Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings

JAPANESE HOMES AND THEIR SURROUNDINGS With Illustrations by the Author
Edward S. Morse Director of the Peabody Academy of Science; Late Professor of Zoölogy, University of Tokio, Japan; Member of the National Academy of Science; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Etc.

To William Sturgis Bigelow, M.D. In memory of the delightful experiences in the “Heart of Japan” this volume is affectionately inscribed by the AUTHOR.
Thanks to the activity of a number of students of various nationalities in the employ of the Japanese government, and more especially to the scholarly attachés of the English legation in Japan, much information has been obtained concerning this interesting people which might otherwise have been lost. If investigators and students would bear in mind the precept of Miyada, and seize upon those features in social life—forms of etiquette, frames, ceremonies, and other manners and customs—which are the first to change in any contact with alien races, a very important work would be accomplished for the future sociologist. The native Japanese student might render the greatest service in this work by noting down from the older persons, before it is too late, the social features and habits of his own people as they were before the late Revolution. Profound changes have already taken place in Japan, and other changes are still in progress. As an indication of the rapidity of some of these changes, reference might be made to an interesting memoir, by Mr. McClatchie, on “The Feudal Mansions of Yedo;” and though this was written but ten years after the revolution of 1868, he speaks of the yashiki, or fortified mansions where dwelt the feudal nobles of Japan, as in “many cases deserted, ruined, and fallen into decay;” and he describes observances and manners connected with the yashiki, such as “etiquette of the gates,” “exchange of yashiki,” “rules relating to fires,” etc., which were then obsolete at the time of his writing, though in full force but a few years before.