The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-23

For poet and romancist like kipling,
whose rhymes become the watchwords
of half baked amateur soCiologists the
"Asiatic mystery" Is a splendid bit OF
machinery. 1t gives Jingle To his
stories and an edge to his rhymes. II
Is at the same time the piiiling apology
for Britains gross ignorance Of the in
ner hearts Of the hundreds Of millions
she has ruled in India for century and
a half What Shakespeare said Of the
Jew Of three hundred years ago is quite
as true of the other OrientalS Of to-day
in their native plains and highlands.
True, 1t Is only a degenerate Tommy
Atkins who in the brick wilderness Of
Bethnal Green or the grogshops of Rat
Clffe Highway longs to be somewhere
east Of SucZ." where there Amt no Ten
Commandments. and man can rave
a thirst" But his precise longing. be ii
noted Is not to Ice among the millions
on millions Of abstem.ous. toiling, saw
ing, simple peoples native to the East
hut among the hell holes Of the arid
coasts where the white men Of the lowest
order spread drunkenness. vice and dis
ease in pursuit of "a good time" n a
nominal cost.
Neither with Kiplng nor the French
mystic WRISTS nor the German wander
lust mystics let us train when We think
of the East. least of all when We write
or think Of Japan Here is virile ma
ton, organized and still organizing and
evolving at a rate at once Incredible and
, without precedent. Differing from US
in hundred superficial ways, they are
fundamentally of the same human kith
and kin and flesh ana blood,
4 49, .g.t,
from many foreign nations, who have
noted some Of them acutely, some
stupidity and perverscly, some entertain
ingly If ineXactly, the facts in the case
of Japanese progress in the last fifty
years. | have read many of them. but IL
is easier for me, and perhaps better. to
give my own impressions for what they
are worth, based on what ! have seen
and heard,
do not expect TO treat the japanese,
| if you please, in these letters as any
thing but men, women and children Of
| the world. without mystery or under
meaning, even the mild old priests or
| BONES at their mountain temple doors
| or village shrines, much less the manu-
| facturer of pottery at Kioto or cotton
| cloths at Osaka.
Japan has a clear history of twelve
hundred years Of organized government
| and industry and art. Like other ma
| tions Of island habitation ii had history
| Of kind going back to the misty long
before that. Not all of its government
tai experience was happy. An imperial
or kingly power gradually reduced to
nonentity by vigorous satraps calling
themselves regents or ShOguns or what
ever, ruling directly through powerful
local princes called daimios. was the
prevailing aspect for thousand years.
Bloody internecne feudal wars We're
frequent, with great devastation Of
property.
The imperial house ruled first in Nara.
but after couple OF centuries removed
to and remained practically clustered
| n Kioto. but the ruling satrap families
had their capital at Kamakura. and
later at Yedo, where the Tokugawa
family held sway Under the stern
rule OF these Tokugawa Shoguns the
feudal wars were ended and the feudal
system perfected. 1t began in 1873, had
consolidated itself after the bloodiest
battles in japanese history by the
early years of the seventeenth century,
and lasted until 1868, giving Japan $50
years of peace and isolation.
Art literature, architecture hau from
the earliest times pcrColatcd steadily
into Japan from China, mostly through
Corca. its nearest neighbor, and Japa-
nese ingenuity and taste in some cases
improved on, and in all cases modified,
the originals. 1t received Buddhism in
this way, giving to it's religious life
moral prcccpts and color. Its own
Shnto cult, really a liturgical express
sion of its primitive ancestor worship
survived in some cases minGling with
Buddhism,
am taking this glance at Japan's
earlier history that one may envisage
the nation a u Eaoxsd tR11ia fi3 6110