Education.
The art of writing was brought into Japan from Korea in A. D. 284. Previous to this it would appear that the Japanese had no way of recording events, as books and writing were unknown. Writing was at first with the Chinese characters, which were used to represent Japanese words. Later a system was devised whereby only parts of the Chinese characters were used for writing and a syllabry was formed.
In the university mentioned above, "the training of the students in medicine chiefly consisted in making them familiar with the methods which prevailed in China. The properties of medicinal plants, the variations of the pulse in health and disease and in the changing seasons, and the anatomy of the human body were the chief subjects of study. The human cadaver was never dissected, but a knowledge of anatomy was obtained from diagrams which were wholly hypothetical. In early times medical officers were appointed to experiment with medicines upon monkeys, and also to dissect the bodies of monkeys. From these dissections, as well as from the printed diagrams of Chinese books the imperfect knowledge which they had reached was derived. It was not till 1771 that Sugita Genpaku and several other Japanese scholars had an opportunity to dissect the body of a criminal, and by personal observation found the utter falsity of the Chinese diagrams on which they had hitherto relied, and the correctness of the Dutch books, which they had, contrary to the laws of the country, learned to read."[132]
A large part of the education of the young samurai was of a military order. He was well trained to ride a horse, to shoot a bow, and to handle the spear and the sword. The hara-kiri was an especial part of this training. "They are instructed as to the proper mode of performing this act, the ceremonies that should accompany it, varying with the occasion, and according as it is done publicly or privately, and under what circumstances a well-bred man should feel himself obliged thus to destroy himself."[133]
The girls were taught needlework, music, the arranging of flowers, etc. They were instructed in household duties and the things needed by a wife and mother. Some girls received higher education, becoming able to understand the Chinese characters used by the Japanese, and they were especially well learned in the history of their country. "Plutarch tells us that the ambition of a Spartan woman was to be the wife of a great man and the mother of illustrious sons. Bushido set no lower ideal before our maidens; their whole bringing up was in accordance with this view. They were instructed in many martial practices for the sake of self-defense, that they might safeguard their person and their children; in the art of committing suicide, that in case no alternative opened to save them from disgrace, they might end their lives in due order and in comely fashion."[134] There were a number of books, which appeared from time to time, upon the education of the girl, till a library arose which were often bound in one volume.
"If the reader will imagine a volume composed of the Bible, 'Ladies' Letter-writer,' 'Guide to Etiquette,' 'The Young Ladies' Own Book,' Hannah More's works, Miss Strickland's 'Queens of England,' a work on household economy, and an almanac, he will obtain some idea of the contents of the Bunko, or 'Japanese Lady's Library.' With text and illustrations, the volume is very large; but if translated and printed in brevier with the cuts, it would not probably occupy more space than one of our largest monthly magazines. The books composing it, in their order of importance, are the Ōnna Dai Gakŭ ('Women's Great Learning'—the moral duties of woman, founded on the Chinese classics); Ōnna Shō Gakŭ ('Woman's Small Learning'—introduction to the above); Ōnna Niwa no Oshiyé ('Woman's Household Instruction'—duties relating to furniture, dress, reception of guests, and all the minutiae of indoor life, both daily and ceremonial); Ōnna Imagawa ('Moral Lessons' in paragraphs); Ōnna Yō bunshō ('Lady's Letter-writer'); Nijiu-shi Ko ('Twenty-four Children'—stories about model children in China). Besides these works of importance, there are Hiyaku Nin Isshiu—a collection of one hundred poems from as many poets, written in the old Yamato dialect, and learned in every household, and perpetually repeated with passionate fondness by old and young; a collection of lives of model women; household lore; almanac learning; rules and examples to secure perfect agreement between man and wife; and a vast and detailed array of other knowledge of various sorts, both useful and ornamental to a Japanese maiden, wife, widow, or mother. This book is studied, not only by the higher classes, but by the daughters in almost every respectable family throughout the country. It is read and reread, and committed to memory, until it becomes to the Japanese woman what the Bible is to the inmate of those homes in the West in which the Bible is the first, and last, and often the only book."[135]