeqeqifqeqeqNcqeqSeqCTiNeqeqeqiNiN 
 
 Net Income 
 from 
 
 Orop of 
 Rice (yen) 
 
 o>o-Hoei5t--*i-iasioosioos-*tDiOi-iosoot>iOT(i 
 tD-*coioi>eoopt;-<»ocoo-*op«c^ioiocpc»3t>(M 
 
 i>tb-*t>i>i>dbt^ob6dsd56>i'iosob-^ost-Abb 
 
 ill 
 
 .HtoooeoOrto>Or-iosr-no>-<iO'*'*i>coooeoi> 
 ©q©q»o^*^'-<'*coioi>^w3toapiotDMr-ttoco»oto 
 Meq(Ncoeo-*-^-*eoe«5coiN'*'^ib-*ioiocbi>tbcei 
 
 Taxes and 
 Amortisation 
 ol Imple- 
 ments (sen) 
 
 i-irteqcomOrHeqoooscototDMoqosOooioosooeq 
 eqeq(Meqeqeocoecc<5-*>o-<tiio'*-*osoot>t>i>t~oo 
 
 ll 
 
 ■^osoioo-H T'^'P'T' ■* rt i> 10 1* OS 10 00 00 
 «eqiNeKic!sc»5-*-*c<5coiNiN'*-*ioe!5-*-*>o5b>o>b 
 
 Gross 
 
 Income 
 
 inclading 
 
 Straw and 
 
 OhalE, not 
 
 usnally sold 
 
 (yen) 
 
 ^ r-t OS CO CO 00 ■* to W3 O OS OS O OS b- Oq 00 t^ OS i-H 
 
 00 i> 00 to ri Td eq CI ■* 00 to o to op co co i> ■* to eq os 
 
 dsa)to6rt'HcoiNff5cotoAiototb'*codstb-*cib-* 
 
 i-HCqp— ip-ii— ti-4(— tt-Hi— II— ii-HpHi-Hi-Hp-ieqoqi-Hi— 1 
 
 Market 
 Price 
 
 per ioiM 
 (yen) 
 
 cDasi>coNOFHcoasc>o*q»oososeoosi>-<j<coot* 
 
 tDOtO>OtDO'-llOOS»ON'^^CO©qtDOtOI>QOlOt* 
 
 t^ob<»r--*iNrtONiNesico>btOTi<.^-#tb'HO«N)iM 
 
 r-ii-Hi-Hr-Hf-HrHi— lrHi-HpHi-Hi-Hi-Hr-*i-H©qW'— IfH 
 
 III! 
 
 »OW50WW300»OM30S'T*<COOS»r5^'<*Tj*-^T*10'*TH© 
 OOOOClOOOOOOS00050rHr-<--<r-lr-lCJSFHFH(N 
 
 
 cococoooono-*ototo-*t-tooortt-eqeqeq-HQoto 
 (N.-^^OQOcoI>-Hr-^coo(^^l>osol^^lc^^o<^^oco■*co 
 
 (N(Nrtrt(Nrt(N(NA(N(N'Hfi,i(NIN(NOSlc!)«(NIN 
 
 1 
 
 Tjiwtot^ooo)0^oqcoTj<mcot^ooosO'-t(Mco-^io 
 osasosososo30000000ooop-H--ii-*i-ir-t^ 
 ooooooooooooosososososososososososososososos 
 
 384 
 
APPENDICES 385 
 
 are also given. The figures which appear on the opposite page 
 were described to me by the farmer concerned as " compiled 
 on the basis of investigations by the chairman of the village 
 agricultural association and by its managers and still further 
 proved and quite trustworthy." It will be seen that the value 
 of the winter crop is low ; a secondary employment is usually 
 a better thing for the farmer. In one or two places there is a 
 sen or so difference in the additions which may have been made 
 by the transcriber from the Japanese original. The difference in 
 amounts of rent is due to difference in fields rented and also to 
 reduction allowed owing to bad crops. The difference in the 
 income from crops is usually due to destruction by hail or 
 wind. 
 
 In the spring of 1921 the League for the Prevention of Sales 
 of Rice at a Sacrifice proposed that rice should not be sold under 
 35 yen per koku. The price passed the figure of 35 yen in July 
 1918. At the time the League's proposals were made the 
 Ministry of Agriculture was quoted as stating that the cost of 
 producing rice " is now 40 yen per koku." The accuracy of the 
 figures on which the Ministry's estimates are made is frequently 
 called in question. 
 
 CULTIVATED AREA IN JAPAN AND GREAT BRITAIN 
 [XVIII]. In 1919 there were in Great Britain (England, 
 Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) 
 15,808,000 acres of arable, 15,910,000 of pasture and 13,647,000 
 of grazing, or a total of 45,365,000 acres out of a total area of 
 56,990,000 acres. In Japan there were 15,044,202 acres of 
 paddy and of cultivated upland, 46,958,000 acres of forest and 
 8,773,000 acres of waste ; total 70,775,000, out of 90,880,000 acres. 
 The area of the United Kingdom without Ireland is 56,990,080 
 acres ; that of Japan Proper, 75,988,378 acres. The popula- 
 tion of the United Kingdom without Ireland (in 1911) was 
 41,126,000, and of Japan Proper (in 1911) 51,435,000. (See also 
 Appendix XXX.) 
 
 HUMAN LABOUR v. CATTLE POWER fXIX]. The 
 Department of Agriculture stated in 1921 that " from 200 to 
 300, sometimes more than 500 days' labour [of one man] are 
 required to grow a cho of rice." The area of paddy which is 
 ploughed by horse or cattle power was 61-89 per cent. The 
 area of upland so cultivated was only 38'97 per cent. The 
 " average year's work of the ordinary adult farmer " was put at 
 
386 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 200 days. The Department estimated an average man's day's 
 work (10 hours) as follows : 
 
 Nature ot Work 
 
 Tools used 
 
 Output by one 
 Man per Day 
 
 
 
 hectare 
 
 Tillage of paddy 
 
 Kuiua (mattock) 
 
 006 
 
 »» ft »f 
 
 Fumi-guwa (heavy spade) 
 
 01—016 
 
 Transplanting rice 
 
 Hand work 
 
 007—01 
 
 Weeding 
 
 Sickle and weeding tools 
 
 01 
 
 Cutting the rice crop 
 
 Sickle 
 
 01— 0-15 
 
 Mowing grass 
 
 Sickle (long handle) 
 
 0-5 
 
 »» »s 
 
 Scythe 
 
 0-5 
 
 But I have never seen a scythe in use in Japan ! 
 
 MANURE [XX]. The value of the manure used in Japan in 
 a year has been estimated at about 220 million yen, but for the 
 three years ending 1916 it averaged 241 millions, as follows : 
 
 Produeed or obtained by the Farmer 
 yen 
 Compost . . 63,500,000 
 
 Human waste . . 64,000,000 
 
 Green manure . . 9,600,000 
 
 Rice chafE . 6,000,000 
 
 Porchased 
 
 
 
 yen 
 
 Bean cake 
 
 32,000,000 
 
 Mixed 
 
 17,000,000 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 16,000,000 
 
 Sulphate of ammonia . 
 
 15,000,000 
 
 Superphosphate 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 Fish waste 
 
 12,000,000 
 
 Dr. Sato puts the artificial manure used per tan at a sixth 
 of that of Belgium and a quarter of that of Great Britain and 
 Germany. See also Appendix IV. An agricultural expert 
 once said to me, " Japanese farmer he keep five head of stock, 
 his own family." 
 
 SOWING OF RICE [XXI]. A common seeding time is the 
 eighty-eighth day of the year according to the old calendar, 
 say May 1 or 2. Transplanting is very usual at the end of May 
 or early in June. In Kagawa, Shikoku, I found that rice was 
 sown at the beginning of May or even at the end of April, 
 the transplanting being done in mid-June. The harvest was 
 obtained 10 per cent, about September 10th, 80 per cent, in 
 October and 60 per cent, about the beginning of November. 
 The winter crop of naked barley was sown in the first quarter of 
 December and was harvested late in May or early in June, so 
 there was just time for the rice planting in mid-June. 
 
 In Kochi the first crop is sown about March 16, the seedlings 
 
APPENDICES 887 
 
 are put out in mid-May and the harvest is ready about August 10. 
 The second crop, which has been sown in June, is ready with 
 its seedlings from August 13 to August 15, and the harvest 
 arrives about November 1 and 2. The first crop may yield 
 about 3 koku, the second 1| Jcoku. 
 
 A good deal depends in raising a big crop on a good seed bed. 
 This is got by reducing the quantity of seed used and by 
 applying manure wisely. Whereas formerly as much as from 
 5 to 7 go of seed was sown per tsubo, the biggest crops are now 
 got from 1 go. 
 
 The Japanese names of the most widely grown varieties are 
 Shinriki, Aikoku, Omachi, Chikusei and Sekitori. At an 
 experiment station I copied the names of the varieties on 
 exhibition there : Banzai, Patriotism, Japanese Embroidery, 
 Good-looking, Early Power of God, Bamboo, Small Embroidery, 
 Power of God, Mutual Virtue, Yellow Bamboo, Late White, 
 Power of God (glutinous), Silver Rice Cake and Eternal Rice 
 Field. 
 
 There are several thousand cho in the vicinity of Tokyo where, 
 owing to the low temperature of the marshy soil, the seed is sown 
 direct in the paddies, not broadcast but at regular intervals and 
 in thrice or four times the normal quantities. 
 
 RATE OF PLANTING [XXII]. I have been told that an 
 adult who has the seedlings brought to his or her hand can stick 
 in a thousand an hour. The early varieties may be set in clumps 
 of seven or eight plants ; middle-growth sorts may contain from 
 five to six ; the latest kind may include only three or four. 
 The number of clumps planted may be 42 per tsubo, which, as a 
 tsubo is nearly four square yards, is about ten per square yard. 
 The clumps are put in their places by being pushed into the mud. 
 A straight line is kept by means of a rope. The success of the 
 crop depends in no small degree on skilful planting. 
 
 HOW MUCH RICE DOES A JAPANESE EAT ? [XXIII]. 
 The daily consumption of rice per head, counting young 
 and old, is nearly 8 go. (A go is roughly a third of a pint.) 
 A sturdy labourer will consume at least 5 go in a day, and some- 
 times 7 or even 10 go. The allowance for soldiers is 6 go. 
 These quantities represent the rice uncooked. In recent years 
 more and more rice has been eaten by those who formerly ate 
 barley or mainly barley. And some who once ate a good deal 
 of millet and hiye are now eating a certain amount of rice. 
 
888 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 The average annual consumption per head of the Japanese 
 population (Korea and Formosa excluded from the calculation) 
 was: 1888-93, 948 go; 1908-18, 1,037 go; 1918-18, 1,050 
 go. The averages of 25 years (1888-1912) were : production, 
 42,756,584 koku ; consumption, 44,410,725 koku; deficit, 
 1,984,970 koku ; population, 45,140,094 ; per head, 0-980 
 koku. In 1921 the Department of Agriculture, estimating a 
 population of 55,960,000 (see Appendix XXX) and an annual 
 consumption per head of l-l koku per year, put the national 
 consumption for a year at about 61,550,000 koku. See also 
 Appendix XXVI. 
 
 IMPORTED AND EXPORTED RICE [XXIV]. "Good 
 rice " is imported from Korea and Formosa. The objection 
 is to " Rangoon " rice. But most of the imported rice does not 
 come from Rangoon but from Saigon. The figures for 1919 
 were in yen : China, 283,011 ; British India, 1,012,979 ; 
 Kwantung, 15,053,977 ; Siam, 29,367,430 ; French Indo-China, 
 116,313,525; other countries, 39,918; total, 162,070,840. 
 The exports in 1919 were in yen : China, 1,354 ; Australia, 
 6,570 ; Asiatic Russia, 165,463 ; Kwantung, 213,633 ; British 
 America, 356,600 ; United States, 476,756 ; Hawaii, 3,046,598 ; 
 other countries, 60,707 — all obviously in the main for Japanese 
 consumption. The total imports and exports were in koku and 
 yen over a period of years : 
 
 
 Imporls 
 
 Bxports 
 
 Tear 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Koku 
 
 Value (yen) 
 
 Soku 
 
 Value (yen) 
 
 1909 
 
 1,325,243 
 
 13,585,817 
 
 422,613 
 
 5,867,290 
 
 1910 
 
 918,627 
 
 8,644,439 
 
 429,251 
 
 6,900,477 
 
 1911 
 
 1,719,666 
 
 11,721,085 
 
 216,198 
 
 3,940,541 
 
 1912 
 
 2,234,437 
 
 30,193,481 
 
 208,423 
 
 4,367,824 
 
 1913 
 
 3,637,269 
 
 48,472,304 
 
 204,002 
 
 4,372,979 
 
 1914 
 
 2,022,644 
 
 24,823,933 
 
 260,738 
 
 4,974,108 
 
 1915 
 
 457,606 
 
 4,886,125 
 
 662,629 
 
 9,676,969 
 
 1916 
 
 309,158 
 
 3,087,616 
 
 686,479 
 
 11,197,356 
 
 1917 
 
 664,376 
 
 6,513,373 
 
 769,129 
 
 14,662,546 
 
 1918 
 
 4,647,168 
 
 89,755,678 
 
 264,565 
 
 8,321,965 
 
 1919 
 
 4,642,382 
 
 162,070,840 
 
 95,219 
 
 4,327,690 
 
 1920 
 
 471,083 
 
 18,069,194 
 
 116,249 
 
 5,897,675 
 
 The twenty-five years' average (1888-1912) of excess of import 
 over export was 1,339,498 koku. See also Appendix XXVIII. 
 
APPENDICES 389 
 
 INCREASE OF RICE YIELD AND OF POPULATION 
 
 fXXV]. 
 
 
 1882 
 
 1913 
 
 Per- 
 oontigeof 
 Increase 
 
 1918 
 
 Per- 
 centiige ol 
 Increase" 
 
 Population 
 Rice crop {koku) 
 
 36,700,000 
 30,692,000 
 
 63,362,000 
 60,222,000 
 
 45 
 63 
 
 66,851,000 
 63,893,000 
 
 66 
 76 
 
 1 1882-1918. The degree to which the increase in production will be 
 maintained is of course a matter for discussion. As far as rice is concerned, 
 it must be borne in mind that there is an increasing consumption per head. 
 
 FARMERS' DIET fXXVI]. It is officially stated in 1921 
 that "the common farm diet consists of a mixture of cooked 
 rice and barley as the principal food with vegetables and occa- 
 sionally fish." The barley is what is known as naked barley. 
 Ordinary barley is eaten in northern Japan, but two-thirds of the 
 barley eaten elsewhere is the wheat-like naked barley, which 
 cannot be grown in Fukushima and the north. The husking 
 of ordinary barley is hard work. The young men do it 
 during the night when it is cool. They keep on until cock-crow. 
 Their songs and the sound of their mallets make a memorable 
 impression as one passes through a village on a moonlight night. 
 Another substitute for rice beyond millet is hiye (panic grass). 
 In the south it is regarded as a weed of the paddies, but in the 
 north many tan are planted with this heavy-yielding small grain. 
 
 TAXATION [XXVII]. Before 1906 national taxation was 
 2-5 per cent, of the legal price of land. In 1900 it was 8-3 per 
 cent., in 1904 5-5 per cent., in 1911 4-7 per cent, and in 1915 
 4-5 per cent. But local taxation increased in greater proportion. 
 
 FLAVOUR OF RICE AND PRICE FLUCTUATIONS 
 [XXVIII]. Japanese rice has a fatty flavour which the people 
 of Japan like. Therefore the native rice commands a higher 
 price in Japan than Chinese or Indian rice. With the excep- 
 tion of a small quantity exported to Japanese abroad, Japanese 
 rice is consumed in Japan. The supply of it and the demand for 
 it are exclusively a Japanese affair. Naturally, when the crop 
 fails the price soars, and when there is a superabundant 
 harvest the price comes down to the level of foreign rice. 
 Here is the secret of the enormous fluctuations in the price of 
 
890 APPENDICES 
 
 Japanese rice with which the authorities have so often en- 
 deavoured to cope. 
 
 The Government granary plan is the third big effort of 
 authority to manage rice prices. The Okuma Government, 
 under the administration of which rice went down to 14 yen per 
 koku, had a Commission to raise prices. The Terauchi Ministry, 
 at a time when prices rose, touching 55 yen, had a Commission 
 to bring prices down. 
 
 AREA AND CLIMATE [XXIX]. Japan Proper comprises 
 a main island, three other large islands in sight of the main 
 island, and archipelagos — 4,000 islets have been counted. 
 The main island, Honshu, with Shikoku behind it, lies oft the 
 coast of Korea ; the next largest and northernmost island, 
 Hokkaido, off the coast of Siberia, and the remaining sizeable 
 island and the southernmost, Kyushu, off the coast of 
 China over against the mouth of the Yangtse. The area of 
 this territory, that is of Japan before the acquirement of 
 Formosa, Korea, southern Saghalien and part of Manchuria, 
 is about 142,000 square miles in area, which is that of Great 
 Britain in possession not of one Wales but of four, or nearly 
 1 per cent, of the area of Asia. But there are several million 
 more people in Japan than there are inhabitants of Great 
 Britain and thrice as many as there are Britons in Canada, 
 Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. (See also 
 Appendix XXX.) Japan, which lies between the latitudes of 
 Cairo and the Crimea, may be said to consist of mountains, of 
 which fifty are active volcanoes, with some land, either hilly 
 or boggy, at the foot of them. It is nowhere more than 200 
 miles across and in one place is only 50. A note on the ocean 
 currents which exercise an influence on agriculture will be 
 found on page 195. The protection afforded to the eastern 
 prefectures by mountain ranges is obvious. Generally the 
 summer temperature of Japan is higher and the winter tempera- 
 ture is lower than is recorded in Europe and America within 
 the same latitudes. 
 
 " The mild climate and abundant rainfall," says the Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture, " stimulate a luxuriant forest development 
 throughout the country which in turn provides ample fountain 
 heads for rivers. The rivers and streams run in all directions, 
 affording opportunity for irrigation all over the country. 
 The insular position of the country renders its humidity high 
 and its rainfall abundant when compared with Continental 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 391 
 
 countries. The rainy season prevails during the months of June 
 and July, making this season risky for the harvest of wheat and 
 bariey; on the other hand it affords a beneficent irrigation 
 supply to paddy-grown rice, which is the most important crop. 
 The characteristic feature of the climate in the greater part of 
 tlie islands is the frequency of storms in the months of August 
 and September. As the flowers of the rice plant commence 
 to bloom during the same period, these late summer storms 
 cause much damage." 
 
 The weather in Tokyo in 1918 was as follows : 
 
 Feb. 
 
 Mar. 
 
 Apl. 
 
 May 
 
 Jane 
 
 July 
 
 Aug. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 Nov. 
 
 Deo. 
 
 Bain and 
 
 snow (mm.) 
 Temp. (C.) . 
 
 10 
 1-6 
 
 65 
 3-6 
 
 163 
 6-7. 
 
 108 
 11-7 
 
 123 
 16-7 
 
 149 
 201 
 
 82 
 260 
 
 78 
 26-1 
 
 202 
 22-6 
 
 135 
 160 
 
 142 
 10-4 
 
 80 
 3-9 
 
 The varied climate of Japan is indicated by the following 
 statistics for centres as far distant as Nagasaki in the extreme 
 south-west and Sapporo in Hokkaido : 
 
 
 Nagasaki 
 
 Kyoto 
 
 Tokyo 
 
 migata 
 
 Aomori 
 
 Sapporo 
 
 Daya of rain or 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 snow . 
 
 179 
 
 176 
 
 144 
 
 218 
 
 229 
 
 216 
 
 Average 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 temp. (C.) . 
 
 14-9 
 
 13-6 
 
 13-8 
 
 12-5 
 
 9-4 
 
 7-3 
 
 Maximum . 
 
 36- r 
 
 37-2 
 
 36-6 
 
 39-1 
 
 360 
 
 33-4 
 
 ATiniiTniim 
 
 5-6 
 
 11-9 
 
 8-1 
 
 9-7 
 
 19-0 
 
 25-6 
 
 The italicised temperatures are below zero. Average dates 
 of last frost : Tokyo, April 6 ; Nagoya, April 13 ; Matsumoto, 
 May 17. 
 
 POPULATION OF JAPAN, MANCHURIA AND 
 MONGOLIA [XXX]. The population of the Empire according 
 to the 1920 census was 77,005,510, which included Korea, 
 17,284,207; Formosa, 3,654,398; Saghalien, 105,765; and 
 South Manchuria (that is, the Kwantung Peninsula), 80,000. 
 In Old Japan (Honshu, Shikoku and KjTishu with the near 
 islands, and Loo-choos and Bonins) there were 53,602,043, and 
 in Hokkaido (including Kuriles) 2,359,097. 
 27 
 
392 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 Tokyo is the largest city, 2,173,000, followed by Osaka, 
 1,252,000. Kobe and Kyoto have a little more than half a 
 million ; Nagoya and Yokohama four hundred thousand apiece. 
 Ten other cities have a hundred thousand odd. 
 
 In the following table the populations and areas of Japan, 
 Great Britain and the United States are compared : 
 
 Country 
 
 Area 
 
 Population 
 
 Population 
 per aq. mile 
 
 Japan (excluding Korea, For- 
 mosa and Saghalien) . 
 
 British Isles . , 
 
 United States (excluding 
 Alaska and oversea pos- 
 sessions) .... 
 
 142,000 
 121,633 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 55,961,140 
 
 (1920) 
 47,306,6641 
 
 (1921) 
 
 105,683,108 
 (1920) 
 
 394 
 388 
 
 35 
 
 Japan's 394 per square mile is lowered by the population of 
 Hokkaido (2,359,097), which is only 66 per square mile. The 
 population of the three chief Japanese islands is : Honshu, the 
 mainland (41,806,930), 471; Shikoku (3,066,890), 423; and 
 Kyushu (8,729,088), 511. (These figures are for 1920.) " As 
 regards density per square kilometre," writes an official of the 
 Imperial Bureau of Statistics in the Japan Year-hook, with 
 the figures antecedent to the 1920 census before him, " it is 
 calculated at 140 for Japan and this compares as follows with 
 Belgium (1910) 252, England and Wales (1911) 239, Holland 
 (1909) 171, Italy (1911) 121, Germany (1910) 120 and France 
 44. When comparison is made on the basis of habitable area 
 Japan may be considered to surpass all as to density, for while 
 in Japan it constitutes only 19 per cent, of the total area, the 
 ratio is as high as 74 for Belgium, 73 for England and Wales, 
 67 for Holland, 76 for Italy, 65 for Germany and 70 for France." 
 The Professor of Agricultural Science at Tokyo University says : 
 " The area under cultivation, even in the densely populated 
 parts, is comparatively smaller than in any other country." 
 
 In a statement issued in 1921 the Department of Agriculture 
 reckoned the population at 145 per square kilometre and 
 recorded the mean rate of increase " in recent years " as 12'06 
 per 1,000. It stated that the density of the rural population 
 was 44 per square kilometre or 9-42 per hectare of arable, in 
 
 Ireland taken at 1811 eensus figurei. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 393 
 
 other words that the density "is higher than that of France, 
 Belgium, Switzerland and some other countries where the 
 agriculture is marked by fairly intensive methods." Mr. 
 Nikaido, of the Bureau of Statistics, writes in the Japan Year- 
 hook that the annual increase of Japan's population was 14-78 
 per 1,000 for 1909-13 and 12-06 for 1914-18, " a rate greater 
 than in any civilised country, with the exception of Germany 
 and Rumania in the pre- War years." 
 
 The birth rate is high, but so is the mortality. The death 
 rate of minors is thrice that of Germany and Great Britain. 
 Here the increasing industrialisation of the country is no doubt 
 playing its part. The ratio of still births has steadily risen 
 since the eighties. The ratio of births, other than still births, 
 per 1,000 of population, which in 1889-93 was 28-6, increased by 
 1909-13 to 83-7 ; but the death rate fell only from 21-1 to 20-6. 
 The ratio of unmarried, 63-22 in 1893, was 66-22 in 1918. 
 
 The following figures for Japan Proper are printed by the 
 Financial and Economic Annual, issued by the Department of 
 Finance : 
 
 Tear. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Annual Increase of 
 
 Average Increase per 1,000 
 
 
 
 Population. 
 
 Inhabitants. 
 
 1910 
 
 50,716,600 
 
 
 1409 ■> 
 
 1911 
 
 51,435,400 
 
 718,800 
 
 1417 
 
 1912 
 
 52,167,000 
 
 731,600 
 
 14-22 - 14-21 
 
 1913 
 
 52,911,800 
 
 744,800 
 
 14-28 
 
 1914 
 
 53,668,600 
 
 756,800 
 
 14-30 J 
 
 1915 
 
 54,448,200 
 
 779,600 
 
 14-53 -> 
 
 1916 
 
 55,236,000 
 
 786,800 
 
 14-45 
 
 1917 
 
 66,036,100 
 
 800,100 
 
 14-49 - 14-50 
 
 1918 
 
 56,851,300 
 
 816,200 
 
 14-67 
 
 1919 
 
 67,673,938 
 
 822,638 
 
 14-47 } 
 
 1920 
 
 66,961,140 
 
 — 
 
 '~~ 
 
 It will be seen that for the year 1920 there was a big drop. 
 The population of 55,961,140 for the year 1920 is the actual 
 population as returned by the census ; the figures of the 
 preceding years are " based," it is explained to me, " on the 
 local registrars' entries. The national census has demon- 
 strated that the figures were larger than the actual number of 
 inhabitants, the discrepancies being partly due to erroneous 
 and duplicate registration and partly to the exodus of persons 
 to the colonies or foreign countries whilst retaining their legal 
 domiciles at home. But the table serves to show the rate of 
 increase." A million and three-quarters is a substantial figure, 
 
894 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 however, to account for in this way. It would seem reasonable 
 to suppose that the increased cost of living, marriage at a later 
 age than formerly and increased mortality due directly or 
 indirectly to the factory system have arrested the rate of 
 increase of the population in recent years. For trustworthy 
 figures of the Japanese population we must await the next 
 census and compare its figures with those of the 1920 census, 
 the first to be taken scientifically. 
 
 A considerable part of Japan is uninhabitable. Of how much 
 of the British Isles can this be said ? The fact that there are in 
 Japan fifty more or less active volcanoes, about a thousand hot 
 springs and two dozen mountains between 12,000 and 8,000 ft. 
 high speaks for itself. Ben Nevis is only 4,400, Snowdon only 
 8,500 ft. 
 
 The population of Korea in 1920 (17,284,207) was 239 per 
 square mile. According to Whitaker for 1921 the population 
 of Manchuria (11 millions) is 80 per square mile, and of 
 Mongolia (8 millions) 2-8. 
 
 SMALL FARMS DECREASING [XXXI]. 
 
 Tear 
 
 Below 5 tan 
 
 Over 5 tan 
 
 Over 1 cfta 
 
 Over 2 chs 
 
 Over 3 cho 
 
 Over 6 cho 
 
 1908 
 1912 
 1918 
 1919 
 
 37-28 
 37-14 
 35-64 
 35-36 
 
 32-61 
 33-25 
 33-30 
 33-18 
 
 19-51 
 19-61 
 20-70 
 20-68 
 
 6-44 
 5-96 
 6-33 
 6-21 
 
 3-01 
 2-83 
 2-82 
 2-83 
 
 1-15 
 1-21 
 1-31 
 1-74 
 
 See also Appendix XLVII. 
 
 FORESTS [XXXII]. The following figures for 1918 show, 
 in thousand cho, the ownership of forests (bared tracts in 
 brackets) : Crown, 1,803 (89) ; State, 7,288 (392) ; prefectures, 
 cities, towns and villages, 2,894 (1,883) ; temples and shrines, 
 111 (15) ; 7,186 (1,630) ; total, 18,782 (3,509). The largest 
 yield is from sugi (cryptomeria), pine and hinoki (Charmae- 
 cypatis obtusa). '* 
 
 ARMAMENTS [XXXIII]. 1,505 million yen of the 
 national debt is for armaments and military purposes against 
 928 million yen for reproductive undertakings (railways, har- 
 bours, drainage, roads, steelworks, mining, telephones, etc.), 
 143 million for exploitation of Formosa, Korea and Saghalien, 
 
APPENDICES 395 
 
 123 million for financial adjustment and 98 million for feudal 
 pensions and feudal debt. Of the expenditure for 1920-1, 
 846 million, some 395 million were for the army and navy. 
 During a period of 130 years the United States Government 
 has spent nearly four-fifths of its revenue on war or objects 
 related to war. 
 
 LANDOWNING AND FARMING [XXXIV]. Before the 
 Restoration the farmers were the tenants of the daimyos' vassals, 
 the samtirai, or of the daimyos direct. When the daimyos gave 
 up their lands the Crown made the farmers the owners of the 
 land they occupied. Its legal value was assessed and the 
 national land tax was fixed at 3 per cent, and the local tax at 
 1 per cent. Various adjustments have since taken place. 
 
