Japan: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 6/Appendix
Appendix
Appendix
Note 1.—The nobori is a species of flag, or standard. A strip of cotton cloth, varying in length from three or four feet to thirty or forty, and in width from a few inches to a yard, is fastened at both ends to bamboo rollers, and attached lengthwise to a long bamboo pole capped with a gilt ball. On the cloth large ideographs designating the occasion are inscribed. The nobori looks like an extravagantly elongated sail bellying in the wind.
Note 2.—The name of a place in Tōkyō where wrestling-matches are held annually to determine the national champions.
Note 3.—The "Willow Bridge" is the name of a district in Tōkyō celebrated as a resort of the geisha (danseuse) class.
Note 4.—Fuki-kaeru
Yeyo no iki ya
Tama warau.
Note 5.—Rice cake (mochi), Japanese turnip (daikon), potatoes (imo), a species of sea-weed (kombu), haliotis (awabi), a burdock (gobo).
Note 6.—This saké is called toso, though the term is properly limited to the spices themselves. The custom came from China, where it existed certainly as far back as the third century before Christ. It is said to have originated with an old hermit who distributed among the villagers packets of physic, directing that the packet be let down by a string into the well, taken up again on New Year's day, and placed in a tub of saké, a draught of which would prove a preservative against every kind of disease. The practice was introduced into Japan at the beginning of the ninth century, and etiquette soon elaborated the ceremonial by prescribing a special kind of saké for each of the first three days of the year,—toso, biyakusan, and toshosan. It is de rigueur that the youngest of a party should be the first to drink the spiced saké. As for the spices, they are chiefly carminatives.
Note 7.—The bit of haliotis is called noshi, which signifies "stretched out."
Note 8.—A kind of silk.
Note 9.—The popularity of kite-flying in Japan is indirectly attested by the ordinary manner of estimating the strength of twine. "One-sheet twine" (ichi-mai ito) means twine capable of holding a one-sheet kite; "two-sheet twine" (ni-mai ito), twine capable of holding a two-sheet kite, and so on. There is, consequently, no three-sheet twine, or five-sheet twine, etc., because kites, being square or rectangular, cannot be constructed with three, five, seven, eleven, etc. sheets of paper.
Note 10.—The great hall in a temple is often utilised for the purpose.
Note 11.—The Eta no longer form a separate class in the eye of the law.
Note 12.—It is not easy to trace the origin of this custom. In the Imperial Palace, on the 4th of the first month, it used to assume a much more elaborate form, the dancers being four, with costumes suggesting Manchurian affinities,—head-gear like a helmet, boat-shaped sandals, and long trains. The manzai who perform in the streets of towns and villages come from Mikawa, which province enjoys the special privilege of supplying these artists.
Note 13.—Nikon no tochi ni.
Wataranu mae ni.
Suto suto ton ton ton.
Note 14.—Sometimes a bamboo basket is fixed on the roof to drive away demons.
Note 15.—In some parts of Japan there still survives a custom once common everywhere on the 15th of the first month. A pine branch is painted in five colours (black, red, white, yellow, and blue), and if a woman is struck with this kayutsuye, as it is called, she becomes destined to be the mother of a boy.
Note 16.—The festival of Uso-kai had its origin in Chikuzen Province. There, beginning at a date no longer ascertainable, pious people inaugurated the custom of visiting the temple of Temman at the hour of the bird on the night of the 7th of January, and offering effigies of the uso. The priests distributed new effigies in exchange, and among the latter was one covered with gold-foil. The devotee to whose lot this gilded bullfinch happened to fall counted himself secure for a year against all dangers or consequences of deception. In the beginning of the present century the custom was extended to Tōkyō, where it is widely observed up to the present time. The wooden uso is carved from the sacred sakaki (Cleyera japonica).
Note 17.—Agents (keiwan) for the hire of domestic servants constitute a numerous and, for the most part, an unscrupulous class. Their occupation includes also letting and selling of houses and lands, but recourse to their services is avoided as much as possible by respectable folks. They depend for their fees on the success of the business entrusted to them, and it is well understood that female servants may be "procured" from a keiwan for purposes other than domestic employment.
Note 18.—Japanese tradition says that it was invented by an Indian prince during a period of imprisonment. The hybrid nature of the name sugoroku indicates a foreign origin.
Note 19.—There existed among the foreign residents at the Treaty Ports an apprehension that when they passed under Japanese jurisdiction, they would be liable to have their houses entered by the police, and the players of an innocent game of whist hauled to prison. There was no basis for such a forecast. The Japanese police cannot enter any private house without a warrant, and the possibilities of playing cards at social réunions without interruption are quite as large in Japan as in Europe or America.
