The best case: Get salary from America, build a house in England, live with a Japanese wife, and eat Chinese food. Pretty good case: Get salary from England, build a house in America, live with a Chinese wife, and eat Japanese food. The worst case: Get salary from China, build a house in Japan, live with a British wife, and eat American food. -- Bungei Shunju, a popular Japanese magazine
_Cosmography._--Japanese annals represent the first inhabitant of earth as a direct descendant of the gods. Two books describe the events of the "Divine age." One, compiled in 712, is called the _Kojiki (Records of Ancient Matters)_; the other, compiled in 720, is called the _Nihongi (Chronicles of Japan)_. Both describe the processes of creation, but the author of the _Chronicles_ drew largely upon Chinese traditions, whereas the compilers of the _Records_ appear to have limited themselves to materials which they believed to be native. The _Records_, therefore, have always been regarded as the more trustworthy guide to pure Japanese conceptions. They deal with the creation of Japan only, other countries having been apparently judged unworthy of attention. At the beginning of all things a primordial trinity is represented as existing on the "plain of high heaven." Thereafter, during an indefinite time and by an indefinite process, other deities come into existence, their titles indicating a vague connexion with constructive and fertilizing forces. They are not immortal: it is explicitly stated that they ultimately pass away, and the idea of the cosmographers seems to be that each deity marks a gradual approach to human methods of procreation. Meanwhile the earth is "young and, like floating oil, drifts about after the manner of a jelly-fish." At last there are born two deities, the creator and the creatress, and these receive the mandate of all the heavenly beings to "make, consolidate and give birth to the drifting land." For use in that work a jewelled spear is given to them, and, standing upon the bridge that connects heaven and earth, they thrust downwards with the weapon, stir the brine below and draw up the spear, when from its point fall drops which, accumulating, form the first dry land. Upon this land the two deities descend, and, by ordinary processes, beget the islands of Japan as well as numerous gods representing the forces of nature. But in giving birth to the god of fire the creatress (Izanami) perishes, and the creator (Izanagi) makes his way to the under-world in search of her--an obvious parallel to the tales of Ishtar and Orpheus. With difficulty he returns to earth, and, as he washes himself from the pollution of Hades, there are born from the turbid water a number of evil deities succeeded by a number of good, just as in the Babylonian cosmogony the primordial ocean, Tiamat, brings forth simultaneously gods and imps. Finally, as Izanagi washes his left eye the Goddess of the Sun comes into existence; as he washes his right, the God of the Moon; and as he washes his nose, the God of Force. To these three he assigns, respectively, the dominion of the sun, the dominion of the moon, and the dominion of the ocean. But the god of force (Sosanoo), like Lucifer, rebels against this decree, creates a commotion in heaven, and after having been the cause of the temporary seclusion of the sun goddess and the consequent wrapping of the world in darkness, kills the goddess of food and is permanently banished from heaven by the host of deities. He descends to Izumo on the west of the main island of Japan, and there saves a maiden from an eight-headed serpent. Sosanoo himself passes to the under-world and becomes the deity of Hades, but he invests one of his descendants with the sovereignty of Japan, and the title is established after many curious adventures. To the sun goddess also, whose feud with her fierce brother survives the latter's banishment from heaven, the idea of making her grandson ruler of Japan presents itself. She despatches three embassies to impose her will upon the descendants of Sosanoo, and finally her grandson descends, not, however, in Izumo, where the demi-gods of Sosanoo's race hold sway, but in Hiuga in the southern island of Kiushiu. This grandson of Amaterasu (the goddess of the sun) is called Ninigi, whose great-grandson figures in Japanese history as the first human sovereign of the country, known during life as Kamu-Yamato-Iware-Biko, and given the name of Jimmu tenno (Jimmu, son of heaven) fourteen centuries after his death. Japanese annalists attribute the accession of Jimmu to the year 660 B.C. Why that date was chosen must remain a matter of conjecture. The _Records of Ancient Matters_ has no chronology, but the more pretentious writers of the _Chronicles of