614 



JAPAN. 



Japan. 



Polygamy 

 permitted. 



Funeral 

 obsequies. 



morning, two in the afternoon, and eight in the evening. 

 The women eat by themselves, apart from the men. The 

 practice of smoking tobacco, which is supposed to have 

 been introduced into Japan by the Portuguese, is very 

 common with both sexes. Their pipes are very short, 

 seldom more than six inches in length, and scarcely 

 contain half a thimble full of tobacco. The stem is 

 made of lackered bamboo, and the mouth-piece and 

 bowl of copper. They are smoked out by a very few 

 whiffs, and require to be repeatedly filled. The appa- 

 ratus used by persons of distinction consists of an ob- 

 long box, about eighteen inches in length and a foot in 

 breadth, of a brown or black colour, which contains, be- 

 sides pipes and tobacco, three cups ; one, which is lined 

 with brass, for holding a live coal to light the pipe, 

 another to receive the ashes of the tobacco, and a third 

 to serve as a spit-box. At visits, this apparatus is the 

 first thing that is placed before the guests, and is some- 

 times carried by a servant to places where tobacco is 

 not expected to be presented. The poorer classes have 

 their tobacco pouch and pipe slung to their girdle by a 

 silken cord. 



Polygamy is allowed in Japan, as in other Asiatic 

 countries ; though, in general, all but one female, who 

 is acknowledged a wife, are merely regarded as concu- 

 bines. This, of course, applies to the higher classes ; 

 the poor can only maintain one woman. The husband 

 here, as in all eastern countries, exerts a complete des- 

 potism, but the wives are not so closely shut up as in 

 China. Married women distinguish themselves in some 

 places by painting their teeth black, and in others by 

 pulling out the hair of their eye-brows. They are 

 known also by wearing the knot of their girdle before, 

 while others have it behind. Marriages are solemnized 

 in the open air, in the presence of the priests and rela- 

 tions of the parties, without much pomp or solemnity. 

 The bridegroom and bride advance together to an altar, 

 erected for the purpose, with a torch in their hands, 

 and, while the priest reads a form of prayer, the latter, 

 having lighted her torch at a burning lamp, holds it 

 out to the bridegroom, who lights his torch from hers. 

 The guests then congratulate the new married couple, 

 and the ceremony is concluded. The suitor makes a 

 present to the father-in-law before obtaining his daugh- 

 ter ; so that the more daughters a man has, and the 

 handsomer their persons, so much the richer is he es- 

 teemed. The women often paint their lips with a violet 

 colour ; and are described by Thunberg as not remark- 

 able for modesty. Nor are they the less esteemed for 

 having served in the public brothels, establishments 

 which are found in every town and village. 



The bodies of persons of distinction are burned, 

 while others are interred. The funeral pile is erected 

 in a small house of stone fitted for the purpose, and 

 provided with a chimney. The body is brought thither 

 accompanied by men and women, and attended by a 

 numerous train of priests, who are continually occupied 

 in singing. Upon reaching the place for burning, one 

 of the priests sings the eulogy of the deceased, and 

 having thrice -waved a lighted torch over the body, 

 throws it away. It is then picked up by one of the 

 children, or other relatives of the deceased, and applied 

 to the funeral pile. The ashes are carried away in a 

 costly vessel, and preserved for some time in the house, 

 but afterwards are buried ha the earth. Those who are 

 not burned, are inclosed in a wooden chest, and let 

 down into a grave in the customary manner. Fragrant 

 Apices are cast into the grave, and flswers planted on 

 the earth which covers it. The surviving relatives vi- 



5 



sit the tombs of their friends for many years after their Japan, 

 death, and sometimes during the whole of their lives, T""" 1 

 besides observing, as in China, the feast of lanthorns in 

 honour of the dead. 



In every superstitious country, we find the celebra- Festivals. 

 tion of festivals attended by a relaxation of public mo- 

 rals, but in Japan a salutary check is imposed upon an 

 abandonment to licentiousness by a wise regulation, 

 prohibiting the celebration of national feasts for days 

 successively. In conformity with this law, the feast 

 called Kermes is held on the llth, 13th, and 15th days 

 of October. Krusenstern mentions a feast celebrated 

 on the 1st of April called Mussume Matzury, on which 

 occasion parents present dolls to their children. Trif- 

 ling as the object of this festival appears, the Japanese 

 seem to regard it otherwise, as they gravely requested 

 the suspension of the work of the ship carpenters ashore 

 during its celebration, which consists in dances, drama- 

 tic representations, and magnificent processions. The 

 usual holidays in Japan are the first day of every month, 

 when they rise early, dress in their best clothes, and 

 visit their superiors or friends to wish them joy of the 

 new moon ; the fifteenth day, when the moon is at the 

 full ; and the twenty-eighth day, or the day before the 

 new month. Besides these monthly festivals, they ce- 

 lebrate five others which happen only once in the year, 

 namely, the first day of the new year ; the third day 

 of the third month ; the fifth day of the fifth month ; 

 the seventh day of the seventh month ; and the ninth 

 day of the ninth month. These, which are all uneven 

 numbers, are regarded by the Japanese as unlucky days ; 

 and, therefore, laying aside all business, they are de- 

 dicated to mirth and mutual congratulations. On some 

 of these days, in preference to ordinary days, they 

 choose to celebrate their nuptials, and to give their en- 

 tertainments. Their amusements on these occasions 

 consist chiefly in dramatic representations and dances. 

 In their theatres, the spectators sit on benches fronting 

 the stage, which is a little elevated, but so small and 

 narrow as seldom to allow room for more than one or 

 two actors at a time. They generally represent some 

 great exploit or love story of their divinities and heroes, 

 vrhich are frequently composed in verse, and sometimes 

 accompanied with music. No machinery or decorations 

 are brought forward ; but the chief part of the amuse- 

 ment seems to consist in the frightful dresses and un- 

 couth contortions of the actors. The dances at private 

 entertainments are performed by young women and 

 boys hired for the purpose, who exhibit a variety of 

 pantomimical gestures and evolutions, expressive of 

 some heroic action or love intrigue, regulating their 

 steps at the same time by the music. 



The most prevalent religious sects in Japan, are those R e ij ff ; on 

 of Sinto and Budsdo. That of Sinto, which is the most an d modes 

 ancient, though its adherents are now least numerous, of worship, 

 is conceived to have originated from Babylonian emi- 

 grants, and to have been originally very simple and 

 pure in its tenets. Its followers acknowledge a Supreme 

 Being, who inhabits the highest heavens, and who is 

 far too great to require their worship ; but they admit 

 a multitude of inferior divinities, who exercise domi- 

 nion over the earth, water, air, &c. and have great 

 power in promoting the happiness or misery of the hu- 

 man race. They have some conception of the soul's 

 immortality, and believe, that a happy abode imme- 

 diately under heaven is assigned to the spirits of the 

 virtuous, while those of the wicked shall be doomed to 

 wander to and fro under the firmament. Their practi- 

 cal precepts are directed to inculcate a virtuous life, and 



