THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



MAY, 1893. 



JAPANESE HOME LIFE. 



By Dr. W. DELANO EASTLAKE. 



IT must be confessed that the ideas of Japan and the Japanese 

 which we are likely to gain through the current literature of 

 the day are apt to be sadly confusing. This, I am quite confident, 

 is not from any desire on the part of writers on Japanese subjects 

 to encourage any false impressions, but rather from the very fact 

 that neither poet nor artist traveler — ay, nor many of the long 

 residents in Japan, for that matter — have opportunity to see or 

 take part in the home life of the people of Japan. 



But few visitors to that country have been able, in so short a 

 time, to become so thoroughly en rapport with the customs and 

 life of this interesting people as Sir Edwin Arnold, whose grace- 

 ful writings show us how he has thought with them, lived with 

 them, and loved with them in a deeper and truer sense than many 

 of the oldest foreign residents, although his stay was compara- 

 tively short. Yet even in Sir Edwin's writings on Japan we see 

 the poetry rather than the prose of Japanese life ; and this is not 

 to be wondered at, for of all countries and people none could 

 appeal so deeply to the poet as does this fairyland of flowers and 

 romance. The very air one breathes, the delicious sense of rest 

 and quiet, the graceful courtesy of the people, the romantic 

 beauty of mountain or highway, city or dwelling — all these, and 

 far more, complete an ideal picture that awakens enthusiasm in 

 the prosiest of tourists or visitors. It could surely scarcely have 

 been otherwise that the author of the Light of Asia, whose very 

 heart-strings are tuned to the melody of poetry, should have struck 

 the keynote of Japanese life and awakened naught but answering 

 chords of most enchanting harmony. 



VOL. XLIII. 1 