Japan_, doubtless in imitation of their Chinese models, considered it necessary to assign a year, a month, and even a day for each event of importance. There is abundant reason, however, to question the accuracy of all Japanese chronology prior to the 5th century. The first date corroborated by external evidence is 461, and Aston, who has made a special study of the subject, concludes that the year 500 may be taken as the time when the chronology of the _Chronicles_ begins to be trustworthy. Many Japanese, however, are firm believers in the _Chronicles_, and when assigning the year of the empire they invariably take 660 B.C. for starting-point, so that 1909 of the Gregorian calendar becomes for them 2569. Entry: IX
Not only does rice form the chief food of the Japanese but also the national beverage, called sake, is brewed from it. In colour the best sake resembles very pale sherry; the taste is rather acid. None but the finest grain is used in its manufacture. Of sake there are many varieties, from the best quality down to _shiro-zake_ or "white sake," and the turbid sort, drunk only in the poorer districts, known as _nigori-zake_; there is also a sweet sort, called _mirin_. Entry: 1889
The Perisporiaceae are saprophytic forms, the two chief genera being _Aspergillus_ and _Penicillium_. The blue-green mould _P. crustaceum_ and the green mould _A. herbariorium_ ( = _Eurotium herbariorum_) are extraordinarily widely distributed, moulds being found on almost any food-material which is exposed to the air. They have characteristic conidiophores bearing numerous conidia, and also cleistothecia which are spherical in form and yellowish in colour. The latter arise from the crown of a spirally coiled archicarp (bearing an ascogonium at its end) and a straight antheridium. Vegetative hyphae then grow up and surround these and enclose them in a continuous sheath of plectenchyma (fig. 11). It has lately been shown by Fraser and Chambers that in _Eurotium_ both ascogonium and antheridium contain a number of nuclei (i.e. are coenogametes), but that the antheridium disorganizes without passing its contents into the ascogonium. There is apparently a reduced sexual process by the fusion of the ascogonial (female) nuclei in pairs. _Aspergillus Oryzae_ plays an important part in saccharifying the starch of rice, maize, &c., by means of the abundant diastase it secretes, and, in symbiosis with a yeast which ferments the sugar formed, has long been used by the Japanese for the preparation of the alcoholic liquor saké. The process has now been successfully introduced into European commerce. Entry: H
Bears are animals of considerable bulk, and include among them the largest members of the order. Though the species are not numerous, they are widely spread over the earth, although absent from Africa south of the Sahara and Australasia. As a rule, they are omnivorous, or vegetable feeders, even the polar bear, which subsists for most of the year on flesh and fish, eating grass in summer. On the other hand, many of the brown bears live largely on salmon in summer. Among the various species the white polar bear of the Arctic regions, _Ursus (Thalassarctus) maritimus_, differs from the rest by its small and low head, small, narrow and simple molars, and the presence of a certain amount of hair on the soles of the feet. The typical group of the genus is represented by the brown bear (_U. arctus_) of Europe and Asia, of which there are many local races, such as the Syrian _U. a. syriacus_, the Himalayan _U. a. isabellinus_, the North Asiatic _U. a. collaris_, and the nearly allied Kamchadale race, which is of great size. In Alaska the group is represented by huge bears, which can scarcely claim specific distinctness from _U. arctus_; and if these are ranked only as races, it is practically impossible to regard the Rocky Mountain grizzly bear (_U. horribilis_) as of higher rank, although it naturally differs more from the Asiatic animal. On the other hand, the small and light-coloured _U. pruinosus_ of Tibet may be allowed specific rank. More distinct is the North American black bear _U. americanus_, and its white relative _U. kermodei_ of British Columbia; and perhaps we should affiliate to this group the Himalayan and Japanese black bears (_U. torquatus_ and _U. japonicus_). Very distinct is the small Malay sun-bear _U. (Helarctus) malayanus_, characterized by its short, smooth fur, extensile tongue, short and wide head, and broad molars. Finally, the spectacled bear of the Andes, _U. (Tremarctus) ornatus_, which is also a broad-skulled black species, differs from all the rest in having a perforation, or foramen, on the inner side of the lower end of the humerus. A second genus, _Melursus_, represented by the Indian sloth-bear (_M. ursinus_), differs from the preceding in having only two pairs of upper incisors, the small size of the cheek-teeth, and the extensile lips. Ants, white-ants, fruits and honey form the chief food of this shaggy black species,---a diet which accounts for its feeble dentition (see BEAR). Entry: B