Note 20.—The ox-headed monarch (Gozu) is often represented in Japanese pictorial and decorative art. He had passed through three cycles of existence, and ruled the stars before he descended to govern India, but perhaps because he was such a great personage, perhaps because he had the aspect of a demon and horns of a bull, he found difficulty in procuring a wife. At last, obeying the directions of a little bird with a dove-like voice, he set off for the dragon god's palace in the southern seas. He had ridden ten thousand miles when, at sunset, he sought shelter from Kotan, the King of Southern India. But Kotan closed the gates in the face of his uncanny visitor, and when Gozu's honeymoon was over, he slaughtered the whole tribe of the inhospitable king, and divided his body into five sacrifices, to be offered up at the five seasons (go-sekku). According to this legend, the pine decorations at the New Year symbolise Kotan's gate; the charcoal attached to the rice-straw rope indicates his funeral censer; the red and white mirror-cake means his flesh and bones; the seven-leafed congee typifies his seven locks of hair; the cake eaten on the third day of the month represents his ear and tongue; the cake eaten on the 5th of the fifth month, his hair; the vermicelli partaken of on the 7th of the seventh month, his arteries, and the chrysanthemum-saké drunk on the 9th of the ninth month, the blood of his liver. No Japanese concerns himself about this revolting tradition.
Note 21.—The day is called jo-nichi, or "expulsion day."
Note 22.—The formula inscribed on this paper is curiously simple: "The 4th of the fourth month is an auspicious day for killing kamisage-mushi" (larvæ of the meat fly).
Note 23.—This game, probably more widely played than any other in Japan, depends upon the principle that certain objects, animate or inanimate, correspond to certain combinations of the fingers, and that the objects thus represented have relative values. The players clap and wave their hands in unison with some rhythmic chaunt, and mark the pauses of the rhythm by these digital combinations. There is an almost endless variety of methods, and the graceful dexterity displayed by experts is most charming.
Note 24.—Sprays of the sweet flag that have thus been exposed are believed to imbibe the medicinal dew of heaven, and are consequently placed in family baths for the invigoration of bathers.
Note 25.—The feet are little seen in Japanese dancing: their action is subordinate. Probably for that reason there is not a great variety of steps or a rich vocabulary of terms such as the languages of France and Scotland furnish.
Note 26.—The mimetic dances of Madagascar seem to have some affinity with those of Japan, so far as concerns the events represented, but the motions and poses of the dancers are radically different. It may also be noted that the dances imitative of the movements of animals, so common among the autochthons of Africa, Asia, and Australasia, have very few parallels in Japan. The salient exception is the Dance of the Dog of Fo (shisbi-odori), which had its origin in China.
Note 27.—These conceptions are all of Chinese origin.
Note 28.—Meaningless interjections, thrown in by the musicians.
Note 29.—An allusion to a method of divining.
Note 30.—A game in which one player guesses the number of small objects—generally fragments of a chop-stick—concealed in the hand of the other.
Note 31.—The Government of the Restoration (1867) distinguished itself by drastic legislation against transactions that pledged women to a life of shame. It issued a law dissolving, without reserve, all existing covenants of that nature and annulling any monetary obligations connected with them. It proclaimed that all capital invested in immoral enterprise should be treated as stolen, and that, since prostitutes and geisha had dehumanised themselves, moneys due by them, or by others on their account, could not be recovered; and it prescribed severe penalties for any attempt to bind a girl to degrading service. But that passion of reform was soon cooled by contact with conditions that have proved too strong for legislation in all ages, and the statesmen of Japan, finding they could not eradicate the evil, adopted the wiser course of regulating it.
Note 32.—There are, nevertheless, some fifteen thousand licensed yu-jo in Tōkyō and its suburbs. The total sum squandered yearly on this kind of debauchery by the capital, with its million and a quarter of citizens, is two and one quarter million yen, which is found to be an average of eighty-eight sen (about 45 gold cents) per head of those that spend it.
Note 33.—A boat having its middle part covered by a roof (yane) under which the pleasure-seekers sit.
Note 34.—The rakugo-ka uses a fan only at his performance. He is not provided with the paper baton (bari) of the koshakushi. This trifling difference is nevertheless characteristic.
Note 35.—Anrakuan Shakuden, originally called Hira- bayashi Heidayu, a name which signifies that he possessed expert musical skill.
Note 36.—The remuneration earned by the koshaku-shi is small. There are three classes distinguished by degrees of skill. A third-class expert receives one rin per head of audience. Hence two hundred hearers—a good "house"—means twenty sen (ten cents gold). A first-class performer is entitled to ten times that amount. Thus his attendance at a yose generally brings him a dollar (gold). He may give a koshaku at two or even three yose daily, and he is often invited to social réunions, when his guerdon varies from a dollar and a half to four or even five dollars. But there are not more than ten masters in all Japan whose reputation secures lucrative private patronage.
