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URBAN POPULATIONS 1898. 1903. See also:Tokyo 1,440,121 1,795,128 See also:Osaka 821,235 988,200 See also:Kioto 353,139 379,404 See also:Nagoya 244,145 284,829 Kobe . . . 215,780 283,839 See also:Yokohama 193,762 324,776 See also:Hiroshima 122,306 113,545 See also:Nagasaki . 107,422 151,727 Kanazawa 83595 97,548 Sendai . . 83,325 93,773 See also:Hakodate . 78,040 84,746 See also:Fukuoka . 66,190 70,107 Wakayama 63,667 67,908 Tokushima 61,501 62,998 Kumamoto 61,463 55,277 Toyama 59,558 86,276 Okayama 58,025 80,140 Otaru 56,961 79,746 Kagoshima 53,4$1 58,384 See also:Niigata 53,366 58,821 See also:Sakai 50,203 See also:Sapporo 55,304 . . Sasebo 52,607 The growth of Kure and Sasebo is attributable to the fact that they have become the sites of large See also:ship-See also:building yards, the See also:property of the See also:state. The number of houses in See also:Japan at the end of 1903, when the See also:census was last taken, was 8,725,544, the See also:average number of inmates in each See also:house being thus 5'5. See also:Physical Characteristics.-The best authorities are agreed that the See also:Japanese See also:people do not differ physically from their Korean and See also:Chinese neighbours as much as the inhabitants of See also:northern See also:Europe differ from those of See also:southern Europe. It is true that the Japanese are shorter in stature than either the Chinese or the Koreans. Thus the average height of the Japanese male is only 5 ft. 31 in., and that of the See also:female 4 ft. IoZ in., whereas in the See also:case of the Koreans and the northern Chinese the corresponding figures for See also:males are 5 ft. 54 in. and 5 ft. 7 in. respectively. Yet in other physical characteristics the Japanese, the Koreans JAPAN 165 the ratio does not amount to one-seventh; but in the Japanese it exceeds the latter figure. In all nations men of See also:short stature have relatively large heads, but in the case of the Japanese there appears to be some racial See also:reason for the phenomenon. Another striking feature is shortness of legs relatively to length of See also:trunk. . In northern Europeans the See also:leg is usually much more than one-See also:half of the See also:body's length, but in Japanese the ratio is one-half or even less; so that whereas the Japanese, when seated, looks almost as tall as a See also:European, there may be a See also:great difference between their statures when both are See also:standing. This See also:special feature has been attributed to the Japanese See also:habit of kneeling instead of sitting, but investigation shows that it is equally marked in the working classes who pass most of their See also:time standing. In Europe the same physical traits—relative length of See also:head and shortness of legs—distinguish the central See also:race (Alpine) from the See also:Teutonic, and seem to indicate an See also:affinity between the former and the See also:Mongols. It is in the See also:face, however, that we find specially distinctive traits, namely, in the eyes, the See also:eye-lashes, the cheekbones and the See also:beard. Not that the eyeball itself differs from that of an Occidental. The difference consists in the fact that " the socket of the eye is comparatively small and shallow, and the osseous ridges at the brows being little marked, the eye is less deeply set than in the European. In fact, seen in See also:profile, forehead and upper See also:lip often See also:form an unbroken See also:line." Then, again, the shape of the eye, as modelled by the lids, shows a striking peculiarity. For whereas the open eye is almost invariably See also:horizontal in the European, it is often oblique in the Japanese on See also:account of the higher level of the upper corner. " But even apart from obliqueness, the shape of the corners is See also:peculiar in the Mongolian eye. The inner corner is partly or entirely covered by a See also:fold of the upper lid continuing more or less into the See also:lower lid. This fold often covers also the whole See also:free rim of the upper lid, so that the insertion of the eye-lashes is hidden " and the opening between the lids is so narrowed as to disappear altogether at the moment of See also:laughter. As for the eye-lashes, not only are they comparatively short and sparse, but also they converge instead of diverging, so that whereas in a European the free ends of the lashes are further distant from each other than their roots, in a Japanese they are nearer together. Prominence of cheekbones is another special feature, but it is much commoner in the lower than in the upper classes, where elongated faces may almost be said to be the See also:rule. Finally, there is marked paucity of See also:hair on the face of the average Japanese—apart from the See also:Ainu—and what hair there is is nearly always straight. It is not to be supposed, however, that because the Japanese is short of stature and often finely moulded, he lacks either strength or endurance. On the contrary, he possesses both in a marked degree, and his deftness of See also:finger is not less remarkable than the suppleness and activity of his body. Moral Characteristics.