Anna C. Hartshorne - Japan and Her People

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Routledge Revivals

---

Japan and her People

Japan and her People

by
Anna C. Hartshorne

Vol. I

First published in 1902 by Henry T. Coates & Co.

This edition first published in 2019 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1902 by Taylor & Francis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Publishers Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.
A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN:

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-32175-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-429-45238-3 (ebk)

JAPAN

AND HER PEOPLE

BY

ANNA C. HARTSHORNE

ILLUSTRATED

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I

PHILADELPHIA

HENRY T. COATES & CO.

1902

COPYRIGHT,
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
1902.

TO

CHARLES HARTSHORNE,

BEST OF UNCLES AND MOST DELIGHTFUL OF TRAVELING COMPANIONS,

WHO CAME FAR TO MAKE HER LAST WEEKS IN JAPAN

A HAPPY MEMORY,

HIS NIECE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATES THIS BOOK.

A. C. H.

Philadelphia, 1902.

PREFACE.

_______

EVERY ONE who goes to Japan writes home at first on thin Japanese paper, unfolding yard after yard of the neat rolls, and measuring now and then, perhaps, to see how much one really has written. That is in the early days, when all seems half unreal, when one says fairy like and funny at every other breath. But just because everything is so different, so utterly unlike all we have ever known, that former life itself seems presently to recede, to grow unreal; we cease to wonder, cease to find anything strange at all. Then the long letters drop to a page or two, and in writing of the simplest experiences of daily life we stop to think half despairingly, How shall I make them understand?

Out of that effort to be understood, and from the answers to the questions so frequently asked here in America, these rambling pages have grown. If they have any value, it is due to the patient teaching of friends during three happy years in Japan; most, among many, to Miss Um Tsuda, of Tokyo, and to Dr. Inazo Nitob, whose suggestions and supervision of a large portion have made the attempt possible. Of books, Chamberlains (Murrays) Handbook and his Things Japanese have been always at hand since I first began to know a little of Japan; in history I have followed especially Mis. de la Mazelires Histoire du Japon, and the History of the Empire of Japan, published by the (Japanese) Board of Education for the Chicago Exposition; in art, Fenollosa and La Farge; in literature, Aston, with others who are referred to here and there.

To all my thanks are due; to all, but especially to thosewhether of our own race or anotherwho made for me and mine a place and home, in a land not ours.

PHILADELPHIA, January, 1902.

CONTENTS

VOLUME I

_______

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOLUME I

_______

Photogravures made by GILBO & Co.

_______

GREAT GATE, NIKKO

JAPAN AND HER PEOPLE.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.

NOWADAYS a journey to Japan is not at all a formidable matter; there are already six steamship lines crossing the Pacific, their voyages ranging from twelve days to three weeks, and once across travel is little more fatiguing than in Germany or Italy, and far less so from all accounts than in Spain. The chief difficulty for Americans seems to be to find out beforehand what to expect in the way of climate and physical conditions; when to go; what to take and what to leave behind; what there is to see and how much time is needed to see it.

The seasons largely control the choice of routes, the northern lines being most desirable for summer and early fall, the San Francisco ones for winter and March or April. The very best months in Japan, so far as weather goes, are October and November, and even most of December; the next best March to early June. Winter is short and sharp, a good deal like Southern Italy, and equally uncertain as to temperature and sunshine; summer hot and wet (except in the northern island, Yezo), especially in August and September, when there are the severest storms and a heavy, muggy atmosphere.

Was it a Londoner or a Philadelphian who said of his birthplace, We dont have climate here; we have weather? Thanks to the monsoons, Japan gets both; that is to say, from June to October the wind is mostly south and wet, from October to May northwest and dry, with a lively period of unsettlement between changes. This brings the rain in June, just when it is needed for the rice, and blows it away at harvest time. Between the summer rains come bursts of hot sunlight, and everybody airs their houses and closets, and whatever is not already well dried and put away in air-tight chests; for no amount of care will save kid gloves and leather-bound books from spotting if they are left out in the moist heat.

After all, neither cold nor heat is extreme, but the dampness makes both rather trying to foreignersthat is to say, to non-Japanese. Americans miss their steam-heated houses, and shiver through a Tokyo February as if they were in Rome or Naples. But by a second winter, if they will stay on, they will learn to keep the house well open, wear warm clothing and depend on the sunshine, which never fails on really cold days, for the occasional winter rains are as warm as the May showers are chilly. Even August and September need not alarm any one used to American summers, for foreign residents pass them comfortably enough at the sea or mountain resorts, only it will not do to undertake much exertion or long journeys; the heat is relaxing, and the rains make the roads heavy or even impassable, while trains are liable to be detained by floods or broken embankments.

Just one caution needs to be writ largenamely, drink no unboiled water unless you know where it came from, and that no rice field has had a chance to drain into it. Remember that the Japanese do not drink cold water, and are consequently indifferent about keeping it pure; even ice is risky; but keeping this rule means health throughout the country at any time of year.

Spring, then, for the blossoms, for weather always uncertain and usually lovely, for that delight of new life felt so strongly in the south, and nowhere more keenly than in Japan; but autumnOctober till Christmasfor a prolonged Indian summer, a season of unfailing sunshine and dreamy light, of frosty nights and still days, of rice-harvest and chrysanthemums and brilliant maples. Nine months in the year ladies need cotton or thin silk blouses for the day, and a wrap, not too thin, the moment the sun goes down; even in summer light woolen underclothes are needed on account of the dampness, and after Christmas furs and a steamer rug are necessities for long jinrikisha rides on frosty days.

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