According to quasi-historical records, the population of the empire in the year A.D. 610 was 4,988,842, and in 736 it had grown to 8,631,770. It is impossible to say how much reliance may be placed on these figures, but from the 18th century, when the name of every subject had to be inscribed on the roll of a temple as a measure against his adoption of Christianity, a tolerably trustworthy census could always be taken. The returns thus obtained show that from the year 1723 until 1846 the population remained almost stationary, the figure in the former year being 26,065,422, and that in the latter year 26,907,625. There had, indeed, been five periods of declining population in that interval of 124 years, namely, the periods 1738-1744, 1759-1762, 1773-1774, 1791-1792, and 1844-1846. But after 1872, when the census showed a total of 33,110,825, the population grew steadily, its increment between 1872 and 1898 inclusive, a period of 27 years, being 10,649,990. Such a rate of increase invests the question of subsistence with great importance. In former times the area of land under cultivation increased in a marked degree. Returns prepared at the beginning of the 10th century showed 2½ million acres under crops, whereas the figure in 1834 was over 8 million acres. But the development of means of subsistence has been outstripped by the growth of population in recent years. Thus, during the period between 1899 and 1907 the population received an increment of 11.6% whereas the food-producing area increased by only 4.4%. This discrepancy caused anxiety at one time, but large fields suitable for colonization have been opened in Sakhalin, Korea, Manchuria and Formosa, so that the problem of subsistence has ceased to be troublesome. The birth-rate, taking the average of the decennial period ended 1907, is 3.05% of the population, and the death-rate is 2.05. Males exceed females in the ratio of 2% approximately. But this rule does not hold after the age of 65, where for every 100 females only 83 males are found. The Japanese are of low stature as compared with the inhabitants of Western Europe: about 16% of the adult males are below 5 ft. But there are evidences of steady improvement in this respect. Thus, during the period of ten years between 1893 and 1902, it was found that the percentage of recruits of 5 ft. 5 in. and upward grew from 10.09 to 12.67, the rate of increase having been remarkably steady; and the percentage of those under 5 ft. declined from 20.21 to 16.20. Entry: 1898
The cause is believed by many authorities to be an infective agent of a parasitic nature, but attempts to identify it have not been entirely successful. It is "not obviously communicable from person to person" (Manson), but may be carried from place to place. It clings to particular localities, buildings and ships, in which it has a great tendency to occur; for instance, it is apt to break out again and again on certain vessels trading to the East. It haunts low-lying districts along the coast, and the banks of rivers. Moisture and high temperature are required to develop its activity, which is further favoured by bad ventilation, overcrowding and underfeeding. Another strongly supported hypothesis is that it is caused by unwholesome diet. The experience of the Japanese navy points strongly in this direction. Beri-beri was constantly prevalent among the sailors until 1884, when the dietary was changed. A striking and progressive diminution at once set in, and continued until the disease wholly disappeared. Major Ronald Ross suggested that beri-beri was really arsenical poisoning. A natural surmise is that it is due to some fungoid growth affecting grain, such as rice, maize or some other food stuff commonly used in the localities where beri-beri is prevalent, and among sailors. The conditions under which their food is kept on board certain ships might explain the tendency of the disease to haunt particular vessels. Dr Charles Hose is the principal advocate of this theory. Having had much experience of beri-beri in Sarawak, he associates it with the eating of mouldy rice, a germ in the fungus constituting the poison. But Dr Hose's views as to rice have been strongly opposed by Dr Hamilton Wright and others. Entry: BERI