—The most prominent trait of Japanese disposition is gaiety of See also:heart. Emphatically of a laughter-loving nature, the Japanese passes through the See also:world with a smile on his lips. The See also:petty ills of See also:life do not disturb his equanimity. He takes them as See also:part of the See also:day's See also:work, and though he sometimes grumbles, rarely, if ever, does he repine. Exceptional to this See also:general rule, however, is a See also:mood of See also:pessimism which sometimes overtakes youths on the See also:threshold of manhood. Finding the problem of life insolvable, they abandon the See also:attempt to solve it and take See also:refuge in the See also:grave. It seems as though there were always a number of See also:young men hovering on the brink of such suicidal despair. An example alone is needed finally to destroy the See also:equilibrium. Some one throws himself over a See also:cataract or leaps into the See also:crater of a See also:volcano, and immediately a See also:score or two follow. Apparently the more picturesquely awful the manner of the See also:demise, the greater its attractive force. The thing is not a product of See also:insanity, as the See also:term is usually interpreted; letters always See also:left behind by the victims prove them to have been in full See also:possession of their reasoning faculties up to the last moment. Some observers See also:lay the blame at the See also:door of See also:Buddhism, a creed which promotes pessimism by begetting the anchorite, the ascetic and the shuddering believer in seven hells. But Buddhism did not formerly produce such and the Chinese resemble each other so closely that, under similar conditions as to See also:costume and coiffure, no appreciable difference is apparent. Thus since it has become the See also:fashion for Chinese students to See also:flock to the See also:schools and colleges of Japan, there adopting, as do their Japanese See also:fellow-students, Occidental garments and methods of hairdressing, the distinction of See also:nationality ceases to be perceptible. The most exhaustive anthropological study of the Japanese has been made by Dr E. Baelz (See also:emeritus See also:professor of See also:medicine in the Imperial University of Tokyo), who enumerates the following sub-divisions of the race inhabiting the Japanese islands. The first and most important is the Manchu-Korean type; that is to say, the type which prevails in See also:north See also:China and in See also:Korea. This is seen specially among the upper classes in Japan. Its characteristics are exceptional tallness combined with slenderness and elegance of figure; a face somewhat See also:long, without any special prominence of the cheek-bones but having more or less oblique eyes; an aquiline See also:nose; a slightly receding See also:chin; largish upper See also:teeth; a long See also:neck; a narrow See also:chest; a long trunk, and delicately shaped, small hands with long, slender fingers. The most plausible See also:hypothesis is that men of this type are descendants of Korean colonists who, in prehistoric times, settled in the See also:province of Izumo, on the See also:west See also:coast of Japan, having made their way thither from the Korean See also:peninsula by the See also:island of See also:Oki, being carried by the See also:cold current which flows along the eastern coast of Korea. The second type is the Mongol. It is not very frequently found in Japan, perhaps because, under favourable social conditions, it tends to pass into the Manchu-Korean type. Its representative has a broad face, with prominent cheek-bones, oblique eyes, a nose more or less See also:flat and a wide mouth. The figure is strongly and squarely built, but this last characteristic can scarcely be called typical. There is no satisfactory theory as to the route by which the Mongols reached Japan, but it is scarcely possible to doubt that they found their way thither at one time. More important than either of these types as an See also:element of the Japanese nation is the See also:Malay. Small in stature, with a well-knit See also:frame, the cheek-bones prominent, the face generally See also:round, the nose and neck short, a marked tendency to See also:prognathism, the chest broad and well See also:developed, the trunk long, the hands small and delicate—this Malay type is found in nearly all the islands along the See also:east coast of the See also:Asiatic See also:continent as well as in southern China and in the extreme See also:south-west of Korean peninsula. Carried northward by the warm current known as the Kuro Shiwo, the See also:Malays seem to have landed in Kiushiu—the most southerly of the See also:main Japanese islands—whence they ultimately pushed northward and conquered their Manchu-Korean predecessors, the Izumo colonists. None of the above three, however, can be regarded as the earliest settlers in Japan. Before them all was a tribe of immigrants who appear to have crossed from north–eastern See also:Asia at an See also:epoch when the See also:sea had not yet dug broad channels between the continent and the adjacent islands. These people—the Ainu—are usually spoken of as the See also:aborigines of Japan. They once occupied the whole See also:country, but were gradually driven northward by the Manchu-Koreans