_ THE NEW JAPANESE - WOMANHOOD Ras rend Ole FED | ALLEN K. FAUST THE NEW JAPANESE WOMANHOOD ALLEN K. FAUST, puH.p. BY THE AUTHOR Christianity as a Social Factor in Modern Japan (IN JAPANESE) The Great Enemy of Society— Tuberculosis Religious Pedagogy and Handbook for Sunday School Teachers MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS THE NEW JAPANESE WOMANHOOD ene Y BY NOVQ 1926 | ALLEN K.’FAUST, PH.D. Le oeay, seu President of Miyagi College, Sendai, Japan With Preface by WILLIAM E. LAMPE, pup. NEW oo YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1926, BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY THE NEW JAPANESE WOMANHOOD — Ad PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO MY WIFE WHO HEARTILY REJOICES IN EVERY UPWARD STEP TAKEN BY JAPANESE WOMAN HOOD é c< ; i “a ASS pee : at at ww ’ he va Av A ? , ‘ bt, i ye iL ay ve ry rhs Afla Wa Le PREFACE We who live in America or in European countries know too little regarding the women of Japan. Our own lives would be enriched by a fuller knowledge of these people. Japan was a closed country until 1854. Almost twenty years more passed before any considerable num- ber of people of the West visited Japan. The first Japanese women came to America early in the 70’s. Of the very small number of Jap- anese now living in America only a few thou- sands are women. Visitors tg Japan who have spent a few days or a few weeks there have seen Japanese women in the port cities, but have seen nothing of the real life of the Japanese women. Too often they have seen the kind of Japanese women who are not typical of Japan nor creditable representatives of the Japanese. Dr. Faust, the writer of this book, ““The New Japanese Womanhood,” has spent twenty-five years in residence in the northern part of vii Vill Preface Japan. For more than half of this period he has been President of Miyagi College, one of the largest and possibly the very best educa- tional institution for women north of Tokyo. What we need regarding Japanese womanhood is facts, not theory. Dr. Faust knows Jap- anese womanhood in all its phases and relation- ships. He writes of women from first-hand knowledge as also from the standpoint of a man in thorough sympathy with woman and her problems. His own educational training and his quarter of a century experience qualify him as almost no other person to write this book. Many factors have been at work to make the new Japan and to assist in the evolution of Japanese womanhood. This book will help many people to evaluate the influence of many factors that have had part in shaping the new Japan and the new Japanese womanhood. While it is a sound sociological study, it is writ- ten for the layman and the laywoman, and should be intensely interesting to both. This study of Japanese womanhood will be of immense value to people of the West in that it suggests and in some degree indicates what will happen in all of Asia and even in Africa. Preface ix The women of China have something of the same history and background as have the people of Japan. It may be only a few decades, but soon the women of China will be passing through the same stages as the women of Japan have passed or are now passing. The women of India will not remain in zenanas for many years; the women of the Near East will soon be leaving the harems; Japan is leading the Orient, but her women are asking whither? WILLIAM E. LAMPE. Philadelphia, Pa. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I INTRODUCTORY Pe PAL Ae eR RR te I5 TPIS OUD TURAL oN Ba Neen uence inane 21 III MODERN EDUCATION FOR GIRLS... . aa IV ANCESTOR-WORSHIP, THE FAMILY SYSTEM, ATT RO MA NON erro oa Pee Geta 50 VY INDUSTRY AND WOMAN’S NEW ROLE OUTSIDE PE at HOM By hice ttle er ae ern” Sa ting 66 VI JA2SANESE WOMEN AND THE FINE ARTS. . 80 VIT AWOMANTAND,; JAPANESE LAW. 04.) Voce... 00 MItiee WOMANS ANT CPOLITICS |) tue cin patil ewe tear IX THE JAPANESE WOMAN IN SOCIETY. . . 125 X ASPIRATIONS AND TRAGICAL CONSEQUENCES 139 XI THE NEW JAPANESE WOMAN AKO unter ONAN 0 | BIBLIOGRAPHY Gesell ety site Aine teloeueek Bean THE NEW JAPANESE WOMAN HOOD svi ‘ 8 } ne a ; He oe ag A on Pyae ‘ Ads q aed i Lia ‘va a ay i rf Aaah aT Raat ase? Ley 3 BAN ART) Yt f i f{ , cy tS Pa i. 7 yal] . A h hy } ; i a AES Ce: ap lah 28 ‘ ak eed Pail vere is €' ‘ 4 hat e ue : "4 4, ‘ TY iy - ; ‘ ; aes Bere THE NEW JAPANESE WOMANHOOD CHAP VERS I INTRODUCTORY HE life of the Japanese woman is an enigma to most Occidentals. To write about her, while highly interesting, is uncom- monly difficult. Consequently her admirable qualities have not often been heralded to the outside world; moreover she, on her part, is entirely satisfied to remain unsung. ‘The pres- ent, however, seems to be an opportune time for the people of the West to become more inti- mately acquainted with Japan’s “‘better half.” It may very well be that, in spite of Kup- ling’s dictum, the twain—East and West— may after all meet through the modest charm of Japan’s daughters, who are fast becoming positive factors in the development of a new world for themselves. 