[1] It is but fair to add, however, that among tribes with whom the matrilocal custom exists, the position of the woman is apt to be better than among those that are patrilocal. This particularly as far as the treatment of the wife is concerned. The husband is regarded always more or less as a visitor—an “auslander”—among his wife’s people; one over whom the influence of his father-in-law and brothers-in-law has a chastening effect. In matrilocal tribes the real power lies usually in the hands of the father and the elder brother of the wife, who have absolute authority over her and over her children.
[2] Formosa is only 225 miles (approximately) north of Cape Engano, the northernmost point of the Philippine Islands, of which Manila is the capital.
[3] Some Chinese scholars maintain that Terrace Bay (i.e. a bay surrounded by terraces) is a more accurate translation than Terrace Beach.
[4] There is some difference of opinion as to the origin of the name. Shinji Ishii, the Japanese writer, suggests that the Chinese name, Taiwan, is a corruption of Paiwan, the name of one of the aboriginal tribes of the island. In this connection it must be remembered that the Japanese, generally speaking, are prone to deny to the Chinese capacity for poetic conception, or appreciation of beauty. I, however, who have lived among the Chinese, and know their genuine appreciation of the beautiful in nature, and their habit of fixing the poetic concept of a moment by crystallizing it in a word or phrase, think “Terrace Beach” or “Terrace Bay” the more probable meaning of Taiwan.
[5] I had gone to Japan under the glamour of the writings of Lafcadio Hearn.
[6] Vagabond—or wanderer—as nearly as that expressive Russian word “бродяга” can be translated into English.
[7] To be exact, I was, when in Kyoto, devoting my attention chiefly to the study of Shin-shu (not to be confounded with Shinto)—one of the many sects into which Mahayana Buddhism is now divided, the sect associated with the two great Hongwanji temples of Kyoto—and comparing these teachings with those of Zen-shu, another sect of Mahayana Buddhism, which I had previously studied in a Zen monastery in Kamakura.
[8] As a teacher in this school I ranked as a “two-button” official (sōninkan) of the Japanese Government, and thus technically entitled to wear two buttons on the sleeve of my coat, and to carry a short sword with a white handle. The Director of the school, the Head Master and the heads of one or two departments and the other “foreign” teachers were also “two-button” officials. The majority of the teachers were “one-button” officials (hanninkan), entitled to wear only one button on the sleeve of their coats and to carry a black-handled sword. The “two-button” officials were “invited”—i.e. practically commanded—to attend official government banquets and similar functions, and to meet visiting princes and other notables from the “mother-country.” The “one-button” officials escaped these honours.
[9] The picturesque and interesting—because still untouristized—city in the extreme south of Japan, situated under the shadow of Sakurajima, the still active volcano, which early in 1914—the year that I was in Kagoshima—destroyed a portion of the city, and killed several hundred of its inhabitants.
[10] A school for the daughters of Japanese officials has also been established in Taihoku; but it is an interesting commentary upon the position of women in Japan, even at the present time, that while several “foreign” (English and American) teachers are engaged for the boys’ school, no “foreign” teacher is employed for the girls’ school. That would be “too expensive for a girls’ school,” the Japanese say. Also, while the curriculum of the two schools is—with the exception of English—practically the same, yet the boys’ school is called a Middle School (Chu Gakkō), because the boys are expected to go later to a Higher School, for the completion of their education; while the girls’ school is called a Higher School (Kōtō Gakkō) because the education of girls is supposed to be completed with the completion of the course in this school.