The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-03-16
HOME LIFE IN JAPAN.
Why So Little Is Really Known
About It.


Uncle Sans cousins across the Pa
cif1c ocean, the yankees of the east
are objects of the keenest interest to
Americans since the breaking out of
the present Russo-Japanese war, and
with this growing interest comes the
amazing knowledge that practically
nothing is really known of the domes-
tic existence of these very attractive
orientals.
Tt is more than probable that a great
er percentage of Americans have been
in Japan than the people of any other
nation in America, Europe or Africa,
for in recent years it has come to be
proverbial fact that Yankees in gen.
eral have seen more of the world than
any one else, yet those who have visit
ed Japan, and thereby gained a good
idea of the people and their customs,
are very far in the minority of those
who have taken in that country merely
as one of the points of interest in their
travels.
Missionaries to the land of the mika-
do and those who have gone there to
live for governmental purposes agree in
averring that to Know the country and
the people one must live there for two
or three years In spite of the prog
ressiveness of the Japs, they say, they
still cling to customs and traditions of
home life that are as distant from
those of the United States as the two
poles, and when strangers first enter
the little islands everything in this
connection is unreal and wonderful TO
such an extent that they do not alto
Eether grasp it. When they take up
their residence there, the unreality If
the new land gradually disappears, and
instead their former life fades away,
until finally it takes upon itself the un-
familiarity that formerly belonged to
that in Japan.
one principal reason for the inability
of the stranger to learn much of the
inner life of the people of Japan while
he is merely paying a visit to their
land is that their private life is kept
sacredly shut from the outside world,
and no one who has not been made
zone of the family in a japanese
home can gain any idea of the manner
of their life in all it's simplicity and
picturesGueness
A japanese dwelling, in the first
place, is quite different from the Amer
lean notion Of what constitutes a resi-
dence. There the great ambition is to
have a roof on supports, filed in with
walls or not according to the pleasure
of the owner. No cellar is considered
neeessary-if considered at all-and the
supports are merely driven into the
mud and then braced with crossbeams,
and then. with the addition of wooden
outside shutters on the lightly built
walls, the building is complete. AS for
inside walls, screens generally do duty
for these, and are considered part of
the house furnishing. It is an easy
sort of construction and we'll adapted
to warm weather, but when winter
comes the drawbacks of this style of
building appear in full force.
A typical Japanese house is of OBJ
long shape and generally one story
high, with the gable ends filled in with
lath and plaster, and narrow balconies
running along the sides. Within are
the living rooms, with their floors COM
pletely covered with thick mats, soft
and springy, which do duty as chairs,
tables ard all other kinds of furniture
The floor of the rooms is sunk in a.
little, so that the mats are just level
with the balconies. In this sill and in
the beam directly above 1t run double
grooves, and in these slide the screens,
so lightly constructed that they can be
lifted out and put away without the
least effort Partitions are arranged in
the same way between the rooms. The
screens next to the balcony serve the
purpose of window sashes, and are COW
cred with tissue paper, which tears
quite easily and in consequence has to
be replaced very often.
At night, or when the house is closed,
the wooden storm shutters are pushed
out along a groove on the outside of
the balcony, and when the last is in
place a bolt fastens them on the in
side, and there you are, shut up tight
in a box for the time being, for there
are no windows to admit light and air
after the shutters go up.
Whatever furnishings the house con-
tains outside the mats are considered
Injuries There may be a few low
chests of drawers. a box for Goals, a
writing stand, a few thin cushions to
sit upon, single vase for flowers, and
hanging scroll. but nothing more.
It is much easier to furnish a Japa-
nese kitchen than one in America, for