Part 7 (1/2)
Korea appears to have influenced j.a.panese architecture, just as it has j.a.panese art of various kinds. It is an extraordinary fact that this portion of Asia contiguous to the j.a.panese islands, which has for so many hundreds of years past exercised such a subtle influence on the art and industries of j.a.pan, should at the commencement of the twentieth century have pa.s.sed under the suzerainty of that country.
When one fully comprehends the connection in various ways of Korea with j.a.pan in all the past centuries, one begins to understand the sentimental feeling which has influenced the whole nation in regard to the possibility of Korea pa.s.sing under the domination of any other Power. At the beginning of the third century Korea was invaded by j.a.pan and, although the country was then conquered, it, as has not infrequently under similar circ.u.mstances happened in history, exercised a potent effect on both the art and architecture of j.a.pan.
Korean architecture, of course, was not original; it was based on that of China, which in its turn came from Burmah, and that again probably from India. In the course of the seventh century, however, the imported architecture more or less a.s.sumed the general style which has since remained distinctly j.a.panese and although it undoubtedly embodies everything that was best in the architecture of the countries from which it derived its essential features, appears to me to have an originality of its own. No man who has not visited the great temples at s.h.i.+ba and Nikko can understand to what heights of sublimity wooden architecture can rise, what a gorgeous _tout ensemble_ can be accomplished by harmonious colour schemes deftly blended by artists who had made a study of colour and all the details connected therewith, and knew how to render a picturesque effect which should be imposing without being either gaudy or glaring.
I am afraid that the results of Western civilisation have been, and will continue to be, fatal to j.a.panese architects. Judging by the buildings which have been erected in the country since Western influences have reigned supreme j.a.panese architecture is not only dead but buried. These edifices--hotels, Government buildings, railway stations and so on, are an attempt to combine Western and j.a.panese styles. The result is an incongruity, to express it mildly, sufficient to cause the artistic mind to shudder. The men who built the temples at s.h.i.+ba, at Nikko, and in various other parts of the country, and the paG.o.das which dot the land, are dead, and have left no successors.
There is nothing, in my opinion, that is more likely to be influenced, and more injuriously influenced, by Western ideas than the architecture of j.a.pan. There is a tendency in the country to erect European buildings, and I suppose it is one that it is impossible to complain of. The j.a.panese houses, although they have advantages in the summer-time, are undoubtedly not well fitted to withstand the rigours of winter; and I have no doubt that, from the standpoint of material comfort, a replacement of them by buildings erected on European lines might be an advantage. But from the artistic point of view such a change is one impossible to contemplate without a feeling of regret.
There is, of course, no human possibility of temples such as those at s.h.i.+ba and Nikko ever again being erected in j.a.pan. As I have previously remarked, buildings such as these are something more than mere material constructions; they are the embodiment in material form of a living faith which the designers and builders attempted to set forth in their work. An age of disbelief, of indifference, of agnosticism, is not conducive to the construction of such edifices. We need not go to j.a.pan for evidence of that obvious fact. The hideous monstrosities in the shape of cathedrals, churches, and chapels that have been built in this country during the past century or two are abundant proof, were any needed, that the faith and piety whose outward and visible manifestation is to be seen in Westminster Abbey, Canterbury Cathedral, York Minster, and various other n.o.ble architectural fanes is no longer with us; it has gone, and, apparently, inspiration with it. We can now only construct walls, and put roofs on them--admirable edifices, no doubt, to keep out the rain, but signifying nothing from an artistic or idealistic point of view.
And so it is in regard to j.a.pan. Architecture there, considered as an art, is dead. It may be imitated or reproduced, but the reproduction will impose on no person of artistic sensibilities or knowledge, any more than a Sheraton reproduction hailing from the Tottenham Court Road would impose on a connoisseur as the genuine work of that great artist in furniture.