Note 37.—The origin of the term is interesting. When the Imperial Court was at Nara (eighth century), pestilential vapours were found to proceed from a cave near one of the temples. The dance of Okina Sanbaso, to which allusion has been made in speaking of New Year observances, was danced on the sward before the cave to dispel the evil influence, and people spoke of the performance as shibai, in allusion to the place where it was held.
Note 38.—It was called kabuki, of which the ideographic significance is a performance (ki) of song (ka) and dance (bu). As to the origin of the word, however, some allege that it was a corruption of katamuki, to sway or overturn, and that it was used with reference to the transports of delight into which the audience ought to be thrown by such displays of skill. However that may be, the point to be noted is that the popular form of mime was named kabuki, as distinguished from the aristocratic no. To this day one of the principal theatres in Tōkyō is called Kabuki-za, and the term might be properly applied to any place employed for histrionic representations.
Note 39.—There is a well-known and fairly well attested story that, on the occasion of a conflagration at a theatre, one of these male actresses thought only of saving his hand-mirror. That they are constantly courted by amorous rustics unacquainted with theatrical usages is certain.
Note 40.—Mono-mane kyogen, which literally signifies "imitative divertissement." Kyogen, in its original sense, means farci- cal, or burlesque, language, but was used with reference to the entertainment furnished by the choric monologues rather than to any extravagance in their diction.
Note 41.—The Oban (large plate) did not consist of pure gold. It contained about sixty-eight per cent of gold and twenty-nine per cent of silver.
Note 42.—A cheque, or commercial note, is still called te-gata (lit. hand-shape), evidently from the fact that in early times the impression of the thumb was the common method of signature. Sometimes the whole hand was impressed.
Note 43.—The fact that they were market towns in the old days may be gathered from the names that some places still retain; as Yokka-ichi (fourth-day market), Yōka-ichi (eighth-day market), Kami-ichi (upper market), Shimo-ichi (lower market), etc.
Note 44.—This hall was called Koro-kwan. There were three: one in Kyōtō, one in Naniwa (Ōsaka), and one at Hakata in Chikuzen.
Note 45.—They were called toimaru, a term now obsolete.
Note 46.—These were known as kaisen, in mediæval phraseology.
Note 47.—The interior dimensions of the masu as prescribed by the Taikō's legislation were 5.1 inches by 5.15 inches by 2.45 inches. Japanese joiners found no difficulty in conforming with these measurements. The object of the legislator was to contrive a measure which should contain a fraction less than 1 sho (or 10 go). The masu here indicated had a capacity of 9.86 go.
Note 48.—This céladon is called Tenryu-seiji, seiji (green ware) being the general name given to céladon in Japan. (Vide chapter on porcelain and pottery.)
Note 49.—There has been some dispute about these facts, but they appear to be historical. It is on record that Yoshimitsu went to Hyōgo to meet a Chinese ambassador; that he wore a Chinese costume to receive his guest and rode in a Chinese palanquin to the place of meeting.
Note 50.—Nanking was the residence of the Chinese Court until the year 1412, when Peking became the capital.
Note 51.— The reader should perhaps be warned against basing any inference on the apparent sequence of events as here described. It was not in the cause of inter-state trade that the Taikō invaded Korea. Her continued refusal to open her ports to the fleet of over fifty Japanese vessels which twenty-three feudal houses had been in the habit of sending every year, probably prejudiced Hideyoshi against her, but his proximate purpose was to use her as a basis for attacking China.
Note 52.—It is recorded that when this trade flourished, the total yearly sales made to Chinese dealers at Nagasaki were a million pounds, approximately. An idea of the development of Japan's foreign commerce in modern times may be gathered by comparing that figure with her present annual sales of marine products, namely, one hundred and eleven million pounds.
Note 53.—He was consequently known in commercial circles as Yamato-ya.
Note 54.—At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Yedo confederation paid nearly £20,000 to the Government.
Note 55.—In 1725, when the population of Yedo was about three-quarters of a million, the merchandise that entered the city was 861,893 bags of rice; 795,856 casks of saké; 132,829 casks of fish-sauce; 18,209,987 bundles of firewood; 809,790 bags of charcoal; 90,811 tubs of oil; 1,670,880 bags of salt, and 3,613,500 pieces of cotton cloth.
Note 56.—This shipping guild was called Higaki-kaisen (water caltrops company), a name derived from the form of the bulwark railings. In 1730 the business of carrying saké was entrusted to another company, the Taru-kaisen (barrel company), and the two subsequently engaged in a competition which is still well remembered in Yedo and Ōsaka.
Note 57.—The figures were chiefly influenced by the quality of the coins issuing from the mint. From 1608 to 1643 the current price of a riyo was 4,000 copper cash (4 kwan) but in 1842 it was 6,500 cash and in 1859, 8,688 cash. As to gold and silver, a riyo of gold was the equivalent of 65 momme of silver; in 1733, the riyo was 61.2 momme; in 1789, 55.4 momme; in 1825, 64.3 momme, and in 1864, 85.5 momme.
