Everyday Life in Traditional Japan. Charles Dunn
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61. Chair-men, 102
62. The Mitsui house-sign, 103
63. Mitsui drapery shop in Edo, 104
64. Nikkō, 110
65. Joss-stick maker, 113
66. Two shops for Buddhist supplies, 114
67. Manpukuji, 115
68. Blind masseur, 120
69. Bashō, 121
70. Actor’s face, 126
71. Girls of Yoshiwara, 127
72. One-man theatre, 128
73. Sword-swallower, 129
74. Room interior, 133
75. Various brooms, 134
76. China shop, 137
77. Stove-maker, 139
78. Porcelain sake-jar, 140
79. Lacquer sake-jar, 140
80. Sake-cups, 141
81. Itinerant oil-seller, 142
82. Candle-making, 142
83. Man with kotatsu frame, 143
84. Seller of round fans, 144
85. Men’s bath, 145
86. Go board, 149
87. Battledores for the New Year Festival, 150
88. Kite-seller, 152 89. Hanging out washing, 153
90. Writing class, 154
91. Illustrated bookshop, 155
92. Illustration from puppet play-book, 156
93. Sake-shop, 158
94. Story-teller, 159
95. Town riot in 1866, 160
96. Nightwatchman, 161
97. Theatre in 1804, 162
98. Fire-fighting tools and watch-tower, 163
99. Party in Yoshiwara, 164–5
100. Pilgrimage to Ise, 167
101. Theatre street, 168
102. Actor print, 169
103. Sumō wrestlers, 170
(2) Map of Japan, showing places mentioned in this book.
1
A country in isolation
The Land
Being at the eastern end of the Asian continental mass, Japan has a climate in many ways like that of the Northern Atlantic states of the USA—that is to say, winters are cold (with winds blowing from Siberia), and summers are hot (with winds from the Pacific). The cold winds of winter cross the Japan Sea before reaching the mountainous continent-facing coast of Japan, and as they do so they pick up moisture; much of this is deposited as snowfall, which is consistently heavy, often coming up to the eaves of the houses (3). The Pacific side of Japan tends to have bright but cold weather in winter. In summer, the continent-facing side has clear weather, while there is cloud on the Pacific coast, so that, particularly in the south and east, summers are hot and humid. The Japanese find the heat of their summers more unpleasant than the winter cold, and build their houses accordingly.
Japan consists of four main islands, with innumerable smaller ones. The northernmost is Hokkaidō, which was not sufficiently populated during our period to be of importance. To the south is Honshū, the main island, somewhat larger than Great Britain, with Kyūshū and Shikoku lying further south still (2). An additional complication to the climatic picture is that, except in Hokkaidō, there is in June a short but often torrential rainy season, the northern edge of the monsoons, while another is that from late July to mid-September, Japan, especially its southern regions, lies in the path of typhoons coming up from the Pacific, so that any area is liable to be visited by great winds, heavy rainfall, or tidal waves. As if these possibilities of calamity were not enough, Japan lies in the earthquake and volcano belt which runs all round the Pacific basin, and although active volcanoes (4) are usually distant from areas of population and damage from eruptions has not been great, earthquakes are part of everyday life, with small shocks constantly reminding the Japanese that disaster could occur at any moment.
On the favorable side of her geographical position, Japan has a low latitude, with the sun higher in the sky and with less variation in length of day than in northern Europe. Winter is short, and so the growing season is long. Warmth and moisture together with fertile alluvial soils in most of the agricultural districts help to make Japan rich in food-crops (5). Japan is very mountainous, but on the hills trees grow abundantly (6), which meant that in our period building was of wood; houses were made of cedar and other durable timber, needing no paint, but very inflammable, so that fires might easily sweep away whole villages or sections of towns if the wind were right. When an earthquake came, however, the frame houses were pliable and less likely to collapse than if they had been more solidly built of brick or stone.
(3) Snow scene. This photograph has some television aerials and electric wires, but otherwise gives a good impression of a traditional Japanese scene after a moderate snowfall.
The People
In common with most of the other inhabitants of the Asian Pacific littoral, the modern Japanese are classified as Mongols, but there seem to be several strains in the population. It is most probable that there has been a mixture of people coming from Korea and North China, from South China, and from the islands of the Pacific, through the Ryūkyū Islands. There are indications that some elements of Japanese culture are derived from the south; domestic architecture, for example, may have some connection with that of Polynesia.
The Japanese language, even though it has certain similarities of structure with some continental Asian languages like Korean and Mongolian, cannot be shown to have a common descent with them, and the only clearly related language is that of the Ryūkyūs. The sole extraneous ethnic group is formed by the Ainus, now restricted to the island of Hokkaiō in the north; they had all gone from the mainland of Japan long before the seventeenth century, and certain place-names,