 The Japanese Constitutional Labour Party has insisted in a 
 communication to the International Labour Conference at 
 Geneva that Japanese tenant farmers are not properly called 
 farmers but that they are " labourers pure and simple." See 
 Appendix LXXVI. 
 
 STATE RAILWAYS [XXXV]. The railways, which were 
 nationalised in 1907, extended in 1919 to 6,000 miles. There 
 were also nearly 2,000 miles of light railways (in addition to 
 1,368 of electric street cars). Most of the lines are single track. 
 The gauge is 3 ft. 6 in. The Government has proposed gradually 
 to electrify the whole system. 
 
 ILLEGITIMACY [XXXVI]. In Japan illegitimacy is a 
 question not of morals but of law. That is to say, it is a question 
 of registration. If a husband omits to register his marriage 
 he is not legally married. Thus it is possible for there to be 
 born to a married pair a child which is technically illegitimate. 
 If the child should die at an early age it is equally possible for it 
 to appear on the official records as illegitimate. A birth must 
 be registered within a fortnight. It may be thought perhaps 
 that it is practicable for the father to register his marriage after 
 the birth of the child and within the time allowed for registra- 
 tion. It is possible but it is not always easy. An application 
 for the registration of the marriage of a man under twenty-five 
 must bear the signature of his parents and the signature of two 
 persons who testify that the required consent has been regularly 
 obtained. In the event of a man's father having " retired," 
 the signature of the head of the family must be secured. If 
 
396 APPENDICES 
 
 a man is over twenty-five, then the signatures of his parents or 
 of any two relatives will suffice. Now suppose that a man is 
 living at a distance from his birthplace or suppose that the head 
 of his family is travelling. Plainly, there may be a difficulty 
 in securing a certificate in time. Therefore, because, as has 
 been explained, no moral obloquy attaches to unregistered 
 marriage or to unregistered or legally illegitimate children, 
 registration is often put off. When a man removes from one 
 place to another and thereupon registers, it may be that his 
 marriage and his children may be illegitimate in one place 
 and legitimate in another. There is a difference between actual 
 and legal domicile. A man may have his domicile in Tokyo 
 but his citizen rights in his native village. 
 
 SAKlfi AND BEER [XXXVII]. Sake is sold in 1 or 2 go 
 bottles at from 10 to 25 sen for 2 go. As it is cheaper to buy 
 the liquor unbottled most people have it brought home in the 
 original brewery tub. There are five sorts of saki : seishu 
 (refined), dakushu (unrefined or muddy), shirozake (white 
 sake), mirin (sweet sake) and shochu (distilled sdki). Sake may 
 contain from 10 to 14 per cent, of alcohol ; shochu is stronger ; 
 mirin has been described as a liqueur. Japanese beers contain 
 from 1 to 2 per cent, less alcohol than English beers and only 
 about a quarter of the alcohol in saki. More than four-fifths 
 of it is sold in bottles. Beer is replacing sake to some extent, 
 but owing to the increase in the population of Japan the total 
 consumption of sake (about 4,000,000 koku) remains practically 
 the same. In 1919 beer and sake were exported to the value 
 of 7,200,000 and 4,500,000 yen respectively. 
 
 MINERAL PRODUCTION [XXXVIII]. In 1919 the 
 production was as follows : gold, 1,938,711 momme, value 
 9,681,494 yen ; silver, 42,822,160 momme, value 11,131,861 
 yen ; copper, 130,737,861 kin, value 67,581,475 yen ; iron, 
 steel and iron pyrites, 169,545,050 kwan, the value of the steel 
 being 72,666,867 yen ; coal, 31,271,098 metric tons, value 
 442,540,941 yen. 
 
 JAPAN AS SILK PRODUCER fXXXIX]. In exportation 
 of silk, Japan, which in 1919 had under sericulture 8-6 of her 
 total cultivated area and 17-1 per cent, of her upland, passed 
 Italy in 1901 and China in 1910. Her exportation is now twice 
 that of China. In production her total is thrice that of Italy. 
 
APPENDICES 397 
 
 France is a long way behind Italy. The production of China 
 is an unknown quantity. 
 
 As to the advantages and drawbacks of Japan for sericulture 
 the Department of Agriculture wrote in 1921 : " Japan is not 
 favourably placed, inasmuch as atmospheric changes are often 
 very violent, and the air becomes damp in the silk-culture 
 seasons. This is especially the case in the season of spring 
 silkworms, for the cold is severe at the beginning and the air 
 becomes excessively damp as the rainy season sets in. The 
 intense heat in July and August, too, is very trying for the 
 summer and autumn breeds. Compared with France and 
 Italy, Japan seems to be heavily handicapped, but the 
 abundance of mulberry leaves all over the land and the com- 
 paratively rich margin of spare labour among the farmers have 
 proved great advantages." 
 
 The length of the sericultural season ranges from 54 days in 
 spring to 31 or 32 days in autumn, but there are variations 
 according to weather, methods and seed. The season begins 
 with the incubation period. Then follows the rearing. Last 
 is' the period in which the caterpillars mount the little straw 
 stacks provided for them in order that they may wind them- 
 selves into cocoons. I do not enter into the technics of the 
 retardation and stimulation of seed in order to delay or to 
 hasten the hatch according to the movements of the market. 
 Hydrochloric and sulphuric-acid baths and electricity are 
 used as stimulants ; storage in " wind holes " is practised to 
 defer hatching. 
 
 Cocoons are reckoned both by the kwan of 8 J lbs. and by the 
 koku of approximately 5 bushels. The cocoon production in 
 1918 worked out at about 16J bushels per acre of mulberry or 
 18 bushels per family engaged in sericulture. About 34 million 
 bushels of cocoons are produced. In 1919 the production was 
 270,800,000 kilos. The average production of a tambu of 
 mulberry field was 1'356 koku. In 1919 a koku was worth on 
 the average 106-81 yen (including double and waste cocoons). 
 The cost of producing cocoons rose from 4-105 yen per kwamme 
 in 1916 to 11-284 yen in 1920. The daily wages of labourers 
 employed by the farmers rose from 62 sen for men and 47 sen 
 for women in 1910 to 1 yen 93 sen for men and 1 yen 44 sen for 
 women in 1920. With the slump, the price of cocoons fell below 
 the cost of production and there was trouble in several districts 
 when wages were due. The labourers engaged for the silk 
 seasons of 1916 numbered 341,577, of whom 30,000 came from 
 
398 APPENDICES 
 
 other than their employers' prefectures. These people migrate 
 from the early to the late districts and so manage to provide 
 themselves with work during a considerable period. As many 
 as 5| per cent, of the persons engaged in the industry are 
 labourers. Many employment agencies are engaged in 
 supplying labour. 
 
 It has been estimated that the labour of 19'8 persons (200 
 per hectare) is needed for a tambu of mulberry field. The 
 silkworms hatched from a card of eggs (laid by 100 moths) 
 are supposed to call for the labour of 49-2 persons (1,456 per 
 kilo, 2-204 lbs.) 
 
 The production of cocoons rose from 0-866 koku per card in 
 1914 to 1-105 in 1918, or from 4,412,000 to 6,832,000. 
 
 More than three-quarters of the raw silk produced used to be 
 exported. Now, with the increase of factories in Japan (the 
 figures are for 1918), only 67 per cent, goes abroad, the bulk of it 
 to the United States, which obtained from Japan, in 1917-18, 
 75 per cent., and in 1919, it has been stated, 90 per cent, of 
 its total supply. About 28 per cent, of the world's consumption 
 is supplied by Japan. Whereas in 1915 the output of raw silk 
 was 5,460,000 kwan valued at 217,746,000 yen, it was in 1918 
 7,891,000 kwan valued at 546,548,000 yen. While in 1915-16 
 the percentage of Japanese exporters to foreign exporters was 
 64-4, it had risen in 1919-20 to 77-5. Against 450 cho of 
 mulberries in 1914 there were in 1918 508,993 cho. The total 
 export of raw silk and silk textiles to all countries in 1920 was 
 382 and 158 million yen respectively. In 1919, 96 per cent, 
 of the raw silk Japan exported went to the United States and 
 46 out of 101 million yens' worth of exported silk textiles 
 (habutal). Japan's whole trade with the United States is 
 worth 880 million yen a year. But the proportion of 
 basins in the factories steadily increases. There are nearly 
 five thousand factories, big and little. A well-informed corre- 
 spondent writes to me : " You know of course of the big 
 organisation subsidised by the Government to control prices and 
 not to make too much silk. The truth is the silk interest 
 became too powerful and the Government is not a free 
 agent." 
 
 TUBERCULOSIS [XL]. Phthisis and tuberculosis sweep off 
 22 per cent, and bronchitis and inflammation of the lungs 18 
 per cent., or together more than a third of the population. 
 See also Appendix LXIX. 
 
APPENDICES 399 
 
 WOMEN WORKERS [XLI]. In addition to women and 
 girls working in agriculture, in the mines, in the factories and 
 in trades there are said to be 1,200,000 in business and the 
 public services. Teachers number about 52,000, nurses 33,000, 
 midwives 28,000 and doctors 700. 
 
 FACTORY FOOD AND "DEFIANCE OF HYGIENIC 
 RULES " [XLII], Dr. Kuwata says in the Japan Year-book 
 (1920-1) that " in cotton mills where machinery is run day and 
 night it is not uncommon when business is brisk to put 
 operatives to 18 hours' work. In such cases holidays are given 
 only fortnightly or are entirely withheld. The silk factories in 
 Naganoken generally put their operatives to 14 or 16 hours' 
 work and in only a small portion are the hours 13." 
 
 Summarising a report of the Department of Agriculture and 
 Commerce, he says of the factory workers : " The bulk of 
 workers are female and are chiefly fed with boiled rice in 43 per 
 cent, of the factories. In other factories the staple food is poor, 
 the rice being mixed with cheaper barley, millet or sweet potato 
 in the proportion of from 20 to 50 per cent. In most cases 
 subsidiary dishes consist of vegetables, meat or beans being 
 supplied on an average only eight times a month. Dormitories 
 are in defiance of hygienic rules. In most cases only half to 
 1 tsuho (4 square yards) are allotted to one person." See also 
 Appendix LXIX. 
 
 CHINESE COMPETITION WITH JAPAN [XLIII]. The 
 Jiji called attention in the spring of 1921 to the way in which 
 spinning mills in China were an increasing menace to Japanese 
 industry. There were in China 840,000 spindles under Chinese 
 management, 250,000 under European and 340,000 under 
 Japanese, a total of 1,430,000, which will shortly be increased 
 to 1,150,000 against 3,000,000 in Japan, only 1,800,000 of which 
 are at work. The 1919 return was : China, 1,530,000 ; Japan, 
 3,200,000, 
 
 HOODWINKING THE FOREIGNER [XLIV]. In the 
 Manchester Guardian Japan Number, June 9, 1921, the 
 managing director of a leading spinning company, in a page and 
 a half article, states that among the reasons why a large 
 capitalisation is needed by Japanese factories, beyond the fact 
 of higher cost of machinery, is the " special protection needed 
 for Japanese operatives and the special consideration given by 
 the spinners to the happiness and welfare of their operatives." 
 When will Japanese believe their best friends when they tell 
 
400 APPENDICES 
 
 them that such attempts to hoodwink the foreigner achieve no 
 result but to cover themselves with ridicule ? 
 
 TOBACCO [XLV]. In 1918-19 there was produced on 
 24,439 cho 10,308,089 kwan of tobacco. During the same period 
 9,681,274 kwan were taken by the Government, which paid 
 19,114,803 yen or 1-974 per kwan. In 1919 there was imported 
 leaf tobacco to the value of 5,288,918 yen. Cigarettes to the 
 value of 589,744 yen were exported. The profits of the 
 Tobacco Monopoly, estimated at 71 millions for 1919-20, were 
 estimated at 88 millions for 1920-1. 
 
 ELECTORAL OFFENCES [XLVI]. There were candidates 
 at the 1920 election who spent 50,000 yen. It is not uncommon 
 for the number of persons charged with election offences to 
 reach four figures. The qualification for a vote (law of 1918) 
 is the payment of 3 yen of national tax. Under the old law 
 there were about 25 voters per 1,000 inhabitants ; now there 
 are 54. 
 
 SMALLNESS OF ESTATES [XLVII]. The number of 
 men holding from 5 to 10 cho was, in 1919, 121,141 and between 
 10 and 50 cho, 45,978. The number holding 50 cho (125 acres) 
 and upwards was only 4,226, and 400 or so of these were in 
 Hokkaido. See also Appendix XXXI. 
 
 VEGETABLE WAX MAKING [XLVIII]. The wax-tree 
 berries are flailed and then pounded. Next comes boiling. The 
 mush obtained is put into a bag and that bag into a wooden 
 press. The result is wax in its first state. A reboiling follows 
 and then — the discovery of the method was made by a wax 
 manufacturer while washing his hands — a slow dropping of the 
 wax into water. What is taken out of the water is wax in a 
 flaked state. It is dried, melted and poured into moulds. The 
 best berries yield 13 per cent, of fine wax. The variety of wax 
 grown was oro (yellow wax). There is another variety. The 
 sort I saw is grafted at three years with its own variety. The 
 fruitful period lasts for a quarter of a century. Roughly, the 
 yield is 100 kwan per tan. Formerly, wax was made from wild 
 trees. 
 
 NAMES FOR ETA [XLIX]. Eta (great defflement) is an 
 offensive name. The phrase tokushu buraku (special villages), 
 applied to Eta hamlets, is also objected to. Heimin is the 
 official name, but the Eta are generally termed shin heimin 
 (new common people), which is again regarded as invidiously 
 distinguishing them. The name chiho is now officially 
 
APPENDICES 401 
 
 proposed for Eta villages. The fact that many Eta have made 
 large sums during the war has somewhat improved the position 
 of their class. Some Eta are well satisfied with their name and 
 freely acknowledge their origin. Year by year intermarriage 
 increases in Japan. A Home Department official has been 
 quoted as saying that in 1918 as many as 450 marriages were 
 registered between Eta and ordinary Japanese. 
 
 The population of the village I visited, 1,900 in 300 families, 
 was getting its living as follows : farming 682, trade 185, 
 industry 31, day labour 97, travelling players 180, not reported 
 180. The Parliamentary voters were 10, prefectural 17, 
 county 19 and village 57. There were 98 ex-soldiers in the 
 community and one man was a member of the local education 
 committee. The birth rate was above the local average. The 
 crimes committed during the year were : theft 2, gambling 2, 
 assault 1, police offences 3. Of the 300 families only one was 
 destitute, and it had been taken care of by the young women's 
 society. 
 
 A considerable proportion of the early emigrants to America 
 were Eta. It is now recognised that it was a short-sighted 
 policy on the part of the authorities to allow them to go. 
 
 PAPER MAKING fL]. A paper-making outfit may cost 
 from 60 to 70 yen only. The shrubs grown to produce bark for 
 paper making are kozo (the paper mulberry), mitsumata 
 {Edgworthia chrysantha) and gampi {Wilkstroemia sikokiana). 
 Someone has also hit on the idea of turning the bark of the 
 ordinary mulberry to use in paper making. 
 
 LIBRARIES, THE PRESS AND THE CENSORSHIP 
 [LI]. There are 1,200 libraries in the country with 4 million 
 books and 8 million visitors in the year. About 47,000 books 
 are published in a year, of which less than half, probably, are 
 original works. From one to two hundred are translations, 
 usually condensed translations. The largest number deal with . 
 politics. There are about 3,000 newspapers and periodicals. 
 In 1917 some 1,200 issues of newspapers and periodicals 
 attracted the attention of the censor and the sale of 600 books 
 was prohibited. Some sixty foreign books were stopped. 
 
 JAPANESE IN BRAZIL [LII]. Emigration to South 
 America has latterly been arrested through the rise in wages at 
 home. During the past four years an average of about 3,000 
 families has gone every twelve months to Brazil, where 
 about a quarter of a million acres are owned and leased by 
 
402 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 Japanese. The Japanese Government spends 100,000 yen a 
 year on giving a grant of 50 yen to each emigrating family 
 up to 2,000 in number, through the Overseas Colonisation 
 Company. The Brazilian Government also offers a gratuity* 
 
 CATTLE KEEPING IN SOUTH-WESTERN JAPAN [LIII]. 
 Tajima, the old province which comprises about four counties 
 in Tottori, is a large supplier of " Kobe beef," but it is a cattle- 
 feeding not a grazing district. The number of cattle in Hyogo 
 is double the cattle population of Tottori, but no cattle keeper 
 has more than a score of beasts. The usual thing is for farmers 
 to have two or three apiece. Some of the " Kobe beef " comes 
 from the prefectures of Hiroshima and Okayama. It is in the 
 north of Japan, where the people are not so thick on the ground 
 and cultivation is less intense, that cattle production has its 
 best chance. 
 
 VALUE OF LAND [LIV]. The value of land in the hill- 
 village in which I stayed necessarily varied, but the average 
 price of paddy was given me as 250 yen per tan. Dry land was 
 half that. Open hill land, that is the so-called grass land, might 
 be worth 120 yen. The rise in values which has taken place is 
 illustrated by the following table of farm-land values per tan 
 in 1919, published by the Bank of Japan : 
 
 Paddy 
 
 Good Ordinary Bad 
 
 Upland 
 
 Oood Ordjnaty Bad 
 
 Hokkaido 
 
 „ , fNorth 
 
 Honshu Tokyo 
 
 <7^"i, middle 
 island) [^gg^ 
 
 Shikoku . 
 Kyushu . 
 
 231 
 
 802 
 
 863 
 
 1,226 
 
 1,226 
 
 1,120 
 
 960 
 
 158 
 579 
 607 
 834 
 840 
 784 
 652 
 
 95 
 366 
 406 
 523 
 525 
 470 
 416 
 
 115 
 
 477 
 673 
 875 
 727 
 752 
 538 
 
 62 
 295 
 442 
 565 
 443 
 450 
 300 
 
 26 
 170 
 272 
 313 
 244 
 225 
 175 
 
 FRUIT PRODUCTION fLV]. The Japanese when they do 
 not eat meat do not feel the need of fruit which is experienced in 
 the West. But there is now a steady increase in the fruit crops. 
 For 1918 the figures were (in thousands of kwan) : persimmons, 
 43,620 ; pears, 27,730 ; oranges, 78,660 ; peaches, 12,810 ; 
 apples, 6,695 ; grapes, 6,240 ; plums (largely used pickled), 6,190. 
 
 JAPANESE STUDENTS ABROAD [LVI]. During 1921 
 more than 200 young professors or candidates for professorships 
 were sent to Europe and America by the Ministry of Education. 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 403 
 
 Probably another 800 were studying on funds (£450 for a year 
 plus fares is the grant which is made by the Ministry of 
 Education) supplied by the Ministries of Agriculture, of Railways 
 and of the Army and Navy (often supplemented, no doubt, by 
 money furnished by their families). If to these students are 
 added those sent by independent Universities, institutions, 
 corporations and private firms, the total cannot be fewer than 
 1,000. The students stay from six months to two or three years, 
 and when they return others take their places. Counting 
 diplomatists, business men, tourists and students there are, of 
 course, more Japanese in Great Britain than there are British in 
 Japan. There are fifteen hundred Japanese in London alone. 
 
 TEA PRODUCTION [LVII]. Every prefecture but Aomori 
 produces some tea, but very little is grown in the prefectures of 
 the extreme north. The largest producers are in order : 
 Shidzuoka, Miye, Nara, Kyoto, Kumamoto, Gifu, Kagoshima, 
 Shiga, Saitama, Osaka and Ibariki. In 1919 Shidzuoka 
 produced 4 million kwan, valued at nearly 13 million yen. 
 But the statistics of tea production are unsatisfactory. -Much 
 tea is produced and sold locally which is unreported. A great 
 deal of this is of inferior quality and produced from half -wild 
 bushes. The 1919 figures are : area, 48,843 cho ; number of 
 factories, 1,122,164 ; green tea — sencha, 7,205,886 kwan ; bancha, 
 2,580,035 kwan; gyokuro, 75,826 kwan; black, 50,756 kwan; 
 others, 234,868 kwan ; sencha dust, 249,862 kwan ; other dust, 
 4:86 kwan. Total, 10,397,719 Araara; value, 33,377,460 yen. There 
 was exported green tea (pan fired), 12,420,000 yen ; green tea 
 (basket fired), 4,575,000 yen ; others, 1,405,000 yen. Of this 
 there went to the United States consignments to the value of 
 15,600,000 yen and to Canada of 1,700,000 yen. In 1918 the 
 export to America was 50,000 tons; in 1919, 30,000 ; and in 1920, 
 23,000 ; and a further decline is expected in 1921. The total 
 exports, which were, in 1909, 62 per cent, of the production, 
 were, in 1918, only 57 per cent, and, in 1919, 37 per cent. 
 
 Theine Percentages. — The following percentages of theine 
 in black and green tea were furnished me by the Department of 
 Agriculture : 
 
 
 Green 
 (Basket Filed) 
 
 Green 
 (Pan Fired) 
 
 Black 
 
 Oolong 
 
 Theine .... 
 Tannin . 
 
 2-81 
 16-08 
 
 2-22 
 14-29 
 
 2-26 
 7-32 
 
 2-35 
 16-15 
 
404 APPENDICES 
 
 Theine or caffeine is a feathery-looking substance which 
 resembles the material of a silk-worm's cocoon. There is more 
 theine or caffeine in tea leaves than in coffee. 
 
 MISTAKES IN CROP STATISTICS (LVIII). Generally 
 speaking, it may be said that cereals are under-estimated and 
 cocoons over-estimated. Cereals may be 20 per cent, under- 
 estimated. The under-estimation may no doubt be traced back 
 to the time when taxation was on the basis of the grain yield. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS FOR THE BLIND [LIX]. A third of the 
 70,000 sightless are amma, about a quarter as many practise 
 acupuncture and the application of the moxa, while nearly the 
 same number are musicians or storytellers. The blind have 
 petitioned the Diet to restrict the calling of amma to men and 
 women who have lost their sight. 
 
 WELL SINKING FOR GAS [LX]. The presence of gas, 
 which is odourless, is betrayed by the discoloration of the 
 water from which it emanates and by bubbles. 
 
 HEALTH, HEIGHTS AND WEIGHTS OF SCHOOL 
 CHILDREN [LXI]. In 1917-18 the constitutions of 1,193,000 
 elementary school boys were reported as 53 per cent, robust, 
 43 per cent, medium and 4 per cent. weak. The constitutions of 
 1,016,000 elementary school girls Were reported 49 per cent, 
 robust, 48 per cent, medium and 3 per cent. weak. Just as 
 women are often underfed in Japan, girls may frequently be less 
 well fed than boys. Elementary school boys of 16 averaged 
 4-84 shaku in height and 10-85 kwan in weight. The average 
 height and weight of 512 elementary school girls of the same age 
 were 4-71 shaku and 10-83 kwan. 
 
 HEIGHT AND WEIGHT OF WRESTLERS [LXII]. In 
 a list of ten famous wrestlers the tallest is stated to be 6-30 
 shaku (a shaku is 11-93 inches) and the heaviest as 33-2 kwan 
 (a kwan is 8-267 lbs.). The average height and weight of these 
 men work out at 5-84 shaku and 28-4 kwan. By way of 
 comparison it may be mentioned that the percentage of con- 
 scripts in 1918 over 5-5 shaku was 2-58 per cent. The average 
 weight of Japanese is recorded as 13 kwan 830 momme. 
 
 EXEMPTION FROM AND AVOIDANCE OF CONSCRIP- 
 TION fLXIII]. The age is 20 and the service two years (with 
 four years in reserve and ten years depot service), The only 
 son of a parent over 60 unable to support himself or herself is 
 
APPENDICES 405 
 
 released. Middle school boys' service is postponed till they are 
 25. Students at higher schools and universities need not serve 
 till 26 or 27. The service of young men abroad (i.e. elsewhere 
 than China) is similarly postponed. (If still abroad at 37, they 
 are entered in territorial army list and exempted.) Young 
 men of education equal to that of middle-school graduates can 
 volunteer for a year and pay 100 yen barracks expenses and be 
 passed out with the rank of non-commissioned officers and be 
 liable thereafter for only two terms of three months in territorial 
 army. There are about half a million youths liable to conscrip- 
 tion annually. To this number is to be added about 100,000 
 postponed cases. (In 1917, 47,324 students, 32,263 abroad, 
 15,920 whereabouts unknown, 5,069 ill, 3,147 criminal causes, 
 2,477 absentees, family reasons or crime.) Evasions in 1917 : 
 convicted, 234 ; suspected, 1,582. There are two conscription 
 insurance companies with policies issued for 69 million yen. 
 In one place charms against being conscripted are sold — at a 
 shrine. Desertions in 1916 (7 per cent, officers) 956, of which 
 258 received more than " light punishment." The conscripts 
 suffering from trachoma were 15-3 per cent, and from venereal 
 diseases 2-2 per cent. Heights (1918) : under 5 shaku, 10-95 
 per cent. ; 6-5-3 shaku, 53-34 per cent. ; 5-3-5-5 shaku, 33-13 
 per cent. ; above 5-5 shaku, 2-58 per cent. In these four classes 
 there was a decrease in height in the first two of -39 per cent, and 
 •57 per cent, respectively and an increase in the second two of 
 •80 per cent, and 15 per cent, respectively. 
 
 HOKKAIDO HOLDINGS [LXIV]. There are only 28 
 holdings of more than 1,000 cho, 62 of over 500 cho, 161 over 
 100 cho and 80 over 50 cho. These large holdings are used for 
 cattle breeding alone. There are no more than 620 holdings 
 over 20 cho and only 6,756 over 10. The number over 5 cho is 
 51,877, and over 2 cho 62,015. Under the area of 2 cho there 
 are as many as 40,928. Few of the largest holdings are worked 
 as single farms. They are let in sections to tenants. 
 
 CLAUSES IN A TENANT'S CONTRACT [LXV]. (1) The 
 tenant must make at least 1 cho of paddy every year. (2) Rent 
 rice must be the best of the harvest, but the tenant may pay in 
 money. (3) In the following cases the owner will give orders 
 to the tenants : (a) If tenants do not use enough manure, 
 (6) If there is disease of plants or insect pests, (c) If the 
 tenant neglects to mend the road or other necessary work is 
 neglected. (4) The owner will dismiss a tenant: (a) If the 
 
406 APPENDICES 
 
 tenant does not pay his rent without reason. (6) If the tenant 
 is neglectful of his work or is idle, (c) If the tenant is not 
 obedient to the owner and does not keep this contract faithfully, 
 (d) If the tenant is punished by the law. (5) When tenants 
 leave without permission of absence more than twenty days 
 the owner can treat as he will crops or buildings. (6) In the 
 following cases the tenant must provide two labourers to the 
 owner : mending road, drainage canal or bridges ; mending 
 water gate and irrigation canal ; when necessary public works 
 must be undertaken. 
 
 CULTIVATED AREA AND LIVESTOCK [LXVI]. The 
 area of cultivated land in Japan (counting paddy and arable) 
 was, in 1919, 15,179,721 acres (6,071,888 cho). The number of 
 animals kept for tillage purposes was 1,199,970 horses and 
 1,036,020 homed cattle. The total number of horses in the 
 country was only 1,510,626 and of homed cattle, excluding 
 207,891 returned as "calving" and 12,761 as "deaths," 
 1,307,120. Sheep, 4,546; goats, 91,777; swine, 398,155. 
 The number of horned cattle slaughtered in the year was 
 226,108. Some 86,800 horses were also slaughtered. In 
 Great Britain (arable, pasture and grazing area, 68 million acres) 
 there were, in 1919, 11 million cattle, 25 million sheep, 8 million 
 pigs and If million horses. 
 
 EGGS AND POULTRY [LXVII]. Even with the 
 assistance of a tariff on Chinese eggs and of a Government 
 poultry yard, which distributes birds and sittings at cost price, 
 there were in 1919 14,105,085 fowls and 11,278,783 chickens. 
 There was an importation of 3| million " fresh " eggs. 
 
 MEAT CONSUMPTION [LXVIII]. The present meat 
 consumption by Japanese is imcertain, for there were in 1920 ' 
 3,579 foreign residents and 22,104 visitors, and there is an 
 exportation of ham and tinned and potted foods. The number 
 of animals slaughtered in 1918 was : cattle and calves, 226,108 ; 
 horses, 86,800 ; sheep and goats, 9,587 ; swine, 327,074. 
 Someone said to me that " the nutritious flesh of the horse should 
 not be neglected, for the farmer is able to digest tough food." 
 