and the Malays, until only a See also:mere handful of them survived in the northern island of See also:Yezo. Like the Malay and the Mongol types they are short and thickly built, but unlike either they have prominent brows, bushy locks, round deep-set eyes, long See also:diver-gent lashes, straight noses and much hair on the face and the body. In short, the Ainu suggest much closer affinity with Europeans than does any other of the types that go to make up the See also:population of Japan. It is not to be supposed, however, that these traces of different elements indicate any lack of homo- geneity in the Japanese race. Amalgamation has been com- pletely effected in the course of long centuries, and even the Ainu, though the small surviving remnant of them now live apart, have left a trace upon their conquerors. The typical Japanese of the See also:present day has certain marked physical peculiarities. In the first See also:place, the ratio of the height of his head to the length of his body is greater than it is in Europeans. The Englishman's head is often one-eighth of the length of his body or even less, and in See also:continental Europeans, as a rule, incidents, and, for the See also:rest, the faith of Shaka has little sway over the student mind in Japan. The phenomenon is See also:modern: it is not an outcome of Japanese nature nor yet of Buddhist teaching, but is due to the stress of endeavouring to reach the See also:standards of Western acquirement with grievously inadequate equipment, opportunities and resources. In See also:order to support himself and pay his See also:academic fees many a Japanese has to fall into the ranks of the physical labourer during a part of each day or See also:night. I11-nourished, over-worked and, it may be, disappointed, he finds the struggle intolerable and so passes out into the darkness. But he is not a normal type. The normal type is See also:light-hearted and buoyant. One naturally expects to find, and one does find, that this moral See also:sunshine is associated with See also:good See also:temper. The Japanese is exceptionally serene. Irascibility is regarded as permissible in sickly See also:children only: grown people are supposed to be See also:superior to displays of impatience. But there is a limit of imperturbability, and when that limit is reached, the subsequent See also:passion is desperately vehement. It has been said that these traits go to make the Japanese soldier what he is. The hardships of a See also:campaign cause him little suffering since he never frets over them, but the See also:hour of combat finds him forgetful of everything See also:save victory. In the case of the military class—and See also:prior to the Restoration of 1867 the term " military class " was synonymous with " educated class "—this spirit of stoicism was built up by See also:precept on a solid basis of See also:heredity. The samurai (soldier) learned that his first characteristic must be to suppress all outward displays of emotion. See also:Pain, See also:pleasure, passion and peril must all find him unperturbed. The supreme test, satisfied so frequently as to be See also:commonplace, was a shocking form of See also:suicide performed with a placid mien. This capacity, coupled with readiness to See also:sacrifice life at any moment on the See also:altar of country, See also:fief or See also:honour, made a remark-ably heroic See also:character. On the other See also:hand, some observers hold that the See also:education of this stoicism was effected at the cost of the feelings it sought to conceal. In support of that theory it is pointed out that the average Japanese, See also:man or woman, will re-See also:count a See also:death or some other calamity in his own See also:family with a perfectly See also:calm, if not a smiling, face. Probably there is a measure of truth in the See also:criticism. Feelings cannot be habitually hidden without being more or less blunted. But here another Japanese trait presents itself—politeness. There is no more polite nation in the world than the Japanese. Whether in real See also:courtesy of heart they excel Occidentals may be open to doubt, but in all the forms of See also:comity they are unrivalled. Now one of the See also:cardinal rules of politeness is to avoid burdening a stranger with the See also:weight of one's own woes. Therefore a See also:mother, passing from the chamber which has just witnessed her paroxysms of grief, will describe calmly to a stranger—especially a foreigner—the death of her only See also:child. The same suppression of emotional display in public is observed in all the affairs of life. Youths and maidens maintain towards each other a demeanour of reserve and even indifference, from which it has been confidently affirmed that love does not exist in Japan. The truth is that in no other country do so many dual suicides occur—suicides of a man and woman who, unable to be See also:united in this world, go to a See also:union beyond the grave. It is true, nevertheless, that love as a prelude to See also:marriage finds only a small place in Japanese See also:ethics. Marriages in the great See also:majority of cases are arranged with little reference to the feelings of the parties concerned. It might be supposed that conjugal