BIBLIOGRAPHY.

“The Real Japan,” chap. viii.; “Out of the Far East” (Hearn), pp. 85-125; “The Yankees of the East,” chaps. ix., xix.; “An American Missionary in Japan” (Gordon), chap. xv.; “Japan and her People,” vol. i. pp. 178-191; “A Japanese Interior” (Miss Bacon); “Every Day Japan” (Lloyd); and, last and best, Miss Bacon’s “Japanese Girls and Women,” revised edition, illustrated.

CHAPTER XIV
LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

Outline of Topics: Japanese syllabary; i-ro-ha arrangement; arrangement of fifty-sounds; modern inventions.—Chinese ideographs; Kata-kana; Hira-gana; Kana-majiri and Kana-tsuki; variety in pronunciation.—Japanese elocution.—Japanese syntax; logic in linguistics; a sample sentence; kind of language; topsy-turvy practices.—Ancient literature; poetry; naga-uta and tanka; hokku; a poem a picture.—Characteristics of Japanese poetry.—Modern literature: newspapers; press laws; English journals; Japanese journals; magazines and periodicals; books; what the Japanese read; their literary taste; foreign books; linguistic reforms, theory and practice.—Bibliography.

THE Japanese language belongs, philologically, to the Altaic family, and is of the agglutinative type. Practically, it is musical and easy to pronounce, but, on account of its long and involved sentences, difficult to learn. Its alphabet is not phonetic, but syllabic, and very simple and regular. It comprises 73 characters, of which 5 are duplicates of the same sounds, so that there are really only 68 distinct sounds. As many of the sounds, moreover, are only slight modifications of other sounds, they are represented by the same characters, with certain diacritical signs attached (as in the case of ha, ba, and pa). There are, consequently, in common use only 48 distinct characters, which are arranged in such an order as to form a stanza of poetry[131] as follows:—

Iro wa nioedo

Chirinuru wo—

Waga yo tare zo

Tsune naran?

Ui no oku-yama

Kyō koete,

Asaki yume miji,

Ei mo sezu.

Which means, being interpreted by Professor B. H. Chamberlain:—

“Though gay in hue, [the blossoms] flutter down, Alas! Who then, in this world of ours, may continue forever? Crossing to-day the uttermost limits of phenomenal existence, I shall see no more fleeting dreams, neither be any longer intoxicated.” In other words, “all is transitory in this fleeting world. Let us escape from its illusions and vanities.”

Another arrangement, based on the five vowels and their combination with certain consonants, gives fifty sounds, of which, however, two or three are really duplicates. This table of fifty sounds (gojū-on) is as follows:—

[132]
a ka sa ta na ha ma ya ra wa
i ki shi chi ni hi mi (y)i ri (w)i
u ku su tsu nu fu mu yu ru (w)u
e ke se te ne he me (y)e re (w)e
o ko so to no ho mo yo ro wo

Those in italics are duplicates; and (w)i and (w)e, though written with different characters from i and e, have practically the same pronunciation.

It will be seen that both of these arrangements are more or less artificial; at least, they appear to be mnemonic contrivances, and are certainly very convenient, because they are flexible. For instance, the demands of modern times and European languages for a v sound has led the Japanese to represent it by the simple device of attaching the common diacritical mark to the w series. By a similar device they might utilize the r series for l and the s series for th!

The Japanese characters, not difficult or complex in formation, are modifications and simplifications of Chinese ideographs. There had been in Japan no written language until after the introduction of Chinese civilization in the sixth century A. D., when Chinese words and characters were absorbed by the wholesale. Later, two systems of contracting the complex and cumbersome Chinese ideographs were invented, and are still used to some extent, indeed almost entirely by the uneducated class.

The oldest and simplest modification is called Kata-kana (side-letters), and consisted merely in taking part of a Chinese ideograph. But, as these characters were separate, and did not easily run together, they have not been used much, “except in dictionaries, books intended for the learned, or to spell foreign names.”

The next modification was a contraction of Chinese characters into a running, or grass, hand, and is therefore called Hira-gana (plain-letters). These are all that the ignorant, especially the women, can read.