 TUBERCULOSIS IN THE MILLS [LXIX]. When we re- 
 member early and mid-Victorian conditions in English mills 
 and the conditions of the sweat shops in New York and other 
 American cities (vide " Susan Lenox "), we shall be less inclined 
 to take a harsh view of industrial Japan during a period of 
 In 1921 as many as 24,000 foreigaers landed in nine months. 
 
APPENDICES 407 
 
 transition. But it is to the interest of the woollen industry 
 no less than that of its workers that the fact should be stated 
 that a competent authority has alleged that 50 per cent, of the 
 employees in the mUls suffer from consumption and that many 
 girls sleep ten in a room of only ten-mat size. Improvements 
 have been made lately under the influence of legislation and 
 enlightened self-interest — ^the president of the largest company 
 is a man of foresight and public spirit — but when I was in Japan, 
 as I recorded in the New East at the time, girls of 13 and 14 
 were working 11 -hour day and night shifts in some mills. 
 
 WOOLLEN FACTORIES [LXX]. In the Japanese woollen 
 factory the cost of the hands is low individually, but expen- 
 sive collectively. An expert suggested that it takes half a 
 dozen of the unskilled girls to do the work of an English mill-girl. 
 It is much the same with male labour. " An English worker 
 may be expected to produce work equal to the output of four 
 Japanese hands." Labour for heads of departments is also 
 difficult to get. There are textile schools and probably a 
 hundred men are graduated yearly. But the men are not all 
 fitted for the jobs which are vacant. Therefore, one finds 
 a man acting as an engineer who, because of his lack of technical 
 experience, is unable to exercise sufficient control over the men 
 in his charge. A curiosity of the industry is the high wages 
 which many men of this sort command. They are really being 
 paid better for inferior work than skilled men in England. The 
 capital of the factories in 1918 was 46J million yen with 32f 
 million paid up. Before the War the companies made 8 per cent, 
 as against the 2 J per cent, which contents the English manufac- 
 turer, who has often side lines to help his profits. There was 
 more than 100 million yen invested in the woollen textile 
 business, manufacturing and retail. The industry did well 
 during the War by supplies of cloth to Russia and of yarn and 
 muslin to countries which ordinarily are able to supply them- 
 selves. In 1918 the production (woollen fabrics and mixtures) 
 was valued at 85 million yen (muslin, 32 ; cloth, 21 ; serges, 19 ; 
 blankets, 3 ; flannel, 1 ; others, 8). The imports of wool were 
 60 million and of yarn 251,000. In 1919 the figures were 61 
 million and 710,000 respectively. In 1920 the exports were : 
 woollen or worsted yarns, 1,437,926 yen; woollen cloth and 
 serges, 3,019,382 yen; blankets, 1,024,540 yen; other woollens, 
 548,922 yen. The Nippon Wool Weaving Company, which in 
 1921 distributed a 20 per cent, ordinary and 20 per cent, 
 extraordinary dividend, has 15 foreign experts. 
 28 
 
408 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 POPULATION OF HOKKAIDO [LXXI]. 
 has risen as follows : 
 
 Year 
 1874 . 
 1884 . 
 1894 
 1904 . 
 
 Fopalation 
 
 174,668 
 
 276,414 
 
 616,650 
 
 1,244,669 
 
 Tear 
 1914 
 1919 
 1920 
 
 In 1869, 58,467; 
 
 Fopalation 
 1,869,582 
 2,137,700 
 2,359,097 
 
 EXTENSION OF CROP-BEARING AREA OF JAPAN 
 
 [liXXII]. There is normally added to the crop-bearing area 
 about 53,000 cho (132,000 acres) a year. From the new crop- 
 bearing area every year is deducted the loss of arable land from 
 floods, the extension of cities and towns and railways and the 
 building of factories and institutions. This is reckoned at nearly 
 8,000 cho in the year. One computation is that there are 
 2 million cho (5 million acres) available for addition to the crop- 
 bearing area, of which 1 million cho would be convertible into 
 paddies. A decision was taken by the Government in 1919 to 
 bring 250,000 cho under cultivation within nine years from that 
 date, and by 1920 some 20,000 cho had been reclaimed. Persons 
 who reclaim more than 5 cho receive 6 per cent, of their 
 expenditure. 
 
 The increase in the area of cultivation has been as follows 
 (in cho) : 
 
 Tear 
 
 Paddy 
 
 Upland Farm 
 
 Total 
 
 1905 
 
 2,841,471 
 
 2,540,906 
 
 5,382,378 
 
 1906 
 
 2,849,288 
 
 2,561,170 
 
 6,400,459 
 
 1907 
 
 2,858,628 
 
 2,639,680 
 
 6,498,309 
 
 1908 
 
 2,882,426 
 
 2,684,631 
 
 6,566,958 
 
 1909 
 
 2,902,899 
 
 2,777,453 
 
 6,680,352 
 
 1910 
 
 2,910,970 
 
 2,804,434 
 
 6,715,405 
 
 1911 
 
 2,923,520 
 
 2,836,002 
 
 6,759,522 
 
 1912 
 
 2,939,445 
 
 2,880,301 
 
 6,819,756 
 
 1913 
 
 2,953,947 
 
 2,902,445 
 
 6,866,392 
 
 1914 
 
 2,961,639 
 
 2,916,569 
 
 6,878,208 
 
 1915 
 
 2,974,042 
 
 2,948,076 
 
 6,922.118 
 
 1916 
 
 2,987,579 
 
 2,971,800 
 
 5,959,379 
 
 1917 
 
 3,005,679 
 
 3,012,685 
 
 6,018,364 
 
 1918 
 
 3,011,000 
 
 3,070,000 
 
 6,081,000 
 
 1919 
 
 3,021,879 
 
 3,050,008 
 
 6,071,887 
 
 Whereas the percentage of cultivated land to uncultivated 
 was in 1909 14-6 per cent., it was in 1918 15-6 per cent. 
 
 USE TO WHICH THE LAND IS PUT [LXXIII]. Here 
 are the details of the division of the land in 1909 and 1918 ; 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 409 
 
 Division of the Land 
 
 Tears 
 
 Area in cho 
 in 000 '3 
 
 Percentage of 
 Total Area 
 
 Total area . 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 38,847 
 38,864 
 
 100-0 
 100-0 
 
 Paddy fields 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 2,903 
 3,011 
 
 7-5 
 
 7-7 
 
 Upland fields 
 
 1909 
 1189 
 
 2,777 
 3,070 
 
 7-1 
 7-9 
 
 Total arable as above 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 5,680 
 6,081 
 
 14-6 
 15-6 
 
 Meadows and pastures 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 39 
 43 
 
 01 
 0-1 
 
 Grass lands and heather 
 (excluding pastvires) 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 1,941 
 3,509 
 
 50 
 90 
 
 Forests 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 22,072 
 18,783 
 
 56-8 
 48-3 
 
 Dwellings, factories, 
 roads, railways, in- 
 stitutions, etc. 
 
 1909 
 1918 
 
 9,115 
 10,448 
 
 23-6 
 27-0 
 
 Crop 
 
 ChS 
 
 Tieia 
 
 Rice (1919) . 
 Mulberry (1918) . 
 
 Tea (1919) . 
 
 Barley (1919) 
 Naked Barley (1919) 
 Wheat (1919) 
 Soy Bean (1918) . 
 Other Beans (1918) 
 Peas (1918) . 
 Millets (1918) 
 Buckwheat (1918) . 
 Sweet Potato (1918) 
 Irish Potato (1918) 
 Kape Seed (1918) . 
 Sugar Cane (1918) . 
 Indigo (1918) 
 Hemp (1918). 
 Cotton (1918) 
 
 3,104,611 
 508,993 
 
 48,843 
 
 634,279 
 646,362 
 648,508 
 432,207 
 
 136,313 
 
 314,012 
 
 132,090 
 
 116,300 
 
 29,367 
 
 6,570 
 
 11,821 
 
 2,930 
 
 60,818,163 Sote; value, 
 
 2,891,397,063 yen 
 6,832,000 koku ; raw 
 
 silk, 7,891,000 ftwan; 
 
 value. 646,543,000 
 
 yen 
 10,397,719 fcwan; value, 
 
 33,377,460 yen 
 9,664,000 koku 
 7,995,000 
 6,611,000 
 3,451,320 
 1,237,000 
 536,000 
 2,903,000 
 852,000 
 918,328,000 kwan 
 323,930,000 
 856,880 
 316,746,696 
 
 2,717,767 
 
 2,564,114 
 681,021 
 
 Radish (1917), 676,746,000 kwan; taro (1917), 169,168,000 hwan; 
 
410 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 burdock (1917), 43,424,000 fcMian; tvimip (1917), 41,527,000 fcwon ; onion 
 (1917), 37,601,000 kwan ; carrot (1917), 26,976,000 kwan ; cabbage (1917) 
 19,951,000 kwan ; wax -tree seed (1918), 13,761,000 kwan ; rush for matting, 
 (1918), 10,442,000 kwan; flax (1918), 17,300,000 kwan; ginger (1918), 
 8,189,000 kwan; paper mulberry (1918), 6,964,000 kwan; pepper 
 mint (1918), 3,380,000 kwan; lily (1917), 682,000 kwan; chillies (1918), 
 441,000 kwan. 
 
 EMIGRANTS AND RESIDENTS ABROAD (LXXIV). 
 The latest official figures as to Japanese resident abroad, 
 supplied in 1921 and probably gathered in 1920, are : 
 
 
 Asia 
 
 
 North America 
 
 
 China . 
 
 200,740 
 
 U.S.A. 
 
 
 115,186 
 
 Kwantung . 
 
 79,307 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 
 112,221 
 
 Tsingtao 
 
 23,555 
 
 Canada 
 
 
 17,716 
 
 Philippines . 
 
 11,156 
 
 Mexico 
 
 
 2,198 
 
 Strait Settlements 
 
 10,828 
 
 Panama 
 
 
 225 
 
 BiUsaian Asia 
 
 7,028 
 
 
 
 
 Dutch India 
 
 4,436 
 
 South America 
 
 
 Hongkong 
 
 3,083 
 
 Brazil . 
 
 
 34,268 
 
 India . 
 
 1,278 
 
 Peru . 
 
 . 
 
 10,102 
 
 Burma 
 
 680 
 
 Argentine 
 
 . 
 
 1,958 
 
 Indo-China . 
 
 371 
 
 Chile . 
 Bolivia 
 
 Africa 
 
 484 
 145 
 
 Europe 
 
 
 South Africa 
 
 
 38 
 
 England 
 
 1,638 
 
 Egypt . 
 
 
 35 
 
 Germany 
 
 
 409 
 
 
 
 
 Holland 
 
 
 375 
 
 
 Oceania 
 
 
 France 
 Switzerland 
 Italy . 
 
 
 342 
 87 
 34 
 
 Australia 
 South Seas 
 
 
 5,274 
 3,399 
 
 Belgium 
 Sweden 
 
 
 12 
 10 
 
 Total 
 
 . 
 
 648,916 
 
 (The comparable return for 1918 was 493,845.) It has been 
 suggested that these official statistics are incomplete ; 7,000 
 as the number of Japanese in Russian territory seems low. 
 Even during the War, in 1917, passports were issued to 62,000 
 Japanese going abroad. Of these, according to the Japan Year- 
 book, 23,000 were made out for Siberia. Professor Shiga has 
 stated that " no small number " of Japanese leave their country 
 as stowaways, 
 
 RISE IN PRODUCTION PER "TAN" OF PADDY 
 
 [LXXV]. The 3 or 4 koku is reached in favourable circum- 
 stances only. The average is far below this, but it rises, as 
 shown in Appendix XV. 
 
 Between 1887 and 1915 the area under barley and wheat 
 from 1,591,000 cho to 1,812,000 cho, the yield from 
 
 rose 
 
 15,822,000 koku to 23,781,000 koku and the yield per tan from 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 411 
 
 •994 Jcoku to 1-318. Between 1882 and 1914 the increase in the 
 crops of the three varieties of millet averaged -SIS koku per tan. 
 The increased yield of soy beans was -229 koku per tan, of sweet 
 potatoes 138 kwamme per tan and of Irish potatoes 138 kuoamme. 
 
 LABOURERS [LXXVI]. When hired labour is required on 
 farms it is supplied either by relatives and neighbours or 
 by the surplus labour of strangers who are small farmers or 
 members of a small farmer's family. According to the De- 
 partment of Agriculture : " Ordinary fixed employees are upon 
 an equal social footing. Apprentice labourers are very num- 
 erous. No working class holds a special social position as such. 
 This is the greatest point of difference between the Japanese 
 agricultural labour situation and that of Europe." The number 
 of labourers in October 1920 was : 
 
 
 Day 
 
 Seasonal 
 
 All the 
 year round 
 
 Total 
 
 Labourers living ( 
 solely on wages, . 
 Bgricultiiraland j 
 
 male 
 
 119,676 
 
 52,007 
 
 49,110 
 
 220,793 
 
 female 
 
 80,870 
 
 42,193 
 
 23,862 
 
 146,925 
 
 
 
 200,546 
 
 94,200 
 
 72,972 
 
 367,718 
 
 Labourers who are f 
 
 male 
 
 949,266 
 
 407,596 
 
 188,369 
 
 1,546,231 
 
 labourers part -! 
 of their time . \_ 
 
 female 
 
 646,720 
 
 405,131 
 
 116,152 
 
 1,168,003 
 
 
 
 1,595,986 
 
 813,727 
 
 304,521 
 
 2,714,234 
 
 Total . 
 
 
 1,796,532 
 
 907,927 
 
 377,493 
 
 3,081,952 
 
 In addition to the total of 3,081,952 "there are 32,973 
 agricultural labourers who are boys and girls under 14." 
 
 DECREASE OF FARMERS TILLING THEIR OWN 
 LAND fLXXVII]. In 1914 the number of farmers owning 
 their own land was 1,731,247 ; in 1919 it had fallen to 1,700,747. 
 In 1914 the number of tenants was 1,520,476 ; in 1919 it had 
 increased to 1,545,639. That is, there were 30,500 fewer 
 landowners and 25,163 more tenants. During the period 
 between 1914 and 1919 the number of farmers (landowners and 
 tenants) increased 30,293. While from 1909 to 1914 the 
 percentage of landowners fell from 33-27 to 31-73, the percentage 
 of tenant farmers rose from 27-69 to 27-87 and the percentage 
 of persons partly owner and partly tenant from 39-04 to 40-40, 
 See Appendix XXXIV. 
 
412 
 
 APPENDICES 
 
 RURAL AND URBAN POPULATIONS [LXXVIII]. The 
 
 following table shows the percentage of the population living in 
 communes under 5,000 and 10,000 inhabitants in 1913 and 1918 : 
 
 Tear 
 
 Percentage of Population living in 
 Oommunities 
 
 Percentage of Families 
 engaged in Agriculture 
 
 
 under 5,000 
 
 under 10,000 
 
 Japan Proper 
 
 1913 
 1918 
 
 50-44 
 46-23 
 
 72-39 
 67-71 
 
 57-6 
 52-3 
 
 
 — 4-21 
 
 — 4-68 
 
 — 5-3 
 
 These figures clearly indicate the decrease of the rural popula- 
 tion. To take 10,000 inhabitants as the demarcation line 
 between urban and rural population is probably less correct 
 than to take a demarcation line of 7,500 inhabitants. A mean 
 of the two percentages of populations living in communities 
 under 5,000 and imder 10,000 inhabitants shows 61-41 per cent, 
 in 1913 and 56-97 per cent, in 1918, a decrease of 4-44 per cent. 
 The variation between this result and the preceding one has a 
 simple explanation. About 30 per cent, of the families engaged 
 in agriculture carry on their farming as an accessory business. 
 Teachers, priests and mechanics may all have patches of land. 
 On the other hand, a small number of people have no land. 
 Therefore, the percentage of the rural population is only 
 slightly higher than that of the families engaged in agriculture. 
 In 1918 there were 5,476,784 farming families (to 10,460,440 
 total families or 52-3 per cent.), and if we multiply by 5J — the 
 average number of persons per family in Japan is 5-317 (1918) — 
 to find the population dependent on agriculture, the number is 
 29,209,514. The total population of Japan in 1918 was 
 55,667,711. The Department of Agriculture has stated that 
 on the basis of the census of 1918 the number of persons in 
 households engaged in agriculture was 52 per cent, of the 
 population. According to one set of statistics the percentage 
 of farming families to non-farming families fell from 64 per cent, 
 in 1904 to 60-3 per cent, in 1910 and 56 in 1914. We shall 
 probably not be far wrong in supposing the rural population to 
 be at present about 55 per cent, of the population. The 
 percentage of persons actually working on the farms is another 
 matter. As has been seen, some 30 per cent, of the 5J million 
 farming families are engaged in agriculture as a secondary 
 
APPENDICES 
 
 413 
 
 business only. It may be, therefore, that the 5^ million families 
 do not actually yield more than 10 million effective farm hands. 
 
 IS RICE THE RIGHT CROP FOR JAPAN [LXXIX]. Mr. 
 Katsuro Hara, of the College of Literature, Kyoto University, 
 asks, " Is Japan specially adapted for the production of rice ? " 
 and answers : " Southern Japan is of course not unfit. But 
 rice does not conform to the climate of northern Japan. This 
 explains the reason why there have been repeated famines. By 
 the choice of this uncertain kind of crop as the principal food- 
 stuff the Japanese have been obliged to acquiesce in a com- 
 paratively enhanced cost of living. The tardiness of civilisa- 
 tion may be perhaps partly attributed to this fact. Why did 
 our forefathers prefer rice to other cereals ? Was a choice made 
 in Japan ? If the choice was made in this country the un- 
 wisdom of the choice and of the choosers is now very patent." 
 
 Along with this expression of opinion may be set the following 
 figures, showing the total production of rice and of other grain 
 crops during the past six years, in thousands of kohu : 
 
 Tear 
 
 Barley 
 
 Naked Barley 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Barley and 
 Wheat 
 
 Bloa 
 
 1914 
 
 9,548 
 
 7,207 
 
 4,488 
 
 21,244 
 
 57,006 
 
 1915 
 
 10,253 
 
 8,296 
 
 5,231 
 
 23,781 
 
 65,924 
 
 1916 
 
 9,559 
 
 7,921 
 
 ■5,869 
 
 23,350 
 
 58,442 
 
 1917 
 
 9,169 
 
 8,197 
 
 6,786 
 
 24,155 
 
 64,658 
 
 1918 
 
 8,368 
 
 7,777 
 
 6,431 
 
 22,576 
 
 54,699 
 
 1919 
 
 9,664 
 
 7,995 
 
 5,611 
 
 23,271 
 
 60,818 
 
 From 1910 to 1919 the areas under barleys and wheat were, in 
 cho, 1,771,655-1,729,148, and under rice 2,949,440-3,104,611. 
 
 INNER COLONISATION w. FOREIGN EXPANSION 
 
 [LXXX]. An Introduction to the History of Japan (1921), 
 written by an Imperial University professor and published 
 by the Yamato Society, the members of which include some of 
 the most distinguished men in Japan, says : " It is doubtful 
 whether the backwardness of the north can be solely attributed 
 to its climatic inferiority. Even in the depth of winter the cold 
 in the northern provinces cannot be said to be more unbearable 
 than that of the Scandinavian countries or of north-eastern 
 Germany. The principal cause of the retardation of progress 
 in northern Japan lies rather in the fact that it is comparatively 
 recently exploited. . . . The northern provinces might have 
 
414 APPENDICES 
 
 become far more populous, civilised and prosperous than we see 
 them now. Unfortunately for the north, just at the most 
 critical time in its development the attention of the nation was 
 compelled to turn from inner colonisation to foreign relations. 
 The subsequent acquisition of dominions oversea made the 
 nation still more indifferent." 
 
 According to a report of the Hokkaido Government in 1921, 
 the number of immigrants during the latest three year period 
 was 90,000, and one and a half million acres are available for 
 cultivation and improvement. 
 
 AGRICULTURE v. COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
 [LXXXI]. There is supposed to be more money invested in 
 land than in commerce or industry. Comprehensive figures 
 of a trustworthy kind establishing the relative importance of 
 agriculture, commerce and industry are not readily obtained. 
 " This is a question," writes a Japanese professor of agriculture 
 to me, " which we should like to study very much." Industrial 
 and commercial figures at the end of and immediately after the 
 War are not of much use because of the inflation of that period. 
 The annual value of agricultural production before the War 
 was about 1,800 million yen ; it must be by now about 2,500 
 or 3,000. In 1912, acqbrding to the Department of Finance, the 
 debt of the agricultural population was 740 million yen. In 
 1916 the Japan Mortgage Bank and the prefectural agricultural 
 and industrial banks had together advanced to agricultural 
 organisations 110 millions and to other borrowers 273 millions. 
 In 1915 co-operative credit associations had advanced 45 
 millions to farmers and 11 millions to other borrowers. The 
 paid-up capital of companies, was, in 1913, 1,983 million, of 
 which 27 million was agricultural, and in 1916, 2,434 million, of 
 which 31 million was agricultural. The reserves were, in 1913, 
 542 million, of which 1 million was agricultural, and in 1916, 
 841 million, of which 3 were agricultural. (For some reason or 
 other, " fishing " is included under " agricultural." On careful 
 dissection I find that of the 45 million of investments credited 
 to agriculture in 1918, only 28 million are purely agricultural.) 
 The land tax is estimated to yield 73 million yen in 1920-1. It 
 is 2J per cent, on residential land, 4-5 per cent, on paddy and 
 cultivated land — 3-2 per cent, in Hokkaido — and 5-5 per cent, 
 on other land — 4 per cent, in Hokkaido. 
 
INDEX 
 
 This Index may be regarded as a Olossary inasmuch as every Japanese 
 word which occurs in the booh will be found in it. ' The meaning is usually 
 given on the page the number of which comes first. 
 
 132 (2) signifies that there are two references on page 132 to the subject 
 indexed. 
 
 Such subjects as Agriculture, Hohkaido, Labour, Paddies, Bice and 
 Sericulture are indexed at length, but some matters which relate to them and 
 are of general interest appear in the body of the Index. 
 
 Abbot and Bonin 333 
 
 Abiko 105 
 
 Ability 66 
 
 Abortion 65, 303 ; Abortifaoient332 
 
 Abroad, first, 235 
 
 Accommodation with the West 363 
 
 Acreage, see Agriculture 
 
 Acting 115 (2), 320 
 
 Adjustment 85, 186, 194, 197, 210, 
 232, 365, 370, 380; Cost 72; 
 Cottages 72 ; Graves 72 ; Method 
 and Results 71-2; Statistics 72 
 
 Admonition, see Police, 64 
 
 Adoption 21, 328 
 
 Adulteration 356 
 
 M 99, 321 
 
 Aerated waters 119 
 
 Aeroplanes 31 
 
 Aestheticism 203 
 
 Affection, Question by a Japanese, 
 144 
 
 Affinity 272 
 
 Afiorestation, see Deforestation, 
 Floods, Tree planting ; 23, 92-3, 
 97, 152, 177, 194, 197, 228, 233, 
 240, 260, 318, 370 
 
 Africa 410 
 
 Agriculture, see Adjustment, 
 Animals under different names. 
 Area, Cattle, Crops under different 
 names, Cultivation, Farmers, 
 Grain, Hokkaido, Implements 
 under different names. Land new. 
 Land available. Land utilised. 
 Manure, Milk, Paddies, Peasant 
 Proprietors, Tenants, Tools, Rice 
 and other crops. Sericulture, 
 Upland ; Advantages 365, 367 ; 
 Accessory business 412; Ameri- 
 can, proposed study of, vii; 
 Arable 409, (British) 385 ; Areas 
 394, 400, quarter acre 89, one and 
 
 a quarter acre to five acres 89, 
 two 210, two and a half 9, 284, 
 three 10, five 284, seven and a half 
 89, 373, ten 10, twelve and a half 
 207, fifteen 10, twenty-five 213, 
 one tan 232, five 184, six 302, 
 eight 304, 383, twelve 270, 
 fifteen and a half 373, one cho 
 220, 304, 377 (3), 379, 380, 385, 
 one and a half 379, two 380, two 
 and a half, see Hokkaido, three 
 373, 380, four 10, four to four 
 and a half 338, four to five 207, 
 five 310, 337-8, seven 10, 338, 373, 
 eight 310, 373, ten 28, ten to 
 fifteen 28, 338, thirty 338, sixty- 
 two 374 ; Associations against 
 landlords 88 ; v. Armaments 93, 
 359 ; an Author on viii ; Based 
 on rice 343 ; Basis of nation ix, 
 92 ; Calendar of operations 136 ; 
 Compared with British 390 ; 
 Capitalisation 368-9 ; College 
 195; Criticism of 362, 365, 
 (backbreaking) 75 ; v. Commerce 
 and industry 180, 414; Commer- 
 cial side 65 ; Company 207 ; 
 Consolidation of holdings 364 ; 
 Crop statistics errors 404 ; " En- 
 courager" 176; Experiment 
 station 158, 176-7, 207, 370; 
 Experts 207, 283, (respect for) 
 54 ; Foundation and means to an 
 end ix, 27 ; Foreign 365, 367 ; 
 V. " Foreign relations " 414 ; 
 and Family system 330 ; Faults 
 of 65 ; like Gardening 307 ; 
 God of 146; Goddess of 312; 
 Helpful 180 ; Holdings, Consoli- 
 dation of 368 ; How to teach 27 ; 
 Grazing 240, (British) 385; 
 Hydraulic engineering 149 ; In- 
 
 415 
 
416 
 
 INDEX 
 
 dustry and Commerce 284 ; Im- 
 plements 268 ; Improvement, 
 Principles of 370; Land, how 
 used, 408 ; Machinery 365, 367- 
 8-9 ; in praise of 10 ; Methods 
 208 ; Limitations imposed on 
 365 (2), 367; Merits 365; 
 National Agricultural Society 
 378 ; Night work 359 ; Number 
 of families engaged in 412 ; Re- 
 lations to national welfare 369, 
 370-1; Pasture 111, 409, (British) 
 385; Petite Culture 346; Pro- 
 duction not final aim 367 ; Profit- 
 able 232, 373; Progress 261; 
 Bemedies 368-9, 370; Revolu- 
 tionising 367 ; and Religion 231 ; 
 Schools, see Schools, 176, 375 ; 
 Shortcomings 365 ; Strikes 88 ; 
 Students not leaving land 285 ; 
 Subsistence provided by 365 ; 
 Small farms decreasing 394 ; 
 Tenants' Movement, see Land- 
 lords; Without rice 381 (2) 
 
 Aichi 1-67, 84, 345 
 
 "Aiming at being Distinguished" 
 124 
 
 Ainu X, 25 
 
 Akagi 315 
 
 Akita 189, 190, 193 
 
 Alimentary tract, 348, 351 
 
 AUah 98 
 
 " All family smiling " 137 
 
 Alpinist 290 
 
 Alps, 127, 152, 262 
 
 Amado 277 
 
 " A man's a man," etc. 95 
 
 Am4 191 
 
 America, see Hokkaido, 137, 141, 
 288, 290, 363 (2) ; Bice culture 
 365-6 
 
 ArrMa xxx, 129 
 
 Amma 108, 133 
 
 Ammonia water 177, 251 
 
 Amphibious labour 358 
 
 Amusements, see Farmers, 180, 287, 
 374, 378 
 
 Ancestors 19, 26, 33, 38 (3), 58, 61, 
 67, 94, 178 
 
 Anchors 211 
 
 Angelo, Michael, 103 
 
 Angling 245 
 
 Anglo- Japanese Alliance xv ; Anglo- 
 Saxons 203 
 
 Animals : Bird artists 344 ; Buddh- 
 ism and 59 ; Food, see Meat, 
 349 ; Industry 346, 348 ; Knack 
 of looking after 343 ; Liking for 
 221, 343; Power 365, 370; Til- 
 lage 406 
 
 Anjo 57 
 
 Anniversaries 50 
 
 Antelopes 110 
 
 Anti-Landlord movement 37,88 
 
 Ante 47 
 
 Aomori 189, 194, 195, 334, 354, 391 
 
 Aoyama 66 
 
 " A plain householder " 150 
 
 Apostle and artist 90 
 
 Appetiser 268 
 
 Apples, see Hokkaido, 194, 289, 402 
 
 Appointments 125 ; Tax 21 
 
 Apprentices 411 
 
 Apricots 289 
 
 Aqueduct 64 
 
 Archery 39, 40, 159 
 
 Architecture 198 
 
 Ardour 124 
 
 Area 65, 390 ; and Habitable com- 
 pared with other countries 385, 
 392 ; per Family 42, 89 (2) 
 
 Armaments 93, 97, 394; U.S. 
 expenditvire 394 
 
 Armour 36, 40 
 
 Arm rest 246, 319 
 
 Army 202, 346, 350, 360 (2), 403 ; 
 Discipline 361 ; and Farmer ix ; 
 Officers and Agriculture 362 ; 
 Railway service 297 
 
