# Littell's Living Age/Volume 134/Issue 1729/Japanese Children

From The Spectator.
JAPANESE CHILDREN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.]
Sir ——. One of the first problems presented to a foreign teacher in Japan is the reason of the great apparent happiness and light-heartedness of Japan children. One may walk for hours through the streets of Tokio, and scarcely ever hear a child's cry of distress. Four principal causes of this superiority of the children of Japan over those of other nations have been suggested by an English lady resident here. They are so well worthy of the attention of teachers at home, that I reproduce them here. They are: — I. The style of clothing, loose and yet warm, is far more comfortable than the dress of our children. 2. Japanese children are much more out in the open air and sunshine. 3. The absence of furniture, and, therefore, the absence of repeatedly given instructions "not to touch." The thick soft matting, forming at once the carpet and the beds of all Japanese houses, and the raised lintel on to which the child may clamber as it ​grows strong, constitute the very beauideal of an infant's playground. 4. Children are much petted, without being capriciously thwarted. A child is not cuffed one moment and indulged the next, as is too frequently the case at home. To these four most suggestive reasons I would add a fifth, which is that Japanese character is so constituted as to bring their elders into much stronger sympathy with the little ones than is the case in busy, bustling, money-making England. It has been well said that "Japan is a paradise of babies," for you may see old and young together playing at battledore-and-shuttlecock in the streets; while on holidays the national amusement of men, women, and children is flying huge paper kites; puppet-shows and masquerades also have their votaries in thousands, from amongst both sexes and all ages. It occurred to me, therefore, that it might be profitable to me as an educator, whose lines are cast amongst this strange people, to investigate the nature and value of the amusements and sports in vogue here, and I think that the results of these investigations may not be uninteresting or devoid of suggestions to my fellow-teachers at home.
Not without some misgivings as to the manner in which they would be received, I had brought out all the apparatus necessary for football and cricket. The latter game has, of course, not yet been introduced to my pupils' notice, but the football they took to as naturally as a duck does to water. They can now play a really good game. There is no want of pluck, while they show great quickness of eye and judgment. One national characteristic, however, soon showed itself in the form of "goal-sneaking;" indeed, I verily believe that a boy who sneaked in his opponents' ground and so kicked a goal, would be looked upon as a far greater hero than one who obtained a game in a fair and open manner. This game of football is not entirely unknown in the country, but it has been hitherto restricted to those immediately connected with the emperor's palace. The authorities have set apart a capital field for us, and football is all the fashion among our students now. Leapfrog, jumping, and running all seem quite naturalized here, as also skipping with ropes, as practised by girls at home. Walking, running, and wrestling on stilts also appear to be national sports amongst boys. There was also until quite lately a custom amongst schoolboys of forming themselves into companies under regularly appointed leaders, and of fighting with bamboo sticks. These companies called themselves respectively Genji and Heiki (names of two famous faction leaders in olden times); each boy carried a flag behind his back, and a kind of earthenware cap on his head. The objects of the fight were to break these earthenware caps and to capture the flags. This sport, however, has been lately prohibited by the government. The game of snowballing is, however, carried on with great spirit, and in all these athletic games the boys appear to keep their temper admirably. We have instituted regular drills for all our students, and the results are, so far, very satisfactory. Thus much for games bearing more immediately on physical education. They seem to indicate a naturally manly and self-reliant disposition, on the part of the rising generation, which I am unable to discover in the adult population; but there is an evident want of endurance. Thirty or forty minutes at a game of football will quite fatigue a boy of fifteen years old. This want of physique also appears in the frequent absence from studies of pupils on the score of "a bad cold," "a bilious attack," "a severe headache," etc. These ailments I should attribute respectively to the draughty state of their houses, the nature of their food, and the poisonous fumes of the hibache (charcoal-boxes), which do duty instead of fireplaces.
The young Japanese are also well provided with games and amusements of an intellectual nature, and for the account of these I am much indebted to a paper by Professor Griffis, read before the Asiatic Society of Japan in 1874. I found that some dissected maps which I brought out here excited much interest and attention, and some experiments with Butter's arithmetical cubes showed that there was great aptitude for notions of form. Some success has also attended a class match which we have held, from which it would appear that the boys have the power of retentiveness largely developed, but that they have little or no idea of generalization or abstraction. They seem quick at grasping some part of a truth, but impatient of learning anything (except words) thoroughly, and yet to recognize their deficiencies when pushed into a corner by cross-examination; but this dependence on words is easily accounted for, when one knows their system of national education, an outline of which I hope to send home before long; in the mean time some idea of it may be gained by reading between the lines in Professor Griffis's ​account of the following games, all of them played by means of cards: —
    In one of these, a large square sheet of paper is laid on the floor. On this card are the names and pictures of the fifty-three post stations between Yedo (Tokio) and Kioto. At the place Kioto are put a few coins, or a pile of cakes, or some such prizes, and the game is played with dice. Each throw advances the player towards the goal, and the one arriving first obtains the prize.