But a Japanese who aspires to the smallest degree of education must be familiar with many Chinese characters; and a pupil is, in fact, instructed in that language and literature from the primary school up through the university. Some books are written entirely in Chinese, and, of course, can be read only by the best educated. But the commonest method for newspapers and books which are not intended for a limited circulation among the erudite only, is the use of a mixture of Chinese and Japanese characters, of which the root forms are Chinese, and the connectives, agglutinative particles, and grammatical endings are Japanese; this is called Kana-majiri. For even more general circulation the Chinese characters will be explained by Japanese characters at the side; this is called Kana-tsuki.

This practice of mixing the characters of the two languages leads to some variety in pronunciation. That is to say, a word written with Chinese ideographs may be read with the Japonicized Chinese pronunciation or with that of the pure Japanese word of which it is the equivalent. For instance, the Chinese characters which make up the word meaning “Japan” are usually pronounced Nippon, or Nihon, by the Japanese, but may also be read, in pure Japanese, as Hi-no-moto. It is practically the same as when we are allowed to read “etc.” either as “et cetera” or as “and-so-forth” (or “i. e.,” either as “id est” or as “that is”).

In connection with this topic of reading, we may as well touch on the elocutionary element in reading by Japanese. Their style of reading, as amusing to us as ours is to them, may be called “sing-song”: they rise and fall by monotones, and, going very rapidly without attention to the beginning or the end of a sentence, catch breath now and then by a peculiar sucking sound. They seem to make no attempt to read “with expression,” as we call it; and, when they come to study English, are a great trial for a while to the foreign teacher!

The peculiarities of Japanese syntax have been so attractively discussed by Mr. Percival Lowell,[133] that any other writer on that subject must at the outset acknowledge his indebtedness to that author. It will be unnecessary in this chapter to go into details; it will be sufficient to mention several of the points in which Japanese and English syntax are different. For instance, a Japanese noun knows no distinction (in form) of gender and number; a Japanese adjective or adverb has no terminational comparison; a Japanese verb is proof to the distinctions of number and person. In the Japanese language the connectives which correspond to our prepositions are placed after their nouns; the verbs always come last; our personal and possessive pronouns are supplanted by honorific expressions; and the definite article, the relative pronoun, and the pure temporal conjunction are lacking. To illustrate the first point, it is enough to say that a teacher once asked a young Japanese pupil, “Have you any brothers?” and received this answer: “There are four men; but they are all women.” In the question, the generic term kyōdai, which may be applied to both sexes, although strictly it should be limited to the male sex, was employed; in the reply, the generic term for “man” was used in the first clause, and the proper specification was added in the second clause. What he literally replied was this: “There are [=I have] four [such] persons; but they are all women.” And, in Japanese, “man,” whether singular, dual, or plural, whether single or married, may be simply hito; and yet the idea of “men” may also be expressed by doubling the word into hito-bito; while that of “women” is expressed by suffixing domo or tachi to onna and making onna-tachi, onna-domo.

With reference to language in general, a most patriotic Japanese once proved, to his own satisfaction, “the wickedness of foreign nations, not only in act but in speech,” and illustrated by the fact that the Europeans, for instance, put the verb before the noun, and said, “see the moon.” But the Japanese said “moon see,” because, “if the moon was not there first, you could not see it afterwards”!

H. I. M. THE CROWN PRINCE

Some of the peculiarities of Japanese sentences are illustrated in the following: “The man whom I met yesterday went to Tōkyō by the nine o’clock train this morning,” if translated literally from Japanese, would read: “My yesterday-on met man-as-for, this morning’s ninth-hour’s train-by Tōkyō-to went.”

In short, the Japanese language is an involved, complicated, impersonal, neutral, obscure, but withal a pretty, musical, logical, and polite tongue. Chamberlain says: “Japanese is probably—all things considered—the most difficult language on the face of the earth.”

