Evening star., 1902-05-09
WOMEN OF JAPAN
IMPROVEMENT IN HER CoNDI-
TON IN FIFTY YEARS.
Effect Of Western Civilization-Hiehe
Education in the Island
Empire.

| From the Woman's Journal
| The place occupied by woman in all far
| eastern lands is, in general, well known.
| In Japan, however, for the largest part of
| its history, woman has not been quite the
| social zero or slave she has been in India,
| Siam, China, or Corea. Indeed, in ancient
| times and until about 600 years ago, the
Japanese woman stood comparatively high,
/ not only as wife and mother and COM
| panion in the home, but as scholar, writer,
| artist and adviser in business, and even in
affairs of state. 1t is remarkable that in
| the early classics of Japanese literature the
| names of women are among those of the
| leaders in both prose and poetry. Until
the thirteenth century their social relations
| were in great degree unconstrained, and
| they were graced, along with domestic
knowledge, by many of the highest at
| tainments In refined learning-in history,
| poetry, fiction and religious lore, and in
artistic skill. The change, to be deplored,
| that at length befell woman's position took
| place chiefly in consequence of the uni
versal civil wars that devastated the en-
pire from the thirteenth to the seventeenth
centuries, and the dominance during the
latter part of Japans middle ages of the
social regulations of the Chinese age of
Confucius
Effect of Confucianism.
the upper and ruling classes about three
centuries ago. the Japanese woman sunk
almost out of sight social factor every
| where outside the home; and so she re-
mained until the present period Of the gen.
eral political, religious, scientific and So
cial revivif1cation of the people under the
influence of the civilization of Christendom.
I best illustrate womans position
during the $50 years of the Takugawa
Shogunate, the age just preceding the re-
cent restoration Of the emperor to active
sovereignty, by a few quotations from the
Greater Learning for Women" the code
most widely accepted regulative of wo-
mans place and conduct. Seeing that 1t
is girls destiny on reaching womanhood,"
says the Onna Dalgaku. ito go to a new
home and live in submission to her father
in-law and mother-in-law, 1t is even more
incumbent on her than 1t is IN boy to re-
ceive with all reverence her parents in
structions." 1.-The only qualities that befit
mercy and Quietness.'
After her marriage her chief duty is to
honor her father-in-law and her mother-n-
law-to honor them beyond her own father
and mother-to love and reverence them
with all ardor and to tend them with every
practice Of filial piety." "a woman must
look to her husband as her lord"-or as
another code expresses it. las her only
heaven to look up to''-"and must serve
him with all worship and reverence" Her
lifelong duty is obedience"
Change in Half Century.
Much else is enjoined in this code, but
only in like tone, concerning woman's rela-
tions, which are exclusively those of
daughter, wife and mother. The closing in
junction reads: Parents, teach the fore
going maXims to your daughters from their
tenderest years. Copy them out from time
to time, that they may read and never for
get them"
But during the past fifty years. under
the benefcent Increase Of the influences of
western civilization, important changes
just now becoming strongly marked have
begun to affect this degrading social con-
dition. 1t cannot be said that these changes
have as yet been very widely operative.
Japanese society is still greatly bound by
the code of Confucius. Outside the capital
and some OF the chief commercial centers
women still remain ignorant Of what you
and l consider their essential worth. They
are deprived Of the sense of personal free
dom and the self-reliance necessary for
their own best welfare and for the best de-
velopment of human society, Of which they
are parts, coordinate with men.
The changes of which speak began, oc-
cas1oned by the pro-foreign movement that
started about thirty years ago. The states
men then In command of the empire, in es
tablishing an enlightened educational sys-
tenn. were induced to include in their plans
a liberal education for girls, and to send to
America and Europe some promising young
women for preparation in foreign schools
a S teachers for their countryWomen.
At present there are more than five thou
sand women employed as Instructors in
schools modelled In accordance with the ed
ucatiOnal systems of the west: and in those
schools are more than a million girls as