15 16 The New Japanese Womanhood Some of our people seem to find pleasure in clinging to the old topsyturvydom and other oddities of the Nipponese, though it is well known that these Yankees of the Far East have eliminated much of the strangeness which for a long time has furnished entertainment to the West. These persons apparently desire that Japan should not change, but should continue to be “great in little things and little in great things.” This desire is possibly somewhat akin to that of the mothers who want their babies always to remain babies. Perhaps a partial reason for the continuance of our peculiar love for the antique in Japan, may be found in the highly colored advertise- ments of some agencies that are directly bene- fited by making people believe that the feudal quaintness and the general “upsidedownness”’ of former times still continue in their original fascination. Another cause may doubtlessly be found in the immense crop of books on Japan, written by professional globe-trotters who stay in the country a week or at longest a month. It must be from such sources that some enthusiasts get the fantastic ideas that all Japanese banks employ Chinese clerks, that Introductory 17 Japanese children never cry, that the dancing- girls are paragons as ladies, and that the ordi- nary womer. are hopelessly stupid. Some good books have been written about the women of Japan, but most of these appeared about twenty-five years ago. Moreover the object of these books was largely description, and they were written too long ago to trace the development that is now going on among Japanese women. Dr. Charlotte B. DeForest, however, in her recent book, “The Leaven in Japan,” has very admirably presented the edu- cational and the religious phases of woman’s life in modern Japan. It has been said that the Japanese woman was man-made and that in this case the creature excelled its creator. To the credit of both the Japanese man and the Japanese woman it should be said that the woman of Japan has always been less of a slave than most of her Asiatic sisters. Her social status is clearly lower than the man’s; but until quite recently, she never counted this as a disadvantage or a disgrace. She has always found real joy in doing what was hers to do and in being what she was ex- pected to be. It was hers to toil unnoticed, but 18 The New Japanese Womanhood she did this with pleasure and with no desire to change her position. She was satisfied with her lot. Her object in life was to please her husband and be a self-forgetting, self-sacrific- ing mother to her children. The Japanese woman is a woman of ex- traordinary merit, though her virtues have al- ways been largely passive. Lafcadio Hearn thinks that she is ethically quite different from the Japanese man; that all her self-assertion is repressed and the personality clipped. He speaks of her as, “A being working for others, thinking for others; a being incapable of selfish- ness and yet very courageous; her existence was a religion, her home a temple, her very word and thought ordered by the law of the cult of the‘deade: The twentieth century has brought disturb- ing influences into this quiet, submissive, hemmed-in, yet happy life. The emancipation of the women of America and Europe, the higher education which many of the Japanese girls now are receiving, the new economic life that has been forced on the women, and the more tolerant attitude of many of the Japanese men themselves, are some of the forces that Introductory 19 have set in motion the rapid changes in the life of the Japanese woman. It is an intensely interesting fact that in ‘the last twenty-five years as much change in the condition of Japan’s women was made as it took Europe five hundred years to bring about. The present writer’s twenty-five years of life in inland Japan, thirteen of which have been spent as the head of a college for young Japan- ese women, have afforded him the opportunity of seeing Japanese home-life at first hand, and this experience has now induced him to write about the status of woman and its more im- portant changes that have taken place during the first quarter of the twentieth century. It should be kept in mind that the expression “the new womanhood of Japan” as used in the following chapters does not have the same con- notation as the rather unsavory “new woman” has in America. The difference or similarity between the status of Oriental and Occidental women will be but little discussed. The pur- pose is to state facts rather than to make com- parisons; to show progress, not as compared with other women, but as compared with the Japanese woman herself. The effort will be 20 The New Japanese Womanhood made to draw a cross section of the Japanese woman’s life, with a view to bring out as dis- tinctly as possible the upward curve of her development. CHAPTER II THE OLD IDEAL ONFUCIANISM and _ ancestor-worship have supplied the major part of the basic religious and moral ideas of the Orient. Un- less a person has some conception of the pro- found influence