Chapter V: The Japanese at Work and Play

When we landed in Japan from our voyage across the Pacific, huge, gaily colored paper fish were flying like banners in the breeze above thousands of houses. Some were in clusters; some were so large that they might have been taken for whales. When we inquired, we learned that they were displayed in honor of the boys. In Japan each person does not have an individual birthday, but certain dates in the year are considered the anniversary of everyone, no matter on what particular day each was born. A Japanese baby born in December is said to be two years old in January, because it was regarded as a year old as soon as it was born and everyone is considered to be a year older each New Year’s Day. But the birthday celebrations of the girls are in March and those of the boys in May. Therefore, as it was now May, every family with a boy, especially a new baby boy, flew a paper fish in his honor.

This fish is supposed to be the carp, though the big paper things, swollen out with the wind that blows in from the sea, sometimes look as much like pickerel or bullheads. The carp is a sturdy fish, which fights its way even up high waterfalls, and is not easily discouraged. Therefore it is regarded by the Japanese as a symbol of courage. They think, quite properly, that all boys should be as brave and persevering as the carp.

During the Boys’ Festival, every family in which there is a boy honors
him by flying a paper fish.
]

A Display of Toys

If we had gone into some of the houses over which the fish were flying, we should have found all sorts of toys and boyish treasures laid out to make the boys happy. The Japanese are great makers of toys. There are whole shops given over entirely to playthings, most of them very gay in color. Because they are more easily broken than our toys, the boys become more careful of them. The usual reason for their flimsiness is that they are sold very cheaply. Some of the things that are laid out on the “fifth day of the fifth moon,” as the Boys’ Festival is called, are very old, for they are handed down from father to son, sometimes for many generations. Most of the toys are military ones, such as soldiers, weapons and flags. The Japanese have always been warriors, and every boy is expected to become a soldier, if necessary, and fight for the Mikado. As it is not much more than half a century since the Japanese began to dress, equip, and drill their armies like those of America and Europe, many of the old toys represent the curious armor, swords, and gaily dressed generals of the ancient days.

At the Girls’ Festival in March, dolls take the place of the paper fish. This time all the dolls in the house, some of them old ones that have been used for many generations, are set out. They remain for three days, and the girls pretend to feed them three times a day. Some of the dolls represent the Mikado and the Empress and the royal princes. These are especially honored.

The Schools of Japan

No one can be long in Japan without seeing groups of children on their way to school. Every child in that country is expected to stay in school at least until he finishes what we would call the grammar grades. Girls in school do not wear kimonos, as they do at home, but skirts, jackets, long stockings, and usually leather shoes like ours. On their way to and from school they wear hats, although at other times they do not.

Boys and girls both carry their books and other school things in knapsacks held by a strap over one shoulder. If a pupil came to school carrying books under one arm, or swinging them from a strap, he would be scolded by the teacher and perhaps be punished. Because the Japanese are a very orderly people and like things done in an almost military way, the boys and girls on their way to school remind one of squads of soldiers. The boys often wear a kind of uniform, of dark cloth in cold weather and usually white during the summer. But whether or not they wear a complete uniform, almost every schoolboy, from the first grade to the last year at the university, has a uniform cap, something like those of our policemen, or of the officers of our navy. The teachers, who are nearly always men, also often have a kind of uniform. In some parts of the empire the teacher wears a sword, but this is only a sign that he is an officer of the Mikado. (You will find pictures of Japanese pupils and a teacher in Chapters XII and XIII.)