The seas surrounding the Japanese islands may be called a resort of fishes, for, in addition to numerous species which abide there permanently, there are migatory kinds, coming and going with the monsoons and with the great ocean streams that set to and from the shores. In winter, for example, when the northern monsoon begins to blow, numbers of denizens of the Sea of Okhotsk swim southward to the more genial waters of north Japan; and in summer the Indian Ocean and the Malayan archipelago send to her southern coasts a crowd of emigrants which turn homeward again at the approach of winter. It thus falls out that in spite of the enormous quantity of fish consumed as food or used as fertilizers year after year by the Japanese, the seas remain as richly stocked as ever. Nine orders of fishes have been distinguished as the piscifauna of Japanese waters. They may be found carefully catalogued with all their included species in Rein's _Japan_, and highly interesting researches by Japanese physiographists are recorded in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of Tokyo. Briefly, the chief fish of Japan are the bream (_tai_), the perch (_suzuki_), the mullet (_bora_), the rock-fish (_hatatate_), the grunter (_oni-o-koze_), the mackerel (_saba_), the sword-fish (_tachi-uwo_), the wrasse (_kusabi_), the haddock (_tara_), the flounder (_karei_), and its congeners the sole (_hirame_) and the turbot (_ishi-garei_), the shad (_namazu_), the salmon (_shake_), the _masu_, the carp (_koi_), the _funa_, the gold fish (_kingyo_), the gold carp (_higoi_), the loach (_dojo_), the herring (_nishin_), the _iwashi_(_Clupea melanosticta_), the eel (_unagi_), the conger eel (_anago_), the coffer-fish (_hako-uwo_), the _fugu_ (_Tetrodon_), the _ai_ (_Plecoglossus altivelis_), the sayori (_Hemiramphus sayori_), the shark (same), the dogfish (_manuka-zame_), the ray (_e_), the sturgeon (_cho-zame_) and the _maguro_ (_Thynnus sibi_). Entry: F
Already in 1882, Dunker in his _Index Molluscorum Maris Japonici_ enumerated nearly 1200 species of marine molluscs found in the Japanese archipelago, and several others have since then been added to the list. As for the land and fresh-water molluscs, some 200 of which are known, they are mainly kindred with those of China and Siberia, tropical and Indian forms being exceptional. There are 57 species of _Helix_ (_maimaitsuburi_, _dedemushi_, _katatsumuri_ or _kwagyu_) and 25 of Clausilia (_kiseru-gai_ or pipe-snail), including the two largest snails in Japan, namely the _Cl. Martensi_ and the _Cl. Yoko-hamensis_, which attain to a length of 58 mm. and 44 mm. respectively. The mussel (_i-no-kai_) is well represented by the species _numa-gai_ (marsh-mussel), _karasu-gai_ (raven-mussel), _kamisori-gai_ (razor-mussel), _shijimi-no-kai_ (_Corbicula_), of which there are nine species, &c. Unlike the land-molluscs, the great majority of Japanese sea-molluscs are akin to those of the Indian Ocean and the Malay archipelago. Some of them extend westward as far as the Red Sea. The best known and most frequent forms are the _asari_ (_Tapes philippinarum_), the _hamaguri_ (_Meretrix lusoria_), the _baka_ (_Mactra sulcataria_), the _aka-gai_ (_Scapharca inflata_), the _kaki_ (oyster), the _awabi_ (_Haliotis japonica_), the _sazae_ (_Turbo cornutus_), the _hora-gai_ (_Tritonium tritonius_), &c. Among the cephalopods several are of great value as articles of food, e.g. the _surume_ (_Onychotheuthis Banksii_), the _tako_ (octopus), the _shidako_ (Eledone), the _ika_ (Sepia) and the _tako-fune_ (Argonauta). Entry: F
Chinese history, which is incomparably older and more precise than Korean, is by no means silent about Japan. Long notices occur in the later Han and Wei records (25 to 265). The Japanese are spoken of as dwarfs (_Wa_), and their islands, frequently called the queen country, are said to be mountainous, with soil suitable for growing grain, hemp, and the silkworm mulberry. The climate is so mild that vegetables can be grown in winter and summer; there are neither oxen, horses, tigers, nor leopards; the people understand the art of weaving; the men tattoo their faces and bodies in patterns indicating differences of rank; male attire consists of a single piece of cloth; females wear a gown passed over the head, and tie their hair in a bow; soldiers are armed with spears and shields, and also with bows, from which they discharge arrows tipped with bone or iron; the sovereign resides in Yamato; there are stockaded forts and houses; food is taken with the fingers but is served on bamboo trays and wooden trenchers; foot-gear is not worn; when men of the lower classes meet a man of rank, they leave the road and retire to the grass, squatting or kneeling with both hands on the ground when they address him; intoxicating liquor is much used; the people are long-lived, many reaching the age of 100; women are more numerous than men; there is no theft, and litigation is infrequent; the