A Handbook of Modern Japan

by Ernest W. Clement

“Where else in the world does there exist such a conspiracy to be agreeable; such a widespread compact to render the difficult affairs of life as smooth and graceful as circumstances admit; such fair decrees of fine behavior fixed and accomplished for all; such universal restraint of the coarser impulses of speech and act; such pretty picturesqueness of daily existence; such lovely love of nature as the embellisher of that existence; such sincere delight in beautiful, artistic things; such frank enjoyment of the enjoyable; such tenderness to little children; such reverence for parents and old persons; such widespread refinement of taste and habits; such courtesy to strangers; and such willingness to please and to be pleased?”

As stated above, the innate courtesy of the Japanese manifests itself in every possible way in word and deed. Thus has been developed an almost perfect code of etiquette, of polite speech and conduct for every possible occasion; and while these formalities are sometimes apparently unnecessary, often even a cloak for insincerity, and also a waste of time in this practical age, we cannot but lament the decadence of Japanese manners.

GARDEN AT ŌJI

Another prominent and prevailing element of Japanese civilization is simplicity. The people have the simplicity of nature to such an extent that the garb of nature is not considered immodest. They find delight in the simplest forms of natural beauties, and they plant their standard of beauty on a simple base. A rough and gnarled tree, or even a mere trunk or stump; a bare twig or branch without leaves or blossoms; an old stone; all kinds of flowers and grasses have in themselves a real natural beauty. A Japanese admires the beauties of nature just as they are; he loves a flower as a flower. The Japanese truly worship Nature in all her varied forms and hold communion with all her aspects. They enjoy the simplest amusements with the simplest toys which, cheap and frail, may last only an hour, but easily yield their money’s worth and more of real pleasure. They find the greatest happiness in such simple recreations as going to see the plum blossoms or cherry flowers, and gazing at the full moon. They are, in comparison with Americans, childish in their simplicity; but they succeed in extracting more solid enjoyment out of life than any other people on the globe. Americans sacrifice life to get a living: Japanese, by simply living, enjoy life.

And this leads to another impression and characterization of the Japanese people as merry, lighthearted, and vivacious. Careless, even to an extreme; free from worry and anxiety, because easily satisfied with little, and because inclined to be excessively fatalistic,—they not only are faithful disciples of the Epicurean philosophy, that happiness or pleasure is the summum bonum of life, but they succeed in being happy without much exertion. They believe that men “by perpetual toil, bustle, and worry render themselves unfit to enjoy the pleasures which nature places within their reach”; and that the Occidental, and especially the American, life of high pressure, with too much work and too little play, is actually making Jack a dull boy. It is certainly to be hoped, but perhaps in vain, that the increasing complexity of modern life in Japan will not entirely obliterate the simplicity and vivacity of the Japanese; for they seem to “have verily solved the great problem—how to be happy though poor.”

The Japanese are, however, extremely stoical in belief and behavior, and can refrain as rigidly from manifestations of joy or sorrow as could a Spartan or a Roman.[68] Many a Japanese Leonidas, Brutus, or Cato stands forth as a typical hero in their annals. Without the least sign of suffering they can experience the severest torture, such as disembowelling themselves; and without a word of complaint they receive adversity or affliction. Shikata ga nai (“There is no help”) is the stereotyped phrase of consolation from the least to the greatest loss, injury, or affliction. For a broken dish, a bruise, a broken limb, a business failure, a death, weeping is silly, sympathy is useless; alike for all, shikata ga nai.

It is possibly this combination or union of Stoicism and Epicureanism that makes the real and complete enjoyment of life. The following paragraph pictures graphically the contrasting characteristics of Japanese and American women: “It is said that the habitual serenity of Japanese women is due to their freedom from small worries. The fashion of their dress never varies, so they are saved much anxiety of mind on that subject. Housekeeping is simplified by the absence of draperies and a crowd of ornaments to gather dust, and the custom of leaving footwear at the entrance keeps out much mud and dirt. With all our boasted civilization, we may well learn from the Orientals how to prevent the little foxes of petty anxieties from spoiling the vines of our domestic comfort. If American housekeepers could eliminate from their lives some of the unnecessary care of things, it would probably smooth their brows and tone down the sharpened expression of their features.”

The Japanese are, by instinct, a very unselfish and generous people. These two seemingly synonymous adjectives are purposely used; for the Japanese possess, not only the negative and passive virtue of unselfishness, but also its positive and active expression in generosity; they are not merely careless and thoughtless of self, but they are careful and thoughtful of others. In fact, their philanthropic instincts are so strong that neither excessive wealth nor extreme pauperism is prevalent. These two traits had their origin, probably, in a contempt for mere money-making and the lack of a strong desire for wealth. The merchant, engaged in trade,—that is, in money-making pursuits,—was ranked below the soldier, the farmer, and the artisan. The typical Japanese believed that “the love of money is the root of all evil,” and was not actuated by “the accursed greed for gold” (auri sacra fames). No sordid views of life on a cash basis were held by the Japanese, and not even the materialism of modern life has yet destroyed their generous and philanthropic instincts. They are as truly altruistic as Occidentals are egoistic.

The modern characteristic expressed by the term “practical” does not belong to the Japanese, who are rather visionary in disposition. This trait is undoubtedly an effect of the old distaste for money-making pursuits, and renders the Japanese people, on the whole, incapable of attending strictly and carefully to the minutiæ of business. They do not, indeed, appear to possess the mental and moral qualities which go to make a successful merchant or business man.[69] This is the testimony both of those who have studied their psychological natures and of those who have had actual business experience with them. The former say that unpracticality and a distaste for money-making are natural elements of the Japanese character, as is evidenced by the fact that, in ancient society, the merchant was assigned to the fourth class—below the soldier, the farmer, the artisan. “The temperament, the training, and the necessary materials are, for the most part, lacking”; and these cannot, in spite of the impressionableness of the Japanese nature, be readily acquired and developed. Business men, moreover, who have had actual dealings with the Japanese, complain of dishonesty,[70] “pettiness, constant shilly-shallying,” and unbusiness-like habits; and call them “good-natured, artistic, and all that, but muddle-pated folks when it comes to matters of business.”