 Arnold, Matthew, 24, 272 
 
 Arrests postponed 280 
 
 Arson 56. 280, 282 
 
 Art 99, 214, 369 ; Degenerated 99 ; 
 and Farmer ix ; HiUs in 120 ; 
 Korean 103 ; Influence of West- 
 ern 103-4; Artists 99, 100; 
 Sketches at festivals 193 ; Artis- 
 try 317 ; Artistic treasures 369 ; 
 Artistic world 102-3-4-5, 328 
 
 Artificials, see Manure 
 
 Artisans 317 ; with land and houses 
 268 ; see Farmers 
 
 " Asahi " 90, 109 
 
 Asama, Mt., 143 
 
 Asceticism 101 
 
 Asia, see West and East, 202; 
 Residents in 410 ; Asiatic Main- 
 land 351, 363 ; Asiatic Society of 
 Japan 364 
 
 " Aspiring" young men 135 
 
 Assaults 282 
 
 Assentation 14 
 
 Associations against Landlords 88 ; 
 for Economical agricultural 
 Students 176 ; Spirit of 16 
 
 " At twenty I found " 160 
 
 Athletics, see under difierent names, 
 159 
 
 Attempts to deceive the West 174 
 
 Attitude : for foreign student 254 ; 
 
INDEX 
 
 417 
 
 of world 371 ; to something 
 higher ; see Materialism, Spiritu- 
 ality 
 
 Attorney-General 345 
 
 Audience 24 
 
 Australia 127, 352-3, 363 (2), 388 ; 
 Might have possessed 363 
 
 Author : Attitude towards Japan 
 xii ; before domestic shrine 33 ; 
 Carried 308; Chats in trains 176; 
 "Fortime" 138; First English- 
 man in place 126 ; Governor and 
 84 ; on Hearn 254 ; Some Con- 
 clusions, see Hokkaido, 369 ; and 
 Police 53 ; Reception at Shinto 
 Shrine 46 ; Shinto address to 
 46; Speeches 6, 26, 31, 254; 
 Tree planting 45 ; Welcome 22 ; 
 at Wrestling match 297 
 
 Authority : Disobedience to 285 ; 
 Power going 330 
 
 Autobiography of a Farmer-Ego- 
 tist 61 
 
 Autographs 38, 324 
 
 Automobile, see Chaufieur, 205 
 
 Autumn 214 
 
 " Average workers " 62, 377 
 
 Awakening 324 
 
 Axholme, Isle of, 71 
 
 Aza XXV, 15, 16, 262, 315 
 
 Azaleas 316 
 
 Babies 285 
 Baokbreaking 75, 208 
 Back to the Land 88 
 Backwardness of North, see Japan, 
 
 Northern 
 Bacon 347 
 
 Bacon, Lord, xii, 309 
 Bactericides 60 
 
 " Bad tea has its tolerable," etc. 123 
 Bag and string 312 
 Balls, Black and red, 19 
 Bamboo 48, 318, 244, 248; Grass 
 
 70, 108, 352, 368 ; and Mice 108 ; 
 
 Rate of growth 242 ; Shoots 136 ; 
 
 Work 248 
 Bancha 294, 403 
 Bankruptcy 138 
 Banks 205, 303, 402, 414 
 Banqueting 357 
 Banzai 43 
 Barbers 224, 267 
 Barefoot 64 
 Bark strips 190 
 Barleyl46, 175, 196, 307, 313(3), 349, 
 
 361, 386, 389, 391, 409, 410; 
 
 Big crop 313 ; Husking 389 ; 
 
 Naked 409 ; with and without 
 
 Rice 47, 80, 85, 383, 387 ; Pro- 
 
 duction compared with Wheat 
 
 413 
 Barons x, 204 
 Barriers ix, 104 
 Barter 122 
 Barton, Sir E., 9 
 
 Basfea, see Hokkaido, 244 ; story 217 
 Baskets 177, 215 
 Baths X, 17, 60, 82, 109, 112, 116-7, 
 
 190, 203, 216, 256 277, 314, 
 
 354; "A moral bath" 94; 
 
 Bathing 125, 152, 186 
 Battleship 235 
 Bayonets, Imitation, 282 
 Bazin Ren6 141 
 Beans, see Soya, 147, 199, 307, 383, 
 
 409 ; Cake 386 
 Beardsley, Aubrey, 98, 103 
 Bears, see Hokkaido, 110 
 Beauty, see Hokkaido, 104, 127, 298 
 " Be diligent " 158 ; " Be serious " 
 
 112 
 Beef, see Kobe beef, 269, 349, 350 ; 
 
 Essence 158 
 Beer, see Hokkaido, 119, 396 
 Bees 196, 348 
 Beggars 265, 324 
 Begonia 213 
 
 Behaviour, Training in good, 259 
 Belgium 386 
 Beliefs, see Customs, 310, 331 ; 
 
 Believers 63 ; Believer and ne'er 
 
 do well 5 
 Belly cloths 269 
 Benjo 161, 192, 374 
 Ben Nevis 394 
 Bento 110, 268, 279 
 Bergson 99 
 Beri beri 79 
 Berry, Sir G., 9 
 
 Better living 370 ; Better world 90 
 Bi 126 
 Bible 95 
 
 Bicycles 18, 150, 220 
 Binyon, L., 292 
 Birches 316 
 Birds 25, 117, 344 
 Births, see Still ; Celebration of 
 
 302 ; Forbidden 236 ; Rate 392 ; 
 
 Tax 21 
 Biscuits 270 
 Biwa 289 
 
 Black and white company 187 
 Black Country 132 
 " Black sak6" 79 
 Blacksmith 264 
 
 Blake, William, 98, 103, 105-6 
 Blind, see Amma, 192, 300 ; Advan- 
 tage of BHndness 232; Blind 
 
 guides 369 ; Headman 229 
 
418 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Blood and thunder stories 121 
 
 Boar day 126 
 
 Boasting 17 
 
 Boat, sacred, 257 
 
 Body 226 
 
 Boehme 99 
 
 Bog 390 
 
 " Bold is the donkey driver ' 98 
 
 Bolting ideas 331 
 
 Bon 180, 190, 265, 267, 271-2, 302, 
 361 ; Songs and dances 189, 190, 
 197 (2), 274 
 
 Bonins 391 
 
 Bonito 297 
 
 Books 159, 190, 319, 401 ; Cheap 
 212; Faults of many about Japan 
 254 ; Foreign 141, 196, 248 ; In 
 demand 60 ; In a Village Library 
 60; Shops 244 
 
 Booths 115 
 
 Boots 236, 284, 346 
 
 Borneo 127 
 
 Borrow vi, 119, 283 
 
 Borrowing, see Credit, Ko, Tano- 
 moshi; 125, 183 
 
 Boswell, 140, 175 
 
 Bottles, tied with rope, 119 
 
 Bowing 44 (2), 46, 83, 121, 286, 313 
 
 Bowels 348, 351 
 
 Bowls, Turning, 111 ; at shrine 303 
 
 Box for letters for Police 111 
 
 Boy : Growth of 113 ; Labour 411 ; 
 Tradesmen's 315 ; Reformation 
 of 178 ; Running away 322 ; 
 Stolen 286 ; " Boy San " 103 
 
 Brazil 401 
 
 Bread 80 (2), 346 (2), 350-1 (2), 383 
 
 Bream 297 
 
 Breath 117 
 
 Brewing, see Hokkaido, 119 
 
 Bribery 208, 400 ; 123, 303 
 
 Bride 21 ; Chest 129, 379 
 
 Bridges 128, 132, 240; Mysteri- 
 ously repaired, 287 ; Suspension 
 209 
 
 Briefness 292 
 
 Bright, John, 203 
 
 Britons, see Hokkaido, 403 
 
 Broadmindedness 326 
 
 Brontd, E., 99 
 
 Brothels 56, 222, 243 
 
 Brother, Eldest, 19, 329 
 
 Brotherly union 94-5 
 
 Buckwheat, see Hokkaido; HI, 
 122, 243, 264, 381. 409; "As 
 white as snow "111 
 
 Buddha 1, 3, 4, 5, 19, 26 (2), 51, 68, 
 117, 125, 142, 205-6; Inferior 
 139 ; Heads 310.— Buddhism 19, 
 30, 42, 57 (2), 63 1(3), 96, |101, 
 
 197, 205, 210, 212, 322, 324; 
 and Animal life 59, 345, 347; 
 behind the age 6 ; without 
 Buddha 322, 327; and Chris- 
 tianity 59, 100-1, 324, 362; 
 Definition of 93 ; Difaculty of 
 getting a general view of 327, 
 321 ; England and 100 ; of old 
 time 258 ; Too aristocratic 1. — 
 Buddhist 91, 96, 129; Gatherings 
 231 ; Influence 259 ; Literature 
 327, 331 ; Real 63 ; Sects, under 
 names; Services 3, 205 (2), 270; 
 Strict 30; Y.M.A. 124; Y.W.A. 
 124. — Buddhist Priests, see Bon; 
 1-7,96, 113, 118, 134, 142, 194, 231, 
 240, 258, 264, 269, 270 (2)-l-2, 302, 
 314 ; Priest's man 270-1 ; Suc- 
 cession to 135 ; Wives 6, 270 ; 
 Shrines 220, Value of 273 ; Tem- 
 ples, 113, 123, 134, 142, 176, 180, 
 211, 244,249,258-9, 269, 310,327; 
 Architecture 134, "Church" 
 134, New, 313, Sleeping in x; 
 Two months in 262, Underground 
 passage 142 
 
 Buffoon 276 
 
 Bugles 15-17 
 
 Bulls 18, 249, 250 ; Fighting 228 
 
 Burden of the Old 100 
 
 Burdock 48, 146, 410 
 
 Bureau of Horse Politics 195 ; of 
 Hygiene 350 
 
 Burials, see Graves^ 121, 267, 306 ; 
 at Sea 225 
 
 Bumham, Lord, 9 
 
 Burns, Robert, 107, 288 
 
 Bushido 25, 140 
 
 Businesses, linked, 315 ; " Business, 
 My," 326 
 
 Butter 142, 270, 346 
 
 Butterflies 127, 287 
 
 Cabbage 53, 213, 440 
 
 Caffeine 292, 403 
 
 Cairo 390 
 
 Calendar 136 
 
 California 290, 363, 365-6 
 
 Camphor trees 219 
 
 Canada 388 
 
 Cancer 268 
 
 Candles 340 
 
 Canning, see Hokkaido, 368 ; Canned 
 
 meat and fish 268 
 Cape 267, 270 
 Capes 47 
 Cape Wrath 358 
 Capitalism 368-9 
 Caps 114, 301 
 Caramels 272 
 
INDEX 
 
 4ld 
 
 Carbon bisulphide 60 
 
 " CarelessnesB " 54 
 
 Cariyle, T., 90-1, 94, 99 
 
 Carp, 39, 158, 210, 299 
 
 Carpenter 99, 267, 317 
 
 Carrier's eouvereation 109 
 
 Carrot 410 
 
 Carts 209 ; Push 194 
 
 Carving 269 
 
 " Case for the Goat, The," 347 
 
 Cast 94 
 
 Cats 47, 131, 221, 345 
 
 Cattle, see Cow, Oxen, Bulls, Hok- 
 kaido; 23, 194^5, 230, 240, 243, 
 316, 347, 381, 406 ; Keeping 194, 
 259, 402 ; Thieves 195 
 
 Cedar wood 211 
 
 Cells 116, 143 
 
 Censorship 401 
 
 Census 393-4 
 
 Cereals 367, 404 
 
 Certificate of merit 213 
 
 Cezanne 98, 103 
 
 Chadai 148 
 
 Chaii 386 
 
 Chainmakers 170 
 
 Chairman 24 
 
 Champagne 140 
 
 Changes, seeming, 331 
 
 Cha-no-yu 31, 214, 319 
 
 Character 88, 151, 201, 203-4-5-6-7 
 258, 259, 269, 288, 290, 311, 317, 
 323, 331-2; Nature and 99; 
 Weakness of 101 ; Wish to give 
 before have anything 102; Chinese 
 39 
 
 Charcoal 111, 122-3, 196 
 
 Charitable Institutions 59, 376 
 
 Charms 41, 47, 121, 125, 223, 245 
 
 Charring 227 
 
 Chastity 114, 139, 149 
 
 Chauffeur 240, 246 
 
 Chavannes, Puvis de, 98, 103 
 
 Cheek-binding 286 
 
 Cheerfulness 304, 317 
 
 Cheese 345 
 
 Chemist, Distinguished, 10 
 
 Chenille 142 
 
 Cherries 295, 319 ; Poems 288 ; 
 Kefineries 226 
 
 Chestnuts 121 
 
 Chiba 268, 297, 309, 321 
 
 Chicken 110, 349 
 
 Chief Constable, Influence of, 118 
 
 Chihd 400 
 
 OhUdren 110, 112, 117, 203, 216, 
 323, 377 ; Childbirth 268 ; Ages 
 of 113; Assaults on 229 ; British 
 exploitation of 170 ; Charm to 
 obtain 314; Contracts 286; 
 
 Crimes against 114; Marriage 
 197 ; Politeness 121 ; Services 
 for 130 ; and Temple 58 ; What 
 will he become ? 60 ; Workers, 
 see Labour, 314 
 
 Chillies 41 
 
 Chimneys 147, 151 
 
 China 110, 127, 143, 214, 256, 306, 
 344, 347, 388, 390, 396-7, 404; 
 War 85, 311; Chinaman in 
 Formosa story 96; Tea 296; 
 Relations with 91 ; Chinese com- 
 petition 399 ; Labour 363 ; 
 Prisoners 307 ; Scriptures not 
 understood 331 ; Sheep and wool 
 353-4-5-6 
 
 Cho xxiv ; Cho xxv 
 
 Chokai, Motmt, 182 
 
 Chopsticks 81 
 
 Chosen, see Korea 
 
 Christ 55, 95, 96, 127 ; Christianity, 
 see Hokkaido, 96, 99, 101, 198, 
 205, 324 ; Christian, 99, 203, 362 
 (3) ; a Japanese question 144 ; 
 and Buddhism 101, 108, 324, 327, 
 362 ; Conceptions 96, Early 91 ; 
 Essence of 94 (2) ; Ethics of 
 362 ; Influence of 94 ; Japanese 
 83, 135, 261 ; and Personality 
 362; and Social reform 362; 
 Temperament 327 ; Christmas 
 318 ; Churches 96, 362 
 
 Chrysanthemum 318 
 
 Cicada 344 
 
 Cider champagne 119 
 
 Cigarettes 82, 288, 400 
 
 Cimabu6 106 
 
 Cities XXV ; workers 87 
 
 Civilisation 96, 141, 216, 229 
 
 Clan 188 
 
 Classes 94, 251 
 
 Cleanliness 326, 354 
 
 Clerks 205 
 
 Climate, see Hokkaido,Weather; 88, 
 140, 195-6, 197, 198, 299, 309, 327, 
 358, 363, 365, 372, 390, 413 
 
 Cloak 47, 76 
 
 Clock 252 
 
 Clothing, see Farmers, 19, 30, 74, 
 125, 193, 307, 312, 317, 321, 323, 
 330, 346, 355-6-7, 374, 378, 380, 
 382; Advantages and Disadvan- 
 tages of 356 ; Cotton and Silk v. 
 Wool 356 ; Foreign 283, 346, 352 
 
 Clover 263 
 
 Clubhouse 305 
 
 Coal, see Hokkaido, 226, 396 
 
 Coasting steamers 209 ; coastwise 
 traffic 256 
 
 Coat 47 
 
420 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Cobbett, William, ix 
 
 Cockfighting 228 
 
 Coffin 121, 248 
 
 Cold 261 ; Catching 312 
 
 Collectors, Boy, 230 
 
 Colleges 158 
 
 Colony 207 
 
 Colouring 295 
 
 Comeliness 204 
 
 Comfort 201, 203 ; Bags 58 
 
 Comic interlude 84 
 
 Commerce, 414 ; Uselessness of 
 some, 369 ; Commercial crash 87 
 
 Common good. Work for, 19 ; Com- 
 mon humanity 34; "Common 
 people at the gateway " 252 ; 
 Common purpose in mankind 56 
 
 Commune 268 ; Communal labour 
 263 ; Communistic 212 
 
 Communities under 6,000 and 
 10,000 population 412 
 
 Companies 414 
 
 Complaint boxes 18 
 
 Concentration 206, 317 
 
 Concrete 22, 214, 325 
 
 Concubines 95, 322 
 
 Conduct 200, 361 
 
 Coney Island 325 
 
 Confucianism 91, 96, 101, 205 (3), 
 214, 322 
 
 Confusion 101 
 
 Conscience 201 
 
 Conscription, see Soldiers, 19, 65, 
 
 123, 284, 311 (2), 327, 331, 364; 
 Statistics 404 
 
 Conservative view 331 
 
 Consolation 201, 321 
 
 Constitutional Party 395 
 
 " Contagion of foreigners " 117 
 
 Contentment 7, 259, 264, 302, 323 
 
 Contracts 194, 286 
 
 Controversy 48 
 
 Conversation, Subjects of, 129, 282 
 
 Conviction 37, 331 
 
 Cooking 350 (2) 
 
 Coolies 345 
 
 Co-operation, see Cocoons, Hok- 
 kaido, Kd, Tanomoshi, 7, 28-9 (2), 
 37 (2), 43, 47, 60, 68, 64, 85, 118, 
 
 124, 133, 136, 160, 185, 187, 194, 
 230, 305 (2), 364, 414; Capital 
 for 48 ; More 370 
 
 Copper 92, 124, 226, 396 
 Coronation 21 ; Rice Ceremony 82 ; 
 
 Millet 213 
 Corruption 208, 400 
 Cosmos 202, 206 
 Cottages, see Houses 
 Cotton 132, 137, 223, 258, 404; 
 
 Clothing 346 ; Chinese competi- 
 
 tion 399 ; Factories 174 ; In- 
 dustry 354 ; Loom 220 ; Factory 
 Manager's Manchester Guardian 
 article 399 ; Silk v. Wool 356 
 
 Couch grass 265 
 
 Counsel 187 
 
 Countess 213 
 
 Country folk xiv. Countryman ix, 
 xiv, 107, 141, 192, 233, 283, 302, 
 324, 331 ; Countryside 148, con- 
 trasted with Western 298, 313 ; 
 County families and Country- 
 house life 34 
 
 County Agricultural Association 
 160 (2) 
 
 Courage, Moral, 327 
 
 Courbet 103 
 
 CoOTt lady 108 
 
 Courtesy, see Politeness, 36 
 
 Cows, see Paddies ; First milking 
 235 ; Oxen, 209, 235, 381 (2) 
 
 Crab, Land, 249 
 
 Cradle 279 
 
 Craftsmanship 314, 317, 369 
 
 Crashaw 99 
 
 Crater 108-9 
 
 Credit, see Cheap money; Co- 
 operation 181, 370, 414 
 
 Crematoria 48, 177 
 
 Crest, see Mon 
 
 Crime, see Police, 54, 279, 303; 
 Charges not proceeded with 113 ; 
 Table of crimes 376; Ex- 
 criminals 143 
 
 Crimea 390 
 
 Crisis, Industrial and Commercial, 
 87 
 
 Crops 313, 380-1 ; see Agriculture, 
 Paddies, Upland ; Area de- 
 voted to each 408-9 ; Better 19, 
 370 ; Competitions to increase 
 58 ; Drying 208 ; Increase com- 
 pared with area 364 
 
 Crow 320 
 
 Crowds 250, 259 
 
 Crown Prince 282 
 
 Cruelty to Animals 344^5 
 
 Cryptomeria 6, 40, 45, 61-2, 117, 
 121, 131-2, 190, 316, 394 
 
 Cuckoo 315 
 
 Cucumbers 146, 322 
 
 Cultivation, see Agriculture, Back- 
 breaking, Cows, Harrowing, Hoes, 
 Horses, Mattock, Paddy, Pony, 
 Ploughing, Rice, Seed, Spade; 
 Area compared with Great 
 Britain 89 ; Area under 223 ; 
 Doubling population 97 ; In- 
 crease of area 364, 414 ; Two or 
 three crops 364 ; Japan and Great 
 
INDEX 
 
 421 
 
 Britain 305 ; in relation to Stock 
 406; Methods to be reported 
 188 ; in proportion to Wild 408 ; 
 Prizes 58 ; Too intensive 233 ; 
 yearly increase of 408 
 
 Culture, see Education, 204 
 
 Curio Collectors 2 
 
 Curiosity 279 
 
 Currency xxiv 
 
 Currents, Warm and Cold, 118, 175, 
 195 
 
 Customs 66, 182, 310, 322-3; 
 Houses unprofitable 256, World 
 realisation of cost and incon- 
 venience 256 
 
 Cutting out the foreigner 369 
 
 Cuttle fish, see Squid, Octopus ; 46, 
 318 
 
 Cyanide 177 
 
 Cymbals 272 
 
 "Daffin" 313 
 
 Dagger 40 
 
 Daikon 23, 130, 309, 314, 345, 409 
 
 Daikon (island) 256 
 
 Daily Mail 345 
 
 Daimyo 33. 39, 144, 176, 198, 205, 
 
 210, 246, 395; ex-Daimyo 329; 
 
 Castle 209 
 Dot Nippon Nokai 320 
 Dakushu 396 
 Dam 224^5 
 
 Damp 185, 289, 368, 372 
 Dancing, see Bon Dances; 130,237, 
 
 305; Western 101 
 Dandelions 307 
 Danish Hojakdle 60 
 Dates 290 
 Damnier 103 
 Days, of the Dead, 271 ; of the 
 
 week 126; Suitable 126; 
 
 Worked 377-8 
 Dead 201. 219 ; Belief in return of 
 
 272; Days of the 271 ; Betum 
 
 190 ; Tablets of, see Ihm ; 
 
 Memorials of, see Hair. Teeth, 
 
 Portraits 
 Dealers 195 
 Death Forbidden 236 ; Presents 
 
 at 22 ; Bate 393 ; Minors 393 
 Debates 18 
 Debt, see Farmers ; 66, 126, 195 (2), 
 
 265, 287, 302, 322-3, 364, 380, 
 
 414 ; for Food 284 
 "Decency" 125, 193 
 Deception of the West 174 
 Deer 215, 278 
 Defiled 45 ; Defilement 256 
 Deforestation, see Afforestation ; 
 
 92, 152, 176, 180. 318 
 
 Deftness 169 
 
 Deified men 204 
 
 Deities and the Sea 257 
 
 Delacroix 102 
 
 De la liberty du travail 8 
 
 Delay. Advantage of, xiii 
 
 Democracy 38, 51, 99 ; and religion 
 
 2 
 Demon 215 
 Demonstrations 88 
 Demoralised men 26 
 Dengaku 48 
 
 Denmark ix, 46, 368 ; see Danish 
 Denudation of hills, see Deforesta- 
 tion, 92 
 " Depths of the people "93 
 Derricks 248 
 
 " Despised foreign peasant "96 
 Destiny 202 
 Deuteronomy 375 
 Development, Economic, 206 ; 
 
 Moral 206; National 327; 
 
 Social 206 
 "Devil-gon" 56 
 Diagrams 60 
 Diaries 18, 23, 231 
 Diastase 268 
 Dibbs, Sir G., 9 
 Diet, see Food 
 Dietetic reform 350 
 Difficulties 124-5 ; " Difficulties 
 
 polish you" 176 
 Digestive 268 
 
 Dikes, Women's work on, 43 
 Diligence 151 ; " Diligent people " 
 
 62, 377 
 Diminishing retvim 65 
 Dinner 228, 254 
 Diplomacy, Farmer and, ix 
 "Direct action" 173 
 Discipline 50 
 Discontent 323 
 Discussion 358 
 Disease 210, 350 
 
 " Disgraceful disease," see Syphilis 
 Dishonesty 354 
 Displacements 268 
 Distinguished man and demoralised 
 
 man 26 
 Dividends, Effect of factory, 369 
 Divorce 126, 197 
 Dd 134 ; Do (land) 334 
 Doctors 123, 241, 268 (2), 399; 
 
 " Doctor first, God second," 271 
 Dogs 131, 221, 236, 344-5; Dog 
 
 day 126; Fighting 228; for 
 
 kuruma 248 
 Doing good secretly 219, 323 
 Doll in tree 244 
 Domicile 396 
 
4<22 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Domori 134 
 
 " Do not get angry "160 
 
 Doorway inscription 47 
 
 Dorohd, see Robber 
 
 Dossiers 314 
 
 " Double licence " 257 
 
 Dover and Calais 334 
 
 Dowries 138 
 
 Dragon Day 126 
 
 Drainage, see Irrigation, Water; 
 
 97, 133, 199, 232 
 Drapers' stuff 121 
 Draughtsmanship 102 
 " Drawing water into one's own 
 
 paddy" 48 
 Draw nets 186 
 Dreamers 363 
 Dress, see Clothing; Fields 187; 
 
 of Honour 187 
 Drill 15, 50, 282 
 Drinking, see Drunkenness 
 Drivers' hair cutting 318 
 Drought 132 
 Drowning 128 
 Drum 15, 17, 83, 272 
 Drunkenness 116, 119, 187, 261, 
 
 282, 305, 322 ; see Sak6 2 
 Diirer 103 
 
 Dutch 208 ; Books 150 
 Dwarf trees, see Trees dwarfed ; 
 
 52, 220 
 Dye 296 
 
 " Early riser may catch," etc. 57 
 
 Early rising 57, 179 
 
 Early Rising Societies 14 et seq. 
 
