Hawaii Holomua, Volume III, Number 120, 23 May 1894 — OF VITAL INTEREST. [ARTICLE]

OF VITAL INTEREST.

A Con*mdruin for the P. G. People. Hawai today is dealiog with a pr»ctictl question of absorbing intere*t. Japan. the great em pire • f tl e West. h»s sent to our •*lioif~ w.;nt Hinoonts to an insig ni6cant fractinn of her popnlal on bm «h t meaiui a m<-st important fnct-*r to lhesfc ialan<ls Evcr\'thing eo ineete<] with the land of the ehn sautbeiimum and the Ili-ing San is of irapt>rtence to <*ur people. We recomraend U ali those wbo stodv and who eaie , ' to iearn to read a volnrae titled | **Japan" of « hieh Darid Murrav L. L. D. «iid formerl_v »n ndviser to thc J; paoeae Ministei of Edaealion i- the author. The lx>ok dta!s especiaily with the earlv , history tf J.-tp«n, bat it tfcaches a lesson lo th«*se who tbrongh ignornnce or raisrepresentation classifv the Japanese with the b:irbariais, who iuhubit the great Aiiitic continent. The foliowing synopsis of Dr. Mnrray s work wi 1 givc sorao idea of the intercsting facts presonted by ! that w ull-kuown scholar and author; In it will be just 000 years since M irco Polo, retnrniug to Veuice, bmught witb him tho report of the existence of a great island, known asChipangu, lving I '*00 ra les to the eastward of Ohina. ind peopled by a mee whieh was described us wliite, well-favored, and civilised. If that dariug voyager bad ventnr<d to crO'S tbe Yeliow t>ea and the Straits of Corea. he would ha\e b?en astounded to 6nd hiraself iu | the inidst of a civi!isation of ex- ! trerno antiquity, and araong peo- . ple singnlarly laborious aiul inveutive. intelligent, sociable, { Hiniple n raanuers, cheerfal, : teuiperaut. and reraarkublo for tho urbanity aud courtesy of i their ni;'.nnors, these beiug tho ! chsracteristics of the poorest as well ak < f the greatest people iu tlie realra. winle in the uiatter 1 of the tine arts he would have observed with equal astouisbraent that am >ng the Chipaugese the i n'sthetic instinct was us universaily de»eh*ped as it had beeu in ancient Grocce. Dut all these statements wouId have been rej ceived l v the incredaious eountrvinen t f Marco Polo as “travel- ; lors’ stiries,’’ liko uiost of tbe i i st.iteraei ts coutained iu his nearly the whole of whieh have since been abuudanti ly veri6ed. Japan is the only couutrv in the worl<l whieii sh<*ws au ahuost unhioke i sōccession of eiii|*erors | 1 and eraprcsses for a period of ! 2.r.50 years, and whieh has eombined so mueh politicnl stability . with suc i a condition of physical i mstabilicy that ono wouders at i tho pluciditv \vith wliieh forty ( miilione of pe p!e } ur-ue their | j daily »vocatious upoe a s<*il that ; is as liahle to 6actuatious »a the | j oeoan. aiul is far iuore tcrrible I when its crnst is vio!eutlv disrupted by earthqu«ko or volcauic ! oruptiou About 51H) shocks are • experienced in the course~ of! i everv ye*r. for the 3,850 islands i | whieh <‘Oinpos© the nrchipel '< igo whieh lie iu the line { of th$it great arterv of j | 6re whi ’h raay l>e traced frora j the norlherly regions of K rat--eh.'ilki to tlie Snnda Islands in tho South. The famous nionntain >f 1' ;ji >an. wliieh is 12.30ōft. iu height. w*B thrown up by one of | | these ontborsts. and, at the s »rae i i liuie, u 1 ike was forraed by the -ara<> tr-mnndoD8 agency at a! distaiicO of 300 niiles frora the ! uplieave<l volcano—50 railes iong. ! ‘30 nnles bro*d, and 330ft. deep in its gnatest depression.

Such ne some of the physieal featnres c*f the four large īsIhuc1s whioh 8i)gtH>n in tbe bulk of tbe |H?putution of what is knowu *to i us as JiipaQ, aud to its people as Dai Nipj)on; th-ir area, with thcir dependencies, l>eiug 117 <>56 <q«rtre n)iles. less than half that oi New South Wales. Nevertheless, as we Lave sa’d, they eam' a population of miIlions in comfort -uiJ pleoty, bnt this is attributable j>erhajn> to the fact tbat the r natnral wants are few in umnber aud easiiy satis£ed They ar» vegetarians in diet; sheep and oxen are almost naknown ainoug them. and miik. botter, rnd cheese have ranely found a plaee aiuong their artie!es of food. Henee they ean devote { to tiliage thoso large areas of tho ! soii whieh iu Euro)>e are requir* ed for ) asturage. They possess a v«iy neh £ora, whieh incluJes tho te»-shrnb, the mulberry. pHpcr, la:quer, orange, and eamphorvrood trees, besides nui»erous furmture woodg. And the ' mineml weahh of the oounlry is 1 «

