The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1901-04-08
JAPAN FAMILY CUSTOMS
THE GAZETTE WARMLY DEFENDS
SOME OF THEM.
Claims That Though Differing from
Western Ideals the Average Results
Will very Well bear Comparison.

Japan Gazette says:
We have had brought to our notice
copy of The Christian Intelligencer,
an American religious weekly, contain
ing an article by the Rev. w. e. Gritfis
on "Japans Moral Progress" Mr..
Griffis is so well-known as an authority
on Japan-his "Mikados Empire, ="
though disfigured by some rather tumid
phraseology that offends a correct taste
is one of the standard works on this
country-that it may seem rather pre-
sumptuous to challenge his conclusions.
With some things he has to say in this
article, however, we must confess we
to some extent disagree. There is the
usual amount on florid writing about
Japan's marvellous transformations
theme which, treated as it invariably is
in a spirit of unbalanced enthusiasm,
becomes more and more wearisome to
people who live in the midst of the Jap
anese, and are therefore best qualified
to arrive at a sane estimate of the said
transformation. Against this, however
we have little to say. Even making the
necessary subtractions from the glow
ing eulogies of Japan's panegyrists,
there is still a substantial balance of
praise to be bestowed on her. and we
would be the last to minimise her really
remarkable efforts in the direction of
civilization as understood in the West.
But we think gentlemen like Mr.
Griffis go too far when they call ener-
getically for the complete demolition of
the most ancient customs and ideals of
the Japanese race. For instance, Mr.
Griffis denounces by wholesale the
semi barbarous japanese system of
adoption" which he refers to in another
place as that abominable system,
that bane of the japanese social sys-
tenn" which "upsets all our Western
90 hn, nd ~
decency, violating the very notion Of
family" Why a Japanese custom, eX-
listing for many hundreds of years, and
therefore presumably well suited to the
people that has embraced it, should be
so vigorously aSSailed simply for the
reason that it "upsetS" Western ideas
of any kind we cannot see. One would
have imagined that Mr. Griffis had seen
too much of the world to continue still
to measure all nations by the New
England twO-fOOt rule, but apparently
the theological bias is too strong. If
Japan grows out of the adoption sys-
tenn by natural evolution all will be
well and good. 1t will simply prove
that what once suited the particular re-
quirements of her population is no
longer adapted to them. But 1t is use
less to expect a sudden change in the
habits of a people, and to attempt to
enforce it would probably be productive
of worse results than any that at pres
ent attend the adoption system. We
are more with Mr.. Griffis in his tilt at
concubinage, but that again is a matter
that must be left to the influence of
time; it must be settled by evolution
rather than revolution. Monogamy is
of course the highest ideal, but at any
rate there is this to be said about Japan
that here the illegitimate child has
not so undeserVedly hard a fate as he
I
pecially those over which the wave of
Puritanism has passed. A State is
we'll advised to discourage irregular
unions, but it may be doubted whether
it is just or right to deal so harshly
with the unfortunate offspring of such
unions a is the case in many European
countries. Practical polygamy prevails
it must be remembered. among the
higher classes in Europe IS well as in
Asia, and in Europe it involves prob
ably greater misery. There is no doubt
that the lOOseneSeS of cOnjugal Obliga-
tons in Japan initiates against the
highest expressions of virtue; one rare
ly finds in this country homes so sane
titled by pure affection as many in the
west. But the converse of the picture
must not be ignored. OF pure, down.
right selfshness and brutality one can
find as many hideous examples in Eng
lang as in Japan. Here at least one
does not see the spectacle of of a pros
porous workman packing his father and
mother off to the workhOuse in order to
allow himself a larger allowance of Ii
quOr. And though the general level of
morals is probably lower, and the mass
of feminine degradation greater, we
fancy Japanese cities have fewer TRACE
dies and less lamentable wrecks than
London, Paris, Berlin and New York
could show Charity to the fallen and
morality of the Puritan kind do not
seem to be often exhibited together.