The judiciary, too, has been remodeled in many details to make it approach the western system. The methods of procedure are gradually conforming nearer and nearer to our own, as well as the names and jurisdiction of the courts. The Japanese people have been exceedingly anxious of late years to expunge the extraterritoriality clause which appears in the treaties with all western nations. It provides, in effect, that offenses by a foreigner against a Japanese shall be judged in a consular court presided over by the consul of that country whence the foreigner comes. In other words, Japanese courts have no jurisdiction over the doings of foreigners having consuls in that country. This provision has become very obnoxious to the Japanese people, placing them on a level, as it does, with barbaric and semi-barbaric countries, where like provisions hold. This has been one of the potent factors in influencing Japan to adopt western legal methods. Recent treaties which have been drawn with the United States and with England provide that this clause shall be expunged, and if they are finally agreed upon we may soon see Japan more absolutely independent than she has yet been.
In 1890 a constitution was granted to Japan by the emperor, and a few months later legislative bodies for the first time began deliberation in Tokio. The powers of this parliament are constantly increasing. The war between China and Japan has been a strong influence to weld the people of opposing political faiths into harmony, and in parliament conservatives and radicals alike have risen in patriotism, and have been glad to cast votes for every measure that would hold up the hands of those who were bearing the battles. With a government drawing for itself lines parallel with those of enlightened western nations, increasing the freedom of its people, the power of the people’s legislators, and the honesty of the people’s courts, Japan has every right to name herself as worthy of a place in full brotherhood with the family of civilized nations.
COUNCIL OF WAR ON A JAPANESE BATTLE SHIP.
(From a Drawing by a Japanese Artist.)]
PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE JAPANESE PEOPLE.
Difference of Opinion as to the True Significance of Their Rapid Adoption of Western Civilization—Physique of Man and Woman—Two Great Classes of the Population—The Samurai—The Agricultural Laborer—Wedding Ceremonies—Elopements—Japanese Babies—Sports of Childhood and of Age—Dress of Man and Woman—Food—Homes of the People—Family Life—Art, Science, Medicine, Music—Language and Literature—Religion.
In such a state of transition are the Japanese people themselves, as truly as the government, that it is difficult to describe their personal characteristics. Different observers reach different conclusions as to their personality. One affirms that great quickness of imitation and judgment in discovering what is worth imitating, seem to be the prominent characteristics of the Japanese. They want originality and independence of thought, and character which accompanies it. The Japanese are not slow in adopting the inventions of modern civilization, and even in modifying them to suit their own convenience, but, says another observer, that they will ever add anything of importance to them may be doubted. The same is true in a political point of view. The more enlightened of the Japanese are already beginning to recognize the superiority of the European forms of government. The upper classes are all sedulously imitating Paris and London fashions of dress. In our own country we have seen the prevalence of an offensive Anglomania among certain classes of society in the larger cities, but in Japan a corresponding mania for the forms of western civilization has become almost universal, and is reaching the real bulk of the nation. Such extraordinary capacity for change may mark a versatile but unreliable race; for it seems hard to believe that a people who are parting with their ancestral notions with such a total absence of any pangs of sorrow, will be likely to adhere with much steadfastness to a new order of things. On the other hand, other students of this movement take it to be only a most gratifying indication that Japan was a nation which had outgrown its narrow limits of thought and learning, ready to adopt whatever was good, and yearning for it when the opportunity came, with a strength that made rapid assimilation of ideas entirely proper, and no sign of instability. It is to be hoped that the latter interpretation is the right one.
In moral character the average Japanese is frank, honest, faithful, kind, gentle, courteous, confiding, affectionate, filial, and loyal. Love of truth for its own sake, chastity, and temperance are not characteristic virtues. A high sense of honor is cultivated by the Samurai. In spirit the average artisan and farmer is lamblike. In intellectual capacity the actual merchant is mean, and his moral character low. He is beneath the Chinaman in this respect. The male Japanese is far less overbearing and more chivalrous to woman than any other Asiatic. In political knowledge, or gregarious ability, the countryman is a baby and the city artisan a boy. The peasant is a pronounced pagan, with superstition ingrained into his inmost nature. In reverence to elders and to antiquity, obedience to parents, gentle manners, universal courtesy, and generous impulses the Japanese are the peers of any and superior to many peoples of Christendom. The idea of filial obedience has been developed into fanaticism and is the main blot of paganism and superstition.
The Japanese in physique are much of the same type as the Spaniards, and inhabitants of the south of France. They are of middle or low stature. The men are about five feet six inches in height or a trifle less on an average, while the women rarely exceed five feet. When dressed the Japanese look strong, well proportioned men, but when in the exceedingly slight costumes which they very often are pleased to adopt, it is then apparent that though their bodies are robust their legs are short and slight. Their heads are somewhat out of proportion to their bodies, being generally large and sunk a little between the shoulders, but they have small feet and delicate hands. The resemblance the Japanese bear to the Chinese is not nearly as marked as popular opinion would have it. The faces of the former are longer and more regular, their noses more prominent, and their eyes less sloped. The men are naturally very hirsute, but they never wear beards. Their hair is glossy, thick, and always black. Their eyes are black, their teeth white and slightly prominent. The shade of their skin is totally unlike the yellow complexions of the Chinese; in some cases it is very swarthy or copper colored, but the most usual tint is an olive brown. Children and young people have usually quite pink complexions.