 Earnestness 168, 277, 308 
 
 Earth 126 
 
 " Earth is not as," etc. 203 
 
 Earthquakes, see Volcanoes 23 
 
 East, see also West and East ; 
 Wants the best 99 ; East and 
 West 141 ; Bridge 101 ; Inhar- 
 mouy 105 ; Supposed difference 
 100; Eastern, Faults of, 96; 
 Ideals 96 
 
 "Easy minded" 323 
 
 Economic conditions and develop- 
 ment 149, 206 ; Economic ques- 
 tions 104 ; Economic supersti- 
 tion 148 ; Economy, see 'Thrift, 
 19 ; Economy too small 362 
 
 Edgworthia chrysantha, see Mitsu- 
 mata 
 
 Education, see Farmers, Genius, 
 Hokkaido, Schools, 17, 26, 98, 
 120, 127, 140, 169, 180, 194, 196, 
 204, 252, 361, 374, 378 ; Burden 
 65 ; Better 370 ; Competition 
 for places 195 ; 111 result of 
 
 204, 301, 323 ; System, repressed 
 by, 101 ; Western 189 
 
 Eels 299 
 
 Eggs 85, 110, 130, 348-9, 406 
 
 Egoist's story 61 
 
 Ehime 201, 219, 226 
 
 Eights 255 
 
 Elder brothers 19, 329 
 
 Eldest son 143, 329 
 
 El Dorado 88 
 
 Electoral offences, see Bribery, 
 Corruption 
 
 Electricity 39 ; Among trees 210 ; 
 and Fuji 283; Fan 125; Light 
 211, 246, 348; Torch 300 
 
 El Greco 103 
 
 Elizabethan scenes 116, 276 
 
 Ellis, Dr. Havelock, xiii, 1, 99, 332 ; 
 Mrs. 253 
 
 Ema 326 
 
 Embanking 93, 152, 197 
 
 Emerson, R. W., 99, 105 
 
 Emigration, see Hokkaido (Immi- 
 grants); 176, 249, 264, 330, 332 
 (2), 358,360,363,401, 376,413-4; 
 Number of emigrants 410 ; No 
 pressing need 363 ; Why emi- 
 grants do not go to mainland and 
 Formosa 363 
 
 Emperor, see also Imperial train 
 22, 46, 82, 121, 178, 202, 286 
 Etiquette 44; Portrait 90, 113 
 Respect for 44 ; Seeing 43 
 
 Empire, To extend the, 205 
 
 Endurance 261 
 
 Engawa 270, 271, 280, 375 
 
 England : and Buddhism 100 ; and 
 Christianity 97 ; Greatness of 
 97 ; and Greek Philosophy 97 ; 
 and Roman law 97 
 
 English (language) 126, 282, 297; 
 Reader (book) 234; Speaking 
 world and Japan xv 
 
 " Enlarge people's ideas "17 
 
 " Enlarging mind and heart" 11 
 
 Entertainers 108 
 
 Epidemics 121, 130, 223 
 
 Erotic West 101 
 
 Eruption, see Volcano 
 
 " Essential out of trifles " 323 
 
 Estates, see Hokkaido ; Smallness 
 of 213, 400 
 
 Eta 221, 223, 248, 307, 400; in 
 America 401 ; Marriages 400 
 
 Ethical evolution 348 
 
 Etiquette, see Manners ; 6, 19, 35, 
 39, 124, 148, 213, 200, 242, 273 ; 
 in roadway 47 
 
 Europe 288, 410 ; Half civUised 141 
 
 European 141 
 
INDEX 
 
 423 
 
 Eurya ochnacea 137 
 
 Evening primroses 120 
 
 " Even in this good reign "124 
 
 " Even the devil was once," etc. 123 
 
 " Even the head of asartHne " 141 
 
 Evolution, Ethical, 348 
 
 Excel, Desire to, 158 
 
 Excreta, see Manure ; 375, 382, 386 
 
 Excursions 18, 29> 
 
 Exercise 151 
 
 " Exert yourself to kill harmful 
 
 insects " 286 
 Exhibition, see Sho^v ; also Btiral 
 
 Life Exhibition ; 68, 60 
 Ex-officials 22; Ex- preacher 220; 
 
 Ex-Public Servants' Association, 
 
 22 
 Expansion 360, 413-4 ; Suggested 
 
 abandonment of oversea posses- 
 sions 93 
 Expenditure, see Farmers 
 Experts, see Agricultural Experts ; 
 
 27, 237, 240 
 Exports 414 ; Some useless 369 
 Eyesight 327 
 
 Faces, Good will do, 26 
 
 Factories, see also Tuberculosis, 
 282 ; ante-Shaftesbury 167 
 Bathing 163; Babies 162-3 
 Better treatment, more silk 165 
 Ban 162 ; British and American 
 conditions 406 ; Child workers 
 172 ; Chimneys 151 ; Com- 
 pounds 162; 164-5, 168 (2); 
 Contracts 162-3, 165 ; " Cost of a 
 daughter's food " 162 ; Dexterity 
 169; Diet, see Parliament; 
 Discharged workers 88 ; Divi- 
 dends and effect of 193, 369; 
 Dormitories 162, 164 (2)-5, 168 
 (2), 399, 407 ; Education and 
 Entertainment 162, 164 (2)-5, 
 168 ; Earnestness 169 ; Effect of 
 162-3, 181, 280, 283; Empress 
 164; English parallejs 167-8, 
 170 (2) ; Fair treatment of 
 Employees practicable 168 ; 
 Flag system 161, 164; Food 
 161-2-3 (2)-4, 168, 399 ; Fore- 
 men 162-3, 165; Girls 2, 85, 
 264 ; Government 172-3 ; Health 
 161-2-3-4 (2) ; Heat 161 ; Holi- 
 days 161, 165 ; Hours (thirteen, 
 fourteen, sixteen, eighteen) 161, 
 163 (2)-4-5 (3), 167 ; Illness 161- 
 2-3-4, 168; Immorality 163 (2); 
 International Labour Office 172 ; 
 Kemban, see Recruiters, Kofu 
 165 ; Kuwata, Dr., 172 ; Labour 
 
 29 
 
 cheap 169 (2), 173; Labour 
 docile 173 ; Legislation 165, 171 ; 
 Married women 162 ; Marriages 
 163; Morale 168; Mottoes 164 
 (3)-5 ; Number of workers 168 ; 
 Obedience 169 ; Parliament 173 
 (2) ; Police 166 ; Pressure 161 ; 
 Priests and Missionaries 162, 166 ; 
 Proprietors 163 (2)-4^5, 167-8; 
 Recruiters 161-2-3, 166; Sleep- 
 ing, see Dormitories ; Suwa 165 ; 
 Switzerland 172; Wages 161-2, 
 164^5, 167-8 ; Walpole's History 
 167 ; Washington Conference 
 173; Western responsibility 173 ; 
 " Worked like soldiers " 164 ; 
 and daimyo's castle 176 ; and 
 farmers 282 ; Silk 147, 150, 161 ; 
 Tea 403 ; Visits to 161 ; Woollen 
 354-5-6-7 
 
 Failures, A country's, due to, 167 
 
 Fairies 110 
 
 Faith 27, 97, 148 ; " Faith is the 
 mother," etc. 136 
 
 Fame, Worldly, and good repute 324 
 
 Familiarity 273 
 
 Family 61, 326; Discords 282; 
 " Excesses " 302 ; Large, Appre- 
 ciation of, 302, 331 ; Size of, see 
 also Limitation of, 66, 331 (2), 
 377 ; Number in 412 ; System 
 285, 328-9, 330 
 
 Famines 118, 124, 197, 237, 413 
 
 Fans 116, 148, 314 
 
 Farmers, see also Adjustment, Agri- 
 culture, Area per family. Country- 
 man, Debt, Heroic peasant. 
 Labour, Paddy, Peasant Pro- 
 prietors, Rice, Tenants, Work; 
 Ability 65 ; Aged mother 3 ; 
 and Adjustment 71 ; and Artisan 
 189 ; Attraction of towns 180 ; 
 and Copper companies 92, 227 ; 
 Egotist 61 ; and M.P. 92 ; and 
 reading 319; and thieving priest 
 320 ; Attitude towards Science 
 158 ; as poets 41 ; Autobio- 
 graphy 8 ; Bondage 331 ; British 
 370 ; Capital 42 ; Character 
 needed 60 ; Children clever 233 ; 
 Clothing 186 ; Condition 18, 173, 
 189, 283-4-5, 265, 304, 310 (2), 
 314, 322, 354, 365, 378; Con- 
 dition improved 261 ; Condition 
 of success 10 ; Days working 232 
 (3) ; (hand work, heavy spade, 
 long -handled sickle, mattock, 
 sickle, scythe, weeding 385-6;) 
 Debts 42; Expenditure 62, 381-2 ; 
 Evicted by Railways 250 ; Fami- 
 
424 
 
 INDEX 
 
 lies 412; for and against 
 Family system 330; Fishermen 
 210; Foreign sympathy exces- 
 sive 261 ; Food 378, 380-1, 389 
 in serioultural districts 85 
 Future 303 ; Holidays, too small 
 Home, 61 ; 281 ; Good humour 
 186; Hours worked 278 ; Idealis- 
 ing of 260 ; Importance of Char- 
 acter, Education and Influences 
 brought to bear on 85 ; Incomes 
 too low 38 ; Lowest on which 
 can live 194 ; of an M.P. and of a 
 Minister of State 9-10 ; Increased 
 expenditure 88 ; Intelligence of 
 186 ; Knowledge of financial 
 position 186 ; Laboriousness 298 ; 
 Lack of cash 251 ; Large, see 
 Hokkaido ; Limitations imposed 
 by area, practice and physical 
 conditions 88, 364 et seq. ; Long 
 hours, see Day's working, 167 ; 
 Metayer system 207 ; Meeting of 
 skilful 24; Middle 183, 189, 
 J93, 378, 380; Mixed, see 
 Hokkaido ; Monument 251 ; 
 JVIorality 66 ; No time to think 
 149, 179; Not able 196; Not 
 .inferior to a townsman 8 ; Pil- 
 grimages 252 ; Pluck, industry 
 .and need of land 152 ; Poverty 
 176, 183, 195 ; Pressure on 148 ; 
 Profit, see Hokkaido ; Self-con- 
 tained existence no longer 66 ; 
 Selling land 10 ; Shall rent be 
 paid in cash ? 301 ; Small de- 
 creasing, large increasing, 89 ; 
 Social precedence, 369 ; Spade 
 362;, Stories 24-25; Temporary 
 prosperity 87 ; Tenants' move- 
 ment, see Landlords ; Thatch for 
 implements, 220 ; " Toil never 
 ending" 365; Unrepresented in 
 Parliament 285 ; Why better off 
 85 ; Why poor 65 ; Wives 30 ; 
 Working days 237 ; Yosogi's 
 story 66 
 
 Farce 320 
 
 Fashions 19 
 
 Fasting 327 
 
 Fat 142 
 
 Father and son 8, 135, 205 (2) ; 
 Father-in-law 138 
 
 Feast, name of, 34 
 
 Feeling 210 ; v. Statistics 1 ; Logic 
 29, 37 
 
 Feet 317; Wet 312 
 
 Fencing and Wrestling, see Wrest- 
 ling; 14, 16, 159, 178, 287 
 
 Ferment 323 
 
 Fertiliser 42 ; Fertility 92 (2) 
 
 Festivals SO, 114, 235, 261, 287, 
 377; Sketches at, 192 
 
 Feudal ideas 30 ; Pensions and 
 debt 395 ; Regime 244 
 
 Field (Upland) 372 
 
 Figs 289 
 
 Filial duties 117, 205 (2) 
 
 Filth, see Manure 
 
 Fine arts 214 
 
 Fine days 245 
 
 Fines 285 
 
 Fir 213 
 
 Fire defenders and Fire extinguish- 
 ing 22, 120, 123, 222, 281 ; Flies 
 136 
 
 Fire farming 110, 122, 227, 131 
 
 Fire God 267 
 
 Fire holes 314 
 
 Fires, see also Arson ; 59, 93, 125-6, 
 185, 227, 280, 286, 342 
 
 Fish 81, 83, 110, 117 (2), 268, 297, 
 348-9 (2), 379, 380, 389; Cere- 
 monial 46 ; Daintiest part 228 ; 
 Eyes 228; Fed 130; Nurseries 
 224, 251; Soup 228; Supply 
 346 ; Waste 308, 386 
 
 Fisheries, see also Hokkaido; 43, 
 414 
 
 Fishermen 211, 214, 308; Farmers 
 210 
 
 Fishing 186, 332; Boat 235; 
 ViUage 327 
 
 Flags 130, 136 
 
 Flail 78 
 
 Flax 272-3, 381 (2), 410 
 
 Fleas 109 
 
 " Flinging water at a frog's back" 
 48 
 
 Flint and tinder 233 
 
 Floods 92, 93, 118, 128, 152, 177, 
 180, 197, 223 (2), 227. 240, 370 
 
 Flowers 123, 127, 147, 272, 289, 290; 
 Arrangement 53, 213, 319 
 
 Flute 190 
 
 Folklore being made 331 
 
 Food, see Farmers, Hokkaido ; 
 34, 71, 196, 228, 261, 312, 324, 
 346, 374 (2), 389, 404; and 
 Clothes 118; Five sen a day 184 ; 
 Japanese v. foreign 350 ; Lack 
 of 114; Production 367; Speci- 
 alities 182 ; Tea and Bice 81 ; 
 Rice and Pickle 81 ; Taken away 
 by guests 284 ; Unbalanced 350 ; 
 When travelling 110 
 
 Forage 227, 243-4, 367 
 
 Forces which govern behaviour 167 
 
 Foreign : Apeing Foreign 306, 362 
 Benevolence 376 ; Books 196 
 Emulation of 158 ; Fashions 121 
 Influence 97 ; Ideas overpowering 
 
INDEX 
 
 425 
 
 101 ; Pride in things foreign 362 ; 
 Tourist 236; Under control 
 367 
 
 Foreigners 69, 80, 81, 111, 117, 141 
 (2), 146, 204, 217, 244, 249, 262, 
 269, 345, 352 ; Cutting them out 
 369 ; and idols 205 ; and Japan- 
 ese, Closer relations with 95 ; and 
 Waitresses 101 ; Hoodwinking 
 399; Ill-instructed 191; Im- 
 morality 56 ; Sexual curiosity 
 101 ; Short-tempered because of 
 Meat-eating 268; Smell of 
 142 
 
 Forests, see Floods ; 194, 240, 370, 
 390, 385, 394, 409 
 
 Forestry, see Hokkaido ; Associa- 
 tion 177 
 
 Formalin 60 
 
 Formosa, see Taiwan ; 96, 214, 249, 
 390-1, 332, 363 (2) 
 
 Fortunate days 126 
 
 "Fortune" 138 
 
 Forty-seven Renin 333 
 
 Foster mother 311 
 
 Foundations of Japan in village ix, 
 92 
 
 Foundlings 376 
 
 Fowl day 126 
 
 Fox 33, 129, 144, 326; God 120, 
 266, 325-6 (2) 
 
 France 397 (2) ; and Algeria 256 
 
 Franchise 38, 124, 170, 173, 400 
 
 Franklin, B., 124 
 
 Frankness 146 
 
 Frazer, Sir J. G., 243 
 
 Freedom, see Hokkaido ; 273, 361 
 
 free Farmer in a Free State, A, 
 197, 347-8 
 
 Free, Japan very, 100 
 
 Frockcoats 82, 259 
 
 Frogs 48 (2), 122, 260 
 
 Froissart 161 
 
 Frontier line 306 
 
 Frost 195, 391 
 
 Froude, J. A., 103 
 
 Frugality 8, 151 
 
 Fruit, see Names of ; 18, 85, 148, 
 177, 282, 289, 292, 307, 349, 
 368, 402 ; Disease 368 ; Growing 
 61; Jelly 148; Insects 368; 
 Preparations 182 ; Unripe 150 
 
 Fu XXV 
 
 JFuel, see Charcoal, Coal, Wood; 374, 
 378 
 
 Fuji 107, 262, 310; and Electricity 
 283 
 
 Fukushima 107, 119, 176, 189, 199 
 
 Funabushi 307 
 
 Fundamental power 323 
 
 Funerals 22, 66, 270, 302; For- 
 bidden 236 ; Feast 248 
 
 Furniture 382 
 
 Furoahikii 280 
 
 Fusuma 36 
 
 Futon 8, 31, 109, 268, 280, 300 
 
 "Future in the morning" 136; 
 Future Life 201 
 
 Oaku 4, 38-9, 51 
 
 Galloway dykes 227 
 
 Gambling 21, 197, 280, 287, 310 
 
 Oampi 401 
 
 Gap between East and West 100 
 
 Gardens 135, 210, 213-4, 215, 222, 
 270, 313 ; Economic 12 ; " Gar- 
 den where virtues, etc." 177 
 
 Gas 348; Natural 133, 300, 404; 
 Gasometer and shrine 286 
 
 Geisha 2, 19, 57, 96, 102, 114, 212, 
 252, 254, 257, 382 
 
 Oem/mai 79 
 
 Geniuses, Education of, 58 
 
 Genre pictures 313 
 
 Oenshitshu 259 
 
 Gentleness 19 
 
 Geology 365 
 
 Geomancy 72 
 
 German prisoners 307 
 
 Germany, see Hokkaido ; 300-1, 
 328, 386, 413 
 
 Geta 16, 18, 116, 236, 272, 308, 317, 
 346, 373 
 
 Oetsu go bi 126 
 
 Gifu 61 
 
 Gillie 25 
 
 Ginger 410 
 
 Oinseng 131, 256 
 
 Giotto 103 
 
 Girls, see School girls ; 13-4, 181, 
 275, 407 ; Babies on backs 285 ; 
 Exploitation 173 ; in hotels and 
 restaurants 101 ; Labourers 250, 
 286, 322, 411; Porters 186; 
 Primitive conditions 216 ; Sturdi- 
 ness 302 ; Wages 315 ; Gipsies 
 110 
 
 Gladstone 352 
 
 Glamour of West 369 
 
 Glass, Box for broken, 126 
 
 Globe 276 
 
 " Glory of the Morning" 121 
 
 Oo (measure) 119; Go (chess) 142, 
 214^5 
 
 Goats 264, 321, 347, 406 
 
 G^down 185, 376 
 
 Gods 21. 80, 82, 202-3-4, 244, 251 ; 
 of Agriculture 145 ; calling down 
 83 ; Christian view of 83 ; " God 
 damn all foreigners " 352 ; of Fire 
 
426 
 
 INDEX 
 
 261 ; of Happiness 267 ; of 
 Horses 26 ; " If one shall give to 
 God" 323; Respect for 45; 
 and Sea 257; "God second" 
 271 ; Sirens and guns 237 
 
 Gogh, Van, 98 
 
 Gohai 134, 144, 185, 318 
 
 Oohan 79 
 
 Goitre 268 
 
 Gold 124, 396 ; Story 6 
 
 Golden Bough, The.Wi, 331 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 146 
 
 Gong 272, 310 
 
 Gonorrhoea 300 
 
 Good : Doing 26 ; Fellowship 16 ; 
 Humour 217 ; " Good people are 
 not sufficiently precautious " 8 ; 
 Besolutions, Black and red balls 
 for, 19 ; " Good wives and good 
 mothers " 19 ; Good Shepherd 
 127 ; Goodness, Causes of, 67, 149 
 
 Goods, not up to sample, 354 
 
 Gosen 132 
 
 Gospel 94, 97 
 
 Gourds 221 
 
 Government, Feeling towards, 53 ; 
 Granary 86 
 
 Governors 21, 39, 84, 152, 179, 198, 
 200, 202-3, 238, 259, 328, 352, 
 361, 370, 373 ; Ex- 241 
 
 Goya 103 
 
 Graduation tax 21 
 
 " Grafting, Thinking," 136 
 
 Grain 307, 349 ; and wood crops 309 
 
 Granary 86 
 
 Grandfather's story 43 
 
 Grapes 130, 140, 149, 152, 177, 272, 
 402; in mustard 228; Grape- 
 fruit 238 
 
 Grass, see Forage ; 381 (3), 409 ; 
 Jjand available 368 ; Hokkaido 
 and Saghalien 368 ; Bamboo 352 
 
 Gratitude 26, 141 
 
 Gravel 25 
 
 Graves, see Burial grounds ; 19, 58, 
 72, 225, 306; Stones 121, 144, 
 147, 219, 235, 267; Gravedigger 
 241 ; Unpopular persons 241 
 
 Great Britain xv, 328, 386 
 
 Greece 95-6, 204 ; Greek Church 362 
 
 Green. J. R., 34 
 
 " Greenfield Mountain " 244 
 
 Grief 20], 273 
 
 Ground cypress 221 
 
 " Guid moral fowk " 63 
 
 Guilds 295, 317 
 
 Gumma 146, 309, 321 
 
 Gun XXV; Gunxiho 51, 56, 118, 150, 
 175, 219, 328 
 
 Guns, sirens and gods, 237 
 
 Gutters 286 
 Gymnastics 113, 222 
 Gyokuro 294, 403 
 
 Hahakari 375 
 
 Habits 124 
 
 Hachia 248 
 
 Ha^i 213 
 
 Hair 18, 19, 143, 224, 318, 353 j 
 
 Tied up 116 
 Hakama 16, 356 
 Hakumai 79 
 Haldane, Lord, 201 
 Half-civilised 141 ; dressed 126 
 Hall, Sir D., viii, 370 
 Ham 406 
 
 Hamlets xxvi, 15, 16 
 Hand-claps 45-6, 319 ; Hands 15a 
 Handicrafts, Japanese and British, 
 
 317 
 Hantsukimai 79 
 Haori 16, 315, 356 
 Happiness 109, 261 ; God of, 267 
 Harakiri, see Seppuku, 65 
 Hara (prairie) 68 
 Hara, Professor, 413 (2) 
 Hard work, or better, 64 
 Hare 278 ; Day 126 
 Harmoniums 276 
 Harp 83 
 Harvest, see Paddy, 50 ; Gods and, 
 
 83 
 Hasegawa, Tokaku, 344 
 Hashi 81 
 
 Hata 68 ; Hatake 68 
 Hats 74, 76, 83, 129, 198, 284 
 Hawaii 388 
 Hawker: beggar 248 
 Hayashi, Baron, xv 
 Haze 392 
 Headhunters 96 
 Headman, see Blind Headman, 54„ 
 
 56, 121, 126, 133, 140, 189, 241, 250; 
 
 and Officials 21 ; Loochoos 236 
 Health, see Bureau of Hygiene, 
 
 Invalids, Physique, Tuberculosis ; 
 
 50, 53, 80, 180, 268, 308, 368, 375, 
 
 398, 404 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, viii, 141, 237, 253, 
 
 344 
 Hearts 25, 27 
 Heat, 125, 147, 261, 307 
 • Heathen " 96, 98, 99, 326 
 Heather 290 
 
 Heaven 23, 183; "Heavenly punish- 
 ment" 298 
 Hebrew prophets 95 ( 
 
 Height 17, 404-6 
 Heimin 400 
 Hell 109 
 
INDEX 
 
 427 
 
 Hemp 409 
 
 Henley, W. E., 40, 80 
 
 Hens, Pensions for, 345 
 
 " Here the Emperor beheld," etc. 39 
 
 Herring blessed 82 
 
 Hibachi 153, 297, 374 
 
 " Hided himself " 29 
 
 Highways, Ancient, 144 
 
 Hills 390; Artiecial 210 
 
 Hills removed 299 
 
 Hindus 203 
 
 Hirioki 221, 394 
 
 Hiroshima 207, 236, 402 
 
 History : Cannot be repeated 363 ; 
 of England 167 ; of the " South- 
 ern Savage" 208 
 
 Hiye 387, 389 
 
 Hoes, see Paddy 
 
 Hokkaido xxv, 89 (2), 195, 197, 
 222-3, 249, 332, 363, 390; 
 Agricultural college, 336 ; Ameri- 
 can supplies and influence 334(2) - 
 6-6 (2); Apples 337; Ashi- 
 gawa 338; Ainu 336; Alcohol 
 factory 339 ; Askov 341 ; Basha 
 338, 340 ; Bear 337 : Beer 337 ; 
 " Best bits " 359 ; Beauty 361 ; 
 Brewing 335-6-7 ; Britons 336 ; 
 Brothels 360; Buckwheat 338, 
 341 ; Budget cut down 359 ; 
 Buggies 334 ; Canning 336-7 ; 
 Cattle 343; Christians 340; 
 Climate 337 ; Collies 343 ; Co- 
 operation 339, 341 ; Country- 
 side 342; Credit 360; Cossack 
 farming 336 ; Dairymaid 343 ; 
 Danish songs 341 ; Development, 
 335, 358-9, 360, 414; Drainage 
 338; Dutch 336; Education 
 359; Elms 336; Farms, Area, 
 239, 337-8; Mixed, milk, meat, 
 338, 343, 348 ; Profits 340, 380- 
 1-2; Official farms 343, Farms, 
 large, 338; "Feed them well" 
 341 ; Fisheries 335, 337 ; Floods 
 342; Flour mills 336; Food 341; 
 Foreign practice 336 ; Forestry 
 337; Forest fires 342; French 
 336; "Getting on" 360; Ger- 
 mans 336, 341 ; Grouse 336 ; 
 Immigrants 337, 339, 340, 341, 
 359 ; Grass 341 ; Hakadate 334 ; 
 Hay 343; Horses 338, 341; 
 Houses 334; Hunting 335; 
 Huts 341 ; Imperial household 
 335-6, 360, Rescript 336 ; Immi- 
 ^ation into island, 360, 414 ; 
 Industry 337 ; Influence on Old 
 Japan 334, 361; K5 341; 
 Kuroda 336; Labour difficulties 
 
 337-8, Land scandals 359, Not 
 available 360, System 359; 
 Licensed Quarters, see Brothel ; 
 Manitoba 337; Maize 336-7; 
 Milk 338; Millet 338; Mining 
 337 ; Moneylenders 340 ; Money 
 wanted 359; Monkeys 336; 
 Mortgage 340 ; Nitobe, Dr., 336 ; 
 Oats 337; Oxen 339; Peat 
 338 ; Peppermint 339 ; Phea- 
 sants 336; Pigs 339, 343; 
 Population 335, 360, 414 ; Potato, 
 see Starch ; Prostitutes 360 ; 
 Bailway 341, 360; Religion 340; 
 Residuum 341, 359; Bice 337- 
 8, 341 ; Rivers 338, 342 ; Roads 
 338, 341, 360; Riding 339; 
 Russians 335-6; Bye 337; 
 Sak6 340 ; Salisbury, Lord, 359 ; 
 Salvation Army 340 ; Sapporo, 
 343-4(2), 337-8, 391; Sato, Dr., 
 336; Scenery 342; Self-binders 
 343 ; Self-help 341 ; Sheep 343, 
 347, 352-3-4; Silo 336; Stock- 
 keeping 343, 347; Shochu 340; 
 Shrine 339 ; Slesvig 341 ; Snow 
 341, 347; "Social question" 
 341 ; Soldier colony 336 ; " Sor- 
 did" 360; Stallion 340; Starch 
 factory 339 ; Stimulating and 
 free 361; Streets 334; Sugar- 
 beet factories 336 ; Taxation 
 414; Temples 339; Tenants 
 339; Tolstoy 341; Tomeoka 
 341; Trees 338, 342; Uohi- 
 mura 336 ; Ugliness 342 ; Uni- 
 versity 336, 360; Value of 
 land 402; Volcanoes 334, 343, 
 390 ; Wagon storage 340 ; 
 "Whoa" 334; Windows 334; 
 Wolves 337 ; Wood pulp 337 ; 
 Yezo 335 
 
 Hokke 134 
 
 Hokku 107 
 
 Hokora 134, 144 
 
 Hokusai 344 
 
 Holidays 128, 278, 377 ; Cheap 123, 
 190 ; To cattle 256 
 
 Holiness, Theoretical and practical, 
 256 
 
 Holland, see Dutch ; ix, 121, 368 
 
 Hollyhocks 39 
 
 Home Office 24, 133, 345 ; Home 
 training 149 
 
 Homma 186, 188, 380 
 
 Hon 334 
 
 Hondo, see Honshu 
 
 Honesty 140, 145, 277 
 
 " Honourable first-class passengers" 
 218 
 
428 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Honours, 187 
 
 Honshu 334, 390-1-2, 402 
 
 Hoops 221 
 
 Hopes for the future 361 
 
 Horses, see Hokkaido, Paddy ; 61, 
 111, 139, 187, 189, 194-5, 209, 
 240, 262-3-4, 269, 287, 307, 345 
 (2), 346, 381 (3) -2 (2), 406; 
 Bronze 212; Day 126; Diffi- 
 culty of feeding 367 ; Dressing 
 318; Fair 175; Feed 244; 
 Fondness for 344; Fly 126; 
 God 267 (2), 304; Holidays for 
 256; Monuments to 167. 307; 
 Power 385; Shows'' 268; 
 Slaughtered 406 ; Shrine 127 ; 
 Symbol 272, 304; Horseman's 
 hair cutting 318 '^>* 
 
 Hotels, see Inns, 107 ; Japanese and 
 English 319; "Hotel for people 
 of good intentions " 64 
 
 Hot spring 126, 190 ; Story 233 
 
 Houses, see Hokkaido ; 56, 163, 207, 
 214, 261, 314, 322, 378 ; Beauties 
 of 31, 35; Building 17; Cour- 
 tesies 34-6 ; of ill fame, see 
 Brothels; Miserable 176, 190; 
 New forbidden 247 ; Simplicity 
 39; Transported 310; Western 
 "taste" 34 
 
 " How I became a Christian " 91 
 
 Humanity 235 ; New conception of 
 94 ; Humanitarians 206 
 
 Humidity, see Climate 
 
 Humour 217, 276 
 
 Humus 309, 313 
 
 Hunger 145 
 
 Hunting, see Hokkaido, 278 
 
 Husband and Wife 121 
 
 Huxley xiv 
 
 Hydrangea 53, 122 
 
 Hydraulic works 52 
 
 Hygiene, see Health 
 
 Hyogo 253, 260, 311, 402 
 
 Hypocrisy 224, 269 
 
 I 246, 410 
 
 " I am the master of my fate " 41 ; 
 
 " I remain Japanese " 141 ; " I 
 
 hear the voice of Spring " 165 
 Ibaraki 189, 199, 309 
 Idea of a Gap 98 ; Old ideas 331 
 Ideographs 68, 301 
 Idleness, Correction of, 17, 19 
 "Idols" 142, 205 
 " If you look at a water fowl " 101 ; 
 
 " If you should advise me " 176 
 Ihai 143, 270, 272 ; Ihaido 272-3 
 Illegitimacy 114, 229, 241, 280, 
 
 303. 322, 395 
 
 Illiteracy 375 
 Illness 187, 350, 377 
 Image, see Idols, 142, 205 
 Imitation, 24 
 
 Immorality, see Morality, Women, 
 Primitive conditions; 2, 17, 
 101-2, 114, 126, 132, 139, 149, 
 193, 190, 191-2, 197, 201, 212, 
 214, 241, 280, 287, 307, 315, 322 ; 
 Foreigners, 66 ; and Shrine, 
 325-6 
 Imperial Household, see Hokkaido ; 
 Garden Party, 319; Rescript 50-1, 
 90, 137, 204; Poem competi- 
 tion 40 ; Train 44 
 Imperturbability 251 
 Implements 364, 378, 382 ; Better, 
 366, 367, 370 ; Cared for, 220 ; 
 Primitive, 365 
 Imports, Doing away with 347; 
 
 Some useless 369 
 Impressions xiii, 27 
 Improvement, Principles of, 370 
 Inari 129, 325 
 Incendiarism, see Arson 
 Incense 119, 141 
 " Incitement to do well " 140 
 Income of a Governor, 373 ; of a 
 Minister of State 373 ; Small 240 
 Incomprehensibleness 202 
 Incongruity 137 
 Indecency 192, 197 
 Independence 161, 277, 311 
 India 388 
 
 Indigo 209, 223, 409 
 Individualism 101-2, 204, 327, 330 
 Indo-China 388 
 Indoors 213 
 