which these have wielded and are still wielding on every phase of life in Japan, he will not be able to form an adequate idea of why society is organized as it is. Need- less to say, Confucianism and ancestor-worship teach many excellent virtues, but their ideal for woman is decidedly not one of these. The an- cestors that are worshiped are never women, always men. In Japan, there is divine right of men. Through the fiat of Nature, it is 1m- possible to get along racially without the aid of woman as a means, but the male is considered the main object of the human family. Tradi- tionally, woman has been regarded as a para- site and a social debtor who must be supported entirely by the men. ot 29) The New Japanese Womanhood It is a notable fact that before the teachings of Confucius had obtained full sway in Japan, woman’s position was markedly higher than afterwards. Japanese historians present many facts that confirm the truth of this statement. They point with pride to the Empress Jingo, who was not only a great ruler but also the famous conqueror of Korea. At any rate, after Confucian ethics had taken possession of the hearts of the intelligentsia, the Japanese woman, as compared with the man, became a slave in everything but in name. Confucianism defi- nitely teaches that women are inferior to men; that they must obey the men; that the woman should have no voice in selecting her husband, the families concerned to do the selecting; that the husband is to have absolute right to rule the wife; that the proper social distinctions between husband and wife be strictly observed. Kaibara, a famous Confucian scholar and writer of Japan’s middle ages, called indocility, discontent, slander, jealousy and silliness, on the part of women, the worst possible maladies. Women are rigidly required to be sexually pure, while no such restrictions are laid on men. Hence, Confucianism, it is easily seen, is pro- The Old Ideal 23 ductive of one morality for men and a very different one for women. It is very interesting to see how this old ideal expressed itself in numberless social habits and customs. Ancient Japan in conformity with all Asiatic peoples, did not wait until children were grown up to show that the male was su- perior to the female. If the newly-born child was a boy, the mother took him to the shrine on the thirty-first day of his life. If the newcomer had the misfortune of being a girl, this dedica- tion could not be performed until the thirty- third day of her life. The ancient Hebrews, according to Leviticus 12: 1-5, emphasized this difference still more than the Japanese. If a Jewish son was born the mother could be puri- fied in thirty-three days, but if a daughter was added to the family, sixty-six days were re- quired for the mother’s purification. The ancient wedding-dress of the Japanese woman was white, because white among Shin- toists was the color for mourning and always signified purity. Marriage of a daughter really meant the same as death so far as her relation to the family of her birth was concerned. When she left her father’s home to become the wife of 24. The New Japanese Womanhood the son of some other family, all parental rela- tion was cut off. She became the absolute pos- session of the family of her husband. The white wedding garment was to express sorrow to the family in which she was born and it sig- nified to the family of her husband the assent of the parents and daughter to her new life rela- tionship. Besides the white kimono, there were at least two changes of costumes made by the bride during the wedding feast which followed immediately after the ceremony. One of these kimono was a ceremonial dress, which sym- bolized that the wearer had all-important reli- cious offices in the new home. The third cos- tume was a working dress, signifying that the bride was to assume the many duties of the household. The bride entered the new family for weal or woe. She could never of her own accord sever the bonds by which she was bound, though her husband’s family could send her back to her former home on the slightest provocation. The obi or sash was the sign of the woman’s chastity. Thus this beautiful part of a Jap- anese woman’s costume was more than mere art. Often it was used by the wife as a means The Old Ideal 25 of committing suicide when her chastity was doubted by the husband. A new bride usually was provided with a short dagger which was to be used by her as an instrument of self-de- struction in case she was dishonored. This heroism was the supreme proof to the husband of the wife’s faithfulness. The Japanese wife of former days was re- quired to blacken her teeth with a certain chemi- cal preparation and keep them black all her married life. Jealousy of the male was very probably the original reason for this odd cus- tom. This was a mark which showed that the woman had entered the married state, and, at the same time, it also relieved her of some of her beauty, thus making her less a target for the eyes of men other than her husband. In the country districts