The herald., 1893-07-04
nNzA H|RA| TALKS ON JAPAN,
He Describes That Land Uncol-
0red and Unexplored.
Some Popular Illusions About His
People Explained and Dissolved.
Tho Lecturcr Occupies Hsgh Position
When at Home-The Hatred OF H
His People-An Interest,"
ing Discourse.

| n
mold, our magazines Of late have teemes
with studies of Japan, drawn for tn,
most part by superficial observers Of tn,
country, who were satisfied to reproduc,
merely its sentimental and poetica
characteristics.
Taking 1t for granted that the demand
equals the supply, it is strange that the
announcement that Kinza Hirai, Japan.
ese statesman, orator, philosopher and
Buddhist high priest, would lecture fol
the first time on "The Real japan, I'm
colored and Unexp pored," should not
have attracted larger audience than
assembled last night at the Unity
church.
kinza Hirai is q man who in Japan
has attained position second to none in
the ranks of philosophers and scholars.
AT once Statesman and orator, he
earned additional luatre by adding to
his many titles that of hilanthropist,
Dy sacrificing the entirety of large
fortune to the building of a public uni
versity, where he spends his spare mo-
msnts in enlarging the ideas OF Japanese
youth.
The lecturer was introduced by judge
| Cherey, who paid him high compli.
ment In the statement that never before
had be met a man of such remarkable
attainments, loftiness of motives and
| purity of character. He had enjoyed
| his friendship for nearly year and con-
sidsred the intimacy one to be proud OF.
kinze Hirai then made his appear
snce. Glad in the costume of his native
country the lecturer commenced his
theme with the words: t'Tokoro
kaware ba shina kawar. Nainwa no
ASH wa Ire no hamaogi."
This" said the speaker, sis Jepan-
ese motto covering the idea that things
are different in different countries,
which is true OF the domain where ma
ture indulges in her propensity, untram-
meled by the artifice of human hand
to the sphere in which mans taste con.
Htantly revolutionizes the outer appear
ance of creation. Especially in the lat
ter case the diversity of things in one
place from those in another is some
times wonderfully great"
The lecturer then went on to explain
thesnecessity for the existence of diff
ferent customs and manners in different
countries. Japan, he said. has never
been described or explored by the stu
dent who would naturally look for the
reasons of existing custome, but only by
the idealists and poets who were content
to take things as they found them, and
often, through ignorance misrepresent
them. "Sir Edwin Arnold" gaid Kinzs
Hirai sin one of hia articles made the
following mistake. Twenty-six wears
ago our country threw off the burden
some yoke of feudal government and i'm
perisl power recovered from its waning
decline to Its present glory. We call
this epoch the restoration, honorable or
respectable; Sir Edwin confused
the word restoration with earth
quake. aaaG.l an and y- said that the Japanese
honorable earthquake. 1t is not hui
moroua errors like this which mierepre-
sent our country, but far more serious
ones which are allowed to remain un-
consradicted."
Iinza Hirai then stated that nearly !
every cuetom and mode OF life at present |
existent in Japan derive their existence
from the military period, namely, the
great war which convulsed Japan from
the 10th century to the early part OF the
1Nh, after which the feudal government
reigned supreme until the re-establieh-
ment of the ancient monarchy in 1868.
The lecturer dropped his historical
vein here and in chatty ahd humorous
way described the differences in Ameri-
can and Japanese home life.
4 Everything in our country and this
great America is different. Take our
carpentere' tools. Your cav and planes
are made to pueh away from you. ours
are constructed 80 that we pull them to-
wards us. You put your horses with
their backs towards the door; we place
ours with their heads where your horses
81 nur lad nov
lift up their dresses in front, yours
raise them behind.
sour houses are very different. We
have no real walls in them. Each
house has a number of rooms, aepar-
ated generally by paper wall which
glides in a groove in such manner
that each wall can be removed and the
entire building turned into one huge
hall.
Then again, ae you would say, We cit
on the floor. Now, my friends, we do
not sit on the floor. Over the boards 10
placed kind OF soft mattress, q foot in
thickness; over tnis is q carpet or rug
over that we place our cushions, and
then-then we ait, not on the floor, but
really on the bed"
With graceful movement the lec-
turer dropped on his knees, and lesning
back on bis heels, illustrated his mead
ing.
Rising, he resumed: "Both our
sliding wells and our sitting on what l
called the bed ia distinctly traceable to
the military epoch.
"In the days when the country was
tempest tossed by her centuries of war,
it was an ordinary occurrence for vii
lage to be suddenly required to furnish
quarters for an army. One bedroom
was of no use and the walls were torn
down, and the entire floor Of the house
covered with this mattress, making one
large bed Of the whole building. BY de-
grees 1t became the national custom to
build houses with gliding walls, and to
mattress the whole house, and after the
centuries OF war came to an end the Gus
tom became an established necessity.
That ie why we sit, az you say, On the
floor, although before this war We had
used chairs IS you do.
II notice that in your American-Jap-
anese houses you display quantities OF
our curios and nicknacke. Ifyou entera
japanese dwelling you would be aston
ished at It's harenees. The rooms are
empty. Every house has its tireproof
addition where the pretty things and
curiositieE are kept. On high days and
holidays they are unphcked and brought
into the house. This again 10 due to
the military source. The soldiers were
perpctually sVooping down upon and