A Japanese book begins where an English book ends; it is read from top to bottom in lines running from right to left; and the “foot-notes” are at the top of the page, while the reader’s mark is inserted at the bottom. Books are always arranged on a shelf or elsewhere, with the first volume at the right hand, or in horizontal piles. The Japanese call our style of writing “crab-writing,” because it “goes backward” and across the page like a crawfish; and the individual just quoted, claimed to be able to judge of the hearts of foreigners by their writing, “which was crooked”! Inversion appears again in such expressions as “east-north,” “west-south,” instead of “northeast,” “southwest.” The address of a letter runs as follows: “America, United States, Illinois State, Chicago City, Hyde Park District, Washington Avenue, 0000 No., Smith, John, Mr.” In dates the order of year, month, day, is followed. The word for roof (yane) means literally “house-root,” because a Japanese house is constructed to fit the roof, which is made first. But, as words are only the expression of thought, this contrariety must be traced back to the thoughts and ideas of Japanese, who, in so many other things, seem to us as “topsy-turvy” as we seem to them.

Japanese literature of the old régime was written partly in classical Chinese, partly in pure Japanese, and comprised mostly mythology, history, law, poetry, romance, drama, and Buddhist and Confucian philosophy. As we cannot go into details on this subject, so tempting, we shall confine ourselves to a few comments on Japanese poetry, which is more original and less Chinese than prose. The Japanese are very much addicted to writing poetry; like Silas Wegg, they drop off into poetry on every possible occasion. They are, in one sense, “born” poets, and, in another sense, made poets: poeta Japonicus et nascitur et fit,—“The Japanese poet is both born and made.” There are certain rigid forms, and only a few, for verse; and all fairly educated Japanese know those forms. In school, moreover, they are carefully taught the theory and the practice of versification.

Occasionally a Japanese poem will be rather long, and is then called naga-uta, (long poem); but usually it is only a “tiny ode” of 31 syllables, arranged in 5 lines of respectively 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables. The following is a specimen of such an uta, or tanka, from the famous “Hundred Poems”:—

Kokoro-ate ni

Orobaya oran

Hatsu-shimo no

Oki-madowaseru

Shiragiku no hana.

“If it were my wish

White chrysanthemum to cull:—

Puzzled by the frost

Of the early autumn time,

I perchance might pluck the flower.”[134]

There is also an abbreviated form called hokku, which contains only the 17 syllables of the first 3 lines of the tanka. The following is an example:—

Kare-eda ni

U no tomari keri

Aki no kure.

“On an autumn evening a crow perches on a withered branch.”

The quaintness and simplicity of Japanese thought and expression appear very clearly in their poetry. It has been truly said that a Japanese poem is a picture or even only the outline of a picture to be filled in by the imagination. It may be merely an exclamation, without any logical assertion, like the following, written a thousand years ago:—

Shira-kumo ni

Hane uchi-kawashi

Tobu kari no

Kazu sae miyuru

Aki no yo no tsuki.

“The moon on an autumn

night, making visible the

very number of wild geese

flying past with wings intercrossed

in white clouds.”

[135]

Japanese poetry has no rhyme, no parallelism, no alliteration, no accent; it is almost all lyrical, and abounds in acrostics, anagrams, and palindromes. Its chief subjects are taken from nature, and a poem may be evoked by the simplest thing. Although Japanese poetry is difficult to understand, it is interesting to study.

Japanese literature of the new régime is too varied to enumerate, as it covers, in both original and translated work, about all the fields of modern thought, as well as the fields of the old régime, just mentioned.

The development of newspapers is, perhaps, one of the most interesting phases of the progress of New Japan. The year 1902 was the thirtieth anniversary of the establishment of Japanese journalism. Before that time small sheets, each like a modern “extra,” were issued to give account of a murder or an important event, and were hawked about by street-criers. But the “Nisshin Shinjishi,” started in 1872 by an Englishman named Black, was the first attempt at a real newspaper.[136] Now there are probably more than 1,000 papers, magazines, etc., published in the empire. The newspapers are issued daily, and cost from 25 to 50 sen per month. Most of the metropolitan papers indulge in wood-cuts, even cartoons.

At first the press laws were rigorous and the official censors zealous; so that a Japanese editor must weigh carefully his utterances, and even then was likely, in a time of great political excitement, to bring upon his paper the ban of either temporary or total suspension. Some of the papers tried to circumvent the laws by having an extra edition issued under a different name, so that when one was suspended the other might continue; and sometimes a paper had nominal editors, or dummies, to suffer the punishment of imprisonment, while the real editors, or criminals, remained at their desks! It might be added, in this connection, that a public speaker also was liable to interruption by the police if he was considered by them to be uttering sentiments subversive of peace and order. Perfect freedom of speech and liberty of the press do not now, and cannot yet, exist in Japan; but the restrictions have been gradually withdrawn, and are now comparatively small.