Photo from Maude W. Madden

Suppose we call the little Japanese girl who owns these dolls Haru-ko
San. They are mostly ancestral dolls (she calls them O-hina-sama),
with the Emperor and Empress at the top under the canopy, and lower
down courtiers, court musicians and others. On the lowest shelf is
probably such a figure as a maiden carrying a water pail to remind
Haru-ko San of household duties. And on the floor are three ordinary
“play” dolls, which perhaps she really loves best, for the others
must not be played with. The ancestral dolls are often dressed in
handsome brocaded robes, and may cost a great deal. They are kept
very carefully so that once a year, in March when the Doll Festival
occurs, they may all be brought out and displayed. With them are
shown the lacquered chests, kimono racks, trays, tables, and vases
that the ancestral dolls would need for housekeeping. These too are
very beautiful.
]

In the olden days Japanese schools were very different from our own. Then the pupils studied very much as many Chinese boys still do. That is, they all squatted on the floor, rocked back and forth, and shouted at the top of their voices the words they were trying to learn. These words were taken from the old Japanese or Chinese classics, the ancient books of the Far East. Even small children were expected to learn long sentences and sometimes whole pages from solemn volumes either of poems or of morals, resembling sermons. When they learned to write, it was by holding sheets of tissue paper in the hand and painting upon them with a little brush made of camel’s hair.

The Japanese school children still write with such a brush, but they also learn to use a pen and even the typewriter. In the schools, more than anywhere else, we can see the influence our Western world has had on Japan. In all the cities big stone and brick buildings that look almost as if they had been brought bodily from America are filled with school children. There are benches and desks, blackboards and chalk boxes. The lessons are on many different subjects, just as in our schools, and not merely the old classics. Nor do the children any longer shout their lessons and memorize long passages. They learn to read much as American children do, though it takes them longer, and no wonder! Japan still has the written language of the Chinese, with every word represented by a very intricate sign, instead of separate letters that can be made up into all kinds of words. In place of an alphabet of twenty-six letters, the poor Japanese pupil has to memorize hundreds, and later thousands, of these queer drawings. It is easier to write these with a little brush than with a pen. Gradually, however, the Japanese are getting away from the difficult Chinese signs. In place of them they use much simpler ones called _cana_, which look something like our shorthand. Much of what now appears in Japanese newspapers and other popular publications is printed in _cana_.

These lines, which to us look so odd, would mean a great deal to a
Japanese child. Together, they make a poem on “Spring,” which was
written on thin paper with a little brush and handed in by a
schoolgirl as an exercise in penmanship. The girl was a pupil of an
American teacher in Japan, Mrs. Maude W. Madden. You will be
interested to know that this “writing” received a prize. Here is the
poem, in English:
]

When Spring comes
And her flowers I see,
With the mists of the fields
My cares vanish away.

The Use of the Abacus

The study of arithmetic in Japanese schools is still very different from what it is in ours. That is because even grown-up people of Japan do not do their figuring with pencil and paper but on the _abacus_ or _soroban_. This has a frame like that of a slate. In place of the slate, however, there are stiff wires running from one side of the frame to the opposite side and on these wires little wooden balls are strung like beads. When a Japanese schoolboy, or a Japanese merchant or business man, wishes to add or subtract, to multiply or divide, he moves these balls back and forth skillfully until he finds his answer. He has to think, of course, when he is doing a sum, just as we do. But the balls show the result of each operation and he does not write it down. He gets the answer quickly.

Keystone View Co.

Japanese schoolboys are very fond of flying kites. Do you see the
“rising sun” of Japan on these kites?
]

The _soroban_, or calculating-board, as it is sometimes called, is used not only in Japan, but all over China, and even in Russia. The Russians have much larger ones, as if the little wooden balls of the Japanese and Chinese were not large enough for their bigger fingers. It is amusing to see how helpless the people of any of these lands are when they are asked to do even a simple exercise in arithmetic with pencil and paper. But then, you can imagine that an American professor of mathematics would not do any better if he were told to add or subtract on one of these frames that the Orientals find so simple.

After reading, writing, and arithmetic have been learned, the upper classes in Japanese schools go on much as ours do. There are laboratories, and lectures, and oral and written recitations, and mid-term and final examinations. There are gymnasiums, too, for the Japanese believe as throughly in building up strong bodies as did the ancient Spartans. I am reminded of the Spartans because that is what the Japanese are trained to be. A boy is not expected to cry out, no matter how much he is hurt. Nor, for that matter, is a girl expected to cry. All through life the people show themselves cheerful, however they may feel. To let one’s face show suffering or sorrow is regarded as bad manners.

