Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/554

Formerly the education of a Japanese was one half in books of etiquette, and one half reading and writing. In the school at Fukui in Echizen, over the foreign department of which the writer presided, the course of native studies required seven years. Five of these were devoted entirely to theoretical and practical study of etiquette, the reading of the lives of illustrious men and women, exhortations to duty, the classics of Confucius, the histories of Japan and China, and the composition of private and official letters. Such schools however existed only for the higher classes. Lower schools for teaching the rudiments of reading, writing, and reckoning also existed. Even the language is unique in its courtliness of expression, which is shown in its very structure. The people are in general neat and clean in their houses, persons, and dress. Tea is a universal beverage, and is served on all occasions in cups holding about half a gill, which are drained many times during the day. Every man and boy carries in his girdle a pipe with a tube of bamboo, and mouthpiece and tiny bowl of brass. The mild fine-cut tobacco is used, and smoking is general among men and women. The visitor is always served with tea, sweetmeats laid on white paper on a tray, and a little bowl with a live coal in it to light his pipe with. It is etiquette to carry away the remnants of the cake or candy folded up in the paper and put in the wide sleeve. Chop sticks take the place of the knife and fork. Meat, venison, poultry, game, and large vegetables are cut or sliced before being brought on the table. Food is eaten out of lacquered wooden bowls and porcelain cups. A feast is accompanied by music and dancing, and the last of the many courses is rice and tea. Saké, or rice beer, is served throughout the feast; it is kept in tall bottles, which are first set in boiling water to heat the saké, which is always drunk hot. The cups used at a feast are very small, and are passed around or thrown across to each other by the guests, and filled by pretty damsels in waiting. At a banquet any one can introduce himself to another person by offering the cup; if he drinks and returns the cup, the introduction is made and acquaintance begins. The ordinary dress of both sexes and all ranks is somewhat similar in form, differing chiefly in the colors, fineness, and value of the materials, those of the higher orders being of silk, and of the lower orders of hemp and cotton cloth; it consists of a number of loose wide gowns worn over each other, and fastened by a girdle. Every class of the people is distinguished by certain peculiarities of dress. On the back and breast of the outer garment of the higher classes a family or clan crest is woven or worked. The sleeves are very long and wide, and serve for pockets. The Japanese display very good taste in their dress, but the women wear brighter colors than the men, and bolder their robes with gay embroidery and gold. On occasions of ceremony, a hempen jacket, open at the sides and projecting in wings at the shoulder, and wide trousers of the same material, together forming the kamishimo, are worn. The hakama or loose trousers, like a long kilt, are the distinguishing murk of the dress of a samurai. Within doors socks or foot mittens, having a special compartment for the great toe, are worn. For outdoor use, clogs, heavy blocks of wood, or straw soles, having a double thong which fits between the great and second toe and binds over the top and side of the foot, are worn. Straw sandals are used by farmers, coolies, and travellers. Usually neither men nor women wear head coverings, except broad screens to shed the rain and to keep off the sun. In cold weather a cloth cap, covering all but the eyes and nose, is worn. Rain coats made of oiled paper, and cloaks made of straw or pieces of matting, are common in rainy weather. Their umbrellas are very large, the frames of bamboo, and the covering of oiled paper. The fan is carried by both sexes. Hitherto the custom of wearing two swords, one above the other on the same side of the body, was the distinguishing mark of the samurai; the lower classes were allowed to carry one sword. These customs are now nearly obsolete. European dress is becoming common among all classes, and the government officials are required by law to wear it. Even the court costume has been laid aside for black coats, white neckties and gloves, black pantaloons, and boots. The houses of the Japanese are low, and built of a frame of wood, with wattling of reeds or bamboo, the interstices filled with mud and covered with white plaster. The eaves are very broad, and a veranda extends around the house. The windows and doors are frames of wood, covered with paper, and sliding in grooves. Most of the partitions consist of sliding paper doors, which can be removed in a moment and a great hall extemporized. Outer shutters or "rain doors" protect the paper doors at night and in stormy weather. Almost every house, rich or poor, has a garden attached, which is usually a miniature landscape. Fire-proof warehouses are made by coating a strong frame of timber and bamboo with layers of mud amounting to a foot in thickness. The walls, doors, and windows are all of the same thickness and material. The merchant stores his goods and families put their valuables in these. Should a fire occur near by, a mud paste is quickly made, and several candles are lighted within the warehouse to convert the oxygen of the air into carbonic acid gas. The doors and windows are then closed, and the mud smeared over the cracks, to prevent any draft. After a fire these warehouses stand unharmed, like islands in a sea of ashes. Fires are frequent and terribly destructive. One in Tokio, April 3, 1872, destroyed 5,117 houses and made over 20,000 people homeless. It is estimated that the entire space of the city is burned over every seven years.—Polygamy is not allowed in Japan, but concubinage is very prevalent.