Newspapers in foreign languages, most of them in English, are issued in Yokohama, Kōbe, Nagasaki, and Tōkyō. Of all these, the “Japan Mail,” of Yokohama, is facile princeps, for it does not deal in captious criticisms of the mistakes and sins of the Japanese, but is keenly sympathetic with their desire for improvement and progress in all lines. The “Japan Times,” of Tōkyō, is owned, managed, and edited by Japanese, and is a valuable paper. Deserving also of mention are the “Japan Daily Advertiser,” of Tōkyō, and the “Herald” and the “Chronicle” of Kōbe.

It is rather a difficult task to select from the vernacular newspapers the few most worthy of mention; but two from Ōsaka and six from Tōkyō will suffice. The “Ōsaka Asahi Shimbun” is said to have the largest circulation in the whole country; and the “Ōsaka Mainichi Shimbun” is well known. In Tōkyō the most prominent journals are the “Jiji Shimpō,” the “Nichi Nichi Shimbun,” the “Kokumin Shimbun,” the “Mainichi Shimbun,” and the “Hōchi Shimbun.” Another Tokyo paper of very large circulation is the “Yorozu Chōhō.” Almost all the newspapers of Japan are morning papers; but, as they generally go to press early in the evening of the preceding day, the “news” is not the latest. But very important events will always be published in “extras” at any hour.[137]

There are also magazines galore of every kind. Some of them prove rather short-lived; but most of them find a constituency, as each one seems to have its own field. Probably the largest and most successful magazine is named “Taiyō” (Sun), which issues monthly about 250 pages of Japanese matter, with 24 pages of English matter, and is finely illustrated. Its leading articles by well-known writers cover a great variety of topics. The “Kokumin-no-Tomo” (Nation’s Friend) is another excellent magazine, famous for the admirable style of its contributions. The “Rikugō Zasshi” (Cosmos) is philosophical and religious. There are a great many Shintō, Buddhist, and Christian weekly and monthly periodicals, which are published primarily for the edification of the believers.

“Of making many books there is no end” in Japan. Composition is apparently such an easy task, and publishing is so cheap, that every person inspired with an idea is tempted to rush into print. And those who are not so fortunate as to be rich in “original” ideas, have an inexhaustible field in the translation of books from English and other Occidental languages; indeed, a fair living may be made in that way.

Japanese taste in reading is illustrated by a table accompanying a recent official report from the Imperial Library at Tōkyō. During a period of 24 days covered by the report, the readers numbered 7,770, and the books called for were classified as follows:—

Japanese and
Chinese works.		European
works.
Theology and religion63514
Philosophy and education2,368145
Literature and languages8,038998
History, biography, geography, travel9,768460
Law, politics, sociology, economy, statistics6,577304
Mathematics, natural philosophy, medicine9,506388
Engineering, military arts, industries4,943205
Miscellaneous books4,840530

The table will interest American readers as showing how large is the number of European works included. It may be added that the Japanese are decidedly a reading people. Even the “jinrikisha man,” waiting on the street-corner for a customer, is frequently to be seen reading a newspaper, magazine, or book.

The leading firm of booksellers in Japan recently asked a large number of eminent Japanese men of letters, of science, of business, etc., to name their favorite European or American books. The 73 answers received have been published in a Japanese periodical, and are interesting as displaying the literary tastes of Japanese readers of foreign literature.

The most popular work is Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” which received 26 votes; next come Goethe’s “Faust,” the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” and Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” in the order named. Among English men of letters, Byron and Tennyson are the most popular. The names of Stevenson, Hardy, Meredith, “Mark Twain,” and other recent writers are rarely met with, while that of Kipling occurs not even once. Among continental writers, Tolstoi, Schopenhauer, Heine, and Zola are frequently mentioned; and Nietzsche’s “Zarathustra” is characterized more than once as the greatest work in the last decade of the nineteenth century.[138]

Some interesting information with reference to the demand for foreign works in Japan has been made public in the “Japan Times” by a Japanese importer of foreign books, and several items therefrom are of interest.