Fencing and Jiu-jitsu

Japanese youths become quite expert as baseball players in spite of
their hampering costume.
]

One of the oldest forms of exercise in Japan is fencing. Japanese fencers do not use thin, slender foils such as are common in Europe and America. When the Japanese schoolboy goes to the gymnasium for a fencing lesson, he puts heavily padded garments about his head and shoulders and a kind of armor about his waist. He wears thick gloves with padded gauntlets reaching to the elbows and a mask much like that of a baseball catcher. All this protection takes danger out of the sport, though to see two boys at it you would hardly think so. Instead of the steel sword of ancient Japan, each boy is armed with a bamboo shaped like a sword. With this each tries to strike the other as often as possible over the padded head or neck, on the wrists, or in the ribs. That is because in real fighting those would be the most vital places. The players dodge and shuffle back and forth on their straw sandals or bare feet, thrusting and striking at each other, and parrying as many blows as possible. The bamboo swords make a terrific noise every time they strike. To add to the uproar, the masked fighters howl fierce warlike cries of olden days as they leap about. This is an excellent form of exercise, because it gives the boys both agility and strength. Not only in the schools, but in the army and navy and in young men’s clubs and other organizations, fencing is part of the training and recreation.

Even more common is what the Japanese call _jiu-jitsu_. Almost every man in Japan knows how to use this ancient form of self-defense. It is not boxing and it is not wrestling, though it sometimes looks like both. _Jiu-jitsu_ is the art of knowing just when and how to use slight strength in a way to make a stronger opponent defeat himself. Suppose a large clumsy boy tried to bully a small agile boy. The small boy, if he had been trained in this Japanese science of tricks, would know just when to give the big boy a pull or a push that would make him sprawl. Or if the small boy, at just the right moment, were to twist the arm or the neck or the back of the big fellow, the latter might find himself down before his greater strength could help him. After the defeat of great Russia by little Japan in 1905, some people called that a case of _jiu-jitsu_ among nations.

Other Games

Other games and exercises on Japanese playgrounds and gymnasium floors are more like our own. Schoolboys and university students play some football, though it is rather the English game of soccer than ours. During the last few years baseball has come to be quite a favorite sport among students in Japan. One of the universities in Tokyo held the baseball championship of the Far East for several years, defeating even the American teams sent out there to play. Its team, in fact, came to America, and won about as many games as it lost. As they are small and sinewy and quick on their feet, it is natural that the Japanese should be good baseball players.

Before we leave the schools we must not forget to mention the military games and drilling given to all the boys, and sometimes to the girls, by their gymnasium instructors. Because Japan has been a nation of soldiers for many centuries, it is natural that these instructors should often be men from the army. Then there is swimming. Every boy and girl in Japan is expected to learn to swim, which of course is an excellent idea, especially for a people that live on islands. I have seen a whole class in a pond or a little lake in a Japanese city park. The swimming teacher stands at the edge of the pool giving his lesson very much as he would at a desk. Pupils who have not yet learned to swim well wear red caps, and go only a little way out into the pond. The teacher can see them easily, and quickly help anyone in danger of drowning. The children who have learned to swim wear white bathing-caps, and are allowed to swim as far out into the little lake as they wish. The Japanese will not graduate a pupil until he or she learns to swim.

The Wrestlers of Japan

There is little if any boxing or prize fighting in Japan. But wrestling is an ancient Japanese sport, and the men who become best at it are as popular as champion boxers are in the United States. All other games played by the Japanese are for amateurs, but the wrestlers are professionals—that is, they make a business of wrestling. In fact, they are in a class by themselves, quite separate from the rest of the people. This difference is quickly seen, for though the Japanese as a whole are small, wiry people, the wrestlers are enormous men, often six feet tall and heavily built. Not only are they easily recognized by their great size, but they have special marks on their kimonos and they wear their hair long. Before the coming of Commodore Perry, all Japanese men let their hair grow to its full length and did it up in a topknot at the back of the head. To-day a man with long hair is usually a wrestler, and in a crowd of modern Japanese he looks like someone brought back from ancient times.

