Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1911-01-11
lWIIOMAN'S
POSITION
IN JAPAN
A Life Of Work for the
Family.
she is Loved and HOnOFed BY HuS-
band and ChlIdFeR---WOmen Ideal.
lie Husbands and Seek Their CON-.
fort and Happiness.
(From the Japan Magazine ]

" AShi lAC japan AtdSdLIile.)
In private life the Japanese child il
required TO honor its parents and L
sacrifice itself for the comfort and hap
piness of the family. The parent,
never spare themselves for the good O
their children, and the child must I'M
deviatingly follow the parental ex
ample. AS the outcome of such a soc,
ial system, there is the peculiar insti
tuition called "inkyo," or the retirement
of the head of the family from active
life as soon as the children become
old enough to support him and take his
place in the management of affairs De
lighted at seeing their children able tc
shoulder the burdens of life, the pa
rents retire TO enjoy the pleasures OF
old age, games, the tea ceremony, hor-
ticulture or some refined form of am
usement, some being even affected by
the muse" and abandoned in their
declining years to poetry.
For this reason very few Japanese
parents hold property in their own
right, assigning it all to those of their
children upon who mthey are depend
ent A Japanese citizen ignoring the
claims of loyalty and filial piety would
be reckoned as outside the pale of hui
man society. No degree of position or
wealth can save the unfilial son from
the disgrace he deserves. The two
Chinese characters representing "hus-
band" in the Japanes language mean
heavenly person. Accordingly his
wife is expected to honor him as a
thing from Heaven. She does this by
attending carefully to the duties of the
household so as to leave her husband
free to carry on the business of life.
The true wife will sacrifice fortune
and even life for the sake of her lord.
In one of the dramas of the immortal
Chlkamatsu, the Shakespeare of Japan,
there is passage representing the
ideas of devoted Japanese wife: For
he sake of my husband l would even
fay my nails from hands and feet. "
Such are the ideals of duty cherished
and obeyed by the faithful wives of
Japan, who not only bear their sacri-
fees without any sense of loss, but
are delighted that they can show their
desire to be of signal service to theil
husbands.
1t is quite natural, therefore, to find
the Japanes mother taking every care
10 bring up her children in accordance
with these principles of loyalty and fl
.al piety, and she never shirks any
sacrifice that may be necessary to
impress these truths on her family
Our domestic history is full of pathet-
jc stories OF widowed mothers who
for the sake of maintaing and educat-
ing their children, the monuments Of
their departed husbands, have under
gone great deprivations, Indeed, the
life of the Japanese woman is one of
noble self-sacrifice and remuneration.
Nor is it to be understood that the
Japanese man is Indifferent to the
noble endurance of his wife Though
eXacting, he must treat his wife with
consideration and sympathy. The Jap
anese woman is loved as wife and hon
ored and respected as a mother Thus,
though her lot is arduous, her life On
the whole is happy and contented And
when old age comes she goes ''inkyo''
and spends her last days in peace.
Though the japanese woman is re-
quired to be gentle above all things,
and to keep that spirit alive in the
home, she is not creature without
courage and bravery In old Japan
when a daughter was married she
brought as a part of her dover a
fnaginata," or halbred, and her dagger,
and prepared to defend her husband
even on the honeymoon, and to risk her
life for him if need be. There are many
stories of heroic women in Japan that
recall the women of Sparta. But, how
ever loud the call to other things, tho
ain sphere of the Japanese woman is
in her home Domestic duty must "a
main her chief responsibility, AS the
Japanese are a race attaching great
importance to cleanliness, the wife
must see that the house is daily at
tended to and kept scrupulo1sly in or
der and that not a speck of dust Is al
lowed to collect anywhere within the
dwelling