fidelity must suffer from such a See also:custom. It does suffer seriously in the case of the See also:husband, but emphatically not in the case of the wife. Even though she be cognisant—as she often is—of her husband's extra-marital relations, she abates nothing of the See also:duty which she has been taught to regard as the first See also:canon of female ethics. From many points of view, indeed, there is no more beautiful type of character than that of the Japanese woman. She is entirely unselfish; exquisitely modest without being anything of a prude; abounding in intelligence which is never obscured by See also:egoism; patient in the hour of suffering; strong in time of affliction; a faithful wife; a loving mother; a good daughter; and capable, as See also:history shows, of heroism rivalling that of the stronger See also:sex. As to the question of sexual virtue and morality in Japan, grounds for a conclusive See also:verdict are hard to find. In the interests of See also:hygiene See also:prostitution is licensed, and that fact is by many critics construed as See also:proof of tolerance. But licensing is associated with strict segregation, and it results that the great cities are conspicuously free from evidences of See also:vice, and that the streets may be traversed by See also:women at all See also:hours of the day and night with perfect impunity and with-out fear of encountering offensive See also:spectacles. The ratio of marriages is approximately 8.46 per thousand See also:units of the population, and the ratio of divorces is 1.36 per thousand. There are thus about 16 divorces for every See also:hundred marriages. Divorces take place chiefly among the lower orders,who frequently treat marriage merely as a test of a couple's suitability to be helpmates in the struggles of life. If experience develops incompatibility of temper or some other mutually repellent characteristic, separation follows as a See also:matter of course. On the other hand, divorces among persons of the upper classes are comparatively rare, and divorces on account of a wife's unfaithfulness are almost unknown. Concerning the virtues of truth and probity, extremely conflicting opinions have been expressed. The Japanese samurai always prided himself on having " no second word." He never See also:drew his See also:sword without using it; he never gave his word without keeping it. Yet it may be doubted whether the value attached in Japan to the abstract quality, truth, is as high as the value attached to it in See also:England, or whether the consciousness of having told a falsehood weighs as heavily on the heart. Much depends upon the See also:motive. Whatever may be said of the upper class, it is probably true that the average Japanese will not sacrifice expediency on the altar of truth. He will be veracious only so long as the consequences are not seriously injurious. Perhaps no more can be affirmed of any nation. The "See also: There are five qualities possessed by the Japanese in a marked degree. The first is frugality. From time immemorial the great See also:mass of the people have lived in See also:absolute See also:ignorance of luxury in any form and in the perpetual presence of a See also:necessity to economize. Amid these circumstances there has emerged capacity to make a little go a long way and to be content with the most meagre fare. The second quality is endurance. It is See also:born of causes cognate with those which have begotten frugality. The average Japanese may be said to live without artificial See also:heat; his See also:paper doors admit the light but do not exclude the cold. His See also:brazier barely suffices to warm his hands and his face. Equally is he a stranger to methods of artificial cooling. He takes the See also:frost that See also:winter inflicts and the See also:fever that summer brings as unavoidable visitors. The third quality is obedience; the offspring of eight centuries passed under the See also:shadow of military See also:autocracy. Whatever he is authoritatively bidden to do, that the Japanese will do. The See also:fourth quality is See also:altruism. In the upper classes the welfare of the family has been set above the interests of each member. The fifth quality is a See also:genius for detail. Probably this is the outcome of an extraordinarily elaborate See also:system of social See also:etiquette. Each See also:generation has added some-thing to the canons of its predecessor', and for every ten points preserved not more than one has been discarded. An instinctive respect for minutiae has thus been inculcated, and has gradually extended to all the affairs of life. That this accuracy may some-times degenerate into triviality, and that such absorption in trifles may occasionally hide the broad See also:horizon, is conceivable. As to which of the first two methods of See also:pronunciation had See also:chronological See also:precedence, the weight of See also:opinion is that the kan came later than the go. Evidently this triplication of sounds had many disadvantages, but, on the other hand, the whole Chinese See also:language may be said to have been grafted on the Japanese. Chinese has the widest capacity of any See also:tongue ever invented. It consists of See also:thou-sands of monosyllabic roots, each