j ver>* gieat. incla<lit;g g3ld. 8ilver. (cnpper, tīn. iron, lead. anrber. ! vhīte marble. procelain. c av». and 6xtensĪTe depositā o{ eoa be1»ides naptba weils. Tbe popalalion of tbe coantry is one o: tbe mo«t indnstrioos and ingei ioos : on the face of tbe earth. lts sys- , tem of bnsbandry is inteDsi’-e. it j wastes notbing. and it is so poti- ; rnistic by temperament. an 1 so buoyant in feeliug. tbat it apj ears to be qnite ineapahle of de:»ression by ca1mities so appallii g as ; tbose wbich have occurred lhrfce tiraes within the last 40 y?ars. I destroying. on eaeh occasion, many thon«*nds of hnman heim.'» aod tens of thoasaod< of habiUtions. \Vith a people so laoorions and so elastic. and witl re aonrces so various as those wliieh they enjoy and develop with eqaal skil 1 and assidaity. pn»per ity is a fon-gone conclus’on. Lven bt*foro the appearan*-e of tbe Ainos npon the scene — inn, it seems. meaning dop. and iraplving their own be!ief in their descent from tiiat auāoai—uuere w is h nee of aborigi£als v bom ttiose buiry people displacevi. Tbey were savagea. liviug in pits, whieh they covered over with branches of trees aud with grass. Tbe oldest hook of Japnnese historv, compiled Iw'iween G73 and 686 a. D. , speaks of then as *‘earth spiders, v aiul ilescribes thera as having tails. The h.st of tho rnce. 80 in nuniber, ara reported to have been massacred by the Emperor Jimmn, 600 years before Ohnst. Bu* all these earlv dates are doubtful. Tbero were two invasions of Japau from the Asiatic cont nent —the first eti’ected by a robnst and mascnliue tnbe of Mo3golians, who eame qver from Corea, bringing with tbem their wives and cbildren, their old met and i women, and tiieir agricu!tural iiupleiueuts and bonsehok. effects. They had eome to stay, and they did si>, disposSessing the dog—faceil Ainos, and dr>ving them across tho Stru ts of Tsugara to the islandof Yezo, w'jere, as Mr. Landor*s book has siiown us, they continue in the same unprogressive state as when they were expelled from the larger island. The second invasioD or migration too.k piaee at a laueh ! later period, “and eame evidentlv i from a more cultured tribe of the greut Ylongolian race.” Taerefore, the Japanese are to be (regarded as an offsboot of the Obinese, just as the Angles and Saxons in England were an otf- ; sbooluf the large Teutonic f;<mily | on the neighboring contineut. Nor does the parallelisra between the easteru and westeru migrations end here, for the new coiners in Japan appear to bave undergone a modification of their racial diaracter in tlieir insnlar abode. They heeame a li ghly receptive peopie. *‘Tliey ;tood ! ready to weleome the good t!iings whieh were offered to thera, coraing from whatever d'rection. They accepted e«gerly the Ch inese written language and the philosophy with whieh it became j charged. They accepted Buddhisiu with it.s pr>estbood and Jogma aud ritual, aud perraitted | it to crowd their nat ve religion until it became (tbat of) a pitifnl minority. ’ In like mannei*. the Teutonic tribes whieh overran England acocpted ind assirailated an exotic Iearning and literature. i together witu the priesthood, ! dogmas, nnd ritual of Kome, to ; the. gradual extinctiou of their own faith. P«ssing over tlie raythical period of Japanese history, eoiumencing about 660 n. e., and , terminating ab »nt 400 A. D. , we fiiul the Eraperor Hanzei appoint- ; ing historiOgr»phers iu 46-1; so that, hencefortb, the annaU of the country become intelii>ible and fairly trnstworthy. But, , even as far back as the first century before the Chnstian era. there are evidences of a relative- f ly adv«nced stage of civilisition having been reached. *‘The whole Empire,’' writes Dr. Mur-