A group of Japanese wrestlers strolling between bouts. They are
aggressive beings, who look down upon the ordinary people.
]

Great wrestling matches are held in Tokyo twice a year. We had arrived at the time of the spring games, and managed to get seats quite close to the ring. This was a raised platform, made of what seemed to be bags filled with sand or earth. (Perhaps if it were made of wood the wrestlers would be more likely to get hurt.) It stood in the center of an enormous auditorium that was shaped much like a circus tent. Hundreds of rows of seats, rising from the platform in the center, surrounded it. There were a number of boxes partitioned off for parties.

Japanese wrestling pavilions remind one a little of an American circus
tent. The banners or signs advertise the attractions.
]

The wrestling lasts from morning until late at night. During the evening, or even in the afternoon when the best wrestlers get together in the finals, the auditorium is packed with spectators. Then the uproar must be great, for even with a smaller audience there was as much excitement as at one of our Big League baseball games. Many of the audience seemed to stay all day and evening, for tea and food were constantly being brought them from little restaurants and booths around the edge of the arena.

The first two men to step into the ring were large, but they seemed small by comparison with those who came later. The bouts are arranged just as they are in our boxing rings, starting with the less important wrestlers and working up to the biggest and most famous ones. When he first stepped into the ring each wrestler had his hair very carefully oiled and combed and tied in its topknot, and he wore what looked like a big apron, made of thick, costly cloth and gorgeously embroidered in gold and bright colors. These aprons, which are a symbol of the vocation and highly prized, were taken off, and the wrestlers stepped toward each other clothed only in a stout pair of trunks and a heavy belt.

Wrestling in a Queer Way

The Japanese way of wrestling is quite different from our own. As soon as the referee had given the signal, the two men began raising first one leg and then the other, bringing each foot down on the earth-bag floor with a great stamp. They did this so many times that they suggested angry bulls pawing the earth. Then each took some salt and threw it about him in the ring, for they have a superstition that they cannot win a wrestling bout unless they do this. Finally each crouched with his knuckles on the ground, in the position of “On your mark!” Instead of pitching into each other at once, however, they remained perfectly motionless, staring at each other, for some time. Then they shifted about, stamping their bare feet some more, but still did not lay hands on each other. In Japanese wrestling, starting properly and getting the right holds are considered more important than the wrestling itself. Several pairs of these men spent five, six, even ten minutes crouching and eyeing each other and shifting about, and sometimes hardly that many seconds in actual wrestling when once they had come to grips.

When they finally did begin, we understood why it is more necessary for Japanese wrestlers to be heavy than to be muscular and well trained. The men usually grasped each other by the trunks they wore or by the belt. There was a sharp, swift tugging and pushing, with a loud slap now and then as one struck the bare skin of the other with his open hand. Suddenly the bout would be over, for the instant one man makes the other fall inside the ring or touch a foot or a hand outside it, he has won. Therefore the man who is heaviest and bulkiest and hardest to move has the advantage. In spite of their weight, however, the wrestlers are very hard, for they train by beating themselves against posts, and by similar forms of exercise.

To be the greatest wrestler in Japan is much like being the champion heavyweight boxer of America. The best wrestlers make large sums of money, and as they are men who give more attention to their physical than to their mental training, they do not always use good sense in spending it. Groups of them may sometimes be seen strutting about town as if they thought themselves very much above the ordinary people. But when they are in the ring they always instantly obey the referee, even though he is armed only with an old-fashioned fan.

The ticket booth of a wrestling pavilion. Contrast the garb of the
ticket seller, squatting, with that of the two patrons. Western hats
and caps seem to be popular even though the kimono may not be
discarded in favor of coat and trousers.
]