Part 5 (2/2)
Guido F. Verbeck, who began his missionary work in 1859; he was the teacher of large numbers of the young men who became leaders in the transformation of j.a.pan; he alone of foreigners was made a citizen and was given a free and general pa.s.s for travel; and his funeral in 1898 was attended by the n.o.bility of the land, and the Emperor himself made a contribution toward the expenses. Dr. Verbeck is destined to be one of j.a.pan's few foreign heroes.
Among the signs of j.a.panese craving for heroes may be mentioned the constant experience of missionaries when search is being made for a man to fill a particular place. The descriptions of the kind of man desired are such that no one can expect to meet him. The Christian boys' school in k.u.mamoto, and the church with it, went for a whole year without princ.i.p.al and pastor because they could not secure a man of national reputation. They wanted a hero-princ.i.p.al, who would cut a great figure in local politics and also be a hero-leader for the Christian work in the whole island of Kyushu, causing the school to s.h.i.+ne not only in k.u.mamoto, but to send forth its light and its fame throughout the Empire and even to foreign lands. The unpretentious, unprepossessing-looking man who was chosen temporarily, though endowed with common sense and rather unusual ability to harmonize the various elements in the school, was not deemed satisfactory. He was too much like Socrates. At last they found a man after their own heart. He had traveled and studied long abroad; was a das.h.i.+ng, brilliant fellow; would surely make things hum; so at least said those who recommended him (and he did). But he was still a poor student in Scotland; his pa.s.sage money must be raised by the school if he was to be secured.
And raised it was. Four hundred and seventy-five dollars those one hundred and fifty poor boys and girls, who lived on two dollars a month, scantily clothed and insufficiently warmed, secured from their parents and sent across the seas to bring back him who was to be their hero-princ.i.p.al and pastor. The rest of the story I need not tell in detail, but I may whisper that he was more of a slas.h.i.+ng hero than they planned for; in three months the boys' school was split in twain and in less than three years both fragments of the school had not only lost all their Christian character, but were dead and gone forever.
And the grounds on which the buildings stood were turned into mulberry fields.
Talking not long since to a native friend, concerning the hero-wors.h.i.+ping tendency of the j.a.panese, I had my attention called to the fact that, while what has been said above is substantially correct as concerns a large proportion of the people, especially the young men, there is nevertheless a cla.s.s whose ideal heroes are not military, but moral. Their power arises not through self-a.s.sertion, but rather through humility; their influence is due entirely to learning coupled with insight into the great moral issues of life.
Such has been the character of not a few of the ”moral” teachers. I have recently read a j.a.panese novel based upon the life of one such hero. Omi Seijin, or the ”Sage of Omi,” is a name well known among the people of j.a.pan; and his fame rests rather on his character than on his learning. If tradition is correct, his influence on the people of his region was powerful enough to transform the character of the place, producing a paradise on earth whence l.u.s.t and crime were banished. Whatever the actual facts of his life may have been, this is certainly the representation of his character now held up for honor and imitation. There are also indications that the ideal military hero is not, for all the people, the self-a.s.sertive type that I have described above, though this is doubtless the prevalent one. Not long since I heard the following couplet as to the nature of a true hero:
”Makoto no Ei-yu; Sono yo, aizen to s.h.i.+te shumpu no gotos.h.i.+; Sono s.h.i.+n, kizen to s.h.i.+te kinseki no gotos.h.i.+.
”The true Hero; In appearance, charming like the spring breeze.
In heart, firm as a rock.”
Another phrase that I have run across relating to the ideal man is, ”I atte takakarazu,” which means in plain English, ”having authority, but not puffed up.” In the presence of these facts, it will not do to think that the ideal hero of all the j.a.panese is, or even in olden times was, only a military hero full of swagger and bl.u.s.ter; in a military age such would, of necessity, be a popular ideal; but just in proportion as men rose to higher forms of learning, and character, so would their ideals be raised.
It is not to be lightly a.s.sumed that the spirit of hero-wors.h.i.+p is wholly an evil or a necessarily harmful thing. It has its advantages and rewards as well as its dangers and evils. The existence of hero-wors.h.i.+p in any land reveals a nature in the people that is capable of heroic actions. Men appreciate and admire that which in a measure at least they are, and more that which they aspire to become.
The recent war revealed how the capacity for heroism of a warlike nature lies latent in every j.a.panese breast and not in the descendants of the old military cla.s.s alone. But it is more encouraging to note that popular appreciation of moral heroes is growing.
Education and religion are bringing forth modern moral heroes. The late Dr. Neesima, the founder of the Dos.h.i.+sha, is a hero to many even outside the Church. Mr. Is.h.i.+, the father of Orphan Asylums in j.a.pan, promises to be another. A people that can rear and admire men of this character has in it the material of a truly great nation.
The hero-wors.h.i.+ping characteristic of the j.a.panese depends on two other traits of their nature. The first is the reality of strong personalities among them capable of becoming heroes; the second is the possession of a strong idealizing tendency. Prof. G.T. Ladd has called them a ”sentimental” people, in the sense that they are powerfully moved by sentiment. This is a conspicuous trait of their character appearing in numberless ways in their daily life. The pa.s.sion for group-photographs is largely due to this. Sentimentalism, in the sense given it by Prof. Ladd, is the emotional aspect of idealism.
