MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 327 



MORAL LIFE OF THE JAPANESE. 



By Dr. W. DELANO EASTLAKE. 



AMONG the many interesting features that a close acquaint- 

 - ance with Japan and its people reveals to foreigners, the 

 ethics of the Japanese will surely claim the paramount attention 

 of the ethnologist. The people are unlike any other ; and we find 

 that this strong national individuality — so fascinating to visitors 

 to Japan — reaches far beyond the quaint homes, graceful costumes, 

 obsequious courtesy of both rich and poor, and the picturesque 

 beauty of the country itself ; finding its origin in the very heart 

 of the people, inculcated by the lives and precepts of generation 

 upon generation of warriors, poets, and statesmen. 



The moral life of the Japanese has found many exponents in 

 the literature of the Occident, and, on account of the contradic- 

 tory character of many of the writings on the subject, the ideas 

 gained by the reading public can not be other than confusing and 

 vague. Any just consideration of the ethics of the Japanese 

 admits of no equivocation, and conventional prudery must in all 

 cases be replaced by simple, ungarnished facts. I would neither 

 seek to confirm nor deny the varied statements of other observers, 

 believing that a clearer insight may be gained from a brief por- 

 trayal of the various ethical influences — either domestic, social, or 

 religious — that touch the life of the people from early childhood 

 until, after life is done, their mortal remains are packed into a 

 square pine box, not unlike an ordinary dry-goods case, and con- 

 signed to the keeping of Mother Earth. 



Japan has been frequently referred to as the " Children's Para- 

 dise/' and with considerable justice, for in no other country is child- 

 hood made so much of, and are children surrounded by so many 

 devices for their amusement. In every town there are numbers 

 of street venders and hawkers whose sole customers are children. 

 One class of these venders carry two charcoal stoves, or furnaces, 

 swung in the conventional manner of the country from the ends 

 of a pole which rests across the shoulder. Arriving at a conven- 

 ient corner, the load is put down, and a group of eager children 

 quickly gather. For the moderate sum of one or two rin * the 

 children are each supplied with a tiny cup of sweetened batter 

 and a spoon. Thus equipped, they proceed to bake their own 

 cookies on the smooth iron top of the stoves, fashioning the dain- 

 ties into whatever shape they please, and when they are crisp and 

 brown, devouring them. The ame vender also devotes his skill to 



* The Japanese rin is the tenth part of one sen, or cent; 1,000 rin, therefore, equal one 

 yen, or dollar. 



