The Japanese family[46] was, in its constitution, an empire, with absolute authority in the hands of one man. The husband was, theoretically and practically, the great authority to whom wife and children were subject. He was a veritable autocrat and despot; and he received superciliously the homage of all the family, who literally bowed down before him. The family, and not the individual, was the unit of society; but by the new codes now in operation the individual has acquired greater rights. There is much hope, therefore, that gradually the tyranny of the family will be eliminated.
One writer on Japan has well said: “The Empire is one great family; the family is a little empire.”[47] In truth, the empire is founded and maintained on the family idea of one line “in unbroken succession” from Jimmu Tennō.
A house alone does not make a “home,” but merely gives it local habitation; and as Japanese houses[48] are unique, they deserve some consideration. Although brick and stone are coming into use among the wealthy classes, wood is the chief material employed in building. A typical Japanese house is a slight and flimsy frame structure with straw-thatched, or shingled, or tiled roof. It has no foundation in the ground, but rests on stones laid on the ground, and stands wholly above the surface. This and other peculiar features of construction and ornamentation are the outcome of attempts to lessen the dangers from the frequent and severe earthquakes. The outer doors and windows of Japanese houses are called amado (rain-doors), and are solid wood. They slide in grooves above and below; in stormy weather and at night they are closed and fastened, not so tightly, however, as to prevent them from rattling; at other times they are open. The inner doors, the windows, and sometimes the partitions between the different rooms are lattice frames, covered with a translucent, but not transparent, white paper, and running in grooves. These, too, as well as the opaque paper screens used between the rooms, can be taken out; so that all the rooms may be turned into one, or the entire house be thrown open to the air of heaven. The floors are covered with tatami—thick, soft mats of straw, each usually six by three feet in size. Thus the accommodations of rooms are indicated by the terms, “six-mat room,” “eight-mat room,” etc. Inasmuch as on these mats the Japanese walk, sit, eat, work, sleep, it is necessary to keep them very clean. They are carpet, chair, sofa, bed, table, all in one, and must not be soiled by dirty sandals, clogs, shoes, or boots, all of which are, therefore, to be removed before entering a house. It may readily be seen that this is quite an inconvenient custom for foreigners!
Schools, churches, offices, stores, and other places for large and frequent public gatherings are being constructed in Occidental style, with doors on hinges, glass windows, chairs, benches, tables, stoves, grates, and other “modern conveniences.”
A room in a Japanese house seems to an American to be comparatively bare and plain, as it is devoid of furniture and bric-à-brac. There is no stove, for only a small box or brazier, containing a few pieces of charcoal in a bed of ashes, is used for heating purposes. There are no chairs or sofas, for the Japanese sit on their feet on the floor. There are no huge bed sets, for they sleep on thick padded quilts spread on the floor at night, and kept in a closet when not needed. There is no large dining-table, for each person eats sitting before a small, low lacquer tray, or table, about a foot high. There is no dazzling array of pictures and other ornaments on the wall—only a kakemono (wall banner) or two; and there are no miscellaneous ornaments set around here and there—only a vase of flowers.
But more and more are the Japanese coming to build at least parts of the house in Occidental style, so that it is now quite common to find, in houses of well-to-do people, a foreign room with carpet, table, chairs, pictures, etc. Stoves and grates, too, for either wood or coal, are being largely used. Mattresses, springs, and bedsteads are also coming into use, because sleeping on the floor, where one is subject to draughts, has been found to be unhealthy. In the case of foreign rooms, moreover, it is generally unnecessary to take off the shoes; and thus another frequent cause of colds is removed. A prevailing style of architecture at present is the hybrid!
The best rooms of a Japanese house are not in the front, but in the rear, and have an outlook upon the garden, which likewise, from its plainness and simplicity, is unique. “Its artistic purpose is to copy faithfully the attractions of a veritable landscape, and to carry the real impressions that a real landscape communicates. It is, therefore, at once a picture and a poem; perhaps even more a poem than a picture.” It is in Japan, moreover, that it is possible to have a “garden” without flowers or grass—with, perhaps, only “rocks and pebbles and sand.” For the Japanese truly and literally find “sermons in stones,” and give them not only “character” but also “tones and values.” More than all that, “they held it possible to express moral lessons in the design of a garden, and abstract ideas, such as charity, faith, piety, content, calm, and connubial bliss.” In Japan, therefore, landscape-gardening is and always has been a fine art.[49]
The Japanese may be called vegetarians, for it is only within a recent period that meat has come to play any part in their diet. Fish, flesh, and fowl were once strictly forbidden as articles of food by the tenets of Buddhism, but gradually, one after another, came to be allowed as eatables. Even now meat, though becoming more and more popular as an article of diet, is not used in large quantities at one meal. Chicken, game, beef, ham, and pork may be found on sale in most large towns and cities. But beef is cut up into mouthfuls, and sold to Japanese by the ounce; chickens are carefully and minutely dissected, and sold by parts, as the wing, the leg, or an ounce or two of the breast. It was a matter of great amazement to the Japanese of Mito that the foreigners living there bought a whole chicken or two, or five or six pounds of beef, at one time, and devoured them all in two or three meals!
Rice is, of course, the staple article of diet, “the staff of life” of the Japanese; and yet, in poverty-stricken country districts, this may be a luxury, with barley or millet as the ordinary food. Various vegetables, particularly beans, are much used, fresh or pickled; seaweed, fish, eggs, and nuts are largely eaten; and a sauce, made of beans and wheat, and sold in America as “soy,” is “the universal condiment.” Thin vegetable soups are an important part of their meals, and, as no spoons are used, are drunk with a loud sucking noise, which is a fixed habit in drinking. The principal beverages, even more common than water, are tea and sake. The latter, an alcoholic liquor brewed from rice, is taken hot; the former, without milk or sugar, is also taken hot, and is served, not only at meals, but just about all the time. A kettle of hot water is always kept ready at hand, in house or inn, so that tea may be steeped in a moment and procured to drink at any time. It is always set before a guest as soon as he arrives, and is absolutely indispensable in every household.
At meal time each person sits on the floor before a small, low table on which his food is placed. They use no knife, fork, or spoon, only chop-sticks; and do not consider it in bad form to eat and drink with loud smacking and sucking sounds. Their food, when served, seems to foreigners more beautiful than palatable; it is “unsatisfying and mawkish.” One who has probably had innumerable experiences during a long residence in Japan says: “After a Japanese dinner you have simultaneously a feeling of fulness and a feeling of having eaten nothing that will do you any good.”[50] Yet, in time foreigners learn to like many parts of a Japanese bill of fare; and when travelling about the country, by carrying with them bread, butter, jam, and canned meats, can get along with rice, eggs, vegetables, and chicken or fish to complete the daily fare. In the summer resorts frequented by foreigners there are always hotels and restaurants where only European cooking is served. With the introduction of Western civilization came wine, ale, beer, etc., which are extensively used by the Japanese.