Works relating to architecture and building, chemistry, electricity and magnetism, engineering and mechanics, manufactures and industrial arts, metallurgy and mining, together with dictionaries and encyclopædias, enjoy the largest demand. In chemistry, Remsen is one of the popular authors; in metallurgy, Phillips’s work heads the list; in electricity and magnetism, Thomson’s works find the largest number of purchasers; and there is an active demand for Taggart’s “Cotton Spinning.” The favorite dictionary is “Nuttall’s Standard Dictionary,” of which the firm above named has already sold between 200,000 and 300,000 copies! Next comes “Webster’s Condensed Dictionary,” and even “Webster’s Unabridged” sells at the rate of from 50 to 60 copies per month. The “Students’ Standard Dictionary” also sells well.

Works on scientific subjects, especially new publications, are in great demand, and show the eagerness of Japanese students to become acquainted with the results of the latest investigations. In astronomy, Newcomb and Holden’s popular treatise comes first. In pedagogics, Herbart is the most popular author at present. In history, Fisher’s “Universal History” heads the list; in general, works on modern history are in greater demand than those of earlier periods. The greater demand for language books, among which the Otto series stands first, may have been due to the arrival of the date [1899] of mixed residence. Mathematical books are only in fair request.

In medicine, German books have practically driven from the field works in other languages. In politics and diplomacy, however, French works are preferred; Walker’s “Political Economy,” Jevons’s “Money,” and Bastiat’s “Science of Finance” have a large sale. In law, German works are beginning to predominate. Taine’s “English Literature” heads the list in works of that class, and is used as a text-book or work of reference in several higher institutions of learning. Of books on Japan, Griffis’s “Mikado’s Empire” maintains its ground as the favorite. Works on antiquities and ethnology, elocution and oratory, theology and religion, are said to be practically devoid of demand; but philosophical works find good sale, with Herbert Spencer in the van.

Fifty years ago a foreign book had to be smuggled into Japan and studied secretly; and many an earnest scholar paid with his life the penalty for desiring a broad education through books. Fifty years ago, Dutch books were about the only ones, except Chinese, that got into the empire even by smuggling. Now information is eagerly sought from all quarters of the globe; and books in many languages are readable by Japanese.[139]

It is generally supposed that languages, like poets, are “born, not made,” and that the changes in a language come, not artificially, but naturally. Interesting, therefore, is the spectacle of an attempt to effect a tremendous reform in a language, many centuries old, by legislative enactment. The nation which is making this apparently foolish and useless attempt is Japan, which has already often startled the world by its marvellous reforms. And if its wonderful success in legislative reforms in other lines are any criterion in this case, it will succeed in effecting much-needed reform in its language. At the sixteenth session of the Imperial Diet, a sum of money was appropriated for a “linguistic commission.” This was appointed in the spring of that year, has held several meetings, and has already arrived at some decisions. It has been decided, for instance, that “a phonographic script” is to be employed; but the much discussed question, whether it shall be the common Japanese kana (syllabic characters) or Roman letters, is still on the docket. It is also proposed to reduce the number of Chinese ideographs in common use. Moreover, the differences between the written and the spoken language are to be abolished; and the formal epistolary style is to be reformed. It has also been decided that the whole system of Japanese etymology must be “carefully revised.” Even the “problem of local dialects” is to be attacked, and “a standard dialect fixed.” It is noticeable that the commission is not afflicted with trepidity, but is proceeding with the utmost courage to attack the most difficult problems. It is composed of some of the most practical as well as the most scholarly men of the empire, and its work will be watched with the deepest interest, both at home and abroad. And the great changes already effected in the Japanese language since the country was opened are some warrant for believing that this commission will achieve a measure of success.[140]

And yet we understand that legislative enactment alone cannot make these reforms perfectly effective; but we are gratified that intelligent public opinion will support these reforms, not only theoretically, but also practically. For the full fruition of such reforms must be attained through the schools and the public press; and the latter has already begun to work along these very lines. It is, indeed, well for Japan that her leaders realize the necessity of breaking loose from her thraldom to Chinese letters, literature, thought, and ideals.