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xxviii

“Ko-ji-ki,” or Records of Ancient Matters.

of the reign of the Emperor Jim-mu which occurs both in the “Records” and in the “Chronicles,” and another in the reign of the Emperor Sui-nin occurring in the “Records” only, might be interpreted so as to support this statement.^[1] But both are extremely obscure, and beyond the fact that people who habitually lived near the water may have built their houses after the aquatic fashion practised in different parts of the world by certain savage tribes both ancient and modern, the present writer is not aware of any authority for the assertion that they actually did so except the isolated passage in the “Yamato Tales” just quoted.

A peculiar sort of dwelling-place which the two old histories bring prominently under our notice, is the so-called “parturition-house,”—a one-roomed hut without windows which a woman was expected to build and retire into for the purpose of being delivered unseen.^[2] It would also appear to be not unlikely that newly-married couples retired into a

↑ See Sect. XLIV, Note 12 and Sect. LXXII, Note 29.
↑ Mr. Ernest Satow, who in 1878 visited the island of Hachijō, gives the following details concerning the observance down to modern times in that remote corner of the Japanese Empire of the custom mentioned in the text: “In Hachijō women, when about to become mothers, were formerly driven out to the huts on the mountain-side, and according to the accounts of native writers, left to shift for themselves, the result not unfrequently being the death of the newborn infant, or if it survived the rude circumstances under which it first saw the light, the seeds of disease were sown which clung to it throughout its after life. The rule of non-intercourse was so strictly enforced, that the woman was not allowed to leave the hut even to visit her own parents at the point of death, and besides the injurious effects that this solitary confinement must have had on the wives themselves, their prolonged absence was a serious loss to households, where there were elder children and large establishments to be superintended. The rigour of the custom was so far relaxed in modern times, that the huts were no longer built on the hills, but were constructed inside the homestead. It was a subject of wonder to people from other parts of Japan that the senseless practice should still be kept up, and its abolition was often recommended, but the administration of the Shôguns was not animated by a reforming spirit, and it remained for the Government of the Mikado to exhort the islanders to abandon this and the previously mentioned custom. They are therefore no longer sanctiond by official authority and the force of social opinion against them is increasing, so that before long these relics of ancient ceremonial religion will in all probability have disappeared from the group of islands.” (Trans. of the Asiat. Soc. of Japan, Vol. VI, Pt. III, pp. 455–6.)

[1] See Sect. XLIV, Note 12 and Sect. LXXII, Note 29.

[2] Mr. Ernest Satow, who in 1878 visited the island of Hachijō, gives the following details concerning the observance down to modern times in that remote corner of the Japanese Empire of the custom mentioned in the text: “In Hachijō women, when about to become mothers, were formerly driven out to the huts on the mountain-side, and according to the accounts of native writers, left to shift for themselves, the result not unfrequently being the death of the newborn infant, or if it survived the rude circumstances under which it first saw the light, the seeds of disease were sown which clung to it throughout its after life. The rule of non-intercourse was so strictly enforced, that the woman was not allowed to leave the hut even to visit her own parents at the point of death, and besides the injurious effects that this solitary confinement must have had on the wives themselves, their prolonged absence was a serious loss to households, where there were elder children and large establishments to be superintended. The rigour of the custom was so far relaxed in modern times, that the huts were no longer built on the hills, but were constructed inside the homestead. It was a subject of wonder to people from other parts of Japan that the senseless practice should still be kept up, and its abolition was often recommended, but the administration of the Shôguns was not animated by a reforming spirit, and it remained for the Government of the Mikado to exhort the islanders to abandon this and the previously mentioned custom. They are therefore no longer sanctiond by official authority and the force of social opinion against them is increasing, so that before long these relics of ancient ceremonial religion will in all probability have disappeared from the group of islands.” (Trans. of the Asiat. Soc. of Japan, Vol. VI, Pt. III, pp. 455–6.)

[1]

[2]