January iS, 1906] 



NA TURE 



27 1 



T 



MORE ABOUT JAPAN. Speaking of the Portuguese and Spanish friars, the 



HE interest that has been awakened in Japan name of St. Francis Xavier stands out above all others 



through her wonderful exploits in the war on account of his wide personal influence among the 



ainst Russia makes a book on her systems of Japanese, and this clever Jesuit made more converts 



fighting — both ancient and modern— particularly 

 welcome when military experts are still marvelling at 

 the perfection of her organisation in war time, bring- 

 ing as it has done the success which follows as the 

 natural result of attention to the smallest details. 



In " The Fighting Man of Japan " l we have a 

 very interesting little book by Mr. F. J. Norman, who 

 is eminently fitted to discourse on the " Exercises and 

 Training of the Samurai," having passed many years 

 in Japan as instructor to some of the military and 

 civilian colleges. As the author claims the indulgence 



to the Roman faith than have ever been made since 

 by the missionaries of any other creed. That he loved 

 the Japanese is proved by his writing to France early 

 in the sixteenth century : — " These people (meaning 

 the Japanese) are the delight of my soul." Unfor- 

 tunately, his good influence was entirely destroyed by 

 the arrival of European traders who exploited the un- 

 suspecting Orientals in such an unprincipled way that 

 they rose en masse and massacred almost every one of 

 the foreigners, and after this regarded them with such 

 distrust and detestation that it was manv vears before 



of his readers in his preface, it is perhaps hardly fair they could regain any foothold in the country. 

 to notice the grammatical errors that occur here and An interesting chapter is that on the education of 

 there, and after all they do not alter the interest of the naval and military officers, showing what a very 

 the book- but it would have been advisable to omit fine sieve has to be passed through before the aspir- 

 the blatant advertisements of a cer- 

 tain jujitsu school both at the be- 

 ginning and end of the book, for the 

 especial benefit of which the author 

 confesses to have written his work. 



The book is divided into four 

 chapters, each of which deals with 

 a separate subject. The first gives 

 a rapid sketch of Japanese military 

 history dating from 1543, which is 

 as far back as our European know- 

 ledge of it extends, and incidentally 

 giving a description of the spirit 

 which animated the " Samurai " of 

 old — and a very different one, it 

 would appear from Mr. Norman's 

 account, from that which guided our 

 knights and crusaders ; but East is 

 East and West is West, and how- 

 ever much the Orientals assimilate 

 our ideas of civilisation and educa- 

 tion, the spirit will remain un- 

 altered; their ideals and ours will for 

 ever be as far distant as the poles. 

 One example of this is enough : — 

 " The bushi (or warrior) . . . held 

 to the maxim that ' all is fair in love 

 and war,' and scrupled not to resort 

 to devices of the most dishonourable 

 kind in order to gain a desired 

 object "; and in the case of a hand- 

 to-hand fight, were his opponent to 

 fall or lose his sword this was re- 

 garded as the best possible occasion 

 for hacking at him while he was 

 down and unable to defend himself. 



Mr. Norman considers the Dutch to have been the 

 first to attempt to train a Japanese naval force, 

 although he allows that the Portuguese and Spanish 

 friars of the sixteenth century must be credited as the 

 first instructors of the " Far Easterner, " in the art 

 of shipbuilding and the science of navigation. It is a 

 remarkable fact not generally known that in the 

 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries many modes of self- 

 defence were practised by the Dutch that were almost 

 identical with those used by the Japanese in the art 

 of jujitsu. The question is, Did the Dutch take their 

 ideas to Japan, or were they taught by the Japanese? 

 A very interesting book illustrating many modes of 

 self-defence that are the same as those used to-day 

 by the Japanese was written early in the sixteenth 

 century by one Nicolas Petter. 



— Corps a Corps a la Japo 



From " The Fighting Man of Japan.' 



Fighting Man of Japan 

 of the Samurai.) Pp. 

 Ltd., 1905.) Price 2s. 6tf. 



By F. J. Norman. (The Tra ning 

 i-t-79. (London : Archibald Constable 



ant-- are thought capable and worthy of defending 

 their country either as sailors or soldiers. The system 

 of the fine sieve is of course applied to the officers 

 only in each service ; the rank and file receive a sound 

 practical training, but " little or no attention is paid 

 by the officers to the teaching of parade and show 

 movements to their men. . . . Women not occupying 

 the position in Japanese Society they do in the West, 

 little or no pains are taken by the military authorities 

 of the Mikado to cater for their amusement, and the 

 result is one never sees any ' Agricultural Hall tom- 

 foolery ' in Japan. " 



The chapter on " Kenjutsu " deals with the affec- 

 tion the Japanese have always felt for the sword, and 

 the great cleverness they exhibit when using it in a 

 hand-to-hand fight. This cleverness would appear to 

 be the result of much practice in " kenjutsu," for 

 which a " shinai," or practice sword, is used, made 

 from four strips of bamboo bound together at the 



NO. 189O, VOL. 73] 



