The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-11
LITERATURE WITHOUT KISSES.
And in Japan Love-Making is Just as
Dry as the Literature.


Mr.. Lafcadio Hearn, in his paper, OF
the Eternal Feminine, in the December
Atlantic, thus refers to one of the many
differences between the poetry and fc-
lions of Japan and those of western ma
tiOns;
must touch upon one feature of west
ern literature never to be reconciled with
Japanese ideas and customs. Let the
reader reflect for moment how large a
place the subject of kisses aud caresses
and embraces occupies in our poetry and
in our prose fiction; and then let him con
slider the fact that in Japanese litera ture
these have no existence whatever. For
| kisses and embraces are simply unknown
in Japan as tokens of affection,
if we expect the solitary fact
that Japanese mothers, like mothers all
over the world, Up and hug their little
ones betimes. After babyhood thcrei is no
more hugging or kissing. Such actions,
except in the case Of infants, are held to
/ be highly immodest. Never do girls kiss
one another; never do parents kiss or en-
brace their children who have become
able to walk. And this rule holds good
of all classes of society, from the highest
nobility to the humblest peasantry
Neither have we the least Indication
throughout Japanese literature of any
/ y I
affection was more demonstrative than it
is to-day. Perhaps the western reader
will find it hard even to imagine liter
AZURE in the whole course of which no
mention is made of kissing, of embracing
even of pressing loved hand; for hand
clasping is an action as totally foreign to
japanese impulse as kissing Yet on
these topics even the naive songs of the
country folk, even the old ballads of the
people about unhappy lovers, are quite as
silent as the exquisite verses of the court
poets. Suppose we take for example the
ancient popular ballad of Shuntokumaru,
which has given origin to various
proverbs and household words familiar
throughout western Japan. Here we
have the story of two betrothed lovers,
long separated by cruel misfortune,
wandering in the search of each other all
over the empire, and at last suddenly
meeting before KiomidZu temple by the
favor of the gods Would not any Aryan
poet describe such meeting as a rushing
of the two into each others arms, with
kisses and cries of lovei But how does
the old japanese ballad describe it? In
| brief. the twain only sit down together
and stroke EACH other little. Now, even
/ this reserved form of caress is an eN
tremely rare indulgence of emotion.
I You may see again and again fathers
and sons. husbands and wives, mothers
and daughters, meeting after years of
absence yet you will probably never see
the least approach to a caress between
them They viii kneel down and salute
each other, and smile, and perhaps cry
a little for JOY; but they will neither
rush into each others arms. nor utter ex-
traordinary phrases ofaffection. Indeed,
such terms of affection as my dear"
'my darling" "my sweet" my love"
my life. " do not exist in japanese, nor
any terms at all equivalent to our emo
tional idisom. japanese affection is not
uttered IN words: it scarcely appears
even in the the tone Of voice; it is chiefly
shown in acts of exquisite courtesy and
kindness. ! might add that the opposite
emotion is under equally perfect control; ;
but 10 illustrate this romarka bic fact
would require a separate essay.