Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-06-16
WOMEN III JAPAN.

At q recent missionary meeting held at
Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. DR.. Harris gave an
interesting account of the condition of the
women in Japan, and of this address the
| Herald of that city says: the theme was
the so-called religious condition of women
| in Japan. He said that women in that
country were far down in all the relations
of life There is no such conception OF the
marriage tie as there is in America or other
| Christian countries. Among the lower
| classes there is no form of matrimony.
| Among the higher classes there is only saki
drinking by the bride and groom and the
| family, and a feast. No priest gives the
contract a religious blessing; it is purely
business affair. All the japanese hus-
band cares for is that his wife may be a
good servant. IL is impossible to depict
| the degraded social condition of women in
Japan. He said that in some of the open
ports as large proportion as go per cent.
of the marriages were annulled by divorce.
One often hears the greeting exchanged on
the streets of Yokohama, "Have you the
same wife you had when last saw you ~
| The moral condition of the open ports on
| this point is much lower than 10 the inte-
rior Of the country. 1t should not be said
that there are no good husbands in Japan,
but the general feeling is such that wives
are reauited to shave their eyebrows and
| blacken their teeth, so as not to be attract
| i've to other men after marriage. When
they go out with their husbandsto the parks
| or to the theater, they keep a respectful
distance behind, and they were very much
assonished when the speaker and his wife
were seen walking side by side as equals.
| The native women thought it was scandal
GUS. The causes for divorce are very
trivial. a woman can be divorced from
her husband because she talks too much.
If she is sick for long time she is d.
vorced, although if her husband ia kind
man he will provide her living. Obedi-
ence is the one thing needful in her life,
even to yield to life of shame, if her hus-
band wills it. 1t is true, however, that
new laws have been made, bat the old Gus
toms are hard to abolish. The new move
ment in Japan is seeking to relieve women.
| The women of Japan are eminently relig-
ious in their natures. They are mostly
Buddhists, and that religion has done a
great deal for the woman of Japan. Their
condition ID much higher than in any other
unchristlan country. SAID DR.. Harris !:
81 have heard their prayers for help to
the unhelping Buddha, and have thought
that in the tenderness of his heart the ALI
Father would hear and answer them, al
though in their ignorance they knew not. !"
Bat Buddhism has done a great deal of harm
to women. Its holy men have taught that
women are the origin of evil that they
are inferior in intellect and in morals to
men, and that they are bad, inevitably
bad. The priests would hardly say that
this is the teaching of the religion, but it
is the general feeling. It is a superstition
that if baby dies in its early infancy it is
because OF some sin in previous stage OF
existence still unstoned for, and that the
child is suffering in purgatory for it. A
piece Of cloth is fastened on four sticks
and psssers-by are asked to say prayer
for the soul Of the baby and at the same
time pour cupful of water in the cloth.
When it has become so worn by decay that
the water passes through without touching
the cloth, the ain is purged away. These
teachings are hardly those Of Sakyamuni.