 Industry (quality) 297, 317 
 Industry, see Hokkaido, Factories, 
 Sericulture ; Alleged economic 
 necessity for Sweating 169 ; "In- 
 dustry and Increase of Produc- 
 tion " 259 ; Cheap labour 169 (2), 
 173 ; Cotton factories 174 ; 
 Chinese competition 173 ; and 
 Commerce v. Agriculture 284, 
 414; Crash 87; Criticism 369 ; 
 Destruction of Craftsmanship 
 317 ; Death rate 393 ; Deception 
 of West 174 ; Docile Labour 169, 
 173 ; Employers' public spirit 
 173 ; Excuses for shortcomings 
 169; Exploiting 169 (2); EI 
 Dorado 369 ; Female laboiu- 169, 
 399 ; Foreign competition 173-4 ; 
 Handicap of 174; Indefensible 
 attitude 169 ; Inexperienced 
 labour 174; Inhumanity 174; 
 Just claim 174; Mistakes imitat- 
 
INDEX 
 
 429 
 
 ing West 170 ; Net return to 
 Japan 169 ; Number of workers 
 168; Profits 174; Rural v. 
 Urban 369; Success of 169; 
 Uselessness of some 369 ; Un- 
 Bkilled labour 174 ; Welfare work 
 174 ; Well wishers' fears 169 ; 
 Western lessons 174, 369 ; Wis- 
 dom, Will it be displayed 7 174 ; 
 Woollen, 354^5-6-7 
 
 Infanticide 66, 216, 302, 332 
 
 Infinity 200 
 
 Inflation xxiv, 414 
 
 Influence 201, 203, 321, 324; In- 
 fluential villager 140 
 
 Inhalation 117 
 
 Inland Sea 207-8, 235 
 
 Inner colonisation, 307, 413-4 
 
 Innl08-9-10, 116, 122-3, 127, 132, 
 144-6, 152, 190, 214, 228, 315; 
 of Cold Spring Water 128; 
 Entertainment 108 ; Notices in 
 183 ; Old days 148 ; Rates 148, 
 183; Restfulness 319; Trans- 
 portation of 182 
 
 Inscriptions 47, 126, 129 
 
 Insects 20 (2), 188, 230, 250, 286, 
 344, 353, 368 ; Fondness for, 
 344 ; Insect powder 109 
 
 Instinct 201 
 
 Instructions 26, 151 
 
 Insurance 281 
 
 Intellectuals 103, 203 
 
 Intelligence 140, 151, 370 
 
 Intercourse 358 
 
 Interest, see Usury ; 43, 66 
 
 Intermarriage 204, 252, 290, 364 
 
 International Labour Conference 
 395 ; Understanding, see West 
 and East 
 
 Interpreter 27 
 
 Intestines 348, 351 
 
 Introduction to the History of Japan, 
 413 
 
 Invalids 110, 346 
 
 Ireland 358 
 
 Iron 226, 396 
 
 Irrigation, see Water, Waterwheels, 
 •Wells ; 25, 52, 180, 197, 207, 210, 
 262, 390-1 
 
 Is6 Shrine 176 
 
 Mands 235 (3), 390; Beacon 
 247 
 
 Italy 365-6, 396-7 
 
 Ito San 307 
 
 Itsukushima 236 
 
 Iwate 189, 195-6 
 
 Izumo 251 
 
 Jaga imo 249 
 
 Jakchii, 344 
 
 James, William, 105 
 
 Japan, see Japanese ; Anti-Ally 
 campaign xi ; Belief in, a sub- 
 stitutef orreligion, 63 ; Books, good 
 and bad, on'viii; and Germany 
 xi ; and Great Britain 89, 385, 
 390; Compared with Asia 390; 
 Could support double the popu- 
 lation 97; Course 371; Dangerof 
 Foreign colonisation 100 ; Eng- 
 lish-speaking world and xv ; 
 Free 100 ; Future, neither a 
 technical nor an economic pro- 
 blem, 371 ; Forced into Material- 
 ism, 100 ; Great Britain and, xv ; 
 Mental attitude 37 1 ; New and Old 
 318; Northern 365, 370, 402, 
 413 (2), 414; Proper 385, 390; 
 Thousand years' ago 82; United 
 States and xv ; Width 390 ; Will 
 o' the wisps 371 ; World opinion 
 onix 
 
 Japanese : Advantages 371 ; 
 /Estheticism and farmer ix ; 
 Closer relations with foreigners 
 96 ; Christian church 197 ; Com- 
 mon sense 371 ; Devotional 102 ; 
 Essence of life 141 ; Family, a, 
 143 ; Ideas, old, 174 ; Judgment 
 on 371 ; Kindness 102 ; Number 
 in Great Britain 403 ; in Lon- 
 don 403 ; Opportunities 371 ; 
 Puzzled 100; "Japanese spirit," 
 see Yamato damashii, 140, 323 ; 
 Talents 371 ; True v. mediocre, 
 371 
 
 Jeffries, 99 
 
 Ji 210 
 
 "Jiji" 90 
 
 Jinrikisha, see Kuruma; 46, 131 
 
 Jishu 119 
 
 Jizo 126, 286 
 
 John, Augustus 98, 103 
 
 Johns Hopkins 349 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 132, 175, 262, 297 
 
 Joro, see Prostitutes ; 56, 265, 268 
 
 Judo 50, 159 
 
 Jujitsu 50, 287 
 
 "Jump land" 305 
 
 Jungle 122 
 
 Kagawa 207, 209 
 
 Kago 244 
 
 Kaiserism 90 
 
 Kakemono 36, 39, 135, 150 (2), 319 
 
 Kakko 316 
 
 Kambara 132 
 
 Kamchatka 196 
 
 Kanagawa 182, 283, 309, 321 
 
430 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Karakamti 36 
 
 Karuizawa 143-4 
 
 Kasutera 346 
 
 Katsubushi 297, 349 
 
 Kawasaki, see Labour 
 
 " Keeping up position "183 
 
 Ken xxvi, 176 
 
 Kennedy, J. Russell, 332 
 
 Kepler 106, 123, 344 
 
 Khedive 98 
 
 Ki-ai 36 
 
 Kikicha 294 
 
 Kimonos 15, 16, 84, 114, 125 (4), 
 200, 218, 269, 272, 301, 309, 312, 
 317, 321, 356; Respect for 
 superiors 125 
 
 Kinai 71 
 
 Kindergarten 7 
 
 Kindness 102, 205, 307 
 
 King, Professor, vii, 260 
 
 Kiri 129 
 
 Kissing 313 
 
 Kitchens of Hongwanji 63 
 
 Kites 260 
 
 Kittens, see Cats ; 345 
 
 Kneeling 17, 308, 319 
 
 Knife 282 
 
 Knowledge 301, 328 
 
 Kd, see Hokkaido, Tanomoshi ; 215, 
 278, 301 
 
 Ko-aza xxvi 
 
 Kobe 66, 71, 207, 260, 292, 392; 
 "Kobe beef" 402 
 
 Kochi 207, 209, 386 
 
 Kofu 152 
 
 Koi, see Carp 
 
 Koizumi Yakumo 254 
 
 Kokusai-Beuter 332 
 
 Komojin 208 
 
 Konnyaku 48, 176 
 
 Korea 99, 103, 104, 256, 332, 336, 
 363 (2), 390 (2), 391, 394; Folk 
 art 104; Secretary of Government 
 10 
 
 Korai 105 
 
 Kori xxvi 
 
 Koto 34 
 
 Kozo 401 
 
 Kropotkin 321 
 
 Kuge 102-3 
 
 Kumi 262, 278 
 
 Kura, see Godown 
 
 Kuriles 391 
 
 Kuruma 46, 121 (2), 209, 243, 262, 
 310; in War time 51; Forbidden 
 236 ; Wooden wheels 244 ; Kuru- 
 maya 120, 122-3, 128, 131, 148, 
 250 ; Story 310 
 
 Kusonoki Masashige 66-7 
 
 Kuwata, Dr., 399 
 
 Kwanto 107, 147, 199, 309 
 
 Kwautung 388, 391 
 
 Kyogen 32 
 
 Kyosai, Kawanabe, 344 
 
 Kyoto xxvi, 63, 66, 82, 141, 207, 
 
 222, 243, 257, 292, 303, 307, 
 
 391-2; Hongwanji 2 
 Kyushu xii, 330, 390-1-2, 402 
 
 Labour, see Factories, Farmers, 
 Land, Paternalism, Revolution; 
 Socialism, 160 ; Arrests 171 ; 
 Better directed 64; Ca' -canny 
 171 ; Cheap labour exploited 
 369; Child workers 170, 172, 
 224; Confederation of Japanese 
 Labour 171 ; Labour contractors, 
 see Hokkaido, Sericulture ; Days 
 in the Year, 62, 65 (2), 377; 
 Employers' public spirit 173 ; 
 English parallels 167, 170 (2); 
 Factory law 165, 169, 171-2 (2), 
 224; Hours 62, 376-7, 378; 
 Eleven 173, Twelve 170, Four- 
 teen 171-2; Farmer's Co-opera- 
 tion, see Tenants' movement; 
 "Friend-Love-Society" 171; 
 Girls' labour 224 ; Imprisonment 
 170; Increased 26; Irregular 
 350 ; Given 17 ; Kawasaki 173-4 ; 
 Matsukata 173-4 ; Mitsubishi 
 173 ; Night 48, 171; Police 170-1 ; 
 Prosecutions 172 ; Publications 
 171 ; Public meetings 170 ; Public 
 opinion 169, 172-3 ; Seaman's 
 Union 171 ; Strikes, 88, 170 ; 
 Tenants' Movement 173 ; Trade 
 Unions 169, 170 (2) -1 ; Wages 
 substituted for apprentice system 
 315 ; Women workers, see Silk 
 (Factories) 171-2 ; Yu-airkai 
 171 ; Labourers, see Girl laboijr- 
 ers, 150, 184, 189, 194, 380-1. 
 395, 397, 411 
 
 Lacquer 39, 130, 319 
 
 Ladder for tree pruning 215 
 
 Ladybirds 289 
 
 Lamb, Henry, 98 
 
 Lamps 348 
 
 Land available, see Utilised, 97, 
 180, 233, 368, 408, 414 ; Covered 
 by buildings, railways, etc., 250, 
 409 ; City investments in, 150 ; 
 under Cultivation 70 ; Divided 
 up, result, 306; New 18, 24, 42-3, 
 62, 66, 85, 194, 207 (2), 225 (2), 
 264, 305, 370; Yearly 408; 
 Government action, 408 ; Owner- 
 ship decrease, 411; "of Plen- 
 teous ears " 68 ; Made over to 
 
INDEX 
 
 431 
 
 farmerB at Restoration 395 ; 
 from the Sea, 41 ; held by 
 Tradesmen and other, 412 ; 
 Utihsed, 214, 225, 227, 244; 
 Value of, 64, 133, 240, 339, 402 
 
 Landlady and Players 115 
 
 Landless 412 
 
 Landlords, see also Tenants, Hok- 
 kaido, Homma; 193, 212, 223, 
 303, 305, 358, 376, 394; Area 
 29, 41, 213, 400; Absentees 
 38 ; Advice and gifts by 30 (2) ; 
 Bad 58 (4) ; Budgets 41, 373 ; 
 Boycotted 28 ; Competition for 
 Farmers 186 ; Circuit of village 
 
 36 ; Cruel 38 ; Expert engaged 
 177 ; Diversions 213 ; Factory 
 dividends 193 ; as Farmers, 213 ; 
 Idle 322 ; and Farmers' wives 30 ; 
 Garden parties 30 ; " Hided 
 himself" 29; "Land master" 
 
 37 ; Parasitic 261 ; Poets 41 ; 
 Power going from 36, 330 ; Bents 
 and Reduction of 29, 37, 85, 220 ; 
 Sharing system, 45 ; Storehouses, 
 28 (2) ; and Tenants, 23 29, 30, 
 31, 34, 37-8, 88, 94, 152, 229, 230, 
 301 ; Taxes 73 ; Tenant move- 
 ment 37-8; Perspiration, 38 ; 
 Reformation of village, 47 ; Uchi- 
 mura 94 ; Usurers 38 ; Western 
 and Japanese compared, 261 
 
 Landscape 120 
 
 Lanes 307 
 
 Lang, A., 105 
 
 Language 301 
 
 Lanterns 19, 36, 58, 136, 190, 211, 
 237, 266-7 
 
 Lark 83 
 
 Laughter 217 
 
 Law, William, 99 
 
 Leaders 26, 61, 140 
 
 League of Nations, Japanese Secre- 
 tary, 336 
 
 " Learning Meeting " 58 ; " Learn- 
 ing right ways," etc., 164 
 
 Lectures 150, 176, 180, 189, 250, 279 
 
 Leeches, see Paddy, 137 
 
 " Left behind his tiredness " 111 
 
 Xiegislation 236 
 
 Legumes 349 
 
 Lemonade 119 
 
 Lending, see Borrowing, Kd, 
 Tanomoshi, 125, 183 
 
 Leonardo 103 
 
 Leprosy 6, 298 
 
 Lespedeza bicolor 213 
 
 Letter in the temple 26 
 
 Letters, interesting, 311 ; Letter- 
 ing, Western v. Eastern, 39 
 
 Liberie du travail, De la, 8 
 
 Libraries 23, 59, 60, 180, 190, 196, 
 215, 244, 248, 401 
 
 Licensed Quarters, see Brothels 
 
 Life 101 ; Aim 205 ; Chaotic 100 ; 
 Desire to enjoy 179 ; Signi- 
 ficance of 90; Too near to 
 Criticise 331 
 
 Lignite 47 i 
 
 Lighthouse, " At foot it is dark," 67 
 
 Lighting 120 
 
 Lily 410 
 
 Lime 148 
 
 Lincoln 124, 127 
 
 Literature 369 ; Western 102 
 
 "Livestock, his family," 386 
 
 Living, Bare, 261; Better 370; 
 Cost of 278 ; Standard of 65, 
 85, 310, 240; "What men live 
 by " 27 ; " Living Power " 322 
 
 Lizard story 5 
 
 Lobster 318 
 
 Locks 183 
 
 Locusts 20 
 
 Logic V. feeling 29 
 
 Loin cloth 125, 307 
 
 London 64 ; Market 357 
 Lonely spot 127; " Lonelyism " 
 319 
 
 Loochoos 236, 391 
 
 Loquat 289 
 
 Lorries 621 
 
 Loss 201, 203 
 
 Lotus 48, 146 
 
 Louse 107 
 
 Love, Not easy to fall in, 102 ; 
 
 Not free 102 ; Four loves 61 
 Loyalty 174 
 L. T. 372 
 Lubin, David, vii 
 Lucky days 126 
 
 Lugubriousness, Absence of, 273 
 Lumbering, see Forests ; 194-5 
 Lunacy, see "Natural" 
 "Liisitania" 202 
 Luther 94 
 Luxury 2, 19, 151 
 Lying 124 
 
 Macaroni 272, 351, 381 
 McCaleb, J. M., 364 
 Machi XXV 
 Mackintoshes 47 
 Maeterlinck 99 
 Magazines 18, 58, 282 
 Mahomedanism 101 
 Maid servant 324 
 Maillol 103 
 
 Maize, see Hokkaido, 146, 148, 
 272, 381 (2) 
 
432 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Malaya 127 
 
 Mallets 359 
 
 Manchester Cfuardian 339 
 
 Man 150 ; " Man and Wife " 121 ; 
 Development 202 ; with a monu- 
 ment 41 ; Study of 119 ; Man- 
 fulness 205 
 
 Manchuria 21, 354, 356-7, 363 (2), 
 390, 394; Railway company 
 357 
 
 Mangoku dosJd 78 
 
 Mantles 74, 76 
 
 Manners, see Etiquette 17, 19 
 
 Manual labour 50 
 
 Mantegna 103 
 
 Manure, see Benjo; 230, 232-3, 259, 
 264, 298, 308, 313, 346, 352, 
 374, 380-2, 384, 386 ; ArtiHcial 
 49, 85, 92, 136; Better man- 
 uring 370 ; Co-operation 49 ; 
 Manure blessed 82 ; House 22, 
 137, 150, 215; Green 386; 
 Liquid, for Vegetables, 350 ; 
 " Livestock, his family," 386 ; 
 Odour 49 ; Students and 50 ; 
 Tanks 214-5; "White steam 
 rising" 137 
 
 Maples 25, 52 
 
 Market, No, 127 
 
 Marmots 166 
 
 Marriage, see Weddings, Unmarried; 
 11, 114^5, 138, 170, 193, 220, 247, 
 284, 293, 315, 330, 379, 380, 
 395, 400 ; Ages 332 ; Marrying 
 for love, 102 ; Remarriage 197 
 
 " Marrow of Japan, The," xv 
 
 Masses 132 
 
 Mascots 310 
 
 Masters and men, 174, 315 
 
 Materialism 2, 27-8, 212, 324 
 
 Matisse 103 
 
 Mats, see Tatami, 177, 215, 270, 304 
 
 Matsue 243, 253-4 
 
 Matsukata, see Labour 
 
 Matsimaoto 148, 150, 391 
 
 Matter 100 
 
 Matthew, St., 94 
 
 Mattocks, see Paddies ; 97, 285, 
 385 ; Wealth and 136 
 
 Meadow 409 
 
 Meals 34, 323 
 
 Meaimess punished 266 
 
 Meat 130, 133, 346, 348, 349, 350, 
 356-7, 368, 379, 380, 406; and 
 Good Temper 268 
 
 Mechanical power 370, 412 
 
 Medals 123 
 
 Medicine 248, 268, 374, 379, 380 
 
 Meetings, see Public meetings ; 53, 
 238, 254 
 
 Meiji, Emperor, 39, 142 
 
 Melbourne 167 
 
 Melons 146, 150 
 
 Memoirs of the Queen's First Prime 
 Minister 170 
 
 Memorial stones 41, 51-2, 67, 311 y 
 Services 271 ; Days 50 
 
 Mental attitude 254 ; nimbleness 
 17 
 
 Mercantile Marine 332 ; Farmer 
 and is. 
 
 Mercenary spirit 2, 12 
 
 Merciful universe 323 ; " Mercy of 
 the sun" 321 
 
 Meredith 90, 182, 219, 226, 235 
 
 Merits 25 
 
 Mesopotamia 371 
 
 Metal 126 ; Mines story xi 
 
 Metaphysical, Not, 258 
 
 Metayer system 45, 207 
 
 Methodist 141 
 
 Mice and bamboo 108 
 
 Middle Ages 84, 317 
 
 Middle School boys 151, 255, 284, 
 404 
 
 Middle men 38 
 
 Midwives 123, 241, 264, 282, 399] 
 
 Migration 264, 364 
 
 Mikawa 84 
 
 Militarism 104, 233, 240, 328, 360'; 
 Military service, see Conscription, 
 220 ; Training 151, 282, 285 
 
 Milk, see Hokkaido; 110, 116, 128, 
 130, 150 (2), 235, 264, 345, 347- 
 8, 349, 381 (2) ; Foster mother 
 311 
 
 Millet, see Hokkaido 103, 131, 
 195-6 (2), 213, 219, 227, 264, 
 383, 389, 409, 411 
 
 Mimetic skill, 192 
 
 Minds, 27, 151, 226 
 
 Minerals, see also Hokkaido ; 284, 
 396 
 
 Ming 106 
 
 Ministers and Ministries of Agri- 
 culture 24, 378, 385, 390, 397, 
 403, 411 ; of Health and Educa- 
 tion (British) 371 ; of Finance 
 414; of Railways 403; of State, 
 Income of, 373; Ministers, ex- 
 241 
 
 Mirror 178 
 
 Mirin 396 
 
 Misapprehensions, International, 
 363 
 
 Miser 59 
 
 Misfortune 187, 201 ; and Religion, 
 63 
 
 Miso 6, 81, 123, 151, 191-2, 196, 
 321, 349 (2), 350 
 
INDEX 
 
 Missionaries 7, 69, 143, 197 
 
 Mitsubishi, see Labour 
 
 Mitsumala 401 
 
 " Mixing in the heart " 135 
 
 Miyagi 189, 197 
 
 Miyajima 236 
 
 Mobilisation 241 
 
 MocU 69, 272 
 
 Modesty 317 
 
 Mogusa 179 
 
 Momi 79 
 
 Mon 188 
 
 Monday 126 
 
 Money : Etiquette 148 ; Cheap 
 176, 184, 364; Need of 66, 370 ; 
 Moneylenders, see Usury, 150, 
 282, 364; Money-sharing Club, 
 see Ko, Tanomoshi 
 
 Mongolia 357, 363 (2), 394 
 
 Monkey, see Hokkaido; 110, 129, 
 248; Monkey day 126; " Mon- 
 key slip" 246 
 
 Moon 126 (2), 129, 137, 208, 275 ; 
 Bowing to 99 ; " Moon-seeing 
 flowers " 120 ; Moonlight on 
 mattocks 136 ; " Waiting for the 
 Moon " 323 
 
 Morality, see Crime, Immorality, 
 Police; 17, 20, 37, 50, 66, 95, 
 101-2, 140, 149, 152, 169, 179, 
 193, 203, 206, 229, 313; Anglo- 
 Saxon sense of 95 ; Moral back- 
 bone 96, 141 ; " Moral bath" 94 ; 
 Code, Lack of, 362 ; Distrust of 
 each other's morality the barrier" 
 xii ; Morality dependent on 
 material well-being 118, 149; 
 Quality of Eastern 95; "Not 
 BO bad" 149 
 
 Morimoto 349 
 
 Morioka 195-6 
 
 Morley, 14 
 
 Mosquitoes 50, 125, 143 
 
 " Mother, from the bosom of," 301 ; 
 Mother-in-law 121, 138 
 
 Motor bus 246 ; Launch 237 
 
 Mottoes 7, 39, 126, 135-6, 150, 158, 
 187, 288 
 
 Mounds 306 
 
 Mountains 70, 108, 159, 176, 390 (2), 
 394 ; " Mountain climbers " 320 ; 
 Mountain maidens 110 
 
 Moxa, see Mogusa ; 47, 179 
 
 M.P., see Franchise ; 124, 208, 286 ; 
 Ashes of 92 ; and farmers 92 
 
 " Mr. Temple " 7, 270 
 
 M's, Seven, viii 
 
 Mud baths 147 
 
 Mujin 278 
 
 Mukae bon 272 
 
 Mulberry 40, 6], 147, 149, 163, 
 158-9 (2), 160, 264^5, 282, 287, 
 298, 302, 307, 310; Area and 
 Yield 153, 409; Paper 410; 
 Proverb 153 
 
 Mulch 220 
 
 Mura XXV, 262 
 
 Murdoch, James, Japanese and,, 
 viii 
 
 Murray, Gilbert, 301 
 
 Mushrooms 110 
 
 Music 102, 116, 180, 188, 237, 328;. 
 Ancient 82 ; Instruments 222 ; 
 Western 99 (2), 288 
 
 Mutton, see also Sheep; 133, 345, 
 347 
 
 Muzzles 269 
 
 Mysticism 99, 100, 267 
 
 " My wiph is that I may perceive " 
 106 
 
 Naden, Constance, 203 
 
 Nagano 140, 146, 153, 262, 272, 399 
 
 Nagasaki 391 
 
 Nagoya 38, 391, 392 
 
 Naichi 334 
 
 Naked children 309 ; Nakedness; 
 116, 125, 193; Child story 307 
 
 Namban 208 
 
 " Name, called by second," 217 
 
 " Namu Amida," etc., 129 
 
 Napier, Sir W., 170 
 
 Napoleon 127, 203 
 
 Nara 222 
 
 Nasu, Mount 108 
 
 Nasu, Professor S., xv, xxiv 
 
 Nation 8 ; National Agricultviral 
 Societies 238, 320; Backing 
 Society 312 ; Defence 97 ; Feeling 
 363 ; Funds 371 ; Greatness,. 
 Sources of, 97 ; Products 233 ; 
 Nationalism 204, 328 ; Nation- 
 alists 91 
 
 Naisu mekan 238 
 
 Natvire 287 ; and Character 99 ; 
 Feeling towards 99 ; " Natural " 
 280; Naturalness 99 
 
 Naval Service 311 
 
 Navvies 21, 217 
 
 Navy 311, 346, 350-1, 360, 403;- 
 Farmer and ix 
 
 " Needle in your head "11 
 
 Negation 101 
 
 Neo-Malthusianism 331-2 
 
 Nerves 238, 240 
 
 Nets 186 
 
 New and modern ideas 37 ; New 
 ideas 135 ; New and Old Japan 
 318; New Age 361; " New rural 
 type" 79 
 
434 
 
 INDEX 
 
 New East xii, 372, 406 
 
 News, see Notice boards, 323 ; 
 Newspapers, see Press, 137, 249, 
 282, 300, 301, 319 
 
 New Testament 96, 203 
 
 New Year 265 
 
 New York 271, 318 
 
 New Zealand 352, 363 
 
 Nichi 126 
 
 ~" Nichi-Nichi" 90 
 
 Nichi-yo-bi 126 
 
 Nightingale, Florence, 127 
 
 Night-soil, see Manure 
 
 Night-time 19 
 
 Nihon no Shimui xv 
 
 Niigata 107, 132, 295, 391 
 
 Nikko 92, 120 
 
 Ninomiya 7, 8, 50, 60, 61, 287 
 
 Nirvana 205 
 
 Nitobe, Dr., see Hokkaido ; xv, 333 
 
 Nitrogen 147, 348 
 
 No 32, 320 
 
 Nogi, General, 54, 98 
 
 Non-material feeling 259 
 
 Normal school 233 
 
 " Normal yield " 70 
 
 North America 410 
 
 North, backwardness of, see Japan, 
 Northern 
 
 North of Japan, see Japan, Northern 
 
 Noses 144, 192, 204 
 
 Note-books 18 
 
 " Nothing which concerns a comi- 
 tryman," etc., 107 
 
 Notice boards for news 17, 126; 
 Notices 287 
 
 "Not yet" 288 
 
 Novelist 152 ; Novelists, Russian, 99 
 
 No wa hwni taihon nari 92 
 
 Nunnery 142 ; Nuns 140, 142, 143 
 
 Nursery pasture 259 ; Nurseries, 
 see Paddies, Children drowned, 
 266 ; Nurses 58, 399 ; " Nursing- 
 place for children of soldiers "312 
 
 Nutrition poor, see Food 
 
 Oaks 316 
 Oars 211 
 Oats 381 (2) 
 
 Oaza xxvi, 221, 263, 302, 304, 305 
 Obi 15, 25 
 Obedience 169 
 Obscenity 192 
 Oceania 410 
 Octopus 46, 308 
 Oculist 239, 300 
 Oden 48 
 Offerings 272 
 
 Officials 27, 51, 176, 212, 261 ; 
 Official rewards 213 
 
 Ohyakusho no Fufu ix 
 
 Oil, see Petroleum ; For insects 188 
 
 Oiwake 144 
 
 Okayama 207, 402 
 
 Okio 344 
 
 Okuma, Prince, 390 
 
 Okunikama no Miko no Kami 45, 
 
 46 
 Okura, Baron, 357 
 Okuri bon 272 
 Old age 17, 19, 22, 43; Old 
 
 farmer to his son 66 ; Old man and 
 
 officials 51 ; Old men 135, 271 ; 
 
 "Old Miss not frequent" 74; 
 
 Old Japan 391 ; Old People's 
 
 Clubhouse 305, Houses 304, Work 
 
 227 
 Old Testament 326 
 Olives 210 
 Omelette 110 
 Omori 93, 182 
 Onions 381 (2), 410 
 " Only half a pilgrimage," etc., 257 
 Open heart 215 
 
 Oranges 221, 287, 289 (2), 402 
 Order 328 ; " Orders, May give 
 
 him," etc., 217 
 Oriental Economist 93 ; Oriental 
 
 religion for Orientals 327 
 Originality, supposed lack of 101 
 Oro 400 
 Orphans 185 
 Osaka ix, xxv, 71, 90, 207, 222, 
 
 311, 392 
 Otak6 324 
 Otera San 7, 270 
 " Other people " 62, 377 
 Otsu Yukimichi 46 
 Out-of-date idea^ 348 
 Owen, Wilfrid, 334 
 Overloading 345 
 Over-population, see Population 
 Overpowering foreign ideas 101 
 Overseas Colonisation Co. 402 
 Overwork 114 
 Oxen, Bee Cows, Cattle, Hokkaido, 
 
 Holidays, Paddies ; 18, 139, 346 ; 
 
 Ox-day 126 ; Ox-diawn carts 18 
 Oyashiro current 195 
 
 Paddies, see Adjustment, Agricul- 
 ture, Bull, Cow, Horse, Lime, 
 Mattock, Plough, Pony, Rice, 
 Straw, Ta, WindraiUs; 20, 66, 
 68-9, 70-1-2, 132, 264; Adjust- 
 ment 182 ; Appearance 146, 298 ; 
 Area, see Size, 385 ; Back break- 
 ing 75 ; Beauty 76 ; Blindness 
 300; At Christmas 314; Carp 
 299; Children drowned 75; 
 