women are faithful and not jealous; all men of high rank have four or five wives, others two or three; wives and children of law-breakers are confiscated, and for grave crimes the offender's family is extirpated; divination is practised by burning bones; mourning lasts for some ten days and the rites are performed by a "mourning-keeper"; after a funeral the whole family perform ablutions; fishing is much practised, and the fishermen are skilled divers; there are distinctions of rank and some are vassals to others; each province has a market where goods are exchanged; the country is divided into more than 100 provinces, and among its products are white pearls, green jade and cinnabar. These annals go on to say that between 147 and 190 civil war prevailed for several years, and order was finally restored by a female sovereign, who is described as having been old and unmarried; much addicted to magic arts; attended by a thousand females; dwelling in a palace with lofty pavilions surrounded by a stockade and guarded by soldiers; but leading such a secluded life that few saw her face except one man who served her meals and acted as a medium of communication. There can be little question that this queen was the empress Jingo who, according to Japanese annals, came to the throne in the year A.D. 200, and whose every public act had its inception or promotion in some alleged divine interposition. In one point, however, the Chinese historians are certainly incorrect. They represent tattooing as universal in ancient Japan, whereas it was confined to criminals, in whose case it played the part that branding does elsewhere. Centuries later, in feudal days, the habit came to be practised by men of the lower orders whose avocations involved baring the body, but it never acquired vogue among educated people. In other respects these ancient Chinese annals must be credited with remarkable accuracy in their description of Japan and the Japanese. Their account may be advantageously compared with Professor Chamberlain's analysis of the manners and customs of the early Japanese, in the preface to his translation of the _Kojiki_. Entry: IX
The insect life of Japan broadly corresponds with that of temperate regions in Europe. But there are also a number of tropical species, notably among butterflies and beetles. The latter--for which the generic term in Japan is _mushi_ or _kaichu_--include some beautiful species, from the "jewel beetle" (_tama-mushi_), the "gold beetle" (_kogane-mushi_) and the _Chrysochroa fulgidissima_, which glow and sparkle with the brilliancy of gold and precious stones, to the jet black _Melanauster chinensis_, which seems to have been fashioned out of lacquer spotted with white. There is also a giant nasicornous beetle. Among butterflies (_chocho_) Rein gives prominence to the broad-winged kind (_Papilio_), which recall tropical brilliancy. One (_Papilio macilentus_) is peculiar to Japan. Many others seem to be practically identical with European species. That is especially true of the moths (_yacho_), 100 species of which have been identified with English types. There are seven large silk-moths, of which two only (_Bombyx mori_ and _Antheraea yama-mai_) are employed in producing silk. Fishing lines are manufactured from the cocoons of the _genjiki-mushi_ (_Caligula japonica_), which is one of the commonest moths in the islands. Wasps, bees and hornets, generically known as _hachi_, differ little from their European types, except that they are somewhat larger and more sluggish. The gad-fly (_abu_), the housefly (_hai_), the mosquito (_ka_), the flea (_nomi_) and occasionally the bedbug (called by the Japanese _kara-mushi_ because it is believed to be imported from China), are all fully represented, and the dragon-fly (_tombo_) presents itself in immense numbers at certain seasons. Grasshoppers (_batta_) are abundant, and one kind (_inago_), which frequent the rice-fields when the cereal is ripening, are caught and fried in oil as an article of food. On the moors in late summer the mantis (_kama-kiri-mushi_) is commonly met with, and the cricket (_kurogi_) and the cockroach abound. Particularly obtrusive is the cicada (_semi_), of which there are many species. Its strident voice is heard most loudly at times of great heat, when the song of the birds is hushed. The dragon-fly and the cicada afford ceaseless entertainment to the Japanese boy. He catches them by means of a rod smeared with bird-lime, and then tying a fine string under their wings, he flies them at its end. Spiders abound, from a giant species to one of the minutest dimensions, and the tree-bug is always ready to make a destructive lodgment in any sickly tree-stem. The scorpion (_sasori_) exists but is not poisonous. Entry: F