The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1899-10-18

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II IsARAGo MACH,
SHIBA, TOKYO, Japan,
September s. 1899.
To the Editor of the NEW DOMINION:
My promise TO write you some inn
pressions Of Japan has long been on
my conscience. Exacting university
work and the facilitating effects OF
gastrine influenza. which has been
epidemic here, have left me neither
energy nor inclination for correspon-
dence. A letter published in the
NEw DOMINION and written from
Nagasaki, gives me now special mo
tive for writing. / have no doubt
that your correspondent was perfectly
conscientious in describing what ht
saw. Unfortunately, he probably had
little opportunity to see. His letter
certainly conveys an impression OF
Japan that is as unjust as it is liable
to be misleading.
Your correspondent says: The
japanese are quite different in looks
and speech from the Filipinos, bat in
actions and habits are similar The
poor class Of the Filipinos live 10 lit
tie dirty bamboo shocks and go al
most nude. The poor class OF the
japanese live mostly in straw and
mud houses and go almost naked
What either class would consider a
mansion house the people of the Uni
ted States would consider very COIN
mon dwelling such as you see in the
rural districts"
AS for the Filipinos, perso rs witt
different motives give strangely con
flicting accounts. But this quotation
at best, suggests the pernicious half
truth. II similarity OF factions and
habits be intended to suggest that
Japanese live in dirty houses, it is
libel. japanese are noted for caeanli-
ness. In this, they far excel Ameri.
cans and Europeans. The houses,
even of the poorest, are kept perpetu
ally and absolutely clean. AS for the
people, not one of the poorest fails tt
take daily bath-Would that as
much might be said for Americansl
The statement that japanese Of the
poor class go "almost naked" is false
At most, it can be applied only tt
part of the children and to part OF the
men Of the poorest class. | nave new
er yet seen girls or women whose dress
was not intended to cover almost thu
entire form. The style of dress /:
such that puff of wind may expose
the lower limbs. 1t also permits
women and men alike, in excessive
heat, to expose the breast. The pool
sometimes do this. Sometimes very
old persons will expose, especially il
their own open houses, the entire
body as far down as the girdle. But
this is in no sense indecent, for they
have not the slightest conception o.
prurient Western ideas about the hu.
man body. Be 1t said to their credit
however, / have never, under any cir
cumstances, seen japanese of either
sex even glance, consciously, at stran
gers of the opposite sex. In the
words Of another, "Japan is a country
in which the nude is seen, but not
looked at"
1t is equally incorrect to state that
ssthe poor class of the Japanese live
mostly in straw and mud houses. y
On recent trip Of over thirteen hun
dred miles in Japan, do not remem
Der seeing one straw house. The vast
majority of houses, even of the poor,
are constructed of wood or equally
good materials, such as stone, brick
and actual plaster. Perhaps half Of
them, in rural regions the majority Of
them, have thatched straw roofs
A relatively small number were coat
ed with a cheap sort of plaster that
might perhaps be called ''mud.
Many of the rural japanese Villages,
with their matched roofs, reminded
me of some villages that saw in
Hungary, on the banks of the Danube
the river along which some Of the
early streams of European civilization
are said to have moved. Furthermore
any house that could suggest to your
correspondent ''a very common dwell
ing such as you see in the rural dis
tricts" (of the U. S. was manifestly
no japanese house, but a house built
in imitation ofS'foreign style" Ger.
tainly the merest glimpse of the in
terror of well to do Japanese mans
residence would still less suggest a
very common dwelling" in the United
States. The fact is that the more we
Western people see of such interiors,
the more we become impressed by
their elegant and expensive simplicity.
In some Of them the hand painted
paper partitions and the skillfully ex-
ecuted wood carvings are such works
of art as only the few millionaires of
western countries can afford. Even
the well-to-do classes of the West
must content themselves with the
ready made. machine-fashioned fix
lures which are both cheap and COM
mon. 1t is with this, however, as
with dress: he who has the taste and
the means does not hesitate between
the elegant, unobtrusive, made to or
der, and the cheap, gaudy, ready
made.
Again it is popularity of this peo-
ple--in whom nature seems to have
created our mental, as well as geo.
graphical, antipodes--to have their
houses front on what would be our
backyard. Only the more common
part is exposed to the public view
The inner part of the residences of
many wealthy Japanese front on pri-
vate gardens which might well create
envy in the hearts of our wealthiest
millionaires. The art of landscape
gardening is there seen in a degree of
perfection that is in no other country
nearly Appropriated 1t is in fact a
real art, representing centuries and
centuries of continuous development.
In most cases, neither labor nor pains
are spared to produce desired result.
Fine specimens of the very largest
trees are transplanted as readily as
the smallest shrubs. Sometimes they
are brought long distances, out Of the
very heart of mountains. Only re-
Gently, in a remote provincial city,
most of whose inhabitants never saw
a railroad, / visited several pri-
yate gardens which represent the
most exacting and artistic care Of a
century. On the space of about half
an acre, you have a miniature lake
view, rustic bridges, rural scenes,
mountain paths, in addition to In
conceivably beautiful forms and COM
binations of shrubbery in artistic ar
rangement. Two great uncut rocks,
which represent but an enthusiastically
small part of the total, in one of those
gardens were brought down from the
great mountain Chokaisan and care
fully placed in position. They alone
required four years labor of many