INDEX 
 
 485< 
 
 Clothing 74 ; Cow 73, 77 ; Cul- 
 tivated for centuries 366 ;. Cul- 
 tivation in sludge 73 ; Damaged 
 crops 76-7 ; Discomfort > 74 ; 
 Drying 73, 77 ; Paddy v. Dry 
 field labour 358; Floods 72, 
 76 ; Frost 299 ; Harrowing 73- 
 4 ; Harvest 76-7 ; Hoes 76 ; 
 Horse 73; / 246; Insects 74- 
 5-6 ; Italy 68 ; Labour 70-3 et 
 seq., 331, 358, 365; Labour re- 
 quired per tan 232 ; Leeches 74 ; 
 Mattock 73, see Mattock ; Model 
 189, 258 ; Ox 72-3, 77 ; Plough- 
 ing 73, 385; Pony 73, 77; 
 Pulling Fork 74 ; Rent, see Rent, 
 23, 73 ; Reservoirs 72, 210, 299 ; 
 Scattered 71 ; Second crop 70, 
 73; Seed bed 74^5-6, 84; 
 Shape 69, 70-1 ; Shinto streamers 
 75; Sickle 77; Size 70, 249, 
 365-6, 360 (2) ; Soil 70, 73 ; 
 Sowing 74-5 ; Spade 73 ; in 
 Spring 307 ; Straw 76 ; Stubble 
 73; Temperature raised 76; 
 Transplanting 74-5 (3), 84; 
 Two hvmdred and tenth day 76 ; 
 U.S.A. 68; Value 214, 402, 
 408-9; Wet 76-7; Water, 
 Armnonia, Depth, Warm, 70, 72, 
 162, 366 ; Wet Feet 73 ; Weed- 
 ing 74-5 (2) ; Wind 76 ; Women 
 74 ; Work of 147 
 
 Pagodas 209 
 
 Painting 102, 223, 286, 327 
 
 Palisades 227 
 
 Pan 346 
 
 Panic grass, see Biye 
 
 Paper 125, 148, 177, 227, 401 
 
 Paradise 205 (2) 
 
 Parasites 261, 350 
 
 Parasol, see Umbrellas 
 
 Parents 17, 102, 117, 149 
 
 Park 210 
 
 Parkes, Sir Henry, 9 
 
 Parliament 53 ; Cost of election 
 208 ; Farmers and ix 
 
 Parmesan 298 
 
 Partiality 14 
 
 Party feeling, see Politics, 2 
 
 Past and Present 233 
 
 Paternalism 174 
 
 Patience 153 
 
 Patriotism 26, 206, 371 ; Patriotic 
 Women's Society, 105, 124 
 
 Patronage 37 
 
 Pattison, Mark, 105 
 
 Paul, St., 99 
 
 Paulownia 129 
 
 Paupers 376 
 
 Peace of the world 84; Peaceful 
 mind 205 (2) 
 
 Peaches 277, 289, 295, 402 
 
 Pears 31, 233, 235, 289, 402 
 
 Peas 307, 383, 409 
 
 Peasant, of East and West, 141 ; 
 Heroic 61 ; Hungry 146 ; and 
 Lucifer match 233 ; Monuments 
 to 67 ; " Peasant Sage of Japan " 
 7 
 
 Peasant Proprietors, see Tenants ; 
 138-9, 184, 189, 261, 264, 284, 321,. 
 364, 376, 378-9, 380 (4), 411 
 
 Peat, see Hokkaido, 194 
 
 Pedlars 315 
 
 Peers, School, 55, 102; Qualifica- 
 tions for House of 176 
 
 Pencils 272 
 
 Pensions 380 
 
 Peonies 256 
 
 People, Condition of, 262 
 
 Peppermint 381, 410 
 
 Perfection 283 
 
 Perry, Commander, 100, 124 
 
 Persimmons x, 13, 45, 61 (2), 152,. 
 289, 320, 402 
 
 Persistence 328 
 
 Personalities 104 
 
 Perspiration 38 
 
 Pestalozzi, 220 
 
 Peter the Great 124 
 
 Petroleum 132 
 
 PhcBdo 203 
 
 Pheasants, see Holckaido, 215 
 
 Philanthropy, see Charitable insti- 
 tutions ; 41, 376 
 
 Philosophy 100, 102, 204, 206 
 
 Photographs xvi 
 
 Physique 16, 171, 193, 204, 284, 
 302, 322, 350, 364 
 
 Piano 99 
 
 Pickles 81, 110, 159, 268, 349 
 
 Picture postcards 148 
 
 Pigeons 215 
 
 Pigs, see Hokkaido ; 27, 264, 347, 
 382 (2), 406 
 
 Pilgrims 20, 133, 142, 182, 210-1,, 
 220, 252, 271, 302; and Pros- 
 titutes, 257 
 
 Pillow 109; slip 109 
 
 Pine 216, 248, 299, 316, 318, 394 
 
 Pipes 288 
 
 Pirates 214 
 
 Pistol 56 
 
 Pitt 9 
 
 " Places of distinction " 187 ; 
 " Place of the Seven Peaks "' 120' 
 
 Plains 70 
 
 Planet 126 
 
 Plans 18 
 
436 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Plantain 122, 307 
 
 Plasters 267 
 
 Plato 96, 358 
 
 Players 115, 124-5, 245, 266; 
 Playrooms 266 
 
 Ploughing, see Agriculture, Hok- 
 kaido, Paddies ; Worship of 61, 
 87, 120 
 
 Plums 295, 307, 405 
 
 Poe 105 
 
 Poel, William, 114 
 
 Poet 27, 40, 135 ; Poems, see Song, 
 Uta; 20, 61, 107, 109, 111, 136, 
 141, 183, 216, 288, 324 ; Poetry 
 313, 334 
 
 Poisonous plants 124 
 
 Pole and bucket 207 
 
 Police, see Arrests, Cells, Crime, 
 Postponed ofiences. Prisoners, 
 Theft; 20, 43-4, 53-4, 113, 116, 
 125, 140, 150, 235, 280 ; Influence 
 of 118; Letters for 111; Offences 
 250 ; Shirakaba 103 ; at Theatre 
 115 
 
 Politeness 19, 40, 217, 251, 277, 317 
 
 Politics, see Franchise, " Direct 
 Action"; 103, 104, 303; Local 
 284, 303 ; Slander 2 
 
 Pomegranate 52-3 
 
 Ponds, cleaned out free, 219 
 
 Pony, see Paddies ; 227 ; at 
 Shrine 116 
 
 Poor, see Farmers, Relief ; 57, 63, 
 67, 94, 145, 149, 278, 320, 323 ; 
 Cannot remain poor 67 ; Flattery 
 of 94 
 
 Poore, Dr., 374 
 
 Population, see Birth and Death 
 rates 160, 391; Census 393-4; 
 Compared with Great Britain and 
 U.S.A. 82, 385, 392 ; Cost of living 
 and postponement of marriag6332 
 (2); Empire and its parts 391; Per- 
 centage Habitable compared with 
 other Countries 392-3 ; How to 
 support double 97 ; Increase of 
 89, 392-3-4 ; Increase compared 
 with increase of Bice produc- 
 tion 389 ; and Means of Produc- 
 tion 332 ; Decrease of Rural 412 ; 
 and Rural and Urban compared 
 412; Sexes 169 ; per square mile 
 392 ; per square kilometre com- 
 pared with Belgium, England and 
 Wales, Holland, Italy, Germany 
 and France 392; Surplus 332, 
 360, 369, 413 
 
 Porcelain 39, 319 
 
 Pork 347, 350 
 
 Port Arthur 98 ; Ports, Open, 256 
 
 Porters 186 
 
 Porticoes 246 
 
 Portraits 38, 120, 143, 198 
 
 Portuguese 208, 346 
 
 Posterity 19 
 
 Post-impressionism 104 
 
 Potash 251 
 
 Potatoes 191, 194, 249 ; Irish 383, 
 409, 411 ; Sweet 146, 227, 309, 
 347, 381 (2), 383, 409, 411; 
 Memorials 249 
 
 Pottery 99, 148 
 
 Poultry 7, 18, 39, 58, 264, 297, 304. 
 381-2 (2), 406 ; Pensions for 345 
 
 " Pouring water on a duck's back " 
 48 
 
 Poverty, see Poor 
 
 Power, Fundamental, 323 
 
 Prairie 71, 111 
 
 Prayer 141, 243-4, 272, 326 
 
 Preaching 3, 4, 5, 249, 270, 310, 
 314-15 
 
 Prefecture xxv 
 
 Prejudice 146, 363 
 
 Pre-nuptial relations, see Immor- 
 ality 
 
 Presents 218, 271 (2), 329 
 
 Press, see Newspapers ; Brains and 
 circulation of 90 ; Dread of 41 
 
 Prices xxiv, 13 ; Prices in this book 
 xxiv, 87-8 ; Rise in Prices 87-8 
 
 Priests, see Buddhist priest, Shinto 
 priest; 1, 20, 45, 57, 139, 140, 
 149 (2), 180-1, 197, 212, 220, 247, 
 331, 412; Dress 25; Priest- 
 craft 93 ; at Elections 250 ; 
 Good deeds 324 ; Ignorance 120 ; 
 and Illegitimate child 193 ; In- 
 come 42 ; Influence, Character 
 and Educatioa 41 ; Silent 189 ; 
 Speech by 25 ; Talk with 1, 51, 
 69 ; Thieving 320 ; Thrifty 62 ; 
 Wandering 315 
 
 Priggishness 362 
 
 Primitive belief, 323-4 (2) 
 
 Prisoners 307 
 
 Prize tax 21 
 
 Problems 95, 104 
 
 Prodigal 60 
 
 Production 26, 369, 414 
 
 Professors 42 
 
 Progress 63, 235, 279 ; Delayed by 
 lack of money 97 ; Erroneous 
 conception of 370 ; by means of 
 horses 339 
 
 " Proof not argument " 343 
 
 Prospects 119 
 
 "Prosperity and welfare'' 187 
 
 Prostitutes, see Hokkaido, Im- 
 morality; 56, 114, 132, 190, 192, 
 
INDEX 
 
 437 
 
 212, 222, 235, 243, 257, 325, 330, 
 376 
 
 *' Protection for inofEensive people " 
 97 
 
 Protein, vegetable, 348-9 
 
 Protestants 362 
 
 Prothero, Sir G. W., 9 
 
 Proverbs, see Mottoes ; 48, 57-8-9, 
 67, 109, 121, 123, 136, 141, 256- 
 7, 307, 315, 343 
 
 Pruning 215 
 
 P.S.A. 275 
 
 Psychology of behaviour 167 
 
 Public benefit 374; Energy 371 
 Funds 371; Good 22, 201-3 
 Health, see Health, Public 
 Public man. Farmers' and 
 Author's view, 9-10-11; Meet- 
 ings 24, 170, 238; "Public 
 Spirit and Public Welfare " 259 ; 
 Opinion 41, 118, 135, 149, 203; 
 Welfare 125 ; Work 303 
 
 Pumping, see Waterwheels, 64 
 
 Pumpkins 272 
 
 Punishment 112, 178 
 
 Puppies 345 
 
 " Purified in heart " 141 ; Purifica- 
 tion 134 ; Puritans 95 ; Purity 
 151 
 
 " Push, push, push," 115 
 
 "Q" 203 
 
 Quaker 3, 6, 203 
 
 Quarrelling, see also Family dis- 
 cords; 54, 322 
 
 Queen Victoria 282 
 
 Querns 235 
 
 Questions 243, 303; difficulty of, 
 101 ; Questioning, lack of power 
 of, 101 
 
 Rabbits 179 
 
 Race, Factories' effect on, 168-70; 
 Method of gaining knowledge of 
 another 200 ; Racial feeling 364 
 
 " Rael Christians " 63 
 
 Rafts 128 
 
 Railway 131-2, 144, 176, 182, 208-9, 
 217, 243, 250, 251, 395 
 
 Rain 74, 137, 190, 285, 312, 345, 
 390-1 (3) ; Rain making 123, 
 137-8 ; Ducked figure 123 
 
 Rake's progress 317 
 
 Ram 343 
 
 Rammer 224 
 
 Ranks 251, 254 
 
 Rape seed 131, 381 (2), 409 
 
 Rapids 128 ; Rapid work 317 
 
 Rats 150, 185 ; Rat day 126 
 
 Ravine 152 
 
 Reading 279, 319 
 
 Reality 219 
 
 " Realm, Wounds of the," 309 
 
 Reclaimed land, see Land, new 
 
 Recreation and Immorality 149 
 
 Red Cross 124, 245 
 
 " Red worm " 282 
 
 Reed-covered buildings 84 
 
 " Reflecting and Examining" 135 
 
 Reformers and Bible 95 
 
 Reformer " St. Francis " 321 
 
 "Regent" 38 
 
 Reid, Sir G., 9 
 
 Reincarnation 344 
 
 Relief, see Ko, Poor, Tanomoshi; 
 189, 241, 258, 264, 311 
 
 Religion, see Hokkaido ; 27, 63, 108, 
 120, 135, 140-1, 149, 179, 180, 
 200, 202, 203, 212, 258-9, 261, 
 302, 310, 323, 326, 327, 331, 362 ; 
 and Agriculture 231 ; as Custom 
 327 ; " the Depths of the People " 
 93 ; Religious idea, the deepest 
 100 ; and Morality 259 ; Natural- 
 ness 99 ; New 212, 219 ; Primi- 
 tive 323-4 ; Protecting Science 
 82 ; Reconciliation of 100 ; Re- 
 vival 324 ; and Science 201 ; Not 
 limited to Sects or Ideas 101 ; 
 Substitutes for 63 ; and Taxa- 
 tion 212 ; Advantage of Variety 
 327 ; Western " too high " 259 
 
 Remarriage 197 
 
 Rembrandt 103, 105 
 
 Remoteness 127-8, 249 
 
 Rents, see Rice, Paddy ; 23, 28-9, 
 38, 42, 73, 78, 86, 144, 186-7, 
 301-2 
 
 Reprimand, see Admonition, 187 
 
 Research work 158 
 
 Reservists 123, 133, 215 
 
 Residents abroad 410 
 
 Resolutions, see Good resolutions 
 
 Respect 37, 40, 324 
 
 " Responsibility for one's words " 
 240, 259 
 
 " Rest after a meal," etc. 315 
 
 Restoration 395 
 
 Retainer 198 
 
 Reunion 313 
 
 Reverence 141, 273 
 
 " Revolution, Song of," 171 
 
 Rewards 213 
 
 " Ri away " 58 
 
 Rice, see Adjustment, Agriculture, 
 Aqueduct, Barley, Holikaido, Im- 
 plements under their different 
 names. Irrigation, Millet, Normal 
 yield. Paddies, Ta, Tunnels, 
 Water ; 123, 127, 264, 268-9, 271, 
 
488 
 
 INDEX 
 
 321, 349, 389 ; Aeration of soil 20 ; 
 America 365-6 ; Areas 132, 182, 
 193, 382-3 (2), 409 ; Agrioviltvire 
 based on 343 ; Air of rice fields 
 300 ; Altitude 123 ; " All mem- 
 bers of family smiling " 137 ; 
 Appearance 146, 298 ; Adjust- 
 ment, see Adjustment, story 61 ; 
 Compared with Barley and Wheat 
 70, 413 ; Barley substituted for 
 80, 85 ; Beauty of 76 ; Beri beri 
 79 ; Bowl 80-1 ; Cakes 80 ; 
 California 365-6 ; Ceremonies 
 50,82; Certificates 186 ; Climate 
 197, 391 ; Collecting 229 ; Con- 
 sumption 81, 86, 127, 361, 366, 
 387 ; Cooking 351 ; Crop 68, 70, 
 193, 209, 364-5, 387-8, 410 ; Cost 
 of production 383 ; Cultivation 
 18, 19, 20 ; Daimyo's test 79 ; 
 Dealers 78, 186; Deficit 388; 
 Disease 207, 238 ; Distance apart 
 130 ; Dog's food 346 ; Drying 77, 
 120,207-8; "Bars bend as ripen" 
 137 ; more Eaten 85 ; Emigra- 
 tion and 363 ; Etiquette, 81 ; 
 Engineering 62 ; Everywhere 
 paddies 121 ; Exports 86, 388 ; 
 Flavour, see Saigon, Rangoon, 
 California, 366, 382, 389; 
 Flowering 196, 391 ; Foreign 81 ; 
 Gemmai 79 ; " Girl to boil " 351 ; 
 Goddess 312 ; Glutinous 69, 382- 
 3 ; Oohei 185 ; Oohan 79 ; Govern- 
 ment action 48, 86, 390 ; Granary, 
 see Government action ; Haku- 
 mai 79 ; Hand mills 78 ; " Hang- 
 ing ears" 76 ; Hantimkimai 79 ; 
 Harvest 76, 77, 86, 386 ; Heavy 
 cropping power 70 ; Heroic 
 peasants 51 ; Husking 77, 
 382-3; Imports 86, 136, 351, 
 388 ; Indigestion 81 ; Insects 74, 
 201,250; Italy 365-6; Japanese 
 V. foreign production 366 ; Kew 
 plants 70 ; Day's labour to pro- 
 duce 1 cho 385 ; Land available 
 368 ; " Last straw " 77 ; League 
 for Preventing Sales at a Sacrifice 
 384 ; Licences 185 ; Locusts 20 ; 
 Mangoku Do/hi 78 ; Manure, 
 see Manure, 20 ; Market 186 ; 
 Mat for workers 125 ; Momi 79 ; 
 Karnes, see Varieties, 79, 387 ; 
 and Oatmeal 81-2 ; Ordinary 
 382-3; "Paddy" 69; Opening 
 a new Paddy 24 ; Phial of old 40 ; 
 Polishing 78-9 (2), 186 ; Porters 
 186 ; Prefectures where most is 
 grown 68 ; Prices 85 (2) -6 (2) -7, 
 
 351, 383-4, 389, 390 ; Profitable 
 358 ; Production 351, and popu- 
 laticAi increased 84 ; Prizes at 
 shows 9 ; Qualities, see Varieties, 
 185; Rangoon 388; Red 66; 
 Rent rice. Inferiority of, see Rent,, 
 23 ; Reservoirs 210 ; Respect for 
 185 ; Right crop for Japan ? 413 ; 
 Riots 87; Rotting 76; Saigon 366, 
 388; Salt water. Testing with, 
 30; School fees 239 ; Seasons 69; 
 Seed 177, 208, 387; at Shrine 
 116 (2), 118; Soaking pond 74; 
 Soft for Invalids 81 ; Song 83 ; 
 Sowing 386, Direct 387; State 
 84 ; Statistics, see Appendix, 
 84, 86 ; Storehouses 48, 86, 185 
 at Table 80, 91 ; Tastinees 81 
 for Temple 220; Terraces 149 
 Texas 365-6; Threshing 77-8, 
 241 ; Tickets 185 ; Transplanting 
 20,386-7; Tub 81; Two hundred 
 and tenth day 76 ; Uncleaned 
 382-3 ; Unpolished 78 ; Upland 
 69 (2), 73, 383; U.S. area and 
 crop 366 ; Varieties, see Qualities, 
 69, 132 ; Weeding 20, 76 ; Weight 
 of Bale 302 ; Wet 76, 77 ; Rice 
 V. Wheat 351 ; Wind 20, 76, 219, 
 220, 259; Winnowing 78, 207; 
 Yahagi,Dr., 366; Yields 69, 175, 
 382-3 ; Compared with Increase 
 of Population 389 
 " Rich are not so rich " 127 ; " Rich 
 cannot remain rich" 67 ; Riches 
 58 ; " Richer after the fire " 59 
 
 Rieho 106 
 
 Rickets 268 
 
 Riding, see Hokkaido ; 194 
 
 Rifles 151, 282 
 
 Bin 191, 211, 271 
 
 Ring 128 
 
 Riots 87 
 
 Rise in prices, see Prices 
 
 Rivers, see Hokkaido ; 72, 93, 262, 
 390; Beds, see Floods, 111 
 
 R. L. S. 189 
 
 Roads 122, 128, 130, 194, 219, 224. 
 240, 246, 287 ; Mending free, 219, 
 for Rates, 245 
 
 Robbers 196, 225, 277 
 
 Robes 2, 270 ; of Honour 187 
 
 Rodin, 103 
 
 Boka 375 
 
 Roman Catholics 141, 362; Rome 
 198 
 
 Bonin, Forty-seven, 333 
 
 Bon yori shoko 343 
 
 Roof makers 268 ; R^ofs 163 
 
 " Room of Patience "179 
 
INDEX 
 
 439 
 
 Roosevelt 159 
 
 Rope, see Straw, 215 ; Making 177; 
 Straw (Shinto) 223 
 
 Rose 213, 290 ; Rate of growth 242 
 
 Rosebery, Lord, 9 
 
 Rotation 309 
 
 Rothamsted 370 
 
 Route plans 18 
 
 Rubbish, Production of, 369 
 
 Ruddigore 274 
 
 Running about 34 
 
 Rural, and urban population com- 
 pared, 364, 412; "Bondage" 
 331 ; Districts' relation to 
 national welfare 369, 370-1 ; 
 Exodus 284 ; Life, Most difficult 
 question in Japan, 303 ; Ex- 
 hibition 60 ; Aim of Progress 27; 
 Rake's progress 60 ; Sociology 
 iv, ix, 85, 192 
 
 Rush, see /, 410 
 
 Russia, see Hokkaido ; 194, 328 ; 
 Cruiser 248; Novelists 99; 
 Prisoners 307; War 85, 187, 
 286, 311 ; Writers 327 
 
 Rye 381 (2) 
 
 Sacred boat 257 ; Grove 146 ; 
 
 Saoredness of work 94 
 Sacrifice 101 ; for father, husband, 
 
 children, 102 
 Sacrilege 134 
 Saddles 269 
 Sages 108 
 
 Saghalien 290, 336, 390-1 
 Saigon, see Rice 
 Sailing craft 208-9 ; Ships 235 
 Sailors 211 
 
 Sails, Western for Japanese, 208 
 St. Francis 106, 321-2 
 Saints 107 
 
 Saitama 107, 146, 309, 313 
 Sakaki 137 
 Sak6, see Drunkenness ; 18, 46, 57, 
 
 79, 116 (2), 118-9, 136. 180, 184, 
 
 213, 215, 254-5, 267, 271, 303, 
 
 305, 313, 349 (2), 380, 396 
 Salads dangerous 350 
 Sale, C. v., xii, 364 
 Salt 36, 251, 268, 349 
 Salvation Army, see Hokkaido 
 Samurai 25, 53, 92, 141, 238, 243, 
 
 319, 395; Scholar's kakemono 
 
 150 
 Sanitary Committee 123 
 Sanitation, Western 375 
 Sanka 110 
 T. Sappy growth 368 
 " Sato, Dr., see Hokkaido; 386 
 Savages 141 
 
 30 
 
 Savings 302; Bank book 126 ; 
 Collected 230 
 
 Saxby 167 
 
 Sayings, see Proverbs 
 
 Scale 289 
 
 Scandinavia 413 
 
 Scapegoat 212 
 
 Scarecrows 198 
 
 Scenery 119, 162; Characteristic 
 244 
 
 Schools, see Children, Teachers, 
 Schoolmasters; 15, 41, 113, 144, 
 212 ; Agricultural 50, 375 ; In- 
 fluence of 67; Attendance 112, 
 123, 264; Barefoot drill 64; 
 Boys 38 ; Boys' badges 221 ; 
 Buildings 112-3; Care of 112; 
 Children (Heights, weights and 
 physique) 404; Cleaned by 
 children 112; Compulsory attend- 
 ance 113; Co-operative 30; 
 Counsels 112, 124; Early age of 
 attendance 301 ; Ethics 361 ; 
 Farm 127, 177; Fees 239, 264, 
 314; For girls' 47 ; Girls' badge 
 285; Influence of 118; Masters, 
 see Teachers, 20, 57, 61, 118, 140 ; 
 Maps 127 ; Military relics 286 ; 
 Morality 149 ; Mottoes 112, 124 ; 
 Order 127 ; Poor 325 ; Portraits 
 124; Pride in 112; Punishments 
 112, 178; Rainy days 186; in 
 temple 137; Truants 285; 
 Shrines 113; Salutes 286; Spar- 
 tan conditions 60, 307 ; Swedish 
 drill 64; Training 169; Tree 
 planting 121 ; Vacation for help- 
 ing with crops 127; Winter 
 arrangements 127 
 
 Science 369 ; and Religion 82, 201 ; 
 and Farmers 168 ; Scientific 
 truth 206 ; Scientists 100 
 
 Scolding 149 
 
 Scotland 290, 358 
 
 Scott San no Okusan (Mrs. Scott) v 
 
 Screen over streets 209 
 
 Sculpture 102 
 
 Scythe 196, 367, 385 
 
 Sea 108, 332 ; Beach sleeping 312 ; 
 Deities and 257; Gains from 
 207 ; Weed 43, 128, 349 
 
 Seals 25 
 
 Seats 124 
 
 Secondary Industries 23, 65, 195, 
 232, 261, 279, 310, 379, 385 
 
 Secret Ploughing Society 311 
 
 Sects, see under names of; 149, 212 
 
 Seeds, Better, 85, 370; "Seed" 
 (silkworm eggs), see Sericulture 
 
 Seiho, Takeuchi 344 
 
440 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sei-ko V-doku 310 
 
 Seiahu 396 
 
 Self affirmation 101 ; Command 
 280 ; Control 16, 151, 157, 193 ; 
 Denial 101 ; Discipline 301 ; 
 Government 236 ; Realisation 
 101, 124, 125 ; Respect 16, 369 ; 
 Self supporting but underfed 261 
 
 Self Help, see Hokkaido ; 60, 288 
 
 Semi 344 
 
 Semi-official 276 
 
 Sencha 294, 403 
 
 Sendai 118, 198, 268 
 
 Seniors and juniors 216 
 
 Sensei 12, 202, 300 
 
 Sentiment 182, 203 ; Latent 324 
 
 Seppuku 54-5, 333 
 
 Sericulture, see Factories (Silk), In- 
 dustry, Silk (below) ; 140, 237, 
 264-5 ; Advantage to Farmers 
 85; Aptitude 153; Beef tea 158 ; 
 Books for young men 22 ; Cere- 
 monies 50 ; Cocoons 87, 150, 160, 
 404, (Co-operation 22, Killing 
 22, 159, Production and price 
 397, Retardation and Stimvilation 
 397, Shape 155, Stores 147, 
 Where most are produced 153 ;) 
 Co-operation 160 ; Disease 157- 
 8 ; Eggs 150, 153-4, 156-7, 160 ; 
 Feeding 153 ; Girl Collectors 161 ; 
 Hatching 154, 397-8; Hard 
 work 153 ; How sericulture dis- 
 tricts are distinguishable 153 ; 
 Instruction, capacity for, 158 ; 
 Japan's advantages and disad- 
 vantages 397 ; Licences 157 ; 
 Losses 155 ; Mating 155-6 ; 
 Microscopic examination 157 ; 
 Moths 155-6-7; Mulberry 157, 
 397-8 ; Nagano 161 ; New thing 
 158 ; Prices 157 ; Purification 
 158 ; PupsB 158 ; Rearing 154 
 Risks 157; Season 397; "Seed, 
 see Eggs; Prospects of, 160 
 Quick profits 149 ; Silkworms, 
 22, 89, 168, 278 ; Science 157-8 
 Soap 158 ; Students 158 ; Tem 
 peraturo 153; Wind holes 397 
 Yamanashi 161.— Silk 158, 160 
 Artificial 160 ; Clothing 346, 356 
 Consumption 398 ; Export 398 
 Government 398 ; Institutes 160 
 Japanese export compared with 
 other countries 153, 396 
 Machinery 169 ; Prefectures in 
 which grown 146 ; Production 
 398 ; Rise in prices 87 ; Testing 
 159; U.S.A. 398; World market 
 65 
 
 Sermons, see Preaching, 58 
 
 Servants 280, 374 
 
 Service 319 ; by hosts 31 
 
 Sesame 220 
 
 Sewing 127 
 
 Sex 101, 189, 274, 282 
 
 Sexes, see Bath, Bathing ; 269, 315; 
 Balance of 169 ; Curiosity 101 ; 
 Kept apart 313 ; Ill-doing little 
 concealed 101 ; Numbers of 74 ; 
 Relations of 322 ; Relations, no 
 liberty in, 102 ; Sex life and 
 Japanese cults 97 
 
 Shakespearean scenes 31, 276 
 
 Shanghai 133 
 
 Sheep, see Hokkaido; 240, 343, 
 347, 352-3-4, 406 ; Bureau 352 ; 
 Day 126 ; Milk 347 
 