r.iv. m a coudition of <|aiet »ml prospenty, sncb as bad not before existe<.ī. Taxes were, for tbe lirst time, levied on tlic proceods of tbe cbase aud on tbe baudiwork of tfae women. Besenroirs for tbe eolleetion of r water (used in tbe irrigation of i the rice crops) were cous{ri cted j in tbe imj.\enal provinces. und i encour»gement was evervwheze j given to the gtowing induslnes of tbe countr>\'' Somewbere abont tbe vear 20*2 the Jap«nese. nnder tbe m.e of a roascaiine Empress, equipped a : |K)werfni tleet and conqnerer, the tbree kingdoms into wbicb the l Corea was tben divided. ail of j whicb were compel!ed to be«.ome f tributary to J;»pa i. Bat a Jap- ; anese garrisoo sUtioned ou tbe ; |>eninsula was drivea out by the i Coreans, witb tbe aid of tbe : Chiue.se, towards the end o: ihe ; seventb century, and manv of the IoyaI Coreans accompaa:ed tbe soidiers to Japau, “esrrying witb ihem. like tbe HugaetioN when diiven out of Fr.tuc j . a Lnovriedge of many arts atd a I cuUore whieh were eagorlv welcomed by the rlsiug Japauese Empire. They were lionised in J conv©nient provinces. and as an

encoQ'ag*?ment freed from taxition fnr * time;” jast as oor own Edwa-d the Third took tbe : fugiti- e Fietnish weavers nnder ' his prjtection, and sett!e-i them in the e*sfcern ronnties of £ngland wbere they Uid the fonndation j of onr great woolien mannfactnres | and jrst as Frencb refngees from : Normandy and Brittany. en- ' coura{:*d to cross the Channel; j bronght with tbem the technical >kill &nd knowle<lge to wbich England is indebP*d for her I mana ,ictnres of silk. fine iinens laee, plass, paper, beaver hats, iustri.»gs, printed calicoes, battous, aud io \ny other &rticles wh’eh had previonsly been importetl from France. Corea. it i may l e adde»l, was subseqoentlv recon jaered by. Japan. and Corean potiers bronght haek. who commeoced the fabricatiot. of that beaatifnl Satsama ware whieh has since heeome farooi s all over the world. By the beginning of tbe eighth eenln-v Japan had made great | strides along tbe patb of progress. The fonndufcions of a national iitera nre had been laid, an observatory bad heen established, Doddjism had suppl«nted the old pigm religion. and hed institutej a pnre and nob!e code of ethics; the caltivation of the Iacqner-tree and of the mnlberrv bad led to the introduction of two highly important brancbes <>f indnstry; and silk%veavers had l>een mported frmn China. This stage of civilisation had been renched. it shoald be remembered, at the time £oglan(l w,»s being ruled by the petty kings of tlie Heptarcb\ r . auel Giol had not emerged frorn tbe semi-barbarity of the Merovingian period, aml tho Visigotlis \vere still raasters of Spain; and Venice had only just struggled into existonce on lier mud islands, and bad elected 1 lier frst duke or doge, in tbe persoa of Anafesto, a citizen of Herac lea. Thc government of Japan wasof tribal origin,aud its tirst emj\eror was \ victorious cbieftain, to whom his subordinates rendered tribute and obedience. His position resetubled that of the Nomi m Conquerer, and the 1 feuda system he establisbed in tbe iilands he subdued was almost identical witli that whieh preva.led in Euglaud for so many centuries after tbe battle of Hastiugs. Aud tha European gniids of the Middle Ages \vere anticipated by tbose of Japan, wberc tbere \vere “gailds of clay ! image-raakers, guilds of ladies attemlaut on tbe eniperor, guilds I of butlei-s, gudds of cooks, guiids of guards, &c.” f Tbe primitive re!igion aj>poars to have been of a vexy remarkable cbaracter. Tbe sun, | symbolised as a woman, was venerated or worshipped as tbe only conceivable image or refiec- | tion of tbe Diety, and tbe popu- ! Iar belief, “ditierent from all know i system of rebgiou in baviug no body or dogma by i wiiieh its adbereuts were he!d to getlier. Tbe greatest advocate uf Sbintoism, Moto-ori, a \vriter | of tbe eigbteentb century, admits tbat it bad uo moral code. He asserts tbat “morals were iuvent j ed by tbe Cbinese, because they j were an immoral people; but iu J«pan tbero \vas no necessit3’ for anv systern of raorals, as everv Japanese acted rightl3' if be only i consnlted bis owu heart.” But whatever raay have been the past, or \vliatever may be the present, moralitv of tbe Japanese. every ; tmveller bears \villing testiraony : to tbe ehanu of tbeir raanners; i to tbeir politeuess, \vbicb seem.-> ! , to be a natural iustinct ratber tban acquired habit; to tbeir extrenio courtsey; aud to tbeir un failinu cood-bumonr. Budenes.s O O . is aimost impossible to tbem, and it is diflicalt to witbhold our admiiation from a people, iu- j huhii ng a countr\ r alraost as thickly populated as the United i K'ngdom, but among whom, nGither a beggar nor beggary is to be fouuvl.