Note 58.—One-tenth of everything below water and one- twentieth of everything above, if at sea; the corresponding figures in the case of a river being one-twentieth and one-thirtieth, respectively.
Note 59.—When cargo had been jettisoned, a full report of the facts had to be made to the officials at the first port of call, who then examined the remaining cargo and sealed it, pending delivery to its consignees. Severe penalties restrained fraudulent jettison, and when a deserted ship drifted ashore, the local officials were required to retain the hull and cargo for half a year in order to give the owner time to prefer a claim. Alienation of cargo involved heavy punishment, and for the offence of selling a vessel and her cargo under pretence of wreck, the master and officers were beheaded; the crew scourged and branded on the face. Collusion between a village headman and a ship-master to simulate unavoidable jettison of cargo which had been fraudulently sold, constituted a capital crime; the receiver of the stolen goods was also liable to decapitation, and a confederate exposed himself to transportation or expulsion from his village.
Note 60.—An attempt made in 1842 to fix the maximum limit of interest at fifteen per cent, failed completely. It checked the circulation of money, and borrowers themselves sought to evade it.
Note 61.—This is the figure confidently stated in a despatch addressed by the British Representative in Yedo to his Government in 1860.
Note 62.—Japan's fishing industry is doubtless capable of great development. She has 17,602 miles of coast, and 270,000 families devoted to fishing, or more than fifteen families to each mile. They employ 330,706 boats and 1,194,408 nets, representing a capital of about three millions sterling, and the total value of the annual catch is put at five millions sterling, though ten millions would probably be nearer the truth. The fishermen are sturdy, courageous fellows, but their methods are primitive and virtually no improvements have yet been introduced.
Note 63.—It was at one time supposed that Japan possessed great mineral wealth, but the question remains uncertain. The output of the various mines increases steadily, it is true, but its total annual value does not exceed three millions sterling. Recently gold has been discovered in seemingly large quantities in Hokkaido and kerosene in Echigo as well as Hokkaido. The practical value of these discoveries remains to be determined.
Note 64.—The Japanese have been skilled weavers for many centuries, but a great impetus was given to this enterprise by the introduction of improved machinery and the use of aniline dyes after the opening of the country to foreign intercourse. Indigo has always been the staple dye stuff of the country. Twenty million yen worth is produced annually. But for colours other than blue and its various tones, aniline dyes are now imported to the extent of one and a fourth million yen yearly. The growth of the textile industry has also been greatly stimulated by the introduction of cotton yarns of fine and uniform quality. Formerly all cotton cloths were woven out of coarse, irregular handspun yarns, so that nothing like regularity of weight and texture could be secured. It thus appears that Japan owes the remarkable development of her textile industry to foreign intercourse.
Note 65.—Japanese mills are kept at work twenty-three hours out of the twenty-four, with one shift of operatives, and their production per spindle is forty per cent greater than the production of Bombay mills and nearly double of the production of English mills.
Note 66.—The railways and posts constitute additional examples. The Japanese have long been able to survey, plan and build their own lines of railways, to run the trains and to manage the traffic. For these achievements they deserve much credit. But their arrangements for handling, forwarding, and delivering goods are very defective, when judged by good Occidental standards, and their provision for the comfort of passengers leaves a great deal to be desired. So, too, their postal service invites criticism in some very important respects, if it merits praise in others. All such defects would soon be corrected if free recourse were had to the assistance of foreign experts, who have the advantage of familiarity with higher standards. It is unfortunate that a people so liberal in their adoption of the best products of Western civilisation, should hesitate to avail themselves of the best means of learning to utilise them.
Note 67.—Another serious obstacle to the industrial development of the Japanese is their difficulty in deciphering foreign tastes. It results that in fields where their capacity is highest, their success is often smallest. They export some two millions of umbrellas at a cost of 1012d. apiece; thirty thousand pairs of boots at 1114d. a pair, and a hundred and ninety thousand dozen pairs of socks at 1s. 3d. a dozen. There can be no mistake about the shape and style of these things: a pattern alone suffices for guide. But, on the other hand, take the case of lacquer. In the quality and beauty of their lacquer the Japanese stand easily at the head of all nations. There, if anywhere, they should be able to defy rivalry. Yet what are the facts? Japanese lacquer experts, in their attempts to capture the New York market, have been distanced by Germans, who gauge the taste of the Americans with much greater accuracy, and produce lacquers better appreciated and cheaper than those of the Japanese themselves,—not finer lacquer indeed, nor nearly so fine, but better suited to the immediate purpose of its manufacturers.
Note 68.—The average daily wage of twenty-six classes of labourers in 1885 was 1514 sen per diem, whereas in 1900 it was 4734 sen.