this custom is still some- what in vogue, though its ancient meaning is now hardly known even by those who practice it. The married woman had also a very specific way of performing her coiffure. The long hair had to be put up in a marumage, which is a round chignon worn on the back of the head. The marumage signified not only marriage but 26 The New Japanese Womanhood also meant absolute submission on the part of the wearer to her husband’s family. With blackened teeth in her mouth and a marumage on the back of her head, the new bride’s do- mestic position, as well as the niche she was to occupy in the social organization, was at once as clear as noonday to all who saw her. It was for her the unpardonable sin if thought- lessly or for any reason whatever she forgot the exact place that was hers to fill. Custom also, even to this day, requires a woman to show her age by the kind of dress goods she uses. As the years increase, the de- sign on the goods must decrease in size. If the material is striped, the stripes must get narrower as the wearer is getting along in years. If the wife through the death of her hus- band was made a widow, she was expected to show her loyalty to him by bobbing her hair. This was a definite sign and vow that she would die a widow. The widower, on the other hand, almost always married again, from three weeks to a year elapsing before he chose another mate. But for the Japanese widow with bobbed hair there was no second marriage. If a widow The Old Ideal 2G in the Occident nowadays should bob her hair, it would very probably have the very opposite signification. Instead of the handshake and the kiss as forms of greeting, the Japanese people use the o-jigt, a deep bow. Men, women, and children spend a great deal of time in bowing to each other. It must be done slowly and with ex- treme dignity. The significant point of bow- ing, as far as the woman is concerned, is that society requires that she bow oftener than the man and much deeper. As the bow is really a form of worship, the deeper bow of the woman to the man clearly suggests the inferior posi- tion that she holds. Most Japanese men are ex- ceptionally polite, but in going through a door or a gate they do not say aprés vous to their wives,—they go through first, and the women are quite satisfied that the men should do so, for they feel extremely uneasy if circumstances compel them to break this rigid custom. As is true in most countries, the men and the women of the lower strata of society consider themselves much more nearly equal than is the case higher up. The coolie woman and the coolie man stand much more nearly on the same 28 The New Japanese Womanhood level than is the case with their social superiors. The polite Japanese word for wife in the mid- die class commoner and above, is okusama, the lady of the back parlor. To understand the full meaning of this word, a person must remember that in a Japanese house the front room is occu- pied by the servants, and the mistress or oku- sama lives in the back part of the house. So far as outward form is concerned, the okusama rules the servants and has general charge of running the home. The servants must serve her in what would seem to an Occidental an abject manner. But there is an obverse side to this seeming honorable position of the mistress. The fact is that the back parlor excludes her almost totally from the intellectual, social and business life of her husband. She and her chil- dren live almost in a separate world from that of the master. In former times women in general were re- garded as ceremonially unclean. This fact is clearly shown in the customs that were formed in connection with the many sacred mountains of Japan. In order to preserve the sanctity of these mountains women were not allowed by The Old Ideal 29 the priests to climb these holy places. This superstition has now died out. When circumstances make it necessary that a husband and his wife walk together on the street, they will not walk side by side. The husband will lead the way, and usually about six or eight feet behind him comes the wife, perhaps burdened down with whatever luggage the trip they are taking requires. There is an actual case on record where a kind-hearted man helped his wife to do the week’s wash- ing, and when the neighbors heard of this act they were so severe in their criticism that the man with the tender heart, in order to have any peace at all, had to move to another town. The samurai, the knightly class of Japan, have deservedly been given much praise by the world. In the age of Japanese seclusion, it was the samurai that advanced civilization as far as military ideas, moral ideas and educa- tional ideas were concerned. In these respects the knights of Japan compared very favorably with those of medizval Europe, but gallantry towards women was none of the virtues of their moral code. To show much concern for the fair sex, disqualified a man for being a true 30 The New Japanese Womanhood samurat. Such conduct would reveal a disgust- ing weakness which might easily