 SheUey 99 
 
 Shi xxvi 
 
 Shidzuoka 25, 63, 210, 283, 292, 396 
 
 Shiga, Professor, 410 
 
 Shikoku 207, 358, 379, 390, 391-2, 
 402 
 
 Shimane 222, 243, 253 
 
 Shimoneseki 237 
 
 Shin heimin 400 
 
 Shingon 134, 211, 220, 269 
 
 SUnju 102 
 
 Shinshu 2, 3, 134, 197, 222, 240 
 
 Shinto 12, 19, 83, 96, 205 (2), 322, 
 326 ; Architecture 251 ; Cere- 
 monies 45, 79, 82, 117, 275; 
 Deities 244 ; Festival 192, 221 ; 
 Shintoists 91 ; Priests 82-3, 113, 
 118, 134, 194. 258, 266, 271, 302- 
 3; Sects 134; Shelf, value of, 
 273; Shrines x, 16, 18, 22, 29, 
 45, 67, 75, 82, 94, 116, 123, 126, 
 130, 144 (2), 147, 186, 205, 220, 
 244, 251, 259, 263, 264, 266 (3), 
 269, 271, 299, 300 ; " The centre 
 of the village" 259; Closing of 
 133-4; Produce at 177; Seed 
 from 69 
 
 Shipping, Foreign, 256 
 
 Shirakaba 102 
 
 Shirakawa 175 
 
 Shrine, see Buddhist shrine, Shinto 
 Shrine; 120 (3), 127, 138, 206, 
 211, 219, 236, 237, 245, 2.56, 324, 
 326; Advertisement of 287; 
 and gasometer 286 ; and im- 
 morality 257, 307, 325-6 ; Bowls 
 at, 203 ; Communal 315 ; 
 Family 38-40; Mothers before 
 142, 287, 325 
 
 Shochu 396 
 
 Shoes, see Boots, 236, 2S3-4, 455 
 
 Shogun 144, 150, 220, 333, 335 
 
INDEX 
 
 441 
 
 Shoji, see Hokkaido for Windows ; 
 36, 248, 257, 277, 286 
 
 Shonai 182 
 
 Shooting 215 
 
 Shopkeepers 189, 213 ; Diligent 17 ; 
 With land 267 
 
 Shorts, Bathing, 312 
 
 Shows, see Kural Life Exhibition; 
 9, 23, 58, 60, 103, 116, 258 
 
 Shdyu, see Soy 
 
 ShuZSi 
 
 Shuku 222 
 
 Siam 127, 388 
 
 Siberia 388, 390, 410 
 
 Sick relief 185 
 
 Sickles, see Paddies ; 196, 227, 363, 
 385 
 
 Sieve 216 
 
 " Sight of a good man enough " 24 
 
 Signs, Shop, 245 
 
 "Silent Trade" 122 
 
 Silver 124, 396 
 
 Silver Birch Society 102 
 
 Si monumentum 31 
 
 Simplicity 50, 186 ; of living 38 ; 
 in Old Japan 240, 243 
 
 Sincerity 20, 21, 124, 181 ; " On 
 the edge of the mattock " 136 
 
 " Sinful man, I am,' ' 26 
 
 Singapore 57 
 
 Singing 17, 308 
 
 Sirens, guns and gods, 237 
 
 Sitting 124 
 
 Skating 152 
 
 Ski-ing 140 
 
 Skill 317 ; " Skill in manufacture " 
 356 
 
 " Slave system " 287 ; " Slaves of 
 their husbands " 143 
 
 Sledge 183 ; on beach 312 
 
 Sleep 25 
 
 "Sly" 283 
 
 Smallholders' incomes 184 ; Small- 
 holdings, see Farmer ; and 
 country 368 ; Condition of suc- 
 cess 89 ; in Great Britain 368 
 
 Smells, see Manure ; "They smell" 
 142 
 
 Smiling 288, 321 
 
 Smoking 137, 142, 258, 288 
 
 Smollett 80, 144 
 
 Snail 107 
 
 Snakes 287 ; Day 126 
 
 Snapping turtle 136 
 
 Snow, see Hokkaido; 120, 123, 
 132, 140, 182, 278, 391 ; Shelters 
 140, 176, 190 
 
 Snowdon 394 
 
 Soap 158 
 
 Social Conditions 88} Develop- 
 
 ment 206, 365 ; Ideals 361 ; 
 Intercourse 374, 378 ; Obligation 
 exploited 369 ; Reform and Chris- 
 tianity 362 ; Question, see Hok- 
 kaido, 104; Status, changes in, 
 62, 376 
 
 Socialism 171, 328 ; League 171 
 
 Society 101, 182 ; Restrictions 102 ; 
 Societies 214, 312 ; " For Aiming 
 at being Distinguished" 124; "for 
 Developing Knowledge" 124; 
 "for Knowledge and Virtue" 
 124; for Rice cultivation by 
 Schoolboys 19 ; for Visiting 
 other Prefectures 189 ; of house- 
 holders 214 ; of primary school 
 graduates 124 ; to reward virtue 
 214 ; to console old people 214 
 
 Sociologist, A joy to 72 ; Rural 85 
 
 Socrates 203 
 
 Soda water 130 
 
 So desuka ? 193 
 
 Soil 307 ; and farmers' character 
 25; Barren 195; Dark 309; 
 Improvement of 298 ; Volcanic 
 309, 313-4 
 
 Sojo, Toba 344 
 
 Soldiers, see Conscripts; 18, 58, 
 187; farms 311 
 
 " Something that doth linger" 145 
 
 Son, see Eldest brother; Eldest, 
 329 ; and father 205 (2) ; Son's 
 death 273 ; " Son tiller " 37 
 
 Son, xxvi, -cho 140 
 
 Song 224, 313; of insects 344; 
 of Revolution 171 ; of rice plan- 
 ters 83 ; Western 288 
 
 Sorrow 273 
 
 Sosen 344 
 
 Soul 321 
 
 Soups 110 
 
 South America 176, 249, 352, 410 ; 
 South Seas 223 
 
 Southend 329 
 
 Soy 213, 349, 350, 381 (2), 383; 
 Soya bean 146, 295, 409, 411 
 
 Spade, see Paddies ; 385 ; Farming 
 362 
 
 Spanish 346 ; Spaniards 208 
 
 Sparrows 107, 199 
 
 Speaking 24, 238; Way of, to 
 peasants, 94 
 
 Special tribes 221, 241, 248 
 
 Speculation 2 ; Speculator and 
 shrine 325 
 
 Speech, see Author, Lectures, 
 Speaking; 26, 238, 279; Un- 
 necessary 26 
 
 Spelling, English, 301 
 
 Spiders' big webs 248 
 
Ui 
 
 INOfiX 
 
 Spirea 122 
 
 Spirit 50, 61, 67, 100 ; Spirits 130 ; 
 Spirit meeting 36 ; of Japan 323 ; 
 Spiritual betterment 96 ; Dry- 
 ness 27; Spirituality 203, 206, 
 322-3, 361 ; Wliy slackened 100 
 
 Spitting pot 58, 183 
 
 Spontaneity 99 
 
 Spraying 290 
 
 Spring 214 
 
 Squashes 146, 347 
 
 Squid, see Cuttlefish, Octopus ; 46, 
 228 
 
 Stage, movable, 115; Women on, 255 
 
 Standard of living, see Living stan- 
 dard ; 365, 378-9, 380-1-2 ; and 
 Emigration 363 
 
 " Standing on householder's head " 
 242 
 
 " Standing Peasant " 137 
 
 Stanhope, Lady Hester, 170 
 
 Starr, Dr., 326 
 
 State Colonisation 312 ; Statesmen 
 and Industrialism 369 
 
 Statistics, see Appendi;x ; 62, 297 ; 
 and Feeling 1 ; Mistakes in 404 
 
 Statues 46, 222 
 
 Stealing, see Thefts, Crime ; Boys, 
 287 
 
 fiteel 396 
 
 Steps 211 
 
 Sterilisation 169, 348 
 
 Steward's broom, 135 
 
 Still births 114, 393 
 
 Stockades 132 
 
 Stock-keeping, see Hokkaido, 133 
 
 Stomach-ache 350 (2), 351 
 
 Stones, cutters, 267 ; Memorial 133; 
 Pile of 110 
 
 Storehouses 48, 86 
 
 Storeys 163 
 
 Storms 316, 391 
 
 Stoves 368 
 
 Straohey, J. St. Loe 9 
 
 Strategic zone 237 
 
 Straw, see Hats, Cloaks, Mantles; 
 73, 208, 367 ; Kope 65 ; Sleeping 
 in 184 ; Wrappings for trees 215 
 
 Stream, Cleaning, 186 
 
 Streamers 136 
 
 Streets, Narrow, 209, 235 
 
 Strindberg 99 
 
 Stroking 142 
 
 Students 150, 152, 169, 195, 220, 
 300; Abroad 291, 402; Char- 
 acter 50 ; Grants to, 403 ; Guild 
 50 ; Holidays 137 ; Promises 
 to one another 8 ; Sympathetic 
 attitude 264 
 
 Sty 27 
 
 Subscriptions 281, 3l4 (2), 315 
 
 Subservience 231 
 
 Sugar 46, 210, 349 (2), 354, 409 
 
 Suicide 55 ; for love 102 
 
 Sulphate of ammonia 386 ; Sulphur 
 109 ; Sulphuric acid water 177 
 
 Summer 390 
 
 Sumo, see Wrestlers 
 
 Sun, 126 (2), 372 ; God worship 323 ; 
 Waiting for the, 323 ; Sunshine 
 76-7, 304 ; " and rice may be 
 found," etc., 109; Sunday 126, 
 159 
 
 Sung 105 
 
 Superior person 254 
 
 Superphosphate 386 
 
 Superstition 41, 148 (3), 206, 208, 
 326 
 
 " Surface beautiful " 327 
 
 Suspension bridges 126 
 
 Suwas 151 ; Suwa Lake 152 
 
 Swallows 94, 223 
 
 Swamps 199 
 
 Swearing 48 
 
 Sweat and be saved 159 
 
 Swedenborg 99 
 
 Sweeping earth 31, 227 ; Sym- 
 bolical 135 
 
 Sweethearts 302 
 
 Sweets 17, 19, 267, 346, 383 ; Shop 
 girls 17 
 
 Swine, see Pigs 
 
 Swiss 290 ; Switzerland 368 
 
 Swords 36 
 
 Symbolism, Foreign, 127 
 
 Sympathy 272-3 
 
 Synge, J. M., 99, 282 
 
 Syphilis, see Gonorrhoea, 126, 211, 
 326 
 
 System 328 
 
 Ta 68 
 
 Tahi 312, 317 
 
 Table, One long, 95 
 
 Tablets 314 (3) 
 
 Tabu 117, 235-6, 258 
 
 Tacitus 357 
 
 Tagore 99 
 
 Tai 297 
 
 Taiko, 66 
 
 Taisho 39 
 
 Taiwan, see Formosa 
 
 Tajima 402 
 
 Takamatsu 209 
 
 Takaoka, Professor, 381 
 
 Talking foolishly 197; "Talking 
 
 with my wife " 61 ; Talk 201 
 Taming 248 
 Tan, see Agricultvire 
 Tang 105 
 
INDEX 
 
 443 
 
 Tangerines 289 
 Tanomoshi 62, 182, 185 
 Taoist 106 
 
 Taro 48, 220, 258, 309, 409 
 Task, Summons from common, 310 
 Tatami, see Mats ; 60, 142, 198, 345 
 Taxation 46, 65, 73, 85, 124, 176, 
 180, 284, 302, 307, 380, 389. 395, 
 404 ; Voluntary 21 ; Freedom 
 from 43 ; and Beligion 212 ; 
 Largest taxpayer 216 
 Tea 42, 110, 123, 146, 199, 287, 298, 
 307, 349, 409; and cake 258; 
 Experiment stations 295 ; Ex- 
 port 403 ; Growing and making 
 292 ; Prefectures 283, 403 ; Tea 
 Ceremony, see Cha-no-yu ; Houses 
 2, 19, 57, 130 (2), 149, 264, 277, 
 303, 325 
 Teacher8,seeSchooIs,Schoolmasters; 
 
 27, 112, 282, 308, 321, 399, 412 
 Technology xiii, 28 
 Teeth 143, 321 
 Teetotalism 255 
 Teikoku Ndkai 320 
 Telegraph wire 223 
 Temper, Better without meat, 268 
 Temperance, see Teetotalism 
 Temperature, see Heat ; 195, 390-1 
 temples, see Buddhist temples. 
 Buddhism; 20, 31, 37, 45, 57- 
 8 (2), 62, 149, 183, 196, 206, 210, 
 220, 263-4, 369; Bell 331; 
 Dues 139, 380; Government 
 attitude, 41 ; New, 41 ; Priest's 
 house in 4 ; Services 3 ; Schools 
 137 ; " Temples, Shrines and 
 English church " 100 
 Ten years hence, see Time; 100, 
 
 324, 357 
 Tenants, see Agriculture, Hokkaido, 
 Farmers, Landlords ; 37, 42, 152 
 (2), 189, 194^5, 213, 223, 258, 
 261, 263, 265, 283, 301-2, 364, 
 376, 411; as "Labourers" 88, 
 395; Condition of 207, 304-5, 
 379, 380 (3)-l; Contract 405; 
 Common interests with landlord 
 229-30 ; Eating cattle food 379 ; 
 Gifts to landlord 31 ; Movement 
 against landlords, see Tenants' 
 movement (Landlords) ; Be- 
 warded 33, 187 ; Sly 28 ; Trans- 
 ference to Peasant Proprietorship 
 29-30 (2), 31 
 Tendai 220 
 Tenison xiv 
 Tennis 169 
 Tera 134 
 Terauchi 390 
 
 Terence 107 
 Terracing 149, 227 
 Texas 365-6 
 
 Thanks not to be accepted 26 
 Thatch 153, 281, 286 
 Theatre 115, 266, 305 ; and Police 
 53 ; Moving 115 ; Stamp on 
 hands 115 
 Theft, see Crime; 113, 139, 195, 
 
 280 (2) 
 Theine 292, 403 
 Theology 362 ; Natural 141 
 Thermometer 137 
 " They feel the mercy of the sun " 
 
 321 
 " Thirteen a perilous age "130 
 Thistles 307 
 Thompson, Francis, 99 
 " Those who suffer learn," etc., 2S3 
 " Thou also dweUest," 106 
 " Though hands and feet," etc., 324 
 Thought changes really slow 331 
 Threshing 208, 367 ; Machinery, 78 
 Threshold 242 
 Thrift 11, 12, 13, 30-1, 48, 60, 60-1, 
 
 124, 187 
 Thunderbolts 131 
 Thyme 290 
 Tidal waves 62, 93 
 Tidiness 19 
 Tiger-day 126 
 Tiles 153. 245 
 
 Timber 111. 122, 128, 194, 227 
 Time, see Ten years hence; 252, 292 
 Tintoretto 103 
 " Tipped with fire " 27 
 Tipping 145, 148 
 Toast 80 
 
 Tobacco 177, 267, 349, 379, 380, 400 
 Tochigi 107, 309 
 Toes 317 
 
 Tofu 81, 311, 349. 360 
 Tokobashira, see Tree in room 
 Tokonoma 32, 319 
 Tokugawa lyesato, Prince, x ; 
 
 Tokugawa period 8, 285, 363 
 Tokueha buraku 400 
 Tokushima 207, 209 
 Tokyo xxvi, 26, 38, 56, 66, 71-2, 
 
 102. 107. 144, 182, 227, 249, 260, 
 
 286, 289, 292, 299, 309, 313, 318, 
 
 322, 331, 334, 349, 387, 391 (2) ; 
 
 Population 392 ; University 145 
 Tolstoy, see Hokkaido ; 25, 27, 94, 
 
 200, 321, 327 
 Tombstones 72 
 " Too near to criticise " 331 ; " Too 
 
 poetical" 254 
 Tools, see Paddies, Implememts ; 
 
 174, 222, 301, 317 
 
444 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Top, Movement from, 30, 204 
 
 Torii 236, 251, 325 
 
 Torrens 170 
 
 Tottori 253, 255, 402 
 
 Tourist steamers 237 
 
 Towels 16, 31, 148, 183, 286, 295 
 
 Town life, True character of, 180 ; 
 Townsman envied 180 ; Towns- 
 man V. Countryman 233 
 
 Toyama 132, 138 
 
 Toyo-ashiwara, etc., 68 
 
 Trachoma 183, 405 
 
 Trade Unions, see Labour ; U.S. 
 and 170 ; Tradesmen 189 ; 
 Tradesmen's boys 315 
 
 Tradition, Family, 149 
 
 Traheme, 99 
 
 Training, Home, 149 
 
 Tramps 315, 376 
 
 Transactions of Society o/ Arts, 
 see Asiatic ; 364 
 
 Translations 401 
 
 Travel, see Trips ; 216, 269 ; Coun- 
 sel 110; Old time 246; Post- 
 graduate 29 
 
 Trees, see Varieties of, under names, 
 62, 147, 227, 316 ; Cutting down 
 13 ; Dwarfed 52 ; Homesteads 
 studded 146, 307 ; in the house 
 319 ; Moving 210 ; Mushrooms 
 110 ; Planting, see Afforestation, 
 45, 67, 121, 240 ; in Room 319 ; 
 Symbolical 12, 121 ; Pictures 
 215 ; Trimmed 77 ; in Winter 
 215 
 
 " Tremble and correct their con- 
 duct " 113 
 
 Trips 18 
 
 Troubler of Israel 90 
 
 Trousers 111, 269, 310, 312 
 
 Truth 161 
 
 Tsingtao 68 
 
 Tsushima 248, 335 
 
 Tuberculosis 398, 406 
 
 Tunnels 52, 132, 149, 152, 176, 190, 
 197 
 
 Tumours 268 
 
 Turnips 410 
 
 Twelve hours' day, U.S. and, 170 
 
 Types (Racial) 204 
 
 Typhoons 93 
 
 Tytler 207 
 
 Uohimura, Kanz5, see also Hok- 
 kaido ; 90-7, 99, 101, 141, 326-7, 
 362 
 
 Ueda Sericulture College 158-9 
 
 Umbrellas 198, 250, 285 
 
 Unclean 208 
 
 Undercooking 350 
 
 Underfeeding 350 
 
 Understanding, see West and East 
 
 Uninhabitable, see also Area habit- 
 able ; 394 ; compared with Great 
 Britain 394 
 
 United States 328, 388 ; and British 
 Interests in Far East xv ; and 
 Japan xv ; Government jdv ; 
 and twelve hours' day 170 ; 
 Steel Corporation 170 
 
 Universe 7, 321 
 
 Universities 300, 403 
 
 Unmarried 393 
 
 Unworldliness 28 
 
 Upland, see also Rice ; 372 ; Hato 
 68; Area 385; Area ploughed by 
 cattle 385 ; Profit of 194 ; Value 
 of 402 
 
 Upper class reformers 30 
 
 Usury 38, 56, 176, 184, 185 
 
 Vta 324 
 
 Utilisation of waste, see Waste ; 48 
 
 Vacation, see Schools 
 
 Valerius 45 
 
 Valleys 372 
 
 Van Eyck 103 
 
 Van Gogh 103 
 
 Vaughan 99 
 
 Veal 349 
 
 Vegetable protein 348-9 
 
 Vegetables 18, 85, 307, 349 (2), 
 389; at Shrine 16, 83 ; Salted 196 
 
 Vegetarianism 57, 59, 130, 147, 270, 
 321, 348 
 
 Venus 214 
 
 Vetch 263 
 
 Veterinary surgeon 268 
 
 Views 119 
 
 Village activities 250 ; Association 
 for promoting morality 20 ; Call- 
 ings 189 ; Cleaning stream 186 
 Conditions 322; Discords 305 
 Founders 265 ; Funds 124, 279 
 Histories 57; Ideal 104; Im- 
 provement of 28 ; Library 69 
 Mobilisation 241 ; Meetings 20, 
 278 ; Model 269, 380 ; Number of 
 Houses in 262 ; Office 314 
 Praised and rewarded 41 ; Re- 
 formed 47 ; Return to 88 
 Revenue 124; Signs of being 
 well off 263-4 ; Signs of good 259 
 Tax free 21 ; Troubles 278 ; Uni 
 fied by removal of graves 72 
 Wanted one good personality in 
 259; Villagers, not educated 
 enough to understand, 26, 341 ; 
 Sa-vings 230 ; Taxes in work 245 ; 
 Worthy 22 
 
INDEX 
 
 445 
 
 Village Agricultural Association 22- 
 3, 30, 215, 250, 303, 380 
 
 Village assembly 123, 133, 215 
 
 Villages, see Famine, Revenue, 
 Sanitary Committee, Societies, 
 Taxation ; xxvi, 16, 18, 43, 134 
 
 Vine branches 209 
 
 Virtue, see Morality ; 140 ; 
 Supreme 120; Taught by hands 50 
 
 Vladivostok 214 
 
 Voelcker, Dr., 370 
 
 "Voice of one," etc., 136 
 
 Volcanic ash 70 ; Eruption grants 
 312 ; Soil 309, 313 
 
 Volcanoes, see Earthquakes, Hok- 
 kaido ; 108, 131, 143, 316, 390, 
 394 
 
 Voters, see Franchise ; 124, 400 
 
 Votive pillars 211 ; clock 252 
 
 Vow 255 
 
 Vulgar words 18 
 
 Waist string 307 
 
 Waitresses 212, 315, 322, 376; 
 
 and Foreigners 101 
 Waley, A., 320 
 "Walking out" 313, 315 
 Wall builders 267 ; Wall charts 124 
 Wallace, Robert, viii 
 Wallas, Graham, 86 
 War 203, 311, 354, 414; and this 
 
 book XXV, 87-8 ; Bonds 187 ; 
 
 China 85 ; Counsels 187 ; Great 
 
 War X, 206 ; Russia, see Russia, 
 
 21, 85, 91 
 Waraji 15, 129, 209, 272, 279, 326 
 Washing 45, 317, 354; Washouts 
 
 182 
 Waste 70, 324, 385; of time xi ; 
 
 Planting of, see Afforestation; 
 
 Utilisation of 48, 178 
 Wastrels, see Hokkaido 
 Watakushi 301 
 Watchword 259 
 Water 64, 126, 132-3, 262, 298-9, 
 
 390; Colours 286; Dangerous 
 
 108, 350; "Water drinker" 
 
 258; Hot piped 248; Pollution 
 
 350; On roof 177; Wheels 216, 
 
 263 ; Splashing quarrels 48 ; 
 
 Works 52 
 Wax and trees 219, 400, 410 
 Weather, see Climate ; 86, 136, 391 
 Weddings, see Marriages ; 66, 265, 
 
 302, 332, 379 ; Tax 21 
 Weeds, see Paddies ; 228, 263, 307, 
 
 314, 366, 385; "Weeding in 
 
 happiness" 137 
 Week 126 
 "Weep not," etc., 224; Weeping 25 
 
 Weights 350, 404 ; Lifting 16 j and 
 Measures xxv 
 
 Welcome tea 148 
 
 Well ofi 204, 264 (2), 370 
 
 Wells 27, 207 
 
 Wells, H. G., viii 
 
 West and East, Elemental things 6 ; 
 Glamour 369 ; Importance of 
 problem vii ; Real barrier xii 
 
 Western art 102; Costumes 101; 
 Dancing 101 ; Civilisation 186 ; 
 Eroticism 101 ; Ideas 201 ; In- 
 fluence 174, 330, 369 ; Literature 
 102 ; Music 102 ; Painting 102 ; 
 Philosophy 102; Sculpture 102; 
 Thought 55 
 
 Wet, see Climate 
 
 " What a happy life " 183 
 
 Wheat 307, 351 (2), 381 (2), 391, 
 409-10 ; Compared with Rice 
 351, 383 : Imports 383 
 
 Whitman, Walt, 99 (2), 105 
 
 " Why do you wear," etc., 288 ; 
 " Why fasten your horse," etc., 
 288 
 
 Widows 111, 197 
 
 Wild people 110 
 
 Wilhstroemia Sihokiana, see Gampi 
 
 Will 19, 314 
 
 Windbreaks 248; Mills 152, 251; 
 and Taxes 259 
 
 Windows 358 
 
 Winnowing 216, 220 
 
 Winter 278, 282, 390, 413; Crop 
 384^5-6 
 
 Wisdom or Riches 61 
 
 Wit 191 
 
 Wives, see Marriage, Wedding ; 
 143 ; " Please teach her " 6 
 
 Women, see Farmers' wives. 
 Nurses, Paddies, Porters, 
 Teachers, Wives ; 34, 206, 212 ; 
 Barbers 224 ; British Exploita- 
 tion of 170; Carriage of 268; 
 Children on back 97 ; Women's 
 Chivalrous Society 312 ; Clothing 
 125; Cooking 136; Crime 
 against 114, 229 ; on dam and 
 dyke 43, 224; Diseases 268; 
 Exploitation of 173 ; Fisher 
 women 235 ; Individualism 102 ; 
 Influence of Christianity 94 (2), 
 95 ; Kindness 31 ; Labourers 
 323; Women's Movement 290; 
 and Men 102, 169, 290; New 
 openings for 255 ; Niraiber of 
 Workers 168-9, 399 ; One Heart 
 Society 312; Overworked 114; 
 Press 181 ; Praying 243 ; and 
 Priest 4; Priest 120; Primitive 
 
446 
 
 INDEX 
 
 conditions 216, 247; Obstacles to 
 Agricultural progress 232 ; Public 
 life 300 ; Same implements as 
 husband 97 ; Savings not us6d by 
 men 126; Story of old woman 
 323 ; Religious Association 58 ; 
 Self-suppression 290 ; Strength 
 269; Suffering 181, 290 
 Trousers, see Trousers, 111 
 compared with Western 290 
 Western costumes 101 ; Wives, 
 see Wives, 293 ; Work 278 
 
 Wood 110, 126, 196, 372; Cutters 
 267; Divided up. Result, 306; 
 and Grain crops 309 ; Preserva- 
 tion 227 ; Quantity needed 111 ; 
 Utensils 121 ; Wealth of 122 ; 
 Workers 121; White (Shinto) 
 46, 83 
 
 Wool 133, 346, 352-3-4-5-6-7; 
 V. Cotton and Silk 356 ; Woollen 
 factories compared with EngUsh 
 354-7 ; Industry 354-5-6-7, 407 
 
 Woolman, John, vi 
 
 Work, for common good 19 ; to 
 Gain influence 321 ; Good 317 ; 
 Hard 125, 284; " Make the young 
 fellows" 259; Saoredness of 94 ; 
 Workers 218, City 87-8 ; Work- 
 men good 317 
 
 World, Attitude, 371 ; Better world 
 90 202 
 
 Worship 141, 244, 271, 324, 326 
 
 "Would that my daughter," etc. 
 183 
 
 " Wounds of the realm" 309 
 
 Wren 31 
 
 Wrens 287 
 
 Wrestlers 16, 28, 108, 179, 196, 249, 
 276, 316, 404 
 
 Wrist development 16 
 
 Writing 17, 288, 311 ; " Pemnanship 
 is like." etc., 288 
 
 Yahagi, Dr., 366 
 
 Yam 258 
 
 Yamagata 175, 176, 182, 189, 193, 
 
 302, 380 
 Yamaguchi 235, 237 
 Yamanashi 146 
 Yamasaki, N., 11, 17, 2S, 37, 47, 51, 
 
 54, 63, 375 
 Yamato damashii is, 140 
 Yamato Society 413 
 Yanagi, M., 98-106, 326-7; Mrs. 
 
 99 
 Yangtse 390 
 Yashiki (mansion) 369 
 Yashiro 134 
 Yeats, W. B., 99 
 
 Yeddo, see Tokyo, Yezo ; 144, 335 
 Yields, see Agriculture, Crops and 
 
 names of 
 Y.M.A. 7, 15 et seq., 22, 23, 28, 46, 
 
 120 (2), 124, 126, 128, 178, 194, 
 
 197, 212, 215, 223, 239, 265, 286 ; 
 
 Criticism of 259, 277 (2), 282, 303 ; 
 
 Official action 240 ; Y.M.C.A. 15; 
 
 Y.W.A. 19; Y.W.C.A. 15 
 Fol26 
 
 Yojuku, see Foreign clothes 
 Yokohama 182, 392 
 Yokoi, Dr., 362 
 YorosUi 280 
 Yoshida, S., 332 
 Yosogi 66 
 Young, Arthur, ix 
 Yoimg men 135, 181 ; and Women, 
 
 see Sexes, 313 ; with a mission 
 
 324 
 Yukata 108, 356 
 
 Zabuton 34, 143, 246, 258 
 
 Zeeland 197 
 
 Zen 11, 100, 130, 134, 144, 186, 193, 
 
 245, 313 
 Zig-zag tracks 140 
 Zon 65, 236 
 Zorn 327 
 
 Printed tf Ecuell, Watson i: Viney, Ld, Lmioa and Aylesiury, England.