The new order of society is reacting on the older ideal of a hero and is materially modifying it. The old-fas.h.i.+oned samurai, girded with two swords, ready to kill a personal foe at sight, is now only the ideal of romance. In actual life he would soon find himself deprived of his liberty and under the condemnation not only of the law, but also of public opinion. The new ideal with which I have come into most frequent contact is far different. Many, possibly the majority, of the young men and boys with whom I have talked as to their aim in life, have said that they desired to secure first of all a thorough education, in order that finally they might become great ”statesmen”
and might guide the nation into paths of prosperity and international power. The modern hero is one who gratifies the patriotic pa.s.sion by bringing some marked success to the nation. He must be a gentleman, educated in science, in history, and in foreign languages; but above all, he must be versed in political economy and law. This new ideal of a national hero has been brought in by the order of society, and in proportion as this order continues, and emphasis continues to be laid on mental and moral power, rather than on rank or official position, on the intrinsic rather than on the accidental, will the old ideal fade away and the new ideal take its place. Among an idealizing and emotional people, such as the j.a.panese, various ideals will naturally find extreme expression. As society grows complex also and its various elements become increasingly differentiated, so will the ideals pa.s.s through the same transformations. A study of ideals, therefore, serves several ends; it reveals the present character of those whose ideals they are; it shows the degree of development of the social organism in which they live; it makes known, likewise, the degree of the differentiation that has taken place between the various elements of the nation.
VIII
LOVE FOR CHILDREN
An aspect of j.a.panese life widely remarked and praised by foreign writers is the love for children. Children's holidays, as the third day of the third moon and the fifth day of the fifth moon, are general celebrations for boys and girls respectively, and are observed with much gayety all over the land. At these times the universal aim is to please the children; the girls have dolls and the exhibition of ancestral dolls; while the boys have toy paraphernalia of all the ancient and modern forms of warfare, and enormous wind-inflated paper fish, symbols of prosperity and success, fly from tall bamboos in the front yard. Contrary to the prevailing opinion among foreigners, these festivals have nothing whatever to do with birthday celebrations. In addition to special festivals, the children figure conspicuously in all holidays and merry-makings. To the famous flower-festival celebrations, families go in groups and make an all-day picnic of the joyous occasion.
The j.a.panese fondness for children is seen not only at festival times.
Parents seem always ready to provide their children with toys. As a consequence toy stores flourish. There is hardly a street without its store.
A still further reason for the impression that the j.a.panese are especially fond of their children is the slight amount of punishment and reprimand which they administer. The children seem to have nearly everything their own way. Playing on the streets, they are always in evidence and are given the right of way.
That j.a.panese show much affection for their children is clear. The question of importance, however, is whether they have it in a marked degree, more, for instance, than Americans? And if so, is this due to their nature, or may it be attributed to their family life as molded by the social order? It is my impression that, on the whole, the j.a.panese do not show more affection for their children than Occidentals, although they may at first sight appear to do so. Among the laboring cla.s.ses of the %est, the father, as a rule, is away from home all through the hours of the day, working in shop or factory. He seldom sees his children except upon the Sabbath. Of course, the father has then very little to do with their care or education, and little opportunity for the manifestation of affection. In j.a.pan, however, the industrial organization of society is still such that the father is at home a large part of the time. The factories are few as yet; the store is usually not separate from the home, but a part of it, the front room of the house. Family life is, therefore, much less broken in upon by the industrial necessities of civilization, and there are accordingly more opportunities for the manifestation of the father's affection for the children. Furthermore, the laboring-people in j.a.pan live much on the street, and it is a common thing to see the father caring for children. While I have seldom seen a father with an infant tied to his back, I have frequently seen them with their infant sons tucked into their bosoms, an interesting sight. This custom gives a vivid impression of parental affection. But, comparing the middle cla.s.ses of j.a.pan and the West, it is safe to say that, as a whole, the Western father has more to do by far in the care and education of the children than the j.a.panese father, and that there is no less of fondling and playing with children. If we may judge the degree of affection by the signs of its demonstrations, we must p.r.o.nounce the Occidental, with his habits of kissing and embracing, as far and away more affectionate than his Oriental cousin. While the Occidental may not make so much of an occasion of the advent of a son as does the Oriental, he continues to remember the birthdays of all his children with joy and celebrations, as the Oriental does not. Although the j.a.panese invariably say, when asked about it, that they celebrate their children's birthdays, the uniform experience of the foreigner is that birthday celebrations play a very insignificant part in the joys and the social life of the home.
It is not difficult to understand why, apart from the question of affection, the j.a.panese should manifest special joy on the advent of sons, and particularly of a first son. The Oriental system of ancestral wors.h.i.+p, with the consequent need, both religious and political, of maintaining the family line, is quite enough to account for all the congratulatory ceremonies customary on the birth of sons.
The fact that special joy is felt and manifested on the birth of sons, and less on the birth of daughters, clearly shows that the dominant conceptions of the social order have an important place in determining even so fundamental a trait as affection for offspring.
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