MOUS MI
Jinrikisha Days in Japan
BY
ELIZA RUHAMAH SCIDMORE
“Waga kuni no Yamato shima no ni idzuru hi wa;
Morokoshi hito mo, awoga zarameya.”
“In the ancient Yamato inland, my native land, the sun rises;
Must not even the Western foreigner reverence?”
“I cannot cease from praising these Japanese. They are truly the delight of my heart.”
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved
PREFACE
The aim of this small book is to present, in outline sketches only, something of the Japan of to-day, as it appeared to a tourist who was a foreign resident as well. No one person can see it all, nor comprehend it, as the jinrikisha speeds through city streets and country roads, nor do any two people enjoy just the same experiences or draw the same conclusions as to this remarkable people.
The scientists, scholars, and specialists who have written so fully of Japan, have necessarily omitted many of those less important phases of life which yet leave the pleasantest impressions on less serious minds. The books of ten or twenty years ago hardly describe the country that a visitor now finds, and in another decade the present aspect will have greatly changed. Bewildered by its novelty and strangeness, too many tourists come and go with little knowledge of the Japan of the Japanese, and, beholding only the modernized sea-ports and the capital, miss the unique and distinctively national sights and experiences that lie close at hand.
This unassuming chronicle is the outcome of two visits, covering nearly three years’ stay in the Island Empire, a period during which a continued residence was maintained, by turns, in each of the larger ports, while many weeks were spent in Kioto, Nara, and Nikko. Its object will be attained if it helps the tourist to enjoy more satisfactorily his stay in Japan, or if it gives the stay-at-home reader a greater interest in those fascinating people and their lovely home. Unfortunately, it is impossible in acknowledging the kindness of the many Japanese friends and acquaintances who secured to me so many unusual enjoyments and experiences, to begin to give the long list of their names. Each foreign visitor must feel himself indebted to the whole race for being Japanese, and therefore the most interesting population in the world, and his obligation is to the whole people, as much as to particular individuals.
To Mr. John Brisben Walker, of The Cosmopolitan, thanks are extended for permission to reprint the chapter entitled “The Japanese Theatre,” which first appeared in the pages of that magazine.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE I. 1 II. 10 III. 20 IV. 28 V. 38 VI. 43 VII. 53 VIII. 65 IX. 86 X. 96 XI. 111 XII. 125 XIII. 134 XIV. 140 XV. 147 XVI. 162 XVII. 175 XVIII. 183 XIX. 189 XX. I97 XXI. 206 XXII. 216 XXIII. 226 XXIV. 236 XXV. 244 XXVI. 255 XXVII. 267 XXVIII. 277 XXIX. 285 XXX. 296 XXXI. 304 XXXII. 320 XXXIII. 331 XXXIV. 340 XXXV. 350 XXXVI. 358 XXXVII. 368 377
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE - MOUS MI
Frontispiece 5 17 30 55 67 71 75 79 82 83 85 88 - CHOPSTICKS—FIG. 3
89 93 94 107 115 117 12I 127 129 151 155 163 171 213 219 231 248 262 263 264 265 270 272 273 288 305 317 324 347
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published in 1891, before the cutoff of January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1928, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 95 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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