    The Iroha Garuta are small cards, each containing a proverb. The proverb is printed upon one card, and the picture illustrating it on another. The children range themselves in a circle, and the cards are shuffled and dealt. One is appointed to be the reader. Looking at his cards, he reads the proverb. The player who has the picture corresponding to the proverb calls out, and the match is made. Those who are rid of their cards first win the game. The one holding the last card is the loser. If he be a boy, he has his face marked curiously with ink. If a girl, she has a paper or wisp of straw stuck in her hair.
Other games of the same nature are the Hiaku Nin loshiu Garuta, the Kokiu Garuta, the Genji Garuta, and the Chi Garuta, which all consist of cards, on which are written parts of verses or stanzas. One person reads out the portion on his card, and the one having the card containing the remainder of that stanza must produce it. These games test how far the children have learned their recitations. Some of the cards are written with Japanese characters, others with Chinese, and the reward of being allowed to take part in these games (which are usually played during. the new-year holidays) is held out to backward pupils to induce them to study hard.
    Two other games are played which may be said to have an educational value. They are the Chiefé no Ita (wisdom boards) and the Chiefé no Wa (ring of wisdom). The former consists of a number of thin flat pieces of wood, cut in many geometrical shapes. Certain possible figures are printed on paper as models, and the boy tries to form them out of the pieces given him. In some cases much time and trouble are required to form the figure. The Chiefé no Wa is a puzzle-ring, made of rings of bamboo or iron, on a bar. Boys having a talent for mathematics, or those who have a natural capacity to distinguish size and form, succeed very well at these games and enjoy them.
In connection with kite-flying, two points deserve notice, — a most peculiar semi-musical noise is produced, by the vibration of a piece of thin tense ribbon of whalebone at the top of the kite; also, fights with these kites are of frequent occurrence. For this purpose, the string for ten or twenty feet near the kite end is first covered with glue, and then dipped into pounded glass, by which the skin becomes covered with tiny blades, each able to cut quickly and deeply. By getting the kite in proper position and suddingly sawing the string of his antagonist, the severed kite falls, to be reclaimed by the victor.
The concluding words of the interesting paper from which I have quoted deserve to be deeply pondered by teachers and parents. After stating the useful and beneficial effects of the games he has been describing, Mr. Griffis says: "The study of the subject leads one to respect more highly the Japanese people for being such affectionate fathers and mothers, and for having such natural and docile children. The character of the children's plays and their encouragement by the parents has, I think, much to do with that frankness, affection, and obedience on the side of the children, and that kindness and sympathy on that of the parents, which are so noticeable in Japan, and which is one of the good points of Japanese life and character."
But if Japan is the "paradise of babies," I think it may also be justly called the Elysium of teachers who are not "strict disciplinarians." Of course, the fact of being placed over pupils who are entirely supported by the government gives one immense power over these students; but independently of this, I find that Japanese are most easily managed. They seem to have the power of sustained attention largely developed, — their thirst for Western knowledge ensures the co-operation of their will, while the inherent awe of the "powers that be" renders them very tractable. As far as I can make out, corporal punishment is unknown in the country; it is very seldom necessary to resort to detention for imperfectly prepared lessons; punctuality is observed by the students, however much it is neglected by their elders. On the other hand, they are terribly given to coining excuses of the most paltry description; they are untidy in their personal habits, and they certainly have but little regard for truth. But they are very kind to one another, they seem to have a certain code of schoolboy honor among themselves, and there appears to be no such vice as bullying known to them. Adopting a custom of the country, we have the name of each student written on a piece of wood, and these names are ​hung up in the lecture-room and the school-room, arranged in weekly order of merit. The chief punishments are cleaning out the rooms of their boarding-houses, and detention within college bounds on Sundays. The first seems to me to have all the objectionable character of corporal punishment, without any of its advantages; the second I look upon as a very good and effective means of discipline. I am, Sir, etc., W. D. Cox, A.C.P.,
Member of the Asiatic Society of Japan.