up and down the pages of the earlier portion of the “Records” we endeavour to follow an Archaic Japanese through the chief events of his life from the cradle to the tomb, it will be necessary to begin by recalling what has already been alluded to as the “parturition-house” built by the mother, and in which, as we are specially told that it was made windowless, it would perhaps be contradictory to say that the infant first saw the light. Soon after birth a name was given to it,—given to it by the mother,—such name generally containing some appropriate personal reference. In the most ancient times each person (so far as we can judge) bore but one name, or rather one string of words compounded together into a sort of personal designation. But already at the dawn of the historical epoch we are met by the mention of surnames and of what, in the absence of a more fitting word, the translator has ventured to call “gentile names,” bestowed by the sovereign as a recompense for some noteworthy deed.[1]
It may be gathered from our text that the idea of calling in the services of wet-nurses in certain exceptional cases had already suggested itself to the minds of the ruling class, whose infants were likewise sometimes attended by special bathing-women. To what we should call education, whether mental or physical, there is absolutely no reference made in the histories. All that can be inferred is that, when old enough to do so, the boys began to follow one of the callings of hunter or fisherman, while the girls staid at home weaving the garments of the family. There was also a great deal of fighting, generally of a treacherous kind, in the intervals of which the warriors occupied themselves in cultivating patches of ground. The very little which is to be gathered concerning the treatment of old people would seem to indicate that they were well cared for.
We are nowhere told of any wedding ceremonies except the giving of presents by the bride or her father, the probable reason being
- ↑ The custom of using surnames was certainly borrowed from China, although the Japanese, have not, like the Koreans, gone so far as to adopt the actual surnames in use in that country. The “gentile names” may have sprung up more naturally, though they too show traces of Chinese influence. Those most frequently met with are Agata-nushi, Ason, Atahe, Kimi, Miyatsuko, Murazhi, Omi, Sukune, and Wake. See above, pp. xv–xvi.