The art of j.a.pan has, especially since the opening up of the country, been closely studied and investigated, and many learned tomes have been written concerning it. I do not, however, think that the art of the country as expressed in its architecture has received anything like the attention it deserves. This may possibly arise from the fact, to which I have already referred, that many people have what I may term a restricted definition or conception of art. Others there are, again, who consider wooden architecture to be almost a contradiction in terms. Words or definitions in a matter of this kind seem to me to be childish. The lover of the beautiful, the admirer of the historic, the investigator of the ebb and flow of religious systems and of the sentiments and spirit that have influenced and moulded them at different periods of their existence, can in the ancient wooden temples of j.a.pan find abundant material for enjoyment, instruction, reflection. I have no hesitation in including these buildings in that surely expansive and comprehensive term, Art.
CHAPTER XIV
POSTAL AND OTHER MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
The advancement of a nation, may, I think, be accurately gauged by the facilities it possesses or has developed for the communication of its inhabitants, either by personal intercourse or those other means which science has of late years discovered or evolved for the transmission of thought, whether on business or otherwise--the letter post, the telegraph, and the telephone. I accordingly purpose briefly describing the extent to which, in these respects, j.a.pan has a.s.similated and utilised Western ideas.
I have already touched on the matter of railway communication, so I will not again refer to it in any detail. I may, however, remark that although railways in j.a.pan have done much to open up the country and provide for more frequent and rapid intercourse between man and man, they still lack much in the matter of European ideas of comfort. There are three cla.s.ses of carriages, and the fares of each are extremely low. The gauge is narrow; the carriages are open, as in America, with one long seat running down each side and a shorter one at the end. In the first-cla.s.s carriages tea is provided, a kettle and tea-pot wherein to make the beverage being placed on the floor between the seats for the use of pa.s.sengers. No doubt ere long the j.a.panese will be more impressed than they appear to be at present as to the necessity for express trains, high speeds, Pullman and restaurant cars, as well as for other now indispensable characteristics of English and American railways. The initial railway line in j.a.pan was that between Yokohama and the capital. It was popular and well patronised from the first, in contradistinction to the record of railways in China, where the initial line--that between Shanghai and Wusung--had to be bought up and pulled up by the Chinese authorities, in view of the number of Chinamen who persisted in committing suicide by placing themselves in front of the train as a protest--and a most effective protest, it must be admitted--against the introduction into their country of this contrivance of the ”foreign devils.” The contrast in the manner in which the introduction of railways was received in China and j.a.pan respectively is, I think, characteristic of the difference in the disposition and mental att.i.tude of the people of the two countries.
A postal service modelled on that of Europe was inaugurated in j.a.pan in 1871 by the introduction of a Government letter post between Tokio, Kyoto, Osaka, and Yokohama. Arrangements had, of course, long previously existed for the transmission of official correspondence throughout the country, but private letters were conveyed by private carriers. The following year the official postal service was extended to the whole of j.a.pan, but not till twelve months later were private carriers abolished and the post-office, with all its various ramifications, const.i.tuted a State monopoly. Postcards, embossed envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and all the paraphernalia--so far as they had then been developed--of European post-offices were adopted by the j.a.panese postal authorities, and caught on with the people with surprising rapidity. In 1875 mail steamers were established between j.a.pan and the Chinese ports, and the next year j.a.pan, which at that time had, as I have elsewhere mentioned, to view post-offices established in the treaty ports, herself planted j.a.panese post-offices in both China and Korea. The Postal Union was joined in 1877, and from that time the j.a.panese post-office has developed, _pari pa.s.su_ with the post-offices of European countries until at the present time it is in some respects ahead of them in the matter of enterprise and the facilities it affords. The Inland Parcel Post was established in 1892, and it has had a marked effect in the opening up of the country and the familiarising of the people with many commodities, princ.i.p.ally European, of which they had previously no knowledge. At the present time there are considerably over 6,000 post-offices. About a thousand millions of letters and postcards--a favourite means of communication--are handled yearly. The number of parcels at present sent through the post amounts to about eleven millions annually.
