JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 5 



representatives of certain missions, to the disrespect and disre- 

 gard paid to them or their teachings by the Japanese. Such 

 assertions are too sweeping, to say the least, as well as mislead- 

 ing, for many of the foreign missionaries in Japan have gained 

 the high esteem of natives, and have endeared themselves, both 

 by their noble, self-sacrificing lives, as well as ever ready sym- 

 pathy and friendliness. There have been many missionaries sent 

 to Japan during the past decade who are educationally sadly in- 

 competent to meet the emergencies that present themselves in 

 Japan. It must be borne in mind that the standard of education 

 of the present generation in Japan is most high. The works of 

 Huxley, Spencer, Darwin, and many others have, for the most 

 part, been translated into Japanese, and the students and gradu- 

 ates of the university, the Dai galcko, are able to compete educa- 

 tionally with men from our best colleges and universities. The 

 eagerness for knowledge that one finds so universally displayed 

 among the Japanese, together with the remarkable advance in 

 this direction that the nation has made during the past twenty 

 years, and the prominent position Japan is assuming in its rela- 

 tions to America and European countries — all this commands our 

 unbiased interest and respect. 



The task of endeavoring to portray a clear, although of neces- 

 sity incomplete, view of Japanese home life is one of no little dif- 

 ficulty. It would seem almost as difficult as an adequate descrip- 

 tion of a Beethoven sonata would be without the aid of music. 

 For there is a subtle " something " about Japan in which, perhaps, 

 the exquisite harmony of the land — the scenery and the people — 

 plays an important part ; yet a " something " that is wont to cast 

 a charmed spell around one, and causes a former resident, like 

 myself, to look back to the years spent in the " Land of the Rising 

 Sun" as to the memory of some peaceful vision of fairyland. 

 This indefinable charm can not be described in mere word-pic- 

 tures, and yet escapes few visitors to Japan, and is seldom lost 

 even after long residence in that country. 



The sense of restfulness that pervades our Japanese towns, in 

 bold contradistinction to that feeling of noisy hurry and feverish 

 excitement of a busy American city, has been attributed to the 

 comparative absence of horse traffic in the former. Undoubtedly 

 this is a potent factor, but not the only one which gives that sense 

 of quiet and repose already referred to. The courteous politeness 

 of the people, both rich and poor, the general evidences of light- 

 heartedness among even the poorest laboring classes, the absence 

 of that distracting hurry and rush so typical of our great busi- 

 ness centers, and in addition to all this the picturesque houses and 

 streets, the spotlessly clean homes, the evidences everywhere of a 

 national love for the beautiful and artistic, the absence of saloons 