be the begin- ning of a decline in the spirit of absolute loyalty to his feudal lord. To allow a woman to come between a knight and his lord would be the height of treason. No matter where one turned, it was every- where evident that both the family and society desired that wives should totally erase them- selves and become merged parts of their hus- bands. This lesson in an informal way was taught the girls and women all the time. Even the more formal old type education for women had as its obvious object the docility, obedience and dependence of women. The ancient tea-ceremony was a most tedious affair. The materialistic proverb, “Time is ’ could certainly not be applied to this slow, and to the European, meaningless disci- pline. But to make the women who went through this tea-ceremony patient, subdued and graceful no better exercise could have been de- vised. The whole of the old etiquette which was taught with such great care to women was a branch of study the object of which was money,’ The Old Ideal 31 to train the learners to be gracefully self-effac- ing, and thus pleasing to the men. The villain in an old Japanese story or drama was nearly always a woman. It was not for men to be put in a position of disrespect even if such a character was but the figment of some writer’s imagination. The music of ancient Japan which women were privileged to learn was often quite diff- cult, but it was calculated to express passivity and resignation. Its minor key was to give vent to feelings that were sad and deep but which contained at the same time a spirit of resolution to make any required sacrifice. “Shikata ga nat,’ (it cannot be helped there- fore be resigned to your fate), expresses a very common feeling even in present-day Japan. Flower-arrangement was probably the most delightful course in the old system of education for women. In this study a love of nature and the instinctive appreciation of beauty in general were combined in an unusual way. While the final object of the discipline was to please others, the women who learned this in- teresting art were themselves elevated by it and received pure joy from it. 32 The New Japanese Womanhood As we continue the study of Japanese life we shall find that parts of these ancient ideals for women are still upheld, but it is very obvious that a decided change is taking place in these things and that a quiet but not-to-be-turned- back movement against many of the former things is on foot in Japanese society. CHAPTER III MODERN EDUCATION FOR GIRLS APAN has one of the most effective educa- tional systems in the world. You might almost say that education is worshiped in Japan. Over ninety-nine per cent. of her boys and girls are in the elementary schools, and there is hardly any illiteracy among people who are fifty years old and younger. Because of the indiscriminate mixture of things Oriental and things Occidental in the present-day educa- tion for girls, there is necessarily a lack of co- ordination between school life and the life at home. Most schools now require that the stu- dents wear leather shoes, but at home no one is allowed to wear shoes, as the mat-covered floors would not permit the rough treatment which shoes would give them. At home, all the members of the family sit on the floor, but in school, desks and seats are universally used. The great difference between the architecture 33 34. The New Japanese Womanhood of a dwelling-house and that of a school-build- ing makes it difficult to observe in the home the health education which is given in the school. This is especially true in the case of girls. The rather subdued part that they must take in the work of the home is not suitable for the applica- tion of the principles of gymnastics and ath- letics upon which the schools so rigidly insist. The girls’ kimono may be the proper thing for the home of the old style, but it is totally unsuited for modern school-work. Its im- mensely long sleeves interfere with the use of pen and pencil or blackboard crayon, and the fact that it is open in front does not permit the girls to engage in any active exercise without exposing their legs. To avoid this a specially made school-skirt, hakama, is required to be worn over the kimono by all school girls. It is evident, therefore, that in these external mat- ters the home and the school do not harmonize as well as might be the case. There is also a similar admixture of the old and the new in the purpose and content of edu- cation for Japanese girls. Ancient etiquette, ceremonial tea, and flower-arrangement are not so much called for now; but English, Western Modern Education for Girls 35 music, and domestic science are eagerly sought by most girl students. The purpose of female education as expressed in the official textbooks on ethics, has, however, not been very much influenced by modern ideas. According to the fourth volume of Ethics for Girls’ High Schools, the duty of a woman is “to get mar- ried, to help her husband, to bring up children, to attend to housekeeping. She is to welcome her husband