Every description of post-office business as known in Europe is not only transacted in j.a.pan, but, so far as results go to show, each new phase seems to fill a distinct want on the part of the people. Take the matter of postal orders for example, the introduction of which in this country was so vigorously opposed by the banking community, but a facility which has proved of incalculable utility and convenience to the ma.s.s of the public. Postal orders, when introduced into j.a.pan, quickly came into favour. In the first year only a certain number of offices were authorised to issue and to pay these orders. This number has now been largely increased, and many millions of postal orders are at present annually sold in j.a.pan. The International Postal Order Service has also a.s.sumed considerable dimensions, and has largely aided, I think, in the industrial and commercial development of the country.
Post Office Savings Banks were established in j.a.pan as far back as 1875. The object, as in this country, was to encourage thrift among the ma.s.s of the people. The maximum deposit in one year of any depositor is limited to 500 yen (about 50). The Post Office Savings Bank has been largely utilised, and both the number of depositors and the sums deposited continue to grow on a scale which shows that the utility and benefit of this inst.i.tution are greatly appreciated by the j.a.panese people. At first the Savings Bank was worked at a loss; it took time to develop, while in its infancy banking methods were probably not as well understood by the j.a.panese authorities as they now are. At the present time the Post Office Savings Bank in j.a.pan is so worked that it not only pays all its expenses but returns a profit to the national exchequer. In this respect it very favourably compares with the Post Office Savings Bank as administered in this country, which is not only worked at a loss, but, owing to various causes, has entailed a liability, nominal though it be, on the British taxpayer.
Telegraphs were first introduced into j.a.pan in 1869, and, as was the custom at that time in almost all countries, the telegraph followed the railway. The first line was between the capital and Yokohama. As time progressed some steps were taken in the direction of developing the system, but it was not until 1878 that the telegraph service in j.a.pan was placed on a proper footing. In 1879 the International Telegraph Union was entered. At the present time j.a.pan is covered by a network of telegraph wires, and every important island is in communication with the capital. Telegrams may be sent either in the j.a.panese or European languages. Like every other means of communication, the telegraph has been rapidly adopted by the j.a.panese people, and it now forms such a part of the national life that it is almost impossible to imagine the country without a telegraph system.
There are about 2,600 telegraph offices in j.a.pan, and over twenty million messages are annually despatched therefrom. I think it will be admitted that--especially in view of the difficulties occasioned by the necessity of the operators in the telegraph offices being conversant to some extent with the characteristics of two absolutely different descriptions of languages--the progress made by j.a.pan, and the development and extension of the telegraph service of the country, have been really remarkable.
When the question of introducing telephones into j.a.pan came up for consideration it was treated somewhat more practically than was the case with reference to a similar matter in this country. There was there as here a difference of opinion as to whether telephonic communication should be left to private enterprise or be const.i.tuted a Government monopoly. After somewhat prolonged investigation it was decided that the telephone service should be set up and worked by the Government, and in the year 1890 the first telephone, that between Tokio and Yokohama, was opened. At first, strange to say, this new device of Western civilisation appears somewhat to have hung fire, and no general demand sprung up for the fitting of the telephone to private houses. It required, as indeed was the case in this country, some education of the people in regard to the paramount advantages of always having this means of communication at hand. The process of education in this respect was not prolonged. Before the telephone had been many years in the country the demand for its installation in houses and offices became so great that the Government had to obtain a special grant of money in order to carry out the necessary work.
According to the latest returns there are somewhere about 350 telephone offices open to the public, while the approximate number of messages transmitted is about 150,000,000. The time is not far distant when, as I think will also be the case in this country, the telephone will be deemed to be an indispensable adjunct of almost every house in the towns of j.a.pan.