having a definite meaning. These monosyllables may be used singly or combined, two, three or four at a time, so that the resulting combinations convey almost any conceivable shades of meaning. Take, for example, the word " See also:electricity." The very See also:idea conveyed was wholly novel in Japan. But scholars were immediately able to construct the following: But the only hitherto apparent See also:evidence of such defects is an excessive clinging to the See also:letter of the See also:law; a marked reluctance to exercise discretion; and that, perhaps, is attributable rather to the habit of obedience. Certainly the Japanese have proved them-selves capable of great things, and their achievements seem to have been helped rather than retarded by their See also:attention to detail. Language.—Since the See also:year 1820, when See also:Klaproth concluded that the Japanese language had sprung from the Ural-Altaic stock, philologists have busied themselves in tracing its See also:affinities. If the theories hitherto held with regard to the origin of the Japanese people be correct, See also:close relationship should exist between the Japanese and the Korean See also:tongues, and possibly between the Japanese and the Chinese. See also:Aston devoted much study to the former question, but although he proved that in construction the two have a striking similarity, he could not find any corresponding likeness in their vocabularies. As far back as the beginning of the See also:Christian era the Japanese and the Koreans could not hold intercourse without the aid of interpreters. If then the See also:languages of Korea and Japan had a See also:common stock, they must have branched off from it at a date exceedingly remote. As for the languages of Japan and China, they have remained essentially different throughout some twenty centuries in spite of the fact that Japan adopted Chinese calligraphy and assimilated Chinese literature. Mr K. Hirai has done much to establish his theory that Japanese and See also:Aryan had a common See also:parent. But nothing has yet been substantiated. Meanwhile an inquirer is confronted by the See also:strange fact that of three neighbouring countries between which frequent communication existed, one (China) never deviated from an ideographic script; another (Korea) invented an See also:alphabet, and the third (Japan) devised a syllabary. Antiquaries have sought to show that Japan possessed some form of script before her first contact with either Korea or China. But such traces of prehistoric letters as are supposed to have been found seem to be corruptions of the Korean alphabet rather than See also:independent symbols. It is commonly believed that the two Japanese syllabaries—which, though distinct in form, have identical sounds—were invented by Kukai (790) and Kibi Daijin (76o) respectively. But the evidence of old documents seems to show that these syllabaries had a gradual See also:evolution and that neither was the outcome of a single See also:scholar's inventive genius. The sequence of events appears to have been this:—Japan's earliest contact with an oversea people was with the Koreans, and she made some tentative efforts to adapt their alphabet to the expression of her own language. Traces of these efforts survived, and inspired the idea that the See also:art of See also:writing was practised by the Japanese before the opening of intercourse with their continental neighbours. Korea, however, had neither a See also:literary nor an ethical See also:message to deliver, and thus her script failed to attract much attention. Very different was the case when China presented her See also:noble See also:code of Confucian See also:philosophy and the literature embodying it. The Japanese then recognized a lofty See also:civilization and placed them-selves as pupils at its feet, learning its script and deciphering its hooks. Their veneration extended to ideographs. At first they adapted them frankly to their own tongue. For example, the ideographs signifying See also:rice or See also:metal or See also:water in Chinese were used to convey the same ideas in Japanese. Each See also:ideograph thus came to have two sounds, one Japanese, the other Chinese—e.g. the ideograph for rice had for Japanese See also:sound kome and for Chinese sound bei. Nor was this the whole See also:story. There were two epochs in Japan's study of the Chinese language: first, the epoch when she received Confucianism through Korea; and, secondly, the epoch when she began to study Buddhism See also:direct from China. Whether the sounds that came by Korea were corrupt, or whether the See also:interval separating these epochs had sufficed to produce a sensible difference of pronunciation in China itself, it would seem that the students of Buddhism who flocked from Japan to the See also:Middle See also:Kingdom during the Sui era (A.D. 589–619) insisted on the accuracy of the pronunciation acquired there, although it diverged perceptibly from the pronunciation already recognized in Japan. Thus, in See also:fine, each word came to have three sounds—two Chinese, known as the kan and the go, and one Japanese, known as the kun. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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