JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 3 



to any people that mold the ethics and character of the nation 

 itself. In a word, we must enter the homes of both high and low, 

 there to learn facts and not " foreign impressions." 



But, alas ! the task is one most difficult to accomplish, for it 

 must "be acknowledged that the vast majority of foreign residents, 

 and practically all transient visitors to the country, see little or 

 nothing of the details of the home life of the people. And why ? 

 Is the life of the people just what they see it to be in its pic- 

 turesque and courteous superficiality, and is it indeed all poetry, 

 music, and flowers, and no earnest reality ? 



Indeed, there is; for the word "home" has the same tender 

 meaning in the hearts of the Japanese as with us ; and the cricket 

 that chirps so lustily on the hearths of American or English 

 homes would find a rival songster in the cheery little fellow 

 whose contented chirp by the side of the glowing brazier, or 

 hibachi, makes such sweet music in Japanese homes. 



Apart from the diplomatic and consular representatives from 

 Western countries, the foreign residents of Japan are chiefly com- 

 posed of merchants, missionaries, and a comparatively small 

 number of professional men. The merchant or trading class 

 represent by all odds the majority of the foreign community. 

 Numerically, missionaries would come next. Indeed, it would 

 not be an unfair estimate to state that these two classes constitute 

 at least four fifths of the foreign population. Trading, as far as 

 foreigners are concerned, is still limited to the treaty ports, in- 

 cluding Yokohama, Kobe', Nagasaki, and a few others. Socially, 

 the Japanese merchant ranks below the humblest tradesman, and, 

 as all foreign trading with the interior must be carried on through 

 the medium of these Japanese commission merchants, it is with 

 this class of people that the majority of the foreign residents 

 come in contact, and then only in their business relations, and 

 seldom socially or intimately ; although, were this the case, the 

 idea gained of Japanese home life would be misleading, for the 

 Japanese trader very soon learns to conform himself to the man- 

 ners of his customers, and can not be regarded — as thus met — as 

 typical of the truly Japanese. 



The missionaries as well, for the most part at least, have little 

 opportunity to study the details of the social or home life of the 

 people they are working among. Theirs is a duty and vocation 

 which from its very nature would render this well-nigh impossi- 

 ble. They are teachers, not students ; they are bearers of spiritual 

 truths, and must needs open warfare against the existing creeds of 

 the people ; and this attitude in itself would, in the majority of in- 

 stances at least, debar them from entering into the pursuits or 

 pastimes of the people. Before leaving the subject of mission- 

 aries, I would call attention to the frequent allusions made by the 