home with a gentle look, and cheer him up for the following day’s work. Her hus- band’s parents are hers. She must obey her mother-in-law.” This moral teaching is based on the Imperial Rescript on Education, issued in 1890. To the Japanese people this document is divinely in- spired. It states that the perfect morality has been handed down from the Imperial Ancestors. Among other things, it commands the Japan- ese people: “Be filial to your parents, affection- ate to your brothers and sisters; as husbands and wives, be harmonious; as friends, true; bear yourselves in modesty and moderation; extend your benevolence to all; pursue learning and cultivate arts, and, thereby develop intel- lectual faculties and perfect moral power; fur- 26 The New Japanese Womanhood thermore, advance public good and promote common interests; always respect the constitu- tion and observe the laws. Should emergency arise, offer yourselves courageously to the state, and thus guard and maintain the prosperity of our Imperial Throne, coeval with Heaven and Earth.” The interpretation of these principles and their practical application to the life of the na- tion constitute the supreme and ever-present duty of all Japanese educators and statesmen. There is a much abused Japanese phrase, “Ryosat kembo,’ which means, good wife, wise mother. This is held up by the conservatives as the supreme ideal for woman’s education. The phrase is surrounded with a certain kind of sanctity, and when the modernist rudely invades its halo, the wonted clamorous scene is enacted by the reactionaries. But with every onslaught made by the advocates of the newer education, the voices of the Ichabod Cranes seem to grow slightly fainter. There are many women in Japan and some men, who believe that a woman should at least have the right to pursue an avocation along with her vocation Modern Education for Girls By of bringing children into the world and of being the passive angel of her master. Japan has made a thorough study of the co- educational system of education that is in vogue in the United States. The only element in this system that is attractive to her is the economic side of it. She has very grave doubts as to a desirable outcome, should she try this scheme. The main reason for looking askance at co-edu- cation is not the possibility of immorality be- tween the sexes. It is rather that Japanese men educators fear that co-education in the United States has had a tendency to neutralize the sexes so that a feeling akin to that existing - between brothers and sisters has been produced and that thus the number of marriages has been reduced and the birth rate unfavorably affected. Probably the women of no other country have ever set themselves a task of such stupendous proportions as have the progressive women of Japan, and none have ever attacked their prob- lems so quietly and so wisely. There will be no militant suffragettes, no “hatchet” affairs, and no smashing of show-cases as ways of express- ing the equality of women and men. The method of procedure is far less boisterous but 38 The New Japanese Womanhood very probably quite as effective. In an unas- suming manner the women of Japan are most ardently striving to get an education equal to that given to the men and, as will be shown in subsequent chapters, they are on all sides en- tering the world of industry and commerce. It is quite impossible to describe fully the tremendous demand for higher education on the part of the young women. The government is giving heed to this demand, to a certain extent, by establishing many new high schools for girls. The number of qualified applicants for these high schools is from three to six times as large as the number that can be accommodated. The only way to be admitted to these schools is by rigid competitive entrance examinations. Grad- uation from the high school ends the education of most girls, for with the exception of two normal colleges for women, the government has no ordinary colleges into which graduates of high schools can be admitted. The Imperial University at Sendai has admitted two or three women students, but the Department of Edu- cation seems in this matter to be acting on the principle of “watchful waiting.” There are at present six or seven private col- Modern Education for Girls 39 leges for women, but these institutions are not permitted to bestow any degrees on their grad- uates. This privilege is reserved to the Im- perial Universities. The point in the Japanese woman’s move- ment that is most interesting and fullest of meaning is the conflict between the desire on the part of the young women for higher education and the age-long demand by society that women should marry young and become the mothers of many children. This conflict at times reaches a state of white heat and is causing not a few heartburnings. Recently a case came before the public, in which the daughter of a certain family was preparing herself to enter one of the private colleges. She was more than happy in the pros- pect of getting a higher education.