Peeps at Many Lands: Japan | Page 4

of life have their own
ways of performing certain actions, and it is said that a girl's rank may
easily be known merely by the way in which she hands a cup of tea to a
guest. From the earliest years the children are trained in these
observances, and they never make a mistake.
The Japanese baby is taught how to walk, how to bow, how to kneel
and touch the floor with its forehead in the presence of a superior, and
how to get up again; and all is done in the most graceful manner and
without disturbing a single fold in its kimono.
A child is taught very carefully how to wait on people, how to enter the
room, how to carry a tray or bowl at the right height, and, above all,
how to offer a cup or plate in the most dainty and correct style. One
writer speaks of going into a Japanese shop to buy some articles he
wanted. The master, the mistress, the children, all bent down before
him. There was a two-year-old baby boy asleep on his sister's back, and
he, too, was awakened and called upon to pay his respects to the
foreign gentleman. He woke without a start or a cry, understood at once
what was required of him, was set on his feet, and then proceeded to
make his bows and to touch the ground with his little forehead, just as
exactly as his elder relatives. This done, he was restored once more to
the shawl, and was asleep again in a moment.
The art of arranging flowers and ornaments is another important branch

of a girl's home education. Everything in a Japanese room is carefully
arranged so that it shall be in harmony with its surroundings. The
arrangement of a bunch of flowers in a fine porcelain jar is a matter of
much thought and care. Children are trained how to arrange blossoms
and boughs so that the most beautiful effect may be gained, and in
many Japanese houses may be found books which contain rules and
diagrams intended to help them in gaining this power of skilful
arrangement. This feeling for taste and beauty is common to all
Japanese, even the poorest. A well-known artist says: "Perhaps,
however, one of the most curious experiences I had of the native artistic
instinct of Japan occurred in this way: I had got a number of
fan-holders, and was busying myself one afternoon arranging them
upon the walls. My little Japanese servant-boy was in the room, and as
I went on with my work I caught an expression on his face from time to
time which showed me that he was not overpleased with my
performance. After a while, as this dissatisfied expression seemed to
deepen, I asked him what the matter was. Then he frankly confessed
that he did not like the way in which I was arranging my fan-holders.
'Why did you not tell me so at once?' I asked. 'You are an artist from
England,' he replied, 'and it was not for me to speak.' However, I
persuaded him to arrange the fan-holders himself after his own taste,
and I must say that I received a remarkable lesson. The task took him
about two hours--placing, arranging, adjusting; and when he had
finished, the result was simply beautiful. That wall was a perfect
picture: every fan-holder seemed to be exactly in its right place, and it
looked as if the alteration of a single one would affect and disintegrate
the whole scheme. I accepted the lesson with due humility, and
remained more than ever convinced that the Japanese are what they
have justly claimed to be--an essentially artistic people, instinct with
living art."

CHAPTER IV
THE JAPANESE BOY
A Japanese boy is the monarch of the household. Japan is thoroughly

Eastern in the position which it gives to women. The boy, and
afterwards the man, holds absolute rule over sister or wife. It is true that
the upper classes in Japan are beginning to take a wider view of such
matters. Women of wealthy families are well educated, wear Western
dress, and copy Western manners. They sit at table with their husbands,
enter a room or a carriage before them, and are treated as English
women are treated by English men. But in the middle and lower classes
the old state of affairs still remains: the woman is a servant pure and
simple. It is said that even among the greatest families the old customs
are still observed in private. The great lady who is treated in her
Western dress just as her Western sister is treated takes pride in waiting
on her husband when they return to kimono and obi, just as her
grandmother did.
The importance of the