CHAPTER VII. 



A GLIMPSE OF SOCIAL LIFE IN JAPAN. 



Extending our survey to Japan we come among a people 

 who interest us greatly in many ways. Their dress is neat 

 and picturesque, their personal appearance pleasing, and 

 closer acquaintance makes us feel well-disposed towards 

 these children of the Rising Sun. For they are very polite 

 and show great solicitude towards the Western stranger, and 

 do all they can for his comfort. We observe with sympathy^ 

 and perhaps a touch of amusement, their primitive simpli- 

 city of manners and habits, which are all the more piquant 

 because of their naturalness. Their native genius has in 

 recent years revealed itself in a ready apprehension of im- 

 mediate circumstances and in an intelligent adaptability to 

 new conditions, as well as in wise forethought. Their de- 

 votion to duty and disregard of self when the honour and 

 interests of their country are at stake shone out brilliantly 

 during the great conflict now happily ended. But this brief 

 observation would be incomplete without mention of the 

 animating and sustaining principle of their religion, Shintoism. 

 Their child-like belief in a spirit-world where their ancestors 

 are looking down upon them cannot fail to influence them 

 for good in every thought and deed. 



We must go back six hundred years for the earliest 

 European mention of Japan. In 1298, Marco Polo, at the 