In connection with the means of communication one or two remarks in reference to tramways may not be out of place. These are entirely, or almost entirely, electric, and have certainly, if we are to judge by the patronage accorded to them, been very favourably received by the j.a.panese people. According to the latest returns I have available there were twenty-two tramway companies in j.a.pan, which between them, in the year 1904, carried the very respectable total of over 73,000,000 pa.s.sengers. All of these lines save one are electric. The first electric tramway, that in Kyoto, was opened in 1895, so that the development of the country in this direction has proceeded rapidly.
The Tokio Electric Tramway Company pays a dividend of 11 per cent., and although this is a record which some of the other lines have not yet attained, and may not possibly attain, nevertheless these matters must not be altogether looked at from the point of view of dividends.
The shareholder very probably regards them from that standpoint, but I suggest that the facilities given to a town may be as great or even greater by a tramway paying 2, or 3, or 5 per cent. as by one paying double that figure. Indeed, large dividends are often earned by cutting down expenditure or abstaining from expenditure designed to increase the facilities of pa.s.sengers. There is every prospect of electric tramways being extended to every town of any importance in j.a.pan, and I am confident they will greatly aid in the industrial development of the land.
[Ill.u.s.tration: aeRIAL TRANSPORT; BASKET SLUNG ON ROPES, PROVINCE OF HIDA FROM A PRINT BY HIROs.h.i.+GE]
I cannot leave a consideration of the means of communication in j.a.pan without making some reference to that somewhat peculiar vehicle which is by so many persons deemed to be essentially characteristic of the country, although, as a matter of fact, I believe it is of comparatively recent introduction, having been introduced either by a European or an American; I refer, of course, to the jinricksha. Before j.a.pan became to so great an extent the objective point of the globe-trotter, and Europe, through the medium of numerous books, was rendered conversant with everything relating to the country, nothing more struck the imagination of the new arrival in j.a.pan than the sight of this extraordinary vehicle--a kind of armchair on wheels with two shafts, pulled by a man scantily clad and with extremely muscular legs. Whoever was the individual responsible for the invention of the jinricksha, he certainly conferred a great boon on all foreigners resident in j.a.pan before railways and tramways and other means of communication became as prevalent as they now are. The long distances traversed by the man between the shafts of a jinricksha and the speed he attained and maintained were almost a marvel to the foreign visitor. It was possible to get about the country in one of these vehicles quite as fast as any horse-drawn vehicle could convey one, and quite as comfortably. I have heard it stated that the men who pull these vehicles unduly develop their legs at the expense of other portions of their body, and that the speed at which they run and which they certainly keep up for extraordinarily long periods has extremely injurious effects on their const.i.tution, so that they are, as a rule, not long-lived. I am not aware, nor have I been able to ascertain, whether such statements are mere theories or have any foundation in fact. This much I will say, that the j.a.panese jinricksha-runners are an extraordinary cla.s.s in reference to the speed which they attain dragging a goodly weight for a very long distance. It does not seem likely that the jinricksha, acclimatised as it has been in j.a.pan, will be ousted by other modern contrivances for getting about the country.
It is still very much in evidence, and it is universally admitted by those who have had experience of it to be a most comfortable means of locomotion. Why it has never come into favour, at least to any extent, elsewhere than in j.a.pan I have never been able to understand.
Certainly jinrickshas can be hired at Shanghai, and they are to be seen at one or two other places in the Far East, but it may be regarded as a distinctly j.a.panese vehicle, although, as I have said, there is nothing j.a.panese about it excepting its adaptation in the country.
I remarked at the commencement of this chapter that we may properly gauge the progress of a nation by the facilities it possesses or has developed for inter-communication personally and otherwise. I hope the few remarks I have made on this head may enable my readers to form some idea as to the position of j.a.pan in this matter. I have not wearied them with statistics, but I have, I think, said enough to show that in everything relating to communication, whether it be the locomotion of the individual or the facilities given to him to communicate his wishes, desires, aspirations, sentiments, j.a.pan is now well in line with all the other great civilised Powers, and has reason to be proud of the progress she has made and the manner in which she has adapted to the requirements of her people the ideas and inventions she has obtained from Europe and America.
CHAPTER XV